the merry pin and why should not believers live in like manner especially knowing that he now rules the roast in heaven Yea Sir how you have in your Treatise preached and pressed repentance may appear by the severall passages formerly delt with and further yet to be discussed 2. If you be so frequent in preaching of these things why do you check others for doing as you say your selves do Yea why do your hearers shun our Teachers and are offended with them because they presse these points which their nice palats are nothing pleased with ſ Reply ibid. But then say you because John said repent and Christ said repent and Peter said repent are we to examine the mystery no further know we not that the whole Scripture in its fulnesse and integrity reveils the whole truth and must we not look out and compare Scripture with Scripture spirituall things with spirituall and so finding out truth from the degrees to the glory and fulnesse of it preach it in the same glory and fulnesse of it as we finde it Sir if they preach repentance and presse it as necessary unto salvation I hope we may be so bold as to preach the same after them in like manner and in girding at us for so doing you gird not at us alone but them Nor are we ignorant that the t 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil de fide whole Doctrine of Faith is to be received that is contained in holy Writ and that u Manifestorum lumine illustrantur obscura Aug. Ep st 48. Obscuriores locutiones de manifestoridus illustrand Idem doct Chr. l. 2. c. 9. Collation of Scripture with Scripture may afford much light unto places more obscure But Sir neither are these passages of any obscurity being of the clearest almost of any either in the Old Testament or New Nor can any parcell of Scripture contradict or take away the truth of another nor are any therefore to be taxed for the delivery of any truth that in Scripture they find recorded or for urging pressing any duty that they find there urged and pressed and so frequently by such as you here instance in your self This is all therefore nothing but a pile of meere impertinences as would plainly appear would you but be entreated to rub up and resume your old Logick and trusse up your loose stuffe into some Syllogisticall frame that it might appear what you here oppose Of the like condition is all that to litle purpose that ensueth where you tell us that a Reply ibid. We hear Christ preaching b Ioh. 7.39 before the Spirit was given Repent and we find when the Spirit was given Christ is said c Act. 5.31 to give repentance to Israel and forgivenesse of sins and shall we not now preach Jesus Christ and repentance in Jesus the fountaine of repentance the author of repentance and repentance thus and repentance in the glory of it self more 1. Christ then preached repentance and repentance as of necessity unto salvation and where find we that ever he revoked this precept or the doctrine concerning the necessity of it 2. But this was before the Spirit was given what Spirit Sir is it you mean was not that Spirit which was given to those that beleived and repented upon d Math. 21.32 Johns preaching and e Ioh. 4.41 42.59 Christs before his passion and before that f Compare Ioh. 7 39. with Act. 1.5 2 3 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Schol. Graec. 19. more ample effusion of it and the extraordinary gifts of it spoken of by the Evangelist in the place you seem to point at the very same with that Spirit that was given afterward for the working of faith and repentace in those who in times ensuing g Ioh. 17.20 Act. 2.38.41 4.1 8.12 upon the Apostles preaching repented and beleived Or had they power to repent and so did without that gift of the Spirit which the other afterward had not So that these things in the one should be to give you your own words as springs of their own and waters flowing from their own fountain in the other as graces flowing from Christ and his spirit 3. But after the Spirit was given Christ is said to give repentance and forgivenesse of sins And by whom Sir I beseech you were these things given before The Apostle tells us that h Hebr. 13.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Schol. Graec. Jesus Christ is yesterday to day and the same for ever And whatsoever saving grace is now given from Christ by the Spirit was alwayes and in all times given unto all that ever were saved by Christ nor is there herein any difference between those times and these If you think otherwise you may do well to speak your mind plainly for you talk very perplexedly to make men believe that we preach not repentance as a grace of God by his Spirit wrought in our hearts in and for Christ which is most untrue for we say and teach that it is not only so now but was ever so in all ages whereas you by your ambiguous expressions seem to intimate the contrary 4. But Sir what is here to repeal the former precept of repentance or to give any just much lesse necessary cause to alter our preaching and pressing of repentance and the necessity of it in the same manner I might well say as the Prophets but much more as Christ himself before the Spirit was in that manner and measure given as after it was when as the source and Originall of it was ever the same and the necessity of it as well now as then yea in all ages no lesse alike 5. All therefore that hereafter followeth concerning i Reply Ibid. the preaching faith in the glory of it and faith in the revelation of it and faith from Christ and faith in Christ because the Apostle saith k Act. 16.31 Believe in the Lord Iesus and thou shall be saved and l Hebr. 12.2 Iesus Christ is the Author and finisher of our faith c. All these I say are but flanting flourishes brought in on the by partly m 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. de vit Epic. to put by what you should speak to and partly to make heedlesse people believe that there is some new doctrine of faith by our new-light-men lately discovered other and more excellent then ever was taught either by the Prophets of God in former times or by Christ himself in his preaching here upon earth or by any the ordinary Ministers and Teachers of the Gospel either in those times or in former ages 6. For not to stand upon the version of the word used by the Apostle which signifieth rather o 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 2.10 a Captain or Leader then an p 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 5.9 Author or worker who of us denies faith to be r Eph. 2 8. 6.23 Phil. 1.29 the gift
holy Ghost the lye But in your wonted manner you proceed and r Reply p. 8. § 3. to that say you that where we find faith only preached and so salvation made short work it is because we have but the Summaâ—ies I agree with you that we have but the doctrine of the Apostles as Johns of whom it is said he spake many other things in his exhortation to the people It is true we have much of what they said and we want much You misrelate mee Sir as once before in this very passage 1. I say not that in the Apostles preaching salvation is made such short work but that Å¿ Answ p. 9.11 you so make it in cutting of all those reqisites else-where mentioned and which are necessary and inseparable attendants of true faith that which also I expresse but you deign not to take notice of 2. I say not that we have the doctrine of the Apostles as Johns c. I say onely that we t Answ p. 15. have but the Summaries or principall heads of some of their Sermons Nor do I therefore herein agree with you who if u Vnciâ concessâ libram totam tollitis Optat. l. 2. one give you but an inch I see will soon take an ell much lesse dare I to say as you do which amounts to litle lesse then blasphemy against the Scriptures sufficiency concerning their doctrine for that yours words manifestly imply that much of it we have and much we want Of which manner of speaking let others judge and from what spirit it doth proceed v Reply p. 9. § â— Yet we have so much say you as may shew us that according to the work of salvation in us Faith is the work which gives most glory to God Abraham believed and gave glory to God they that believe give glory and Faith of all the works of the spirit is the glorious Gospel work Christ calls it the work indeed this is the work that ye believe So as the onely reason why we hear so much of faith in the Gospel is not only and meerly as you insinuate because we have but their Sermons in Summaries nor because of another reason of yours drawn from the qualifications of those they preached to that had other gifts and not Faith but because faith is of all spirituall encreasings in us the most gloriously working towards Christ faith goes out and faith depends and faith brings down Christ and faith opens the riches and faith believes home all strength comfort glory peace promises But Sir what doeth all this glorious flourish here or to what purpose is it here inserted doeth it either prove that life and salvation is not propounded in the Gospel upon a condition of believing in Christ or that repenting and amending are not to life eternall as necessarily reqired as it If not for that is the subject we are about this is all but a needlesse x De qâ vere uâ—u pa â—p test iâ—lud Scaligeri exeâ—c 107. § 20. Declâ—matiâ—nes in disputando amâ—itiosorum opera â—tiosorum ciâ—i sunt declamatory digression whereby you endeavour cunningly to divert your reader frâ—m the matter that is in hand Yet let us see what it is you say 1. That faith is a grace of great excellency and most usefull is by no man denied or that thereby we give glory as did a Rom. 4.20 Abraham to God but that is not the reason why b Rom. 3.28 5.1 by faith we are said to be justified for to omit that c Iosh 7.19 by confessing out sins we give glory to God we bring glory to him both by our d Math. 5.16 constant obedience in life and e Ioh. 21.19 Phil. 1.20 Christian patience in death this were to found life on the worth of the work the excellency of the gift and so other graces might as well lay claim to the same priviledg with it as shall afterward appear but because it is that whereby we f Ioh. 1.12 receive Christ and g 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost in Gal. 220. make him our Christ according to that that you at length come to in the close of this paragraph tho els where again you fall from it wherein we consent with you that which is the peculiar office of faith as was before said So that here Sir you runn your selfe on that rock whereon even now you told us that we miscaried in placing the foundation of our justification and salvation on the eminency and excellency of something in us â— Albeit faith be a glorious grace yet I dare not say that it is the most glorious of any of the graces of the Spirit for should I so say I should contradict the Apostle which tho you make no bones of yet dare not we do who expresly tels us that h 1 Cor. 13.13 love or charity is greater then either faith or hope and altho faith be the most usefull and beneficiall grace to us yet is it such a grace as carieth us out of our selves implying us to be i 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom 5.6 impotent insolvent very banckrupts unable to contribute any one farthing toward the payment of our debts And albeit thereby we give glory to God yet by it are we bereaved and utterly k Rom. 3.27 4.1 2. 1 Cor. 1.29.31 stripped of all glorying in our selves Nor is the terme of glory therefore to speak exactly the peculiar of this grace which shall also cease and become uselesse together with l Rom. 8.24 hope her most proper fruit when glory shall come when as yet m 1 Co. 13.8 13. love tho the last of the three in the Apostles recitall yet pronounced the greatest of the three because the longest laster shall continue and abide with us and in us for ever 3. Christ it is true saith of Faith n Ioh 6 2â— This is the work of God that is the work that God reqires of us that we believe on him whom he sent But the same Christ tells us that o Ioâ— 15.12 this is his commandement that we love one an other and p Iâ—h 13.34 the new commandement and that which he makes q â—oh 13.35 his cognisance and the very r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost in Ioan. orat 72. iâ— H b. 31. At Basil apud Greg. Na◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Character of a Christian love therefore is the work of God as well as Faith and Å¿ 1 Ioh 3.23 John joyneth them both together 4. I give other reasons why faith alone is sometime mentioned which you passe by but that which you say I give is untrue to wit that those they preached to had others gifts and not saith For t Answ p 13. neither of Paul nor of Cornelius do I say that they wanted faith either of them before that Ananias resorted to the one and Peter repaired to the other nor
then opposed with Christ which yet some treading in their steps have endeavoured to doe in these dayes But such fanaticall fancies wee abhorre and your ensuing censures therefore reach not us Wee are neither of those that cannot see faith for works nor of those that cannot see Christ for faith a strange prodigie how men should not see Christ for faith when they see Christ by faith nor are these things in the Gospel so mingled as you would make men believe but that wee can discern and distinguish them without the help of that new spirit that undertakes now adayes to reveal such matters of doctrine as the Apostles are pretended to have preached but not to have left upon record But Sir wee may truly say that you and yours are they that either cannot or will not see the wood for trees the conditions on which salvation by Christ is propounded tho in the Gospel they do every-where occurre and offer themselves will ye nill ye to your eyes In your next you relate me as objecting against you that l Repl. pag. 9 10. Sect. 1. Christ and his Apostels never preached free-grace without condition and qualification on our parts Rom. 8.1 Matth. 5.8 c. Where Sir mee thinks you grow wearie of your work for you draw up whole pages into little more then a line But Sir you dissemble mine Argument because you felt where it pinched you and knew not which way to rid your hands of it The argument runs thus m Ans p. 15. If the Gospell propound and promise pardon of sin and salvation without any condition at all required on our part and all such conditions and qualifications of beliefe repentance and new obedience destroy the freenesse of Grace then neither Christ nor John Baptist nor the Apostles preached either Gospel or free-grace for they thus preached and propounded pardon of sin and salvation upon such terms from the first to the last as I there at large shew by their expresse professions and speeches and according to your grounds therefore they never preached free-grace Now out of this whole argument you only pick one peice letting passe all the rest with the proofs thereof that it may not appeare to what purpose it was propounded nor attemping once to take of the crime laid upon you the stain whereof sticks as close to you and your tenents as your flesh to your bones and your skin to your flesh Onely you annex two places with an c. the n Matth. 5.8 one whereof I produce not for the proof of ought I affirm but o Answ p. 14. to shew what your brother Eaton saith of it who makes it a parcell of Christs Legall preaching the p Rom. 8.1 other indeed I alledge but q Answ p. 15. insisting principally on the words of the twelfth and thirteenth verses of that Chapter which you saw so inconsistent with your presumptuous novelties that you listed not to take notice of them Yet let us hear what you say unto that which you have pitched upon r Repl. p. 10. Sect. 1. They preached faith and repentance and obedience 1. in degrees of revelation the Gospel came not all out at once in his glory 2. not in parts as wee have their doctrine as you confesse they preached them but all along in the New Testament there is more of their glory and fullnesse reveiled concerning them So as the degrees of reveiling the parts and summaries of their sermons the fuller discovery in the whole New Testament are those things you consider not we onely consider and so dare not preach the Gospel so in halfs in parts and qarters as you do and yet will not beleive you do which is so much worse you say you see and therefore your sinne remaineth But Sir what is all this to take off the edge of mine Argument which cuts to the qick with you convincing you by necessary conseqence of blaspheming the doctrine of Christ and his Apostels as teaching such doctrine as not onely doth not hold out Gospel or free-grace but doth utterly overthrow and take away the very truth and essence of either For the conditions and qalifications here mentioned which you denie not to have been taught by them are such you say as tho the Gospel so propounded and preached may have some notion of free grace in it yet it hath no truth thereof at all the guilt whereof therefore you stand justly still charged with notwithstanding ought that beside the point in qestion you prate here to no purpose 2. The two branches of your Answer for it seems you were in some perplexity or disturbance at least when you were puting pen to paper do apparently enterfere cut and crosse the one the other For if the Gospel came not all at once to them but was reveiled to them by dâ—grees which you affirm in the first branch then how could they choose but preach it in parts which yet you denie in the latter branch Thus Sir your forces like Å¿ Suoqe Marte cadant subiti per mutua vulnera fratres Nafo Met. lib. 3. the men in the fable that sprung up of the snakes teeth of Cadmus his sowing fall foul one on another and destroy either other without the help of any adverse partie for how could they preach it otherwise then it was reveiled and if by peices reveiled to them then sure in peices preached by them 3. Grant that some things were afterward reveiled to them wherewith at first they were not made acquainted Yet 1. there was at the first so much reveiled to them and preached by them as was sufficient to convert and save souls for to what end else was their preaching Either therefore you must of necessity grant that men may be converted and saved without notice of free grace and Gospel of free grace or Gospel I say for no Gospel without grace nor grace that is not free or that the Apostels if by their ministery they did at first convert any then the doctrine of free-grace was reveiled to them and preached by them at first which how could they do if at the same time they preached that that was directly contrary to free-grace and did take away the truth of it unlesse any man will be so void of reason and common sence as to say that the Apostles preached contradictories in the very self same sermons 2. There was nothing in matter of doctrine afterward reveiled unto them or taught by them that crossed or repealed ought that had formerly been made known unto them and by them made known to others Divine revelations concerning matter of faith cannot possibly contradict one another tho such as yours are may both cotradict some contained in Gods word and some other also of your own what they taught at first was the truth of God as well as what they taught at last nor did they ever revers ought of what was taught at first by them but continued teaching the same
or partakers of salvation but by faith And if no conditions at all be reqired for obtaining salvation by Christ as was formerly affirmed by you then neither Faith also Yea to this you come fully home where you say that r Ibid. p. 15â— 153. The Covenant now under the Gospel is such a kind of Covenant as was established with Noah Gen. 9.11 clear against the strain of the old wherein man was to have his life upon condition And in this your Reply you deny Å¿ Reply p. 14. § 8. the receiving of Christ to be acknowledged by you as a condition And indeed if the promise of salvation by Christ be as absolute and free from all condition as that Covenant made with Noah then may a man be saved by Christ tho he never know or look after Christ as he is sure never to perish by an oecumenicall deluge tho he neither know nor believe nor do ever heare of such a Covenant concerning it Whereunto also t Answ p. 8. 9. 24. 25. where it came to be scanned whence you might have informed your self what this shorter cut meant as a thing materiall you have returned nothing at all But thus the Reader may be pleased to take notice of that shorter cut and more compendious way and easier passage to heaven that your self have cut out as well as those other of your way not without onely but contrary to all warrant of Gods Word 3. For what you add of the Popish way by works whereby men are said to merit heaven we abhorre and detest it as much as you do Of some protestants by Iesus Christ and works Sir when you set Iesus Christ and works as cheek by joull the one with the other you wrong those whom you would by such an expression aspers They teach Christ Iesus to be the only purchaser and procurer of our Iustification and salvation and his bloud to be the only price that was laid down and paid for the purchase thereof But they hold withall that faith and repentance and self-deniall and new obedience are necessarily required in the Gospel as conditions to be performed by all those that will have part and interest in Christ or look for salvation by Christ and that none shall without these ever attain to that salvation so deerly purchased by Christ And for this Sir we have the Scriptures pregnant and plentifull as your self can not be ignorant and as in the Answer to your book hath sufficiently u Answ p. 11. 15. been shewed which how you seek either to shift off or to slubber over shall appeer when we come to that part of your Reply Lastly for taxing me x Reply p. 2. § 3. with frowardnesse and qarrelsomnesse which yet you impute partly to mine age and partly to the remainders of my disease rather then my judgment and the infirmity of my body not the strengh of my Spirit but withall demand of me why I chose not a better time to try truth in when I were not so much in the body 1. Sir froward or qarrelsome I have not shewd my selfe in this businesse The beginner of the qarell here was your self who as an insolent Golias first entred the feild with a flag of defiance y Treat p. 40. to the Divinity both of this age and former times reproaching in base and scurrilous manner Gods faithful Ministers men many of them much better then your self and endeavouring by your unchristian charges and vile calumnies to bring shame and contempt upon them and their Ministery and were pleased to single me out and draw me forth among others whom tho comming all within verge of your magisteriall censure you call in for seconds as complying in part with you and the party you fight for acknowledging litle difference at least between us and them nor doth it argue any frowardnesse or qarelsomnesse in one so engaged to endevour z 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Menander Olynth Chaeremon Ther 's Svid Principium non est â m qi me vindico Et Achaus apud Athen. l. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Nâ—n haec ego ultro diâ—o sed me vindicans to vindicate himself and those with himself whom he finds to be so abused 2. For my yeers Sir scof not at old age you may live if God pleas to come to it your self and for the remainders of my sicknesse which I am not yet freed from nor am like to be in hast a Eccles 3. 1 2 c. Vide Iuâ— Coch. sicknesse and health are passages of Gods providence above mans power to dispose of nor was it therefore in mine hand to make choyse of my time for this tryall of truth but was necessitated to take it as the wrong offred by your self occasioned it and as God had pleased to dispose Besides that the triall of truth in this cause was not now to be first new taken up by me but had formerly been laboured in as by b Gods Eye on his Israel my other work may in part appear in time of better health and you may see if you please thereby to understand that my judgement then was the same that now still it is Nor is sicknesse I suppose wont to make men much in the body as you seem here to imply but lesse rather Howbeit Sir I seem to understand your jeer and to conceive what spirit and body you intend such spirit and body as may be justly suspected notwithstanding all your vauntings of such a glorious spirit and light that you have litle yet of the one but too much still of the other otherwise being c 2 Cor. 4.16 12.10 much in bodily weaknesse is not wont to be deemed any means of impeaching the work of grace in the soul And thus farre shall suffice to all that you have replyed either to my Preface or to the former part of mine Answer all in effect as good as nought Passe we now to consider of your Reply to the latter part concerning divers Passages in your Treatise Here at the very entrance into this Part of your Reply you manifest your self to be of that qarelsome disposition that you pleased even now to fasten on me For to pick out matter for a new qarell to begin with you d Reply p ◠§ 1. relate my words thus That our Antinomian free-grace is not the same with the Prophets in the Old Testament and the Apostles in the New And then you fall as one in a chafing heat to chide and demand Why do you tell us of Antinomian of Prophets and Apostles free grace It is not the free grace of any of these I could as easily say Mr Gatakers free-grace and the Legalists free-grace as he the Antinomians free-grace but such words and repoaches make neither you nor I speak better truth Good Sir e Ne saevi magâ—e Sacerdâ—s have patience awhile I pray you be not so hot and eager in your first
troublesome unto you with my Logick in something wherein forbearing to relate mine Argument you slubber over the matter after your wonted manner of answering as if so you said somewhat it were not materiall whither or no it were to the purpose I charge you with making Gods Prophets delâ—ders of Gods people which tho it be apparent enough by what already hath been d Answ p. 7 8. said yet I doe by this Argument further make good Those that professe to Preach free-grace and yet propound it with such conditions and qalifications that tho free-grace may be in the notion of it yet it is not in the truth of it they delude the people to whom they so preach But the Prophets of God say you tho they professe to preach free-grace yet they propounded it with such conditions and qalifications that tho free-grace might be in the notion of it yet it was not in the truth of it The Prophets therefore according to your assertions deluded the people to whom they preached Of the Proposition of this Argument no man I suppose will make doubt And for the Assumption you must be enforced to own it wind and wriggell you which way you will For first concerning the former part of it that e Treat p. 24â— 30. the Prophets professed to preach free-grace you grant and produce as others also of yours doe f Esay 55.1 a passage of Esay to that purpose And secondly for the latter part to wit that it was by them tempered with such conditions and qalifications as did eat out the very heart of free-grace that tho it were in the notion of it yet it was not in the truth I thus prove to be yours If the conditions and qalifications used by the Legalists as you stile them of these times in preaching of the Gospel being no other then such as the Prophets of God formerly used are such as the free grace may be there in the notion yet it is not in the truth of it then was it by the Prophets so tempered that tho free-grace might be there in the notion of it yet it was not in the truth of it But the conditions and qalifications say you used by our legall teachers in preaching the Gospel being no other then such as the Prophets of God formerly used are such as tho free-grace may be there in the notion yet it is not in the truth of it Therefore according to your assertions the Prophets so tempered it that tho frâ—e grace might be there in the notion yet not in the truth of it The Proposition cannot be by any colour denyed for whatsoever destroys the nature and truth of free-grace must needs be of the same force wheresover it is found And for the Assumption neither do you nor can you deny any part of it to be your own For all that herein you charge the Legalists with both now again and before is g Treat Ocâ—â—s â—â—rd p â— preaching the Gospel with such conditions and qalifications as the Prophets did and of such preaching you say in expresse termes h Treat p 16â— that tho it may have a notion of free grace yet it hath not the truth of it Now Sir let others judge whither or no I have justly charged you with making Gods Prophets deluders of his people Yea with casting an impious and blasphemous aspersion upon God himself in making him i Occas Word p. 4. like a Master that to seem liberall bad his servants fill his wine out freely but had before ordered them to burne it so that it should be too hot for them to drink But your eagernesse against the Legalists makes you with others of your strain to oft too forget your selves and to aspers Prophets and Apostels yea and God himself togither with them For all that you reply here in defence of your selfe is no direct answer unto any part of the Argument but as if indeed you had never been acqainted with rules of Logick or had wholy forgotten them or were resolved utterly to relinquish them you addresse your self to the conclusion which alone you relate and tell us with-all that k Replâ— p. 4. 5. § 3. The Prophets were no deluders of Gods people bcause Gods people were then in their pupillage and the way of teaching which they then used by pressing repentance reformation humiliation with commination and the law c. was the methode and the straine that the Spirit then taught them but if they should so have held out Christ now when the Ministration of the Spirit exceeds in glory they should have sinned Which howsoever part of it be true and part of it most false for neither did Christ nor his Apostels sin in preaching and pressing these things as shall hereafter be shewed they did nor doth the preaching and pressing them any whit derogate from the glorious Ministration of the Gospel Yet no part of it is at all to the purpose nor helps any whit to clear you of that aspersion cast upon them and upon the Spirit of God that then taught and directed them For how doth this take off the crime you stand charged with of aspersing Gods Prophets and God himself as by them deluding his people in pretending to preach and propound free-grace to them whereas there was no truth but a meer notion or fiction rather of it for what other thing is a notion without truth in that they taught How doth it in any wise take it off I say or not rather further confirm it by telling us that they did no other but what the Spirit of God taught and directed them to do and so devolving that base and unbeseeming carriage wherewith under the person of Legalists you had aspersed Gods Prophets from them unto God himself and his Spirit For what is this but to say that God directed his Prophets so to propound free grace to his people that tho it might carry some semblance thereof with it yet it should have no truth thereof in it nor are they therefore to be taxed as deluders of Gods people tho the Legalists delude them when they do the like because God taught them so to do Thus you see Sir how in labouring to shift of your shamefull abuse of Gods Ministers and their manner of teaching you do but plung your self into further impiety and set your mouth blasphemously against heaven it self Yea consider how you adde blasphemy to blasphemy a new one concerning Christ and his Apostles to your former concerning God and his Prophets For if the Prophets say you have held out Christ in the New Testament as they did before pressing repentance reformation humiliation and with commination and the Law they had sinned against the glory of that Ministration Now Sir to make a little further use of my Logick l Mensura hypothetica est propositio aliqa categorica ad qam semper revoc ri debet Bert. Logic. l. 2. c. 7. An hypotheticall Proposition they say
tho we preach them in pieces as we find them preached by Christ and his Apostles before us yet preach we the whole for b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist metaphys l. 4. c. 26. all the parts and pieces make up the whole and your censure of us is most frivolous 3. Consider Sir what an insolent claim after your wonted manner you here made as if you were the only men forsooth that preach the fulnesse of the mystery the riches of the Gospel and the glory of the New Testament But Sir I see we must bear with you for you seem so highly conceited of and strongly yea strangly transported with the conceit of your own way of preaching that unlesse you be vaunting and bragging of it you burst 4. Consider what aspersions you cast hereby upon the Apostles of Christ yea upon Christ himself to wit that they preached not the fulnesse of the mystery nor the riches of the Gospel nor the glory of the New Testament for they delivered these things in pieces as by their Sermons and Epistles whence we take them your self confessing it as we find them appears but left that it seems to be done by you and those of your side Whither will not the insolency of mans hauty heart dare to ascend and yet observe their hyprocrisy they dare not forsooth do as we do preach these things in pieces as the Apostels did humble minded men that dare not be so presumptuous as we are and yet under colour of this not daring to do as not we alone but the Apostles also before us did dare advance and extoll their own way of teaching above not our teaching alone but theirs also and the Holy Ghost it self that taught by them c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 M rc Imp. l. 12. § 27 no pride worse or more abominable then that which commeth shrowded under the weed and wimple of humility and by seeming to stoop strives to lift up it self 2. d Reply Ibid. You find you say that in the fulnesse of the New Testament Christ is sit up as a Prince as a King as a Lord as a crown and glory to every grace and gift nay he is made not only righteousnesse but sanctification to and so you preach him Whereas to preach his riches without him his graces by themselves singel and private as repent and believe and be humbled and deny your selves we make the gifts loose much of their glory Christ of his prayse and the Gospel of its fulnesse To all which vain glosing I Answer 1. Which of us deny Christ any part of this his honour or how preach we faith in Christ repentance unto remission of sin by Christ or self-deniall as a duty reqired by Christ of all those that look for salvation from Christ how can we preach any of these thus and not withall preach Christ But Sir still you proceed without fear or shame as if you had cast both away to asperse our Saviour himself and his blessed Apostles in whom and with whom we find the duties by you here mentioned in the self same manner pressed as you here propound them nor is there any ground or colour of reason for any to imagine that whensoever they preached any of these duties unto any or pressed them upon any they did withall instruct them in the whole doctrine and mystery concerning the power and principality of Christ Read over our Saviours e Math. 5. 6. 7. large Sermon in the Mount his other long f Math. 13. Sermon by the Sea-side his discourse g Math. 24. on Mount Olivet with his Disciples his h Math. 16.23.27 lessoning of them upon Peters carnall advice i Act 8.20.23 Peters spirituall exhortation and advice to the Sorcerer James whole Epistle and Johns and Judes and as you finde their exhortations to be framed so judge whither they come not within the compasse of this arrogant mans censure who litle regards how he brands or upbraids Gods Pâ—ophets Christs Apostles yea Christ himself and their preaching and teaching so long as together with them he may ding some dirt on the faces of them and their doctrine whom in the height and pride of his censorious spirit he looks upon either k See Ans p. 30 as meer imposters or as punies to himself in the mystery of Christ and the Gospel But 2. Sir we have learned to distinguish between Christ himself and the Graces of his Spirit and those duties or actions the performance whereof is reqired of all those tho by grace from God received thereunto enabled that desire or expect to be saved by Christ and to give each his due and proper place nor do we jumble these things together as you and those of your strain are wont to do whereof to give the Reader a tast tho of no very good relish I shall relate some passages that my self heard delivered by c Heydon a â—usie spread r of Mr Eatons books one of them in a Sermon which as I was afterward enformed had been preached in divers places The Scripture he undertook to handel was 1 Joh. 3.7 Litle children let no man deceive you He that doth righteousnesse is righteous even as he is righteous In opening whereof he told his Auditory that there was a twofold righteousnesse a righteousnesse inherent and a righteousnesse imputed an active and a passive righteousnesse the former was the righteousnesse of the Law the latter of the Gospel and that the latter to wit the imputed or passive righteousnesse was the righteousnesse that the Apostle here spake of and in prosecution of his matter he expounded all the places he qoted wherein any duty was reqired not as to be done by us but as done by Christ for us so to be believed of us For example d Math. 7.21 Not every one that cals me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father in Heaven that is he that hath done it in Christ and believeth that Christ did it for him and e Math. 12.50 He that shall do the will of my Father in heaven the same is my brother and sister and mother that shall do it in Christ and believe that he hath done it for him and f Eph. 4.24 put on the new man which is after God created in righteousnesse and true holynesse that is Jesus Christ by believing his holynesse and righteousnesse imputed unto you and g 1 Cor. 15.58 abounding in the work of the Lord that is in believing in Christ for that is h Ioh. 6.29 the work of God and what he hath wrought for you Beside many other Scriptures in like-manner vexed and racked and being afterward charged with wronging his text in expounding it directly contrary to the expresse words of it and to the coherence of it with the rest of the context he boldly and peremptorily affirm'd that all that went before of i
c Ibid. 63. Except ye eat the flesh of the Sonne of man c the words saith he that I speak are Spirit Sure the man is in a strange humour he would have those that deal with him to make themselves no better then meer bruits for they must devest themselves not of Logick only but of Grammer too both of common speech and common sense they must not interpret the Spirit by conseqence as much as to say in plainer terms they must deduce nothing by conseqence from Scripture especially when it shall crosse any Tenent of his nor must they say that such a speech imports a condition tho they find it usherd in with a conditionall particle and therefore tho nisi or except be such an one in our Saviours assertion yet it must by no means there import a condition For as for what he subjoyns that some of the Disciples should stumble at those words of our Saviour because they took them as I do under a condition and that our Saviour therefore told them that the words he spake were Spirit And what then that they were not to be taken rherefore under a condition as if in Spirituall things conditions could not be as well as in carnall these things are so palpably absurd that it is a wonder how they could possibly find entrance I say not into any Schollers skull but into any illiterate fellows head piece unlesse his brain-pan were not lightly crafied only but clean crakt For who is so voyd of common sense as not easily to apprehend that the ground of their startling at that passage was not the taking of the words as conditionally conceived which our Saviour no where waives but the d Carnaliter intellexerunt qod spir tualiter intâ—lligendum erat Aug. in Ioan. 27 de doctr Chist l 3. taking of that carnally which was to be understood spiritually was that wherein they were mistaken and which our Saviour meets with in that after-speech But some things they say are so apparant of themselves that tho it may well be deemed a fond labour to spend many words about proof of them yet e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epict. l. 1. c. 5. it is not so easie by argument to confirm them against an obstinate opponent not because they are not of unqestionable truth but because they are of themselves so clear being in the nature of principles that it is hard finding out a medium to prove them by that is not lesse clear then themselves as that two and two make four and that contradictories ever divide truth and falshood And just such are those assertions that Mr S. here opposeth that Collections may by conseqence be framed from Scripture that Conditions may be in spirituall things as well as in carnall that Conditionall particles imply a condition that a Condition is where the whole nature of a condition is found But that this man herein striveth against the clear light of truth shining into his soul or within him rather by that candle of naturall reason that God hath set up in his soul only to run counter to the Legalists whom his soul so much abhorreth may hereby appear in that when this fit of opposition is a litle over and this heat of passion somewhat alayed with him and the man is come again now to himself he freely of himself confesseth that f Treat p. 163. the Gospel is formed up of exhortations conditionall promises c. unto which els-where objected he returned not a word and what other promises but these and such as these the Gospel should be made up of I suppose Mr S. himself is not able to shew nor do I believe that he meant any other Howbeit it may be that out of some nice subtilty tho he grant conditionall he will deny condition as in an other subject he seems to have some such subtile reserve where tho he use the word divinity yet he scoft the title of a Divine as I am enformed that some other also now do but they perchance meerly for some want of Scholership but Mr S. a professed Scholer I am sure cannot be ignorant that a Divine and Divinity condition and conditionall are vocabula yea and argumenta conjugata But however Sir lay aside if it be so offensive to you the term of condition for to maintain strif about words is but a vain expence of time Do you but acknowledge that upon believing in Christ repenting of sin and leading a new life life and salvation may undoubtedly be attained and that without these it cannot be had and we shall herein be soon agreed or if you dare deny it and so give our Saviour Christ himself and his Apostles the lye whom I have shewed in expresse terms by testimonies unavoidable so to affirm But here you object 1. That g Reply p. 8. § 2. thâ—se that are Christs do not repent and believe and obey that they may be Christs for God hath chosen us in him and predestinated us unto the adoption of Children in Jesus Christ But Sir 1. All this proves not that these things are not conditions of the Gospel or that any can have part in Christ without them i Graâ—is hoc qoque prâ—stitum est gratis qod ad tâ— attâ—â—et nâ—m quâ—ad â—llâ— nâ—n gratis salvus factâ—s es pro nihilo sed non de nihilo tamen Bern. Ser. in Psal 90. 2. The Apostle telleth us in expresse terms that h Gal. 2.16 he believed in Christ that he might be justified by Christ thereby implying that he was not actually justified or had part in the justification procured and purchased by the death of Christ untill he believed And albeit the ransome whereby we are freely in regard of our selves justified be wholly in Christ Iesus yet is he said to be k Rom 3.24.25 set forth for an atonement unto us through faith in his blood nor were those l Rom. 11.23 24. branches of the wâ—ld Olive which were taken to succeed in the roome of those who were broken off actually in Christ but m Epes 2.12 out of Christ untill upon their believing they were engraffed into Christ 3. As n Epes 1.5 God hath predestinated us unto the adoption of sonnes in Christ that is to be adopted through Christ as he is said to have blessed us with all spirituall blessings in him so hath he elected them whom hee was pleased so to single out in his counsel and purpose from eternity o Ibid. v. 3. p Iam. 2.5 to be rich in faith saith one Apostle q Ephes 1.4 to be holy and unblameable before him in love saith an other Apostle and the same again r 2 Thes 2.13 he hath from the begining chosen you unto salvation by the sanctification of the Spirit and the beliâ—f of the truth or by sanctification of the Spirit and true Faith nor can any man therefore have life and salvation without these 2. Å¿
for what I say from this injunction of our Saviour then you have or can have for your professed profusenesse from that speech of his directed to his friends in the Canticles 2. You ask l Repl. ibid. What were all of us in our unregenerate condition sinners or righteous persons unholy or holy men of faith or unbelief or not rather dead in trespasses and sins till qickned with Christ And Sir what tends this Qestion to Who denies or makes doubt but that m Eph. 2.1 5. we were all such untill God qickned us with Christ and yet how were any of us fitted to taste or able to drink of that pretious spirituall liqour before we were so qickned But in stead hereof you might have been pleased to consider what you found objected n Ans p. 17. a little after against your second Assertion which you there waiv it seems unable to answer Nos actum non agimus Your next work is to justifie some of the Assertions in your Treatise excepted against as warping too much toward the way of those that o Jude 4. turn Gods grace into wantonnesse some whereof you take notice of and seek to salve others you leave to shift as they may for themselves The first is that p Treat p. 102. The promises belong to sinners as sinners not as repenting or humbled sinners The second that q Treat p. 186. None ever received Christ but in a sinfull condition In justification hereof you give us a large reply tho not answering at all the objections r Answ p. 17. made against either nor shewing how what you say is appliable to either in these words Å¿ Reply p. 11. To whom doe all promises belong first but to Christ and from whom to us but from Christ and what are the elect and chosen in him before they are called and beleeve but sinners as sinners doe you look that men should be first whole for the Physitian or righteous for pardon of sin or justified for Christ or rather sinners unrighteous ungodly while we were yet sinners Christ died for us Hee died for the ungodly Christ is the Physitian the righteousnesse the sanctification and makes them beloved that were not beloved and to obtaine mercy that had not obtained mercy and saints that were sinners and spirituall who were carnall So as we looke at Christ and the promises coming to men in their sins But those men were beloved of God in Christ who suffered for sins before so as they begin not now to be loved but to be made to love God begins not to be reconciled to them but they begin to be reconciled to him t Rom. 5. the love of God being shed abroad in their hearts by the Spirit which is now given unto them So as wee looking at persons as chosen in Christ and at their sins as born by Christ in his body on the tree we see nothing in persons to hinder them from the Gospel and offers of grace there be they never so sinfull to us or themselves they are not so to him who hath chosen them nor to him in whom they are chosen And this is the mystery why Christ is offered to sinners or rogues or whatsoever you call them u Rom. 11.28 They are as touching the election beloved for the Fathers sake I speak of such to whom Christ gives power to receive him and believe on him and become the sons of God and Christ finds them out in their sins and visits them who sit in the region and shadow of death and them that are darknesse he makes light in the Lord. Sir All this long discourse of yours concerning Gods election of men in Chrst the estate they were in when Christ died for them Gods reconciling them to him loving them before they loved him c. Doe not all prove that the promises of the Gospel to wit of pardon of sin and salvation doe belong to finners as sinners and not as repentant and humbled sinners x Mat. 11.28 such alone as Christ invites and promises to refresh nor doe you frame hence any formall argument whereunto a direct answer might be duely shaped and returned but heap us up a pile of words affording no premises from which what you should prove can be necessarily concluded For to passe by that your uncouth phrase of all the promises belonging first to Christ not unlike that which you have elsewhere that a Treat p. 125. God makes no covenant with man but with Christ tho wee deny not but that b 2 Cor. 1.19 Gods promises are all yea and Amen in Christ Election and Predectination either of Christs or of any other in or unto Christ must be distinguished from the actuall exhibition of Christ either by his incarnation or by the application of him unto any As c 1 Pet. 1.20 Christ was predâ—stinate to be made man and to suffer from eternitie but was not actually exhibited d Gal. 4 4. untill that set time that God had before appointed so God e Eph. 1.4 elects men from eternity hee f Rom. 8.29 30. calls and converts them in time hee g Eph. 1.5 predestinates them to be adopted it is the Apostles own language but hee doth not actually adopt untill hee give them power to h John 1.12 receive Christ in whom they are adopted hee determineth to justifie them from all eternity but hee doth not actually justifie them untill he work faith in them i Rom. 5.1 whereby they are justified and whereby they k Gal. 2.16 beleeve that they may be justified as the Apostle speaks of himself thereby implying that hee was not justified untill hee beleeved Hee decrees to pardon and remit sins from eternity for l Acts 15.18 from the beginning were all Gods works known to himselfe and resolved upon with himself but doth not actually remit or release sin untill hee give grace to repent which in the Gospel phrase and method m Luk. 24.47 Acts 3.19 8.22 goes constantly before pardon and so doth in nature tho not in time Hee purposeth from all eternitie to sanctifie all his who are therefore said to be n Eph. 1.4 elect thereunto and yet were they not nor could be actually sanctified before they were nor were for a long time after they were many of them it may be the most Nor will it avail to object as some doe that sanctification is a transient act and causeth a reall change in the person of the party sanctified which justification doth not for justification doth the like tho not in the person yet in the state and condition of the party justified and may in that regard be termed a transient act also Howsoever for School-terms it be sure it is that justification and adoption are herein both alike and since that the Apostle in saying that we were o Eph. 1.5 predestinate to be adopted doth thereby imply that the
with Scripture to fish and fetch out of it some abstruse mysteries and strange crotchets beyond ordinary apprehension dealing nothing so religiously with Gods word as any sober-minded man would doe with any humane Autor of any profession u Interpretis professio est non qo ipse disertus appareat sed qo eum qi lecturus est faciat intelligere qomodo ipse intellexit qi scripsit Hieron ad Marcel de Rhet. Commentatoris officium est non qid ipse velit sed qid sentiat ille quem interpretatur exponere Idem de Jovin Apolog. 1. whom hee were to open and expound As for your abuse Sir of this Scripture testimony concerning Scripture were but your words brought into a Syllogisticall form it would plainly appear how impertinently and ridiculously it is by you here produced And for your censure past on our way of handling Scripture I will say no more but this that if wee should take that course of dealing with Scripture that your self and some of yours do our Divinitie would not onely be lesse divine but much more fantasticall then wee blesse God for it as yet it is From these Assertions you passe to others excepted against which are specially concerning Faith The first whereof is this that w Treat p. 94. Faith is truly and simply this A being perswaded more or lesse of Christs love This being excepted against as containing no more then any man the wickedest and most profane may have and indeed who almost hath not Your Reply is only in a poor chiding way that no whit salves the loosnesse and unsoundnesse of such a libertinish and licentious Assertion thus x Repl. p. 13. Sect. 6. I pray you mistake not Can all beleeve from the Spirit Can all be more or lesse spiritually perswaded Doe I speak of any perswasion of Christs love which is not spirituall Deceive not your self nor your Reader nor wrong your Author Or do I speak of Faith abstracted from all Repentance Obedience c. Why deal you thus 1. Sir all your pitifull complaint of wrong done you is idle and frivolous I wrong you not I misrelate you not but give you your own words entirely as I find them in you If any other mistake you and by mistaking of you be incouraged to sooth up themselves with a vain conceit of being possessed of true faith when indeed there is no such matter your self is to be blamed who by such speeches as these give ground to such a pernicious error by not speaking your mind more fully and plainly if you meant one thing and spake another and stand guilty of the bloud of the souls of such as shall or may perish by such mistake 2. If when you professe to deliver your minde truly and plainly yet you mean otherwise then you speak and speak otherwise then you mean as it was said of a couple y Pontificem nunqam qod diceret facere Valentinum nunqam qod faceret dicere Guicciard l. 1. the father and the son of no very good note either how shall we know when your speeches and your meanings concur 3. Can all believ from the Spirit No Sir none can believ from the Spirit but those alone that believ from Gods word But many that have no ground of belief from Gods word but from such principles as without warrant from it you and yours infuse into them nor ever had ought of Gods spirit in them may yet have such a perswasion as you here mention And wee therefore tax this for an unsound Assertion and a rotten principle the same term that you z Treat p. 85. brand some notes of Assurance with which yet you cannot but confesse to be found in Gods word And to mend the matter you afterward tell us that a Treat p. 92. none ought to qestion whether they believ or not and so disswade those that have swallowed down this your poysonfull principle from examining whether their faith be true and sound or no. And it is an absurd thing for you to ask whether you speak of any perswasion of Christs love that is not spirituall when not onely you say perswasion in generall making no mention of spirituall but forbid any to try it whether it be spirituall or no. 4. But Can all be more or lesse spiritually perswaded 1. Where is that spiritually in your text If it were in your brest as a secret reserv which is your b Repl pag. 2. Sect. 1 4. vain plea concerning some words of mine abused by you where you were as by the finger pointed to my meaning not concealed but expressed like a back-door or a starting hole for you to slip out at when occasion should be and your self closely pursued and hard pressed with it You doe but juggle with us and delude your Reader that you may make our doctrine herein not complying with yours to bee deemed too strict as devised on purpose to pinch men and c Treat p. 37. keep them in pain to make the cure after the more admired 2. You talk still in ambiguous terms to us For what intend you by being spiritually perswaded If from such grounds as Gods Spirit in the word suggests and such operations as the Spirit is wont ever to work in the soul wheresoever it gives ability to believ you crosse your self who are ever and anon girding at us as d Reply p. 5. Sect. 1. your self deny not and traducing us for teaching men with the Apostle thence to draw ground for such perswasion and thereby to examine the truth of it If you mean by an immediate voice of the Spirit speaking directly to the soul as some of your party seem to maintain then I see not how there can be more or lesse in it notwithstanding whatsoever you talk else-where of e Treat p. 99. degrees For what the Spirit speaks in such an immediate manner to the soul cannot but fully satisfie and perswade that soul to whom it so speaks Nor will you ever be able to prove that to every beleever the Spirit so speaks 5. But Do you speak of faith abstracted from all repentance obedience c. 1. If such perswasion as you mention may be without any of these as there is no qestion but it may be then a faith abstracted from these comes within compasse of your definition or description of faith term it whether you please 2. You do speak of approve and justifie such a faith yea more then that you affirm all true faith to be such when you maintain that f Treat p. 186. every one that receivs Christ which is done g Joh. 1.12 by faith receivs him in a sinfull condition and consequently in an impenitent condition And that to be your meaning you acknowledge tho you return no answer to mine Argument against it 3. If you intend no other faith why do you so oft tax us for pressing these things as required of all those that have interest in
be content to take these and teach them such as they be and as the writers of holy writ have ascertained them to be And yet give mee leave to be so bold as to tel you so much of my mind by the way that I shall ever conceive just cause to qestion that faith that shunneth this touchstone that refuseth to be tried by such signs and marks as the Apostles have propounded for that purpose c Repl. Ibid. But is that say you the best spirituall assurance that is from our spirit in part or from God alone from our reasoning or his speaking can a spouse argue better the love of her friend from his tokens and bracelets or from his owne word and letter and seal 1. Sir we contend not for prerogative as was before said that is a qestion of your owne no assertion of ours 2. The assurance gathered from the gratious work of gods spirit on our souls and the effects of the same is not an assurance taken from our own spirit but from Gods spirit d 1 Joh. 4.13 Hereby we know that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his spirit 3. Our assurance rightly and truly raised by our reasoning from Gods gratious work in us is a true and a divine testimony as a e Habent testimonium in verbo Dei suntqe non minus divina mandata qae ex certa Scripturae sententia bona consequentia deducuntur qam qae totidem literis syllabis in Scripturis exprimuntur Chemnit exam trid part 1. p. 19. conclusion necessarily deduced from Scripture is a divine truth as well as that that is expresly found in Scripture yea the Apostle tels us that f Rom. 8.16 the Spirit of God bears witnesse together with our spirit Nor doth the one therefore simply weaken the work of the other 4. A bracelet or a frontlet barely sent or given may argue some good will but makes no engagement there must be some letter or g Pignus est donum verbo vestitum Reg. Jur. word of promise added that must effect that And that these spirituall endowments want not Wee have Gods word h 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Maca. hom 39. his letter his hand writing his seal both testifying to us and giving us assurance that these things are his earnests as your self before confest 5. Yea but i Repl. Ibid. the Spirit is k 1 Joh. 5.8 one of the three that beareth witnesse on earth and in whom after ye beleeved you were sealed with the Spirit of promise That l Rom. 8.16 The Spirit bears witnesse and that together with our spirit is acknowledged and that the faithfull are said to be m Ephes 1.14 4.30 sealed by the Spirit the Apostle is expresse for it but the qestion is what manner of sealing it is that is there meant And it is such I suppose as rather crosses then furthers what you would have Which to make manifest I shall in the first place crave leave that I may without offence or prejudice a little rectifie the Translation and render the text as the Originall yeelds it the words run thus n Ephes 1.13 In whom o 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ita 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credens Marc. 16.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credentes Luc. 8.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere Marc. 9.23 2 Thess 2.11 Sic 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 audiens Mat. 2.3 4.12 8.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 audientes Mat. 15.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 audire Mat. 13.42 13.15 17. beleeving or having beleeved or when you beleeved you were sealed Now the sealing here mentioned I take to consist in the inward endowments of sanctifying grace whereby the Spirit set Gods mark and seal on them at the time of their conversion and receiving of Christ My reasons are briefly 1. The sealing here mentioned is generall common to all beleevers p 2 Cor. 1.21 22. us with you and you with us saith the Apostle of those at Corinth and the self-same hee presumeth here of all the faithfull at Ephesus 2. It is said of them that they are thereby sealed as elsewhere not that thereby redemption is sealed unto them but that q Ephes 1.13 4.30 they are thereby sealed unto it which implies some impression of a seal or signature stamped on them And herein some difference seems to be between the outward seals to wit the r Rom. 4.11 Sacraments and the inward seal of the Spirit that they seal the covenant to the soul this seals the soul to the future benefits contained in the covenant which in due time they shall be possessed of the Sacraments seal to all that receive them indifferently for the truth of the covenant else were not wicked ones Å¿ Jer. 34.18 covenant-breakers with God effectually for their good and benefit unto those alone that believe and repent The Spirit seals in the manner above mentioned not the truth of the covenant alone but the benefit of it unto the party thereby sealed as having interest in and unto all the good things therein contained and being by what hee hath already received marked out for and sealed up unto whatsoever thereof is yet behind 3. That which is here called the seal of the Spirit is else-where called the t Rom. 3.23 first-fruits of the Spirit as a parcell of that which in the ful crop is hereafter expected and of the same nature with it 4. That other place plainly parallell to this wherein by divers severall tropes under severall distinct notions this one and the self same thing is decyphered to me seems to carry it along this way u 2 Cor. 1.21 22. He it is saith the Apostle that assureth or rather w 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ensureth us in Christ or x 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into or unto Christ and hath anointed us who hath also sealed us and given or put the earnest of his spirit on our hearts Whence I thus reason Look how God ensureth us so he anointeth us and how he anoints us so he seals us and how he seals us so he gives us his earnest or puts his earnest into us But it is the gratious indowments of his sanctifying spirit wherewith he anoints us as all Interpreters hold that ever I read And it is the same therefore whereby God sealeth and ensures us as by his y Ephes 1.14 earnest to himself And this being as I take it with other good z â—llyric Calâ— Pisc Baâ—n alii Autors the genuine sense of that scripture the contrary whereunto I suppose you will not be able easily to evince it little helps you in ought that you would conclude from it but it much strengtheneth that which you so mightily oppose 6. * Repl. Ibid. Can any inference or consequence drawn from faith or love or repentance or obedience in us so assure us as the breathing of Christ
which purpose you instance 1. in James 2.24 18 21. where works you say are made a sign rather to others then our selves Which how I ſ Answ p. 29. shew to be not agreeable to the Apostles main scope who directs his speech there to the partie thereby to undeceive him in himself you passe by and return no answer unto 2. In 1 John 3.14 concerning which passage how absurd and senselesse it is so to say how directly contrary both to the Apostles scope in that Epistle and to his expresse words in that very place tho the bare reading of the Text be sufficient to make evident yet I shall refer my Reader to t 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suid. in Pythag. avoid needlesse prolixitie and unnecessary repetitions to what I have said u Ans ubi supr in mine Answer whereunto there is no one word here replied And much lesse to that of Peter which ought to come within compasse of your caetera but you have no mind at all to take notice of and that the rather because with it this your rather wherewith you would evade could have no colour as here also it hath no truth And Sir for what being enforced by evidence of truth shining forth so strongly and brightly in your face that in spite of your teeth it strikes through your eye-lids tho you close them as fast as you can possibly against it you doe in a scanty and malignant manner elsewhere x Treat p. 81. acknowledge which also I conceal not but y Ans p. 27 28. give it expresly in your own words after you have spent all your fleam and spittle upon it to bespatter it and throw so much dirt and filth on the face of it to deface and disgrace it it neither makes amends for your former abuse of it nor doth it take off ought that is herein charged on you And for your pitifull complaint therefore of a Concl. Ibid. my pulling your Treatise in pieces to make my self work and then binding it up again after mine own fashion It is so poor as might b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suid. vel Priamo miseranda Mar. l. 12. move even a professed adversary to pity you and shews indeed how inconsistent your Work is one part of it with another But Sir I want not work at home that I should with c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suid. Zenob Plut. ad Colot the Lydian go to seek some abroad much lesse wanted I any then when my work rather wanted me I being neither fit almost for any work at all and wanting workmen for that work which God had at that time disabled me unto Nor had I any reason to undertake that task that then I did had I not conceived a kind of necessitie in it Yet neither have I pulled your book in peeces nor have I bound it up again after my fashion Your book lies by me still intire bound up in the same manner as it was brought mee at first onely I have made bold to pick out of it and lay open some neither sound nor savoury passages of it and have dressed them indeed as they deserved but representing them no otherwise then as I found them in the book the precise words whereof you have not hitherto shewed that I have any where swarved from nor suppose I that I did amisse in so doing for neither did I undertake to deal with the whole book but to give some tast of what it contained nor if any thing be sound in it will that serve to excuse and justifie ought that is rotten and unsound As for d Concl. p. 16 17. the story of the Ladie what you except against my speech to her it is alredy answered elsewhere where the proper place of it was and where all this might have come in more seasonably then it doth here But in steed of it Sir you might have done well not to say over the same things again but to have asserted and confirmed by Scripture that way of assurance that e Treat p. 84 85. you propound as the only Scripture way and in regard whereof all other assurances those that Peter James and John hold out not excepted are affirmed to be but rotten stuffe to wit That we are to beleive that Christ hath beleived for us and we have beleived in him that he hath repented for us and we have repented in him For this Sir being one of your main shores yea the onely main shore in effect your immediate enthusiasm excepted erected and set up by you for the support of poor afflicted Spirits when you have beaten them off from all other ought not to have been deserted by you where you found it opposed much lesse dissembled and shifted off and shuffled or shoveled away as a thing not worthy of any notice among the rubble and rubbish wherin you say there is nothing of any substance And the truth is I am therein of the same mind with you if you think as you speak as concerning this particular that it is a meer shadow without substance and such therfore as is no more able to afford any true stay or sound satisfaction to a wavering soul or a wearied spirit then f Aesopi fab the shadow of the sheeps shoulder that the dog catched at in the water or some delineation of the like on the wall to releive and refresh an hungry body Take heed Sir how whilst you dally and delight your self with such sublimated notions distilled through the limbeck of your own qaint invention you delude Gods people and cause them as Jonas spake while they g Jon. 2.8 follow lying vanities to forsake their own mercy and so attract a greater guilt then you are aware of or at least consider well of at present But to what end spend I words and wast wind unto one who in plain termes professeth that should he so sin yea sin never to much being a beleiver as I doubt not but he beleives himself to be especially glorying and vaunting so much as he doth of the glorious light and spirit that he is now possessed of he never looks to be called to any acount for it and scoffs at those as silly souls drowned in melancholie that doe ever so imagine In the last place a little to ease your stomack and empty your h Jecur pro felle cujus vesicula jecori adhaeret Job 16.13 Lam. 2.11 liver you take ocasion at parting to spend out of your gall some of your bitter choler upon me by demanding of me i Conclus p. 17. now I am an old man for you are oft playing upon mine age how if I were to account to you I would gather up my assurance whether it would be of such a measure of faith so much obedience so much love to the brethern so much zeal prayer repentance and all of unqestionable evidence then you proceed to qestion me concerning my faillings when I
m Psal 18.20 24. being in favour with God and been so far forth thereby emboldened tho in submisse and humble manner to n Job 23.10.12 plead the sinceritie and integritie of their heart and life unto God and both o Isa 38.3 Psal 86.2 119.94 to ask and p Nehem. 13.14 22 31. to expect favovr and mercy and goodnesse from him in that regard 3. Your main drift herein and that not concealed but professedly held forth is in plain terms impious For it is as hath already in part also been shewed directly to contradict the Apostle John and to make him a liar for hee telleth us that hereby wee may know and have assurance that we are in the state of grace and life q 1 Joh. 1.7 if we walk in light r Chap. 3. 14. if we love the brethren ſ Ibid. Ver. 19 21 22. if we do those things that are wel-pleasing unto God And on the other side you tell us that we cannot hereby know or have any assurance of it and what is this but in expresse terms to contradict what he saith and to give the holy Ghost speaking by him the lie Or what other end can you pretend that you propounded to your self in this your prolix and curious sifting and shriving of Mr. G. but to make this assertion good And yet alas Sir what is he a feeble wretch t 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 5.2 beset one every side with manifold infirmities a sorry creature made up of a multitude of imperfections one of the meanest in his Lords house of the most unserviceable in his Masters familie Why should you pick him out as a patern or an instance whereby to disprove the Apostle For what if Mr. G. a man of so many failings were not able to make out any good account of his assurances from such grounds as John there gives or were found so faultie that he could not passe the triall and attain approbation by such marks as he there propounds and that Mr. S. here had laid such load of iniquitie and hypocrisie upon him as must of necessitie force him off from his hold Yet what is that to the truth of the Apostles doctrine or the proving of it to be vain and fruitlesse and useless and frivolous and such as no other tho sincere and upright might gather ground of assurance from To what purpose then is it Sir that you u 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 1.19 Catamidiare Spart in Pio. An Catomidiare ut Salm. bring him thus here on the stage either it is onely to traduce him and that is meer malignitie or else it is to crosse the doctrine it self delivered by the Apostle and that is grosse impietie Make your choise Sir your self for whether of the two you reserved this to the last and let it then go for an assay of the rest if you so please 10. That all we do or can do is unprofitable either unto the discharge of the least and lightest of our sins or to the meriting of ought more or lesse at Gods hands you need not tell us we are not to learn it from you nor need we to light our candle at any of your new waxen tapers for the discoverie of this truth we had it long since from x Matth. 23.8 our common Master that y Luk. 17.10 when wee have done all that ever wee can do we are unprofitable servants But withall we have also from him that even such a Isa 42.3 Mat. 12.20 smoking b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ut Isa 43.4 Ellychnium Jun. weeks as you jeer at c Treat p. 171. that have more smoke then light he will not qench and that the very buds and blossomes of sanctifying grace are d Rom. 8.23 the first fruits of the spirit and that the being of them in us and the diligent and constant exercise of them with us are a good e 1 Joh. 4.13 3.14 19. evidence of the state of grace and life and that true f 2 Cor. 7.10 repentance and Godly sorow for sin are good assurances of the pardon of sin and g 2 Cor. 1.21 22. 5.5 sure earnests of eternall salvation and that by these therefore tho wee h Job 22.2 35.7 Psal 16.2 cannot be profitable unto God yet wee may be profitable as i Tit. 3.8 unto others so herein also to our selves 11. But l Conclus p. 17. for your part you say you cannot be so uncharitable but to wish us a better assurance then what I and my brethren can find in our own works and righteousnesse For it is not what wee approve but what God approves is accepted k Luk. 16.9 Gal 6.7 8. 1 Tim. 6.18 19. 1. Sir I and my brethren are much beholden to you for your charitie Which yet as appears by the fruits of it is not very fervent towards us and which in the very next clause wherewith you consign all you bewray some want of it when you charge us with maintaining the truth formerly taught by us which your self cannot but confesse to be found in Gods word and in the Sermons and Sammaries of Christ and his Apostels and opposing you and these your new-found and new forged lights m Concl. Ibid. out of a lothnesse to loose our reputation by going out of an old track of divinitie Tho that indeed would be the readiest way rather to get reputation with the multitude in these humorous times wherein mens appetites ar not more nice then their n Jo◠34 3. ears and nothing relisheth with them but o 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either new diet or old diet newly dressed But whether this be not against the rules of charitie thus to sit upon the consciences of others I shall appeal not so much to your own conscience whose doctrine professedly teacheth not to make conscience of ought in regard of Gods sight and displeasure as to the conscience and judgement of any other that understand and acknowledge what charity and conscience import 2. Nor unsutable to this your qick and sharp tho short censure is the longer tail or train it drawes after it the rather it is not unlikely drawn out thus in length because it goes great with secret insinuations such as are not unusuall with you which any intelligent Reader therefore will yet easily discern of the glorious excellencies of your illumination by vertue of your new-lights attained Wherein you tell us that p Concl. Ibid. when our spirits shall once begin to be unclothed of forms of darknesse which wee must conceive your self to be devested of howsoever wee silly souls remain enwrapt up still in them and self-righteousnesse and do q 2 Cor. 3 18. with open face behold the glory of the Lord as your self do wee as yet do not wee will cry out r Isa 6.5 Wo is me I am undone for I have seen the Lord which
chargeth the Legalists with as a fault in them and that he is too sublime and spirituall the term that all your Familisticall fantasticall Novellists as well as the old q Qui se solos pneumaticos indigetabant orthodos Psychicos Nos agnitio Paracleti atqe defensio disjunxit a Psychicis Tert. ad Prax. c. 1. Et de Monogam cap. 1. Nos spirituales merito dici facit agnitio spiritualium charismatum Sed Psychicis non recipientibus spiritum ea qae sum spiritus non placent Mountanists affect for those that take all in grosse in those plain terms in which Christ and his Apostles preached them and have not yet attained the more excellent way the new way now revealed but till now concealed and in the sacred writings of former times not to be found wherein if you will upon his own experience and that is proof I hope sufficient beleive him and yet according to his way wee need not stick much at it with him Mr. S. Treatise he saith doth so lay down the doctrine of Free-grace in that manner and with that demonstration of spirit that he and his professeth as no other writing yet extant in print doth the like But I beleive withall that the Doctrine of Free-grace in the way that it was taught both by Gods Prophets and Christs Apostels is so far from being either cleered or advanced by this Treatise of his that it is much obscured aspersed and scandalised thereby as hath evidently been shewed both here and before Concerning which Sir to make an end at length with you let the Reader that will be pleased to take the pains to compare mine Answer with this your Reply and your Reply with this Rejoynder to it when he shall perceive what a poor pittance you have returned ought unto in regard of what you have wholly let slip and how little you have spoken to the purpose in that whereunto you have returned ought judge whether this were not rather undertaken by you that you might seem to have done somewhat then out of hope that any good fatisfaction should thereby be given unto any that would advisedly consider of either unlesse those onely of your own partie Unto whom I shall onely wish more wisedome then to suffer themselves forsaking the light and conduct of Gods saving truth reveiled in his word to be seduced misled by such false tho flairing lights as may bring them into and leave them in those miry qags wherein finding no firm footing nor being able to get out of they may stick fast irrecoverably to their eternall perdition FINIS Escapes of moment to be amended Pag. 6. lin 9. read dispatched p. 8. l. 37. and strongly p. 13. l. 36. not materiall p. 19. l. 22. seem l. 29. it in l. 32. reckoner p. 25. l. penult -tion p. 28. l. 17. to do p. 43. l. 24. condition and conditionall p. 61. l. 2. denie this p. 70. l. 5. anagogicall l. 29. abominate p. 77. l. 21. as well as p. 78. l. 6. two-hand sword p 81. l. 22. hands p. 86. l. 7. abundance p. 91. l. 1. ought l. 4. it like l. 29. leaft in p. 93. l. 7. with us p. 100. l. 3. you p. 109. l. 33. put out it p. 112. l. 23. unravelled pag. 113. lin 13. and fanta l. 14. Montanists l. 21. with him Mr. S. c. p. 114. l. 4. put out onely l. 6. and mis-led In the Margin Pag. 24. lit m. Sen. pag. 26. lit i moraris p. 63. l. m. Ira. p. 67. lin ult Sen. p. 68. lit g. aper ib. mortale lumen p. 83. l. t. Rom. 8. p. 94. l. a. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ib. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pag. 113. l. q. thodoxos
Reply ibid. Consider say you what straits you bring the Gospel into first yâ—u make life appearing to be had in the covenant of grace as at first in the covenant of works do this live so believe repent obey and live thus runs your doctrine nor can you with all your distinctions make faith in this consideration lesse then a work and so put salvation upon a condition of works again Is this free-grace I passe by your first here without a second we shall meet with the like again hereafter as also that to say believe and be saved repent and be saved is to put salvation upon a condition of works again t Qâ—d ille aâ—ud Coâ—â—icum Aâ—lul 1. Pactum non pactum est pâ—ctum non pactum ubi vobis lubâ—t A condition is a condition when it pleaseth you and may seem to make for you it is no condition when you list to mislike it because it will not serve your turn But 1. Sir you should do well or ill rather if you dare be so bold to tell our Saviour he hath brought the Gospel into straits by saying a Mark 16.16 whosoever doth not believe shall be damned and b Ioh. â— 24 unlesse you believe in me ye shall dy in your sinnes and c Luk. 13.3.5 unlesse you repent you shall perish and d Ioh. 6.53 unlesse ye eat my flesh and drink my blood you have no life in you and e Math. 18.3 unlesse ye be converted you shall not enter into the Kingdome of heaven and f Math. 7.21 none shall enter into the Kingdome but he that doth the will of my Father in heaven according whereunto also the Apostle g Heb. 5.9 He is Author of salvation to all that obey him Now suppose Sir we were not able to answer all your cavils yet were we bound to stick close to these truths so expresly delivered and taught us by Christ and not suffer our selves to be beaten off from them by any exceptions that any froward heart or wanton wit should to puzzel us make against them Be pleased therefore Sir to set us a while aside and if you lust to be contending with Christ advise or request whither you please him to consider a litle better of the businesse what streights he hath brought the Gospel into by these and other the like assertions for we have no cause to doubt but that he will own his own words tho you may well have just cause to doubt what thank you shall have from him for qarelling with and cavilling in this manner against them 2. You say that thus runns our doctrine but we demand of you whither Christs doctrine run so or no whereunto you dare not return any direct answer for you cannot deny it onely you tell us of a further mystery that is of late reveiled unto your self and I know not who which is all nothing to the purpose nor doth any thing that out of Scripture you have alleadged at all crosse or contradict that which you here call our doctrine but is indeed Christs as unlesse you have so brazed your brow that you have rubd all shame off it you cannot but acknowledge but whither you do or no others seeing it thus laid in precise termes before you will thereby easily know what to deem of you unlesse you so do 3. But h Reply ibid. we cannot say you with all our distinctions make faith in this consideration lesse then a work and so put salvation upon a condition of works again 1. The Apostle could distinguish and doth distinguish between faith and works and we know therfore that in this businesse they may be distinguished and are distinct and tho we were not able to shew how they are to be distinguished yet would not that prove that distinguished they could not be But Sir you are not able with all your Sophistry for Logick you renounce and fond flourishes to take off that aspersion which you have cast upon the Apostle as if he therefore preached life to be had in the covenant of grace 〈◊〉 otherwise then as before in the covenant of works because he presseth faith as n cessary to the attaining of salvation by Christ whereas he thereby in expresse terms distinguisheth the two covenants the one from the other not by rejecting or excluding faith but by taking it in as opposed to works in that manner as in the former they were exacted for these are his words i Rom. 10.5 6 9. Moses discribeth the righteousnesse which is of the Law that the man which doeth these things shall live by them But the righteousnesse which is of faith speaketh on this wise If thou confesse with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe with thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved and the words are so cleere to evince his acknowledgment of that that you would fain fasten as an aspersion upon us that if the aspersion be just it must of necessity light as well on him as on us and k Cernis nempe cum qâ—buâ— tua maledicta sustineamus cernis cum qibus nobis sit causa communis qam nulla consideratione sobria pulsare calumniis expugnare conaris cernis qam tibi pernici sum sit tam horribile crimen objicere talibus qam nobis gloriosum sit qodlibet crimen audire cum talibus Aug ad Iul. l. 1. c. 2. we are not unwilling with him to beare it 2. Nor yet is this spoken as if according to your vain and peremptory sentence past upon us we were unable to distinguish between the act of faith reqired in the latter covenant and works exacted in the former For we might stop your mouth with your own words in your next paragraph where you tell us that faith is the glorious Gospel work and so point us to a distinction that we might make some use of in this argument but that we find you so flagging and fluttering too and fro that we scarce know where to have you or how to lay hold on you The difference between these hath by our writers been long since observed whereof from their writings you might easily have been enformed had you deigned to consult them to wit that in the Covenant of workes works are considered as in themselves performed by the parties to be justified and to live without reference unto ought done or to be done for them by any other whereas in the Covenan of grace Faith is required and considered not as a work barely done by us but as an instrument or mean whereby Christ is apprehended received in whom is found by whom that is done whereby Gods justice is satisfied and life eternall meritoriously procured for us that which carieth the power and efficacy of all home to Christ Now Sir what a vast difference there is between these two may appear if you will be but pleased to consider how farre these