the contrary hath been cleared in the explanation of the sixth Passage Secondly it is evident 2 Tim. 1.9 That God hath saved us and called us with a holy calling not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Iesus before the world began Thirdly Christ himself professeth That he came not to call the righteous that is men that can act and do and think themselves able to perform such works or offer such sacrifices as can De congruo at least if not De condigno plead for the acceptance of their persons But sinners that are such as can neither act nor do but find themselves both unfit for and unworthy of any other recompence save the wages of sin which is death He called indeed all of all sorts outwardly {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to repent but these alone effectually {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to the thing repentance Mat. 9.13 That is unto an immediate and actual renunciation of all the works that they ever could and now fain would plead for themselves that loosing all they have of their own they may win the Kingdom of heaven not as their right in law according as the Pharisees laid claim unto it but violently at least in the account of all such men videlicet as sinners c. souldiers through the meer gift and absolute conquest of their Captain Iesus Mat. 11.12 13. Rom. 6.23 Nor thirdly as procuring causes of justification For as our own works are not the matter of that legal righteousnesse required in the old covenant So are they not the means of procuring that Evangelical righteousnesse which is held forth in the new Because first there is no Scripture that requireth them for that end but calleth mens labouring with that intent a seeking for righteousnesse as it were by the works of the Law and not by faith Rom 9.32.2 To him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of Grace but of Debt Rom. 4.4 So that if works were means to procure the new Covenant Justification we were not justified freely by grace but of due and debt It should not be said to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly His faith is counted for righteousnesse but to him that doth work and meriteth from him that justifieth the godly his work is imputed for it is righteousnesse 3. Those that assert works to be means or procuring causes say not that they are such Ratione valoris meriti propriè sic dicti By reason of any proportionable inherent worth But only Ratione pacti as they are conditions to some promise or other freely made by God and if that be true neither righteousness nor good works can be means or procuring causes of the the new Covenant Iustification because there is no promise thereof made to him that worketh or doth righteousness It is no where said in Scripture either ex pressely or implicitely that he that will work or perform such and such duties shall be justified by the blood of Jesus Nay though we read Acts 13.39 Whosoever believeth is justified yet it is no where said He that will believe shall be justified Fourthly and lastly Righteousnesse or good works are not profitable to me or other Christians either as the way through which we come as the means by which we shall get or as the condition upon which we may ground our hope of eternal Glory Not as the way For first not works but Christ alone is in Scriptures called the way Thomas saith unto him Lord we know not whether thou goest and how can we know the way Iesus saith unto him I am the way the truth and the life no man cometh unto the Father but by me John 14.5 6. He hath consecrated for us a new and living way in opposition to the old dead legal way through the vaile that is to say his flesh Heb 10.20.2 Works cannot be the way because they are neither the truth that is the substance of the Law and ceremonies nor the life which was held forth in the promises for they being not the truth we who are unworthy must not pass that way and they not being the life we who are sold under sinne cannot passe So that though works were granted to be a way in themselves yet it is impossible that they should be a way unto us The Gulf is so great Luke 16.26 that there is no descending or ascending but by Iacobs Ladder which was put down by God and not put up by men and is of that length that the top reacheth as high as God in heaven and the foot as low as Iacob laid upon the stone Gen. 28.13 14.3 A way is a steady and immoveable thing mounted so high that the waters cannot overflow it and thence called a high-way but works are sandy and slippery soon overflowed and not able to bear us up in the time of Temptation Though we know nothing by our selves yet who dare stand upon this ground and plead not guilty before God 4. Faith might more probably be called the way to heaven than works Sith as the Apostle saith by faith we stand 2 Cor. 1.24 and have accesse by faith into the grace wherein we stand Rom. 5 2. And yet is faith only said to be a coming into the way as Ioh 6.35 and never called the way it self Let therefore works be called as they truly are viae Regni the wayes of the Kingdome or motions of those that are in the way not upwards to God for the good of themselves but downwards to men for the good of others or the going forth of Christians from God like the Angel Heb. 1.14 to do service for Christ in the world and not their coming to God by Christ as in faith and prayer to wait upon and converse with him in heaven Not as a meanes For first The Scriptures hold them forth as such 2. If the works of Christians be the means or instumental cause then are Christians themselves constituted the principal cause and consequently the Authours of their own salvation And then it shall not only be true that Christ is the Authour of eternal salvation to those that obey him Heb. 5.9 But that Christians are the Authors of their own salvation by their obedience unto Christ 3. Promises under the Gospel that seem most legal do not run like those of the Law of Moses He that doth these things shall live by them that is by them as means of life But simply thus He that doth such or such things shall live and be saved Scilicet by the mediation of Jesus Christ Nor as conditions upon which we may ground our hope of glory For first It is not works but Christ in us that is the hope of glory Col. 1.27 In all other grounds there is yea and nay a doubtfulnesse and uncertainty which occcasioned Bellarmines Tutissimum est c. and therefore no sure and stedfast
of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God If any say that a man may antecedently will regeneration or conversion by antecedaneous works of grace though not of nature I answer first It is said that God worketh in us to will Phil. 2.13 And to will is present with us who are born of God Rom 7.18 but never that he worketh it in them that are unborn So that secondly To will conversion is not a work of grace antecedent but subsequent thereunto and argues the Infant born and alive though yet it cannot tell so much but only cries thirsts and hungers for in this very willing there is a turning towards God and then undoubtedly a believing on the Lord Iesus And he that believeth is born of God 1 Iohn 5.1 Thirdly Christ puts not the except of entring into the Kingdom upon mans doings but upon Gods he sayes not except a man beget bear or convert himself but except a man be begotten born again or as some read it from above and be converted He cannot enter into the Kingdom of heaven Mat 18.3 Vbi manebit liberum arbitrium ubi facere quod in se est cum hic fieri nos doceamur non facere non nos operemar sed Deus operetur facturae non factores sumus funditus scilicet ruit omnis Theologia superborum Thirdly Man neither is nor should be active in reference to the effecting either Faith or Repentance for if so either as an agent in the producing of them or as an agent in the using of means to procure the producing of them from and by God not in the former sense for first faith is not of our selves it is the gift of God Eph. 2.8 It is given to you on the behalfe of Christ to believe Phil. 1.19 This is the work of God Iohn 6.29 Him hath God exalted to give Repentance unto Israel and Remission of sins Acts 5.30 Secondly Mr. Shepherd Mr. Baxter and before them Camero and Ferrius maintain that God doth not infuse a habit of Faith and Repentance whereby men are enabled antecedently by an inherent habitual grace to produce the acts of believing and repentance but doth himself say they first produce the first acts and then infuseth habits whereby men are enabled to act afterwards And if we should say with Mr. Kendal that faith is in us as the adjunct and hath to God only the relation of an effect that it denominates him alone the Authour of our believing though us the Believers because the subjects As the Boul only is said to runne and yet it is the man that is the cause of the motion I see little that Mr. Baxter is pleased or that others can say against it and not in the latter For first God hath appointed means to be used by the living through which he hath promised to beget faith in all the elect though for the present dead Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel Mar. 16.15 but of means appointed of God for the dead to use thereby to get faith or to procure the raising of themselves from and by God we read not If any say that prayer is a means then first If by prayer be meant the intercession of Christ it is granted for it is his intercession alone that procureth the actual collation of all those blessings purchased by himself in the flesh promised in the new Covenant by the Father and conveyed to us by the Spirit But if by prayer be meant any petitioning of ours then is prayer not a means to but a consequent of faith for first How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed Rom. 10.14 The interrogation is equivalent to a strong negation viz. they cannot Secondly Christ taught his Disciples to pray in faith not before nor for faith Mat. 21.22 unlesse by faith be meant the increase thereof and then we pray Lord increase our faith Luke 17.5 I believe Lord help my unbeliefe Mar. 9.24 Thirdly he called them to leave all and follow him before they asked him any such a thing You have not chosen me but I have chosen you John 15.16 and after he had called them he prescribeth them a form of prayer or teacheth them to pray after this manner saying Our Father which art in heaven c. Mat. 6.9 Luke 11.1 2. And is it now agreeable to that form or letter to teach men to preferre the petitions before they can say the Preface or to enjoyn them to pray thy Kingdome come before they can cry Abba or Our Father These men I fear would teach their Scholars all the Alphabet of Christianity before Christs Crosse all the petitions before the Preface and it is doubtful then that as some coppies do they will leave out the conclusion also and the observation of all the Commandments before that which stands in the front Scilicet I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt Secondly God hath made no promise to an impenitent unbelieving man while such that upon condition of using such and such means or performing such and such duties he will bestow upon him either of those where it is said either implicitly or expressely if thou wilt do thus and thus I will give thee faith or I will give thee repentance And how any doing or dutying of man should be called means of getting any thing from God unlesse in a moral consideration and way of causation as conditions to some promise I have not yet learned from those Masters that stile one another the Orthodox Divines Thirdly though many enquired of the Apostles What they should do to be saved yet did never any ask what they should do to get Faith Repentance Conversion Regeneration or to get Christ into Christ nor did the Apostles leave any Directions or Rules to be observed by such Querists in future times but brought the word nigh unto them into their mouthes and into their hearts even the word of faith which we preach and tells them that faith comes by hearing and that hearing is not an Antecedent act of their own but that that also cometh by the word of God Rom. 10.8.17 The legal resolving of these Queries and the teaching of Nicodemus Disciples how to beget themselves the second time by entring into their own fleshly wombes is left to the Grand Casuists of these our dayes who can direct their followers how to beget that which is spirit of that which is flesh and how to get the fruits of the Spirit by doing the works of the Law can either ascend to heaven or go beyond the Sea to fetch such commandments as were neither given by Moses nor Christ that their Disciples may hear and do them and have their reward Fourthly Luther and other sensible believing men assert that Non nobis cogitantibus sapientibus volentibus oritur in nobis fides Christi sed incomprehensibili occulto opere spiritus
abound to his glory Rom. 3.5.7 Or if fifthly and lastly we say that out of the evil we do God many times bringeth good they will not stick to affirm that we say Let us do evil that good may come thereof whose damnation is just Rom. 3.8 The Eighth Passage Righteousnesse or good workes are to be done by me but are not profitable unto me but unto others THis Passage seemeth to contain three Positions the first Assertive Righteousness or good works are to be done by me The second exceptive But righteousness or good works are not profitable unto me The third Restrictive But righteousness or good works are profitable unto others For the first of these that it is true in Thesi is unquestionable and however it is already proved in the explanation of the fifth Passage If any take occasion from the Pronoun me and question it in Hipothesi 1. Whether righteousness or good works are to be done by Ministers 2. Whether by such as me whom those that style themselves able godly and Orthodox represent as Libertines and enemies to all good works Then first not only good works of piety such as preaching praying and the like are to be done by Ministers and sins of another nature Acted Cum privilegio Mat. 23.14 But works of righteousness and charity For first the Apostle saith Let ours also that is Homines nostri ordinis as Beza learn to maintain good works for necessary uses that they be not unfruitfull Tit. 3.14 And expressely requires these as well as those 1 Tim. 3 2 3. Secondly Paul enjoyneth Timothy to be an example to the Believers in word in conversation in charitie 1 Tim. 4.12 And Peter chargeth the Pastors in general to be examples to their flocks 1 Pet. 5.3 not to stand like posts only pointing out the way unto others but to walk in it themselves Thirdly Peter dehorteth them from false lucre from Lordlinesse and Domineering 1 Pet. 5.1 2 3. And Iohn wrot against Diotrophes who loved to have the preheminence and challenged him for prating against poor christians with malicious words and that not content therewith neither did he himself receive the brethren but forbad them that would and cast them out of the Church Ioh Epist. 3. vers. 9 10. Fourthly Melancthon who continued forty years at Whittemberg and yet was alwayes expecting a removal before the end of fourteen dayes found special need during his time both of exhorting and reproving the men of his own order and thence often cried Ab odio rabie Theologorum libera nos Domine and it is to be feared that in these dayes of ours there is not only need of reproving and censuring the Antinomian Ministers for neglecting works of piety But likewise of exhorting and admonishing the Ministers counted Orthodox to perform works of righteousness and charity to deal tenderly with religion And beware of offending the little ones Mat. 18.6 For first what Mr. Baxter saith of the humane nature in Magistrates without blemish to Magistracy I think may as truly be said of the humane nature in Ministers without blemish to the Ministrie That for the most part it can as ill bear a high estate as a mans brains can endure to stand on the pinacle of a Steeple never more subject to mis-judge of things than when advanced by the Magistrate to sit in Cathedrâ Secondly Saul I meane the blind zealot beginneth already to breath out threatenings as if he had letters in his pocket and were in hopes to mount to Damascus Thirdly if any enquire Quid rerum nunc geritur in Angliâ The answer is Consulitur de religione And I learned in a Sermon preached by the right worthy Vice-Chancellor at Oxford in my way betwixt Lancashire and London that Nunquam pejus de Religione consulitur quà m cùm incidit inter Reverendissimos 2. Righteousnes or good works are to be done in a special manner by such as me First That with well doing we may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men 1 Pet. 2.15 Secondly That we adorne the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things Tit. 2.10 And make it evident to all that we are not redeemed to sin but from sin Nor that we turn the grace of God into wantonnesse but are turned from wantonnesse by the grace of God which hath not onely brought Salvation but Sanctification freely and effectually teaching us what the law can onely tell to and in appearance force from them Scilicet That denying ungodlinesse and worldly lust we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Titus 2.12 Thirdly To heap coals of fire upon the adversaries heads coales I mean Amoris to destroy the sinne if possible for the persons sake which is the Gospel-way Not Furoris to destroy the person if God will permit for the sins sake which is the legal way knowing that it is written Vengeance is mine I will repay saith the Lord Rom. 12.19 20. For fourthly we are not only accounted by others but really know and acknowledge our selves to be of the number of those Bankerupts to whom much is forgiven and that therefore there is much reason of our loving much Luke 7.39 43. The debt-book is frankly crossed without our paying of one farthing and therefore it is not meet that we of all men should take our fellow-servants by the throats saying to any Pay what thou owest but be tender-hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christs sake hath forgiven us Eph. 4.32 And hence fifthly I cannot but admire the furious blindnesse of some zealots in these dayes that will maintain good works to be the cause if not of acquiring yet at least of continuing and not loosing Iustification and yet dare pull their fellow-servants by the throats that owe them I am confident under the value of an hundred pence Mat. 18.28 contrary to that very Scripture upon which they seem mainly to ground this their assertion RIghteousnesse or good works are not profitable unto me or other Christians First as procuring causes of election for which opinion soever be embraced whether that which presenteth man as the object thereof qua condendum qua conditum qua lapsum or qua credentem as to be created as created as fallen or as believing it matters not as to this all implying the works we now speak of to be subsequent as fruits and not antecedent as causes or conditions of election And however the Apostle saith That it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy Rom. 9.16 The children being yet unborn neither having done any good or evill that the purpose of God according to election might stand not of works but of him that calleth it was said unto her The elder shall serve the younger as it is written Iacob have I loved but Esau have I hated Rom. 9.11 12 13. Nor secondly as the procuring cause of conversion or vocation For first
sermone hos offendat quanquä id ipsum recte dicet verse 6. Pareus in Rom. Cap. 7 verse 4. The law is complexum quid containing in it command and blessing and cursing take command without blessing and cursing and it is no more Law with Moses Ball covenant page 100. Nos igitur mortuos dicit legi legem nobis quod eadem redit nam mortuo altero conjugum nexus conjugij utrinsque solutus est set positamorte nostra ponitur etiam mors legis quia lex nihil cum mortuis sed est ipsis mortua hoc est nulla Par. vbi supra Those that say the law is abolished as it is faedus but not as it is regula say true Burg. vind. legis p. 204. Cham Tom. 3 lib. 4 cap. 8. Sect 13. Totus liber actorum nihil aliud agit quám quod vocet ex lege non dari spiritum sanctum sedexaudiru Evangelii Luth. loc com clas. 1. cap. 28. Paulus cos demuÌ„ filios esse dei pronnnciat qui ejus spiritu aguntur bi agi proprio spiritu Divino autem vacuos esse volunt qui sint filii Dei ille servos Christi Calv Instit lib. 3 cap. 2. sect. 39. See the explication of passage the 6 Answere to quere the 4. Stat igitur firmissimuÌ„ primuÌ„ nostrae theseos membrum precepta decalogi quatenus per Mosen tradita sunt Iudet ad gentes nihil per tinere cum ad eos fuit missus .c. sic etium in signes Theologi omnes fentuint Zanc Tom. lib 1 pag .223 Muscul in loc. com There are some learned and sollid divines as Zen. He and River many Papist as Snares Medina which hold the law as delivered by Moses not to belong to us sect Burg. 7 page 57. Mr. Burgess himself undertakes to prove no more but that though when God gave the ten commandments fo the people of Israel they were the present subjects to whom he spake yet he did intend an obligation by these lawe not only udon the Jewes but also all other Nations that should be converted and embrace their religion Vind. lect 17. pag. 138. Leges non dantur extrani is sed in disenis leges venetae non obligant Romano c. Par in Rom. 3.19 it is no great danger to say that the lawes was abrogited as it was part of the matter of Moses law the parts falling with the whole and the matter with with the from not in themselves and absolutely but t as Part and as Phat matter Ca. p. to col Silvanus Taylor There cannot be faith in a beast or stone any more then there can be in them therefore reason or the light of nature make man in a passive capacity fit for grace although he hath no active ability for it and when he is compared to a stone it is not in the former sense but in the latter Burg. Vind. pag. 70 See Engl Annet in Luke 7 28 Parcus in lâ—c Beza in 1 Iohn 222 Rom 10 6 7 In the original they were submitted in the passive signification which supposeth that the great arrogancy that is in a man naturally being unwilling to deny his own righteousnesse and to take Christ for all Burg. Sect. 28. p. 254. Vide Heming in Ioh. 1.9 Luther in loc. com class 3. loc. 9. We should do us those Stewards that set bread and salt upon the table what ever dish there is so we should alwayes preach Christ and perswade them to believe in him Preston saith pag. 77. Saul made a Law that none should eat of any thing and so Jonathan must not tast of the hony Saeul indeed thought hereby to have the more enemies killed but Jonathan told him that if they had been suffered to eat more honey they should have bin more revived and enabled to destroy their adversaries thus the Papists they forbid us to eat of this hony this precious comfort in Christ as if thereby we should be hindred in our pursuit against sin whereas indeed it is the only strength and power against them Burgess vind. lect. 22. p. 209. In his reply to Crandon p. 43. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} sine adjecto articulo generaliter accipitur Beza in loc. Piscat. in Rom. 2.21 Non per opera venitur ad fidem sed per fidem ad opera Luther What is the difference between Christians and Moralists and without this what is our preaching we may gather well neer as good instruction to resist vice out of Plutarch and out of Seneca as out of Pauls Epistles But this differenceth it we preach Christ and from Christ veriry ability and strength to do all things else Dr. Preston of Faith p. 74. Shepherd Sab. par 1. Thes. 101. Censet ne idem esse hominem hartari ad poenitentiam ad utendum suis naturalibus O vere Papisticam caecitatem quasi non prius exuendus sit vetus homo cum factis suis Cham. Tom. 3. lib 4. cap. 10. sect. 17 18. Atque hic est sinis cur Augistinus ex doctrina Apostolica demonstrat omnia infidelium opera esse peccata nempe ut omnes ad veram in Christum fidem sine qua quicquid fit peccatum est hortetur et stimulet quomodo igitur damnari potest haec doctrina imò contra doctrina quam adversarii tradunt efficit homines hypocritas retardat eos in sua ipserum infidelitate efficit ut gloriaÌ„tur in seipsis retardat eos à fide in Christum c. Zanch Tom. 4. lib. 4. p. 144. Concludimus ergo omnem sollicitudinem et zelam quibus homines erga salutem suam feruntur omnem diligentiam quam adhibere possunt esse vanam et frustaneam magis noxiam quà m utilem ad fidem et Spiritum renovationis Cited by the Remonst Ex libello etc. Collat. Hagiae habit p. 297. Luther clas. 3. loc. 11. Homo merè passivè habet nec facit quidpiam sed fit totus Luther loc. com class 2. lec 7. Shepherd sound Beleev pag. 99 100. Baxt. Replytr Kendall p. 132. Kendall against Goodwin cap. 4. pag. 142. Luther loc. com class 2. loc. 7. Calvin Instit. lib. 2. cap. 8. Sect. 28. Is demum cessare ab operibus suiscensetur qui non agitur suo arbitrio nec consiliis suis indulgit sed a Spiritu Dei diversa patitur Calv. Cbristus tune regnat in nobis quando nos ab operibus nostris feriatos inhabitet in Sabbato suo per nos sanctificato ipse in nobis manens facit omnia opera nostra Luth. Calv. Instit. lib. 2. cap. 8. Sect. 30. Aliud erat Hypocritas esse aliud tanquam Hypocritas Voluit autem ne hypocritis quidem similes esse The Law with out though it be no rule of the spirit yet it is that rule according to which the spirit guides us to walk and by which we are to judge whether the guidance be