be sincere consisting in a real true hearty desire and endeavour to be faithful unto the Lord and through Grace to stand perfect and compleat in all the Will of God Col. 4.12 3. This sincere Obedience doth not satisfie the Justice of God for the least sin nor doth it purchase or merit the least mercy not so much as a Cup of cold Water much less the unconceivably great blessing of Eternal Life and Glory 4. As this Obedience doth not purchase or merit Eternal Life and Glory it self so neither doth it purchase or merit our right to it and God's actual donation of it For it was Christ alone that purchased our right to it by his Obediential Sufferings unto Death for us and in our Justification God by his promise for Christ's sake gives us our right to it and at the end of our days when we leave this world God will actually give Eternal Life and Glory to us for the sake of Christ and by the hand and power of Christ John 17.2 Rom. 6.23 So that 5ly Since our sincere Obedience neither merits nor gives us right unto nor yet actually gives us possession of Eternal Life and Glory it remains that it must be the means to be used and condition to be performed on our part that God for Christ's sake according to his promise may continue our right to and may give us possession of Eternal Life and Glory Now this we prove first by plain Scripture First Argument from Scripture for we find in Holy Scripture that God requires our Obedience as aforesaid for obtaining the promised Benefit of Eternal Life and Glory so as to suspend our obtaining of Eternal Glory in his Heavenly Kingdom on our performing of sincere obedience unto him and continuing therein to the end 1. Here is to be proved first That sincere obedience is required of us and for that see Mat. 11.29 30. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for my yoke is easie and my burden is light Mat. 12.50 Whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in Heaven the same is my Brother and Sister and Mother Mat. 28.20 Teach them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and Lo I am with you always even unto the end of the World Luke 6.46 Why call ye me Lord Lord and do not the thing which I say See also John 13.34 and 14. v. 15 21 23 24. and 15. v. 10 14. Rom. 6.12 13. and 8. v. 12 13. and 12. v. 1 2. 1 Cor. 15.58 Eph. 5. v. 1 2 3 4 15 16. 1. Thess 4. v. 1 2 3 4 c. Tit. 2.12 Heb. 6.11 12. and 12. v. 1. and 13. v. 1 5. Jam. 1. v. 4 5 19 20 21 22 27. and 2. v. 12. and 3.13 1 Pet. 13 14 15 16 17. and 2. v. 1 2 11 12. and 3. v. 8 9 10 11 12. and 5. v. 2 5 6 7 8 9. 2 Pet. 3.11.17 18. 1 John 2.4 5 6. and 3.18 and 2 John v. 8 9. Jude v. 20 21. Rev. 2.5 Rev. 14.6 7 12. Secondly It is to be proved that God hath suspended our obtaining of Eternal Glory in his Heavenly Kingdom on our performing of sincere Obedience unto him and continuing therein to the end And to prove this there needs no more but to demonstrate from Scripture that if we be obedient unto the Lord as is said we shall obtain the possession of Eternal Glory in Heaven but if we be not so obedient we shall not obtain it Now both these are so infallibly certain and evident that really it is a shame that we should be put to prove them unto Men that own themselves to be Christians For 1. That none shall obtain the possession of Eternal Glory in Heaven but penitent obedient persevering Believers is it not as clear as the Sun from these Passages of Holy VVrit Not every one that saith unto me Lord Matth. 7.21 Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven 26 27. Compare this with the following Verses and you will see that our Saviour himself hath declared that Man to be a Fool that doth not do his Commandments and yet hopes that so living and dying he shall be saved by him from the Flood of God's Wrath and Vengeance Of all such disobedient Rebels the Lord Christ will say Those mine enemies who would not that I should reign over them Luke 19.27 bring hither and slay them before me And Blessed Paul assures us that when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels 2 Thess 1.7 8. he himself will in flaming fire take vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the Gospel St. Peter asks the Question 1 Pet. 4.17 What shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel And St. Paul answers it in the place now cited that Christ himself will take vengeance of them in flaming fire and they shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power The same Apostle saies again in another place The Just shall live by faith but if any man draw back Heb. 10.38 my soul shall have no pleasure in him The Words Any man are not in the Original and therefore they are Printed in a different Character It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If he draw back if the Just Man that lives by Faith if he draw back if he Apostatize the Lords Soul will have no pleasure in him that is the Lord will abhor him unto perdition As appears by the Context This passage is parallel to that of Ezekiel when or chap. 18.26 if a righteous man turneth away from his righteousness and committeth iniquity and dieth in them for his iniquity that he hath done shall he dye And if any man should go about to perswade people to believe that they may be saved though they dye in such sins without Repentance Blessed and Holy Paul by the Spirit of the Lord hath cautioned us all against such as Deceivers saying as it is written Ephes 5.6 Let no man deceive you with vain words for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience Heb. 12.14 And assures us that without holiness no man shall see the Lord. And 2. On the other hand is it not as clear that all persevering penitent obedient Believers shall certainly obtain the possession of Eternal Glory in Heaven through the Infinite Mercy of God and Merits of Christ For doth not our Lord himself say Verily verily if a man keep my saying Joh. 8.51 he shall never see death That is the second and eternal death And as for bodily death he shall at the last day be saved and delivered from that also For as it is written John 5.28 29. Then they that have done good shall come forth of their graves unto the resurrection of
a certain order and also that he doth orderly dispense them unto his People according to his Promiseâ— But we utterly deny that God's Order of Grace doth hinder one thing in that order from being the condition of another and on the contrary we affirm that it rather makes one thing to be the condition of another And that for this Renson because the Order of Grace which the Brethren speak of either 1. It is an Order in the Promise of Justification and Pardon of which alone our Question now is to wit in the promise if you sinceroly believe with a Faith working by love you shall be justified and pardoned through Christ Or 2. It is an order out of the promise but in God's will with respect to the promise If the first that is if it be an order of Gracâ— in the promise then it is plainly a Conditional order of Grace for the promise is conditional as we have proved and the gracious order of it is this That whoever performs the Condition of it that is believes sincerely with a Faith working by Love shall have the blessing and benefit of it shall be justified and pardoned Thus the order of Grace in the Conditional Promise being plainly a Conditional order we are but just where we were for the order of Grace in the promise being but conditional it doth not help us one jot to avoid the conditionality of the Promise and Covenant 2. But if they choose to say that it is the second to wit that it is an order of Grace out of the promise but in God's will with respect to the promise and so it is an absolute order of God's will that if People sincerely believe they shall be justified and pardoned We heartily grant that it is so there is such a gracious Order or Ordination in and of God's Will and it is plainly revealed also in his Written Gospel But what then This really makes against our Brethren and for us And that because this absolute order of Grace in God's will concerning the Promise is so far from overthrowing that on the contrary it most strongly establisheth and confirmeth the conditionality of the Promise For is not this a good strong unavoidable consequence God of his free grace hath absolutely ordained that Faith shall be a condition of the Covenant and that this shall be a true conditional Gospel-promise If People sincerely believe in Christ they shall be justified and pardoned Therefore it is a true conditional Gospel-promise and cannot be otherwise All this is to us very certain and evident and therefore must conclude that we have proved by reason agreeable to Scripture that the Covenant of Grace is conditional as aforesaid And without going upon this Ground and Principle we do not conceive how Ministers can preach the Gospel honestly and faithfully to all sorts of Men they meet with as by our Commission we are obliged to do Mark 16.15 16. Rom. 10.8 9. Reason 2. The Covenant promise of Eternal Life and Glory is Conditional therefore the Covenant of Grace is Conditional with respect to its subsequent blessings and benefits The Consequence is self-evident because Eternal Life and Glory is one of the principal subsequent blessings of the Covenant of Grace We prove the antecedent against Mr. Marshalls Book and against our Authour who highly approves and commends it If sincere Obedience to the Lord be the Condition of the Covenant promise of Eternal Life and Glory then the Covenant Promise of Eternal Life and Glory is really conditional But so it is that sincere Obedience to the Lord is the Condition of the Covenant-Promise of Eternal Life and Glory Therefore that Covenant-Promise is Conditional The consequence of the first Proposition is self-evident We prove the second Proposition to wit that sincere Obedience to the Lord is the Condition of the Covenant-promise of Eternal Life and Glory Because whatsoever is so required of us as a Duty in order to the obtaining of the Eternal Life and Glory promised that our obtaining thereof is by the promise suspended on our performing that Duty and we are assured by the Lord that if we perform that Duty we shall obtain but if we perform not that Duty we shall not obtain the Eternal Life and Glory promised That is the Condition of the Covenant promise of Eternal Life and Glory it being the very definition and essential Nature of a Gospel-Condition that it be a Duty required as aforesaid But sincere Obedience to the Lord is a Duty so required in order to the obtaining of the Eternal Life and Glory promised as most evidently appears by the many plain Testimonies of God's Word whereby we have already proved sincere Obedience to be a Duty so required Therefore sincere Obedience to the Lord is and must be the Condition of the Covenant Promise of Eternal Life and Glory If our Authour or any for him should say that it is true Sincere Obedience to the Lord's Command of believing is required as aforesaid but sincere obedience to any other Command of the Lord is not necessarily required as aforesaid in order to the obtaining of the promised Blessing of Eternal Life and Glory We reply 1. That if sincere Obedience to the Lord's Command of believing be required as necessary in the way aforesaid to the obtaining of the promised Blessing of Eternal Life and Glory then even according to that Answer the Covenant-promise of Eternal Life and Glory is still conditional and Faith continued and persevered in to the end which is that sincere Obedience to the Lord's Command of believing is the Condition of it For the Definition and Essential Nature of a Gospel-condition agrees to Faith under that Consideration 2. We reply That the sincere Obedience which consists in the formal Elicit Act or Acts of believing is not all the sincere Obedience which is required as aforesaid And we thus prove it If it be false that no sincere Obedience is required as aforesaid but the Act of Faith then it is true that some Obedience is required as aforesaid besides the Act of Faith This proposition is self-evident because no obedience but the Act of Faith and some obedience besides the Act of Faith are manifest contradictories and two contradictories cannot possibly be both true nor both false but one of them must always be true and the other false and it cannot possibly be otherwise This being clear and undeniable we proceed to the next proposition and subsume But it is false That no sincere obedience is required as aforesaid but the Act of Faith For if no sincere Obedience but the Act of Faith be required as aforesaid that is be required as indispensably necessary to obtain the promised blessing of Eternal Life and Glory then it follows by necessary consequence that a Christian our Authour may instance in and apply it to himself or any other as he pleaseth We say it necessarily follows that a Christian if he doth but keep Faith and now and
pleased him This Proposition is self-evident for it is of the very Essence of Free-will in God the First and Freest Agent that in all external temporal things which fall under his Free-will he might have done them or not have done them he might have done them thus as he doth them or he might have done them otherwise than he hath done if he had pleased But antecedently to his free Purpose and Decree the whole ordering of the Covenant of Grace and of its terms and receptive Condition depended upon God's Free-will and Soveraign Pleasure Hence the Gospel is called the Mystery of God's Will and the Revelation of the Gospel unto us is said to be the making known unto us the Mystery of his Will according to his Good Pleasure which he hath purposed in himself Eph. 1.9 Now if the whole Mystery of the Covenant of Grace depended on God's Free-will then the ordaining of this or that to be the receptive Condition of the Covenant depended on his Will also and so antecedently to the free Purpose of his Will there was no natural necessity that Faith alone and no other thing should be the receptive Condition of the Covenant 2. It is not yet past Dispute amongst Divines Whether antecedently to God's free Purpose and Decree to save us by the Satisfaction and Merits of Christ alone he might not have freely purposed and decreed to have pardoned and saved us some other way Amongst our Reformed Divines Calvin Twiss and Rutherford and others were of this Opinion yea even Dr. Owen himself was once of this Opinion though afterwards he changed his mind in that as he did in other things witness what he wrote in his Book called The Death of Death in the Death of Christ Or A Treatise of Redemption c. Book II. Chap. II. Page 57. The Foundation of this whole Assertion seems to me to be false and erroneous viz that God could not have Mercy on Mankind unless satisfaction were made by his Son It is true indeed supposing the Decree Purpose and Constitution of God that so it should be that so he would manifest his Glory by the way of vindicative Justice it was impossible that it should otherwise be for with the Lord there is neither change nor shadow of turning Lam. 1.18 1 Sam. 15.29 But to assert positively that absolutely and antecedently to his Constitution he could not have done it is to me an unwritten Tradition the Scripture affirming no such thing neither can it be gathered from thence in any good consequence if any one shall deny this we will try what the Lord will enable us to say unto it and in the mean time rest contented in that of Augustin though other ways of saving us were not wanting to his Infinite Wisdome yet certainly the way which he did proceed in was the most convenient because we find he proceeded therein Thus Dr. Owen in that Book and though he unsaid this again and embraced that Opinion which he then called an unwritten Tradition yet there are other Learned Divines of that same Opinion at this Day Mistake us not for we do not say that we are of it but that some are and that the matter is not yet past dispute And the Consequence which we infer is undeniable that if God antecedently to his Constitution and Degree could have pardoned and saved us some other way without the Satisfaction and Merits of Christ then surely he could have offered and promised us Pardon and Salwation without the Condition of Faith in Christ and upon what other Condition he pleafed 3. Though we grant that upon supposition that God would pardon our Sins and save our Souls it did not consist with the Glory of his Justice and Honour of his Law and Government to do it without Satisfaction for the Offence we had given and the Dishonour we had done him by our Sins and therefore it was necessary not onely from the free purpose of God's Will but also from the nature of his vindictive governing Justice that Christ by suffering in our stead should satisfie his Justice for our Sins yet doth it not follow at all by any natural necessity arising immediately from the essential nature of Faith without any appointment and constitution of God's Will that Faith because it is of a receptive nature and nothing else shall be the Condition upon the performance whereof Christ with his Satisfaction and Merits shall be not only offered but given unto us For as Dr. Owen saith very well in his little Book of the Trinity and Satisfaction of Christ pag. 208. The satisfaction made for Sin being not made by the Sinner himself there must of necessity be a Rule Order and Law-constitution how the Sinner may come to be interested in it and made Partaker of it for the consequent of the freedome of one by the suffering of another is not matural or necessary but must proceed and arise from a Law-constitution Compact and Agreement Now the way constituted and appointed is that of Faith or believing as explained in the Scripture Thus Dr. Owen To which we add that the Scripture explains it thus Gal. 5.6 That in Christ Jesus neither Circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth any thing but Faith which worketh by Love From this Passage of Dr. Owen and the Argument contained in it it is most evident that it doth not arise immediately and necessarily from the receptive nature of Faith that it is the Condition of the Offer and Promise but from the Will of God constituting and appointing it to be the Condition Faith's receptive apprehensive nature is but a remote Reason of its Conditionality and doth but make it fit to be the Condition if God please to make it so And it is God's Will and Law-constitution onely which is the nearest and formal Reason of its Conditionality and which doth immediately and formally make it to be the Condition of the Covenant Joh. 6.40 This is no new notion of ours we find it long agoe before many of us were born Walaeus Doctor and Professor of Divinity in Leyden in his Enchiridion Religionis Reformatae pag. 112. said that Fides nos Justificat sed relativè considerata quia haec est Voluntas Dei ut qui credit in Christum ejus meriti fiat Particeps Faith Justifies us but relatively considered because this is the Will of God that he who believes in Christ shall be made Partaker of his Merit And not onely Mr. Baxter but Cartwright also pag. 179. of his Book against Baxter agrees with him in acknowledging this Truth his Words are these The Reason why Christs Righteousness cannot Justifie except it be apprehended by Faith is this That God doth require Faith of us Faith I say apprehending Christ and his Righteousness believe in the Lord Jesus Christ that so we may be Justified Gods Will is properly the cause yet there is a congruity in the thing it self an aptitude you grant in the nature of Faith It is of an
Souls whose lot it is to be led into the Ditch by such blind guides But good Sir how doth it appear that our answer is wrong and yours only is right Why may not both be right and why must not both be right and both concur to make up one entire answer and full advice to a wicked man who under Conviction comes and asks Ministers what he must do to be saved If you had behaved your self in this matter like a fair adversary or an honest Man you had given in our answer fully without curtailing it for you know in your conscience that in such a case our full Answer and Advice to a Man is that he must do both he must both believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and repent of mourn for and turn from his Sins The Conscience of Truth extorted this Confession from you in your appendix page 41. as we observed before That your hottest opposers would freely tell such a man that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin Why did not you then if you be an honest man give in our full answer and refute it if you thought it was wrong If you say that Paul did not give such a full answer and advice to the Goaler Acts 16.30 31. but bid him believe only in the Lord Jesus Christ and thereupon promised him Salvation without advising him to repent and turn from his sins We answer It is true Paul bid the Goaler believe in the Lord Jesus Christ but it is utterly false that he bid him only believe there is no such exclusive particle in the Text and though the Sacred Historian Luke mention not expresly that Paul bid the Goaler repent yet it doth by no means follow that because Luke doth not say expresly that Paul bid the Goaler repent therefore he did not bid him for it was never Lukes intention to set down in his History every Word or Sentence which Paul at any time spoke to the People Nay in the very next verse Acts 16.32 Luke says that Paul and Silas spake unto the Goaler the Word of the Lord and to all that were in his house but he doth not tell us particularly what that Word was Nor doth our Authour know nor can he with a good Conscience say that it was not an Advice and Exhortation to repent to mourn for his known sins and to leave and loath them assuring him that thereupon God would have mercy on him and pardon his sins and save his Soul for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake If our Authour say that as he cannot be sure of the negative that he did not so we cannot be sure of the affirmative that he did preach the necessity of Repentance to the Goaler We answer that we can prove and do thus prove the affirmative 1. Because it was a part of the Apostles Commission to preach Repentance unto all People as well as Faith in Christ for which see Mark 16.15 16. compared with Luke 24.47 48. But Paul was an Apostle therefore he acted according to the Apostolical Commission 2. Because Paul baptized or caused the Goaler to be baptized and it was necessary that Repentance should be preached to him and professed by him before such an one as he were admitted to Baptisme 3. Because Paul himself tells us as his words are recorded by the Sacred Historian Luke that it was his common Practice to preach Repentance as well as Faith unto all those whom he Converted or intended and endeavoured to convert unto the Christian Religion Thus did he at Lystra Acts 14.15 He exhorted the people to turn from their vanities unto the living God which made Heaven and Earth c. Thus also at Athens Acts 17.30 31. He commanded them all from the Lord to repent and perswaded them so to do by a most powerful Motive and Argument taken from God's being Rector and Judge of the World and from his having appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by Jesus Christ and will then justifie or condemn reward or punish every man according to their works and this he assured them of by an Argument taken from Christ's Resurrection from the dead Again in Acts 20.21 he tells us That Repentance towards God and Faith towards our Lord Jesus were the sum and substance of his Sermons these were the two subjects that he â—ordinarily preached upon both to Jews and Gentiles And lastly in Acts 26.20 22 23. we read that he declared openly to Ring Agrippa that from the first time he was miraculously called to be an Apostle his business had been to preach Repentance and Faith From all which we conclude that we have good reason to believe and assert the affirmative that Paul did not preach Faith only but that he preached Repentance also to the Goaler and withal we challenge and defie our Authour to prove the Negative that Paul preached not the necessity of Repentance but of Faith only in order to his Salvation But saith our Authour page 15. No wit or art of man will ever find a crack or flaw in or devise another or a better answer than Pauls to the Goaler believe in the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved We Reply It is far from the thoughts of any of us or of any good Christian to find fault with or to go about to mend Paul's Answer to the Goalers question all that we say is that his whole answer is not set down expresly by the Historian Luke and we have proved it A truer Answer cannot indeed be given than it was but a fuller may be given and we have proved it was given by Paul though not particularly expressed by Luke This may satisfie any reasonable Man for we are sure it cannot be confuted Yet for the farther satisfaction of all Men if possible we will here transeribe and set down a passage of Mr. Venning a famous Congregational Minister once in this City It is in his Sermon called the way to true happyness preached before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen January 28. 1654 5 on Matth. 7.21 page 10 11 12. I ground it further saith he on this Rule which is an undeniable one and for not attending whereunto we have had so many needless groundless and unprofitable disputes in the World The Rule is this That the Scripture doth often yea very usually put particular Duties for all Religion and therefore annexeth Salvation to distinct Graces Sometimes it is he that believeth shall be saved Elsewhere he that calleth upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved Here it is He that doth the will of God Now all these and the like are complex and comprehensive propositions and contain more in them than they make shew of for God speaks much in a little Acts and Duties of Religion being as Moralists speak of their Vertues inter se connexae linked together in a Golden Chain Religion is not this or that piece but the whole which is usually expressed in a word or
to the end And then he proceeds saying This is the way Beloved wherein we find Jesus Christ our saving health the High Priest of our Offerings the Guardian and Helper of our weakness Lastly In Page 102 105 106. He that hath Love in Christ let him keep the Commandments of Christ c. Blessed are we Beloved if we have done the Commandments of God in the Concord of Love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that through Love our Sins may be forgiven us For it is written Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered Blessed is the Man unto whom the Lord imputeth not sin neither is there guile in his mouth This Blessedness hath been unto those who were chosen by God through Jesus Christ our Lord to whom be Glory for ever and ever Amen Thus Clement who was Paul's Fellow-Labourer Phil. 4.3 and who may well be presumed to know his Mind as to these Matters and we see evidently by his Words that he held as we do that Faith and Repentance are both antecedently necessary to Justification and pardon of sin and further that sincere Obedience to Christ's Commandments in a course of holy living is indispensably necessary to the obtaining of Eternal Life and Glory in the Everlasting Kingdome of our most Glorious God and Saviour But some may possibly say what did Clement mean by writing as he doth that our sins are forgiven us through Love Is that an Orthodox Expression We Answer What did our Saviour mean by saying Mat. 6.14 15. If ye forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you but if ye forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Father forgive your trespasses And again what did our Saviour mean by saying Mark 11.25 When ye stand praying forgive if ye have ought against any that your Father also which is in Heaven may forgive you your trespasses Were these Orthodox Expressions If they were Orthodox as doubtless they were and it were Blasphemy to think otherwise then so is the expression of Clement Orthodox for the Expressions are alike upon the matter and the meaning is the same Clement by saying that our sins are forgiven through Love meant no more but that our forgiving our Neighbour his Trespasses against us which is an Act of Love is a Means of God's appointment whereby we obtain the forgiveness of our sins from God through Christ We do not doubt but this was Clement's meaning and we are sure it was our Saviours When he said Mark 11.25 If ye have ought against any forgive that your Father also which is in Heaven may forgive you Our blessed Lord who is the faithful Witness makes God's forgiving us to be the End and our forgiving our Neighbour to be a Means indispensably necessary to be used by us for obtaining that End So that we obtain the forgiveness of our sins through Love in a very sound and Orthodox sense even as sound and Orthodox as Christ's Gospel is In the second place we bring the foresaid Testimony of Origen to prove that the real change which is wrought in the Soul by a sincere Repentance is antecedently necessary to dispose and prepare us for obtaining the promised Blessing of Pardon of sin which is an essential part of Justification It is in his Third Book against Celsus of the Cambridge Edition pag. 154. The Passage in Origen begins thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Which we will give the sense of in English for the use of our Authour After these things viz. which had been objected and answered before he Celsus takes upon him to charge us with that which is not granted by the more rational judicious Believers though perhaps it may be thought so by some foolish or ignorant Christians that as some Men are overcome by and under the Dominion of a tender compassionate natural frame and temper of Mind so God being overcome by and under the power of a merciful compassionate nature towards them that are in misery he relieves and pardons miserable Men though they be wicked if withal they be of a pitiful merciful nature◠But though they be otherwise good men yet God rejects them if they be not of such a pitiful compassionate Nature Which is most unjust For according to our Faith God doth not relieve so as to pardon and receive into his Favour any wicked Man unless he be first turned unto virtue that is converted like as he doth not reject any that is now become a good Man But neither doth he relieve or shew mercy unto any Man of a merciful Nature meerly because he is of a merciful Nature taking the word Mercy in the sense that the vulgar or common People use it in but those that greatly condemn themselves for their sins so as thereupon to mourn and bewail themselves as lost and undone by reason of the evil they have done and withal give evidence of a signal change such as becomes true Penitents God grants to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Grace of Repentance that is the Gracious Fruit and Benefit promised to Repentance even to them who have changed their most wicked course For unto such is given as by Act of Oblivion a pardon of their past sins through the vertue that comes to dwell in their Souls and casts out the vice and corruption that possessed them before Or if at first they attain not unto a confirmed habit of vertue yet there is a notable change in the Soul which proceeds so far as that it is sufficient according to the proportion of it to purge out and take away the great abundance of wickedness that was in it before so as it can hardly ever get into the Soul again Thus far Origen In which Testimony of his there are several things worthy of our observation 1. Origen did not write this meerly as a private Christian or Teacher of the Church declaring what was his own private Opinion but as the great and famous Apologist in his time for Christ the Christian Church and for the Truth of the Christian Religion against the Heatheus particularly against Celsus a very learned Heathen who had written learnedly and spitefully against Christ and against Christians and the Christian Religion 2. Whereas Celsus had charged Christians with an absurd impious Opinion as that they believed That God pardoneth wicked Mens sins and receives them into his Favour if they be of a good Nature of a soft pitiful compassionate Temper before there pass a real change upon them before they repent before they turn from sin and return unto God in Heart and Affection Origen deuyed the Charge and affirmed that no rational intelligent judicious Christian believed any such thing that if any Christian did at all believe that God justified and pardoned a wicked Man before he had repented of his sins and returned unto the Lord they must be some foolish simple ignorant People and yet he would not absolutely grant to his Adversary that there
Scripture We Answer by denying the Consequence of the first Proposition as false for it doth not follow that we should warn People not to believe on Christ too soon And we have nothing Offered to prove that such an absurdity follows from our Doctrine but this mans bare Word which we have found to be so often false in matter of Fact that we can give no credit to it in other things And he is so unhappy here and elsewhere throughout his Letter that he makes his own Tongue or Pen to fall upon himself for he confesses that it is no good Argument that if People cannot be truly Holy before the Tree be changed Matth. 12.33 34 35. and before they have a new Heart Ezek. 36.26 27. as he grants they cannot then Ministers should warn People not to be Holy too soon For to give them any such warning he grants to be absur'd Let him then consider Let. p. 11 12. whether the same or the like Answer he can give to this Argument which would prove that Ministers should warn People not to be Holy too soon may not be given to the other silly Argument whereby he would prove that upon our Principle Ministers should warn People not to believe on Christ too soon for it is as certainly true that People cannot actually believe on Christ with a saving justifying Faith before the Tree be changed and the Heart be in part renewed as it is that they cannot be truely Holy before the Tree be changed and the Heart be renewed When we are to deal with Unbelievers our Lord hath given us other Work to do than to warn them not to believe too soon and let our Author try when he pleases he will find enough to do to convince them that their present Indisposition and disability to believe doth not free them from the Obligation which the Lord by his Word hath laid upon them to believe and to direct them unto the right means in the use whereof they may obtain from the Lord both the necessary Disposition unto Faith and also the Principle and Act of Faith it self Our Author we perceive has been at this Work and before we have done with him we shall see what a rare Specimen of his skill this way he hath given the World Fourthly But he farther Objects We hold forth that God justifieth the Ungodly Pag. 25. Rom. 4.5 Neither by making him Godly before he justifie him nor leaving him Ungodly after be hath justified him but that the same Grace that justifies him doth immediately sanctifie him We Answer this is the Text that our Antinomians much insist upon and think it sufficient to make all Men Antinomians And we are glad to find that it hath not that full effect upon him for tho he be one with them with respect to any Holy change in Order before Justification and denies it as they do yet he separates himself from them with respect to what follows after Justification and saith that we are sanctified immediately after Justification and so he joins himself to us now there may be good worldly Policy in this to hold with both sides as much as he can But if he do not agree with himself what ground can others have to trust him that ever he will heartily agree with them and that he doth not agree with himself we think is apparent from what he writes Pag. 16. A Man saith he is to believe that he may be justified Gal. 2.16 Again Pag. 32. No Words or Warnings repeated nor plainest Instructions can beat into Mens Heads and Hearts that the first coming to Christ by Faith or Believing on him is not a Believing we shall be saved by him but a Believing on him that we may be saved by him And again Pag. 7. The direct Act is properly justifying saving Faith by which the lost Sinner comes to Christ and relies upon him for Salvation Yet when we do press Sinners to come to Christ by a direct Act of Faith consisting in an humble reliance on him for Mercy and Pardon they will understand us whether we will or not of a reflex Act of Faith by which a Man knows and believes that his Sins are pardoned and that Christ is his when they might easily know that we mean no such thing These three Passages show clearly that he holds saving Faith to be both before Justification and before Assurance of Justification We confess that we do very well understand this to be the meaning of these Words now quoted ouâ— of his Letter for we think they are not capable of any other sense but though we understand the Words of the Letter yet we do not understand the Author of them and we much doubt whether he understands himself and that because he immediately adds Page 7. that Mr. Marshal in his excellent Book lately Published hath largely opened this and the true Controversie of this Day And Pag. 35. Marshals Book saith he is a deep practical well jointed Discourse and if it be singly used I look upon it as one of the most useful Books the World hath seen for many Years I fear not but it will stand firm as a Rock against all Opposition and will prove good Seed and Food and Light and Life to many hereafter Who that reads this can doubt but that our Author has read Marshaâ—s Book and that he approves it and believes every thing at least that is material in it and yet there is one thing very material in it and it is one of the main joints in it That justifying Faith is a Believing that we are now justified and shall be Eternally saved and that the Assurance of this that we are now justified and shall be saved is essential to the direct Act of Faith This Marshal with all his might strives to prove and it seems he hath done it to the Conviction of our Author who believes that that Opinion can never be disproved again Yea he seems so Confident of the Truth of Marshals Opinion that he spares not to reflect on the Westminster Assembly of Divines for denying it as they do in their Confession of Faith Chap. 18. Art 3. In these Words This infallible Assurance doth not so belong to the Essence of Faith but that a true Believer may mait long and conflict with many difficulties before he be partaker of it Thus the Assombly But doth he reflect on them for this why if he doth not let him tell us what he means by these following Words Was not the Holiness of the first Protestants eminent and shining Let. p. 22. and yet they generally put Assurance in the Definition of their Faith We cannot say that Gospel Holiness has prospered much by the Correction or Mitigation of that harsh-like Definition If these Words of his whatever might be his Intention do not reflect upon the Assembly we do not understand plain English and moreover we cannot but think also that they imply his owning of Marshals
Definition of Faith as not being really harsh but only harsh-like though he puts Assurance into it as being essential to Faith in its direct Act. So that by comparing one Passage of his Letter with another we find that he believes with Marshal That true Faith in Christ is a Believing at first that we are justified And he believes with us that that is not true but that it is a believing only at first that we may be justified Again he believes with Marshal that justifying Faith in its first direct Act is a Believing that we shall be assuredly saved by Christ And he believes with us that justifying Faith in its first direct Act is no such thing it is not a believing that we shall be saved by Christ but it is a believing that we may be saved by Christ Further he believes with Marshal that Assurance that our Sins are forgiven and that our Souls shall be saved is essential to the first direct Act of justifying Faith And he believes with us that it is quite otherwise and that we do not get such Assurance by the first direct Act of Faith but by its reftex Acts which follow after the direct And then for the Antinomians he believes with them that before Justification there is no real change wrought in the Soul from Ungodliness to Godliness in any Kind or Degree because the Apostle Paul saith in Rom. 4.5 That God justifies the Ungodly And yet he believes with us that before Justification there is a real change wrought in the Soul from Unbelief to Faith in Christ because the same Apostle saith in Gal. 2.16 That we believe in Christ that we may be justified And he cannot deny but that a real change from unbelief to Faith in Christ is a change and a real change too from Ungodliness to Godliness in some kind or degree because he himself holds unbelief to be the chiefest part of Ungodliness and Faith in Christ to be the chiefest part of Godliness witness his own Words Pag. 15 16. That believing on the Lord Jesus for Salvation is more pleasing to God than all obedience to his Law and that unbelief is the most provoking to God and the most damning to Men of all Sins If our Author believe this then by necessary Consequence he believes that unbelief is the chiefest part of ungodliness and that Faith is the chiefest part of Godliness and that a real change from unbelief to Faith in Christ is a real change from Ungodliness to Godliness in some kind and degree The import and issue of this is that our Author believes both parts of a Contradiction With the Antinomians he believes that before Justification there is no real change from Ungodliness to Godliness in any kind or degree And with us he believes that before Justification there is a real change from the Ungodliness of unbelief to the Godliness of Faith because the Sinner through Grace comes off from his Ungodly unbelief that he may believe and he believes that he may be justified and so in order of Nature before he be justified Now since our Author is so strong a Believer that he can believe both parts of a Contradiction why may not we think that as he believes that we preach a new Pelagian Arminian Gospel so he may believe at the same time that we do not preach a new Pelagian Arminian Gospel but the old Everlasting Gospel of Christ He believes in his Letter that we do preach a new Gospel and for ought we know to the contrary he may at the same time believe in his Conscience that we do not preach a new Gospel for his Letter and his Conscience are two different things that may not have much Communion one with another yea in this matter they may be at Hostile Enmity the Letter may be against his Conscience and his Conscience against the Letter But will not the Apostle Paul justifie him in Believing Contradictions since he says in Gal. 2.16 That Men believe in Christ that they may be justified and consequently that Faith is before Justification But in Rom. 4.5 He says that God justifies the Ungodly and by that it seems that Faith is after Justification We Answer far be it from any that fear the Lord to charge the Apostle with contradicting himself or with giving any ground to believe Contradictions for thus he writes to the Corimbians 2 Cor. 1.18 As God is true our Word toward you was not Yea and Nay That is it did not contradict it self And as he did not contradict himself in Preaching and Writing to the Corinthians no more did he do it in Preaching and Writing to the Romans and Galatians We must therefore so understand Rom. 4.5 of which the Question now is as not to make it contradict Gal. 2.16 And that is no difficult matter to do For we may easily conceive that this form of Speech God justifieth the Ungodly is like that of our Saviour Mat. 11.5 The Deaf hear Now no Man is so foolish as to think that the Deaf remaining Deaf did first hear and then immeditely after were cured of their Deasness why then should we be so foolish as to understand the Apostle as if he had said that God justifies men whilest they remain ungodly without any real change wrought in them and that immeditely after he hath justified them he first begins to make them Godly and to sanctifie them We are perswaded it is much more rational to understand the Apostle the quite contrary way to wit that as the Deaf were first in Order of Nature and Causality cured of their Deafness and then they did actually hear so God first Works a Holy change in the Heart of a Sinner and of an ungodly unpenitent Unbeliever makes him a godly penitent Believer and then immediately justifies him by Faith in Christ So that the Sinner whom God justifies he is ungodly Antecedenter fed non Concomitanter that is he was ungodly in the time before he was justified but he is not ungodly either in the instant of Nature before or in the instant of Time when he is justified but on the contrary he is through Grace Godly both before and when he is justified 2dly We Answer that the Man whom God justifies by Faith in Christ is certainly Godly Evangelically both in Order of Nature before he be justified and at the time when be is justified and yet at the same time he may be said to be legally ungodly for understanding this we are to consider that the Man whom God justifies may be compared with and judged by the Law of Works or the Law of Faith if he be compared with and judged by the Law of Works he is found to be in himself an Ungodly Man because he hath not perfectly kept but hath frequently transgressed that Law and so can never be justified but is condemned by it But if he be compared with and judged by the Law of Faith the Evangelical Law the Law of the New
suspicion of Antinomianism which he had brought upon himself But we are really perswaded better things of our Authour though we thus write upon a supposition which we hope he will never admit but rather than admit such a supposition with its necessary consequence he will join with us and say that Luther and Mr. Hamilton meant no more but that evil works do not first make a Man evil because ever since the first Sin of Adam and Eve all meer Men besides them two are evil by Original sin before they commit any Actual Sin Thus much shall suffice to have said of the Occasion and Design of the Letter CHAP. II. Of the Authours Errours in Doctrine against the Purity of our Christian Faith SECTION I. Of his First Errour That there is no New Law of Grace THE First Error against our Christian Faith which we find in the Letter is that there is no new Law of Grace according to which the Lord dispenseth unto his People the Benefits and Blessings of Justification and Eternal Savlation That we do not wrong him in charging him with this erroneous Opinion is evident from his Letter pag. 9 18 29. and pag. 30 31. Where he saith that Justification upon the terms of the new Law of Grace doth not agree with the sound Words of the Reverend Assembly of Divines at Westminster and that the new Law of Grace is a new word but of an old and ill meaning Thus he And this the people must believe upon his bare word without any proof Now to refute this we need do no more but refer them that desire to know who is in the right as to this matter unto Mr. Williams defence of Gospel truth from pag. 18 to 34. where it is sufficiently proved by Scripture by reason grounded on Scripture and by the Testimony of Divines of the Reformed Churches That there is a new Law of Grace that the Gospel is that Law of Grace and that it is a new Law of Grace in the same sense that the Covenant of the Gospel is a new Covenant of Grace This Error then that there is no new Law of Grace being refuted to our hand we might well pass it and proceed to another Yet because the Authour discovers so much ignorance and boldness in what he says to the People upon this point we judge it expedient to insisâ— a little upon it both to instruct and also to rebuke him And because he would make the people believe whether he believe it of us himself God and his own Conscience know that we consider God only as a Rector ruling by a prescribed Law in all his Purposes concerning and Dealings with the Children of Men That he may not go on deceiving and being deceived We declare to the World that we never thought spoke or wrote any such thing as he would fasten upon us that he may the better misrepresent us to the people pag. 9. at the beginning to wit that God is only to be considered under the notion of a Rector and Judge as aforesaid Where by the way we cannot but take notice how honestly he deals by our Reverend Brother Mr. Williams in drawing this inference from a pretended Scheme of his Doctrine Thus saith our Authour they antedate the Last Day and hold forth Christ as a Judge rather than a Saviour Here the World sees what Doctrine he fixes upon Mr. Williams Next Let them turn to pag. 56. of Gospel Truth stated c. and there they will find these express words of Mr. Williams He Christ treats with men as his Subjects whom he will now Rule and hereafter Judge Now cannot Christ be our Saviour but by ceasing to be our Ruler and cannot we be saved by him but by ceasing to be subject to him Where is that Man's Brains who cannot see if he will that these two things do very well consist that Christ is both our Saviour and Ruler at the same time But this only on the by We declare therefore again that we never thought spoke or wrote that God is to be considered only under the notion of a Rector or Judge in all his Purposes concerning and Dealings with the Race of Man-kind On the contrary we believe that First God as an absolute Soveraign Lord of his own most Free and Gracious Will and Pleasure purposed to give and accordingly gave his only begotten Son to be the Redeemer and Saviour of sinful Men but not of fallen Angels Secondly That God as an absolute Soveraign Lord of his own good pleasure and according to the Counsel of his own will did before the foundation of the World choose some and not others of the lapsed and lost Race of Man-kind unto the participation of Special Effectual Victorious Grace and Eternal Glory through Christ Jesus Thirdly That in the first making of the Covenant and enacting of the Law of Grace with us through Christ Jesus God did not act as a Governour Ruling us according to an external Law which he had before made for us but as a Soveraign and gracious Lord who had freely purposed to save us in such a way by Jesus Christ Fourthly That in giving the foresaid Special Effectual Victorious Grace to the Elect rather than to others God doth not act as a Rector or Governour according to a stated Law prescribed to us and known by us but according to the counsel of his own Will and his hidden Purposes and Transactions with Christ concerning us Fifthly But yet in good consistency with what we have said we do firmly believe that God hath enacted and constituted a Law of Grace for bestowing upon us the subsequent Blessings and Benefits of the Covenant such as Justification and Glorification This Law God hath revealed to us in the Scriptures of Truth by this Law he both obliges and encourages us to certain Duties and also by the promises of it obliges himself to Justifie and glorifie us for Christs sake if we perform the Duties prescribed and comply with the Terms injoined It is with respect to those subsequent Blessings and Benefits of the Covenant that we say the Lord deals with us as a Rector and Governour Ruling us by a Law of Grace This Law is expressed in Holy Scripture in several Forms of Words as that See also Ps 103.17 18. Pr. 28.13 Isa 1.16 17 18. 55.7 Jer. 36.3 Acts 2.38 â— 19 16.31 26.18 Heb. 5.9 12.14 Revel 2.10 3.21 22.14 John 8.51 Ho who believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned Mark 16.16 And If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the Dead thou shalt be saved Rom. 10.9 Whosoever believeth in Christ shall receive Remission of Sins Acts 10.43 Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Luke 13.5 This is that which we mean by the Law of Grace and our meaning is so plain that any Man endued with
sometimes two as in Acts 20.20 21 27. compared the Apostle comprehends the whole counsel of God under Repentance and Faith also in that of Solomon Fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole of Man Eccles 12.13 So that if you could suppose a Man to be a Believer and to be a Believer alone it would not save him as the Apostle James saith chap. 2.14 What doth it profit my Brethren though a man say he hath faith and have not works can faith save him No no more than saying be ye warmed will warm any or be ye filled will fill any for Faith without works is dead And what is said of this may be said of the rest so that when the Scripture speaks of Salvation as annexed to any one thing it supposeth that to contain the rest The reason is evident for the Graces of God as saving are not parted There is no believing to Salvation without Repentance nor no Repentance to Salvation without believing there is no calling upon the Name of the Lord will save without departing from iniquity nor can they savingly depart from iniquity that call not on the Name of the Lord. It is not any one thing but things that pertain to the Kingdom of God Acts 1.3 It is not thing but things that accompany or as it may be better read contain Salvation Heb. 6.9 And he that takes one for all without all as our wise Authour doth will find nothing at all A part is no portion The great fallacy with which Satan deludes many men is that which Logicians call à benè compositis ad malè divisa When he gets them to take Religion into pieces and then take one piece for Religion One cries up God another cries up Christ another Faith another Love another good Works but what is God without Christ or Christ without Faith or Faith without Love or Love without Works But now take God in Christ by Faith which worketh by Love to the keeping of the Commandments of God and this is pure Religion It is the whole that is the whole of Man Yet again though I have spoken thus much to it let me make it clearer than a demonstration That one is put for all and as containing all by comparing these places of Scripture In 1 Cor. 7.19 You read that circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing but keeping the Commandments of God What 's that Why that is all in all In Gal. 5.6 It is neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but Faith which worketh by Love That 's that which availeth or is all in all Yet in Gal. 6.15 he saith neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new Creature That 's all in all And yet for all this as if all this were nothing he tells us in Col. 3.11 That Christ is all and in all cashiering both circumcision and uncircumcision as formerly Now my beloved if you should take any one of these though each be said to be availing I say if you should take any one and lay the stress of your Salvation upon it you were undone Let our Authour and his Proselytes look to themselves It is not keeping the Commandments of God nor Faith working by Love nor the new Creature no nor Christ himself considered alone and apart that availeth any thing but these in conjunction He names one onely because where one is it is not only one there is more than one wherever one is savingly there are all in their respective places as far as they are to be in relation to Salvation Thus you see that Faith as well as Works and Works as well as Faith every one in their own order are to be taken in or we shall not be taken into the Kingdom of Heaven This Rule of interpreting Scripture is one of Vennings things that are well worth the thinking on and therefore we have set it down at large If it be duly attended to it will give light sufficient to discover the darkness of our Authours Ignorance or Hypocrisie But he objects further That no answer but this alone can rightly heal the wound of an awakened Conscience pag. 15. We reply That what he says is false and delusive in his sense taking Faith for one single act of one Grace and Duty exclusive of Repentance and all other Graces and Duties But take it according to God's usual way of speaking much in a little and in a complex comprehensive sense as taking in or not excluding but rather supposing Repentance and it is most true For the Vertue and Efficacy of Christ's Blood applyed by the Spirit and Faith to the Soul prepared by Repentance is indeed the only Remedy that can heal it But if our Authour will say that Faith in Christ alone and without Repentance will heal the wounds of awakened consciences in wicked Men at their first Conversion we cannot choose but rank him amongst those Covetous deceitful Prophets and Priests who heal the hurt of the People slightly saying Peace peace when there is no peace Jerem. 6.13 14. We are infallibly sure from the Scriptures of Truth That the Apostles Commission was to preach Repentance as well as Faith in order to Mens Justification and Salvation and that they were obedient to the Commands of their Great and Glorious Lord and preached according to their Commission For we read in God's Holy Word that when the Consciences of a multitude of unbelieving Jews who had been accessory to the most barbarous murder of Christ the Son of God and Saviour of Men were throughly awakened and their Spirits were deeply wounded by the Arrows of Conviction which Almighty God by his Word and Spirit had shot into their Souls they feeling themselves pricked in their hearts said unto Peter and to the rest of the Apostles Men and Brethren what shall we do Acts 2.37 then as follows vers 38. Peter said unto them Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins c. Here we have a Company of People in great distress of Conscience as the Goaler was and in this their Spiritual distress they do as the Goaler did As the Goaler sought advice of Paul and Silas and asked them what he should do to be saved Just so the awakened convinced Jews sought advice of Peter and the rest of the Apostles and asked them What they should do To whom Peter answered Repent and be baptized c. Whereupon we demand of our Authour was this answer of Peter a right answer or not 1. We hope he will not he dare not say it was not a right answer For Peter was an Apostle as well as Paul and at that very time he was full of the Holy Ghost and spake as he was inspired by the Holy Ghost If then he should be so bold as to say that Peter did not give them a right answer because he did not say to them as Paul said to the
is by Obedience Moreover when we say that Justification is retained by Works that is not so to be taken as if it were done for the dignity or merit of our Actions but onely for the Redeemer's sake for whose sake the Person is first accepted and then the Actions also please God which otherwise of themselves would be impure and of no account But say they the perseverance or continuance of Justification is lost by wicked works But we say evil works are two ways to be considered in us either as they cleave to us or remain in us as in all the Saints through infirmity of the flesh and we by and by rise again by Repentance and Faith and such sin as the Apostle saith shall not have dominion over us Or again they may be considered as against our Conscience we willingly give up our selves to sin that we may serve it with evil delight But this sort of sin can no wise consist with this Faith of which Paul speaks which hath place in none but in those who being turned from sin are converted unto God And in the same Book pag. 374. Love is necessary and it pleaseth God to wit in those who are reconciled and for the sake of Christ For God naturally rejoiceth in the Obedience of those that are his which though it be imperfect yet endeavours such as they are he approves in those whom he hath reconciled to himself in Christ So then Faith that is Christ apprehended by Faith justifies us freely But we again ought by no means to receive that Grace in vain But he receives it in vain whosoever he be that doth not yeild himself obedient to the Commands and Example of Christ Thus far Mr. Fox where we see he plainly grants that sincere Obedience after we are justified is necessary that we may not lose the Grace of Justification and this is no more but that it is necessary to prevent our falling wilfully under the guilt of new sins of Omission and Commission which without renewing our Faith and Repentance and returning to God and our Obedience to him again would certainly damn us and sink us into Hell We mean no more by it and we believe that God for Christ's sake will keep all his justified ones from so falling away but withal we hold that God keeps us in a justified state partly by fear of falling into sin and partly by the Faith of the indispensable necessity of Obedience and Repentance as means to be used on our part to keep us from falling away The Lord puts his fear in our Hearts that we may not depart from him and he keeps us by his power through Faith unto Salvation From Fox we pass to Rollock another good Man unto whom a Famous and Learned Episcopal Divine Dr. Robert Baron hath given this Testimony that he was Sanctissimus Doctissimus c. a most Holy and Learned Man and that the Character of Moses might be truly attributed to him that he was very Meek above all the Men which were upon the Face of the Earth This Meek Saint wrote a Book of Effectual Calling at Edinburgh in the Year 1597. just about an Hundred Years agoe In which he affirms positively that the Covenant of Grace is conditional and that both Faith and Repentance go before Justification In the First Page of his Book he says Vocati eâdem Dei gratiâ respondent creduntque in Deum per Jesunt Christum Responsio haec sides est quae reipsâ est conditio promissionis Tract de Vocat Efficaci Edit Herborn 1618. c. They who are called effectually by the same Grace whereby they are called answer the call and believe in God through Jesus Christ This Answer is the Act of Faith which is the very Condition of the Promise that is in the Covenant of Grace Wherefore Effectual Calling consists in the Promise of the Covenant which is made on Condition of Faith and in Faith quae nihil aliud est quà m impletio conditionis which is no other thing but the fulfilling of the Condition And in the 24th Chapter pap 258. he sayes Resipiscontia Justificationem antecedit c. Repentance goes before Justification after the manner that Faith and Hope go before it For it is said of the Baptist that he preached the Baptism of Repentance for the Remission of sins Mark 1.4 and Luke 3.3 And if any would know what he means by that Repentance which he sayes goes before Justification after he had fully and clearly explained the nature of it in all its parts and shewed it to be an Evangelical Repentance and distinguished it from that which is called Legal he tells us in Page 257. what he meant by giving a short but comprehensive definition of it thus Resipiscentia est post functum malum jam perpetratum dolor propter offensum Dèum ex dolwe mutatio quaedam totius animi à malo in bonum Repentance is a grief or sorrow after the fact is done and the sin is committed for having thereby offended God and a change of the whole Soul from Evil to Good arising from that grief or sorrow This is the Repentance which Rollock sayes goes before Justification and it is remarkable that he makes a change of the whole Soul from Evil to Good to be essential unto this Repentance and consequently that in order of nature before Justification there is a real change of the whole Soul from Evil to Good This Doctrine was preached and written at Edinburgh an Hundred Years agoe and then it was accounted good Divinity and old Gospel and the Preacher of it was esteemed and that deservedly a great Saint and a Man of Learning and Judgment both at home and abroad How it should come to be New Divinity and a New Gospel or part of a new Gospel now is to us a Mystery for sure it is an Hundred Years older now than it was then Any Body therefore might think in all reason that our Authour came too late to give it a new Name There must be some Mystery in this business whatever it be We with it be not a Mystery of Iniquity From Rollock we pass to Zanchy because he lived in those Times and is one of those Divines whom our Authour would make the People believe to be for him and against us and that because he is against us therefore we are against him Lett. p. 27. and generally neglect and despise him But what if after all this Zanchy be clearly for us in this matter then it is to be hoped that People nor our Authour himself will not easily believe that we not only neglect but despise our good Friend And that he is such we are content that his own Words should judge between us Credimus ad veram justitiae Christi participationem Zanch. de Relig. cap. 18. Thes 1. coque ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cum Christo necessariam esse poenitentiam c. We believe that Repentance is
that more and worse is feared which what it should be we cannot imagine unless it be that they fear we will at last renounce Christ and Christianity But to this we will say with David 2 Sam. 16.12 it may be the Lord will look upon our case and requite us good for this reviling Dr. let p. 12. Downame Bishop of Derry whom our Authour also commends in his Letter shall next come in for a Witness on our behalf who in his Book of the Covenant of Grace saith The promises of the Gospel cannot be applyed to any aright but only to those who have the condition of the promise page 134 135. which is the justifying Faith For the Gospel doth not promise Justification and Salvation to all but to those only who have a justifying Faith Therefore a Man must be endued with justifying Faith before he can or ought to apply the promises of the Gospel to himself For as Salvation is promised to them that believe so damnation is denounced to them that believe not Mark 16.16 John 3.16 18. Again No man ought to apply the promise of the Gospel to himself who hath not the condition of the promise ibid. page 153. unless he will perniciously deceive himself For as he that believeth shall be saved so he that believeth not shall be condemned page 154. Again As we daily sin so we must daily ask forgiveness Prayer being the means that God hath ordained to that end Object Yea But saith the Papist ye forsooth have already full assurance of the remission of all your sins not only past but also to come Answ It is absurd to imagine that sins be remitted before they be committed and much more that we be assured they are remitted before they be either remitted or committed That indeed were a Doctrine to animate and to encourage Men to sin But howsoever the Pope sometimes forgiveth sins to come yet God doth not When God justifyeth a man he giveth him remission of sins past Rom. 3.25 As for time to come we teach that although Christ hath merited and God hath promised remission of sins of all the faithful unto the end of the World notwithstanding remission of sins is not actually obtained and much less by special Faith believed until Men do actually believe and repent and by humble and faithful Prayer renew their Faith and Repentance For as God hath promised to the faithful all good things But how Matt. 7.7 8. To them that ask Luke 18.13 14. that seek that knock So also remission of sins Neither is it to be doubted but that remission of sin though merited by Christ though promised by God though sealed unto us in the Sacrament of Baptisme is obtained by the effectual Prayer of those who believe and repent for whom Christ hath merited it and to whom God hath promised it in his Word and sealed it by the Sacrament even as the obtaining of the rain which God had promised 1 Kings 18. ver 1 41. and the Prophet Elias had foretold is ascribed to the effectual Prayer of Elias James 5.16 18. To Bishop Downames we add the very Learned and Pious Gatakers Testimony When â—altâ—arsh the Antinomian had objected and said either place Salvation on a free bottom or else you make the New Covenant but an old Covenant in new terms Do this and live believe this and live repent and live obey and live Gataker replies This is frivolous because as hath been shewed Gatakers shadows without Substance page 49. Salvations free bottom is no way impeached by such conditions as these required and scandalous because therein the Apostles Doctrine is not covertly but directly challenged as overthrowing and razing the foundation of free Grace For what is believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved but believe and live Or what is repent that your sins may be done away but repent and live Or what is He is the Authour of Salvation to all that obey him but obey and live And I demand again what this amounts unto whether it be any other than blasphemy to say that the Apostles by such their Doctrine did not place Salvation upon a free bottom but brought in the old Covenant again in new terms Sir Dare you say in your new revealed Mystery believe not and yet live repent not and yet live obey not and yet live Again We may truly say that you and yours are they that either cannot or will not see the Wood for Trees Ibid. page 57. the conditions on which Salvation by Christ is propounded though in the Gospel they do every where occur and offer themselves will ye nill ye to your eyes With Gataker we joyn Mr. Ball who in his Treatise of Faith recommended by a Preface of Dr. Sibbes saith Balls Treatise of Faith part 1. page 86. The promise of remission of sins is conditional and becometh not absolute until the condition be fulfilled This is the word of Grace Believe in the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved When doth this conditional proposition become absolute When we believe what That our sins are pardoned No but when we believe in Christ to obtain pardon which is the thing promised upon condition of belief Again The priviledge of Grace and Comfort which comes to the Soul by believing must be distinguished from the Condition of the Covenant Ibid. page 89. which is required on our parts before we can obtain pardon Again We can teach no Faith to Salvation but according to the rule of Christ Repent and believe the Gospel no remission of sin Ibid. page 136. but according to the like Rule Luke 24.47 Acts 2.37 38. But Faith seeketh and receiveth pardon as it is proffered in the word of Grace Repentance is necessary to the pardon of sin as a condition without which it cannot be obtained not as a cause why it is given Luke 13.3 1 John 1.9 Acts 11.18 If Mercy should be vouchsafed to all indifferently the Grace of God should be a boulster to mans sin c. Lastly We conclude this head of our defence with the Testimony of the Synod of Dort We have already shewed that the Geneva Divines in that Synod gave it in under their hands and were therein approved by the Synod That the Covenant of Grace is conditional We might be large in shewing the like of many others but we will confine our selves for brevities sake to the Embdan Bremen and English Divines their Suffrages recorded in the Acts of the Synod First The Embdane Divines in the Synod said That God required the same conditions from those that were in Covenant with him under the Old and New Testament to wit Faith and the obedience of Faith Act. Synodi Dord part 2. page 93. Gen. 12. Abraham believed God and the Apostle â—in Rom. 4. Teaches that we are saved by the same Faith Gen. 17. Abraham is commanded to walk before God and be perfect The same is every where
good man that is a good man initially or make him begin to be a good Man But now this makes against our Author himself and clearly proves that no Man can believe with a saving justifying Faith till Gospel Grace renew him and make him first a good Man this Consequence from his own Words he can never avoid unless he will say that a saving justifying Faith is no good thing for if it be not an evil but a good thing no Man can do it till Gospel Grace have renewed him and make him first a good Man So then we have found by his own Confession that a Man is first good through Grace and then he believes in Christ to Justification And if a Man be thus good initially good before he actually believe with a saving justifying Faith then is he Holy also initially Holy before he do so believe for that Initial Goodness and this Initial Holiness is one and the same thing And further if a man may be and must be thus initially Good and Holy before he actually believe then he may be qualified before he actually believe for he cannot be Good and Holy as aforesaid without Gods putting some good qualities into him This the Synod of Dort hath determined in their 11. Canon on the 3d and 4th Articles as was shewed before and it is hoped our Author will not oppose the Determination of that Synod Now whenever God by his Spirit puts good qualities into a Man he thereby qualifies him for the very formal effect of good qualities is to qualifie the Man to whom God gives them Pag. 11. But saith our Author Whence should a Man have any good Qualification before he be in Christ by Faith since a Sinner out of Christ hath no Qualification for Christ but Sin and Misery We Answer that before a Man be in Christ by Faith he hath some good Qualification from Christ by his Spirit preparing him for and bringing him unto Union with himself by actual Faith As to what he saith that a Sinner out of Christ hath no Qualification for Christ but Sin and Misery We Answer by distinguishing thus he hath no Qualification but Sin and Misery of and from himself It is true But that he hath no Qualification of and from Christ by his Holy Spirit but Sin and Misery it is utterly false and the contrary is true to wit that a Man who hath no Qualification of and from himself but the evil Qualification of Sin and Misery yet of and from Christ by his Spirit and Word he hath the good Qualification of a Heart in part changed and renewed and of a Holy Seed and Prineiple of Grace put into his Heart Though a Man cannot qualifie himself for Christ yet nothing hinders but that Christ by his Spirit and Word can qualifie a man for Union with himself and for Justification by his Meritorious Righteousness Yes saith our Author something doth hinder for I boldly assert that such a man who were so qualified would not Let. p. 11. nor could ever believe on Christ We are not willing here to apply the Proverb That none is so bold as blind Bayard But this we must say that we cannot see that this Man hath any probable ground for such Confidence Sure we are it will be a very difficult task to prove that a man cannot possibly believe in Christ because Christ by his Word and Spirit hath fitted and qualified him for Believing But it seems nothing is difficult to this bold man and therefore he will prove it by an Argument taken from the Nature of Faith thus Faith saith he is a lost helpless condemned Sinners casting himself on Christ for Salvation But the qualified Man is no such Person And then the Conclusion if rightly inferred from the Premisses is this ergo The qualified Man is not Faith c. A goodly Argument indeed and a Foundation fit for this Man to ground his Confidence upon If he say that his Argument doth not so conclude but rather thus Faith is a Gracious Act whereby a lost helpless condemned Sinner casts himself on Christ for Salvation but the qualified Man is not a lost helpless condemned Sinner casting himself on Christ for Salvation therefore the qualified man is not what is he not why he is not a lost helpless condemned Sinner casting himself on Christ for Salvation Is this now his Argument And doth it thus conclude then his Argument is as Ridiculous as his Confidence Let him keep to his Premisses laid down in his Letter and if he can let him regularly inferr from them another Conclusion than one of these But let what will become of the form of his Argument We answer by distinguishing both Propositions And 1. For the first we say that a Person who by true Faith casts himself on Christ for Salvation is indeed a Sinnor lost and helpless in and of himself and he is condemned by the Law but tho that be true yet in Order of Nature before he believes and in the very Act of Believing he is found and helped by the Lord and hath a Pardon offered him by the Gospel and by Faith he receives it Acts 10.43 Then for the second Proposition we distinguish it also thus The qualified Man is not such a Person is not a lost helpless condemned Sinner that is the Man that is 1. Qualified with a Satisfactory Meritorious Qualification 2. That is so qualified by himself he is not such a Person It is true and we grant it But with all we say that indeed it is impossible for any Man so to qualifie himself Yet we maintain that a Man who is qualified by the Holy Spirit and free Effectual Grace of Christ is such a Person and doth by Faith â—ast himself on Christ for Salvation our being qualified by the Holy Spirit and free Effectual Grace of Christ is so far from hindring our believing as our Author boldly but ignorantly affirms that in Truth it doth very much further our believing it lets us see and causes us to feel that we are lost and helpless in and of our selves and condemned by the Law and that we are found and helped by the Lord and can be pardoned only by the Gospel Whereupon it inclines and moves us to flee unto Christ for refuge and to cast our selves on him for Justification and Salvation Thirdly In the same Page Let. p. 11. we have another of his Objections against the Truth we have been proving by Scripture Reason and Testimony of Protestant Divines Shall we saith he warn People that they should not believe on Christ too soon Either this Interrogation is altogether impertinent or there is this Argument implied in it if there be a real change and a holy gracious Principle wrought in Peoples Hearts before they do or can believe with a saving justifying Faith then it will follow that Ministers should warn people not to believe on Christ too soon but so to do is absurd and contrary to
of the difficulty of believing so in the Name of the whole Fraternity of Unbelievers I thank you for your great kindness to them and for this sweet and comfortable Doctrine if it be true which you have taught us all in your Letter which I hear is much cryed up by some Women in London who love rest and ease Now we might have all rested quietly together were it not for those you call the New and Young Divines whom you have charged with Pelagianism This was not wisely done of you for you have thereby awakened them from their rest and it is to be feared that by loud Recriminations they will disturb you and us both and proclaim the secret to the World that you your self are Confederate with Pelagians Semipelagians and Unbelievers For it is undeniable matter of Fact that it is a branch of Pelagianism and the very Root and Heart of Semipelagianism That Men can believe in Christ with a justifying Faith by the Power of Nature without the Supernatural Grace of God And if your similitude hold good men not only can believe but which is more they cannot possibly choose but they must of Necessity believe without the help of Grace unless they be hindered by a Miracle exciting them to Act and Work and to cease from rest Sir how you can come to Rest and Peace with those brisk Young Divines whose Age inclines them to Action more than to Rest I do not pretend to know but this I know that upon your foresaid Principle the Unbeliever and you are agreed and if you will be stedfast and stand to your Principle we shall live together in perfect quietness and never more differ about Believing Thus we have given an account of our Authors Way and Method of Converting an Unbeliever to Faith in Christ which is more than a resting on Christ for it is a Grace whereby we assent to Jesus his being the Christ the Son of God and only Saviour of Men and Consent to take him for our Prince and Saviour and as such receive him on his own Terms and then rest relie and trust on him for Justification c. We have shewed also what a weak and ridiculous way and Method it is and how easily an Unbeliever may Answer all that he hath said in the 16. and 17. Pages of his Letter mentioned before except a few at his first setting out he hath hardly made one right step in the whole course of that Advice which he takes upon him to give unto Ministers how they ought to deal with Unbelievers in labouring to Convert them unto Faith in Christ He hath plainly betray'd our Cause to the Unbeliever who hath brought him by his last Objection to take up with a Piece of Pelagianism and with the grossest Semipelagianism that hath been heard of in the Christian Church so weak is he not wicked we hope that he could think of no other way to Answer that Objection but by denying that Faith is any Work at all though therein he shamefully contradicts himself and the express Word of God and by affirming that it is a resting in such a sense as imports that it is neither Work nor Act but a meer Cessation from Working and Acting a doing nothing at all and from thence he labours to shew the Unbeliever that it is not difficult to believe and illustrates it by such a similitude as will make any considering man who reads it and understands the use he makes of it to think that he must be a Semipelagian who holds that a man can believe unto Justification without any Subjective Supernatural Grace of God at all Whereas he ought to have acknowledged the Truth of the Objection that it is indeed difficult and impossible too for a natural man by the power of nature ever to believe but that it is possible and easy too by the Grace of God And then he should have directed the Unbeliever unto the means whereby Grace to believe is ordinarily obtained from God through Christ and should have advised him to wait and continue waiting on God in the use of his appointed means and particularly to be much in praying as well as he can for Grace to help in time of need and desiring the prayers of Christs Ministers and People But not a word of this nay instead of advising the Unbeliever to use Gods means and seek the Grace of Faith from God through Christ he gives him to understand that Faith is nothing but a resting from all work and action and that it is no more difficult to believe than it is for a weary Traveller to lye down and rest when he is so tyred that he can neither stand nor go And after he hath told the Ministers that they ought thus to resolve the doubts and answer the arguments of Unbelievers he hath the confidence to conclude that by such reasonings with an Unbeliever from the Gospel the Lord will as he hath often done convey Faith to him and joy and peace by believing This is like all the rest the Conclusion and the Premises are at irreconcileable variance with one another The Conclusion saith that the Lord will convey Faith to the Unbeliever by the reasonings in the premises and yet one of those reasonings is that Faith is nothing but a resting and such a resting as signifies a Cessation from all actings and that an Unbeliever needs no more help to believe than a weary Travellour needs help to lye down and rest when he is so tyred that he can neither stand nor go We think it is a sort of Blasphemy to say wittingly and willingly that such reasonings as some of those we have noted in the 16 and 17 Pages of the Letter are either in and from the Gospel or that the Lord makes use of such self contradicting confounding fulshood as means of conveying Faith into the Hearts of his people And because in this part of his Letter he speaks to us that are Ministers and either bids us tell the Unbeliever so and so or else he affirms that we do tell him so and so we must declare to the World that we will follow his advice no further than we find it agreeable to Scripture and Reason which sometimes we do find and oftentimes the contrary as we have proved but as for what he affirms that Ministers tell the Unbeliever that Faith is not difficult that it is no more difficult to an Unbeliever than lying down is to a man when he is so tyred and weary that he can neither stand nor go we protest we are none of those Ministers we never did and through Grace never will tell any Unbeliver such an abominable falshood We know no other Ministers but our Author that Preaches such Doctrine and we have endeavoured to make him ashamed of it in hopes to bring him off from it We trust that after we have thus publickly declared against our Authors Way and Method of Converting Unbelievers to Faith in Christ and
believed but by the supernatural teaching and assistance of Gods Holy Spirit so it cannot be rightly learned known and believed without our own Reason For 1. Grace doth not destroy but refine and perfect Nature the Holy Spirit doth not put out the eye of our reasoning Faculty Luke 24.45 out opens it clears it elevates and raises it up above its natural ability and strengthens it to see Spiritual objects in such a Spiritual way as it could not see them by its own natural power alone 2. The Spirit of God teaches us by the Word of God and both the Word and Spirit suppose us to be rational for the Word and Spirit of God are given to none but rational Creatures and if we were not rational creatures we should not be subjects capable of being taught by the Word and Spirit or of teaching others We do not then make reason to be either the formal object or rule of Faith and Religion But we hold it to be a light which God himself hath set up in our Souls Whereby 1. We discern through Grace the Written Word to be indeed the Word of God and the Spirit that teaches us by the Word to be indeed the Spirit of God and whereby we discover that every Word and Spirit which are contrary thereunto are not the Word and Spirit of God 2. We hold Reason right Reason to be a light which God hath given us wherewith to search into the meaning of his Word and by studious inquisition and observation to discover and find out the true meaning of the Word and to make it known to others and by good reason out of the Text to convince others of â—he truth of it These things we can never do unless we be rational Divines and unless we use our reason in Studying Speaking or Writing of matters of Divinity and doth not our Author do the same If he say that he doth not because then he should be in danger of being a rational Divine but he is not nor will be a Rational Divine Doubting Conscience resolved p. 46. We demand in the words of Dr. Twiss Doth this Authors Reason go to Bed and Sleep when he comes to Read and Studiously to consider the word of God If it doth he will prove no better than a drowsie Student and we know no reason but such a one may be in Love with Dreams as well as Anabaptist saith Dr. Twiss But we rather say as wâ—ll as those Prophets of wâ—â—om we read in Jerem. 23.25 That they Prophesied Lyes in the Lords Name saying I have dreamed I have dreamed Thus we make an end of what we thought fit to say on the Fourth General Head We have laid before the Reader some of his Calumnies and Aspersâ—ons cast upon us and have wiped them off and we could do no less though it thereby appear that he hath been a false Accuser of Christs Ministers against the sincerity of Christian Love CHAP. V. VVhere People are advised to try before they trust and not suffer themselves to be imposed upon and led into Error by the bold unproved Assertions and Dictates of any Preachers or Writers whatsoever FOR our parts we neither have nor desire to have Dominion over Peoples Faith 2 Cor. 1.24 And therefore we do not desire that any man should believe us and be of our Judgment any further than what we say or write is agreeable to Holy Scripture and to right Reason grounded upon Scripture In those things wherein we affirm that our Author hath erred from the Truth we have endeavoured to prove by clear Scripture and plain Reason consonant to Scripture that he hath so erred And before People positively conclude that we are in the right we intreat them to weigh and consider well what we have written to prove the Truth of our Assertions and after due consideration to judge according to the evidence of our proofs as they will answer to God and their own Consciences If we have clearly and faithfully declared to people the Mind and Will of God as it is revealed by holy Scripture though we do not desire that they should submit their Judgments to us and believe what we believe meerly because we believe it yet we do expect that they should submit their Judgments unto God as we have done And that they should believe what we believe because God hath revealed the matter of our belief both to us and them And whosoever shall either neglect or refuse to submit their Judgments unto God and to believe what they know or may easily know he hath revealed will be found guilty before the Lord of unbelief and Spiritual pride for which he will one day call them to an account But on the other hand if any think and affirm that we are mistaken in our Judgment of the things in controversie and that therefore they are not bound with us to believe them To such we say that if in any of them we are mistaken it is more than we know and our mistake is altogether involuntary for the Lord knows that we have diligently searched for the Truth as to all the matters in controversie with an earnest desire to find it and with frequent and fervent Prayers to the God of Truth that he would teach us the Truth that by his Spirit of Truth according to his Word of Truth he would lead us into the Truth of those Matters And we are fully perswaded in our own Minds that God hath heard our Prayers blessed our Endeavours and caused us to find the Truth which we have diligently sought and searched for We have also given the World an account of the Grounds and Reasons of this our Perswasion which we submit to the impartial Examination of all that fear the Lord and are sincere Lovers of Truth not doubting but that Persons so well disposed will find upon impartial Examination of the matters in Controversie that our Grounds are solid and our Reasons Cogent and Conclusive Yet if in any one thing we should happen to be mistaken which we believe we are not we declare that we are so far from desiring any to follow us in that mistake and to believe any thing in matters of Doctrine which God hath not revealed that on the contrary we shall through Grace be really thankful first to God and next to such men as shall convince us of our mistake by Evidence of Scripture or by Right Reason without Railing and Scolding As for those who have accustomed themselves unto that way of Writing let them not think that ever they shall be able to move us from our Perswasion by Railing at us and calling us Hereticks If any attack us with such Carnal Weapons they will buâ— discover their own Weakness and Folly and we hope it shall have no other effect upon us but to move us to pity them and to pray the Lord to make them better Christians It is not any mans bare thinking or bold saying that we are mistaken
and preach a new Gospel that can make it to be true or prove that it is so The Nature of things are not so soon changed no things will still remain to be what they are though weak passionate Men should never so often think and boldly say that they are not what they are that which is once true will still remain true though men think and say ten thousand times over that it is false As on the contrary that which is once false as it is most false that we preach a new Gospel will still remain false though our Author and his whole party should ten thousand times over both think and say and swear too that it is true We therefore beseech all Christian People neither to believe our Author nor Us upon our bare Words he confidently affirms that we preach a new Gospel We deny it he brings no proof but his own reproachful Word for what he says against us We bring Scripture Reason and the Testimonies of Ancient Fathers and Modern Divines for what we say against him in Vindication of our own Innocency and for Proof that the Gospel which we preach is no other than the Everlasting Gospel of Christ which always hath been now is and ever will be preserved in the Christian Church to the end of the World Now we advise People not to trust either him or us without Tryal but to examine what is said on both sides and then to trust those whom they find upon Tryal to be most trusty and to have given the best Reasons why they should be trusted in these Matters Consider Christians what our most blessed Lord and Saviour saith Matth. 15.14 That if the blind lead the blind both shall fall into the Ditch It will not excuse People before God that they followed their Leaders for they are rational Creatures and they ought to see with their own Eyes and not to follow their Ministers blindly without considering and knowing whether they lead them right or wrong whether they lead them in the way of Error or in the way of Truth Therefore our Saviour saith again Matth. 24.4 Take heed that no Man deceive you The like Advice our Lords great Apostle gave unto the Churches to whom he wrote his Epistles Let no Man said he deceive you with vain Words 1 Cor. 6.9 10. Ephes 5.6 This Advice he gave with respect to some of the things that are controverted amongst us at this Day And again Let no Man deceive you by any means 2 Thes 2.3 And as a Preservative and Antidote against being deceived he exhorted them to prove all things and to hold fast that which is good 1 Thes 5.21 Moreover though he was extraordinarily assisted by an infallible Spirit yet he commended the Bereans as People of a noble generous Mind for trying his own Doctrine by the Touchstone of Holy Scripture before they believed it Acts 17.11 It was not any slowness in them to believe which made them examine his Doctrine but it was Wisdom and Prudence for the Scripture saith they received the Word with all Readiness of Mind and searched the Scriptures daily whether those things were so they received readily and yet searched diligently making no more haste than good speed and by searching they found all that Paul preached to them to be according to the Scripture therefore they believed his Doctrine and believed in Christ according to his Doctrine ver 12. And this was it which Paul commended them for that though he was an Apostle inspired with a Spirit of Infallibility and could and did Work Miracles to confirm the Truth of his Doctrine yet they searched the Scriptures daily to see whether his Doctrine was according to the Scriptures before they believed it and when by searching they found it to be all according to the Scriptures they immediately believed and readily received it for that very Reason because it was according to the Scriptures of Truth And Paul was of such an excellent Spirit that if the Bereans or any other People had by diligent search found any part of his Doctrine to be really contrary unto the Scriptures of Truth which was impossible for them to do he would have commended them also for not believing it Acts 26.22 23. 1 Cor. 15.1 2 3 4. 1 Cor. 7.25 40. Gal. 1.8 Yea our blessed Lord himself when he was on Earth in his State of Humiliation as a Man and Minister of the Circumcision for the Truth of God to confirm the Promises made unto the Fathers Rom. 15.8 He did not desire that his Hearers should believe him upon his bare Word John 5.31 If I bear Witness of my self my Witness is not true That is though it be never so true in it self yet it is not true with respect to you or it doth not appear true and convincing to you therefore as we read in that Chapter and elsewhere our Lord over and besides his own Verbal Testimony used to prove the Truth of his Doctrine by Scripture and to confirm it by such miraculous Works as could not be done but by the infinite Power of God who neither would nor could give his Seal to ratifie and confirm a lie And thereupon he said unto the unbelieving Jews John 10.37 38. If I do not the Works of my Father believe me not but if I do though ye believe not me believe the Works that ye may know and believe that the Father is in me and I in him And when convinced by the Notorlety of the Matters of Fact that he did wonderful Works above the Power of Man they were forced by the Evidence of common Sense and Reason to confess it yet being unwilling to believe in him on that account they found out a way to elude the force of his Argument deduced from his Miracles by raising a dispute about the invisible Secret cause of them and by blasphemously ascribing them to the Devil and not to God Matth. 12.24 Mark 3.22 He did not in Answer to that blasphemous Cavil tell them that they must believe on his bare Word that his Miracles were wrought by the Power of God and not of the Devil But by plain Reason and strong Argument taken from the circumstances of his Miracles he proved against them that they could not possibly be from the Devil and therefore they must be from God Mark 3.23 24 25 26 27. with Matth. 12.25 26 28 29. He said unto them How can Satan cast out Satan And if a Kingdom be divided against it self that Kingdom cannot stand c. The Summ of our Saviours Argument was this That his Miracles were wrought to confirm a Doctrine that is directly contrary to and destructive of every thing that is Devilish and wherever it is received in Faith and Love there always the Devils Interest decays and himself is despised and abhorred yea many of Christs Miracles were done immediately upon the Devil himself and he was thereby cast out of that Power and Possession which he had got by
AN APOLOGY FOR THE MINISTERS Who Subscribed only unto the Stating of The Truths and Errours IN Mr. WILLIAM's Book SHEWING That the Gospel which they Preach is the Old Everlasting Gospel of Christ AND Vindicating them from the Calumnies wherewith they especially the younger sort of them have been unjustly aspersed by the Letter from a Minister in the City to a Minister in the Countrey Nos quidem neque expavescimus neque pertimescimus ea quae ab ignorantibus patimur cùm ad hanc Sectam utique Susceptâ conditione ejus pacti venerimus ut etiam animas nostraas auctorati in has pugnas accedamus ea quae Deus repromittit consequi optantes ea quae Diversae vitae comminatur pati timentes Tertullianus ad Scapulam in ipso libri principio LONDON Printed for John Lawrence at the Angel in the Poultry MDCXCIV THE PREFACE TO THE READER IF a Profest Enemy or a Common and Known I yer had fallen foul upon us with his Tongue or Pen and called us Hereticks Arminian Pelagian Hereticks Corrupters of the Old and Preachers of a New Gospel we should have held our peace and in silence despised his Lies and Revilings But since a Brother who professeth seriousness in Religion and hath some credit amongst good People that fear God and love the Truth and Purity of Christ's Gospel has publickly in Print proclaimed us to be Hereticks and Preachers of a New Gospel our Consciences would not suffer us any longer to keep silence Because it might have been justly interpreted to be an Argument and Evidence of our guilt and good People might have thought that we could say nothing in our own defence and therefore that they had good reason upon the uncontrolled Testimony of a serious Brother to believe that we are Hereticks indeed Pelagian Arminian Hereticks Corrupters of the Old and Preachers of a New Gospel Wherefore to remedy this and to undeceive the Lords People and maintain the Truth and Purity of his Gospel with the credit of his Ministry we judged our selves obliged in Conscience to write and publish this Apology wherein our design is to do wrong to no Man no not to him who hath wronged us But to do right unto the Truth to clear up our own Innocency as to the things we are falsly charged with and to let good people see that the testimony of our accuser is not true and therefore can be no proof that we are Heretical Preachers of a New Gospel or Corrupters of the Old If we had still kept silence and suppressed this Apology all the World that should have heard how we were accused might have either suspected us of Heresie or have blamed us if guiltless for keeping silence and suffering our Ministry to remain aspersed with such a publick charge of Heresie unanswered But we are sure none can have just cause to be offended with us for our now publishing it Since if Men would suppose our case to be their own and that a reputed serious good Man had in a printed Lybel accused them of damnable Heresie they cannot but see That they should judge it their Duty to defend themselves and to clear up their own innocency as to that matter Now if Men would judge thus if it were their own case right reason will assure them that they should pass the like judgment in our case upon supposition that we know our selves not to be guilty of the Crime which we are charged with And the supposition is most certainly true for we know as certainly that we are not guilty of that crime as we know any other thing in the World we know as certainly that we do not preach a New Gospel as we know that there is an Old Gospel in the Church or World So then if we are to be blamed for any thing it is for not doing this work sooner but for that we could alledge more Reasons than we need here to mention It is enough to tell the World that there being more than one conâ—erned in this cause it was fit that we should know one anothers mind and proceed in it with one joint consent which it required some time to do Whereunto we add That the Collecting and Transcribing so many and large Testimonies out of the Writings of Ancient and Modern Divines required yet more time Moreover we profess our selves not to be of the number of those who make boast of their quick and hasty Births and boldly venture to publish unto the World any thing as it comes into their heads without taking time to consider whether it be such as will endure a strict Tryal by the Rule of Truth and Righteousness If our Accuser had taken more time to consider of the several particulars of his Letter of Information before he had printed it we are apt to think that if he be a good Man as we would hope he is he would have seen cause to have altered much of it or to have suppressed it altogether as well for his own particular good as for the common good of Christ's Church But it seems that since all the World almost is ingaged in War at this day he had an ambitious desire to be a Warriour likewise and that desire if he was not put on by others would not let him be quiet but he must sound the Trumpet and both proclaim an Ecclesiastical War and also himself make the first Attack But fâ—r us we are not of such a Spirit so far from it that we have a real aversion to such Ecclesiastical War and are not easily brought to it Indeed it is purely defensive on our side and we were necessitated to it In the managing of it we have endeavoured no farther to offend the first aggressour than was necessary to defend our selves We are not conscious to our selves of having given him just cause of offence unless our refuting his errours vindicating our selves from his Calumnies and exposing the weakness and sometimes the ridiculousness of his reasonings be matter of offence to him And if that be all it is offence taken not given for which he may blame himself For he having attackt us in such Hostile Rude Unbrotherly and Unchristian manner we could not repel his Attack so as to secure the Truth of God the Honour of Religion and our own good Names without answering him as we have done But if it shall be made appear to us that in any thing we have passed the limits of a just self-Defence and have done him any real injury which is more than we know we shall be sorry for it and willing to do him right For we do really wish him well and should be ready to do him any office of love and kindness that lyes in our power But we have no moral lawful power to suffer any Brother to throw Dirt on us the vile Dirt of Pelagian Heresie and to hold our hands and not endeavour to wipe it off again Certainly Pelagianisme is one of the things in
we do and always did what reason had he to make such a clamour and with what Conscience did he tell the World that his Brethren the Non conformists especially the younger sort of them were dangerously erroneous in the Fundamental point of Justification Is it a light matter with him to traduce the faithful Ministers of Christ For our parts we durst not have done so by him or any of his Consorts without as clear evidence as a matter of fact of that nature is capable of and without producing our evidence too which he hath not done in his Letter nor is it possible to be done for the matter of fact is most certainly and evidently false And we would yet hope that he will have a better opinion of his Brethren and be sorry for the wrong he hath done them when he shall understand that they are far from being the Men he affirmed them to be and that they willingly accept of the Test which he himself offers in order to an Agreement not as if they had changed their Judgments upon the reading of his Letter which is more likely to make Proselytes of weak well meaning Women than of Men of understanding but because they were of the same Judgment before and now declare it that the World and he may see how injurious he hath been to his Brethren But though we are willing to agree with him in the foresaid Articles of the Assemblies Confession of Faith yet it is upon Condition that he will assent to the Assemblies Words in their plain and genuine sense aforesaid as we also do And that this shall not be accounted an agreement with him in all the rest of his Letter For we hope by the help of our God and Saviour never to agree unto many things in his Letter because they are neither consistent with the purity of Faith nor with the sincerity of Love We are indeed willing that it should be known to the real and right Antinomians that he is none of them if he will stand to several Passages in his Letter particularly to what he writes in the end of the 4th and in the 5th Pages again in the end of the 23d and beginning of the 24th Pages as also in Page 40. Line 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28. And for our parts if he would be consistent with himself and not contradict what he there owns for Truth we should be willing and ready as we have occasion to vindicate him from being an Antinomian in Principle but we cannot acquit him from being an Antinomian in Practice so long as it is written in our Bibles Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy Neighbour And so long as he approves of those Passages in his Letter whereby he has falsely accused and traduced his Brethren and represented them to the World as Arminians and Pelagians and Preachers of a new Gospel It is none of our business to perswade any Body to believe that he is a real Antinomian in Principle but it is to Vindicate our own innocency by wiping off those most false and soul Aspersions he hath cast upon the Lords Ministers and to correct some of those gross mistakes that occur up and down in his Letter and to let People see that some have been too forward to receive for truth many things which he hath presented them with in his Letter This is that which we design in Animadverting upon his Letter and our Method in doing it shall be First In the first Chapter to consider of the Occasion and Design of his Letter Secondly In the second Chapter divided into several Sections to refute some of his Doctrinal Errors against the purity of Faith Thirdly In the third Chapter to shew that we cannot approve his ridiculous way of Converting Unbelievers and bringing them to Faith in Christ Fourthly In the fourth Chapter to refute his Calumnies and false Accusations of Christs Ministers against the sincerity of Love Lastly In the fifth Chapter to advise Christian People to try before they trust and not to suffer themselves to be imposed upon and lead into errour by the bold unproved Assertions and Dictates of any Preachers or Writers whatsoever CHAP. I. Concerning the Occasion and Design of the Letter FIrst of all We will consider the Occasion and Design of his Letter And for the Occasion of his Writing it he saith It was a Countrey Ministers earnest desire of information about some difference amongst Non-conformists in London which was the cause of it We suppose he means the occasional cause And if this be true we allow it for a lawful occasion of writing a Letter of Information to his Friend and Brother in the Country provided his Information had been true but nothing can ever make it lawful to give false information to any either in City or Countrey Whether he hath done so or not by his Letter will appear by what follows in this Answer Next for his design in writing he saith in Page 35. That All his design in publishing that Letter was plainly and briefly to give some information to ordinary plain people who either want time or judgment to peruse large and learned Tractates about the point of Justification wherein every one is equally concerned We do not believe this to be true yea we think it is not true For surely it was part of his design to give a fuller information to his Brother in the Countrey who being as he saith a Minister we presume he is none of the plain ordinary people who want time and judgment to peruse large and learned Tractates c. We do not think that he first sent the whole Manuscript in a private Letter into the Country to inform a Minister and afterwards printed it to inform the People that want time and judgment But that if he did really write a Letter into the Countrey it was but a small part it may be some of the Heads of it See Lett. p. 27. and then published the whole with a design to inform and to alarum too both Ministers and People in City and Countrey And whether this be so or not yet we cannot believe that All his design in publishing his Letter was plainly and briefly to give some Information to the People about the point of Justification For he plainly manifests throughout his Letter that a part of his design in writing was to vindicate himself and some of his Party from the suspicion of Antinomianism and to load other Ministers who differ from him in some things with the odious charge of Arminianism and Pelagianism and to warn the People upon their peril to have a care of such Ministers as preach the necessity of Repentance in order to pardon of sin that they be not corrupted by them in most Fundamental points of Religion Let any body of common understanding but read Pages 1 2 3 4 5 9 10 13 15 23 24 25 26 27 28 30. of the Letter and he
but a Protestant Bishop and a zealous Protestant who held Rome to be Mystical Babylon and the Pope to be Antichrist as appears from what he wrote in Tortura Torti pag. 183 184 185 186 187. Now this zealous Protestant in his 17th Sermon of the Nativity on Psal 2.7 writes thus We had well hoped Christ would have preached no Law all Gospel he Bp. Andrews Volume of Sermons pag. 161. That he would have preached down the old Law but not have preached up any new We see it is otherwise A Law he hath to preach and preach it he will He saith himself Praedicabo Legem So if we will be his Auditors he tells us plainly we must receive a Law from his mouth If we love not to hear of a Law we must go to some other Church For in Christs Church there a Law is preached Christ began we must follow and say every one of us as he saith Praedicabo Legem Christ will preach a Law and they that are not for the Law are not for Christ It was their quarrel above at the 3d. verse they would none of Christ for this very cause that Christ comes preaching a Law and they would live lawless They would endure no Yoke that were the Sons of Belial Belial that is No Yoke But what agreement hath Christ with Belial 2 Cor. 6.15 The very Gospel hath her Law A Law Evangelical there is which Christ preached And as he did we to do the like look but into the grand Commission by which we all preach which Christ gave at his going out of the World Goe saith he Mar. 28.19 preach the Gospel to all Nations teaching them what to observe the things that I have commanded you Lo here is commanding and here is observing Page 162. So the Gospel consists not only of certain Articles to be believed but of certain Commandments and they to be observed Now I know not how but we are fallen clean from the term Law nay we are even fallen out with it Nothing but Gospel now The name of Law we look strangely at we shun it in our common talk To this it is come while men seek to live as they list Preach them Gospel as much as ye will but hear ye no Law to be preached to hold or keep them in And we have Gospelled it so long that the Christian Law is clean gone with us I speak it to this end to have the one term retained as well as the other to have neither term abolished but with equal regard both kept on foot They are not so well advised that seek to suppress either name If the name once be lost the thing it self will not long stay but go after it and be lost too The Christian Religion in the very best times of it was called Christiana Lex the Christian Law And all the Antient Fathers liked the term well and took it upon them To conclude Gospel it how you will if the Gospel have not the Legalia of it acknowledged allowed and preserved to it if once it lose the force and vigour of a Law it is a sign it declines it grows weak and unprofitable and that is a sign it will not long last And Page 165. he saith 1. There is the benefit of this Law what he doth for us 2. And then what we are to do for him our duty out of this Law The benefit is the Gospel of this Law the duty is the Law of this Gospel And Page 166 They speak of Laws of Grace this is indeed a Law of Grace nay it is the Law of Grace not only as it is opposite to the Law of Nature but even because it offereth Grace the greatest Grace that ever was This was Printed and Published in the Year 1624. and that vvas before most of us vvere born And yet even then the Gospel vvas expresly called the Nevv Lavv of Grace by Bishop Andrews and therefore it is no nevv Word vvhich we have lately invented And not onely Bishop Andrews vvho vvas every vvhit as expert as our Authour can be in making a jingling noise vvith Words vvhich vvas more in fashion then than it is novv but the famous Dr. Twiss vvho vvas used to a Scholastick close way of reasoning both says and proves that the Gospel is a Lavv. Therefore he shall be our last Witness in this Cause Novv in his Ansvver to an Arminian Book called The Synod of Dort and Arles reduced to practice he plainly asserts as we do that God deals with Men not meerly as an absolute Soveraign arbitrary Lord but as a Ruler and Governour according to a known Law in giving unto them or with-holding from them the subsequent blessings and benefits of the new Covenant His Words are these Now like as the act of God's decree Pag. 40.41 42. is of the meer pleasure of God no temporal thing being fit to be the cause of the eternal decree of God in like sort the giving of Faith and Repentance proceeds meerly of the good pleasure of God According to that God hath mercy on whom he will Rom. 9.18 And to obtain mercy at the hand of God is to obtain faith Rom. 11.30 But as for Glory and Salvation we do not say that God in conferring it proceeds according to the meer pleasure of his will but according to a Law which is this whosoever believeth shall be saved which Law we willingly profess he made according to the meer pleasure of his will but having made such a Law he proceeds according to it No such Law hath he made according whereunto to proceed in the dispensation of the grace of Faith and Repentance In like manner the Dr. there distinguishes between the denyal of Special Grace of Faith and Repentance and the denyal of Glory As for the first the denyal of Special Grace to some when God gives it to others the Doctor says that God proceeds therein according to the meer pleasure of his Will but as to the second his own Words are these As touching the denyal of Glory and inflicting damnation God doth not proceed according to the meer pleasure of his will but according to a Law which is this Whosoever believeth not shall be damned And albeit God made that Law according to the meer pleasure of his will yet no wise man will say that he denies glory and inflicts damnation on men according to the meer pleasure of his will The case being clear that God denies the one and inflicts the other meerly for their sins who are thus dealt withal And in the next Page Like as God inflicts not damnation but by way of punishment so he doth not bestow Salvation on any of ripe Years but by way of reward Yet here also is a difference for damnation is inflicted by way of punishment for the evil works sake which are committed but Salvation is not conferred by way of Reward for the good works sake which are performed but meerly for Christs sake Thus
Spirit together because according to the Principle aforesaid the Written Word is supposed to say nothing at all of that matter Therefore if ever it be Revealed to the Man and so if ever he be comforted in this World it must be by the Spirit without the Word And then all the poor disconsolate Mans ground of Comfort must be reduced to this That God will reveal it to him by his Spirit immediately without the Written Word But then we demand how our Authour will be able to assure the poor disconsolate dying Man that God will really do so that God will reveal it to him by his Spirit immediately without the Written Word For that immediate extraordinary Revelation being a thing that depends also upon Gods Arbitrary Free Will he may do it or not do it as he pleaseth and if God may freely not do it how can our Authour ever assure the Man that he will do it That is that he will by his Spirit immediately and extraordinarily reveal to him without the Written Word that he shall have Eternal Life and not Eternal Death for his Portion But now if our Authour should say that God hath given unto Man a Promise in his Written Word to ground his Faith upon though he hath not given a stated Rule and standing positive Law according to which he will proceed with Man at Death and Judgment We would readily reply thus Either the Promise in the Written Word made to the dying disconsolate Man is an absolute Promise that God for Christ's sake will give him Eternal Life however it be with him whether he be converted or unconverted penitent or impenitent believer or unbeliever And we are sure there is no such promise in the Bible and to tell him of such a Promise would be at once to belie God and to delude the poor Man Or 2. It is a conditional Promise That God for Christ's sake will give him Eternal Life If through Grace he unfeignedly repent of all his sins and believe on Christ with a lively effectual Faith a Faith working by Love which he is bound to do under the pain of Eternal Death If this be the Promise that the poor dying Man must ground his Faith upon that God for Christ's sake will give him Eternal Life then this is the very thing which Dr. Twisse and we after him call the Law according to which God proceeds in dispensing to his People the subsequent Blessings of the Covenant such as Justification and Glorification are And so our Authour comes over into our Camp which he must do at last and confess if not to us at least to God that he hath grosly misrepresented and falsly accused Christ's faithful Ministers and hath endeavoured to delude the People and to render the Ministers odious to the People and thereby to hinder the success of their Ministry And he must sincerely repent of having done so But if he will yet go on in the way of his own heart we shall be sorry for him and not cease to pray the Lord if it be his will to have Mercy on him and to give him repentance for the scandalous sin which he hath committed in publickly slandring Christs Ministers and in boldly asserting a notorious falsehood in matter of fact saying That the new Law of Grace is a new Word of an old but ill meaning And that he hath really done so we have not only said but proved by the plain testimonies of credible Witnesses whereof two Sealed the Truth of the Gospel with their Blood above fourteen hundred years ago SECT II. Of his second Error that the Covenant of Grace is Absolute and not Conditional SEcondly the Author of the Letter asserts that the Covenant of Grace is Absolute and not Conditional as appears from page 18. at the end and page 24. And particularly he denies that Faith in Christ is the Condition of Justification page 8. Some say that faith justifies as it is a fulfilling of the condition of the New Covenant if thou believest thou shalt be saved This he finds fault with and opposes to it the old Protestant Doctrine as he calls it That the place of Faith in Justification is only that of a Hand or Instrument c. Where we observe 1. That he makes faith its being a Condition and its being a hand or instrument to be two opposite things the one whereof is inconsistent with and destructive of the other and so in this he not only fights against us but likewise against the Assembly of Divines at Westminster who held Faith to be both an Instrument and a Condition in the matter of Justification as was shewed before 2. He makes it to be New Doctrine and contrary to the Old Protestant Doctrine to hold that Faith is a Condition of the Covenant of Grace and that we are Justified by Faith as a Condition of the Covenant wherein he makes the Assembly as well as us to be Preachers of a New Doctrine and Corrupters of the Gospel since they likewise held Faith to be a Condition of the Covenant as aforesaid And again in page 9. We say that Faith in Christ is neither Work nor Condition nor Qualification in Justification but is a meer instrument and he affirms that their saying so is that by which the fire is kindled So that saith he in page 10. It is come to that as Mr. Christopher Fowler said that he that will not be Antichristian must be called an Antinomian Here it is very remarkable that he not only denies Faith to be either Work Condition or Qualification in the matter of Justification but he also in effect affirms that it is Antichristian to assert that Faith is either Work Condition or Qualification and that he will therefore rather choose to be called an Antinomian for denying than to be an Antichristian for affirming it This is and must be his meaning or else he was dreaming and knew not what he did when he cited Mr. Fowler and brought in his Judicious saying with a so that it is come to that as Mr. Fowler said c. Finally in page 25 at the beginning he says that Faith in the Office of Justification is neither Condition nor Qualification but in its very act is a renouncing of all such pretences From all which it is plain that we do not wrest his Words nor charge him with an Opinion which he doth not hold for he so firmly holds the Covenant of Grace to be Absolute and not Conditional and particularly that Faith is neither the Condition of obtaining Justification nor a qualification of the Person then Justified when he believes that he glories to be accounted an Antinomian rather than renounce that Opinion page 24. And he holds it to be New and Antichristian Doctrine to maintain that Faith is either a Condition of obtaining Justification or a qualification of the Person justified or to be justified in that instant of time wherein he believes Before we refute this Opinion we will briefly
declare to the World what our Faith is in this matter And First We do not hold that there is any Antecedent Condition of the Covenant of Grace Our meaning is plainly this That there is nothing required to be necessarily performed by us as a Condition before the Lord will make us Partakers of any Grace even of the first Grace of the Covenant For we believe that the first Grace is given Absolutely and the Lords giving of it is not suspended on our performing of some antecedent Condition by our meer natural Strength This indeed would be Pelagianism or rather Semi-Pelagianism condemned by the Ancient Church and we condemn it as much as the Ancients did We hold that there are Absolute Promises Promises of Regenerating Grace of the New Heart the Heart of Flesh of special Grace through which the Elect believe and repent This is the Grace whereby we performe the Conditions required of us in the Covenant and therefore it must be promised and given Antecedently to our performing those Conditions forasmuch as it is the cause of the performance of those Conditions and the cause must always be in order of nature and causality before the Effect There hath been and is some difference of Opinion amongst Orthodox Ministers about the Person or Persons to whom God hath made those absolute Promises Some think they are made only to Christ for the Church according to these Scriptures Isai 49.6 compared with Acts 13.47 48. and Isai 53.11 Psal 22.30 and 110.3 Others think they are made through Christ only to the Catholick Church that God for Christ's sake would shew special Mercy unto his Select People in all Ages and add them to the Church Mystical by saving Illumination Regeneration and Conversion And so that God through Christ hath promised unto the Catholick Church that she should be a fruitful Mother that should still bring forth Children unto God which should continue the Succession unto the end of the World as in Isa 54.1 Sing O barren c. ver 5. For thy maker is thy husband c. See also ver 8 10. and then consider the Promise ver 13. That all her children should be taught of the Lord. And compare that place with Gal. 4.26 27 28 29. We humbly conceive that the Absolute Promises of the first saving Grace are not made immediately to Individual Persons but to the Body of the Church to the Mother in behalf of her Children Such are the Promises recorded Isa 44.3 4 5. Isa 59.21 Ezek. 36.22 compared with ver 26 27. and with Heb. 8.10 These and all absolute Promises of the first saving Grace seem not to be made immediately unto nor to be immediately pleadable in Faith by any Individual Persons before their first Conversion but to be made unto the house of Israel as the Text expresseth it that is unto the true Church which is the Mystical Living Body of Christ in behalf of all the Children which she as a Spiritual Mother is to bring forth unto God Or 3ly To Reconcile these two Opinions and to reduce them into one it may be some judge it best to say that the aforesaid absolute Promises are made both to Christ and his Church as one Mystical Body consisting of Head and Members which is to be filled up from time to time by adding New Members to it and that continual addition of new Members is made by the fulfilling of the foresaid absolute Promises and for this may be alledged Gal. 3.16 and this way we oppose not Thus it is confessed that there is some difference of Opinion about the Persons to whom the Absolute Promises of the first Saving Grace are made and we cannot help it for it is not in our power to make all good Men to be of one mind in lesser matters and we think we are bound in Conscience to bear with one another in love notwithstanding such little differences But we thank God that we are all agreed that the Promises of the first Grace are Absolute so as to exclude the necessity of our performing any Antecedent Condition to make us capable of that first Grace And we desire it may be well remembred That we say those Promises are absolute so as to exclude any antecedent Condition but not so as to exclude the use of Gods appointed means for the obtaining of that promised Grace We plainly distinguish between an Antecedent Condition which is always and in all cases necessary to obtain the promised Grace and the use of God's means appointed for the obtaining of the promised Grace which use of means is indeed ordinarily necessary unto Men so that they have no ground to expect that ever God should give them the aforesaid Grace without their attending upon him in the use of those means yet is not the use of them so absolutely necessary as that Grace at no time and in no case can be had without them For though God hath tyed us to the means he hath not tyed himself to them by any Law or Constitution so that he can never give the first Saving Grace to any without the use of them We know God hath been found of them that sought him not so he was found of Paul and others and so he may be again in these latter days if he please God may give Faith and Repentance to a man absolutely in what way he pleaseth he may do it in the use of means or out of the use of means which is his ordinary way because he hath not made the use of means the Condition upon the performance of which he hath declared that he will always give it and never in any case without the performance of it Thus indeed it is in the matter of Justification and Glorification It is not consistent with the Truth of God's Word and Perfection of his Nature to justifie or glorifie an Impenitent Unbeliever remaining such because he hath declared that he will not and it is not consistent with his own Honour that he should do it but upon the performance of the Duty and Condition of Faith and Repentance But in the matter of Regeneration and giving Faith and Repentance in the use of means God hath not so tyed up himself by any Declaration of his Will that we know of but that he hath left himself at free Liberty as a Gracious Lord and Merciful Benefactor to give the Grace of Regeneration Faith and Repentance when and how he pleaseth ordinarily in the use of means and extraordinarily without the Antecedent use of Means This we learn of Doctor Twisse who as he affirms frequently that the first Grace and particularly the new Heart Faith and Repentance are promised and given absolutely and not upon the performance of any Antecedent Condition so he positively asserts that the said new Heart Faith and Repentance are usually given in the use of Means and not otherwise ordinarily You shall have it in his own words Thus then he writes in his Answer to the
be really his meaning and he be of that mind that he will neither repent of his sins in order to obtain the pardon of them nor pray for the pardon of them for fear lest he should seem to merit the pardon of them we cannot but think him to be a very weak man and that he fears where no ground of fear is For assuredly if he do but exclude out of his own mind the proud Conceit and Opinion of meriting by his Repentance and Prayer he needs not forbear repenting and praying for the pardon of his sins for fear of thereby meriting pardon or for fear of doing that which looks like meriting pardon His own common Sense and Reason may teach him that by the very acts of repenting and praying for pardon he doth renounce all pretence to merit as well as by the Act of believing in Christ for pardon he doth renounce all pretence to the meriting of his pardon 4. We do not believe that Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience are the legal but evangelical Condition of the Covenant of Grace Which that our meaning may be understood by all we explain thus we do not believe that our Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience which are the Conditions of Justification and Glorification according to the tenour of the Covenant of Grace have the same Place and Office in this new Covenant and Law of Grace which most perfect sinless Obedience had and was to have had in the first old Covenant and Law of Works for in that first old Covenant personal perfect sinless Obedience was to have been Mans Righteousness by which alone he was to have been secured from Death and to have had still a Title and Right to Life but in the new Covenant and Law of Grace neither our Faith Repentance nor sincere Obedience are or can be that righteousness which secures us from Eternal Death and purchases for us a Right and Title to Eternal Life when God first made the new Covenant with us in Christ we had all lost our Right and Title to life and were become guilty of Death In which state we could never by any Act or Acts of ours by any Righteousness in us or done by us secure our selves from Death and recover our Right and Title to Life It was the satisfactory meritorious Righteousness of our Lord Redeemer Christ Jesus that could do and did do this for us It was Christs Righteousness alone that satisfied for our Sins and redeemed us from Death and that merited and purchased for us a Right and Title to Life Christ's Righteousness alone procures us the pardon of our sins and a Right and Title to Life so that it is Christ's satisfactory meritorious Righteousness alone that comes in the place of that perfect sinless Righteousness which was the Condition of the first Covenant and Law of works It is Christ's Righteousness that stands us in stead of that perfect sinless Righteousness which we should have had but have not It is Christ's righteousness alone that procureth to us the Restauration of all the good we had lost and more and better Our Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience have nothing to do at all in this matter This was Christ's work alone and we give him all the Glory of it with all our Hearts and Souls And as it was Christ's Righteousness alone that merited our pardon of sin and deliverance from Death and that purchased our acceptance with God as righteous in his sight and our Right and Title to Life so it is by his Promise and Law of Grace that the Lord gives us that which he had merited and purchased for us that he gives us the pardon of our sins and Right or Title to Life upon our repenting and believing so that our repenting of our sins and believing in Christ are but the immediate nearest means which God hath ordained to be used on our part that we may be fit to receive and accordingly may receive those blessings and benefits which Christ hath purchased and which by the promise are given unto us The use of this means the performance of those Duties of Faith and Repentance is that which our Orthodox Divines call the Condition of the Covenant of Grace For upon Condition that through Grace we do those Duties we shall have those blessings and benefits The Lord will graciously give us them according to his promise on condition that we by Grace do such and such Duties according to his Command Our Faith and Repentance are not our Legal Righteousness nor instead of it that is the Place and Office of Christ's Righteousness only but they are the Condition which the Lord in the Gospel hath required of us that according to his promise we may be blessed with the pardon of sin be accepted at Righteous in his sight and have a Right and Title to Eternal Life From the premisses it is manifest that according to our Principles Faith and Repentance are not a Legal but an Evangelical Condition of the Covenant of Grace and that they do not in the least detract from the Grace of it And we desire it may be remembred that though speaking of Faith and Repentance joyntly we call them sometimes the Condition of the Covenant or the Condition of Justification yet we make a difference between them and because Repentance includes an hearty sorrow for sin and purpose to for sake it and to return unto the Lord we call it the disposing Condition but finding by Holy Soripture and the Nature of the thing that Faith above other Graces hath a peculiar respect unto Christ and his Righteousness we call it the receiving Condition so doth our Reverend Brother Mr. Williams call it in Gospel truth stated c. page 114. and we approve the distinction He was not the first inventer of it for it was used by others before either he or we were born Now if this be true as the Lord who searcheth all hearts knows it to be then let the World judge how false and injurious that Authour is unto us when in page 6. he giveth the People an account of our Principles as to this matter in these following words They will not allow this personal Righteousness of Christ to be imputed to us any otherwise than in the merit of it as purchasing for us a far more easie Law of Grace in the observation whereof they place all our justifying Righteousness Vnderstanding hereby our own personal inherent holiness and nothing else They hold that Christ dyed to merit this of the Father viz. that we might be justified upon easier terms under the Gospel than those of the Law of Innocency in stead of Justification by perfect Obedience we are now to be justified by our own Evangelical Righteousness made up of Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience And Page 28. Many manage the Ministry as if they had taken up a contrary determination even to know any thing save Jesus Christ and him crucified We are amazed to see so many
he hath a Will in himself And if we must not altogether deny all Free-will against Faith and Experience much less must we deny the Grace of God For as Augustin saith in the foresaid 46 Epist ad Valent. Si non est Gratia Dei quomodo Deus falvat Mundum si non est liberum arbitrium quomodo judicat Mundum If there be no Grace of God how doth God save the World And if there be no. Free-will how doth God judge the World The occasion of Augustin's writing thus is observable Two Young Men Cresconius and Felix came to Augustin from another Congregation and told him that there was a Controversie amongst them in the managing whereof some had so preached the Grace of God as to deny that Man hath any Free-will and which is worse they said that in the Day of Judgment God will not render unto every one according to their Works This was the occasion of Augustin's writing both that 46. and the following 47. Epistle to Valentinus And towards the end of the 46. Epistle he gave this prudent and wholsome Advice Vbi sentitis vos non intelligere c. that is Where you perceive that you do not understand how Grace and Free-will consist in the mean time believe the Divine Oracles for there both is a Free-will in Man and also the Grace of God without whose help Free-will can neither be converted unto God nor yet grow up in God And what you piously believe pray that you may also wisely understand This was the Advice which St. Augustin gave unto the Disputers of his time And it was very good Advice for certainly where two things are both clearly revealed in Scripture and yet we find it very difficult to understand and explain the way and manner how they do consist and agree with one another we ought firmly to believe them both upon the Authority and Veracity of God revealing though the mode and manner of their consistence in the same subject we do not understand Yet what we do believe we may and ought humbly and reverently to pray that if it be God's will we may also more throughly understand So in the present case before us we ought firmly to believe that God's Elect when they are effectually called and converted have Free-will actually to believe in Jesus Christ and also that it is by the special effectual Grace of God that they do actually believe though we do not throughly understand how these two hang together how Man's Free-will and God's Effectual Grace consist and agree with respect to the Act of Believing For both are clearly revealed in Scripture as it were easie to demonstrate See Joh. 8.36 But the mode and manner of their consistence and agreement is not clearly revealed and therefore not so necessary to be explicitely believed Yet may we humbly pray and endeavour if the Lord will so far to understand their consistence and concord as to be able in some measure to answer the Objections of those who deny either one or other of them upon pretence that they cannot both be matter of Faith because they contradict and destroy each other and so if one be true the other must be false Now we humbly conceive that the great difficulty about the concord of the freedome of Man's will and of the efficacy of God's Grace in the act of believing ariseth from the false notion of Free-will which the Remonstrants have learned from the Schoolmen and from some of the Greek Fathers to wit that the formal Nature and Essence of the liberty of the Will of Man consists in an absolute indifferency to act this or that or not to act at all as a Man pleaseth and that even when all things are put together which are pre-required to his acting We must ingenuously confess that we do not see how it is possible to reconcile this notion of Free-will with the powerful efficacy of Special Grace But we take this to be a false notion of Liberty and that therefore we are no ways concerned to trouble our selves about the reconciling of such a false notion of Liberty with the efficacy of God's Grace but rather we are concerned to find out the true Notion of Liberty of Will and to shew its consistency with the efficacy of Grace And we take this to be the formal Nature of the Liberty of Man's Will That it is a power with which God hath endâ—ed the Soul of Man whereby he is enabled to consider of and weigh the several things proposed to him and upon the Reasons and Motives that do or may appear to him from the consideration of things willingly to choose or not choose or refuse one thing and to choose or embrace another Now this notion of Free-will is well enough consistent with the efficacy of Grace For the effectual Grace of God is so far from hindering a Man from using this sort of Free-will that on the contrary it mightily helps him to use it aright for 1. The Grace of God's Spirit enlightens Man's Mind and enables him to understand the things proposed by the Word unto his choice and to see the great reason he hath to choose them 2. Grace enclines the Will of Man to follow the conduct of his enlightened understanding and willingly to choose the best Things upon the best Reasons and Motives Thus God deals with Man as a Rational Creature capable of Moral Government by Laws and Exhortations Promises and Threatnings God offers no Violence to his Faculties but influences him in a way suitable to his reasonable Nature and helps him to bring his judging and choosing Powers into Act so as not at all to hinder but rather further and promote his true Liberty According to that of our Saviour John 8.36 often used by Holy Augustin in this Controversie If the Son shall make you free you shall be free indeed And that of the Apostle 2 Cor. 3.17 Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty There is Liberty and Freedom both from the doing of Evil and to the doing of Good This was visible in our Blessed Lord himself when he was here upon Earth in his state of Humiliation Undoubtedly he was a true Man and had all the Essentials of Humane Nature in the highest degree of possible Perfection consequently he had Free-will so far as it is an Essential Property and Perfection of Humane Nature but he had not nay he could not possibly have any indifferency or undeterminedness of will to Good or Evil His Mind did not hang in aequilibrio in an even Balance between Good and Evil so as to have a Power to determine and incline himself to choose either Therefore it is demonstratively evident that the formal essential Nature of Man's Free-will doth not cannot consist in the foresaid indifferency to Good or Evil. But on the other hand The most Noble Soul of our blessed Lord was certainly endued with Power to consider and judge of the several things proposed
to him and upon the best Reasons and Motives that appeared to him from the consideration of things willingly to choose or refuse them and to act or not to act to act thus or otherwise as he saw cause Whence we may confidently conclude that the formal essential Nature of Man's Free-will consists in this Power of acting willingly according to the Judgment of Right Reason and not in the former undeterminedness or indifferency of the Will to do or not to do to do Good or Evil even when all things pre-requisite to its doing and acting do meet together and concur to cause it to do and act Upon this occasion we cannot but mention with approbation a Passage of a very Reverend and Dignified Divine of the Church of England in a Discourse of Christian Liberty Chap. 11. Sect. 3. pag. 139 140 141. As for those that contend that it is more praise-worthy to do Good and forbear evil having a power to do otherwise than to be under a necessity of so doing supposing they mean by necessity such as is not from without or from an inward blind instinct but from an understanding Principle and Perfection of Nature I must needs tell them there is no Proposition in the World more false or absurd I will not therefore stick to say that to have the Will necessarily determined to all Good and from all evil from an over-powering sense of the becomingness and excellency of the one and the vileness and odiousness of the other is the very perfection of Liberty And this is so far from being impossible to be obtained by Creatures or by our selves that by the help of God's Grace it is in a large measure even in this life attainable I mean such a sense of Good and Evil as shall certainly determine us to Good and against Evil in most of the Instances of each There are some Immoralities and wicked Actions that they who have attained to but very mean and ordinary Degrees of Goodness cannot perswade themselves so much as to endeavour to reconcile their Minds to Nay there are some that no Man can easily be supposed able to consent to but an extraordinarily depraved and wicked Wretch let the Motives that are used to perswade him be what they will Such as blaspheming of God contriving the murder of our Parents of a most obliging Friend Torturing of innocent Babes and the like horrid Villanies Surely then a Man is capable of such a vivid sense of the hatefulness of Sin in gneral as will whilst it lasts render it impossible for him to will deliberately to commit any known Sin whatsoever It is confessed that we cannot hope to get past all danger of sudden surprizals so long as we inhabit these Bodies and remain in our present unhappy Circumstances but I say so powerful a sense of the infinite unrighteousness disingenuity unreasonableness folly and madness of opposing the Holy Will of our Great Creator and Blessed Redeemer may by the Divine Assistance be acquired even on this side Heaven as shall determine us effectually against all deliberate and wilful Violations of the Divine Laws For this we have the Authority of a great Apostle St. John saith in his 1 Epist 3.9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him neither can he sin because he is born of God c. This excellent Passage of Bishop Fowler 's may help to clear up the foresaid difficulty and to shew us how the Act of believing may be a Duty and Condition of the Gospel and yet be produced by the effectual Grace of God assisting our Faculties in that production for the efficacy of Grace doth not hinder but rather further the free exercise of our liberty of Will in producing the Act of Faith So that our believing in Christ being an Act of Free Obedience notwithstanding that the Regenerating Principle of Spiritual Life and Seed of Faith inclines and byasses us to act and the actual Influence of the Spirit causeth us to reduce the Principle into Act we can see no reason at all why the actual believing in Christ may not be both our duty and likewise the condition upon the free performance of which God promiseth to justify us to pardon our sins and give us a Right and Title to Eternal Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Our Authour confesseth that the Covenant of Redemption was strictly conditional Lett. p. 24. Mat. 26.39 Joh. 10.18 and that Christ's offering up the Humane Nature in sacrifice to God was in part at least the strict Condition of it and yet Christ performed that Condition as necessarily and unavoidably as we perform the Condition of actual believing when we are influenced thereunto by the special and effectual Grace of God This we take to be a demonstration that the meer infallible certainty and necessity of the Elect's believing in Christ cannot hinder their Faith from being a proper Evangelical Condition of the new Covenant And having thus at large declared in what sense we hold the Covenant of Grace not to be conditional and in what sense to be conditional We shall next prove against our Authour that it really is conditional and that it is not without Ground that we believe it so to be In order hereunto we premise these two Things 1. That it is with respect to the subsequent Blessings and Benefits of the Covenant that we hold it to be Conditional that is it is with respect to Justification and Glorification For as the Professors of Leyden say in their Synopsis of purer Divinity Disp 22. pag. 259. Promissiones Evangelii sunt potissimum duae 1. De Justificatione coram Deo per fidem 2. De Haereditate vitae eternae Rom. 1.17 1 Johan 2.25 The Promises of the Gospel are principally two The first is the Promise of Justification in the sight of God by Faith And the second is The Promise of inheriting Eternal Life It is these Promises and the Covenant of Grace in respect of these Promises which we hold to be Conditional II. That by a Condition we understand a Duty which God requires of us for obtaining the Promised Benefit so as to suspend his giving us the promised Benefit upon our performing the Duty required Assuring us that if we perform the Duty required we shall have the promised Benefit but if we do not perform the Duty required we shall not have the Benefit promised These two things premised we come to prove that the Covenant of Grace is really Conditional as aforesaid with respect to its subsequent Blessings and Benefits And this we shall do 1. by Scripture 2. by Reason consonant to Scripture 3. by Testimonies of Orthodox Divines even of those very Divines whom our Authour affirms to be against us And 1. We prove by Scripture that the Covenant of Grace is Conditional in the sense before explained And we begin with Rom. 10. v. 9. where though the word Condition be not expressed yet we have the
Faith so as to assure us that if we performe the required Duty we shall have the promised benefit if we believe we shall be justified and saved but if we do not performe it if we do not believe we shall not be justified and saved Nothing more is any way necessary to make Faith a Condition but thesetwo things and we see by plain Scripture that both these things agree to a sincere Faith therefore 't is Condition of the Covenant and so the Covenant is Conditional 2. But now we must have a care that we do not deceive our selves and others in thinking and saying that Faith singly and separately considered by it self is the whole intire condition of the Gospel-Covenant so as to exclude all others for though it be the only condition in some respect yet it is not the only Condition in all respects It is the only receiving consenting trusting Condition but the Scripture gives us plainly to understand that besides this receptive Condition there is a dispositive Condition besides Faith the Condition of receiving Christ and Remission of sins through his Name John 1.12 Col. 2.5 Acts 10.43 There is Repentance which is the Condition the performance whereof disposes and prepares us for the receiving of remission of sins Exod. 33.5 The Lord said unto the people by Moses Ye are a stiff-necked people I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment and consume thee Therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee that I may know what to do unto thee The Call to put off their Ornaments was a call to Humiliation and Repentance Till they had answered that Call they were not fit that God should shew them any favour and God speaks of himself after the manner of men as if he knew not what to do with them till they had given some evidence of their Repentance He was not willing to destroy them all and yet it was not fit that he should pardon them and shew favour to them till they had first repented of their sins Jerem. 36.3 It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto them that they may return every man from his evil way that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin Here the Lord intimates that it was not fit they should be forgiven till they had repented and therefore he ordered that Jeremiah should tell them from him all the evil which he threatned to bring upon them if they did not repent to see if that would bring them to Repentance that they might be fit for pardon and that he might pardon them without dishonouring himself by so doing We read also that John the Baptist was sent to Preach Repentance unto the Jews Matth. 3.1 2. That by bringing them to Repentance he might prepare them to receive the Lord Christ Luke 1.17 and to receive through him the Remission of their Sins Mark 1.4 And it is for this reason that we call Repentance the disposing Condition in order to pardon of sin because it fits and prepares us for the receiving of it through Faith in Christ Jesus It may be our Authour will not like this but we little value that if we have Gods Word for our Warrant As we are sure we have for the thing we are upon We will not differ with any about the naming of a thing if we can come to an agreement about the thing it self The Thing then we stand for and are resolved through the Lord's assistance to stand for unto Death is That Repentance is a Condition of the New Covenant in order to forgiveness of sins that is It is a Duty required of us for obtaining the forgiveness of our sins so as that the forgiving us our sins is suspended till we repent and we are assured that if we repent we shall be forgiven but if we do not repent we shall not be forgiven This is all that we mean by saying that Repentance is a Condition of the Covenant And need we prove this to Christians We thought there had been no Jew Turk or Papist that had denyed this But if any Protestants that own the Divine Authority of Holy Scripture do deny it it will be no difficult matter to prove it For 1. That God hath required of us Repentance for obtaining the forgiveness of our sius and hath suspended the forgiveness of our sins till we repent This is evident from the words of the Evangelical Prophet Isa 1.16 17 18. Wash ye make ye clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow though they be red like crimson they shall be as wool And from the words of Jeremiah in the fore-cited place Jerem. 36.3 That they may return every man from his evil way that I may forgive their Iniquity and their Sin And Acts 26.18 To turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness of sin These Scriptures shew that Repentance is so required of us in order to obtain the forgiveness of our sins as that the forgiveness of our sins is suspended till we repent of them Repentance is required of us as a means to the end we may receive forgiveness and it is self-evident that the means must be used before the end can be obtained Though the end be first in intention yet the means must be first in Execution 2. God hath assured us of two things 1. That if we sincerely repent we shall be forgiven Witness Isa 55.7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Ezek. 18.21 22. But if the wicked will turn from all his sins all his transgressious that he hath committed they shall not be mentioned unto him See ver 30. Prov. 28.13 Whoso confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall have mercy Acts 3.19 Repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out 2. That if we do not sincerely repent we shall not be forgiven Psal 68.21 God shall wound the head of his Enemies and the hairy scalp of such a one as goeth still in his trespasses Luke 13.3 5. Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish From all this it appears very evident that Repentance is a Condition of obtaining the pardon of our sins and the Condition must be performed in order of Nature before the benefit promised upon Condition be obtained as we can prove if common sense be denyed from the Testimonies of Dr. Twisse Dr. Owen c. But some object Justification includes forgiveness of sin in its essential Notion and Nature and then if Repentance be before forgiveness of sin it will be before Justification stification also Answer We admit the whole Argument for it is a great
truth that Repentance is before Justification at least in order of Nature They object further if Repentance be before Justification then it is either before or after Faith but it cannot be before Faith for it is impossible that a man should sincerely repent before he believe Nor can it be after Faith if it be before Justification for a man is justified by Faith and that assoon as he believes We answer That men needed not to be deluded by such a silly sophism if they would distinguish 1. Between the Abiding Seed and Principle and the Transient Act of Faith 2. Between the Assenting Act of Faith and it s fiducially consenting act For though Faith in the Principle of it be but one single Grace yet in the Exercise of it it hath several acts successively following one another and yet not so closely neither but that the Act of Repentance may come between them Now to apply these distinctions we say that from Repentance's being before Justification it doth by no means follow that it is altogether and in all respects before Faith For 1. The Seed and Principle of Faith is before the Act of Repentance 2. The assenting Act of Faith is also before the Act of Repentance And thus from a principle of Faith and by the help of an Act of Faith the Soul sincerely repents in order to Justification and pardon of sin then after the said Act of Repentance there comes another Act of Faith to wit the Act of Fiducial consent to receive Christ as he is offered in the Gospel whereupon the penitent believing Soul is immediately justified and pardoned This we learn of Calvin who in his Institutions lib. 3. cap. 3. Sect. 19. writes thus Sic Christus suas conciones auspicatus est c. So also Christ began his Sermons Mark 1.15 The Kingdom of God is at hand repent ye and believe the Gospel First he declares that the treasures of God's mercy were opened in him Then 2. He requires Repentance And 3. and lastly He requires a trust or relyance on the promises of God Here we have the Lords order of things judiciously set forth 1. He declares that the Treasures of God's Mercy are opened in him This Declaration of God's Infinite Mercy in Christ held forth to lost Sinners of Mankind is the object of our Faith of assent and we are bound to assent to it as an infallible Truth and to be firmly perswaded of it 2. He requires our Repentance he requires that assenting to the Truth of the Gospel and being firmly perswaded that God is upon terms of Mercy with us through him we should repent and be heartily sorry that by our sins we have offended so merciful a God and resolve in God's strength to do so no more 3. And lastly That supposing we so repent from a principle of Faith assenting to the Revelation of God's great Mercy in Christ to lost Sinners indefinitely he requires that we trust and rely on God's promises and on Christ as held forth to us in the promises that according to his promises he will for Christ's sake be merciful to us in pardoning us all our sins When we are through Grace arrived at this Act of Faith whereby we trust and rely on God's promises and on Christ as held forth to us in the promises then we are instantly pardoned accepted as Righteous and get a right to Life for the alone satisfactory meritorious Righteousness of our Lord Redeemer But we could never attain to this Act of Faith and thereby to pardon of sin for Christ's sake if we did not first believe with the Faith of assent that God through Christ is upon terms of Mercy and Peace with us That is the first Act of Faith and when it is of the right kind and proceeds from the right Principle the super-natural Seed of Faith put into the heart it is through the influence of the Holy Spirit of mighty force and efficacy 1. To make us repent to make us through Grace heartily sorry for having displeased and dishonoured so good and Merciful a God by our sins and to make us resolve through Grace to do so no more 2. It is of as great force and efficacy to make us trust and rely on Gods promises and on Christ revealed in the promises that God according to his promises will for Christ's sake justifie and pardon us Thus we have answered that frivolous Objection and clearly shewed how true Repentance is in order before Justification and pardon of sin and yet not altogether and in all respects before Faith but partly after and partly before Faith after the principle and assenting Act of Faith but before the fiducially consenting and trusting Act of Faith And what though no Man could give a clear account of the exact order observed by our Souls in the acting of their several Graces yet that should hinder no Christian from believing that true Repentance is in order before pardon of sin because God who cannot he hath plainly told us in the Scripture of Truth that it is in order before pardon as hath been proved If then we have any Faith in God and his Word We should say Let God be True who ever proves a Lyar. Certainly it is very unreasonable foolish and dangerous too to deny or doubt of that which is clear because we cannot throughly understand that which is obscure to wit the precise order of the Souls acting its Graces This may suffice at present to prove that the Gospel-promise of Justification and pardon of sin is conditional and that Faith and Repentance are the Condition of it 2. In the second and last place we shall briefly prove by Scripture that the Gospel-promise of Glorification and Eternal Salvation is conditional and that sincere obedience is the Condition of it For the better understanding of our meaning in this matter we premise a few things As 1. That this is to be understood upon supposition that a man lives some considerable time after that he is effectually called and justified and pardoned upon his first believing and repenting and that he hath space and opportunity to perform his Covenant Engagement unto the Lord and to bring forth Fruits meet for Repentance If the Man dye presently after his Justification and pardon there is no more required on his part the Spirit perfects his begun Sanctification and God through Christ consummates his Salvation without requiring any more of him than what he is inabled to do as he is a dying But if God give him time and opportunity and he live It is required that proportionably to his Talents and time he serve the Lord in Faith and Holy Obedience that he renew his Faith and Repentance for pardon as often as he finds that he has fallen into sin and that he return to his Duty again serving the Lord all his days in Faith Hope Love Fear Patience Meekness Humility and Heavenly-mindedness c. 2. The Obedience that is required as aforesaid must
life And therefore as he saith again John 13.17 Rom. 6.23 If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them And his Apostle Paul saith that God gives eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. But to whom doth he give it Why that is visible from the 22. Verse immediately before It is to them who being made free from sin and become servants to God have their fruit unto holiness It is we say to them that God through Christ gives Eternal Life as a Reward of their Holy Obedience and well-doing God in Christ is most certainly a Rector or Ruler who according to his Law of Grace will distribute at last glorious Rewards to all that fear his Name Revel 11.18 2 Cor. 5.10 James 1.25 Rom. 2.6 7. small and great And as St. James saith Then shall the Obedient Believer the doer of the Lord's Work be blessed in his deed Then as Holy Paul says To them who by patient continuance in well-doing have sought for glory and honour and immortality God will render eternal life This God will do at the Last Day to all that have so continued in well-doing to the end For so the Spirit of Truth hath plainly said by Paul and it is infallibly true and will continue to be for ever true 1 Cor. 7.19 with Gal. 5.6 Let who will contradict it and say it is false Blessed Paul assures again that Circumcision is nothing and Vncircumeision is nothing but the keeping of the Commandments of God Heb. 5.9 And that Christ is become the Authour of eternal salvation to all them that obey him Yea our Lord Christ himself saith Be thou faithful unto death Rev. 2.10 and 3.21 Rev. 22.14 and I will give thee a Crown of life and that he who overcomes shall sit with him on his Throne To all which agrees that we read in the Last of the Revelations Blessed are they that do his Christ's commandments that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates into the city Here we see the Lord himself hath declared them blessed that sincerely keep his Commandments because thereby 1. They have a Right to the Tree of Life whilst they live And 2. When they dye they enter upon the full possession of that which before they had a Right unto They enter in through the gates into the city But you will say how have we right unto and entrance upon full possession of Eternal Life and Glory by keeping Christ's Commandments We Answer the keeping Christ's Commandments doth not merit or give us either one or the other of them but it is the way and means which we use and the Condition which through Grace we perform for the having our right to the Tree of Life continued to us or not taken from us whilst we live And for our having full possession of Life and Happiness given us when we die So that 't is God who first for Christ's sake gave that still continues our right to us and at last will for the same cause that is for Christ's sake give us full possession But he will do all this for us in the way of continued Faith and Obedience and on Condition that we sincerely believe in Christ and keep his Commandments unto the end Thus we have proved from Scripture That sincere Obedience to the Law of Christ is a Condition of Glorification as our first believing and repenting is the Condition on our part of our Justification and of the pardon of our Sins For as the definition of a Gospel-Condition agrees to Faith and Repentance with respect to our Justification and Pardon of Sin so it agrees to sincere Obedience with respect to our Glorification and Eternal Salvation And to whatsoever the definition of a Gospel-Condition agrees to that the Nature and Essence of a Gospel-Condition must agree also From all which we conclude that the Covenant of Grace is Conditional with respect to the subsequent blessings and benefits of it The two principal promises to wit of Justification and Glorification are certainly conditional which was the thing to be proved And having first demonstrated it by Scripture Second Head of Arguments We Secondly prove it by reason agreeable to Scripture And Reason 1. First If the Covenant of Grace be not Conditional with respect to its subsequent Blessings and Benefits particularly if the Promise of Justification and Pardon of sin be not conditional we do not see how it is possible for a Minister to be faithful to God to his own Conscience and to the Souls of the People in preaching the Gospel to them It is true it is easily conceivable how a Minister may be faithful in laying before People the Commandments of the Lord and in telling them that those Commandments oblige them to believe and repent And that if they do not believe and repent they will grievously sin against the Lord and draw down his wrath upon their own Souls But now whâ—n he proceeds to encourage them to believe and repent by setting forth to them God's Promise of Justification and Pardon of Sin we do not conceive how he can do it honestly and faithfully if the Promise of Justification and pardon of Sin be not conditional For when a Minister is preaching to a promiscuous mixed Multitude of People and for their encouragement to believe and repent is declaring to them Gods Gospel-promise of Justification and pardon of Sin either he must declare and preach this Promise to them conditionally or absolutely If conditionally assuring them from the Lord that they shall be justified and pardoned through Christ's Righteousness imputed to them if they sincerely believe and repent then the Promise it self is conditional and the Covenant also is in that respect conditional For if there be no Condition in the Gospel-promise and Covenant how can the Minister preach it conditionally to the People Doth he not take God's Name in vain and abuse the People also by telling them from the Lord that all they who perform the Condition of the Gospel-promise by believing and repenting shall have the promised Benefit to wit Justification and pardon of Sin if there be no Condition in the Promise necessary to be performed by them for obtaining the promised Benefit Either then a Minister must not preach the Promise conditionally to the People or there is and must be a Condition in the Promise and if there be a Condition in the Promise then we have what we aim at for we desire no more to prove the Covenant of Grace to be conditional But 2. If our Authour will say that the Minister must preach the Promise of Justification and pardon absolutely to all the People assuring them from the Lord that they are or shall be justified and pardoned through Christ absolutely whether they perform any Condition or not whether they do any duty or not whether they believe and repent or not Then we Answer That the Minister who shall preach
per impossibile that a Christian have a sincere Faith separated from sincere Obedience if nothing but a sincere Act of Faith be required of him as indispensably necessary to Salvation he is safe and runs no hazard of loosing Eternal Salvation though he lead a wicked life as aforesaid But this is false and absurd therefore that principle from whence this follows is false and absurd also that is it is false and absurd that nothing but an Act of Faith is required as indispensably necessary to Salvation And not only Logick allows us to argue thus sometimes from a supposed impossibility John 8.55 but even our blessed Saviour who is truth it self hath done it before us If I should say quoth our Saviour I know not the Father I should be a lyer like unto you but I know him c. In like manner S. Paul argues ab impossibili saying Though we or an angel from heaven Gal. 1.8 preach another Gospel to you than that which we have preached unto you let him be accursed 3. We Answer That when it is said that sincere Faith cannot be without sincere Obedience the meaning is that sincere Faith is of an Obediential Nature and is of it self apt to put us upon the several Acts of sincere Obedience and will certainly do it if it be rightly used and put forth into strong vigorous Acts if the Spirit of the Lord concur with it if it be not hindred by the flesh and by the prevalency of tentations But the meaning is not that sincere Faith always actually and infallibly produceth the imperat acts of sincere Obedience as necessarily as the Sun produces light and as the Fire produceth Heat For the Principle of sincere Faith doth not so necessarily produce its own formal elicit Acts much less doth it so necessarily produce the Acts of other gracious Principles and Habits whose Acts are not the formal elicit but the imperat Acts of Faith And it is but too well known by sad experience that the Principle of sincere Faith or even the languid weak Act of that Principle doth not necessarily and infallibly alwayes produce all those Acts of sincere Obedience to the Lord which are necessary towards the obtaining of Eternal Life and Glory For had not David and Solomon a Principle of sincere Faith and who can say and prove that they had not then some weak languid Acts of Faith And yet that Faith in them for some considerable time was separated from that sincere Repentance and Obedience which is required as indispensably necessary to the obtaining possession of Eternal Life and Glory This is too evident to be denyed And surely what hath been is possible to be though we heartily wish that it may never actually be any more and that none of God's People may ever fall so foully nor lye so long in Sin as David and Solomon did But we think our Authour or any for him will find it a hard Task to prove that sincere Faith both as to the Habit and some weak Act cannot be for some time actually separated from such imperat Acts of Repentance and sincere Obedience as are indispensably necessary to the obtaining possession of Eternal Life and Glory in Heaven and further he may find it a Task no less hard to determine precisely how long time they may be actually separated but not one Minute longer If he think that he can do either or both of these we do intrent him to do it for in truth it will be a kindness to us who do really find the difficulty so great that we are not able to master it without help 4. We Answer That though it were well proved that sincere Faith can in no case be separated for one Minute from the imperate Acts of that sincere Repentance and Obedience which is indispensably necessary to the obtaining possession of Eternal Life and Glory in Heaven yet it doth by no means follow that Faith onely and not sincere Obedience distinct from Faith is required of us as indispensably necessary to the obtaining possession of Eternal Life and Glory in Heaven for Faith and Obedience may both be required and we have already proved by plain Scripture that they are both required as indispensably necessary to the obtaining of Eternal Life and Glory and without our having both as the Lord hath required we cannot be out of danger of coming short of Eternal Life and Glory The clear evidence of this Truth hath made our ablest and most Judicious Divines acknowledge that upon supposition that the Saints fallen into gross sins against Knowledge and Conscience like those of David and Solomon should dye in them before they had through Grace returned unto their Obedience to the Lord renewed both their Faith and their Repentance and got both the Guilt and Filth of those Sins washed and purged away by the most pretious Blood and holy Spirit of Christ they would be damned and lost for ever This Mr. Rutherford in his Examen Arminianismi p. 620. acknowledges to be a Truth in these Words Nisi renati in atrecia peccata lapsi resipiscerent in aeternum ipsis pereundum esset juxta comminationes Evangelicas Vnless the Regenerate after they have fallen into atrocious sins did repent they must perish everlastingly according to the threatnings of the Gospel Of this Perswasion were our excellent Divines in the Synod of Dort so was Mr. Perkins Bishop Abbot Downham Mr. Burgess Pareus Turretin c. as shall be shewed hereafter by the express Words of most of them This same Truth hath also been acknowledged and maintained by the French Divines who Answered that pestilent Book of the Jansenians called the Renversement and corruption of the Morals of Jesus Christ by the Errors of the Calvinists in the point of Justification Jurieu and others in answer to that most virulent Book go upon our Principle aforesaid and thereby vindicate the Reformed Churches from the blasphemous Reproaches which the Jansenians cast upon us all upon pretence that we all hold the abominable Opinion aforesaid that we are safe as to our Eternal state if we have but a true Faith though we live in the love and practice of all manner of Villanies except Unbelief 5. One great Reason we do not say the onely but one great Reason on our part why a sincere Faith is of its own Nature obediential that is it inclines to obedience and is of it self naturally apt to produce in us sincere Obedience and will not fail to do it if it be rightly used and be not hindred It is this a sincere Faith firmly assents to the Truth of the foresaid Commands Promises and Threatnings of the Gospel whereby we have proved that sincere Obedience is by the Lord made indispensably necessary unto and the condition of obtaining Eternal Salvation and from the infallible Truth of God's Word it assures us that there is no obtaining of Eternal Salvation unless we be sincerely obedient unto the Lord that if
through Grace we be sincerely obedient we shall be saved but if not we shall be damned Now this Faith acting upon the several parts of God's Word according to their respective Natures is of great force and efficacy to determine us unto the practice of sincere Obedience 1. the Faith of God's Word commanding sincere Obedience as indispensably necessary to Salvation makes our Consciences how down to God's Authority in the Command and makes us endeavour to yeild Obedience to it 2. The Faith of God's Word of threatning against the disobedient Rebel works upon our Fears 2 Cor. 5.10 11. Heb. 4.1 and Fear restrains us from disobedience lest thereby we should bring upon our selves the everlasting punishment threatned 3. The Faith of God's Word of Promise to obedient Believers works upon our hope and hope quickens us unto Obedience as the necessary means to obtain the Eternal Reward promised It makes us follow after Holiness in expectation of Happiness 1 John 3.2 3. It is essential to saving Faith to act thus differently on the several parts of the Word according to their respective Natures making us tremble at the Threatnings embrace the Promises and by that means obey the Commands of God As our Confession of Faith intimates in Chap. 14. Art 2. Now our Faith its being thus naturally fitted to make us sincerely obedient unto the Lord in all his Commands and Institutions ariseth partly from hence that the indispensable necessity of sincere Obedience in order to the obtaining of Eternal Salvation is one of the objects of a sound Faith which it firmly assents to and is strongly perswaded of For this firm assent and strong perswasion that sincere Obedience is so necessary to Salvation will not let us rest but will be still putting us on to yeild sincere Obedience unto the Law of Christ as that which must be done or we shall be undone for ever But if a Man be once firmly perswaded in his own Mind that no sincere Obedience but onely the Act of Faith in way of Obedience is indispensably necessary to Salvation his Faith will not have so much Power over him to make him sincerely obedient unto the Lord in order to Salvation Indeed it is much to be doubted whether that Man hath a sincere Faith at all who is under the Power of this erroneous Opinion that no sincere Obedience distinct from the Act of Faith is indispensably necessary to Salvation for a sincere sound Faith amongst other of its Objects it believes this for one that as first Faith so next sincere Obedience is indispensably necessary to Salvation Thus we have proved our Second Proposition to wit It is false that no sincere Obedience but the Act of Faith is required as indispensably necessary to the obtaining the promised Blessing of Eternal Life and Glory Now both the Premisses being certainly and evidently true the Conclusion follows unavoidably which is this That it is true that some Obedience besides the Act of Faith is required as indispensably necessary to the obtaining of the promised Blessing of Eternal Life and Glory For who is so stark blind as not to see that if it be false that no Obedience but Faith is indispensably necessary to Salvation as we have proved it to be false then its contradictory is true that some Obedience besides Faith is indispensably necessary to Salvation We proceed then and thus argue If some Obedience besides Faith be indispensably necessary to Salvation then that some Obedience besides Faith must be either a most perfect personal sinless Obedience or an imperfect personal sincere Obedience There can be no other personal Obedience but one of these two thought indispensably necessary to Salvation But it is not it cannot be a most perfect personal sinless Obedience for if such an Obedience were required as indispensably necessary to Salvation then no Man could be saved because no meer Man ever performed such Obedience to the Law of God in this life no Man ever lived so holily as never to sin in Thought Word or Deed after his Conversion and 〈…〉 And so if such sinless personal Obedience were required of all as indispensably â—â—â—â—â—sary to Salvation no Flesh could be saved but all would be damned notwithstanding all that Christ hath done and suffered to purchase Salvation for his People Christ's blood would have been so far shed in vain that not one Soul would be saved by it which were Blasphemy to affirm and therefore it cannot be that now under the Gospel-Covenant a most perfect personal sinless Obedience is required of us as indispensably necessary to Salvation Since therefore some personal Obedience besides Faith is indispensably necessary to Salvation and it is not a most perfect personal sinless Obedience that is so necessary we must of necessity conclude that it is an imperfect personal sincere Obedience which besides Faith is indispensably necessary to Salvation The other most perfect personal sinless Obedience is not attainable in this Life by the ordinary assistance of God's Grace but this personal imperfect yet sincere Obedience is attainable in this Life by the ordinary helps of God's Spirit and Grace For Christ's yoke is easie and his burden is light Mat. 11.30 And God's Commandments are not grievous 1 John 5.3 The Spirit helpeth our infirmities Rom. 8.26 Through the Spirit we mortifie the deeds of the body Rom. 8.13 We purify our souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit c. 1 Pet. 1.22 In short though without Christ we can do nothing John 15.5 Yet through Christ strengthening us we can do all things Phil. 4.13 that is we can do all things which Christ requires of us as indispensably necessary to our obtaining the promised Blessing of Eternal Life and Salvation If any should object against this and say that a Man may be saved although he do not perform that Obedience which is indispensably necessary to Salvation because though he fall into very great Sins yet he may repent of them and so be saved through Christ upon his repentance We Answer 1. That it is contradictious Non-sence to say a Man may be saved without that sincere Obedience which God hath made indispensably necessary to his Salvation 2. We answer with Rutherford and others as aforesaid that when a Regenerate Justified Man fulls into gross Sins against Knowledge and Conscience he cannot be saved whilst he continues in those Sins without Repentance for then he doth not walk after the Spirit but rather after the Flesh then he is going astray from the way that leads to Life and Salvation and is walking in the broad way that leads to destruction And therefore if he do not turn back and return again into the narrow way that leads to Life and Salvation he will certainly be undone he will perish everlastingly Rom. 8.13 If ye live after the flesh ye shall die But when a justified Man that had fallen as is said rises again by Repentance he returns to his Obedience And we desire it
but adhering to sin and the enjoyment of a Holy God are utterly inconsistent And can you be happy without happyness or by retaining that which is inconsistent with it So that you see there is an utter impossibility that Salvation should be had but upon these terms There is an inconsistency a plain contradiction in any other supposition It is an impossibility not only to us but to the Almighty and therefore the terms are as free and gracious as possibly could be Ommpotent Grace it self could not make them more gracious thus Mr. Clarkson Now let any Body of common understanding and honesty read and consider this passage and they will plainly see that he speaks here of Repentance and of Repentance not only as it denotes a Holy fruitful Life and is the condition of consummate Salvation and Glorification but also as it denotes the Souls first turning from sin and returning to God and is the disposing preparing Condition of our first obtaining the Pardon of our Sins and Justification and Reconciliation of our Persons And in both respects he holds Repentance to be a Condition indispensably necessary not only from the free Constitution and Ordination of God but also from the very nature of the thing so that God himself cannot dispense with it Now if this Doctrine of Mr. Clarkson's be true and good then let the World judge whether that Doctrine be not false and pernicious which our Authour delivers in the 30 page of his Letter That a real Change and Repentance is not antecedently necessary to Justification and Pardon of sin This indeed we affirm to be necessary and he finds fault with us for it and makes it to be a part of our New Scheme of Divinity into which he foists sincere Obedience as if that also were a part of our new Scheme That sincere Obedience is antecedently necessary to Justification But this is his calumny that we hold sincere Obedience distinct from Faith and Repentance to be antecedently necessary to Justification all that know us and our Doctrine know this to be false and the contrary to be true that in our Judgment sincere Obedience is not necessary before but after our Justification and before our Glorisication As for a real Change and Repentance we do indeed believe and preach that they are necessary indispensably necessary in order of Nature at least before our Justification and pardon of sin for a real change is wrought in us by effectual calling and that is certainly before Justification Rom. 8.30 And Repentance is the dispositive condition of Justification and the means to be used by us for obtaining the pardon of our sins which is an essential part of Justification But so it is that the condition is in order of Nature before the thing conditionate or the thing promised upon condition as also the means is in execution before the end therefore Repentance which is the Condition and Means is in order of Nature before Justification which is the thing conditionate and the end This we proved before both by Scripture and Reason and so doth Mr. Clarkson prove it in the passage we have now quoted by two pertinent Scriptures Prov. 28.13 He that covereth his sins shall not prosper but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy and Isa 55.7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and unto our God for he will abundantly pardon Surely one would guess by this that Mr. Clarkson in his time was one of the Masters in our Israel with whom our Authour finds fault page 15 of his Letter for saying to a Man who asks them What he must do to be saved that he must repent and mourn for his known sins and leave and loath them and God will have mercy on him And most certainly if ever there were any such Masters in our Israel Mr. Clarkson was one of them for according to his Principles he must in that case have given a Man that answer for he strongly asserts that God Almighty cannot have Mercy upon and pardon a wicked Man unless he repent mourn for his known sins leave and loath them But it would seem our Authour is such a Crafts-Master that he can teach a wicked Man how to obtain the Mercy of God in the pardon of his sins before and without repenting of mourning for leaving and loathing of them for he blames us for telling a wicked Man who comes to us for advice what he must do to be saved that he must repent mourn for and turn from his sins and God will have mercy on him and pardon him now if this be bad Advice then it plainly follows that if the same wicked Man go to our Authour and if he can give him better advice he must shew him a way to obtain God's mercy in pardoning his sins and saving his Soul before and without his repenting of mourning for and turning from his sins But how can our Authour effect this how can he teach a wicked Man to be saved from Sin and Wrath without Repentance Why he pretends this is easily done by giving the Man that same advice which Paul and Silas in Acts 16.30 31. gave unto the Goaler when he asked them what he should do to be saved And they said to him Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house This he says is an old Answer so old that with many it seems to be out of date page 14 and it is the right Answer For says he page 15 Why should not the right Answer be given believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved By this it is evident that he sets these two Answers in opposition the one to the other as inconsistent and makes Repent and God will have mercy on you to be the wrong Answer And Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved to be the right Answer And now is not he a wise Master in our Israel who talks thus If he had only talkt thus to his silly Proselytes in a private corner though we had been credibly informed of it we should not have easily believed it or if the evidence had been such as we could not choose but believe it yet we should not have wondred so much at the matter but that he should appear in print with such stuff that he should appear on the Theatre of the World in the face of the Sun and tell a knowing wise People that a wicked man who asks Ministers what he must do to be saved must not be taught to repent of his sins but to believe in Christ that he may be saved as if these two things were inconsistent the one being right and the other wrong It cannot but move us to admiration of his strange confidence to an indignation at his gross ignorance or vile hypocrisie and to a tender compassion towards those poor
Goaler Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved He would not only give Peter but the Holy Ghost the lye and might justly expect that the Lord would confound him Therefore we do not think that he will be so impious as to say that Peter did not give the Men a right Answer 2. If he say that it was a right Answer which Peter gave them then in effect he gives himself the lye he condemns himself and justifies us For it is the same Answer upon the matter which we give unto the Sinner that comes to us for advice which Peter gave unto the convinced Jews Peter bid them repent and be baptized c. We bid him repent of mourn for and turn from his Sins and God will have Mercy on him for Christ's sake and if the man be unbaptized as the Jews were we bid him be baptized for the remission of sins as Peter did by those Jews Whatever therefore our Authour hath said against us in this matter he hath said against Peter and which is more against the Holy Spirit himself If our Answer be wrong then Peter's was wrong before us and he it was that deceived us for we have ours from him and from God by him If Peter's Answer was right then ours is right likewise for ours is the same with his exactly if the Person be unbaptized excepting that upon his Repentance and Baptism for the remission of sius we do not promise him the miraculous extraordinary Gift of the Holy Ghost as Peter promised those Jews but onely the ordinary Gift which is common to all true penitent Believers in all Ages If our Authour say that implicitely Peter bid them believe in Christ as well as repent by bidding them to be baptized in his Name Most true and so do we nay which is more whether the Person be baptized or unbaptized when we exhort him to repent we never fail to exhort him also and that explicitely and in formal express terms to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ us Paul did by the Jaisour Where is the Fault then of our Answer taken fully and fairly as we give it Certainly no where unless Peter and Paul's Answers were both faulty for our Answer comprehends both theirs and is exactly the same so far as the different Circumstances of the Persons and Times will admit Let our Authour then look to it that by his writing thus against us he be not found fighting against God and the Holy Apostles of Christ our Saviour By what hath been said we have made it sufficiently evident that the Covenant of Grace is not absolute but conditional with respect to its subsequent Blessing and Benefits for we have proved it both by clear Scripture and Reason We have shewed also that our Authour 's own Conscience could not altogether deny it and therefore he grants that an accepting Faith is the native Condition of it How far and in what sense this is true we have shewed at large and withal we have proved that though Faith be the one native receptive applicative Condition of Justification yet is it not the only Condition absolutely but the only receptive Condition with which it is very well consistent that Repentance be the dispositive Condition which it really is and that as natively and necessarily in its kind and order as Faith can be in its kind and order It remains now that having proved the Covenants Conditionality by Scripture and Reason we shew in the third and last place by Testimonies of Divines Antient and Modern even of those very Divines whom our Authour affirms to be against us that they believed the Covenant to be conditional in the same sense as we do and consequently that our Authour has fouly belyed us in telling the People that we have invented a new Divinity corrupt the old and preach a new Gospel And 1. We shall begin with the Antient Doctors of the Christian Church and give a few Testimonies of theirs relating to the Matter in hand even as many as can well consist with our designed Brevity 2. We shall come to the Testimony of Orthodox Divines since the Reformation 1. We begin with the Fathers and among them Blessed Clement deserves the first place because he was the Antientest of them he was contemporary with the Apostles Testimonies of Fathers St. Paul speaking of him in Phil. 4.3 gave him this honourable Testimony that his Name was in the Book of Life Of this Blessed Pastour of Christ's Church we have the first Epistle to the Church of Corinth which is by all acknowledged to be genuine and which was so much esteemed in the Primitive Church that it was read publickly in their Congregations Now in the Oxford Edition 1677. pag. 17. he writes thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Let us with fixed eyes behold the Blood of Christ and consider how precious his Blood is unto God which being shed for our Salvation hath offered the Grace of Repentance to the whole World Let us earnestly take a view of all Generations and learn that in every Generation the Lord hath given place of Repentance to such as were willing to turn unto him This Testimony of Clement with what follows there shews plainly that God hath made Repentance necessary antecedently in order of Nature unto Pardon of sin and that upon Condition of Repentance he hath promised Pardon of sin unto all in consideration of the Blood of Christ shed for the remission of sin This seems plainly to be the meaning of the foresaid Words that the precious Blood of Christ being shed for our Salvation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath offered the Grace of Repentance to the whole World For either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Grace of Repentance signifies here the gracious Principle of Repentance wrought in Men and the gracious Influences of the Spirit whereby Men are effectually enabled to exert and put forth that Principle into act and such Grace is not common to all the World nor is it said to be barely offered unto Men but rather to be effectually given to some and wrought in them and by them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apud Scapulam significat benesicium praemium Or else it must signifie here the Grace and Favour of God in now admitting all Men to Repentance and the gracious benefit which he hath promised them if they do repent And this we take to be the true meaning of Clement's Words For 1. This is a Grace and Favour common unto all Men by the Law of Christ that they are admitted to Repentance as a means of obtaining Pardon through his Blood which the Law of Works and Innocency did not admit but required a most perfect personal never-sinning Obedience as absolutely and indispensably necessary to Life and Salvation 2. This is a Grace and Favour which is really offered unto all the World that hear the joyful sound of the Gospel that if they sincerely repent of their sins they shall
be pardoned and saved for the sake of Christ who shed his most precious Blood for the remission of sins 3. The very same Words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are used in this same sense by Origen in his Third Book against Celsus Cambridge Edition pag. 154. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God grants the Grace of Repentance i. e. the Gracious Blessing and Priviledge which is obtained by Repentance to wit pardon of sin This is and must be the sense of Origen's Words there and they can have no other For Origen affirms there in opposition to the Calumny of Celsus as shall be shewed by and by that Men must first be truly penitent they must be inwardly changed and converted from Evil to Good before God be merciful to them so as to pardon their sins And when they are so wrought upon as to be really changed converted and become truly penitent then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God grants them the Grace of Repentance that is the pardon of their sins which is the gracious Benefit annexed to Repentance and promised to all upon Condition that they truly repent To put another sense on Origen's Words would be to make Non-sense of them and to make him say That if Men be first truly penitent God will afterwards give them Grace whereby they may be or are made truly penitent Origen was not such a filly Man as to write thus foolishly for the Christian Religion against a learned and malitious Heathen 4. Clement and Origen's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Grace of Repentance is the same thing with Tertullian's Fructus Paenitentiae Fruit of Repentance but Tertullian's Fruit of Repentance is pardon of sin for so he writes Lib. de Pudicitiâ Cap. 10. Ita cessatio delicti radiae est veniae ut venia sit paenitentiae fructus Ceasing from sin is so the root of pardon that pardon is the fruit of repentance 5. And Lastly the Words-which immediately follow in Clement shew this to be his meaning for he adds Let us take a diligent view of all Generations and learn that in every Generation the Lord hath given place of Repentance to such as were willing to turn unto him Noah preached Repentance and they that obeyed were saved Jonah preached Destruction to the Ninivites but they repenting them of their sins appeased God by their humble Supplications and were preserved These Words plainly shew that by saying that through the Blood of Christ shed for our Salvation God hath offered the Grace of Repentance to the whole World Clement meant that God hath admitted all Men to Repentance as the way and means to obtain Pardon and hath promised and according to his Promise doth give them Pardon for Christ's sake upon their Repentance But it may be some will Object that yet the same Clement in the same First Epistle to the Corinthians saith pag. 67. They the Holy Men before and under the Law were all Glorified and made Great not by themselves or by their own Works or by the just Actions which they did but by his Will So we Christians then being called in Christ Jesus by his Will are not justified by our selves nor by our own wisdome or knowledge or piety or by the works which we have done in holiness of heart but by Faith whereby the Almighty God hath Justified all Men from the beginning of the World to whom he Glory for ever and ever Amen We Answer that this makes nothing against us for we have believed we do and through Grace will always believe that God Justisies us by Faith and not by any Works distinct from Faith in the sense before explained that is that God of his own Gracious Will and Pleasure hath ordained Faith to be the only receptive applicative Condition Means or federal moral Instrument of Justification upon our performing of which Condition or using of which Means and Instrument God doth freely justifie us for the sake of Christ's satissactory meritorious Righteousness onely We do indeed with Clement and with the Holy Prophets and Apostles believe that sincere Repentance is pre-required as a dispositive Condition to our obtaining of Justification yet we do not say any more than they did that we are Justified by Repentance but together with them we say that we are Justified by Faith only because God hath appointed Faith onely to that Office of being the receptive Condition and inward applicative Means of Justifiaation through Christ's Blood Clemeut's saying that God Justifies us by Faith and not by Works must undoubtedly be understood in this sense as appears by what we have quoted and shall now further quote out of him Pag. 102. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Let us speedily remove this evil from among us and let us fall down before the Lord humbly beseeching him with Tears that being become favourable he would be reconciled unto us By this Passage we see that Clement held as we do that repenting of mourning for and turning from our known sins and humble earnest Prayer to God through Christ is a means indispensably necessary to be used by us before we can have ground to hope that God will have mercy on us in pardoning our sins And as he held Faith and Repentance together to be indispensably necessary to the obtaining of Justification and pardon of sin so he held sincere Obedience in a course of holy living to be indispensably necessary to the obtaining of Glorification and Eternal Salvation For thus he writes pag. 61 62. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Since therefore all things are both seen and heard by him let us fear him and forsake all foul desires of evil Actions that so we may be protected by his Mercy from those Judgments which are to come For whither can any one of us flee from his powerful Hand And what World will entertain any of them who fall off from him or turn Renegado's Let us come unto him therefore in the holiness of our Souls lifting up unto him pure and undefiled hands loving this our gentle and merciful Father who hath made us unto himself the portion of his election And pag. 73. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Let us therefore earnestly strive to be sound in the number of them that wait on him that so we may be made Partakers of those Gifts which are promised But Beloved how shall this be done If our Thoughts be stedfastly fixed upon God by Faith if we enquire after those things which are well-pleasing and acceptable unto him if we do those things which are agreeable to his pure and irreproveable will and follow the way of Truth Casting away from us all injustice and iniquity covetousness contentions malignities and deceits whisperings and backbitings hatred of God pride and boasting vain-glory and ambition for they that do these things are abominable unto God and not onely the Doers thereof but they also which consent thereunto For the Scripture saith c. As in Psalm 50. which Clement quotes from v. 16.
were then any such foolish ignorant Christians in the World but in regard he was not acquainted with every individual Christian he did not absolutely deny it only he said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perhaps there might be some such Christians in the World And if there were as there might be or not be some for ought he knew they were none of the right breed of Christians they were but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 foolish ignorant Christians 3. Origen acknowledges that that senseless Opinion did impute unto the Holy God a thing that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most unjust 4. Therefore in the Name of the Christian Church he declares to Celsus That Christians believed that God pardons and receives into Favour no unconverted impenitent Man and that he rejects no good Man no penitent Believer 5. He declares that according to the Faith of Christians a Man must always repent before God pardon him and receive him into his Favour 6. That the Repentance which goes before Pardon and to which pardon is promised must be such as makes a real change in a Man's Heart and Soul and that the change is so great as that the Man greatly condemns himself on the account of his sins he mourns for them and turns from them unto the Lord in Heart and Affection yea it is so great as that the reigning power of sin is in a good measure broken and it is cast down from its Throne in the Heart 7. That upon this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God immediately grants unto the Man thus changed the graciâ—â— beneâ—t and Feuiâ— of his Repontance that is the pardon of his sins which in the very next Sentence Origen calls an Amnesty or an Act of Oblivion And here by the way those who are intelligent may see that we were in the right before when we said that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Grace of Repentance in Clement doth signifie pardon of sin as the Gracious Fruit of Repentance for here the self-same words are used by Origen where they are capable we think of no other meaning 7. Origen declares that if the Gracious Principle that comes to take possession of the penitent Believer's Soul be not at first a confirmed habit of Christian Vertue yet it is such as at that present time doth in a good measure purge out sin and for the time to come makes it well nigh impossible for sin ever to recover its power in and over the Soul again This Book of Origen against Celsus is acknowledged by all learned Men to be genuine and uncorrupted and so far as we know he was never yet taxed with errour by any Man for asserting â—â— here he doth that Repentance is antecedently necessary to Justification and pardon of sin If our Authour have the confidence to affirm that he ever was by any mortal Man taxed with errour for this let him prove his assertion if he would be believed The same Doctrine was taught by Justin the Martyr writing in defence of the Christian Religion against a learned Jew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Justin Mart. Dialog cum Trypho pag. 370. Edit Parisâ— Anno 1636. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. So then saith â—ustin if they repent all that are willing to receive mercy from God they may and the Word hath before declared them to be blessed saying blessed is he to whom the Lord imputeth not sin And that is thus that whoso repenteth of his sins shall receive from God remission of sins but not so as ye deceive your selves and some others also that are like you in this matter who say that though they are sinners yet if they know God i. e. believe the Lord will not impute sin unto them We have a Testimony and Evidence of this in one of David 's sins which he fell into by his pride and vain-glory which was then forgiven when he had so wept and lamented as is written of him And now if Pardon was not granted to so great a Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before he had repented but when that great King and anointed One and Prophet â—had wept and done such things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how cau filthy and foolish witless Men or Men quite out of their right mind unless they lament mourn and repent have hope that the Lord will not impute sin unto them Here it is observable that Justin Christ's blessed Martyr Fifteen Hundred Years agoe positively denies that God pardons Sinners before they repent and declares that they deceive themselves that they are desperate or witless Creatures quite out of their right mind who perswade themselves that if they know God he will pardon their sins before they repent mourn for and turn from their sins About the beginning of the Third Century Tertullian in his Book of Repentance Chap. 4. writes thus Omnibus delictis c. that is The same God who by his righteous Judgment hath ordained punishment for all sins that are committed either in the Flesh or Spirit either in the outward Deed or inward Will and Desire hath also promised pardon by Repentance saying to the People Repent and I will save thee And again As I live saith the Lord I had rather Repentance then Death Therefore Repentance is Life that is it is the way and means to Life since it is preferred before or more desired than death And a little after Poenitentia quae per Dei gratiam ostensa indicta nobis in gratiam nos Domino revocat Repentance saith he which by the grace of God is revealed to us and commanded brings us into Favour again with the Lord that is Repentance is a means and condition of God's own appointing upon the use and performance whereof we are received again into favour with the Lord. And after the middle of the same Book desertam dilectionem Ephesiis imputat c. The Lord imputes unto the Ephesians that they had left their first Love he upbraids them of Thyatira with Fornication and eating of things sacrificed to Idols He accuses them of Sardis that their works were not perfect before God he reproves them of Pergamus for teaching perverse Doctrine he rebukes the Laodiceans for trusting that they were rich and needed nothing And yet he admonishes them all to repent with threatnings indeed but he would not threaten to punish the impenitent if he were not willing to pardon the penitent and saith if any doubt of this for the removing of such doubts illum etiam mitissimum patrem non tacebo qui prodigum filium revocat c. I will not forbear to mention that most meek Father in the parable who calls back his Prodigal Son and after his poverty and distress gladly receives him upon his Repentance kills the fatted Calf adorns his Joy with a Feast and why not For he had found his Son whom he had lost and he had felt his love to be the greater towards him because he had regained him Now whom must we understand by
this Father Why even God for none is so much a Father as he none so affectionate as he Thorefore he shall receive thee his Son although thou hast prodigally spent that which thou hadst received from him although thou returnest naked yet he will receive thee because thou art returned And he will rejoyce more in thy return than in another mans sobriety Sed si poeniteat ex animo but it is on condition that thou repent from thy heart that thou compare thy hunger-starved condition with the plenty of thy Fathers hired Servants that thou forsake the swine those unclean beasts that thou come back to thy Father though he be offended with thee saying Father I have sinned nor am I worthy to be now called thine By this we plainly see that Tertullian preached the necessity of sincere Repentance antecedently to the obtaining pardon of sin Next to Tertullian we alledge blessed Cyprian for a Witness of the same Truth Thus then he writes Dominus loquitur c. Operum Cypr. Tom. 1. Epist 18. edit Colon. Agrip. An. 1617. The Lord speaketh and saith to whom shall I look but to him that is humble and still and trembleth at my words Seeing we ought to be all such they then much more ought to be such whose Duty it is to endeavour that after a grievous fall they may obtain God's favour and mercy by true Repentance and great humility In his 52 Epistle to Antonianus page 59. Dominus in Evangelio c. The Lord in the Gospel setting forth the goodness and kind affection of God the Father saith What man is there of you who if his Son ask of him bread will give him a stone Or if he ask a fish will give him a Serpent If ye then who are evil know how to give good gifts unto your Children how much more shall your heavenly Father give good things to them that ask him The Lord here makes a comparison between a Carnal Father or a Father of the Flesh and the Eternal and large goodness and kindness of God the Father Now if it be so that this evil sinful Father upon Earth who hath been grievously offended by his sinful and wicked Son yet if afterwards he see him reformed and having forsaken the sins of his former Life and being by the sorrow of Repentance amended and changed to sober and good manners and to the Discipline of Innocency or to a Holy course of Life he both rejoyceth and is glad and having received him whom he formerly had cast off he embraces him with the desire of a Fatherly Joy How much-more doth that One and True Father who is Good Merciful and Kind yea Goodness Mercy and Kindness it self rejoyce in the Repentance of his Children neither doth he threaten wrath to the penitent nor punishment to them that mourn and lament But he rather promiseth them pardon and favour Whence the Lord in the Gospel saith They are blessed who mourn for he that mourns moves compassion Whereas he that is stubborn and proud heaps up to himself the wrath and punishment of the judgment to come And in the same Epistle page 60. Scimâ—s juxtd Divinarâ—m Scripturdrum fidem ductore hortatore ipso Deo ad agendum poenitentiam peccatores redigi veniam atque indulgentiam poenitentibus non denegari We know according to the Faith of the Holy Scriptures God himself being both the Author and Exhorter that Sinners are brought to Repentance and also that forgiveness and favour is not denyed them when they do repent And in his eighth Epistle to the Clergy and People after he had told them that according as it had been revealed and foretold by prophecy the Enemy had got power over them and had raised a terrible Persecution against them because of their Divisions and Contentions their breaking the Lords Commandments and sleepy way of Prayer and after he had most passionately exhorted them to give themselves much to Watching and prayer to earnest frequent fervent Prayer Night and Day and had pressed them thereunto both by precept and example of Christ and his Apostles who spent Days and Nights in Prayer and had likewise encouraged them thereunto by telling them that Christ prayed not for himself and his own sins but for them and for their sins he added as it is in pag. 16. of that Book Quod si pro nobis c. i. e. which if it be so that he the Lord Jesus labours and watches and prays for us and for the pardon of our sins how much the more should we continue in Prayer and Supplication We have Jesus Christ our Lord and God to be Advocate and Intercessour for our Sins if so be or on condition that we repent of our sins past and confessing and being sensible of our Faults whereby we now at this present time offend the Lord we promise that for time to come we will walk in his ways and fear his Commandments By this that we have cited and by much more that we could cite out of Cyprian it may evidently appear that that blessed Martyr of Jesus was far from being of Opinion that God pardons the sins of his People before they repent Indeed to tell People that God pardons their sins before they repent it is falsa misericordia false or deceitful Mercy it is not curare sed si dicere verum volumus occidere the way to cure but if we will speak the Truth to kill Souls in the Judgment of those Ancient Elders and Deacons who wrote the 31. Epistle to Cyprian page 37. and Cyprians himself was of the same Judgment for thus he writes in the same Book pag. 143. Qui peccantem c. That is De lapsis Tom. 2. He who flatters a sinner with sweet and pleasant words gives him occasionto sin and doth not restrain but nourish his sinful lusts Whereas he who at once both reprovesâ— and instructs his brother by giving him more solid and firm counsel he helps him forward in the way to Salvation Whom I love saith the Lord I rebuke and chasten So the Minister of God ought not to deceive the People by cunning and cousening compliances but to provide sound and saving Remedies for their Souls He an ignorant unskilful Chirurgion who is afraid to feel with his hand the swelling is hollowness of wounds and whilst he keeps the corrupt humour close shut up in the secret recesses of the bowels he increases it and makes the wound more dangerous The wound must be opened and incisions must be made and the Malady must be cured with a stronger and sharper Remedy even by cutting off and taking away the flesh that is corrupted and putrified Let the sick Person cry out and complain as he will by reason of the pain which he hath not patience to endure yet afterwards he will thank the Chirurgion when he finds that he is cured Thus Cyprian and sure this is sufficient to shew that he would never have said that it
our Father Ne ergo ipsi adoptionis jure nos abdicemus hà c semper enitendunt quo tendit nostra vocatio Therefore least we should abdicate disinherit or deprive our selves of the right of Adoption we must evermore be endeavouring to attain the end of our Christian and Heavenly calling By this passage we see that Calvin held sincere filial Obedience to be a Condition necessary on our part to our continuing in a state of Sonship and to our obtaining the Heavenly Inheritance of Children It is confessed that he did not think that the performance of such Obedience and perseverance therein to the end depends principally on Man's Will nor do we think any such thing nay we declare that it depends principally on God's special Grace and Favour through Jesus Christ He also did not think the said Obedience to be meritorious nor do we nay we utterly abhor any such Thought So that in this Matter Calvin and we do exactly agree against our Authour Inst l. 3. c. 14. Sect. 18. Calvin sayes Dum operum fiduciam excludimus hoc volumus duntaxat ne mens Christiana ad operum meritum velut ad salutis subsidium reflectatur Sed penitùs resideat in gratuitâ justitiae promissione Whilst we exclude all trust or confidence in works we mean this onely that the mind of a Christian should not look on the merit of good works as unto an help towards the obtaining Salvation but that it should wholly rest in the free Promise of Righteousness Here Calvin himself gives us a Key to open the true meaning of any Expressions of his that may incline any body to think that he slighted good Works of holy Obedience And he would have us to know that all such Persons that think so of him quite mistake his sense for his true meaning is only that good Works are not in the least meritorious that under that false notion they are to be slighted indeed and that true Christians should have no regard unto them as if by their merit they could help us to obtain Salvation now under this false Notion we reject them utterly as much as our Authour or any other Man can do Yet can we never allow that good Works which are really such should be cryed down as unnecessary to Salvation in that way that the Lord hath made them necessary much less can we agree to the horrid Opinion of the Amsdorsian Lutherans that good Works are pernicious to Salvation So much for Calvin Next to him it is fit that Beza should appear to give in his Testimony And he gives it clearly on our side For thus he writes in his 20th Epistle Conjunctas autem esse poenitentiam remissionem peccatorum c. That Repentance and Remission of sins are joyned together and so indeed that Repentance goes before Remission of sins partly the express Word of God teaches it partly also Reason it self and common sense how corrupt soever shews it John says Mark in his 1. Chapter preached the Baptisme of Repentance for Remission of sins And Luke 13. Except says Christ ye repent ye shall all likewise perish And Luke 24.47 Repentance saith Luke and Remission of sins must be preached in his Name Moreover nothing doth occur more frequently in the Scriptures than such Testimonies For neither doth the Lord vouchsafe the Grace and Favour of Remission of sins unto others but them that are penitent From this passage we observe 1. That it is a Truth so bright and clear that Repentance goes before pardon of sin that in Beza's Judgment the common Sense and Reason of Mankind doth or may discern it 2. That this Testimony can not be eluded and put off by saying that it is a legal and not an Evangelical Repentance that goes before pardon of sin For the proofs which Beza brings from Scripture will by no means admit of this Evasion For 1. The Repentance that Beza saith goes before pardon of sin is the Repentance which Christ exhorted the Jews unto Luke 13.3 5. and which he ordered his Apostles to preach unto all Nations in his Name beginning at Jerusalem Luke 24.47 But certainly that was an Evangelical and not a meer legal Repentance 2. The Repentance which in Beza's Judgment goes before pardon of sin is a Repentance to which is made the promise of pardon of sin so that whosoever doth not thus repent shall perish but whosoever doth thus repent shall not perish Therefore it is and must be an Evangelical and cannot be a meer Legal Repentance for pardon of sin is not promised to a meer Legal Repentance And it cannot be truly said that a Man who repents with a meer legal Repentance shall not perish Thousands have perished Everlastingly who yet repented with a meer legal Repentance And Judas was one who so repented Matth. 27.3 4. And when he had done it he went and hanged himself It is most evident then that Beza did not bring those Texts to prove that a meer legal Repentance goes before pardon of sin for those Texts do not speak of a meer legal Repentance but of one that is truely Evangelical to which pardon of sin is so infallibly assured That whosoever doth not so repent shall perish and whosoever doth so repent shall not perish But some may say yet Beza affirms in the same Epistle that contrition of Heart doth not properly proceed from the Gospel We Answer It is true he doth say so but it is plain he was mistaken in that and contradicts Calvin who sayes expresly Inst l. 3. c. 3. Sect. 19. that Cum totam Evangelii summam breviter complecti voluit dixit c. When the Lord Christ would comprehend the whole summ of the Gospel in few words he said that it behoved him to suffer to rise again from the dead and that Repentance and Remission of sins must be preached in his Name and this the Apostles after his Resurrection preached that he was raised up by God to give Repentance unto Israel and Remission of sins It may be Beza had some peculiar conceit that all Repentance of what kind soever is properly from the Law and but improperly from the Gospel It would seem so by his saying that a contrite Heart is not properly from the Gospel and yet a contrite Heart is the Sacrifice which God will not despise which he is certainly well-pleased with through Christ Psal 51.17 But though Beza was mistaken in saying that a contrite Heart is not properly from the Gospel yet he plainly saw the main Truth which we plead for and confessed it and proved it by clear Scripture that sincere Repentance goes before pardon of sin The same Beza in his Confession of Faith Cap. 4. Art 5. sayes Pater Caelestis nobis annunciat c. The Heavenly Father declares to us that he hath so loved the World that he hath given his only begotten Son for it ea conditione on that condition that whosoever believes in him should not perish but
between him and those who do not love to say that Faith is an Instrumental Cause is more verbal than real for he doth not say that Faith is the Instrumental cause of our Justification that indeed had been to ascribe too much unto Faith but the Instrumental cause receiving Christ and his Righteousness upon which follows Justification now we all acknowledge Faith to be of an apprehensive receptive nature and that it is the Instrumental means whereby we apprehend and receive Christ and his Righteousness that we may be Justified and our using that Instrumental means as the Lord hath appointed is the receptive condition to which the Promise of Justification is made Here then seems to be a meer difference in words when we mean the same thing Lastly for sincere Obedience he holds it to be in some sense a cause of obtaining Eternal Life which is more than we have ascribed to it in calling it a Condition for a Condition as such hath no causal Influence Ibid. lib. 2. cap. 1. pag. 199. His own Words in the said Book are these Our Obedience indeed is not the principal or meritorious cause of Eternal Life For we receive the right of this life and the life also it self from the Grace and Gift of God for the sake of Christ apprehended by faith Rom 6.23 The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. But yet it is a cause some way administring helping and moving forward towards the possession of this life whereof we had the right before for which reason it is called the way in which we walk to Heaven Eph. 2.10 And it promotes our life both of its own nature because it is some degree of life it self still tending to perfection and also by vertue of God's Promise who hath promised Eternal Life to those who walk in his Commandments Gal. 6.8 He that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting For though all our Obedience while we live here is imperfect and contaminated with some mixture of sin Gal. 5.17 The flesh lusts against the spirit yet through Christ it is so acceptable unto God that it is crowned with a most great reward The Promises therefore made to the Obedience of the Faithful are not Legal but Evangelical although by some they are said to be of a mixt nature In all this Ames ascribes as much to sincere Obedience and makes it as necessary to Salvation as we do If we say it is a Condition he sayes it is in some sort a Cause of obtaining the poffession of Eternal Salvation And sure to be so a Cause is as much at least as to be a Condition Next let us see what Dr. Twiss faith to these things Indeed he is so clearly on our side that if the Authour of the Letter had been acquainted with his Writings he would have been wiser than to have mentioned his Name in this Cause For thus he writes We say that pardon of sin and salvation of Souls are Benefits purchased by the death of Christ to be enjoyed by Men but how Answer to a Booke called The Synod of Dort and Arles reduced to practice pag. 16. not absolutely but conditionally to wit in case and onely in case they believe For like as God doth not confer these on any of ripe years unless they believe so Christ hath not merited that they should be conferred on any but such as believe and accordingly profess that Christ dyed for all that is to obtain pardon of sin and salvation of Soul for all but how not absolutely whether they believe or no but onely conditionally to wit provided they do believe in Christ Again Men are called upon to believe and promised Ibid. pag. 28. that upon their Faith they shall obtain the Grace of Remission of sins and Salvation and these Graces may be said to be offered unto all upon Condition of faith Again As touching the Benefits of pardon of sin Ibid. page 152. and Salvation procured by Christs death we say that Christ died to procure these for all and every one but how not absolutely for then all and every one should be saved but conditionally to wit upon Condition of faith so that if all and every one should believe in Christ all and every one should be saved Again It is untrue that we must have a sufficient assurance Ibid. pag. 154. that Christ died to procure pardon of sin and salvation of soul absolutely for him whom we go about to comfort it is enough that Christ died to procure these Benefits for him conditionally to wit in case he believe and repent and of this we have a most sufficient assurance Again We say not here that any thing becomes true Ibid. pag. 163. by the Faith of him that believes it but onely this that the benefit which is procured for all and every one upon a Condition becomes his and peculiarly his alone who performeth the Condition Again Now Eternal Life we know Ibid. pag. 171. is ordained by God to be the portion of Men not whether they believe or not whether they persevere in Faith Holiness and Repentance or no but onely of such as believe repent and are studious of good Works for it is ordained to be bestowed on Men by way of reward of their Faith Repentance and good Works Again The Promises assured by Baptism Ibid. pag. 189. according to the Rule of God's Word I find to be of two sorts Some are of Benefits procured unto us by Christ which are to be conferred on us conditionally they of this first sort are Justification and Salvation for Abraham received Circumcision as a Seal of the Righteousness of Faith Circumcision therefore was an assurance of Justification to be had by Faith if such were Circumcision to the Jews we have good reason to conceive that such is Baptism unto us Christians for as that was unto them so this is the Sacrament of Regeneration unto us And good reason the Sacraments which are Seals of the Covenant should assure that unto us which the word of the Covenant doth make Promise of Now the word of the Covenant of Grace doth promise unto us both Remission of sin and Salvation upon Faith in Christ This by our Doctrine we promise unto all and assure unto all as well as they do by theirs If all and every one should believe we nothing doubt but they should be justified and saved On the other side if not one of ripe years should believe I presume our Adversaries will confess that not one of them should be saved Again Justification and Salvation is promised in the Word Ibid. pag. 190. and assured in the Sacraments upon performance of a Condition on Mans part Now the Condition of Justification and Salvation we all acknowledge to be Faith Thus Dr. Twiss frequently in the foresaid Book And that this was his setled Judgment will appear by what he wrote afterwards in the Year
thereunto The Discipline of Christ's Kingdom is as Cords and Bonds unto them they desire to break them and to cast off the yoke of obedience unto him And again it is as true that 〈◊〉 man is damned for not adding the efficacy of Gods Spirit unto his word They are damned for contemning Godâ—s Word and not hearkning to his Gracious Admonitions but they could do no other as this Arminian Authour intimates But what impotency is this Is it any where else than in their wills Which this Authour considers not nor distinguisheth between impotency natural and impotency moral were they willing to hearken hereunto but could not then inâ—â—gd their impotency were excusablâ— but they please themselves in their obstinate courses and if they would do otherwise I make no question but that they should have no more cause to complain of their impotency to do that good which they would do than the servants of God have yea and holy Paul himself had How can you believe saith our Saviour John 5.44 Here is a certain impotency of believing which our Saviour takes notice of but what manner of impotency is it Observe by that which followeth who receive Honour one of another and regard not the Honour which cometh of God only Therefore you hear not my words because ye are not of God John 8.47 This is as true as the word of the Son of God is true although this Authour sets himself to impugne this kind of Doctrine all along But withal consider do they deplore this impotency Doth the consideration hereof humble them Nay rather they delight in it as the Prophet noteth Jerem. 6.10 Their ears are uncircumcised and they cannot hearken Behold the Word of God is as a Reproach unto them they have no delight in it By these Testimonies of Dr. Twiss and more which might be quoted to this purpose we plainly see that though he doth every where maintain that God by his special discriminating effectual Grace enables the Elect but not the non-Elect to believe repent and obey the Gospel and so to performe the Condition of the Covenant yet at the same time he declares that the inability of the Non-Elect to believe repent and obey is a meer moral impotency arising from the ill disposition of their own minds and affections that therefore they cannot because they will not and that if they would they should be able to believe and repent and obey the Gospel Now though we heartily agree with the Doctor that it is by the special discriminating effectual Grace of God in Christ Jesus that the Elect believe repent and obey the Gospel and also that the inability and impotency which others are under to do these things is a moral and not a meer natural inability and impotence yet to show that we are far from being Pelagians or Arminians we must declare to the World That Dr. Twiss seems sometimes to ascribe more to the Natural Power of an Unregenerate Man without the Grace of God than we can allow of This he doth in the foresaid Book in defence of the Doctrine of the Synod of Dort page 48. Where after he had discoursed of natural and moral Impotency and shewed 1. That the wicked are punished for refusing to believe that this refusal is the free act of their wills and by their natural power they might abstain from this refusal and might believe with an acquired Faith as many Vnregenerate Men have done And 2. After he had likewise shewed out of Augustin That the reason why the wicked do not believe is because they will not and that if they would they might believe and that since they might believe if they would it is just with God to punish them sor not believing And 3. After he had shewed out of the same Augustin That the reason why they will not believe is either because they do not see the truth and goodness of that which they should believe or else because it doth not delight them 4. In the fourth place he adventures to go one step further and of his own head to say That except the supernatural acts of the Three Theological Vertues Faith Hope and Love all Acts and Duties inward or outward are natural and may be performed by a natural man though not in an acceptable manner for want of Faith Hope and Love supernatural Now saith he they are his own very words suppose that a man were so exact both in natural morality and in an outward conformity to the means of Grace as not to fail in any particular as he hath power to performe any particular hereof naturally in this case I say if there were any such he should be in the same case with those that are guilty of no sin but sin original c. Upon this passage we observe that the Doctor supposeth it possible for a natural man by the meer power of nature without any supernatural Grace to be so exact in doing all the Duties which God requires of him as not to fail in any particular and so to keep himself free from all actual Sin He doth not indeed say that there is or ever was or ever will be such a Man but he plainly enough says that it is naturally possible and supposes it so to be he supposes it possible for a natural man by the power of Nature so to live as to be without all actual sin This we are so far from agreeing to that on the contrary we hold it to be naturally impossible for any natural man by natural power so to live as to be without all actual sin For surely original sin in such a Man would so vigorously put it self forth into act upon the presentation of outward objects to his Senses or the formation of Notions and Idea's of things in his mind that by his meer natural power he could not possibly hinder all the Sallies and Eruptions of it This is the Catholick Faith and the contrary is pure Pelagianisme which we wonder how it should ever fall from the Pen of Dr. Twiss who was really a hater of Pelagianisme We should never have mentioned this but to let men know how far we are from Pelagianism even farther than Dr. Twiss was as to the power of a Natural Man Indeed we are so far from thinking that a Natural Man by his meer natural powers can live without all actual sin that we do not believe that a Spiritual Regenerate Man can live so exactly as to keep himself free from all actual sin although he be furnished and assisted with such a measure of supernatural Grace as the Lord doth ordinarily give out unto his own select People This is the Common Doctrine of the Reformed Churches which we can demonstrate to be true and which we firmly believe Surely then it must be a vile slander cast upon us that we are so far gone off from the Truth of the Reformed Religion Let. p. 13. as that our Cause and the Pelagians is coincident and
before Repentance in Calvin's Judgment is not the Faith that our sins are already pardoned but that they shall be pardoned upon our sincere Repentance which Faith puts us upon acting Repentance and having put forth an Act of sincere Repentance we immediately act Faith upon the promise and apply it to our selves and trust in the Lord according to his gracious promise If this be not Calvin's sense let them free him from self-contradiction that can for we cannot otherwise do it However it be we have him expresly affirming that Faith in some sense is before Repentance and that Repentance such Repentance as that in Ezek. 18.23 is before Remission of Sins and Justification From whence it follows necessarily that in his Judgment both sincere Faith and Repentance are in order before Justification and so that there is a real change and some holy principle and disposition wrought in the Soul before Justification The same he affirms again elsewhere for thus he writes on Mark 4.12 lest at any time they should be converted and their sins should be forgiven them Caeterùm ex eo minimè colligi debet poenitentiam esse veniae causam c. But from this it ought by no means to be inferred that Repentance is the cause of pardon as if God received into favour those who are converted because they have merited or deserved it For even Conversion it self is a sign of God's free Grace and Favour but only ordo consequentia notatur the order and consequence of things is marked out because God doth not forgive any sins but those for which Men are displeased with themselves From which Words of Calvin we observe that where there is an order and consequence of things there is a priority and posteriority and one of them is before another but so it is that in Calvin's opinion between Repentance and pardon of sin there is an order and the one is consequent upon the other pardon of sin is consequent upon Repentance therefore Repentance is before pardon of sin but Repentance can never be without some real holy change and disposition in the Penitent Therefore there is such a change and holy disposition before Pardon and Justification Again on Luke 3. v. 4. The voice of one crying in the wilderness prepare ye the way of the Lord. Eadem inquit vox auribus nostris quotidie insonat ut Domino paremus viam hoc est sublatis vitiis quae regno Christi viam praecludunt accessum demus ejus gratiae The same voice saith he dayly sounds in our ears that we should prepare the way for the Lord that is that we should give access unto his grace by putting away our sins which stop up the way against the reign of Christ in us These Words plainly give us to understand that according to Calvin Repentance and turning from sin goes in order before pardon and that it prepares us for the grace of Pardon and Justification There needs no more to shew that Calvin held true Repentance as to the beginning of it to be in order before pardon of sin and Justification Yet when Repentance is taken for a course of holy living in the actual performance of our first purpose to forsake our sins and return unto the Lord then in that sense it is confessed that Calvin and we with him hold Repentance to be after the several acts of Justifying Faith and after Justification it self and that it runs parallel with our Lives and must be continued unto Death This was that which our first Reformers called the best Repentance which so enraged the Papists that in the Council of Trent they Anathematized us for this Opinion Si quis dixerit optimam poenitentiam esse tantùm novam vitam Concil Trid. Sess 14. Can. 13. Anathema sit If any shall say that a new life is onely the best Repentance let him be accursed Thus they But we do not at all fear their Curse for notwithstanding it or any other thing to the contrary we firmly believe and say that a new life is the onely best Repentance And this best Repentance this Repentance in its perfection we grant to be not only after justifying faith but also to be after Justification it self and after the forgiveness of all the sins that we had been guilty of before our Regeneration and Conversion yet for all that we still maintain according to the Scriptures of Truth that the beginning of true Evangelical Repentance is in order before forgiveness of sins and justification and we think we have Calvin on our side if we may believe his own words To Calvin succeeds Beza giving in his Testimony plainly for us and saying in his large Confession of faith Sed necesse est imprimis ut idem spiritus sanctus nos ad Jesum Christum recipiendum aptos idoneos reddat cap. 4. art 3. c. But it is necessary saith he in the first place that the same holy Spirit make us apt or fit and meet to receive Jesus Christ And in his short Confession of faith Art 11th As it was not saith he in our power to invent or find out the Medicine of Salvation so neither is it possible for us to find out the way to use that Medicine rightly Because that falls out in this matter which useth to be in bodily Diseases for as when one desperately sick is ignorant of his Disease it is necessary that the Physician not only find out a Medicine for him but likewise that he so dispose the sick Person that he may be both willing and able to use the Medicine and that he may know the way to use it aright so in the Disease of the Soul which is the most dangerous of all and in which Men are not only ignorant of but also Adversaries to their Salvation It is necessary that we understand from the same Physician First What that Medicine is then which way it is to be used Finally That by the same Physician we be made fit and meet for this that we may be both willing and able to use the Remedies proposed Again Art 19. This Remedy of free Salvation through Christ is applyed by a double efficacy of the Holy Spirit For first The Holy Spirit disposes or fits our understanding to perceive the Doctrine of the Gospel which otherwise seems meer foolishness to the World Then he perswades our minds that that Doctrine of free Salvation through Christ is not only true but also that it pertains to us And that is it which we call Faith so much commended in Scripture to wit when one perswades himself assuredly that the promises of Salvation and Eternal Life particularly and properly belong to him By these passages of Beza we see that he held as we do that before a Man do or can actually believe with a justifying Faith he is disposed fitted and prepared by Christs Holy Spirit for the right performing of that great work of believing aright And in his little Book
Faith and consequently before Justification We say Let but any Man read those Two Chapters of Dr. Ames his Books now mentioned and he will see it as clear as the Sun that he was of the same mind with Rollock and held That an Holy Change is wrought on us and a Seed or Principle of Holyness is put into us and some Holy Act is produced by us before we be justified and our sins be forgiven us And as for Dr. Twiss though the Antinomians have laid claim to him and some of ours have almost given him up to them by Reason of some Expressions of his which seem to favour them yet Mr. Jessop in his Preface to Mr. Grailes Book hath shewed that they have no sufficient ground for their so doing and hath proved as we have further done that he is on our side against them Yea and against our Authour too We read that Arminius in the Preface to his Answer unto Perkins complained that though Mr. Perkins did not yet there were some others who did contend that Repentance doth not go before but follow after Remission of Sins Twiss Vind. gratiae Resp ad Arminii Praefat. pag. 17. Edit Amster 1648. fol. Whereunto Dr. Twiss answered by Confessing ingenuously That the places of Holy Scripture which prove that Repentance is before Remission of Sins are expressiora frequentiora both more express and more numerous than those that seem to favour the other Opinion And indeed the places of Scripture that speak of Peoples repenting after their Sins are pardoned prove nothing at all but what we and all sober Christians grant that our Repentance is to be continued all the days of our Life and that the Repentance which is begun before Justification and is but weak and imperfect is to be carried on through Grace unto greater Perfection afterwards by reducing our purposes into Practice and bringing forth Fruits meet for Repentance to the doing whereof the Assurance of Gods special Love to us in having pardoned our Sins and accepted us as righteous unto Life through Jesus Christ doth not a little animate and excite us As to what Twiss saith there that it is without Controversie that as Remission of Sins is an immanent Act in God it is before both Faith and Repentance that is neither more nor less than this that God himself and his Decree to remit Sin is before both Faith and Repentance which is indeed very true for God and his Decree was before this World or any thing in this World but though it be true it is nothing to the purpose for to speak properly as we ought and as the Lord speaks to us in his Word Remission of Sins is not an immanent Act of God that is it is not the Decree of God which is Eternal but the consequent and the effect of the Decree which is Temporal and is every where promised in the Scripture as a thing future and to come upon Condition of Faith and Repentance as Dr. Twiss himself expresly affirms most frequently over and over as we have shewed already and may do it yet farther hereafter From single Witnesses we pass to a whole Assembly of Divines who give in their Testimony for us and it is the Synod of Dort the most famous Assembly of Divines that ever was in the Reformed Churches for it consisted of a great number of Learned men delegated and deputed from all the best Reformed Churches in Europe In the eleventh and twelfth Canons on the third and fourth Articles their Words are as followeth Act. Synodi Dord Part. 1. p. 303. But when God executes this his good Pleasure in the Elect or works in them true Conversion he not only causeth the Gospel to be outwardly Preached to them and by the Holy Spirit powerfully enlightens their Mind that they may rightly understand and discern the things of the Spirit of God but also by the Efficacy of the same regenerating Spirit he penetrates or pierces into the innermost parts of Man he opens his closed he softens his hard and circumcises his uncircumcised Heart he infuses new qualities into his Will and of dead makes it alive of evil makes it good of unwilling makes it willing of disobedient makes it obedient and so Acts and strengthens it that as a good Tree it may be able to bring forth the Fruit of good Actions And then the Will now renewed is not only acted and moved by God but being acted by God it acts it self Wherefore even Man himself by that Grace received is rightly said to believe and repent This was subscribed by the whole Synod now here we have such a Testimony of the Reformed Churches for a real change for Holy Qualifications and Dispositions in the Soul of Man before Justification as we are sure our Author can never find the like to oppose against us for no real change no Holy Qualifications or Dispositions in the Soul of Man before sustification And that the Synod held this real change those Holy Qualifications or Dispositions to be in the Soul before Justification is manifest because they affirm all this to be necessary that the Will may be able to act and that the Man may produce the saving Acts of Faith and Repentance but so it is that the very Act it self of Faith is before Justification as hath been proved and so it was believed to be by the Synodic Therefore a fortiori all that is before the Act of Faith is also before Justification This were enough if we could say no more to prove that it is we who cleave to the old received Protestant Doctrine in this matter Yet something more we will adde from some of the Suffrages of the Colledges of Divines recorded in the Acts of the Synod And first we find that the Embdane Divines in their Judgment concerning the first Article do very particularly and clearly set down the way and order of Gods bringing his Elect unto Eternal Life and Glory Their Words are Actor Synodi Dord part 2. pag. 77. Via inter Electionis decretum decreti finem intermedia quâ Deus ex mera gratiâ peculiariter electos ad salutem provehit est 1. Christus 2. Vocatio ad Christum efficax 3. Fides 4. Justificatio per fidem c. The intermediate way between the Decree of Election and the end of the Decree by which God of meer Grace brings to Salvation those whom he hath peculiarly chosen is 1. Christ 2. Effectual Vocation unto Christ 3. Faith 4. Justification c. To these they speak particularly one after another First They shew that Christ is deservedly set in the first place for he is the second Adam through whom all the Elect are saved by unspeakable Mercy What they say of Christ there we all agree to and also that all the other particulars are subordinate to him and through him Then they speak to the second means which is Effectual Calling and that they say is Quando Vox Dei
But it must be confessed that the Spirit doth otherwise help before he doth inhabit and otherwise when he doth inhabit in the Soul for before be come to inhabit in the Soul he helps men that they may be Believers but when he doth inhabit and dwell in the Soul he helps them who are Believers This one Distinction of Austins attended unto would help People to understand this matter and to answer all that our Authour saith against any real change or Holy Seed Disposition or Qualification wrought in the Soul before it be justified For our Blessed Lord by his Holy Spirit first prepares and qualifies and makes us meet to be an Habitation for himself and then he comes unto us by the same Spirit and dwells in us and abides with us for ever Ephes 2.22 and 3.17 and 1 Cor. 3.16 Now the first of these is in Order before Justification God by his Spirit and Word first makes us such as his Word requires us to be that we may be justified he savingly enlightens our Minds and enlivens our Hearts he gives us a Seed of Faith and a Holy Principle of Light Lise and Love and by an influence of actual Grace causes us freely to reduce the said Seed and Principle into Act and so actually to believe and repent which when we do through Grace then he justifies us on the account of Christs satisfactory meritorious Righteousness imputed to us And after that we are effectually Called and thereupon are become Penitent Believers and are justified and reconciled the Lord gives us his Spirit and by his Spirit he comes and dwells in us he strengthens and encreases the Grace that he had begun in us and makes us more and more Holy in Heart and Life This is that which is commonly called Sanctification and follows after Justification and through Christs dwelling in us by his Spirit is carried on from one decree to another till it have attained its gradual Perfection and be consummated in Glory Let. p. 11. But he objects 2. Shall we tell Men that unles they be Holy they must not believe on Jesus Christ nor venture on him for Salvation till they be qualified and fit to be received by him This were to forbear Preaching the Gospel at all or to forbid all Men to believe on Christ for never was any Sinner qualified for Christ nor is it possible that ever any Sinner should be qualified for Christ We Answer our Author had said a little before in the same Page That every one who Believes on Christ acts that Faith as the chief of Sinners that is believes as an unbeliever as was before proved to be his meaning by his own express Words if his Words be expressive of his Mind And now by the Question which he puts to us here he seems plainly to be of Opinion that every man must believe as an unbeliever or else no man can ever believe at all and Ministers must give over Preaching the Gospel for they can never preach it as it should be preached unless they tell People that they must Act their Faith as the chief of Sinners that is they must believe as unbelievers for either we must tell People that they must believe as Unbelievers or else that they must not believe till they be first Holy and that is that they must never believe at all because it is impossible for them to be Holy till after they have believed in Christ and be united unto him by Faith This is plainly the sense of our Authors Words and the force of his Reasoning which puts us in mind of what Calvin says out of Augustin de bono perseverantiae Cap. 22. Calv. Instit lib. 3. Cap. 23. § 14. that there are insulsi doctores gratiae some foolish Preachers of Grace and surely if any they are to be accounted such Preachers who in effect tell People that they must believe as unbelievers or else they must not believe till they be first Holy and that is they must never believe at all But is there no way to avoid this foolish senseless way of Preaching Our Author thinks there is not we on the contrary are perswaded that there is a way to avoid it and in our Judgment it may thus be easily done we tell People that they must believe in Christ not as Unholy Unbelievers nor yet as Holy with that Holiness which is the effect of Believing and follows after Faith in Christ but by ceasing to be Unholy Unbelievers and by becoming Holy Believers and if they ask us how this can possibly be done we answer Not by Power of Nature but by the Power of Gods special Grace if they ask further How they can obtain that special Grace before they believe and be in Christ by Faith since all Grace is derived from Christ by Faith we answer that all Grace indeed is derived from Christ but it is a most notorious falshood that all Grace is derived from Christ by Faith for the first special Grace which is the Cause of Faith and whereby we believe in Christ is not from Christ by Faith but it is from Christ before Faith and it is given us by the Holy Spirit of Christ to work Faith in us and to bring us into Union with Christ by Faith if they say that even according to this way People must still believe before they are Holy and so must believe as not being yet Holy We answer that is true in one respect and false in another It is true that People must believe before they are Holy with that Progressive Holiness which is the effect of justifying Faith and follows after Justification but it is utterly false that People do believe or can believe savingly before they are Initially Holy before they are Holy with that first beginning and Principle of Holiness which consists in removing the ill Disposition of our Faculties and in giving our Faculties a right spiritual Supernatural Disposition and fitness for the Act of Believing this Holy Principle concurs to the producing of the Act of Faith and so must be in Order before it and then the Act it self of Faith which is an Holy Act must be in order before Justification Therefore it is utterly false that there can be no Holiness at all in any kind or degree before Faith and Justification by Faith since before actual Faith there is the Holy Seed and Principle both of Faith and Repentance and of other Graces too and in order of Nature there is an Holy actual Faith before Justification and this is a Truth so clear that our Author himself sometimes could see it as Pag. 21. Where he says that no man can do any thing that is good till Gospel Grace renew him and make him first a good man this is very true if it be rightly understood thus No man can do any thing that is spiritually supernaturally and savingly good till Gospel Grace that is internal special Grace renew him and make him first a
Translation which some of them may have or may meet with it Thus then they begin Of those things that go before Conversion The First Position There are certain external Works ordinarily required of men before they be brought to the State of Regeneration or Conversion On the 3d. and 4th Articles p. 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 c. which are wont to be performed freely by them and other whiles freely omitted as to go to Church to hear the word Preached or the like This they prove from Rom. 10.14 As also from Reason and Experience and other Scriptures Mark 6.20 Acts 13.46 Psal 58.4 5. The Second Position There are certain inward Effects going before Conversion or Regeneration which by the power of the Word and Spirit are stirred up in the hearts of Men not yet justified such as are a knowledge of Gods will a sense of sin a fear of Punshment a bethinking of freedom or deliverance and some hope or pardon The Grace of God is not went to bring men to the state of Justification in which we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ by a sudden Enthusiasm or Rapture but by divers degrees of foregoing Actions taming and preparing them through the Ministry of the Word 1st This we may see in those who upon bearing S. Peters Sermon feel the burden of their sin are stricken with fear and sorrow desire deliverance and conceive some hope of Pardon All which may be collected of those words Acts 2.37 When they heard this they were pricked in their hearts and said unto Peter and the rest of the Apostles Men and Brethren what shall we do 2. This the very nature of the thing requires for as in the natural Generation of man there are many previous Dispositions which go before the bringing in of the form so also in the Spiritual Generation by many actions of Grace which must go before do we come to the Spiritual Nativity 3 To conclude this appears by the Instruments which God uses for the Regenerating of men For he imployeth the Ministry of Men and the Instrument of the Word 1 Cor. 4.15 I have begotten you through the Gospel But if God would Regenerate and Justify a wicked man immediately being prepared by no knowledge no sortow no desire no hope of pardon there would be no need of the Ministery of men nor of the Preaching of the Word for this purpose Neither would any care ly upon the Ministers dividing the Word aright fitly and wisely First To wound the Confâ—iences of their Auditors with the terrors of the Law then to raise them up with the promises of the Gospel and to exhort them to beg Faith and Repentance at Gods Hand by Prayers and Tears The Third Position Whom God doth thus prepare by his Spirit through the means of the Word those doth he truly and seriously call and invite to Faith and Conversion By the nature of the benefit offered and by the most evident Word of God we must judge of those helps of Grace which are bestowed upon men and not by the abuse or the event Therefore when the Gospel of its own nature calls men to Repentance and Salvation when the Incitements of Divine Grace tend the same way we must not suppose any thing is done feignedly by God This is proved by those earnest Pathetical Intreaties 2 Cor. 5.20 We pray you in Christs stead be yeâ— reconciled to God Those exhortations 2 Cor. 6.1 We beseech you that you receive not the Grace of God in vain Those Expostulations Gal. 1.6 I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you to the Grace of Christ Those Promises Revel 3.20 Behold I stand at the door and knock if any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him But if God should not seriously invite all to whom he vouchsafes this gift of his Word and Spirit to a serious Conversion surely both God should deceive many whom he calls in his Sons Name and the Messengers of the Evangelical Promises might be accused of false witness and those who being called to Conversion do neglect to obey might be more excuseable for that calling by the Word and Spirit cannot be thought to leave men unexcusable which is only exhibited to this end to make them unexcusable The Fourth Position Those whom God hath thus disposed he doth not forsake nor cease to further them in the true way to Conversion before he be forsaken of them by a voluntary neglect or repulse of this initial or entring Grace The Talent of Grace given by God is taken from none but from him who first buries it by his own fault Mat. 25.28 Hence is it that in the Scriptures every where we are admonished that we resist not the Spirit that we quench not the Spirit that we receive not the Grace of God in vain that we depart not from God Heb. 3.12 Yea that is most evidently noted to be the reason of Gods forsaking man because God is first forsal 〈◊〉 by man Prov. 1.24 c. Because I have called and you refused I will laugh at your Calamity 2 Chron. 24.20 Because ye have forsaken the Lord He hath also forsaken you But never in the Scripture is there the least mention or Intimation that God is wont or that he will at any time without some fault of man going before take away from any Man the aid of his exciting Grace or any help which he hath once conferred towards Mans Conversion or as it is in the Original that is ordained unto Mans Conversion Thus the Orthodox Fathers who had to do with the Pelagians ever â—anght It is the Will of God that we continue in a good Will who before he be forsaken for sakes no Man Aug. vel Prosper aâ— Art fals ad 7. and ost-times Converts many that forsake him These are the Words of Prosper in Answer to the seventh Objection of one Vincentius against the Doctrine of Augustine and Prosper The Fifth Position These forgoing effects wrought in the Minds of Men by the Power of the Word and Spirit may be stifled and utterly extinguished by the fault of a rebellious Will and in many are so that some in whose Hearts by the virtue of the Word and Spirit some Knowledge of Divine Truth some Sorrow for Sin some Desire and Care of Deliverance have been imprinted are changed to the quite contrary they Reject and Hate the Truth they give themselves up to their Lusts are hardened in their Sins and without all desire or care of Freedom from them Rot and Puâ—rifie in them Matth. 13.19 The Wicked one cometh and catcheth away that which is sown in his Heart 2 Pet. 2.21 It had been better for them not to have known the way of Righteousness than after they have known it to turn from the Holy Commandment detrvered unto them But it is happened to them according to the true Proverb the Dog iâ— turned to his own Vomit again
plainly shewed the falshood and folly of it in several particulars the World will not be so unjust as to reproach the Non-Conformist Ministers in England with that Ridiculous way of Preaching the Gospel to Unbelievers which we our selves have Confuted and exposed on purpose to prevent the Scandal which might otherwise arise if such things should be suffered to pass current amongst us without any publick disapproving of them CHAP. IV. Of the Calumnies wherewith he Asperses Christs Ministers and particularly of the Middleway First Calumny HIS First great Calumny which comprehends all the rest that lye scattered here and there throughout his Letter is that we are Corrupters of Christs pure Gospel and differ from him and his party in the main points of the Gospel which they believe and live by the Faith of and look to be saved in And by the Preaching whereof they have Converted Sinners unto God and have built up Saints in Holiness and Comfort Yea he carries the Accusation so far as to say that we Preach a New Gospel an Arminian Gospel to the certain peril of their Souls that Believe it And that our cause is Coincident with the cause both of Arminius and also of Pelagius That this is asserted by him and that we do not Calumniate him in reporting his Calumny against us is evident from the express words of his Letter For pag. 10. He says We see the pure Gospel of Christ corrupted and an Arminian Gospel New-Vampt and obtruded on People to the certain peril of the Souls of such as believe it And a little after in the same page he says That we are such Ministers as creep in not only to spy out but to destroy not so much the Gospel-Liberty as the Gospel-Salvation we have in Christ Jesus and to bring us back under the Yoke of Legal-bondage And indeed saith he the case in that Epistle to the Galatians and ours have a great affinity By which words he gives the World to understand that we are such Ministers as are like the false-teachers in the Churches of Galatia who taught people that they could not be justified and saved unless they became Jews so far as to be Circumcised and to keep the Law of Moses and therefore that Pauls curse recorded Gal. 1.8 falls upon us Though we or an Angel from Heaven Preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have Preached unto you let him be accursed Again in Pag. 13. he intimates that he and his party cannot be at peace with us unless they be either silent as to the main points of the Gospel or else swallow down Arminian Schemes of the Gospel contrary to the New Testament and unknown to the Reformed Churches in their greatest Purity And in the same page he says That we might know that the most Learned and Godly in the Christian World have for some ages maintained and defended the same Doctrine which he and his party stand for And he names three Authors who have done so to wit Bradwardin Twiss and Ames And then to drive the nail home that it may stick to us he saith That Judicious Observers cannot but already perceive a Coincidency between our cause and the cause of those two Pests of Christs Church Pelagius and Arminius and that they fear more when we shall either be driven out of our Lurking holes by force of Argument or shall think fit to discover our secret sentiments And when that day comes he threatens us that we shall find Enemies and Opposers enough both at home and abroad This is his first great Charge which we have faithfully Collected from his own express words and a dreadful charge it is if it were true but of the truth of it we find no proof but his bare word and what credit his word deserves we have seen already Indeed what he saith of his Judicious Observers their searing that our cause is not only Coincident with Pelagius his cause but that we are further gone off from the Truth than he we cannot tell whether it be true or false It may be true for we read in Psal 53.5 That some men have been in great fear where there was no just cause of fear And it may be false for some men can write lyes and say that they and their Confederates do fear that which they do not fear but only for their own ends would make simple People believe that they fear So that for ought we know it may be either true or false that he and his party have such fears of us But the Lord himself knows and we know that they have no just cause to entertain such fears and jealousies of us and it is a sure sign that they have but little if any Christian Love when without cause they entertain such jealous fears of their Brethren that they are departed or will depart from the Truth of the Gospel more than Pelagius And as to what he says that our Cause is Coincident with that of Arminius and Pelagius we are as sure that it is false as we can be that there is any such thing as truth or falsehood in the World And our Author also must needs know it to be false and must lye against his knowledge and conscience if he knows what the Errors of Pelagius were and that we are as he affirms us to be middle-way-men who steer a middle course between the Orthodox and the Arminians For the great fault that these middle-way-men are charged with is that they hold Universal Redemption in such a sense as neither to agree with the Orthodox that is the most rigid Calvinists who contrary to the express mind of Calvin deny that in any sound sense Christ can be said to have Redeemed all mankind nor yet with the Arminians who affirm that Christ hath Redeemed all the Reprobate World in the same sense that he hath Redeemed his Select People whom he chose in Christ before the foundation of the World unto special effectual Grace in this life and unto eternal Glory hereafter in the life to come This is to be a middle-way-man to hold universal Redemption in such a sense as neither pleaseth the Arminian nor the Rigid Antiarminian This our Author knows well enough and if he knows as well what were the Errors of Pelagius then he cannot choose but know that it is a lye to say that Our Cause is Coincident with the cause of Pelagius For to be Coincident is to be the same But it is not possible that our cause should be the same with Pelagius his cause if we be middle-way-men and hold universal Redemption as we are said to be and to do for Pelagius did not hold but denyed universal Redemption from sin or punishment of sin and it was accounted one of the Pelagian Errors above twelve hundred years ago that he so denyed universal Redemption This may be unknown to our Author and he may be apt to think that sure this is a Fiction of the middle-way-men but