naturall birth so there is the seed of all grace sown together in mans soul at the very first instant of his spirituall new birth and that faith is a branch of sanctification as all other graces of the like nature are But to let that pas a man may qestion his faith and yet not qestion Christ for Christ may be Christ tho this or that party have no share in Christ or to use his description of faith be not perswaded more or les that Christ loves him a man tho he qestion not the foundation it self yet he may qestion whether he have built on it or beside it and so whether that be a foundation unto his building or no And I make no qestion but that many that pretend to believ yea that are perswaded they do so and wil not easily be beaten of from that their perswasion and stick not to compare for belief with the best yet had need to have their faith tried and may wel have it qestioned as wel by others as by themselves Yea we find in Scripture examples and instances of such as might wel have qestioned whether they beleeved aright or no and whether the faith they made profession of were tru or no g Simon the sorcerer sure might have done wel to qestion and try the truth of his faith nor might those resembled by h the seed sowen in the rockie ground but wel have done the like by theirs as also those i who tho they are said to believ in Christ yet Christ himself would not trust them and those vain k ones James speakes of that had a fruitles and baren faith Nor were this to aske the master of the feast whether his dainties were meer delusions or to make our blessed Saviour for he I suppose is the feast master he meaneth a sorcerer but to enqire whether we our selves have not been deluded when in some night vision such as the enthusiasts of our times too much hanker after we have with l Lucians sowter dreamed of a great feast and of such his dainties and of communion with him in them when as all hath been nothing but m a nightly delusion They did not qestion the truth of God that sought for wisdome whereby to discern between Gods messages brought by his Prophets and those n dreamers dotages who yet pretended to be sent by God as wel as the best and would not stick to demand of Gods Prophets o when the Spirit of God went from themselves to speak unto them Nor did the Apostle Paul when he called upon the Corinthians to p try their faith nor the Apostle John when he called on the faithful to q try the Spirits whether they were of God or no thereby incite them to qestion Christ the foundation of faith or to qestion Gods Spirit the worker of it but to be wise and wary in discerning between truth and falshood between sound and unsound between faith wel grounded and deceitful fancies and groundles presumptions between teachers delivering the doctrine of life and grace according to the word and such as warping from that rule yet pretended to have the Spirit Tru it is indeed that mans weaknes in the apprehension of the work of Gods Spirit in him may make the truly godly without ground or good cause sometime to qestion the truth of it in them but there is no ground or just cause for any thence to infer that no man ought to qestion whether he believe or no or whether his faith be tru or no every one otherwise should be bound to presume that he doth beleev and that his faith is tru faith For not to infist on that which we lately touched on that when the Apostle called upon some to try their faith he presumed that some such faith there was as would not go for currant but would proov r unsound when it came to the touch or the test and when he useth more then once that discriminating term of s faith not counterfeit or unfained he implies therein that there may be counterfeits and there are indeed not a few as of Christianity so of faith Not to insist hereon I say this Autor himself acknowledgeth that t there may be a kind of faith as in them that believed in the parable and in time of temptation fell away and yet not in the power of Christ nor in the life of the Spirit and that v such faith tho a ded faith may go far in resemblance carying the image of something like the new man and whether think we then is such faith to be questioned or no or wil this Autor say that for those that have such a faith to call their own faith in qestion is to qestion Christ himself But indeed according to this Autors ground there is no need for any man to qestion what manner of faith his faith is since that without any such ado whatsoever his faith be he may have interest in Christ For saith he 10. x For the way of comming by a right or purchasing an interest in this righteousnes or salvation wrought by Christ it is held forth without price or works onely for taking and receiving and believing on all being wrought to our hands so as this is as good a ground for one to belief on as another without exception y the covenant being such as was established with Noah Gen. 9. 11. nothing reqired on mans part and z this being a Scripture way he would upon these principles leav a soul Where to set aside his terms of purchase and price as if ought in that kind were by any of us attributed to faith or repentance or any work of ours and yet herein he contradicteth himself when he telleth us one while that salvation is held out a freely by the Prophet Esay in that phrase without price and yet an another while that b all the ministery of the Prophets did run in this strain as if Gods love were to be had in way of purchase by duty and doing Nor to resume again what hath been formerly said of believing and receiving another manner of matter then this man makes of them And that the like may be charged on him to that he chargeth upon the Legalists to wit c propounding to men the promises of the Gospel with such conditions of repentance d and sorrow for sin c. which because they are things that they e can not do f in steed of drawing a soul unto Christ put it further of from him for may it not as wel be objected to him as it is by him to them that he professeth indeed to make an offer of free grace and free promises but he propounds them so clogged with conditions of receiving and taking believing on that these being such as men are not able to do of themselves g they dare not meddle with them until they be prepared by
Christ Unles this Autor can or dare say that men may and can believ on Christ tho they cannot repent of their sins or be sorry for them and that the one is an easier work then the other or is not of h Gods gift and i a work of grace as wel as k the other But not to insist on these things If there be as good ground for any one without exception to believ as another that is as he defines faith to perswade himself that Christ loves him and he hath a share in the salvation purchased by him why did not Peter exhort Simon the sorcerer to perswade himself so but bad him l repent and pray for pardon yea why doth he himself make distinction of persons saying d I speak now to the weak and wounded believers for sins not to the earnall and unregenerate in sin Yea if the Covenant of the Gospel that is of life and salvation by Christ be as absolute without any condition on mans part as that e with Noah concerning the not drowning of the whole world again then it is all one whether men receav it and believ it or no the promise of life and salvation and the covenant made with Christ concerning it shal be made good unto them as wel as that made with Noah shal be made good unto men whether they know it and heare it and believ it or no so that his clause of onely for taking and receiving and believing on is here idle and frivolous the promise and covenant being as free and absolute in the one as in the other and nothing at all not so much or les then so in that other reqired This therefore is not onely no Scripture way tho he so term it but a cours directly cros and contradictory to Scripture tending to encourage men whether they be penitent or continu impenitent whether they come out of their sins or continu stil in them yet to perswade themselves or presume rather that they shal be saved by Christ and such unsound and rotten principles wil in the end proov like Egypt unto those that rely on them as f a bruised staf of reed or cane that is not onely unable to stay a man up and support him but wil run into his hand and with the shivers maim him that shal rest himself on it Wil you see then the sum of this mans Diviniti who complaineth so oft of and taxeth as g gros and carnall h the Divinity of former ages and these times The result of all the fore-mentioned assertions is in effect this The promises of the Gospel to wit of life and salvation by Christ belong to all without exception to sinners as sinners and to all consequently because all are sinners and all therefore are immediately bound to believ what but these promises which are not at all conditionall but absolute as absolute as that promise to Noah of never drowning the world again nor is any man in any wise to question his faith nor what ground he hath for such his belief And what followes from these premises but that men may be saved whether they repent or no tho they never turn to God or persist in a lewd and loose cours of life to the last I might wel have added whether they believ or no tho they never attain to tru faith For Christ he says may be ours without faith and if no condition at all be reqired on mans part as in that covenant with Noah then not so much as belief and he rejects therefore j the reformed and more generally received opinion as himself terms it of salvation in Christ by faith instrumentally intervening and k that none are partakers of free salvation but by faith as if he were directly bent to cros and contradict that of the Apostle l Ye are saved by grace through faith and m God hath elected you unto salvation by sanctification and n tru faith Which what is it but to teach men to believ a lie that God wil save such as indeed never shal be saved and to encourage them upon groundles perswasions and misapprehensions the more securely never qestioning how it stands with them to run on hoodwinked untill sodainly they fall headlong into hell I remember while I abode at Lincolns Inne to have visited sometime a religious Lady sister to a reverend Divine of speciall note in those daies whom I found somewhat perplexed the ground thereof arising from some conference that had newly passed between her and a grave Divine of great repute but in somethings warping a little the way that these men now run who qestioning with her about her estate upon delivery of such principles as she supposed to have good ground from Gods Word for the triall of her faith and interest thereby in Christ began to chide her and told her that she went needlesly about the bush when she had a neerer and readier way at hand Then being demanded what cours he would advise her to take he told her she must thus reason much after this Autors manner God will save sinners But I am a sinner Therefore God will save me To passe by what I farther spake either in confirmation of the way she was in or the confutation of this new one I told her not to trouble her with rules of Logike or Schole maximes to discover this fallacy she might with as good ground thus reason God wil damn sinners But I am a sinner Therefore God wil damn me And the conclusion I doubt not in this latter how ever it follow from the premises for twenty to one at least wil by woful experience proov the truer of the twain Howbeit if as the Apostle saith of some that o they are given up to strong delusions that believ some kind of lies I know not what to say or think of those that teach men to believ such lies as these are Yea but this way of trying our faith and estate by signes and marks it is but p a broken work q a narrow a weake r a puzling s a perplexing t a distracting u a gros a carnal way For with all these deterring and debasing terms is this Autor pleased to commend and adorn it Yet 1. some ye see have been needlesly puzzeld and perplexed by suggestions from such principles as this Autor here lays when they were quietly setled on good ground in the other way before by such as have disturbed them in it and sought to beat them out of it as this Autor throughout his whole discours here doth And as for his x experiment of a disquieted soul tossed to and fro by times for twelv yeers together among * those bungling or cheating Chirurgeons our Legal Teachers who either for want of skil could not or for their own ends would not give him any ease but powred in Wine or Vineger rather in stead of Oyl
to reconcilation and peace rather then pacified such as he formerly described If then the Ministers under the Gospel whom he thus traduceth fill out this Wine heated with no other conditions and qalifications but the very same that the Prophets did in the time of the Old Testament and they filled it out then no otherwise then they had good warrant from God then I see not how it can be avoyded but that God is hereby made like that Master and the Prophets his Ministers and Messengers in those times at least guilty of such deluding snd jugling with men as this comparison of his imports So that when Esay c inviteth all to come and drink freely without money or price he makes a shew indeed of filling out the Wine freely and there is in his words as it were a notion of free grace but when he comes in afterward with so many conditions and qalifications d of audience and obedience and supplication and reformation and reversion c. he doth so over-heat it that poor souls for fear of searing their lips dare not put the cup to their mouths I conclude for this former branch If the grace of God tempered with such conditions and qalifications as the Prophets generally used tho it may in notion seem tru yet in truth it is not free nor is any notion indeed tru that hath not truth in it then the Grace of God preached and propounded to the faithful in the time of the Old Testament was no free grace and consequently no grace for e grace is no grace unles it be free and the Prophets in those daies did but delude Gods people pretending to propound and preach grace unto them when as indeed they did nothing les And whether these things follow not from this mans grounds let any intelligent and indifferent Reader judge Yea but whatsoever God and his Prophets for whatsoever they did was by his direction and appointment done did in the time of the Old Testament yet I hope Christ and his Apostles propounded and preached free grace in the New Let us pas therefore on from the Old to the New and consider whether by this mans grounds and principles our Saviour himself preached either Gospel or free grace f God then saith our Autor maketh no Covenant properly in the Gospel as he did at first but his Covenant rather is all of it a Promise g and yet God covenanteth too but it is not with man but with Christ God agreeth to save man but this agreement was with Christ and all the conditions was on his part no conditions on our parts And again h A covenant in the strict legall sense is upon certain articles of agreement and conditions on both sides to be performed thus stood the old Covenant there was life promised upon condition of obedience but the Covenant under the Gospel is all on Gods own part i like that with Noah Genes 9. 11. against the way of the old wherein man was to have his life upon condition How this agreeth with what elswhere he tels us that k the Gospel is formed up of exhortations and perswasions and conditionall promises c. I stand not now to discusse but proceed l Salvation he saith is not made any puzling matter in the Gospel it is plainly easily and simply reveiled Jesus Christ was crucified for sinners this is salvation we need go no further all that is to be done in the work of salvation is to believe that there is such a work and that Christ died for the amongst all those other sinners he died for And again m This is short work Beleev and be saved and yet this is the onely Gospel work and way As for repentance and sorrow for sin and self-deniall and the like to tell men of these or pres them upon any as things required of all those that expect a share in the salvation purchased by Christ it is taxed by this Autor as a legall no Gospellike way and they are ever and anon girded at as Legall teachers that n bid men repent and o be humbled and be sorry for their sins and pray and p lead a new life q walking according to Gods Law by the way implying as if those that pressed those things upon them spake r nothing at all of Christ and that s set them upon duties and t tell them of conditions and qalifications against which that passage in v Esay before mentioned is v opposed Yea for faith it self albeit sometime with x the Apostle he acknowledge that y without faith it is impossible to please God yet neyther is that reqired as a condition to make Christ ours for z Christ is ours saith he without faith Now consider we in the next place what manner of preaching our Saviour Christs was that collating the Gospel by this man described with the Gospel that Christ preached we may see how wel they sort and sute the one with the other a I came saith our Saviour to call sinners to repentance and b Vnlesse ye repent ye shal all perish and c Verily I say unto you Vnles ye be converted and become like children ye shall not enter into the Kingdome of Heaven And d If a man wil come after me let him deny himself and take up his cros and folow me And e If any man come to me and hate not his Father and Mother and Wife and Children and Brethren and Sisters yea and his own life also he cannot be my Disciple And f Whosoever he be of you that forsakes not all that he hath he can not be my Disciple Here is no such short work as Mr. S. makes of it Here are conditions you see reqired and those not of faith alone but of repentance and humiliation and self-deniall and conversion and renouncing of all g in disposition and purpose at least But compare we now his new model with these and the like passages of our Saviour and see how they agree whether the Gospel that he describes and the Gospel that Christ taught the free grace that Christ taught if at least he taught any and free grace as this man fancies it be one and the same and whether graee and Gospel come neerer to Christs way that that he gives out or that that he girds at Or if you please cast we our eye back to his former comparison and consider whether it may not as wel be applied to our Saviour himself and his preaching as to them and theirs whom he would fasten it upon going no further then he did For may not a man building on Mr. S. his grounds and speaking in his langvage say of our Saviour that he made a shew indeed of filling out his Wine freely when h he called upon all that travelled and were heavy laden to come to him with promise to refresh them but he hath
haynous an exces it is liqor too * precious to be wastfully spilt If the Master have choice Wine reserved for his reconciled friends that are willing tho before at ods yea at dedly fewd with him yet now to come in and entertain terms of amity with him and the servant shal pour out of it to dogs and swine or serv it out to sturdy rogues and idle vagrants at the dore such as either scorn and curs his Master or refuse all commerce and acqaintance with him tho invited thereunto because they like not his disposition nor can endure his demeanour I suppose such a servant would have litle thanks from his Master for his labour And had not this Autor clipt off the first words of the Text which he points us to for his warrant herein it would alone have been sufficient to check this his professed profusenes and have enformed him withall what manner of persons they are unto whom this Wine is to be dispensed Eat O friends f saith he and drink yea drink abundantly O beloved But what speciall warrant by revelation or enthusiasm matters now a daies much pretended he may profes to have for this I know not Wel I wot and am sure that neither the place alledged nor any other Scripture the onely sure touchstone we have now to try truths by for the Spirit speakes not but according to it doth or can warrant much les enjoyn any such exorbitant exces either in this particular or in ought els 2. For the crying down of Christ it is a foul and fals calumny which together with many others of the same stamp this Autor here would fasten on the faithful Ministers of Christ men as jealous of and zealous for the honour of Christ their Master I may boldly say it for their labours shew it as himself 3. It is true indeed that Free grace cannot of it self have such an effect as he speakes of but this brother may remember what a zealous preacher as g his name imports and assertor of Free grace telleth us that there are not wanting and those not a few that h turn Gods grace i into wantonnes or lasciviousnes and men may preach and publish free grace in that manner that they may by such their preaching pave a path to that foule abuse which that many of our Antinomian tenents do is to me beyond controversie and I shal leave it to the consideration of others religious and judicious to deem and determine whether some assertions scattered here and there in this discours do not warp too much that way among the rest whereof take these for a tast 1. k The promises belong to sinners as sinners l not as repenting or bumbled sinners Whereas our Saviour saith that m he came to call sinners to re pentance and to save consequently not all but penitent sinners onely for n unlesse they do repent he tels them expresly they shal perish 2. o All that ever received Christ reeeived him in a sinful condition Yet the Apostle enformes us that that faith whereby we receiv Christ for p to receiv him the Evangelist tels us is to believ on him is not an holy onely but q a most holy faith nor can a man be said to be in a sinful condition whose r heart is possessed of so holy an habite or disposition term it whether you please nor can the heart act to the receiving of Christ until it be thereof possessed For how can a man put forth an holy act while he remains stil altogether unholy 3. They are but weak beleevers and like melancholy people who think things far otherwise then they truly are right smoking Flax wherein there is more smoke then light more ignorance then tru discerning Which among other things t think poor souls that tho God be reconciled with them and love them at some times yet he may be provoked again angry again for new sins and failings and are then much troubled how to come at any peace again as they were before u they suppose they can not sin so as they do and yet not be accountable x and think that afflictions are sent upon them for their sins Yet the Apostle telleth the Corinthians that they might and did a provoke God by som unadvised courses and carriages and that b for some such Gods afflicting hand was upon them and I suppose God called them then to account But what is this but to encourage men freely to offend and sin without feare of offending of God or provoking him to wrath or being ever called to any account or chastised at all for it making God like a fond indulgent father an other Ely if not more regardles then c he of his childrens cariage not affected at all with it tho it be never so scandalous and disgraceful to their Christian profession Of the same or the like stamp is that which followeth tending to beat men off from being troubled at all for their sins as d David or e Peter were and from seeking to make up the breaches made between God and them by their sins and to make their peace again with him by their renewed practice of repentance 4. f All worship and spirituall obedience is to run in the way of this dispensation not for procuring love or peace with God nor for pacifying 5. g There is nothing but the taking in of the Law and accusings and condemnations of it that can trouble the quiet and peace of any soul for where there is no law there is no transgression and where there is no transgression there is no trouble for sin all trouble arising from the obligement of the Law which demands satisfaction of the soul for the breach of it and such a satisfaction as the soul knows it cannoe give and thereby remains unqiet as a debter that hath nothing to pay Yet David albeit h having from the mouth of God by a special expresse received a release from the condemnations of the Law was i troubled and that not a little for his sin if we may believ him or the Spirit of God speaking by him nor was that therefore the ground of his trouble for his sin nor is it the onely ground of such trouble that this Autor here affirms But proceed we 6. k No sin can make one les beloved of God Had he added but or les liked he had spoken full out in plain terms after the usuall Antinomian strain but he is somewat more cautions herein then some other Yet being a scholler he need not be minded of that distinction so common in the schools of a love of benevolence and a love of complacence tho God never loved David the les in regard of wishing wel to him for any sin committed by him yet was he not so wel pleased l with him when he committed some sins nor was