seven Arguments which if need had required might have been seventie Now I will answer the Objections An Answer to Argument VII IF we are not justified in his sight before we believe a then we are unjust sinners workers of iniquity Answer So we are As we have shewed out of Ephes 2.2 Where we are said to walke after the course of the world to be guided by the Spirit that ruleth in the children of disobedience and to be children of wrath as well as others till we be in Christ by faith v. 4 5 6 7 8. So 1 Cor. 6.9.10.11 But then saith the obiection If we be workers of iniquity God hates us Psalm 5. 1. Answ We know no middle between Gods love and hate And the text saith plainly that till they be called they are in regard of actuall love a people not beloved Rom. 9.24.25 ☞ Some reply that this is meant of the Gentiles To which 1. We reply that that is all one In the Gentiles we see those that were not beloved afore the call are beloved after 2. That the text names Jewes and Gentiles and brings that of Hos to prove it with which if we go on to end of 3. chap. of Hos it is fully proved Chapters are of late invention Besides that 9. of Rom. we alledge that Ezekiell 16.8 It was a time of love This text is urged against us but you may see it is for us For it should seeme it was not the time of love till God passed by her and spread his skirt over her the righteousnesse and excellency of Christ In order of nature she lay in her blood before justified and loved But in order of time at the same time yea minute of time she was in her blood was justified and loved At the same time the soule is created in man But in order of nature the understanding acts before the will And whereas it is said Esau have I hated not Jacob But Iacob have I loved This the Apostle applies peremptorily to Election and reprobation Now Election is every where in Scripture called a purpose If any where it be called a love we must be forced to ioyn both together unlesse we will set the Scriptures together by the eares and say It is a purpose of love Now a purpose is not an act nor an act a purpose Gods decree is not the execution nor the execution the decreeing 2. Answ Isay 1.13 Your incense is abomination to me the calling of Assemblies I cannot away with it it is iniquity even the solemne meeting your new moones and your appointed feasts my soule hateth c. And all because their hands were full of blood But ver 18. Come now let us reason together though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow See here is as much said of hating those that should be pardoned ver 25. as of Sodom and Gomorrah ver 10. God cannot hate the essence of the Devill being his creature but onely his manners So of the iustified before iustified as we have shewed Answ b What absurdity can be conceived by one principled with Divinity For though man could fall in the first Adam yet he cannot fall from the second Adam being once in him For the gifts and calling of God Rom. 11. are without repentance We can perfectly sinne being out of Christ and so deserve to be hated But we being in Christ have a perfect righteousnesse in him that saves them to the utmost that is for ever that come to God by him seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them Heb. 7.25 So that as he breaks the power of corrupt nature that it cannot sinne perfectly with a full will Rom. 7. so he perfectly pardons all sinne that there is no condemnation Rom. 8.1 Objection 1. We are justified by Faith therefore not before Faith Answer First it should have concluded not before the act of beleeving a Secondly I denie the consequence and say we may be justified both by it and yet before in a different sense This Proposition We are justified by Faith is very ambiguous He was not a Foole who an hundred years since said that this Proposition was one of those things hard to be understood which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest as they do other Scriptures to their own destruction 2 Pet. 3.16 I would our Age had not proved it true that the misunderstanding of this Proposition hath turned upside down the Doctrine of Justification amongst pudling preachers There is in this Proposition two words ambiguous and doubtfull The first Justified which sometimes in Scriptures signifieth to be reputed reckonned or accounted Just as It is God that iustifieth Sometimes it is taken for to be declared or manifested to be Just as By workes a man is iustified James 2.24 If you take Justified in the first sense we say we are not reputed or reckoned Just by the act of believing If you take Iustified in the second sense I say we are justified that is declared to be Iust by believing Faith manifesting to our consciences that we are Iust before God By Faith we understand that God hath freely iustified us in his Son Another word ambiguous in this Proposition is Faith which is diversly taken sometimes for the act of Faith or believing and sometimes for the obiect of Faith the thing believed as Faith was reckoned unto him for righteousnesse Rom 4. that is the obiect of faith So that it is all one as if he had said God or Christ was reckoned to him for righteousnesse If we understand the act of Faith then I say as before we are not reckoned Iust by the act of our faith if by faith we understand the obiect of our faith then I say we are reckoned or reputed Iust by God in by or through Christ Jesus our Faith An answer to your reply to the 1. Obiection We are iustified by faith therefore not before faith Your Answer is 1. That the conclusion should be not before the act of believing We reply the conclusion should not have more termes in it then the premises 2. That if a man hath the habit of faith he cannot but be actually in Christ For it is part of Christ 2. You answer That you deny the consequence We reply That which is said to be done by an instrument inferres it is not done without the instrument 3. You reply that a man may be iustified by faith and yet be iustified before faith in a different sense distinguishing of the reputation of one iust and the manifestation of one iust And of Fides quâ fides quam of faith and its obiect What is all this to the purpose when your own former replies do intimaredly confesse that you took the Argument to mean iustification it selfe not the manifestation and faith the quality not the obiect For the Apostle doth not mean Rom. 5.1 that Christ is the instrumentall cause but the meritorious cause And faith the
with him Rev. 21.6 For his workes were finished from the foundation of the world d Heb. 4.3 And so I rest A Servant of Iesus Christ to live and die H. D. An Answer to your Answer to the 5. Obiection We reply when God speaketh those texts Ephes 2.1 2 3. and 1 Cor. a 6.9 10 11. I pray turne to them and consider them sure God speakes as he thinkes And if God doth not thinke mankinde children of wrath before faith comes sure they will not thinke themselves so To that place of 2 Tim. 1.9 we say b that the place is expresse of Gods gracious purpose For otherwise then in purpose Christ himselfe cannot be said there to be given to us before the world began To that Revel c 21.6 God is Alpha and Omega therefore what he promiseth shall come to passe is done with him we answer all that ever any learned have made of that or you can make is that the thing spoken of there was as certaine to be done in processe of time as if it had been then done when it was spoken But the certainty of a thing to be doth not put the thing into a present being Gen. 3. Gods promise of Christ in the beginning of time doth not actually give Christ till the fulnesse of time Yet if you will have a notion in your head of Gods actuall doing in himselfe that which is yet but in his promise and purpose we retort then so is it also in his threats For the same expression as you alledge out of Revel 21.6 by way of promise of a mercy is used by the same Saint John Rev. by way of threat So that if according to your position Gods promising to justifie be an actuall justifying of a man with him then Gods threatning to condemne John 3.18 is an actuall condemning of a man with him So that a man in this way is as much condemned as justified before faith comes and so you have gained nothing Christ himselfe speakes of Gods justifying him from the imputation of the sinnes of men to him in the future tence or time Isay 50.8 9. He is neere that iustifieth me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as the Hebrew will very well bear it The iustifier of me is neere who will contend with me c. Behold the Lord will helpe me who is he that shall condemne me See by the opposite terme condemne the word helpe signifies iustifying according to the title of the father in 8. ver The justifier So that if Christ was iustified in time from sinne meerely imputed then much more is a man iustified by Christ from sinne inherent Or else on the other side if according to your sense Gods promise of iustifying be in God a iustifying of a man then Gods promise of giving faith is in him a giving of faith to a man and so faith is come as soon as iustification iustification hath not got the start of faith To that Heb. d 4.3 we say that it is expresly meant as it is explained ver 4. of Gods resting on the seventh day in the beginning of the world and therefore cannot be understood of Gods finishing his workes before the world was made Gods purposes are not workes Gods workes are done in time those of the creation in six dayes those of his providence 6000. years but Gods purposes were before all time from all eternitie But of the nature of Gods purposes and decrees and the Obiection about its unchangeablenesse in our answer to some passages in your Sermons intituled Grace mercy and peace containing Gods reconciliation to man man reconciliation to God An Answer to severall passages in your Booke called Grace mercy and peace containing as you say 1. Gods reconciliation to man 2. Mans reconciliation to God Delivered as I conceive by the division of your booke in two Sermons The 1. Concerning Gods reconciliation to man The 2. Concerning mans reconciliation to God Sermon I. PAg. 1. You say I will shew how God comes to be reconciled to men beare with the terme reconciled although improperly spoken of him that was never an enemy So you Answ 1. If God were never an enemy why say you I will shew you how God comes to be reconciled How can there be any going or coming of his love to man if he never an enemy to him Answ 2. Reconciliation and enmity are relatives as a father and a son take away the relation of a father and the relation of a son is gone and so on the contrary So if you deny that there was ever any enmity between God and man you must needs utterly deny all reconciliation between God and man Re signifies as you know again Con signifies together “ Of Cico ciliation to call or move to How is there a moving to where there was never any removing How a together of those that were never asunder How an again unles there had been once an onenes or an agreement which had been broken to pieces and now is made up againe as the * of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 permuto Thence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Commutatio thence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 commutatio contractus Thence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A contracting againe Greek word beares us out in all this and so there is reconciliation But whiles I am speaking these things I know you are gone for an appeale from the bar of reason in matters of faith to the tribunall of Scripture I go with you for that is nothing else but a better a divine reason Say you that God was never an enemy to the Elect and you make the fall of Adam in whom the Elect are included a fiction you make the story of the Gospell touching Christ suffering a fable as that Pope did that said blasphemously How much have we gotten by that fable of the Gospel you make Christs passion if you grant he did suffer for the sins of the elect to be a very vanity a more then needs You overthrow the nature of God Hab. 1.13 whose purity cannot indure any sinne as sinne in whomsoever it is but reproves it sharply all along the Scriptures in all his Elect. And you deny many Scriptures that testifie that God was at enmity with his Elect as well as they with him till they were believers Ephes 2.2.3 As they are said to walke as the worldly children of disobedience so in regard of God they are said to be children of wrath All spoken of the Elect for they were now truly converted Weigh the place weigh also that Isay 63.10.11 Therefore he was turned to be their enemy then he remembred the dayes of old c. That is to have mercy on them Obiect Nor is it available for you to say that Christ died to reconcile us to God not God to us Answ For if that had been all the businesse God might have reconciled our stubborne natures into a love of him
AN ANTIDOTE AGAINST ANTINOMIANISME The first Dosis The unjustifiablenesse of justification before faith Prescribed and administred in a soft Answer I. To seven Arguments II. To the solutions of five Objections III. To the novell distinction of Gods reconciliation to man without mans reconciliation to God Penned plainly for the undeceiving of the plain-hearted Christian and mildely for the regaining of our mistaken brother H. D. by D. H. London Printed for G. B. and R. W. SEVEN ARGUMENTS to prove a that in order of working God doth justifie his Elect before they do actually beleeve VVith some Answers to the Objections that some make against the same For the confirmation of those that do truly beleeve b lest they should attribute any part of the Office of Christ to the act of their beleeving Ezekiel 16.2 3 4 5 6. c Son of man cause Jerusalem to know her abominations And say Thus saith the Lord God unto Jerusalem Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan thy father was an Amorite and thy mother an Hittite And as for thy nativity in the day that thou wast borne thy navill was not cut neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee thou wast not salted at all nor swadled at all None eye pitied thee to do any of these things unto thee but thou wast cast into the open field to the loathing of thy person in the day that thou wast borne And when I passed by thee and saw thee polluted in thine owne blood I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood Live yea I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood Live Printed in the yeere 1643. An answer to the Title In Order of Working God doth justifie his Elect a before they do actually believe So you 1. Here you do more then seem you do expresse your self to meane justification in act or actuall justification not justification meerely in Gods decree For Gods decree to justifie is not a working iustification so you flie off from that extreame of making a precedency of iustification before faith in Gods decree where indeed the decree of faith is as old as the decree of iustification yet in your dispute you oft fall on againe upon this extreame 2. Here you seem but you do but seem to wave the other extreame of holding a precedency in time of iustification before faith you seem onely to hold a precedency in order of nature because you say in order of working but you onely seem For if onely the difference be in order of nature this doth not inferre a necessity that they should be severed in time not an hour not a quarter of an hour But more is intended namely that a man may be instified many years before he believe so in the 1. Argum which is most false yea we cannot say that in order of working in the same moment when whole Christ is brought to the soule that iustification goes before faith if there be any precedency of one before another For 1. Actuall iustification is by union with Christ granted in 2. Argum. ad Phil. 3.9 Now the very instant of union is of Christs being in us by spirit of faith Ephes 3.17 1 Ioh. 3. ult Ioh. 1.12 you confesse the spirit unites in 2. Argum. e 2. If faith hath any thing to do in iustification it is an instrument but the toole is before the worke in order of nature 3. Though the King purposeth to pardon a fellon yet he doth not actually pardon and pronounce discharged till he accept and plead that pardon 4. The order of working set down Rom. 8.30 is Whom he predestinated them he called whom he called them he iustified if effectuall calling includes not faith it is not effectuall but onely that which may be in hypocrites but 2 Pet. 1.3 it s plaine calling is to glory and vertue It is a part of the office of Christ to give gifts and graces b and so that of believing to them whom he saves Iohn 1.16.17 And of his fulnesse have all we received and grace for grace For the Law was given by Moses but grace and truth came by Iesus Christ Iohn 17.19 And for their sakes I sanctifie my selfe that they also might be sanctified Ephes 4.7.8 But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ How proves he that From an act of his Mediatorship namely his ascension Wherefore he saith when he ascended up on high he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men Ezek. 16.2.3.4.5.6 To this we answer c that all that text doth not hold out that God iustified Jerusalem one minute before he restored her to spirituall life holines For when he passed by he said Live And when he said Live he entred into Covenant with her and washed her v. 8.9 Christs name and nature is not barely to save us in our fins but from our sins Matth. 1.21 to be as a Iesus a Saviour so to be Immanuel God with us Matth. 21.23 Now this of God being with us is applied not meerly to Gods decree but to the execution of his decree of calling iustifying and glorifying Rom. 8.30.31 Seven Arguments to prove that in order of working God doth justifie his Elect before they doe actually beleeve With some Answers to the Objections that some make against the same THis Proposition being contradicted we are iustified before God before the act of our beleeving This is the Proposition which I do now undertake to vindicate by the affistance of the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ whose honour is not a little concerned in it b I will first of all lay down seven Arguments for the confirmation of the Truth and then I will answer unto five Objections brought by some against it An answer to the Preface I had thought by that touch you give upon universall Gratians as you call them in the 5. a Argum. * that you had been an opposite to the universall Redemptionists the Pelagians Semi-Pelagians and Arminians But I finde your doctrine in this point to be very consonant and neere of kinne to theirs Herein you agree with them So â—sher delivers their sense who do thus say that the benefit of Christs satisfaction is to be extended so farre as that God for his part is actually reconciled unto men and doth really discharge men from their sins before they believe You differ in this onely that they say to all men God is so reconciled and gives a discharge before faith comes you say he is reconciled to all the Elect and dischargeth them before faith comes To deny this proposition in the sense you meane it That we are justified before God before you mean in time the act of our believing doth nothing derogate from the honour of the Father or his Son b Forthe Father hath committed all the businesse of the Church to Christ Matth. 11.27 28. 1 Cor. 15. sends us
to be advised guided by Christ Mat. 17.5 And Christ is honoured in that he must find the price of our redemption finde an hand for us to receive it So that the salvation and the application by faith is all of the gift of Christ and of the power of Christ Ephes 2.8 By grace are ye saved through faith see Gods favour and Saints faith conioyned and that not of your selves it is the gift of God who works to will and to do Phil. 2.13 The Proposition We are justified before God before the act of our beleeving Argument I. LEt me speake for those that are not able to speake for themselves I meane the little Babes to whom belongs the Kingdom of God I argue thus Infants doe not beleeve a But Infants are justified Therefore some that do not believe are justified Which if it be granted it will follow that some are iustified before they believe That infants are iustified need no proofe * That infants beleeve not must be proved b although the Church of England hath long since put it out of doubt First Faith cometh by hearing Rom. 10.17 How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard shall we say that infants in the Wombe hear the Word Secondly Faith is a Knowledge as some say a Perswasion as others a Trust as others But Infants are capable neither of Trust Perswasion or Knowledge therefore Infants are not capable of Faith But some have said that infants hear the Word of God beleeve in God and love God in an unknowne way c as sometimes John Baptist sprang in his Mothers Wombe for joy at the salutation of the Blessed Virgin But Saint Augustine did answer long agoe not more wittily then truly That this was done by a singular Miracle Neither doth this conclude other infants to beleeve any more d then we may conclude all Asses to be good Counsellors because we read that Balaams Asse spake more wisely then her Master An Answer to Argument I. * Yea if you would hold that infants are iustified before they believe you had need exceedingly to prove that they are so iustified for we know no Scripture for it Justified infants do beleeve a Such an infant may be filled with the holy Spirit Luk. 1.15 And where is the Spirit there are its fruits one of which is faith Gal. 5. The inbeing of grace no way depends upon the growing of the body we know a reasonable spirit is the subject of grace and without respect to age The Angels were full of grace as soone as made Grace doth but perfect reason The soule of an infant is full of reason Ergo why not capable of grace that doth not hurt but help reason how more capable is the soule of a man asleep of faith then the soule of an elect waking childe Yet 1. God hath appeared to men in dreams why not to a waking childe revealing Christ unto it 2. The habit of faith saves else a believer dying in his sleep cannot be saved All infused habits depend not on organicall knowledge that enters by sense 3. Godly men in their deepest sleep have oft the most rationall and divine notions Ergo a childe may awake smiles are the property of reason they will smile Infants do not believe b because Rom. 10.17 Answer that is spoken de Adultis of ripe in yeares for there is mention of confession and supplication The expression is affirmative not negative By this argument because it is said the spirit is given by hearing 2 Cor. 3. Ergo it could not be given to Iohn Baptist without hearing This confirmes that spoken afore c that Iohn was filled with the holy Spirit from the womb now manifesting an apprehension of Christ by that motion the body was organized unto namely leaping in the mothers wombe For that of Augustine 1. If men are to be urged in this point then the whole streame of all sound Divines run to this effect We are elected before all time Created in the beginning of time Justified in the fulnesse of time Glorified after all time That the first is the decree the other the execution 2. Augustines speech must be interpreted that he meanes by miraculum mirandum or else his speech is false as in many things he mistooke for a miracle is Mutatio naturae rei of the water into wine Moses rod into a Serpent Now Iohn in the womb was not altered in nature 1. d It is not said that the Asses soule was capable of humane reason and speech The voice or fitnesse of speech was created in his mouth But it is said Iohns soule was filled with the holy Ghost This infusion of the holy Spirit in regard of Gods acting is the same with his infusion of the Spirit into all other believers though the subiect not like to all other believers in regard of body But the Lord did not make the asse speake as he makes man to speake He makes man speake by the naturall instruments of speech And speakes reason from a reasonable soule But the asses speech was created above the power of nature And for that speech that Iohns condition doth no more conclude that other infants do believe any more then we may conclude all asses to be good counsellours because we read that Balaams asse spake more wisely then his Master We answer 1. This will conclude that as all asses would so speake if God did worke alike in them by creation so all infants would believe if God did work alike in them by infusion as he did in Iohn Yea 2. We can conclude more a fortiori If God doth put the spirit of faith for so it is called 2 Cor. 4. into Iohn whom he intended should live to be a man to see Christ and heare of him if not hear him how much more will he put the spirit of faith into elect infants that shall never grow up to manhood but die in their childehood 3. We can conclude that some one hath had faith in infancy But you can give us on instance of any one that hath beene iustified in infancy without faith I say no instance of example As for your Arguments we will answer to them in order 4. It seemes more infants then Iohn have had saving grace in their infancy Mar. 10. Else how were they pronounced blessed and that to them did belong the Kingdom of heaven and were actually blessed of Christ Argument II. HE that is in Christ is justified But we must be in Christ before we can believe a b c Therefore we must be justified before we can believe The Major is plaine the Minor is proved that we must be in Christ before we can believe To believe is a fruit of the Spirit Gal. 5. But we must be in Christ before we can beare fruit Therefore we must be in Christ before we can believe Joh. 15.4 As the branch cannot bear fruit of it selfe except it abide in the
Vine d no more can ye except ye abide in me Secondly if Faith be a good fruit it is required that men must be good Trees before they can bring it forth otherwise Grapes should be gathered of Thornes and Figs of Thisiles Matth. 12.33 If you will e the Argument may be this He that hath the Spirit of Christ hath Christ But we have the Spirit before we believe Therefore we have Christ before we believe An answer to Argument II. 1. THe Argument is false in the forme For 1. a The conclusion is universall i. that all iustified persons are iustified before they believe which must not be in an argument in the third figure For though expresly the proposition is but indefinit yet you supposing it to be In re necessariâ you yeild it to be universall For if the conclusion in this figure may be universall then I may inferre many falshoods As thus Every man is rationall every man is a living creature Ergo every living creature is rationall For the the Minor terme must be the subiect of the conclusion and the Maior terme the predicat So by such a kinde of argument as this I would inferre All effectually called are saved All effectually called do sin Ergo all that sinne are saved 2. There is another fault in the forme of the argument which much concludes against you which is this The Minor terme as we said must be the subiect of the conclusion the Maior terme the predicat now believing is the Minor terme and justification is the Maior and then the argument will according to rule be thus He that is in Christ is iustified we must be in Christ before we believe Ergo we must believe before we can be iustified I answer artificially to Syllogismes because you pretend art and use Syllogismes 2. The argument is false in the matter namely in the Minor proposition b If by the word before you understand time that we must be a certaine time in Christ before we believe For that cannot be But in the same moment that we be actually in Christ Christ is actually in us Rom. 8.1 to the end of verse 10. For Christ to be actually in us or we in him is an union union is the uniting of two into one Ephes 2.13.14.15 Ergo we cannot be in him to be one with him but he must be in us one with us Take up all the comparisons of this union they wil import as much As marriage Is not marriage a mutual consent Is the man married to the woman and not the woman to the man They twaine shall be one flesh can this be true of one and not of the other Hath Christ our nature Have not we his Are we not as the Apostle speaks ioyntly one spirit 1 Cor. 6.17 Or of a Vine and branches If the Vine be united to the branches are not the branches to the Vine Or of a body and members If the body be united to the members are not the members to it Let any reasonable man under heaven tell me nakedly particularly and plainly how actually we I speak of true Christians are in Christ or Christ in us either Physically or morally call it what you will but all is under the operation and notion of the Spirit of faith 1. Physically is there any thing of Christ in us This can be no other then the spirit of Faith The habit of the graces of the Spirit one of which is faith Ephes 3.17 For Christ himselfe is in heaven Are we any how peculiarly as true Christians in Christ This can be nothing else but the actings of our faith carying casting of our confidence hope expectation and desires love upon him Heb. 6.18.19 Most plainly Eph. 3.17 18. we have both Christ being in us we in him by faith 2. Morally if the Lord imputes Christs righteousnesse to me a true Christian my sinnes unto him as 2 Cor. 5. ult and so reputes me iustified actually in him he doth all this under the notion of faith Rom. 4.3 If any say But we are eternally iustified in Gods election or purpose We reply iust so as we eternally believe in Gods purpose For he hath purposed eternally both equally He that eternally purposed to iustifie did eternally purpose to iustifie by Faith Though the purpose it selfe be not for any foreseen merit of faith Now if purpose of iustifying be actuall iustifying then purpose is no purpose or if actuall iustifying be a purpose then act is no more act For while purpose is there is no act whiles act is it is no more a purpose As we see in all humane things we purpose till we go a iourney when we go it we no longer purpose but go it So in divine things Ephes 3.5.6.7.8.9.10.11 The proofe of this Minor is c to believe is a fruit of the Spirit c. Here is supposed that either the Spirit must be in us a time before it brings for the fruit of faith for in your argument you intend a difference of time or that the Spirit or grace of faith must have long previous changes and preparations before it can act any thing As sap in a stock of a tree But for the 1. The Spirit in the essence being God cannot be said at any time to be out of any man good or bad It were contrary to its infinitnes to be excluded out of any thing or any nothing It must needs fill all things as it must needs be God If by the Spirit you meane the creating act of the Spirit that whiles it is every where it create in this or that man the habit of saving graces it doth it just then when Christ comes For you say Christ and Spirit in a saving manner comes together So e For the 2. The Spirit needs no previous antecedent change or preparations If an angelicall Spirit is full of understanding and act as soone as it is created then the Spirit eternally God is eternally all act For the third Faith it selfe is the fruit of the Spirit as all the habits of graces are by which the Spirit is said to be in Saints so that as soon as faith is in a Saint there is a fruit And faith being above reason and senss 2 Cor. 5. it acts without being beholding to reason or sense So that all this Argument proves no before of time You further prove the Minor Secondly say you if faith be a good fruit it is required that men must be good trees before they can bring it forth Answ I do intreat you d and all ingenuous men to consider whether this be a safe expression to say either that men bring forth faith when as but now you said it was a fruit of the Spirit or that men can be good before they have faith when as faith is that which makes the difference between good men and bad men regenerate and unregenerate Act. 15.9 And therefore so commonly are good men
all did originally commit it All our natures were at and in the committing of it which natures we lineally derive from him And that you say we are made sinners in the first Adam simply and absolutely before we have done evill the Scripture saith no such thing but the contrary that in him we are all sinners Therefore to retort the Argument upon you we are not made righteous in the second Adam till we partake of his nature that is his Divine nature as 2 Pet. 1.4 which is that by which we escape corruption through lust A part of which is faith after reckoned up and commended to them to whom Peter writes in verse 5. immediately following To that you urge out of 2 Cor. b 5.19 I answer the Scripture is no friend to universall redemption And then what will follow on your behalfe Surely no more will follow or can follow but this that in Gods ordinary way of Gospell administration God is in Christ reconciling them of the world to himselfe that are perswaded by him to believe and receive the word of reconciliation So evidently immediately before and after that 19. verse Yet you say c This Argument did so wring Cardinall Bellarmine that he confessed Christ may be put on without a proper act of our soule Surely then the saddle was closer and harder put on him by some other then you have tackied it or he was more artificially wrackt then you here stretch him But I am willing to imagine the urmost you would or could make of this Argument It may be you have this in your thoughts that as in Adam children are accounted sinners though they cannot act sin so in Christ children may be accounted righteous though they cannot act faith To which I answer As there is a naturall habit of corruption in infants that makes a foundation of a just relation of Adams sinne to them For where there is no habituall corruption of nature there is no imputation of Adams sinne as we see in Christs conception and humane nature He was not accounted a sinner in himselfe but is for them that are saved by him but in himselfe he was and accounted most holy So there is habituall faith in elect infants dying in their infancy through which they are accounted righteous in Christ as we have reasoned to the 1. Argument But that I am loath to wade too deep that little ones should not follow more might be said If it might be said in some sense Christ can be apprehended without a proper act of our soule that is as it is a meere peculiar act of our soule yet not without an act of Gods grace in that soule Till that be put into the soul no more is done in any particular elect person then what was done in the eternall election which the Scripture calls a purpose Rom. 9. And a purpose is not the practise of the thing purposed and of that act of grace the soule of the youngest elect infant is in a faire capacity For the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intelligere the naked act of understanding depends not on the organs of the senses So the Artists that handle of the nature of the reasonable soule no nor doth the representing of an intelligible object to the understanding depend upon the senses when God will in the darke or in a dreame represent as in a vision of the minde the species or images of some spirituall thing that sense never apprehended How much lesse doth the acts of grace in this act of understanding depend upon the body or senses So that though the body be a childe great may be the actings of the gratiated soule Argument VI. VVHere there is full satisfaction made and the party offended accepting that satisfaction and contented to rest in it there must needs follow perfect remission of sinnes But in Christ crucified before we beleeved was full satisfaction made and God was contented to rest in that satisfaction Therefore there will follow perfect remission of sinnes c. First a that there was full satisfaction made in Christ is proved Heb. 10.11 12 13 14. vers For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified But the second that God is therewith contented to rest in that satisfaction we have the witnesse of the Father Matth. 3.17 This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Acquiesco saith Beza See Esay 53.11 He shall see the travaile of his soule and shall be satisfied An Answer to Argument VI. YOur sixth Argument as you prove it will answer it selfe That Heb. 10.11 a 12 13 14. shews expresly that though Christ did make ready the satisfaction for the common nature of men before they knew of it that after should beleeve yet it is not brought home and made available to any particular person but to the sanctified The sanctified ones for ever in all ages and for eternity have the satisfaction not onely prepared but perfected to them See you Pareus c. on the place whether I deale not clearly with the place That place also Matth. 3.17 is for us against you It is in whom not with whom So that it imports that he is onely well pleased with all he studes in Christ Else he doth not acquiescere rest pleased but is earnest till somewhat else be done 2 Cor. 5.20 This interpretation is as old as Augustines time whom I name because you named him But look to the Scripture which to shew that God is well pleased only with those that are actuall in Christ addes to this speech Matth. 17.5 Hear ye him to draw men into Christ that with them God may be wel pleased Till men be actually in Christ God is not well pleased with them though they be elect See a notable place Rom. 9.25 I will call them my people which were not my people and her beloved which was not beloved who were they Them whom he had called ver 24. Argument VII IF we are not iustified in his sight before we believe a then are we uniust sinners workers of iniquity then doth the Lord hate us for he hateth all the workers of iniquity Psal 5. You know what absurdity will follow if you say we must believe before God can love us But it God hate us to day b and love us to morrow let Arminius with his disciples hear this and wonder why they should be blamed that say we may be loved to day and hated to morrow Children of God to day and of the Devill to morrow when they who would seeme their greatest Adversaries will not spare to say we may be hated to day and loved to morrow the children of the Devill to day and of God to morrow But that God loved us first before we believed when we were enemies in our blood c. is so plaine that I will not willingly so dishonour you as once to conceive that you will deny it Here is an end of the
instrument And the text meanes iustifying not bare manifesting of iustification Objection 2. He that beleeveth not is condemned already John 3.18 Answer This is all one with He that believeth not shall be damned a which you must understand of finall unbeliefe which I grant to be a note of Damnation An Answer to your Reply to Obiection 2. This you say must be understood of finall unbeliefe a As if a man were not in state of damnation till the last We reply 1. What then meaneth the termes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is condemned already 2. How do you answer to the Antithesis He that believeth is not condemned that is is actually out of state of damnation by faith Ergo without faith is actually in state of damnation 3 What say you to the reason he is said to be in state of condemnation for his past infidelity because he hath not believed Objection 3. Without Faith it is impossible to please God therefore we cannot be iustified without it Answer I deny the consequence and I perceive so will you also when you please a b c d e f For you will affirme a iustified person may displease God and then why is it not possible for a man to displease God and yet be iustified To please God is so to do those things which God approves in us to be well done which we cannot doe without Faith That this is the meaning of the Apostle is plaine by his reason For he that commeth unto God must be 〈◊〉 c. We cannot come unto God before we believe but cannot God come unto us before we believe Now Justification is Gods act upon a sinner not a sinners act upon God This also answereth the fourth Obiection Whatsoever is not of Faith is sinne An Answer to your Reply to Obiection 3. You deny the consequence Before we reply a note the meaning of the word please it imports to be well pleasing or acceptable 1. So the Greeks take the word So Basil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Abel the first that is said to be acceptable to God was a shepheard So Bud. renders it See you more instances in Greeke Authours 2. It s spoken in this 5. ver not of doing but of receiving God translated him for before his translation he had this Testimony that he pleased God which must be meant that he was well pleasing to God by faith in Christ which is the Apostles scope ver 1. ver 39. or else you will make his doings the cause of his translation 3. This 6. ver shewes that the word please must signifie to be accepted of God through faith in Christ because it is added we must believe that God is there is his essence or that he is Jehovah And that he is a rewarder of them that seeke him there is his attribute of mercy to them that come to him by faith in Christ For without faith no acceptable seeking him Rom. 10. 4. This Epistle being written in Hebrew the Hebrew renders the word please 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was a delight to him 5. Either this must be the meaning that he that pleaseth God pleaseth God by faith in Christ or else the Apostles Argument drawn from Enoch to prove the Excellency of faith which is the maine businesse of this chap. comes to nothing for this is the Apostles Argument He that pleaseth God hath faith Enoch pleased God therefore he had faith and so by faith went to heaven Now to answer to your reply you deny the consequence 1. We answer by proving the consequence He onely that is justified pleaseth or is well pleasing to God This you yeild in your 6. Argument therefore if a man be not justified by faith he cannot please God This inference is the Apostles in this 11. of Hebr. 5.6 compared with Rom. 5.1 For saith the Apostle being justified by faith we have peace with God And by faith Enoch pleased God as sure as Abel did But saith he without faith it is impossible to please God Observe and observe the word impossible and see how it can be possible for a man to be well-pleasing to God without faith 2. We answer though one justified by faith may do some displeasing act as Thomas did in doubting of Christs resurrection yet a man justified by faith cannot be displeasing to God in his person God may chasten the corruption yet love the person Revel 3.19 We hate wantonnesse and whip it but we love the child Faith brings in our Sonship 1 John 12. To your reason for deniall of the consequence b we reply thus That you seeme to inferre that because one justified may displease God in some action therefore he may a time be without faith and displease God in all his actions and yet be justified which inference is very much to be blamed both for the consequent and consequence To your definition of pleasing God in action c I demand whether God can approve of a greater thing without faith namely our persons being as you say iustified before faith comes but cannot approve of a lesse thing namely our actions without faith which seemes strange By faith our persons are united to Christ Ephes 3.17 And our actions are but by a naturall dependence united to us Therefore the person is 1. Accepted by faith then 2. Our actions are accepted because our persons the Apostle saith by faith Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice How saith the text Gen. 4. God had respect to Abel and his offering To your reason d that pleasing God in action must be the onely meaning of the Apostle I answer That from the effect the Apostle proves how a man must have faith to be well-pleasing to God in his person that so he may be well-pleasing in his practise To your demand whether God cannot come to us before we believe e I answer his making us to believe is coming in and dwelling with us Eph. 3. Before that God doth but onely purpose his coming Ephes 1. To your close that Justification is an act of God upon a sinner f not a sinners act upon God we answer that Gods putting faith into a man and by it a man into Christ is as well an act of God in iustifying him as Gods reputing him iust in Christ imputing his sinnes to Christ and Christs righteousnesse to him Obiection 5. We are by nature the children of wrath c. Answer This were of some force a if you could prove us altogether in the estate of nature as well in Gods account as in our esteeme and so quite exempred from grace untill we believe which you cannot doe for the Apostle witnesseth the contrary 2 Tim. 1.9 b According to his own purpose and grace given us before the world began If grace were given before the world began surely before ever we believed God is Alpha and Omega therefore what he promiseth shall come to passe to his c is done
against it And therefore tremble you to say That God loved Paul with as great love when he persecuted the Church as after when he preached the Gospel For purpose or preparation of a ground of love is not so great as actuall Love To purpose to wooe is not equall unto the Love of wooing Likewise tremble to say That Christ did not purchase his Fathers actuall Love For wee are not actually loved till actually found in him If it were so that God were alwayes reconciled to us why doe you condemne your selfe in your own words next following pag. 11. I conceive say you and consider what you say the drooping Conscience that sits in darknesse under the clowdy apprehension of an angry Junge c. Attentive to heare how God may be reconciled So you How is God an angry Judge how is there a may be of his Reconciliation to us terms importing future time if he was never at enmitie with us If it were so that God may be reconciled to us from all eternitie and so before we were in Christ why doe you say in pag. 11. 812. that God is freely and fully reconciled to the Elect and loveth them in Christ your words following of persons polluted and sinfull being in Christ import an actuall being in Christ as sure as an actuall pollution when they come to him So much of this distinction Pag. 12 You say that God is freely and fully reconciled to the elect and loveth them in Jesus Christ without any previous dispositions without any qualifications without any performances of Conditions on their parts unlesse to be polluted and sinfull be a previous condition or qualification Answer The Lord expresseth it as the Cardinall condition of the Gospel that men must as well feel their sinnes as be sinners Matth. 11.28 Come to me ye that are weary c. Which Christ explaines Luke 15.7 Joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth which is a sense of sin at the least then over ninety nine Iust persons that need no repentance who are they but such as think they have no need whom Christ calls not Matth. 9.13 speaking to the Pharisees who justified themselves Luke 16.15 It is true that the qualifications in man to prepare him for Christ as Iohn by telling men they needed to repent calling them generations of Vipers and telling them That the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand Mat. 3. is said to make ready a people prepared for the Lord must be from God If there be the qualifications onely of illumination conviction and humiliation for a man blinde or stubborn defieth Christ they are the common workes or graces of the Spirit of God which may be in a reprobate Esau Iudas c. Heb. 6.4 And therefore we cannot be understood in these to ascribe to man either merit or efficacy towards his owne salvation If they be the qualifications of Conversion-graces as of faith c. they come in a speciall manner from the Spirit of Christ as the divine nature of Christ and so cannot be imagined to be of man though in man and acting upon man and man by them For we cannot say that Faith or beliefe doth beleeve repentance doth repent love doth love but men acted and moved by these graces are said to be Beleevers penitent and lovers of God So that though there be no qualifications on mans part from man yet on mans part from God And though there be no performances on mans part by meer man yet there are performances on mans part in man from Christs Spirit when Christ will come and close with the soul actually then doth he act desires and faith into it to make way for himself Rev. 3. Christ knocks before he let in Christ opens Lydia's heart then comes in And Ephes 2.8 By grace are ye saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God where it is evident that besides the riches of Gods free favour explained in vers 9. there must be Gods gift of Faith to bring us unto and into Christ So Iohn 6.37 Him that commeth will I in no wise cast out There must at least be a restlesse desire that the soul cannot sit still without Christ though that be an effect of the Fathers gift in the same verse All that the father giveth me shall come to me and then Christ will not cast him out or leave him out but receive him in The holy Ghost in that 11. Matth. 28. Come that is beleeve ye that are weary and heavy laden that is weary of finne and desire to come out of it compared with Matth. 5. where there is such frequency and varietie of expressions of desires under the notions of poverty mourning and hunger and compared with Iohn 3. where there is oft mention of faith as necessary to bring into Christ and unto salvation I say the Holy Ghost by these places sets forth unto us that there is a double condition of the Gospel Viz. Qua Quae. 1. The qualification in which a man comes to Christ that is a sensible need of Christ 2. The qualification which brings a man to Christ that is Faith required unto salvation but both of and from the Spirit yea from the Spirit as Christs Spirit as sent by the Mediatour when effectuall So that still all is of God But that which Christ doth to men before they come unto him and into him cannot be denied And this method of the Lord is much for our comfort that the King comes not sine magno strepitu multo pulvere without some hurry somewhat to doe that we may know the commings in of the Lord and not derive all assurance from phanatick Enthysiasmes phantastick dreams that are neither from the word and work of Christ nor warranted there by him You think to comfort a sinner by this that Christ is his without any qualifications performances or conditions on mans part But if there be no conditions qualifications c. performed by Christ in mans behalfe as to put into him desires faith love c. How shall he know but that he is still a miserable sinner uniustified How shall they say to their comfort as 2 Tim. 1.12 I know whom I have beleeved unlesse they doe beleeve And that Rom. 8.28 Wee know all work together for good to them that love God unlesse they feel their Love to God And that 1 Epist Iohn 3.14 By this we know we are translated from death to life because we love the Brethren unlesse they doe love the Brethren But of these markes and signes in another place if God permit This Position being your main ground together with the foresaid distinction I have been the longer in confuting the one and cleering the other I shall be briefer in taking down your props and superstructures and that plainly and lovingly You offer to bring many Proofes for the aforesaid unqualified Proposition Proof I. Pag. 12. Of Gods preaching salvation to Adam and Eve in whom