gifts of prayer does but offer a stinted form which is said commonly as to the hearers particular state and the stinting of the Object does not yet stint the Spirit however in his operation on the affections Praying alwaies with all manner of prayer and supplications in the Spirit Praying with the Spirit or by it in the last place is that we find in the dayes of the Apostles when they had extraordinary administrations of the Spirit in gifts that were miraculous insomuch that they spake with tongues and so preached and prayed Those that spake I apprehend understood not themselves what they delivered but every one in whose tongue they spake were edified and therefore we read of some that did interpret Those were such it is like as had skill in more tongues than their own or else in case there were none such the fame miraculous power might enable some for the interpretation as others to speak Thus praying with the Spirit is opposed to praying with the understanding and the Apostle prefers praying with the understanding before it There is no person had cause therefore to brag of this if he had it and there is none of any sect among us that pretend to it And so I think having said what I intended otherwise that neither the Gentleman nor I need to be put to any more words about it I will pray with the Spirit and I will pray with the understanding also CHAP. IV. Of the closer judgement of the Author in his sixth Chapter which is Arminian and of Election Free-will and Grace upon account of his opinion Of the salvability of Heathen and other incidental matters I Descend to his sixth Chapter which is to shew us who those are to whom the Spirit is promised and given These persons are Believers who yet are not holy persous This is his Notion They cannot be holy till they have the Spirit to sanctifie them and yet they must believe and pray because that is the condition upon which the Spirit is given The holy Spirit consequently and his special grace is necessary to Good works or sanctification but Believing is antecedent to it or must be in a mans power before it I must confess I am made sensible of the sagacity of this Author upon my reading this Chapter which I did not heed so much before and I perceive which way his mind is hankering It was this very light which carried St. Augustine so much in his first writings The doctrine of Pelagius at the first broaching consisted mainly in this point that God did give his grace according to mens merits This doctrine seemed to the Father too arrogant for man and derogatory to God That the grace of God and eternal life is given to some and not to others is manifest That the reason must be in regard of something that one man does and not another seemed to him undeniable That good works should be it appears against the Scripture not by works lest any man should boast Besides if a man should be allowed to be able to do any good works to merit Gods grace by the strength of nature what need were there of prayer for aid from God or the help of his Spirit Man should have need of industry here not prayer If not works then what must it be but that which is so often contradistinguished to works and that is Faith For the Scripture that saies not of Works but of Grace does say likewise It is of faith that it may be of Grace Here then is that which must be in mans power That a man could not do good works without grace St. Austine always asserted for this was his meaning when he saies that good works do not preceed but follow justification understanding by justifying the making a man just by inherent grace as the Schools do after him But that a man can believe if he will by the use of his natural faculties only is what he did maintain readily thinking no body could deny it According to this clear apprehension prehension as he then took it up he did proceed to his doctrine of Election which being defined by the Ancients before his time always ex praescientia he now determines to be of this Faith foreseen It must not be ex operibus praevisis because that will oppose grace but ex praevifa fide and that will salve all objections We are to conceive of other things to follow agreeably as Arminius that acute and I think pious Divine hath since taken up the notion when Augustine himself retracted it and upon his own stock improved it It is me now I must say something notable to see the seeds of the same light springing up in this Gentleman as formerly actuared two such searching Divines as Austin and Arminius were and I cannot therefore without guilt of disingenuity pass over any thing which he hath offered for the farther cultivation of it For doing this I observe he enters first upon an adventure to make some change of our terms in Divinity The state of nature and a state of Grace are terms that signifie Regeneration and Unregeneration with all men even in our practical Books and he will have us by a state of Nature to understand the state of a Heathen and by a state of Grace the state of every one under the Gospel The Gospel now bringing a man into this state a state of Grace he distinguishes of this Grace the Gospel brings And it is either that which goes before our Faith or follows it That which goes before he accounts it all Common Grace that which is given after it special Grace Ordinarily by the way that grace which is given to the Reprobate as well as to the Elect we call Common Grace and that which is peculiar to the Elect we call special grace whether before or after Faith But he offers his reason The Grace which the Gospel brings is either says he that which is given upon condition or that which is given upon none That which is conditional must be given only to some because it is some only perform that condition and that which is given but to some is special Grace That which is given upon no condition must be therefore or rather may be appropriated to all and so is Common Grace Thus he Theologizes when we ordinarily do not account it common grace because every one has it but because the Reprobate as well as the Elect have it and we do not call it special Grace only because some have it but because the Elect only have it so that that Grace which is given but to some if it be given to any Reprobate as well as the Elect we call not special but common Grace Well but these terms being premised that Grace now which he calls special the grace of the Gospel is promised on the condition of Faith It is Faith is the first thing upon which all depends If this be not in the power of every one the
speaks of is that Justification which we have in that Text of Genesis where it is said And Abraham believed and it was accounted to him for Righteousness Or That Juslification Paul speaks of is that Imputation of Faith for righteousness which is spoken of in that Text in Genesis That Justification which St. James speaks of is that Justification which we have in that Text in Genesis Or is that Imputation of Faith for Righteousness as is spoken of in that Text in Genesis Therefore St. Pauls justification and St. James justification are the same Justification Again That Faith which St. Paul speaks of is the Faith that is spoken of in that Text in Genesis or the same Faith as was imputed to Abraham for righteousness in that place That Faith which St. James speaks of is the same Faith which is spoken of in that Text in Genesis Or the same Faith that was imputed to Abraham for righteousness in that place Therefore the faith that St. Paul speaks of and the faith which St. James speaks of is the same faith also And when the Faith is the same and the Justification the same we must distinguish of Works then out of question to reconcile these Scriptures Of Works then let us distinguish and the distinction is this There are Works which are inconsistent with Grace and Pardon so that if we had them we should have no need of Christ's righteousness or sacrifice but the doing of them would make the reward to be of debt or make life to be due out of district justice He that doeth them shall live in them That is Works which the Law requires unto Justification And these are the Works St. Paul speaks of and the reasons which he alleadges why we are not justified by these Works is because no man hath them This is that which he apparently urges for he ascends in his dispute from the Law of Moses to the Law of Nature which concerns both Jew and Gentile in his three first Chapters to the Romans so that if any man be justified it must be without them Therefore we conclude saies he that by faith without them that is without having them a man is justified There are then Works also which are consistent with Pardon and Mercy though we have them so that when we have done these we do need the righteousness and satisfaction of our Redeemer to cover their imperfection and for acceptation of our persons no less than if we had Faith alone without any and these are Works of sincerity required of us in the Gospel It is no wayes derogatory I say to Gods Grace and Christs Merits for a man to be justified by these works any more than to be justified by Faith alone in regard to Debt or Merit upon which account St. Paul excludes works in his Disputation It is of these Works I must say as the Apostle saies it is of Faith that it may be of Grace And these are the Works St. James speaks of when he saies By Faith and Works also that is all one as by a Faith working by Love in Pauls words otherwhere And the being justified by Faith working by Love or by a Faith productive of Works or by these Works and Faith also which being such Works as fall short of the Law and do need grace and forgiveness for their acceptation with God is all one with St Pauls by Faith without works of the Law or without such as the Law requires unto justification Thus are Paul and James reconciled I will advance hence then my former argument That justification by Faith without works which St. Paul speaks of is that Justification or that Imputation of Abrahams Faith for righteousness which is spoken of in that Text in Genesis That justification by Works and Faith also which St. James speaks of is that Justification or that Imputation of Abrahams faith for righteousness which is spoken of in that Text in Genesis Therefore St. Pauls justification by faith without works and St. James justification by faith and works also or by works and not by faith only is the same in the two Apostles The medium upon which all three Syllogisms depend is the Apostles citing the same Text both of them for that which either of them assert while one saies by faith without works and the other by works and not by faith only The major and minor therefore in all three are undeniable and in the conclusion of the last I am sure the Doctor and I shall agree together I have another thing to offer to the thoughts of the Dr. that whereas he tells us of a Commutation between Christ and us in his taking upon him our sins and our partaking of his righteousness I do apprehend this expression and doctrine to be Christian holy and good according to the sense of that Text He was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him and the like places But only there is a difference to be put between the use of the notion against the Socinians in the point of Satisfaction and the use of it against the Mediocreans in the point of Justification I do believe such a Commutation as the Dr. speaks of is necessary to that great work which Christ undertook for Mankind as it concerns the whole world in the procuring Reconciliation and Life for all upon the terms of the Redeemer for if he had not taken on him our sins to suffer in our behalf which is his being made sin for us and fulfilled the whole Law also for us that God might without dishonour to him as Rector dispense with it so as to impute to us our faith and imperfect obedience for righteousness which is our being made the righteousness of God in him there would have been no satisfaction offered and consequently no Reconciliation or Redemption But as for such a Commutation in the point of Justification which concerns particular Believers I am yet to learn what to make of it from this Reverend person To enquire then to the bottom the foundation of this Commutation is laid I see by him in the Mystical Union between Christ and his Members which must pertain therefore only to such and that as a fruit or effect of the Spirit of Christ given to them if it be so to that end When this indeed is a thing that does not belong at all to the operation of the Third person of the Trinity but to the work of the Son and the arbitrary ordination of the Father Whatsoever influence Christ hath upon the soul as our Head by the operation of the Holy Ghost or whatsoever is an effect of the Spirit when once given for uniting us to him it must have this Union for its ground or foundation But whatsoever arises to us from Christ another way and is no effect of the Spirit it may not be ascribed without contradiction to that spring from whence it comes not The Dr. judges right that such a
he does and by the Operations of it what he does And why then will he fall foul on the Dr. When he agrees with him in the substance what need is there he should pursue a flea in the circumstances of words only or variety of expression Another is that where he excepts at the Doctor for alluding in his words to some Texts that speak of miraculous gifts and so cannot be applied to us and also for a critical note he had before on the Hebrew word put on him Isa 42.1 from whence he collects that in Gods giving us the effects of his Spirit the Spirit it self is also given I will compound with this Author The Doctor shall submit his critical note to the Spirit of the Prophets and this man shall let the Doctor speak but the same things by way of allusion to Scripture whether they be proved thereby or not which other Divines do speak and affirm ordinarily without that allusion In his second Chapter he shews us what these effects are for the producing of which the holy Spirit is given which he undertakes to do here from that Text Luke 11.13 where After two parables of the man asking three Loaves for his Friend and of a Son asking Bread of a Father our Saviour tells us that God will give his holy Spirit to those that ask him From hence he gathers that the effects for which God gives his Spirit are such as are needful because it is Bread the Son and the Friend asks and profitable because a Fish and Egg also is given Here he tells that our need is to be measured by the end That the end is our salvation Consequently the Spirits operations on the mind are to produce all those effects as are necessary to eternal life These are Faith Knowledge All Vertue or graces which make us practical Christians and Perseverance Here are his needful effects then his profitable and not necessary are degrees of Goodness which are more highly so or degrees of Knowledge that are less profitable Here he discourses whether God does give the Spirit for these things profitable upon our asking and tells us God may give us things better or more sutable and so deny them Then he shews us how the Spirit is prayed for in the Lords prayer because when we ask for any grace or vertue we ask for him to work it In the whole then of this Chapter we have nothing against the Doctor or the Doctor against him but a good Sermon I suppose we have which he might have preached somewhere and adapts it to this occasion which makes it look though well yet feat and unlike a beaten Divine who in shewing what the effects of Gods Spirit are would have cast them into some proper and fuller order and then proved them by Scripture and quite let alone this Sermon His third Chapter is about Regeneration which he makes room for by an Objection that this will be thought but a lame account of those qualifications that are needful to salvation seeing one thing most necessary thereunto is omitted and that is Regeneration And here then must Regeneration be brought in and shewn us that it is not such a thing as Dr. Owen makes it but is comprized in his Moral graces and vertues Regeneration then as a state he defines it is to become a sincere Disciple of Jesus Christ And here though one might well require a little more accuracy in a definition there is no body like to differ with him upon the matter The Doctor may use other terms and expressions and he uses these but they both intend the same thing This is certain He that doth righteousness is born of God The Doctor belike hath said that Regeneration is a proper Term and he will prove it to be metaphorical Be it so The Doctor must be candidly understood then that he means it is a proper metaphor To wit that there is such a secret and powerful work of the soul signified thereby as does bring in a new disposion into the inner man as well as reforms the outward life which is that only in effect he contends for Let them grant saies the Doctor that their Moral reformation of life does proceed from a Spiritual reformation of our nature the difference will be at an end And what saies this Author He answers This difference is at an end before it began for we have alwaies granted it And why is the difference up then that hath no beginning or cause for it The Doctor is perhaps too warm in the allusion but the meaning is acknowledged the same with his who is as it were quite cool and off from it There is indeed one point as to the manner of the Spirits operation wherein these two Champions will differ but that belongs to another Chapter Here he speaks of Regeneration only as a state and therefore I pray let him be quiet yet a while till he comes thither In his fourth Chapter he laies down the several graces of the holy Spirit which having done once before I cannot apprehend it to be momentous in his making two Chapters of it These graces then again are Faith Teachableness in order to it All Christian vertues The improvement of them Progress in them Perseverance to the end To this we oppose nothing and there is no dissention with the Doctor The Doctor or another perhaps would have marshalled these things otherwise but that all these are the operations of Gods Spirit or such effects for which the Holy Ghost is to be implored is beyond dispute amongst us What he hath thrust in here upon that subject of Gods dwelling in good men I take to be another excellent good Sermon CHAP. III. Of Assuranee and praying by the Spirit the subject of his fifth Chapter with indifferency whether it be by a Form or conceived Prayer I Come to his fifth Chapter which is to shew us what effects we are not to expect from the Spirit having shewn before what effects as he reckons them are promised by it And there are three pretended gifts he saies which are none of these effects and so may not be hoped or prayed for upon that account Immediate Revelation of the sense of any Scripture Absolute assurance of our particular election and the dictates of Extempore prayer These are three things belike he designes to have a sling at which he may do but I must tell him in the way whether any thing of this kind may be expected from the holy Spirit or not I am not satisfied with his argument or the way of his bringing it about that the effects for which we are to pray to God to give us his Spirit are only things needful and therefore we may not expect his help in extemporary prayer and these two other matters This indeed may be argued from the Parables in the context that the gift it self of the Spirit is a thing needful A gift which next to Gods giving his Son is the greatest and
terms of the Gospel shall be unperformable And that this Faith may be in our power he will have a preventing Grace which is not the Grace it self of the Gospel that being all conditional but some Divine assistance accompanying it as enables every body that hears the Gospel to believe unless they wilfully reject it He is afraid of Pelagianism to allow that any do or can believe of their own strength without Grace though Austin when he entertained this mans thoughts made no scruple of that and therefore he will help out the good Father here very kindly with the intimation of a Grace that being not confined to any condition must be common and so belong to all who are brought into that state which is a state of Grace the state of being under the Gospel when Christ says Go preach the Gospel he that believes not shall be damned It is repugnant he argues to the goodness and justice of God that he should with-hold that assistance as is necessary to make this condition possible and believing without such Grace is impossible Upon this Grace then which all have who have the word preached a man becomes his Believer This Faith or bare Christianity with Prayer is the condition of that promise that God will give his Holy Spirit to those that ask him The Spirit being given we are to improve his Grace This improvement is the condition of that farther promise that God will dwell in us That God will give us his Spirit and that he will dwell in us are the principal promises of Grace in the Gospel I consent with this Author understanding Grace only of these operations This implies a plentiful communication of farther degrees of Grace for perseverance Upon the condition of perseverance we shall be saved Lo here the notion of this worthy Author wherein I think I have done him and my Reader right to present it with all the light about it as I was able to draw it from him I will now requite the ingenuity and liberty of his opinion with the like freedom in my Animadversions In the first place I do apprehend that these things have lien in the mind of this Gentleman not yet seven years and I think that a man had need to take no less time than Jacob served for Rachel to consider well before he wed himself to a Party in the controversie of the Five points especially if he take to that side which stands condemned by the Synod of Dort with our British Divines in it who being sent thither by Authority were to determine nothing we may be sure but what was agreeable to the Doctrine of our Church and also when the Father who first sprang that notion which this Author is in quest of did upon most mature deliberation himself forsake it and that only as I believe upon a full conviction from the Scripture which led him into the Doctrine of Absolute Election which this man as suddenly rejects as he maturely embraced shewing himself even fond of it in all his latter Writings even to the death Which makes me add this moreover that forasmuch as I see several of our younger Divines being of more quick parts so forward upon these points I will pass my conjecture that by that time they have well bred their teeth they will not perhaps be so much in pain as they seem now to be to run into disputation as they do either with Calvin or Doctor Owen In the second place I cannot lightly give the Gentleman my approbation to his new coin I am sensible of so much hurt and ill consequence that may come of this boldness to go about to alter terms that have gotten into our Divinity when it is not that of the Schools only but of our Sermons and practical Books that this Author is not aware of what he does It is the raw Divine will take up these terms and when he comes to use them he will be so confounded himself and confound the people that hear him that they will be as those that speak in a strange tongue one to another For instance what if a green Preacher comes and tells his Congregation after this Author that all that hear him are in a state of Grace What if he comes and preaches on that the Gospel gives no ground for us to expect any special Grace till we perform the condition of the Gospel How odd must this appear to the hearers in any judicious Congregation when we know the first Grace we mean effectual is given without condition Yet let this Author explain these words for him that by special Grace we must always understand Grace promised to qualified persons so that all he means must be that that Grace which is promised on condition is not given till we perform the condition the matter admits of no contradiction Besides this evil the new forming of terms which are received to other significations in the Church is methinks but like a man who hath some very curious work to engrave and when he has all those tools in his shop that are made on purpose for the doing that work he will use his knife only This may indeed commend the rarity and industry but not the wisdom of that workman who could have done his business better if he had used those Instruments which were ready by him and proper for it In the third place there is one thing I must needs observe wherein I think this Gentleman in his Hetorodoxy to be a little too Orthodox and that is in his ordering the scheme of his notion so as that the homo Evangelizatus only shall be the subject of God's Grace that is when he does hold forth a common Grace vouchsased to all who are under the Gospel enabling them to believe if they will upon which the promise of the Spirit belongs to them and so the special Grace of it upon Gospel conditions unto everlasting life he does leave all the world besides in such a state as is without all Grace and consequently in a remediless condition Whereas he may find in the Schools that there is an universal Grace maintained by many which they call sufficient and which indeed is that which this Author means by his common Grace as no man is without whether Heathen or Christian in the improvement whereof farther degrees are attainable upon the Habenti dabitur till it comes to be effectual so that it shall lie upon the liberty of the will in every body whether they be saved or damned I know the Author may desert these and not be singular in this point of his opinion so long as he hath the Fathers generally St. Cyprian and St. Augustine more particularly the Papist and Protestant Churches with the eighteenth Article of our own on his side and that which may please this Author something more I remember Arminius in some place of his works does expresly exclude all Heathens from salvation though many that have tread in his steps otherwise
or Moon in the Heavens For God hath not left himself without witness in that he does good and gives us fruitful seasons These are effects of his mercy which he could not shew to the world as he does if he dealt with it according to the Law of Works When Abraham pleads with God for Sodom that he would spare it if there were ten righteous persons in it it is manifest that he must account of Gods Government over the earth to be a Government of Grace That the righteous be as the wicked that be far from thee saies he shall not the judge of all the earth do right If God should do but right to the best of men according to the righteousness of the Law of Works there could be no such pleading as this Neither is there any righteous no not one saies the Scripture nor could God have accepted of Abraham himself for one had there been nine besides but upon the account of the Law of Grace It is a righteousness consisting in a condecency of his Goodness and Mercy and not in the Rule of his district Holiness that Abraham intends When the Prophets call upon Israel to repent and to do righteousness that they may live it is a perpetual discovery that God dealt not with them according to the Covenant of Works The Law admits no repentance and there is no righteousness that a man can live by according to the Law It is such a righteousness then they must mean still which is the same with the just mans faith whereby it is said he shall live and that is the righteousness of faith in the Gospel or righteousness of God which lies in a conformity to the law of Grace See Mediocria about the beginning of my Paper of the Covenants We are righteous according to this Law when we perform the condition God is righteous according to it when he accepts us thereupon unto Pardon and Life We have a most signal instance in the Ninevites of these two things I do here stand upon If Gods government over the Heathen was not by the Law of Grace how could the Ninevites by their repentance have diverted his judgments And if this Law had not been connatural with faln man so as to be written in their hearts how could they trust in God that upon their forsaking sin and their turning to him they should find mercy and be saved from destruction Both these things I say have in this one instance their full evidence And what think we of Cornelius the Centurion and Roman how could his Prayers and Almes be accepted with God if Cornelius as well as Paul a Roman as well as Jew were not under the same Government of Grace when there is nothing we do but is imperfect and lyable to a curse by the Law of Works And what shall we conclude then from both instances but that which Peter upon conviction himself concludes Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons but in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted of him There are three things go to a Law That it be for the publick good That it be the will of the Lawgiver That it be promulgated to the subject That the Law of Grace is good for the world there can be no question That it is Gods will the world should be governed by it appears by what is spoken and that this Law hath been promulgated to mankind appears both in the general notice of it in mens hearts I will write my Law in their hearts saies God in the New Covenant as distinguished from that of the Jews and in the express declaration of God to our first Parents that the seed of the Woman should break the Serpents head and in his Covenanting with Noah which must be understood without dispute in regard to them and their posterity Now when such a Law hath been promulgated to Adam and Noah as belonging to all the world being to come of them it must be proved that this Law is or hath been somewhere or at some time again repealed by God or else must every man and woman in the world be under this government of God according to it and consequently be in a capacity of Salvation I will to these Reasonings add one syllogism It is not the hearers of the Law but doers shall be justified This is express in one Verse of the second to the Romons But same Heathen are doers of the Law though not hearers of it This is affirmed in the next Verse For when the Gentiles which have not the Law do by nature the things contained in the Law with the rest following Ergo some Heathen are justified and saved If any cavil and say that no man is a doer of the Law he must be answered that the Apostle here speaks of such a doing only as is supposed to be among the Jews that were godly or Jews inwardly in the Verses after And I renew my argument They that are doers of the Law according to the sense of such Texts as make the keeping the Commandments of God necessary to Salvation such as when Christ saies If thou wilt enter into life keep the Commandments and such as when the Apostle saies They that by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory shall have eternal life that is They who are doers of it as all that are Jews inwardly and in the Spirit do keep it and no otherwise to wit not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not according to the rigour of the Law but according to acceptation by the equity of the Gospel They I say shall be justified and saved But some Heathen are doers of the Law in this sense which is the sense of the Apostle Ergo some Heathen are justified and saved I confirm the Minor by the words ensuing that we may be sure we have the mind of the Apostle Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the Law shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature if it fulfil the Law judge thee who by the letter and circumcision doest break the Law It follows that such as these therefore are Jews inwardly and in the Spirit though they were not outward Jews or in the flesh or of the Circumcision as is apparent in the words already and the last Verses They that are Jews inwardly and in the Spirit then I follow my argument though not outwardly so and in the flesh do fulfill the Law in the sense of this place and are justified But such are some of the Heathen here according to the Apostle Ergo some Heathen are justified and saved And what could be desired more full and convincing if it were not for the first Verse which follows in the next Chapter which does yet add such abounding confirmation to it as I must profess my self perfectly striken with the evidence as with a Beam of light
promised in Luke in regard to all its effects and operations if that which the Author saies in two Chapters about it be valid and so the difficulty returns How shall a man have the Spirit for this operation or effect before faith and yet faith be the condition of the Spirit and its operations If he say that the grace which he calls common or the Spirit as not promised does work in a man truly one sort of faith or so much of a saving faith as goes to the condition of the promise and that another sort of faith then or so much more as is lacking to our faith does flow as the effect only thereof from the promise after when we perform this condition he will be put very hard to it in such a work as was that of Pauls conversion and be forced to more curiosity than enough in so critical a determination In the fifth place I have one argument to advance against this Doctrine of his which is known Arminian I will urge but one because it is the common cause and he may find out as many more as he will in others It is this If there be that grace which he calls common vouchsafed to all under the Gospel without any difference of election so that there is the same and no other prepared for him that believes and for him that believes not which common grace then is left to the liberty of the will of every individual person to co-operate with it or not and as a man does so or does not he brings himself into a state of Salvation or remains in a state of wrath this is the opinion then must Man himself or then must the Will of every man for himself make the difference between him and another But this according to the judgement of most after Austin is flat against the Scripture Who hath made thee to daffer from another and what is there O man that thou hast not received I must add by way of strength to the Argument that upon this Hypothesis it follows that that which is the less only or least conducing to mans Salvation is attributed to God and that which is the greater and most conducive thereunto is ascribed to man himself It is more to believe and repent than it is to have power to believe and repent The promise of Life and Salvation is not made to him that is enabled to believe but to him that does believe and obey the Gospel Now by the Arminian doctrine there is this grace carefully provided which shall enable every man to believe and repent so that the fault shall not lye on God if they do not but on a mans own will but the will or willing it self must arise from that liberty which they are as careful to reserve unto man That which is the lesser thing then I say the ability through divine Help Assistance or Grace which is sufficient for the impowring every one to believe and be saved is ascribed to God and acknowledged from him but that which is the greater which is the chief that which does the work the act it self of willing of believing and performing the terms of the Gospel is made the effect of mans own free-will And yet farther to confirm the same argument The power to do is one thing and the will and doing another The grace one thing and the co-operating with it another If we have power now or assistance only from God and the will be of our selves then is there something even this willing it self this believing it self this will to believe or co-operating with this common grace that is the greatest thing which we have not received but is of our selves or from our own strength I do not doubt but I may press this yet more closely if this Author should give the occasion and I must advise him heartily to be very considerate what he answers to this argument because I have pickt it out as that which I take to be the most momentous of any which are ordinarily urged by the Orthodox in this matter I will close it up with that Text Work out your salvation with fear and trembling saies the Apostle This implies that a man hath power or that if he will work he can It is in vain to exhort any to do that which is not in their power That which is less than the power to do if we will is I count in man but that which is the greater the willing and doing is aliunde of God as it appears in the words following For it is God that worketh in us to will and to do of his good pleasure So contrary are my apprehensions here to this Gentlemans A man must have power he thinks by all means from God to this end he brings in his common grace but the will must be of himself I think now quite otherwise that power is of nature for that is the less and to reduce that power unto act to will and to do that is of grace for that is the greater or that which is most It is not of him that willeth and runneth to wit that he wills and and runs saies the Father but of God that sheweth mercy In the sixth place then I have a mind to tell him some little of what I think of this grace he calls common The term Grace we must know which is all one with Favour does import a respect shewn to some which is not to others and does horein differ from Justice which respects no person above another but does distribute that which is due to every one without partiality It is otherwise in Grace for there are two things quite contrary must go to the making any thing a matter of Favour it must be a thing not due or of right for then there is place to exercise Justice but not Grace and it must be given out of Choice it must be vouchsafed to one and not another when it is due to neither When this Author then and the Schools do speak of a Grace that is Common and Universal they seem to be teachers of something wherein they understand not what they speak or whereof they affirm There is the grace of the Gospel or that Grace which the Gospel publishes which brings Salvation to all men the Objective grace of it consisting in that faithful saying worthy of all acceptation that Christ died for sinners or that those that believe and repent shall be saved or that God is Good and those who turn to him though they have sinned shall find merey which is the substance of the whole two Testaments and that indeed is Universal and belongs alike to all the world There is no man or woman or no people but they are under the Law of Grace purchased by Christ for life and salvation I have said and say that the Gospel of this Grace or the discovery of it is so far universal also as there are none but by tradition from their Parents or
by some Teachers as Noah was to the old world teaching this Law for there never was any other righteousness since Adam fell but of this Law only to save any or by the dictates of their own hearts did or do understand it in some measure so that if they live up to this Law according to the light only which they have they are not only under the possibility but in a state of Salvation This is a noble truth and worthy of God and his goodness and I cannot part with it But for that Grace which is the subjective grace of God consisting in those operations of his Spirit that bring over the hearts of men to perform those terms which this law of grace requires of us To speak of that as common and belonging to all is I say to speak of what this Author knowes not because these Operations are for certain secret and indiscernible and to affirm of that which he knows not what is inconsistent with the nature of what he speaks For if those operations belong to all and are not vouchsafed to some peculiar persons only with discrimination from others they are not Grace This is so true that when I say the grace of the Gospel which is Objective is universal to all mankind if there were not other creatures besides men to whom Redemption and Reconciliation is not vouchsafed as to us it could not be called Grace It were a Benefit and infinitely great but not properly Grace There is a world of fallen Spirits as well as men and there was nothing due to the one or the other but punishment yet when no kindness was due the Son of God came from Heaven and took on him our nature to redeem us and not them this makes the Redemption of Christ to be grace to us And now when the benefit or benefits purchased by Christ are applied to particular persons by the operations of the Spirit working Faith and Repentance which are the conditions upon which they are applied in some persons and not in others if these operations were indeed common and vouchasafed to those that believe and repent not as well as those that do this Application were not of Grace Where there is none refused there is no election If one be not preferred and not another or before another there is no Grace The ground of this opinion of sufficient grace common to all hath arose as I conjecture from an apprehension that the help or assistance of God which we call grace is conversant about the Power which is in man so that a man is enabled thereby only to act but the Will or actual willing is of himself St. Austine I remember does tell us that this was the conceit of Pelagius and he sets himself therefore to prove that Grace is conversant about the will it is Grace saies he that inclines the will it is of God to work in us to Will and to Do of his own good pleasure And indeed I do not see how it can consist with the nature of the Spirit of God who is God that is with the simplicity of the Divine Nature which is devoid of all composition Subject and Accident Power and Act how any operation can be attributed to him but in regard of some effect If there be such an operation then imagined which is sufficient only to produce such an effect on man but it is hindred by the resistance of his will here being no effect there is no operation can be ascribed to God in whom there is but one eternal standing Will the Will being not taken for the Faculty neither but Act. Besides this determination of the Schools that God is a Pure Act and can be capable of no new operations but only as he is denominated an Agent from such continued new effects wherein my own understanding I confess must be ever at a loss there is this plain thing to be thought on by every body that no wise person who is not destitute of power does operate without Effect 'T is true that the Scripture somewhere speaks of resisting the Spirit and receiving his grace in vain but this is not to be understood I suppose so as if there were no effects wrought on such souls but that there are farther effects saving effects and it is to be attributed to the obstinacy or wickedness of their Wills that those effects are not wrought also I must therefore deliver here my opinion of this universal sufficient Grace which I find in the Schools and in the Arminians but confined to those under the Gospel by this Author and I do think really it is an invention only to put off St. Augustine and to escape the condemnation of Pelagius in a point which in the substance of it they judge fit to be maintained The point is this that if man does doe what lies in his power God in his justice will give him his grace Facienti quod in se est Deus non potest nec debet denegare gratiam which I mention the rather because I see this Doctrine laid down in some good Books of late without suspicion of Pelagianism in it Well! If any say now that man by doing what he can of his own strength does obtain Gods grace this shall be Pelagianism and be anathamatized by the Schools themselves but if he say that by doing through Gods grace what he can he shall obtain or merit more grace and so justification and life it shall be the doctrine of the Church Let it here be but supposed then that God gives his Grace or assistance to All that they may act and that which Pelagius would have is brought in for good Doctrine without any heresie at all in it and this is the device of the Arminian from the Schools which if it were in rerum naturae as in mens Books I do apprehend that Pelagius or Austine would have light upon it and then would the one have received Pelagius opinion with more candor and the other would have defended it so cleverly as never to have been condemned But if this universal sufficient grace was indeed never thought upon till after their time I wonder not that Pelagius and Austine could not be agreed but I do wonder that any who believe this knack should make so much matter of it whether they agreed or no. I think it really but much at one to hold that every one hath power by Nature as to affirm that all have Grace If Grace be as common as Nature why is it called Grace Not that I see any hurt in holding Sufficient grace provided that Effectual be held also If universal grace be brought in for exclusion of special grace I can by no means admit of it for that some persons have that grace from God whereby they are effectually wrought upon and saved and not others is beyond disputation If sufficient grace common to all and special too be held so as it be conceived that no man for all
us upon that condition which through the Spirit given for the Application we perform and Christ's Righteousness and Merits being ours in regard to these effects it may be said to be imputed to us if our Divines please If there be conceived any Commutation with Christ of his Righteousness for our sins or any imputation of it unto us any otherwise than thus in regard to the effects I understand it not The principal effect of Christ's Righteousness and Sacrifice which both together making up satisfaction to God for man's sin God is reconciled and comes to new terms is the obtaining the Law of Grace for us according to which we may be righteous or made the Righteousness of God in Christ in the Scripture phrase See my Middle Paper of the Covenants in the six first leaves and upon this Righteousness as the condition performed all other of the effects or benefits depend In the Application it is true that we have the benefits but from whence do they come It is not from any act of ours we are not our own Benefactors nor from any work of the Spirit That we do is the performing the condition and that the Spirit does is the supplying us with grace to do it But the condition is not the cause of the benefits only causa sine qua non which being put the benefits flow to us by vertue of the Impetration from the merit of what Christ hath done Many saies Mr. Truman make this their strong hold that faith alone is the receptive grace and not repentance and sincere obedience but there is no such thing as receiving Righteousness Justification Pardon Justification right to Heaven Righteousness cometh on men The free gift came upon all to Justification By the offence of one judgment came upon all to condemnation As condemnation cometh upon men without any act of receiving it it is a resultancy from the Law upon disobedience So Justification right to Heaven is a resultancy from a Law-promise the condition being performed This I look on not only as pretty but in regard to what I apply it very solid It is from the Covenant-promise or through the Law of grace immediately and so from the Impetration of Christ and his Merits at last or ultimately that the benefits come on us and all that we do towards it is only our performing the condition Cometh this blessedness then on the Circumcision only or on the Vncircumcision also It is to be observed a little farther that when the Scripture speaks any thing of this Commutation we find it attributed only to God and Christ and that as a thing past and done and never to the work of the Spirit which is still a doing It is said therefore that the Lord hath laid the iniquities of us all or made all our sins to meet on Christ in the person of the Father and that Christ took them bare our sins with the like expressions But I read nor a word of such a work as is still to be done which the Holy Ghost's were if it belonged to him It must be conceived therefore that God and Christ in their everlasting transactions between them about the redemption of Man agreed upon this matter of Commutation which however the Dr. expresses it in the root is Christ's undertaking to stand in our stead according to the Law of his Mediation which Law he performing this business actually was accomplished and we have the It is finished declared on the Cross So that be it whatsoever it will it does go or did go into the Impetration it cannot go into the Application of our Repemplion To come home then quite to the Dr. How Christ's Righteousness is imputed to us in regard to the Impetration of the benefits we have from him or how it is made ours in regard to the Effects impetrated as those effects are purchased by it upon condition I understand but how it is imputed to us or made ours in the Application by the Spirit in any effect or in the effect of Justification any otherwise than other effects I have had my eyes opened so long about this point as I begin to see at last with much adoe nothing of it Adoption Salvation and other benefits as well as Justification are effects of Christ's Righteousness or of Christ's purchase and when we believe and perform the condition we receive Adoption and have a right to Salvation as well as to be Justified Adoption is by faith Salvation by faith Justification by faith As faith concurs to the one it does to the other Here only is the deceit Justification is Gods accounting a person righteous and this being upon the account of Christs righteousness the understanding is entangled as if we were made righteous by his righteousness in some way as must render us to be justified otherwise by it than saved There never was any dispute about the imputation of Christs righteousness to our Adoption and Salvation and yet it is a certain truth that it is imputed to us in regard to these effects as in regard to Justification The righteousness of Christ then does concur to our Adoption Salvation sub genere causae efficientis as the meritorious procuring cause of them if it concur any otherwise unto Justification that is sub genere causae formalis also as the formal reason no less than the procuring cause of it it is a matter I must confess of my Admiration and I must crave of the Doctor farther instruction or the ingenuity to accept this slender endeavour of mine for his own satisfaction And the third Captain of fifty went up and came and bowed before Elijah and besought him and said unto him O man of God I pray thee And he arose and went down with him I have many other thoughts in my mind to offer the Doctor or this Author which I will forbear for I remember that the Gentleman hath a second part to come out that he intends more particularly against the Doctor I will therefore stay a while upon such matters that are already proposed and see if he performs his intention and it will be then time enough if it be like also to do good and be fit to confer a few more notions with him For I like my man much for his Natural parts and Free-Divinity as I must note him a little for deficient in his Ethicks and Civility so long as he hath to do with such an Adversary I cannot commend him for this usage of the Doctor who is one I must confess for my own part that I value for his Worth I love for his Courtesie I am pleased with for his Candour and I think my self happy if at any time I get but a little of his Company THE END READER LEast I should not have occasion or least I should not take it if I have to write again upon these matters I must tell you of some things I find wanting I have not commended this Ingenious Person for his very
apt Exposition of some Texts as I think he deserves if I had examined them well enough to do it Again I have not declared my scope in the discourse I have about the Natural and Spiritual man in the beginning of the Book If one imagine my scope to be only to confute this Author he will make little of me and less of himself My scope is not to invalidate the Interpretation he brings which I acknowledge fair nor to advance the other which I impute to the Friendly Debater because I took my first hint from him but in the cultivation of it any man may see in whose mind it is harbored Nor do I confirm the Doctors against this Authors opposition to prefer it before either But I do impartially endeavour the elucidation of the place as a searcher after Truth to this end that he who hath the best faculty of discerning may have all the light I have to his own to make judgement This is not the manner ordinarily of others And this I do also that by such indifferency of mine I may put some discountenance upon the over-peremptoriness of this worthy Young man who when he sees his own Notion to be reasonable does forget that the Doctors or mine may be reasonable also Another thing is this Vnto the Objection against the salvability of Heathen because Salvation is by Christ and they have no Faith in Christ and no knowledge of him I have omitted something at large that I must give you intimation of here in a little Salvation is by Christ I have determined I suppose well in that he hath procured a Law of Grace by which we are governed and shall be judged and so long as the Heathen or all the world are under that government of grace as well as we Salvation must come to them upon the same account of Christ as it does to us if any of them perform the Condition And what if the Heathen knows not this that it is Christ that hath procured this remedying Law for us and them yet is that nothing as to the truth of the thing for so it is and those that live well have the benefit of it If a ransom be gathered for the Slave at Algiers he is freed from his slavery no less for that because he knowes not the Friends that did it The Disciples were partakers of Redemption by Christ when they knew nothing of his Sacrifice till after his death and resurrection And what did the Jews know if the Disciples knew no more For Faith then As there is a threefold Administration of the Covenant of grace according to the state of the Heathen the Jew and the Christian according to what I have said So is there a threefold Faith in regard to these three Administrations of it Faith is diversified according to its Objects or the Revelations which man has from God I have not room here for Explanation Though a Heathen hath not that Faith as is required of the Christian under the third promulgation of the Covenant or was of the Jew under the second yet hath he such a faith as belongs to the first and so long as that faith he has does work by love or by sincere obedience to God it will justifie him as ours will And this is the meaning of that Text But now is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith The righteousness of God is the righteousness of this Covenant which hath been ever a foot as in my Paper of the Covenants I shew and from faith to faith is from the faith which was sufficient in the first and second to that which is now required in the third and last Promulgution of it I have not said this full enough but it is necessary to be intimated And in the the room that is left I must give notice that I let these sheets be a sticht Book that my Papers of the Middle Way may be bound up with them because they are of the same Nature There was four of these Papers about five sheets a piece Of Election and Redemption Of Justification Of the Covenant Law and Gospel and Of Perfection They are compleat none of them without one another for what I found wanting in one Paper I took liberty to supply in the next though of another Subject My work is to dig the Metal the Refiner is another Trade The Point of Justification that got out first from me is not perfectly stated till the Reader hath read both the six and seven first leaves of the Covenants and the beginning of Perfection These 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 together I entituled Mediocria and from 〈…〉 in these present Sheets I do once or twice call those who are for the Middle way in these Points Mediocrians There are several places in them very needful for him to see that reads these present Disquisitions but six or seven first leaves of the Paper of the Covenants Law and Gospel before I come to treat those Subjects themselves I suppose to be most necessary though the last Point I think most maturely stated Those twenty sheets and these fourteen together will make a sufficient bound Book J. H. ERRATA Page 58. line 31. for discernings read deservings p. 92. l. ult for dy r. body