proportion betwixt it and the reward 2 But in a larger fence as Promise is an Obligation and the thing promised is called Debt so the performers of the Condition are called Worthy and their performance Merit Though properly it is all of Grace and not of Debt 1 Rom. 4. 4 10. 5. 15 16 17. Hose 14. 4. Mat. 10. 8. Rom. 3. 24. 8 32. 1 Cor. 2. 12. Rev. 21. 6. 22. 18. Rom. 11. 6. Gal. 5. 4. Eph. 2. 5 7 8. Gen. 32. 10. 2 Mat. 10. 11 12 13 37. 22 8. Luk. 20. 35. 21. 36. 2 Thes. 1. 5. 11. Rev. 3. 4 c. EXPLICATION IN the strictest sence he is said to Merit who performeth somewhat of that worth in it self to another which bindeth that other in strict justice to requite him This work must not be due and so the performer not under the absolute soveraignty of another for else he is not in a capacity of thus Meriting It is naturall Justice which here bindeth to Reward All that we can merit at the hands of Gods naturall Justice is but these two things 1. The escape of punishment in that respect or consideration wherein our actions are not sinfull or the not punishing of us in a greater degree then sin deserves Though indeed it is questionable whether we are capable of suffering more 2. Our actions thus deserve the honour of acknowledgment of that good which is in them yea though the evil be more then the good As a merciful Thief that gives a poor man half his mony again when he hath robbed him as he deserveth a less degree of punishment so that good which was in his action deserveth an answerable acknowledgment and praise though he dye for the fact But this is a poor kinde of meriting and little to the honour or benefit of the party And is more properly called a less desert of punishment then a desert of reward 2. The second kind of Merit is that whereby a Governor for the promoting of the ends of Government is obliged to reward the Obedience of the Governed That when Disobedience is grown common the Obedience may be encouraged and a difference made Among men even Justice bindeth to such reward at least to afford the obedience the benefit of protection and freedom though he do no more then his duty But that is because no man hath an absolute soveraignty de jure over his subjects as God hath but is indebted to his subjects as well as they are to him If our obedience were perfect in respect of the Law of Works yet all the Obligation that would lie upon God to reward us any further then the foresaid forbearing to punish us and acknowledging our obedience would be but his own wisdom as he discerneth such a Reward would tend to the well-governing of the World working morally with voluntary agents agreeable to their natures And when we had done all we must say we are unprofitable servants we have done nothing but what was our duty Therefore this Obligation to reward from the wisdom of God as it is in his own brest known to himself alone so is it drawn from himself and not properly from the worth of our Works and therefore this is improperly called Merit 3. The third kinde of Meriting is sufficiently explained in the Position where the Obligation to reward is Gods ordinate Justice and the truth of his Promise and the worthiness lieth in our performance of the Conditions on our part This is improperly called Merit This kinde of Meriting is no diminution to the greatness or freeness of the gift or reward because it was a free and gracious Act of God to make our performance capable of that title and to engage himself in the foresaid promise to us and not for any gain that he expected by us or that our performance can bring him THESIS XXVII 1 AS it was possible for Adam to have fulfilled the Law of Works by that power which he received by nature 2 So is it possible for us to perform the Conditions of the new Covenant by the 3 Power which we receive from the Grace of Christ. EXPLICATION 1 THat it may be possible which is not future A thing is termed possible when there is nothing in the nature of the thing it self which may so hinder its production as to necessitate its non-futurity Though from extrinsecall Reasons the same non-futurity may be certain and in some respect necessary And all things considered the futurity of it may be termed impossible yet the thing it self be possible So it was possible for Adam to have stood And so if you should take the word possible absolutely and abstracted from the consideration of the strength of the Actor even the Commands of the Law are yet possible to be fulfilled But such a use of the word is here improper it being ordinarily spoken with relation to the strength of the Agent 2 But in the relative sence the Conditions of the new Covenant are possible to them that have the assistance of grace I intend not here to enter upon an Explication of the nature of that Grace which is necessary to this performance my purpose being chiefly to open those things wherein the relative change of our estates doth consist rather then the reall Whether then this Grace be Physicall or Morall Whether there be a Morall Suasion of the Spirit distinct from the Suasion of the Word and other outward means Whether that which is commonly called the Work of Conscience be also from such an internall suasory work of the Spirit How far this Grace is resistible Or whether all have sufficient Grace to beleeve either given or internally offered with multitudes of such questions I shall here pass by Referring you to those many Volumes that have already handled them All that I shall say of this shall be when I come to open the Nature of Faith See Parkers Theses before mentioned THESIS XXVIII THe Precepts of the Covenants as meer Precepts must be distinguished from the same Precepts considered as Conditions upon performance whereof we must live or dye for non performance THESIS XXIX AS all Precepts are delivered upon Covenant-terms or as belonging to one of the Covenants and not independently So have the same Precepts various ends and uses according to the tenor and ends of the distinct Covenants to which they do belong EXPLICATION THerefore it is one thing to ask whether the Covenant of Works be abolished and another thing whether the Morall Law be abolished Yet that no one Precept of either Morall or Ceremoniall Law was delivered without reference to one of the Covenants is very evident For if the breach of that Command be a sin and to be punished then either according to the rigorous threatening of the old Covenant or according to the way and justice of the new For the Law as it was delivered by Moses may be reduced in several respects to each of these Covenants and
of Pardon Justification doth then absolutely pardon and justifie us when we perform the Condition Hence is the phrase in Scripture of being Iustified by the Law which doth not only signifie by the Law as the Rule to which men did fit their actions but also by the Law as not condemning but justifying the person whose actions are so fitted In which sence the Law did justifie Christ or else the Law should not justifie as a Law or Covenant but only as a Direction which properly is not Justifying but only a means to discover that we are Justifiable As the Word of Christ shall judge men at the last day Ioh. 12. 28. So doth it virtually now And if it judge then doth it condemn and justifie So Rom. 2. 12. Iam. 2 12. We shall be judged by the Law of Liberty Gal. 5. 3. 4 23. In the same sence as the Law is said to convince and curse Iam. 2. 9. Gal. 3. 13. it may be said that the Gospell or new Law doth acquit justifie and bless Rom. 8. 12. The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Iesus hath made me from the Law of Sin and Death As the Law worketh Wrath and where is no Law there is no Transgression Rom. 4. 15. And as sin is not imputed where there is no Law Rom. 5. 13. and the strength of sin is the law 1 Cor. 15. 56 So the new law is the strength of Righteousness and worketh Deliverance from Wrath and were there no such new Covenant there would be no Righteousness inherent or imputed Ioh. 7. 51. So that I conclude That this transient Act of God pardoning and justifying constitutive is his Grant in the new Covenant by which as a Morall Instrument our Justification and Pardon are in time produced even when we beleeve the Obligation of the Law being then by it made void to us And this is the present apprehension I have of the nature of Remission and Justification Si quid novisti rectius c. yet I shall have occasion afterwards to tell you That all this is but Remission and Justification in Law and Title which must be distinguished from that which is in Judgment or Sentence the former being vertual in respect of the Actuality of the latter 2. The second kinde of Gods Acts which may be called Justifying is indeed Immanent viz. his knowing the sinner to be pardoned and just in Law his Willing and Approving hereof as True and Good These are Acts in Heaven yea in God himself but the former sort are on earth also I would not have those Acts of God separated which he doth conjoyn as he ever doth these last with the former But I verily think that it is especially the former transient legall Acts which the Scripture usually means when it speaks of Pardoning and constitutive Justifying and not these Immanent Acts though these must be looked on as concurrent with the former Yet most Divines that I meet with seem to look at Pardon and Justification as being done in heaven only and consisting only in these later Immanent Acts And yet they deny Justification to be an Immanent Act too But how they will ever manifest that these celestiall Acts of God viz. his Willing the sinners Pardon and so forgiving him in his own brest or his accepting him as just are Transient Acts I am yet unable to understand And if they be Immanent Acts most will grant that they are from Eternity and then fair fall the Antinomians Indeed if God have a Bar in Heaven before his Angels where these things are for the present transacted as some think and that we are said to be justified only at the bar now then I confess that is a transient Act indeed But of that more hereafter 7. I add in the definition That all this is done in consideration of the Satisfaction 1 made by Christ 2. Accepted 3. and pleaded with God The satisfaction made is the proper meritorious and impulsive cause 2. So the Satisfaction as pleaded by Christ the intercessor is also an impulsive cause 3. The Satisfactious Acceptance by the Sinner that is Faith and the pleading of it with God by the sinner that is praying for pardon are but the Conditions or Causae sine quo But all these will be fuller opened afterwards THESIS XXXVII IVstification is either 1. in Title and the Sence of the Law 2. Or in Sentence of Iudgment The first may be called Constitutive The second Declarative The first Virtuall the second Actuall EXPLICATION I Will not stand to mention all those other Distinctions of Justification which are common in others not so necessary or pertinent to my purposed scope You may finde them in Mr Bradshaw Mr Iohn Goodwin and Alstedius Distinctions and Definitions c. The difference between Justification in Title of Law and in Sentence of Judgment is apparent at the first view Therefore I need not explain it It is common when a man hath a good cause and the Law on his side to say The Law justifieth him or he is just in Law or he is acquit by the Law and yet he is more fully and compleatly acquit by the sentence of the Judge afterward In the former sence we are now justified by faith as soon as ever we beleeve In the latter sence we are justified at the last Judgment The title of Declarative is too narrow for this last For the sentence of judiciall absolution doth more then barely to declare us justified I call the former virtuall not as it is in it felf considered but as it standeth in relation to the latter All those Scriptures which speak of Justification as done in this life I understand of Justification in Title opf Law So Rom. 5. 1. Being justified by faith we have peace with God Rom. 4. 2. Rom. 5. 9. Being now justified by his blood c. Iames 2. 21 25. c. But Justification in Judgment as it is the compleating Act so is it most fitly called Justification and I think the word in Scripture hath most commonly reference to the Judgment day and that Justification in Title is called Justification most especially because of its relation to the Justification at Judgment because as men are now in point of Law so shall they most certainly be sentenced in Judgment Therefore is it spoken of many times as a future thing and not yet done Rom. 3. 30 Mat. 12. 37. Rom. 2. 13. But these may be called Justification by Faith for by Faith we are justified both in Law Title and at Judgment THESIS XXXVIII IVstification in Title of Law is a gracious Act of God by the Promise or Grant of the new Covevant acquitting the Offender from the Accusasation and Condemnation of the old Covenant upon consideration of the Satisfaction made by Christ and accepted by the sinner EXPLICATION HEre you may see 1. That pardon of sin and this Iustification in Law are not punctually and precisely alone 2. And yet the difference
in expediting the Arminian Controversies as you shall perceive after Some parts of Scripture do in severall respects belong to both these Wills such are some promises and threatnings conditionall which as they are predictions of what shall come to passe do belong to the will Purpose but as they are purposely delivered and annexed to the commands and prohibitions for incitement to Duty and restraint from Sin which was indeed the great end of God in them so they belong to the Will of Precept For the promise of Reward and the threatning of Punishment are reall parts of the Law or Covenant so of History All this is only a preparative to the opening more fully the nature of the Legislative Will and what falls under it For the Will of Purpose and what is under it I have no intention any further to handle THESIS III. First The Will of God concerning duty is expressed wholly in his written Laws Secondly Which Laws are promulgate and established by way of Covenant wherein the Lord engageth himselfe to reward those that performe its conditions and threateneth the penalty to the violaters thereof EXPLICATION 1. NOt but that much of Gods Will is also contained in the Law of Nature or may by the meere use of Reason be learned from Creatures and Providences But yet this is nothing against the Scriptures sufficiency and perfection For besides all the superadded Positives the Scripture also containes all that which we call the Law of Nature and it is there to be found more legible and discernable than in the best of our obscure deceitfull corrupted hearts 2. All perfect compulsive Laws have their penalty annexed or else they are but meerly directive but not usually any reward propounded to the obeyers It is sufficient that the Subject know his Soveraignes pleasure which he is bound to observe without any reward Meere Laws are enacted by Soveraignty Meere Covenants are entred by equalls or persons dis-engaged to each other in respect of the contents of the Covenants and therefore they require mutuall consent These therefore made by God are of a mixt nature neither meere Laws nor meere Covenants but both He hath enacted his Laws as our Soveraigne Lord whithout waiting for the Creatures consent and will punish the breakers whether they consent or no But as it is a Covenant there must be a restipulation from the Creature and God will not performe his conditions there expressed without the Covenanters consent engagement and performance of theirs Yet is it called frequently in Scripture a Covenant as it is offered by God before it be accepted and entered into by the Creature because the condescention is only on Gods part and in reason there should be no question of the Creatures consent it being so wholly and only to his advantage Gen. 9. 12 17. Exod. 34. 28. Deut. 29. 1. 2 Kings 23. 3 c. There are some generall obscure Threatnings annexed to the prohibitions in the Law of Nature that is Nature may discerne that God will punish the breakers of his Law but how or with what degree of punishment it cannot discern Also it may collect that God will be favourable and gratious to the Obedient but it neither knows truly the conditions nor the nature or greatnesse of the Reward nor Gods engagement thereto Therefore as it is in Nature it is a meer Law and not properly a Covenant Yea to Adam in his perfection the forme of the Covenant was known by superadded Revelation and not written naturally in his heart Whether the threatning and punishment do belong to it only as it is a Law or also as it is a Covenant is of no great moment seeing it is really mixt of both It is called in Scripture also the curse of the Covenant Deut. 29. 20. 21. THESIS IIII. THe first Covenant made with Adam did promise life upon condition of perfect obedience and threaten death upon the least disobedience EXPLICATION THe promise of life is not expressed but plainly implyed in the threatning of death That this life promised was onely the continuance of that state that Adam was then in in Paradice is the judgement of most Divines But what death it was that is there threatned is a Question of very great difficulty and some moment The same damnation that followeth the breach of the New Covenant it could not be no more then the life then enjoyed is the same with that which the New Covenant promiseth And I cannot yet assent to their judgement who think it was onely that death which consisteth in a meer separation of soule and body or also in the annihilation of both Adams separated soule must have enjoyed happinesse or endured misery For that our soules when separated are in one of these conditions and not annihilated or insensible I have proved by twenty Arguments from Scripture in another booke As Adams life in Paradise was no doubt incomparably beyond ours in happinesse so the death threatned in that Covenant was a more terrible death then our temporall death For though his losse by a temporall death would have bin greater then ours now yet hee would not have bin a Subject capable of privation if annihilated nor however capable of the sense of his losse A great losse troubleth a dead man no more then the smallest Therefore as the joy of Paradise would have bin a perpetuall joy so the sorrow and pain it is like would have bin perpetuall and wee perpetuated capable Subjects See Barlow exercit utrum melius sit miserum esse quam non esse I do not thinke that all the deliverance that Christs Death procured was onely from a temporall death or annihilarion or that the death which hee suffered was aequivalent to no more THESIS V. THis Covenant being soon by man violated the threatning must bee fulfulled and so the penalty suffered EXPLICATION WHether there were any flat necessity of mans suffering after the fall is doubted by many and denyed by Socinus Whether this necessity ariseth from Gods naturall Justice or his Ordinate viz. his Decree and the verity of the threatning is also with many of our own Divines a great dispute whether God might have pardoned sinne if he had not said the sinner shall die may be doubted of though I believe the affirmative yet I judge it a frivolous presumptuous question But the word of his threatning being once past methinks it should bee past question that hee cannot absolutely pardon without the apparent violation of his Truth or Wisdome Some think that it proceedeth from his Wisdome rather then his Justice that man must suffer see Mr. Io. Goodwin of justif part 2. pag. 34. but why should we separate what God hath conjoyned However whether Wisdome or justice or Truth or rather all these were the ground of it yet certaine it is that a necessity there was that the penalty should be inflicted or else the Son of God should not have made satisfaction nor sinners bear so much themselves THESIS VI
Satisfaction is imputed to us instead of the value of a perfect Obedience of our own performing and the value of our Faith is not so imputed But because there must be some personall performance of homage therefore the personall performance of Faith shall be imputed to us for a sufficient personall payment as if we had paid the full rent because Christ whom we believe in hath paid it he will take this for satisfactory homage so it is in point of personall performance and not of value that Faith is imputed THESIS XXIV THis personall Gospell Righteousness is in its kind a perfect Righteousness and so far we may admit the doctrine of personall Perfection EXPLICATION OUr Righteousness may be considered either in regard of the matter and the acts denominated righteous or else in respect of the form which gives them that denomination Also our Faculties and Actions are considerable either in regard of their Being or of their Quality 1. The perfection of the Being of our Faculties or Acts is nothing to our present purpose as falling under a physicall consideration only 2. In regard of their Quality they may be called perfect or imperfect in severall sences 1 As Perfection is taken for the transcendentall perfection of Being so they are perfect 2. And as it is taken for the compleat number of all parts it is perfect 3. But as it is taken for that which is perfect Efficienter or Participaliter that is for a work that is finished for the Author so our holiness is still imperfect here 4. And as it is taken for accidentall perction so called in Metaphysicks when it wants nothing which beyond the Essence is also requisite to the integrity ornament and well being of it so our holiness is here imperfect 5. As perfection is taken pro sanitate for soundness so our holiness is imperfect 6. And as it is taken pro maturitate for ripeness so it is imperfect 7. In respect of the admixture of contrary qualities our holiness is imperfect 8. But whether all this imperfection be privative and sinfull or meerly negative and only our misery whether it be a privation physicall or morall is a question that will be cleared when I come to shew the extent of the Commands or Rule But not any of these kinds of perfection is that which I mean in the Position Holiness is a quality may be intended and remitted in creased decreased but it is the relative consideration of these qualities of our faculties and acts as they are compared with the Rule of the new Covenant so it is not the perfection of our holiness that we enquire after but of our righteousness which righteousness is not a quality as holiness is but the modification of our acts as to the Rule which is not varyed secundum majus minus See Schibl Metaph. li. 2 c. 9. Tit. 7. Art 2. Therefore our Divines usually say That our Justification is perfect though our Sanctification be not and then I am sure our Righteousness must be perfect A two-fold perfection is here implyed 1. A Metaphysical Perfection of Being 2. A Perfection of Sufficiency in order to its end 1. The being of our Righteousness formally consisting in our relative conformity to the rule either it must be perfect or not at all He that is not perfectly innocent in the very point that he is accused is not innocent truly but guilty Sincerity is usually said to be our Gospel-Perfection not as it is accepted in stead of perfection but as it is truly so for sincere Faith is our conformity to the Rule of Perfection viz. the new Covenant as it is a Covenant yet as it is sincere Faith it is only materially our Righteousness and Perfection but formally as it is relatively our conformity to the said Rule 2. Our Righteousness is perfect as in its Being so also in order to its end The end is to be the condition of our Justification c. This end it shall perfectly attain The Tenor of the new Covenant is not Believe in the highest degree and you shall be justified But believe sincerely and you shall be justified so that our Righteousness 1. formally considered in relation to the condition of the new Covenant is perfect or none 2. But considered materially as it is holiness either in reference to the degree it should attain or the degree which it shall attain or in reference to the excellent object which it is excercised about or in reference to the old Covenant or the directive and in some sence the preceptive part of the new Covenant in all these respects it is imperfect I speak not all this while of that perfection in Christs Satisfaction which is also our perfect Righteousness because few will question the perfection of that THESIS XXV YEt is it an improper speech of some Divines That Christ first justifieth our persons and then our duties and actions And except by justifying they mean his esteeming them to be a fulfilling of the Gospell Conditions and so unjust it is unsound and dangerous as well as improper EXPLICATION 1. IT is improper in the best sence 1. Because it is contrary to the Scripture use of the word Iustifying which is the acquitting of us from the charge of breaking the Law and not from the charge of violating the new Covenant 2 It is against the nature of the thing seeing Justification as you shall see anon implyeth Accusation but the esteeming of a righteous action to be as it is doth not imply any accusation 3. This speech joyning Justification of Persons and Actions together doth seem to intimate the same kinde of justification of both and so doth tend to seduce the hearers to a dangerous error 2. For if it be understood in the worst sence it will overthrow the Righteousness of Christ imputed and the whole scope of the Gospell and will set up the doctrine of Justification by Works For if God do justifie our Works from any legall Accusation as he doth our persons then it will follow That our Works are just and consequently we are to be justified by them There is no room for Scripture-justification where our own Works are not first acknowledged unjustifiable because there is no place for Satisfaction and Justification thereby from another where we plead the Justification of our own Works in respect of the same Law Justification of Works is a sufficient ground for Iustification by Works seeing the justness of his dispositions and actions is the ground of denominating the person just and that according to the primary and most proper kinde of Righteousness as is expressed in the distinction of it pag. 98 99. THESIS XXVI 1 NEither can our performance of the conditions of the Gospel in the most proper and strict sence be said to merit the reward seeing there is nothing in the value of it or any benefit that God receiveth by it which may so entitle it meritorious neither is there any
or melancholly maketh you not know your own minde or else you do but dissemble in pretending trouble and sad complaints If you be indeed unwilling I have no comfort for you till you are willing but must turn to perswasions to make you willing I should answer The Condition of the Covenant is not the Perfection but the sincerity of Faith or Consent which way goes the prevailing bent or choyce of your will If Christ were before you would you accept him or reject him If you would heartily accept him for your only Lord and Saviour I dare say you are a true Beleever Thus you see the comfortable use of right understanding what justifying faith is and the great danger and inconvenience that followeth the common mistakes in this point THESIS LXX FAith in the largest sence as it comprehendeth all the Condition of the new Covenant may be thus defined It is when a sinner by the Word and Spirit of Christ being throughly convinced of the Righteousness of the Law the truth of its threatening the evill of his own sin and the greatness of his misery hereupon and with all of the Nature and Offices Sufficiency and Excellency of Iesus Christ the Satisfaction he hath made his willingness to save and his free offer to all that will accept him for their Lord and Saviour doth hereupon believe the truth of this Gospell and accept of Christ as his only Lord and Saviour to bring them to God their chiefest good and to present them pardoned and just before him and to bestow upon them a more glorious inheritance and do accordingly rest on him as their Saviour and sincerely though imperfectly obey him as their Lord forgiving others loving his people bearing what sufferings are imposed diligently using his means and Ordinances and confessing and bewailing their sins against him and praying for pardon and all this sincerely and to the end EXPLICATION THis is the Condition of the new Covevenant at large That all this is sometime called Faith as taking its name from the primary principall vitall part is plain hence 1. In that Faith is oft called the Obeying of the Gospell but the Gospell commandeth all this Rom. 10. 16. 1 Pet. 1. 22. 4. 17. 2 Thes. 1. 8. Gal. 3. 1. 5 7. Heb. 5. 9. 2. The fulfilling of the Conditions of the new Covenant is oft called by the name of Faith so opposed to the fulfilling the Conditions of the old Covenant called works But these forementioned are parts of the Condition of the new Covenant and therefore implyed or included in Faith Gal. 3. 12 23 25. Not that Faith is properly taken for its fruits or confounded with them but as I told you before it is named in the stead of the whole Condition all the rest being implyed as reducible to it in some of the respects mentioned under the 62 Position It may be here demanded 1. Why I do make affiance or recombency an immediate product of Faith when it is commonly taken to be the very justifying Act I answer 1. I have proved already that Consent or acceptance is the principall Act and Affiance doth necessarily follow that 2. For the most of my Reasons that Affiance is a following Act and not the principall they are the same with those of Dr Downame against Mr Pemble and in his Treatise of Justification whither therefore I refer you for Satisfaction 2. Quest. Why do I make sincerity and perseverance to be so near kin to Faith as to be in some sence the same and not rather distinct Graces Answ. It is apparent that they are not reall distinct things but the Modi of Faith 1. Sincerity is the verity of it which is convertible with its Being as it is Metaphysicall Verity and with its Vertuous or Gracious Being as it is Morall or Theologicall Sincerity 2. Perseverance or duration of a Being is nothing really distinct from the Being it self Suarez thinks not so much as a Modus THESIS LXXI 1 THe sincere Performance of the summary great Command of the Law To have the Lord only for our God and so to love obey believe and trust him above all is still naturally implyed in the Conditions of the Gospell as of absolute indispensible necessity 2 and in order of nature and of excellency before Faith it self 3 But it is not commanded in the sence and upon the terms as under the first Covenant EXPLICATION 1 THis Command need not be expressed in the Gospell Conditions it is so naturally necessary implied in all As the ultimate End need not be expressed in directions precepts so as â—he meanes because it is still supposed consultatio est tantum de mediis 2 Love to God and taking him for our God and chiefe Good is both in excellency and order of nature before Faith in Christ the Mediator 1. Because the End is thus before the meanes in excellency and intention But God is the ultimate End and Christ as Mediator is but the meanes Ioh. 14. 6. Christ is the way by which men must come to the Father 2. The Son as God-man or Mediator is lesse then the Father and therefore the duties that respect him as their Object must needs be the lesse excellent duties Ioh 14. 13. The glory of the Son is but a means for the glory of the Father Ioh. 14. 28. My Father is greater then I therefore the Love of the Father is greater then the Love to the Son c. So also in point of necessity it hath the naturall precedency as the End hath before the means for the denying of the End doth immediately cashiere and evacuate all means as such He that maketh not God his chief Good can never desire or Accept of Christ as the way and meanes to recover that chief Good The Apostle therefore knew more reason then meerely for its perpetuity why the chiefest Grace is Love 1. Cor. 13. 13. Though yet the work of Justification is laid chiefely upon faith 3 That this Love of God is not commanded in the sence and on the termes as under the Law is evident For 1. The old Covenant would have condemned us for the very imperfection of the due degree of Love But the Gospell accepteth of Sincerity which lyeth in loving God above all or as the chiefe Good 2. The old Covenant would have destroyed us for one omission of a due Act of Love But the Covenant of Grace accepteth of it if a man that never knew God all his life time doe come in at last Yet the sincere performance of it is as necessary now as then THESIS LXXII AS the accepting of Christ for Lord which is the hearts subjection is as Essentiall a part of Iustifying Faith as the Accepting of him for our Saviour So consequently sincere obedience which is the effect of the former hath as much to doe in justifying us before God as Affiance which is the fruit of the later EXPLICATION I Know this will hardly down with
them off which made their unbelief not to be finall and damning Many a man that lived not half so long in rebellion did yet prove a finall condemned rebell so that they did deserve that God in the time of their infidelity should have cut off their lives and so have let their infidelity be their destruction But supposing that God would not so cut them off and so their unbelief should not be finall which is the case and so they are condemned or threatened by none but the first Law or Covenant which Christ did satisfie But as for the second Law or Covenant it condemneth them not so that Christ need not bear the condemnation of that Covenant for them for He doth not fetch any man from under the condemning sentence of it but only in rich mercy to his chosen He doth prevent their running into that condemnation partly by bearing with them in patience and continuing their lives for into the hands of the purchaser are they wholly committed and partly by prevailing with them to come in to him by the efficacy of his Word and Spirit so that considering them as unbelievers who were to be converted and so they were neither the proper subjects of the Promise of the new Covenant nor of the threatening and condemnation of it Promise they had none but conditionall such as they had not received and so were never the better for and so they were without the covenant and without hope and without God and strangers to all the priviledges of the Saints But yet not those to whom the Law or Covenant saith You shall surely dye except they had been such as should never have believed And for that wrath Eph. 2. 3. which they were children of by nature it must needs be only the wrath or curse of the first violated Covenant and not the wrath or curse of the second for no man is by nature a child of that But I perceive you think it a strange saying That a man by the greatest grossest actuall sin may not be said to violate this Covenant so as to incur its curse but only for finall unbelief Do not the godly sometimes break Covenant with Christ Answ. I have two things to say to the helping of your right understanding in this viz. a two-fold distinction to minde you of which you seem to forget 1. Either the gross sins which you speak of are such as may stand with sincerity of heart or such as cannot If they be sins of really godly men then certainly they violate not the Covenant so as to make them the subjects of its curse For the Covenant saith not He that sinneth shall be damned nor he that committeth this or that great sin shall be damned But he that beleeveth not shall be damned Object But is not this Antinomianism which you so detest Is it not said that no whoremonger or unclean person or covetous person c. shall enter into the Kingdom of Christ or of God Rev. 21. 8. 22. 15. and Eph. 5. 5. that for these things sake cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience Answ. I pray you remember that I have already proved that Faith is the consenting to Christs Dominion and Government over us or the accepting of him for our Lord that we may obey him as well as for our Saviour that we may have affiance in him And consequently Unbelief in this large sence in which the Gospell useth it in opposition to that faith which is the condition of the Covenant containeth in it all Rebellion against Christs Government I could prove this to you out of many plain Scriptures but the plainness of it may spare me that labour Even in the Text objected the word translated Children of disobedience doth signifie both Vnbelief and Disobedience or obstinate unperswadeable men that will not be perswaded to beleeve and obey 2 Thess. 1. 8. Christ shall come in flaming fire to render vengeance to them that obey not his Gospell Certainly those are unbeleevers Or if you will have it plainly in Christs own words what is the damning sin opposed to Faith see it in Luk. 19. 27. But those mine enemies which would not that I should reign over them bring them hither slay them before me It is not then for every act of those fore-mentioned sins that the everlasting wrath of God doth come upon men for then what should become of David Noah Lot Mary Magdalen and all of us But it is for such sins as do prove and proceed from a considerate willfull refusall of Christs Government or an unwillingness that he should reign over us and that not every degree of unwillingness but a prevailing degree from whence a man may be said to be one that would not have Christ reign c. Because this is real unbelief it self as opposite to that Faith which is the condition of Life which is the receiving of Christ for Lord as well as Saviour Yet it is true that temporall judgements may befall us for particular sins as also that each particular sin doth deserve the eternall wrath which the first Covenant doth denounce but not in a Law-sence that which is denounced in the second Covenant Every great fault which a subject committeth against his Prince is not capitall or high Treason Every fault or disobedient act of a Wife against her Husband doth not break the Marriage Covenant nor loose the bond but only the sin of Adultery which is the taking of another to the marriage bed or the choosing of another husband and actuall forsaking the Husband or renouncing him And you need not to fear lest this doctrine be guilty of Antinomianism For their Error which many of their adversaries also are guilty of lieth here That not understanding that receiving Christ as Lord is an essentiall act of justifying Faith nor that the refusall of his Government is an essentiall part of damning unbelief they do thereupon acknowledge no condition of Life but bare Belief in the narrowest sence that is either Belief of Pardon and Justification and Reconciliation or Affiance in Christ for it so also they acknowledge no proper damning sin but unbelief in that strict sence as is opposite to this faith that is the not beleeving in Christ as a Saviour And upon the common grounds who can choose but say as they that neither drunkennesse nor murther nor any sin but that unbelief doth damn men except he will say that every sin doth and so set up the Covenant of Works and deny his very Christianity by making Christ to dye in vain so great are the inconveniences that follow the ignorance of this one point That justifying faith is the accepting of Christ for Lord and Saviour and that sincere obedience to him that bought us is part of the Condition of the new Covenant I have been sorry to hear some able Divines in their confessions of sin acknowledging their frequent violation of this Covenant yea that in every sinfull
the terms of the first severer Covenant and make him pay the uttermost farthing Sure the Covenant whose curse Christ did bear did know no mercy to transgressors Again the Covenant is also a Law and Christ himself is stiled the Law-giver therefore can he not be under the Law or under the Covenant He is not King and Subject too Moreover as I said before he is the Mediator and therefore not he to whom the Covenant is made Perhaps you will say was not Moses both To which I answer 1. Moses was but a Typicall improper Mediator 2. Moses was in another respect a Subject to the Law whereof he himself was the Mediator as he was one that had a soul and body to save or lose upon the same terms with the rest of the people But it was not so with our Lord Jesus He was only a Mediator as being a middle Person betwixt the offended Majesty and the offending Subjects But Moses was one of the offending Subjects chosen out to supply the place of a true Mediator as his Type So that though Moses was both Mediator and also a Subject to that Law and Covenant yet it is not so with Christ. But the words and tenor of the Covenant it self are so plain an Argument that I need to say no more Yet do I acknowledge that there are severall Promises in the Scriptures made only to Christ As That he shall see of the travell of his soul and be satisfied and by his knowledge justifie many Isai. 53. 10 11. That the Heathen shall be given for his inheritance and the utmost parts of the earth for his possession c. Psa. 2. But 1. These not be the Covenant made with us 2. And for my part I take it not to be any part of Gods Legislative Will as it referreth to Christ but only as it belongeth to us as a prophesie what God would do in the advancing of Christ and his Kingdom and so of us and so hath partly the nature of a promise to us also For that which is commonly called the Covenant betwixt the Father and the Son is part of Gods purpose or decree rather then of his Law The Covenant betwixt the Father and Son was from Eternity So is not the Law or Covenant written The Divine Nature which undertook the Mediatorship could not be subject to Laws or proper Covenants Christ had no need of engagement from the Father by word or writing for his encouragement or confirmation So that all the Promises to Christ in Scripture are either meer Prophesies or do also intimate some Promise to the Church and so are written for our sakes and also for the spreading of the Meditators Glory but not for proper Covenant ends betwixt the Father and him And this interpretation Christ himself hath taught me Iohn 12. 28. 30. Christ prayeth to the Father to glorifie his Name viz. in the Sons Death and Resurrection He is answered by a voyce from Heaven I have glorified it and will glorifie it Christ telleth the people that stood by That this voyce came not because of him but for their sakes I conclude therefore That the Gospell-Covenant properly and usually so called is made betwixt God and man by the means of a Mediator and so delivered to us in the hands of a Mediator and may also fitly be said to be betwixt Christ and us But not properly that it is betwixt the Father and the Son Much less is the Son the only person covenanted with God doth indeed give up the World to Christ and more especially the Elect to be saved by him But these are not the work of a written or temporary Covenant but of an eternall Decree To the sixth and seventh Objections THe same Answer will serve to your sixth and seventh Questions viz. How Faith and Repentance are both promised of God and required of us Can they be his conditions and ours too And then whether the new Covenant be not absolute I told you before that the Scripture mentioneth two sorts of Covenants absolute and conditionall The Absolute Covenant is found in Ezek. 11. 17 18. Ier. 31. 31 32 33 34. Ier. 32 37 38 39 40 41 42. mentioned by the Apostle in Heb. 8. 10. Concerning this Covenant you must understand that as in the first promise of it here by the Prophets it seemeth to be made to the particular Nation of the Jews and is joyned with the promise of their temporall Restauration so some do question whether it be yet to them fulfilled or whether it be not a promise of some extraordinary permanent happiness which they shall receive at their last and great deliverance by the Messias whether by coming personally to raign among them or not I now dispute not Yet as the Apostle in Heb. 8. 8 9. doth extend it further then to the Jews so must we but whether the Apostle mention it as an absolute promise is a great doubt or whether he only respect the spirituallity of the benefits and so oppose the writing of the Law in our hearts which the new Covenant promiseth to the writing of it in stone and revealing mercy in the dark way of Ceremonies But yet for my part I think you may call it an absolute Promise But then understand that this is not the new Law or Covenant made with mankind revealing to them their duties and the terms on which they must live or dye This is made to the elect only this speaketh nothing of duty No man can have any comfort by this Covenant till it be performed to him and till he have received the promised benefits for no man till then can tell whether it be made for him or not It is made to the elect only and no man can know himself to be elect till he be sanctified and when he is sanctified this promise is fulfilled therfore the benefits of this promise are not to be received by Faith for Faith is part of the promised Good as it is contained in a new a soft heart seminally and therefore to receive this promise by Faith were to believe that we may receive grace and power to believe then which what can be more absurd No man therefore can say before-hand that he shall have a new and soft heart because God hath promised it for he cannot know that it is promised to him So that I conclude that this is most properly but a prophesie what God will do de eventu as it hath reference to the parties on whom it shall be fulfilled and so is the revealed part of Gods purposing Will and belongeth not at all to his Preceptive or Legislative Will by which he doth govern and will judge the world But as it is revealed to the Church visible in generall and so in regard of the subject is indefinite intended only to reveall the quality and spirituall excellency of the Mercy of the New Covenant procured by Christ that so Christ may be honoured and men drawn to seek
of Divines about the former and exceeding difficult it is to determine because it hath pleased the Holy Ghost to speake of it so sparingly and who can here understand any more then is written 1. Whether Adams soule and body should immediatly have bin annihilated or destroyed so as to become insensible 2. Or whether his soule should have bin immediatly seprarated from his body as ours are at death and so be the only sufferer of the paine 3. Or if so whether there should have bin any Resurrection of the body after any certaine space of time that so it might suffer as well as the soule 4. Or whether soule and body without separation should have gone downe quick together into Hell Or into any place or state of torment short of Hell 5. Or whether both should have lived a cursed life on Earth through everlasting in exclusion from Paradise separation from Gods favour and gratious presence losse of his image c 6. Or whether hee should have lived such a miserable life for a season and then be annihilated or destroyed 7. And if so whether his misery on Earth should have bin more then men doe now endure And the more important are these Questions of because of some other that depend upon them As 1. what death it was that Christ redeemed us from 2. And what death it is that perishing infants die or that our guilt in the first transgression doth procure For it being a sinne against the first Covenant only will be punished with no other death then that which is threatned in that Covenant Much is said against each of these expositions of that first threatning 1. Against the first I have said somewhat before And that in 1. Thes. 1. 10. seems to be much against it Iesus that delivered us from the wrath to come This wrath was either the execution of the threatning of the Covenant of works or of the Covenant of grace not the latter for Christ saveth none who deserve it from that therefore it must needs be the wrath of the first Covenant and consequently that Covenant did threaten a future wrath to all sinners which if the world or Adam himselfe had been destroyed or annihilated immediately upon his fall we had not been capable of 2. Against the second sense it seemeth unlikely that the soule should suffer alone and the body lie quietly in the dust because the body did sinne as well as the soule and the senses were the soules inticers and betrayers 3. Against the third there is no intimation of a Resurrection in the Scripture as part of the penalty of the Covenant of works or as a preparative to it That Adam should have risen againe to be condemned or executed if Christ had not come no Scripture speakes but rather on the contrary Resurrection is ascribed to Christ alone 1 Cor. 15. 12. 21. 22. 4. Against the fourth it seemeth evident by the execution that the separation of soule and body was at least part of the death that was threatned or else how comes it to be inflicted and the Apostle saith plainly that in Adam all dye viz. this naturall death 1 Cor. 15. 22. 5. Against the fift the same Argument will â—erve 6. Concerning the sixth seventh they lye open to the same objection as the second It is hard to conclude peremptorily in so obscure a case If wee knew certainly what life was the reward of that Covenant we might the better understand what death was the penalty Calvin and many more Interpreters think that if Adam had not fallen he should after a season have been translated into Heaven without death as Enoch and Elias but I know no Scripture that tells us so much Whether in Paradise terrestriall or celestiall I certainly know not but that Adam should have lived in happinesse and not have dyed is certain seeing therefore that Scripture tells us on the one hand that death is the wages of sinne and one the other hand that Jesus delivered us from the wrath to come the 2 6 and 7. Expositions doe as yet seem to me the most safe as containing that punishment whereby both these Scriptures are fulfilled Beside that they much correspond to the execution viz. that man should live here for a season a dying life separated from God devoid of his Image subject to bodily curses and calamities dead in Law and at last his soule and body be separated his body turning to dust from whence it came and his soule enduring everlasting sorrowes yet nothing so great as those that are threatned in the new Covenant The Objection that lyeth against this sense is easier then those which are against the other For though the body should not rise to torment yet its destruction is a very great punishment And the soule being of a more excellent and durable nature is likely to have had the greater and more durable suffering And though the body had a chief hand in the sin yet the soule had the farre greater guilt because it should have commanded and governed the body as the fault of a man is far greater then the same in a beast Yet I do not positively conclude that the body should not have risen againe but I finde no intimation of it revealed in the Scripture but that the sentence should have been immediately executed to the full or that any such thing is concluded in the words of the threat In the day thou eatest thou shalt die the death I doe not thinke for that would have prevented both the being the sinne and the suffering of his posterity and consequently Christ did not save any one in the world from sinne or suffering but Adam and Eve which seems to me a hard saying though I know much may be said for it Thus we see in part the first Question resolved what death it was that the Law did threaten Now let us see whether this were the same that Christ did suffer And if we take the threatning in its full extent as it expresseth not only the penalty but also its proper subject and its circumstances then it is undenyable that Christ did not suffer the same that was threatned For the Law threatned the death of the offender but Christ was not the offender Adam should have suffered for ever but so did not Christ Adam did dy spiritually by being forsaken of God in regard of holinesse as well as in regard of comfort and so deprived at least of the chief part of his Image so was not Christ. Yet it is disputable whether these two last were directly contained in the threatning or not whether the threatning were not fully executed in Adams death And the eternity of it were not accidentall even a necessary consequent of Adams disability to overcome death and deliver himself which God was not bound to doe And whether the losse of Gods Image were part of the death threatned or rather the effect of our sinne onely executed by our selves and not by God
believeth not shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him Mark 16. 16. Iohn 3. 15 16 17 18 36. 5. 24. 6. 35 40 47. 7. 38. 11. 25 26. 12. 46. Acts 10. 43. Rom. 3. 26. 4. 5. 5. 1. 10. 4. 10. 1 Iohn 5. 10. Mark 1. 15. 6. 12. Luke 13. 3. 5. 24. 47. Acts 5. 31. 11. 18. 20. 21. 2. 38. 3. 19. 8. 22. 26. 20. Rev. 2. 5 16. Heb 6. 1. 2 Pet. 3. 9. EXPLICATION 1 CHrists Satisfaction to the Law goes before the new Covenant though not in regard of its payment which was in the fulness of time yet in regard of the undertaking acceptance and efficacy There could be no treating on new terms till the old obligation were satisfied and suspended I account them not worth the confuting who tell us That Christ is the only party conditioned with and that the new Covenant as to us hath no conditions so Salt marsh c. The place they alledg for this assertion in that Ier. 31. 31 32 33. cited in Heb. 8. 8 9 10. which place containeth not the full Tenor of the whole new Covenant But either it is called the new Covenant because it expresseth the nature of the benefits of the new Covenant as they are offered on Gods part without mentioning mans conditions that being not pertinent to the business the prophet had in hand or else it speaketh only of what God will do for his elect in giving them the first Grace and enabling them to perform the conditions of the new Covenant and in that sence may be called a new Covenant also as I have shewed before pag. 7. 8. Though properly it be a prediction and belong only to Gods Will of Purpose and not to his legislative Will But those men erroneously think that nothing is a condition but what is to be performed by our own strength But if they will believe Scripture the places before alledged will prove that the new Covenant hath conditions on our part as well as the old 2 Some benefit from Christ the condemned did here receive as the delay of their condemnation and many more mercies though they turn them all into greater judgments But of this more when we treat of generall Redemption THESIS XV. THough Christ hath sufficiently satisfied the Law yet is it not his Will or the Will of the Father that any man should be justified or saved thereby who hath not some ground in himself of personall and particular right and claim thereto nor that any should be justified by the blood only as shed or offered except it be also received and applyed so that no man by the meer Satisfaction made is freed from the Law or curse of the first violated Covenant absolutely but conditionally only EXPLICATION I Have shewed before p. 57. 58. c. That Christ intended not to remove all our misery as soon as he dyed nor as soon as we believed I am now to shew That he doth not justifie by the shedding of his blood immediately without somewhat of man intervening to give him a legall title thereto All the Scriptures alledged pag. 79. prove this We are therefore said to be justified by faith Let all the Antinomians shew but one Scripture which speaks of Justification from eternity I know God hath decreed to justifie his people from eternity and so he hath to sanctifie them too but both of them are done in time Justification being no more an imminent act in God then Sanctification as I shall shew afterward The Blood of Christ then is sufficient in fuo genere but not in omni genere sufficient for its own work but not for every work There are severall other necessaries to justifie and save quibus positis which being supposed the Blood of Christ will be effectuall Not that it receives its efficacy from these nor that these do add any thing at all to its worth or value no more then the Cabinet to the Jewel or the applying hand to the medicine or the offenders-acceptation to the pardon of his Prince yet without this acceptation and application this blood will not be effectuall to justifie us For as Grotius Cum unusquisque actui ex suâ voluntate pendenti legem possit imponere sicut id quod pure debetur novari potest sub conditione ita etiam possunt is qui solvit pro alio is qui rei alterius pro alterâ solutionem admittit pacisci ut aut statim sequatur remissio aut in diem item aut pure aut sub conditione Fuit autem Christi satisfacientis dei satisfactione in admittentis hic animus ac voluntas hoc denique pactam foedus non ut deus statim ipso perpessionis Christi tempore paenas remitteret sed ut tum demum id fieret cum homo vera in Christum fide ad deum conversus supplex veniam precaretur accedente etiam Christi apud deum advocatione sive intercessione Non obstat hic ergo satisfactio quo minus sequi possit remissio satisfactio enim nonjam sustulerat debitum sed hoc egerat ut propter ipsam debitum aliquando tolleretur Grot. de satis cap. 6. So that as Austin he that made us without us will not save us without us He never maketh a relative change where he doth not also make a reall Gods Decree gives no man a legall title to the benefit decreed him seeing purpose and promise are so different A legall title we must have before we can be justified and there must be somewhat in our selves to prove that title or else all men should have equall right THESIS XVI THe obeying of a Law and persorming the conditions of a Covenant or satisfying for disobedience or non-performance is our Righteousness in reference to that Law and Covenant EXPLICATION IF we understand not what Righteousnes is we may dispute long enough about Justification to little purpose you must know therefore that Righteousness is no proper reall Being but a Modus Entis the Modification of a Being The subject of it is 1. An Action 2. Or a Person An Action is the primary subject and so the Disposition and the Person secondary as being therefore righteous because his disposition and actions are so Righteousness is the conformity of Dispositions and Actions and consequently the person to the Rule prescribed It is not a being distinct therefore from the Dispositions and Actions but their just and well being This finition is onely of the Creatures Righteousness God is the Primum Iustum and so the Rule of Righteousness to the Creature and hath no Rule but himself for the measuring of his Actions Yet his Essence is too far above us remote and unknown to be this Rule to the Creature therefore hath he given us his Laws which flow from his perfection and they are the immediate Rule of our Dispositions and Actions and so of our
so as Idolatry is that violation of the law of Nature which doth eminentér containe all the rest in it So is Unbeliefe in respect of the Law of Grace And as the formall Nature of Idolatry lyeth in disclayming God from being God or form being our God or from being our alone God Even so the formall nature of Unbeliefe lyeth in disclaiming Christ either from being a Redeemer and Lord or from being Our Redeemer and Lord or from being Our onely Redeemer and Lord. This being well considered will direct you truly and punctually where to find the very formall being and nature of Faith Not in beleeving the pardon of sin or the favour of God or our salvation nor in Affiance or recumbency though that be a most immediate product of it Nor in Assurance as Divines were wont to teach 80. yeares agoe Nor in Obedience or following of Christ as a guide to Heaven or as a Captaine or meere Patterne and Law-giver as the wretched Socinians teach But in the three Acts above mentioned 1. Taking Christ for a Redeemer and Lord which is by Assent 2. Taking him for our Redeemer Saviour and Lord which is by consent 3. Taking him for our onely Redeemer Saviour and Lord which is the Morall sincerity of the former And the essentiall differencing property of it Not whereby Faith is differenced from Love or joy c. But whereby that faith in Christ which is the Gospell condition is differenced from all other Faith in Christ. So that as Corpus Anima Rationale doe speake the whole essence of man Even so this Assent Consent and Preference of Christ before all others do speak the whole Essence of Faith For the common opinion that justifying Faith as justifying doth consist in any one single Act is a wretched mistake as I shall shew you further anon THESIS LXV SCripture doth not take the word Faith as strictly as a Philosopher would doe for any one single Act of the soul nor yet for various Acts of one onely Faculty But for a compleat entire Motion of the whole Soul to Christ its Object THESIS LXVI NEither is Christ in respect of any one part or work of his Office alone the Object of Iustifying Faith as such But Christ in his entire office considered in this Object viz. as he is Redeemer Lord and Saviour THESIS LXVII MVch lesse are any Promises or benefits of Christ the proper Object of justifying Faith as many Divines do mistakingly conceive THESIS LXVIII NOr is Christs person considered as such or for it self the object of this Faith But the person of Christ as cloathed with his Office and Authority is this Object EXPLICATION I Put all these together as ayming at one scope I shall now explain them distinctly To the 65. First that Faith is not taken for any one single Act I prove thus 1. If it were but one single Act I mean specifically not numerically then it could not according to the common opinion of Philosophers be the Act of the whole Soul But Faith must be the Act of the whole Soul or else part of the Soul would receive Christ and part would not and part of it would entertain him and part not Some think the soul is as the body which hath a hand to receive things in the name and for the use of the whole But it is not so Christ is not onely taken into the hand But as the blood and spirits which are received into every living part Though I intend not the comparison should reach to the manner of receiving Neither is the soul so divisible into parts as the body is and therefore hath not severall parts for severall offices 2. The most of our accurate studious Divines of late doe take Faith to be seated in both faculties Understanding and Will But if so according to the common Philosophie it cannot be any one single Act. Neither Secondly is it in various Acts of one single faculty For 1. It will in my judgement never be proved that the soul hath faculties which are really distinct from it self or from each other These Faculties are but the soul it self able to doe thus and thus from its naturall being Vide Scaliger Exercit. 107. Sect. 3. Understanding and Willing are its immediate Acts And perhaps those very Acts are more diversified or distinct in their objects then in themselves The souls apprehension of an objects as true we call Understanding in regard of its Metaphysicall Truth it is a simple apprehension as we receive this Truth upon the word of another it is Assent and Beliefe as this Object is considered as Good our motion toward it is called Willing if absent Desiring Hoping if present Complacency Joying when we Will a thing as Good any thing strongly and apprehend its Goodnesse any thing cleerely this we call Love c. But whether all these be really distinct kinds of Acts of the Soul is very doubtfull Much more whether they proceed from distinct Faculties As I am not of my Lord Brook's minde concerning the Unity of all things So neither would I unnecessarily admit of any division especially in so spirituall and perfect a piece as the Sould knowing how much of Perfection lyeth in Unity and remembring the Pythagorean curse of the Number Two because it was the first that durst depart from Unity frustra fit per plura c. 2. But if it were proved that the Souls Faculties are really distinct yet both these Faculties are capable of receiving Christ and Christ is an Object suited to both and then what doubt is it whether Faith be in both 1. For the Will no man will question it that it is capable of receiving Christ and Christ a suitable Object for it 2. And for the Understanding it doth as much incline to Truth as the Will to Goodness and as truely receive its Object under the notion of True as the Will doth receive its Object as Good If you would see it proved fully That Assent is an Essentiall part of justifying Faith read Dr. Downame of Iustification on that Subject and his Appendix to the Covenant of Grace in Answer to Mr. Pemble Where though his Argument will not reach their intended scope to prove that Assent is the onely proper Act of justifying Faith yet they do conclude that it is a reall part And he well confuteth his opposer though he do not well confirm that his own opinion 3. Consider further that Christ doth not treat of Faith in sensu Physico sed morali Politico not as a Naturall Philosopher but as a Law-giver to his Church Now in Politicks we doe not take the names of Actions in so narrow and strict a sense as in Physicks and Logicke If a Town doe agree to take or receive such a man for their Mayor or a Kingdome take or receive such a one as their King The words Take or Receive here doe not note any one single Act of soul or body alone but a
unbelief and not receiving Christ all one Ioh. 1. 11. and beleeving and receiving Christ all one Ioh. 1. 12. So it proclaims this as the great work of the Gospell to Take Eat Drink c. 2. The Gospell is the offer of Christ and his benefits to them that first accept himself Therefore Faith must be the accepting of the thing offered Both these are plain in Rev. 22. 17. Whosoever will let him take of the water of life freely There is the free offer upon condition of coming and taking or accepting 3. The will is the commanding faculty of the soul therefore its act is the principall act and that is accepting 4. Christ is presented to us in the Gospell as a Suitor beseeching us by his Spirit and Embassadors and wooing us to himself and the enjoying of him which this driveth at is called our Marriage to him and we his Spouse and he our Husband Now you know that which tyeth the knot of Marriage is Acceptance or Consent 5. Yea the very nature of a Covenant requireth this Consent maketh it a compleat Covenant Therefore I said before pag. 219. That Acceptance Consent Heart-Covenanting and Self-resigning are the proper essentiall Acts of this Faith For all these are the Wills acts to this their object which are of flat necessity to the very tying of the Covenant or Marriage knot Rom. 10. 10. With the heart man beleeveth unto Righteousnesse And here let me minde you of one usefull observation more The Covenanting on our part is a principall part of the Conditions of the Covenant Though this may seem strange that a Covenanting and performing Conditions should be all most all one But that is the free nature of the Grace of the Covenant As if you marry a poor woman that hath nothing you will give her your self and all you have meerly upon Condition that she will Consent to have you And that Consent is all the Condition on her part for obtaining present possession I say Acceptance Consent Covenanting Self-resigning which are in a manner all one thing But because the end of the marriage is the faithfull performance of Marriage duties though meer Consent were the onely Condition of the first possession and the continuance of her Consent is the chief Condition of continuing her possession yet the performance of those Marriage duties and not going into others is part of the Condition also of that continuance So it is in the present case of Justification 5. Let me here also tell you that I take love to Christ as our Saviour and Lord to be essentiall to this Acceptance and so some degree of Love to be part of Justifying Faith and not properly a fruit of it as it is commonly taken My reasons are 1. The Wills serious apprehension of a thing Good which we call at earnest Willing it and Accepting it is in my judgement the same thing as Love in an other name Love is nothing but such an earnest Willing choosing and Accepting it as it is Good It is generally acknowledged that the Affections are but the Motions or Acts of the Will And if Love be an Act of the same Will and have the same Object with Consent Election Acceptance c. Why should it not then be the same Act Onely Acceptance considereth its Object as offered Election considereth it as propounded with some other competitor Consent considereth it as we are perswaded and invited to it But all these are extrinsecall considerations They all consider their Object as Good and so doth Love You may object 1. Then Desire and Hope may be essentiall to Faith I Answ. That Love which they imply in them is but Desire and Hope as such do properly consider their object as absent which this Justifiing Faith doth not 2. Object Scripture oft distinguisheth Faith and Love Answ. 1. Sometime Faith is taken for Historicall faith or Faith of Miracles and then it may be distinguised 2. Sometime true Faith is taken in the strictest sence and sometime larglier as I shall shew anon 3. But especially so do I distinguish of Love as it is considered by it self and as it is an essentiall part of this Acceptance Love respecteth its Object meerly as Good in it self and to the Lover But Consent and Acceptance have severall other respects as is expressed And yet there may be Love in all such Acceptance though not properly Acceptance in all Love Object 3. Then Love Justifieth as well as Faith I Answ. When it is thus considered in Faiths Acceptance it is not called by the name of Love but loseth its name as a lesser River that falleth into a greater therefore it is not said that Love Justifieth but Faith that worketh even in its essentiall work of Accepting by Love Object But Love is the greater Grace and shall out-live Faith and Faith should rather then be swallowed up in Love Answ. Love considering its object onely as Good shall continue for ever because the Goodness of its object shall so continue But Acceptance Consent c. have other additionall considerations in their Objects which will vanish But which is the chiefest Grace in it self is not the question but which is the chiefest in the present work Now seeing Consent Acceptance c. are the chief as to Justification that Love which is essentially in them may well lose its name here seeing in the businesse of Justifying it is considered but as an essentiall part of the main duty My next-Reason is because Christ doth propound it in the Gospel as of the same necessity with the same promises annexed to it Io. 16. 27. For the Father himself loveth you because ye have loved me and beleeved c. Joh. 14. 21. He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and shew my self to him Jam. 1. 12. 2. 5. The Crown and Kingdom is prepared for them that love him 1 Cor. 16. 22. If any man love not the Lord Iesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha Ephes. 6. 24. In a word Faith is a comprehensive duty containing divers Acts whereof this seemeth to me to be part Neither can I yet conceive how there can be a cordiall Acceptance of Christ as our only Saviour and Love not to be an essentiall part of that Acceptance but if a finer wit can apprehend the difference better yet as I said Faith being considered here in Morall and Politick respects and not in its strict naturall quiddity may essentially be an Affectionate Acceptance for all that If any think fitter to make a wider difference between the nature of Faith and Love to Christ I will not contend for the matter is not great that both are necessary to Justification is doubtless and that they are concurrent in apprehending Châ—â—â— And that Love is a part of the Condition of the Covenant is also undoubted and therefore will have some hand in the business of Justification as I shall further clear 6. I put in the word
onely in the Definition because as is said before I take the preferring of Christ before all others and taking him for our Onely Lord and Saviour to be the essentiall difference of true Faith There is a two-fold Verity or Sincerity in our duties requisite 1. The verity of their naturall Being which is called their Metaphysicall Truth 2. The verity or sincerity of them as Duties or Graces which is their Morall sincerity This last consisteth in the true suiting of the Act to its Object For example one man pretendeth to love his wife and doth not There is neither Naturall nor Morall Truth Another doth love her but not half so well as other women There is the Metaphysicall Truth but not the Morall A third loveth her as a wife above others There is both Metaphysicall Truth and Morall So it is in our Love to God To Love him as the chief Good is to love him as he is And he that loveth him never so much and yet loveth any thing else as much or more though his Love have a Metaphysicall Truth of Being yet it hath no Morall sincerity at all So that the Preferring God before all or taking him for our Onely God is the very point of sincerity of Love Why just so it is about our Faith The taking him unfeignedly for our onely Lord and Saviour is the very point of the sincerity of our Faith in Christ. As Adultery is the most proper violation of the Marriage Covenant except actuall renouncing and deserting So the taking of any other Lord or Saviour besides Christ or conjunct with him is the most apparent violation of the bond of our Covenant and most contradictory to the nature and Essence of Justifying Faith except onely the Actuall renouncing Christ and the Covenant it self by full Apostacy which is an unpardonable sin Hebr. 6. 4 5 6. 10. 26. Yet in subordination to Christ we may have other Lords and Saviours but not in competition and co-ordination Some of his Government he exerciseth by Ministers and some by Magistrates under him for I cannot consent to them that say the Magistrate is onely the Officer of God as Creator and not of Christ the Mediator because all things are delivered into his hands and he is made head over all Some also of his saving works he performeth by instruments and means And what they so perform under him may be acknowledged without any derogation from him at all But perhaps some may think that the Scripture Phrase seemeth rather to intimate that Faith is an Assent and not such an Acceptance and Consent as is before mentioned because it oft times requireth but this To believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God he that should come into the world c. To which I answer 1. This proveth onely that this Knowledg or Assent is part of Faith but not that it is the whole 2. It is the use of Scripture to drive at that duty which is most unknown neglected or resisted and to speak little of others where there was then lesse need to speak though perhaps the duty be in it self more weighty Therefore Christ and the Apostles did spend most of their pains to perswade the Jewes to this Assent That the Messias should come be their deliverer they all knew Even the poor woman of Samaria could tell that Ioh. 4. 25. And so ready were they to Receive him if they had known him that it was the generall expectation and desire of the people Mal. 3. 1. But to perswade them that Jesus was the Christ here lay the difficulty Therefore as Dr. Ames Medull cap. 3. § 20. though sometime Assent to the Truth concerning God and Christ Ioh. 1. 50. be taken for true Faith yet the speciall Election or Apprehension for that the meanes by Fiducia § 13. is still included and those words do but determine and apply that Fiducia to Christ which is presupposed to be already toward the Messiah And let me conclude this with one more practically usefull observation From this definition of faith now men may see what to enquire after in their searching of their estates As faith being the Gospell-condition is the main thing to be looked for So here you see what that faith is The ignorance of this deceiveth and troubleth multitudes Some think it lieth in Assurance Some in a quieting their hearts in confidence on Christ Some think as M. Saltmarsh That it is nothing else but a perswasion more or less of Gods love And then when poor troubled souls do feel neither assurance confidence nor perswasion of that love they conclude that they have no Faith And how will these mistaken Teachers help them to comfort Why as Mr. Saltmarsh doth sometime to tell them Christ hath beleeved for them and sometime to tell them plainly that he can but commend them to the Lord who is the Author and finisher of Faith and sometime to tell them that they should not question their faith any more then Christ himself Thus their first way of comfort is to tell them they do ill to question their faith If that would serve all the world might have comfort and there needs no more If that will not do then Christ hath beleeved for them Yet if that will serve there is as much comfort for one as another But what if they say still I cannot beleeve that is as you expound Belief why then he confesseth plainly he is at a loss he can drive on the work of comforting no further he can do no more but pray for them pag. 31. Is it not a wonder that this lamentable Comforter should be so valued by the troubled spirits I was many years my self under perplexing doubts If I had heard such comforting words as these they would sooner have driven me to dispair then to comfort He that hath not so much wit as to discern so gross fallacies may assoon be comforted by a false and impertinent argument as by a sound one Quest. But how would you comfort such a one that faith he cannot beleeve Ans. Why I would first make him know that the very essentiall form of faith lieth in the Will◠acceptance of an offered Christ Then would I know of him whether he be willing thus to have Christ both for Lord and Saviour or not If he say He is willing I shall answer That then he doth beleeve and then he is Justified for his Willingness is his very Consent or Acceptance and that Consent is true Faith Christ expecteth no more to make up the match If the match break it must be either because Christ is unwilling or because he is unwilling not Christ for he is the Suitor and Intreater and Offerer Not himself for he confesseth that he is willing If he say I am not willing I should ask Why then do you look after it or regard it Do men enquire after that and lament the want of it which they are not willing to have either temptation
they shall be like wooll So Ezek. 33. 14. 15 16. 18. 21. 22. Neither let any object that this is the Law of works For certainly that hath no promises of forgivenesse And though the discoveries of the way of Justification be delivered in the old Testament in a more dark and Legall language then in the New yet not in termes contradictory to the truth in the New Testament Thus you may see in what sence it is that Christ will judge men according to their Works will say Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the kingdome c. For I was hungry ye fed me c. Well done good faithfull Servant thou hast been faithfull in few things I will make thee Ruler over many things Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord Matth. 25. For being made perfect he became the Author of Eternall salvation to all them that obey him Hebr. 5. 9. Of whom it shall be said when they are glorified with him These are they that come out of great tribulation and have washed their robes in the blood of the Lambe and made them white Therefore are they before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple and he that siâ—teth on the throne shall dwell among them Revel 7. 14. 15. To whom be Glory for ever Amen REader because an exact Index would contain a great part of the Book I shall omit it and instead of it I here lay thee down some of the chief Distinctions upon which this Discourse dependeth desiring thee to understand them and keep them in memory You must distinguish 1. BEtwixt Gods Decretive or Purposing Will And his Legislative or Preceptive Will The 1. is his Determining of Events The 2. of Duty and Reward 2. Betwixt 1. the Covenant or Law of Works which saith Obey perfectly and Live or sin and Dye 2. And the Covenant or Law of Grace which saith Beleeve and be saved c. 3. Betwixt the two parts of each Covenant viz. 1. The Primary discovering the duty in Precepts and prohibiting the Sin 2. The secondary discovering the Rewards and Penalties in Promises and Threatnings 4. Betwixt a two-fold Righteousness of one and the same Covenant 1. Of perfect Obedience or performance of the Condition 2. Of suffering or satisfaction for disobedience or non-performance which maketh the Law to have nothing against us though we disobeyed See Pemble of Iustification pag. 2. Our Legall Righteousness is of this last sort not of the first Both these sorts of Righteousnesse are not possible to be found in any one person except Christ who had the former Righteousness as his own incommunicable to us in that form The second he had for us as he was by imputation a sinner And so we have it in or by him Mark this 5. Betwixt two kinds of Righteousness suitable to the two Covenants and their Conditions 1. Legall Righteousness which is our Conformity or satisfaction to the Law 2. And Evangelicall Righteousness which is our Conformity to the new Covenant Note that 1. Every Christian must have both these 2. That our Legall righteousness is onely that of Satisfaction but our Evangelicall is only that of obedience or performance of the Condition 3. That our Legall Righteousnesse is all without us in Christ the other in our selves 6. Betwixt Evangelicall Righteousness improll perly so called viz. because the Gospell doth reveain and offer it This is our Legall righteousness o Christ. 2. And Evangelicall righteousness prnt perly so called viz. Because the new Covenar is the Rule to which it is conformed This is ou performance of the new Covenants Conditions 7. Betwixt the Life or Reward in the first Covenant viz. Adams paradise happiness 2. And the Life of the second Covenant which is Eternall glory in heaven 8. Betwixt the death or curse of the old Covenant which is opposite to its reward This onely was laid on Christ and is due to Infants by nature 2. And the death of the second Covenant opposite to its life called the second death and far sorer punishment This finall unbeleevers suffer 9. Betwixt sins against the first Covenant For these Christ died 2. And sins against the second Covenant For these he dyed not 10. Betwixt sinning against Christ and the Gospell as the object of our sin only So Christ died for them 2. And sinning against the new Covenant as such or as a threatning Law So Christ dyed not for them 11. Betwixt delaying to perform the conditions of the new Covenant This is not threatned with death 2. And finall non-performance This is proper violation of the Covenant and a sin that leaveth no hope of recovery 12. Betwixt paying the proper debt of obedience as Christ did himself or of suffering as the damned do 2. And satisfying for non-payment as Christ did for us 13 Betwixt repealing the Law or Covenant which is not done 2. And relaxing it or dispensing with it which is done 14. Betwixt relaxation or dispensation in the proper subject and circumstances of the Penalty This is done in removing it from us to Christ. 2. And dispencing with the Penalty it self This is not done for Christ did bear it 15. Betwixt the change of the Law 2. And of the sinners relation to the Law 16. Betwixt the Lawes forbidding and condemning the sin so it doth still 2. And its condemning the sinner So it doth not to the justified because Christ hath born the curse 17. Betwixt the Precepts as abstracted from the Covenant termes which really they are not at all 2. And as belonging to the severall Covenants 18. Betwixt perfection of Holinesse which is a quality This is not in this life 2. And Perfection of Righteousness which is a Relation This is perfect or none at all 19. Betwixt recalling the Fact or the evil of the Fact or its desert of punishment These are never done nor are possible 2. And removing the duenesse of punishment from the Offendor This is done 20. Betwixt Pardon and Iustification Condiditionall which is an immediate effect of Christs Death and Resurrection or rather of the making of the new Covenant 2. And Pardon Iustification Absolute when we have performed all the Conditions 21. Betwixt Conditionall Pardon and Iustification which is only Potentiall Such is that which immediately followeth the enacting of the new Covenant to men before Faith or before they have sinned 2. And Conditionall Iustification which is actual of which the person hath true possession such is our Iustification after Faith till the last Iudgement which is ours actually but yet upon condition of perseverance in Faith and sincere Obedience 22. Betwixt Pardon and Iustification as they are Immanent Acts in God improperly and without Scripture called Pardon or Iustification 2. And Pardon and Iustification as they are Transient Acts performed by the Gospell-Promise as Gods Instrument This is the true Scripture Iustification 23. Betwixt Iustification in Title and Sence of Law which is
thought word or deed they break the Covenant which they made in Baptism Did ever any sober man make such a Covenant with Christ as to promise him never to sin against him Or doth Christ call us to such a Covenant Doth his Law threaten or did we in our Covenant consent that we should be condemned if ever we committed a gross sin I conclude therefore that those sins which do consist with true faith can be no breaches of the Covenant of Grace For else Faith being the condition we should both keep it and break it at the same time 2. But all the doubt is about the sins which are inconsistent with Faith Those are either 1. Disobedience to the Law of Works but that cannot violate the Covenant of Grace as such 2. Or else Refusall of Christ by Rebellion and Unbelief privative for of negative unbelief I will not speak And that Refusall is either 1. Temporary of that I have spoken already Or 2. Finall and that I acknowledg is the violation of the Covenant Perhaps you will object That the sin against the Holy Ghost also is a damning sin and so a breach of the Covenant To which I answer Finall Unbelief is the Genus and hath under it these three sorts 1. Ordinary finall Unbelief viz. against Ordinary means 2. The sin against the Holy Ghost 3. Totall Apostacy All these are unpardonable sins I have in another Treatise adventured to tell you my judgment concerning the sin against the Holy Ghost viz. That it is when a man will not beleeve in Christ notwithstanding all the testimoniall miracles of the Holy Ghost which he is convinced de facto were wrought but yet denyeth the validity of their Testimony This is the unpardonable unbelief because uncureable for it is the last or greatest Testimony which Christ will afford to convince the unbeleeving world and therefore he that deliberately refuseth this and will not be convinced by it is left by God as a hopeless wretch So that the sin against the Holy Ghost is but a sort of finall unbelief Lay by your prejudice against the singularity of this interpretation and exactly consider what the occasion of Christs mentioning this sin was and what was the sin which those Pharisees did commit and then judge Lastly For the sin of total Apostacy I confess it is the most proper violation of the Covenant not only as it is a Law and Covenant offered but also as it is a Covenant entred and accepted But it is unbelief which Apostates do fall to for it is only an explicite or implicite renouncing of Christ either as Lord or Saviour or both which is the unpardonable sin of Apostacy which is called falling away that is from Christ and the Covenant and crucifying the Son of God afresh and putting him to open shame Heb. 6. 6. And which is called Heb. 10. 26 29. sinning wilfully that is considerate resolved rejecting Christ or refusing his Government and so called treading under foot the Son of God and counting the blood of the Covenant vvherevvith they vvere sanctified an unholy thing and doing despight to the Spirit of Grace As the nature of this Apostacy lyeth in returning to infidelity so being Totall it is alwayes also Finall God having in his just Judgement resolved to withold from all such the grace that should recover them and so this is a sort of finall unbelief A second distinction which I must here mind you of is betwixt 1. the main Covenant of Grace and 2. Particular subordinate inferiour Covenants which may be made between God and a believer The former is not violated but as I have shewed before The latter is ordinarily broken by us If any man make a vow like Saul's or Ieptha's he may break it possibly and not be damned but recover by repentance If in your sickness or other affliction or at Sacrament or on dayes of Humiliation or Thanksgiving you should Covenant with God to forsake such a sin or to perform such a duty to mend your lives to be more holy and heavenly c. this Covenant you may perhaps break and yet recover And of such Covenants it is that I mean when in confession I do bewail my Covenant-breaking with Christ and not of the main Covenant of Grace for then I should confess my self a totall irrecoverable Apostate The Covenant which ought to be made with Christ in Baptism and which Baptism is the professing sign and seal of is the main Covenant of Grace Therefore is there no use for re-baptizing because such Apostacy is an unrecoverable sin So you see what Covenant it is that the godly break and what breach it is that they use to confess To the fourth Objection YOur fourth Objection that from this doctrine it will follow that the Covenant is never broken is easily answered 1. I think it is true that the regenerate do never break the Covenant But yet the breach in it self and in respect of our strength is more then possible and the controversie de eventu will hold much dispute Austin seemeth to me to be of this opinion That there are some effectually called that yet may fall away but the elect cannot so that he distinguisheth of calling according to purpose or election and that he thinketh cannot be lost and calling not following election which he thinketh may be lost so that he placeth not the difference in the calling but in the decree I do not recite this as assenting to it nor yet can I assent to them who make the very nature of Grace to be immortall and from thence do argue the certainty of perseverance I think to be naturally Immortall is Gods Prerogative and properly imcommunicable to any creature Even Angels and souls of men are Immortall only from the will and continued sustentation of God and if God did withdraw his hand and not continually uphold it the whole Creation would fall to nothing much more the quality of holiness in the soul To subsist of himself without continuall influx from another is proper to God the first naturall necessary absolute Independent Being Yet I acknowledge that when God will perpetuate any Being he fitteth the nature of it accordingly and maketh it more simple pure spirituall and less subject to corruption But yet to say that therefore it is a Nature Immortall or that cannot dye I think improper But I know Philosophers and Divines do think otherwise and therefore I do dissent qâ—asi coactus petitâ veniâ 2. But whether the Regenerate may break the Covenant or not certain I am the unregenerate may and do And whereas you object That they were never in Covenant and therefore cannot be said to break it I must desire you besides the former distinctions to remember these two more 1. Betwixt the Covenant as promulgate and only offered on Gods part 2. And the Covenant as accepted and entered by the sinner The former is most properly called The Law of Christ or new Law as
containing the conditions of our salvation or damnation yet it is properly also and frequently in Scripture called a Covenant though not in so full a sense as the latter because it containeth the substance or matter of the Covenant and expresseth Gods consent so we deny not ours and also because the great prevailing part in it is Mercy and promise and the Duty so small and light in comparison of the said Mercy that in Reason there should be no Question of our performance And so Mercy obscuring or prevailing against Judgment it is more frequenly called a Covenant and Gospell then a Law yet a Law also most properly it is and oft so called Now then that the Covenant in this sense may be broken is no question God hath said He that believeth shall be saved and he that believeth not shall be damned Doth not he that never believeth break this Law or Covenant and incur the penalty So that men that never accept the Covenant do thus break it by their refusall and so perish 2. You must distinguish betwixt 1. The Covenant accepted heartily and sincerely 2. Or nor heartily and sincerely And so I answer you Though unregenerate men did never sincerely covenant with Christ and so are not in Covenant with him as the Saints are yet they do usually Covenant with him both with their mouths by solemn profession acknowledging and owning him as their Lord and Saviour and also by their externall submitting to his Worship and Ordinances and taking the seals of the Covenant and also in some kind they do it from their hearts though not in sincerity Either they do it 1. Rashly and not Deliberately Or 2. They do it out of fear as a man that is in the hands of a conquering enemy that must yield to his will to prevent a worse inconvenience though he accounteth it an evil which he is forced to and had rather be free if he might and doth covenant but with a forced will partly willing to avoid greater misery and partly unwilling 3. Or else they keep secret reservations in their hearts intending as a man that as aforesaid covenanteth with the conquerour to break away as soon as they can or at least to go no further in their obedience then will stand with their wordly happiness or hopes though these reservations be not expressed by them in their Covenant 4. Or else they mistake Christ and the nature of his Covenant thinking he is a Master that will let them please the flesh and enjoy the world and sin and understand not what that Faith and Holiness is which his Covenant doth require and so they are baptized into they know not what and subscribe to they know not what and give up their names to they know not who and then when at last they find their mistake they repent of the bargain and break the Covenat or else never discerning their mistake they break the Covenant while they think that they keep it or if they keep their own they break Christs All these wayes men may enter Covenant with Christ but not sincerely for sincere covenanting must be 1. Upon knowledge of the nature ends and conditions of the Covenant though they may possibly be ignorant of severall Accidentals about the Covenant yet not of these Essentials if they do it sincerely 2. They must Covenant deliberately and not in a fit of passion or rashly 3. They must do it seriously and not dissemblingly or slightly 4. They must do it freely and heartily and not through meer constraint and fear 5. They must do it intirely and with resolution to perform the Covenant which they make and not with Reservations giving themselves to Christ by the halves or reserving a purpose to maintain their fleshly interests 6. And they must especially take Christ alone and not joyn others in office with him but renounce all happiness save what is by him and all Government and Salvation from any which is not in direct subordination to him Thus you see that there is a great difference betwixt covenanting sincerely and covenanting in hypocrisie and formality and so betwixt Faith and Faith Which I have opened to you the more largely because I forgot to do it when I explained the Definition of Faith in that Aphorism whereto you may annex it I conclude then that multitudes of unregenerate men are yet in Covenant with Christ though not as the Saints in sincere Covenanting which I further prove to you thus Those that are in Christ are also in Covenant with Christ But the unregenerate are in Christ therefore c. That they are in Christ is plain in Ioh. 15. 2 6. There are branches in Christ not bearing fruit which are cut off and cast away So Heb. 10. 29 30. They are sanctified by the blood of the Covenant and therefore they were in covenant in some sort I suppose it would be but lost labour to recite all those Scriptures which expresly mention wicked mens entering into Covenant with God and God with them and their Covenant-breaking charged on them you cannot be ignorant of these Wherefore you see that it is a common sin to violate the Gospell-Covenant To the fifth Objection YOur fifth is a mere demand of my proof That Christ is not the only person with whom God the Father entereth Covenant Which Question I confess I am ashamed to answer Nor can I tell what to say to you but Read the Scripture Doth not the whole scope of it mention Gods Covenants with man Turn over your whole Bible see whether it speak more of covenanting with Christ or with us Nor can I imagine what should make you question this except it be because Mr Saltmarsh or some such other doth deny it How could Christ be the Mediator of the Covenant if it were to himself and not to us that the Covenant were made I know Dr Preston and other orthodox Divines do affirm That the Covenant is made primarily with Christ then with us But I confess I scarce relish that form of speech For it seemeth to speak of one the same Covenant then I cannot understand how it can be true For is this Covenant made with Christ Beleeve in the Lord Iesus and thou shalt be saved and if thou beleeve not thou shalt be damned This is the Covenant that is made with us and who dare say that this is made with Christ Or is this Covenant made to Christ I will take the hard hearts our of their bodies and give them he arts of flesh c. I will be mercifull to their transgressions their sins and iniquities will I remember no more Had Christ think you a hard heart to cure I know some think the latter clause belongeth to him first and so to us viz. as he was a sinner by imputation and so had our transgressions upon him but very ignorantly For was God mercifull to him concerning the debt Did he not deall with him in rigorous Justice upon
and the thing signified do say Let him that is athirst come and whoever will let him take the water of life freely Rev. 22. 17. Why may not I say so of the sign and seal to those that seriously professe their thirst Sure I shall speak but as Christ hath taught me and that according to the very scope of the Gospel and the nature of the Covenant of free grace And I wonder that those men who cry up the nature of free grace so much should yet so oppose this free offer of it and the sealing the free Covenant to them that lay claim to it upon Christs invitation To the tenth and eleventh Objections YOur 10. and 11. objections you raise upon my exceptions against the book called The Marrow of Modern Divinity And first you mention the Doctrine and then the Book 1. You think that Do this and live is the voice of the Law of works only and not of the Law or Covenant of Grace and that we may not make the obtaining of life salvation the end of duty but must obey in meer love and from thankfulnesse for the life we have received To all which I answer 1. By way of explication and 2. of probation of my assertions 1. Do this and live in severall senses is the language of both Law and Gospel 1. When the Law speaketh it the sense is this If thou perfectly keep the Laws that I have given thee or shall give thee so long thou shalt continue this life in the earthly Paradise which I have given thee But if once thou sinne thou shalt dye 2. When the Gospel speaketh it the sense is thus Though thou hast incurred the penalty of the Law by thy sinne yet Christ hath made satisfaction Do but accept him for Lord and Saviour and renouncing all other deliver up thy self unreservedly to him and love him above all and obey him sincerely both in doing and suffering and overcome persevere herein to the end and thou shalt be justified from all that the Law can accuse of and restored to the favour and blessings which thou hast lost and to a farre greater Thus the Gospel saith Do this and live That the Gospel commandeth all this I know you will not question and that this is doing you must needs acknowledge But all the question is whether we may do it that we may live I have fully explained to you in this Treatise already in what sense our doing is required and to what ends viz. not to be any part of a legall Righteousnesse nor any part of satisfaction for our unrighteousnesse but to be our Gospel righteousnesse or the condition of our participation in Christ who is our legall Righteousnesse and so of all the benefits that come with him In these severall respects and senses following the Gospel commandeth us to act for life 1. A wicked man or unbeliever may and must hear the Word pray enquire of others c. that so he may obtain the first life of grace and faith This I now prove Isa. 55. 3. 6 7. Ionas 3. 8 9. 10. Pro. 1. 23 24. 25. Amos 5. 4. Act. 2. 37. Isa. 1. 16. Mat. 11. 15. 13. 43. Luk. 16. 29. 31. Ioh. 5. 25. Act. 10. 1 2. 22. 23. Rom. 10. 13. 14 1 Tim. 4. 16. Heb. 3 7. Rev. 3 20. Yet do not I affirm that God never preventeth mens endeavours he is sometime found of them that sought him not Nor do I say that God hath promised the life of Grace to the endeavours of nature But their duty is to seek life and half promises and many encouragements God hath given them such as that in Joel 2. 12 13 14. who knoweth but God will c So Zeph. 2. 3. Exod. 32. 30. And that in Act. 8. 7. 2. Pray therefore if perhaps the thoughts of thy heart may be forgiven thee 2. That a man may act for the increase of this spirituall life when he hath it methinks you should not doubt if you do see 1 Pet. 2. 1 2. 1. 22. 2 Pet. 1. 5 6 7 8. 3. 18. And the Parable of the Talents Mat. 25 26 27. 28. 30. 3. That we may and must act for the life of Reconciliation and Iustification and Adoption is beyond dispute How oft doth Scripture call on men to Repent to Believe to Pray to forgive others and to reform that their sinnes may be forgiven them I have quoted the Scriptures before when I opened the conditions of justification Isa. 1. 16 17 18. Isa. 55. 6 7. Act. 8. 22. Iam. 5. 15. And we are still said to be justified by faith which is an act of ours 4. That we may act for to obtain assurance both of our justification and sanctification is undeniable 2 Pet. 1. 10. 2 Cor. 13. 5. c 5. That we may act for eternall life and salvation methinks he that beareth the face of a Christian should not deny and that both for 1. Title to it 2. Assurance of our enjoying it 3. for possession it self I shall but quote the Scriptures for brevity sake desiring you to read them and save me the labour of transcribing them Rev. 22 14. Iohn 5. 39 40. Mat. 11. 12. and 7. 13. Luke 13. 24. Phil. 2. 17. Rom. 2. 7 10. 1 Cor. 9. 24. 2 Tim. 2. 5 12. 1 Tim. 6. 12 18 19. Phil. 3. 14 Mat. 25. 1 Cor. 15. last 2 Cor. 4. 17. and 5. 10 11. 2 Pet. 1. 10 11. Luke 11. 28. Heb. 4. 1. Luke 12. 5. 1 Cor. 9. 17. These last places shew that the escaping hell and damnation is a necessary end of our actings and duties as well as the obtaining of heaven If when you have read and weighed these Scriptures you be not convinced that we may act or do for life and salvation and so that Do this and live is in some sense the language of the Gospell I shall question whether you make the Scripture the Rule of your faith or be not rather one of them that can force upon themselves a faith of one or others making Object But it is not the most excellent and Gospel-like frame of spirit to do all out of meer love to God and from Thankfulnesse for life obtained by Christ and given us Answ. 1. If it come not from love to God it is not sincere 2. Yet doth not the Gospell any where set our love to God and to our own souls in opposition nor teach us to love God and not our selves but contrarily joineth them both together and commandeth us both The love of our selves and desire of our preservation would never have been planted so deeply in our natures by the God of nature if it had been unlawfull I conclude therefore that to love God and not our selves and so to do all without respect to our own good is no Gospell frame of spirit 2. Thankfulnesse for what we have received either in possession title or promise must be a singular spur to put us on
a whole Country hath of its name from the chief City so may the Conditions of this Covenant from Faith 2. Because all the rest are reducible to it either being presupposed as necessary Antecedents or means or contained in it as its parts properties or modifications or else implied as its immediate product or necessary subservient means or consequents EXPLICATION SUbservient Actions are in common speech silently implyed in the principall If the besieged be bound by Articles to surrender a Town to the besiegers at such a time it need not be expressed in the Articles that they shall withdraw their Guards and cease resistance and open the gates and yeeld up this house or that street c. All this is implyed clearly in the Article of surrender If a redeemed gally-slave be freed upon condition that he take him for his Redeemer and Master that did deliver him it need not be expressed that he shall leave the gallies and his company and employment there and go with him that bought him and do what he bids him do All this is plainly implyed in the foresaid words of his Conditions So here the great condition of Beleeving doth include or imply all the rest I confess it is a work of some worth and difficulty to shew how each other part of the Condition is reducible to Beleeving and in what respect they stand towards it I dare not determine too peremptorily here but I think they stand thus 1. Hearing the Word consideration conviction godly sorrow repentance from dead works are implyed as necessary means antecedents 2. Knowledge of Christ and Assent to the Truth of the Gospell are at least integrall parts of flat necessity if not essentiall parts of Faith 3. Subjection Acceptance Consent cordiall covenanting self-resigning are the very proper essentiall formall Acts of Faith 4. Esteeming Christ above all in Judgement preferring him before all in the Will loving him above all I say this preferring of Christ above all in Judgement Will and Affection is in my Judgement the very Differentia fidei maxime propria quae de ea essentialiter praedicatur sic pars ejus essentialis the very essentiall property of true Faith differencing it from all false Faith and so an essentiall part of it I know this is like to seeme strange but I shall give my reasons of it anon 5. Sincerity and perseverance are the necessary Modifications of Faith and not any thing really distinct from its Being 6. Assiance and sincere obedience and works of Love are the necessary immediate inseparable products of Faith as heat and light are of fire or rather as Reasoning is the product of Reason or yet rather as actions most properly conjugall are the effects of Conjugall contract And as Faith is in some sort more excellent then Affiance Obedience as the cause is better then the effect so in some sort they may be more excellent then Faith as the effect may be preferred before its Cause the Act before the habit as being that which is the end of the habit for whose sake it is and to which it tendeth as to its perfection 7. The praying for forgivenesse the forgiving of others the pleading of Christs satisfaction are both parts of this obedience and necessary consequents of Faith and Acts subseruient to it for the attaining of its Ends. 8. The denying and humbling of the flesh the serious painfull constant use of Gods Ordinances Hearing Praying Meditating c. are both parts of the foresaid obedience and also the necessary means of continuing and exercising our Faith 9. Strength of Grace Assurance of Pardon and Salvation Perswasion of Gods favour setled peace of Conscience Ioy in this Assurance and Peace the understanding of Truths not fundamentall or necessary in practice All these are no properties of the Condition of the Covenant but separable adjuncts of Faith tending to the Well-being of it but neither tending to nor necessary proofs of the Being of it which a Believer should have but may possibly want I shall give you some reason of severall of these Assertions when I have first made way by the Definition of Faith So then as when you invite a man to your House it is not necessary that you bid him come in at the doore or bring his head or his legs or armes or his clothes with him though these are necessary because all these are necessarily implyed even so when we are said to be justified by Faith onely or when it is promised that he that beleeveth shall be saved all those forementioned duties are implyed or included THESIS LXIII AS it is Gods excellent method in giving the Morall Law first to require the acknowledgment of his soveraign authority and to bring men to take him only for their God which is therefore called the first and great Commandment and then to prescribe the particular subsequent duties so is it the excellent method of Christ in the Gospell first to establish with men his Office and Authority and require an acknowledgment of them and consent and subjection to them and then to prescribe to them their particular duties in subordination THESIS LXIV FAith therefore is the summary and chief of the conditions of the Gospell and not formally and strictly the whole But as Love is the fulfilling of the Law so Faith is the fulfilling of the new Law or as taking the Lord for our only God is the sum of the Decalogue implying or inferring all the rest and so is the great Commandment so taking Christ for our only Redeemer and Lord is the sum of the conditions of the new Covenant including implying or inferring all other parts of its conditions and so is the great Command of the Gospell EXPLICATION THe Observation in the 63 Position is commended to you by Mr white of Dorchester in his Directions for reading Scripture p. 307. The full subjection to the Authority commanding doth imply and infer subjection to the particular Commands therefore God doth still make this the sum of the conditions of the Law that they take him only for their God or that they have no other Gods but him And when he contracteth his Covenant into an Epitome it runs thus I will be thy God and thou shalt be my people Exod. 20. 3. 23. 13. Deut. 7. 4. 8. 19. 13. 2 3 c. Ios. 24. 2 16. c. Iudg. 2. 12 17 19. 10. 13. 1 Sam. 8. 8. 2 Kings 5. 17. 17. 7. Ier. 22. 9. 7. 23. 11. 4. 30. 22. Ezek. 36. 28. Deut. 26. 16 17 c. And as Gods promise of taking us for his people doth imply his bestowing upon us all the priviledges and blessings of his people and so is the sum of all the conditions of the Covenant on his part Even so our taking the Lord for our God and Christ for our Redeemer and Lord doth imply our sincere obedience to him and is the summe of the Conditions on our part And