to the end And then he proceeds saying This is the way Beloved wherein we find Jesus Christ our saving health the High Priest of our Offerings the Guardian and Helper of our weakness Lastly In Page 102 105 106. He that hath Love in Christ let him keep the Commandments of Christ c. Blessed are we Beloved if we have done the Commandments of God in the Concord of Love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that through Love our Sins may be forgiven us For it is written Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered Blessed is the Man unto whom the Lord imputeth not sin neither is there guile in his mouth This Blessedness hath been unto those who were chosen by God through Jesus Christ our Lord to whom be Glory for ever and ever Amen Thus Clement who was Paul's Fellow-Labourer Phil. 4.3 and who may well be presumed to know his Mind as to these Matters and we see evidently by his Words that he held as we do that Faith and Repentance are both antecedently necessary to Justification and pardon of sin and further that sincere Obedience to Christ's Commandments in a course of holy living is indispensably necessary to the obtaining of Eternal Life and Glory in the Everlasting Kingdome of our most Glorious God and Saviour But some may possibly say what did Clement mean by writing as he doth that our sins are forgiven us through Love Is that an Orthodox Expression We Answer What did our Saviour mean by saying Mat. 6.14 15. If ye forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you but if ye forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Father forgive your trespasses And again what did our Saviour mean by saying Mark 11.25 When ye stand praying forgive if ye have ought against any that your Father also which is in Heaven may forgive you your trespasses Were these Orthodox Expressions If they were Orthodox as doubtless they were and it were Blasphemy to think otherwise then so is the expression of Clement Orthodox for the Expressions are alike upon the matter and the meaning is the same Clement by saying that our sins are forgiven through Love meant no more but that our forgiving our Neighbour his Trespasses against us which is an Act of Love is a Means of God's appointment whereby we obtain the forgiveness of our sins from God through Christ We do not doubt but this was Clement's meaning and we are sure it was our Saviours When he said Mark 11.25 If ye have ought against any forgive that your Father also which is in Heaven may forgive you Our blessed Lord who is the faithful Witness makes God's forgiving us to be the End and our forgiving our Neighbour to be a Means indispensably necessary to be used by us for obtaining that End So that we obtain the forgiveness of our sins through Love in a very sound and Orthodox sense even as sound and Orthodox as Christ's Gospel is In the second place we bring the foresaid Testimony of Origen to prove that the real change which is wrought in the Soul by a sincere Repentance is antecedently necessary to dispose and prepare us for obtaining the promised Blessing of Pardon of sin which is an essential part of Justification It is in his Third Book against Celsus of the Cambridge Edition pag. 154. The Passage in Origen begins thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Which we will give the sense of in English for the use of our Authour After these things viz. which had been objected and answered before he Celsus takes upon him to charge us with that which is not granted by the more rational judicious Believers though perhaps it may be thought so by some foolish or ignorant Christians that as some Men are overcome by and under the Dominion of a tender compassionate natural frame and temper of Mind so God being overcome by and under the power of a merciful compassionate nature towards them that are in misery he relieves and pardons miserable Men though they be wicked if withal they be of a pitiful merciful nature◠But though they be otherwise good men yet God rejects them if they be not of such a pitiful compassionate Nature Which is most unjust For according to our Faith God doth not relieve so as to pardon and receive into his Favour any wicked Man unless he be first turned unto virtue that is converted like as he doth not reject any that is now become a good Man But neither doth he relieve or shew mercy unto any Man of a merciful Nature meerly because he is of a merciful Nature taking the word Mercy in the sense that the vulgar or common People use it in but those that greatly condemn themselves for their sins so as thereupon to mourn and bewail themselves as lost and undone by reason of the evil they have done and withal give evidence of a signal change such as becomes true Penitents God grants to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Grace of Repentance that is the Gracious Fruit and Benefit promised to Repentance even to them who have changed their most wicked course For unto such is given as by Act of Oblivion a pardon of their past sins through the vertue that comes to dwell in their Souls and casts out the vice and corruption that possessed them before Or if at first they attain not unto a confirmed habit of vertue yet there is a notable change in the Soul which proceeds so far as that it is sufficient according to the proportion of it to purge out and take away the great abundance of wickedness that was in it before so as it can hardly ever get into the Soul again Thus far Origen In which Testimony of his there are several things worthy of our observation 1. Origen did not write this meerly as a private Christian or Teacher of the Church declaring what was his own private Opinion but as the great and famous Apologist in his time for Christ the Christian Church and for the Truth of the Christian Religion against the Heatheus particularly against Celsus a very learned Heathen who had written learnedly and spitefully against Christ and against Christians and the Christian Religion 2. Whereas Celsus had charged Christians with an absurd impious Opinion as that they believed That God pardoneth wicked Mens sins and receives them into his Favour if they be of a good Nature of a soft pitiful compassionate Temper before there pass a real change upon them before they repent before they turn from sin and return unto God in Heart and Affection Origen deuyed the Charge and affirmed that no rational intelligent judicious Christian believed any such thing that if any Christian did at all believe that God justified and pardoned a wicked Man before he had repented of his sins and returned unto the Lord they must be some foolish simple ignorant People and yet he would not absolutely grant to his Adversary that there
imitate them when he lent Dr. Crisps Book to c. he knows best himself we know nothing of his secret designs but if he had any such design we are heartily glad he missed his mark and desire to bless God that that worthy Person was so well stablished in the Principles of pure Christianity as not to be moved unless it were to an holy Indignation at some things in the foresaid Book 7. Mr. Weld says That assoon as they had thus wrought in themselves and a good conceit of their Opinions by all these ways of subtilty into the Hearts of People Nextly they strongly endeavoured with all the craft they could to undermine the good Opinion of their Ministers and their Doctrine and to work them clean out of their Affections telling them they were sorry that their Teachers had so misled them and trained them up under a Covenant of Works and that themselves never having been taught of God it is no wonder they did no better teach them the Truth and how they might sit till Dooms day under their Legal Sermons and never see light Our Authour seems to have out-done those Seducers in this black Art for in the 32d Page of his Letter he sayes that the Divines who differ from him do plead that same cause which the Devil pleads dayly in the hearts of all natural men We are weary of transcribing let any who would see further into this Mystery of Iniquity consult the Book it self which is lately Reprinted But we have made use of the first Edition Here our Authour may see the force of his Argument taken from the appearing holiness of his Party For our Parts we do not presume to censure his Party we judge well of all Men till we see good reason to alter our Judgment and had much rather be severe in our Judgments upon our selves than upon others Nor do we more fear that the Congregational Churches in Old England will turn Antinomian than they did in New England There they opposed Antinomianism and testified against it and we hope they will do the like here But we cannot but think that what hath been once may possibly be again and as some that were of our Brethrens Perswasion there fell fouly into gross Antinomianism after they had for a time made an high Profession and great show of more than ordinary Holiness so may they do here And therefore our Authours Argument from his Parties being as he says more holy than ours is not we judge sufficient to clear them of all suspicion of inclining that way If any in favour to us should take the same Argument for it is a Leaden Dagger and may be bended which way Men will and apply it to our Party as our Authour is pleased to distinguish us and go about to prove thereby that we can be in no danger of falling into Antinomianism or Pelagianism or any other Heresie nor can there be any ground to suspect us because we are holier than our Brethren on the other side or than any other people in England we should never thank him for his pains but rather rebuke him for his Flattery and advise him to forbear putting Fallacies and Tricks upon the people in favour of us We think there is none of us all on one side or other how holy soever but might fall for a time into as gross Errours as Antinomianism if the Lord to try us should leave us to our selves and the Tentations of Satan transforming himself into an Angel of Light Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed least he fall 1 Cor. 10.12 Rom. 11.20 And thou standest by Faith be not high-minded but fear We receive this advice from the Lord and apply it to our selves and we would hope that our Authour and his Party will do the like And we think they have one reason so to do that is proper and peculiar to themselves if they duly lay to heart how Mr. D. who went out from them is turned aside from the Truth and is drawing Disciples after him into Antinomianism We need say no more to shew that this part of the Vindication of his Consorts is insufficient to attain its end if his end really was to vindicate them and not rather to commend himself to them by commending them to the World as the holiest People in England If in other parts of his Vindication he hath had better success and hath done them better service we are glad of it for we would really have them well vindicated if they be as he saith they are suspected and accused We verily believe there are good serious People amongst them that sincerely fear God such we honour and love And wish that theirs and ours were all such And where the Churches are said to be so holy we should be glad to find that all the Ministers were as holy and that the Holiness of some of them did more appear than it doth in our Authours Letter or in the late Writings of some others If we should follow the example they have given us in our way of Writing we think we should have no great cause to tell the World of our Holiness The God of all Grace through Christ Jesus grant that the great and precious promises of the Gospel may have a better effect upon us all and make us more careful and studious to cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the Flesh and Spirit perfecting Holiness in the fear of God 2 Cor. 7.1 We have but one thing more to say on this part of our Authours Vindication and that is Whereas he says pag. 3. That his Party profess sincerely that their godliness begun with the Faith of their Principles We demand what Principles he means whether the Principles of Christian Religion which are common to them and us with the other Reformed Churches or certain Principles proper and peculiar to them as a Party distinct from the rest If the first we have nothing to gain-say to it for we our selves do with all our hearts acknowledge that all the Godliness wherewith the Lord hath blessed us did partly begin in and partly proceed from the lively effectual Faith of the same common Principles of Christian Religion But if our Authour mean the second to wit That the Godliness of his Party begun with the Faith of certain Principles proper and peculiar to them as a Party distinct from all other Societies of Christians we can by no means approve of their profession in that matter Indeed we have a better opinion of our Brethren than to believe that they ever made any such profession and we cannot think that our Authour would ever sincerely and heartily join with them in it and so proclaim himself to have been an Hypocrite till of late that he joined himself in full Communion with them For we read in Nethenus his Preface to Mr. Rutherford's Examen Arminianismi that he was accounted a pious godly Young Man in the Year 1668. when he assisted
apprehensive nature and its apprehending Christs Righteousness the Will of God still presupposed doth make this Righteousness ours even as a Gift becomes ours by our receiving of it These Worthy Divines we see were of our Opinion That it is not the nature of Faith it self nor its relation unto Christ which is essential to it that doth formally make it to be the Instrumental Means or Condition of our Justification but it is the Will of God ordaining it to that Office It is true they held and we with them hold that there is a congruity and fitness in Faith to be the receptive and applicative Condition of the Promise and of Christ and his Righteousness therein because it is of a receptive applicative nature yet that doth not formally make it the Condition For notwithstanding its fitness to be the Condition yet it would never have actually and formally been the Condition of Justification nor would it ever have availed us to Justification if God by an Act of his Free-will had not made it the Condition of Justification Is not Justification a great Blessing and Benefit which is in the power and at the disposal of God and Christ and may not God do what he will with his own may not he give his Blessing and Benefit upon what Terms and Conditions he and his Son shall think fit to agree upon This surely is so evident that no reasonable Man can have reason to deny it And then the consequence is as evident that it is not any thing intrinsecal to Faith and so not its relation to Christ which is intrinsecal to it that can nextly and formally make it the Instrumental Means or Condition of Justification but it is and must be the Will of God and his Son Christ Jesus agreeing that Faith shall be and ordaining Faith to be the Instrumental Means Terms and Condition of our Justification For these Reasons we dissent and all Men that love the Truth should dissent from our Authour if by saying that an accepting Faith is the native Condition of the Offer of Christ and of all his fulness he mean That Faith of its own nature necessarily is the condition of the promise and could not possibly 〈◊〉 otherwise so that 〈◊〉 being the condition doth necessarily and wholly arise from its own intrinsecal nature and not at all from the Will of God and Christ constituting and ordaining it do that Office of being the Condition of the promise We dare not uscribe so much Vertue and Efficacy to the intrinsecal Nature of Faith in the matter of our Justification But if by saying That an accepting Faith is the Native condition of the offer of Christ and his fulness our Authour means no more but this That Faith being of a receptive Nature it hath a natural aptitude and fitness to be made the condition of the promise of Justification and that that was a reason why it pleased God and Christ to make and constitute Faith to be the receptive condition of Justification we shall not oppose but join with him in this sense of his words But though we grant him for the reason aforesaid that Faith is the one native receptive condition of Justification yet we can never grant that Faith taken in his sense for the one single Grace or it may be for one single Act of the one single Grace of Faith is the only condition of Justification and much less that it is the only condition of Glorification For as Faith is the one yea and only receptive condition so true Repentance it the dispositive condition of Justification or of the Person to be justified in order to his Justification And moreover Repontance is as native a condition in its kind as Faith in its kind it is us native a dispositive condition as Faith is a native receptive condition For sincere Repentance being a Godly sorrow for having displeased and dishonoured God and a firm resolution through Grace to do so no more it doth from the very nature of the thing dispose and prepare the Soul for pardon and then God hath likewise for that reason Willed Ordained and Constituted Repentance to be the dispositive Condition of pardon of Sin and Justification As we proved before by plain testimonies of God's Holy Word And though Faith and Repentance be equally necessary from the Will Ordination and Constitution of God and Christ yet of the two Repentance seems to be the most necessary with that kind of necessity which ariseth precisely from the nature of the thing For it seems to be absolutely impossible because repugnant to the perfection of God's Holy Nature to Justifie Pardon and Love with a Love of Complacency a Rebellious Sinner whilst he is impenitent and continues his full Resolution to go on in his Rebellion and Enmity against Heaven The sense of this Truth seems to have been much upon the very Reverend and Learned Mr. Clarkson's Spirit and therefore it made him say in his Discourse of free Grace page 129 130 131. If the terms or conditions be such as it is not possible in the nature of the thing that the mercy offered should be effected without them then the offers of saving mercies are as free and gracious as can be as there is any possibility they should be and no more can be desired Then he takes Repentance for his instance we do not say that he altogether excludes the other terms but that Repentance is that which he Jingles out to instance in and which he much insists upon as taken in its Latitude And thus he goes on Let me clear this in one of those terms which is comprehensive of all the rest It is required of those who will partake of Saving Mercies that they leave sin forsake their evil ways Prov. 28.13 Isa 55.7 2 Tim. 2.19 This is the summ of all Conditions and whatever is required in other terms is included in this or may be resolved into it Now it is not possible that saving Mercies should otherwise be had that they should be received or enjoyed but upon these terms not only because the Lord would have it so but because the Nature of the thing doth so require it that it is not otherwise feasible for sin is our impotency Now can we possibly have strength in the inner man if we will not part with our weakness Sin is our deformity that which renders our Souls loathsome and ugly in the eye of God Now can our Souls be made lovely if we will not part with that which is our defilement and ugliness Can we be made clean if we will not part with our leprosie Sin is our enmity against God therein it consists now can we possibly be reconciled if we will not lay aside our enmity Sin is the wound the mortal Disease of the Soul and can you be healed if you will not part with your Disease Sin is your Misery and can you be happy if not part with your misery Happyness consists in the enjoyment of God
That according to the Description which he gives of a Middle-way-man Let. p. 2. we may safely and with a good Conscience according to the Light which God hath given us deny that we are Middle-way-men for he makes a Middle-way-man to be one who espouses defends and promotes a Middle-way betwixt the Arminians and the Orthodox But that we are Middle-way-men in this Sense we must deny for we cannot own our selves to be such men without lying against our Consciences and saying that we are not Orthodox or but half-Orthodox which we believe to be a great falshood If therefore our Author would have us to confess that we are Middle-way-men 1. He must give us a better and truer Definition of a Middle-way-man for this will not fit us at all belike he would have the World believe that we are half-Arminians and half-Orthodox but if that be his meaning in intimating that we steer a Middle-course between the Arminians and the Orthodox it is an abominable Calumny which we have already wiped off by solemnly and sincerely Declaring that we do not participate of the Arminian extream at all we are no Arminians in whole or in part 2. He would do well to tell us whom he means by the Orthodox it may be that by the Orthodox he means chiefly himself and his small party exclusively of all other Protestants If that be his meaning we say 1. That he must not thus beg but prove his Orthodoxy before we can own him to be thus very Orthodox 2. We think that such a Notion of Orthodoxy is too narrow and Schismatical It is a Monopolizing of soundness in the Faith to a Party and that Comparatively a small Party of Christians too and a branding of all the rest with the Mark of Unsound and Erroneous in the Faith Whereas the real Difference between those called Middle-way-men on the one side and the most of those called Orthodox on the other may not be matter of Faith strictly so called but rather matter of Opinion and so both Parties may be Orthodox or sound in the Faith That is notwithstanding some different Sentiments in lesser things they may both firmly and fully agree in believing all the Articles of Christian Faith which are necessary to Church Communion on Earth and to the obtaining Eternal Salvation in Heaven through the Mercy of God the Father the Merits and Satisfaction of the Son and the Grace of the Holy Spirit 3dly If he had shewed us in his Letter wherein that Middle-way doth particularly consist according to his Opinion we should have it may be either owned or disowned it in part or in whole according as we had found him to have truly represented or misrepresented it to the World But since he hath not done that we cannot know certainly what he means by that Middle-way he talks of 4thly Yet by some Passages in his Letter we guess that he Points at the controversie about the extent of Christs Death which hath been amongst Protestant Divines since the Reformation or since the time that Beza and Piscator began to write on that Head after the Reformation And if that be the thing he Points at without naming it we will First Give the true State of the Controversie Secondly Declare briefly what our Opinion is as to that matter And for the State of the Controversie First There are some Divines in the World who are said to hold that Christ died equally for all men Elect and Non-elect and that God on the account of Christs Death gives a common sufficient Grace to them all whereby they may all if they will apply to themselves the Vertue of Christs Death and thereby obtain Justification and Salvation But that Christ did not dye for the Elect out of any special Love to them above others and that God through Christ doth not give any Special Effectual Determining Grace to the Elect more than to the Non-elect This is the Arminian extream Secondly There are other Divines who hold that Christ died for the Elect only and exclusively of all others and that he died not for any of the Non-elect in any proper tolerable true sense that he no more died for any of those Men who are not elected to Eternal Life than he died for the Devil and that such Men have no more to do with the Satisfaction and Meriâ—s of Christ than the Devil hath This is the other extream And we suppose that this is that which our Author accounts the Orthodex side and that he is of this side himself But Thirdly Between these two extream Opinions there is a Golden mean there is a Middâ—e-way which hath been many hundred years ago and still is expressed in this form of Words That Christ died only for the Elect-Sinners of Mankind both Sufficiently and Efficaciously but that he died for the Non-elect only Sufficiently but not Efficaciously This is the State of the Controversie 2. If Secondly It be now demanded Whether we be for this Middle-way or not In Answer to that demand we say That there are a great many of us who are Calumniated by our Author as corrupters of the Gospel by holding a Conditional Covenant and tho' we do not doubt but we all agree in the foresaid General form of Words and in admitting the Distirction of Christs dying for the Elect Efficaciciously and for the Reprebate only Sufficiently yet it may be that when we come to explain what we particularly mean by Christs dying Sufficiently only for the Non-elect there will be some little Difference amongst us in some of our Notions and Expressions and possibly some of us may not in effect differ from our Author further than in the manner of our Expression and in the Method of our Conceptions and Notions But 1. We are all of one Mind and of one Faith with respect to Christs dying Efficaciously for the Elect only and we hope also that our Author himself agrees with us herein Which is the main thing wherein our Agreement is necessary And then 2. As to the Non-Elect especially those of them to whom the Gospel is preached we hope all of us do and will agree to this That Christ died for them sufficiently in such a sense as he did not dye for the fallen Angels so that if they should believe in Christ and repent of their sins as they are bound to do according to the tenour and terms of the Gospel they should be saved through Christ and not perish as they do by persevering in Unbelief and Impenitence And being thus far agreed we hope we shall keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace and as to any little difference of Judgment that may remain we shall bear with one another in Love after the example of the famous Synod of Dort whereof the Members differed in the Synod upon this very point and yet they bore with one another and wisely agreed against the Arminian extreme as most manifestly appears from the Acts of