Church or Rome and is in it and held by some of its Bishops at this day And we know the Possibility or impossibility of the thing hath been matter of not disputes amongst their Schoolmen Witness Vasqueâ in 1â 2dae Dispur 206 207. Suarez l. 2. degratiâ Cap. 22 23. Becan in Summâ Theolog. partis 2dae part 1. Tract 4. de justificat Cathol Cap. 3. q. 5. § 26. Bezant Duval Meratius if our Authour please to Consult those Popish Schoolmen he may find some Arguments that may be of some use to him and may help him to perswade the People to believe that God may forgive them their Sins before there be any saving change of their Hearts and any Holy Seed or Principle or Grace put into them or any Gracious Disposition or Qualification wrought in them by the Spirit of Christ And the People may if they please go on to drink in that Pelagian Popish and Arminian Doctrine taking it upon our Authors Word to be a part of the pure Christian Religion and of the Doctrine of Justification by free Grace without good Works and Holy Qualifications or any thing that looks like them But for our parts we declare that we are for the Doctrine of the Synod of Dort in the Point of a real Holy Change and Holy Qualifications before Justification and cannot but prefer it before that Pelagian Opinion which some People are so fond of and they must not expect that ever we will humour them in that matter unless our Authour will solidly answen our Arguments and give us better Arguments for his Opinion than we have here given for ours As for what he saith to that purpose in his Letter we can therein find nothing of any weight as r. in Page 9. We say not quoth he that there is an actual partaking of Christs fulness of Grace till we be in him by Faith though this Faith is also given us on Christs behalf Phil. 1.29 And we believe through Grace Acts 18.27 Thus he Argues to prove that all the Grace we receive from Christ comes from our being united to him by Faith and so that we cannot actually partake of the Grace of Christ before our Union with Christ by Faith Now if this be so we demand of him concerning this being in Christ by Faith or which is the same thing this union with Christ by Faith either it is effected by the Grace of Christ or without the Grace of Christ by the meer Power of Nature Not the Second to wit without the Grace of Christ by the meer Power of Nature For 1. That is rank Pelagianism or Semipelagianism at least 2. It is contrary to what he says in the same place that the Faith by which we come to be in Christ is given us on Christs behalf and that we believe through Grace The First then is that which he doth and must choose to say to wit that our Union with Christ by Faith is effected by the Grace of Christ And then it is self-evident that that Grace of Christ which Effects Faith in us and the Union with Christ by Faith is before Faith and the Union by Faith because the Cause always is and must be in Order of Nature before the Effect And further if the Grace of Christ by which we believe first in him and are united to him be before that Faith and Union by Faith then we receive that Grace from Christ before we be in Christ by Faith and we receive it to this end that our faculties may be fitted and prepared yea and powerfully helped actually to believe and by believing to be actually united unto Christ thus our Author is caught in a Net of his own making he blows hot and cold out of the same Mouth and contradicts himself most foully in saying that we do not actually partake of Christs fulness till we be in him by Faith and yet that we have that Faith and Union by Faith from the Grace of Christ as the cause thereof for certainly that Grace is a part of Christs fulness and if he give it us and we receive it from him for the producing of Faith and Union with him by Faith then we actually partake of his fulness before we be in him by Faith That People therefore may no more be puzzled with such self-confounding and contradictious Stuff we desire them to consider 1. That all our Supernatural Grace is from Christ by his Spirit this we are all agreed in 2. That yet all Supernatural Grace is not from Christ after the same Way and Manner for there is some Grace from Christ before Union and in Order to Union and some Grace is from Christ united from Christ now in actual Union with our Souls by Faith of the first sort is the first preventing Grace the Grace by which we are Effectually Called the Grace by which we are disposed and prepared to believe and by which we do actually believe and by so believing answer the Call receive Christ into our Hearts and come to be actually united unto him This Grace being the cause of Faith and of the Union by Faith is before Union with Christ and so cannot possibly be from Christ considered as united to us by Faith Though then all our Grace be from Christ yet it is notoriously false that it is all from him as ours already by Faith for preventing Grace which is before Faith is not drawn from Christ by Faith as also Faith it self we mean the first Principle and first Act of Faith is not drawn from Christ as already ours by Faith for then Faith would be both before and after it self which is contradictious non-sense and impossible Of the Second sort is all subsequent Grace the Grace of Justification of Progressive Sanctification and Perseverance yea all that Grace whereby Gods Select People being once called according to his Purpose are fitted for and brought unto Glory is from Christ united from Christ in actual Union with our Souls by Faith Augustin writing against the Pelagians above 12 hundred years ago Angust Epist 105. hath cleared up this matter in few Words writing thus to Sixtus Ita sine Spiritu sidei non est rectê quispiam crediturus nec sine spiritu orationis salubriter oraturus non quia tot sint spiritus sed omnia haec operatur unus atque idem spiritus dividens propria unicuique prout vult quia Spiritus ubi vult spirat sed quod fatendum est aliter adjuvat nondum inhabitans aliter inhabitans nam nondum inhabitans adjuvat ut sint fideles inhabitans adjuvat jam fideles That is So without the Spirit of Faith no man will ever believe aright nor without the Spirit of Prayer will any man ever pray in a saving manner not that there are so many Spirits but one and the same Spirit doth all these things dividing unto every man that which is proper to him as he will for the Spirit breaths where he will
But it must be confessed that the Spirit doth otherwise help before he doth inhabit and otherwise when he doth inhabit in the Soul for before be come to inhabit in the Soul he helps men that they may be Believers but when he doth inhabit and dwell in the Soul he helps them who are Believers This one Distinction of Austins attended unto would help People to understand this matter and to answer all that our Authour saith against any real change or Holy Seed Disposition or Qualification wrought in the Soul before it be justified For our Blessed Lord by his Holy Spirit first prepares and qualifies and makes us meet to be an Habitation for himself and then he comes unto us by the same Spirit and dwells in us and abides with us for ever Ephes 2.22 and 3.17 and 1 Cor. 3.16 Now the first of these is in Order before Justification God by his Spirit and Word first makes us such as his Word requires us to be that we may be justified he savingly enlightens our Minds and enlivens our Hearts he gives us a Seed of Faith and a Holy Principle of Light Lise and Love and by an influence of actual Grace causes us freely to reduce the said Seed and Principle into Act and so actually to believe and repent which when we do through Grace then he justifies us on the account of Christs satisfactory meritorious Righteousness imputed to us And after that we are effectually Called and thereupon are become Penitent Believers and are justified and reconciled the Lord gives us his Spirit and by his Spirit he comes and dwells in us he strengthens and encreases the Grace that he had begun in us and makes us more and more Holy in Heart and Life This is that which is commonly called Sanctification and follows after Justification and through Christs dwelling in us by his Spirit is carried on from one decree to another till it have attained its gradual Perfection and be consummated in Glory Let. p. 11. But he objects 2. Shall we tell Men that unles they be Holy they must not believe on Jesus Christ nor venture on him for Salvation till they be qualified and fit to be received by him This were to forbear Preaching the Gospel at all or to forbid all Men to believe on Christ for never was any Sinner qualified for Christ nor is it possible that ever any Sinner should be qualified for Christ We Answer our Author had said a little before in the same Page That every one who Believes on Christ acts that Faith as the chief of Sinners that is believes as an unbeliever as was before proved to be his meaning by his own express Words if his Words be expressive of his Mind And now by the Question which he puts to us here he seems plainly to be of Opinion that every man must believe as an unbeliever or else no man can ever believe at all and Ministers must give over Preaching the Gospel for they can never preach it as it should be preached unless they tell People that they must Act their Faith as the chief of Sinners that is they must believe as unbelievers for either we must tell People that they must believe as Unbelievers or else that they must not believe till they be first Holy and that is that they must never believe at all because it is impossible for them to be Holy till after they have believed in Christ and be united unto him by Faith This is plainly the sense of our Authors Words and the force of his Reasoning which puts us in mind of what Calvin says out of Augustin de bono perseverantiae Cap. 22. Calv. Instit lib. 3. Cap. 23. § 14. that there are insulsi doctores gratiae some foolish Preachers of Grace and surely if any they are to be accounted such Preachers who in effect tell People that they must believe as unbelievers or else they must not believe till they be first Holy and that is they must never believe at all But is there no way to avoid this foolish senseless way of Preaching Our Author thinks there is not we on the contrary are perswaded that there is a way to avoid it and in our Judgment it may thus be easily done we tell People that they must believe in Christ not as Unholy Unbelievers nor yet as Holy with that Holiness which is the effect of Believing and follows after Faith in Christ but by ceasing to be Unholy Unbelievers and by becoming Holy Believers and if they ask us how this can possibly be done we answer Not by Power of Nature but by the Power of Gods special Grace if they ask further How they can obtain that special Grace before they believe and be in Christ by Faith since all Grace is derived from Christ by Faith we answer that all Grace indeed is derived from Christ but it is a most notorious falshood that all Grace is derived from Christ by Faith for the first special Grace which is the Cause of Faith and whereby we believe in Christ is not from Christ by Faith but it is from Christ before Faith and it is given us by the Holy Spirit of Christ to work Faith in us and to bring us into Union with Christ by Faith if they say that even according to this way People must still believe before they are Holy and so must believe as not being yet Holy We answer that is true in one respect and false in another It is true that People must believe before they are Holy with that Progressive Holiness which is the effect of justifying Faith and follows after Justification but it is utterly false that People do believe or can believe savingly before they are Initially Holy before they are Holy with that first beginning and Principle of Holiness which consists in removing the ill Disposition of our Faculties and in giving our Faculties a right spiritual Supernatural Disposition and fitness for the Act of Believing this Holy Principle concurs to the producing of the Act of Faith and so must be in Order before it and then the Act it self of Faith which is an Holy Act must be in order before Justification Therefore it is utterly false that there can be no Holiness at all in any kind or degree before Faith and Justification by Faith since before actual Faith there is the Holy Seed and Principle both of Faith and Repentance and of other Graces too and in order of Nature there is an Holy actual Faith before Justification and this is a Truth so clear that our Author himself sometimes could see it as Pag. 21. Where he says that no man can do any thing that is good till Gospel Grace renew him and make him first a good man this is very true if it be rightly understood thus No man can do any thing that is spiritually supernaturally and savingly good till Gospel Grace that is internal special Grace renew him and make him first a
unwilling to believe of so great and good a man But we cannot be so confident of the sincerity of our Author as we are of Calvins and therefore we commend to his serious Consideration a passage of the Reverend and Learned Pitcarne in his Evangelical Harmony of the Apostles Paul and James in the Doctrine of Justification Art 1. Pag. 10. Tantum addo quod c. I only add says he that in the Scriptures the word Faith is also used for the Conscience or perswasion of the will of God approving our Fact or that which we are to do Whatsoever is not of faith is sin That is It is sin whatsoever it be that is done with a Conscience that is doubting and uncertain of the will of God I was not a little grieved when I read Suarez accusing our Divines that they acted the part of Sophisters when to prove Justification by Faith alone they alledge without making a right choice or putting a difference between one and another any places of Scriprure where faith is mentioned although in them there is not the least tittle to be found of Faith related to Christ and the promises of the Gospel or that hath respect unto absolution from the guilt of sin This should teach us all to take great care how we quote and apply Scripture to prove our opinions least by misapplying Texts we wrest the Scripture grieve Gods Spirit and harden our Adversaries in their Erroneous opinions 4th Obj. Fourthly He Objects against us The Seventh Canon of the Sixth Session of the Council of Trent which Anathematizeth all those who say that all works done before Justification howsoever they be done are truly sins We answer that this objection is impertinent and makes against himself as well as against us Let. p. 16.32 For 1. He says that Faith is in order of nature before Justification as we have proved from several passages in his Letter 2. He saith Pag. 11. That Faith is a work that it is a great work that it is a work of God yea a work of God which we do and cannot do too soon Now we hope he will not say that this great work of God which through Grace we do before Justification and cannot do too soon is an evil work and is truly sin And if it be not an evil work and truly sin then it must be a good work and truly Gracious And thus we have himself holding with the Council of Trent as well as we do that before Justification there is a good work which is not truly sin but truly good and Gracious If he say that Faith doth not justifie as a work that is nothing to the purpose for the Question now is not whether Faith justifie as a work or as an instrument but whether Faith really be a work an internal work of the Soul which it may well be and yet not justifie as a work And he himself hath expresly confessed that it is a work and a great work too and likewise that it is a great work which not only God doth but which we do through the Grace of God enabling us But after all if he be so resolved that he will have nothing common with the Council of Trent but differ from them in all things true or false right or wrong and therefore because they hold that justifying Faith is a good work before Justification that is not truly sin he will hold the contrary that tho justifying Faith be before Justification yet it is not a good work but an evil work and is truly sin we can say nothing to it he hath his free choice for any thing that we can do to the contrary yet we should advise him to be wiser and not to reject any Truth of the Gospel because an adversary holds and believes it And that it is a Gospel-truth that justifying saving Faith is a good work tho it be in order before Justification we doubt not but his own Conscience knows it and is convinced of it Sure we are that our Conscience is fully perswaded of it And tho' we believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths that justifying Faith in the best of us is too too little and weak and that the gradual defect of it is truly sin and deserves the hatred of God yet are we infallibly sure that the Grace and gracious Act it self of justifying saving Faith so far as we have any of it is truly good and cannot be truly evil and sin This we are sure is a truth and we believe it and are resolved through Grace so to do and never to like it the worse because the Papists believe it and curse all those who disbelieve it We join with them in believing the truth so far as they do believe it but we utterly abhor their cursing of Dissenters If our Author think fit to Dissent from us in this matter we shall be so far from cursing him that we shall pray God to bless him with a better understanding of this and all other things wherein he may be mistaken As for the other passage which our Author quotes out of the 11th Canon and calls the bellowing of the Beast We might pass it over for it doth not at all concern us nor the Controversie that is between the Author of the Letter and us Yet this we will say that he seems not to understand the Language of that Beast of Trent for they confess with us That the Grace whereby we are justified is the favour of God as plainly appears from what they say before the Canons in the 7th Chapter but they curse all those who say that the Grace whereby we are justified is only the favour of God For they hold that we are justified by a two-fold Grace the one External without us and it is the mercy and favour of God which is that that principally moves him to justifie us the other Internal within us the effect of the first and it is the habit of Grace or Charity infused into us by the holy Spirit to make us formally just by something Inherent in our selves Now we do not say any more than they do that we are justified by the favour of God only and exclusively of all other things for we maintain that we are justified by the Grace and Favour of God and also by the Righteousness of Christ imputed to us according to Rom. 3.24 And this is the ground of the Quarrel this is it for which they Curse our Author and us both because we both believe that we are justified by Christs Righteousness imputed to us and not by Gods Grace infused into us and inherent in us And yet we believe this too to wit that Gods Grace is infused into us and inherent in us only we do not call this Justification but give it another name and call it Sanctification Those Trent Fathers therefore had no reason to be so angry with us and in their Beastly wrath to fall a cursing of us
Spirit together because according to the Principle aforesaid the Written Word is supposed to say nothing at all of that matter Therefore if ever it be Revealed to the Man and so if ever he be comforted in this World it must be by the Spirit without the Word And then all the poor disconsolate Mans ground of Comfort must be reduced to this That God will reveal it to him by his Spirit immediately without the Written Word But then we demand how our Authour will be able to assure the poor disconsolate dying Man that God will really do so that God will reveal it to him by his Spirit immediately without the Written Word For that immediate extraordinary Revelation being a thing that depends also upon Gods Arbitrary Free Will he may do it or not do it as he pleaseth and if God may freely not do it how can our Authour ever assure the Man that he will do it That is that he will by his Spirit immediately and extraordinarily reveal to him without the Written Word that he shall have Eternal Life and not Eternal Death for his Portion But now if our Authour should say that God hath given unto Man a Promise in his Written Word to ground his Faith upon though he hath not given a stated Rule and standing positive Law according to which he will proceed with Man at Death and Judgment We would readily reply thus Either the Promise in the Written Word made to the dying disconsolate Man is an absolute Promise that God for Christ's sake will give him Eternal Life however it be with him whether he be converted or unconverted penitent or impenitent believer or unbeliever And we are sure there is no such promise in the Bible and to tell him of such a Promise would be at once to belie God and to delude the poor Man Or 2. It is a conditional Promise That God for Christ's sake will give him Eternal Life If through Grace he unfeignedly repent of all his sins and believe on Christ with a lively effectual Faith a Faith working by Love which he is bound to do under the pain of Eternal Death If this be the Promise that the poor dying Man must ground his Faith upon that God for Christ's sake will give him Eternal Life then this is the very thing which Dr. Twisse and we after him call the Law according to which God proceeds in dispensing to his People the subsequent Blessings of the Covenant such as Justification and Glorification are And so our Authour comes over into our Camp which he must do at last and confess if not to us at least to God that he hath grosly misrepresented and falsly accused Christ's faithful Ministers and hath endeavoured to delude the People and to render the Ministers odious to the People and thereby to hinder the success of their Ministry And he must sincerely repent of having done so But if he will yet go on in the way of his own heart we shall be sorry for him and not cease to pray the Lord if it be his will to have Mercy on him and to give him repentance for the scandalous sin which he hath committed in publickly slandring Christs Ministers and in boldly asserting a notorious falsehood in matter of fact saying That the new Law of Grace is a new Word of an old but ill meaning And that he hath really done so we have not only said but proved by the plain testimonies of credible Witnesses whereof two Sealed the Truth of the Gospel with their Blood above fourteen hundred years ago SECT II. Of his second Error that the Covenant of Grace is Absolute and not Conditional SEcondly the Author of the Letter asserts that the Covenant of Grace is Absolute and not Conditional as appears from page 18. at the end and page 24. And particularly he denies that Faith in Christ is the Condition of Justification page 8. Some say that faith justifies as it is a fulfilling of the condition of the New Covenant if thou believest thou shalt be saved This he finds fault with and opposes to it the old Protestant Doctrine as he calls it That the place of Faith in Justification is only that of a Hand or Instrument c. Where we observe 1. That he makes faith its being a Condition and its being a hand or instrument to be two opposite things the one whereof is inconsistent with and destructive of the other and so in this he not only fights against us but likewise against the Assembly of Divines at Westminster who held Faith to be both an Instrument and a Condition in the matter of Justification as was shewed before 2. He makes it to be New Doctrine and contrary to the Old Protestant Doctrine to hold that Faith is a Condition of the Covenant of Grace and that we are Justified by Faith as a Condition of the Covenant wherein he makes the Assembly as well as us to be Preachers of a New Doctrine and Corrupters of the Gospel since they likewise held Faith to be a Condition of the Covenant as aforesaid And again in page 9. We say that Faith in Christ is neither Work nor Condition nor Qualification in Justification but is a meer instrument and he affirms that their saying so is that by which the fire is kindled So that saith he in page 10. It is come to that as Mr. Christopher Fowler said that he that will not be Antichristian must be called an Antinomian Here it is very remarkable that he not only denies Faith to be either Work Condition or Qualification in the matter of Justification but he also in effect affirms that it is Antichristian to assert that Faith is either Work Condition or Qualification and that he will therefore rather choose to be called an Antinomian for denying than to be an Antichristian for affirming it This is and must be his meaning or else he was dreaming and knew not what he did when he cited Mr. Fowler and brought in his Judicious saying with a so that it is come to that as Mr. Fowler said c. Finally in page 25 at the beginning he says that Faith in the Office of Justification is neither Condition nor Qualification but in its very act is a renouncing of all such pretences From all which it is plain that we do not wrest his Words nor charge him with an Opinion which he doth not hold for he so firmly holds the Covenant of Grace to be Absolute and not Conditional and particularly that Faith is neither the Condition of obtaining Justification nor a qualification of the Person then Justified when he believes that he glories to be accounted an Antinomian rather than renounce that Opinion page 24. And he holds it to be New and Antichristian Doctrine to maintain that Faith is either a Condition of obtaining Justification or a qualification of the Person justified or to be justified in that instant of time wherein he believes Before we refute this Opinion we will briefly
foresaid Book called The Synod of Dort and Arles reduced to Practice page 195 196. As God did ordain us to everlasting Life by way of Reward of our Faith Repentance and good works so likewise he did ârdain us to the obtaining of Faith Repentance and good Works to be wrought in us partly by the Ministry of his Word therein speaking unto us and partly by our Prayers seeking unto him to bless his word unto us and fulfil the good pleasure of his Goodness towards us and the work of Faith in Power For God doth expect that we should seek unto him by Prayer for this as we read Ezek. 36.37 Thus saith the Lord I will yet for this be sought of the House of Israel to perform it unto them Neither do we maintain that God doth ordain any Man of Ripe Years unto Eternal Lise in any moment of Nature before he ordains him to Faith Repentance and Good Works and that to be wrought in him by the Ministry of the Word with Gods Blessing thereupon according to the Prayers in common both of the Pastor and the People By this passage we see that though Dr. Twisse denies that Gods giving us Grace to Convert Believe and Repent doth depend upon any proper Condition to be antecedently performed by us before we can ever in any case receive that Grace yet he confesses and maintains that ordinarily Gods giving that first special Saving Grace depends upon the use of his appointed means and that it is Gods Will it should so depend And truly if it were not so Ministers should give over Preaching and Praying and People give over hearing them and joyning in Prayer with them in order to Conversion for it would all serve to no end or purpose but would be a taking of Gods Name in vain Thus it may appear to all that we do not believe nor teach that there is any Condition required to be necessarily performed by us antecedently to our partaking of the first Grace promised in the Covenant so that if we performe that Condition we shall infallibly have that first Grace and if we perform it not we shall infallibly not have it at all 2. From hence it follows that in consistence with our foresaid Principle we cannot hold and we solemnly declare that we do not hold that there is any Natural Condition of the Covenant of Grace for we know assuredly that there is no such Promise in the Covenant of Grace as this Facienti quod in se est viribus naturae dabit Deus primam gratiam God will give the first supernatural Grace to every Man who doth what he can by his Natural Powers It was the Opinion of the Semipelagians that we believe in Christ by our own Natural Strength without Supernatural Grace and upon Condition that we do so God promiseth to give and accordingly he gives us the first internal Supernatural Grace Augustin himself was once of this Opinion as he confesseth lib. de praedestin Sanctorum cap. 3. where he tells us that he was convinced of his Error by that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 4.7 What hast thou that thou hast not received and if thou hast received it why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it We bless God for that by his Grace he hath preserved us from that Semipelagian Errour and we declare our abhorrence of it And therefore it must needs be a great wickedness in the Authour of the Letter to bely us as he hath done in charging us not only with Semipelagianism but even with Pelagianism it self which are Errours that our Souls abhor as God who searcheth the Hearts of all Men knoweth and to whom we appeal yet praying him again not to enter into Judgment with that Brother for the wrong he hath done us but rather to give him Repentance and then to pardon him 3. From hence also it follows that we neither do hold nor can hold that there is any meritorious condition of the Covenant of Grace For we do firmly and unanimously believe that Christ by his Elood hath purchased for us and by his Spirit freely gives unto us the Grace whereby we performe the Condition of the Covenant the Grace whereby we sincerely believe repent and obey the Gospel Now we are perswaded that it is utterly impossible for any Man to merit of God the benefits of Justification and Glorification by performing the Condition of Faith Repentance and Evangelical Obedience because we are infinitely beholding to God in Christ for giving us freely the Grace whereby we performe the Condition and without which we could never performe it We know very well that the Papists argue the quite contrary way that our Faith Repentance and Obedience are properly meritorious because they are the effects of God's Grace in us but this we know also to be a very ridiculous way of arguing because the Argument really proves that they are not and that they cannot be properly meritorious because they are the Effects of God's Free Grace God by giving us the Grace whereby we Believe Repent and Obey the Gospel properly merits of us our most humble and hearty thanks for thereby causing us to Believe Repent and Obey and therefore our so believing repenting and obeying cannot properly merit any thing of God But we need not insist on this it being so evident in it self and confessed by all Protestants that it is impossible for a meer Creature and that a sinful Creature too properly to merit and deserve any thing from God but Death and Damnation And this being so we do assert as much as our Authour doth page 24. or can possibly do such an absolute freedom of the Grace of God as excludeth all merit But what our Authour means by excluding not only merit it self but every thing like merit we do not well understand As for the merit of a sinful Creature we know it to be a chimera that it neither hath nor can have a real being that it is impossible and implies a contradiction Now what it is that is like a chimera we leave to our profound Authour to determine But if by every thing that is like merit he means every false conceit of merit that is or may be in the foolish Imaginations of erroneous men we understand him and agree with him for we do as much as he exclude out of our own imaginations all false conceits of merit and if we could we would exclude them out of the imaginations of all other Men that so we and all other Men might ascribe unto God through Christ the Glory of all the good we do and of all the good we receive or hope to receive If our Authour by every thing that is like merit mean any other thing we are to seek what it may be and truly we cannot well imagine what it is he excludes under the notion of its being like merit unless it be Repentance in order to pardon of sin and Prayer for pardon of sin and if that
be really his meaning and he be of that mind that he will neither repent of his sins in order to obtain the pardon of them nor pray for the pardon of them for fear lest he should seem to merit the pardon of them we cannot but think him to be a very weak man and that he fears where no ground of fear is For assuredly if he do but exclude out of his own mind the proud Conceit and Opinion of meriting by his Repentance and Prayer he needs not forbear repenting and praying for the pardon of his sins for fear of thereby meriting pardon or for fear of doing that which looks like meriting pardon His own common Sense and Reason may teach him that by the very acts of repenting and praying for pardon he doth renounce all pretence to merit as well as by the Act of believing in Christ for pardon he doth renounce all pretence to the meriting of his pardon 4. We do not believe that Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience are the legal but evangelical Condition of the Covenant of Grace Which that our meaning may be understood by all we explain thus we do not believe that our Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience which are the Conditions of Justification and Glorification according to the tenour of the Covenant of Grace have the same Place and Office in this new Covenant and Law of Grace which most perfect sinless Obedience had and was to have had in the first old Covenant and Law of Works for in that first old Covenant personal perfect sinless Obedience was to have been Mans Righteousness by which alone he was to have been secured from Death and to have had still a Title and Right to Life but in the new Covenant and Law of Grace neither our Faith Repentance nor sincere Obedience are or can be that righteousness which secures us from Eternal Death and purchases for us a Right and Title to Eternal Life when God first made the new Covenant with us in Christ we had all lost our Right and Title to life and were become guilty of Death In which state we could never by any Act or Acts of ours by any Righteousness in us or done by us secure our selves from Death and recover our Right and Title to Life It was the satisfactory meritorious Righteousness of our Lord Redeemer Christ Jesus that could do and did do this for us It was Christs Righteousness alone that satisfied for our Sins and redeemed us from Death and that merited and purchased for us a Right and Title to Life Christ's Righteousness alone procures us the pardon of our sins and a Right and Title to Life so that it is Christ's satisfactory meritorious Righteousness alone that comes in the place of that perfect sinless Righteousness which was the Condition of the first Covenant and Law of works It is Christ's Righteousness that stands us in stead of that perfect sinless Righteousness which we should have had but have not It is Christ's righteousness alone that procureth to us the Restauration of all the good we had lost and more and better Our Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience have nothing to do at all in this matter This was Christ's work alone and we give him all the Glory of it with all our Hearts and Souls And as it was Christ's Righteousness alone that merited our pardon of sin and deliverance from Death and that purchased our acceptance with God as righteous in his sight and our Right and Title to Life so it is by his Promise and Law of Grace that the Lord gives us that which he had merited and purchased for us that he gives us the pardon of our sins and Right or Title to Life upon our repenting and believing so that our repenting of our sins and believing in Christ are but the immediate nearest means which God hath ordained to be used on our part that we may be fit to receive and accordingly may receive those blessings and benefits which Christ hath purchased and which by the promise are given unto us The use of this means the performance of those Duties of Faith and Repentance is that which our Orthodox Divines call the Condition of the Covenant of Grace For upon Condition that through Grace we do those Duties we shall have those blessings and benefits The Lord will graciously give us them according to his promise on condition that we by Grace do such and such Duties according to his Command Our Faith and Repentance are not our Legal Righteousness nor instead of it that is the Place and Office of Christ's Righteousness only but they are the Condition which the Lord in the Gospel hath required of us that according to his promise we may be blessed with the pardon of sin be accepted at Righteous in his sight and have a Right and Title to Eternal Life From the premisses it is manifest that according to our Principles Faith and Repentance are not a Legal but an Evangelical Condition of the Covenant of Grace and that they do not in the least detract from the Grace of it And we desire it may be remembred that though speaking of Faith and Repentance joyntly we call them sometimes the Condition of the Covenant or the Condition of Justification yet we make a difference between them and because Repentance includes an hearty sorrow for sin and purpose to for sake it and to return unto the Lord we call it the disposing Condition but finding by Holy Soripture and the Nature of the thing that Faith above other Graces hath a peculiar respect unto Christ and his Righteousness we call it the receiving Condition so doth our Reverend Brother Mr. Williams call it in Gospel truth stated c. page 114. and we approve the distinction He was not the first inventer of it for it was used by others before either he or we were born Now if this be true as the Lord who searcheth all hearts knows it to be then let the World judge how false and injurious that Authour is unto us when in page 6. he giveth the People an account of our Principles as to this matter in these following words They will not allow this personal Righteousness of Christ to be imputed to us any otherwise than in the merit of it as purchasing for us a far more easie Law of Grace in the observation whereof they place all our justifying Righteousness Vnderstanding hereby our own personal inherent holiness and nothing else They hold that Christ dyed to merit this of the Father viz. that we might be justified upon easier terms under the Gospel than those of the Law of Innocency in stead of Justification by perfect Obedience we are now to be justified by our own Evangelical Righteousness made up of Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience And Page 28. Many manage the Ministry as if they had taken up a contrary determination even to know any thing save Jesus Christ and him crucified We are amazed to see so many
it is the cause though Calvin Twiss Ames Rutherford c. have not spared to say and write that it is in some sense a cause an inferiour disposing cause c. but a duty and condition until the performing whereof God hath suspended the Gift of Eternal Life and Glory and to the Performers of which duty and condition he hath freely promised and according to his promise he graciously giveth Eternal Life and Glory for the sake of Christs meritorious Righteousness only And we desire it may be alwayes remembred that from this condition of sincere obedience we do by no means exclude but include the continued exercise of Faith in Christ as that which is the spring of it and which runs through all the parts of it as also we hold that it comprehends the continued practice of Repentance and Love to God and Man Such sincere Obedience we hold to be a condition to be performed on our part Ezek. 18.24 25. Heb. 10.38 for the obtaining of Eternal Life and Glory For we learn from the Scriptures of Truth that if any of God's People should apostatize from Faith in Christ fall from the Profession and Practice of Christs true Religion and give themselves up to the wilful commission of all manner of Abominations and dye in that state without Repentance they would lose their Right to Eternal Life be shut out of Heaven and cast down to Hell there to suffer the Vengeance of Eternal Fire Whereas on the contrary all that continue to the end in the exercise of Faith in Christ and in the practice of Repentance and Evangelical Obedience they have their Right to Life and Glory still continued to them and shall through God's Grace and Mercy and Christ's Righteousness and Merits be put into the full and eternal possession of it If our Authour should object and say that we suppose an impossibility from whence there is no right arguing for or against any thing We desire him to consider what Dr. Twiss sayes in the 29 Page of his Answer to the Book called The Synod of Dort and Arles reduced to practice His Words are When we say the elect Saints cannot fall from Grace this is spoken not in respect of any absolute impossibility but meerly upon supposition of God's upholding them And accordingly they are said to be kept by the power of God through Faith unto Salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 Now this impossibility of falling away from Grace in Scholastical account is but an Impossibility Secundum quid like as we say It is impossible that Antichrist should fall or the Jews be called till the time which God hath appointed is come for bringing forth these great and wonderful Works of his but the contrary is simply possible on either part Thus Twiss Our Answer then is that the Apostacy of a Saint is not simply and absolutely impossible Alas it is but too possible with respect to us considered in our selves but it is onely impossible in some respects to wit in respect of God's Purpose and Promise and Christ's Intercession c. And notwithstanding its being impossible in this sense yet we find it supposed and granted also to be possible in another sense And further we find that the Spirit of God in Holy Scripture supposes greater Impossibilities than that seems to be and rationally argues from them too Witness John 8.55 Gal. 1.8 If any should further object and say that hereby we destroy the Saints Assurance of Eternal Life and Glory by holding that their obtaining of it is suspended on a condition We Answer the consequence is false because those who are assured upon good Grounds that they are truly Converted and Justified by Faith in Christ's Blood See 1 Joh. 2.19 may from Holy Scripture be assured of the condition of perseverance through Grace in Faith Repentance and whatever God hath made necessary to their obtaining Eternal Life and Glory Indeed if our Glorification depended upon a Condition of which we could not be sure then neither could we be sure of Glorification it self But we believe and maintain that through Grace we may and ought to be sure of the Condition to wit of Perseverance and consequently that we may and ought to be sure of our future Glorification which is infallibly promised to perseverance in Faith and Holiness We know the Followers of Luther whom our Authour so much magnifies as if he were for him and his Party deny that a Saint can be absolutely sure ordinarily in this World that he shall be saved in the World to come It is true they maintain that a Saint may and ought to be absolutely sure that he is in a state of Grace and Salvation for the present but they deny and on their Principles must deny that he can have an absolute but onely a conditional assurance of his Eternal Salvation and Glorification because they say he cannot be absolutely sure that he shall not fall totally and finally from the state of Grace that he is now in If we should follow Luther or the Lutherans in this what a Clamour would our Authour raise against us how would he proclaim us to the World to be Arminians or Papists yet Luther was a blessed Man and most Orthodox Divine because in his Commentary on the Galathians he seems to hold with our Authour in some things though in other things of greater importance he be against him and us too But Holy Scripture is the Rule and Measure of our Faith in these and all other Religious Matters and according to the Prescript thereof we believe profess and preach to the People that as Christ purchased all Grace for us by his Blood so he gives it unto us by his Spirit in the use of his appointed Means and what Saving Grace he once gives unto his People he never wholly takes away from them again and that if at any time they fall into Sin against Knowledge and Conscience he raises them up again by causing them to renew their Faith and Repentance and never wholly leaves them nor forsakes them but gives them still more Grace according to their need and by Grace prepares them for and at last brings them unto Glory Thus we desire and endeavour to Preach Christ and now we appeal to all who have any Conscience of Truth and Honesty whether we neglect to Preach Christ or whether in the preaching of Christ we set up any thing in co-ordination with him yea whether we be not so far from it that on the contrary we make all subordinate to him and derive all Grace from him not only the Grace of Justification and Glorification which are promised on Condition of Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience but also the Grace of effectual Vocation Faith and Repentance in a Word all the Grace whereby we perform the whole condition of the Covenant from first to last From the premisses it may manifestly appear to any that are not stark blind that we do not hold Faith Repentance and
us by the Devil and the World or by our own mistaken Consciences And who dare deny the Truth of this May not the Devil and the World falsly accuse do not they too often falsly accuse us and say that we are Hypocrites and have neither true Faith nor Repentance When this Brother accuseth us so falsly as he doth in his Letter we need not think it strange that the Devil and the World do falsly accuse us Yea we have that within our own breasts that may sometimes through the temptations of Satan or the remainders of sinful Darkness and Unbelief falsly accuse us of predominant Hypocrisie Unbelief and Impenitency Now if at the same time we are really true Converts and through Grace sincerely believe and repent what Man that is endued with common Sense and reason can reasonably deny that our sincere Faith and Repentance is a sufficient Defence and Justification of us against all such false accusations Sure we are that our infinitely Gracious God and Saviour allows our plea and we most heartily bless his Name for it hath sometimes by his Spirit and Grace sensibly helped us to make our defence by clearing up to us the sincerity of our Faith and Repentance and by enabling us to take unto our selves the Comfort and to give him all the Glory of our being sincere penitent Believers notwithstanding all that the Devil World or Flesh say falsly to the contrary But as for those who are impenitent Unbelievers indeed all the World knows that the Faith and Repentance which they have not can never justifie them from the Unbelief and Impenitency which they really have deeply rooted in their hearts In short We maintain that Christ's meritorious and satisfactory Righteousness only justifies us at Gods Bar from all our sins against any Law of God whatsoever as soon as we through Grace performe the Gospel-Condition of sincere Faith and Repentance And then that sincere Faith and Repentance is our Defence and Justification before our most Gracious God and before all honest Men against all false accusations of our not having performed the Gospel-Condition of sincere Faith and Repentance But as for those who continue still in Unbelief and Impenitence they have nothing to defend and justifie them but if they live and dye in that stare their Unbelief and Impenitence will bind upon them to Eternity the Curse and Condemnation of the Law and moreover will bring upon them the sorer Vengeance of the despised Gospel John 3.18 19 20. and Heb. 2.2 3. and 12.25 Thus Achilles is on his Legs again without receiving the least hurt from the weak efforts of that assailant who hath nothing to say to him without misrepresenting him but that he doth not like his Language pretending that it is unscriptural let p. 41 42. dangerous and tends to the dishonouring of Christs Righteousness c. but that pretence is utterly false For 1. That our sincere Faith Repentance and Gospel-Obedience is a righteousness is evident from the Nature of the thing For 1. They are Duties which we owe unto the Lord our God and it is self-evident that it is a righteous thing to give unto God the things that are Gods 2. It is confessed by our Divines in their Disputes against the Papists that our Faith Repentance sincere Obedience and Holyness is a Righteousness For they generally grant that we have a two-fold Righteousness 1. The Righteousness of Christ imputed to us 2. A Righteousness inherent in us and adherent to us which we receive from Christ by his Spirit and Grace This is expresly confessed by that same Bishop Downham in his Book of Justification which our Author page 12. of his Letter commends as an Orthodox Book There that Reverend and Learned Divine affirms that we are Righteous both by the Righteousness of Christ imputed to us which is our Principal Righteousness and likewise by another Righteousness wrought in us and performed by us which is our secondary subordinate Righteousness If our Authour should have the Confidence to deny this it will be proved against him by Authority both Divine and Humane 2. This our subordinate Righteousness is rightly termed Evangelical because it is required by the Word of the Gospel wrought by the Spirit of the Gospel and is a complying with the terms and a performing of the Condition of the Gospel 3. That our sincere Faith Repentance and Obedience is a subordinate Righteousness by which we are defended and justified against the false charge of Hypocrisie Unbelief and Impenitence is so far from being unscriptural that it agrees exactly with the very Letter Scope and Sense of the Scripture in the second Chapter of James if that Epistle be Scripture as I hope we all believe that it is for there a Man is expresly in formal terms said to be justified by works James 2.21 24 25. which words can signifie no less than this That the good Works and sincere Obedience of a good Man do justifie him against the false accusation of being an Hypocrite or prophane Libertine As to what our Authour says in page 41. That works of Righteousness are only a Justification of Faith and not of the Person of the Believer it is a notorious falsehood and expresly contradicts the Spirit of God who faith that a man is justified by works and particularly that Abraham and Rahab were justified by works and not that their Faith only was justified by Works We do not deny but that good Works do justifie Faith but we also affirm with James that they do likewise justifie the person of the Believer But how is that Why they justifie his Person in tantum in so far as they are his Defence and Justification against the false charge of his being a Hypocrite or Libertine and not a true penitent obedient Believer In all this neither doth James nor we after him dishonour the Righteousness of Christ in the least for our inherent and adherent Righteousness is intirely subordinate to Christ's imputed Righteousness it hath also quite another Vse and Office than Christ's imputed Righteousness and it proceeds from it as the only meritorious cause thereof We abhor all Opinions and Practices that have the least real tendency to dishonour Christ or his Righteousness We ascribe this to Christ as his peculiar incommunicable Glory that as was said before his righteousness alone comes in the place of that personal perfect sinless Righteousness which was the Condition of the first Covenant of Innocency and Law of Works And as for that personal imperfect yet sincere Righteousness which through the Grace of Christ we attain unto by Believing Repenting and Obeying the Gospel it is nothing but the Condition of the new Covenant by performing whereof we get and keep an Interest in Christs imputed Righteousness by and for which alone we are justified from all our sins of what kind soever and have a right unto and at last get possession of Eternal Life and Glory in God's Heavenly Kingdom We have
to him and upon the best Reasons and Motives that appeared to him from the consideration of things willingly to choose or refuse them and to act or not to act to act thus or otherwise as he saw cause Whence we may confidently conclude that the formal essential Nature of Man's Free-will consists in this Power of acting willingly according to the Judgment of Right Reason and not in the former undeterminedness or indifferency of the Will to do or not to do to do Good or Evil even when all things pre-requisite to its doing and acting do meet together and concur to cause it to do and act Upon this occasion we cannot but mention with approbation a Passage of a very Reverend and Dignified Divine of the Church of England in a Discourse of Christian Liberty Chap. 11. Sect. 3. pag. 139 140 141. As for those that contend that it is more praise-worthy to do Good and forbear evil having a power to do otherwise than to be under a necessity of so doing supposing they mean by necessity such as is not from without or from an inward blind instinct but from an understanding Principle and Perfection of Nature I must needs tell them there is no Proposition in the World more false or absurd I will not therefore stick to say that to have the Will necessarily determined to all Good and from all evil from an over-powering sense of the becomingness and excellency of the one and the vileness and odiousness of the other is the very perfection of Liberty And this is so far from being impossible to be obtained by Creatures or by our selves that by the help of God's Grace it is in a large measure even in this life attainable I mean such a sense of Good and Evil as shall certainly determine us to Good and against Evil in most of the Instances of each There are some Immoralities and wicked Actions that they who have attained to but very mean and ordinary Degrees of Goodness cannot perswade themselves so much as to endeavour to reconcile their Minds to Nay there are some that no Man can easily be supposed able to consent to but an extraordinarily depraved and wicked Wretch let the Motives that are used to perswade him be what they will Such as blaspheming of God contriving the murder of our Parents of a most obliging Friend Torturing of innocent Babes and the like horrid Villanies Surely then a Man is capable of such a vivid sense of the hatefulness of Sin in gneral as will whilst it lasts render it impossible for him to will deliberately to commit any known Sin whatsoever It is confessed that we cannot hope to get past all danger of sudden surprizals so long as we inhabit these Bodies and remain in our present unhappy Circumstances but I say so powerful a sense of the infinite unrighteousness disingenuity unreasonableness folly and madness of opposing the Holy Will of our Great Creator and Blessed Redeemer may by the Divine Assistance be acquired even on this side Heaven as shall determine us effectually against all deliberate and wilful Violations of the Divine Laws For this we have the Authority of a great Apostle St. John saith in his 1 Epist 3.9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him neither can he sin because he is born of God c. This excellent Passage of Bishop Fowler 's may help to clear up the foresaid difficulty and to shew us how the Act of believing may be a Duty and Condition of the Gospel and yet be produced by the effectual Grace of God assisting our Faculties in that production for the efficacy of Grace doth not hinder but rather further the free exercise of our liberty of Will in producing the Act of Faith So that our believing in Christ being an Act of Free Obedience notwithstanding that the Regenerating Principle of Spiritual Life and Seed of Faith inclines and byasses us to act and the actual Influence of the Spirit causeth us to reduce the Principle into Act we can see no reason at all why the actual believing in Christ may not be both our duty and likewise the condition upon the free performance of which God promiseth to justify us to pardon our sins and give us a Right and Title to Eternal Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Our Authour confesseth that the Covenant of Redemption was strictly conditional Lett. p. 24. Mat. 26.39 Joh. 10.18 and that Christ's offering up the Humane Nature in sacrifice to God was in part at least the strict Condition of it and yet Christ performed that Condition as necessarily and unavoidably as we perform the Condition of actual believing when we are influenced thereunto by the special and effectual Grace of God This we take to be a demonstration that the meer infallible certainty and necessity of the Elect's believing in Christ cannot hinder their Faith from being a proper Evangelical Condition of the new Covenant And having thus at large declared in what sense we hold the Covenant of Grace not to be conditional and in what sense to be conditional We shall next prove against our Authour that it really is conditional and that it is not without Ground that we believe it so to be In order hereunto we premise these two Things 1. That it is with respect to the subsequent Blessings and Benefits of the Covenant that we hold it to be Conditional that is it is with respect to Justification and Glorification For as the Professors of Leyden say in their Synopsis of purer Divinity Disp 22. pag. 259. Promissiones Evangelii sunt potissimum duae 1. De Justificatione coram Deo per fidem 2. De Haereditate vitae eternae Rom. 1.17 1 Johan 2.25 The Promises of the Gospel are principally two The first is the Promise of Justification in the sight of God by Faith And the second is The Promise of inheriting Eternal Life It is these Promises and the Covenant of Grace in respect of these Promises which we hold to be Conditional II. That by a Condition we understand a Duty which God requires of us for obtaining the Promised Benefit so as to suspend his giving us the promised Benefit upon our performing the Duty required Assuring us that if we perform the Duty required we shall have the promised Benefit but if we do not perform the Duty required we shall not have the Benefit promised These two things premised we come to prove that the Covenant of Grace is really Conditional as aforesaid with respect to its subsequent Blessings and Benefits And this we shall do 1. by Scripture 2. by Reason consonant to Scripture 3. by Testimonies of Orthodox Divines even of those very Divines whom our Authour affirms to be against us And 1. We prove by Scripture that the Covenant of Grace is Conditional in the sense before explained And we begin with Rom. 10. v. 9. where though the word Condition be not expressed yet we have the
life And therefore as he saith again John 13.17 Rom. 6.23 If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them And his Apostle Paul saith that God gives eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. But to whom doth he give it Why that is visible from the 22. Verse immediately before It is to them who being made free from sin and become servants to God have their fruit unto holiness It is we say to them that God through Christ gives Eternal Life as a Reward of their Holy Obedience and well-doing God in Christ is most certainly a Rector or Ruler who according to his Law of Grace will distribute at last glorious Rewards to all that fear his Name Revel 11.18 2 Cor. 5.10 James 1.25 Rom. 2.6 7. small and great And as St. James saith Then shall the Obedient Believer the doer of the Lord's Work be blessed in his deed Then as Holy Paul says To them who by patient continuance in well-doing have sought for glory and honour and immortality God will render eternal life This God will do at the Last Day to all that have so continued in well-doing to the end For so the Spirit of Truth hath plainly said by Paul and it is infallibly true and will continue to be for ever true 1 Cor. 7.19 with Gal. 5.6 Let who will contradict it and say it is false Blessed Paul assures again that Circumcision is nothing and Vncircumeision is nothing but the keeping of the Commandments of God Heb. 5.9 And that Christ is become the Authour of eternal salvation to all them that obey him Yea our Lord Christ himself saith Be thou faithful unto death Rev. 2.10 and 3.21 Rev. 22.14 and I will give thee a Crown of life and that he who overcomes shall sit with him on his Throne To all which agrees that we read in the Last of the Revelations Blessed are they that do his Christ's commandments that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates into the city Here we see the Lord himself hath declared them blessed that sincerely keep his Commandments because thereby 1. They have a Right to the Tree of Life whilst they live And 2. When they dye they enter upon the full possession of that which before they had a Right unto They enter in through the gates into the city But you will say how have we right unto and entrance upon full possession of Eternal Life and Glory by keeping Christ's Commandments We Answer the keeping Christ's Commandments doth not merit or give us either one or the other of them but it is the way and means which we use and the Condition which through Grace we perform for the having our right to the Tree of Life continued to us or not taken from us whilst we live And for our having full possession of Life and Happiness given us when we die So that 't is God who first for Christ's sake gave that still continues our right to us and at last will for the same cause that is for Christ's sake give us full possession But he will do all this for us in the way of continued Faith and Obedience and on Condition that we sincerely believe in Christ and keep his Commandments unto the end Thus we have proved from Scripture That sincere Obedience to the Law of Christ is a Condition of Glorification as our first believing and repenting is the Condition on our part of our Justification and of the pardon of our Sins For as the definition of a Gospel-Condition agrees to Faith and Repentance with respect to our Justification and Pardon of Sin so it agrees to sincere Obedience with respect to our Glorification and Eternal Salvation And to whatsoever the definition of a Gospel-Condition agrees to that the Nature and Essence of a Gospel-Condition must agree also From all which we conclude that the Covenant of Grace is Conditional with respect to the subsequent blessings and benefits of it The two principal promises to wit of Justification and Glorification are certainly conditional which was the thing to be proved And having first demonstrated it by Scripture Second Head of Arguments We Secondly prove it by reason agreeable to Scripture And Reason 1. First If the Covenant of Grace be not Conditional with respect to its subsequent Blessings and Benefits particularly if the Promise of Justification and Pardon of sin be not conditional we do not see how it is possible for a Minister to be faithful to God to his own Conscience and to the Souls of the People in preaching the Gospel to them It is true it is easily conceivable how a Minister may be faithful in laying before People the Commandments of the Lord and in telling them that those Commandments oblige them to believe and repent And that if they do not believe and repent they will grievously sin against the Lord and draw down his wrath upon their own Souls But now whân he proceeds to encourage them to believe and repent by setting forth to them God's Promise of Justification and Pardon of Sin we do not conceive how he can do it honestly and faithfully if the Promise of Justification and pardon of Sin be not conditional For when a Minister is preaching to a promiscuous mixed Multitude of People and for their encouragement to believe and repent is declaring to them Gods Gospel-promise of Justification and pardon of Sin either he must declare and preach this Promise to them conditionally or absolutely If conditionally assuring them from the Lord that they shall be justified and pardoned through Christ's Righteousness imputed to them if they sincerely believe and repent then the Promise it self is conditional and the Covenant also is in that respect conditional For if there be no Condition in the Gospel-promise and Covenant how can the Minister preach it conditionally to the People Doth he not take God's Name in vain and abuse the People also by telling them from the Lord that all they who perform the Condition of the Gospel-promise by believing and repenting shall have the promised Benefit to wit Justification and pardon of Sin if there be no Condition in the Promise necessary to be performed by them for obtaining the promised Benefit Either then a Minister must not preach the Promise conditionally to the People or there is and must be a Condition in the Promise and if there be a Condition in the Promise then we have what we aim at for we desire no more to prove the Covenant of Grace to be conditional But 2. If our Authour will say that the Minister must preach the Promise of Justification and pardon absolutely to all the People assuring them from the Lord that they are or shall be justified and pardoned through Christ absolutely whether they perform any Condition or not whether they do any duty or not whether they believe and repent or not Then we Answer That the Minister who shall preach
apprehensive nature and its apprehending Christs Righteousness the Will of God still presupposed doth make this Righteousness ours even as a Gift becomes ours by our receiving of it These Worthy Divines we see were of our Opinion That it is not the nature of Faith it self nor its relation unto Christ which is essential to it that doth formally make it to be the Instrumental Means or Condition of our Justification but it is the Will of God ordaining it to that Office It is true they held and we with them hold that there is a congruity and fitness in Faith to be the receptive and applicative Condition of the Promise and of Christ and his Righteousness therein because it is of a receptive applicative nature yet that doth not formally make it the Condition For notwithstanding its fitness to be the Condition yet it would never have actually and formally been the Condition of Justification nor would it ever have availed us to Justification if God by an Act of his Free-will had not made it the Condition of Justification Is not Justification a great Blessing and Benefit which is in the power and at the disposal of God and Christ and may not God do what he will with his own may not he give his Blessing and Benefit upon what Terms and Conditions he and his Son shall think fit to agree upon This surely is so evident that no reasonable Man can have reason to deny it And then the consequence is as evident that it is not any thing intrinsecal to Faith and so not its relation to Christ which is intrinsecal to it that can nextly and formally make it the Instrumental Means or Condition of Justification but it is and must be the Will of God and his Son Christ Jesus agreeing that Faith shall be and ordaining Faith to be the Instrumental Means Terms and Condition of our Justification For these Reasons we dissent and all Men that love the Truth should dissent from our Authour if by saying that an accepting Faith is the native Condition of the Offer of Christ and of all his fulness he mean That Faith of its own nature necessarily is the condition of the promise and could not possibly ãâã otherwise so that ãâã being the condition doth necessarily and wholly arise from its own intrinsecal nature and not at all from the Will of God and Christ constituting and ordaining it do that Office of being the Condition of the promise We dare not uscribe so much Vertue and Efficacy to the intrinsecal Nature of Faith in the matter of our Justification But if by saying That an accepting Faith is the Native condition of the offer of Christ and his fulness our Authour means no more but this That Faith being of a receptive Nature it hath a natural aptitude and fitness to be made the condition of the promise of Justification and that that was a reason why it pleased God and Christ to make and constitute Faith to be the receptive condition of Justification we shall not oppose but join with him in this sense of his words But though we grant him for the reason aforesaid that Faith is the one native receptive condition of Justification yet we can never grant that Faith taken in his sense for the one single Grace or it may be for one single Act of the one single Grace of Faith is the only condition of Justification and much less that it is the only condition of Glorification For as Faith is the one yea and only receptive condition so true Repentance it the dispositive condition of Justification or of the Person to be justified in order to his Justification And moreover Repontance is as native a condition in its kind as Faith in its kind it is us native a dispositive condition as Faith is a native receptive condition For sincere Repentance being a Godly sorrow for having displeased and dishonoured God and a firm resolution through Grace to do so no more it doth from the very nature of the thing dispose and prepare the Soul for pardon and then God hath likewise for that reason Willed Ordained and Constituted Repentance to be the dispositive Condition of pardon of Sin and Justification As we proved before by plain testimonies of God's Holy Word And though Faith and Repentance be equally necessary from the Will Ordination and Constitution of God and Christ yet of the two Repentance seems to be the most necessary with that kind of necessity which ariseth precisely from the nature of the thing For it seems to be absolutely impossible because repugnant to the perfection of God's Holy Nature to Justifie Pardon and Love with a Love of Complacency a Rebellious Sinner whilst he is impenitent and continues his full Resolution to go on in his Rebellion and Enmity against Heaven The sense of this Truth seems to have been much upon the very Reverend and Learned Mr. Clarkson's Spirit and therefore it made him say in his Discourse of free Grace page 129 130 131. If the terms or conditions be such as it is not possible in the nature of the thing that the mercy offered should be effected without them then the offers of saving mercies are as free and gracious as can be as there is any possibility they should be and no more can be desired Then he takes Repentance for his instance we do not say that he altogether excludes the other terms but that Repentance is that which he Jingles out to instance in and which he much insists upon as taken in its Latitude And thus he goes on Let me clear this in one of those terms which is comprehensive of all the rest It is required of those who will partake of Saving Mercies that they leave sin forsake their evil ways Prov. 28.13 Isa 55.7 2 Tim. 2.19 This is the summ of all Conditions and whatever is required in other terms is included in this or may be resolved into it Now it is not possible that saving Mercies should otherwise be had that they should be received or enjoyed but upon these terms not only because the Lord would have it so but because the Nature of the thing doth so require it that it is not otherwise feasible for sin is our impotency Now can we possibly have strength in the inner man if we will not part with our weakness Sin is our deformity that which renders our Souls loathsome and ugly in the eye of God Now can our Souls be made lovely if we will not part with that which is our defilement and ugliness Can we be made clean if we will not part with our leprosie Sin is our enmity against God therein it consists now can we possibly be reconciled if we will not lay aside our enmity Sin is the wound the mortal Disease of the Soul and can you be healed if you will not part with your Disease Sin is your Misery and can you be happy if not part with your misery Happyness consists in the enjoyment of God
sorrows and pains than to hear that this is the Command of God this is the voice of Christ the Bridegroom that they be surely perswaded that Remission of sins or Reconciliation is given not for our worthiness but freely through Mercy for Christ's sake that the benefit may be certain As for the word Justification in those passages of Paul it signifies the Remission of sins or Reconciliation or imputation of Righteousness that is the acceptation of the Person And in the same Article the paragraph concerning good works This new life then should be obedience towards God And the Gospel preaches Repentance nor can there be Faith but in those who repent because Faith comforts Mens hearts in contrition and fears of sin c. Moreover we also teach concerning this Obedience that they who commit mortal sins that is wilful presumptuous sins against Knowledge and Conscience are not just because God requires this obedience that we resist our corrupt lusts and affections But those who do not resist but obey them against the Command of God and do actions against their Conscience they are unjust and they neither retain the Holy Spirit nor Faith that is confidence of Mercy For in those who delight in sin and do not repent there cannot indeed be that Trust or Confidence which may seek for remission of sins This passage of the Augustan Confession we thus understand that habitual reigning wilful sin against Conscience and without Repentance is inconsistent with a state of Grace and Reconciliation And we think that all Protestants except Antinomians are agreed in this One passage more and we have done with this Confession of Faith It is in the same 20th Article of Faith a little before the passage last quoted There is no need here of disstations about predestination and the like For the promise is universal and it takes nothing from works yea it stirs up to Faith and to Works that are truely good For remission of sins is transferred or removed from our Works unto God's Mercy not that we may do nothing but much rather that we may know how our Obedience pleaseth God in our so great infirmity This was the first Protestant Confession of Faith written by Melancthon Received by the Protestant Churches subscribed by their Ministers and that not onely by Luther and those of his Party but even by Calvin also It was likewise subscribed by seven Princes and Dukes in Germany and by the Magistrates of Cities and presented unto the Emperour Charles V. in the Year 1530. We hope then it will not be denyed but that this Augustan Confession contains the true Doctrine of the Gospel in the points of Justification by Faith and of the necessity of Repentance unto the obtaining pardon of sin and of sincere Obedience unto the obtaining of Eternal Salvation And if so then our Doctrine in those points is likewise the true Doctrine of the Gospel for it is the same with that of the Augustan Confession as to those Matters of which we treat From the Augustan Confession and the Testimony of many Princes Pastours Cities and Churches who subscribed and received it we come to the Articles of the Church of England which we have all subscribed the 11th Article concerning Justification we most heartily embrace and acknowledge that it is a most wholsome Doctrine and full of comfort that we are justified by Faith onely in that sense which is more largely explained in the Homily of Justification to which the Article expresly refers us and which by consequence we have subscribed by subscribing the Article It is called a Sermon of the Salvation of Mankind by Christ onely and a very good Sermon it is worth a thousand of our Authour's Letter which deserves not to be mentioned the same Day with it For understanding then the true and full meaning of the Article of Justification we must have recourse to the Homily or Sermon of Salvation In which Excellent Sermon pag. 13. We read as followeth London Edit 1673. That though according to the Apostle we are justified by a true and lively Faith onely and that that Faith is the Gist of God Yet that Faith doth not shut out Repentance Hope Love Dread and the Fear of God to be joined with Faith in every Man that is Justified but it shutteth them out from the office of Justifying So that although they be all present together marke that they do not onely necessarily follow and flow from Faith in time but when we are first Justified they are present together with it in him that is Justified yet they Justifie not altogether nor the Faith also doth not shut out the Justice of our good Works as necessary to be done afterwards of Duty towards God for we are most bounden to serve God in doing good Deeds commanded by him in his Holy Scripture all the Days of our life but it excludeth them so that we may not do them to this intent to be made good by doing them For all the good works that we can do be imperfect and therefore not able to deserve our Justification c. Again in the second part of that Sermon pag. 15. Nevertheless this Sentence that we be Justified by Faith onely is not so meant of them that the said Justifying Faith is alone in Man without true Repentance Hope Charity Dread and Fear of God at any time and season Nor when they say that we be Justified freely they mean not that we should or might afterwards be idle and that nothing should be required on our parts afterwards Neither they mean not so to be justified without good Works that we should do no good Works at all But this saying that we be justified by Faith onely freely and without Works is spoken for to take away clearly all Merit of our Works as being unable to deserve our Justification at God's Hand and thereby most plainly to express the weakness of Man and the Goodness of God the great infirmity of our selves and the Might and Power of God the imperfectness of our own works and the most abundant Grace of our Saviour Christ and therefore wholly to ascribe the Merit and Deserving of our Justification unto Christ onely and his most precious Blood-shedding This Faith the Holy Scripture teacheth us this is the strong Rock and Foundation of Christian Religion this Doctrine all Old and Antient Authours of Christ's Church do approve this Doctrine advanceth and setteth forth the true Glory of Christ and beateth down the vain-glory of Man this whosoever denieth is not be accounted for a Christian Man nor for a setter forth of Christ's Glory but for an Adversary to Christ and his Gospel and for a setter forth of Mens vain-glory Again pag. 16. The true meaning and understanding of this Doctrine we be Justified freely by Faith without Works or we be Justified by Faith in Christ onely is not that this our own Act to believe in Christ or this our Faith in Christ which is within us
have everlasting Life And Art 6. he sayes that Faith embraces and appropriates to ones self Christ and all that is in him for since be is offered us to be possessed by us with this condition if we believe in him one of the two thân must necessarily be to wit either that all is not in Christ which is necessary to our Salvation Or if all be in him then he possesseth all things who possesseth Christ by Faith And in his short Confession Art 10. Itaque meritò concludere possumus in uno Jesu Christo contra omnia mala quae conscièntias nostras terrere possunt praesentissima remedia reperiri Sed addenda est conditio si ista remedia nobis applicemus Therefore we may justly conclude that in one Jesus Christ there are found soveraign infallible remedies against all the evils that can terrifie our Consciences But this condition must be added if we apply those remedies to our selves We see Beza put it into his Confession of Faith as an Article of his Belief that the Gospel Covenant hath a Condition and is conditional The same Authour in his little Book of Questions and Answers the First Part to the Question You say then that Good Works are necessary to Salvation he Answers that if Faith be necessary to Salvation then Good Works are likewise necessary to it non tamen ut salatis causam yet not as the cause of Salvation for we are justified and therefore live onely by Faith in Christ but as something that is necessarily joined with Faith as Paul saith they are the Children of God who are led by the Spirit of God Rom. 8.14 And John that he is righteous who doth righteousness 1 John 4.7 So that it plainly appears they are contentious Men who condemn the necessity of Good Works as a false Doctrine Thus Beza And we do no more say that Good Works are necessary as the cause of Salvation than he doth nor do we any more than he say that Good Works without Faith are the necessary Condition of obtaining Salvation On the contrary we say that Faith is the Spring of all our good Motions and runs through them all and that it is Good Works done from a Principle of Faith and Love which are the necessary Condition of obtaining Salvation Lastly To the Question What then if Faith be first given to a Man at the point of Death For this seems to have been the case of the penitent Thief who was crucified with Christ What good Works can such a Man do Beza Answers Yea the Faith of that Thief in a most short time was unspeakably energetical or effectual and operative for he reproved the other Thief for his blasphemies and wickedness he abhorred his own Crimes with a firm and most wonderful Faith he acknowledged Christ to be an Eternal King and prayed unto him as a Saviour under the very ignominy and shame of the Cross when all his own Disciples were silent and spoke not one word for him he did also openly rebuke the Jews for their Cruelty and impious Expressions But so it is that Confession of sin Prayer to God the Father through Christ and thanksgiving are the most excellent Works of the First Table which in no Man can be wholly separated from Faith And although some may be so prevented by Death as not to have power to shew forth any works of the Second Table yet in such a Man Faith is not therefore to be esteemed idle and unfruitful because it hath Love conjoined though not in Energie and Act yet in Power and Principle Thus far Beza To which we agree as we said before In such extraordinary cases God requires no more of Men as absolutely necessary to their Salvation than they have time and strength to perform but accepts the will for the deed through Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 8.12 Our next Witness is Mr. Fox the Authour of the Book of Martyrs The World hath been told already in the defence of Gospel-Truth pag. 35. that holy Mr. Fox in his Latine Book of Christ freely Justifying maintains that Faith is the proper receptive applicative Condition of Justification and that Repentance is the dispositive Condition it is that which prepares us for receiving Justification But some who read that Discourse of his in the Book of Martyrs which our Authour directs them unto may possibly object that in the second Volume of the Book of Martyrs pag. 192. he saith The Promise of Life and Salvation is offered unto us freely without any Condition We Answer It is true he doth say so but he means that it is without any Meritorious Legal Condition and all such Conditions we reject as much as he did or any Man can do as appears by what we have said at large in giving account of our Judgment concerning the Conditionality of the Covenant That this was Mr. Fox's true meaning appears from his own Words in the same Page a few Lines after The Voice of the Gospel saith he differeth from the Voice of the Law in this that it hath no Condition adjoined of our meriting but only respecteth the Merits of Christ the Son of God If our Authour will not admit of this explication of Fox's Words that he only rejected all Meritorious and Legal Conditions but will needs have it that he absolutely rejects all Conditions of the Covenant of Grace both Legal and Evangelical then we must say that he hath little respect to the Memory and Credit of Mr. Fox since he makes him most shamefully to contradict himself And was he fit then to write a Book of Martyrs or to be himself a Witness for the Truth against the Papists Can he be justly admitted to bear witness against others who by self-contradiction is a false Witness against himself Truly we should be loath so to expose that good Man to the scorn of the Papists and therefore we positively affirm that he doth not contradict himself at all because the Conditions are of different kinds which he denies and affirms He denies that there are any properly meritorious legal Conditions of the new Covenant and so do we He affirms that there is a proper Evangelical Condition to wit Faith and constant Confession They are his own Words in his Latine Book aforesaid And we join with him in affirming the same And now we do further make it known to the People that Mr. Fox in the said Book concerning Christ freely Justifying doth grant that after we are freely justified by Faith in Christ sincere Obedience to Christ's Commandments is necessary to retain or not to lose our Justification These are his own Words Quod autem dici solet per obedientiam retineri justificationis gratiam Page 369 370. ut hoc concedatur aliquo modo non tamen hinc c. As for that which useth to be said that the Grace of Justification is retained by Obedience though that be granted in some sense yet it doth not follow from hence that Justification
conditions are freely given by God neither if they be sincere do they by their imperfection hinder our Salvation which proceeds from another cause Here we see those four Learned Doctors Polyander Rivet Waleus and Thysius held that not only Faith but new and sincere Obedience is the condition of obtaining Salvation so that both together make up the one intire condition of the Gospel Gomarus another Learned Professor of Divinity in the Netherlands a Member of the Synod of Dort saith That the Gospel is called God's Covenant Quia mutuam Dei hominum obligationem Oper. Gomari par 3. disp 14. Thes 29. page 52. de vitâ aeternâ ipsis certâ conditione dandâ promulgat because it promulgates the mutual obligation of God and Men concerning the giving them Eternal Life upon their performing a certain condition And it is called the Covenant of God de salute per Christum gratuitâ concerning free Salvation by Christ because God in the Gospel of meer Grace publisheth and offereth unto all men whatsoever on condition of true Faith not only Christ and perfect Righteousness in him for Reconciliation and Eternal Life but also he promiseth unto his Elect and perfecteth in them the prescribed Condition of Faith and Repentance Here we see Gomarus holds Repentance to be part of the intire Condition of the Gospel Covenant Whereunto agrees the Testimony of Pemble Pemble of Justifying Faith Sect. 2. Chap. 1. page 22. who saith The Condition of the Covenant of Grace required in them that shall be justified is Faith Believe this and live is a compact of the freest and purest Mercy wherein the Reward of Eternal Life is given us in favour to that which bears not the least proportion of worth with it So that he that performs the Condition cannot yet demand the wages as due unto him in severity of Justice but only by the Grace of a free promise the fulfilling of which he may humbly sue for Ibid. page 24. And again Although saith he the Act of Justification of a sinner be properly the only work of God for the only merit of Christ Yet is it rightly ascribed unto Faith and it alone forasmuch as Faith is the main Condition of the New Covenant which as we must performe if we will be justified so by the performance whereof we are said to obtain Justification and Life Here it is observable that Pemble saith That Faith is the main Condition of the Covenant of Grace which implies there is some Condition besides but subordinate to Faith And this we do firmly hold that Faith is the main Condition because it is the only receptive applicative Condition to which Repentance the dispositive Condition and all our after-Obedience is subordinate Perkins another of those Divines whom we are said to despise gives his Vote also for the conditionality of the Covenant of Grace Witness what he writes in his Reformed Catholick In the Covenant of Grace two things must be considered Reformed Catholâ point 4. of Justif the manner differ 2. Reason 1. The Substance thereof and the Condition The substance of the Covenant is That Righteousness and Life Everlasting is given to God's Church and People by Christ The Condition is That we for our parts are by Faith to receive the foresaid benefits And this Condition is by Grace as well as the substance And in his little Latine Tract of Predestination and the Grace of God which Dr. Twiss defended against Arminius Perkins de Praedest gratiâ edit Cant. An. 1598. pag. 130. in his Book called Vindiciae Gratiae he says Gratia secunda est vel imputata vel inhaerens Imputata est in Justificatione cujus pars remissio peccatorum c. The second Grace is either imputed or inherent Imputed Grace is in Justification whereof a part is Remission of sins and this Justification and Remission with respect to sins past remains firm and will so remain for ever That saying of the Schoolmen is most true Sins once remitted never return But when any true Believer hath fallen into some grievous hainous sin the pardon of that defection or backsliding is indeed purposed and decreed by God yet it hath no actual existence at all on God's part nor is it received at all on mans part till he repent Yea if he should never repent which yet is impossible for that one sin he would be damned as guilty of Eternal Death For there is no new pardon of any new sin without a new Act of Faith and Repentance This passage of Mr. Perkins implies to the full all that we have said concerning the necessity of Repentance as the dispositive condition of obtaining the pardon of our sins and concerning the necessity of sincere Obedience continued from a Principle of Faith and Love or after any notable backsliding renewed by new Acts of Faith and Repentance as the Condition of getting possession of the Heavenly inheritance Of the same Judgment was Pareus for thus he writes in his Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans Fidem inserit ut doceat fidem esse conditionem sub quâ Christus nobis datus est propitiatorium Pareus in Rom. 3.25 The Apostle inserts Faith in the 25th verse to teach us that Faith is the Condition under which Christ is given us for a propitiation And again in the writing against the five Arminian Articles which he sent to the Synod of Dort not being able to go himself by reason of Age and which was read in highly approved by Act. Synod Dord part 1. p. 264. and recorded in the Acts of the Synod he says that Conditio certaminis precum vigilantiae omnino est necessaria ad perseverantiam The Condition of fighting and praying and watching is altogether necessary unto perseverance But then he adds in opposition to the Arminians That the said Condition is wrought in the faithful by the Spiâit of God which he proves from Deut. 30.6 Jer. 32.40 Ezek. 36.27 1 Pet. 1.5 c. And to what the Arminians said that the Condition is commanded and not promised he answers Promissiones de ipsa conditione fidei precum perseverantiae in fidelibus per spiritum Dei efficiendâ disertè loquuntur c. The promises plainly speak of the Condition of Faith Prayer Perseverance as that which is to be effected in Believers by the Spirit of God Nor doth it follow that the effecting of the Condition is not promised because it is commanded and required of the faithful For it is also commanded that they fear God and walk in his Commandments and yet God promiseth I will put my fear in their hearts c. I will cause them towalk in my Statutes c. But it is commanded not that they can of themselves but that they ought to perform it that so being sensible of their own weakness they may know what they ought to ask of God neither yet do these promises wholly exclude the great or small lapses and sins of the
Saints but they raise up the fallen again that they be not ruined For the promises also are expresly extended unto the Righteous sometimes fallen into sin Psal 37.24 and 89.30 31 32 33 34. The same Authour writing against the Papist upon the same subject saith Fides tune dicitur justificare cum actum proprium c. Faith is then said to justifie when it can exercise Pareus lib. 1. de amissione gratiae cap. 7. prope finem and doth exercise its proper act of Receiving Remission of sins but a Faith that is sick wounded oppressed with the filth of the flesh and as it were bound with the fetters of sin doth not exercise nor can it exercise this act and a little after But God doth not impute sin to the just that are fallen to wit when they repent but before they repent he doth indeed impute sin to them by inflicting temporal punishments and unless they repented he would impute sin to them by inflicting also eternal punishments And he thus concludes Tune igitur fides in lapsis habitualiter tantion manens propriè justificans dici aut eos justificare non potest Therefore Faith then remaining habitually only in the lapsed it cannot properly be said to be justifying or to justifie them Thus far Pareus Whereby we plainly see that he held the Covenant of Grace to be conditional as we do that Faith and Repentance are conditions of it especially Faith is the main condition by the acts whereof we are justified and receive Remission of sin not by the habit because it is the Act and not the Habit that receives Christ and Remission of sins through him 2. He held that after Justification sincere Obedience to the Lord in the avoiding of wilful presumptuous sins of Omission and Commission is a Condition so necessary to the obtaining of Eternal Salvation that without such Obedience either continued without intermission or after some notable intermission of its acts and weakning of its habit renewed again by new acts of Faith and Repentance Salvation cannot be obtained nor Damnation avoided 3. That though there be such conditions required of the Elect in order to Justification and of the justified in order to Salvation yet they are not uncertain as to the event but shall through special effectual Grace be infallibly performed and the Elect and Justified shall be eternally saved This was the Gospel that Pareus preached and the Synod of Dort approved And it is that and no other which we preach also Therefore it must needs be a great falsehood and slander that we preach a new Arminian Gospel We find likewise that the Divines of Geneva Deodat and Tronchin in the Synod of Doât were for the conditionality of the Covenant of Grace in the sense before explained for thus they write in their suffrage concerning the second Article Fides est revera conditio novi foederis respectu ordinis inviolabilis a Deo instituti Act. Synod Dondrect part 2. page 132. c. Faith is indeed the Condition of the new Covenant in respect of the inviolable order instituted by God but it is also a promised gift of the new Covenant and an effect of our ingrafting into Christ In these words 1. We observe That in the Judgment of those Divines approved by the Synod of Dort God by his absolute Will hath instituted a conditional order between the antecedent and subsequent blessings of the new Covenant 2. That Faith is the Condition ordained by God for obtaining the subsequent blessings of the Covenant such as Justification Pardon of sin c. 3. That it is not habitual Faith or the first habitual seminal permanent principle of Faith but it is actual Faith because they say that it is the effect of our ingrafting into Christ but the first seminal permanent principle of Faith is not the effect of our ingrafting into Christ otherwise we should be ingrafted into Christ before we have so much as the least seminal principle of Faith since the cause must be before the effect Therefore to avoid that absurdity we think they meant that our ingrafting into Christ begins in the Spirits working in us the seminal principle of Faith which concurs to the producing of the Act of Faith which being our formal vital Act though produced by the Vertue of the Seminal Principle and the effectual influence of the Spirit is the Condition of the Covenant performed by us and withal is the effect of our initial ingrafting into Christ The same Doctrine is believed and professed at Geneva at this day Witness what was lately Taught and Published by Turretin Professor of Divinity there In Page 196. of that Book he saith that Christ requires Faith in God's Promises and Obedience to his Commandments Turrotin Institut Theologiae Eleâct Part. 2. Edit Genev. 1688. as the Duties and Conditions of the Covenant And in the same Page he saith that The form of Words wherein the new Covenant is expressed I will be your God and you shall be my People comprehends both the Benefits promised on God's part and the Duties required on our part And first he explains at large what promised Benefits on God's part are implied in the Words I will be your God Secondly he shews what Duties required on our parts are implied in the Words you shall be my People After he had in general opened the meaning of the foresaid Form of the Covenant he comes to particulars and in the 29. Paragraph he sayes The Principal Duties required of us are Faith and Repentance Faith which embraces the Promises and Repentance which fulfils the Commandments Faith answers to the Promise of Grace believe and thou shalt be saved Repentance is commanded Lege Evangelicâ by the Evangelical Law walk before me and be thou perfect Gon. 17.1 For as on God's part there are two principal Benefits of the Covenant Remission of sins and the writing of the Law in the Heart so on Man's part two Duties ought to answer unto them to wit Faith which applies unto us the Remission of sins and Repentance or the study and endeavour of Sanctification which reduces into practice the Law written in the Heart by walking in God's Statutes which Christ meant when he said Mark 1.25 Repent and believe the Gospel In Page 202. he puts the Question Whether the Covenant of Grace be conditional and what are the Conditions of it And in Answer to it he distinguishes between several sorts of Conditions and as we have done shews that in some sense it is not Conditional and then he concludes that in another sense it it Conditional and Page 203. he proves it by three Arguments 1. Because it is proposed with a Condition expressed John 3.16 36. Bom. 10.9 Acts 8.37 Mark 16.16 And frequently in other places 2. Because if it were not conditional there would be no place for Threatnings in the Gospel which cannot be denounced but against those who neglect to performe the Condition prescribed For the
1634. in Answer to Mr. Hoards Book called Gods Love to Mankind which Answer was Printed after his Death by Mr. Jeanes a very Learned and Zealous Calvinist in the Year 1653. at Oxford The Ministers of the New Testament Twiss against Hoard pag. 194 195. are called Ministers not of the Letter but of the Spirit that is not of the Law the Ministry whereof is not the Ministry of the Spirit but yet this is rightly to be understood to wit of the Spirit of Adoption for undoubtedly even the Ministry of the Law is the Ministry of the Spirit also but of the Spirit of Bondage to hold Men under fear It is called the Ministry of Condemnation and the Reason hereof I conceive to be because God doth not concur with the Ministry of the Law by the Holy Spirit to work any Man to the performance of the Condition of the Law which is exact and perfect Obedience But thus he doth concur with the Ministry of the Gospel namely by his Spirit to work Men to the performance of the Condition thereof which is Faith in Christ and true Repentance therefore the Letter to wit of the Law is called a killing Letter but the Gospel is joined with a quickening Spirit and therefore Piscator conceives that the Gospel in this place is called by the Name of the Spirit So then the Gospel giveth Life by the Spirit which accompanieth the Ministry thereof c. And in the same Book he saith Some Benefits are bestowed upon Man only conditionally though for Christs sake and they are the pardon of sin and salvation of the Soul Page 154. and these God doth confer only upon the Condition of Faith and Repentance Now I am ready to profess and that I suppose as out of the Mouth of all our Divines that every one who hears the Gospel without distinction between Elect and Reprobate is bound to believe that Christ died for him so far as to procure both the pardon of his sins and the Salvation of his Soul in case he believe and repent But there are other Benefits which Christ by his Obedience hath merited for us namely the Benefit of Faith and Repentance for it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell Col. 1.19 And he hath blessed us with all Spiritual Blessings in Christ that is for Christs sake Eph. 1.3 And God works in us that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ Heb. 13.21 And therefore seeing nothing is more pleasing in Gods sight on our part then Faith and Repentance even these also I should think God works in us through Jesus Christ And the Apostle prays in the behalf of the Ephesians Eph. 6.23 for Peace and Faith and Love from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ that is us ââinterpret it from God the Father Son and Holy Ghost as an efficient Cause and from the Lord Jesus Christ God and Man as a meritorious Cause thereof Now I demand whether this Authour can say truely that it is the constant Opinion of our Divines that all who hear the Gospel whether Elect or Reprobate are bound to believe that Christ died to procure them Faith and Repentance Nay doth any Arminian at this Day believe this or can he name ãâã Aâminian that doth avouch this Again Glory and Salvation God doth not will that it shall be the Portion of any one of ripe Years absolutely but conditionally to wit if he repent and believe And in case all ãâã page 174. and every one of the World should believe and repent all and every one how notorious Sinners soever they be found shall be saved such is the sufficiency of Christ's Merits I say this is true not of them onely who are invited to the Wedding Mat 22. Nor of them onely to whom St. Peter speaketh Acts 3.26 Or of them onely of whom our Saviour speaketh Mat. 23.37 But of all and every âne throughout the World And it is as true that none of them shall be saved if they dye in Inâidelity and Impenitency This God himself signifieth to be his will by his Promise Acts 2.38 39. on the one part and on both parts Mark 16.16 And as God signifieth this to be his will so indeed it is his will according to our Doctrine and there is no colour of Imposture or Simulation in all this In like sort as touching the Grace of pardon of sin this also God offers unto all that hear the Gospel but how not absolutely but conditionally in case they believe and Repent and it is God's will that every one who believeth shall have his sin pardoned none that I know either thinketh or teacheth otherwise whether he falleth out either to be Elect or Reprobate though how to distinguish Men according unto this difference ãâã know not I leave that unto God Now like as we say God doth signifie his meaning to ãâã that as many as believe and repent shall have their sins pardoned and their Souls saved So if it can be proved that there is no such meaning in God then in my poor Judgment it cannot be avoided but that God must be found halting in his Offers But for my part I acknowledge such a meaning in God neither have I to this Hour found any one of our Divines either by Word or Writing to have denyed this to be the meaning of God Again Whereas he Hoard fashioneth our Doctrine so as if we said that God hath decreed at no hand to save them to whom he promiseth Salvation upon Condition of Faith this is a notorious untruth Ibid. pag. 177. and such as implieth manifest contradiction For to say he hath resolved at no hand to save them is as much as to say that he hath resolved to save them on no Condition But if he hath promised to save them in case they believe undoubtedly he hath resolved to save them upon Condition of Faith Onely God's Resolution to save them is not held in suspence considering that from Everlasting he well knew who would believe and who would not c. Again It is true Baptism is ordained that those which do receive it may have the Remission of their sins but not absolutely but conditionally to wit in case they Believe and Repent as appears both in that place Acts 2.38 Ibid. pag. 201. and Rom. 4.11 and Baptism as a Seal doth assure hereof onely in case they Believe and Repent and therefore none of Ripe Years were admitted unto Baptism until they made Profession of their Faith and as for Infants they were also antiently said to be Baptized in Fide Parentum By all these Passages quoted Word for Word out of Dr. Twiss it is as clear as the Light at Noon-day that he held the Covenant of Grace to be Conditional and particularly that the Promise of Justification and Pardon of Sin is Conditional and that Faith and Repentance not Faith alone nor Repentance alone but Faith and Repentance together are
125. and Justified do sometimes through their own default fall into hainous sins and thereby they do incur the Fatherly Anger of God they draw upon themselves a damnable Guiltiness and lose their present âtness to the Kingdome of Heaven Thon they prove their Position It is manifest say they by the Examples of David and Peter that the Regenerate can throw themselves headlong into most grievous sins God sometimes permitting it that they may learn with all humility to acknowledge that not by their own strength or deserts but by Gods Mercy alone they were freed from Eternal Death and had Life Eternal bestowed upon them Whilst they cleave to such sins and sleep securely therein God's Fatherly Anger ariseth against them Psal 89.31 Rom. 2.9 Besides they draw upon themselves damnable Guilt so that as long as they continue without Repentance in that state they neither ought nor can perswade themselves otherwise than that they are subject to Eternal Death Rom. 8.13 If ye live after the flesh ye shall die For they are bound in the Chain of a Capital Crime by the desert whereof according to God's Ordinance they are subject to Death although they are not as yet given over to Death nor about to be given over if we consider the Fatherly Love of God but are first to be rescued from this sin that they may also be rescued from the guilt of Death Lastly in respect of their present Condition they lose the fitness which they had of entâing into the Kingdome of Heaven because into that Kingdome there shall in no wise enter any thing that is defiled Rev. 21.27 or that worketh Abomination For the Crown of Life is not set upon the Head of any but those who have fought a good fight and have finished their course in Faith and Holiness 2 Tim. 4.8 He is therefore unfit to obtain this Crown whosoever as yet cleaves to the Works of wickedness The Fourth Position is The unalterable Ordinance of God doth require that the Faithful so straying out of the right way must first return again into the way by a renewed performance of Faith and Repentance before he can be brought to the end of the way that is to the Kingdome of Heaven By the Decree of Election the Faithful are so predestinated to the End that they are as along the Kings High-way to be led to this appointed End no other ways than by the Means ordained by God Nor are these Decrees of God concerning the Means Manner and Order of such Events less fixed and sure than the Decrees of the End and of the Events themselves If any Man therefore walk in a way contrary to God's Ordinance namely that broad way of Vncleanness and Impenitence which leads directly down to Hell he can never come by this Means to the Kingdome of Heaven yea and if Death should overtake him wandring in this By-path he cannot but fall into Everlasting Death This is the constant and manifest Voice of the Holy Scripture Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Luke 13.3 Be not deceived neither fornicatours nor idolaters c. shall inherit the kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6.9 They are deceived therefore who think that the Elect wallowing in such Crimes and so dying must notwithstanding needs be saved through the force of Election For the Salvation of the Elect is sure indeed God so decreeing But withal by the Decree of the same our God it is not otherwise sure than by the way of Faith Repentance and Holiness Heb. 12.14 Without holiness no man shall see God The foundation of God standeth sure And Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity 2 Tim. 2.19 Again their Fifth Position is that In the mean time between the Guilt of a grievous sin and the Renewed Act of Faith and Repentance such an Offender stands by his own desert to be condemned by Christ's Merit Ibid. Art V. pag. 126 127. and God's Decree to be acquitted but actually absolved he is not until he hath obtained pardon by Renewed Faith and Repentance And for Proof of this Position they say in Page 128. The Father of Mercies hath set down this Order That the Act of Repentance must go before the Benefit of Forgiveness Psal 32.5 Ezek. 18.27 Thus those Excellent Divines and Judicious Faithful Ministers of Christ By all which it is clear as the Sun That the Synod of Dort taught the conditionality of the Covenant and held Faith Repentance sincere Obedience and Perseverance to the End to be the indispensably necessary Conditions of obtaining Eternal Salvation and therefore if there happen to be a partial Intermission of sincere Evangelical Obedience for a time by Christians falling into hainous wilful sins there must be a renewing of Faith and Repentance and a returning to their Obedience again before they can obtain the pardon of those Sins and the Eternal Salvation of their Souls which is all that we hold in this matter And it is alserted explained and solidly proved by the most Learned and Judicious Dâââââant who was a Member of the Synod of Dââ in another Book of his in these Words Bond Opera sunt necessaria ad Justificationis statum relinendum Praelect de Justitiâ Habit. Act. cap. 31. p. 404 405. conservandum non ut causae c. that is Good Workes are necessary to retain and preserve the state of Justification not as causes which of themselves effect produce or merit this Preservation but as Means or Conditions without which God will not preserve the Grace of Justification in Men. And here may be reckoned up the same Works which we mentioned in the foregoing Conclusion For as no Man receives that general Justification which froes from the Guilt of all former sins unless Repentance Faith a Purpose to lead a New Life and other Actions of that nature concurre So no Man retains a state free from Guilt with respect to following sins but by means of the same Actions of believing in God calling upon God mortifying the flesh continually repenting and grieving for the sins that are continually committed The Reason why all these things are necessarily required on our part is this because these things cannot be always absent but their contraries will begin to be present which are repugnant to the Nature of a justified Man For if you take away Faith in God and Prayer there succeeds unbelief and contempt of God's Name If you take away the endeavour of Mortification and the exercise of Repentance there breaks in upon the Man predominant Lusts and Sins wasting the Conscience Therefore because it is not God's will that Men who are Vnbelievers obstinate carnal should enjoy the benefit of Justification he requires continual Works of Faith Repentance and Mortification by whose presence are thrust as it were out of Doors and driven far away Vnbelief Obstinacy Security and other Poysons of Justifying Grace and also of particular sins there is a particular pardon
obtained Hence Paul saith Rom. 8.13 If ye live after the flesh ye shall die And Heb. 3.12 Take heed lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God We do not therefore think that the Act it self of believing repenting and mortifying the flesh doth effect or merit the conservation of Justifying Grace because all these things are done by us faintly and imperfectly sometimes also through the Prevalency of some great Tentation they are as it were choaked and oppressed but we say that God himself of his free Mercy preserves the Regenerate in a state of Grace and Salvation whilst they walk in these wayes As therefore for the preservation of Natural Life it is necessarily required that a Man carefully avoid Fire Water Precipices Poysons and other things which destroy the Health of the Body so for the preservation of Spiritual Life it is necessarily required that a Man avoid Vnbelief Impenitency and other things that are destructive and contrary to the Salvation of Souls which cannot be avoided unless the opposite and contrary Actions be exercised But these Actions do not preserve the Life of Grace properly and of themselves by touching or producing the very effect it self of preservation but improperly and by accident by excluding and removing the cause of destruction Thus we have at large refuted the Authour of the Letter his Second Errour against the Purity of Christian Faith and have fully and clearly proved the Covenant of Grace to be Conditional This we have done first by clear Scripture Secondly by certain and evident Reason grounded upon Scripture Thirdly by Testimonies of Orthodox Divines and First by Testimonies of the Antient Doctors of the Primitive Church Secondly by Testimonies of Divines of the Reformed Churches both at Home and Abroad and particularly by the Testimony of the Divines of the Famous Synod of Dort Whence it is as clear as the Sun that we preach no new Arminian Gospel in this great Point of the Covenant of Grace and consequently that the Authour of the Letter is a false Witness in Matter of Fact who hath proclaimed us to the World to be Preachers of a new Arminian Gospel on the account of our Doctrine in the point of Justification If after all this he should say that though we have proved the Covenant to be conditional and Faith to be the receptive applicative condition of it yet we have not proved that Faith justifies as a Condition We Answer That look by what place of Scripture he shall ever be able to prove that Faith justifies as an Instrument and a hand by the same shall we prove that Faith justifies as a receptive applicative condition For as we said before we take a receptive applicative Condition and a moral foederal instrument to be one and the same thing So did the Westminster Assembly of Divines before us And in this sense which alone is justifiable we hold Faith to be both an Instrument and a Condition with respect to Justification And if that will please our Authour we shall grant him that Faith is a hand and not only a hand but an eye and a mouth too an eye to look unto Christ crucified John 3.14 15. John 6.40 Isa 45.22 And a mouth to eat and drink and feed on his Crucified Flesh and Blood John 6.35 50 51 53 54 55 56 57 58. We shall conclude this Answer with the Testimony of Two Learneder and Wiser Men than our Authour seems to be The first is the Reverend Mr. Lukin a Worthy Judicious Congregational Minister in his Life of Faith printed above Thirty years ago Lukin 's Life of Faith p. 24 25. For the question about the Interest of Faith in our Justification whether it justifie as an Instrument or as a Condition I think saith he it deserves not half the words that have been used about it they are both of them School-terms and not found in the Scripture and should not therefore disturb the peace of the Church especially seeing both Parties at variance are agreed in the thing but not in the formal notion under which they do conceive it and I think both lides are so far agreed that Faith may be called an Instrument allowing much impropriety of speech and that it may be called a Condition while we thereby do not suppose any such thing as merit Thus Mr. Lukin Now we heartily accept of this expedient for the calming of the Tempest which the Letter hath raised We will never desire the Authour to call Faith a meritorious condition for we never called it so our selves if he will grant us that it is but improperly an Instrument of Justification The other is the Learned Turretin that famous Calvinist Professor of Divinity lately at Geneva who writes thus Caeterum non anxiè quaerendum putamus an fides instrumenti notionem induat in hoc negotio c. Turretin Instit part 2. loc 16. quaest 7. p. 737. But we do not think that it is curiously to be enquired after whether Faith put on the nation of an Instrument in this matter of Justification or likewise of a condition as it seems to some men For nothing hinders but both notions may be ascribed to it provided Condition be not taken for that in consideration whereof God justifies Man in the Covenant of Grace after the manner that works were the Condition of Justification in the Legal Covenant For in this sense it cannot be called a condition unless we come over to the Socinians and Arminians who will have Faith or the Act of believing to be accepted by God for perfect Righteousness which we have but now resuted But taking the word Condition in a large sense for all that which is required on our part to obtain that benefit whether it have the notion of a cause properly so called or only of an instrumental Cause for as that Condition hath the relation of an Instrument so that Instrument hath the nature of a Condition on our part without which Justification cannot be obtained Thus Turretin to which we fully agree except that we think he gives too much to Faith in conceiving it to be an instrumental cause of Justification yet since he says that it is no cause properly so called it follows necessarily that it is not properly an instrumental cause and so hath no proper causal influence upon the act of Justification and if so then it is but improperly an instrument as Mr. Lukin saith and so the whole Controversie comes to nothing but a strife about the propriety or impropriety of a word which Turretin plainly saw and therefore confessed that Faith is so an Instrument as to be a Condition and so a Condition as to be an Instrument of Justification And taking the word Instrument in a moral Sense for a means of receiving the benefit of Justification for Christ's sake only we do unfeignedly affirm as Turretin doth that a sincere Faith is both the Instrument and Receptive
Condition of Justification SECT III. Of his Third Errour That there is no Real Change no Holy Disposition or Qualification no Good or Holy thing wrought in or done by Man in order to and before Justification That Faith is not so much as a Qualification of the Person to be justified and that Repentance is not in order before pardon of Sin HIS Third Errour against the Purity of our Christian Faith is That the Lord doth not by preventing Grace prepare dispose and fit his People for their Justification by and for the Righteousness of Christ imputed to them but that his first saving work towards them and upon them is their Justification by Christ's imputed Righteousness Error 3. That this is his Opinion is evident from his own words For in page 9 11 12 15 17 18 25 26 30 31 32. He denyes That there can be any qualification in us that any real change is wrought upon us that any condition is required of us in order to our Justification he will not so much as admit of Repentance as a dispositive Condition in order thereunto and often finds fault with us for holding Faith to be a Qualification or the Condition of Justification though he knew well enough that we hold it to be only the receptive applicative Condition of Christ and his Righteousness in order to our being justified thereby Now that this Opinion is Erroneous and against the purity of our Christian Faith we shall prove 1. By Scripture 2. By Reason agreeable to Scripture 3. By the Testimony of our most Famous Orthodox Protestant Divines But before we come to our Proofs we premise a few things to give light unto what shall follow As 1. That we hold the priority of any preparation disposition qualification or condition before Justification no farther than is necessary to verifie the Expressions of Holy Scripture concerning them 2. We hold that they proceed from the Grace of God 3. That that Grace is from Jesus Christ by the supernatural influences of his Holy Spirit 4. That some of those things whereby the Spirit of Christ prepares and disposes Souls before they be justified are such as by the Constitution and Ordination of God have a necessary infallible connexion with Justification they are dispositions or qualifications sine quibus nunquam cum quibus semper justificamur without which we are never and with which we are always justified of this sort is Effectual Calling and what is commonly called Regeneration or that seminal abiding Principle of Spiritual Life which is communicated unto us in Effectual Calling and the new Birth together with the first vital actings of that Principle in Faith and Repentance That Seminal Principle of Spiritual Life with its first Vital Acts of Faith and Repentance doth according to our Judgment so prepare and dispose and qualifie the Soul for Justification that it is always infallibly connected with them according to the Word and Promise of God and it is never in any case without them and let it be always remembred that in our Opinion Actual Faith qualifies us as a receptive Condition of Christ and his Righteousness But we think also that there are other dispositions antecedent to Justification which have not such a necessary Connexion with Justification and yet they are from God's Spirit too 5. That the said Seminal Principle of Spiritual Life with its first Vital Acts of Faith and Repentance which are in order before Justification and upon which Justification always follows is the first beginning of Holiness and may well be called Initial Sanctification for it is the Holy Thing first begotten in us by God's Word and Spirit it is the first forming of Christ in us and it is the Holy Root or Seed out of which grows our Progressive Sanctification through the Influences and Operations of the Holy Spirit given us after Justification to dwell in us and to abide with us for ever These Things premised we shall prove first by Scripture that it is an Errour to deny that there is any real change in us that there can be any Qualification or Disposition wrought in us by the Grace of Christ antecedently at least in order of Nature to our Justification by the imputed Righteousness of Christ For doth not the Scripture expresly put Effectual Calling before our Justification Rom. 8.30 Whom God called them he also justified Now it is confessed that it is an inward Effectual Calling that is there spoken of and that such a Calling makes a real change in the Persons so called But so it is that this Calling is by the Spirit of God put before Justification Again in Heb. 10.16 17. there we have the Order of God's bestowing on his Select People the Blessings of the New Covenant This is the Covenant that I will make with them after those days saith the Lord I will put my laws into their hearts and in their minds will I write them And their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more Here we see that the Lord according to his Covenant first writes his Laws in the Hearts of his People which cannot be without some real change wrought on them and some Holy Principle put into them Secondly Their Sins and Iniquities he remembers no more and that is he Justifies them for pardon of sin is an essential part of Justification and is put for the whole by a Form of Speech usual enough in the Scriptures of Truth Further our Saviour himself gives us plainly to understand that this is the order of his dispensing his Saving Grace Mark 4.12 Lest at any time they should be converted and their sins should be forgiven them In which Words our Lord plainly intimates that the sins of the unbelieving Jews were not forgiven them that is they were not justified because they were not converted and that whomsoever he pardons and justifies he first converts them And sure Conversion imports a real change and a Principle of Grace and Holiness implanted in the Souls of the Converted This is yet clearer from the Words of our Lord to Paul recorded by Luke Acts 26.17 18. I send thee unto the Gentiles to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness of sins c. By forgiveness of sins is meant Justification because forgiveness of sins is an essential part of Justification before the Gentiles could attain to this Justification consisting in the forgiveness of their sins their eyes were to be opened and they were to be turned from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God Is it not then self-evident that the Gentiles were to be really changed from what they had been in former times and that they must be renewed and become new Creatures before they could obtain the Blessing and Benefit of pardon of sin and Justification It is a wonder to us that any Man should doubt of this Matter who believes
the Scripture and considers the form of Words used there by the Holy Writer which plainly sets forth the Justification of the Gentiles as an End and their Conversion from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God as a Means to attain that End Now the Means is always in execution before the End Consequently Conversion is and must be before Justification And if so then there is a real change in the Soul before Justification the Person to be justified is prepared disposed and qualified by converting Grace in order of nature at least before he be Justified And till he be so changed by converting Grace he is not capable of being Justified according to Gods Order of dispensing Saving Grace unto his People This our Authour saw well enough Lett. pag. 16. when he quoted Gal. 2.16 to prove that a Man is to believe that he may be Justified For that plainly shews that Faith is a Means to obtain Justification and all the World knows that the Means is always first in execution as hath been said before the End be thereby obtained Now we demand if a Man must have Faith before he be Justified must there not be a real change in him must he not be changed from being an Vnbeliever to be a Believer and must he not also be initially sanctified Is not true Faith a Holy Vertue and doth it not denominate the subject of it to be so far holy as he is a true Believer Peter saith that sincere Faith is a pretious thing 2 Pet. 1.1 and Jude v. 20. affirms that our Faith is a most holy faith and it is true both of the object of our Faith the things which we believe and of our Faith it self the Habit and Act whereby we do believe both are holy And how can it be but Faith must be holy since it is one of the fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5.22 And surely nothing but what is holy can be a Fruit of the Holy Spirit From all which we may confidently conclude that something which is holy is wrought in us and by us before we be Justified for it is wrought in us and by us that we may be Justified Thus we learn from Scripture that by preventing converting Grace there is a real change wrought in the Soul before we be Justified that that change is from falsehood to truth from evil to good and that thereby the Person to be Justiâied of an unholy Vnbeliever becomes an holy Believer and so is a Subject capable of being immediately justified by Christs Righteousness imputed to him upon his Conversion and penitent believing And here we might further demonstrate that there are through Grace some holy Dispositions wrought in the Soul before Justification by all those Scriptures that put Repentance before Remission of Sins but this we have done already when we proved sincere Repentance to be a dispositive Condition of Justification Therefore we pass from this First to our Second Head of Arguments Secondly We prove by Reason agreeable to Scripture that it is an Errour to deny that there is any real change that there can be any holy qualification or Disposition wrought in us by the Grace of God antecedently to our Justification Reason 1. First we reason thus Faith is a Condition of Justification as we have proved at large therefore it may well be a qualification of the Person to be justified and we much wonder that our Authour should boldly deny the possibility of any such qualification For it is less to be a Qualification than to be a Condition If then Faith be a Condition it may much more be a Qualification And that for Faith to be a Qualification is less than to be a Condition is hence evident because Faith as the Gift of God without any Act of ours may be a Qualification but to make it a proper Condition it must be our own free Act receiving Christ and his Righteousness though produced by the strength of God's Special Grace Now it is plainly less for us to be the Subjects only passively receiving the Gift of Faith than to be the Agents freely producing the Act and performing the Condition of Faith Although then our Authour might seem to have some Reason to doubt whether Faith be the proper Condition of the Covenant with respect to Justification yet we cannot imagine why be should deny that it can possibly be a Qualification of the Person to be justified for it is very easily conceivable that it may be such a Qualification as it is a Grace given unto and wrought in the Person to be Justified on purpose that he may be thereby qualified for the great and blessed Priviledge of Justification What impossibility is there in all this That God should constitute and ordain that none thould ever be Justified by Christ's Righteousness but those that are so qualified and that Faith shall be the Qualification And then because no Man can by his natural power qualify himself with this Faith that God for Christs sake should by his Spirit give Saving Faith unto all his Select People and special Favourites and thereby qualiâie them for Justification We can see no Shadow of Repugnancy and Impossibility but that God may do this if he please And when he hath done it when he hath qualified a Man with faith he most certainly hath a Qualification for the Benefit of Justification And this is so far from darkning the Glory of God's free Grace in Christ that on the contrary it greatly sets it forth and illustrates it that God will not only freely promise Justification through Christ unto all that are qualified with true faith but that for Christ's sake he freely gives them that faith and doth himself qualifie them therewith The like we say of Repentance it is a Qualification of God's own ordaining and of God's own giving Nor doth Faith and Repentance their being Conditions hinder their being Qualifications for they may be and are both All that we have hitherto ascribed to Repentance in order to Justification is to be a dispositive Condition of the Subject and that is the same thing with a qualifying Condition and a qualifying Condition is a Qualification We have indeed given more to faith for according to the Scripture we have owned it to be the only receptive applicative Condition of Justification which is more than to be either a meer Qualification or a meer Condition for neither is Qualification nor Condition meerly as Qualification and as Condition receptive and applicative of Christ and his Righteousness unto Justification To be so receptive and applicative is not essential to the general notion of a Condition but to the special notion of such a condition And yet this receptive applicative nature of Faith as such a special condition doth not at all hinder it from being a qualification of the Person to be justified For the same Faith in different respects is capable of different Notions Or if any should doubt of that
both they and the Synod which approved their Suffrage and gave them great thanks for it did all of them believe that there is and must be a great and holy change wrought on us and holy Dispositions and Qualifications bestowed on us before we are immediately able and that we may be able to believe and repent and consequently before we are justified Yea our Divines expresly reject it as the first Arminian Error against that part of the third and fourth Articles which relates to Regeneration and Conversion unto God by Faith and Repentance That in Regeneration there are no spiritual Gifts infused into the Wills of Men. Pag. 91. This Arminian Errour they disprove and amongst other Arguments against it Pag. 92. they use this for one As the Will of a meer natural Man is said to be vicious from a certain inbred and inherent wickedness which in a wicked man even when he doth nothing is habitual so again we must acknowledge that in the Will of the regenerate there is a certain Righteousness or Goodness as it is in the Original given and infused by God which is presupposed unto their Religious Actions St. Austin in many places setteth forth this habitual Righteousness or Goodness And Prosper calls this goodness of the Will Prosper de vocat Gentium lib. 1. c. 6. superni agricolae primam plantationem the first planting of the Heavenly Husbandman Now a Plantation Notes something ingrafted in the Soul not an Act or Action flowing from the Soul Thus our Divines at Dort whereby we see that it is a branch of Arminianism to deny that there is any Holy Habit Seed Root or Permanent Principle of Grace or any Spiritual Qualification wrought in the Soul before Justification And we find that long ago Robinson one of the rigidest Seperatists from the Worship and Discipline of the Church of England yet Religiously adhered to her Doctrine in this Point we are upon for thus he writes in Defence of the Doctrine of the Synod at Dort Robinsons Defence of the Doct. of the Synod at Dort p. 109. Pag. 132.133 That a man may have his Sins pardoned who yet wants all brotherly Love and goodness the Scriptures every where deny Mat. 6.14 15. 1 Joh. 3.14 15. Mark 11 24 25. Rom. 8.1 Psal 32.1 2. And afterwards in the same Book By the Word and Spirit saith he God regenerates Men or gives them Faith and Repentance which they must have before they can believe or repent as the Child must have Life before it can live or do Acts of Life and must be generated or begotten before it have Life or Being Regeneration therefore goes before Faith and Repentance Here we see that old rigid zealous Nonconformist held that there must be a real great change made on a Man a Holy Principle must be put into him and Holy Qualifications bestowed upon him before he can believe and repent and consequently before he can be justified Pag. 56. Again before in the same Book he saith expresly that Rom. 8.29 30. Shews plainly that our Predestination or Election goes before our Calling and our Calling before our Justification And in the same Page Gods chusing a Man whether in Decree from Eternity or by Actual and Effectual Calling and calling of him out of the State of Sin by giving him the Spirit of Faith and Grace goes before his believing for he cannot believe before he have Faith nor have it before God give him it but his actual saving by Justification and Glorificaton follows after Faith The same Truth is witnessed unto by Mr. Ball in his Treatise of Faith Part 1. p. 1.36 Every one saith he is not fit to receive the Promise of Mercy the Enemies of the Gospel of Christ Worldlings Hypocrites and all in whom Sin reigneth can have no true Faith in Christ he is only sit to receive Mercy who knows that he is lost in himself and unsatiably desires to be eased of the heavy burden of his Sins Faith is a Work of Grace of the Essicacy of Gods Spirit whereby we answer to the Effectual Call of God and come unto him that we might be partakers of Life Eternal And if saving Effectual Calling be precedent to Faith the subject of living Faith is Man savingly called according to the purpose of Gods Will. We can teach no Faith to Salvation but according to the Rule of Christ Mark 1.15 Repent and Believe the Gospel no Remission but according to the like rule Luke 24.47 Acts 2.37 38. Our last Witness is Mr. Gataker who saith God doth not actually remit or release Sin until he give Grace to repent Gatakers shadows without substance p. 55. which in the Gospel Phrase and Method goes constantly before pardon c. We might easily bring many more of our Reformed Divines to witness unto this Truth but these are sufficient to shew that it is the old Protestant Doctrine generally received in the Reformed Churches that there is and must be a real Holy Change a seminal permanent Principle of Spiritual Life some Holy Dispositions and Qualifications wrought in us by the Spirit of Christ before we are justified by Faith in the Blood of Christ And here by the way we must tell our Author what it may be he doth not know First that if he will believe Bardwardin Let. p. 13. with whom he saith God blessed England against the Pelagians then he will find it to be a Branch of the Pelagian Heresie that there is no Gracious Principle no Holy Disposition or Qualification wrought in us before our Justification For Bradwardin saith so expresly Bradward de causâ dei lib. 1. Cap. 43. p. 397. Asserunt ambae partes residuae opinionis Pelagii remissionem peccati Justificationem injusti praecedere gratiam tempore vel naturâ That is Both the remaining parts of the Opinion of Pelagius assert that Remission of Sin and the Justification of the unjust go before Grace in Time or in Nature Thus Bradwardin and then he falls a Confuting of this Pelagian Opinion by such Arguments as most manifestly shew that by the Word Grace there he meant not the Good-Will Love and Favour of God but the Effect of it upon the Soul even a Gracious Gift communicated unto and a real Holy change wrought in the Soul whereby of ungracious it is made inherently Gracious and of unjust and unholy it is made inwardly Just and Holy This Grace this Gracious change he maintains to be in Order before Remission of Sin and the Denial of this Grace this Gracious change before Remission of Sin he declares to be a Branch of Pelagian Heresie We thought fit to let the World know that what by some is accounted pure Gospel Doctrine now was in former times accounted a part of Pelagius his Opinion and that even by Bradwardin whom our Authour so highly commends Yet at the same time we must declare that we do by no means approve Bradwardins way of Confuting
Definition of Faith as not being really harsh but only harsh-like though he puts Assurance into it as being essential to Faith in its direct Act. So that by comparing one Passage of his Letter with another we find that he believes with Marshal That true Faith in Christ is a Believing at first that we are justified And he believes with us that that is not true but that it is a believing only at first that we may be justified Again he believes with Marshal that justifying Faith in its first direct Act is a Believing that we shall be assuredly saved by Christ And he believes with us that justifying Faith in its first direct Act is no such thing it is not a believing that we shall be saved by Christ but it is a believing that we may be saved by Christ Further he believes with Marshal that Assurance that our Sins are forgiven and that our Souls shall be saved is essential to the first direct Act of justifying Faith And he believes with us that it is quite otherwise and that we do not get such Assurance by the first direct Act of Faith but by its reftex Acts which follow after the direct And then for the Antinomians he believes with them that before Justification there is no real change wrought in the Soul from Ungodliness to Godliness in any Kind or Degree because the Apostle Paul saith in Rom. 4.5 That God justifies the Ungodly And yet he believes with us that before Justification there is a real change wrought in the Soul from Unbelief to Faith in Christ because the same Apostle saith in Gal. 2.16 That we believe in Christ that we may be justified And he cannot deny but that a real change from unbelief to Faith in Christ is a change and a real change too from Ungodliness to Godliness in some kind or degree because he himself holds unbelief to be the chiefest part of Ungodliness and Faith in Christ to be the chiefest part of Godliness witness his own Words Pag. 15 16. That believing on the Lord Jesus for Salvation is more pleasing to God than all obedience to his Law and that unbelief is the most provoking to God and the most damning to Men of all Sins If our Author believe this then by necessary Consequence he believes that unbelief is the chiefest part of ungodliness and that Faith is the chiefest part of Godliness and that a real change from unbelief to Faith in Christ is a real change from Ungodliness to Godliness in some kind and degree The import and issue of this is that our Author believes both parts of a Contradiction With the Antinomians he believes that before Justification there is no real change from Ungodliness to Godliness in any kind or degree And with us he believes that before Justification there is a real change from the Ungodliness of unbelief to the Godliness of Faith because the Sinner through Grace comes off from his Ungodly unbelief that he may believe and he believes that he may be justified and so in order of Nature before he be justified Now since our Author is so strong a Believer that he can believe both parts of a Contradiction why may not we think that as he believes that we preach a new Pelagian Arminian Gospel so he may believe at the same time that we do not preach a new Pelagian Arminian Gospel but the old Everlasting Gospel of Christ He believes in his Letter that we do preach a new Gospel and for ought we know to the contrary he may at the same time believe in his Conscience that we do not preach a new Gospel for his Letter and his Conscience are two different things that may not have much Communion one with another yea in this matter they may be at Hostile Enmity the Letter may be against his Conscience and his Conscience against the Letter But will not the Apostle Paul justifie him in Believing Contradictions since he says in Gal. 2.16 That Men believe in Christ that they may be justified and consequently that Faith is before Justification But in Rom. 4.5 He says that God justifies the Ungodly and by that it seems that Faith is after Justification We Answer far be it from any that fear the Lord to charge the Apostle with contradicting himself or with giving any ground to believe Contradictions for thus he writes to the Corimbians 2 Cor. 1.18 As God is true our Word toward you was not Yea and Nay That is it did not contradict it self And as he did not contradict himself in Preaching and Writing to the Corinthians no more did he do it in Preaching and Writing to the Romans and Galatians We must therefore so understand Rom. 4.5 of which the Question now is as not to make it contradict Gal. 2.16 And that is no difficult matter to do For we may easily conceive that this form of Speech God justifieth the Ungodly is like that of our Saviour Mat. 11.5 The Deaf hear Now no Man is so foolish as to think that the Deaf remaining Deaf did first hear and then immeditely after were cured of their Deasness why then should we be so foolish as to understand the Apostle as if he had said that God justifies men whilest they remain ungodly without any real change wrought in them and that immeditely after he hath justified them he first begins to make them Godly and to sanctifie them We are perswaded it is much more rational to understand the Apostle the quite contrary way to wit that as the Deaf were first in Order of Nature and Causality cured of their Deafness and then they did actually hear so God first Works a Holy change in the Heart of a Sinner and of an ungodly unpenitent Unbeliever makes him a godly penitent Believer and then immediately justifies him by Faith in Christ So that the Sinner whom God justifies he is ungodly Antecedenter fed non Concomitanter that is he was ungodly in the time before he was justified but he is not ungodly either in the instant of Nature before or in the instant of Time when he is justified but on the contrary he is through Grace Godly both before and when he is justified 2dly We Answer that the Man whom God justifies by Faith in Christ is certainly Godly Evangelically both in Order of Nature before he be justified and at the time when be is justified and yet at the same time he may be said to be legally ungodly for understanding this we are to consider that the Man whom God justifies may be compared with and judged by the Law of Works or the Law of Faith if he be compared with and judged by the Law of Works he is found to be in himself an Ungodly Man because he hath not perfectly kept but hath frequently transgressed that Law and so can never be justified but is condemned by it But if he be compared with and judged by the Law of Faith the Evangelical Law the Law of the New
Ministery of the Word in order to the Conversion of Sinners â For as there is no use of the Ministery with respect to the Regenerate but that they may be prepared for and brought unto Glory so there is no use of it with respect to the Unregenerate but that they may be prepared for and brought unto Conversion In his 9th Position he brings two places of Scripture to prove that there are such dispositions previous to Conversion Mark 12.34 Thou art not far from the Kingdom of God Acts 2.37 When they heard this they were pricked in their heart Upon both these places of Scripture he quotes Calvin Observing from them that there are Preparations and Dispositions previous to saving Conversion Let Scholars consult the Author himself and read the whole Disputation if they please What we have transcribed out of it is abundantly sufficient to demonstrate that Ames is on our side and approved the said Doctrine of our Britain Divines in the Synod of Dort 2. Dr. Twiss in his answer to Mr. Hoard his Book called Gods love unto Mankind discoursing there of what our Divines at Dort Twiss against Hoard p. 205. on the Fifth Article said concerning the change which by Gods Word and Spirit is wrought in the minds affections and manners of men even of the Non-elect before Conversion and Justification he says Expresly That the dispositions which God grants unto men before saving Conversion as they are in the Elect they are preparations to further Grace and so in the Reprobate they might be preparations to further Grace if it pleased God so to ordain as to bring them on forward to Justification and true Sanctification conjunct therewith and thereby unto Salvation From which words we observe two things 1 That Dr. Twiss absolutely asserts that the previous Dispositions which God by his Word and Spirit works in the Elect before Conversion and Regeneration are preparations to further Grace 2. As for the like Dispositions wrought by the Word and Spirit in the Reprobate who are never Converted and Regenerated he affirms not that they are de facto but that they might be in them also preparations unto further Grace upon supposition that it pleased God to give them the like special effectual saving Grace which he gives unto the Elect. And afterwards in the same Book he approves what our Divines say on the 3d. and 4th Articles concerning previous dispositions and which we have quoted out of them at large only he saith he doth not sufficiently understand the last Clause of their Argument to prove their third Position Which is That calling by the Word and Spirit cannot be thought to leave men inexcusable which is only exhibited to this end to make them unexcusable Twiss against Hoard p. 218. This is the only thing in that Discourse of theirs concerning previous Dispositions which Dr. Twiss pretends not to understand Yet at the same time he says That he thinks by Gods making men unexcuseable they meant Gods so taking away all excuse from men as that thereby they become faulty and culpable before God for want of a sufficient excuse which he grants to be the ordinary meaning of the word unexcusable and then he adds In this sense I willingly subscribe unto them and therewithall shew what I take to be their meaning namely this that if God making shew that if they believe he will accept them and that they shall be saved did not indeed mean that he would in that case accept and save them then there were no reason why they should be accounted faulty and condemned for not believing Thus says he in a desire exactly to conform my self to the Judgment of these Worthies of our Church made choice of by our Soveraign to be sent in so honourable an Ambassage to countenance that famous Synod of the most Reformed Churches I have made bold to Interpret them and to show my concurrence with them c. By this passage it is evident that he approved all they wrote on that head of dispositions previous to Regeneration For he scrupled only one Clause which he so Interpreted as to remove the ground of the Scruple and then declared his Concurrence with them in that which he took to be the true sense of their words and indeed he needed not to have made any such Scrupulous Objection as he there doth for undoubtedly our Divines used the word unexcusable there in no other sense but what he yields to at last and approves of To wit That that calling by the Word and Spirit cannot be thought to leave men faulty by taking away their excuse which is only designed and exhibited to make them faulty for want of an excuse It appears plainly by the whole Series and Contexture of their discourse that this was the meaning of our most Learned and Judicious Divines and consequently that there is no difference between Twiss and them in this matter Especially it is most evident that Twiss and they exactly agreed that in the Elect the foresaid Dispositions before Conversion are Preparations to further Grace even to the speciall Grace of saving Conversion it self And this is the main thing that we now enquire after to wit Whether there be any preparatory Dispositions in the Elect before Conversion Thirdly Dr. Owen also in his Discourse in Folio concerning the Holy Spirit quotes the Judgment of our Brittain Divines at the Synod of Dort concerning the foresaid dispositions previous to Regeneration Dr. Owens discourse concerning the work of the Holy Spirit Book 3. Cap. 2. Pag. 191 192 193 194 195 196. and approves it and goes the same way that they do in discoursing of them and shewing what they are and how they are wrought First says he in reference unto the work of Regeneration it self positively considered we may observe that ordinarily there are certain previous and preparatory works or workings in and upon the Souls of men that are antecedent and dispositive unto it But yet Regeneration doth not consist in them nor can it be educed out of them This is for the substance of it the Position of the Divines of the Church of England at the Synod of Dort two whereof died Bishops and others of them were dignified in the Hierarchy I mention it that those new Divines by whom these things are despised may a little consider whose ashes they trample on and scorn Then the Dr. tells us 1. That he speaks not of the Regeneration of Infants but of the adult 2. That the dispositions previous to their Regeneration are not formal but material dispositions 3. That some of them are attainable by the power of nature alone such as are outward attendance on the dispensation of the Word and a diligent intension of mind in attending on the means of Grace to understand and receive the things revealed and declared as the mind and will of God and he says that the omitting or neglecting to use this natural ability is the principal occasion and
by the Power of the Word and Spirit of Christ they are Works done by a certain Inferior kind of supernatural Grace of Christ and Inspiration of the Spirit of Christ which is sufficient to elevate and raise the Faculties of a Sinner something above its natural Capacity to the producing of such Actions which though they be not savingly good and so not pleasing to God unto Justification and Salvation yet they are materially good and Relatively good too in Order to the use and end for which God has ordained them that is they are Dispositively good they have from God so much goodness as makes them fit to be a Material Disposition of the Sinner to receive from God that which is in a higher Order of goodness even that which is savingly good and in this respect being good they are so far pleasing to God as they are dispositive unto Regeneration and Conversion Hence it is written Mark 10.21 That Jesus beholding an unconverted man loved him the Man was certainly as yet in an unregenerated unconverted State as appears by the 22 verse and by the following Discourse of our Saviour yet he was something solicitous about his Salvation and had some small weak Disposition towards Conversion which our Saviour observed in him and was pleased with it and loved him under that Consideration as something inclined and disposed towards Conversion now our Saviour as Man and as Mediator was never pleased with any thing but as it was pleasing to God and never loved any Man further than God loved him 3. The Article doth not deny but that the foresaid Works or Actions of unregenerate Men done by the Grace of Christ and Inspiration of his Spirit are by the Ordination and free Constitution of God Preparatory and Dispositive unto the Reception of special saving Grace in Regeneration and Conversion But if it intends them at all it denies that of their own Nature they are meritoriously Dispositive either unto the Grace of Regeneration or Justification for the clearing of this it is to be well considered that before the Reformation there were several numerous Sects of Schoolmen in the Roman Church whereof one to wit the Scotists held that a Sinner by doing what he can as far as his natural Strength will go without any Supernatural Grace from Christ may Merit the first Supernatural Grace with a Merit of Congruity and this same Doctrine was taught at Rome even after the Reformation and Council of Trent and published by Nider in a Book intituled Consolatorium timoratae Conscientiae Printed at Rome in the Year 1604. as is to be seen in the 9. Chap. of the 2d part pag. 57. where he maintains that Facienti quod in se est solis naturae viribus Deus daâ gratiam infallibiliter necessario That unto a Man who doth what he can by the alone Power of Nature God gives Grace infallibly and necessarily âvân as necessarily as the Sun gives Light to all that open their Eyes to receive it But others of the Schoolmen rejected this Opinion of the Scotists as a Semipelagian Error yet even they held that God having freely given to an unconverted Sinner the first supernatural preventing Grace he may thereby so Convert and Turn himself to God as to Merit of Congruity the Grace of the first Justification that is the Infusion of the Habit of justifying or sanctifying Grace Now the 13th Article of the Church of England was levelled against both these Opinions of the Papists especially and expresly against the 1st Works done by the alone Power of Nature cannot make Men meet to receive Grace or they cannot deserve Grace of Congruity because they are done before and without any Grace of Christ and Inspiration of his Spirit and so are not pleasing to God and what is not pleasing to him cannot possibly Merit the Grace of Regeneration or Justification at his Hand 2. Neither the Works done without any Grace of Christ nor the Works done by the help of Christs preventing common Grace before Regeneration make Men meet to receive or of Congruity deserve the Grace of Justification because they do not Spring out of Faith in Jesus Christ but are both of them before it and therefore are not pleasing to God unto Justification and Salvation yet that nothing hinders but the Works which are done by the preventing Grace of Christ before Conversion may by Gods free Ordination be Preparatory and Materially Dispositive unto Conversion and Faith in Christ 4. We willingly grant what the Article saith That Works done before Regeneration and Conversion have the Nature of Sin because they are not done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done that is they are not so circumstantiated as God requires good Works to be Yet it doth not follow that such of them as are done by the help of preventing Grace are Sin and nothing but Sin as our Author would make People believe for it is one thing for a Work to have the Nature of Sin cleaving to it and it is another thing to be Sin and nothing but Sin the Works of which we now speak certainly have the Nature of Sin cleaving to them as they proceed from an unregenerate Man whose Heart is not yet renewed and who is not endued with a saving Faith and as they are not directed by him to the Glory of God as the best and highest end and yet it is so far from being true that they are Sin in the abstrect and nothing but Sin that on the contrary they are Materially and Substantially good as they are commanded by God and as they proceed from the preventing exciting Grace of Christs Spirit causing a Man to do them in Obedience to Gods command and likewise they are Relatively and Dispositively good as they are ordered by God to be a means of preparing and disposing Man for the saving Grace of Regeneration and Conversion Hence Dr. Owen in the Book aforesaid Pag. 196. saith That they are good in themselves and Fruits of the kindness of God towards us And Pag. 198. He saith That in their own Nature they have a tendency unto sincere Conversion And Pag. 167. He saith that the Spirit of Grace ordinarily giveth not out his Aids and Assistances any where but where he preparen the Soul with Diligence in Duty Thus Dr. Owen whereby it manifestly appears that he was far from thinking that all a Man can do before he have the Spirit of God dwelling in him and in Order to a Holy change first in his Heart and then in his Life is both vain labour and an Acting of Sin And as far was Dr. Twiss from any such thought for thus he writes in the Book mentioned before Answer to the Doctrine of the Synod of Dort and Arles reduced to Practice p. 106. There is a legal Repentance and there is an Evangelical Repentance And that legal Repentance may be unto Desperation as Judas his Repentance was Again that legal Repentance may be a
But after all this anger on both sides there may be some hope that the Children of those Fathers and our Author may be reconciled in time if the old Axiom be true that Quae sunt eadem in tertio sunt eadem inter se They who agree in a Third agree between themselves or one with another But so it is that they agree in a third to wit in Bradwardin For certain Papists agree with Bradwardin in the matter of Justification and they will have good hope that our Author will do so too when they consider that in the 13th page of his Letter he saith That God gave Bradwardin for a Blessing to England For since he believes that Bradwardin was a Blessing to England the Papists cannot but hope that he will be of Bradwardins mind in the important point of Justification and if the World would know of what mind Bradwardin was in that matter they may see it in his Book pag. 406 Consiteor Deum meum sicut aeternaliter gratuitô me dilexit aeternaliter gratiam Justificatricem tempore placito coram eo mihi gratis conferre disposuit sic tempore placito veniente gratis insundere gratiam Justificatem mihi injusto justificare me gratis lavare injustitias meas gratis suscitare sanare me gratis debitum poenae aeternae dimittere mihi gratis atque in poenam temporalem vertere ipsam gratis c. I confess that my God as from eternity he freely loved me and likewise from eternity purposed freely to give me justifying Grace in such time as seemed good in his sight so when the time appointed comes doth freely infuse justifying Grace into me an unjust man that he doth justifie me freely wash away my unrighteousness freely raise up and heal me freely that he doth freely forgive me the debt of eternal punishment and freely change it into temporal punishment c. And Pag. 416. Nec etiam peccator peccato dimisso statim habet reformatione plenariam status sui sicut evidenter sequitur ex predictis adhuc enim remanet debitor poenae satisfactionis debitae pro peccato Nor when sin is forgiven hath the Sinner immediately a full reformation or change of the state of his Soul as it evidently follows from what hath been said before for he yet remains a debtor of punistment or bound to suffer punishment and to make the satisfaction which he ows for his sin Thus Bradwardin he speaks the true Language of the Beast and makes Justification to be by inherent Righteousness and the pardon of the eternal punishment of sin with a reservation of the temporal punishment to be yet suffered and of satisfaction to be made by our selves either in this life or in Purgatory after this life In all which there is a perfect agreement between him and the Council of Trent And let no man think that he must needs differ from the Council of Trent because he speaks so much of Gods freely justifying the unrighteous for it is the first Justification that he so speaks of and the Council of Trent speaks the self-same Language witness their own formal express words in the Eight Chapter of the Sixth Session Concil Trident Ses 6. Cap. 8. Perpetuus Ecclesiae Catholicae consensus tenuit ut c. The perpetual consent of the Catholick Church hath always held that we are therefore said to be justified freely because none of those things which go before Justification whether Faith or Works do merit the Grace of Justification for if it be of Grace then it is not of Works otherwise as the same Apostle saith Grace is no more Grace Rom. 11.6 Thus the Council of Trent Whereby it is evident that they and Bradwardin are agreed as to the freeness of Justification and it is as evident from the Canons that they are agreed about the formal nature of Justification wherein it consists And as the Papists that keep close to the Council of Trent are agreed with Bradwardin in the fundamental point of Justification against the Pelagians so they are not without ground of hope that our Author will agree also if he do not already agree with the profound Bradwardin in that fundamental point of Justification against the Pelagians because he hath publickly confessed it in the 13th Page of his Letter that God gave Bradwardin to be a Blessing unto England surely then will they say among themselves this Minister will not differ from Bradwardin in so important a point of Religion for fear he should prove a Curse unto England It is not impossible nor it may be improbable but Papists who consider of the matter may thus reason themselves into the hopes of a Proselyte to their Religion Therefore we will endeavour to frustrate their hopes and to prevent our Brothers being drawn over to them by means of his admired Bradwardin and this we shall do by giving him a further account of the Principles and Practices of that profound Doctor Thus then he writes in 61 page of his Book called The Cause of God Nos Imagines Christi Dei Trinitatis Angelorum Sanctorum hominum Adoramus We worship the Images of Christ of God of the Trinity of Angels and Holy Men. Again in the same page Nos Deum propter se Sanctos Angelos ejus Homines ipsorum Imagines adoramus finaliter propter Deum We worship God for his own sake and we worship his holy Angels and Men finally for Gods sake This Bradwardin confesseth to have been the Principle and Practice of himself and his Church And in the same page he very kindly makes an Apology for the Heathen and excuses them from the guilt of damnable Idolatry upon the same principle For says he it is probable they had some knowledge of the true God and him they worshipped for his own sake sub nomine tamen Idolo Dei Jovis yet under the name and Idol or Image of the God Jupiter Et nihilominus praeter ipsum c. And yet besides him they worshipped some other Idols dedicated unto Holy Angels unto Men and Demons and in them and by them they finally worshipped God That is the Pagans worshipped God for himself but they worshipped Idols and Devils for Gods sake just as the Papists worship Saints and Angels and that excused them from the guilt of damnable Idolatry as it doth the Church of Rome and they therein found acceptance with God For they knew no better and did as well as they could Therefore Deus ista piè discretè respiciens ignorantiae simplicitati eorum pepercit sinceram verô dilectionem sanctam intentionem benevolam voluntatem acceptavit Hoc autem consonum videtur rationi non enim videtur quod justissimus atque piissimus plus requirat ab homine quam accepit quam sit in hominis potestate imò quod illud acceptet si intentione debitâ offeratur God considering these things mercifully and discreetly spared their ignorance and simplicity but he accepted
Heresies This we find in the full Narrative of the Proceedings of the Synod of Glasgow Recorded by Dr. Spang in his History of the Commotions and Wars in the Kingdom of Scotland in the Years 1638 1639 and 1640. And by this Passage we learn that Mr. Henderson and the General Assembly of Glasgow were of another Spirit and Temper than our Author is they would not nor could in Conscience say that Arminianism keeping within the Compass of the five Articles was concerning Fundamental Doctrines or that the Arminian Errors were Heresies But he presumes to be now wiser than Mr. Henderson and a whole General Assembly of the Scottish Church for he sees and says that Arminianism is a new Gospel Yea he is so illuminated of late that he can see and confidently say that less Errors than the Arminian even the pretended Errors of the Middle-way-men are a new Gospel or inconsistent with and destructive of the main Points of the old and true Gospel of Christ Here we must warn our Author and those of his Way to beware that from our alledging the Testimony of the Synod of Glasgow concerning the Arminian Errors they do not increase their Jealousie of us as if we thereby shewed our love to and liking of Arminianism for we sincerely profess that though we have a real Love and Respect for the Persons of some Arminians whom we know yet we have none at all for their Errors but we do really hate their Errors and all Errors wherever we discern them and if we could discern any in our selves there we should hate them most of all and renounce them with abhorrency But though we ought to hate and be zealous against all Error wheresoever and in whomsoever yet we should do it with Judgment and Understanding and our hatred of and zeal against Errors should bear a due Proportion to the real Greatness or Comparative Smalness of them for if we do otherwise and make no difference between Errors and Errors but judge all to be alike fundamental and damnable the natural Consequence thereof will be this that as soon as ever we apprehend right or wrong that any Christian Brethren are fallen into an Error we shall immediately damn their Persons and separate our selves from their Society which we take to be against the Rules of Christianity and highly prejudicial to the common good of Christs Church and to the particular good of our own Souls Wherefore as we have warned so we advise our Author when at any time he apprehends any Brethren to be in an Error that he would not presently cry These men have got a new Gospel Away with them Anathema to them that is let the curse of God be upon them but rather take time to consider whether it be really an Error and if it be whether it be a Fundamental Error and inconsistent with their glorifying God on Earth and obtaining Salvation in Heaven And if after he hath used the best means he can to inform himself he cannot but think that it is such a great and damnable Heresie let him think also whether he had not better endeavour to reclaim them by instructing them in meekness and love than presently to proclaim them to be cursed and damned Hereticks And lastly if after he hath conversed with them heard them speak for themselves and found it may be that they have Arguments for their Opinion from Scripture and Reason which he cannot easily and clearly Answer it may not be amiss for him to abate his Confidence and to think soberly with himself that the Errors of these men may not be so great and damnable as he thought nor the men themselves so bad as he took them to be but that for ought he knows to the contrary they may be good People in the main and such as Christ himself will own notwithstanding all their involuntary Errors for true living Members of that Mystical Body whereof he is the Head and Saviour As for our Authors alledging that Bradwardin Twiss and Ames are against us because they are against Pelagius and Arminius it implies the foresaid Calumny and false Accusation that we are Pelagians and Arminians and is grounded upon it otherwise it is impertinent for if we be as we are against Pelagius and Arminius as well as they it makes nothing against but for us that they are against them likewise Yet we must tell our Author what it may be he doth not know that Bradwardin and the Arminians agree in several of their Errors wherein we differ from and oppose them both for instance Bradwardin holds that Christ died for and redeemed not only Sufficiently and Efficaciously also many of the Reprobate so that in the Visible Church many of them are through Christ made Effectually Partakers of Regenerating Justifying and Sanctifying Grace for a time insomuch that quoad statum praesentis Justitiae in respect of the present state of Justification wherein they are there is no intrinsecal difference between them and the regenerate justifyed Elect but they always fall from that State of Grace or Justification totally and finally and are damned Eternally The necessary Consequence whereof is that none of the Regenerate Justified Elect can be absolutely sure without a Miracle or extraordinary immediate Revelation that they shall not fall from Grace totally and finally and be damned too For though they be never so sure that there is a Holy change wrought in them and that they are converted and justified and in a State of Grace for the present yet they can conclude nothing from that with an absolute Certainty that they are elected and shall persevere to the end and be saved because all that Grace that they have for the present is of the same common Nature with that Grace which is in many Reprobates and so the one may be finally lost for ought they can know to the contrary as well as the other Thus Bradwardin by holding the actual Justification and Sanctification of Reprobates subverts the Doctrine of the Saints total and final Perseverance in Grace and Assurance of Salvation as shall be proved from his own Words if our Author have the boldness to deny the matter of Fact And now let him go and make his best of Bradwardin and tell the People what an Orthodox Defender of the Grace of God he hath got for his second against us whom he hath highly provoked to the Combat and necessitated to take Arms for our own Defence For as Ruffinus said of old Christianus non est qui notam Haereseos dissimulat He is no good Christian who suffers the black Mark of Heresie to be set upon himself and does not endeavour to wipe it off and clear himself of it But now at last it is like our Author will say that if we are neither Pelagians nor Arminians yet we can never clear our selves of being Middle-way-men and that here he hath us and will hold us and we shall never escape his Inquisition Whereunto we Answer
Divines But cui bono to what good end and purpose did it serve to tell simple injudicious people that there are so many differences amongst Protestant Divines about Justification Whatever our Author may think of it others cannot but judge that this course tends rather to confound distract and unsettle injudicious people than to edify and stablish them in the Faith For it is not probable that there are many so very injudicious as to believe that he can lay the Spirits again which he hath raised we mean that he can infalliblydecide the Controversies which he hath brought upon the Stage before the People and so quiet the minds of those whom he hath perplexed and discomposed To us he seems not altogether so well qualified for deciding of Controversies and quieting peoples minds as for throwing dirt on his Brethren and calumniating them to the People as if they differed not from the Papists in holding Christs Righteousness to be the meritorious cause of Justification which if it be not a lye we are sure it is a swinging falsehood and a very great mistake Third Calumny HIS Third Calumny is to be seen in the 8th and 9th Pages of the Letter and it is That we deny the Headship of Christ and not only deny his Suretiship his being the Second Adam and a publick Person but also treat these things with contempt All which is utterly false and on the contrary we declare that with all our hearts we own Christs Headship and Suretiship his being the Second Adam and a Publick Person For his Headship we believe according to the Seventh Canon of the Synod of Dort on the first head of Doctrine concerning Divine Predestination Tâat Deus Christum ab reterno Mediatorem omnium Electorum caput salutisque fundamentum constituit God from eternity ordained Christ to be the Mediator and Head of all the Elect and the foundation of Salvation We believe also according to the Suffrage of our Brittain Divines read in and approved by the same Synod That Christ is the head and foundation of the Elect so that all saving Graces prepared in the Decree of Election are bestowed upon the Elect only for Christ and through Christ English Translation of the Suffrage p. 5 6. This was their Position upon which they say That God in the eternal Election of particular Men by one and the self same Act doth both assign Christ to be a head to them and also doth appoint them according to his good pleasure to be the Members of Christ to wit in time when they believed For his Suretiship doth this man think that he can make the simple People believe that we are so impious as to deny it and treat it with contempt when as the Apostle saith expresly that Jesus was made a Surety of a better Testament Heb. 7.22 But it may be our Author means that some of us deny the Aminomian notion of a Surety and treat their notion with contempt and indeed that may be but what then Doth it follow that therefore we deny Christs real and true Suretiship which God hath revealed in his Word for our Faith and Comfort Before that consequence be admitted our Author must prove that the Antinomian notion is the real true Scripture-notion of Christs Suretiship which we do indeed deny and contemn as a very false unscriptural notion and challenge him to prove it by Scripture As for Christs being the Second Adam it is an abominable falshood that we deny it or treat it with contempt so far are we from so doing that on the contrary we do most firmly believe it and openly confess that as the First Adam was the cause of Sin and Death unto all who in the ordinary way of human Generation partake of the natural Bitth so Christ as the Second Adam is the cause of Righteousness and Life unto all who by Divine Regeneration partake of the Spiritual Birth But as no man suffers any actual prejudice by the first Adam before he be naturally begotten and generated so no man actually receives in himself any saving benefit from Christ as the Second Adam before he be Spiritually begotten and regenerated our meaning is that no man actually receives from Christ before the time of his Spiritual Regeneration any benefit that hath a necessary and infallible connexion with Salvation by the Constitution and Ordination of God Lastly That we deny and contemn Christs being a Publick Person is false So far are we from that That on the contrary we sincerely declare to all the World that we most firmly and stedfastly believe that Christ is a Publick Person that he is the publick Prophet Priest and King of the whole Catholick Church and that it is his proper incommunicable Glory to be such a publick Person Fourth Calumny HIS Fourth Calumny is that we teach such Doctrine in the point of Justification as neither we our selves nor any other sensible man dare stand to at Death This is to be seen in the 18th and 19th pages of his Letter If this were true we confess it might justly prejudice People against our Doctrine and give them and our selves too cause enough to suspect it to be false But this is like the rest utterly false and contrary to Experience For our Doctrine is as we have said often that Christs most perfect satisfactory Meritorious Righteousness is to us and all that are saved instead of that perfect sinless Righteousness which we ought to have had in our selves but since the fall neither have nor can have and that by and for the said Righteousness of Christ alone we are justified from the guilt of all our sins of Omission and Commission Original and Actual and are accepted as Righteous before God and receive a Right and Title to Eternal Life This is the only Righteousness which we crust to as the cause of our Justification this Righteousness we hold to be given unto us if through Grace we sincerely believe in Christ and repent of our sins and that on the account of this Righteousness we shall obtain eternal Life and Salvation if through Grace we persevere to the end in Faith and Repentance and in leading a holy Life as was before explained But on the contrary we maintain that the forsaid Righteousness of Christ is not given to any for their actual Justification before they first through Grace sincerely believe and repent and that none shall obtain eternal Life and Salvation on the account of Christs Righteousness but those who after they have first believed and repented do not Apostatize either totally or finally but in opposition to such Apostacy persevere in Faith repentance and holy Gospel-obedience unto Death This is the summ and substance of our whole Doctrine in the point of Justification Now why we or any sincere Christan should be afraid to stand to this Doctrine at the hour of death and in the day of Judgment it is above our Capacity to understand for this is the Doctrine which
Souls is and through Grace shall be our fervent and frequent Prayer unto him that is able to do for us exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think Ephes 3.20 21. unto whom be Glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all Ages World without end Amen The INDEX THE INTRODUCTION No just cause appears for raising such a clamour against the Subscribers The Test proposed by our Accuser out of the Assemblies Confession of Faith and Catechisme accepted by us who are ready to subscribe to it in the Assemblies own sense page 1. to 8. CHAP. I. Concerning the Occasion and Design of the Letter Some remarks on it page 8. to 18. CHAP. II. Of the Authours Errors in Doctrine against the Purity of our Christian Faith SECT I. Of his first Errour That there is no new Law of Grace The Controversie stated p. 20 21. The Affirmative proved by Scripture and by Testimonies of Ancient Fathers and Modern Divines p. 22 to 33. SECT II. Of his second Errour That the Covenant of Grace is Absolute and not Conditional 1. It is shewed in what sense we hold it not to be and in what sense to be Conditional p. 34 to 49. 2. With respect to Justification and Glorification it is proved to be conditional That Faith and Repentance with respect to Justification and sincere Obedience with respect to Glorification are conditions in the sense there declared proved 1. By Scripture 2. by Reason agreeable to Scripture 3. By Testimonies of Ancient Fathers and many Modern Divines p. 49 to 120. SECT III. Of his Third Errour that there is no real Change no Holy Disposition or Qualification no good or Holy thing wrought in or done by Man in order to and before Justification c. The question stated p. 120. The contrary Truth proved by Scripture and Reason agreeable to Scripture and by the Testimony of Protestant Divines especially of the Synod of Dort and objections an swered p. 120 to 145. An Appendix of the Third Section concerning Dispositions previous to Regeneration and Conversion Shewed what they ordinarily are p. 146. What our Opinion is concerning them p. 146 147. That our Opinion is neither new nor singular proved by Testimonies of Famous Protestant Divines p. 148 to 156. Objections answered p. 156 to 162. Bradwardin for Justification by inherent Righteousness and Humane Satisfaction some further account of his Principles and Practices p. 163 to 165. More Testimonies of Mr. Dickson Claude Charnock Turretin c. for previous Dispositions p. 165 to 168. CHAP. III. Of his Ridiculous way of Converting an Vnbeliever p. 168 to 183. CHAP. IV. Of the Calumnies wherewith he asperses Christ's Ministers and particularly of the middle way Shewed that we are neither Pelagians nor Arminians in whole or in part p. 184 to 190. That called the middle way stated and shewed not to be a new Gospel but the Opinion of Calvin and others of our Reformers p. 191 192. The Calumny relating to Justification refuted p. 193 to 195. As also p. 37 to 40 and 42 to 45. Other Calumnies refuted p. 195 to 204. CHAP. V. People are advised to try before they trust and not suffer themselves to be imposed upon and led into Errour by the bold unproved Assertions and Dictates of any Preachers or Writers whatsoever p. 204 to the end The Errata of the Press thus to be Corrected TItle Page for nostraas read nostras Preface page 3 line 2 read Rule Book p. 1. l. 2. f. flesh r. flesh p. 1. l. 10. after battle add p. 14. l. 1. for the that r. that the. p. 23 l. 36 f. perfect of r. perfect or l. 8. r. virtual p. 25 l. 2 r. pius p. 51 l. 31 r. it is a condition p. 52 l. 47 r. goeth on p. 55 l. 33 f. of them r. on them p. 63 l. 43 f. or r. of p. 67 l. 10. f. atr r. act p. 80. l. 24 f. inward applicative r. inward applicative without a Comma p. 85. lin 40. f. he an r. he is an l. 41. blot out is p. 88 at the end blot out the last word this p. 105. l. 34. r. Receive it p. 110. l. 3. after emendationem for a point put a Comma In the same line after life put a p. 115. l. 48. r. prove that no man without a p. 128. l. 32 f. he r. it and l. 33 r. penitent p. 138 l. 6 f. make r. made p. 147 l. 30. f. discourse r. discourse p. 149. l. 17 f. Ecclesiastical r. Scholastical p. 162 l. 54 f. they who r. those which p. 163 l. 20 r. Reformationem and f. predictis r. praedictis l. 23 r. punishment p. 183. l. 40 f. oar r. our p. 186. l. 30. f. in all Ages might r. in all Ages might without a Comma p. 186 l. 18 19 f. chap. 28 r. chap. 30. and l. 24. f. infer for what r. infer what p. 189 l. 46 f. and efficaciously r. But efficaciously p. 194. l. 40 and 41 r. Justification p. 198 l. 38 f. doath r. death p. 201 l. 42. r. merits of p. 202. l. 50 f. Relation r. Revelation What other Faults the Reader may find he is desired to Correct or Excuse them Advertisement A Brief Review of Mr. Davis's Vindication By Giles Firmin one of the United Brethren Printed by John Lawrence at the Angel in the Poultrey 1693. The Introduction HOly David the man after Gods own heart said of old My flesh trembleth for fear of thee Ps 119.120 and I am afraid of thy judgments We would it were thus with all that pretend to any seriousness in the Profession of the Protestant Religion at this day But alas where are such to be found where are they that are affected with the fear of God as David was and that are duly apprehensive of the Judgments of God which are actually upon and seem to be yet further coming upon the Reformed Churches Is it not visible that all sorts of men turn to their several courses of sin as the Horse rusheth into the battle They run on in the ways of their own hearts blindly and boldly without considering or fearing the issue And who can wonder that those who have hardned their hearts from Gods fear should boldly venture upon sin especially if they have got a strong but false perswasion that they are The Temple of the Lord the true the best and purest Church upon Earth most highly in favour with God and that their sins are the spots of Gods children which do not hurt them and are well consistent with his highest Love and Favour The Scriptures of truth assure us that when once Professors of Religion have brought themselves to this then they can securely lean upon the Lord and say is not the Lord amongst us none evil can come upon us Though at the same time the Lord saith that Sion for your sakes shall be plowed as a field and Jerusalem shall become heaps Mic. 3.11 12. We wish it be
requisite that in the Justification of a Sinner contrition be present and that necessarily charity and vertuous life must follow yet doth the Scripture attribute onely remission of sin unto the mercy of God which is given onely for the Merits of Christ and received solely by Faith Paul doth not exclude those vertues to be present but he excludeth the merits of those vertues and deriveth the cause of our acceptation into the grace of God onely for Christ. If we could all be so wise and humble as to learn of that holy Man and to follow him as he learned of and followed Christ and his Apostles we might yet defeat Satan as to the foresaid Plot that he is carrying on to ruine us But alas it grieves us to the heart that some Ministers by not watching against that most subtile malicious enemy of God and Man have suffered themselves to be imposed upon so far as to turn ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Accusers of the Brethren who stand up for God and Man in opposition to Satan and faithfully tell the People that they must through Grace truly repent of their sins in order to obtain the pardon of them And particularly we are truly sorry that the Authour of the Letter from a Minister in the City c. should have medled in this matter and that he should become Accuser of the Brethren especially of those pious Young Men who gave themselves up to the work of the Ministry in difficult and dangerous times without any visible encouragement thereunto from any thing in this World and also against groat visible discouragements both from the World and the Devil What have those Younger Brethren done to provoke this Brother who is himself also one of the younger sort to become their Accuser Some of us who are Older than they have known several of them these many years and yet never knew any evil by them nor heard any evil of them Since we first knew them it hath to us looked like a Token for good to his People in this Nation that the Lord hath raised up so many young men and hath spirited and to such a degree gifted them for the Ministry under such discouraging circumstances But now after all that God hath done for and by those Brethren notwithstanding the presence of God with them and the blessing of God upon their Labours up starts one who calls himself a Minister in the City and accuses them of being Corrupters of the pure Gospel of Christ of new vamping an Arminian Gospel and obtruding it on the People Let. pag. 10. to the certain peril of their Souls that believe it Yea he raiseth the Charge higher in pag. 13. and saith That Judicious Observers cannot but already perceive a coincidency between their cause and that of those two Pests of the Church Pelagius and Arminius and do fear more when c Here is an high Charge indeed but where is there any evidence for all this One would think that no Man who pretends such relation unto Christ and such seriousness in Christian Religion as this Man doth should dare thus to accuse his Brethren and fellow-Ministers of such horrid Crimes without clear and certain evidence whereby he can prove them guilty For if Men be suffered to accuse one another of atrocious Crimes without being obliged to prove their accusation no Man will be able to preserve his Good Name nor will it be possible for Men to live peaceably together in any Society Civil or Religious This Brother therefore ought to have been made to prove his accusation that the Churches might have been delivered from those young Hereticks if he had proved them to be such Or if he had failed in his proof that the Churches might know what spirit he is of who hath kindled a Fire in the Church by traducing the Ministers of Christ and falsely accusing them of Heresie But some may possibly say Hath he not by his printed Letter proved them guilty of Arminian and Pelagian Heresie To which we answer that no Man of Judgment who reads it can see any such proof in it nor indeed see just cause to harbour any such Thought of them if he but know the Men accused have heard their Doctrine and seen their manner of life and if withal he understand what Pelagianism and Arminianism are It is true he boldly accuses them of Arminianism and Pelagianism and of preaching a new Gospel and to make the simple People believe that his accusation is well grounded he saies that Judicious Observers perceive their cause to be coincident with that of Pelagius c. That they are reserved and do not yet speak out upon such and such points and that they hold such things as are utterly inconsistent with the Freeness of Gods Grace in Justifying Sinners by the Satisfaction and Merits of Christs Blood These things are often affirmed or insinuated throughout the Letter but none of them proved A Monster or a Man of Straw of his own making is set up to represent the Brethren and then he calls upon the People to come and see with what a Spirit of Zeal he hews it all in pieces This is a way of writing that is taking with weak well-meaning People Let. p. 14 15 30. and his holding Repentance not to be necessary in order to the obtaining pardon of sin may be pleasing to Satan and very taking with Hypocrites but no body of Judgment and Understanding can ever think that this is the way to prove the foresaid Accusation in matter of fact For our parts we have diligently considered every Paragraph of his Letter and in it all cannot find one proof of the said Accusation And after all we believe in our consciences that the Brethren accused are innocent of the Crime he lays to their charge Indeed we know assuredly that several of them are innocent thereof and till the contrary be proved and appear we must think so of them all We would have all Men to do so by us in case we were falsely accused and it is but just and reasonable that we do as we would be done by If we should happen to be mistaken as to any of the Brethren whose cause we plead we err on the safer side 1 Cor. 13.5 for charity thinketh no evil True Love will not suffer a Christian heart to entertain a deliberate Thought of his Brother that he is an ill Man or an Heretick without sufficient evidence that he is so We have met with no such evidence either in the aforesaid Letter or any where else and therefore we must still think that the accused Brethren are innocent of the Crime they are charged with and that the Accuser of them if he be a good man yet hath done a very ill thing in standering the Lords Ministers and we heartily pray God to give him repentance and forgiveness for Christs sake And that the World may see and that this Brother himself may see how rash and
the said Nethenus in the publishing of that Book of Rutherford And though he hath lately gone off from his Principles and we think from some Principles contained in that Book both as to Doctrine and Discipline yet we do not believe that he will even acknowledge that he hath changed his Godliness with his Principles and that as he hath got new Principles so he hath a new Godliness and that he never had any before If we should be mistaken in this our charitable opinion of him we should be sorry for him and could not but fear that he is in as bad a case as he fancies the middle-way Men to be in who usually have a greater kindness he says for that extream they go half way to Let. pag. 2. than for that they go half way from For if he should be found to have made such a Profession that his Godliness begun with the Faith of his new Principles he is not onely gone the half but we think the whole way to the extreme And that if it should be so will help us to account for his being so unmerciful in his censures and accusations of us who had rather stop in the mid-way than to run with him into such extremes This puts us in mind of a passage in Mr. Patrick Hamilton's little Treatise in the Book of Martyrs Vol. II. pag. 188. Col. 2. to which the Letter refers us Pag. 4. and which we have read upon our Authours recommendation The passage is this Evil Works make not a Man evil We hope our Authour would not have us to understand these words just as they sound without interpretation or distinction We honour the Memory of that blessed Martyr of Christ and are willing to understand his words just as he meant them and as they are consistent with the Truth of God and that is thus Evil works do not make a Man first evil because we are all evil by participation of the sin of our first Parents from our Conception and Birth Psal 51.5 John 3.6 Eph. 2.3 But for all that we know very well that in another sense evil works do really make a Man evil they make him gradually evil that is they make him worse than he was If our Authour do not see the Truth of this at a distance let him bring it home to himself and then we dare say he will see the Truth of what we affirm That evil works will make a Man evil that is worse than he was For if not then 1. it must be either because he is so very bad already that he cannot possibly be worse and this we hope our Authour will confess not to be true of himself or else 2 it must be because he is already so very good that let him do never so many evil works they cannot make him evil that is they cannot make him worse than he was before he did them Now we cannot think that he hath such an Opinion of himself If we knew that he had we should look upon him as a very dangerous Man to have any thing to do with for he might do us all the mischief he could by lying and slandering or otherwise and yet be perswaded in his own mind that he was never a whit the worse for so doing He and we both profess to believe that all Gods Regenerate Justified people are kept by the power of God through Faith unto Salvation so as that they do not fall from Grace either totally or finally But we must profess for our selves that it is none of our faith that the Saints on Earth are already so confirmed in Goodness that they cannot sin at all or if they do sin as alas too sadly they have done and frequently do that their sins do not make them evil in any degree nor in the least worse than they were before they sinned And we hope our Authour is not so far gone but that he will yet join with us in this profession For by this time we think he may see if he did not before the certain and evident truth of what we affirm that evil works will make a Man evil that is if he be evil already they will make him more evil and if he be good already they will make him less good and to be less good than he should be is to be in some degree evil See the XVIth Article of the Church of England which our Authour and we have all subscribed as also the IIth Article of the Ausburg Confession of Faith and by both it will manifestly appear that our first Reformers even the Lutherans by whom Mr. Hamilton through the Grace of God was fully converted from popery and from whom he had that passage that evil works do not make a Man evil never thought that a good Man cannot do any evil works or that if any Man good or evil do evil Works they will not make him evil that is worse than he was before he did them In all this we do not in the least contradict the true sense of the blessed Martyr Mr. Hamilton but explain his Words and give the true sense of them as will appear to any Man of Judgment that will be at the pains to read attentively what he says before and after the Words we are upon We should not have mentioned this but that we are afraid lest ignorant injudicious people unto whom our Authour recommends that little Treatise of Mr. Hamiltons should wrest the Words of a Holy Martyr to countenance and encourage Libertinism 2 Pet. 3.16 as they do wrest the sacred Words of the most Holy God himself unto their own destruction We do not by this reflect in the least upon the said Martyr of Blessed Memory but rather endeavour as we are bound to secure his good Name from any Reproach which the Enemies of our Religion might possibly cast upon it from a wrong and wrested sense of his Words as they are alwayes ready to do This we have here provided against by giving the true sense of his Words which being rightly understood have nothing harsh in them at all but otherwise taken just according to the sound of the Letter they carry a very scandalous meaning which we dare say the Holy Martyr never thought of We do not doubt therefore but our Authour will confess that we have done right to the Martyr and have rightly interpreted his saying which he learned of Luther But if we happen to be mistaken as to our Authour and he will not admit this sense we have given of the foresaid words then he cannot be justly offended if this be given as his Character the Authour of the Letter is one who holds that no Man can make himself evil by doing evil that is he holds that no Man by doing all the evil and mischief that he is able to do can make himself in the least degree worse than he was And then let the World Judge how well he hath cleared himself of the
suspicion of Antinomianism which he had brought upon himself But we are really perswaded better things of our Authour though we thus write upon a supposition which we hope he will never admit but rather than admit such a supposition with its necessary consequence he will join with us and say that Luther and Mr. Hamilton meant no more but that evil works do not first make a Man evil because ever since the first Sin of Adam and Eve all meer Men besides them two are evil by Original sin before they commit any Actual Sin Thus much shall suffice to have said of the Occasion and Design of the Letter CHAP. II. Of the Authours Errours in Doctrine against the Purity of our Christian Faith SECTION I. Of his First Errour That there is no New Law of Grace THE First Error against our Christian Faith which we find in the Letter is that there is no new Law of Grace according to which the Lord dispenseth unto his People the Benefits and Blessings of Justification and Eternal Savlation That we do not wrong him in charging him with this erroneous Opinion is evident from his Letter pag. 9 18 29. and pag. 30 31. Where he saith that Justification upon the terms of the new Law of Grace doth not agree with the sound Words of the Reverend Assembly of Divines at Westminster and that the new Law of Grace is a new word but of an old and ill meaning Thus he And this the people must believe upon his bare word without any proof Now to refute this we need do no more but refer them that desire to know who is in the right as to this matter unto Mr. Williams defence of Gospel truth from pag. 18 to 34. where it is sufficiently proved by Scripture by reason grounded on Scripture and by the Testimony of Divines of the Reformed Churches That there is a new Law of Grace that the Gospel is that Law of Grace and that it is a new Law of Grace in the same sense that the Covenant of the Gospel is a new Covenant of Grace This Error then that there is no new Law of Grace being refuted to our hand we might well pass it and proceed to another Yet because the Authour discovers so much ignorance and boldness in what he says to the People upon this point we judge it expedient to insisâ a little upon it both to instruct and also to rebuke him And because he would make the people believe whether he believe it of us himself God and his own Conscience know that we consider God only as a Rector ruling by a prescribed Law in all his Purposes concerning and Dealings with the Children of Men That he may not go on deceiving and being deceived We declare to the World that we never thought spoke or wrote any such thing as he would fasten upon us that he may the better misrepresent us to the people pag. 9. at the beginning to wit that God is only to be considered under the notion of a Rector and Judge as aforesaid Where by the way we cannot but take notice how honestly he deals by our Reverend Brother Mr. Williams in drawing this inference from a pretended Scheme of his Doctrine Thus saith our Authour they antedate the Last Day and hold forth Christ as a Judge rather than a Saviour Here the World sees what Doctrine he fixes upon Mr. Williams Next Let them turn to pag. 56. of Gospel Truth stated c. and there they will find these express words of Mr. Williams He Christ treats with men as his Subjects whom he will now Rule and hereafter Judge Now cannot Christ be our Saviour but by ceasing to be our Ruler and cannot we be saved by him but by ceasing to be subject to him Where is that Man's Brains who cannot see if he will that these two things do very well consist that Christ is both our Saviour and Ruler at the same time But this only on the by We declare therefore again that we never thought spoke or wrote that God is to be considered only under the notion of a Rector or Judge in all his Purposes concerning and Dealings with the Race of Man-kind On the contrary we believe that First God as an absolute Soveraign Lord of his own most Free and Gracious Will and Pleasure purposed to give and accordingly gave his only begotten Son to be the Redeemer and Saviour of sinful Men but not of fallen Angels Secondly That God as an absolute Soveraign Lord of his own good pleasure and according to the Counsel of his own will did before the foundation of the World choose some and not others of the lapsed and lost Race of Man-kind unto the participation of Special Effectual Victorious Grace and Eternal Glory through Christ Jesus Thirdly That in the first making of the Covenant and enacting of the Law of Grace with us through Christ Jesus God did not act as a Governour Ruling us according to an external Law which he had before made for us but as a Soveraign and gracious Lord who had freely purposed to save us in such a way by Jesus Christ Fourthly That in giving the foresaid Special Effectual Victorious Grace to the Elect rather than to others God doth not act as a Rector or Governour according to a stated Law prescribed to us and known by us but according to the counsel of his own Will and his hidden Purposes and Transactions with Christ concerning us Fifthly But yet in good consistency with what we have said we do firmly believe that God hath enacted and constituted a Law of Grace for bestowing upon us the subsequent Blessings and Benefits of the Covenant such as Justification and Glorification This Law God hath revealed to us in the Scriptures of Truth by this Law he both obliges and encourages us to certain Duties and also by the promises of it obliges himself to Justifie and glorifie us for Christs sake if we perform the Duties prescribed and comply with the Terms injoined It is with respect to those subsequent Blessings and Benefits of the Covenant that we say the Lord deals with us as a Rector and Governour Ruling us by a Law of Grace This Law is expressed in Holy Scripture in several Forms of Words as that See also Ps 103.17 18. Pr. 28.13 Isa 1.16 17 18. 55.7 Jer. 36.3 Acts 2.38 â 19 16.31 26.18 Heb. 5.9 12.14 Revel 2.10 3.21 22.14 John 8.51 Ho who believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned Mark 16.16 And If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the Dead thou shalt be saved Rom. 10.9 Whosoever believeth in Christ shall receive Remission of Sins Acts 10.43 Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Luke 13.5 This is that which we mean by the Law of Grace and our meaning is so plain that any Man endued with
common sense and reason may understand it But our Brethren do not like the thing it self And why we pray do not they like it 1. Is it because it is called a Law Why the Scriptures of Truth call it so expresly Rom. 3.27 the law of faith Gal. 6.2 the law of Christ The Messiah's Law The Isles shall wait for his Law Isa 42.4 Or 2. Is it because it obligeth to duty with a promise of blessing to the Performers and with a threatening of misery and punishment to the Neglecters Refusers and Despisers If this be the reason wherefore they like it not then let them receive an Answer from the Lords own Mouth Luke 19.27 Those mine enemies which would not that I should reign over them bring them hither and slay them before me But we have better hopes of our Brethren Or 3. Is it because we call it a Law of Grace Why we call it a Law of Grace because it really is so it is a gracious Law For it is a Federal or Covenant-Law that makes rich Offers of Grace of Justifying and Glorifying Grace and it is a means also whereby the Lord conveys unto his People regenerating and sanctifying Grace it is a means which the Lord hath ordained to bring his People to Faith Repentance and Gospel-obedience Therefore it may well be called a Law of Grace And we think none should and especially our Angry Brethren should not like it the worse because we call it and it really is a Law of Grace They do not like the Covenant of the Gospel the worse because it is called the Covenant of Grace and why then should they like this Law of Christ the worse because we call it the Law of Grace especially when we tell them that this Law of Grace is the conditional part of the Covenant of Grace it is that part of the Covenant of Grace which respects the way of God's dispensing to us the subsequent Blessings and Benefits of the Covenant such as pardon of sin and eternal Salvation And doth not the Apostle Rom. 4.16 say expresly that it is of faith that it might be by grace Or 4. And Lastly Is it because we call it a new Law If that be it that displeaseth why should our Brethren be displeased on that account since they know if it be not their own fault that we call it the new Law in no other sense than as we call the Covenant of Grace the new Covenant This Law of Grace we speak of is both new and old in different respects It is new in respect of the Covenant of Works made with Man in his state of innocency For that Covenant of Works was before this Law of Grace which came after and therefore is comparatively new Again as we Christians have it it is called new because we have the newest and clearest and last edition of it And as in these respects it is new so in other respects it is old It is old as the substance of it hath had an existence in the Church of God ever since the first promise of Grace made to our first Parents after the fall It is the everlasting Gospel Rev. 14.7 Heb. 12.26 27 28 29. which hath been in the Church under various forms of administration and will continue in us newest and excellentest form unto the end of the World We hear it is said by some that the Command to believe and repent with the promise of pardon to the penitent Believer and the threatening of punishment to the impenitent Unbeliever cannot be an Evangelical Law because God doth not give unto all special grace to enable them to believe and repent in obedience to that Command We answer 1. If that be it that hinders it from being a Law then notwithstanding that reason it is a Law to all Gods Elect for to them he gives through Christ the said special Grace 2. We deny the Consequence God gives not special Grace to the Non-elect therefore the Command to believe and repent with the annexed conditional promise of pardon and threatening of punishment cannot be a Law to them It may be and is a Law to them though the said special Grace is not given them And whereas it is objected that without such special Grace the Non-elect cannot obey that Law We Answer 1. That their cannot their Impotence is not physical but moral they cannot be cause they will not 2. The Non-elect to whom the Evangelical Law is promulgated together with it receive more Common-Grace more light and power from the Lord in order to their obeying his revealed Will than they make a good use of Hence the Professors of Leyden in their Synopsis of purer Divinity write thus concerning this matter Diligenter notandum est c. Disp 24. Thes 54 55. p. 290 291. It is diligently to be noted that this Non-election doth not take away or deny all Grace in the Non-elect but only that Grace which is peculiar to the Elect. But that Grace which in various measures is dispensed unto âon by the administration of common Providence whether under the Law of Nature or under the Evangelical Grace is not taken away by this act of Preterition or Non-election but is rather presupposed because the Non elect are left under that common government of Divine Providence and the exercise of their own free-will But this administration of common providence always hath conjoined with it that communication of Benefits external and internal which in perfect of innocent nature was indeed sufficient to Salvation as it is manifest in the reprobate Angels and in all mankind considered in our first Parents before the Fall But in corrupt Nature so much remains or is superadded to nature under the Gospel that they are bereft and deprived of all pretence of excuse before the Divine Judgment as the Apostle testifies Acts 14.17 Rom. 1.20 2.1 John 15.22 and else-where Thus the Professors of Leyden And Dr. Owen in his Discourse concerning the Holy Spirit Page 198. sayes That where special Grace and real Conversion is not attained to wit by means of common Grace of which he is there writing it is always from the interposition of an act of wilfulness and stubbornness in those enlightened and convicted They do not sincerely improve what they have received and faint not mierly for want of strength to proceed but by a free act of their own Wills they refuse the Grace which is further tendered unto them in the Gospel So much briefly in answer to the foresaid Objection which was cast into our way and it being removed we go on with our Author who in Pag. 30. saith That New Law of Grace is a new Word but of an old and ill meaning Very well Here is a pretty Jingle of Words and it may be he or some that he knows are much pleased with such Trifles and if so here they are fitted For our parts we cannot see what should move him to say that the new Law of
Grace is a new Word of an old and ill meaning but that either he himself was much pleased with the Jingle or else which we rather think he intended to please some of his Consorts and to make them remember the thing for the sake of the little wit he had shewed in expressing it And if that was his intended end it is pity he should fail of obtaining it and that People should not remember it for ever for that reason which will for ever hold true that there was little wit in it But you will say How doth that appear Why very plainly thus There is little Wit and less Grace in boldly asserting a notorious Falsehood in matter of Fact in the Face of a learned Age. But this the Author of the Letter hath done in asserting that new Law of Grace is a new Word of an old but ill meaning To prove this it being matter of Fact there needs no more but to shew from the Testimony of credible Witnesses who lived many Hundred Years agoe that the Words are not new but were used in the Christian Church in a good sense and meaning long before we were born Without doubt we might bring Multitudes of Witnesses from among the Antient Writers of the Church to prove this matter of Fact if it were needful but we shall content our selves with a few whereof some are such as our Authour cannot in reason except against because he himself hath suborned them to bear witness and that false witness too for him against us We have shewed already that the Apostle Paul expresly calls it the law of faith Rom. 3.27 And says that it is of faith that it might be by grace Rom. 4.16 And that is as much as if he had said both together in one place that it is the Law of Grace We will pass the Testimony of Ignatius though in his Epistle to the Magnesians he expresly mentions the Law of Christ because it is disputed that his Epistles even those of best credit have been much interpolated and corrupted And our cause needs not the Testimony of suspected Witnesses Therefore after Blessed Paul Paris Edit An. 1636. p. 228. we begin with Justin the Martyr as our first Witness That blessed Martyr in his Dialogue with Trypho the Jew writes thus ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. But now for I have read O Trypho that there shall be a latter or after-law and a Testament or Govenant of the greatest or most excellent Authority of all which Testament or Covenant now all men must keep whosoever they be that would obtain possession of the inheritance of God For the Law that was given in Horeb is now old and concerns you Jews only but this after law concerns all men absolutely and universally And when one Law is set against another Law the latter disanuls the former Again in the same Page Justin saith ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. by the workes or gracious effects and the power which follows or accompanies it All may understand Pag. 231. Pag. 251. that this is the New Law Afterwards he calls Christ the New Law giver And he sayes Ye Jews deceive your selves by equivocal Words or Speeches for where the Law of the Lord is said to be faultless ye expound it not of that Law which was to come after but of the Law given by Moses ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã God lowdly saying that he would make a new Law and a new Covenant Thus did Justin assert a new Law above fifteen hundred Years agoe for he wrote his Apology for the Christians and Christian Religion to Antoninus Pââ the Emperour in the Year 150 and about the Year 163 he sealed the Truth of the Gospel with his Blood Our next Witness is Cyprian Operum Cypriani Tomo 1. Eâist 11 ma. Edit Pamel Anno 1617. who also sealed the Truth with his Blood about the middle of the Third Century that is above Fourteen Hundred Years agoe This Holy Martyr in his 11th Epistle to the Martyrs and Confessors several times calls it Evangelii Lex The Law of the Gospel Again In the first of his Three Books of Testimonies against the Jews to Quirinus His 10th Chapter is Quod Lex nova dari haberet that a new Law was to be given Ibid. Tom. 2. pag. 201.202 which he proves by these Testimonies of Holy Scripture Mic. 4.2 Isa 2.3 Matth. 17.5 His 11th Chapter is Quod dispositio alia Testamentum novum dari haberet that another administration and a new Testament or Covenant was to be given which he proves from Jer. 31.31 32 33 34. His 13th Chapter is Quod jugum vetus evacuaretur jugum novum daretur that the old yoke should be made null and void and that a new yoke should be given which he proves from Psal 2.1 2 3. Matth. 11.28 29 30 c. These Passages cited out of Cyprian's Works manifestly shew that as he expresly called the Gospel a Law and a new Law so he held it to be a Law of Grace For he says that though it be a new yoke laid upon us yet it is a light yoke and an easie burden After Cyprian his Countrey-man Augustin that famous Light of the Christian Church in Africa shall appear to give in his Testimony to the foresaid matter of Fact Thus then he writes in the 18th Chapter of his Book concerning Grace and Free-will Haec praecepta charitatis inaniter darentur hominibus Lib. de Grat. Lib. Arbit cap. 18. non habentibus liberum arbitrium Sed quia per legem dantur veterem novam c. These Commandements of Love saith Augustin would be given in vain to Men if they had not free will But because they are given both by the old and new Law although the Grace is come in the new which was promised in the old but the Law without Grace is a killing Letter whereas in or with Grace it is a quickening spirit whence is in men the love of God and our Neighbour but from God himself This passage out of Augustin we have faithfully transcribed and truly translated Now it is well known that Augustin lived and dyed above Twelve Hundred Years agoe and he saith expresly that the Law of Christ which we are under is the New Law and he proves this new Law to be a Law of Grace So that New Law of Grace is so far from being a new Word of an old but ill meaning that it is a considerable time above 1200 hundred Years agoe since the Learned and Holy Augustin used the Word in a very good sence and meaning Again the same Father in his Book to Marcellinus de Spiritu Litera Cap. 14. saith De Spiritu Lit. cap. 14. The Letter of the Law forbidding Sin doth not justifie any Man but rather kills him by increasing Concupiscence and accumulating Iniquity through prevarication Nisi liberet Gratia per legem fidei quae est in Christo Jesu
Vnlest Grace deliver him or set him free by the Law of Faith which is in Christ Jesus Here again Augustin saith that we are freed from death by a Law that that Law is the Law of Faith that that Law of Faith is a Law of Grace for by that Law Grace frees us from death And he likewise gives us plainly to understand that that gracious Law is a new Law for he says it is the Law of Faith which is in Christ Jesus Now it is clear that the Law of Faith in Christ already exhibited in the Flesh crucified dead and buried raised from the Dead Glorified and appointed to be Lord of all and Judge of Quick and Dead made perfect and become the Authour of Eternal Salvation to all them that obey him must needs be a New Law if we compare it with any Law that went before it For before the coming of Christ no Man was or could be obliged to believe in him as already Incarnate Crucified and Glorified otherwise Men had been obliged to believe a falsehood In the same Fifth Century Salvian of Marseilles wrote his Eight Books of the Government of God where he calls the Gospel the Christian Law Book 4th pag. 140. Edit Ox. 1633. In nobis Christus pââitur opprobrium in ânobis patitur lex Christiana maledictum Saith he Christ suffers reproach by reason of us wicked Christians the Christian Law is evil spoken of by reason of us We might bring others of the Fathers for Witnesses in this cause but for the present we will content our selves with these especially the first three Justin the Martyr Cyprian end Augustin who all call the Gospel a New Law Our next Witness is Bradwardin who though he be none of the Fathers yet he lived above three hundred years agoe and our Authour cannot in reason except against him because he says in the 13th Page of the Letter that he was a blessing to England and he would make the World believe that he is for him against us Let us hear what he saies in this cause Deus dedit hominibus talem legem De causâ Dei contra Pelagiam cap. 1. Pag. 29. quam legem si non legem sanctissimam Christianam God gave unto men such a Law and what Law but the most Holy Christian Law Again He thus argues Si sola Lex Naturae sufficeret Homini c. If the Law of Nature alone were sufficient for a Man unto all things whatsoever Ibid p. 63 64. wherefore hath God who doth nothing in vain even by your own confession given another Law yea other Laws the old and the new as what wââ said before doth testify especially since both these Laws to wit old and new of Moses and of Christ are more difficult to know and hard to keep than the Law of Nature For who that is wise doth any thing by more means which may be sufficiently done by fewer as natural reason and all Philosophers unanimously testifie Vnless perhaps it may be done more decently or neatly more profitably and better by many means than by few which if it be true of positive Laws and especially of the Christian Law why do you not receive it and hold it Here Bradwardin expresly calls our Christian Law a positive New Law as distinct both from the Law of Nature and Moses And in the same Page 64. he maintains that it is a Law with a Sanction of the greatest Reward and Punishment imaginable Sic Deus Summus Oeconomus in maxima domo sua c. So also God is the highest Ruler in his most great House the highest Prince in his most great Principality and the highest King of Kings in his most great Kingdome wherefore then cannot he enact or ordain that whosoever shall keep the Christian Law shall receive Eternal Glory and that they who shall not keep but contemn it shall be deprived of Glory and shall inour eternal damnation Surely he could do it and he hath done it as is manifest by what hath been said before By this Passage it is as clear as the light that Bradwardin held that the Gospel of Christ is a Law with a Sanction of Reward and Punishment and yet notwithstanding its Sanction of Punishment as well as Reward he held it to be a Law of Grace as Augustin did before him and as manifestly appears from the main scope of his Book Of the Cause of God against the Pelagians and therefore we forbear to quote any more out of it at present From the premisses it is clear that above 300 Years agoe the profound Doctor Bradwardin expresly affirmed the Law of Christ to be a positive new Law with a Sanction of Reward and Punishment and the Scope of his Book is to prove it to be a Law of Grace And by all this we think the World may now see that the Authour of the Letter told a great untruth when he affirmed that The new Law of Grace is a new Word but of an old and ill meaning and hence also People may learn what credit to give unto the Word of that Man From Fathers and Antient Writers we will come lower down and see what some of our Modern Divines since the Reformation have said in this cause and first when we look abroad we find that the Professors of Leyden in their Synopsis of purer Divinity say expresly Disp 22. Thesi 32. That Evangelium aliquando legis titulo insignitur c. The Gospel is sometimes called a Law because it also hath its own Commandments and its own Promises and Threatenings We find also that the learned Gomarus not only allows the Gospel to be called the Law of Grace but likewise gives the reason why it is so called in these Words Beneficii ratione Evangelium Gomari Operum par 3. Disp 14. Thesi 30. c. with respect unto and because of the benefit promised in it the Gospel in Holy Scripture is called The Word of the Lords Grace Acts. 14.3 the Gospel of the Grace of God Acts 20.24 the Gospel of Peace Eph. 6.15 Isa 52.7 Rom. 10.15 and the Testament or Covenant 2 Cor. 3.6 And from the prescription Evang. est lex Dei ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã or appointment of the condition and duty contained in it it is called the Law of Faith Rom. 3.27 and the Law of God by way of eminency or excellency Isa 2.3 And truly this was excellently said by Gomatus No Man we think can give a better account why the Gospel is called the Law of Grace And next when we look homewards again and cast our eyes upon our own Brittish Divines we find the greatest of them clearly of the same mind that the Gospel is a Law in the sense before explained it is the New Law of Grace We will instance in two only at present The first is Bishop Andrews no Popish Bishop such as Bradwardin was whom our Authour quotes with such an Elogium against us
but a Protestant Bishop and a zealous Protestant who held Rome to be Mystical Babylon and the Pope to be Antichrist as appears from what he wrote in Tortura Torti pag. 183 184 185 186 187. Now this zealous Protestant in his 17th Sermon of the Nativity on Psal 2.7 writes thus We had well hoped Christ would have preached no Law all Gospel he Bp. Andrews Volume of Sermons pag. 161. That he would have preached down the old Law but not have preached up any new We see it is otherwise A Law he hath to preach and preach it he will He saith himself Praedicabo Legem So if we will be his Auditors he tells us plainly we must receive a Law from his mouth If we love not to hear of a Law we must go to some other Church For in Christs Church there a Law is preached Christ began we must follow and say every one of us as he saith Praedicabo Legem Christ will preach a Law and they that are not for the Law are not for Christ It was their quarrel above at the 3d. verse they would none of Christ for this very cause that Christ comes preaching a Law and they would live lawless They would endure no Yoke that were the Sons of Belial Belial that is No Yoke But what agreement hath Christ with Belial 2 Cor. 6.15 The very Gospel hath her Law A Law Evangelical there is which Christ preached And as he did we to do the like look but into the grand Commission by which we all preach which Christ gave at his going out of the World Goe saith he Mar. 28.19 preach the Gospel to all Nations teaching them what to observe the things that I have commanded you Lo here is commanding and here is observing Page 162. So the Gospel consists not only of certain Articles to be believed but of certain Commandments and they to be observed Now I know not how but we are fallen clean from the term Law nay we are even fallen out with it Nothing but Gospel now The name of Law we look strangely at we shun it in our common talk To this it is come while men seek to live as they list Preach them Gospel as much as ye will but hear ye no Law to be preached to hold or keep them in And we have Gospelled it so long that the Christian Law is clean gone with us I speak it to this end to have the one term retained as well as the other to have neither term abolished but with equal regard both kept on foot They are not so well advised that seek to suppress either name If the name once be lost the thing it self will not long stay but go after it and be lost too The Christian Religion in the very best times of it was called Christiana Lex the Christian Law And all the Antient Fathers liked the term well and took it upon them To conclude Gospel it how you will if the Gospel have not the Legalia of it acknowledged allowed and preserved to it if once it lose the force and vigour of a Law it is a sign it declines it grows weak and unprofitable and that is a sign it will not long last And Page 165. he saith 1. There is the benefit of this Law what he doth for us 2. And then what we are to do for him our duty out of this Law The benefit is the Gospel of this Law the duty is the Law of this Gospel And Page 166 They speak of Laws of Grace this is indeed a Law of Grace nay it is the Law of Grace not only as it is opposite to the Law of Nature but even because it offereth Grace the greatest Grace that ever was This was Printed and Published in the Year 1624. and that vvas before most of us vvere born And yet even then the Gospel vvas expresly called the Nevv Lavv of Grace by Bishop Andrews and therefore it is no nevv Word vvhich we have lately invented And not onely Bishop Andrews vvho vvas every vvhit as expert as our Authour can be in making a jingling noise vvith Words vvhich vvas more in fashion then than it is novv but the famous Dr. Twiss vvho vvas used to a Scholastick close way of reasoning both says and proves that the Gospel is a Lavv. Therefore he shall be our last Witness in this Cause Novv in his Ansvver to an Arminian Book called The Synod of Dort and Arles reduced to practice he plainly asserts as we do that God deals with Men not meerly as an absolute Soveraign arbitrary Lord but as a Ruler and Governour according to a known Law in giving unto them or with-holding from them the subsequent blessings and benefits of the new Covenant His Words are these Now like as the act of God's decree Pag. 40.41 42. is of the meer pleasure of God no temporal thing being fit to be the cause of the eternal decree of God in like sort the giving of Faith and Repentance proceeds meerly of the good pleasure of God According to that God hath mercy on whom he will Rom. 9.18 And to obtain mercy at the hand of God is to obtain faith Rom. 11.30 But as for Glory and Salvation we do not say that God in conferring it proceeds according to the meer pleasure of his will but according to a Law which is this whosoever believeth shall be saved which Law we willingly profess he made according to the meer pleasure of his will but having made such a Law he proceeds according to it No such Law hath he made according whereunto to proceed in the dispensation of the grace of Faith and Repentance In like manner the Dr. there distinguishes between the denyal of Special Grace of Faith and Repentance and the denyal of Glory As for the first the denyal of Special Grace to some when God gives it to others the Doctor says that God proceeds therein according to the meer pleasure of his Will but as to the second his own Words are these As touching the denyal of Glory and inflicting damnation God doth not proceed according to the meer pleasure of his will but according to a Law which is this Whosoever believeth not shall be damned And albeit God made that Law according to the meer pleasure of his will yet no wise man will say that he denies glory and inflicts damnation on men according to the meer pleasure of his will The case being clear that God denies the one and inflicts the other meerly for their sins who are thus dealt withal And in the next Page Like as God inflicts not damnation but by way of punishment so he doth not bestow Salvation on any of ripe Years but by way of reward Yet here also is a difference for damnation is inflicted by way of punishment for the evil works sake which are committed but Salvation is not conferred by way of Reward for the good works sake which are performed but meerly for Christs sake Thus
the Doctor in that Book And that you may see that this Passage did not drop inconsiderately from his Pen we will shew from another Book which he wrote afterwards that this was his settled judgment and that he was firmly and fully perswaded of this great Gospel-truth It is Dr. Twiss his Answer to Mr. Hoard's Book called God's Love to Mankind Pag. 37.38 As touching the conferring of Glory God doth not bestow this on whom he will finding men equal without any moving cause thereunto even in man for though there be no moving cause thereunto in man of its own nature yet there is to be found a moving cause in man by constitution Divine whereby God is as it were moved to bestow Salvation on some and not on others For God hath made a gracious promise that whosoever believeth and repenteth and continueth in Faith and repentance unto death shall be saved and whosoever believeth not and repenteth not shall be damned So then though Men are equal in original sin and in natural corruption and God bestows faith and repentance on whom of them he will curing their corruption in whom he will yet when he comes to the conferring of Glory men are not found equal in moral condition and accordingly God cannot be said in like manner to bestow Glory and Salvation on whom he will For he hath tyed himself by his own constitution to bestow Salvation on none but such as dye in the state of Grace Yet I confess some say that God bestows Salvation on whom he will inasmuch as he is the Authour of their faith and repentance and bestows these graces on whom he will Yet certainly there is a different manner in the use of this Phrase of bestowing this or that on whom he will For when God bestows Faith and Repentance he finds them on whom he will bestow it no better than others but when he comes to the bestowing of Glory he finds them on whom he bestows that far better than others And a little after Albeit saith he God hardneth whom he will by denying unto them the grace of Faith and Repentance yet notwithstanding like as it is just with God to inflict damnasion upon them for that sin whether original or actual wherein he finds them when the ministry of the Word is offered them So likewise it cannot be denyed to be just with God to leave their infidelity and impenitence wherein he finds them uncured But yet because God hath not made any such constitution namely that whosoever is found in infidelity and impenitence shall be so left and abandoned by him Therefore he is properly said as to cure it in whom he will so to leave it unoured in whom he will finding them all equal in original Sin and consequently lying equally in this their natural infidelity and impenitence So we may justly say there is no cause at all in man of this difference to wit why God cures infidelity and impenitency in one and not in another but it is the meer pleasure of God that is the cause of this difference But 2. as touching the denyal of Glory and inflicting of damnation which is the second thing decreed in reprobation there is always found a cause motive yea and meritorious hereof to wit both of the denyal of the one and inflicting of the other And God doth not proceed herein according to the meer pleasure of his will and that by reason of his own constitution having ordained that whosoever continueth finally in infidelity in profane courses and impenitency shall be damned And albeit on the other side it may be said in some sense as I formerly shewed that God saves whom he will in as much as he is the Authour of Faith which he bestows on whom he will yet in no congruous sense can he be said to damn whom he will for as much as he is not the Authour of sin as he is the Authour of Faith For every good thing he works but sin and the evil thereof he only permits not causeth And lastly as God doth not damn whom he will but those onely whom he finds finally to have persevered in sin without repentance So neither did he decree to damn or reprobate to damnation whom he will but onely those who should be found finally to persevere in sin without repentance Again in the same Book pag. 106. But I saith Twiss shall tell you the chief Flourish whereupon this Authour and usually the Arminians doth insist in this his loose Argumentation I conceive it to be this they hope their credulous Readers unexpert in distinguishing between God's eternal decree and the temporal execution thereof will be apt hereupon to conceit that we maintain that God doth not onely of meer pleasure decree whatsoever he decreeth but also that he doth decree of meer pleasure to damn men Which yet is utterly contrary if I be not deceived to the Tenet of all our Divines All concurring in this that God in the execution of the decree of damnation proceeds according to a Law and not in the execution of reprobation onely but also in the execution of election and the Law is this Whosoever believes shall be saved whosoever believes not shall be damned and like as he inflicteth not damnation but by way of punishment so he confers not salvation but by way of Reward Again pag. 184. God hath not wished but ordained and made it a positive Law that whosoever believeth shall be saved and here hence it followeth that if all and every Man from the beginning of the World to the end shall believe in Christ all and every one of them shall be saved And Pag. 229. As for Salvation that is appointed to be bestowed only by way of Reward of foregoing Faith Repentance and good works And a little after in the same Page Indeed our profession is that Gods purpose is to bestow Salvation by way of Reward of Faith Repentance and good works And accordingly there is No other assurance of election than by Faith and Holiness â Thess 1.3 4 Remembring the work of your Faith the labour of your love and the patience of your hope knowing beloved brethren that ye are elect of God And St. Peter exhorts Christians to make their election and vocation sure by joining vertue with their faith and with vertue knowledge and with knowledge temperance and with temperance patience and with patience Godliness and with Godliness brotherly kindness and with brotherly kindness love 2 Pât 1.5 6 7 10. Thus Dr. Twiss speaks our sence according to our Hearts desire and maintains the Gospel to be a Law as much as we do But now it may be our Authour will object that in all this Dr. Twiss speaks only of a Law according to which God proceeds in bestowing or not bestowing eternal life and glory upon Men but not of a Law according to which he justifies and pardons men We Answer 1. The reason of that was because the Doctor 's Adversaries gave
him occasion to speak there of God's Law according to which he glorifies or damns men eternally and not of the Gospel-law according to which he either justifies or not justifies Men. But 2. We say that the Doctor 's Judgment was the same as to both to wit as to Justification as well as to Glorification and that 1. Because in his Answer to the foresaid Arminian Book called The Synod of Dort and Arles reduced to Practice Pag. 16. these are his express Words We say that Pardon of Sin and Salvation of Souls are benefits purchased by the death of Christ to be enjoyed by men but how not absolutely but conditionally to wit in case and onely in case they believe And Pag. 28. Men are called upon to believe and promised that upon their Faith they shall obtain the grace of remission of sins and Salvation and these graces may be said to be offered unto all upon condition of Faith And Pag. 189. The Promises assured by Baptism according to the Rule of Gods word I find to be of two sorts Some are of benefits procured unto us by Christ which are to be conferred on us conditionally they of this first sort are Justification and Salvation And Pag. 190. Justification and Salvation is promised in the Word and assured in the Sacraments upon performance of a condition on mans part Now the condition of Justification and Salvation we all acknowledge to be Faith And in his other Book against Hoard Some Benefits saith the Doctor are bestowed upon man only conditionally though for Christs sake and they are the pardon of sin and salvation of the Soul Twiss against Hoard p. 154. and these God doth conferr onely upon the condition of Faith and Repentance All these are the Doctor 's own express Words by which it plainly appears that his Judgment was the same with respect both to Justification and Glorification and that he held that God dispenseth to us both these benefits for Christs sake according to a Law 2. We say that the Doctor 's Judgment was the same as to both because there is the like reason for both and the Doctor 's own Argument holds for the Law of Justification as strongly as for the Law of Glorification since God hath as much constituted and ordained that all penitent Believers and none of ripe years but penitent Believers shall be justified as that all penitent persevering Believers and no others shall be glorified As it is written John 3.18 He that believeth on Christ the Son of God is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already Acts 3.19 26.18 because he hath not believed in the name of the onely begotten Son of God Luke 13.3 5. Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Acts 2.38 Repent and be Baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins Acts 10.43 To him give all the Prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins Acts 13.39 By him all that believe are justified c. Rom. 3.25 God hath set him forth to be a propitation through faith in his Blood Rom. 4.24 It shall be imputed to us if we believe These Testimonies of Holy Writ do as certainly and evidently shew that God proceeds according to a stated Rule and standing Law of his own making in Justifying or not Justifying Men as any other Testimonies do shew that he proceeds according to a stated Rule and standing Law in Glorifying or not Glorifying Men. 3. We Answer that our wise Accuser in the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th Pages of his Letter seems plainly to be as much against God's proceeding according to a Law in Glorifying Men or not Glorifying them at death as he is against God's proceeding according to a Law in Justifying them or not Justifying them before death Otherwise we would fain know what he means by saying that the Doctrine of Conditions Qualifications and Rectoral Government and the distribution of Rewards and Punishments according to the new Law of Grace will make but an uneasie Bed to a dying Man's Conscience and will leave him in a very bad condition at present and in dread of worse when he is feeling in his last Agonies that the wages of sin is death if he cannot by faith add the Gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. We profess we cannot see what our Authour should design by this passage but to reflect upon us as Subverters of the true Grounds of Christian Comfort and as driving People to despair by our Doctrine of God's being a Governour and Judge who distributes eternal Rewards and Punishments unto Men See Rev. 11.18 who live in the visible Church according to the Rule of the Evangelical Law and as he finds them to be qualified through Grace or not qualified to have performed the Condition or not to have performed the Condition to have complyed with the terms of the Evangelical Law or not to have complyed with them We say we cannot see what other design he should have therein but thus to reflect upon us And if this was really his design then he denies that God proceeds according to a Law as well in Glorifying or not glorifying as in Justifying or not Justifying Men And therein he opposes Dr. Twiss and all our other Divines that he knevv of as well as us And further upon that Principle that there is no such stated Rule and known standing Law according to vvhich God hath assured us that he vvill either give eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord or inflict eternal death We chalenge our Authour to shevv us hovv in an ordinary vvay vvithout a Miracle the dying disconsolate Man can be assured by Faith that God for Christs sake will give eternal life to him in particular and not inflict upon him eternal death for his Sins For if God have not revealed in his vvritten Word to Men that through Christ he vvill give eternal life unto all penitent Believers and consequently to that dying Man in particular if he be really a true penitent Believer We say if God hath not revealed this in his vvritten Word but kept it secret vvithin himself as a thing vvhich he vvill give arbitrarily as he pleaseth without regard to any stated Rule or knovvn Lavv hovv is it possible for the poor dying Man vvithout an immediate extraordinary Revelation to knovv but that eternal death vvhich he knovvs he hath deserved and not eternal life vvhich he cannot possibly deserve shall be his everlasting portion What depends upon the meer arbitrary will and pleasure of God can never be knovvn by Man unless God reveal it either by his vvritten Word alone or by his Word and Spirit conjunct or by his Spirit immediately vvithout the Word But the poor disconsolate Man can have no hopes that God will reveal it to him by his Written Word alone or by his Written Word and
declare to the World what our Faith is in this matter And First We do not hold that there is any Antecedent Condition of the Covenant of Grace Our meaning is plainly this That there is nothing required to be necessarily performed by us as a Condition before the Lord will make us Partakers of any Grace even of the first Grace of the Covenant For we believe that the first Grace is given Absolutely and the Lords giving of it is not suspended on our performing of some antecedent Condition by our meer natural Strength This indeed would be Pelagianism or rather Semi-Pelagianism condemned by the Ancient Church and we condemn it as much as the Ancients did We hold that there are Absolute Promises Promises of Regenerating Grace of the New Heart the Heart of Flesh of special Grace through which the Elect believe and repent This is the Grace whereby we performe the Conditions required of us in the Covenant and therefore it must be promised and given Antecedently to our performing those Conditions forasmuch as it is the cause of the performance of those Conditions and the cause must always be in order of nature and causality before the Effect There hath been and is some difference of Opinion amongst Orthodox Ministers about the Person or Persons to whom God hath made those absolute Promises Some think they are made only to Christ for the Church according to these Scriptures Isai 49.6 compared with Acts 13.47 48. and Isai 53.11 Psal 22.30 and 110.3 Others think they are made through Christ only to the Catholick Church that God for Christ's sake would shew special Mercy unto his Select People in all Ages and add them to the Church Mystical by saving Illumination Regeneration and Conversion And so that God through Christ hath promised unto the Catholick Church that she should be a fruitful Mother that should still bring forth Children unto God which should continue the Succession unto the end of the World as in Isa 54.1 Sing O barren c. ver 5. For thy maker is thy husband c. See also ver 8 10. and then consider the Promise ver 13. That all her children should be taught of the Lord. And compare that place with Gal. 4.26 27 28 29. We humbly conceive that the Absolute Promises of the first saving Grace are not made immediately to Individual Persons but to the Body of the Church to the Mother in behalf of her Children Such are the Promises recorded Isa 44.3 4 5. Isa 59.21 Ezek. 36.22 compared with ver 26 27. and with Heb. 8.10 These and all absolute Promises of the first saving Grace seem not to be made immediately unto nor to be immediately pleadable in Faith by any Individual Persons before their first Conversion but to be made unto the house of Israel as the Text expresseth it that is unto the true Church which is the Mystical Living Body of Christ in behalf of all the Children which she as a Spiritual Mother is to bring forth unto God Or 3ly To Reconcile these two Opinions and to reduce them into one it may be some judge it best to say that the aforesaid absolute Promises are made both to Christ and his Church as one Mystical Body consisting of Head and Members which is to be filled up from time to time by adding New Members to it and that continual addition of new Members is made by the fulfilling of the foresaid absolute Promises and for this may be alledged Gal. 3.16 and this way we oppose not Thus it is confessed that there is some difference of Opinion about the Persons to whom the Absolute Promises of the first Saving Grace are made and we cannot help it for it is not in our power to make all good Men to be of one mind in lesser matters and we think we are bound in Conscience to bear with one another in love notwithstanding such little differences But we thank God that we are all agreed that the Promises of the first Grace are Absolute so as to exclude the necessity of our performing any Antecedent Condition to make us capable of that first Grace And we desire it may be well remembred That we say those Promises are absolute so as to exclude any antecedent Condition but not so as to exclude the use of Gods appointed means for the obtaining of that promised Grace We plainly distinguish between an Antecedent Condition which is always and in all cases necessary to obtain the promised Grace and the use of God's means appointed for the obtaining of the promised Grace which use of means is indeed ordinarily necessary unto Men so that they have no ground to expect that ever God should give them the aforesaid Grace without their attending upon him in the use of those means yet is not the use of them so absolutely necessary as that Grace at no time and in no case can be had without them For though God hath tyed us to the means he hath not tyed himself to them by any Law or Constitution so that he can never give the first Saving Grace to any without the use of them We know God hath been found of them that sought him not so he was found of Paul and others and so he may be again in these latter days if he please God may give Faith and Repentance to a man absolutely in what way he pleaseth he may do it in the use of means or out of the use of means which is his ordinary way because he hath not made the use of means the Condition upon the performance of which he hath declared that he will always give it and never in any case without the performance of it Thus indeed it is in the matter of Justification and Glorification It is not consistent with the Truth of God's Word and Perfection of his Nature to justifie or glorifie an Impenitent Unbeliever remaining such because he hath declared that he will not and it is not consistent with his own Honour that he should do it but upon the performance of the Duty and Condition of Faith and Repentance But in the matter of Regeneration and giving Faith and Repentance in the use of means God hath not so tyed up himself by any Declaration of his Will that we know of but that he hath left himself at free Liberty as a Gracious Lord and Merciful Benefactor to give the Grace of Regeneration Faith and Repentance when and how he pleaseth ordinarily in the use of means and extraordinarily without the Antecedent use of Means This we learn of Doctor Twisse who as he affirms frequently that the first Grace and particularly the new Heart Faith and Repentance are promised and given absolutely and not upon the performance of any Antecedent Condition so he positively asserts that the said new Heart Faith and Repentance are usually given in the use of Means and not otherwise ordinarily You shall have it in his own words Thus then he writes in his Answer to the
insisted long upon this that all may see how sound and orthodox our Principles are in the point of Justification and how we have been abused and misrepresented to the People by the Authour of the Letter Whether he did it ignorantly or maliciously he knows best himself But which way soever he did it it was certainly very ill done 5thly and lastly We believe that as the Faith of God's Elect is a Condition of the Covenant of Grace so that it is not an uncertain but a most certain Condition our meaning is that before the Elect believe it is not uncertain whether ever they will believe or not It is indeed uncertain to the Persons themselves but it is not objectively uncertain the thing is not uncertain in it self nor is it uncertain unto God whether ever his Elect shall believe No it is most certain in it self and unto God that all the Elect shall believe for God hath chosen them through Christ unto Faith Christ hath merited special Grace for them whereby they shall believe God through Christ hath promised that special Grace and God by his Spirit for Christ's sake gives them that special Grace whereby they do all certainly and infallibly believe The contrary Opinion to this is by our Divines generally charged upon the Arminians It is said that the Arminians hold that it is so far left to Mens Wills assisted by Universal sufficient Grace whether they will make that Grace effectual and so whether they will believe or not that it may come to pass that not one Man in the whole World shall ever eventually believe and consequently that Christ's Blood might have been shed in vain and not one Soul have been effectually redeemed and saved by it This Opinion whoever they be that hold it we utterly detest and abhor and declare to the World that as we are infallibly sure that many of the Elect have believed already and do at present believe so all and every one of them in their several times shall by the special and effectual Grace of God believe to the saving of their Souls We also believe that this certainty of the Faith of God's Elect doth not at all hinder their Faith from being a condition but rather that it makes it to be a certain Condition The Arminians pretend they cannot understand how Faith can be a Duty required of us and a condition to be freely performed by us and that yet at the same time we are so excited to it and assisted by the Grace of God in the doing of it that it is done with an infallible certainty And therefore they say that if we did believe by such a special effectual Grace as that we could not but believe at the time we are influenced by that Grace then our believing would neither be a Duty nor Condition of the Gospel Thus the Arminians argue against Special Effectual Grace But what say our Antinomians to this Argument Why truly they say it is a very good argument that the Arminians have reason on their side and that they do effectually prove that Faith cannot be a Condition of the Gospel-Covenant Now we desire the World to take notice that the Antinomians join with the Arminians against us and take up their very Argument to prove that Faith neither is nor can be a Condition of the Gospel-Covenant And since they account this their chief argument we desire they would be so just and honest as to take the whole argument and not only a part of it and consider that the whole argument proves that upon supposition of special effectual Grace Faith can neither be a Duty nor a Condition and it proves as strongly that Faith cannot be a Duty of the Gospel as that it cannot be a Condition of the Gospel Either then our Antinomians must say that Faith is no Duty because of this argument or if it may be still a Duty so may it also be still a Condition notwithstanding the force of this Argument For ought we know the right Antinomians may be willing enough to grant the consequence of the argument to be good as to both parts of it for we are afraid they care as little for Duties as they do for Conditions and some of them have plainly renounced Faiths being their Duty and have put it over upon Christ as his Duty and not theirs But we hope the Authour of thy âetter is not yet so far gone and that he still retains some respect for Rutherfond's Examen Arminianismi which he had a hand in publishing and where he will find these words following page 270. Quaeritur an fides non potest esse conditio c. The Question is whether Faith cannot be a Condition required of the Elect by way of Duty and free Obedience and at the same time be a thing promised by God and unavoidably wrought by God in us The Remonstrants deny it we affirm it We likewise are for the affirmative against the Remonstrants who hold the negative of the Question But how to reconcile the Efficacy of God's Grace with our Free Will in doing the Duties incumbent upon us is no easie matter S. Augustin lib. deâpraedest Sanct. cap. 14. says that it is Difficilis ad solvendum quaestio A Question difficult to be resolved Erkstra blasphemas ignorantium auribus ingeris nos lib. arb condemnare damnetur ille qui damnat Hieron Epist ad âtisi hontem And Epist 46. Ad Valentinum he says it is difficillima quaestio paucis intelligibilis a most difficult question and such as few can understand And again lib. de gratiâ Christi contra Pelagium Caelestium cap. 47. Ista quaestio ubi de arbitrio voluntatis Dei gratiâ disputatur ita est ad discernendum difficilis ut quando c. That Question where Men dispute about Free Will and God's Grace is so hard to discern or understand that when Men defend Free Will they seem to deny God's Grace and when they assert God's Grace they seem to take away or destroy Free Will What must we do then in this case must we deny Free-will altogether No not altogether for as Augustin saith Epist 47. ad Valentinum Fides Catholica neque liberum arbitrium negat sive in vitam malam sive in bonam neque tantum ei tribuit ut sine gratiâ Dei valeat aliquid c. The Catholick Faith neither denies Free-will whether in order to a bad life or a good neither doth it ascribe so much to Free-will as that without God's Grave it can do any good c. We must not then altogether deny Free-will the Catholick Faith will not allow us so to do nor will the inward sense and experience that we have of our own Soul and its Actings suffer us to do it For as Augustin saith Lib. 83. Quaest 98. Moveri per se Animam sentit qui sentit in se esse Voluntatem He feels his Soul to be moved by it self who feels that
he hath a Will in himself And if we must not altogether deny all Free-will against Faith and Experience much less must we deny the Grace of God For as Augustin saith in the foresaid 46 Epist ad Valent. Si non est Gratia Dei quomodo Deus falvat Mundum si non est liberum arbitrium quomodo judicat Mundum If there be no Grace of God how doth God save the World And if there be no. Free-will how doth God judge the World The occasion of Augustin's writing thus is observable Two Young Men Cresconius and Felix came to Augustin from another Congregation and told him that there was a Controversie amongst them in the managing whereof some had so preached the Grace of God as to deny that Man hath any Free-will and which is worse they said that in the Day of Judgment God will not render unto every one according to their Works This was the occasion of Augustin's writing both that 46. and the following 47. Epistle to Valentinus And towards the end of the 46. Epistle he gave this prudent and wholsome Advice Vbi sentitis vos non intelligere c. that is Where you perceive that you do not understand how Grace and Free-will consist in the mean time believe the Divine Oracles for there both is a Free-will in Man and also the Grace of God without whose help Free-will can neither be converted unto God nor yet grow up in God And what you piously believe pray that you may also wisely understand This was the Advice which St. Augustin gave unto the Disputers of his time And it was very good Advice for certainly where two things are both clearly revealed in Scripture and yet we find it very difficult to understand and explain the way and manner how they do consist and agree with one another we ought firmly to believe them both upon the Authority and Veracity of God revealing though the mode and manner of their consistence in the same subject we do not understand Yet what we do believe we may and ought humbly and reverently to pray that if it be God's will we may also more throughly understand So in the present case before us we ought firmly to believe that God's Elect when they are effectually called and converted have Free-will actually to believe in Jesus Christ and also that it is by the special effectual Grace of God that they do actually believe though we do not throughly understand how these two hang together how Man's Free-will and God's Effectual Grace consist and agree with respect to the Act of Believing For both are clearly revealed in Scripture as it were easie to demonstrate See Joh. 8.36 But the mode and manner of their consistence and agreement is not clearly revealed and therefore not so necessary to be explicitely believed Yet may we humbly pray and endeavour if the Lord will so far to understand their consistence and concord as to be able in some measure to answer the Objections of those who deny either one or other of them upon pretence that they cannot both be matter of Faith because they contradict and destroy each other and so if one be true the other must be false Now we humbly conceive that the great difficulty about the concord of the freedome of Man's will and of the efficacy of God's Grace in the act of believing ariseth from the false notion of Free-will which the Remonstrants have learned from the Schoolmen and from some of the Greek Fathers to wit that the formal Nature and Essence of the liberty of the Will of Man consists in an absolute indifferency to act this or that or not to act at all as a Man pleaseth and that even when all things are put together which are pre-required to his acting We must ingenuously confess that we do not see how it is possible to reconcile this notion of Free-will with the powerful efficacy of Special Grace But we take this to be a false notion of Liberty and that therefore we are no ways concerned to trouble our selves about the reconciling of such a false notion of Liberty with the efficacy of God's Grace but rather we are concerned to find out the true Notion of Liberty of Will and to shew its consistency with the efficacy of Grace And we take this to be the formal Nature of the Liberty of Man's Will That it is a power with which God hath endâed the Soul of Man whereby he is enabled to consider of and weigh the several things proposed to him and upon the Reasons and Motives that do or may appear to him from the consideration of things willingly to choose or not choose or refuse one thing and to choose or embrace another Now this notion of Free-will is well enough consistent with the efficacy of Grace For the effectual Grace of God is so far from hindering a Man from using this sort of Free-will that on the contrary it mightily helps him to use it aright for 1. The Grace of God's Spirit enlightens Man's Mind and enables him to understand the things proposed by the Word unto his choice and to see the great reason he hath to choose them 2. Grace enclines the Will of Man to follow the conduct of his enlightened understanding and willingly to choose the best Things upon the best Reasons and Motives Thus God deals with Man as a Rational Creature capable of Moral Government by Laws and Exhortations Promises and Threatnings God offers no Violence to his Faculties but influences him in a way suitable to his reasonable Nature and helps him to bring his judging and choosing Powers into Act so as not at all to hinder but rather further and promote his true Liberty According to that of our Saviour John 8.36 often used by Holy Augustin in this Controversie If the Son shall make you free you shall be free indeed And that of the Apostle 2 Cor. 3.17 Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty There is Liberty and Freedom both from the doing of Evil and to the doing of Good This was visible in our Blessed Lord himself when he was here upon Earth in his state of Humiliation Undoubtedly he was a true Man and had all the Essentials of Humane Nature in the highest degree of possible Perfection consequently he had Free-will so far as it is an Essential Property and Perfection of Humane Nature but he had not nay he could not possibly have any indifferency or undeterminedness of will to Good or Evil His Mind did not hang in aequilibrio in an even Balance between Good and Evil so as to have a Power to determine and incline himself to choose either Therefore it is demonstratively evident that the formal essential Nature of Man's Free-will doth not cannot consist in the foresaid indifferency to Good or Evil. But on the other hand The most Noble Soul of our blessed Lord was certainly endued with Power to consider and judge of the several things proposed
thing meant by Condition as really as if it were expressed For saith the Apostle If thou shalt confess with thy Mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thy Hâârt that God hath raised him from the Dead thou shalt be saved This Evangelical Pronsise and Proposition is as Conditional as is that Legal one Rom. 10.5 The man that doth those things shall live by them But that Legal Promise and Proposition is Conditional and confessed so to be therefore is this conditional also If it be said that the Condition is not the same nor doth it serve to the same end and purpose we grant that For we never said nor thought that the Conditions are the same and for the same Ends and Purposes for the one is a Legal Condition the other is Evangelical and so they differ specisically and in kind But what then Therefore they are not both Conditions We deny the Consequence For though they differ in the specisical yet they agree in the generical nature of Conditions And Faith is as properly a Condition in genere conditionis Evangelicae as personal perfect sinless Obedience is a Condition in genere conditionis legalis that is Faith is as properly an Evangelical Condition as perfect sinless Obedience is properly a Legal Condition We remember that the Pelagians of old objected against the Orthodox that either our Faith is not wrought in us by the Special Grace of God or else it cannot be a Duty and so it cannot be a Condition But we know also how St. Augustin answered their Objection Lib. de praedestin Sanct. cap. 11. Their Objection was this Cum dicitur si credideris salvus eris c. When it is said if thou believest thou shalt be saved The one of these to wit Faith is required of us by a Command the other to wit Salvation is offered us by Promise then that which is required is in Man's Power as that which is promised is in God's Power To this Pelagian Objection Augustin answers thus Sic dicitur si credideris salvus eris Quemadmodum dicitur si Spiritu c. That is So it is said if thou believest thou shalt be saved as it is said if you through the Spirit do mortifie the Deeds of the Body you shall live Rom. 8.13 For here also the one of these two is required and the other is promised as then although it be the Gist of God to mortifie the Deeds of the Flesh yet it is required of us with an offer of the Reward of Life for our encour agement thereunto Just so Faith is also the Gift of God although it be required of us with an offer of the Reward of Salvation for our encouragement to believe when it is said if thou believest thou shalt be saved For those things are therefore both commanded us and also shewed to be the Gists of God that it may be known that both we do them and also that God causeth us to do them Thus Augustin We find the like Objection with the like Answer to it in Bradwardin De Causâ Dei lib. 2. cap. 28. p. 567 569. The Objection Si Deus necessario requiratur ad agendum c. If it be necessary that God concur to the proper production of every Act of the Creatures Will since God's concurring or acting is not in the power of the Creature then no act of the Creature would be in its own power The Answer is In rerum temporalium spiritualium administratione videmus c. In the administration both of temporal and spiritual things we see that there are more Powers and Dominions over the same thing subordinate to one another as Inferior and Superior wherefore no Man ought to doubt but that though the Will of the Creature have Power and Dominion over its own Act yet thereby is not excluded a Superior Power and Lord to wit God himself from a Superior Power Dominion and Efficiency in respect of the same Act. And a little after he says out of Thomas Aquinas The Will is said to have Dominion over its own Act not by excluding the first cause but the first cause doth not so act on the Will as to determine it necessarily to one thing as he determines Nature or natural Agents and therefore the determination of the Act is lest in the power of the Vnderstanding and Will We mention both these Objections with Answers to them out of St. Augustin and Bradwardin to shew that though we cannot believe without but do believe by the Grace of God yet that no ways hinders our Faith from being a duty required of us and also a Condition of the Covenant to be performed by us and we know our Authour cannot bring any appearance of an Argument against this but that which was brought by the Pelagians in the time of St. Augustin and which he answered As for the place of Scripture we are arguing from we have Calvin on our side acknowledging that it contains a Conditional Promise of the Gospel-Covenant a Promise of Righteousness and Salvation to all that sincerely believe in Christ with their Hearts and confess him with their Mouths For thus he writes Instit Lib. 2. cap. 5. Sect. 12. speaking of this very place of Scripture to wit Rom. 10.5 8 9. id reputans Paulus c. i. e. Paul considering this that Salvation is offered in the Gospel not upon that hard difficult impossible condition which the Law requires of us to wit that they only shall obtain Salvation who have fully kept all the Commandments but upon a condition that is easie ready and soon attained unto to wit the Condition of Faith he confirms it with this testimony To wit the Testimony of Moses which Paul quotes out of Deuteronomy chap. 30. ver 11 12 13 14. and interprets it of the Doctrine of Faith in the Gospel Let any read and compare Rom. 10.6 7 8. with Deut. 30.11 12 13 14. And they will see that Calvin did rightly conclude from those places that in the Judgment of St. Paul Salvation is promised us here in the Gospel upon a much easier Condition than it was in and by the Law This conditionality of the Covenant of Grace is clearly proved also by all those places of Scripture which assure us 1. That all who believe shall be justified and saved John 3.16 18 36. John 6.40 John 20.31 Mark 16.16 Acts 10.43 and 13.39 Rom. 4.24 Gal. 2.16 and 3.9 11. 2. That they who believe not whilst they continue in Unbelief shall not be justified and saved John 3.18.36 and 8.24 Mark 16.16 Revel 21.8 These Scriptures plainly shew that Faith is a Condition of the Covenant because the definition and nature of a Condition agrees to it For 1. Faith is a Duty which God requires of us for obtaining the promised benefit of Justification and Salvation 1 John 3.23 Rom. 10.9 2. God hath suspended his giving us the promised benefit of Justification and Salvation upon our performing the required Duty of
truth that Repentance is before Justification at least in order of Nature They object further if Repentance be before Justification then it is either before or after Faith but it cannot be before Faith for it is impossible that a man should sincerely repent before he believe Nor can it be after Faith if it be before Justification for a man is justified by Faith and that assoon as he believes We answer That men needed not to be deluded by such a silly sophism if they would distinguish 1. Between the Abiding Seed and Principle and the Transient Act of Faith 2. Between the Assenting Act of Faith and it s fiducially consenting act For though Faith in the Principle of it be but one single Grace yet in the Exercise of it it hath several acts successively following one another and yet not so closely neither but that the Act of Repentance may come between them Now to apply these distinctions we say that from Repentance's being before Justification it doth by no means follow that it is altogether and in all respects before Faith For 1. The Seed and Principle of Faith is before the Act of Repentance 2. The assenting Act of Faith is also before the Act of Repentance And thus from a principle of Faith and by the help of an Act of Faith the Soul sincerely repents in order to Justification and pardon of sin then after the said Act of Repentance there comes another Act of Faith to wit the Act of Fiducial consent to receive Christ as he is offered in the Gospel whereupon the penitent believing Soul is immediately justified and pardoned This we learn of Calvin who in his Institutions lib. 3. cap. 3. Sect. 19. writes thus Sic Christus suas conciones auspicatus est c. So also Christ began his Sermons Mark 1.15 The Kingdom of God is at hand repent ye and believe the Gospel First he declares that the treasures of God's mercy were opened in him Then 2. He requires Repentance And 3. and lastly He requires a trust or relyance on the promises of God Here we have the Lords order of things judiciously set forth 1. He declares that the Treasures of God's Mercy are opened in him This Declaration of God's Infinite Mercy in Christ held forth to lost Sinners of Mankind is the object of our Faith of assent and we are bound to assent to it as an infallible Truth and to be firmly perswaded of it 2. He requires our Repentance he requires that assenting to the Truth of the Gospel and being firmly perswaded that God is upon terms of Mercy with us through him we should repent and be heartily sorry that by our sins we have offended so merciful a God and resolve in God's strength to do so no more 3. And lastly That supposing we so repent from a principle of Faith assenting to the Revelation of God's great Mercy in Christ to lost Sinners indefinitely he requires that we trust and rely on God's promises and on Christ as held forth to us in the promises that according to his promises he will for Christ's sake be merciful to us in pardoning us all our sins When we are through Grace arrived at this Act of Faith whereby we trust and rely on God's promises and on Christ as held forth to us in the promises then we are instantly pardoned accepted as Righteous and get a right to Life for the alone satisfactory meritorious Righteousness of our Lord Redeemer But we could never attain to this Act of Faith and thereby to pardon of sin for Christ's sake if we did not first believe with the Faith of assent that God through Christ is upon terms of Mercy and Peace with us That is the first Act of Faith and when it is of the right kind and proceeds from the right Principle the super-natural Seed of Faith put into the heart it is through the influence of the Holy Spirit of mighty force and efficacy 1. To make us repent to make us through Grace heartily sorry for having displeased and dishonoured so good and Merciful a God by our sins and to make us resolve through Grace to do so no more 2. It is of as great force and efficacy to make us trust and rely on Gods promises and on Christ revealed in the promises that God according to his promises will for Christ's sake justifie and pardon us Thus we have answered that frivolous Objection and clearly shewed how true Repentance is in order before Justification and pardon of sin and yet not altogether and in all respects before Faith but partly after and partly before Faith after the principle and assenting Act of Faith but before the fiducially consenting and trusting Act of Faith And what though no Man could give a clear account of the exact order observed by our Souls in the acting of their several Graces yet that should hinder no Christian from believing that true Repentance is in order before pardon of sin because God who cannot he hath plainly told us in the Scripture of Truth that it is in order before pardon as hath been proved If then we have any Faith in God and his Word We should say Let God be True who ever proves a Lyar. Certainly it is very unreasonable foolish and dangerous too to deny or doubt of that which is clear because we cannot throughly understand that which is obscure to wit the precise order of the Souls acting its Graces This may suffice at present to prove that the Gospel-promise of Justification and pardon of sin is conditional and that Faith and Repentance are the Condition of it 2. In the second and last place we shall briefly prove by Scripture that the Gospel-promise of Glorification and Eternal Salvation is conditional and that sincere obedience is the Condition of it For the better understanding of our meaning in this matter we premise a few things As 1. That this is to be understood upon supposition that a man lives some considerable time after that he is effectually called and justified and pardoned upon his first believing and repenting and that he hath space and opportunity to perform his Covenant Engagement unto the Lord and to bring forth Fruits meet for Repentance If the Man dye presently after his Justification and pardon there is no more required on his part the Spirit perfects his begun Sanctification and God through Christ consummates his Salvation without requiring any more of him than what he is inabled to do as he is a dying But if God give him time and opportunity and he live It is required that proportionably to his Talents and time he serve the Lord in Faith and Holy Obedience that he renew his Faith and Repentance for pardon as often as he finds that he has fallen into sin and that he return to his Duty again serving the Lord all his days in Faith Hope Love Fear Patience Meekness Humility and Heavenly-mindedness c. 2. The Obedience that is required as aforesaid must
a certain order and also that he doth orderly dispense them unto his People according to his Promiseâ But we utterly deny that God's Order of Grace doth hinder one thing in that order from being the condition of another and on the contrary we affirm that it rather makes one thing to be the condition of another And that for this Renson because the Order of Grace which the Brethren speak of either 1. It is an Order in the Promise of Justification and Pardon of which alone our Question now is to wit in the promise if you sinceroly believe with a Faith working by love you shall be justified and pardoned through Christ Or 2. It is an order out of the promise but in God's will with respect to the promise If the first that is if it be an order of Gracâ in the promise then it is plainly a Conditional order of Grace for the promise is conditional as we have proved and the gracious order of it is this That whoever performs the Condition of it that is believes sincerely with a Faith working by Love shall have the blessing and benefit of it shall be justified and pardoned Thus the order of Grace in the Conditional Promise being plainly a Conditional order we are but just where we were for the order of Grace in the promise being but conditional it doth not help us one jot to avoid the conditionality of the Promise and Covenant 2. But if they choose to say that it is the second to wit that it is an order of Grace out of the promise but in God's will with respect to the promise and so it is an absolute order of God's will that if People sincerely believe they shall be justified and pardoned We heartily grant that it is so there is such a gracious Order or Ordination in and of God's Will and it is plainly revealed also in his Written Gospel But what then This really makes against our Brethren and for us And that because this absolute order of Grace in God's will concerning the Promise is so far from overthrowing that on the contrary it most strongly establisheth and confirmeth the conditionality of the Promise For is not this a good strong unavoidable consequence God of his free grace hath absolutely ordained that Faith shall be a condition of the Covenant and that this shall be a true conditional Gospel-promise If People sincerely believe in Christ they shall be justified and pardoned Therefore it is a true conditional Gospel-promise and cannot be otherwise All this is to us very certain and evident and therefore must conclude that we have proved by reason agreeable to Scripture that the Covenant of Grace is conditional as aforesaid And without going upon this Ground and Principle we do not conceive how Ministers can preach the Gospel honestly and faithfully to all sorts of Men they meet with as by our Commission we are obliged to do Mark 16.15 16. Rom. 10.8 9. Reason 2. The Covenant promise of Eternal Life and Glory is Conditional therefore the Covenant of Grace is Conditional with respect to its subsequent blessings and benefits The Consequence is self-evident because Eternal Life and Glory is one of the principal subsequent blessings of the Covenant of Grace We prove the antecedent against Mr. Marshalls Book and against our Authour who highly approves and commends it If sincere Obedience to the Lord be the Condition of the Covenant promise of Eternal Life and Glory then the Covenant Promise of Eternal Life and Glory is really conditional But so it is that sincere Obedience to the Lord is the Condition of the Covenant-Promise of Eternal Life and Glory Therefore that Covenant-Promise is Conditional The consequence of the first Proposition is self-evident We prove the second Proposition to wit that sincere Obedience to the Lord is the Condition of the Covenant-promise of Eternal Life and Glory Because whatsoever is so required of us as a Duty in order to the obtaining of the Eternal Life and Glory promised that our obtaining thereof is by the promise suspended on our performing that Duty and we are assured by the Lord that if we perform that Duty we shall obtain but if we perform not that Duty we shall not obtain the Eternal Life and Glory promised That is the Condition of the Covenant promise of Eternal Life and Glory it being the very definition and essential Nature of a Gospel-Condition that it be a Duty required as aforesaid But sincere Obedience to the Lord is a Duty so required in order to the obtaining of the Eternal Life and Glory promised as most evidently appears by the many plain Testimonies of God's Word whereby we have already proved sincere Obedience to be a Duty so required Therefore sincere Obedience to the Lord is and must be the Condition of the Covenant Promise of Eternal Life and Glory If our Authour or any for him should say that it is true Sincere Obedience to the Lord's Command of believing is required as aforesaid but sincere obedience to any other Command of the Lord is not necessarily required as aforesaid in order to the obtaining of the promised Blessing of Eternal Life and Glory We reply 1. That if sincere Obedience to the Lord's Command of believing be required as necessary in the way aforesaid to the obtaining of the promised Blessing of Eternal Life and Glory then even according to that Answer the Covenant-promise of Eternal Life and Glory is still conditional and Faith continued and persevered in to the end which is that sincere Obedience to the Lord's Command of believing is the Condition of it For the Definition and Essential Nature of a Gospel-condition agrees to Faith under that Consideration 2. We reply That the sincere Obedience which consists in the formal Elicit Act or Acts of believing is not all the sincere Obedience which is required as aforesaid And we thus prove it If it be false that no sincere Obedience is required as aforesaid but the Act of Faith then it is true that some Obedience is required as aforesaid besides the Act of Faith This proposition is self-evident because no obedience but the Act of Faith and some obedience besides the Act of Faith are manifest contradictories and two contradictories cannot possibly be both true nor both false but one of them must always be true and the other false and it cannot possibly be otherwise This being clear and undeniable we proceed to the next proposition and subsume But it is false That no sincere obedience is required as aforesaid but the Act of Faith For if no sincere Obedience but the Act of Faith be required as aforesaid that is be required as indispensably necessary to obtain the promised blessing of Eternal Life and Glory then it follows by necessary consequence that a Christian our Authour may instance in and apply it to himself or any other as he pleaseth We say it necessarily follows that a Christian if he doth but keep Faith and now and
through Grace we be sincerely obedient we shall be saved but if not we shall be damned Now this Faith acting upon the several parts of God's Word according to their respective Natures is of great force and efficacy to determine us unto the practice of sincere Obedience 1. the Faith of God's Word commanding sincere Obedience as indispensably necessary to Salvation makes our Consciences how down to God's Authority in the Command and makes us endeavour to yeild Obedience to it 2. The Faith of God's Word of threatning against the disobedient Rebel works upon our Fears 2 Cor. 5.10 11. Heb. 4.1 and Fear restrains us from disobedience lest thereby we should bring upon our selves the everlasting punishment threatned 3. The Faith of God's Word of Promise to obedient Believers works upon our hope and hope quickens us unto Obedience as the necessary means to obtain the Eternal Reward promised It makes us follow after Holiness in expectation of Happiness 1 John 3.2 3. It is essential to saving Faith to act thus differently on the several parts of the Word according to their respective Natures making us tremble at the Threatnings embrace the Promises and by that means obey the Commands of God As our Confession of Faith intimates in Chap. 14. Art 2. Now our Faith its being thus naturally fitted to make us sincerely obedient unto the Lord in all his Commands and Institutions ariseth partly from hence that the indispensable necessity of sincere Obedience in order to the obtaining of Eternal Salvation is one of the objects of a sound Faith which it firmly assents to and is strongly perswaded of For this firm assent and strong perswasion that sincere Obedience is so necessary to Salvation will not let us rest but will be still putting us on to yeild sincere Obedience unto the Law of Christ as that which must be done or we shall be undone for ever But if a Man be once firmly perswaded in his own Mind that no sincere Obedience but onely the Act of Faith in way of Obedience is indispensably necessary to Salvation his Faith will not have so much Power over him to make him sincerely obedient unto the Lord in order to Salvation Indeed it is much to be doubted whether that Man hath a sincere Faith at all who is under the Power of this erroneous Opinion that no sincere Obedience distinct from the Act of Faith is indispensably necessary to Salvation for a sincere sound Faith amongst other of its Objects it believes this for one that as first Faith so next sincere Obedience is indispensably necessary to Salvation Thus we have proved our Second Proposition to wit It is false that no sincere Obedience but the Act of Faith is required as indispensably necessary to the obtaining the promised Blessing of Eternal Life and Glory Now both the Premisses being certainly and evidently true the Conclusion follows unavoidably which is this That it is true that some Obedience besides the Act of Faith is required as indispensably necessary to the obtaining of the promised Blessing of Eternal Life and Glory For who is so stark blind as not to see that if it be false that no Obedience but Faith is indispensably necessary to Salvation as we have proved it to be false then its contradictory is true that some Obedience besides Faith is indispensably necessary to Salvation We proceed then and thus argue If some Obedience besides Faith be indispensably necessary to Salvation then that some Obedience besides Faith must be either a most perfect personal sinless Obedience or an imperfect personal sincere Obedience There can be no other personal Obedience but one of these two thought indispensably necessary to Salvation But it is not it cannot be a most perfect personal sinless Obedience for if such an Obedience were required as indispensably necessary to Salvation then no Man could be saved because no meer Man ever performed such Obedience to the Law of God in this life no Man ever lived so holily as never to sin in Thought Word or Deed after his Conversion and ãâ¦ã And so if such sinless personal Obedience were required of all as indispensably âââââsary to Salvation no Flesh could be saved but all would be damned notwithstanding all that Christ hath done and suffered to purchase Salvation for his People Christ's blood would have been so far shed in vain that not one Soul would be saved by it which were Blasphemy to affirm and therefore it cannot be that now under the Gospel-Covenant a most perfect personal sinless Obedience is required of us as indispensably necessary to Salvation Since therefore some personal Obedience besides Faith is indispensably necessary to Salvation and it is not a most perfect personal sinless Obedience that is so necessary we must of necessity conclude that it is an imperfect personal sincere Obedience which besides Faith is indispensably necessary to Salvation The other most perfect personal sinless Obedience is not attainable in this Life by the ordinary assistance of God's Grace but this personal imperfect yet sincere Obedience is attainable in this Life by the ordinary helps of God's Spirit and Grace For Christ's yoke is easie and his burden is light Mat. 11.30 And God's Commandments are not grievous 1 John 5.3 The Spirit helpeth our infirmities Rom. 8.26 Through the Spirit we mortifie the deeds of the body Rom. 8.13 We purify our souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit c. 1 Pet. 1.22 In short though without Christ we can do nothing John 15.5 Yet through Christ strengthening us we can do all things Phil. 4.13 that is we can do all things which Christ requires of us as indispensably necessary to our obtaining the promised Blessing of Eternal Life and Salvation If any should object against this and say that a Man may be saved although he do not perform that Obedience which is indispensably necessary to Salvation because though he fall into very great Sins yet he may repent of them and so be saved through Christ upon his repentance We Answer 1. That it is contradictious Non-sence to say a Man may be saved without that sincere Obedience which God hath made indispensably necessary to his Salvation 2. We answer with Rutherford and others as aforesaid that when a Regenerate Justified Man fulls into gross Sins against Knowledge and Conscience he cannot be saved whilst he continues in those Sins without Repentance for then he doth not walk after the Spirit but rather after the Flesh then he is going astray from the way that leads to Life and Salvation and is walking in the broad way that leads to destruction And therefore if he do not turn back and return again into the narrow way that leads to Life and Salvation he will certainly be undone he will perish everlastingly Rom. 8.13 If ye live after the flesh ye shall die But when a justified Man that had fallen as is said rises again by Repentance he returns to his Obedience And we desire it
may be observed and remembred that when we say sincere Obedience is indispensably necessary to Salvation we do not mean that it is required as absolutely and indispensably necessary to our Salvation that our sincere Obedience be never at all interrupted by any Acts of disobedience but that if it happen that our Obedience be at any time notably interrupted by Acts of wilful presumptuous Sin it is indispensably necessary to our Salvation that we renew our Faith and Repentance and return to our Obedience again and that we dye in Faith and Obedience to the revealed Will of God As for them who are called at the last Hour who are first converted and justified a little before their Death Actual Faith and Repentance is required of them in their own Persons and as much more sincere Obedience as they have time and strength to performe As we see in the penitent Thief he performed a great deal of Obedience in a little time he not onely believed in Christ with his Heart but confessed him with his Mouth pleaded for him and vindicated him from the blasphemous Aspersions that were cast upon him He likewise took shame to himself and gave Glory to God by confessing his own Sins and withal he expressed his Love to his Fellow-Thief by rebuking and admonishing him Lastly He trusted in and prayed unto Christ as a Lord and King who had a Kingdome in another World and who could help and save him after this Life Luke 22.40 41 42. This that penitent Malefactor did at his Death and truly this was a great deal for him to do at such a time and when Christ his Lord and Saviour was before his Face in so low and miserable a Condition to the Eye of Sense and Reason The Obedience which that poor penitent Believer yeilded to the Lord in such Circumstances may well be esteemed equivalent to all that sincere Obedience which in the space of many Years others in better Circumstances perform unto the Lord. Thus we have at large prosecuted and cleared this Argument for the indispensable necessity of sincere Obedience to the obtaining of Eternal Life and Salvation and consequently for the Conditionality of the Covenant-promise of Eternal Life and Salvation And the Argument seems to us so clear and cogent that we do not see any thing of weight that can be objected against it If any should say that sincere Evangelical Obedience is not only necessary to Salvation as the condition to be performed on our parts but upon other accounts also We heartily acknowledge that it is so It is necessary to express our Love and Thankfulness to God and Christ for their wonderful Goodness and Grace Mercy and Love to us As also it is necessary in order to the pleasing and Glorifying our God Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier and that thereby we may profit and edifie our Neighbours But this doth by no means hinder its being likewise indispensably necessary to our own Salvation nay all this is a part of that Obedience which is so necessary to our Salvation If yet any should further object and say that besides Faith sincere Obedience may be indispensably necessary to Salvation and yet not be a Condition of obtaining Salvation We answer that we do not love to contend with any about the use of the word condition if they will grant us the thing signified by the Word Now by the Word condition in this matter of Obedience we mean no more but that sincere Obedience is so necessary to Salvation that God by his Promise hath suspended our obtaining of Salvation consummate Salvation in Heavenly Glory till we have performed sincere Obedience unto him assuring us that if through Grace we perform sincere Obedience unto him we shall certainly be saved but if not we shall not be saved This is all we mean by sincere Obedience its being the Condition of the Covenant-promise of Salvation If our Brethren agree to this they yeild us the thing that we contend for and there remains no more difference as to this matter but about the use of the word condition and if they do not think fit to use that Word we leave them to their Liberty not to use it as we desire they would leave us to our Liberty to use it as we have occasion For though the Word be not in Scripture yet the thing signified by the Word is manifestly there as we have proved It is also a Word of Antient usage in the Christian Church even in the best Reformed Churches before ever we were born why then should we forbear the use of the Word condition or why should any be offended at our using of it Indeed we cannot forbear the using of it for the Reason given us by some well-meaning Men because it is not a Scriptural-word For if that Reason prove any thing it will prove too much to wit that we should not use the Words Trinity Incarnation Satisfaction Merit of Christ Sacrament Infant-baptism c. and which is more that we should wholly give over Preaching the Gospel and hereafter only Read the Holy Scripture without Expounding it for we are sure that no Man doth or can Preach one Sermon without using some Word or Words that are not expresly in the Scripture And as our sincere Obedience may be and really is a Condition of obtaining Eternal Salvation though it be not expresly called by that Name in Scripture so may it be and really it is a Condition though it be performed by the help of God's Grace We know this is the main Reason why our Brethren think that neither our Faith nor Obedience can be a Condition of the Covenant because they are wrought in us by the special and effectual Grace of God but we know also that this is a very weak Reason For 1. We do not say that that is the Condition of the Covenant which is the Work and Effect of Gods Grace alone Such is effectual Calling on God's part and the infusion of the Seminal abiding principle of supernatural Spiritual Life It is God only who calls us effectually and who infuses the said Principle of Grace and Life into our Souls and we are merely passive in the reception of it We never said nor thought that it is required of us by way of Duty or Condition that we should effectually call our selves and infuse a supernatural Principle of Grace and Life into our selves This indeed would be very absurd Therefore we hold that our being effectually called and our having an abiding principle of Grace and Life given in unto us is quid prae-requisitum something pre-required to our right performing the condition but not the condition it self That which is required of us by way of Duty and Condition on which God promiseth us the subsequent blessings of the Covenant It is that we do not resist his Spirit and that by the grace of his Spirit we do actually believe and obey and persevere to the end Now the Grace of God whereby
we believe and obey is so far from hindring our actual Faith and Obedience from being the Condition that on the contrary it conduceth very much to make them the Condition the Gracious Evangelical Condition of the Covenant and without it they could not be such a Condition As to what they say that special Grace necessarily causeth our Faith and Obedience we answered before that special Grace doth not cause our actual Faith and Obedience with any such kind of necessity as is inconsistent with or destructive of the true liberty of our Souls in believing and obeying Augustin the great asserter of the necessity and efficacy of Supernatural Grace against the Pelagians and Semipelagians says in his 46 Epist. to Valentinus Obedientiam nostram Deus requirit quae nulla potest esse sine libero arbitrio God requires our Obedience which without the liberty of our minds can be no obedience And our own Westminster Confession of Faith in chap 19. atr 7. says that the Spirit of Christ subdues and enables the will of man to do that freely and chearfully which the will of God revealed in the Law requireth to be done Dr. Twisse also saith frequently that the effectual will and grace of God doth not destroy but establisheth the freedom of our actions particularly in his Answer to Hoard his God's Love to Mankind Book 2. page 103. He writes thus against Mr. Mason when once God hath planted in us a principle of new Life of the Life of Grace by the Spirit of Regeneration See 127 page of his Desence of the Synod of Dort c. though all the powers thereof do incline only to that which is good like as the powers of natural corruption incline only unto evil yet the particular use and exercise of those is always free Like as the particular use and exercise of the powers of our Corruption is always free to the committing of this or that sin according unto the emergent occasions standing in congruity to every mans particular disposition And pag. 104. Should he Mr. Mason have laid to our charge that we maintain that God necessitates the will to any good act and to over-rule the will therein we should utterly deny it without distinction It is true he over-rules the will of the flesh but not the will of the spirit the Regenerate part but moves it agreeably to its nature and to work not only voluntarily but freely whatsoever it worketh For albeit the Regenerate part is like a moral vertue though as much transcendent to it as a thing supernatural transcends a thing natural inclining only to that which is good yet is it always moved to this particular good rather than to another most freely Like as a mans natural Corruption inclines a man only to evil yet to this kind of evil or to this particular evil rather than to that Man is moved most freely So that if we maintain not that God works a Man to every good act otherwise than freely let the very conscience of our Enemies judge whether we can maintain that God necessitates the will either of Men or Devils unto sin And in the next page 105 he brings for confirmation of what he had said the 11th Article of the Church in Ireland where this position is first laid down that God from all Eternity did by his Unchangeable Counsel ordain whatsoever in time should come to pass and then it is forthwith added That hereby no violence is offered to the Wills of the reasonable Creatures and neither the liberty nor the contingency of second Causes is taken away but established rather Then again in page 108. This is clearly our Doctrine to wit that when God never so effectually works any Creature to the producing of an act connatural to it yet he works the Creature thereunto agreeably to its Nature that is if it be a necessary agent moves it to work necessarily if it be a contingent agent moves it to work contingently and if it be a free agent moves it to work freely and in effect it is the Doctrine of all them who say that God determines the Will as the Dominicans or that God necessitates the Will as Bradwardin For they acknowledge hereby that God moves the Creatures to work freely in such sort That in the very act of working they might do otherwise if they would They confess this providence of God is a great mystery and not sufficiently comprehensible by humane reason Cajetan professeth thus much as before alledged and Alvarez maintaineth it in a set disputation Thus far Twiss whereby we see that he held all the good we do to be acts of free Obedience notwithstanding that we produce them by the assistance of Gods effectual Grace yea that they are so free that though secundum quid in some respect it is necessary for them to be produced yet simpliciter absolutè See page 116 117 118 119 120. simply and absolutely it is possible for them not to be produced And if our Actual Faith and Obedience be free acts of ours notwithstanding that they are also effects of God's Grace then they may be our Duties also And indeed they are Duties so necessarily required of us as that the obtaining of Justification and Glorification is suspended by the promises till the performance of them as was proved before And then it follows by necessary consequence that they are Evangelical Conditions of the promises because they have the Essential Nature of an Evangelical Condition Here we take notice by the way that there are some who distinguish between the Covenant of Grace and the administration of it and they say themselves and would make all others say with them that the Covenant it self is absolute to the Elect but that the administration of it is conditional in the preaching of the Gospel * A brief Account of the State of the differences now depending and agitated about Justification page 4. Now we must declare that we cannot say without distinction as some would have us to do that the Covenant of Grace is absolute to the Elect. We have already said and proved that the Covenant of Grace made with the Church through Christ is a complex of many promises whereof some are indeed absolute yet not so absolute neither as to exclude all use of means such are the promises of the first Grace of saving Faith and Repentance c. but others of them are conditional even to the Elect such are the promises of the subsequent blessings of the Covenant as of Justification pardon of sin and Eternal Life We do not find that those subsequent blessings of the Covenant are ever promised to any of Adams Posterity but upon some Condition expressed or implyed and most frequently the Conditions are expressed with a plain Declaration that as many as perform the conditions shall have the promised Blessings but they who never perform the conditions shall never have the promised blessings This shows plainly that the Covenant
sometimes two as in Acts 20.20 21 27. compared the Apostle comprehends the whole counsel of God under Repentance and Faith also in that of Solomon Fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole of Man Eccles 12.13 So that if you could suppose a Man to be a Believer and to be a Believer alone it would not save him as the Apostle James saith chap. 2.14 What doth it profit my Brethren though a man say he hath faith and have not works can faith save him No no more than saying be ye warmed will warm any or be ye filled will fill any for Faith without works is dead And what is said of this may be said of the rest so that when the Scripture speaks of Salvation as annexed to any one thing it supposeth that to contain the rest The reason is evident for the Graces of God as saving are not parted There is no believing to Salvation without Repentance nor no Repentance to Salvation without believing there is no calling upon the Name of the Lord will save without departing from iniquity nor can they savingly depart from iniquity that call not on the Name of the Lord. It is not any one thing but things that pertain to the Kingdom of God Acts 1.3 It is not thing but things that accompany or as it may be better read contain Salvation Heb. 6.9 And he that takes one for all without all as our wise Authour doth will find nothing at all A part is no portion The great fallacy with which Satan deludes many men is that which Logicians call à benè compositis ad malè divisa When he gets them to take Religion into pieces and then take one piece for Religion One cries up God another cries up Christ another Faith another Love another good Works but what is God without Christ or Christ without Faith or Faith without Love or Love without Works But now take God in Christ by Faith which worketh by Love to the keeping of the Commandments of God and this is pure Religion It is the whole that is the whole of Man Yet again though I have spoken thus much to it let me make it clearer than a demonstration That one is put for all and as containing all by comparing these places of Scripture In 1 Cor. 7.19 You read that circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing but keeping the Commandments of God What 's that Why that is all in all In Gal. 5.6 It is neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but Faith which worketh by Love That 's that which availeth or is all in all Yet in Gal. 6.15 he saith neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new Creature That 's all in all And yet for all this as if all this were nothing he tells us in Col. 3.11 That Christ is all and in all cashiering both circumcision and uncircumcision as formerly Now my beloved if you should take any one of these though each be said to be availing I say if you should take any one and lay the stress of your Salvation upon it you were undone Let our Authour and his Proselytes look to themselves It is not keeping the Commandments of God nor Faith working by Love nor the new Creature no nor Christ himself considered alone and apart that availeth any thing but these in conjunction He names one onely because where one is it is not only one there is more than one wherever one is savingly there are all in their respective places as far as they are to be in relation to Salvation Thus you see that Faith as well as Works and Works as well as Faith every one in their own order are to be taken in or we shall not be taken into the Kingdom of Heaven This Rule of interpreting Scripture is one of Vennings things that are well worth the thinking on and therefore we have set it down at large If it be duly attended to it will give light sufficient to discover the darkness of our Authours Ignorance or Hypocrisie But he objects further That no answer but this alone can rightly heal the wound of an awakened Conscience pag. 15. We reply That what he says is false and delusive in his sense taking Faith for one single act of one Grace and Duty exclusive of Repentance and all other Graces and Duties But take it according to God's usual way of speaking much in a little and in a complex comprehensive sense as taking in or not excluding but rather supposing Repentance and it is most true For the Vertue and Efficacy of Christ's Blood applyed by the Spirit and Faith to the Soul prepared by Repentance is indeed the only Remedy that can heal it But if our Authour will say that Faith in Christ alone and without Repentance will heal the wounds of awakened consciences in wicked Men at their first Conversion we cannot choose but rank him amongst those Covetous deceitful Prophets and Priests who heal the hurt of the People slightly saying Peace peace when there is no peace Jerem. 6.13 14. We are infallibly sure from the Scriptures of Truth That the Apostles Commission was to preach Repentance as well as Faith in order to Mens Justification and Salvation and that they were obedient to the Commands of their Great and Glorious Lord and preached according to their Commission For we read in God's Holy Word that when the Consciences of a multitude of unbelieving Jews who had been accessory to the most barbarous murder of Christ the Son of God and Saviour of Men were throughly awakened and their Spirits were deeply wounded by the Arrows of Conviction which Almighty God by his Word and Spirit had shot into their Souls they feeling themselves pricked in their hearts said unto Peter and to the rest of the Apostles Men and Brethren what shall we do Acts 2.37 then as follows vers 38. Peter said unto them Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins c. Here we have a Company of People in great distress of Conscience as the Goaler was and in this their Spiritual distress they do as the Goaler did As the Goaler sought advice of Paul and Silas and asked them what he should do to be saved Just so the awakened convinced Jews sought advice of Peter and the rest of the Apostles and asked them What they should do To whom Peter answered Repent and be baptized c. Whereupon we demand of our Authour was this answer of Peter a right answer or not 1. We hope he will not he dare not say it was not a right answer For Peter was an Apostle as well as Paul and at that very time he was full of the Holy Ghost and spake as he was inspired by the Holy Ghost If then he should be so bold as to say that Peter did not give them a right answer because he did not say to them as Paul said to the
be pardoned and saved for the sake of Christ who shed his most precious Blood for the remission of sins 3. The very same Words ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã are used in this same sense by Origen in his Third Book against Celsus Cambridge Edition pag. 154. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã God grants the Grace of Repentance i. e. the Gracious Blessing and Priviledge which is obtained by Repentance to wit pardon of sin This is and must be the sense of Origen's Words there and they can have no other For Origen affirms there in opposition to the Calumny of Celsus as shall be shewed by and by that Men must first be truly penitent they must be inwardly changed and converted from Evil to Good before God be merciful to them so as to pardon their sins And when they are so wrought upon as to be really changed converted and become truly penitent then ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã God grants them the Grace of Repentance that is the pardon of their sins which is the gracious Benefit annexed to Repentance and promised to all upon Condition that they truly repent To put another sense on Origen's Words would be to make Non-sense of them and to make him say That if Men be first truly penitent God will afterwards give them Grace whereby they may be or are made truly penitent Origen was not such a filly Man as to write thus foolishly for the Christian Religion against a learned and malitious Heathen 4. Clement and Origen's ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Grace of Repentance is the same thing with Tertullian's Fructus Paenitentiae Fruit of Repentance but Tertullian's Fruit of Repentance is pardon of sin for so he writes Lib. de Pudicitiâ Cap. 10. Ita cessatio delicti radiae est veniae ut venia sit paenitentiae fructus Ceasing from sin is so the root of pardon that pardon is the fruit of repentance 5. And Lastly the Words-which immediately follow in Clement shew this to be his meaning for he adds Let us take a diligent view of all Generations and learn that in every Generation the Lord hath given place of Repentance to such as were willing to turn unto him Noah preached Repentance and they that obeyed were saved Jonah preached Destruction to the Ninivites but they repenting them of their sins appeased God by their humble Supplications and were preserved These Words plainly shew that by saying that through the Blood of Christ shed for our Salvation God hath offered the Grace of Repentance to the whole World Clement meant that God hath admitted all Men to Repentance as the way and means to obtain Pardon and hath promised and according to his Promise doth give them Pardon for Christ's sake upon their Repentance But it may be some will Object that yet the same Clement in the same First Epistle to the Corinthians saith pag. 67. They the Holy Men before and under the Law were all Glorified and made Great not by themselves or by their own Works or by the just Actions which they did but by his Will So we Christians then being called in Christ Jesus by his Will are not justified by our selves nor by our own wisdome or knowledge or piety or by the works which we have done in holiness of heart but by Faith whereby the Almighty God hath Justified all Men from the beginning of the World to whom he Glory for ever and ever Amen We Answer that this makes nothing against us for we have believed we do and through Grace will always believe that God Justisies us by Faith and not by any Works distinct from Faith in the sense before explained that is that God of his own Gracious Will and Pleasure hath ordained Faith to be the only receptive applicative Condition Means or federal moral Instrument of Justification upon our performing of which Condition or using of which Means and Instrument God doth freely justifie us for the sake of Christ's satissactory meritorious Righteousness onely We do indeed with Clement and with the Holy Prophets and Apostles believe that sincere Repentance is pre-required as a dispositive Condition to our obtaining of Justification yet we do not say any more than they did that we are Justified by Repentance but together with them we say that we are Justified by Faith only because God hath appointed Faith onely to that Office of being the receptive Condition and inward applicative Means of Justifiaation through Christ's Blood Clemeut's saying that God Justifies us by Faith and not by Works must undoubtedly be understood in this sense as appears by what we have quoted and shall now further quote out of him Pag. 102. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. Let us speedily remove this evil from among us and let us fall down before the Lord humbly beseeching him with Tears that being become favourable he would be reconciled unto us By this Passage we see that Clement held as we do that repenting of mourning for and turning from our known sins and humble earnest Prayer to God through Christ is a means indispensably necessary to be used by us before we can have ground to hope that God will have mercy on us in pardoning our sins And as he held Faith and Repentance together to be indispensably necessary to the obtaining of Justification and pardon of sin so he held sincere Obedience in a course of holy living to be indispensably necessary to the obtaining of Glorification and Eternal Salvation For thus he writes pag. 61 62. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. Since therefore all things are both seen and heard by him let us fear him and forsake all foul desires of evil Actions that so we may be protected by his Mercy from those Judgments which are to come For whither can any one of us flee from his powerful Hand And what World will entertain any of them who fall off from him or turn Renegado's Let us come unto him therefore in the holiness of our Souls lifting up unto him pure and undefiled hands loving this our gentle and merciful Father who hath made us unto himself the portion of his election And pag. 73. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã c. Let us therefore earnestly strive to be sound in the number of them that wait on him that so we may be made Partakers of those Gifts which are promised But Beloved how shall this be done If our Thoughts be stedfastly fixed upon God by Faith if we enquire after those things which are well-pleasing and acceptable unto him if we do those things which are agreeable to his pure and irreproveable will and follow the way of Truth Casting away from us all injustice and iniquity covetousness contentions malignities and deceits whisperings and backbitings hatred of God pride and boasting vain-glory and ambition for they that do these things are abominable unto God and not onely the Doers thereof but they also which consent thereunto For the Scripture saith c. As in Psalm 50. which Clement quotes from v. 16.
is bad counsel to tell an awakened Sinner that he must repent of his known sins mourn for them leave and loath them Cyprian was more loving and faithful to the Souls of Men than so to betray them to the Enemy of their Salvation he would have lost his Life before he would have done it And indeed he did at last lose his Life for his faithfulness to Christ and to the Souls of his People He laid down his life for the brethren he sealed the Truth of Christ's Gospel with his Blood about the Year of our Lord 250 and that is above fourteen hundred years ago These five Fathers flourished within the first Three Hundred years after Christ when the Church was in its greatest purity and Three of them to wit Clement Justin and Cyprian were Martyrs we need say no more to vindicate our Doctrine from the aspersion of Novelty which is fulsty cast upon it yet we think fit to add further two or three Testimonies of those Fathers who afterwards were great Asserters of the necessity and efficacy of God's Grace against the Peâugians of which the chief was the famous Augustin who they say was born in Africa the faâhe day that Pelagius was born in Britain the Lord intimating by that Providence that he had raised up Augustin to be an instrument in his hand to mantain and defend the necessity and efficacy of his Grace against Pelagius who deuyed it Now in his 105 Epistle to Sixtus This great Champion of the Church in his time saith That no Man is delivered and justified from any sin original or actual of omission or commission nisi gratiâ Dei per Jesuââ Christâââ Dominum nostrum ãâã Solùm remissione peccatorum sed priùs ipsius inspiratione fidei timoris Dei impartiâo salubriter orationis affectu effectu But by the Grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord not only by forgiving him his sins but first by inspiring into him Faith and the fear of God the affection and effect of Prayer being savingly impairted unto him In this passuge of Augustins we observe That 1. He affirms that non liberatur justificatur quisquam nisi gratiâ Dei c. That no Man is freed and justified from any sin but by the Grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 2. That God's Grace in our Justificution appeals not only in his forgiving as our sins for the sake of Christ but also in this that prins fâst before he justifies us in forgiving our sins he inspires into us Faith in Christ and fear of God and in that he gives us an inclination and ability to pray and excites us to actual Prayer For that is the thing that he means by affectus effectus erationis salubriter impartiâus The Affection of Prayer is the fitness and disposition of the Mind for the Duty and we conceive that the effect of Prayer in this place signi ãâ¦ã pâaying of the Soul its actual breathing after God for tho pardon of its sins These three things Faith Fear and Prayer in Augustins Judgment go before remission of sins and so before Justification of which according to our Confessions and Catechisms Remission of sin is an essential part at least And the consequence of this is that according to Austin there is some Spiritual good wrought in us and done by us before our sins be pardoned and we be justified And so we are qualified at least for pardon and that by the Grace of God in Christ The same Authour in another Book saith Homines non intolligentes quod ait ipse Apostolus lib. de grat lib. urb cap. 7. ãâ¦ã hominem per âidem sine operibus legis putarverunt eum dicere sufficere homini fidem etianise malè vivat bona opera non habeat quod absit ut sentiret vas electionis c. Men not understanding that which the Apostle bimself saith we judge that a man is justified by Faith without the works of the Law They have thought that he said Faith is sufficient to a man although he live a wicked life and have not good works Which God forbid that that chosen Vessel shâild have thought or believed Who when he had said in a certain place In Christ cyesus neither Circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth any thing immediately he âdâea but âaith which worketh by Love This is that Faith which distinguisheth ââd separateth God's faithful People from the unclean Devils for even they as the Aâoâtle James saith believe and tremble but they do no good works therefore they have noâ that Faith by which the just doth live that is which works by love that God may render unto him Eternal Life according to his works But because we have even good works themselves from that God from whom we have Faith and Love therefore the same teacher of the Gentiles hath called Eternal Life it self Grace or Gist And in the next and 8th Chapter he saith That Paul in Ephes 2.8 9. Having written that we are saved by Grace through Faith and that not of our selves it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should hoast he saw that men might think that this was so spoken as if good works were not necessary to Believers but that Faith alone was sufficient to them And again that men may be proud of their good works as if they were able of themselves to do them therefore he immediately added for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which he hath prepared that we should walk in them Audi intellige non ex operibus dictum tanquam tuis ex teipso tibi existentibus Hear and understand saith Austin It is said not of works as if they were thine own which thou hadst of and from thy self for thou art created in Christ Jesus unto them We have also a large Confession of Faith of Fifteen Pastors of the Church of Christ in Africa Fulgent de Incarn Gra. J. Chr. concerning the Incarnation and Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ it was indeed written by one of them to wit the Famous Fulgentius but all their Naines are prefixed to it and it is by them directed to Petrus Diaconus In the 17th Chapter of that Book they write thus Ipse Salvator noster c. Our Saviour himself with the commanding power of his own voice speaks unto the will of man saying repent and believe the Gospel yet it is clear a man receives from God Repentance unto Life that he may begin to believe in God so that he cannot believe in God at all unless he receive Repentance by the gift of God who sheweth Mercy But what is a Mans Repentance but the change of his Will ãâã Theresore God who gives a Man Repentance doth himself change Mans Will Now observe here 1. That in the Judgment of the foresaid Fifteen Fathers the Lord both Commands and gives Repentance unto Life 2. That the Lord gives Repentance before
we believe in God because he gives us Repentance that we may begin to believe in God 3. That we cannot believe in God at all unless God first give us Repentance which must be understood in this sense that we cannot believe at all with the Faith of fiducial consent and recumbency unless it be first given us to repent for it is self-evident that we can and do believe with the Faith of assent before we do repent and indeed we neither do nor can repent till we first believe with the Faith of assent as was shewed before And it is clear from their own words that they meant not that we cannot believe with the Faith of assent but that we cannot believe with the Faith of consent and fiducial recumbency unless it be first given us to repent Their words are A Man receives from God Repentance unto Life ut in Deum credere incipiat that he may begin to believe in God Now by believing in God undoubtedly they meant believing in him so as to consent to have him for our God and so as to trust him as our God And could not mean only believing so far as to assent that there is a God and that his word is true For they were the Disciples of Holy Austin and had learned of him to distinguish between credere Deum credere Deo credere in Deum believing a God and believing that all God saith is true and believing in God so as to love him and take him for our God and trust him as our God It is this believing in God which they say cannot be begun till we have first repented through Grace and this is a great Truth as we shewed before out of Calvin And since this believing with fiducial consent and recumbency is justifying Faith it follows evidently that those Fifteen Fathers held Repentance to be before Remission of Sins and before Justification as it consists in Remission of Sins because they held it to be before Justifying Faith whereby we receive Remission of sins Act. 10.43 4. We observe they say that Repentance is a change of our Will and God himself by giving us Repentance changes our Wills Therefore in the Judgment of those Fifteen Fathers there is and must be a real change in us before we be justified and pardoned And we must let our Authour know that these Fathers which are for us against him were burning and shining Lights in their day Most of them if not all suffered banishment for the true Faith of Christ under the persecution of the Arian Vandals in Africa For we have a Synodical Epistle of theirs concerning the Grace of God and the will of man which was written by them in their Exile in Sardinia to which Twelve of their Names are prefixed the self-same names which are prefixed to the foresaid confession of Faith concerning the Incarnation and Grace of our Lord Jesus directed to Petrus Diaconus and his Brethren who were come from the Eastern Churches to receive information concerning the Faith of the Westorn Churches We will here cite one short passage out of the Synodical Epistle of those Twelve banished Pastors of Christ's Church It is in the 10th Chapter Quod autem vos dicitis c. As to what ye who wrote to us say that man is saved by the alone Mercy of God but they say unless a man run and labour with his own will he cannot be saved We answer that both are fitly held if the right order be kept between the Mercy of God and will of man that Mercy go before and the Will follow that God's Mercy alone confer the beginning of Salvation with which afterwards the Will of Man may cooperate towards its own Salvation that God's Mercy preventing or going before may direct the course of mans will and that mans will obeying through the same Mercy or Grace following it may according to its intention run towards the heavenly prize Here we see that it was the Judgment of those Twelve Confessors That we are saved by the alone Mercy and Grace of God if through Grace preventing and assisting us we yield Obedience to the Lord and run and labour to obtain the prize of Eternal Life and Glory And that if we do not this we cannot be saved This is what we say that sincere Obedience is so indispensably necessary that without it we cannot be saved It shall suffice at present to have demonstrated by the Testimonies aforesaid that we are no Innovators no Preachers of a new Gospel and Divinity in this matter since we have Christ and his Apostles and the Fathers of the best and purest Ages on our side all giving in testimony for us and against our Authour It will not consist with our designed brevity to alledge more testimonies of the Doctors of the Primitive Church and therefore we pass from them to the Modern Divines the Doctors and Pastors of the Reformed Churches We begin with the Augustan Confession of Faith and the Edition we make use of is that which was printed at Wittenbergh in the year 1540. In the 20th Testimonies of Modern Divines Article concerning Faith these are its words Primum igitur de fide justificatione sic docent Christus apte complexus est summam Evangelii c. First therefore they the Protestant Ministers and Churches thus teach concerning Faith and Justification Christ hath fitly comprehended the Sum of the Gospel when in the last Chapter of Luke he commands Repentance and Remission of sins to be preached in his Name For the Gospel reproves sin and requires Repentance and at the same time offers Remission of sins freely for Christ's sake and not for our own worthiness And as the preaching of Repentance is universal so also the promise of Grace is universal and commands all to believe and receive the benefit of Christ as Christ says Come unto me all ye that are heavy laden And Paul says He is rich unto all that call upon him Therefore though some Contrition and Repentance is necessary yet we must believe that Remission of sins is given unto us and that of unjust we are made just that is reconciled or accepted and made the Children of God freely for Christ's sake and not for the worth or merit of contrition or of other works that go before or follow after But this benefit is to be received by faith c. Therefore when we say that we are justified by Faith we do not understand this that we are just for the Dignity Worth or Merit of the Vertue of Faith it self But this is the meaning that we obtain the remission of sins and the imputation of Righteousness through Mercy for Christ's sake but this Mercy cannot be received but by Faith And here Faith signifies not merely the knowledge of the History but it signifies to believe the promise of Mercy which we obtain for Christ the Mediator For what can be more acceptable to an afflicted trembling conscience in its true
doth justify us and deserve our Justification unto us for that were to count our selves to be justified by some Act or Vertue that is within our selves but the true understanding and meaning thereof is that although we hear God's Word and believe it although we have Faith Hope Charity Repentance Dread and Fear of God within us and do never so many Works thereunto Yet we must renounce the Merit of all our said Vertues of Faith Hope Charity and all other Vertues and good Deeds which we either have done shall do or can do as things that be far too weak and insufficient and imperfect to deserve remission of our sins and our Justification and therefore we must trust onely in God's Mercy and that Sacrifice which our High Priest and Saviour Christ Jesus the Son of God once offered for us upon the Cross to obtain thereby God's Grace and Remission as well of our Original Sin in Baptism as of all Actual Sin committed by us after our Baptism if we truly repent and turn unfeignedly to him again And at the end of the same 16. and beginning of 17. Page You see that the very true meaning of this Proposition or Saying we be Justified by Faith in Christ onely according to the meaning of the Old Antient Authours I is this We put our Faith in Christ that we be justified by him only that we be Justified by God's free Mercy and the Merits of our Saviour Christ onely and by no Vertue or good Works of our own that is in us or that we can be able to have or to do for to deserve the same Christ himself only being the Cause meritorious thereof All this we most heartily approve of But we doubt whether our Authour will join with us in it because he says the Papists own this That Christ onely is the Meritorious Cause of our Justification And if it be so Lett. pag. 6. then according to his reckoning the Church of England and we may be both Papists in the point of Justification notwithstanding that the said Homily was written purposely against the Papists and we have all subscribed to it It may be our Authour has so accustomed himself to call Men Papists when ever he is angry with them that he cannot forbear it and therefore as he used to call the Church of England Men Papists so now being angry with us his Passion may have excited him to bring his Habit into Act and to rank us also among Papists in the point of Justification But we leave this and proceed to what is more material and that is that if we be not Justified by Works because they do not nor cannot merit Justification then it will follow that for the same reason we are not Justified by Faith because Faith can no more merit Justification than Works This Objection the Authour or Authours of the Homily foresaw and answered it by confessing that Faith doth not Justify us on the account of its meritorious Nature but on another account Their Words are these As great and as godly a Vertue as the lively Faith is yet it putteth us from it self and remitteth or appointeth us unto Christ for to have only by him remission of our sins or Justification So that our Faith in Christ as it were saith unto us thus It is not I that take away your sins but it is Christ only and to him only I send you for that purpose forsaking therein all your good vertues Words Thoughts and Works and only putting your trust in Christ And in the Third Part Pag. 17. Nevertheless because Faith doth directly send us to Christ for remission of our sins and that by Faith given us of God we embrace the Promise of God's Mercy and of the remission of our sins which thing none other of our vertues or works properly doth therefore Scripture useth to say that Faith without Works doth Justify Thus far that Excellent Sermon And this is the same thing which we maintain That God hath chosen Faith above all other Graces and Vertues to be the receptive applicative Condition or moral Instrument and Means of Justification because it hath a proper and peculiar aptitude and fitness for that use being both of an illuminative and receptive Nature and as it is of an illuminative Nature it assures us that we can be Justified by no Satisfaction and Merit but that of Christ and so it sends us to him alone for Justification Then as it is of a receptive Nature it embraceth the Promise and takes hold of him and his Righteousness as held forth to us in the Promise that thereby and for the Satisfaction and Merits thereof alone and for no other thing we may be Justified In this sense we hold that we are Justified by Faith onely and that Faith is the onely receptive applicative Condition of Justification Yet this hinders not but that Repentance is the dispositive Condition of Justification The Homily saith expresly that Faith doth not shut out Repentance but that they are present together and that by Faith we trust only in Gods mercy and Christs Sacrifice to obtain thereby Remission of all Sins Original and Actual if we truly repent and turn unfeignedly to him again Part 2. pag. 16. Which words manifestly shew that they held Repentance to be a Condition of Justification but it cannot be according to the Authours of the Homily either a meritorious Condition for there is none such at all possible nor a receptive applicative Condition for that is the office of Faith onely Therefore it must be a dispositive Condition And then after one is Justified it is evident that they held sincere Obedience to be indispensably necessary to his continuing in a Justified state and obtaining Eternal Salvation For they say in Part 3. pag. 17. that if after we are Justified and made Members of Christ we care not how we live whether we do good or avoid evil Works we make our selves Members of the Devil and surely that is inconsistent with a Justified state Therefore to prevent our becoming Members of the Devil again sincere Obedience from a Principle of Faith and Love is indispensably necessary And that this was their true meaning is further evident from the Sermon of Good Works Part I. pag. 29. Where they quote and approve the saying of Chrysostom concerning the penitent Thief The words are This I will surely affirm that Faith onely saved him If he had lived and not regarded Faith and the works thereof he should have lost his Salvation again Indeed this is but a Supposition and we have no reason to think that if he had lived longer he would not have been careful to lead a Life of Faith and Holy Obedience yet if the antecedent be supposed the consequent necessarily follows that he would have lost his Salvation again For as it is in the Sermon of Faith To them that have evil works Second Part p. 24. and lead their Life in disobedience and transgression or
breaking of God's Commandements without Repentance pertaineth not everlasting Life but everlasting Death as Christ himself saith they that do evil shall go into everlasting fire Mat. 25. These Passages do manifestly show that in the Judgment of the Church of England as sincere Repentance is indispensably necessary to obtain forgiveness of sin so sincere Obedience from a principle of Faith and Love and bringing forth Fruits meet for Repentance is indispensably necessary to the escaping of eternal damnation and obtaining of eternal Salvation Let any Man read and consider the Sermon of Repentance in the same Book Tom. 2. pag. 324. and he will see this to be as clear as the Light at Noon-day We will quote one short Passage out of it in Page 339. they say The filihiness of sin is such that as long as we do abide in it God cannot but detest and abhorre us neither can there be any hope that we shall enter into the Heavenly Jerusalem except we be first made clean and purged from it But this will never be unless forsaking our former Life we do with our whole Heart return unto the Lord our God and with a full purpose of Amendment of Life flee unto his Mercy taking sure hold thereupon through Faith in the Blood of his Son Jesus Christ This excellent Passage shews clearly that as Faith is the receptive applicative Condition so true Repentance is the dispositive Condition of the Covenant of Pardon and Life and that the one is as necessary in its kind as the other is and that unless through Grace we do both we are undone for ever Thus we have shewed at large what was the old Gospel Doctrine of the Church of England at the Reformation and that our Doctrine is exactly the same Therefore it must needs be a most horrid we will not say lye but falsehood that we preach a new Gospel and that we are to be blamed for telling People that they must repent and mourn for their known sins leave and loath them and God will have Mercy upon them for Christ's sake From whole Societies of Protestants we pass to the Testimonies of Individual Pastours of the Reformed Churches And we begin with Calvin who in his Commentary on Ezek. 18.23 sayes Deus ergo non ita vult omnes salvos fieri ut discrimen omne tollat boni mali sed praecedit veniam poenitentia quemadmodum hîc dicitur Therefore God doth not so will all Men to be saved as to take away all difference between good and evil but Repentance goes before Pardon as it is here said And again on the same Text We hold therefore that God doth not will now the death of a Sinner because he calls all to Repentance without making a difference and promises that he shall be ready to receive them modo seriò resipiscant if they or on condition that they earnestly repent And in his Institutions he writes thus Lib. 3. cap. 3. Sect. 20. Quare ubi remissionem peccatorum offert Deus c. For which reason where God offers remission of sins he likewise useth to require on our part Repentance signifying thereby that his Mercy offered ought to cause Men to repent Doe saith he Judgment and Justice because Salvation is come near at band Isa 56.1 Likewise The Redeemer shall come to Sion and to them who turn from transgression in Jacob Isa 59.20 Again Seek the Lord while he may be found call upon him while he is near let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteousness of his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him Isa 55.6 7. Again Be converted and repent that your sins may be blotted out Acts 3.19 Where yet it is to be noted that this Condition to wit of Repentance is not so annexed to those Promises as if our Repentance were the ground of meriting our pardon but rather because the Lord hath determined to show mercy unto Men for this end that they might repent he shews them whither they are to go to wit unto God by Repentance if they will obtain Favour In these passages we observe 1. That Calvin says expresly That Repentance is a Condition annexed to the promise of pardon 2. That the performance of that Condition goes before pardon And 3. That therefore we are to repent and so perform the Condition that we may obtain the Grace of pardon 4. That in Calvin's Judgment Repentance is a Condition of Justification and that because Calvin believed Justification and pardon of sin to be the same thing as is most evident from what he writes against Osiander Instit 3d. Book cap. 11. Sect. 4.11 21 22. 5. That in Calvins Judgment Repentance is the dispositive Condition of Justification For it must be either the receptive or dispositive Condition but it cannot be the receptive Condition for in Calvin's judgment Faith is the only receptive Condition therefore it must be the dispositive Condition And indeed Calvin so held it to be for in his third Book of Institutions chap. 3. Sect. 18. He says Privatim Deo confiteri pars est verae poenitentiae quae omitti non potest Nihil enim minus consentaneum quam ut peccata ignoscat Deus in quibus nobis ipsi blandimur c. To confess our sins in secret to God is a part of true Repentance which cannot be omitted For nothing is less becoming or suitable than that God should forgive us those sins in which we flatter or please our selves On the contrary Calvin writing against Pighius says Contra Pigh de lib. arb lib. 5. Sect. Adducit tamen Sanè humiles Deus respicit sicut illi acceptum cordis contriti afflicti sacrificium David canit Indeed God hath regard unto the humble as David sings in his Psalm that the Sacrifice of a contrite and afflicted heart is acceptable and pleasing unto him These passages show That in Calvin's judgment an impenitent sinner is by reason of his impenitence unfit for pardon but that the true Penitent by his Humiliation and brokenness of Heart is disposed and fitted for pardon so that it is agreeable to the perfections of God's Nature to accept such a Person in Christ and to pardon his sins for Christ's sake And as Calvin held Faith and Repentance to be the Conditions of our Justification so did he hold sincere Obedience from a Principle of Faith and Love to be the Condition of our not falling from a justified state and of our obtaining the possession of Eternal Life and Glory For thus he writes in his Institutions Quoties ergo audimus c. Therefore as often as we hear lib. 3. cap. 17. Sect. 6. that God bestows his benefits on them who keep his Law we are to remember that God's Children are there designed or described by the Duty which they ought to be continually exercised in that we are for this reason adopted that we should reverence and honour him for
is by Obedience Moreover when we say that Justification is retained by Works that is not so to be taken as if it were done for the dignity or merit of our Actions but onely for the Redeemer's sake for whose sake the Person is first accepted and then the Actions also please God which otherwise of themselves would be impure and of no account But say they the perseverance or continuance of Justification is lost by wicked works But we say evil works are two ways to be considered in us either as they cleave to us or remain in us as in all the Saints through infirmity of the flesh and we by and by rise again by Repentance and Faith and such sin as the Apostle saith shall not have dominion over us Or again they may be considered as against our Conscience we willingly give up our selves to sin that we may serve it with evil delight But this sort of sin can no wise consist with this Faith of which Paul speaks which hath place in none but in those who being turned from sin are converted unto God And in the same Book pag. 374. Love is necessary and it pleaseth God to wit in those who are reconciled and for the sake of Christ For God naturally rejoiceth in the Obedience of those that are his which though it be imperfect yet endeavours such as they are he approves in those whom he hath reconciled to himself in Christ So then Faith that is Christ apprehended by Faith justifies us freely But we again ought by no means to receive that Grace in vain But he receives it in vain whosoever he be that doth not yeild himself obedient to the Commands and Example of Christ Thus far Mr. Fox where we see he plainly grants that sincere Obedience after we are justified is necessary that we may not lose the Grace of Justification and this is no more but that it is necessary to prevent our falling wilfully under the guilt of new sins of Omission and Commission which without renewing our Faith and Repentance and returning to God and our Obedience to him again would certainly damn us and sink us into Hell We mean no more by it and we believe that God for Christ's sake will keep all his justified ones from so falling away but withal we hold that God keeps us in a justified state partly by fear of falling into sin and partly by the Faith of the indispensable necessity of Obedience and Repentance as means to be used on our part to keep us from falling away The Lord puts his fear in our Hearts that we may not depart from him and he keeps us by his power through Faith unto Salvation From Fox we pass to Rollock another good Man unto whom a Famous and Learned Episcopal Divine Dr. Robert Baron hath given this Testimony that he was Sanctissimus Doctissimus c. a most Holy and Learned Man and that the Character of Moses might be truly attributed to him that he was very Meek above all the Men which were upon the Face of the Earth This Meek Saint wrote a Book of Effectual Calling at Edinburgh in the Year 1597. just about an Hundred Years agoe In which he affirms positively that the Covenant of Grace is conditional and that both Faith and Repentance go before Justification In the First Page of his Book he says Vocati eâdem Dei gratiâ respondent creduntque in Deum per Jesunt Christum Responsio haec sides est quae reipsâ est conditio promissionis Tract de Vocat Efficaci Edit Herborn 1618. c. They who are called effectually by the same Grace whereby they are called answer the call and believe in God through Jesus Christ This Answer is the Act of Faith which is the very Condition of the Promise that is in the Covenant of Grace Wherefore Effectual Calling consists in the Promise of the Covenant which is made on Condition of Faith and in Faith quae nihil aliud est quà m impletio conditionis which is no other thing but the fulfilling of the Condition And in the 24th Chapter pap 258. he sayes Resipiscontia Justificationem antecedit c. Repentance goes before Justification after the manner that Faith and Hope go before it For it is said of the Baptist that he preached the Baptism of Repentance for the Remission of sins Mark 1.4 and Luke 3.3 And if any would know what he means by that Repentance which he sayes goes before Justification after he had fully and clearly explained the nature of it in all its parts and shewed it to be an Evangelical Repentance and distinguished it from that which is called Legal he tells us in Page 257. what he meant by giving a short but comprehensive definition of it thus Resipiscentia est post functum malum jam perpetratum dolor propter offensum Dèum ex dolwe mutatio quaedam totius animi à malo in bonum Repentance is a grief or sorrow after the fact is done and the sin is committed for having thereby offended God and a change of the whole Soul from Evil to Good arising from that grief or sorrow This is the Repentance which Rollock sayes goes before Justification and it is remarkable that he makes a change of the whole Soul from Evil to Good to be essential unto this Repentance and consequently that in order of nature before Justification there is a real change of the whole Soul from Evil to Good This Doctrine was preached and written at Edinburgh an Hundred Years agoe and then it was accounted good Divinity and old Gospel and the Preacher of it was esteemed and that deservedly a great Saint and a Man of Learning and Judgment both at home and abroad How it should come to be New Divinity and a New Gospel or part of a new Gospel now is to us a Mystery for sure it is an Hundred Years older now than it was then Any Body therefore might think in all reason that our Authour came too late to give it a new Name There must be some Mystery in this business whatever it be We with it be not a Mystery of Iniquity From Rollock we pass to Zanchy because he lived in those Times and is one of those Divines whom our Authour would make the People believe to be for him and against us and that because he is against us therefore we are against him Lett. p. 27. and generally neglect and despise him But what if after all this Zanchy be clearly for us in this matter then it is to be hoped that People nor our Authour himself will not easily believe that we not only neglect but despise our good Friend And that he is such we are content that his own Words should judge between us Credimus ad veram justitiae Christi participationem Zanch. de Relig. cap. 18. Thes 1. coque ad ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã cum Christo necessariam esse poenitentiam c. We believe that Repentance is
neglect of Faith and Obedience cannot be culpable if they be not required 3. Because otherwise it would follow that in this Covenant God is bound to Man but Man is not bound to God which is most absurd and contrary to the nature of all Covenants wherein there is a mutual Agreement and reciprocal Obligation whereby the Parties Covenanting are bound to one another Afterwards in Page 204. he comes to Answer the Second Branch of the Question to wit Which are the Conditions of the New Covenant And saies that as for Faith there is no question but it is the Condition of the Covenant because the Scripture so clearly affirms it so to be Joh. 3.16 Rom. 1.16 17. and 10.9 And he sayes that Faith is the Condition of the Covenant as it hath respect unto and is the Instrumental Means of our Union with Christ Yea he maintains as we do that in this sense Faith is the onely Condition because there is no other Condition that is of a receptive applicative Nature as Faith is no other that receives Christ and applyes his Righteousness as Faith doth But in another sense there are other Conditions of the Covenant besides Faith that is if the Word Conditions be taken for all those things which a Man by the Covenant of Grace is bound to do then nothing hinders but Repentance and new Obedience may be called a Condition because they are comprehended among the Duties of the Covenant John 13.17 2 Cor. 5.17 Rom. 8.13 Moreover he holds that though new Obedience be not the primary antecedent yet it is the secondary subsequent Condition of the Covenant because being by Faith the primary Condition actually brought into Covenant now Obedience is medium via per quam tendimus ad plenam possessionem bonorum foederis the means and way by which we come to the full possession of the good things of the Covenant He saith we should distinguish between the Condition of Justification and the Condition of the Covenant the Promise of Justification is not the whole of the Covenant and therefore that which is the Condition of the Promise of Justification is not the whole Condition of the Covenant which adequately considered is of larger extent than the Promise of Justification He tells us lastly that we should distinguish between the first accepting of the Covenant and the after-keeping of the Covenant Faith accepts the Covenant by receiving the Promises Obedience keeps the Covenant by fulfilling the Commands Be ye holy for I am holy And yet this Obedience is not Legal but Evangelical because it is not meritorious it is the Fruit and Effect of an antecedent Principle of Spiritual Life wrought in us and of the actual Influence of the Spirit of Grace upon us and it is not rigorously exacted in the highest degree of Perfection as indispensably necessary to Salvation but though it be imperfect yet it is admitted and accepted through Christ if it be sincere We have here given a true and faithful account of the Judgment of the Learned and Judicious Turretin concerning the Conditionality of the Covenant of Grace with whom we agree in this matter which contains the sum of the Gospel as to Man's Duty especially and therefore if Turretin was no Legal Preacher no more are we and if he preached no new Gospel no more do we for we preach the same Gospel and in the same manner as he did There is one thing more wherein this worthy Divine and we do perfectly agree and that is concerning true Believers fallen into wilful sin against Knowledge and Conscience We say they cannot be saved till they have first recovered themselves through Grace by renewing their Faith and Repentance and returning to their Obedience again Now he sayes the same thing witness what he writes in the same Book Pag. 671 672. where he sayes That if a Believer fallen into gross sin against his Conscience be considered in himself and as guilty of such sin not repented of verum est reum esse mortis si in eo statu moreretur certo damnandum it is true that he is guilty of death and if he dyed in that state he would be certainly damned but if he be considered with respect to God's Decree of Election he is rightly said to be one who is to be absolved or pardoned and saved God so ordering the matter by his immense Love and Wisdome that he never dies in that state but by a renewed Act of Faith and Repentance he is first restored and returns into the way before he come to the end Whence it is that according to a twofold respect these two Propositions although they seem to be contrary may be both together true It is impossible that David a Person elected and a Man according to God's own Heart should perish It is impossible that David an Adulterer and Murderer if Death seize on him before he have repented should be saved The first of these Propositions is true in respect of God's Decree of Election The second is true also in respect of the hainousness and demerit of David 's sin But God's Providence and Grace looseth this Knot by taking care that neither David nor any of the Elect dye in that state in which for his impenitence he should be excluded from Salvation This Passage shews that Turretin believed as we do that after Justification sincere Obedience is so indispensably necessary to Salvation that unless a Believer continue in the practice of sincere Obedience or if there happen to be any signal intermistion by gross wilful sin for a time unless he renew his Faith and Repentance and thereby return to his Obedience he cannot be saved And Turretin a little before in Page 669. saies very judiciously That though God hath promised perseverance to Believers yet hath he not promised it to be given absolutely and without means but by means to be used by Man himself so that whilst God keeps Man he is bound also to keep himself by the Grace of the Spirit 1 John 5.18 Whence Believers are sure of their perseverance through the Faith of the Promises not by any external force which retains them in the way of Salvation will they will they yea even whilst they are living in their sins but in the use of Means and practice of Piety whilst working out their own Salvation with fear and trembling they are confident that it is God who works in them both to will and to do and who graciously perfects the good Work which he hath begun So that an occasion of licentiousness and impiety is wrongfully inferred from this Doctrine since to indulge wickedness and to have the Grace which causeth perseverance are utterly inconsistent Yea he that hath this Hope purifieth himself 1 John 3.3 And he ought to be certainly perswaded in himself that without holiness no Man shall see God and that there is no other way to Life but the way of Piety and Godliness A most Excellent Passage this is which
between him and those who do not love to say that Faith is an Instrumental Cause is more verbal than real for he doth not say that Faith is the Instrumental cause of our Justification that indeed had been to ascribe too much unto Faith but the Instrumental cause receiving Christ and his Righteousness upon which follows Justification now we all acknowledge Faith to be of an apprehensive receptive nature and that it is the Instrumental means whereby we apprehend and receive Christ and his Righteousness that we may be Justified and our using that Instrumental means as the Lord hath appointed is the receptive condition to which the Promise of Justification is made Here then seems to be a meer difference in words when we mean the same thing Lastly for sincere Obedience he holds it to be in some sense a cause of obtaining Eternal Life which is more than we have ascribed to it in calling it a Condition for a Condition as such hath no causal Influence Ibid. lib. 2. cap. 1. pag. 199. His own Words in the said Book are these Our Obedience indeed is not the principal or meritorious cause of Eternal Life For we receive the right of this life and the life also it self from the Grace and Gift of God for the sake of Christ apprehended by faith Rom 6.23 The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. But yet it is a cause some way administring helping and moving forward towards the possession of this life whereof we had the right before for which reason it is called the way in which we walk to Heaven Eph. 2.10 And it promotes our life both of its own nature because it is some degree of life it self still tending to perfection and also by vertue of God's Promise who hath promised Eternal Life to those who walk in his Commandments Gal. 6.8 He that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting For though all our Obedience while we live here is imperfect and contaminated with some mixture of sin Gal. 5.17 The flesh lusts against the spirit yet through Christ it is so acceptable unto God that it is crowned with a most great reward The Promises therefore made to the Obedience of the Faithful are not Legal but Evangelical although by some they are said to be of a mixt nature In all this Ames ascribes as much to sincere Obedience and makes it as necessary to Salvation as we do If we say it is a Condition he sayes it is in some sort a Cause of obtaining the poffession of Eternal Salvation And sure to be so a Cause is as much at least as to be a Condition Next let us see what Dr. Twiss faith to these things Indeed he is so clearly on our side that if the Authour of the Letter had been acquainted with his Writings he would have been wiser than to have mentioned his Name in this Cause For thus he writes We say that pardon of sin and salvation of Souls are Benefits purchased by the death of Christ to be enjoyed by Men but how Answer to a Booke called The Synod of Dort and Arles reduced to practice pag. 16. not absolutely but conditionally to wit in case and onely in case they believe For like as God doth not confer these on any of ripe years unless they believe so Christ hath not merited that they should be conferred on any but such as believe and accordingly profess that Christ dyed for all that is to obtain pardon of sin and salvation of Soul for all but how not absolutely whether they believe or no but onely conditionally to wit provided they do believe in Christ Again Men are called upon to believe and promised Ibid. pag. 28. that upon their Faith they shall obtain the Grace of Remission of sins and Salvation and these Graces may be said to be offered unto all upon Condition of faith Again As touching the Benefits of pardon of sin Ibid. page 152. and Salvation procured by Christs death we say that Christ died to procure these for all and every one but how not absolutely for then all and every one should be saved but conditionally to wit upon Condition of faith so that if all and every one should believe in Christ all and every one should be saved Again It is untrue that we must have a sufficient assurance Ibid. pag. 154. that Christ died to procure pardon of sin and salvation of soul absolutely for him whom we go about to comfort it is enough that Christ died to procure these Benefits for him conditionally to wit in case he believe and repent and of this we have a most sufficient assurance Again We say not here that any thing becomes true Ibid. pag. 163. by the Faith of him that believes it but onely this that the benefit which is procured for all and every one upon a Condition becomes his and peculiarly his alone who performeth the Condition Again Now Eternal Life we know Ibid. pag. 171. is ordained by God to be the portion of Men not whether they believe or not whether they persevere in Faith Holiness and Repentance or no but onely of such as believe repent and are studious of good Works for it is ordained to be bestowed on Men by way of reward of their Faith Repentance and good Works Again The Promises assured by Baptism Ibid. pag. 189. according to the Rule of God's Word I find to be of two sorts Some are of Benefits procured unto us by Christ which are to be conferred on us conditionally they of this first sort are Justification and Salvation for Abraham received Circumcision as a Seal of the Righteousness of Faith Circumcision therefore was an assurance of Justification to be had by Faith if such were Circumcision to the Jews we have good reason to conceive that such is Baptism unto us Christians for as that was unto them so this is the Sacrament of Regeneration unto us And good reason the Sacraments which are Seals of the Covenant should assure that unto us which the word of the Covenant doth make Promise of Now the word of the Covenant of Grace doth promise unto us both Remission of sin and Salvation upon Faith in Christ This by our Doctrine we promise unto all and assure unto all as well as they do by theirs If all and every one should believe we nothing doubt but they should be justified and saved On the other side if not one of ripe years should believe I presume our Adversaries will confess that not one of them should be saved Again Justification and Salvation is promised in the Word Ibid. pag. 190. and assured in the Sacraments upon performance of a Condition on Mans part Now the Condition of Justification and Salvation we all acknowledge to be Faith Thus Dr. Twiss frequently in the foresaid Book And that this was his setled Judgment will appear by what he wrote afterwards in the Year
thereunto The Discipline of Christ's Kingdom is as Cords and Bonds unto them they desire to break them and to cast off the yoke of obedience unto him And again it is as true that ãâã man is damned for not adding the efficacy of Gods Spirit unto his word They are damned for contemning Godâs Word and not hearkning to his Gracious Admonitions but they could do no other as this Arminian Authour intimates But what impotency is this Is it any where else than in their wills Which this Authour considers not nor distinguisheth between impotency natural and impotency moral were they willing to hearken hereunto but could not then inââgd their impotency were excusablâ but they please themselves in their obstinate courses and if they would do otherwise I make no question but that they should have no more cause to complain of their impotency to do that good which they would do than the servants of God have yea and holy Paul himself had How can you believe saith our Saviour John 5.44 Here is a certain impotency of believing which our Saviour takes notice of but what manner of impotency is it Observe by that which followeth who receive Honour one of another and regard not the Honour which cometh of God only Therefore you hear not my words because ye are not of God John 8.47 This is as true as the word of the Son of God is true although this Authour sets himself to impugne this kind of Doctrine all along But withal consider do they deplore this impotency Doth the consideration hereof humble them Nay rather they delight in it as the Prophet noteth Jerem. 6.10 Their ears are uncircumcised and they cannot hearken Behold the Word of God is as a Reproach unto them they have no delight in it By these Testimonies of Dr. Twiss and more which might be quoted to this purpose we plainly see that though he doth every where maintain that God by his special discriminating effectual Grace enables the Elect but not the non-Elect to believe repent and obey the Gospel and so to performe the Condition of the Covenant yet at the same time he declares that the inability of the Non-Elect to believe repent and obey is a meer moral impotency arising from the ill disposition of their own minds and affections that therefore they cannot because they will not and that if they would they should be able to believe and repent and obey the Gospel Now though we heartily agree with the Doctor that it is by the special discriminating effectual Grace of God in Christ Jesus that the Elect believe repent and obey the Gospel and also that the inability and impotency which others are under to do these things is a moral and not a meer natural inability and impotence yet to show that we are far from being Pelagians or Arminians we must declare to the World That Dr. Twiss seems sometimes to ascribe more to the Natural Power of an Unregenerate Man without the Grace of God than we can allow of This he doth in the foresaid Book in defence of the Doctrine of the Synod of Dort page 48. Where after he had discoursed of natural and moral Impotency and shewed 1. That the wicked are punished for refusing to believe that this refusal is the free act of their wills and by their natural power they might abstain from this refusal and might believe with an acquired Faith as many Vnregenerate Men have done And 2. After he had likewise shewed out of Augustin That the reason why the wicked do not believe is because they will not and that if they would they might believe and that since they might believe if they would it is just with God to punish them sor not believing And 3. After he had shewed out of the same Augustin That the reason why they will not believe is either because they do not see the truth and goodness of that which they should believe or else because it doth not delight them 4. In the fourth place he adventures to go one step further and of his own head to say That except the supernatural acts of the Three Theological Vertues Faith Hope and Love all Acts and Duties inward or outward are natural and may be performed by a natural man though not in an acceptable manner for want of Faith Hope and Love supernatural Now saith he they are his own very words suppose that a man were so exact both in natural morality and in an outward conformity to the means of Grace as not to fail in any particular as he hath power to performe any particular hereof naturally in this case I say if there were any such he should be in the same case with those that are guilty of no sin but sin original c. Upon this passage we observe that the Doctor supposeth it possible for a natural man by the meer power of nature without any supernatural Grace to be so exact in doing all the Duties which God requires of him as not to fail in any particular and so to keep himself free from all actual Sin He doth not indeed say that there is or ever was or ever will be such a Man but he plainly enough says that it is naturally possible and supposes it so to be he supposes it possible for a natural man by the power of Nature so to live as to be without all actual sin This we are so far from agreeing to that on the contrary we hold it to be naturally impossible for any natural man by natural power so to live as to be without all actual sin For surely original sin in such a Man would so vigorously put it self forth into act upon the presentation of outward objects to his Senses or the formation of Notions and Idea's of things in his mind that by his meer natural power he could not possibly hinder all the Sallies and Eruptions of it This is the Catholick Faith and the contrary is pure Pelagianisme which we wonder how it should ever fall from the Pen of Dr. Twiss who was really a hater of Pelagianisme We should never have mentioned this but to let men know how far we are from Pelagianism even farther than Dr. Twiss was as to the power of a Natural Man Indeed we are so far from thinking that a Natural Man by his meer natural powers can live without all actual sin that we do not believe that a Spiritual Regenerate Man can live so exactly as to keep himself free from all actual sin although he be furnished and assisted with such a measure of supernatural Grace as the Lord doth ordinarily give out unto his own select People This is the Common Doctrine of the Reformed Churches which we can demonstrate to be true and which we firmly believe Surely then it must be a vile slander cast upon us that we are so far gone off from the Truth of the Reformed Religion Let. p. 13. as that our Cause and the Pelagians is coincident and
that more and worse is feared which what it should be we cannot imagine unless it be that they fear we will at last renounce Christ and Christianity But to this we will say with David 2 Sam. 16.12 it may be the Lord will look upon our case and requite us good for this reviling Dr. let p. 12. Downame Bishop of Derry whom our Authour also commends in his Letter shall next come in for a Witness on our behalf who in his Book of the Covenant of Grace saith The promises of the Gospel cannot be applyed to any aright but only to those who have the condition of the promise page 134 135. which is the justifying Faith For the Gospel doth not promise Justification and Salvation to all but to those only who have a justifying Faith Therefore a Man must be endued with justifying Faith before he can or ought to apply the promises of the Gospel to himself For as Salvation is promised to them that believe so damnation is denounced to them that believe not Mark 16.16 John 3.16 18. Again No man ought to apply the promise of the Gospel to himself who hath not the condition of the promise ibid. page 153. unless he will perniciously deceive himself For as he that believeth shall be saved so he that believeth not shall be condemned page 154. Again As we daily sin so we must daily ask forgiveness Prayer being the means that God hath ordained to that end Object Yea But saith the Papist ye forsooth have already full assurance of the remission of all your sins not only past but also to come Answ It is absurd to imagine that sins be remitted before they be committed and much more that we be assured they are remitted before they be either remitted or committed That indeed were a Doctrine to animate and to encourage Men to sin But howsoever the Pope sometimes forgiveth sins to come yet God doth not When God justifyeth a man he giveth him remission of sins past Rom. 3.25 As for time to come we teach that although Christ hath merited and God hath promised remission of sins of all the faithful unto the end of the World notwithstanding remission of sins is not actually obtained and much less by special Faith believed until Men do actually believe and repent and by humble and faithful Prayer renew their Faith and Repentance For as God hath promised to the faithful all good things But how Matt. 7.7 8. To them that ask Luke 18.13 14. that seek that knock So also remission of sins Neither is it to be doubted but that remission of sin though merited by Christ though promised by God though sealed unto us in the Sacrament of Baptisme is obtained by the effectual Prayer of those who believe and repent for whom Christ hath merited it and to whom God hath promised it in his Word and sealed it by the Sacrament even as the obtaining of the rain which God had promised 1 Kings 18. ver 1 41. and the Prophet Elias had foretold is ascribed to the effectual Prayer of Elias James 5.16 18. To Bishop Downames we add the very Learned and Pious Gatakers Testimony When âaltâarsh the Antinomian had objected and said either place Salvation on a free bottom or else you make the New Covenant but an old Covenant in new terms Do this and live believe this and live repent and live obey and live Gataker replies This is frivolous because as hath been shewed Gatakers shadows without Substance page 49. Salvations free bottom is no way impeached by such conditions as these required and scandalous because therein the Apostles Doctrine is not covertly but directly challenged as overthrowing and razing the foundation of free Grace For what is believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved but believe and live Or what is repent that your sins may be done away but repent and live Or what is He is the Authour of Salvation to all that obey him but obey and live And I demand again what this amounts unto whether it be any other than blasphemy to say that the Apostles by such their Doctrine did not place Salvation upon a free bottom but brought in the old Covenant again in new terms Sir Dare you say in your new revealed Mystery believe not and yet live repent not and yet live obey not and yet live Again We may truly say that you and yours are they that either cannot or will not see the Wood for Trees Ibid. page 57. the conditions on which Salvation by Christ is propounded though in the Gospel they do every where occur and offer themselves will ye nill ye to your eyes With Gataker we joyn Mr. Ball who in his Treatise of Faith recommended by a Preface of Dr. Sibbes saith Balls Treatise of Faith part 1. page 86. The promise of remission of sins is conditional and becometh not absolute until the condition be fulfilled This is the word of Grace Believe in the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved When doth this conditional proposition become absolute When we believe what That our sins are pardoned No but when we believe in Christ to obtain pardon which is the thing promised upon condition of belief Again The priviledge of Grace and Comfort which comes to the Soul by believing must be distinguished from the Condition of the Covenant Ibid. page 89. which is required on our parts before we can obtain pardon Again We can teach no Faith to Salvation but according to the rule of Christ Repent and believe the Gospel no remission of sin Ibid. page 136. but according to the like Rule Luke 24.47 Acts 2.37 38. But Faith seeketh and receiveth pardon as it is proffered in the word of Grace Repentance is necessary to the pardon of sin as a condition without which it cannot be obtained not as a cause why it is given Luke 13.3 1 John 1.9 Acts 11.18 If Mercy should be vouchsafed to all indifferently the Grace of God should be a boulster to mans sin c. Lastly We conclude this head of our defence with the Testimony of the Synod of Dort We have already shewed that the Geneva Divines in that Synod gave it in under their hands and were therein approved by the Synod That the Covenant of Grace is conditional We might be large in shewing the like of many others but we will confine our selves for brevities sake to the Embdan Bremen and English Divines their Suffrages recorded in the Acts of the Synod First The Embdane Divines in the Synod said That God required the same conditions from those that were in Covenant with him under the Old and New Testament to wit Faith and the obedience of Faith Act. Synodi Dord part 2. page 93. Gen. 12. Abraham believed God and the Apostle âin Rom. 4. Teaches that we are saved by the same Faith Gen. 17. Abraham is commanded to walk before God and be perfect The same is every where
required of Believers under the new Testament Here we 1. See that they affirm the Covenant of Grace hath Conditions in the Plural number 2. That Faith and sincere Obedience walking before God and being perfect upright or sincere were the conditions of it under the Old and now are the Conditions of it under the New Testament 3. That this Doctrine was approved by the Synod of Dort Next Martintus one of the Bremen Divines is so clear for the Conditionality of the Covenant that none who understand what his Judgment was can doubt of his being on our side We need not quote his words they that please may see them in the Acts of the Synod The Sum of his Opinion approved by the Synod is this That pardon of sin and Eternal Life are blessings promised to all Men through Christ Ibid. part 2. page 136 137. But how Not absolutely but conditionally if they believe As we heard before from Dr. Twiss Of the fume mind were his two Collegues Ibid. p. 150 151. Iseâburgius and Lud. Crocius and especially Crocius most clearly as is there to be seen Lastly our own British Divines are clearly for the conditionality of the Covenant of Grace no body could ever doubt of this that ever read their suffrage either in Latin or English For thus they write For howsoever Salvation in the execution thereof dependeth upon the conditional use of the means yet the will of God electing unto Salvation is not conditional Saffrage of the Divines of Great Britain Art 1. in English page 9. incomplete or mutable because he hath absolutely purposed to give unto the Elect both power and will to performe those very conditions namely Repentance Faith Obedience Perseverance By this we see that they taught not only that Faith is a Condition but that Repentance Obedience and Perseverance are Conditions of the Covenant which is the whole of what we say and it was received and approved by the whole Synod of Dort above seventy years ago Again In opposition to and refutation of the eighth erroneous opinion of the Arminians they write thus Ibid. p. 28 29. We do not deny but that there is such a good pleasure of God laid open or revealed in the Gospel by which he hath decreed to choose Faith as a condition for conferring Salvation that is by which he would have the actual obtaining of Salvation at least in respect of those which are of ripe years to depend upon the condition of foregoing Faith And this is that joyful and saving Message to be published unto all Nations in the name of Christ But this is not the very decree of Election properly taken and so much set forth or celebrated by the Apostle St. Paul For that Decree is Active or Practical ordaining some particular Persons unto Salvation not disposing of things or the connexion of things in order to Salvation and it is confined unto or terminated upon Humane Creatures themselves and not upon their qualities Ephes 1.4 He hath chosen us to wit men Rom. 8. Those whom he hath praedestinated to wit men Matth 20. Few are chosen that is few men From this passage we observe 1. That according to those Learned Divines there is an absolute pleasure and purpose of God that Faith shall be the condition of Salvation in the Covenant of Grace 2. That this absolute pleasure and purpose of God refers to things and absolutely constitutes a conditional connexion between them that is between pardon of Sin and Salvation as the benefit or grace promised and Faith as the condition in whomsoever it shall be found This good pleasure and absolute purpose of God terminating upon and constituting the conditional connexion of things is the foundation of the general conditional promises of the Gospel which we are ordered to preach conditionally to all the world as we have a Call Mark 16.15 16. Rom. 10.8 9. not making any difference between Persons and Persons as to that matter But now the Decree of Election formally and terminatively considered is quite another thing as to our Conception of it It is the good pleasure and absolute purpose of God terminating upod particular Persons singling them out from others and appointing them to obtain Salvation in such a way and by such means And this good pleasure and purpose of God in his time and way according to his word of Promise never fails to have its powerful effect upon those select persons to make them first gracious and then glorious for evermore Again In treating of the second Article their fifth position is this In the Church ââid art 2. p. 49 50. wherein according to the promise of the Gospel Salvation is offered to all there is such an administration of Grace as is sufficient to convince all Impenitents and Vnbelievers that by their own voluntary deâault either through neglect or contempt of the Gospel they perish and come short of the ceneâât offered unto them This position they lay down as a Truth then they proceed to prove it and thus they begin Christ by his Death hath not only established the Evangelical Cwenant but hath moreover obtained of his Father that wheresoever this Covenant should be published there also together with it ordinarily such a measure of supernatural Grace should be dispensed as may suffice to convince all Impenitents and Vnbelievers of contempt or at least of neglect in that the Condition of the Govenant was not fulfilled by them These are their own words then they prove two things 1. That some measure of supernatural Grace is ordinarily administred in the ministry of the Gospel which they demonstrate by several Testimonies of Scripture 2. That that Grace is sufficient to convince all Impenitent Unbelievers either of contempt or at least of neglect which they demonstrate from John 15.22 John 3.19 Heb. 2.3 Heb. 4.12 Matth. 11.24 Heb. 6.4 5 6 7 8. And before this their second Position with respect to the Elect is that out of the special love of God by and for the merit and intercession of Christ Faith and Perseverance are given unto the Elect Ibid. page 45. yea and all other things by which the condition of the Covenant is fulfilled and the promised benefit namely Eternal Life is infallibly obtained This is their position and they prove it by Rom. 8.32 33 34. and Heb. 8.10 Again In Refutation of the Third erroneous Opinion that Christ's Death hath obtained for all men Restitution into the state of Grace and Salvation they both assert the Conditionality of the Covenant Ibid. Art 2. p. 61 62 63. and also at the same time lay the Axe to the Root of Huberianisme Puccianisme and Antinomianism or Crispianisme Their words and Arguments are these following 1. Reason Salvation is a thing promised in the New Covenant neither is it promised but upon the condition of Faith whosoever believeth shall be saved since therefore all men have not Faith in Christ under which condition only
Salvation is promised It is certain that the Death of Christ did not obtain for all but for the faithful alone a restoration absolute into the state of Grace and Salvation This they prove from Rom. 5.1 Rom. 3. and 4. chap. and Gal. 2.16 2. Reason Without faith in Christ Man remains in the state of Condemnation John 3.18 John 3.36 But they who are restored into the Bosom of Grace every one of them have remission of sins which makes men happy Psal 32.1 Neither do they remain in Condemnation neither doth the wrath of God remain upon them They therefore who want Faith are not restored by the Death of Christ into the state of Grace and Salvation Since through the Name of Christ no Man obtaineth remission of sins except he who believes in him Acts 10.43 Reason 3. If the Death of Christ hath obtained restitution for all then are they restored either 1. When Christ from all Eternity was destinated unto Death which is false for so no man should be born a child of wrath neither should Original sin any whit dammage mankind being according to this Opinion forgiven them from all Eternity Or 2. They were restored in the Person of our first Parents when the promise concerning the Seed of the woman was proclaimed which is false For our first Parents themselves were not restored into the state of Grace but by Faith in Christ and consequently neither were their Posterity restored but in like manner that is by Faith Therefore not all whether Believers or Vnbelievers are restored Or 3. They were restored when Christ himselfe suffered Death upon the Cross but that is false also and cannot be for so no man before that moment should have been restored which none will grant Neither are all restored from that time because without doubt even at that moment and afterward the Wrath of God burned hot against some of Christ's Accusers Condemners Crucifiers and Mockers Thus our Divines argued in the Synod and their Arguments were approved by the Synod Now let any man of judgment consider the force of these Arguments and he will plainly see that they do prove that no Man no not the Elect can be admitted into favour with God and be justified before he believe and performe the Condition of the Covenant as well as that all men are not and cannot be so dealt with The Elect themselves before their Conversion are not absolutely and actually in Grace and favour with God they are not in a state of Justification and Salvation because they yet want Faith the Condition of the Covenant upon which Condition those subsequent Blessings of the Covenant are only promised so that by this we may see the Synod hath in effect before-hand judged between us and the Antinomians and hath given Sentence according to Scripture on our side Lastly We find that our Divines in the Synod declared and proved that Perseverance in Holy Faith and Obedience which is the Condition of our obtaining Eternal Salvation is it self promised absolutely without any proper Condition yet not so as always and in all Elect Justified Persons to exclude and prevent a partial temporary Apostacy and Back-sliding Here then are two things held by them 1. That the Perseverance of the Elect after they are once converted and justified though it be a Condition of obtaining Eternal Salvation yet it is promised and given without any other proper Condition Therefore writing on the Fifth Article they reject the erroneous Opinion of the Arminians Ibid. Art V. pag. 157 153. That Perseverance is a Benefit offered equally to all the truly Faithful upon this Condition namely If they shall not be wanting unto sufficient Grace and give their Reasons why they rejected it 1. Say they It is not true that Perseverance is a Gift onely offered but not given For the Scriptures witness that God doth not onely offer unto his the Grace of Perseverance but also that he gives it them and puts it into their Hearts Jer. 32.40 I will put my fear into their hearts that they shall not depart from me and John 4.14 1 Cor. 10.13 Again It is false say they that Perseverance is a Grace offered upon Condition for it is a Gift promised absolutely by God without any respect to a Condition The Reason is this Some Promises of God are touching the End others touching the Means which conduce to the End The Promises concerning the End that is to say Salvation are conditional Believe and thou shalt be saved Be faithful unto death that is persevere and I will give thee the Crown of Life But forasmuch as no Man is able to perform the Conditions God also hath made most free and absolute Promises to give the very Conditions which he works in us that so by them as by Means we may attain the End Deut. 30.6 And the Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul that thou maiest live The End here promised is Life which the Israelites could never attain without the performance of the Condition namely their Love of God But here God promiseth absolutely that he will give unto them this very Condition Since therefore the Promises of Faith and Perseverance in Faith are Promises concerning the Means they are wholly to be reckoned among those absolute Gifts by which God considering Mans disability hoth to attain the End without the Means and also to perform or effect the Means or Conditions of himself doth promise that he will make them able to performe the Conditions God promiseth Life to those that constantly fear him The Promise of Life is conditional but of constant Fear is absolute I will put my fear in their hearts that they may not depart from me And lastly Be it so that this Gift were conditional yet it is not offered upon this Condition if Men will not be wanting to themselves in the entertainment and use of sufficient Grace Fââ 1. It will from this Condition follow that we do in vain pray to God in the behalf of any Man that he would give unto them the Gift of Perseverance because of Course he offers them unââersal and sufficient Grace to which if they themselves will not be wanting they shall pââââvere 2. Tâis is an idle Condition for it makes Perseverance to be the Condition of âerseverance For to persevere is nothing else but not to be wanting unto this sufficient Grace If therefore God offers Perseverance upon this Condition he offers the same upon Condition of it self Thus they shewed that Perseverance is absolutely promised and given without any other proper Condition Yet for all this 2. they do not say that Perseverance is so promised and given as to exclude and prevent always a partial temporary Aposâacy and Back-sliding For we find that discoursing of Perseverance as it concerns the Elect their Third Position is These very same Persons thus Regenerated Ibid. Art V. pag. 121 122 123 124
the very act of believing He doth not disclaim his Unbelief for that is sin nor doth he disclaim the conceit of meriting Justification by his Faith for that is a sinful conceit But he disclaims his Faith it self unless his Faith be either sinfulness or misery for he disclaims all things in himself but sinfulness and misery These two to wit Sinfulness and misery are the only things which he doth not disclaim Whence it follows necessarily that he disclaims his belief it self in the very act of believing and so by this means he is enabled to believe as an Unbeliever This is it may be one of our Authours deep Mysteries for which his Proselytes admire him and hug his Letter And we confess there is no such deep Mystery as the Mystery of contradictious Non-sense But if every one who believes doth believe as the chief of Sinners and so believes as an Unbeliever and as one that disclaims all true and saving Faith we would know how it comes to pass that all the Unbelievers in the World do not believe one would think that they might all easily believe with such a Faith as is acted by a Man under that reduplicating quatenus as an Unbeliever and which in the very act of believing renounceth all saving belief even every thing but Sin and Misery Of old no Man was received into the Christian Church and accounted a Christian unless he first disclaimed and renounced his sins but now it seems there is a great alteration in the state of Christianity for a man cannot at this day be a Christian unless he disclaim or which is all one renounce his Christian Faith and that too with an exception of not disclaiming his sins If this be the only way to be a Christian one would think that all the Jews Turks and Heathens in the World might easily be Christians for they can easily believe with a Faith that in the very act of it renounces and disclaims Faith but not sin But if our Authour say that every true Christian must believe in Christ with a sincere and saving Faith which Unbelievers have not and yet at the same time he must act his Faith as an Unbeliover and in the very act of Faith he must disclaim his Faith but not his Sin of Unbelief and that there must be no real change in him from Unbelief to Faith till he have Faith and have acted his Faith as aforesaid and be justified by such an Act of Faith and then a real change passes upon him in order of Nature after his Justification but not before We answer That this is contradictious Non-sense and at this rate no man can be a Christian till he hath made both ends of a contradiction meet and hath verified both parts of a contradiction in his own Person no man can be a Christian that is really changed from being an Unbeliever to be a Believer no he cannot be a Christian till he be both an Unbeliever and Believer in predominant degrees at the same time without any real change from what he was by Nature The plain English of this is that according to the Principles of our Authour laid down in his Letter no Man can ever be a good Christian at all for the thing is impossible because it implies a manifest contradiction Yet we must be so charitable as to think that our Authour hath indeed greatly mistaken in the expressing of his mind in his Letter but that really he doth not believe those things himself We hope he is of a more Orthodox Faith and are willing to impute it to some inadvertency and inconsiderateness in the hasty writing of his Letter We think he would or should have said that every one who believes on Jesus Christ acts that Faith as one who thinks himself to have been formerly before his Conversion and Faith a chief of Sinners or one of the first rank of great Sinners But doth not think himself to be still in the same state of Unregeneracy and Unbelief for if he think so of himself after that is converted and is actually believing on Christ most certainly he thinks amiss whatever our Authour say to the contrary for he thinks falsly of himself and sins in so thinking Our Authour talks confidently of that which he doth not know to wit the experience of every Believer for certainly he was never acquainted with the experiences of the thousandth part of Believers that are in the Christian Church at this day Can he then say in Faith that it is the experience of every Believer that he acts his Faith as one who in former times hath been as great a Sinner and hath done as much dishonour to God and as much mischief to the Church and to the World as the present King of France But whatever he say or think of Believers we are perswaded that true Believers are taught of God as to be humble so to be wise in acting their Faith wiser we are confident than that every one of them should think himself to be so great a Sinner as that he hath done as much dishonour to God and mischief to the Church of Christ as Lewis the Fourteenth has done and still continues to do Again when he says that a Believer and accepter of Christ in the very act of believing and accepting expresly disclaims all things in himself but Sin and Misery we think he should have said that he either expresly or implicitly formally or virtually in the very act of Believing disclaims all things in himself as being of and from himself but Sin and Misery which are indeed of and from himself and he takes the shame and blame thereof upon himself but as for his Faith or any good disposition or qualification that is in him he ascribes it all to the free Grace of God and gives God all the Glory of it And after the same manner in the very act of believing in order of Nature before he be justified he virtually acknowledges to God's Glory that by his Grace he hath wrought a real Holy Change in his Soul and of a blind proud Unbeliever hath made him an understanding humble Believer according to that 1 John 5.20 We know that the Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true Reason 5. Fifthly and lastly The Seminal vital principle of justifying Faith is seated in the heart and the first vital act of it comes from the heart Rom. 10.10 With the heart man believes unto Righteousness We demand then concerning the first vital act of justifying Faith either it comes from a renewed Heart or an unrenewed Heart a Regenerate Heart of an âââregenerate Heart a Heart of Flesh or an Heart of Stone or if it come not from either of these then it must come from a third that is from a Heart that is neither renewed nor unrenewed neither regenerate nor unregenerate neither of Flesh nor of Stone But now 1. The first vital act of
of Christian Questions and Answers To the Question how we can be truly said to have all gifts from Christ received by Faith since if Christ be apprehended or received by Faith Bez. lib. quaest Resp p. 1. 149. 49. pag. edit 1587. then Faith it self must go before that apprehension or reception He Answers If thou consider the order of causes I confess that the principle or beginning of Faith and that also true Faith goes before the apprehension of Christ and therefore that it is not given to them who are already ingrafted but who are to be ingrafted By this passage we see likewise that Beza never thought that all saving Grace flows into us from Christ already united to us But that before Union he gives us saving Grace by his Spirit whereby we may be united to him Christ by his Spirit first apprehends and takes hold of us and sits us for and brings us into actual Union with himself and this Grace is in the order of causes before the Union on our part and so is before our Justification If our Author had understood and considered all this that we have quoted out of Beza he would never have thought it impossible that we can have any true Grace any Holy Disposition or Qualification before we be in Christ and justified by Faith in him For it is plain that we have the Grace from Christ whereby we come to be in Christ and Christ to be in us And if it were not so it would be impossible for us ever to be actually in Christ at all or to be justified by Faith in him Our Third Witness is Mr. Fox in his Book De Christo gratis justificante Although saith he it be an undoubted Truth That Faith in Christ the most high Son of God page 307. alone without works hath the Vertue and Power of justifying as appears from the most clear words of Paul and the Examples of Saints but yet it doth not put forth this its justifying Vertue and Power upon all praeterquà m in eos quos idoneos solùm invenit suscipiendae Divinae gratiae but only upon those whom it finds fitted or qualified for receiving the Divine Grace or Favour of Justification And that is the humble and Penitent as he shews in the following Section Where towards the end of it in page 310 he says Praeparat quiâtem poenitentia inateriam ad suscipiendam Justificationem c. Repentance indeed prepares the matter for the receiving the Grace of Justification That is it prepares the Soul for receiving Justification not as an inherent form in the Popish Sense but as a rich Priviledge and Favour bestowed upon those who are disposed and qualified for it by Repentance And that it is not only a Legal but an Evangelical Repentance which he speaks of is evident from what he saith at large in that Section and especially from the Testimonies of Scripture which he brings to prove it Such as Psal 34.18 Isa 57.15 Our Fourth Witness is Rollok whom we made use of before and to whom Bodius his Scholar in his Commentary on the Ephes p. 1081 gives this Testimony That he was a Man quo nemo nostra aetate Christum Jesum vel penitiùs imbiberat vel aliorum animis efficacius instillabat Then whom none in our Age either had drunk in Christ Jesus more deeply or thoroughly into his own heart or more Powerfully conveyed him into the hearts and Souls of others This Holy and Orthodox Minister of Christ in his Book of Effectual Calling saith page 3 4. That in effectual Calling considered as it is internal Duplex est Dei Gratia sive operatio in cordibus nostris c. There is a two-fold Grace of God or operation in our hearts The first Grace is whilst God by his Holy Spirit creates a new and heavenly light in the mind before involved in darkness which neither saw nor could see the things of the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 2.14 In the Will wholly perverted and turned away from God he creates a rectitude and lastly a new Sanctity in all the Affections Out of this Creation there exists or ariseth that which is called the new Creature that which is called the new Man which after God is created in Righteousness and true Holiness Ephes 4.24 The second Grace or the second Operation of the Spirit is the act of Faith it self or an action proceeding from the new Creature page 5. the action of the enlightned mind in knowing God in Christ the action of the sanctified Will in embracing or apprehending God in Christ Here the principal Agent is the Spirit of God himself the secondary Agent is the Humane Soul it self or rather the new Man and the new Creature it self in the Soul and its faculties In this second Grace which is the action or work of Faith we are not now meerly passive page 6. but being acted by the Holy Spirit we act being excited to believe we believe In one word with the Holy Spirit operating we cooperate and are workers together with the Holy Spirit Now he cap. 34. p. 258. tells us afterwards in the same Book that all this and more than this even the Holy Change that is wrought in the Soul by a true Evangelical Repentance is before Justification For saith he Repentance belongs to the place concerning Effectual Calling Repentance goes before Justification as Faith and Hope go before it From all which we observe that in the judgment of Rollock there is a real change made in the Soul before it be justified and that it is prepared for Justification by God's working in it an Holy Principle or disposition whereby it is inclined and enabled to produce the act of Faith whereby it receives Christ that for his sake and through his Righteousness it may be justified We might bring Dr. Ames and Dr. Twiss for our Fifth and Sixth Witnesses for they are of the same Opinion with Rollock as to this matter save that Rollock took the Word Regeneration to signifie the same thing with Sanctification which comes after Effectual Calling and Justification whereas they took Effectual Calling and Regeneration to be two words which signifie the same thing to wit the first saving change which is wrought in the Soul when a new Seminal Principle of Spiritual Life is put into it and it is brought off from Sin and the World unto Christ and unto God through Christ that it may be justified by Faith in his Blood This appears to have been their Judgment by what we have already quoted out of them upon the former head Let but any that can read in Ames his Marrow of Divinity the Twenty Sixth Chapter of the first Book concerning Vocation as likewise the Tenth Chapter of his Reply to Grevinchovius concerning the Nature of Faith where he proves That God by his Spirit puts a Seminal permanent Principle of Grace into the Soul at its first Conversion and that before any act of saving
good man that is a good man initially or make him begin to be a good Man But now this makes against our Author himself and clearly proves that no Man can believe with a saving justifying Faith till Gospel Grace renew him and make him first a good Man this Consequence from his own Words he can never avoid unless he will say that a saving justifying Faith is no good thing for if it be not an evil but a good thing no Man can do it till Gospel Grace have renewed him and make him first a good Man So then we have found by his own Confession that a Man is first good through Grace and then he believes in Christ to Justification And if a Man be thus good initially good before he actually believe with a saving justifying Faith then is he Holy also initially Holy before he do so believe for that Initial Goodness and this Initial Holiness is one and the same thing And further if a man may be and must be thus initially Good and Holy before he actually believe then he may be qualified before he actually believe for he cannot be Good and Holy as aforesaid without Gods putting some good qualities into him This the Synod of Dort hath determined in their 11. Canon on the 3d and 4th Articles as was shewed before and it is hoped our Author will not oppose the Determination of that Synod Now whenever God by his Spirit puts good qualities into a Man he thereby qualifies him for the very formal effect of good qualities is to qualifie the Man to whom God gives them Pag. 11. But saith our Author Whence should a Man have any good Qualification before he be in Christ by Faith since a Sinner out of Christ hath no Qualification for Christ but Sin and Misery We Answer that before a Man be in Christ by Faith he hath some good Qualification from Christ by his Spirit preparing him for and bringing him unto Union with himself by actual Faith As to what he saith that a Sinner out of Christ hath no Qualification for Christ but Sin and Misery We Answer by distinguishing thus he hath no Qualification but Sin and Misery of and from himself It is true But that he hath no Qualification of and from Christ by his Holy Spirit but Sin and Misery it is utterly false and the contrary is true to wit that a Man who hath no Qualification of and from himself but the evil Qualification of Sin and Misery yet of and from Christ by his Spirit and Word he hath the good Qualification of a Heart in part changed and renewed and of a Holy Seed and Prineiple of Grace put into his Heart Though a Man cannot qualifie himself for Christ yet nothing hinders but that Christ by his Spirit and Word can qualifie a man for Union with himself and for Justification by his Meritorious Righteousness Yes saith our Author something doth hinder for I boldly assert that such a man who were so qualified would not Let. p. 11. nor could ever believe on Christ We are not willing here to apply the Proverb That none is so bold as blind Bayard But this we must say that we cannot see that this Man hath any probable ground for such Confidence Sure we are it will be a very difficult task to prove that a man cannot possibly believe in Christ because Christ by his Word and Spirit hath fitted and qualified him for Believing But it seems nothing is difficult to this bold man and therefore he will prove it by an Argument taken from the Nature of Faith thus Faith saith he is a lost helpless condemned Sinners casting himself on Christ for Salvation But the qualified Man is no such Person And then the Conclusion if rightly inferred from the Premisses is this ergo The qualified Man is not Faith c. A goodly Argument indeed and a Foundation fit for this Man to ground his Confidence upon If he say that his Argument doth not so conclude but rather thus Faith is a Gracious Act whereby a lost helpless condemned Sinner casts himself on Christ for Salvation but the qualified Man is not a lost helpless condemned Sinner casting himself on Christ for Salvation therefore the qualified man is not what is he not why he is not a lost helpless condemned Sinner casting himself on Christ for Salvation Is this now his Argument And doth it thus conclude then his Argument is as Ridiculous as his Confidence Let him keep to his Premisses laid down in his Letter and if he can let him regularly inferr from them another Conclusion than one of these But let what will become of the form of his Argument We answer by distinguishing both Propositions And 1. For the first we say that a Person who by true Faith casts himself on Christ for Salvation is indeed a Sinnor lost and helpless in and of himself and he is condemned by the Law but tho that be true yet in Order of Nature before he believes and in the very Act of Believing he is found and helped by the Lord and hath a Pardon offered him by the Gospel and by Faith he receives it Acts 10.43 Then for the second Proposition we distinguish it also thus The qualified Man is not such a Person is not a lost helpless condemned Sinner that is the Man that is 1. Qualified with a Satisfactory Meritorious Qualification 2. That is so qualified by himself he is not such a Person It is true and we grant it But with all we say that indeed it is impossible for any Man so to qualifie himself Yet we maintain that a Man who is qualified by the Holy Spirit and free Effectual Grace of Christ is such a Person and doth by Faith âast himself on Christ for Salvation our being qualified by the Holy Spirit and free Effectual Grace of Christ is so far from hindring our believing as our Author boldly but ignorantly affirms that in Truth it doth very much further our believing it lets us see and causes us to feel that we are lost and helpless in and of our selves and condemned by the Law and that we are found and helped by the Lord and can be pardoned only by the Gospel Whereupon it inclines and moves us to flee unto Christ for refuge and to cast our selves on him for Justification and Salvation Thirdly In the same Page Let. p. 11. we have another of his Objections against the Truth we have been proving by Scripture Reason and Testimony of Protestant Divines Shall we saith he warn People that they should not believe on Christ too soon Either this Interrogation is altogether impertinent or there is this Argument implied in it if there be a real change and a holy gracious Principle wrought in Peoples Hearts before they do or can believe with a saving justifying Faith then it will follow that Ministers should warn people not to believe on Christ too soon but so to do is absurd and contrary to
meruisse aut illa virtus gratiae quae sibi quos volicit subdidit convertere eos qui inconvertibiles permansere non potuit tales fuerunt qui sunt attracti quales bi qui in suâ duritiâ sunt relicti fed illis tribuit gratia stupenda quod voluit istis tribuit veritas justa quod debuit ut judicium Dei magis inscrutabile sit in Electione gratiae quam in retributione justitiae How much soever the Malignity of the Wicked which resists the Grace of God be accused can it ever be proved that they to whom special Grace is given have deserved or merited it Or that powerful Efficacy of Grace which hath subdued to it self whom it would could it not convert those who remained unconverted They who are drawn to the Lord were such as those are who are left in their hardness But wonderful astonishing Grace gave what it would to those that are converted and just Truth that is the True and Just God rendered what he owed unto the others who are unconverted So that the Judgment of God is more unsearchable in the election of Grace than in the Retribution of Justice That is it is more difficult to give a reason why God gives special effectual converting Grace to such and such particular persons who could never deserve to have it than why he with-holds it from other persons who have really deserved to want it This is the true meaning of the last clause of that excellent Writer whereby we see that the Father on the one hand assigns the just demerits of the ungodly Resisters of Gods Grace for the reason of their not being converted by special and victorious Grace but on the other hand he acknowledges that no reason can be given why the like resistance is overcome and taken away in the Elect and they are savingly converted by discriminating Grace but that it is Gods good will and pleasure to have it so of the same judgment are we in this matter and as we derive the reason on the part of Gods Select People why they rather than others are infallibly converted by special Grace from the meer will and pleasure of God because we know no other reason of it so we ascribe unto God all the Glory of it saying with our Blessed Saviour We thank thee O Father Lord of Heaven and Earth because thou hast hid these things from the Wise and Prudent Mat. 11.25 26. and hast revealed them unto Babes Even so Father for so it seemed good in thy sight Thus we have briefly declared what our opinion is concerning the Preparations and Dispositions which ordinarily go before saving Conversion in some more in others less in some for a longer in others for a shorter time but in all so as to enlighten convince and humble them Thirdly Now in the third and last place we shall show that our opinion concerning them is neither new nor singular but that what we believe in this matter we have learned and received from the most Eminent Pastors of the Reformed Churches whereof many lived and died in the true Faith before many of us were born And our first Witness is Calvin who writing against Pighius doth plainly confess that Sinners are disposed and prepared by the Grace of Gods Holy Spirit before they be savingly converted and justified His words are these Neque verò hoc medo praeparari hominem ad recipiendum justitiae donum negamus sed Spiritus Sancti directione Calvin contra Pighium de lib. arbit lib. 5. §. adducit tamen non suo ingenio c. But neither do we deny that man is thus prepared to receive the gift of Righteusness but it is by the direction of the Holy Spirit and not by his own natural understanding and strength Christ doth not call any to come unto him but such as labour and are heavy laden But yet it is he himself who makes us to feel our burden and to groan under it We confess that the common Proverb is most true that it is the only hopeful beginning of a cure where the sick Person is sensible of his Disease Therefore that Christ may become thy Physician it behoves thee to acknowledge and be sensible of thy Disease Again in his Institutions he expresly confesses that there are some common operations of the Spirit Idem Instit lib. 3. cap. 2. §. 11. whereof the Non-Elect are partakers in the visible Church Experientia inquit ostendit reprobos interdum fimili ferè sensu atque Electos affici ut ne suo quidem judicio quicquam ab electis differant c. Experience says Calvin shews that the Reprobate are sometimes affected with a sense and feeling to wit of Spiritual things almost like to that which is in the Elect in so much that in their own Judgment they differ not at all from the Elect. Wherefore there is no absurdity at all in this that by the Apostle a taste of Heavenly Gifts and by Christ a temporary Faith is ascribed unto them Thus Calvin who there shews that in the Elect after saving Conversion and Justification there is always something of a higher nature which differenceth them from the Non-elect and then adds Sed hoc minimè obstat quin illa inferior Spiritus operatio cursum suum habeat etiam in reprobis Yet this doth no ways hinder but that that inferiour operation of the Spirit hath its course even in the Reprobate And more he hath to this purpose whereby it evidently appears that in his Judgment there is such a thing as we call common Grace which oftentimes makes such a change upon the Unregenerate that it is hard to distinguish them from the truely Regenerate We might also alledge to this purpose the Testimonies of Chemnitius in his Examination of the Council of Trent of the Divines of Wittenberg in the Conference at Alâenburg of Pareus writing against Bellarmine about Justification of Paulus Ferrius in his Specimen of Ecclesiastical Orthodox Divinity and of others acknowledging and maintaining that there are such preparations and dispositions wrought in Sinners by the Grace of Gods Spirit before their Regeneration or Conversion and Justification but because we have been longer already than we first intended we will pass them and come to the Testimony of the Synod of Dort which ought to be of more weight with us than any other Testimonies of Protestant Divines that can be brought either for or against those previous dispositions we speak of And from amongst all that might make for our purpose in that famous Synod we will single out and content our selves with what our own British Divines have said for this opinion in their Collegiate suffrage approved by the Synod and Recorded in its Acts. And for the sake of our Countrey-Men who cannot have recourse to the Original to examine our Translation Act. Synodi Dordr part 2. p. 165.6 7 8. we will as we have done before make use of the old English
Translation which some of them may have or may meet with it Thus then they begin Of those things that go before Conversion The First Position There are certain external Works ordinarily required of men before they be brought to the State of Regeneration or Conversion On the 3d. and 4th Articles p. 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 c. which are wont to be performed freely by them and other whiles freely omitted as to go to Church to hear the word Preached or the like This they prove from Rom. 10.14 As also from Reason and Experience and other Scriptures Mark 6.20 Acts 13.46 Psal 58.4 5. The Second Position There are certain inward Effects going before Conversion or Regeneration which by the power of the Word and Spirit are stirred up in the hearts of Men not yet justified such as are a knowledge of Gods will a sense of sin a fear of Punshment a bethinking of freedom or deliverance and some hope or pardon The Grace of God is not went to bring men to the state of Justification in which we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ by a sudden Enthusiasm or Rapture but by divers degrees of foregoing Actions taming and preparing them through the Ministry of the Word 1st This we may see in those who upon bearing S. Peters Sermon feel the burden of their sin are stricken with fear and sorrow desire deliverance and conceive some hope of Pardon All which may be collected of those words Acts 2.37 When they heard this they were pricked in their hearts and said unto Peter and the rest of the Apostles Men and Brethren what shall we do 2. This the very nature of the thing requires for as in the natural Generation of man there are many previous Dispositions which go before the bringing in of the form so also in the Spiritual Generation by many actions of Grace which must go before do we come to the Spiritual Nativity 3 To conclude this appears by the Instruments which God uses for the Regenerating of men For he imployeth the Ministry of Men and the Instrument of the Word 1 Cor. 4.15 I have begotten you through the Gospel But if God would Regenerate and Justify a wicked man immediately being prepared by no knowledge no sortow no desire no hope of pardon there would be no need of the Ministery of men nor of the Preaching of the Word for this purpose Neither would any care ly upon the Ministers dividing the Word aright fitly and wisely First To wound the Confâiences of their Auditors with the terrors of the Law then to raise them up with the promises of the Gospel and to exhort them to beg Faith and Repentance at Gods Hand by Prayers and Tears The Third Position Whom God doth thus prepare by his Spirit through the means of the Word those doth he truly and seriously call and invite to Faith and Conversion By the nature of the benefit offered and by the most evident Word of God we must judge of those helps of Grace which are bestowed upon men and not by the abuse or the event Therefore when the Gospel of its own nature calls men to Repentance and Salvation when the Incitements of Divine Grace tend the same way we must not suppose any thing is done feignedly by God This is proved by those earnest Pathetical Intreaties 2 Cor. 5.20 We pray you in Christs stead be yeâ reconciled to God Those exhortations 2 Cor. 6.1 We beseech you that you receive not the Grace of God in vain Those Expostulations Gal. 1.6 I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you to the Grace of Christ Those Promises Revel 3.20 Behold I stand at the door and knock if any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him But if God should not seriously invite all to whom he vouchsafes this gift of his Word and Spirit to a serious Conversion surely both God should deceive many whom he calls in his Sons Name and the Messengers of the Evangelical Promises might be accused of false witness and those who being called to Conversion do neglect to obey might be more excuseable for that calling by the Word and Spirit cannot be thought to leave men unexcusable which is only exhibited to this end to make them unexcusable The Fourth Position Those whom God hath thus disposed he doth not forsake nor cease to further them in the true way to Conversion before he be forsaken of them by a voluntary neglect or repulse of this initial or entring Grace The Talent of Grace given by God is taken from none but from him who first buries it by his own fault Mat. 25.28 Hence is it that in the Scriptures every where we are admonished that we resist not the Spirit that we quench not the Spirit that we receive not the Grace of God in vain that we depart not from God Heb. 3.12 Yea that is most evidently noted to be the reason of Gods forsaking man because God is first forsal ãâã by man Prov. 1.24 c. Because I have called and you refused I will laugh at your Calamity 2 Chron. 24.20 Because ye have forsaken the Lord He hath also forsaken you But never in the Scripture is there the least mention or Intimation that God is wont or that he will at any time without some fault of man going before take away from any Man the aid of his exciting Grace or any help which he hath once conferred towards Mans Conversion or as it is in the Original that is ordained unto Mans Conversion Thus the Orthodox Fathers who had to do with the Pelagians ever âanght It is the Will of God that we continue in a good Will who before he be forsaken for sakes no Man Aug. vel Prosper aâ Art fals ad 7. and ost-times Converts many that forsake him These are the Words of Prosper in Answer to the seventh Objection of one Vincentius against the Doctrine of Augustine and Prosper The Fifth Position These forgoing effects wrought in the Minds of Men by the Power of the Word and Spirit may be stifled and utterly extinguished by the fault of a rebellious Will and in many are so that some in whose Hearts by the virtue of the Word and Spirit some Knowledge of Divine Truth some Sorrow for Sin some Desire and Care of Deliverance have been imprinted are changed to the quite contrary they Reject and Hate the Truth they give themselves up to their Lusts are hardened in their Sins and without all desire or care of Freedom from them Rot and Puârifie in them Matth. 13.19 The Wicked one cometh and catcheth away that which is sown in his Heart 2 Pet. 2.21 It had been better for them not to have known the way of Righteousness than after they have known it to turn from the Holy Commandment detrvered unto them But it is happened to them according to the true Proverb the Dog iâ turned to his own Vomit again
Fruit of the Spirit of Bondage which prepares for the hearing of the Gospel and for the receiving of the Spirit of Adoption by the Gospel then in the Preaching the Gospel the tender Mercies of God displayed unto us and how ready be is to Pardon Sin in general and that of Free Grace may better our Repentance and when we are thus by Degrees brought to the Spirit of Adoption to cry Abba Father then our Repentance shall be most perfect as before I said And when we look upon him whom we have pierced and can in Assurance of Faith say with the Apostle I live by Faith in him who loved me and gave himself for me this is of Power to prick a Master vein and make us bleed out Repentance in the sight of our Gracious God whom we have offended and who yet in despite of our Sins hath loved us more Devoutly and Affectionately than ever before Yet is it true as he the Arminian saith That Repentance is nothing worth without Faith what thinks he of Ahabs Repentance when he put on Sackcloath and wallowed in Ashes upon the Word of Judgment against his House brought unto him by the Prophet Eliah Do we not know what the Lord said hereupon unto Eliah Seest thou how Ahab is humbled before me because he submitteth himself before me I will not bring that evil in his days The uttermost of the Ninivites Faith was but this that we read of who can tell if God will turn and Repent and turn from his fierce Wrath that we perish not Yet their Repentance was such that when God saw their works that they turned from their Evil Ways he repented of the Evil which he said that he would do unto them and he did it not Jon. 3.9 Thus Dr. Twiss whereby it is evident that he was far from thinking that all which a man can do before he have the Spirit of God dwelling in him and that he may get a Holy Heart and a saving Faith and so be fitted to lead a Holy Life is nothing but vain labour and an Acting of Sin Object 2. Secondly Our Author Objects the seventh Article of the 16. Chapter of the Westminster Confession of Faith And our Answer is That that Article of the Confession of Faith is the same in effect with the 13th Article of the Church of England and therefore is to be taken in the same Sence to wit That the Works of unregenerate men done before and without any Grace of Christs Spirit though they may be materially good yet they are formally so sinful that they do not make a Man meet to receive any Grace from God either the Grace of Regeneration or Justification and as for the Works of unregenerate Men which are done by the help of supernatural preventing common Grace though they be better than the former which are done by the alone Strength of Nature yet they are sinful too they are so defiled with Sin as they proceed from an unregenerate Man that they cannot please God so far as to make a Man meet to receive the Grace of Justification from God nor do they make a Man meet to receive the Grace of Regeneration from God by way of Reward due to them as Congruously Meritorious thereof Yet in another sound sence they may make a Man meet to receive the Grace of Regeneration and Conversion from God to wit as they are wrought in Men by the Spirit and according to the Word and are ordained by God to be means of removing such things as hinder Conversion and of the helping men forward in the way unto and of fitting and preparing them for Conversion as a Gracious Gift which ordinarily God freely gives to those who are so prepared by the Word and Spirit of Christ In this sound sence though not in the Popish or Semipelagian sense the foresaid works do indeed make men meet to receive Grace from God and the Article of the Confession of Faith saith nothing to the contrary Yea it is plainly against that absired opinion that all that an Unregenerate man can do by any means in order to the getting of his heart savingly changed and initially sanctified by the special effectual Grace of the Regenerating Spirit of Christ is vain labour and an acting of Sin we say that the foresaid Article of the Confession of Faith is plainly against that absurd opinion for it says expresly That works of Unregerate men are things which God Commands and are of good use both to themselves and others and one of the best uses they can possibly be of unto themselves is to dispose and prepare them for Regeneration and Conversion and to make them if not meet yet at least less unmeet to receive special saving Grace from God through Jesus Christ And thus according to the Confession of Faith and our principle agreeable thereunto we can give encouragement to unregenerate men to attend upon God in the diligent use of means for obtaining the free and effectual Grace of the Regenerating Spirit and so Conversion thereby but our Author seems to tell Unregenerate men that all they can do before they be Regenerated and have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them which is got only by Faith in Christ and therefore is in order of nature after Faith in Christ altho they do it with a desire that they may be Regenerated and may obtain a precious holy Faith in Christ and thereby the Holy Spirit of Christ it is all vain labour and an acting of sin Now is not this great encouragement for men to wait upon God in the use of his appointed means for the obtaining of converting Grace and a new holy heart to tell them that all they can do in order to that end is vain labour and acting of sin We hope such men will not believe our Author but if they do there is nothing can be expected from them but that âhev should cast off all use of means and give over all reading hearing and praying for why should they trouble themselves with such Religious Exercises since all is an acting of sin and lost labour too Yet if our Author should intend to set up for a Quietist the foresaid Doctrine may be of good use to bring in Disciples to him for he can tell them holdly as his manner is that if they will become Quietists he will shew them an infallible way wherein they shall neither act sin nor yet lose their labour for if they will become right Quietists they shall neither act nor labour but wholly rest from action and labour and shall not act sin nor lose their labour because they shall not act nor labour at all but wholly rest from action and labour and whilest they are in a state of perfect rest without any kind of action or labour at all Then the Spirit of God shall fall upon them and Regenerate and Convert them 3d. Objection Thirdly He Objects the Testimony of Calvin who in his Institutions writes thus
against the Papists Institut lib. 3 cap. 15 § 6. They have found out I know not what moral good Works whereby men are made acceptable to God before they are ingrafted into Christ as if the Scripture lyed when it saith they are all in death who have not the Son 1 John 5.12 If they be in death how should they beget matter of Life As if it mere of no force whatsoever is without Faith is sin Rom. 14.23 As if an evil tree could have good Fruit But now what place have those most Pestilent Sophisters left unto Christ where he may put forth and display his Vertue Why they say that be hath merited for us the first Grace that is he hath given us occasion of meriting And that now it is our part not to be wanting in improving the occasion offered By this passage of Calvin quoted here more fully than it is in the letter we see more clearly what it is that Calvin is there disputing against to wit the Popish Doctrine of mans meriting his Justification and Acceptance with God as righteous unto eternal Life by moral good works done by him before he be justified and that is in their sense before he be initially sanctified in Regeneration and Conversion for they perpetually confound these two Justification and Initial Sanctification on the infusion of habitual Grace as signifying the same thing This is that which Calvin there denies and disproves Now this being premised to give light unto the whole matter We answer That this is nothing to our Authors purpose who brings this passage to prove that Calvin denyed all preparations and dispositions before Regeneration and Conversion and consequently before Justification whereas Calvin here denies no such thing the onely thing that he here denies against the Papists Is that a man by moral good works done before Justification can merit Justification which we deny as much as he doth and that for the same reason too because there neither are nor can be any moral works before Regeneration and Conversion that are so good as to merit Justification and render a man acceptable unto God But elsewhere he is so far from denying that he expresly affirms and maintains that there are some preparations and dispositions in man previous to his Justification as we have plainly shewed before And particularly in his answer to Pighius he only denies that a man by his meer natural power without any supernatural Grace can prepare and dispose himself for special saving Grace but at the same time he confesses and proves that by the gracious influences of Gods Spirit upon a man he may be and is prepared and disposed for Justification for though the man be Spiritually dead yet he hath a natural life and the use of his reason and the living and life-giving Spirit of God can use his naturally living and rational Faculties to produce such actions as by the Ordination of God shall prepare and dispose him to receive the first principle of Spiritual Life from the Lord of Life and upon the exercise of that first principle of Spiritual Life in acts of Faith and Evangelical Repentance God for Christs sake alone pardons his sins and gives him a right to eternal Life This is all that we with Ames Twiss and Owen after the Synod of Dort hold and maintain concerning dispositions previous to Regeneration and Justification and Calvin in this passage doth not contradict this opinion but in his other Books maintains it himself If our Author should yet object that at least one of the places of Scripture which Calvin alledges against the Papists to wit Rom. 14.23 Whatsoever is not of Faith is sin will be of force against us and against the previous dispositions which we with the Synod of Dort maintain We answer That he will find himself very much mistaken for it is of no force at all against us and our opinion And to speak our minds freely as it becomes all ingenuous men to do we do not see that in it self it was of any force against that opinion of the Papists which Calvin was there Confuting Yet to excuse Calvins arguing from it against them it may be said that he did not speak his own sense therein but the sense of Augustin who mistook the true sense of that place of Scripture as if the word Faith there did signifie a Justifying Faith and so urged it frequently against the Pelagians Now the Popish Schoolmen pretended to have a great Veneration for the Authority and Judgment of Angustin therefore Calvin knowing this might argue ad hominem against them from that place of Scripture taken in Augustins sence and the argument might be of some use to stop their mouths But otherwise the Argument in it self was of no force at all because it is grounded upon a false Interpretation of the word Faith in that place And this Calvin knew well enough therefore not only in his Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans but several times in his Institutions when he speaks his own fence of Rom. 14.23 Whatsoever is not of Faith is sin he says that by the Word Faith there is not meant a justifying Faith but a firm perswasion of Mind in opposition to doubting that a thing is lawful and that it may be done without sin so that according to Calvin the true and genuine sence of the place is That whatsoever a man doth without Faith that is without a firm perswasion of mind that he may lawfully do it whatsoever a man doth with a doubting Conscience it is sin to him who so doth it though the thing be never so lawful in it self Thus Calvin expounds it in the Third Book of his Institutions Chap. 5. § 10. Quum nihil operis debeant aggredi fideles nisi ceriâ Conscientiâ ut Paulus praecipit Rom. 14.23 in oratione potissimum requiritur haec certitudo Since Believers should undertake no work but with a sure Conscience as Paul Commands in Rom. 14.23 This assurance is chiefly required in Prayer to wit that we pray to no person See also Instit lib. 4. cap. 13. §. 17. but with a sure and well Grounded Perswasion in our Conscience that we may Lawfully pray to him Again in the Fourth Book Chap. 15. § 22. In rebus etiam minutissimis ut in cibo potu quicquid dubiâ conscientiâ aggredimur Paulus aparte clamat esse peccatum Rom. 14.23 Even in the most minute little things as in meat and drink whatsoever we do with a doubting Conscience Paul doth plainly declare it to be sin Rom. 14.23 For whatsoever is not of Faith is sin In these passages Calvin speaks both his own sence and the true sence of the Apostle and therefore in the other passage quoted by our Author he must either speak the sence of Augustin and from it argue ad hominem against the Papists or else he plays the Sophister and wrests the Scripture against his own knowledg and Conscience which we are
way of Preparation for Christ but they may and ought immediately to receive him into their Hearts by Faith and Confidently trust him with their Souls and Bodies with their whole Person to be saved by him in the way agreed upon between God and Him and may be firmly and fully perswaded that if they do so through Grace they cannot possibly miscarry under the hand of such a Saviour and Physitian of Souls Thus we Preach and we know none can have just cause to say that this is a new Gospel and we hope none will any more say so We are sure this used not to be accounted a new Gospel heretofore in England nor is it so accounted at Geneva * Turret Instit Theolog. Elenct part 2. Loc 15. quest 5. p. 592. for Turretin lately taught there That in the Spiritual Generation no less than in the natural the Soul of Man attains unto the Spiritual Birth by many precedent Operations and God who will effect that Work in man not by violent raptures and Enthusiastical Motions but in a way agreeable to our Nature and who doth not in one Moment but successively and by degrees carry it on uses various Dispositions whereby man may be prepared by little and little to receive saving Grace at least he does so in the ordinary way of Calling So that there are various Acts previous to Conversion and as it were degrees or steps towards the thing it self before Man be brought unto the State of Regeneration And they are either External which may be done by a Man or are in his Power such as to go unto the Church to hear the Word and the like or they are Internal which are excited by Grace even in the Hearts of the unconverted such as the Reception and Apprehension of the Word Preached Knowledge of the Divine Will some Sense of Sin Fear of Punishment and some kind of Desire of Deliverance Thus Turretin in a Book Printed at Geneva in the Year 1688. By all which Testimonies we have made it plainly appear That our Opinion concernnig the Preparations and Dispositions which ordinarily go before Regeneration and saving Conversion is neither new nor singular but that what we Believe and Preach as to this matter we have learned and received from the most eminent Pastors of the Reformed Churches whereof many have lived and died in the true Faith before many of us were born And this may suffice as enough and indeed too much for the Confutation of our Authors third Error against the Purity of our Christian Faith CHAP. III. Of his Ridiculous Way of Converting an Vnbeliever AND first we acknowledge to our Authors Praise that he made a good beginning and from the 17th line of the 15th page to the beginning of the 16th he Discourses well enough and shews how indispensibly necessary it is that a Sinner believe on Christ and what warrant he hath from the Command as also what encouragement from the Conditional Promise of God in the Gospel to believe on Christ for Justification and Salvation But we cannot say that as he made a good beginning so he continues till he have made a good end for he gives several miserable Answers to the Questions which he makes the Unbeliever to put unto the Minister who is perswading him to believe in Christ First He makes the Unbeliever to ask the Minister What it is to believe on Jesus Christ Whereunto he Answers That be finds no such Question in the Word of God but that all both Believers and Unbelievers the Disciples and the Enemies of Christ did some way understand the Notion of it And this he endeavours to prove because it was commonly reported by Christ and his Apostles That Faith in Christ is a believing that the Man Jesus Christ of Nazareth is the Son of God the Messiah and Saviour of the World so as to receive and look for Salvation in his Name and this common report was known by all that heard it This is no satisfactory Answer for the Unbeliever may easily reply 1st That though in the Scriptures there be no such Question in so many express formal Words yet there is sufficient ground in and from the Scripture for a Man to ask such a Question because the Scripture speaks of several sorts of Faith of an Historical Temporary and miraculous Faith and of a saving justifying Faith Of a Faith that is common to unconverted Wicked Men and Devils and of a Faith that is proper and peculiar to Gods Elect. These Faiths are of different natures and therefore one of them must have something that another hath not and each of them must have that whereby they are constituted in themselves and distinguished from one another And this being âo that the man be not deceived to his ruin he hath great reason to put the foresaid Question and should be commended for asking if he do it seriously What it is to believe on Christ To believe in him so as he ought to do so as may be to Gods Glory and his own Spiritual and Eternal Good 2. He may reply that if there were no ground for such a Question why did the Westminster Assembly put that same Question in the Shorter Catechism which they composed for the use of Children Had they no warrant from Scripture for putting such a Question Or doth the Scripture only warrant Ministers to put Questions to the People but not warrant the people to put Questions to the Ministers Again he may say that if there were no ground for putting such a question Cap. 14. Art 1 2. why did the same Assembly in their Confession of Faith give such a large Description of Faith was it not that they and all who own their Confession might be readily furnished with an Answer to such a question which they knew was expedient to be asked since there are several sorts of Faith in Christ and so much Hypocritical counterfeit Faith in the World and in the Church and necessary to be wisely and judiciously answered that people may understand what kind of Faith it is that they are chiefly to seek after and get and if they have it that they may know it to their comfort and may bless God for it and give him the glory of it 3dly The Unbeliever may reply That it doth not follow that because Christ and his Apostles commonly reported that Faith is a believing that Jesus is the Son of God the Messias and Saviour of the World so as to receive and look for Salvation in his Name Therefore the thing Reported was known by all that heard the report and they did all some way understand the notion of it For we read in Luke 18. v. 31 32 33. That Christ told his own Apostles as plainly as any thing can be expressed in words that he would go up to Jerusalem and that there he should be most cruelly and shamefully put to death and rise again the third day And yet in the very next verse
if you do not believe it why do you commend his Book to me as that which will give me best Direction in this matter and preserve my Soul from being poysoned with the new Divinity But if you do believe him why do you contradict him he telling me one thing and you telling me the quite contrary yea the contradictory thereof Why do you also join with the new Divines against him or his Book and go about to poyson my Soul with the new Divinity in the great Point of Assurance it s not being essential to the direct Act of justifying Faith whereas the contrary Opinion of Marshal which you deny was the great Engine wherewith our first Reformers battered down the Walls of Rome Thus our Author by his way of Writing is more like to hinder men from believing and to harden them in their unbelief than to be instrumental in Converting them from unbelief to Faith in Jesus Christ Thirdly Unbeliever This believing is hard Minister This is a good doubt but easily resolved Here again the Minister makes himself ridiculous and exposes himself to the scorn and contempt of the Unbeliever for the Unbeliever makes no doubt of the matter but positively afferts that this believing is hard as being firmly perswaded in his Mind without the least Hesitation or Doubt that this believing is hard indeed and when the Minister has heard him say yea has put the Words in his Mouth and made him to say positively without doubting that this believing is hard then he answers him and says this is a good doubt and easily resolved and the plain English of that is that no doubt but a Positive Affirmation is a good doubt But supposing for once with the Minister that no doubt is a doubt yet how doth he make it appear that it is a good doubt for there are bad doubts as well as good doubts and why may not this be a bad doubt rather than a good doubt Yes saith the Minister I prove it and make it appear thus that it is not a bad but a good doubt because it bespeaks a man deeply humbled Rarâly proved But why may it not as well bespeak a man to be deeply hardened in unbelief and highly listed up in pride For were not the Capernaites deeply hardned in unbelief and yet when they heard Christ himself with his own Blessed mouth preaching to them of the great necessity and usefulness of believing on him under the Figurative expressions of Eating his Flesh and Drinking his Blood they both doubted and dishelieved and thus expressed their doubts and unbelief John 6.42 How is it that he saith I came down from Heaven And V. 52. How can this man give us his Flesh to eat And V. 60. This is an hard saying who can hear it Likewise those Jews and Heathens of whom Paul writes 1 Cor. 1.23 That Christ Crucified was unto the one sort of them a stumbling block and unto the other foolishness could doubt and say this believing in a Crucified Christ is hard and in effect they did say it and so they doubted if that be to doubt for they said it was an unreasonable foolish thing to believe to be saved by a crucified Man and that was in effect to say that it was hard to believe in Christ For it is certainly hard for a reasonable man to believe that which in his heart he judges to be unreasonable and foolish But now did this bespeak those unbelieving Jews and Heathens to be deeply humbled no sure it was so far from it that it bespoke the quite contrary it bespoke them deeply hardned in unbelief and highly lifted up in pride and self conceit Our Author has another Argument to prove it to be a good doubt because says he Any body may see his own impotency to obey the Law of God fully but few find the difficulty of believing Well be it so that few find the difficulty of believing and that few doubt whether it be difficult or not doth that prove that this particular unbeliever doubts because he finds believing to be so difficult that he is past all doubt of its being difficult and thereupon positively affirms that it is difficult and hard to believe He must have lost his reason that can deliberately think that a Man who is fully convinced of the difficulty of believing and thereupon affirms that it is hard to believe hath a good doubt whether it be difficult or not because the generality of other Men seldom think of believing or endeavour to believe and so find not the difficulty of it But 2. suppose this particular Unbeliever do not find it so difficult to believe as to be past all doubt that it is difficult only his mind is brought to an aequilibrium even ballance and hangs in suspence between these two whether it be difficult or whether it be easse to believe This supposition being true will prove indeed that the man hath a doubt in his mind concerning the difficulty of believing but it doth not at all prove that it is a good doubt The Truth is such a doubt is evil and cannot be good for the man ought to be fully perswaded in his mind that to believe in Christ crucified with a saving Faith it is really difficult and hard yea impossible to Unregenerate Nature and without the Grace of God but that to Regenerate Nature it is easie through the affistance of Gods special Grace And so here can be no room at all for the Unbelievers good doubt Next our Author falls upon the resolving of the Unbelievers pretended good doubt And in order thereunto he asks him What it is which he finds doth make believing difficult to him 1. Our Author asks the Unbeliever Whether he finds it difficult to believe because he is unwilling to be justified and saved And this saith he the Unbeliever will deny And he may well deny it and further tell our Author Sir You are very impertinent to ask me such a Question for you knew well enough without asking that that could not be the reason wherefore I think it difficult to believe for no man in his right wits was ever unwilling to be justified and saved that is unwilling to be happy for it is naturally necessary unto all men to desire happinness and therefore if the Justification and Salvation which you talk of be necessary to make me happy and if my happiness partly consist therein you know I cannot be unwilling to be justified and saved because I cannot be unwilling to be happy 2. He asks the Unbeliever Whether he finds it difficult to believe because he is unwilling to be so saved by Jesus Christ to the praise of Gods Grace in him and to the avoiding of all boasting in himself And he saith The Unbeliever will surely deny this also To which the Unbeliever may be supposed to answer Sir I thank you for your good opinion of me by this I perceive you take me to be deeply humbled indeed but
plain with you I think this your last answer is much like all the rest that went before there is hardly a good one amongst them and the difference is that this is the worst in the whole pack And to make this good I offer these things following to the consideration of all men of common sense and reason as well as of Christian Believers 1. The Objection saith That Faith is a difficult Act and proves it to be difficult because impossible without a Divine Power which the Unbeliever sinds not To which you answer That Believing is no work but a resting and so by changing the Terms and putting Work for Act you think to impose upon silly Women and such like Persons and to make them think that you have said much when you have said nothing or worse than nothing And that you have answered the Objection when you have rather confirmed it The Objection says and proves that Faith is a difficult Act because impossible without a Divine Power This you do not deny but only deny that it is a work and so that it is a difficult work If then there be an Act that is no Work as you seem to intimate tho Faith should not be a difficult work yet it may be a difficult Act so difficult that a man cannot believe aright without Divine Assistance and this was all the Objection was designed to prove for it makes no mention of the word work it neither affirms nor denies Faith to be a work 2. I demand why you change the Terms and deny Faith to be a work whereas the Objection did not affirm it to be a work but to be an act and a difficult act because impossible to Humane Nature without the Powerful Assistance of God I cannot easily imagine what reason you had to deny Faith to be a work instead of denying it to be an act and a difficult act if you intended to answer the Objection which only affirms Faith to be a difficult act But whatever reason might move you to deny Faith to be a work which I do not well understand yet this I know that your denying Faith to be a work falls out very unluckily for you and turns to your own shame Let. pag. 11. for you your self had said before and proved from Scripture to wit from John 6.28 29. That Faith is a work yea that it is the work of God the great work of God the great work which we do and which we cannot do too soon These are your own words And yet within the compass of six Pages after you absolutely deny that Faith is any work at all This brings to my mind the old saying Oportet mendacem esse memorem A lyar had need to have a good memory And by this sign and token I know that you are a weak deceived man your self or that you are a deceiver of others It will no wise relieve you to say that though Faith be a Work yet it doth not justifie as a work but as an Insirument For 1. here you absolutely deny it to be a work and that in answer to an Objection which did not relate to Justification Therefore 2. I say that here was no occasion to speak of Justification at all and consequently no occasion to affirm that Faith justifies as an Instrument and to deny that it justifies as a work for the Question here is not at all how we are justified by Faith whether by Faith as a work or by Faith as an instrument but all the Question is whether Faith be difficult to an Unbeliever or not The Objection affirms it to be difficult because it is impossible to Humane Nature without the Grace of God you in answer to the Objection deny it to be difficult because it is no work So that it is evident this your denying Faith to be a work relates not to the manner of Faiths justifying a Man but to the difficulty of a Mans getting and using of Faith 3. It is altogether impertinent here to deny Faith to be a work in the Office or Act of Justification for though it were granted that Faith is not considered as a work in the Act of justifying yet if it be a work in its own Act of Existence the Objection remains in its full Strength and unanswered for still it is true which the Objection asserts that its very difficult for an Unbeliever to produce the Act or do the Work of Faith This you saw and therefore to cut the Sinews and to take away the main force of the Argument you absolutely deny Faith to be a Work This was your Intention in saying that Faith is no work otherwise your Answer was wholly impertinent to the Objection And indeed it must be confessed that if your Answer were true if it were true that Faith is no Work at all in any sence the Objection hath lost all its Strength and falls dead to the ground But that your Answer is not true I have had it already from your self under your own hand affirming and proving that Faith is a great Work which we cannot do too soon And least you should endeavour to bring your self off by saying that Faith is no outward bodily Work and that that was your meaning in saying that Faith is no Work I give you a third Answer and therein Thirdly I demand what you mean by the Word Work when you say that Faith is no Work Whether you do mean an outward bodily Work or an inward Heart-work And 1. I appeal to your own Conscience that you did not mean an outward Bodily Work for no Body ever said or thought that Faith is an outward Bodily Work And why should you in Answer to an Argument deny that which no Body ever affirmed yea and lay the main stress too of your Answer upon that denial 2. You could not give that Answer to such an Objection unless you was in a Dream or out of your right Mind for to Answer so as to say that Faith is not an outward Bodily work but an inward Heart-work doth not in the least touch the Objection though that be most true that Faith is no outward bodily work yet if Faith be an inward Heart-work the Objection stands in its full force and strength for inward Heart-work is the most hard and difficult work therefore if Faith be an inward Heart-work it must needs be still hard and difficult to believe which is the very thing that the Objection was brought to prove therefore if you intended to Answer the Objection by denying Faith to be a Work you must also intend to deny that it is an inward Heart-work and so that it is any work at all either inward or outward and if that were true you had indeed effectually answered the Objection But that is not true for Fourthly It is notoriously false that Faith is no inward Heart-work for to be an inward Work of the Heart is nothing but to be an inward Act of the Heart
of the difficulty of believing so in the Name of the whole Fraternity of Unbelievers I thank you for your great kindness to them and for this sweet and comfortable Doctrine if it be true which you have taught us all in your Letter which I hear is much cryed up by some Women in London who love rest and ease Now we might have all rested quietly together were it not for those you call the New and Young Divines whom you have charged with Pelagianism This was not wisely done of you for you have thereby awakened them from their rest and it is to be feared that by loud Recriminations they will disturb you and us both and proclaim the secret to the World that you your self are Confederate with Pelagians Semipelagians and Unbelievers For it is undeniable matter of Fact that it is a branch of Pelagianism and the very Root and Heart of Semipelagianism That Men can believe in Christ with a justifying Faith by the Power of Nature without the Supernatural Grace of God And if your similitude hold good men not only can believe but which is more they cannot possibly choose but they must of Necessity believe without the help of Grace unless they be hindered by a Miracle exciting them to Act and Work and to cease from rest Sir how you can come to Rest and Peace with those brisk Young Divines whose Age inclines them to Action more than to Rest I do not pretend to know but this I know that upon your foresaid Principle the Unbeliever and you are agreed and if you will be stedfast and stand to your Principle we shall live together in perfect quietness and never more differ about Believing Thus we have given an account of our Authors Way and Method of Converting an Unbeliever to Faith in Christ which is more than a resting on Christ for it is a Grace whereby we assent to Jesus his being the Christ the Son of God and only Saviour of Men and Consent to take him for our Prince and Saviour and as such receive him on his own Terms and then rest relie and trust on him for Justification c. We have shewed also what a weak and ridiculous way and Method it is and how easily an Unbeliever may Answer all that he hath said in the 16. and 17. Pages of his Letter mentioned before except a few at his first setting out he hath hardly made one right step in the whole course of that Advice which he takes upon him to give unto Ministers how they ought to deal with Unbelievers in labouring to Convert them unto Faith in Christ He hath plainly betray'd our Cause to the Unbeliever who hath brought him by his last Objection to take up with a Piece of Pelagianism and with the grossest Semipelagianism that hath been heard of in the Christian Church so weak is he not wicked we hope that he could think of no other way to Answer that Objection but by denying that Faith is any Work at all though therein he shamefully contradicts himself and the express Word of God and by affirming that it is a resting in such a sense as imports that it is neither Work nor Act but a meer Cessation from Working and Acting a doing nothing at all and from thence he labours to shew the Unbeliever that it is not difficult to believe and illustrates it by such a similitude as will make any considering man who reads it and understands the use he makes of it to think that he must be a Semipelagian who holds that a man can believe unto Justification without any Subjective Supernatural Grace of God at all Whereas he ought to have acknowledged the Truth of the Objection that it is indeed difficult and impossible too for a natural man by the power of nature ever to believe but that it is possible and easy too by the Grace of God And then he should have directed the Unbeliever unto the means whereby Grace to believe is ordinarily obtained from God through Christ and should have advised him to wait and continue waiting on God in the use of his appointed means and particularly to be much in praying as well as he can for Grace to help in time of need and desiring the prayers of Christs Ministers and People But not a word of this nay instead of advising the Unbeliever to use Gods means and seek the Grace of Faith from God through Christ he gives him to understand that Faith is nothing but a resting from all work and action and that it is no more difficult to believe than it is for a weary Traveller to lye down and rest when he is so tyred that he can neither stand nor go And after he hath told the Ministers that they ought thus to resolve the doubts and answer the arguments of Unbelievers he hath the confidence to conclude that by such reasonings with an Unbeliever from the Gospel the Lord will as he hath often done convey Faith to him and joy and peace by believing This is like all the rest the Conclusion and the Premises are at irreconcileable variance with one another The Conclusion saith that the Lord will convey Faith to the Unbeliever by the reasonings in the premises and yet one of those reasonings is that Faith is nothing but a resting and such a resting as signifies a Cessation from all actings and that an Unbeliever needs no more help to believe than a weary Travellour needs help to lye down and rest when he is so tyred that he can neither stand nor go We think it is a sort of Blasphemy to say wittingly and willingly that such reasonings as some of those we have noted in the 16 and 17 Pages of the Letter are either in and from the Gospel or that the Lord makes use of such self contradicting confounding fulshood as means of conveying Faith into the Hearts of his people And because in this part of his Letter he speaks to us that are Ministers and either bids us tell the Unbeliever so and so or else he affirms that we do tell him so and so we must declare to the World that we will follow his advice no further than we find it agreeable to Scripture and Reason which sometimes we do find and oftentimes the contrary as we have proved but as for what he affirms that Ministers tell the Unbeliever that Faith is not difficult that it is no more difficult to an Unbeliever than lying down is to a man when he is so tyred and weary that he can neither stand nor go we protest we are none of those Ministers we never did and through Grace never will tell any Unbeliver such an abominable falshood We know no other Ministers but our Author that Preaches such Doctrine and we have endeavoured to make him ashamed of it in hopes to bring him off from it We trust that after we have thus publickly declared against our Authors Way and Method of Converting Unbelievers to Faith in Christ and
That according to the Description which he gives of a Middle-way-man Let. p. 2. we may safely and with a good Conscience according to the Light which God hath given us deny that we are Middle-way-men for he makes a Middle-way-man to be one who espouses defends and promotes a Middle-way betwixt the Arminians and the Orthodox But that we are Middle-way-men in this Sense we must deny for we cannot own our selves to be such men without lying against our Consciences and saying that we are not Orthodox or but half-Orthodox which we believe to be a great falshood If therefore our Author would have us to confess that we are Middle-way-men 1. He must give us a better and truer Definition of a Middle-way-man for this will not fit us at all belike he would have the World believe that we are half-Arminians and half-Orthodox but if that be his meaning in intimating that we steer a Middle-course between the Arminians and the Orthodox it is an abominable Calumny which we have already wiped off by solemnly and sincerely Declaring that we do not participate of the Arminian extream at all we are no Arminians in whole or in part 2. He would do well to tell us whom he means by the Orthodox it may be that by the Orthodox he means chiefly himself and his small party exclusively of all other Protestants If that be his meaning we say 1. That he must not thus beg but prove his Orthodoxy before we can own him to be thus very Orthodox 2. We think that such a Notion of Orthodoxy is too narrow and Schismatical It is a Monopolizing of soundness in the Faith to a Party and that Comparatively a small Party of Christians too and a branding of all the rest with the Mark of Unsound and Erroneous in the Faith Whereas the real Difference between those called Middle-way-men on the one side and the most of those called Orthodox on the other may not be matter of Faith strictly so called but rather matter of Opinion and so both Parties may be Orthodox or sound in the Faith That is notwithstanding some different Sentiments in lesser things they may both firmly and fully agree in believing all the Articles of Christian Faith which are necessary to Church Communion on Earth and to the obtaining Eternal Salvation in Heaven through the Mercy of God the Father the Merits and Satisfaction of the Son and the Grace of the Holy Spirit 3dly If he had shewed us in his Letter wherein that Middle-way doth particularly consist according to his Opinion we should have it may be either owned or disowned it in part or in whole according as we had found him to have truly represented or misrepresented it to the World But since he hath not done that we cannot know certainly what he means by that Middle-way he talks of 4thly Yet by some Passages in his Letter we guess that he Points at the controversie about the extent of Christs Death which hath been amongst Protestant Divines since the Reformation or since the time that Beza and Piscator began to write on that Head after the Reformation And if that be the thing he Points at without naming it we will First Give the true State of the Controversie Secondly Declare briefly what our Opinion is as to that matter And for the State of the Controversie First There are some Divines in the World who are said to hold that Christ died equally for all men Elect and Non-elect and that God on the account of Christs Death gives a common sufficient Grace to them all whereby they may all if they will apply to themselves the Vertue of Christs Death and thereby obtain Justification and Salvation But that Christ did not dye for the Elect out of any special Love to them above others and that God through Christ doth not give any Special Effectual Determining Grace to the Elect more than to the Non-elect This is the Arminian extream Secondly There are other Divines who hold that Christ died for the Elect only and exclusively of all others and that he died not for any of the Non-elect in any proper tolerable true sense that he no more died for any of those Men who are not elected to Eternal Life than he died for the Devil and that such Men have no more to do with the Satisfaction and Meriâs of Christ than the Devil hath This is the other extream And we suppose that this is that which our Author accounts the Orthodex side and that he is of this side himself But Thirdly Between these two extream Opinions there is a Golden mean there is a Middâe-way which hath been many hundred years ago and still is expressed in this form of Words That Christ died only for the Elect-Sinners of Mankind both Sufficiently and Efficaciously but that he died for the Non-elect only Sufficiently but not Efficaciously This is the State of the Controversie 2. If Secondly It be now demanded Whether we be for this Middle-way or not In Answer to that demand we say That there are a great many of us who are Calumniated by our Author as corrupters of the Gospel by holding a Conditional Covenant and tho' we do not doubt but we all agree in the foresaid General form of Words and in admitting the Distirction of Christs dying for the Elect Efficaciciously and for the Reprebate only Sufficiently yet it may be that when we come to explain what we particularly mean by Christs dying Sufficiently only for the Non-elect there will be some little Difference amongst us in some of our Notions and Expressions and possibly some of us may not in effect differ from our Author further than in the manner of our Expression and in the Method of our Conceptions and Notions But 1. We are all of one Mind and of one Faith with respect to Christs dying Efficaciously for the Elect only and we hope also that our Author himself agrees with us herein Which is the main thing wherein our Agreement is necessary And then 2. As to the Non-Elect especially those of them to whom the Gospel is preached we hope all of us do and will agree to this That Christ died for them sufficiently in such a sense as he did not dye for the fallen Angels so that if they should believe in Christ and repent of their sins as they are bound to do according to the tenour and terms of the Gospel they should be saved through Christ and not perish as they do by persevering in Unbelief and Impenitence And being thus far agreed we hope we shall keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace and as to any little difference of Judgment that may remain we shall bear with one another in Love after the example of the famous Synod of Dort whereof the Members differed in the Synod upon this very point and yet they bore with one another and wisely agreed against the Arminian extreme as most manifestly appears from the Acts of
believed but by the supernatural teaching and assistance of Gods Holy Spirit so it cannot be rightly learned known and believed without our own Reason For 1. Grace doth not destroy but refine and perfect Nature the Holy Spirit doth not put out the eye of our reasoning Faculty Luke 24.45 out opens it clears it elevates and raises it up above its natural ability and strengthens it to see Spiritual objects in such a Spiritual way as it could not see them by its own natural power alone 2. The Spirit of God teaches us by the Word of God and both the Word and Spirit suppose us to be rational for the Word and Spirit of God are given to none but rational Creatures and if we were not rational creatures we should not be subjects capable of being taught by the Word and Spirit or of teaching others We do not then make reason to be either the formal object or rule of Faith and Religion But we hold it to be a light which God himself hath set up in our Souls Whereby 1. We discern through Grace the Written Word to be indeed the Word of God and the Spirit that teaches us by the Word to be indeed the Spirit of God and whereby we discover that every Word and Spirit which are contrary thereunto are not the Word and Spirit of God 2. We hold Reason right Reason to be a light which God hath given us wherewith to search into the meaning of his Word and by studious inquisition and observation to discover and find out the true meaning of the Word and to make it known to others and by good reason out of the Text to convince others of âhe truth of it These things we can never do unless we be rational Divines and unless we use our reason in Studying Speaking or Writing of matters of Divinity and doth not our Author do the same If he say that he doth not because then he should be in danger of being a rational Divine but he is not nor will be a Rational Divine Doubting Conscience resolved p. 46. We demand in the words of Dr. Twiss Doth this Authors Reason go to Bed and Sleep when he comes to Read and Studiously to consider the word of God If it doth he will prove no better than a drowsie Student and we know no reason but such a one may be in Love with Dreams as well as Anabaptist saith Dr. Twiss But we rather say as wâll as those Prophets of wââom we read in Jerem. 23.25 That they Prophesied Lyes in the Lords Name saying I have dreamed I have dreamed Thus we make an end of what we thought fit to say on the Fourth General Head We have laid before the Reader some of his Calumnies and Aspersâons cast upon us and have wiped them off and we could do no less though it thereby appear that he hath been a false Accuser of Christs Ministers against the sincerity of Christian Love CHAP. V. VVhere People are advised to try before they trust and not suffer themselves to be imposed upon and led into Error by the bold unproved Assertions and Dictates of any Preachers or Writers whatsoever FOR our parts we neither have nor desire to have Dominion over Peoples Faith 2 Cor. 1.24 And therefore we do not desire that any man should believe us and be of our Judgment any further than what we say or write is agreeable to Holy Scripture and to right Reason grounded upon Scripture In those things wherein we affirm that our Author hath erred from the Truth we have endeavoured to prove by clear Scripture and plain Reason consonant to Scripture that he hath so erred And before People positively conclude that we are in the right we intreat them to weigh and consider well what we have written to prove the Truth of our Assertions and after due consideration to judge according to the evidence of our proofs as they will answer to God and their own Consciences If we have clearly and faithfully declared to people the Mind and Will of God as it is revealed by holy Scripture though we do not desire that they should submit their Judgments to us and believe what we believe meerly because we believe it yet we do expect that they should submit their Judgments unto God as we have done And that they should believe what we believe because God hath revealed the matter of our belief both to us and them And whosoever shall either neglect or refuse to submit their Judgments unto God and to believe what they know or may easily know he hath revealed will be found guilty before the Lord of unbelief and Spiritual pride for which he will one day call them to an account But on the other hand if any think and affirm that we are mistaken in our Judgment of the things in controversie and that therefore they are not bound with us to believe them To such we say that if in any of them we are mistaken it is more than we know and our mistake is altogether involuntary for the Lord knows that we have diligently searched for the Truth as to all the matters in controversie with an earnest desire to find it and with frequent and fervent Prayers to the God of Truth that he would teach us the Truth that by his Spirit of Truth according to his Word of Truth he would lead us into the Truth of those Matters And we are fully perswaded in our own Minds that God hath heard our Prayers blessed our Endeavours and caused us to find the Truth which we have diligently sought and searched for We have also given the World an account of the Grounds and Reasons of this our Perswasion which we submit to the impartial Examination of all that fear the Lord and are sincere Lovers of Truth not doubting but that Persons so well disposed will find upon impartial Examination of the matters in Controversie that our Grounds are solid and our Reasons Cogent and Conclusive Yet if in any one thing we should happen to be mistaken which we believe we are not we declare that we are so far from desiring any to follow us in that mistake and to believe any thing in matters of Doctrine which God hath not revealed that on the contrary we shall through Grace be really thankful first to God and next to such men as shall convince us of our mistake by Evidence of Scripture or by Right Reason without Railing and Scolding As for those who have accustomed themselves unto that way of Writing let them not think that ever they shall be able to move us from our Perswasion by Railing at us and calling us Hereticks If any attack us with such Carnal Weapons they will buâ discover their own Weakness and Folly and we hope it shall have no other effect upon us but to move us to pity them and to pray the Lord to make them better Christians It is not any mans bare thinking or bold saying that we are mistaken
uncere Obedience to be a Legal but an Evangelical Condition of the Covenant of Grace and consequently that in our Judgment they do not hold the same Place and Office in the New Covenant of Grace which personal perfect sinless Obedience had and were to have had in the first Covenant of Innocency and of Works Object But saith our Authour in his Appendix Pag. 39. It is the Achillaean Argument of the New Divinity that Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience is our Evangelical Righteousness and that Righteousness is our defence against the charge of Vnbelief Impenitence c. And what then Why in the following Pages he so shapes it as might best serve his Design which was to make the People believe that we set up our own Righteousness in the place of Christ's and maintain that Men must be Justified by their own Righteousness and not onely by Christ's And so he trips up Achilles Heels by the Fallacy of many Interrogations But it will be no very difficult Task to scatter this Mist which he hath cast before the Peoples Eyes In order thereunto let it be considered 1. That the Substance of this Argument was not invented by any amongst us dead or alive that we know of but some in this Nation having read it in some very eminently learned forreign Divines particularly Ludovicus de Dieu at large and the Holy Humble Learned and most Acute Placeus they received it and improved it as useful to clear some seeming Difficulties in Scripture obiected to us by our Adversaries the Papists 2. Consider that this way of reconciling James with Paul in the matter of Justification for the Substance of it was taken up also by the Learned Turretin 3. That it doth not appear that all of us ever expressed our selves in those Words for the clearing up of the seeming difference between James and Paul 4. That those who do take that way do not impose it upon others We know there have been many ways taken by Reformed Divines to expound James so as not to contradict Paul And some considerable difference there may seem to be among Divines in the methodizing and expressing of their Notious of those Matters But yet there appears to be very little difference amongst them as to the things themselves Indeed upon the Matter all seems to come almost to the same thing And particularly let it be considered 5. That this way of Interpreting James his Justification by Works and reconciling it with Paul's Justification by Faith seems to differ from the more common modern Opinion mostly in the manner of expression which some of us think most agreeable to the Scripture Phrase But we leave every Man to express his Notions as best pleaseth him provided that if he do not use Scripture Words yet he do not contradict Scripture sense And therefore 6. We desire it may be considered that this way of expounding James which we are now speaking of doth not in the least contradict the Holy Scripture but rather serves to explain it if it be understood as it ought to be in the true genuine sense of its Authours For 1. Though they say that our Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience is an Evangelical Righteousness as indeed it is yet at the same time they declare that this Evangelical Righteousness is no other thing but the Condition of the new Covenant on our part whereby we are interested first and still keep our interest in the satisfactory meritorious Righteousness of Christ by and for which alone we are justified from first to last They do not say that this Evangelical Righteousness which is the Condition of the Covenant doth satisfie God's Justice for the least sin either against Law or Gospel or that it doth properly merit to us the least good so much as a Cup of Cold Water They give unto Christ alone the whole Glory of having by his Righteousness satisfied Justice for all our Sins and merited to us all our Mercies So that our Authour was we think a little impertinent in putting his question page 41. What is that Righteousness which justifies a man from the sin of Vnbelief For he knows well enough that the Worthy Divines as he deservedly calls them with whom he has to do in that Argument have published it to all the World under their hands That assoon as a Man who was before an Unbeliever begins through Grace sincerely to believe in Christ and to repent of his Unbelief and of all his other sins immediately thereupon Christ's satisfactory meritorious Righteousness justifies him from his sin of Unbelief and from all his other former sins both Original and Actual that is God by and for Christ's Righteousness justifies him from them upon his believing and repenting And as our Authour knows this to be true so he hath honestly confessed it in the end of the same Paragraph Will any man says he dare to tell a person who is troubled in Conscience about his sin of Vnbelief that Christ's Righteousness is his legal Righteousness against the charge of sins against the Law but for Gospel-charges he must answer them in his own name I know our hottest opposers would abhor such an answer and would freely tell such a Man that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin and that his Justification from his Vnbelief must be only in that Righteousness which he so sinfully had rejected while in Vnbelief and now lays hold on by Faith Here the Truth comes out at last and in effect he gives the lye to his own false accusations of the Lord's Ministers and acquits the accused For if his hottest Opposers freely tell People that the Blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin and that their Justification from the sin of Unbelief must be only by the Righteousness of Christ then how can those things be true whereof as was observed before he had accused us in page 6 28 33 and page 39. That we bring our own pitiful Holiness into Justification and make it sit on the Throne of Judgment with the precious blood of the Lamb of God Ex ore tuo c. But 2. The Authors of the Argument we are upon never said wrote or so much as thought that can be known That our sincere Faith and Repentance is a Defence or Justification against a charge of Unbelief or Impenitence given in against us by God for they knew full well without being taught it by this Authour That the God of Truth cannot be the Authour of a Lye which he would certainly and evidently be if he should charge us with being Unbelievers and Impenitent at that very time when he knows that by his own Spirit and Grace we sincerely believe and repent But that which the aforesaid Excellent Divines said is yet to be seen in their Writings and it is this That our sincere Faith and Repentance is a Defence and Justification against any false charge of Unbelief and Impenitence that is or possibly may be given in against
be sincere consisting in a real true hearty desire and endeavour to be faithful unto the Lord and through Grace to stand perfect and compleat in all the Will of God Col. 4.12 3. This sincere Obedience doth not satisfie the Justice of God for the least sin nor doth it purchase or merit the least mercy not so much as a Cup of cold Water much less the unconceivably great blessing of Eternal Life and Glory 4. As this Obedience doth not purchase or merit Eternal Life and Glory it self so neither doth it purchase or merit our right to it and God's actual donation of it For it was Christ alone that purchased our right to it by his Obediential Sufferings unto Death for us and in our Justification God by his promise for Christ's sake gives us our right to it and at the end of our days when we leave this world God will actually give Eternal Life and Glory to us for the sake of Christ and by the hand and power of Christ John 17.2 Rom. 6.23 So that 5ly Since our sincere Obedience neither merits nor gives us right unto nor yet actually gives us possession of Eternal Life and Glory it remains that it must be the means to be used and condition to be performed on our part that God for Christ's sake according to his promise may continue our right to and may give us possession of Eternal Life and Glory Now this we prove first by plain Scripture First Argument from Scripture for we find in Holy Scripture that God requires our Obedience as aforesaid for obtaining the promised Benefit of Eternal Life and Glory so as to suspend our obtaining of Eternal Glory in his Heavenly Kingdom on our performing of sincere obedience unto him and continuing therein to the end 1. Here is to be proved first That sincere obedience is required of us and for that see Mat. 11.29 30. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for my yoke is easie and my burden is light Mat. 12.50 Whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in Heaven the same is my Brother and Sister and Mother Mat. 28.20 Teach them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and Lo I am with you always even unto the end of the World Luke 6.46 Why call ye me Lord Lord and do not the thing which I say See also John 13.34 and 14. v. 15 21 23 24. and 15. v. 10 14. Rom. 6.12 13. and 8. v. 12 13. and 12. v. 1 2. 1 Cor. 15.58 Eph. 5. v. 1 2 3 4 15 16. 1. Thess 4. v. 1 2 3 4 c. Tit. 2.12 Heb. 6.11 12. and 12. v. 1. and 13. v. 1 5. Jam. 1. v. 4 5 19 20 21 22 27. and 2. v. 12. and 3.13 1 Pet. 13 14 15 16 17. and 2. v. 1 2 11 12. and 3. v. 8 9 10 11 12. and 5. v. 2 5 6 7 8 9. 2 Pet. 3.11.17 18. 1 John 2.4 5 6. and 3.18 and 2 John v. 8 9. Jude v. 20 21. Rev. 2.5 Rev. 14.6 7 12. Secondly It is to be proved that God hath suspended our obtaining of Eternal Glory in his Heavenly Kingdom on our performing of sincere Obedience unto him and continuing therein to the end And to prove this there needs no more but to demonstrate from Scripture that if we be obedient unto the Lord as is said we shall obtain the possession of Eternal Glory in Heaven but if we be not so obedient we shall not obtain it Now both these are so infallibly certain and evident that really it is a shame that we should be put to prove them unto Men that own themselves to be Christians For 1. That none shall obtain the possession of Eternal Glory in Heaven but penitent obedient persevering Believers is it not as clear as the Sun from these Passages of Holy VVrit Not every one that saith unto me Lord Matth. 7.21 Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven 26 27. Compare this with the following Verses and you will see that our Saviour himself hath declared that Man to be a Fool that doth not do his Commandments and yet hopes that so living and dying he shall be saved by him from the Flood of God's Wrath and Vengeance Of all such disobedient Rebels the Lord Christ will say Those mine enemies who would not that I should reign over them Luke 19.27 bring hither and slay them before me And Blessed Paul assures us that when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels 2 Thess 1.7 8. he himself will in flaming fire take vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the Gospel St. Peter asks the Question 1 Pet. 4.17 What shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel And St. Paul answers it in the place now cited that Christ himself will take vengeance of them in flaming fire and they shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power The same Apostle saies again in another place The Just shall live by faith but if any man draw back Heb. 10.38 my soul shall have no pleasure in him The Words Any man are not in the Original and therefore they are Printed in a different Character It is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã If he draw back if the Just Man that lives by Faith if he draw back if he Apostatize the Lords Soul will have no pleasure in him that is the Lord will abhor him unto perdition As appears by the Context This passage is parallel to that of Ezekiel when or chap. 18.26 if a righteous man turneth away from his righteousness and committeth iniquity and dieth in them for his iniquity that he hath done shall he dye And if any man should go about to perswade people to believe that they may be saved though they dye in such sins without Repentance Blessed and Holy Paul by the Spirit of the Lord hath cautioned us all against such as Deceivers saying as it is written Ephes 5.6 Let no man deceive you with vain words for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience Heb. 12.14 And assures us that without holiness no man shall see the Lord. And 2. On the other hand is it not as clear that all persevering penitent obedient Believers shall certainly obtain the possession of Eternal Glory in Heaven through the Infinite Mercy of God and Merits of Christ For doth not our Lord himself say Verily verily if a man keep my saying Joh. 8.51 he shall never see death That is the second and eternal death And as for bodily death he shall at the last day be saved and delivered from that also For as it is written John 5.28 29. Then they that have done good shall come forth of their graves unto the resurrection of
the Condition of it It is clear also that he held as we do that God by his Special Grace purchased for us by Christ and given to us for Christ's sake enables us and all the Elect to perform the Condition of Faith and Repentance and that effectually and infallibly As for the Non-Elect who do not perform the Condition he says the reason the culpable reason of that is because they will not and though it be true also that they cannot yet that is not a meer Physical but a moral cannot which ariseth from the evil disposition of their minds and affections whereby they will not That this was Dr. Twiss his Judgment is evident by these following Testimonies of his quoted out of the same Book Observe we farther how this Authour confounds impotency moral Ibid. p. 155 156. which consisteth in the corruption of mans powers natural and impotency natural which consisteth in bereaving him of power natural The Lord tells us by his Prophet Jeremiah cap. 13.23 That like as a Blackamore cannot change his skin nor a Leopard his spots no more can they do good that are accustomed unto evil Now if a man taken in stealth shall plead thus before a Judge My Lord I beseech you have compassion upon me for I have so long time inured my hands to pilfering that now I cannot forbear it will this be accepted as a good plea to save him from the Gallows As for Faith It is well known that Divines distinguish between fides acquisita and sides infusa acquired and infused Faith That we may call a Faith naturally acquired which is found in carnal Persons whether Prophane or Hypoâritical And this to wit the infused is a Faith inspired by God's Spirit The object of each is all one and a Man may suffer Martyrdom for the one as well as for the other which manifesseth the pertinacious adherence thereunto And it appears that all Professions have had their Martyrs Albeit it be not in the power of Nature to believe side infusa with an inspired Faith yet it is in the power of nature to believe the Gospel side acquisitâ with an acquired Faith which depends partly upon a mans Education and partly upon reason considering the credibility of the Christian way by light of natural observations above all other ways in the World And when men refuse to embrace the Gospel not so much because of the incredibility of it but because it is not congruous to their natural affections as our Saviour tells the Jews light came into the World and men loved darkness Father than light because their deeds are evil John 3.19 Is there any reason why their condemnation should be any whit the easier for this Neither have I ever read or heard it taught by any that ãâã shall be damned for not believing with an infused Faith which is as much as to say because Goâd hath not regenerated them but either because they have refused to believe or else if they have embraced the Gospel for not living answerable thereunto which also is in their power quoad exteriorem vitae emendationem As to the outward Reformation of their Life though it be not in their power to regenerate their wills and change their hearts any more than it is to illuminate their minds Yet I never read that any mans damnation was any whit the more encreased for not performing these acts Again The Man bereaved of his eyes hath a will to read and consequently it is no fault for not reading For all sin is in the Will But it is not so in not obeying either Law or Gospel Ibid. page 170. If a Man had a will to obey and believe but he could not in such a case it were unreasonable he should be punished But in the case of disobedience unto God we speak of all the fault is in the will voluntarily and wilfully they neither will obey the one nor the other Like as they that have accustomed themselves to do evil cannot do good as a Blackamoor cannot change his skin yet with this difference that man is never a whit the more excusable or less punishable for not doing that which is good not so the Blackamoor for not changing his skin But such is the shameful issue of them that confound Impotency Moral with Impotency Natural as if there were no difference c. Again To the Rule of Law objected by Mr. Hoard That contractus sub conditione impraestabili nullus aestimatur a Contract or Promise made upon a condition not performable by the Party Ibid. p. 185 186. is esteemed none at all Twiss answers thus Conditio impraestabilis a Condition not performable is there such as cannot be performed by reason of Impotency Natural but the Impotency we speak of in the case between God and Man is merely Impotency Moral to wit therefore they cannot because they will not were it not for the Corruption of their Will no Power were wanting in Man to Believe and Repent Again Dost thou complain thou hast no power to believe but I pray thee tell me hast thou any will to believe If thou neither hast nor ever hadst any will to believe Ibid. p. 219 220. what a shamesul and unreasonable thing is it to complain that thou hast no power to believe St. Paul had a most gratious will but he sound in himself no power to do what he would but what is the issue of this complaint To sly in the face of God Nothing less But to confess his own wretchedness and flee unto God in this manner who shall deliver me from the body of this death And receiving a Gracious Answer concerning this concludes with thanks I thank God through my Lord Jesus Christ If I have a will to believe to repent I have no cause to complain but to run rather unto God with thanks for this and pray him to give that power which I find wanting in me And indeed this impotency of believing and infidelity the fruit of Natural Corruption common to all is merely a moral impotency and the very ground of it is the Corruption of the Will Therefore men cannot believe cannot repent cannot do any thing pleasing unto God because they will not they have no delight therein but all their delight is Carnal Sensual and because they are in the flesh they cannot please God and because of the hardness of their hearts they cannot repent Sin is unto them as a sweet Mirsel unto an Epicure which he rolleth under his Tongue This and much more to this purpose hath Twiss in his Book against Hoard And that this was his setled Judgment is evident by what he writes in his defence of the Doctrine of the Synod of Dort It is true that it is not in the power of man to add unto the word the efficacy of God's Spirit page 122 123. and it is as true that a carnal man hath no desire that God would add the efficacy of his Spirit
Covenant he is found to be a Godly Man through Grace to be Evangelically Godly because he is just such a Man as the Lord by the New Covenant and Evangelical Law requires him to be that he may be first justified by Christs Righteousness imputed to him that is he is found to be a Man whom God hath blessed with a new Heart and who is a true Penitent Believer and that is a Man Evangelically Godly Now there is no Contradiction at all in this for the same Man at the same time to be legally ungodly and Evangelically Godly because it is with respect to different Laws and Covenants that such contrary things are affirmed of him Let our Author if he please consult Turretine and he will find that that Learned Calvinist saith expresly Turret Instit part 2. loc 16. pag. 714. That a true Believer when he is justified by Faith in Christ is impius partim antecedenter partim respectivè ad Justificationem non autem concomitanter Ungodly partly antecedently and that is because he was altogether ungodly in former times partly with râspect to Justification because he hath nothing in himself that can be the matter and cause of his Justification but he is not concomitantly ungodly that is he doth not remain Ungodly when God is justifying him and till immediafely after he be justified If our Author upon this should say to us what he saith to his poor awakened Sinner That it is Non-sense Ignorance and Pride Let. p. 31.32 to maintain that a Man must be in some measure Godly in Disposition and Principle before he be Godly in Act and that he must actually believe with a Godly Faith in Order of Nature before he he justified for this is as much as to say that a Man must be pretty well recovered before he make use of the Physician c. We should reply 1. That as for his Poor awakened Sinner he makes a poor Fool of him he puts what Words he pleases in his Mouth and makes him say in effect that if he first had Faith before he first had Faith then he would first believe before he had first believed which we think no Man ever thought or said nor is capable of saying unless it be some poor Creature that is awakened out of his right Wits or else it be such an one as our Author who hath the Art of Believing or Writing Contradictions 2. That he had need to take heed that he do not blaspheme our Saviour who hath said that the Tree must be good before the Fruit can be good Matth. 7.16 17 18. and 12. v. 33. And that is as much as if he had said what we hold that there must be some Renovation of the Inward Disposition of the Heart before a Man do actually believe with a saving justifying Faith 3. That if our Author will not believe us let him believe his own beloved self for he says Pag. 16. That a Man is to believe that be may be justified And that necessarily implies that he must bring forth some good Fruit in order of Nature before he be justified and in Pag. 12. He himself quotes Matth. 12.33 To prove that the Tree must be good before the Fruit be good 4. We believe that our Heavenly Physician comes first to us ordinarily in the Ministry of the Word by his preventing Grace and doth indeed recover us in part by curing the deadness and indisposedness of our Hearts before we go to him by an actual saving justifying Faith and thereby imploy him for our Justification Christ comes first to us by his Word and Spirit and begins to cure us of our Spiritual deadness to any thing that is savingly good before we go to him by actual justifying Faith and be by him delivered from our Legal Death in Justification by Faith in his Blood 5. If our Author will yet go on to tell the People that we teach them not to employ the Physician of Souls till they have first pretty well cured themselves we take Heaven and Earth to witness that he belies us and abuses the Simplicity of the People for we believe in our Hearts and confess with our Mouths to the Glory of Christ the Physician of Souls that it is he who by his Word Spirit and Grace both begins carries on and perfects the cure of all his select People and that he doth it in the way and order set forth in his Word of which we have here given the World an account according to that measure of Light which it hath pleased him of his rich Mercy and free Grace to bestow upon us 6. And lastly We desire it may be considered whether our Authors saying that to tell the People they must begin to be Godly through Grace by being Penitent Believers in order to their being justified is all one as to tell them that they must be pretty well recovered and must cure themselves before they employ Christ the Physician of Souls we say it is our desire People would consider whether this be not a piece of Antinomian Cant for it is certain that this is the Language of Saltmarsh one of the grossest of that Sect in England That the Promises belong to Sinners as Sinners not as repenting or humbled Sinners as is to be seen in Gatakers Shadows without Substance Pag. 53. And again saith Saltmarsh like our Author in this Do you look that Men should be first whole for the Physician or Righteous for Pardon of Sin or justified for Christ Ibid. Pag. 54. or rather Sinners Unrighteous Ungodly And Gataker there Confutes this precious Stuff in Pag. 54 55 56 57 58. Again You Saltmarsh say that every one who receives Christ receives him in a sinful Condition and consequently in an impenitent one Ibid. p. 73. And again saith Saltmarsh as our Author doth in Pag. 11. of his Letter Can any Man believe too soon Gatakers shadows without substance p. 75. To which Question Gataker Answers No more than he can repent too soon Thus we have at large answered every thing which we can find in the Letter that looks like an Objection or Argument against the Truth which we believe according to the Scriptures But after all it may be some will seriously put this Question Is it likely that God will give us any Grace to sanctifie us in any Kind or Degree before he so love us as to justifie us To which we answer that it is not only likely to be but it certainly is so that God loves us so far as to make Conditional Promises to every one of his People and so far as to give them for Christs sake Grace to begin to perform the Condition before he so far love them as actually to justifie them for Christs sake and that we say is a giving of Grace to sanctifie us Initially or to begin a Holy change in us before we be actually justified and our Sins be forgiven us This we have so clearly proved by
the sincere love the holy intention and kind will of those worshippers of Demons And this seems agreeable to reason that it should be so for it is not likely that the most just and merciful God doth require more of a man than he hath received and more than is in a mans power yea it is rather probable that God accepts of what a man is able do if it be offered with a due Intention Thus the profound Doctor and by this let all Calvinists judge and let the Conscience of our Author judge how well that Doctor hath confuted the Pelagians and how greatly England is blessed with such a Confuter One touch more and we have done with him In the 26th Chapter of his first Book of the Cause of God against Pelagius he maintains with all his might that nothing is evil of it self but by Accident no not the wickedest thing that a Man doth or can do and therefore that the most horrid wickedness a Man can commit in other circumstances may cease to be Evil and be no Sin to him that commits it To prove this he makes several Suppositions As 1. in Pag. 256. He puts this Case which he says is possible That a simple Man without any foregoing fault of his is so deluded by the Devil whom he calls Behemoth the most cunning of all Sophisters that he is made to believe that unless he blaspheme or hate God he shall necessarily and unavoidably commit more Sin than that blasphemy or hatred of Gods amounts unto Now says our profound Doctor in this Case Iste simplex secundum judicium rectissmae rationis tenetur blasphemare Deum vel odire ne alias incidat in majus peccatum quoniam secundum communem animi conceptionem de duchus malis minus malum est eligendum cujus causa est quia in bonis est è contrario scilicet quod majus est magis eligendum That simple Man according to the Judgment of the most right Reason is bound to blaspheme God or to hate him lest otherwise as Satan tells him he fall into a greater Sin for according to the common Notion of Mans Mind of two Evils the least is to be chosen the Reason whereof is this that on the contrary of things that are good the greatest is to be chosen From these Premises he concludes that to blaspheme or hate God is not of it self necessarily and unalterably evil and sinful because there may happen a Case wherein a simple Man deluded by the Devil is bound to blaspheme or hate God and that according to the Judgment of Reason of Right Reason yea of the most Right Reason and that is of the best Reason in the World 2. In the same Page he puts another like Case which he saith Is possible also without any foregoing fault of the Person concerned Suppose a simple Man swears to be entirely obedient to his Prelate or Superior in all things then that Prelate or the Devil transformed into him commands the simple Man to hate or blaspheme God The Poor Man is certainly caught in a snare but how shall he get out why according to Bradwardin It is possible for him to get out safe by blaspheming or hating God in Obedience to his Superiour and out of Conscience of his Oath for that is the least Evil of the two and so comparatively is no Evil at all because to blaspheme or hate God is but one Sin and that against God only multumque excusatum per praeceptum Praelati and it is much excused by the command of his Superiour whereas he believes that in this Case not to obey is a greater Sin because 1. It is against his Superiour 2. It is also against God whose Vicegerent his Superiour is 3. It is a Violation and breach of his Oath and Vow This is another of his Demonstrations that blasphemy and hatred of God is not of it self and unalterably Evil because here is a possible Case wherein it ceases to be Evil and an Honest Man outwitted by a Knave may do it without Sin In the next Page he hath other Arguments of the like Nature to prove the same Position but we are unwilling to have any thing more to do with him for he next supposes Satan to be transformed into Christ himself and in that likeness to act his part so dexterously and effectually as to discharge a Man from his Duty to God and oblige him in Conscience to commit the foresaid Wickedness for a time for fear of being necessitated to do it for ever and to all Eternity Now upon the whole we refer it to all Men of common sense who have any true fear of God and love to Christ and pure Christianity to judge whether this be blest or cursed Doctrine and whether England be beholding to that Man who commends such Books to young Ministers But though we think the Nation and young Ministers in it are little beholding to him on that account yet we hope better things of him than that he will ever become a Prosylite to the Popish Religion or that for the sake of Bradwardin he will ever embrace the foresaid Doctrines which many Papists themselves abhor It may be he will say that this Bradwardin was an English Man that lived long since and he did not ken him well but if he had ken'd him or his Book either he would never have so commended him And if he be ingenuous to say so we readlly admit the excuse for we believe it to be very true and find that in more things than that one he writes of what he doth not understand and that too with an Air of Confidence that deserves a rebuke And withall we advise him for the future to forbear talking of old Authors and commending their Books to Ministers for he seems not to be much acquainted with that kind of Learning As he writes in his Letter Pag. 2. That a great many Young Students have contented themselves with studying English Authors so we think it had not been ill for him if he had contented himself with studying such Scots Authors and English too as never trod in the By-paths of Bradwardin Saltmarsh or Crisp We have mentioned some of that sort already to whom we will now adde a few more and first we commend to our Authors Consideration a Passage or two of a Reverend Learned and Modest Scots Divine whom he should Ken better than the old Englishman Bradwardin It is Mr. Dickson once Professour of Divinity in the Colledge of Edinburgh who in his Therapeutica Sacra writes thus Dicksons Therapeutica Sacra Book 1. Chap. 6. pag. 92. Together with these external Means mentioned before serving for drawing on the Covenant and going on in it the common Operations of God do concur common to all the called both Elect and Reprobate and Gifts common to both are bestowed such as Illumination Moral Perswasion Historical Dogmatical and Temporary Faith Moral Change of Affections and some sort of
external Amendment of their outward Conversation saving Grace being the special Gift of God to his own c. And pag. 95. The Lord makes use of this outward and common Covenanting with all Receivers of the offer as a mean to draw the Confederate in the Letter to be Confederate in the Spirit for the Faith which he requires as the Condition of the Covenant he worketh in the Elect if not before or with the external Covenanting yet undoubted after in a time acceptable and that by the ordinary means the use whereof is granted to all Confederate externally and so as common Illumination is a mean to that Special Spiritual and saving Illumination and Dogmatical and Historical Faith is a mean unto Saving Faith and external Calling is a mean to Effectual Calling so external Covenanting in the Letter is a mean most fit and accommodate to make a Man a Covenanter in the Spirit Here are Preparations and Dispositions before either Regeneration or Justification plainly asserted by Dickson then pag. 99. he enters upon a large Discourse concerning the Condition of the Covenant and he says That in receiving of grown Persons into Covenant There are three Conditions to be observed and distinguished one from another 1. The Condition of the Person desiring to be in Covenant with God for Reconciliation and Grace through Christ 2. The Condition upon which he is entered into Covenant 3. The Condition required of him for evidencing of his sincere Covenanting And Pag. 100. He says all these three are expressed by Christ in Matth. 11.28 29. First They that labour and are heavy laden are they whom Christ calleth unto a Covenant and fellowship of his Grace this that he calls the Condition of the Person is the same thing with that which we call the Disposition or Qualification of the Person Secondly He propounds the Condition of the Covenant to wit that they believe in Christ or come unto him that in him they may find full relief from Sin and Misery and in him full Righteousness and Felicity Thirdly He requires of them who do embrace him by Faith and so have accepted the Condition of the Covenant that they give evidence of their Faith in him by taking his Yoke upon them Take my Yoke upon you saith he Mr. Dickson calls this The third Condition and says a little before that it is the Covenanters up giving of himself to Christs Government and Obedience of his Commands This brings to our remembrance a Passage in the Catechism published by the Calvinists of Marpurgh in the Year 1606. Fidem sufficere ad apprehendendam salutem non autem ad cam conservandam sed amplius requiri vitae emendationem That Faith is sufficient for the first apprehending or receiving of Salvation but not for the conserving or continuing of it but there is moreover required Amendment of Life It reminds us also of what we read in the fourth Tome of Monsieur Claudes Posthumous Work in the very entrance of his Treatise of Justification Pag. 75. That there are Dispositions previous unto Justification and that there are Conditions which God necessarily supposes in Man and which ought to be found actually in him And then that there are Conditions which God imposes upon a Man when he justifies him to the end that he may observe them for the time to come In like manner he distinguishes in his Historical Defence of the Reformation Part 2. Chap. 6. pag. 218. of the English Translation Between the Condition supposed to Justification which is Faith and Repentance and the Condition imposed upon us by the Lord when he justifies us which is that for the time to come we live Holily according to the Laws which he has given us But this on the by from Dickson we pass to the Learned Charnock he saith That besides the Passive Capacity that is Charnock Vol. 2. p. 148. the Rational Faculties there are more immediate Preparations The Soul must be beaten down by Convictions before it be raised up by Regeneration there must be some apprehensions of the Necessity of it Yet sometimes the Work of Regeneration follows so close upon the heels of these Preparations that both must be acknowledged to be the work of one and the same hand The Preparation of the Subject is necessary but this Preparation may be at the same time with the conveyance of the Divine Nature And afterwards for several Pages he saith no more than what we have said That there is not any absolute causal Connection between such Preparations Ibid. p. 148.149 c. and Regeneration nor any Connection that is meritorious Yet all along he asserts Preparations From Charnock we pass to Flavel Flavels Method of Grace from pag. 347 to pag. 402. who spends two whole Sermons to prove That there is no coming ordinarily to Christ without the Application of the Law to our Consciences in a way of effectual Conviction This our Author will grant as we perceive by his Letter But Mr. Flavel spends two Sermons more to prove That this cannot be without the teachings of God in the way of Spiritual Illumination From Flavel we pass to Firmin Firm. Real Christ. p. 6 7 8 c. who shews at large That man naturally is not a subject fit or disposed to receive Christ immediately when offered to him but before he will receive him there must be some work of the Spirit upon him to prepare him make him willing and glad to receive him And if this were not so but as our Author would have it it would follow unavoidably that Mr. Hooker and Mr. Shepherd in their Books about the Souls Preparation for Christ and the several steps of it viz. Conviction Compunction Humiliation c. wrote very great impertinencies and which is worse did a great deal of hurt to the Souls of men For our parts since we are said to be Middle-way-men we think that to answer that Character that is given of us we ought to avoid all extremes as well in this as in other matters and therefore we say that no more of the foresaid Preparatory Dispositions is simply and absolutely necessary than what makes the Soul 1. See its absolute need of Christ and its being utterly lost and undone without him 2. What makes it see and believe that there is abundant help and relief for lost Sinners in Christ that he is an Alsufficient Saviour and the only Alsufficient Saviour able and willing to save to the uttermost all that come unto him and unto God by him in the way prescribed in the Gospel 3. What makes them thereupon desirous to have him and in some sort willing to receive him in all his Offices as he is offered desirous to have him and willing to receive him and his Benefits with him upon his own Terms the Terms held forth in the Gospel Of them who by the preventing Grace of the Holy Spirit are thus disposed there is no more required to be done by them in a