bee more expresly cleared I could not divine and had liberty to use my own method This onely I know that inclinations to sin are there exprest to bee sins and that clearely enough that hee may discerne it who hath so much leisure from quarrelling as to bewaile them And indeed you need not tell me what dangerous consequences have been inferred from doubtfull expressions in Catechismes c. For I have an example before mine eyes of one that will inferre those consequences from one word in such a Booke that the whole sense of the place contradicts directly as much as sin and no sin are contradictories and then 't is but reason a man were allow'd pardon and not triumph'd over presently for being willing when 't is by anothers fault become so necessary to explaine And so much for the third report The fourth that about faiths being whether a condition or instrument of Iustification I cannot observe by your words that you have at all insisted on in either assembly for though you deny it not yet also you affirme nothing as in the two former which you owne and as in the last you are pleased to doe Either then you spake to this particular and then although it bee a fault in you not to acknowledge it yet till I am sure of it and that my reputation is concerned in it I have no reason farther to importune you or else you did not speake to it and consequently did mee no injury in that particular and then I truly cannot accuse you having no authority that you did worth my depending on and that which I had contradicted by others as the other of the Trinity which proved untrue and so the rather inclines mee to beleeve that this is so also On these grounds I have no temptation to adde more to this matter because the whole businesse which brought us now together was to vindicate my selfe from and that made it necessary for me to know what had been your accusations and not to render you at this time which I can spend much more profitably to my selfe and others an account of my faith save onely where you have calumniated it Yet because it is possible that the questions here proposed by you may through some mistake or ignorance of the grounds that I goe on bee matter of some scruple to you and it may bee my duty to prevent those mistakings I have now thought fit to tell you what is the generall ground that I build on in this matter by analogy to which you may forme an answer to those questions and reconcile those seeming differences which you may have taken notice of My grounds are these 1 That justification is divine acceptation and pardon of sin 2 That the mercy of God through the satisfaction and merits of Christ is the sole cause of this justification 3 This worke of justification is of such a nature consisting meerly in Gods pronouncing us just accepting and pardoning a worke of God without us upon us concerning us but not within us that consequently nothing within us can have any reall proper efficiency in this worke for then that whatever it is must bee said to justifie i. e. to accept and pardon which nothing in us can be said to doe though but minus principaliter secundario or realiter instrumentaliter for if it had any such efficiency there might in strict speaking be some reall vertue or force in that thing and that proportionable to the effect in some measure at least it must act virtute primae causae and by the impulsion of that might immediately produce the effect which any even grace as it is in us hath not force enough to doe For either it must doe it as an inferiour meritorious cause subordinate to Christs merits or as an inferiour efficient cause subordinate to Gods pardoning and accepting and then as I said that must pardon and accept also immediately though not principally as the knife cuts immediately though the hand or the man principally 4 This work of grace in God through Christ thus justifying is not every mans portion some qualification or condition there is required in the subject in the person whose sinnes God will thus pardon in Christ or without which God that justifies the sinner will not yet justifie the impenitent infidell the promises of God though generall being yet conditionall promises and the promise of pardon being one of them as shall be proved at large if you thinke fit 5 This condition is set downe in severall phrases in the Scripture Conversion Repentance Regeneration but especially receiving of Christ faith in the heart an embracing of Christ the whole Christ taking him as our Priest whose sacrifice and whose intercession to depend on as our King whose throne to bee set up in our hearts as our Prophet to submit our understandings to his doctrines and captivate them to the obedience of faith 6 This grace of faith hath mauy excellent offices and efficiencies one principall one laying hold on the promises laying hold on the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 others also of subduing the passions mortifying lusts overcomming the world In all these being workes wrought in us by God principally instrumentally by this grace Faith is an efficient But all this doth not at all conclude it to bee in any propriety of speech an efficient or any kinde of logicall proper cause in the act of justification because there is no need of any such God being ready to doe his worke to performe his promise i. e. to justifie the penitent beleever and whensoever by his grace that qualification is wrought in the heart or there but truly rooted God pronounces that man just I have out of my heart set downe my sense which I suppose you will finde every where scattered in the Booke I desire not that it may prove a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 between us in case there bee any word hastily let fall which though to mee that understood my owne meaning it bee plaine to you especially if you delight to bee captious may want explication but yet I would bee glad to heare if there bee any poyson in any of these propositions and whether and wherein I am mistaken If not I suppose you will be able to answer all your twelve quaeries out of these premises or discerne that it was impertinent to aske them these grounds being thus supposed I shall I think onely need to adde that as soone as ever this new creature hath life in him at the first cordiall receiving the whole Christ in vow or resolution sincere i. e. at the first minute of conversion thus to God the person is justified not one of those in time after the other but in order of nature as naturally the condition must be undertaken before the Covenant belongs to mee but at what minute soever this is done God puts away his wickednesse c. I have sinned saith David and the Lord hath put away thy sinne saith Nathan
recantation so oft repeated recantation O that this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might bee changed into that of the Apostles of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 get mee but some Expedient that lying shall bee no sinne and that no other sinne in you or others shall bee consequent to it in this and for the other part of it if it can delight you more then the calling for it hath done already you shall have my most willing consent towards it For the latter end of the sheet of deceiving the Kingdome of seduction c. and what followes in the next to the end of the report I am sensible of it and I thanke God I have received grace from him to pray that I may make the same use of it that David doth in the story of Shimei's reviling 2 Sam. 16. 10. I pray also and desire the prayers of all good men that God would shew me the sin which hath now brought this portion of calumny upon mee and that is all I would say to it And yet after this resolved silence to that part I shall againe answer to you some few things 1 That when in your fourth consideration you say meant in a Commandement you should say signified by the words of a Commandement 2 That which you call taking in a latitude I call reduction 3 That my explications were designed by mee to bee as remarkable nay much more then the first edition was for I designed a full impression and many other things to make them so 4 I never had any thing to doe not so much as the knowledge at that time with the setting out any edition of that book save onely of those additions and of printing the first few copies at Oxford for the use of those that were more willing to bee at that charge then at a greater in transcribing it 5 I say most distinctly that every emendation in that Booke that to my utmost remembrance I can speak of was intended long before ever the Towne was neare taking and for danger of being called to an account of any thing said in it God knows my simplicity I was never neare dreaming or thinking of it and am now in courage enough to feare neither men nor Angels in that particular 6 That I know not that ever I have made you a solemne poofession under my hand to give you satisfaction and my most carefull recollecting what I have wrote cannot bring it to my remembrance certainly you dreamt of that together with the round recantation If it were any thing above endeavouring it certainly it was a very rash promise and if so I beseech you remit it to mee for I would not willingly take any more paines about it For other men I am more secure and if you once be satisfied I shall suppose all men that know it will thinke it time for them to give over quarrelling 7 That by would I did in effect meane were forbidden also by God when Moses published the Law and have oft told you how I meant so 8 I have already told you that you came not into my heart when I thought or spake of submission to the meanest and wonder as much that you should thinke the alterations were made in submission to you as that you should now rank your selfe with the meanest who have not supererogated in humility since I met with you Truly Sir I doe not thinke meannesse is the cause of your mis-understandings nor did I ever from any friend at London heare of any particular you disliked in it or if I had by any such message I would have found out some way to have offered you or any man living a friendly debate about it For your respects I finde little signes of them now and by the subjects doe beleeve that there were little exprest in those letters of yours ten yeares agoe about mee I can and doe freely forgive you all but know not that I am bound to thanke you till some body else tell mee so 9 If any learned men ever told me of that opinion about Christ improving the Law and exprest themselves to thinke it were an error I am confident I have given them such a state of my opinion in that matter that no good Christian can finde fault with or lay any charge on it of hurt or danger to any mans manners if it were supposed false And besides you may know that as Learned as any this age now hath both of Ancients and others are fully of my opinion And let me tell you that ten yeares agoe I had no objection against my opinion but that it was by some men fathered on Socinus but knowing that I beleeved it long before I ever saw one word I thinke had heard the name of Socinus and that the Scripture and Fathers and other the like means which taught me all my other Divinity taught me that too and saw that if it were a mistake it could make no man live worse as the contrary opinion might doe if it were so I resolved to deny my selfe in that phantasie rather then objection and speak what I thought might edifie what diminution of credit soever it brought after it I shall adde my thanks for your counsell which I would faine thinke to bee in great earnest but that I suppose you cannot beleeve that I looke upon Criticismes as a kinde of heaven nor that you would thinke fit to send out in the same breath true Christian earnest for above all things I account admonitions so and Sarcasmes I shall only desire that I may study the Morall Law as I finde it delivered from that second Mount and I will obey you in all other motions and as you desire not censure you for this part of your Sermon how bitter soever it is but thank you for all the good you meant by it But whatever you say of the Morall Lawes perfection I hope it must not so bee understood as to deny that Christ as hee gave more grace then was ever allowed in the state of nature or by the Law so might if he pleased improve the obligations which either the naturall Law or that given by God through Moses had laid on men and whether by new precepts or new lights call us to a higher degree of perfection and oblige us to it then others had by any particular precept thought themselves obliged to As for the imaginary super additions you talk of you will I hope consider that 't is as dangerous to detract from the World of God as to adde to it and to deny Christ to have added if he have as to affirme him if he have not I am sure the consequences may be more dangerous As for your stile of perfect and spirituall Law I shall in the plain word acknowledge it that it was both perfect in respect of the state of men to whom it was given whether by Moses to the Jewes or by the God of nature to all men and spirituall also extending to the
I said I have sinned unto the Lord and thou puttest away the iniquity of my sinne This thus pre-required I call sanctification in semine or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the direct Greeke for that word without which no man shall see God and consequently without which no man is justified for whosoever is so is in that condition at that minute that if hee dye in it hee cannot misse of glory Beside this notion of sanctification there is another for the acts and fruits and state of sanctification and that I acknowledge a consequent of justification and an effect of that grace that justifieth the ungodly And having added this I conceive I have clear'd the way to your last particular In which it seemes you tooke some exceptions which by what hath been said will appeare to bee your fault not the Authors of the Catechisme For 1 faith and workes are not confounded in the discourse of justification any otherwise then St. Iames and St. Paul confound them St. Paul saying Abraham was justified by faith and St. Iames by workes aud the way of the reconciling them punctually set downe there 2 What hee doth say of being justified by faithfull actions as it is after the very stile of St. Iames Abraham was justified by workes so doth the word by signifie onely a condition not an efficient And whereas you mention obedience to the whole Gospel constellation of Gospel-graces c. and thinke strange that they should bee affirmed the condition of justification you must remember that those phrases denote them onely in the seed or first life of all these proportionably to the first notion of sanctification and then I suppose you can make no scruple of that affirmation 3 You scruple that faith without the addition of such workes such obedience Evangelicall would bee affirmed unsufficient to justification Wherein perhaps you thinke workes signifies actuall performances but that is not the meaning of it in that place but the word is taken in another Scripture-acception of it for such obedience as the Gospel now requires and for that which the Story of Abraham once makes the thing on which hee was justified i. e. resolution to obey God in the sacrificing his Son not the actuall sacrificing of him this is there called in the Catech. page 35. Evangelicall obedience and is set as the explication of workes and without this I acknowledge to beleeve that faith would bee unsufficient to justifie meaning faith in any other notion but that which doth containe this receiving him as a King and giving up the obedience of the heart to him And you must give mee leave a little to wonder why you should add that the words following in that place are as bad or worse then the former and yet 't was but civility and prudence not to name them when they are but a direct citation of a place of Scripture Thus the same is called in a parallel place Faith consummate by love Gal. 5. 6. for so the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is rendred by the Syriack The truth is the last thing by you excepted against was in effect a place of Scripture also Iam. 2. 22. Faith made perfect by workes set downe in some words of paraphrase and then this in the Galatians might be as bad or worse then that I shall mollifie the harsh phrase for you and adde more contrary to the Antinomians and Fiduciaries As for your disproving that doctrine I shall not need consider that because the doctrine is new set when it comes to bee disproved and in those termes which you see I acknowledge not for I doe not suppose the necessity of adding Evangelicall works unto that purpose and in that act to make faith the instrument of justification For 1 I acknowledge not faith an instrument of that any other then a morall instrument by which I expresse my selfe to meane a condition accepted by God to justification and a logicall or proper instrument of receiving Christ which Christ not which Faith justifies 2 Evangelicall workes in the notion wherein I surpose you now take them for fruits of faith performances of obedience I affirme not to bee either instrument or condition in the act of justification or to that purpose but I require them afterwards when occasions and opportunities of exercising that faith of performing those resolutions doe call for them And therefore 3 I make no scruple to acknowledge that wee are not justified by any righteousnesse inherent in us as I oft have said but onely by the righteousnesse of Christ imputed Only that infusion of new righteousnesse which when 't is infus'd and rooted is inherent in us is the condition without which we shall not bee justified not taking it againe for the actuall performances or acts of righteousnesse Yet in the three last lines you have now againe changed your question and made it such an one that I cannot blame you not to bee ashamed to repeat your arguments or to maintain For I shall most joyfully conclude with you in the very words the truth of that you say you used those arguments to prove viz. That wee are justified by the obedience of Christ alone freely imputed by God applyed and rested on by Faith onely For whatever other qualifications be required as conditions in the subject 't is the worke onely of faith to apply in that sense i. e. to rest on Christ. And having so well agreed in the conclusion one would wonder how wee should so differ in the premises Certainely there was some fault some where Was not it a willingnesse to find faults in that Book that made it appeare so full of errours and a heat that might have been spared which turned the pulpit into a Pasquin or Morforius on which that Author was to be defamed That which I have now affirmed I am confident is the summe of what is said on that Point in more words and with more proofes and clearings in that Catechisme and not now minced or drest anew by your directions or for your palate Yet if it may now please you and you will ask God forgivenesse for your slandering of me and consider me so much as to think that that reputation was valuable to the Author which you unjustly laboured to rob him of I shall most heartily as I do already forgive you the injury so conclude this Paper and take leave of you and continue Munday night Oct. 19. 1646. Your Servant H. Hammond I desire to heare what opinion you have of this large trouble thus unexpectedly multiplyed upon my hands SIR I Am sent for away from hence in great haste to my deare Mother who is very sicke and so am forced to dictate to an ill Amanuensis if greater Letters then an e bee mistaken I must crave your pardon If you thinke fit to reply be pleased to seale up your notes and Mr. Wilkinson who lodges at Merton Colledge will convey them to Your Servant Fr. Cheynell Octob. 30. 1646. SIR I