Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	adoption_n	cry_v	father_n	9,732	5	5.0154	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B06542	A brief, and plain apology written by John Wheelwright: wherein he doth vindicate himself, from al [sic] those errors, heresies, and flagitious crimes, layed to his charge by Mr. Thomas Weld, in his short story, and further fastened upon him, by Mr. Samuel Rutherford in his survey of antinomianisme. Wherein free grace is maintained in three propositions, and four thesis [sic] ...	Wheelwright, John, 1594-1679.	1658 (1658)	Wing W1604; ESTC R186427	40,565	36

the truth and shall assure our hearts before him doth thus Comment Semper autem me minerimus non habere nos ex charitate notitiam quam dicit Apostolus quasi inde petenda sit salutis certitude certe non aliunde cognoscimus nos esse filios Dei nisi quia gratuitam suam Adoptionem cordibus nostris per spiritum suum obsignat Et nos certum ejus pignus in christo oblatum fide amplectimur This is the question here determined by Mr. Calvin How we come first to know that we are the Children of God and by the like reason justified He denies that it is by any argument taken from our love How then By the inward witness of the Spirit perswading us of our Adoption What use then are we to make of our love to the Brethren in point of evidencing It under props saith he and strengthens our perswasion These are his words Est igitur charitas accessio vel adminiculum inferius al sidei fulturam non fundamentum quo nititur Zanchie upon Ephes 5.1 draws this as an inference from that text Sciamus ergo pro fundamento christianae Pietatis teneamus hoc primum principium fidem i. certissimam perswasionem de remissione peccatorum ex solâ paterna clementia condonatorum causam esse omnium virtutum omnium bonorum operum omnisque verae obedientiae They who stand for the first evidencing of Works overthrow this fundamental principle The Answer which Mr. Cotton gives to this Question Whether some saving qualification may be a first evidence of Justification is thus set down by himself in terminis A man may have an Argument from thence yea I doubt not a firm and strong Argument but not a first evidence In his Answer to Mr. Baylie Object 1. Keeping Gods Commandments and love to the Brethren are brought in by the Apostle John as first evidences of Justification 1 John 2.3 3.14 Answ These and the like Scriptures strongly argue That works of Sanctification are cerrain evidences of a good estate which is a truth so clearly held forth in Gods Word as if it were written with a beam of the Sun But can it be concluded from hence That John and the Christians to whom he wrote amongst which they of the lowest rank did know the Father had received an unction from the holy One and knew all things had no former evidence of their justification Did they never hear the inward witness of the Spirit nor see their Falth by which they did receive this witness Did they conclude a good estate by reflecting upon their keeping Gods Commandments and love to the Brethren without any immediate discerning of their inward Call or their act or acts of believing as precedent in order to their works Whether was this keeping Gods Commandments and love to the Brethren the procreant cause of their knowing and believing the love of God to them or the contrary The Apostle puts it out of doubt 1 Joh. 4.16.20 We know and believe the love that God hath to us What effect doth this produce We love him because he first loved us It is our knowing and believing that God loved us first even from eternity that makes us love him This is then the Apostles meaning We who have received the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father we who are believers are confirmed in our Faith because it is operative and works causing us to keep Gods Commandments and this special Commandment of loving the Brethren What is the keeping of Gods Commandments but charity out of a pure heart and Faith unfeined 1 Tim. 1.5 Faith whereby we are truly perswaded of Gods mercy towards us in Christ is the mother of a good Conscience and charity What is love to the Brethren but an holy affection wrought in us by the Holy Ghost whereby upon the apprehension of Gods love to us in Christ we do from our very hearts wish well unto them and study to do them all the good we can 1 Joh. 4.16.19 20. Truly we should neither love God nor the Brethren nor his Commandments did he not first make known his love in Christ to us Mr. Calvin upon these words 1 Joh. 2.3 And hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his Commandments writes thus Notandus est hic orde quum dicit nos cognoscere quod noverimus Significat Dei obedientiam sic conjunct am esse scientiae ut tamen haes ordine fit prior ●cuti necesse est causam effectu suo esse priorem Object 2. An Effect argues the Cause as well as the Cause doth its Effect Why may we not begin with keeping Gods Commandments and love to the Brethren to evidence a good estate and make them our first evidences We can know by fruit that there is a tree upon which it did grow and by streams that there is a fountain from which they did flow though we never see the tree or the spring Answ The tree doth naturally bring forth its fruits and the fountain sends out its streams without any act of ours whether we see them or not But Justification which is a gracious act of God acquitting of us from our sins and accepting us as just for the righteousness sake of Christ received by Faith doth not cause us to bring forth works of Righteousness and true holiness by a meer Physical force but as apprehended by Faith which works by love Gal. 5.6 The perswasion that Mary Magdalene had of the pardon of her many sins made her love much Luk. 7.46 If a tree did not bring forth fruit nor a fountain send out water but by our looking on them as the instrumental cause surely we should see the tree as going before the fruit and the spring-head before the streams Good works are such effects as are caused by our apprehension of Gods mercy towards us in Christ Object 3. No man can limit God to what evidence he shall first bring into the Conscience of a justified estate Answ True yet can God limit himself He can do more by his absolute power than he doth by that which is actual If the Lord wil have all works of sanctification to be done in Faith out of love without a slavish fear as so many acts of gratitude for our Redemption through Christ they who deny sanctification to be the first evidence do not limit God but are limitted by God The Gospel is as immutable in the order as in the substance of its parts being an everlasting Gospel Rev. 14.6 Object 4. Many of Gods Children can evidence to themselves a good estate by their love to God his children and commandments who never were perswaded of Gods love to them by any argument taken either from the inward testimony of the holy Ghost or their act or acts of beleeving Answ This is asserted gratis but not proved How did those Children of God come unto Christ Surely they were taught of God and heard the spirits inward call He

a sense as the words seem to carry considered by themselves without any Relation to that which goes before or follows You dis-member wrest torture by putting upon the rack some broken Notes of an extemporary Sermon and make them speak what you think good against the Preacher and where they are altogether silent and speak not one word you put in words of your own which makes for your purpose Let such dealings pass for current what Sermon can be Preached by any Minister of the Gospel which ye may not arraign accuse condemne banish as guilty of Heresie contempt of Authority Sedition and what not No man can say with a good Conscience That I did at any time in publick or private in Old England or in New deny true Sanctification to be a good evidence I look at Works of Sanctification to be no dubious nor litigious evidence but demonstrative and infallible without which the imagined spirits witness is delusory and al supposed Faith is vain The Sanctification which I denyed to be any good evidence are certain effects of the spirit of bondage and works of the law and I taught That an act of Faith founded upon them is not saving and according to the Gospel but legal against them who never knew their inward call or hear and learn of the Father and so by Faith come unto Christ The inward witness of the Spirit in a simple promise of grace is not immediately and in it self discerned by them but by their legal Reformation going under the name of sanctification These are my apprehensions concerning our evidencing a good estate The immediate foundation of that act of Faith by which we are perswaded That Christ and his benefits is ours and by which we do receive him is the free simple absolute promise of grace applied by the spirit in our effectual call which is called throughout the Gospel by way of excellency the promise and therefore al Gods children are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the children of the promise Rom. 9 8. This Promise indeed is indefinite yet is it determined to every Elect person in his efficacious call The indefinite Promise with a commandment to believe and make it particular comes not in word only but also in Power and in the holy Ghost from whence he can thus conclude I am perswaded to believe by Christ not only outwardly in his words but inwardly by his Spirit in my heart that the promise and Christ promised belongs unto me therefore Christ with al his benefits is mine The medium of the particular Application of the general Promise is the inward witness of the spirit of Adoption who as Mr. Perkins saith in his Sermon entituled Christ the true and perfect gain beareth witness to our consciences of such things as God hath given us in particular and are only in general manner propunded in the Promise The Apostle Paul grounded his Faith upon this simple promise The indefinite runs thus Christ loved the world and gave himself for the world Christ came into the world to save sinners Paul applies it and makes it particular according to Christs command for thus he expresseth himself He loved me and gave himself for me Gal. 2.20 Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of which I am chief 1 Tim. 1.15 How came Paul to make this application Because he was perswaded thereunto not only outwardly in the word but inwardly by the spirit in his heart 1 Cor. 10.12 The Apostle John saith That he that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself 1 Joh. 5.10 Believing on the Son of God is the effect the witness in himself the cause Mr. Calvin thus expounds it Non dicit Deum extra loqui sed unumquemque fidelem intus in seipso sentire fidei suae authorem If it be objected That our first act of Faith cannot be a perswasion that Christ is ours because he is not ours antecedently to our act of believing that seems to me easily to be answered Christ unites himself unto us by his Spirit in our effectual call infusing the seed of Faith and al other saving graces is in us novo modo operandi gives us a new heart and puts his spirit within us Ezek. 36.26 27. Christ is ours by a passive Reception antecedently in order to our act of believing Christ unites himself unto us by his spirit before we joyn our selves to him by an act of believing Phil. 3.12 Faith being thus founded upon the free simple promise of grace applied by the spirit of promise is confirmed divers wayes 1. First by works of Sanctification the immediate proper effects thereof For though the habit of Faith be not the cause of the habits of other Christian vertues yet is the act of faith the spirits instrument to produce al acts of sanctity as being apprehensive of Gods grace mercy love in Christ and other motives and perswasives to induce to good works receiving strength from Christ enabling us to perform them So that true faith works by love which love with other Christian vertues wherein we do resemble Christ to whom we are united are unto us a seal of that fellowship we have with him according to that of the Apostle In whom after ye believed ye were sealed with the holy spirit of Promise Ephes 1.13 The spirit in sealing of us imprints in some measure the very image of Christ upon us consisting in righteousness and true holiness being not only holy in his essence and nature but in regard of his gracious effects in us All these works of Sanctification are so many arguments of the truth of our Faith 1 John 2.3 3.14 They are distinguishing marks and put a manifest difference between the children of God and the children of the Devil 1 John 3.10 They who do not know God to be their God as wel by putting his law in their inward parts and writing it in their hearts as by forgving their iniquities were never truly taught of God Jer. 31.33 34. This is one end of the spirits giving that holy spirit that spirit of sanctification not only to work sanctification but to teach us to know it amongst other things which are freely given us of God 1 Cor. 2.12 This hath been practised by Job David Hezekiah Paul and the whole Church of the Elect believers and saints from time to time in al generations who after that they had built their Faith upon Christ revealed offered given in the free promise did under-prop confirm strengthen the same by works of sanctification 2. Secondly by the immediate testimony of the holy Ghost There is an inward testimony of the spirit common to al true Christians Rom 8.16 which I take to be an act of the spirit applying the Gospel with such power as we perceive it is the spirit who speaks and it be gets in us an affured Faith 1 Thess 1.5 This is immediate in and by the word of grace for of his own wil begat he us

an act of the Will And they ground both these Acts upon a free Promise of Grace efficaciously applied by the Holy Ghost These are the words of Mr. Calvin upon Gal 3.7 Faith is not an imagination of our own forging it is an assuredness which we conceive of Gods Goodness when he cometh unto us and uttereth familiarly his love that he beareth to us This hath been the constant Definition of Justifying Faith given by our Orthodox Divines in Luthers time and of many since Fides est certa persuasio et 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quâ cum servatorem amplectimur hâc fiduciâ quod crucifixus mortuus sit in propitiationem pro peccatis non aliarum tantum sed et meis Melanchthon Beza with many others describe Faith after that manner and generally this is part of the description of it Faith is a certain perswasion of Gods mercy towards us in Christ which they could not do did they not ground it upon an absolute Promise All our Expositors of the Creed who make this part of the meaning of that Article I beleeve in Jesus Christ to be I beleeve that Christ is mine and place it before that act of the heart by which we rely on Christ do found it upon an absolute Promise Mr. Perkins in his Exposition of the Creed saith That no man can put his confidence in God till he be first perswaded of Gods mercy towards him in Christ This is Mr. Dikes Judgment on Phil. 5. First we must beleeve that Christ is ours before we can be able to commit our selves to him for the will and affections follow the understanding Mr. Cotton in his N. Covenant declares himself fully to be of this Judgment and saith Faith to receive Christ is ever upon an absolute Promise pag. 56. which is as much as I affirm Object 1. The Promise propounded in the Gospel for the begetting of faith is conditional Beleeve and be saved Answ That is not the Gospels first Promise There is an absolute indefinite Promise I take an absolute Promise for that which shall certainly be accomplished in Gods Elect precedent to this viz. The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand to which the command of Beleeving in the conditional Promise hath relation As in the Covenant of Works first there is an absolute Law given and then a conditional Covenant made Do this and live So in the Covenant of Grace first there is made an absolute Promise of Salvation through Christ taking absolute in that sense which I have named and then a conditional Covenant Beleeve and be saved When I am commanded to beleeve the Gospel or beleeve on the Lord Jesus Christ it is intended that I beleeve this absolute Promise not only Historically but Applicatorily and that I receive and relie upon Christ promised and then I shall not perish but have everlasting life The act of faith is not terminated in the Promise but in the simple term Christ Object 2. There is no absolute Promise of Salvation through Christ in all the Gospel Answ That is not so The first Gospel Promise of Grace and Life was absolute The seed of the Woman shall bruise the Serpents head Gen. 3.15 This is renewed to Abraham In thee shall all Families of the Earth be blessed Gen. 12.3 Is not this a simple categorical Proposition and Declaration of Gods good will in Christ to the World And this was Gospel which was preached unto Abraham Gal. 3.8 To make things more clear Take an absolute Promise for that which shall certainly be accomplished and then the Gospel alwaies begins with an absolute Promise both of end and means to wit Salvation and all means tending thereunto with relation to Gods Elect of which kind are the Promises before mentioned Gen. 3.15 and 12.3 Let an absolute Promise be taken for that which shall receive its accomplishment without any gracious precedent act of ours and then the beginning of our Salvation to wit a new heart a new spirit and faith it self is absolutely promised Jer. 3.33 34. Ezek. 36.26 27. If by Salvation be meant the continuance perfecting and consummation of Salvation in Gods eternal and everlasting Kingdom that is indeed promised upon condition we put forth acts of faith repentance holiness and righteousness throughout the whol course of our lives all which conditions as hath been said are absolutely promised Ezek. 36.27 Conditiones N Faederis non tantum praeceptae sunt sed etiam promissae Embd. Min. in the Synod of Dordt Object 3. The Promises to save absolutely and upon condition of beleeving are inconsistent Answ 1. To promise the beginning of Salvation absolutely and the continuance and accomplishment of Salvation upon condition of an holy penitential faith stand well together 2. To promise absolutely that is assuredly the continuance perfecting and consummation of Salvation upon condition we actually beleeve repent and obey is not inconsistent because the conditions are absolutely promised Object 4. The absolute Promise of Salvation through Christ propounded in the Gospel is not particular and personal but general and indefinite and therefore if we beleeve it by particular application we beleeve more than is revealed Answ Though the absolute Promise of Salvation through Christ be general and indefinite yet is it made particular to every Elect Person in his effectual call This Promise is held forth with a commandment to apply it and make it particular So saith Zanchy Lib. 5. De Naturâ Dei Cap. 2. and Mr. Perkins upon Gal. 2. When we are commanded to beleeve on the Lord Jesus Christ this is one act that is required of us to beleeve that Christ is ours 1 John 5.13 Whilst this Gospel is in preaching in our effectual Vocation the Lord sends the spirit of Adoption into our hearts gives us a new heart and a new spirit which new spirit perswades us to beleeve and apply the Promise and Christ promised and it is all one as if he should call us by name Isa 43.1 John 10.3 They who are thus perswaded by Christ not only outwardly by his Word but inwardly by his Spirit in their hearts have a good ground to beleeve that the Promise belongs unto them and that Christ is theirs nor do they herein beleeve more than is revealed To beleeve what Christ commands is no Enthusiasme Object 5. If all to whom the Gospel is preached are commanded to beleeve that the absolute Promise belongs unto them then are Reprobates commanded to beleeve a lye Answ Zanchy upon Hos 2.1 and Mr. Perkins in his Treatise of Predestination answers thus in effect Let Reprobates beleeve and they shall not find it false but true But because our act of Beleeving works no change in the Object and our beleeving makes not a thing true but it must be true before we beleeve it is not satisfactory to me Before I set down mine own apprehensions with humble submission to better Judgments I think it requisite that some things should be premised 1. I imbrace it for an

undoubted truth That falsum non est objectum fidei The Spirit of Truth doth not perswade men to beleeve Lyes The Spirit is truth and is no lye 1 John 2.27 2ly All to whom the Gospel cometh are not only bound to put forth acts of Evangelical obedience but to have the principles of these acts for we lost in Adam the very principles of yielding obedience to the holy Will of God to wit Integrity of Nature with the presence and assistance of Gods gracious Spirit So that it is a sin to be unregenerate and to want the spirit of Grace where the Gospel is preached Jude 19. 3ly When Reprobates are commanded to beleeve the Lord requires of them these two things 1. That they have a new heart and a new spirit which is the spirit of Adoption Ezek. 18.31 2ly That they Elicite an act of Faith from this new heart excited by this new spirit Let Reprobates then according to the true sence of the Gospels Command have a new heart and a new spirit and beleeve from these principles that the absolute promise of Grace belongs unto them and they shall not beleeve a lye Neither are Elect nor Reprobates commanded actually to beleeve immediately from the principles of Nature but by the intervening of a new heart and a new spirit which are the principles of Grace let these intervene and then it is not required that they beleeve more than is revealed and true All true Christians beleeve that this Promise belongs unto them in habit inclination desire or act of which there are many degrees THESIS IV. That all Promises proper and peculiar to the Gospel are absolute In the Covenant of Grace there are two sorts of Promises Some common to the Law with the Gospel though not for the matter yet for the form into which they are put as Beleeve and be saved Repent and be saved and these are conditional belonging to Elect and Reprobates There be other Promises peculiar to the Gospel both for matter and form as a new heart will I give you a new Spirit will I put within you and these are absolute Ezek. 36.26 Which Promises though they be propounded in the promulgation of the Gospel to all indifferently yet are they proper only to Gods Elect. Of these Promises is that to be understood which Prosper speaks Lib. 1. De voc Gent. Cap. 9. Manet prorsus et quotidiè impletur quod Abrahae Dominus sine conditione promisit sine lege donavit And of these Promises doth Zanchy mean Miscell Lib. 2. Thes 13. where he saith Promissiones de gratuitâ Dei misericordiâ deque certa et aeterna salute etsi univer salitér omnibus proponuntur et praedicandae sunt ad ipsos tamen tantum electos reipsa pertinent And again De Common Divinis Evangelium propriè quod annuntiat id absolutè citrà conditionem annuntiat It was denyed in the Synod that there was any absolute Promises The Remonstrants Collat. Hag. Band. pag. 190. lin 22. assert That the giving of a new heart is promised upon condition of our actual conversion Others would have these Promises to be only Predictions and Prophesies but seem to exclude them from being any part of the Covenant of Grace whereas they be the chief and proper part or else I cannot see that our first Parents had any Gospel preached unto them in Paradice Gen. 3.15 There is nothing but an absolute Promise expressed in which all absolute Promises in both the sences before mentioned are wrapt up though I doubt not but the conditional Promise Beleeve and be saved is implied Our Orthodox Divines in the Synod of Dordt stand for these absolute Promises as parts of the Covenant of Grace against the Arminians and that they are proper to the Gospel in respect of their absolute form cannot be denied the Law hath no Promises which run in that form It is evident which Zanchy saith Quicquid pertinet ad legem in scripturis conditionale est I have lost divers Notes by often removals but to my best remembrance these with one or two more of the like Nature coincident with them were all the Positions which at first I intended for Disputation in the Synod In heat of Discourse in that Assembly certain expressions fell from me which were numbred amongst my Errors and made the chief matter of Dispute by them who took all occasions and advantages to make me seem erroneous Amongst the rest how it came in I do not well know I said That Christ was part of the new Creature The Question is What is meant by the new Creature or new Man which Christians are commanded to put on I answer Partly Christ with his new created Righteousness partly new created qualities in us Which I conceive may thus be proved Adam is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Adam is the old man and Christ the new man Hereupon tropically all sin which entred into the World by Adam is called the Old man and all that righteousness which is brought in by Christ is called the New man which righteousness of Christs becomes ours in our New Birth partly by Imputation partly by Regeneration Eph. 2.15 Object By the Old man which we are to put off is only meant Sin not Adam 's Person and therefore by the New man is only meant new qualities in us and not Christ's Person Answ By the Old man may be understood not only the corruption of Nature which passeth from Adam to us but his disobedience which becomes ours by imputation So that in some respect we are to put off Adam that is the transgression of Adam in eating the forbidden Fruit which was his in act and ours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and originally I am not the first who have taken the New man in that sense which if it be not proper yet is it true We are to put on Christ as well by Faith as by imitation I shall not much herein contend Zanchy upon Eph. 4.24 having set down the judgment of Ambrose what is meant by the New man which Christians are to put on who understood it of Christ himself and of others interpreting it of new qualities delivers his own mind and joyns them both together Novus igitur homo primum est Christus ipse in nobis inhabitans deinde ipse nova totius hominis qualitas et natura per Christum in nobis creata postremo nos ipsi Christo induti et novae illius naturae participes effecti et in virtute ut loquuntur scholia viventes Ye would likewise have wrested other expressions which fell from me to a corrupt sence as if I denied acting from a formal principle of Grace or that any power was conveyed by the Commandments of the Law to act graciously which was far from my sence The Opinion of Peter Lombart Lib. 1. Dist 18. that Charity is not any thing created in the soul but the Holy Ghost himself is sufficiently

that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh unto me Joh. 6.45 What made them follow Christ by Faith and holy Obedience It was this inward voyce of the spirit accompanying the outward word which they did hear and know Christs sheep hear his voyce and follow him for they know his voyce Joh. 10.3 4. That which made them believe on the Lord Jesus Christ was the inward witness of the spirit He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself 1 Joh. 5.10 Can it truly be said That these Children of God so sanctified as they can thereby discern their justification did never hear nor know the spirits inward call nor see their saith Can a man love God or his children who knows not in some degree his reconciliation A man in the state of nature hates God and his children and this enmity is never slain before peace be revealed Eph. 2.16 17. We cannot love the law of God except we know its rigour and curse to be taken from us through Christ We must be delivered from the law in respect of its rigid exaction and malediction and that to our apprehensions before we can serve in the newness of the Spirit Rom. 7.6 Suppose that Gods true children should say That sanctification is their first evidence God speaks no such thing in his Word to the which we must rather attend but the quite contrary as hath been proved neither can they rest in that way of evidencing who are truly gracious for the law of grace binds them first to be perswaded of remission of sins and then to serve God without fear from this perswasion and this law is written in their hearts If men under the law should glory in their penitency works of sanctification and strict walking as first evidences they may be convinced à priori because they want this cause hereof viz. The apprehension of Gods mercy towards them in Christ even as we cut off Enthusiasts Antinomians Familists Libertines who boast of their full assurance à posteriori by reason they have not the effects penitency works of sanctification and strict walking The middle way is the Gospel way to wit from the appearing of Gods grace to our own souls in particular to deny ungodliness and wordly lusts to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world PROPOSITION III. That an act of Faith which is grounded upon gracious Qualifications previous to Vnion and Works as first evidences is legal The Works upon which this seeming act of Faith is founded are not evangelical but legal which I thus demonstrate 1. After that the Commandment comes the spirit of bondage in the law we are said to be married to the law bring forth fruit unto the law and to serve in the oldness of the letter unril we be espoused unto Christ Rom. 7 Before Faith come in the free Promise we are kept under the law schooled and over-awed by the law Gal. 3.23 24. We are in bondage under the law til we receive the adoption of sons Gal. 4.3 4 5. Acts done by them as such who are married to the law in bondage under the law must needs be legal and of this nature are all supposed gracious qualifications before faith 2. Works made first evidences and that de jure though they go under the name of works of sanctifitation yet are they indeed works of the law because they do not proceed from principles evangelical but legal 1. They are not done in Faith whereby we are perswaded that our persons and our actions are accepted in and through Christ No our works must first be done and our perswasion must be the effect of these works We must see our works accepted before our persons 2. They are not done in Love for how can we love God before we know and believe the love that he hath to us 1 Joh. 14 16.19 Our apprehension of Gods love must only be an effect of our works and of some imaginal promise made to us in respect of these our works 3. They cannot be acts of Gratitude for our Redemption through Christ These works must be the first means whereby we come to know our Redemption and justification 4. They are all done out of Bondage and servile Fear This servile fear is never cast out but by a sure perswasion of Gods love to us 1 Joh. 4.18 And what is the cause of this fear but the spirit of bondage Rom. 8.15 Wherefore it doth necessarily follow That a conclusion which doth stay it self upon these legal media works done out of this fear is no conclusion of Faith but if we may so call it a conclusion of works being grounded upon works of the law Estius though a Popish writer speaks to this purpose upon Heb 8.10 Itaque fatemur tempore veieris Testamenti fuisse novi Testamenti filios Et contra tempore Novi Testamenti non paucos censeri filios Testamenti veteris videlicet eos omnes qui carualibus Judaeis similes timore poenae legem servant imo non servant Sed sibi servare videntur ut loquitur August lib. 3. conte 2. Epist Pel. Cap. 4. The Application which I made of this Doctrine was this for substance They who have no more Faith than is built upon gracious qualifications before union and works made first evidences are under a covenant of works and though they be never so much reformed yet wil they persecute them under the covenant of grace as did Paul before his conversion the Scribes Pharisees c. Wherefore if any shal profess themselves to be legal and raise up persecution against you for this truth contend earnestly for it in a way of patient suffering by the sword of the spirit the word of God The Doctrine contained in these three Propositions and this or the like general hupothetical application was the cause of my deep sufferings It seems that you Brother Weld with some others who prosecuted against me did build the Faith upon gracious qualifications precedent to union and works as first evidences I censure this Doctrine of yours to be legal as aforesaid and hereupon you are filled with indignation cast me out as the filth of the world and off-scouring of al things make me a spectacle to the world and to Angels and to men which you effect by these means About two months after the Preaching of my Sermon before ever I was dealt withal in a brotherly way I am sent for to the Court to answer for what I had delivered where I have the true cause of my sufferings suppressed and put out of sight and a feigned cause closely and secretly brought in Certain of my Brethren the Reverend Elders had a great hand in this mysterious business for whilst my cause was depending long before my banishment an Accusation was secretly drawn up against me in writing put into the Court thus inscribed The Grounds and Reasons of the Dissent of the Elders of the Churches from some things delivered by