Vnlest Grace deliver him or set him free by the Law of Faith which is in Christ Jesus Here again Augustin saith that we are freed from death by a Law that that Law is the Law of Faith that that Law of Faith is a Law of Grace for by that Law Grace frees us from death And he likewise gives us plainly to understand that that gracious Law is a new Law for he says it is the Law of Faith which is in Christ Jesus Now it is clear that the Law of Faith in Christ already exhibited in the Flesh crucified dead and buried raised from the Dead Glorified and appointed to be Lord of all and Judge of Quick and Dead made perfect and become the Authour of Eternal Salvation to all them that obey him must needs be a New Law if we compare it with any Law that went before it For before the coming of Christ no Man was or could be obliged to believe in him as already Incarnate Crucified and Glorified otherwise Men had been obliged to believe a falsehood In the same Fifth Century Salvian of Marseilles wrote his Eight Books of the Government of God where he calls the Gospel the Christian Law Book 4th pag. 140. Edit Ox. 1633. In nobis Christus pâ—â—itur opprobrium in â—nobis patitur lex Christiana maledictum Saith he Christ suffers reproach by reason of us wicked Christians the Christian Law is evil spoken of by reason of us We might bring others of the Fathers for Witnesses in this cause but for the present we will content our selves with these especially the first three Justin the Martyr Cyprian end Augustin who all call the Gospel a New Law Our next Witness is Bradwardin who though he be none of the Fathers yet he lived above three hundred years agoe and our Authour cannot in reason except against him because he says in the 13th Page of the Letter that he was a blessing to England and he would make the World believe that he is for him against us Let us hear what he saies in this cause Deus dedit hominibus talem legem De causâ Dei contra Pelagiam cap. 1. Pag. 29. quam legem si non legem sanctissimam Christianam God gave unto men such a Law and what Law but the most Holy Christian Law Again He thus argues Si sola Lex Naturae sufficeret Homini c. If the Law of Nature alone were sufficient for a Man unto all things whatsoever Ibid p. 63 64. wherefore hath God who doth nothing in vain even by your own confession given another Law yea other Laws the old and the new as what wâ—â— said before doth testify especially since both these Laws to wit old and new of Moses and of Christ are more difficult to know and hard to keep than the Law of Nature For who that is wise doth any thing by more means which may be sufficiently done by fewer as natural reason and all Philosophers unanimously testifie Vnless perhaps it may be done more decently or neatly more profitably and better by many means than by few which if it be true of positive Laws and especially of the Christian Law why do you not receive it and hold it Here Bradwardin expresly calls our Christian Law a positive New Law as distinct both from the Law of Nature and Moses And in the same Page 64. he maintains that it is a Law with a Sanction of the greatest Reward and Punishment imaginable Sic Deus Summus Oeconomus in maxima domo sua c. So also God is the highest Ruler in his most great House the highest Prince in his most great Principality and the highest King of Kings in his most great Kingdome wherefore then cannot he enact or ordain that whosoever shall keep the Christian Law shall receive Eternal Glory and that they who shall not keep but contemn it shall be deprived of Glory and shall inour eternal damnation Surely he could do it and he hath done it as is manifest by what hath been said before By this Passage it is as clear as the light that Bradwardin held that the Gospel of Christ is a Law with a Sanction of Reward and Punishment and yet notwithstanding its Sanction of Punishment as well as Reward he held it to be a Law of Grace as Augustin did before him and as manifestly appears from the main scope of his Book Of the Cause of God against the Pelagians and therefore we forbear to quote any more out of it at present From the premisses it is clear that above 300 Years agoe the profound Doctor Bradwardin expresly affirmed the Law of Christ to be a positive new Law with a Sanction of Reward and Punishment and the Scope of his Book is to prove it to be a Law of Grace And by all this we think the World may now see that the Authour of the Letter told a great untruth when he affirmed that The new Law of Grace is a new Word but of an old and ill meaning and hence also People may learn what credit to give unto the Word of that Man From Fathers and Antient Writers we will come lower down and see what some of our Modern Divines since the Reformation have said in this cause and first when we look abroad we find that the Professors of Leyden in their Synopsis of purer Divinity say expresly Disp 22. Thesi 32. That Evangelium aliquando legis titulo insignitur c. The Gospel is sometimes called a Law because it also hath its own Commandments and its own Promises and Threatenings We find also that the learned Gomarus not only allows the Gospel to be called the Law of Grace but likewise gives the reason why it is so called in these Words Beneficii ratione Evangelium Gomari Operum par 3. Disp 14. Thesi 30. c. with respect unto and because of the benefit promised in it the Gospel in Holy Scripture is called The Word of the Lords Grace Acts. 14.3 the Gospel of the Grace of God Acts 20.24 the Gospel of Peace Eph. 6.15 Isa 52.7 Rom. 10.15 and the Testament or Covenant 2 Cor. 3.6 And from the prescription Evang. est lex Dei 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or appointment of the condition and duty contained in it it is called the Law of Faith Rom. 3.27 and the Law of God by way of eminency or excellency Isa 2.3 And truly this was excellently said by Gomatus No Man we think can give a better account why the Gospel is called the Law of Grace And next when we look homewards again and cast our eyes upon our own Brittish Divines we find the greatest of them clearly of the same mind that the Gospel is a Law in the sense before explained it is the New Law of Grace We will instance in two only at present The first is Bishop Andrews no Popish Bishop such as Bradwardin was whom our Authour quotes with such an Elogium against us
as refuse and neglect to use the remedy provided in the Gospel and so doing live and dy in Unbelief and impenitence they are certainly to be executively condemned for breaking the Law and moreover having heard the Gospel preached to them and having had in the Gospel a Soveraign Remedy offered them against the Curse and Condemnation of the Law they shall be condemned likewise for refusing or neglecting to use the said Remedy Heb. 12.25 Heb. 2.3 John 3.18 19. Matth. 11.22.24 So that professed Christians who live and dy in impenitence and unbelief will be doubly condemned both by Law and Gospel Rom. 10.14 whereas Heathens who never heard nor could hear of the Gospel for want of an objective Revelation of it they living and dying without Repentance and Faith in the true God under the guilt of Sins against the Law and Light of Nature will be condemned by the Law but not by the Gospel which they could not know Rom. 2.12 3. Since we believe that all Unconverted Impenitent Unblievers who live and dye in that State are so under the sanction of the Moral Law as that they are to be condemned for breaking it we cannot believe that the same Persons are so under the sanction of the moral Law as that they are not to be condemned but to be saved by keeping it For that were to believe a contradiction which we have not faith enough to do Yet 4. If the case be put disjunctively as our Author expresly puts it in his Letter we maintain that what he charges upon us is notoriously false and its contradictory is true to wit the sanction of Gods moral Law is not repealed so that no man is now under it either to be condemned for breaking it or to be saved by keeping it We firmly believe that this disjunctive is true Some men are now under the sanction of the Law either to be condemned for breaking it or to be saved by keeping it But take the latter part of the said disjunctive by it self and understand it determinately then we cannot believe it to be true we cannot believe that some men are under the sanction of the Law to be saved by keeping it because it is notoriously false And that 1. Because no meer man since the fall of Adam hath kept doth keep or ever will keep the Law so perfectly as never to sin against it and never to fall under the condemnation of it 2. Because that Holy Scripture assures us that if Righteousness come by the Law then Christ is dead in vain Gal. 2.21 And that if there had been a Law given which could have given Life verily righteousness should have been by the Law But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin that the Promise by Faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe Gal. 3.21 22. And again that what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the Flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh by a Sacrifice for Sin condemned sin in the flesh c. Rom. 8.3 This is our Judgment concerning the Law and its Sanction with respect to Unconverted Impenitent Unbelievers that so live and dye they are under it to be condemned but not to be saved by it Then for Converted Penitent Believers who are in Christ Jesus by Faith and walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit we believe that they are under the Law and not under the Law in different respects 1. They are under Gods Moral Law as it is a rule of Life representing to them what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God and directing them what to do and what not to do that they may please God in doing his will 2. They are under it also as it is a Law obliging them to most perfect and sinless obedience 3. They are under it as a Law forbidding all their sins and likewise condemning all their sins but they are not under it as a Law by its Minatory Sanction condemning their Persons which are in Christ by Faith and walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit for there is no condemnation to such Rom. 8.1 Gal. 5.22 23. 4. They are not under the Law as a Covenant of Works to be justified and saved by it Because none can be justified and saved by the Law considered as it was a Covenant of Works given to man in the state of innocency but those who perfectly keep it and never once transgress it either by Original or Actual Sin But that is impossible for any meer man to do since the fall of Adam and it is not only Morally impossible but it is Physically impossible yea it is Metaphysically impossible that is it is so absolutely impossible that it implies a contradiction and can be done by no power Moral Natural or Supernatural by no power Human or Divine For all meer Men without exception have already broken Gods Law so as that they are guilty of death for the breach of it And that which hath already been cannot possibly by any power whatsoever be made not to have been as it implies a contradiction and is absolutely impossible that the same thing should be and not be at the same time so it implies a contradiction and is absolutely impossible that the same thing should have been and not have been or should be past and not be past at the same time But it is a thing already past and true that all Converted Penitent Believers have already broken Gods Law and fallen under the condemnation of it thefore it implies a contradiction and is absolutely impossible now that they have kept it so as never once to transgress it and consequently it implies a contradiction and is absolutely impossible that they should be now justified and saved by the Law which they have broken and which for that reason would certainly condemn them were it not that Christ hath Redeemed them from its condemnation and by the Law of Faith absolves and forgives them Thus we have shewed how true penitent Believers are under the Law and not under the Law and how it hath lost its Sanction with respect to their Persons It hath lost its Promissory Sanction by reason of their Sins and through their own fault But its Minatory Sanction whereby it bound them over to condemnation for their sins is taken away from it with respect to Penitent Believers who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit by the Rich Mercy and Free Grace of God through the Satisfaction and Merits Christs obedience unto death even the death of the Cross Now from the Premises it is as clear as the light at Noon-day that we do not say as is pretended that the Sanction of the Law is repealed so that no man is now under it either to be condemned for breaking it or to be saved by keeping it So much for wiping off the Calumny which respects matter of Opinion The next which respects matter
the Doctor in that Book And that you may see that this Passage did not drop inconsiderately from his Pen we will shew from another Book which he wrote afterwards that this was his settled judgment and that he was firmly and fully perswaded of this great Gospel-truth It is Dr. Twiss his Answer to Mr. Hoard's Book called God's Love to Mankind Pag. 37.38 As touching the conferring of Glory God doth not bestow this on whom he will finding men equal without any moving cause thereunto even in man for though there be no moving cause thereunto in man of its own nature yet there is to be found a moving cause in man by constitution Divine whereby God is as it were moved to bestow Salvation on some and not on others For God hath made a gracious promise that whosoever believeth and repenteth and continueth in Faith and repentance unto death shall be saved and whosoever believeth not and repenteth not shall be damned So then though Men are equal in original sin and in natural corruption and God bestows faith and repentance on whom of them he will curing their corruption in whom he will yet when he comes to the conferring of Glory men are not found equal in moral condition and accordingly God cannot be said in like manner to bestow Glory and Salvation on whom he will For he hath tyed himself by his own constitution to bestow Salvation on none but such as dye in the state of Grace Yet I confess some say that God bestows Salvation on whom he will inasmuch as he is the Authour of their faith and repentance and bestows these graces on whom he will Yet certainly there is a different manner in the use of this Phrase of bestowing this or that on whom he will For when God bestows Faith and Repentance he finds them on whom he will bestow it no better than others but when he comes to the bestowing of Glory he finds them on whom he bestows that far better than others And a little after Albeit saith he God hardneth whom he will by denying unto them the grace of Faith and Repentance yet notwithstanding like as it is just with God to inflict damnasion upon them for that sin whether original or actual wherein he finds them when the ministry of the Word is offered them So likewise it cannot be denyed to be just with God to leave their infidelity and impenitence wherein he finds them uncured But yet because God hath not made any such constitution namely that whosoever is found in infidelity and impenitence shall be so left and abandoned by him Therefore he is properly said as to cure it in whom he will so to leave it unoured in whom he will finding them all equal in original Sin and consequently lying equally in this their natural infidelity and impenitence So we may justly say there is no cause at all in man of this difference to wit why God cures infidelity and impenitency in one and not in another but it is the meer pleasure of God that is the cause of this difference But 2. as touching the denyal of Glory and inflicting of damnation which is the second thing decreed in reprobation there is always found a cause motive yea and meritorious hereof to wit both of the denyal of the one and inflicting of the other And God doth not proceed herein according to the meer pleasure of his will and that by reason of his own constitution having ordained that whosoever continueth finally in infidelity in profane courses and impenitency shall be damned And albeit on the other side it may be said in some sense as I formerly shewed that God saves whom he will in as much as he is the Authour of Faith which he bestows on whom he will yet in no congruous sense can he be said to damn whom he will for as much as he is not the Authour of sin as he is the Authour of Faith For every good thing he works but sin and the evil thereof he only permits not causeth And lastly as God doth not damn whom he will but those onely whom he finds finally to have persevered in sin without repentance So neither did he decree to damn or reprobate to damnation whom he will but onely those who should be found finally to persevere in sin without repentance Again in the same Book pag. 106. But I saith Twiss shall tell you the chief Flourish whereupon this Authour and usually the Arminians doth insist in this his loose Argumentation I conceive it to be this they hope their credulous Readers unexpert in distinguishing between God's eternal decree and the temporal execution thereof will be apt hereupon to conceit that we maintain that God doth not onely of meer pleasure decree whatsoever he decreeth but also that he doth decree of meer pleasure to damn men Which yet is utterly contrary if I be not deceived to the Tenet of all our Divines All concurring in this that God in the execution of the decree of damnation proceeds according to a Law and not in the execution of reprobation onely but also in the execution of election and the Law is this Whosoever believes shall be saved whosoever believes not shall be damned and like as he inflicteth not damnation but by way of punishment so he confers not salvation but by way of Reward Again pag. 184. God hath not wished but ordained and made it a positive Law that whosoever believeth shall be saved and here hence it followeth that if all and every Man from the beginning of the World to the end shall believe in Christ all and every one of them shall be saved And Pag. 229. As for Salvation that is appointed to be bestowed only by way of Reward of foregoing Faith Repentance and good works And a little after in the same Page Indeed our profession is that Gods purpose is to bestow Salvation by way of Reward of Faith Repentance and good works And accordingly there is No other assurance of election than by Faith and Holiness â— Thess 1.3 4 Remembring the work of your Faith the labour of your love and the patience of your hope knowing beloved brethren that ye are elect of God And St. Peter exhorts Christians to make their election and vocation sure by joining vertue with their faith and with vertue knowledge and with knowledge temperance and with temperance patience and with patience Godliness and with Godliness brotherly kindness and with brotherly kindness love 2 Pâ—t 1.5 6 7 10. Thus Dr. Twiss speaks our sence according to our Hearts desire and maintains the Gospel to be a Law as much as we do But now it may be our Authour will object that in all this Dr. Twiss speaks only of a Law according to which God proceeds in bestowing or not bestowing eternal life and glory upon Men but not of a Law according to which he justifies and pardons men We Answer 1. The reason of that was because the Doctor 's Adversaries gave
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
we believe and obey is so far from hindring our actual Faith and Obedience from being the Condition that on the contrary it conduceth very much to make them the Condition the Gracious Evangelical Condition of the Covenant and without it they could not be such a Condition As to what they say that special Grace necessarily causeth our Faith and Obedience we answered before that special Grace doth not cause our actual Faith and Obedience with any such kind of necessity as is inconsistent with or destructive of the true liberty of our Souls in believing and obeying Augustin the great asserter of the necessity and efficacy of Supernatural Grace against the Pelagians and Semipelagians says in his 46 Epist. to Valentinus Obedientiam nostram Deus requirit quae nulla potest esse sine libero arbitrio God requires our Obedience which without the liberty of our minds can be no obedience And our own Westminster Confession of Faith in chap 19. atr 7. says that the Spirit of Christ subdues and enables the will of man to do that freely and chearfully which the will of God revealed in the Law requireth to be done Dr. Twisse also saith frequently that the effectual will and grace of God doth not destroy but establisheth the freedom of our actions particularly in his Answer to Hoard his God's Love to Mankind Book 2. page 103. He writes thus against Mr. Mason when once God hath planted in us a principle of new Life of the Life of Grace by the Spirit of Regeneration See 127 page of his Desence of the Synod of Dort c. though all the powers thereof do incline only to that which is good like as the powers of natural corruption incline only unto evil yet the particular use and exercise of those is always free Like as the particular use and exercise of the powers of our Corruption is always free to the committing of this or that sin according unto the emergent occasions standing in congruity to every mans particular disposition And pag. 104. Should he Mr. Mason have laid to our charge that we maintain that God necessitates the will to any good act and to over-rule the will therein we should utterly deny it without distinction It is true he over-rules the will of the flesh but not the will of the spirit the Regenerate part but moves it agreeably to its nature and to work not only voluntarily but freely whatsoever it worketh For albeit the Regenerate part is like a moral vertue though as much transcendent to it as a thing supernatural transcends a thing natural inclining only to that which is good yet is it always moved to this particular good rather than to another most freely Like as a mans natural Corruption inclines a man only to evil yet to this kind of evil or to this particular evil rather than to that Man is moved most freely So that if we maintain not that God works a Man to every good act otherwise than freely let the very conscience of our Enemies judge whether we can maintain that God necessitates the will either of Men or Devils unto sin And in the next page 105 he brings for confirmation of what he had said the 11th Article of the Church in Ireland where this position is first laid down that God from all Eternity did by his Unchangeable Counsel ordain whatsoever in time should come to pass and then it is forthwith added That hereby no violence is offered to the Wills of the reasonable Creatures and neither the liberty nor the contingency of second Causes is taken away but established rather Then again in page 108. This is clearly our Doctrine to wit that when God never so effectually works any Creature to the producing of an act connatural to it yet he works the Creature thereunto agreeably to its Nature that is if it be a necessary agent moves it to work necessarily if it be a contingent agent moves it to work contingently and if it be a free agent moves it to work freely and in effect it is the Doctrine of all them who say that God determines the Will as the Dominicans or that God necessitates the Will as Bradwardin For they acknowledge hereby that God moves the Creatures to work freely in such sort That in the very act of working they might do otherwise if they would They confess this providence of God is a great mystery and not sufficiently comprehensible by humane reason Cajetan professeth thus much as before alledged and Alvarez maintaineth it in a set disputation Thus far Twiss whereby we see that he held all the good we do to be acts of free Obedience notwithstanding that we produce them by the assistance of Gods effectual Grace yea that they are so free that though secundum quid in some respect it is necessary for them to be produced yet simpliciter absolutè See page 116 117 118 119 120. simply and absolutely it is possible for them not to be produced And if our Actual Faith and Obedience be free acts of ours notwithstanding that they are also effects of God's Grace then they may be our Duties also And indeed they are Duties so necessarily required of us as that the obtaining of Justification and Glorification is suspended by the promises till the performance of them as was proved before And then it follows by necessary consequence that they are Evangelical Conditions of the promises because they have the Essential Nature of an Evangelical Condition Here we take notice by the way that there are some who distinguish between the Covenant of Grace and the administration of it and they say themselves and would make all others say with them that the Covenant it self is absolute to the Elect but that the administration of it is conditional in the preaching of the Gospel * A brief Account of the State of the differences now depending and agitated about Justification page 4. Now we must declare that we cannot say without distinction as some would have us to do that the Covenant of Grace is absolute to the Elect. We have already said and proved that the Covenant of Grace made with the Church through Christ is a complex of many promises whereof some are indeed absolute yet not so absolute neither as to exclude all use of means such are the promises of the first Grace of saving Faith and Repentance c. but others of them are conditional even to the Elect such are the promises of the subsequent blessings of the Covenant as of Justification pardon of sin and Eternal Life We do not find that those subsequent blessings of the Covenant are ever promised to any of Adams Posterity but upon some Condition expressed or implyed and most frequently the Conditions are expressed with a plain Declaration that as many as perform the conditions shall have the promised Blessings but they who never perform the conditions shall never have the promised blessings This shows plainly that the Covenant
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
125. and Justified do sometimes through their own default fall into hainous sins and thereby they do incur the Fatherly Anger of God they draw upon themselves a damnable Guiltiness and lose their present â—tness to the Kingdome of Heaven Thon they prove their Position It is manifest say they by the Examples of David and Peter that the Regenerate can throw themselves headlong into most grievous sins God sometimes permitting it that they may learn with all humility to acknowledge that not by their own strength or deserts but by Gods Mercy alone they were freed from Eternal Death and had Life Eternal bestowed upon them Whilst they cleave to such sins and sleep securely therein God's Fatherly Anger ariseth against them Psal 89.31 Rom. 2.9 Besides they draw upon themselves damnable Guilt so that as long as they continue without Repentance in that state they neither ought nor can perswade themselves otherwise than that they are subject to Eternal Death Rom. 8.13 If ye live after the flesh ye shall die For they are bound in the Chain of a Capital Crime by the desert whereof according to God's Ordinance they are subject to Death although they are not as yet given over to Death nor about to be given over if we consider the Fatherly Love of God but are first to be rescued from this sin that they may also be rescued from the guilt of Death Lastly in respect of their present Condition they lose the fitness which they had of entâ—ing into the Kingdome of Heaven because into that Kingdome there shall in no wise enter any thing that is defiled Rev. 21.27 or that worketh Abomination For the Crown of Life is not set upon the Head of any but those who have fought a good fight and have finished their course in Faith and Holiness 2 Tim. 4.8 He is therefore unfit to obtain this Crown whosoever as yet cleaves to the Works of wickedness The Fourth Position is The unalterable Ordinance of God doth require that the Faithful so straying out of the right way must first return again into the way by a renewed performance of Faith and Repentance before he can be brought to the end of the way that is to the Kingdome of Heaven By the Decree of Election the Faithful are so predestinated to the End that they are as along the Kings High-way to be led to this appointed End no other ways than by the Means ordained by God Nor are these Decrees of God concerning the Means Manner and Order of such Events less fixed and sure than the Decrees of the End and of the Events themselves If any Man therefore walk in a way contrary to God's Ordinance namely that broad way of Vncleanness and Impenitence which leads directly down to Hell he can never come by this Means to the Kingdome of Heaven yea and if Death should overtake him wandring in this By-path he cannot but fall into Everlasting Death This is the constant and manifest Voice of the Holy Scripture Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Luke 13.3 Be not deceived neither fornicatours nor idolaters c. shall inherit the kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6.9 They are deceived therefore who think that the Elect wallowing in such Crimes and so dying must notwithstanding needs be saved through the force of Election For the Salvation of the Elect is sure indeed God so decreeing But withal by the Decree of the same our God it is not otherwise sure than by the way of Faith Repentance and Holiness Heb. 12.14 Without holiness no man shall see God The foundation of God standeth sure And Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity 2 Tim. 2.19 Again their Fifth Position is that In the mean time between the Guilt of a grievous sin and the Renewed Act of Faith and Repentance such an Offender stands by his own desert to be condemned by Christ's Merit Ibid. Art V. pag. 126 127. and God's Decree to be acquitted but actually absolved he is not until he hath obtained pardon by Renewed Faith and Repentance And for Proof of this Position they say in Page 128. The Father of Mercies hath set down this Order That the Act of Repentance must go before the Benefit of Forgiveness Psal 32.5 Ezek. 18.27 Thus those Excellent Divines and Judicious Faithful Ministers of Christ By all which it is clear as the Sun That the Synod of Dort taught the conditionality of the Covenant and held Faith Repentance sincere Obedience and Perseverance to the End to be the indispensably necessary Conditions of obtaining Eternal Salvation and therefore if there happen to be a partial Intermission of sincere Evangelical Obedience for a time by Christians falling into hainous wilful sins there must be a renewing of Faith and Repentance and a returning to their Obedience again before they can obtain the pardon of those Sins and the Eternal Salvation of their Souls which is all that we hold in this matter And it is alserted explained and solidly proved by the most Learned and Judicious Dâ—â—â—â—â—ant who was a Member of the Synod of Dâ—â— in another Book of his in these Words Bond Opera sunt necessaria ad Justificationis statum relinendum Praelect de Justitiâ Habit. Act. cap. 31. p. 404 405. conservandum non ut causae c. that is Good Workes are necessary to retain and preserve the state of Justification not as causes which of themselves effect produce or merit this Preservation but as Means or Conditions without which God will not preserve the Grace of Justification in Men. And here may be reckoned up the same Works which we mentioned in the foregoing Conclusion For as no Man receives that general Justification which froes from the Guilt of all former sins unless Repentance Faith a Purpose to lead a New Life and other Actions of that nature concurre So no Man retains a state free from Guilt with respect to following sins but by means of the same Actions of believing in God calling upon God mortifying the flesh continually repenting and grieving for the sins that are continually committed The Reason why all these things are necessarily required on our part is this because these things cannot be always absent but their contraries will begin to be present which are repugnant to the Nature of a justified Man For if you take away Faith in God and Prayer there succeeds unbelief and contempt of God's Name If you take away the endeavour of Mortification and the exercise of Repentance there breaks in upon the Man predominant Lusts and Sins wasting the Conscience Therefore because it is not God's will that Men who are Vnbelievers obstinate carnal should enjoy the benefit of Justification he requires continual Works of Faith Repentance and Mortification by whose presence are thrust as it were out of Doors and driven far away Vnbelief Obstinacy Security and other Poysons of Justifying Grace and also of particular sins there is a particular pardon
obtained Hence Paul saith Rom. 8.13 If ye live after the flesh ye shall die And Heb. 3.12 Take heed lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God We do not therefore think that the Act it self of believing repenting and mortifying the flesh doth effect or merit the conservation of Justifying Grace because all these things are done by us faintly and imperfectly sometimes also through the Prevalency of some great Tentation they are as it were choaked and oppressed but we say that God himself of his free Mercy preserves the Regenerate in a state of Grace and Salvation whilst they walk in these wayes As therefore for the preservation of Natural Life it is necessarily required that a Man carefully avoid Fire Water Precipices Poysons and other things which destroy the Health of the Body so for the preservation of Spiritual Life it is necessarily required that a Man avoid Vnbelief Impenitency and other things that are destructive and contrary to the Salvation of Souls which cannot be avoided unless the opposite and contrary Actions be exercised But these Actions do not preserve the Life of Grace properly and of themselves by touching or producing the very effect it self of preservation but improperly and by accident by excluding and removing the cause of destruction Thus we have at large refuted the Authour of the Letter his Second Errour against the Purity of Christian Faith and have fully and clearly proved the Covenant of Grace to be Conditional This we have done first by clear Scripture Secondly by certain and evident Reason grounded upon Scripture Thirdly by Testimonies of Orthodox Divines and First by Testimonies of the Antient Doctors of the Primitive Church Secondly by Testimonies of Divines of the Reformed Churches both at Home and Abroad and particularly by the Testimony of the Divines of the Famous Synod of Dort Whence it is as clear as the Sun that we preach no new Arminian Gospel in this great Point of the Covenant of Grace and consequently that the Authour of the Letter is a false Witness in Matter of Fact who hath proclaimed us to the World to be Preachers of a new Arminian Gospel on the account of our Doctrine in the point of Justification If after all this he should say that though we have proved the Covenant to be conditional and Faith to be the receptive applicative condition of it yet we have not proved that Faith justifies as a Condition We Answer That look by what place of Scripture he shall ever be able to prove that Faith justifies as an Instrument and a hand by the same shall we prove that Faith justifies as a receptive applicative condition For as we said before we take a receptive applicative Condition and a moral foederal instrument to be one and the same thing So did the Westminster Assembly of Divines before us And in this sense which alone is justifiable we hold Faith to be both an Instrument and a Condition with respect to Justification And if that will please our Authour we shall grant him that Faith is a hand and not only a hand but an eye and a mouth too an eye to look unto Christ crucified John 3.14 15. John 6.40 Isa 45.22 And a mouth to eat and drink and feed on his Crucified Flesh and Blood John 6.35 50 51 53 54 55 56 57 58. We shall conclude this Answer with the Testimony of Two Learneder and Wiser Men than our Authour seems to be The first is the Reverend Mr. Lukin a Worthy Judicious Congregational Minister in his Life of Faith printed above Thirty years ago Lukin 's Life of Faith p. 24 25. For the question about the Interest of Faith in our Justification whether it justifie as an Instrument or as a Condition I think saith he it deserves not half the words that have been used about it they are both of them School-terms and not found in the Scripture and should not therefore disturb the peace of the Church especially seeing both Parties at variance are agreed in the thing but not in the formal notion under which they do conceive it and I think both lides are so far agreed that Faith may be called an Instrument allowing much impropriety of speech and that it may be called a Condition while we thereby do not suppose any such thing as merit Thus Mr. Lukin Now we heartily accept of this expedient for the calming of the Tempest which the Letter hath raised We will never desire the Authour to call Faith a meritorious condition for we never called it so our selves if he will grant us that it is but improperly an Instrument of Justification The other is the Learned Turretin that famous Calvinist Professor of Divinity lately at Geneva who writes thus Caeterum non anxiè quaerendum putamus an fides instrumenti notionem induat in hoc negotio c. Turretin Instit part 2. loc 16. quaest 7. p. 737. But we do not think that it is curiously to be enquired after whether Faith put on the nation of an Instrument in this matter of Justification or likewise of a condition as it seems to some men For nothing hinders but both notions may be ascribed to it provided Condition be not taken for that in consideration whereof God justifies Man in the Covenant of Grace after the manner that works were the Condition of Justification in the Legal Covenant For in this sense it cannot be called a condition unless we come over to the Socinians and Arminians who will have Faith or the Act of believing to be accepted by God for perfect Righteousness which we have but now resuted But taking the word Condition in a large sense for all that which is required on our part to obtain that benefit whether it have the notion of a cause properly so called or only of an instrumental Cause for as that Condition hath the relation of an Instrument so that Instrument hath the nature of a Condition on our part without which Justification cannot be obtained Thus Turretin to which we fully agree except that we think he gives too much to Faith in conceiving it to be an instrumental cause of Justification yet since he says that it is no cause properly so called it follows necessarily that it is not properly an instrumental cause and so hath no proper causal influence upon the act of Justification and if so then it is but improperly an instrument as Mr. Lukin saith and so the whole Controversie comes to nothing but a strife about the propriety or impropriety of a word which Turretin plainly saw and therefore confessed that Faith is so an Instrument as to be a Condition and so a Condition as to be an Instrument of Justification And taking the word Instrument in a moral Sense for a means of receiving the benefit of Justification for Christ's sake only we do unfeignedly affirm as Turretin doth that a sincere Faith is both the Instrument and Receptive
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