of Christ but also the supererogation of the Saints which as they perswade themselves is satisfactory not onely for the Saints themselves but for others The Church of Rome makes it her care to take in the whole of all these branches of righteousnesse and in all of them they place their justification Here we had need of the clew of Scriptures to lead us That righteousnesse which according to the precept of the Law is to be wrought by our selves as to sanctification or qualification of the soul in the way of salvation we must vigorously pursue and not disclaim As Christ when he was accused by the Pharisees to destroy the law and to be an enemy to righteousnesse to take off this calumny he tells his Disciples Matth. 5.20 I say unto you that except your righteousnesse shall exceed the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdome of Heaven So we may say to these adversaries that charge us to be enemies of good works except your righteousnesse exceed the righteousnesse of these superstitious ones ye can by no means enter into the Kingdome of heaven The righteousnesse of a Papist being of the self same stamp with that of the Pharisees for tradition the Trent Councel makes known their zeal Concil Triden Sess quart p. 11. With the same degree of reverence and esteem we receive the Traditions of our Fathers as we do the bookes of the Old and New Testament and how defective both of them were touching the righteousnesse of the law their agreement in the glosse which they put upon the law is a sufficient witnesse The Pharisees glosse on the law we may read in Christs refutation Matth. 5. and the several precepts which Christ there delivers transcending the Pharisees dictates Papists will have to be no branches of the law but Evangelical Counsels added to it So that B. Hall quotes a speech of Serrarius the Jesuite that the Pharisees may not unfitly be compared to Catholiques adding as his own that one egge is not liker to an other then the Tridentine Fathers to these Jesuites Supererogating righteousnesse and that which is bottom'd on tradition we must wholly shun It is enough that we can bring it up to the rule in the parts of it it must not exceed It is hard to determine whether a man that casts off all regard of righteousnesse or a man of such righteousnesse be more hatefull in Gods presence one utterly sleights the soveraignty of God and the other corrects his wisdome one refuses to serve at all the other serves onely according to his own pleasure As to the other branch of righteousnesse wrought by others The supposed satisfaction of the Saints must be left and the Lord Christs alone chosen That speech of Christ in the Prophet Isai 63.3 spoken of the conquest of his enemies I have trod the Wine-presse alone and of the people there were none with me holds true when it is applied as by many it hath been though not according to the letter of the text to his satisfaction By one offering he hath perfected for ever those that are sanctified Heb. 10.14 yea the righteousnesse of Christ in the matter of justification must stand alone in opposition to all righteousnesse in the world whether of others imaginarily to be applyed out of any publique treasury by way of indulgence or wrought by our selves either by the strength of natural abilities without grace which the Papists confesse to be too weak or in grace and these works how great an honour soever of late is put upon them come short of perfection to justification likewise as plainly appears by the Apostles argumentation Rom. 3.20 By the deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight giving this in for his reason for by the Law is the knowledg of sin The argument runs thus Where the Law discovers sin the works commanded by it cannot justifie This proposition is the Apostles But the law discovers sinne even in those in whom grace here hath its most perfect work This needs not to be proved Therefore works commanded in the law and done by assistance of grace in the regenerate cannot justifie And that the Apostle disclaims all righteousnesse any other way his own then by free imputation from God in the work of justification is clear 1 Cor. 4.4 I know nothing by my self yet am I not hereby justified Though he had the witnesse of a good conscience as his rejoycing 2 Cor. 1.12 Yet this is not his justification when the Rhemists on the place and Bellarmine de justificat urge this text against assurance of salvation Mr. Ball Treat of Faith pag. 107. saith This text makes strongly against justification by works but against certainty of salvation it makes nothing And Pareus upon the words saith Hence it is most firmly concluded that by the works of the law no man is justified If so great an Apostle cannot be justified by works then much lesse others His works were certainly done by the power of grace and upon new-Covenant-engagements That of Mr. Baxter Aphor. of justif pag. 307. must stand as an eternal truth who after that he had laid down the Socinians tenent that they acknowledg not that Christ hath satisfied the Law for us and consequently is none of our legal righteousnesse but onely hath set us a coppy to write after and is become our pattern and that we are justified by following him as a captain and guide to heaven and so all our proper righteousnesse is in this obedience And having mark'd it with this just brand Most cursed doctrine he addes So far am I from this that I say The righteousnesse which we must plead against the lawes accusations is not one grain of it in our faith or works but all out of us in Christs satisfaction As this righteousnesse which is no otherwise ours but by imputation being neither inherent in us Faith the alone grace that interests us in this righteousnesse nor wrought by us must stand entire and sole in our justification so faith must be acknowledged to be the alone grace which interests us in it and attains to our reconciliation to God in Christ otherwise why is it that not onely the denomination is still from faith onely as we see in the text and alwaies when it is named it is called the righteousnesse of faith and not of hope love obedience or repentance But that justification is evermore in Scripture ascribed to this grace The Apostle speaking of Christ who is confessed to be our righteousnesse saith Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood In him God who otherwise through wrath stands at the greatest distance is propitious and this through Faith on which Diodate hath these words All this hath been done by vertue of Gods appointment who of his meer will and full power hath from everlasting appointed Christ to be the onely means of expiation and
which Christians may attain is the perfection that the Apostle calls unto This is plain in the Text he calls for perfection that we may perfect But Christians can reach no further a degree in perfection then sincerity Therefore the Apostle calls onely to sincerity 2. That is the Apostles meaning where he speaks of perfection that himself gives in as his meaning This is cleer he is the best interpreter of himself But he expresses himself by perfect there to mean entire or lacking nothing A perfection of entireness or integrality then he means a perfection of parts and not of degrees For that Text of Paul 2 Cor. 13.11 Finally brethren farewell be perfect c. let us compare with it that which he testifies of some in Corinth 1 Cor. 2.6 Howbeit we speak wisdome among them that are perfect that is those that have a right and more full understanding of Gospel mysteries put in opposition to the weakness of novices which perfection is according to the Apostle the way to unity of judgment As for the Text Matth. 5.48 Be ye therefore perfect as your Father which is in heaven is perfect If it be streined to the highest it calls for a divine increated perfection Mr. Crandon then must yield that there is a sicut similitudinis non aequalitatis in that place And if the context be consulted we shall find that it is opposed to that half-hypocriticall righteousness which was found in Scribes and Pharisees which all must exceed that enter into the Kingdome of heaven In Heb. 6.1 a novice-like imperfection in knowledge is reproved and a further growth towards perfection is called for Mr. Crandon goes on If perfection were not the duty of a Christian and unperfectness and infirmity his sin why doth the Apostle groan and grieve under the remainder of his natural infirmities and press on to perfection Rom. 7.14 to the 24. Phil. 3.12 14 The conclusion here is granted the one is a duty the other is a sin and because of failing in the one and the burden of the other the Apostle groans Foreseeing that this would be yeelded him he addes by way of objection Or is such unperfectness a sin onely in reference to the rule of the Law and not the Rule of the Gospel or that the Law doth but the Gospel doth not call for perfection Answ There is not one rule of the Law as I have demonstrated at large and another of the Gospel seeing the Gospel establishes the Law onely the Gospel-Covenant calls for those sincere desires which grace works to conform in its measure to the Rule of the Law He addes This is both contrary to the Scriptures alleaged and doth withall make the Gospel to allow imperfections But both of these have been already answer'd What he further addes answers it self save onely his great pains to pump out your meaning But I shall leave you to be your own interpreter and forbear in this to interpose between you Thus I have passed through Grace assisting those things wherein our judgements differ as also those in which we agree in one Some other things there are which both of us problematically enquire into which Sect. 56 57 58. You treat of under this title Of the life promised and death threatned to Adam in the first Law In which neither you nor I as I think see any important difference and in them I must confess that you deal with much candour though there be some things in them to which I might speak my differing thoughts yet I shall forbear further to be the Readers trouble and leave all to enjoy their own judgement SECT IX The conclusion of the whole with an enquiry into the judgement of Antiquity about severall things in reference to justification AS you have saluted me in a Prologue so you are pleased in your close in a particular addresse to take your leave In which among other things you wish me not to suppose that you judge of all the rest of my booke as you do of this that you have replyed to Telling me tha you value the Wheat while you help to weed out the tares I am glad that I have your approbation in any thing and I hope you will not be offended that I mind you that in this work of weeding out Tares you stand in danger to weed out the Wheate also It is said by some that the tares in those parts carried so near resemblance with the Wheat that they could hardly be distinguished I am sure that if I had judged the least nature of a Tare to have been in any of that which you have gon about to weed out it never had been sown there and I did believe that I was rather weeding then sowing Tares when I was upon the work you examine I dare not brand all that seed with the name of Tareâ— which is not pure Wheat In a Corn field there are seeds of a middle nature Not pure Corn nor yet such that like Tares are dangerously prejudiciall to overtop and destroy the Corn whether they be Tares or Wheat or other seed of a middle nraure we must both leave to the judgement of the Mastâ—r of the harvest You speak of a Pardon in the next place for your onfident concluding me in an error and your self in the truth In which I have all reason if that must passe as a fault needing Pardon to be facile seeing I need it from you as well as you from me Though I am not in expectation of like credence as you your name with some being enough to put in ballance against all the Arguments that another hand can produce yet I believe that I am as far above scruples As I have not heard that your elaborate replies to those learned friends that in private have given in their animadversions have given them such satisfaction as to change their judgements so I confesse it fares with me And when either of us stand this way opinionated no other course can be taken then that which you mention either to leave the other and both of us all others to judge by the evidence of arguments on both sides with what part the truth rests I have made it my businesse in most poynts of difference to enlarge my self further with arguments then before I judged to be needfull I doubt not but they will undergo different censures I shall not much matter what on the suddaine will be voyced but shall rather weigh if God prolong life what after a few years will be more generally thought Neither shall I in the meane time assume the boldnesse to charge you with any error you have herein forestalled me in the preface of your Confession in your enumeration of those qualifications which you expect in any that shall attempt it 1. That he be a man of a stronger judgement and of a more discerning head and not one of those that Nazianz. describes Orat. 1. and after Pag. 453. think themselves wise enough to be
acceptance Secondly They that worthily shew forth his dearh and acceptably keep a memorial of it will not without horrour and trembling have a thought of drawing upon themselves the guilt of it we would hot bear the guilt of the blood of the meanest peasant in the world not of such a one that Job would not set with the dogs of his flock Job 30.1 Such may with David Deliver me from blood guiltinesse How much lesse would we bear the guilt of the Prince of life To have this in our thoughts that he must be our Judge we have been his murderers may indeed set pricks in the heart as it did in Peters hearers Act. 2.37 These men of sin that come to the Sacrament in sin wilfully furiously draw this guilt upon themselves and become accessary to it He that sleightly passeth over the death of an innocent person making a small matter of it either he makes the innocent to be indeed nocent one that hath justly deserved to be slain who being slain deserves so little regard or at least he makes himself nocent breeding ajust suspition that he was or would have been consenting to that mans death saith M. Pemble pag. 33. These in the sleighest way passe it over not with the least evidence of zeal or indignation against it Thirdly They that judge Christ fit to be numbered with malefactors and transgressors discern not his body do not judge of him according to his glory and excellency and so cannot with comfort come to the Lords Table But these judge him fit to be numbered with transgressors when in their foulest sins they dare joyn themselves to him and have communion with him This is their case that come in sin to the Lords Table Here some may object that according to the principles laid down the Ordinance may be an hopeful meanes to take such off from their wayes of sin having previous light to see what they do hear they may see high aggravation of their wickednesse An heart-breaking a soul-melting Ordinance being set before them there may be all hopes that it may be efficacious unto soul-melting and heart-breaking here they may see what their ugly sins have done and who it is that their sins have pierced and crucified whereof a Publican or Harlot may easilier be convinced then a Pharisee or justiciary And Christ being here set out both bearing sin and a sacrifice for sin the sight of their just demerit in his suffering and hopes of freedom from guile by his blood-shed there may be expectation of conviction and contrition and consequently somewhat at least done towards conversion and upon this account some would have the worst of men admitted to the view though not to participation in this Ordinance Others taking advantage of this admission of them to the view of it and knowing it to be a novel thing that any should gaze and not partake they conclude they are to be admitted unto both The further improvement of it by them seems at least some way hopeful when to the ignorant and erroneous it is impossible That I may speak my whole thoughts to this thing somewhat is necessary to be premised both by way of concession and assertion By way of concession it must be yeelded 1. That there is more weight in this objection then personally hath been acknowledged which I see upon conference with many godly learned is more and more discerned It is not so easie to evince all hopelesnesse of good in a bad mans receiving the Sacrament as in a man that is grossely ignorant no text so fully and clearly to any grounds to put a barre to men in sin as to those that are in ignorance neither doth the nature of the Sacrament so clearly evince it 2. Arguments usually brought to conclude against their admission to this Ordinance that are in wayes of sin and under no sentence of excommunication seem to me scarce concluding It were too long to name the Arguments and point out the exceptions Some of them also perilously ensnaring and upon several accounts 1. Their Arguments conclude equally against such mens hearing praying and attendance upon any other Ordinance as they do against their participation of the Lords Supper the same Medium wherewith they conclude against one concludes against all as hath been shewn 2. These Arguments intended onely against the scandalous to conclude a necessity of their exclusion equally conclude against all that are not actually in grace when yet the disputants themselves will not yeeld that either actual grace or positive signes of such grace should be any rule in such proceedings as to instance some say that Ministers in holding out the Sacrament to wicked persons whom they have excommunicated in the Word shewing that no unrighteous person shall enter into the kingdom of heaven they absolve them in the Sacrament and if this have any force in it it must conclude in this manner None may be admitted but these that may be actually absolved and while they assume that the wicked may not be actually absolved others will alike assume that no unregenerate man how knowing civil and unblameable soever may be absolved And the same guilt that these in their reasonings conclude that Church-officers bring upon themselves in admission of the scandalous they contract that admit of any ungenerate ones By way of assertion it must be delivered 1. 2. By way of assertion That the fundamental proper right unto or interest in this Ordinance is not questioned Church members lay a just claime to Church Ordinances visible members to visible Ordinances If this be once denyed we are in inextricable snares 2. Here can be no such prophanenesse in promiscuous administration of this Ordinance as the putting of Gods seal to blank paper There is no blank but a name legibly written where there is a Covenant entered and that there is a Covenant entered with such as it cannot be denyed by any that will confesse that the Scripture should be umpeir so it is yeelded by all of those that baptize the infants of such persons The first right of parents that are such is taken for granted when their children are thus received 3. It is then an orderly edifying and prudential wa in administration that is here enquired after and this admits of a greater latitude then Covenant and no Covenant regenerate or non-regenerate in which if an hairs breadth should misse there were a transgression as we discern the person to whom it is meet to give onely milk and to whom to give strong meat so we judgeof those that we admit onely to the Word and Prayer and those that we admit to the Lords Table And though I see not concluding strength in several Arguments produced but suppose they are grounded on mistakes which also apt to lead into danger otherwise I had been silent yet I cannot recede from that ancient received opinion of Fathers Schoolmen Protestants whether of the Episcapal Presbyterial or Congragational judgement that scandalous
the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God The water there is meant of Baptisme that laver of regeneration without this there is no entrance into heaven When Paul said Except these stay in the ship ye cannot be saved Acts 27.31 all will presently understand that their abode in the ship was of absolute necessity to safety and so also baptisme according to Christs words for eternity Answ Though it be not easy to determine what is the right meaning and genuine interpretation of those words yet it is of no great difficulty to vindicate them from them that would fasten this sense upon them and gather this consequence from them And before I come to a full answer I shall premise two things 1. That it is a wonder that Nicodemus coming to our Saviour in the night and as yet knowing nothing in the Mystery of Christ should hear that from him that others in the open light and farre more knowing in Christianity could never hear from his mouth 2. Bellarmine himself as Amesius doth observe confesses and if I do not much mistake Suarez somewhere that at that time of Christs conference with Nicodemus there was no such absolute necessity of Baptisme He puts the question when baptisme began to be necessary and determines it in four propositions Baptismus Châ—â—sti non fuit necessarius necessitate medii aut praecepti ante Christi mortem Baptismus Christi coepit esse necessarius necessitate medii praecepti a die pentecostes The third is That it was not necessary before the death of Christ neither necessitate praecepti or medii The fourth is that it was not necessary necessitate me dii praecepti before the day of Pentecost And let any judge whether it be probable instructing that novice in the faith Christ would in the first place inform him not what in present but what afterwards would be of necessity especially seeing that after that time by him set down when the absolute necessity should commence we hear of no such necessity of it For more full satisfaction I further answer First That text which names not Baptisme and cannot be concluded by an argument infallibly cogent to speak of Baptisme cannot enforce an absolute necessity of it This is cleare But this text names not Baptisme neither is there any argument to conclude infallibly that it speaks of baptisme probabilities are mentioned but no necessary concluding argument is by any produced Secondly A Scripture-text carrying like colour hath been urged for a like necessity for infants to receive the Lords Supper John 6.53 But this is agreed on all parties not to hold This then how eagerly soever it is prest may fail likewise Thirdly Either water there must be taken for Baptisme of water or else by way of Exegesis to hold out the same thing that was exprest before by the birth of the Spirit If the latter will hold as there are many parallel instances given and multitudes of Divines so interprete it Gerrard in his common places reckons up many more then I have to consult then this text comes to nothing in this particular And that this should be the meaning Chamier with fair probabilities argues seeing in this sense the words bear an absolute truth without any limitation All being of a corrupt birth there is a necessity of a new birth and that by the Spirit there being no more births then that of the flesh which is corrupt and that of the Spirit that comes to heal corruption If the former stand that water must of necessity hold out Baptisme of water as Papists and Lutherans generally contend and many Protestants yield then either the words must be taken in an absolute way without any limit at all or else with their just and due limitations If limits must be put then no absolute unlimitted necessity can be concluded and to understand it without any limit at all our adversaries themselves see to be lyable to dangerous absurdities Some therefore understand it of the Baptisme of water or some other that supplies the place and room of it and it is on all hands granted that Baptismus flaminis sanguinis the Spirit or blood in Martyrdome may supply the room of it for salvation And this Chamier saies is the limit that Arboreus puts Others understand it of Baptisme of water if it can be had and it be not contemned and despised and this Chamier saies is the limit that Lombard Bonaventure Gorran Carthusian and Villagadus put to it Others understand it of that regeneration that is ordinarily by baptisme of water though by other meanes it may be wrought And this limit Alexander of Hales puts to it as Amesius observes either of actual Baptisme or else of the desire of it and this Suarez sayes is the opinion of all Divines and charges it for an heresy to hold that none of years can be saved unlesse actually baptized notwithstanding their earnest desire of it and in his time he saies one a Michael Baius a Divine of Lovain held it But as he saies Pius 5. and Gregorius 13. in their letters published did condemne it And this text being subject to so many limitations our adversaries being judges I hope I may without any just exception adde one that it be understood of men of years such as Nicodemus was to whom it was spoken seeing so many helps are provided for men of yeares in the want of Baptisme it is altogether unreasonable to leave Infants in such exigents as to be irremedilesly under damnation for eternity when it is not in their power to make provision of it and so are holpen by Lombard and those of that party Any man may be their Compurgitor that they are not guilty of contempt of it Besides this Text there are many high speeches alledged out of some of the Ancient for the necessity of Baptisme and heavy doom of those that passe out of this world in the want of it But these are not onely under the dislike of Protestants but of those that these lay claim to be of their own party Bernard Epist 77. is large against them and Vossius hath a full quotation out of Petrus Blessensis who was Bernards contemporary c Sufficit Spiritus aqua Sufficit Spiritus sanguis si aquam non exclusit contemptus Religionis sed articulus necessitatis Sufficiet solus Spiritus quia testimonium ipsius pondus habet The Spirit and water sufficeth The Spirit and blood sufficeth if instant necessity and not contempt of Religion depriveth of Water The Spirit alone may suffice for his testimony hath weight in it And whereas Austin of all other is most frequently quoted for this rigid sentence as being in name most eminent my author sets Austine against Austin having in his 5th Book against Donatists these words d Etiam atque etiam considerans in venio non tantum passionem pro nomine Christi id quod ex Baptismo decrat posse supplere
conclusion with me is de fide when it is concluded 4. He saies I must have better proof before I can believe that it is assurance of our own sincerity or actual justification which the Apostle calls the full assurance of faith Heb. 10.22 And I think he is the first man amongst orthodox Divines that hath doubted that assurance of acceptance is meant in that place Faith is that grace say the last Annotations whereby we either do or may approach unto God with full assurance of acceptance Is not that boldnesse in our addresses mentioned ver 19. an evident symptome of it And is not sincerity fet forth in those words having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water as the basis or bottome of it not of our acceptance but of our assurance I must hear somewhat more before I can question it There followes 5. And as hardly can I discern assurance of our sincerity in the description of faith Heb. 11.1 unlesse you mean that hope is part of faith and assurance the same with hope both which need more proof Hope may be without assurance and when it is joyned with it yet is not the same thing onely such assurance is a singular help to the exercise of hope And can you not discern a double encomium of faith in those words The first with respect to things past and present as well as things to come where it is said to be The evidence of things not seen Faith makes that evident which otherwise would not be known The other respective to things to come and that not evil but onely good not things feared but hoped expressed in these words Faith is the substance of things hoped for both of them rather expressing what faith does then what faith is and I know not why that speech of hope should be brought in here when it is onely said that the good things hoped for are that which faith realizes to the soul It is said further 6. It is true that faith may be said as you speak to realize salvation to the soul that is when the soul doubteth whether there be indeed such a glory and salvation to be expected and enjoyed by believers as Christ hath promised ere faith apprehendeth it as real or certain and so resolves the doubt And is this all that faith can possibly do and for which this high praise is here given unto it Against this I say First This was expressed in the former branch the evidence of things not seen faith believes a heaven as well as a creation Secondly a faith short of justifying may do this an historical faith assents to the highest dogmatical truthes Thirdly will you have the full assurance of hope Heb. 6.11 to be no other then to get assurance that there is a heaven though we shall never come to heaven which would be a contradiction for hope hath possession in expectation Fourthly doth not our hope enter into that within the vail whither our forerunner is gone before us Heb. 6.19 and are we not saved by hope Rom. 8.24 Faith then being said to be the substance of things hoped for it doth not barely tell us that there is a heaven that is too lank and lean a commendation of it but the office of it is to realize the possession of it to us It followes But when the doubt is whether I be a true believer saith resolves it not Faith hath its hand in the resolving of this doubt in believing from the Scriptures what are the Symptomes or cognizances of true believing and gathering them up by reflex upon it self It followes And when the doubt is whether this certain glory and salvation shall be mine faith onely cooperateth to the resolve of it by affording us one of the propositions but not both and not wholly the conclusion If faith affords us one of the propositions and findes the other in the Scriptures that is to me sufficient It followes 7. I am of Dr. Amesius his mind that it is one of faiths most eminent acts by which it is there described But undoubtedly you were not so in your sixth animadversion when you left it so low as we have heard and made it no more then the faith of wicked men may reach There is added But so think not they that tell us that is none of the instrumental justifying act which is there described But doubtlesse they may very well think so This here mentioned is a more eminent work of faith then that of justifying as a child on a Giants head is further removed from the earth and nearer the clouds then the Giant himself Faith that gives assurance presupposeth the justifying act already done by it self and addes more to it when a man believes savingly there is Certitudo objecti he that believes shall be saved but this here mentioned is Certitudo subjecti when the good hoped for is assured to the soul If there be any other promise made of God for good this work of faith I confesse takes it in and I do not believe that the Apostle doth limit this work of faith to the hope of salvation but I am sure he doth not exclude it that being the chiefest thing in our hope that is undoubtedly chiefly intended and might well by me be mentioned It followes 8. This which you took to be a good answer is that great mistake which hath so hardened the Papists against us and were it not for this point I should not have desired much to have said any thing to you of the rest about conditional sealing as being confident that we mean the same thing in the main If that be that great mistake I am still in the mistake and you are the first man that ever went about to rectifie it but you herein fail that you shew not wherein the mistake lies Those Divines that deny faith to be assurance that were as much as to define a man by such excellencies that are to be found in few men and so to exclude the common pitch of men from the species of mankind do not yet deny but that faith may attain to assurance It followes 9. You forsake them that use to give this answer when you confine it to those onely that with assured grounds and infallible demonstrations can make it good to themselves that they believe i. e. savingly I think that they as well as I confine it to those that you here mention It followes I doubt that answer then will hold but to very few if you mean by assured grounds c. such as they are actually assured are good and demonstrative I believe that strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth to life and few there be that find it There are not many we may fear that do savingly believe and many of those are not yet assured that they do believe and to this Mr. Baxter hath spoke abundantly sufficient in his Saints rest It followes 10. Demonstrations
Psalmist also shewes the efficacy which nature gives to bread and wine Psal 104. But for either water bread or wine to pardon sin infuse habits or new qualities into the soule or add to the strength of those that are already wrought is an unheard of secret Others yet say that they are hyperphysical or supernatural instruments in the conveyance of grace which might easily enough be understood in case it could be believed A power they mean put into them or exercised by them above that which in their naturall workings they have any possible activity to reach as in the water of the Poole of Bethesda upon the moving of the Angell to heal him that first stept into it and in the water of Jordan to cleanse Naaman of his Leprosie by seven times dipping in it Had it had that naturall power of cure Abana and Pharpar rivers of Damascus would never have been esteemed equall with it But that these elements should be standing instruments of the work of miracles of this nature we had need of full and clear texts of Scripture to make good to us I shall assoon believe a transubstantiation in the bread from hoc est corpus meum as such a transmutation or renovation of the soul or any such priviledges of glory as Scripture makes the peculiar inheritance of those in whom this change is wrought upon the bare application of these Elements Most say they are morall instruments in what they do but then there is so much work to understand what a morall instrument means that I dare neither without further expression of my self affirm or deny it Some make them such instruments by which God works according to pleasure sometimes working that which they signifie and sometimes working not at all by them as sometimes he works by the Word but sometimes it remains a dead letter Others make it an instrument of conveyance as a staffe of an Abbotship a pall df a Bishoprick a Book of a Canons place and this doubtlesse is according to the meaning of Scriptures as men vouchsafing gifts appoint at pleasure Ceremonies and Solemnities evidencing such donations so God hath appointed these elements as signs of that nature Having a precedent right the initiating Sacrament is a means of solemn inauguration and the following Sacrament an evidence of continued possession Baptisme takes into the body 1 Cor. 12.13 and Bread and Wine evidence that we are of the body 1 Cor. 10.17 And as a twig and turfe vests a man in his purchase of lands a rod vests a customary tenant in his Coppy-hold a Crown vests a King in his Kingdom so these elements having this office assigned them of God vest a man in Covenant in visible Church-membership and give him actual interest in all visible Church-priviledges But yet this difference The Staffe the Pall the Book the Twig and Turfe the Rod the Crown lead no further then to that which they immediately conferre which is the present dignities and possessing whereof they are solemnities and these dignities are also terminated in themselves and lead men into no expectation of any higher honour But Sacraments vesting us in Church-priviledges and these priviledges leading us to higher and greater things as they vest us in present in these so by way of sign and seal they lead and raise us unto all that Church-priviledges serve and are appointed to advance us unto So that God works as a Moral agent in appointing according to pleasure these elements as solemnities of his grant and they work according to the nature of the office assigned them that is by way of sign and seal for the help of our understandings the refreshing of our memories and strength of our faith in promises of greater things SECT II. Propositions tending to clear the doctrine IN order to the discovery of some further light concerning the operation of Sacraments and for detection of erroneous opinions about them I shall lay down several Positions Explicatory Propositions 1. Mans first original is in sin First This must be held as an uncontroverted truth between parties in this dispute that Mans first original is in sin his first estate not by Creation but by birth not as he came out of the hands of God but as he comes into the world is in full opposition against heaven The imagination of mans heart is evil from his youth Gen. 8.21 The word as Ainsworth and Rivet on the place with Mr. Hildersam on Psal 51.5 observe signifies infancy the same title which is given to Moses when he was new-born Exod. 2.6 Compare with this Psal 58.3 The wicked are estranged from the womb they go astray as soon as they be born speaking lyes The sin of all begins then the sin of bad men still remains no change is wrought in them nor amendment seen but a progresse in evil Psal 51.5 Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me The cavils of old Anabaptists to take off the force of this text are vain That by iniquity here is not meant sin but sorrow which for sin came upon women in child-bearing and that by sin in the later part of the verse is meant the height of lust in Davids parents Let any man look into the context and see whether it will bear any such glosse David is there upon a serious humiliation of his soul for sin and aggravating it in the circumstances of it and how his mothers sharpe throwes in travel or either of his parents height of lust can add any thing at all to aggravate his guilt or increase his sorrow none can understand he presently prayes that this may be cleansed and taken away which can be understood of neither of those particulars which are in the objection This pollution by birth sin abundantly appears in reason Arguments evincing it 1. By the necessity of regeneration or new-birth in all those that enter into the Kingdom of heaven As the Apostle saith of Covenants If the first had been faultlesse there had been no need of a second Heb. 8.7 so we may say of births there is a necessity of a second therefore there was a fault in the first take away this birth-sin or original pollution and then you destroy regeneration If all be as it should be in our former birth then there needs not any other 2. By the Lord Christs Incarnation in order to the work of Redemption taking mans nature he began as man begins in sin even with infancy he dyed in our nature for all of all sorts conditions and ages infants partake of the fruit of his death and were upon that account admitted as his by Circumcision and are in Baptisme and are therefore under the defilement of sin 3. By the stroke or judgement unto which infants are subject being lyable to sicknesse taken away by death subject to miseries of all kinds sin goes before as the cause where these follow as effects Rom. 5.12 As by one man sin entered into the
well pleased in their bearing up and holding opposition against it These walk up to their Covenant-vow made in Baptisme and come every way fitted for the Lords Table In application of themselves to the one and looking back to the other they find all manner of encouragements and no cause of fears or terrours Every promise made to the believing sincere upright perfect obedient is theirs These may sit down at the Lords Table with all alacrity having a work upon their spirits to abide for ever When they are taken hence they shall change their place but not their company and fellowship Their humbling of their soules under weaknesses plainly speaks their pressing after further strength Their hatred of sin speaks their love of Christ Their resistance of sin their care to walk with Christâ— Of these Christ sayes Thou art all fair my beloved there is no spot in thee Cant. 4.7 that is universally fair they are those that have respect to all Gods Commandments And these whilest such and as such come not within the compasse either of failing in or forfeiture of their Covenant Others are sins above infirmity and unavoidable weaknesses and these are either meer breaches in or violations of our Covenant with God or else such breaches that are also forfeitures and those I call meer breaches or violations of this kind how foul soever that are short of forfeitures such as was Davids uncleannesse and blood Solomons Idolatry Hezekiahs pride Jonas his flight to Tarshish Jobs passion Peters denyal of Christ and whatsoever other sins that may stand parallell with these whether of omission or commission These are sins above infirmities towards presumption at least much of will and consent of heart is in them these are outbreaches from God and violations made upon our Covenant entred with him notwithstanding they be not with full consent of heart and afterwards broken off by repentance And concerning these I shall first lay down severall Positions and then apply all to our present purpose Positions holding forth the danger of notable sins in regenerate persons 1. Though these sins thus acted do not take away all title to the Kingdome of heaven yet they cloud and obscure the evidence and assurance of it I know not how this can be made up to the soul otherwise then by a practical syllogisme inquiring as before into the answer of the conscience to Covenant-engagements He that believes and repents shall be saved is the bottome on which the whole edifice of assurance must stand and how the soul under so sad a witnesse that conscience in this case is ready to give can return answer I believe I repent I yield sincere obedience I cannot understand Yea Conscience in this plight will presently syllogize on the opposite hand No Whoremonger Idolater Murderer Drunkard hath title to the Kingdome of heaven This is a Gospel-Proposition and whatsoever other of like nature that conscience can assume and how far this is from yielding matter of assurance let any judge Neither let election here be objected seeing this is no bottome on which assurance can be built further than we find clear evidence of the fruits of it Those unclean Corinthians reckoned up in that List 1 Cor. 6.9 10. had no assurance of salvation from Election in their unconversion Nor yet can regeneration be objected seeing these are not acts of the regenerate part Unregeneration then bearing dominion and exercising present power evidence is clouded When Hezekiah was left to himself in the matter of the King of Babylon he was not raised above himself in the beatifical vision They that will keep up assurance must keep off from sins Position 2 2. Sin of this nature in a regenerate man brings an inaptitude on the soul in the present state to enter into glory Heaven is a place of greater purity then for a man to step out of Murder and Adultery into it In case a well-ordered discipline will not suffer such without censure in the Congregation much lesse can we think him fit in that state for heaven I wonder how those that pretend at least to keep up Church-Government to that height that none that is impure may be suffered among them can yet in their doctrine set open the gates of heaven for to receive them Is the visible Church on earth in a more narrow latitude then the state of blisse or may we without danger pervert Christs speech and say Few are called but many chosen If Miriam upon sin was not fit for the Camp for seven dayes Numb 12.14 much lesse are these immediately upon the acting of like enormities fit for glory If any think that the merit of Christ steps in and keeps from hell yet doubtlesse the Spirit of Christ hath not in present made them meet or glory Some say What if David had dy'd after his adultery before his recovery what then had been his case He was a child of God and could a child of God have perished And I demand What if Paul had dyed in his persecution when he was exceedingly mad against Christianity He was elected and could a chosen vessel of God have been damned He that can reconcile one of these may be able easily to reconcile them both An Elect person cannot be damned and an enemy of Christ cannot be saved A Child of God cannot dye and a Murderer and Adulterer cannot live We find therefore that Paul did not dye in his Persecution he that chose him to life chose him also to the acknowledgment of the truth David did not dye in his Adultery He that had adopted him for glory wrought him to repentance for remission of sins The salvation if both of them was doubtful respective to their estates now mentioned in case we look onely at the men being both in a plain road towards perdition but the damnation of either of them was impossible if we look at the election and purpose of God Gods Election carries on undoubted and infallible effects through doubtful and contingent means z Omnis actus à duobus dependens quorum unum est necessarium alterum veto contingens licet habet necessitatem ex parte necessarii habet tamen contingentiam ex parte contingentis Ordo praedestinationis certus est et tamen voluntas effectum suum producit non nisi contingenter Praedestinatus potest perire si consideratur ipsius potentia non potest si consideratur ordo quem habet ad Deum praedestinantem Refeâ—t Davenan epist ad Dr. Ward Every action saith Gandavensis depending upon two agents whereof the one is necessary and the other contingent though it be necessary respective to the necessary agent yet it is contingent and doubtfull on the part of the contingent agent Quodl 4. q. 18. The order and way of predestination saith Aquinas is certain and yet the will of man produces its effects no otherwayes than in a contingent manner An elect man may perish if we consider his own power he cannot
to tell him that the Religion of the Calvinists was most near to that of Mahomet And having ended his request the said Bashaw answered I see that you Calvinists and we are like to be shortly one Save only that leaving the drinking of water to us you willl keep your selves to wine and be drunk with it Charges of this nature Lutherans and Calvinists were wont still to hear but divine providence through grace hath so ordered that these Calumnies as with a beam of the Sun have been dispelled The holy lives of those that appeared for this doctrine hath been an abundant reall comfutation Not to look beyond the seas where we might be furnished with severall instances let Jewel Grindall Pilkington Raynolds Fulk Whitaker Perkins Fox Greenewood Dod Hilderson Pemble Ball and many others with their Followers witnesse In so much that by degrees shame hath caused them to forbear this Language And as for those who of latter times have receded from this doctrine of this supposed danger as Mountague and his followers as may be seen in his Gagg and Appeal whether their lives and zeal for the Gospel did at all outstrip those already mentioned whose supposed errors in doctrine they went about to correct I leave to all of impartiall judgement to witness How great a trouble is it then to have this by a man of your name and reputation now revived For that experience of yours of which we have already heard and you further enlarge The assertion that faith in Christ's blood is the only justifying act acquit from danger in your affirming that you never met with the most rebellious wretch except now and then one under terrors but when they have sinn'd their worst they still think to be saved because they believe and what is their believing why they believe that Christ died for them and therefore God will forgive them and they trust for pardon and salvation from Christ's death and Gods mercy To this I answer Though I do not in any other thing appear in competition with you yet here I may say my experience hath been of a longer standing then yours yet I can say it answers not that which you here mention When I have to deal with such that you name if they look out of themselves at all it is usually to Gods mercy He is say they a mercifull God and at what time soever a sinner repenteth from the bottom of his heart he is ready to receive and so relying on Gods mercy they will take their time for their return Which is answered also as is evident in the experience of others Read Practical Treatises and publish'd Sermons and see whether this plea be not commonly spoken to Ordinarily their answer is that their good doings their Prayers and Repentance must save them Few comparatively will have Christ in their mouths till he be put into their heads And if they hit upon faith as sometimes they will they yet know not how to terminate it on Christ's blood It is only a good belief that God will not deal so with them Such a faith the Plain mans path-way to heaven out of much experience of such mens answers doth notably decipher It is a rare thing to meet with one that will argue as you would put it into their mouths viz. He that hath the only justifying act of faith is justified But that have I For I accept of Christ to forgive and justifie me by his blood Therefore I am justified But in case any shall thus reason you say you are not able to answer and I shall not presume to be your teacher But me thinks you might deign to learn of Mr. Gataker and tell such a disputant that it is not every thing that bears the name of faith that is an acceptation of Christ to justification You may acquaint him that there is a true and sincere faith and that there is a false and counterfeit faith and that it is not enough for justification to say that a man hath faith but soundly and sincerely to believe If he say that his faith is not dissembled but sincere put him upon that which Mr. Gataker sayes is Saint James his way of tryall If he will have faith to justifie his person let works then justifie his faith There is life in that faith that takes Christ's blood for justification and that faith that hath life to take hath life also to work Where a receiving or taking faith is there Christ is and where Christ is the soul can do all things through Christ that strengthens So thaâ— if the man be such as you speak his faith is cast at the first sight and evidenced to be no better then counterfeit and is no medium to justification He may talk that Christ is his but it is clear that it is on a crackt title and his faith being no better then you say had he all the Logick in the world here he must be non pluss'd And here I would willingly learn how you will convince such a man of whom you here speak upon your own principles If he shall argue He that hath the onely justifying act of faith is justified but that have I for I take Christ as my Saviour and Soveraign Lord Ergo. Seeing there are many that profess to take Christ for a Lord as well as a Saviour that must never enter into the kingdome of heaven Mat. 7.21 If they do not spit at Christ and defie him they perswade themselves that they serve him A service of Jesus Christ with their own most favourable and easie comment upon it they doubt not will save them And I know no viler persons in the world then those that say that they love and serve Christ with all their heart and that their good works and serving of God must keep them from hell and damnation As I once heard a man stark drunk on a Lords-day profess that fall back fall edge he would never leave serving God whilst he lived These if they may be believed have as good an heart to God as he that is most precise in all the world And if they be wanting in that acuteness of Logick that you before mention they may be wel holpen out of your principles which they may find anon thus to reason He that fals short of the precepts of the Law and requisites in the Gospel may yet be justified and saved if he answers to the conditions of the Gospel-covenant But thus do I although I come not is to the precepts of the Law not to what is required in the Gospel yet I answer to the conditions of it for according to you these come short both of the commands of the Law and the precepts of the Gospell Though they do not all that is commanded them neither in Law nor Gospell yet they hope they do that which will save them They have their faults they confess and who say they is free Few dayes pass over their heads but they say God