use and by one he merited this and by the other that when though each part of his Condition or Duty had its proper reason yet it was only the entire performance that was the Condition of the Benefits and so of our Iustification and Salvation § 17. But I say before his Exaltation because the Benefits being of several sorts some of them were given upon Christ's merit presently and some upon Man's believing and some not till long after by application But to all these what Christ did only as under the Law of Mediation was properly his merit by which they were procured But his undertaking what he after did in gathering his Church and interceding and ruling may be numbered with the parts of his foresaid merit and still as a Creature he is under his Creator's Law even the Law of perfect uniting Love and so doth eminently merit § 18. It was neither the Covenant nor Will of the Father and Son that we should either have full possession deliverance or right thereto immediately upon Christ's Merit and Sacrifice as we should if we had done all by him as our Person But that we and all things being delivered to Christ's Power and Will he should convey the Benefits of his Death and Merits upon terms and in an Order suitable to the interest of his Wisdom Love Mercy and Justice even by a Law of Grace and a Ministry and Means adapted to the end and in the time and degrees which his Wisdom should make choice of Which accordingly is done This Covenant which giveth Right and Reward to Christ is not it that giveth any Right or Reward to us SECT III. Of the Law or Covenant of Grace in the first Edition § 1. AS God delivered the Law of Innocency partly by natural and real and partly by supernatural and verbal significations of his will so hath he done the Law of Grace which is the signification of his Will concerning Pardon and Life granted to guilty Sinners and the terms thereof § 2. The Promise Gen. 3. 15. The seed of the Woman shall break the Serpents head c. was a Breviate of the supernatural signification but it is not unlikely that God did more fully acquaint them with his Law of Grace and Redemption than those words alone could make us understand Because we find in their sacrificing some such intimation and in other signs § 3. God's actual Continuance of forfeited Life Liberty Health and other comforts and his actual Collation of many great Mercies by the course of Nature to such as by Sin have deserved present Damnation is a degree of signification of his pardoning will and mercy by these natural signs which they were not before sin and forfeiture § 4. Man being after guilt of death thus reprieved and enriched with manifold Mercies and his life and faculties continued with many instructing providential helps and means the very Law of Nature now obligeth him to love and thankfulness to God that sheweth him so great kindness § 5. And the same Law of Nature obligeth him to take that God still for a God of Love and Mercy and to believe that what Mercy he hath already shewed the World and us is on terms which he knoweth to be very well consistent with his Holiness Truth and Justice And it obligeth us therefore to seek to him for Mercy and to use all possible means for further hope and pardon and recovery and not to sit down in despair § 6. The common sence of all Mankind from Adam to this day acquainteth us by that experience That these Hopes and Duties are found in the Law of lapsed Nature For all the World that never heard the Gospel do yet take God to be a merciful forgiving God and take themselves to be under some duty for the obtaining of further mercy recovery and felicity § 7. Though want of the sense of Sin and its desert and Man's misery may be thought by some to be the only cause of this and so that it is but sinful presumption and no part of Nature's obligation yet this upon trial will prove false Though what they alledge be one part of the Cause For 1. These men do acknowledge themselves Sinners and to deserve punishment from God 2. They find some misery and fear more 3. It is not presumption to judge God to be merciful when they and all the World do find him so 4. It is not presumption to judge that he can and will pardon Sin when full Experience assureth us that he hath already pardoned much To remit the Sin is as we now speak of it to remit the deserved punishment And He that giveth Man forfeited life health time and all the abundant Mercies which the World is full of doth thereby so far actually forgive Sin Saith Christ Whether is it easier to say thy sins be forgiven thee or to say arise take up thy Bed and walk that is Executively to forgive them which is the full forgiveness by taking away the punishment 5. It is no presumption to believe such Duty to be incumbent on us as the remaining Law of Nature doth oblige us to 6. Nor yet to take God's own Encouragements to seek our own recovery and felicity § 8. The Light and Law of lapsed Nature doth convince men of the duty of repenting and returning to God and oblige them to it So that as Perfect Obedience was the duty of entire Nature so Repentance is the duty of laepsed Nature And I think few will say that all men are not hereby obliged to repent and that in hope of mercy § 9. Hence it is that it is found among the Communes notitiae and all the World as well as Christians acknowledge it and plead for it § 10. They that by God's Patience and Mercy are invited to Repentance which is a return from sin to God and are by Nature obliged to it ought to believe that it is not made their Duty in vain nor shall they lose by it if they perform it for that were to accuse God of making Mans Duty in vain or to his loss which is not to be suspected § 11. Therefore they are bound not to despair of Paâ—don and Salvation for an obligation to use means as tending to recovery is inconsistent with an obligation to despair Therefore hope of Mercy and use of some means Mankind is obliged to by the Law of lapsed Nature § 12. This is not the obligation of the Law or Covenant of Innocency for that Law bound us only as Innocent to keep our Innocency and perfectly therein obey But it giveth no pardon nor appointeth Man any Duty in order to pardon and recovery Whatever doth this is a Law of Grace § 13. The sum of that Duty which the Law of Nature now obligeth Man to is To consider of all the Mercies which God vouchsafeth Sinners and thankfully to improve them to repent of sin and turn to this God who sheweth himself a merciful â—aeâ—doniâ—g God To resign
controverted Opinions and restrain them from doing hurt C. XI While true Union and Love are secured by common concord in things essential and necessary a Judge of other Controversies is not needful to these ends before secured Christians must live in Love that understand not many hundred Texts or Controversies C. XII It is worse than Madness to think that all Controversies will on Earth be ended or that any Men can do it But they that say it do most deeply damn such pretended Judges that so many Volumes being written of Controversies and contrary textual Expositions among themselves will not decide them to this day Who shall decide all the Controversies between General Councils and all the present Patriarchs and Churches in the World Thus much to answer the question Who shall be Iudge of Controversies and Scripture Sence § 5. If Men did but difference points necessary to Salvation and Christianity from those that are only needful to a higher Stature in the Church and from those that are utterly uncertain and unnecessary and 2. If they did but know their own ignorance and liableness to Error and 3. If they considered how utterly impossible it is to make the multitude of ignorant People yea or Ministers to be all of a mind in the numerous hard Controversies Opinions and dubious or indifferent things that are striven about in the World certainly instead of damning or despising or destroying or hateing each other for such things they would magniâ—ie the Wisdom and Mercy of Christ who hath laid the Love Unity and Peace of his Church on a few plain sure and needful things Even the Covenant of Christianity with the Creed Lord's Prayer and Decalogue and so much of Christ's own Precepts as the universal Church hath ever bin agreed in And they would rather honour and obey St. Paul Rom. 14. 1 Cor. 12. Ephes. 4. 1 to 16. than count his Dictrin to be unpracticable or loose § 6. If God will take all into Heaven that practically believe the Creed and obey what is plainly written in the Scripture why may not such live in Love and Peace on Earth and the Key-bearers of the Church which is the Seminary of Heaven receive such as Christ receiveth us to the Glory of God the Father Rom. 15. 16. What if Men confess that they know no more when millions called Christians know not so much will they destroy them for not knowing more than they can know Or is it any Virtue or Duty to lye and say that they know or believe what they are utterly ignorant of What if those that with Ierome misliked the word Hypostasis and those that preferred it before Persona had forborn censuring one another What if the questions Whether Mary should be called the Mother of God or rather of Him who is God Or whether Christ's Will and Operations should be said to be One or Two had been managed with mutual forbearance without Zeno's Henoticon or Anastasius's forcible Amursty What if such forbearance had spared all the rage and bloodshed at Antioch Alexandria and other parts What if Chrysostom and others had bin permitted to silence their Thoughts of Origine What if men had not bin put to declare whether the tria capitula of Theodoret Iâ—as and Theodore Mopsuest were sound or unsound and said What is it to us Might not the Church have lived with such in Peace What if when the World was in a flame about Images they had left them only to those that desired them Might not they yet have lived in Love that agreed in all the Essentials of Christianity What if yet one man say that Christ's Body is locally present in the Eucharist and another say that Because he knoweth not how far his spiritual Glorified Body is invisible therefore he no more knoweth whether it be there than whether an Angel be there but believeth that the Sacrament is truly his crucified Body representative why might not both these live in peace What if one think that Venial Sin must be punished with Purgatory Fire or as an English Dr. that some men must pass a new Life of Trial in their Aireal Vehicle before they are capable of an Aethereâ—l Vehicle why may not such bear with one that saith he knoweth no such thing What â—f one man think that he may pray to his Angel Guardian and another saith only that he oweth Angels Love Reverence and Gratitude and would pray to them if he knew when they heard him and knew it were God's will what hurt will it do to the other man to bear with this If we agree of all points that put men into that state in which Christ commanded to Love one another as his Disciples if others differ from me about the meaning of five hundred Texts of Scripture why may notlbe contented with my Knowledg and Opinion and leave them to theirs Why might not Nazianzene and the Council of Constantinople Hierome and Russinus Chrysostom and Theophilus and Epiphanius Prosper and Cassianus and Vincentius to pass by Augustine and Celestine and Iulianus and Hierome and Vigilantius and Iovinian have composed their differences with less noise and strife and lived in love and peace together To pass by also the doleful Contentions about the Councils of Ephesus and Calcedon and Const. 5 6. and Nice 2. and between Ignatius and Photius and many more worse striâ—es since then Why might not the Jesuites and Jansenists have differed without troubling the Popes and the Church by mutual forbearance and gentle disputes as many of the Schoolmen did before them I quarrel not with Erasmus Faber and abundance such for chiding the Schoolmen as Causers of Contention by raising so many frivolous questions for Dispute But verily as they were in my opinion the best Philosophers that ever the World had and no wonder when they studied little else so they managed their Disputes with more Scholar-like candour and peaceable moderation than most that went before them or that have followed them How many huge Volumes of subtile Disputes do they write with very few railing words patiently bearing each others copious Confutations and Contradictions as a thing to be expected and no whit wondring at the Differences of Judgment among the worthiest men How many Volumes or loads of Volumes are there written of the different Opinions of the Thomists Scotists Nominals Durandists and yet till the late times put Virulency into the Writings of Iesuites Dominicans and Iansenists c. there was little reviling to be found in all these long Disputes And why might not Luther and Caerolostadius Zuinglius and Oecolampadius and many Lutherans and Calvinists have lived in as much Love and Peace as Melanâ—thon and Erasmus and such others if they had but had their forbearing Charity and Candour How sweet are the Pacificatory Writings yea and how judicious of Iunius Ludov. Crotius Matth. Martinius Georg. Calixtus Conrad Bergius Iohannes Bergius Paraeus Amyraeedus Hottonus Testardus Camero Lud. Capellus Placâ—us and
Miracles Therefore a Servant of Christ may most comfortably suffer Martyrdome for his testimony to the Deity Christianity the Life-to-come or Charity and Justice against Malice and Persecution and Cruelty which even a Miracle would not justifie more than for a disputable Opinion § 20. It 's a great Question How a true Prophet might be known antecedently before his Prophecy was fulfilled And it 's of great moment to consider the difference between a Legislative Prophet and a meer particular Message Moses and CHRIST the Legislators confirmed their Laws and Word by multitudes of uncontrouled Miracles For Life and Death lay upon mens Obedience or Disobedience to them And if a Prophet did reprove any Sin against that Law the Miracles that confirmed the Law did justifie them But if it were but a Prophecy about some other temporal Event as Ieremy's of the Captivity it needed no Miracle for it was but a temporal Suffering that followed the not believing them The Law of God which should here be handled I shall speak of afterward CHAP. VIII Of God's causing or not causing Sin § 1. HOw certainly the Doctrine of the necessity of immediate efficient physical predetermining Premotion doth make God the principal Cause of all Sin I have so oft shewed and so fully proved that I shall here be very short upon that Subject § 2. To say that God is the principal determining Cause of every sinful act with all its Objects and Circumstances called the materiale peccati and also the Cause of the Law that forbiddeth it and the Person that committeth it is to make him the chief Cause of Sin as far as it is capable of a Cause even of the formal Cause § 3. To say That such a Cause is the Cause only of the Act but not of the Obliquity is absurd because the obliquity is a Relation necessarily resulting from the Law and Act with all its modes and circumstances And the obliquity can have no other Cause § 4. To say That God willeth and loveth and causeth Sin not as Sin but for good ends and uses is to say no more for God than may be said for wicked men if not for Devils save only that God's Ends are better than theirs § 5. To say That God willeth not Sin but the Existence and Futurity of Sin is but as aforesaid to say that He wills not Sin as Sin or sub ratione â—ali but that it exist for better ends or else it is a contradiction For to will or cause Sin is nothing else but to will and cause the existence of Sin § 6. They that say That God willeth the Existence of Sin as it is summe conducibile to the Glory of his Justice and Mercy yea and that per se and not only per accidens do wrong the Glory of God's Holiness and Wisdom A Physician can love his own skill and compassion and the honour that cometh to him by curing a Disease without loving or willing the Disease it self but only supposing it as an Evil which he can turn to Good § 7. They that say That God is the Cause indeed of our Sin but is no Sinner himself because he is under no Law say nothing in the latter but what all grant and nothing in the former but what God's Church doth commonly abhorr excepting some few singular presumers § 8. They that hold That God doth by immediate physical efficient predetermining Premotion principally and unresistibly cause every sinful act with all its modes and circumstances do certainly deny all certainty of Faith and so subvert all Christianity For the formal Object of all Divine Faith is God's Veracity that God cannot lye if God could lye our Belief could have no certainty Now God speaketh to us but by inspired men and not by an essential voice of his own And if God cause as aforesaid all the Lyes that ever were spoken by Men or Devils in the World then no man can be sure that he doth not so by Prophets and Apostles or that ever they say true And God's Veracity then is gone § 9. They that think â—o evade this Evidence by the difference of Predetermination and Inspiration and say God inspireth no Lyes though he predetermine all by physical Premotion do labour in vain For 1. No man can ever prove that any Inspiration doth interest God more in the Act or Lye than physical Predetermination doth For how can God be more the Author of any Act than by effectual premoving the Creature to act it and that by immediate physical Predetermination What doth Inspiration do but so move the Mind Will and Tongue of a Prophet No man can name more that Man is capable of 2. But if there were a difference we are not capable of understanding that difference so well as to prove that God can cause all the Lyes in the World by predetermining Premotion and yet can cause none by Inspiration shall none believe him that know not this difference 3. And were it intelligible it would be only to inspired men themselves So that I am past doubt that we must part with all Certainty of Christianity and of all Divine Belief if we receive this Doctrine of Predetermination because the objectum formals fidei is then gone § 10. They that say that if we make not God the Predeterminer to every act in specie morali and in every comparative respect and mode we shall make Man a God by making him a Causa prima do thereby as much conclude God to be the first and principal predetermining efficient Cause of every wicked Habit as of Malignity or Hatred of God c. because a Habit hath as much Entity as an Act Therefore if it deifie Man to make him the first Cause e. g. of a Lye or Murder in specie then so it will do to make him the first Cause of the Habit. § 11. If it be as impossible for Man to do any thing but what he doth or not to do all that he doth without God's foresaid predetermining Premotion as it is to be Gods or to overcome God or make a World then if Men are counted Sinners and condemned it is for not doing such impossibilities for not doing what God alone can do or for not overcoming Almighty premoving Power § 12. â—t cannot rationally be expected that they that believe that God is the chief Cause and Willer of all Sin should think it very bad or themselves bad for it or that when God hath unresistibly made all men to sin he yet hateth it and sent his Son into the World to testifie his Hatred by dying for it and that he is serious in all that he saith against it in his word nor that such men should hate it and rather die than sin § 13. Therefore as the Church of God hath ever abhorred to make God the Cause of Sin and kept up the sence of the Evil of Sin for our hatred of it and departing from it and our Humiliation as a
themselves to him as their Owner to obey him as their Ruler and to love and seek him as their ultimate End and to believe that his Mercy will not let us be losers in so doing nor to do it in vain § 14. But the Supernatural Revelation telleth us much more than all this Of the promised Seed the means of our Salvation and of our Duty in believing them and of the Certainty and Nature of the Pardon Deliverance and Blessedness which we shall attain § 15. The â—receptive part at first was not to Believe as much of Christ as is necessary since his Ascension but to Believe what God promised and revealed of him to the Church at that time § 16. Even under the Old Testament God increased his Revelation of the Messiah gradually The Prophets spake plainlier of him than any thing written before Therefore a more extensive and distinct belief was needful in one Age than in a former § 17. Yet even the Apostles were in a state of Salvation before they understood and believed that Christ must Dâ—â— for Sin rise again Ascend and Intercede in Heaven for his Elect. § 18. Yet all this was partly revealed before by the Prophets and plainly foretold them by Christ himself Therefore it was not of absolute necessity to Salvation then to believe all of Christ which had been before Revealed though it was a duty to them that knew it § 19. Therefore under the Covenant of Grace the Condition of our right is narrower than the Duty which we are commanded to perform § â—â— The Promised Benefits presupposing the Common Antecedent Mercies were Summarily Christ and Life in him That is that for the sake of Christ's future Merits we should have Pardon Justification Reconciliation with God Adoption Sanctification and Glory and all necessary Helps and Means thereunto § 20. The Penalty was 1. The Pâ—ivation of Recovery 2. and a far sorer punishment for Ingratitude and contempt of Christ and Mercy § 21. This Law or Covenant in this first Edition was made with Adam as the Father of all Mankind and so with all Mankind in him as truly and as much as the Covenant of Innocency was For 1. God's Word maketh no difference 2. Adam was as much after the Common Father of Mankind and all we as much in him as before the Fall And he that will say that God arbitrarily Judgeth otherwise of us must prove it if he can 3. The express Word of God in many places proveth it joyning Children with their Parents in such Blessings and therefore including the Children of Adam § 22. The same Covenant with some positive Additions it pleased God to renew to and with Noah because he was as a second Head and Father to the generality of all Mankind all coming from his Loins as they did from Adam's § 23. As all Mankind was made the Subjects of God under this Law of Grace so by it they were all to be Governed and Judged allowing a diversity of Degrees in the Promulgation Mercies and Penalties thereof SECT IV. Of the same Law with Abraham's Covenant of Peculiarity and the Mosaical Iewish Law of Works § 1. ABraham being a subject to this same Law of Grace did so faithfully Believe and Obey it that it pleased God to reward him extraordinarily by 1. Renewing the Covenant by special Application to him and by the promises of Peculiar Privileges to him and his seed § 2. Not that his Infant seed was the first that was taken into Covenant For the Covenant of Grace had from the beginning been made with the Faithful and their Seed as well as the Covenant of Innocency was § 3. The Peculiarities of this Covenant were Initially promulgate to Abraham Isaac and Iacob and more fully to the Iews as a Politick Body by Moses in the Law with some particular Sub-additions by David and the Prophets § 4. 1st The Promise to Abraham was besides the Common Covenant of Grace renewed 1. A promise of peculiar Favour to his Seed increased to a political Society in Canaan and differenced by special Mercies from all the People of the Earth 2. A promise that the Messiah should be of his Seed § 5. This Covenant did not Discovenant the rest that the World nor put them into any worse Condition than they were before § 6. The peculiar Precept of that Covenant was That by Circumcision as a Seal and Symbol and by peculiar Gratitude and Obedience and relinquishing the Sins of the Degenerate World about them they should difference themselves from others as God's peculiar People § 7. As the Covenant of Peculiarity was not a separated state but an additional Privilege and Reward to Abraham as faithful to the Common Covenant of Grace so Circumcision was the Symbol neither of Abraham as under the Law of Grace alone nor as under the Covenant of Peculiarity alone for that was never alone but as of One under both even under the latter as a Reward for his special Fidelity in the former And so it was â— Seal of the Righteousness of the Faith in the Common Covenant of Grace which he had being yet Uncircumcised though a Symbol also of his after Peculiarities Rom. 4. 1 2 c. § 8. Infants interest in the very Covenant of Peculiarity and Iewish Church-state was not infeparable from Circumcision As Infants were ever Members in the Common Church and Covenant of Grace with their Parents before Circumcision so they were also without it Members of the Iewish Church when as all the Females were Members and all the Males in the Wilderness who for Forty Years were Uncircumcised Yet is it called The Church in the Wilderness when except very few at last it was an Uncircumcised Church Acts 7. 38. § 9. Much less did God lay such a necessity on the outward Sacramental Act as to deny Salvation to the Uncircumcised aforesaid as some would have us think that even under the Gospel he doth by Sacraments The Covenant was still necessary as consented to by the Adult for themselves and their Infant seed but not alway the outward sacrament or symbole § 10. The gathering of Israel into a Policy by Moses as a Theocracy and their receiving a Law from God himself as a Political Body was but the full Establishment of the Covenant of Peculiarity in performance of what God had promised to Abraham and in Circumcision had begun § 11. This Law of Moses therefore must be Considered as an Affix or Appendix to the Common Law of Grace and so either as related to it or as considered simply and distinctly in it self without that relation And as it was a Divine Political Law for the Government of a Republick as such § 12. The Common Covenant of Grace was the Soul as it were of this Political Jewish Law and therefore was really expressed in it in the Decalogue and other parts As it was the Soul of their state of Peculiarity which was the Reward of Abraham's Faithfulness in the
Common Covenant And their peculiar Promise to Abraham's Seed as the Nations Blessing with their Types and Prophecies all led them to Christ more plainly than he was revealed to others § 13. The Law as such an Appendix contained Preceptively the Decalegue as the Summary and stamina and the particular Determinations under it as belonging to the First and Second Table For all those not accurately distinguished as Moral Political and Ceremonial are but the particular Determinations of the things only Generally expressed in the Decalogue according to which they are fitlier distributed § 14. It pleased God to make the particular Precepts about Worship and Political Converse so many and the Sacrifices so Costly and the Penalties so Severe as that it became a very operous Employment to do the External Acts of it which the People made a Snare of to themselves For 1. Thereby they were so taken up with the outward Work that they neglected the inward spiritual exercises of the Soul without which all the rest are dead and carnal things 2. And they hereby grew into so high a conceit with the Letter of the Law it self and these External Duties as that they thought the very doing of them was enough to make them just and acceptable to God and forgot the true Doctrine of the Promised Messiah and Righteousness by him 3. And hereby they grew Proud as if they had for these Externals been so much better than all other People that all the World was Abominable save they 4. And they were so intent on the present Political Punishments to be escaped or suffered and Rewards to be won or lost that they much overlook'd the everlasting Punishments and Rewards And this Corruption increased till Christ came to Cure it who found the Sâ—ducees not believing a Life to come and the Phariseâ—s deceived by their External Legal Works and Righteousness and most of the People too ignorant of the true Spiritual Righteousness required by the Law it self § 15. It may seem to some a difficult Question whether God by such a Law made them Happier or Worse than the rest of the World And whether Christ's Abrogation of it was not a returning them to the common easier and better Condition of Mankind Ans. 1. You must know that though God made a common Covenant of Grace with Mankind the rest of the Nations about them were fall'n into Ignorance and Idolatry and the Jewish Law much tended to cure both and to make them better know God and the meaning of the Covenant of Grace and to return to him from Idols and worship him aright So that the Jews were happier than other Nations 2. The abuse of their Law was through their fault and folly and the Law by the faithful among them was better understood and used 3. Christ after setting up a better Covenant in its stead did bring the Church into a better state than the Jews were But the Unbelievers and idolatrous World that had not Christ's better Covenant were still left in a worse state than the Jews were before Christ's Incarnation § 16. And God by this operous Law would humble the Jews that by their peculiarity were apt to be puffed up with Pride And as all his works grow to Perfection by degrees even the Works of Grace in particular Souls so did his Means of Grace and the welfare of his Church which was to begin at their Rudiments and grow up to better means and knowledge yet so that all were to be judged according to the Law that they were under § 17. It is this operous Law of Moses which Paul meaneth usually by the Law of Works and the old or former Covenant and neither the Law or Covenant of Innocency made to Adam nor yet as if this Law of Moses were of the same Tenor or Conditions and so called a Covenant of Works as making Innocency its Condition But this Law which was an Appendix to the Law of Grace and was a peculiar Law of Grace it self is called The Law of Works because of the great and burdensome and costly Externals before mentioned and because as a political Law it so much insisteth comparatively on those Externals and the Doctrine of Grace is comparatively more obscure in it than in the Gospel and because the Jews had by their abusive Interpretation overvalued the Externals and operous Ceremonies and Sacrifices of it § 18. The mistake of Paul's meaning in this Phrase the Law of Works or old Covenant hath led some men to a new frame of Theology in a great part and engaged others in Errors and fruitless Contentions § 19. By the words He that doth these things shall live by them as distinguished from believing Paul meant not that the Condition of the Jewish Covenant of Peculiarity or Law was the same perfect Innocency as was required in the first Law of Adam for when Man was actually guilty it was impossible that he should ever become one that had not sinned And we must not put such a scorn on the infinitely wise and righteous Governour of the World as to suppose him to have such a Law or Covenant as this If you that are sinners are not sinners you shall be saved much less to make this a Covenant of peculiar favour § 20. Nor doth Paul mean That the Laws Condition was If you will never sin more I will pardon all that 's past For God never made such a Law with man not to sin being morally impossible to them and Pardon never offered on such terms § 21. To put all out of doubt 1. God before hand proclaimed the Name of that God from whom they received their Law Exod. 34. 6 7. The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping Mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity transgrâ—ssion and sin though he will by no means clear the guilty That is He will not judge a Sinner to be no Sinner nor the Wicked to be Godly nor pardon and save any contrary to the established terms of his Covenant 2. And the Law it self hath many express means of forgiveness of Sin appointed as sacrificing confessing c. which sheweth that it was a Law of Grace § 22. By the Law Paul usually meaneth the written Law of Moses as contained in the very words now in our Bibles As by the Word of God we usually mean the Scripture Therefore though it contain much of the Law of Nature yet as a written Law and part of a Law of Peculiarity and Policy of that Nation even the Decalogue may be said to be done away though as the Law of Nature and of Christ it still remain § 23. By the Works of the Law then which Paul mostly disputeth of and by He that doth these things shall live in them is meant That this Law besides the sweet and easie Precepts of faith and Love did as part of the Matter of the Jews Obedience require abundance of burdensome Externals and he that
abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin and that will by no means clear the guilty by false judging and that the World have no cause to despair of forgiveness as if they were under the remediless or unremedied Sentence of Damnation § 10. There are no People on Earth that are not obliged to the use of some means appointed them to be used for their full Pardon and Salvation else Despair would be their Duty and they should not be judged Sinners for neglecting any such means And were they not bound to do any thing for their own Salvation their Sin and Misery that neglect so to do would be far less than it is § 11. Therefore all People have some such Means that have a tendency to Recovery and Salvation afforded them by God § 12. They that say That all the Mercies of the Non-elect are no Mercies because through mens Sin they end in their Misery do perversely extenuate Gods Mercies and Man's Sin and teach Sinners falsely to plead in Judgment That they never abused or sinned against Mercy which God and their own Consciences will easily confute § 13. In the Controversie Whether Christ died for the Elect only or for all Mankind it seemeth to me that we little differ about the matter but only strive about ambiguous Words even about one Syllable for If to die for signifie for their sins under the reason of a Cause of Christ's Death so as Paraeus doth we must all grant that Christ died for all 2. If for signifie eorum loco in their stead so the Phrase hath yet great Ambiguity and will require a great deal of distinguishing for its due Explication The various kinds and degrees of Benefits to which the Intention is limitted do leave the word liable to various Sences Christ died so far in the stead of all Mankind as to suffer Death by his voluntary sponsion as a punishment deserved to themselves by sin to free them all from it on condition of their suitable acceptance of his Grace But if by for be meant in the civil person of all men as representing them the Word is still among Lawyers and all Writers ambiguous In a large sence he may be said to persenate or represent another who doth it but secundum quid and not simpliciter in parte aliqua vel in tantum ad hoc and not in omni vel ad omne And if any will so far stretch the Phrase and because Christ suffered in the common Nature of man will say that he suffered in every man's Person or because he had a special purpose of saving his Elect will thence say He died in the person of Peter Iohn and every elect Sinner I will not strive against mens Phrases if they will explain them soundly But in strict Sence as Representing a man or doing it in his Person signifieth that Christ so died and merited in several mens Persons as that the Law or Lawgiver doth take it to have been in sensu civili their own suffering and doing and meriting or to all intents purposes and uses all one to them as if they had so died and merited themselves thus Christ neither died nor obeyed for any man as shall be hereafter proved But if by for is meant for mens benefit or good so it is yet ambiguous and liable to a threefold sence viz. 1. Intentionally 2. Aptitudinally 3. Eventually for their good And 1. Intentionally the Controversie either speaketh of Christ's Divine Nature and Will or of the Humane Concerning the former the Question is the same with that about Election or Gods Decrees which is before spoken to viz. How far God decreed good to all men by Christ's Death As to Christ's Humane Nature and Will it will prove but an arrogant unprofitable Question Whether Christ as Man knâ—w the Names of every individual person in the World or of every one of the Elect and had a distinct Intent to save every one of those by Name that are saved It 's better let such Questions alone 2. And Aptitudinally there is no question but there is that in Christ's Sufferings and Obedience Sacrifice and Merit which is in its moral Nature adapted to the Good and Salvation of all and hath that sufficiency thereto which would accomplish it if it were duly accepted and improved 3. And as to the Event we are agreed viz. That some and not all are saved by Christ's Death and Merits but that all have great Mercies which are the fruits of these though many wilfully turn them to their Sin and Misery § 14. By all this it appeareth that it is a most unfavoury thing for men called Divines to dispute hotly That Christ did or did not die and merit for all and bitterly revile their Adversaries in the Controversie without ever explaining that one ambiguous syllable FOR or telling men what they mean And when it is well explained we scarce know how to differ § 15. For few will deny but that Christ suffered not immediately because Man sinned as if Suffering were due to him meerly because we sinned but because he undertook so to do and was obliged so to do by the Law of Mediation But remotely he suffered not only because the Elect had sinned but because all Mankind had sinned That is The Conditional Pardon and Mercies given to all Mankind are such as Christ's Sacrifice and Merits must be congruously the Causes of as well as the actual Pardon of Believers § 16. But if the stress of the Controversie be laid on Christ's personating or representing this man or that by that time this humane invented ambiguous unscriptural Phrase is explained either we shall be â—ound to be all of a mind or else some will run into an intolerable errour about Christ's dying and meriting in our civil person and our dying and meriting by his natural person or else they will dispute themselves into a Wood of Uncertainties and be lost about the sence of a word that cannot be sufficiently explained § 17. And they that will lay the stress of the Controversie on the Aptitude or the Event must be men of some singular Conceits and not of the common judgment of the Reformed Churches the Lutherans the Iesuites or the Dominicans if they will disagree for here we are commonly agreed § 18. But as far as I can discern most Contenders lay the Controversie upon the point of Divine Intention Purpose or Decree viz. Whether Christ as God did purpose to justifie and save all men by his death or else Whether he purposed to do good to all men by his death Which Purpose is nothing but God's eternal Will or Decree And why then do they make two Controversies of Election and Redemption when they mean the same in both And here methinks there cannot easily be a difference For in a few plain words whatever good Christ giveth to any that he from Eternity decreed to give them But we are agreed
Impotency Pravity or ill Disposition by which it is averse to Holiness and prone to Sensuality must be cured by Grace where common Grace and special cause common and special Effects in the Cure § 13. The moral Power given by Grace consisting in the right Disposition of the Will is not of the same kind with the Natural Power or Faculty And the Words CAN and CANNOT used of both sorts have not the same signification but are equivocal otherwise Sin and Grace should change mans Species Those Disputants therefore that confound them for the sounds sake deceive the Auditors § 14. We must say then That quoad vires vel potentiam naturalem every man can believe who hath the use of Reason Objects revealed and extrinseck necessary Causes that is He wanteth not the natural Faculty or Power nor needeth another natural Faculty but only the Excitation Illumination and right Disposition of that which he hath But as to the said right Disposition or moral Power no one can truly repent and believe without that Grace which must so dispose him Common Grace must dispose him to a common Faith and special Grace to a saving Faith § 15. It is more proper to say That an Unbeliever and unholy Sinner will not repent and believe than that he cannot though that also may be truly said if well explained But the meaning is not that he cannot though he sincerely would Nor yet that he cannot be willing for want of the natural Power of willing But 1. That he hath a Logical and 2. A moral Impotency that is an Indisposition he wanteth both Disposition Habit and Act but not the Faculty § 16. It is an abusive miscarriage of those Disputants who in the Words CAN and CANNOT use to confound not only as aforesaid natural and moral Power but even Logical also which is neither and signifieth no more but that in ordine probandi such Premises being put the Conclusion Can or Cannot follow For so it may be truly said That no man can do speak or think any other than he doth and nothing can ever come to pass but what doth come to pass even from Gods fore-knowledge this will follow For seeing nothing ever will be otherwise than God foreknoweth it will be a Disputant will say It can be no otherwise but he must only mean that posita praescientia divina the Conclusion cannot be true that the Event will be otherwise when yet as to the nature of Causation we must say sensu physico morali that it Can be otherwise oft-times though it will not be otherwise § 17. These things considered it appeareth that we are commonly agreed as followeth 1. That all Men have natural Powers and Free-will to good even spiritual good that is Whenever such good is chosen or willed it is done by the natural Power or Faculty and when it is not willed it is not for want of a natural Faculty but its due Disposition § 18. 2ly That as to Civil or Law-power and Liberty all men have much more than Liberty granted them by God to repent and believe For Helps and a Command are more than Leave or Liberty But Liberty from the Penalty for sin belongeth only to the pardoned § 19. 3ly That as to Ethical Power and Liberty which lieth in a right Disposition of mans Faculties every man hath it so far as Grace hath prevailed and wrought it in him and none any further § 20. Or as Liberty is denominated from the Evil which we are free from 1. All mens wills are free from being constrained to sin 1 By natural inclination of the faculties themselves 2. Or by the senses 3. Or by Objects 4. Or by Men 5. Or by Devils 6. Or by God Because the rest cannot and God will not no not physically premove and predetermine it thereto § 21. 2. The wills of all men are free from any Commands to Sin that is God cannot command it for else it were no Sin and if men command it their Commands are null and lay no obligation on the will to obey them § 22. 3. We are free from sinful Dispositions so far as Grace freeth us and no further Therefore by common Grace men have common Liberty and by special Grace saving Liberty but none perfect Liberty here and no unsanctified man hath saving Liberty of Will that is such by which he is duly disposed to such acts as have a flat Promise of Salvation And where now doth our difference remain § 23. Obj. The difference is Whether a bad man can change his own will Ans. Your can meaneth the natural Power or the due disposition As to the first he can that is he hath those faculties which want not natural Power to act better But as to the latter he cannot without Grace that is through indisposition he will not § 24. Q. But is not Grace the only cause of the Change Ans. Grace only causeth the first Impress on the Soul which moveth it to act but the Soul or will it self is a Cause of the Act else it were not Man but GOD that doth repent believe obey c. § 25. Q. But is it Grace or Free-will that is the chief Cause Ans. Grace no doubt Which is commonly acknowledged by the several Parties § 26. The very marrow then of all the question about the Power and Liberty of the Will is that so often before mention'd Whether Man's Will be made of GOD such a self-determining Power as can truly do any more good than it doth or forbear more evil without any more Grace from God than that which it hath while it doth no more And whether ever the Will can and do make a various use of the same degree of Divine Assistance And this as is said is confessed of the Angel's Case and Adam's For if Adam had not Power to have stood when he fell by the same Grace that was given him but fell because God withdrew or with-held such necessary Grace without which he could do no other than he did we may then lay by these Controversies and think how to answer Infidels § 27. Those persons that make others odious by their revilings for holding Free-will or denying Free-will without telling men what Freedom it is that they mean natural ethical legal or logical Freedom from Coaction necessitating Premotion natural Inclination or viâ—ious Disposition c. should be rebuked by the Lovers of Truth and Peace as the Peace-breakers of the Church and World that presume in their proud ignorance to reproach others for that which they understand not § 28. They that say That the Liberty of the Will as natural is not violated but by Coaction and that Coaction is nothing but making a man will against his Will in the same respect and act and so that to will and to will freely is all one and that to will by Coaction is a contradiction viz. to will and nil the same and that God predetermineth all mens wills to all sinful
Faith as to the Objects extensively which was required of Jewish Believers before Christ's Incarnation as is now of us nor the same degree that was required of all the rest of the World as of the Jews 2. But such a Faith in God our Redeemer as that Law which men are under maketh necessary to Salvation is necessary to Holiness And to ask what God will do with a man that is holy without Faith is to talk of a non-existent Subject There is no such man for without Faith it is impossible to please God for he that cometh to God must believe that God is and that he is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek him notwithstanding original and actual Sin and the Law of Innocency condemning us and therefore that he is under a pardoning and rewarding Law of Grace Heb. 11. 6. No man can be sanctified without the Merit Doctrine and Spirit of Christ nor without that degree of Faith which the Covenant which he is under requireth § 20. Quest. What if a man that was sanctified by believing should retain his Holiness or Love and Obedience and lose his Faith in Christ Answ. It is a thing that never was nor will be and not to be disputed of § 21. Moral Virtue in the proper sence of the word is the same thing as Holiness taken comprehensively as containing our Love and Duty to God and to man for God's sake But as Holiness is taken narrowly for our Love and Duty to God as distinct from our Love and Duty to Man so Moral Virtue is the genus and Holiness the chief species of it And thus we take Moral Virtue and Moral Action and so all Morality as contradistinct from Physicks or things meerly natural not falling under the genus moris And so Virtue and Vice or Sin are all that is Moral that is Moral Good and Moral Evil And this is the first and most notable sence of the word But some of late have used Moral as contradistinct from Holiness or Grace or from infused Habits or from Faith and Christianity and some tell us confidently but falsly That this is the most fit and famous sence and the word so to be taken when not otherwise explained It 's the sad case of Mankind that we have no words but what are liable to ambiguity And it 's the unhappiness of the Church that hath so many Teachers that will dispute write and wrangle about words unexplained and in the end shew that under divers terms they mean the same matter in which they are agreed and know not their Agreement § 22. As Holiness is sometimes taken so largely as to comprehend all that God commandeth and sometimes for the natural part of our Duty Love and Obedience as distinct from Faith in Christ which is the mediate Grace and of supernatural revelation so is Morality or moral Virtue distinguished § 23. They that take moral Virtue so narrowly and improperly as to mean no other moral Virtue than Heathens had or than is taught in Aristotle's Ethicks should first tell us That this is their sence and then they may boldly declaim against those Preachers that take this for sufficient or that preach no other For Scripture and Christianity were to little purpose if they taught us no more than the Writings of Philosophers do § 24. And no doubt but it is a pitiful sign and an odious Crime in a Minister of Christ to say little to the People of the Mysteries of Man's Redemption the Person and Offices and Works of Christ the Covenant of Grace and the special Blessings given by it our Union with Christ Justification Adoption and the special Works of the Spirit on Mens Souls and all the Duties and Pleasures of a Heavenly Conversation in the love of the Father the Grace of the Son and the Communion of the Holy Spirit and all this under pretence of magnitying and preaching up the Love of our Brethren and Charity to the Poor and Iustice and Temperance as if Man were our God and to wrong man were the only Sin and to wrong God were none or God could be no otherwaies wronged § 25. But Covetousness and Pride contradicteth their own Doctrine For among their good works those of Piety are first extolled and those are the enriching of the Church and that is themselves and why them more than the poorer People about us Because they are sacred persons and belong to God and serve at his Altars Very good And is Piety to a sacred person and such as they so great a Duty and yet our Piety as immediately to God himself an indifferent thing in comparison of our Duty to Man Yea some usually make that part of their Piety which consisteth in the observance of their own Traditions and unnecessary Injunctions to seem of great weight while the holy observance of God's own Laws is perhaps accused as too much preciseness or hypocrisâ—s when indeed the Hypocrite is he that instead of the life and serious practice of true Christian-Holiness sets up and resteth in the Image of Holiness and certain formalities that are lifeless to deceive himself and others § 26. Where there is no Faith and Love to God nor Duty done in obedience to God there is no true moral Virtue but somewhat equivocally so called whatever good such may do to the Common-wealth or to their Neighbors for it wanteth the principle end and object that should inform it § 27. An Hypocrite may be said to have moral Virtue as he may be said to have Holiness that is only secundum quid yea but analogically yea but equivocally in that he hath no other sort of Faith and Love and Obedience § 28. An Infidel's moral Virtue and all unsanctified Heathens or other persons is of the same sort only with this described of the Hypocrite And they err not that say They have no true moral Virtue but analogical § 29. Yet Nature and common Grace do give men that which is truly good and not only minus malum and may do much good to others and some to themselves and is truly laudable and amiable considered without the mixture simply in it self But because the contrary evil is still the predominant part in all the unsanctified it will not properly denominate them good men nor the whole action a good action save equivocally analogically or secundum quid because the form denominateth which is here wanting § 30. But if any one think otherwise that the name of moral Virtue yea or Holiness is due to the best actions or habits of Heathens Hypocrites or any unsanctified men it is but a Controversie de nomine and no otherwise to be regarded while we agree of the things signified by that name § 31. It is certain that now there is no moral good in any man on Earth that is not the effect of some Grace of God common or special for even Nature now as reprieved and maintained is an effect of common Grace much more further
gifts But it is perverseness in some School-men who make common Grace and special at least as to Faith to be differenced only in the Causation one being not infused and the other infused but the same in act and so that no man can know whether he have infused or acquired Faith which some call but a Moral Virtue CHAP. XVIII Of the necessity of Faith in Christ where the Gospel is made known § 1. INfidels take scandal from Christ's making Faith in himself to be so necessary to our Salvation as if it tended only to his Honour and were in its own Nature of no necessity to our happiness but arbitrarily made so § 2. And their reason also against this necessity is because believing is an act of the Intellect and Intellection is not free and in its self is no moral Act. A man cannot know or believe what he would no though he most earnestly desired it And will God condemn men for that which they fain would do and cannot Especially when mens intellectual Capacities do so greatly differ that some seem to differ but little from the Brutes § 3. This Scandal ariseth from their not well understanding the Nature and Reasons of our Faith in Christ. 1. They falsely suppose it to be only an Act of the Intellect where many Divines have given them the Scandal 2. They falsely suppose That the Intellect herein is necessitated to unbelief 3. And they consider not the Ends and Uses of our Faith § 4. 1. The true nature of our Faith is our Trusting in Christ as our Saviour who hath reconciled us to God by his Sacrifice and Merit that he may bring us to God by Iustification Adoption Sanctification and Glory It containeth Assent Consent and Affiance though through penury of Words we are fain to call it by some one of these names oft-times as the occasion requireth But indeed the very sence of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fides and Trust includeth all And when the Act of the Intellect only is named it is as including or informing both the other § 5. 2. Though the Intellect be not free of it self it is free by participation being quoad exercitum under the Empire of the Will that is free And the Will by commanding it to act search think of the Evidences of Verity may do so much towards the specifying of the Act as that the meer weakness of Understanding without the fault of a vicious Will shall keep no man in damnable Unbelief § 6. For Christ hath many ways provided against meer Weakness of our Understanding 1. By the fewness and plainness of necessary Articles of Faith 2. By the fulness of Evidence of Credibility 3. By great Means and Helps for our Faith which he appointeth 4. And by the powerful Helps of his Spirit which is ready to illuminate us by these means § 7. No man was ever yet known that could say I have done my best to have obtained Faith and did not obtain it Though many can say I earnestly desired to believe and could not Because those may desire it that yet use not the means aright and faithfully and that indulge their own Prejudices or carnal Lusts which hinder it § 8. 3 In the saving of Sinners there is considerable 1. The great Benefits already given in the Purchase Merits and Covenant 2. The greater Benefits offered and to be received hereafter 3. The Means to be used on our part for obtaining them 4. The danger and loss if we miss of them 5. The ultimate End of him that giveth them § 9. And 1. will not any reasonable Infidel confess That Thankfulness is naturally due for great and inestimable Benefits And how can a man be thankful for that which he believeth not was ever done for him or given him Or can he be thankful to he knoweth not whom § 10. 2. Do not great Benefits freely offered require Acceptance And how can a man accept of that which he believeth not was ever purchased procured or offered him Will you accept a shadow § 11. 3. Christ never meant to carry Sluggards asleep to Heaven but to save them in the use of his appointed means 1. They must learn and obey his Doctrine and can they obey it that believe it not 2. They must take Heaven procured by a Redeemer for their Hope and Portion and love desire and seek it above all And who will do this that believeth it not and the Word that promiseth it 3. They must take Christ for their Guide and Mediator and Intercessor to bring them thither and they must forsake all here that stands in competition that they may obtain it And can you do this and not believe and trust him that must save you Will you venture your life in the Hands of a Physician and take his Medicines if you believe not that he hath Skill and Will to cure you Will you leave your Country and follow one over Seas that promiseth you a Kingdom if you trust him not § 12. 4. And who will avoid Sin Temptations and Hell that believeth not him that tells them of the evil and of the danger that is before him § 13. 5. And God can have no lower End ultimately than Himself and the Glory of our Redeemer is more excellent than mine or yours And therefore if We have the Salvation it is meet and necessary that God and our Redeemer have the Love and Thanks the Praise and Glory of it § 14. Yet hath not God arbitrarily made Faith more necessary than it is in the true Reason and Aptitude of it to its Ends. He hath not made to all a Faith so necessary of Christ and his Intercession and therefore though Infants and Ideots cannot actually believe they may be saved by Christ And though those before Christ believed not all that we must now believe nor the Gentiles before so much as the Iews yet neither of them were thereby excluded from Salvation § 15. Quest. Hath not Christ made the Case of Christians harder than it was before his Incarnation to Believers by making so many more Articles of our Faith and those of necessity to our Salvation Ans. No no more than it is our Misery to accept of more Mercies and Benefits than were offered to others Our Belief is not of numerous unnecessary difficulties but it is of such things as we must receive and be Partakers of it is the means of our use and fruition Who would take it for a Misery to believe that the King will give him a Lordship or that a rich Man will give him so much Money if he will come and thankfully accept it Every act of belief is but a means to some Benefit to be received § 16. As Christ is the way to the Father and the Mediator is to bring us unto God so Faith in Christ is the Mediate or healing Grace to help us to Holiness or the Love of God which being its End is as much more noble than Faith in
rather calleth it than a Habit at first even in the Adult And Calvin saith That some men semen fidei qualecunque perdunt Adam had such a Holiness as might be lost And why may we not say that Infants first Grace is of such a sort or degree 2. And yet that none are saved without more but that upon this first degree they have a right to Salvation and that their further Holiness shall be given them whom God will as part of their Salvation to which they have right At furthest at death in the same time and manner as perfect Holiness and Mortification of Sin is given to Believers that are till death imperfect A loseable degree of Holiness like Adam's may be the way to more in all that so die § 23. Divines use to mention three degrees of Grace in order to Faith it self 1. So much Grace as maketh a man able to believe which they call Sufficient Grace 2. So much more as efficiently determineth him to the Act of Believing This they call effectual special Grace and Protestants call it our Vocation effectual 3. So much more as giveth him a fixed habit of Faith Love and all Holiness together This Papists call Iustification and Protestants Sanctification Vid. Amesii Medull de voc sanct Rolloc de vocat Bishop Downame against Pemble Append. to his Treatise of Perseverance c. § 24. Now some hold all these loseable some hold only the last not loseable and almost all hold the first loseable Now 1. What if we think that Infant 's first Holiness besides relative Pardon and jus ad impunitatem regnum is but of the first degree Though a meer moral Power to believe be not enough to the Adult because the Act is necessary to them yet say Protestants The Habit is not necessary to their first Covenant-Right but is given by the Spirit in sanctification as a Covenant-Benefit And why may not Infants be in a pardoned state that at first have but that Grace which giveth a moral Power to believe when they come to age Consider of the matter § 25. I have so fully elsewhere proved That Infants Church-membership was instituted both in the Covenant of Innocency in the first edition of the Covenant of Grace in the Covenant of Peculiarity with Abraham and in the last edition of the Covenant of Grace by Christ and also that God never had a Church on Earth of which Infants were not Members if the adult Members had Infants that I will now supersede that Work CHAP. XX. Of the Nature of Saving-Faith § 1. SO much of this came in before on the by as will excuse my brevity here I have before shewed That the Faith now in question is not meerly our general Belief and Trust in God as a part of our Holiness but the mediate Belief and Trust in God our Redeemer and our Saviour which is made the Condition of the Covenant the means of our sanctification And also that as the editions of the Covenant vary and promulgation of it so it is not the same degree or acts of Faith as to the particular credenda or Articles to be believed that was and is necessary to all persons in all times § 2. Though the word Belief in English and Assent in Latin signifie strictly only the act of the Understanding and Saving Faith is oft named from one act yet really that Faith which in Scripture is made the Condition of Pardon and Salvation doth essentially contain the Acts of every Faculty even Assent Consent and Affiance and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and fides do properly signifie Trust even a consenting or voluntary Trust upon believing as is afore said § 3. We do very aptly call both the Act and Object by the same name fides in Latin and Faith in English oft-times For Faith is a trusting on another's Faith Fidelity or Trustiness and so the fides asserentis seu promittentis fides credentis are related § 4. The Faith that hath the promise of our Justification is not to be called one only Physical act in specie much less in numero That were but prophanely to jest with holy things but it is a moral act or work of the Soul containing many physical acts Otherwise we should be all confounded not knowing how to distinguish of all our physical acts of Faith secundum speciem and then to know which of them is the right And it would be but some very little of the true Objects of Faith that justifying Faith must be constituted by In a word the Absurdities are so numerous that would follow that I will not be so tedious as to name them § 5. Saving Faith is such a moral work as we use to express by the names Believing Trusting Consenting Taking Accepting Receiving in Contracts personal with men If we say You shall Trust such a Physician or take such a man for your Physician all men understand us and none is so logically mad as to think that by Taking or Trusting we mean only some one physical act of the smallest distribution If we say I take this man for my King my Master my Commander or Captain or this woman to be my Wife c. every one knoweth here what Taking meaneth viz. our Consent to that Relation according to the nature and ends of it § 6. Therefore though we use divers names for this Faith and also on several occasions give several half-descriptions of it we mean still the same thing and suppose what we omit to make the description entire § 7. When we call Faith a Believing or Assent we mean such an Assent as prevaileth with the Will to accept Christ with his Grace as offered in the Gospel and consent to the Baptismal Covenant and this indeed as a fruit of the assenting act but as essential to justifying Faith § 8. When we call it Consent or Acceptance or Receiving Christ we mean that as Man's Soul hath an Intellect and Will and a true actus humanus vel moralis is the act of both but of the Intellect as directive and of the Will as more perfective or as the Faculty primarily moral so the same Faith which is initially in the intellect's Assent is perfectlier in the will's Consent And it is the Receiving of a Saviour believed or the Consent to a believed Covenant We suppose Assent when we name it Consent § 9. And when we name it Affiance or Trust we include both the former and mean a resolved practical Trust and dedition of our selves accordingly to one that covenanteth to bring us from Sin and Misery to GOD and Glory where Belief and Consent to that Covenant are supposed § 10. And the Terminus a quo and the renunciation of Competitors and Opposites is connoted if not essentially included in Saving Faith And therefore Christ doth so often tell us of forsaking all if we will be his Disciples § 11. I use to express it by this similitude A Prince redeemeth a
devoting and giving up our selves to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and renouncing of all that is inconsistent with this Covenant Which Assent Consent and Trust are the effects of the Gospel and Spirit of Christ and are founded on God's Fidelity that is on the Veracity Love and Sufficiency of God Almighty most wise and good and on Christ the Father's great Apostle and on Christ's sub-Apostles and on the Gospel and especially the Covenant of Grace as on God's revealing and donative Instrument and on the manifold obsignant operations of the Holy Ghost miraculous and sanctifying as God's infallible Attestation to the Gospel-Verity § 28. Historical Tradition of the Words Books and Matters of Fact are subordinate necessary means of transmitting the Objects to our sense of Hearing who live at such a distance from the Time Place and Facts § 29. But though all these things aforesaid are in true Faith yet a distinct Perception or Description of them all is not necessary in him that hath them But a more general Conception of it which will but consist with the true Reception of the Things signified by the Words God Christ Grace c. may be certainly saving to a plain and simple-hearted Christian when one that can describe it accurately may be graceless For it is Believing and not Defining Faith which God hath made necessary to Salvation § 30. Therefore we do ordinarily well use shorter Descriptions to the People and sometime we say That Faith in Christ is our Christianity that is our Assent and Consent to the Baptismal Covenant and our Self-dedition to God therein For in Scripture it is all one to be a Believer a Disciple of Christ and a Christian. § 31. Sometimes we say That saving Faith is a fiducial-practical Assent to the Truth of the Gospel and Consent to the Covenant of Grace or an Accepting of all the Benefits of the Covenant as they are and on the terms offered or an Accepting of Christ and Life in and with him there offered us § 32. Sometimes we say It is a practical Affiance or trusting on Christ as our only Saviour for Salvation or to bring us to God and glory And in all these and the like we speak truly and mean the same thing some terms being used on occasion while the rest are implyed and to be understood § 33. Those that will needs call no act by the name of Faith but Assent and confine it to the Intellect do yet seem to differ with us but de nomine about a Word and not the Matter For they confess if there concur not a Consent of the Will it is not saving but as some call it â—ides informis and so that Assent and Consent make up our necessary Condition or means of our Union with Christ or Interest in the Covenant-Rights or Gifts And then seeing we are agreed so far of the matter it 's not worth much striving whether one only or both Acts shall be called Faith § 34. When the first Reformers had to do with men that commended uncertainty of our Sincerity and Salvation and kept People under a Spirit of Bondage and tempted them contrary to the Nature of Faith to love this World better than the next and to be afraid of dying by being doubtful whether they should be saved in the heat of opposition some of them called Faith Assurance or certain or full Persuasion of our own personal Election Pardon and Salvation But those that came after them and those that conversed practically with Men of troubled Consciences and observed the state of the greatest part of good Christians followed not this Example but spake more cautelously and soundly and described Faith as I before have told you For they found that not one of a multitude of godly Christians could say they were certain of their Election Sincerity or Salvation And some that were forwardest to say so were none of the best and had not what they said they had § 35. But whatever the transmarine Divines say I can witness that except ignorant Antinomians or such Sectaries rejected by the Orthodox I remember not that I have met these forty years with one Divine that taketh saving-Faith to be such Assurance of our personal Election Justification or Salvation especially the first act which is not to believe that we are justified but that we may be justified § 36. Indeed you would think those few must hold this who say That Justification is an immanent eternal Act of God But 1. this is but a difference about the word Iustification All confess that God's essential Volition of our Justification is eternal as being himself but some think that his Will may be denominated an Eternal Iustification and others better say Not But all confess that the Law of Grace doth justifie no man till he believe much less the Sentence of Christ as Judge And though some call our Perswasion that we are justified by the name of Faith yet they deny not another act of Faith antecedent to this that maketh us true Christians § 37 And indeed besides Mr. Pemble and Dr. Twisse both excellent Men it 's rare to meet with any English Divine that talks for Eternal Iustification And Mr. Pemble who let fall some such things in his Vindiciae Gratiae did set all right again in his Treatise of Iustification being very young when he wrote even the last And Dr. Twisse who in his Vindic. Gratiae hath some such words speaketh elsewhere soundly as Mr. Iessop his Scholar hath shewed in a Treatise purposely written to prove it when I had taken exceptions against his words § 38. It is therefore shameless Calumny of those who perswade their Followers That the Reformed Churches take Faith for such an Assurance or Belief that we are justified or elected and shall be saved only because they find some such word in some former disputing Doctors of ours when as all or near all have so long renounced that Opinion that he would be a Wonder among us in England Scotland or Ireland and I think abroad that should hold it § 39. Yet we still say That saving Faith is not only a believing that God's Word is true but a believing it with personal Application to my self § 40. But that Application is such as followeth 1. I believe that Christ hath died for my sins as well as for the rest of the World 2. I believe that the Gospel offereth Pardon and Salvation to me as well as to others 3. I believe that God will have mercy on me and Christ and Life shall â—e mine if I shall truly believe and repent and Glory if I persevere 4. Hereupon I accept the Offer and Consent to the Covenant of Grace which giveth me right to these Benefits if I consent 5. And so far as I can say that I am sincere in my repenting and believing so far my Faith helpeth me to conclude that I am justified § 41. But this last is a mixt act and a rational
§ 15. 5. No external acts of sincere Obedience distinct from internal Faith and Repentance and Consent are necessary before to our first Justification that is to our right to Impunity and life in Christ. § 16. 6. Even internal Obedience to Christ as Christ distinct from our Obedience to God as God and our Subjection to Christ or Consent to be his Subjects and obey him is not before necessary to our part in Christ or our Union or Justification as in its first state or beginning § 17. 7. Therefore if we should suppose that a Man should die immediately upon his first internal Faith and Consent to the Covenant before he had time to do one Act internal or external of formal Obedience to Christ as Christ that Man would be saved But the Supposition is so utterly improbable that it is not to be put as a matter of Dispute The Thief on the Cross performed some Obedience § 18. 8. No Works of Man's are necessary to profit God or can add to his Perfection or Felicity He needeth not us nor any of our doings § 19. 9. No Works of ours are necessary to make up any defects in the Merits of Christ or to any use which is proper to Christ or his Merits or efficacious Grace § 20. 10. No preparatory Works of Man's I think are absolutely before necessary to God's effectual converting of him unless you will call the Acts of Nature by which he is fit to hear and think preparatory Works unfitly For God can give his Grace to unprepared Souls § 21. On the affirmative also we are agreed 1. That all Mankind are under God's Government by some Law and owe Him Obedience to that Law § 22. 2. That it is only Disobedience that God punisheth according to the Penal part of that Law which men live under § 23. 3. That it is only Obedience which God rewardeth according to the rewarding or promissory part of the Law that men are under § 24. 4. That the Law of Grace and not only that of Innocency hath its Commands of Obedience and Promises of Reward § 25. 5. That men must believe that there is a God before they can believe that Christ is the Anointed of God and the Mediator between God and man and therefore must first believe God's Soveraign Government § 26. 6. God commandeth men to believe in Christ and so maketh it their Duty and to take him for their Lord and Saviour by Faith § 27. 7. Men ought thus to believe in Christ and accept him in obedience to this Command of God believing that it is his Will § 28. 8. Therefore there is some sort of Relief in God and Obedience to God which is in order before our Faith in Christ And Faith in Christ as it is voluntary and free is an Act of such Obedience to God § 29. 9. Yet is it the antecedent Teaching of Christ by Nature by the Word or Spirit or all by which we now come to know God to be God and that he is to be believed and obeyed Therefore Christ is mens Teacher and thereby bringeth them to believe first in God before he is known to be their Teacher and believed on himself As the Sun-beams before its rising give some Light to the Earth § 30. 10. God hath commanded men that hear not of Christ the use of some means which Mercy hath through Christ afforded them which have a tendency to their Salvation and should be used to that end And his bare Command to use such means much more as seconded with abundance of Mercies tell us that he bids not men use them in vain or without any hope of good success of which before § 31. 11. He that heareth of Christ and believeth not or believeth uneffectually and is not a converted sound Believer is under God's Command to use certain means allowed him to procure Faith and true Conversion and that not without all hope of good success § 32. 12. It is God's ordinary way to give his first special converting Grace to predisposed Subjects prepared by his commoner Grace in which Preparation some Acts of Man have their part And the unprepared and undisposed cannot equally expect it § 33. 13. Faith and Repentance are Acts of Man and pre-requisite to Justification Therefore as Acts and Works are words of the same sence so Works even Works of Special Grace are pre-requisite to Justification Obj. But not as Acts but for the Object Answ. That 's a contradiction Christ is Christ whether we believe in him or not and it 's one thing to say Christ is necessary and another thing to say Believing in him is necessary It is not necessary meerly as an Act in genere but as this Act in specie and it is specified as is aforesaid by its Object Not only Christ believed in but Believing in Christ is pre-requisite as a moral disposition to Justification And in that sence a Work or Act of Man § 34. 14. It is before shewed that this Faith is a moral Work containing not one only but many physical acts He that believeth in Christ believeth in him as sent of God to reconcile us to God to bring us to Glory to save us from Iustice Sin and Enemies to sanctifie us by his Word and Spirit with many such acts that make up the Essence of Saving-Faith This is the Work of God that ye believe on him whom the Father hath sent Joh. 6. 28 29. § 35. 15. The Faith that hath the Promise of Justification is essentially a subjecting our selves to Christ that is a taking him for our Lord and Saviour by Consent Which is a Consent to obey him for the future § 36. 16. Though this actual Obedience to Christ besides Subjection be not pre-requisite to our first being justified it is requisite to the Continuance of our Justification For we consented to obey that we might indeed obey and are perâ—idious if we do not § 37. 17. The World and Conscience will judge us much according to our Works § 38. 18. The same Law of Grace being the Rule of Duty and of Iudgment God will judge all men according to their Works required by that Law by justifying or condemning them § 39. 19. Final justification and glorification are the Rewards of Evangelical Obedience and the reason rendered of Christ's justifying Sentence Matth. 25. passim is from such acts of Man as qualifying them for the free Gift of God § 40. 20. There is a moral goodness in these Works of Man by which through Christ they are pleasing to God which is their aptitude to this acceptance and reward In all this I think all sober Christians must needs confess that they agree § 41. III. And as to the Case of Merit a few words with understanding men may dispatch it We are agreed on the negative 1. That no Man or Angel can merit of God in proper Commutative Justice giving him somewhat for his Benefits that shall profit him or to which
upon the Act have right to Acceptance and to the Spirit to cause the Habit in order of Nature before they have the Habit Therefore Infants may be in a state of such Right and Life before the Habit though they shall not possess Glory without it And yet the Adult are not in a state of such right by the meer Power before the Act because the Act it self is made necessary to their Justification but so is it not to Infants So that Infants and Adult may receive a meer power to repent and believe and lose it after at age by actual sin though this be a loss of a state of Iustification to the one sort their fins of Nature being pardoned but not to the other who are not pardoned without the Act And yet it followeth not hence that the grace of habitual Sanctification is lost in any § 7. If this solution please not let them that can give us one that is less inconvenient and we shall thankfully accept it but it must be none that yet I have heard of not the Anabaptists nor those of their Adversaries who leave us no certainty of the Salvation of any particular Infants but only say God will save them that are Elect but no one knoweth who they are nor how few or many nor can tell us of any promise made to any upon any antecedent Character or Condition nor give Believers any more assurance of their own Childrens Salvation than of any Heathens Nor theirs that say Baptized Infants are saved by relative Grace alone without any internal real Grace Nor theirs that say They have the Spirit but tell us not in what operation or say it is only right to the Spirit hereafter Nor theirs that say That all Baptized Infants at least of godly Parents have habitual Holiness Faith Love c. such as the Adult in Sanctification have and that some at Age do lose it I think this less inconvenient than any one of these § 8. Q. III. Whether any lose true actual Faith and Iustification Ans. That a common uneffectual Faith may be lost is no doubt But concerning the other there are three Opinions 1. Some say No it cannot be lost because that Faith hath the Promise of the Sanctification of the Spirit as well as of Pardon and right to Life Therefore seeing habitual Holiness is not lost that which hath the Promise of it is not lost 2. Others say That actual Faith at first is like Adam's loseable Grace and that it giveth us actual Pardon and right to Life if we so die and right to the Spirit in relation to sanctifie us in time and by degrees But that every one that hath the Spirit hath not the Habits of Love and Holiness but he sometimes is causing many Acts before he produce a Habit ad modum acquisitorum 3. Others say That both Faith and habitual Holiness are oft lost I delay the solution till the rest be considered § 9. Q. IV. Whether habitual Love or Holiness or the Spirit be ever lost Ans. That there is a confirmed state or degree of Holiness that is never lost I do hold and that this is attainable and in that state men may be certain of Salvation But whether the least degrees of habitual grace be utterly loseable which prove a present right to life till they are lost I must plainly profess I do not know much may be said on both sides And if my Ignorance offend any it offendeth me more but how shall I help it I think it is not for want of study nor of impartial willingness to know the Truth And Ignorance of the two is safer than Error by which we trouble and seduce those about us And in this case so many great and excellent Men have erred either Augustine with the generality of the ancient Churches or Calvin Zanchy and most of the Reformed that my Ignorance is pardonable where their Error it self is pardoned But let those that are wiser rejoyce in the greater measure of their Wisdom But yet think not that taking up either Opinion upon the trust of their Party is such § 10. Q. V. To the next some have said That had Adam done but one act of Love or Obedience he had been confirmed as the Angels in a state of Impeccability And that so are all that once truly believe in Christ. But Experience utterly confuteth that For all men sin after believing § 11. Others say only That men may sin and may lose acquired Grace but no degree of that which is infused But we have small reason to think that our encreased degrees are not as much infused as the first degree was And yet Experience proveth that such added degrees may be lost § 12. Others say All added degrees may be lost but none of that which was first infused Indeed could we prove that God alwaies at first infuseth only the least degree consistent with Salvation then this must be held by all that deny that any fall from Justification But for ought we know God may the first minute give one man more Grace than to another in long time and that first degree may be lessened by his sin § 13. Q. VI. Whether it be possible to lose that Holiness which never will be lost Ans. The word Possible respecteth either a Consequence in Arguing and is a Logical Possibility or it respecteth the natural power of Causes and is called Physical Possibility In the first sence it is impossible that any thing should come to pass that doth not because God knoweth it will not And it is a good consequence God knoweth that this will not come to pass therefore it will not And it is impossible that this Consequence should be false But as to the natural Possibility no doubt but of our selves we can sin nay it is not an act oâ— Power but of Impotency or from a defect of Power And the Habit given us is not a sufficient Power to ascertain our Perseverance of it self But if you speak with respect to the Power of God by which we are preserved we must thus answer That it is impossible for us or any Creature to overcome God's Power or Will And if it be first proved that God will cause us to persevere by the way of Physical irresistible determination by Power then it must be called Impossible to fall away or commit any Sin which he so saveth us from But if he keep any as a free Agent by the sapiential disposal of his Free-will and so procure the event of a contingent action then it must be said that this and many things are possible which never come to pass That God only decreeth that we shall not fall away and not that it shall be impossible Thus Dr. Twisse and the Dominicans themselves use to speak But for my part I â—ake God's manner of working on and for us to be so unsearchable and this notion of Possibility or Impossibility of so little moment when we are
is no probable cause to move him to it and when we know God is ready with his Grace to help us how few lose the Comfort of their Lives by fear of such improbable things Certainty therefore is very desirable but a hope of great probability may give us joyful thankful Hearts or else few Christians would have such § 29. And the Doctrine of Perseverance hath its difficulties too as to mens comfort For he that holdeth That no man falleth from a state of Grace and seeth many that to all possible humane judgment were once excellent persons fall quite away can himself have no assurance that he is so much as justified at the present unless he be sure that he is better than the best of all those persons ever were which doubt the other side are not cast upon § 30. Q. XIII Whether the Doctrine of Apostacy infer any mutability in God Ans. No there 's no shew of it unless you hold that his absolutely Elect fall away It was no change in God when he gave us grace and justified us and it would be no more if he cease than it was to begin It was no change in God when I was born and it will be no more when I die The Change is only in Man and his receptive Disposition Even the Law of the Land without any Diversity or Change doth virtually condemn a thousand Malefactors and justifie the Just and will cease to justifie them and begin to condemn them if they cease to be just and begin to be Offenders The Changes that God himself maketh in all the World are made without any Change in him Therefore what man doth or undoth cannot change him § 31. Q. XIV Why did God ledve this Case so dark Ans. It is not fit for us to call for any reason of his doing but what he hath given us But while he hath made it sure to us that he will cause all his Elect to persevere and will deny his Grace to none that faithfully seek it and will save all that do not wilfully and finally reject it and giveth us no cause to distrust his Mercy his holy Ends are by this attained in his Peoples Uprightness and Peace And he seemeth by leaving the rest so obscure to tell us that it is not a matter of so great use to us as some imagine and that it is not a point fit for to be the measure of our Communion or Peace § 32. XV. What was the judgment of the ancient Churches of this Point Ans. Vossius in his Pelagian History hath truly told you and copiously proved it in the main Before Augustine's time it was taken commonly as granted That men might fall away from a state of Grace and that many did but the Case was not curiously discussed But some thought that confirmed Christians never fell But upon Pelagius his Disputes Augustine defending the honour of Grace laid all upon Election and maintained That though the Non-elect did fall away from the Love of God and Justification and a state in which they had been saved had they died yet none of the Elect did fall so as to perish but that the preservation of Grace in perseverance was the fruit of Election Thus Prosper and Fulgentius after him and some Passages in him and Macarius and some others intimate that they thought there was a confirmed degree of Grace which was never lost but they all took it for granted that some fell from a state of Iustification and perished And I remember not oâ—â— Writer that I have read and noted to be of the contrary mind for a thousand years after the writing of the Scriptures nor any mention of any Christian that was so unless Hierome be to be believed of Ievinian who saith that he held That the godly could not sin which Report is much to be suspected on many accounts § 33. What Use is to be made of this I leave to others but it beseemeth no good Man to deprave or deny the Truth of such History And some great Divines are to be blamed for reproaching Vossius for a true Historical Report when they neither can confute him nor attempt it Two or three Sentences out of Austin are cited by some but meerly mistaken as if they spake that of all the Justified which he speaketh only of the Elect. § 34. Q. XVI By all that is said it is past denial that Certainty of perseverance should be most earnestly sought and that state of Confirmation which is likest to obtain it but that few have it eâ—en of the truly godly and that it is not the common ground of Christians Peace and Comfort but Hopes upon great Probability do sustain the most and that the difficulty of the point is such as that it should in all Churches be left free and neither side made necessary to our Christian Love Peace Conâ—ord Communion or Ministery CHAP. XXVII Of Repentance late Repentance the time of Grace and of the unpardonable Sin § 1. REpentance as a Pain and involuntary is part of the Punishment of sin by the Law of Works but Repentance as a returning to God and a recovery of the Soul is a Grace and Duty proper to the Subjects of the Redeemer under the Law of Grace § 2. Yea it is a great and excellent part of the Law of Grace to give Repentance unto life and to admit of Repentance after sin which the Law of Innocency did not admit of § 3. Therefore Iohn and Christ himself did preach the Gospel or Law of Grace when they preached Repentance which was a great part even of Christ's own preaching § 4. Therefore the Antinomian Libertines know not what they talk of when they call it Legal Preaching and set Repentance as in opposition to Faith as if Faith were all that the Gospel did command or Repentance did not belong to Faith § 5. Yet it must be confessed that of late times many have laid more upon the sorrowing weeping and fearing part of Repentance than was meet and said too little of the turning of the Soul from worldly and fleshly sinful Pleasures to the delightful Love and Praises of God and willing Obedience and Conformity to his Will which is the principal part of true Repentance And I think God permitted the Antinomians to rise up and cry up Free-Grace and call the Ministers Legallists to rebuke our Error in this point and to call us to preach up his Grace more plentifully and to consider better that Gospel-obedience doth chiefly consist in Thankfulness Love and Ioy and in the words of Praise and Works of Love I am sure this use we should make of their Abuses § 6. Repentance is either general or particular General or Universal Repentance is a turning of the Understanding Will and Practice with repenting Sorrow from the inordinate Estimation Love and seeking of temporal Things for the Pleasure and Prosperity of the Flesh or sensual powers to God his Will and Service and the Hopes
of everlasting glory through Faith § 7. This Repentance is the same thing with Conversion and as I said before Faith it self includeth Repentance in its Essence as denominated from the terminus a quo it being a Turning from Unbelief to God by believing in him as God and to Christ by believing in him as our Saviour and to the Holy Ghost by believing in him as the Agent and Witness of Christ and our Sanctifier § 8. Particular Repentance is our turning with Sorrow from a particular Sin to our contrary obedience to God § 9. Without that universal Repentance or Conversion which turneth the Mind Will and Life to God from created Vanity and this World no Man can be saved because he continueth an Idolater and Rebel and doth not indeed take God for his God nor Christ for his Saviour nor the Holy Spirit for his Sanctifier but is an ungodly Man and a Forsaker of God and his own Felicity § 10. Repentance as towards God is sometime distinguished from Faith in Christ And then Repentance is our turning to God as God by Faith Trust Love and Obedience resigning our selves to him as our Owner subjecting our selves to him as our Ruler and loving him as our Benefactor and chiefly as the Infinite Good in himself our ultimate objective End And this is the greater Duty respecting God as our End even the same with Love to God for the procuring of which Christ came into the World and Faith is given us And then Faith in Christ is the mediate grace and duty by which we are brought to this Repentance § 11. Not that any man can truly take Christ for his Saviour before he taketh God for his God for the Love and Intention of the End is before our Choice and Use of the Means But Christ being our Teacher first bringeth us to assent to the Truth of God's Perfections and Relations to us and then to the Truth of his own Gospel and by this Assent bringeth us first to a common and then to a special Consent at once that God be our God and Christ our Saviour but so that we desire God as our End and Christ as Mediator as the Means § 12. Universal Repentance or Conversion doth virtually contain all particular future Repentance but not actually Therefore where this is that Soul may be saved without actual Repentance for some particular sins or sorts of sin As e. g. if we are ignorant that such or such a thing is sin for want of necessary Instruction or if in a crowd of business some sinful Thought Passion or Word pass unobserved or if we do our faithful endeavour to find out a sin and cannot remember it as who can remember at Conversion one of many that he has committed in Unregeneracy and after many are forgotten And every Man dieth in some sin which he hath no time here to repent of viz. in some sinful imperfection of all grace and duty and omission of due degrees of Love and other Acts For all which virtual repentance will be accepted § 13. But great and heinous sins must needs have actual repentance because it will not consist with the Truth of Holiness to be so indifferent or easâ—e towards them as not to observe them and remember them And if they be known and remembred they will be repented of when the Soul hath opportunity to consider what it hath done For habitual repentance is necessary to Salvation and Habits will act when they are not extraordinarily hindred having notable Objects and Opportunity § 14. Yet some sins that are great materially in their nature may be lessened much to some persons by unavoidable ignorance and so may not have an actual repentance As e. g. in times of War to kill men in a wrong Cause is one of the greatest â—ins in the World and yet when by the darkness of State-cases the Question who is in the right is so difficult that very few can decide it and after their utmost search each Party thinks that God bindeth them to fight for their King or Country such persons cannot have a particular repentance while they are not able to see that they were deceived § 15. It is therefore a Case of exceeding difficulty what sins may stand with Iustification not particularly repented of and what not or as some speak which are mortal and which venial sins or sins of Infirmity § 16. But he that hath a care of his Salvation must hate all sin in the general as sin and keep up his watch and be willing to know all the worst in himself and diligently use the means to know it and resolve to forsake it to his power when he knoweth it that so he may not be wilfully impenitent And he that will sin as far as he thinks will stand with grace either hath no true grace or shall not know that he hath it § 17. The time of repentance or mercy may be said in two Sences to be past 1. When a man shall not be accepted and pardoned though he should repent And so the Day of grace is never past in this Life and the Damned do not truly repent in our present Sence so that for a penitent person to fear that the Day of grace is past or his Repentance too late if true is to contradict the Scope of the Gospel which giveth pardon to every one that truly repenteth 2. When a man that before had some motions and helps to repent and obstinately resisted them shall be given up to his Obstinacy and never have such motions more Thus the Day of grace may be past with many And such persons turn from God to Wickedness and are hardened in the love of sin and usually blinded to defend it and hate a holy Life But those that do repent or fain would repent or yet feel God moving them to repent have no cause to think that God hath thus forsaken them For it is only obstinate and continued forsaking God that is the sign of one forsaken by him § 18. And this also is no proof to us that such a Person is finally forsaken For many that have rejected grace many years are afterward converted by that grace So that all that we can say is That such as God hath forsaken do continue to the end to reject his Mercy and prefer their Lusts but that he will so continue to the end no man himself can tell before the end § 19. About the unpardonable sin there are two Coâ—â—oversies 1. What it is 2. Whether it be absâ—â—â—â—ely unpardonable That final impenitency is unpardonable is undoubted But the sin in question is called The Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost of which having written a special Tractate I now only say That it is the Sin of such as believing not Christ to be the Son of God but a Deceiver and yet being convinced of his and his Disciples Miracles do in their judgments think and blasphemously say and maintain that they were done by