Faith of it from being confounded Hence we see the difference betwixt mens frame in their Disputes and Doctrine about these points and their own sense and pleadings with God in Prayer 4. This Doctrine of Justification by Faith without any mixtures of man however and by what Names and Titles soever they be dignified or distinguished hath this undoubted advantage that it is that which all not judicially hardened and blinded do or would or must betake themselves unto when dying How loath would men be to plead that Cause on a Death-bed which they so stoutly stand up for with Tongue and Pen when at ease and that evil day far away They seem to be jealous least God's Grace and Christ's Righteousness have too much room and Men's Works too little in the the business of Justification But was ever a sensible dying person exercised with this jealousie as to himself Even bloody Stephen Gardiner when a dying could answer Dr. Day Bishop of Chichester who offered comfort to him by this Doctrine What my Lord will you open that Gap now then farewel altogether To me and such other in my case you may speak it but open this Window to the People then farewel altogether Book of Martyrs V. 3. p. 450. In which words he bewrayed a conviction of the fitness of the Doctrine to dying persons and his knowledge that it tended to the destroying the Kingdom of Antichrist As Fox in the same Book of Martyrs Vol. 2. p. 46. gives this as the reason of Luther's success against Popery above all former attempts of preceeding Witnesses But saith he Luther gave the stroke and pluckt down the soundation and all by opening one vein long hid before wherein lieth the touchstone of all Truth and Doctrine as the only Principal Origine of our Salvation which is our free Justification by Faith only in Christ the Son of God Consider how it is with the most holy and eminent Saints when dying Did ye ever see or hear any boasting of their works and performances They may and do own to the praise of his Grace what they have been made to be what they have been helped to do or suffer for Christ's sake But when they draw near to the Awful Tribunal what else is in their Eye and Heart but only Free-Grace Ransoming Blood and a Well-ordered Covenant in Christ the Surety They cannot bear to hear any make mention to them of their Holiness their own Grace and Attainments In a word the Doctrine of Conditions Qualifications and Rectoral Government and the distribution of Rewards and Punishments according to the New Law of Grace will make but an uneasie Bed to a dying Man's Conscience and will leave him in a very bad condition at present and in dread of worse when he is feeling in his last Agonies that the Wages of Sin is Death if he cannot by Faith add but the Gift of God is Eternal Life through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6.23 He is a wise and happy man that anchors his Soul on that Rock at which he can ride out the storm of Death Why should men contend for that in their life that they know they must renounce at their death Or neglect that Truth now that they must betake themselves unto then why should a man build a House which he must leave in a Storm or be buried in its ruines Many Architects have attempted to make a sure House of their own Righteousness but it is without a Foundation and must fall or be thrown down sorrowfully by the foolish Builder which is the better way It is a great Test of the Truth of Doctrine about the way of Salvation when it is generally approv'd of by sensible dying men And what the Universal Sense of all such in this case is as to the Righteousness of Christ and their own is obvious to any man He was an ingenuous Balaamite who being himself a Papist said to a Protestant Our Religion is best to live in and yours best to die in But notwithstanding of these great advantages and they are but a few of many that this Doctrine is attended with There are not a few disadvantages it labours under which though they are rather to its commendation than reproach yet they do hinder its Welcome and Reception As 1. This Doctrine is a Spiritual Mystery and lyeth not level to a Natural Understanding 1 Cor. 2.10 14. Working for Life a man naturally understands but believing for Life he understands not To mend the Old Man he knows but to put on the New Man by Faith is a Riddle to him The study of Holiness and to endeavour to square his Life according to God's Law he knows a little of though he can never do it but to draw Sanctification from Christ by Faith and to walk holily in and through the force of the Spirit of Christ in the Heart by Faith is meer canting to him A new Life he understands a little but nothing of a New Birth and Regeneration He never saw himself stark dead Nay not only is it unknown to the Natural Man but he is by his Natural State an enemy to it he neither doth nor can know it nor approve of it 1 Cor. 2.14 Wisdom that is Christ's way of saving men revealed in the Gospel is justified of all her Children and of them only Matth. 11.19 Luke 7.29 30 35. This Enmity in Men to the Wisdom of God is the cause not only of this contempt of its Ministry but is a Temptation to many Ministers to patch up and frame a Gospel that is more suited to and taking with and more easily understood by such men than the true Gospel of Christ is this Paul complains of in others and vindicates himself from 1 Cor. 1 17. and 2.2 he warns others against it Col. 2.8 2 Cor. 11.3 4. Gal. 1.6 7 8 9. And it is certain that doing for Life is more suited to corrupt Nature than Believing is 2. Our Opposers in this Doctrine have the Many for them and against us as they of old boasted John 7.48 This they have no ground to glory in though they do not we to be ashamed of the Truth because we cannot vie numbers with them With our Opposers are all these sorts and they make a great number though I do not say or think that all our Opposers are to be ranked in any of these Lists for some both Godly and Learned may mistake us and the Truth in this matter 1. They have all the Ignorant People that know nothing of either Law or Gospel They serve God they say but most fasly and hope that God will be merciful to them and save them To all such both the clear explication of God's Law and the Mysteries of the Gospel are strange things Yet sincere obedience they love to hear of for all of them think there is some sincerity in their hearts and that they can do somewhat But of Faith in Christ they have no knowledge except by faith you
you Alas saith the poor Man My Heart is hard and I cannot repent aright yea I find my heart more hard and vile than when I was secure in sin If you speak to this man of qualifications for Christ he knows nothing of them if of sincere Obedience his answer is native and ready Obedience is the work of a living man and Sincerity is only in a renewed Soul sincere Obedience is therefore as impossible to a dead unrenewed sinner as perfect Obedience is Why should not the right answer be given Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved Tell him what Christ is what he hath done and suffered to obtain eternal Redemption for sinners and that according to the Will of God and his Father Give him a plain downright Narrative of the Gospel Salvation wrought out by the Son of God tell him the History and Mystery of the Gospel plainly it may be the Holy Ghost will work faith thereby as he did in those first fruits of the Gentiles Acts 10.44 If he ask what warrant he hath to believe on Jesus Christ Tell him that he hath utter indispensible Necessity for it for without believing on him he must perish eternally That he hath God's gracious Offer of Christ and all his Redemption with a promise that upon accepting the Offer by Faith Christ and Salvation with Him is his That he hath God's express commandment 1 John 3.23 to believe on Christ's Name and that he should make conscience of obeying it as well as any command in the Moral Law Tell him of Christs ability and good-will to save that no man was ever rejected by him that cast himself upon him that desperate cases are the glorious Triumphs of his Art of saving Tell him that there is no midst between Faith and Vnbelief that there is no excuse for neglecting the one and continuing in the the other That believing on the Lord Jesus for salvation is more pleasing to God that all obedience to his Law and that unbelief is the most provoking to God and the most damning to man of all sins Against the greatness of his sins the Curse of the Law and the severity of God as Judge there is no relief to be held forth to him but the free and boundless Grace of God in the Merit of Christ's Satisfaction by the sacrifice of himself If he should say What is it to believe on Jesus Christ As to this I find no such question in the Word but that all did some way understand the notion of it The Jews that did not believe on him John 6 28 29 30. the Chief Priests and Pharisees John 7 48 the blind Men John 9.35 When Christ asked him Believest thou on the Son of God He answered Who is he Lord that I may believe on him Immediately when Christ had told him ver 37. he saith not what is it to believe on him but Lord I believe and worshipped him and so both profess'd and acted Faith in him So the Father of the Lunatick Mark 9.23 24. The Eunuch Act 8.37 They all both Christ's Enemies and his Disciples knew that Faith in him was a believing that the Man Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God the Messiah and Saviour of the World so as to receive and look for Salvation in his Name Acts 4.12 This was the common Report published by Christ and his Apostles and Disciples and known by all that heard it If he yet ask What he is to believe you tell him that he is not called to believe that he is in Christ and that his Sins are pardoned and he a Justified Man but that he is to believe God's Record concerning Christ 1 John 5 10 11 12. And this Record is that God giveth that is offereth to us Eternal Life in his Son Jesus Christ And that all that with the heart believe this Report and rest their Souls on these glad Tidings shall be saved Rom. 10.9 10.11 And thus he is to believe that he may be justified Gal. 2.16 If he still say That this Believing is hard This is a good doubt but easily resolved It bespeaks a Man deeply humbled Any body may see his own Impotence to obey the Law of God fully but few find the Difficulty of believing For his Resolution ask him what it is he finds makes believing difficult to him Is it unwillingness to be justified and saved Is it unwillingness to be so saved by Jesus Christ to the praise of Gods Grace in him and to the voiding of all boasting in himself This he will surely deny Is it a Distrust of the Truth of the Gospel-Record This he dare not own Is it a Doubt of Christ's Ability or Good Will to save This is to contradict the Testimony of God in the Gospel Is it because he doubts of an Interest in Christ and his Redemption You tell him That believing on Christ makes up the Interest in him If he say that he cannot believe on Jesus Christ because of the difficulty of the acting this Faith and that a Divine Power is needful to draw it forth which he finds not You tell him that believing in Jesus Christ is no work but a resting on Jesus Christ And that this pretence is as unreasonable as that if a Man wearied with a Journey and who is not able to go one step further should argue I vm so tired that I am not able to lye down when indeed he can neither stand nor go The poor wearied sinner can never believe on Jesus Christ till he finds he can do nothing for himself and in his first believing doth always apply himself to Christ for Salvation as a man hopeless and helpless in himself And by such reasonings with him from the Gospel the Lord will as he hath often done convey faith and joy and peace by believing 3. This Doctrine of free Justification by Faith alone hath this Advantage That it suits all men's Spirits and Frame in their serious Approaches to God in Worship Men may think and talk boldly of inherent Righteousness and of its worth and value of good Works and Frames and Dispositions but when men present themselves before the Lord and have any discoveries of his Glory all things in themselves will disappear and be looked upon as nothing Zophar though the hottest Speaker of Job's Friends did yet speak rightly to him Job 11.4 5. For thou hast said My Doctrine is pure and I am clean in thine eyes But O that God would speak And so Job found it when God displaid his Glory to him and that only in the works of Creation and Providence Chap. 38 39. He then changed his note Job 40.4 5. and 42.2 6. So was it with Isaiah Chap 6.5 till pardoning Grace was imparted to him No man can stand before this Holy Lord God with any peace and Comfort unless he have God himself to stay upon His Grace and Mercy in Jesus Christ can only preserve a man from being consumed and the
understand a dream of being saved by Jesus Christ though they know nothing of him or of his way of saving men nor of the way of being saved by him 2. All Formalists are on their side People that place their Religion in Trifles because they are strangers to the substance thereof 3. All proud secure sinners are against us that go about with the Jews to establish their own Righteousness Rom. 10.3 The secure are whole and see no need of the Physician the proud have physick at home and despise that that came down from Heaven 4. All the zealous devout people in a Natural Religion are utter enemies to the Gospel By a Natural Religion I mean that that is the product of the remnants of God's image in fallen man a little improved by the Light of God's Word All such cannot endure to hear that God's Law must be perfectly fulfilled in every tittle of it or no man can be saved by doing That they must all perish for ever that have not the Righteousness of a man that never sinned who is also God over all blessed for ever to shelter and cover them from a holy God's anger and to render them accepted of him That this Righteousness is put on by the Grace of God and a man must betake himself to it and receive as a naked blushing sinner That no man can do any thing that is good till Gospel Grace renew him and make him first a good man This they will never receive but do still think that a man may grow good by doing good 3. Natural Reason is very fertile in its Objections and Cavils against the Doctrine of the Grace of God And especially when this corrupt Reason is polished by learning and strong natural parts When there are many to broach such Doctrines and many so disposed to receive it is it any wonder that the Gospel Truth makes little progress in the World Nay were it not for the Divine Power that supports it and the promises of its preservation its enemies are so many and strong and true friends so few and feeble we might fear its perishing from the earth But we know it is impossible And if the Lord have a design of mercy to these Nations and hath a vein of his Election to dig up amongst us we make no doubt but the Glory of Christ as a crucified Saviour shall yet be displaid in the midst of us to the joy of all that love his salvation and to the shame of others Isa 66.5 4. I might add the great Declension of some of the Reformed Churches from the purity and simplicity of that Doctrine they were first planted in The new Methodists about the Grace of God had too great an increase in the French Churches And which was very strange this Declension advanced amongst them at the same time when Jansonism was spreading amongst many of the Church of Rome So that a man might have seen Papists growing better in their Doctrine and Protestants growing worse See Mr. Gale's Idea of Jansenism with Dr. Owen's Preface What there is of this amongst us in England I leave the Reader to Mr. Jenkyn's Coleusma and to the Naked Truth Part 4. And if there be any warping toward Arminian Doctrine by some on our side in order to ingratiate themselves with that Church that hath the secular advantages to dispense and to make way for some accommodation with them I had rather wait in fear till a further discovery of it than offer to guess at Lastly It is no small disadvantage this Doctrine lies under from the Spirit of this Day we live in A light frothy trifling temper prevails generally Doctrines of the greatest weight are talked of and treated about with a vain unconcerned frame of Spirit as if men contended rather about Opinions and School-points than about the Oracles of God and matters of Faith But if mens hearts were seen by themselves if Sin were felt if mens Consciences were enlivened if God's Holy Law were known in its exactness and severity and the Glory and Majesty of the Law-giver shining before mens eyes if men were living as leaving Time and launching forth into Eternity the Gospel Salvation by Jesus Christ would be more regarded Object 1. Is there not a great decay amongst Professors in real practical Godliness Are we like the Old Protestants or the Old Puritans I answer That the Decay and Degeneracy is great and heavily to be bewailed But what is the cause and what will be its cure Is it because the Doctrine of Morality and Vertue and Good Works is not enough preached This cannot be For there hath been for many years a publick Ministry in the Nation that make these their constant themes Yet the Land is become as Sodom for all lewdness and the Tree of Prophaneness is so grown that the Sword of the Magistrate hath not yet been able to lop off any of its Branches Is it because men have too much Faith in Christ or too little or none at all Would not faith in Christ increase Holiness did it not always so and will it not still do it Was not the holiness of the first Protestants eminent and shining And yet they generally put assurance in the definition of their faith We cannot say that Gospel Holiness hath prospered much by the correction or mittigation of that harsh-like definition The certain spring of this prevailing Wickedness in the Land is peoples ignorance and unbelief of the Gospel of Christ and that grows by many Prophets that speak lies to them in the Name of the Lord. Object 2. But do not some abuse the Grace of the Gospel and turn it into Wantonness Answer Yes Some do ever did and still will do so But it is only the ill-understood and not-believed Doctrine of Grace that they abuse the Grace it self no man can abuse for its power prevents its abuse Let us see how Paul that blessed Herald of this Grace as he was an eminent instance of it dealeth with this Objection Rom. 6.1 c. What doth he to prevent this abuse Is it by extenuating what he had said Chap. 5.20 that Grace abounds much more where Sin had abounded Is it by mincing Grace smaller that men may not choke upon it or surfeit by it Is it by mixing somthing of the Law with it to make it more wholesome No But only by plain asserting the power and influence of this Grace wherever it really is as at length in that Chapter This Grace is all treasured up in Christ Jesus offered to all men in the Gospel poured forth by our Lord in the Working of Faith and drunk in by the Elect in the exercise of Faith and becomes in them a living spring which will and must break out and spring up in all holy conversation He exhorts them to drink in more and more of this Grace by Faith And as for such as pretend to Grace and live ungodly the Spirit of God declares they are void of Grace
2. p. 181. to p. 192 where ye will find the Old plain Protestant Truth about Law and Gospel delivered without any School-Terms To this add in your reading in the same Vol. 2. p. 497. to p. 509. Heresies and Errors falsty charged on Tindal 's Writings Where ye will see the Old Faith of the Saints in its Simplicity and the Old Craft and Cunning of the Antichristian Party in sland ering the Truth I must for my part confess That these plain Declarations of Gospel-Truth have a quite other Savour with me than the Dry Insipid Accounts thereof given by Pretendders to humane Wisdom But passing these things let us look to Principles and that with respect to their Native and Regular Influence on Sanctification And I am willing that that should determine the Matter next to the Consonancy of the Principles themselves to the Word of God It can be no Doctrine of God that is not according to Godliness Some think that if Good Works and Holiness and Repentance be allowed no room in Justification that there is no room left for them in the World and in the practice of Believers So hard seems it to be to some to keep in their Eye the certain fixed bounds betwixt Justification and Sanctification There is no difference betwixt a Justified and a Sanctified Man for he is always the same person that partakes of these Priviledges But Justification and Sanctification differ greatly in many Respects as is commonly known But to come a little closer The Party here suspected of Antinomianism do confidently protest before God Angels and Men That they espouse no New Doctrine about the Grace of God and Justification and the other coincident Points but what the Reformers at home and abroad did teach and all the Protestant Churches do own And that in sum is That a Law-condemned Sinner is freely Justified by God's Grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ that he is Justified only for the Righteousness of Christ imputed to him by God of his free Grace and received by faith alone as an Instrument which faith is the gift of the same Grace For guarding against Licentiousness they constantly teach out of God's Word That without Holiness no man can see God That all that believe truly on Jesus Christ as they are Justified by the sprinkling of his Blood so are they Sanctified by the effusion of his Spirit That all that boast of their Faith in Christ and yet live after their own Lusts and the course of this World have no true Faith at all but do in their profession and contradicting Practice Blaspheme the Name of God and the Doctrine of his Grace and continuing so shall perish with a double Destruction beyond that of the openly Profane that make no Profession And when they find any such in their Communion which is exceeding rarely they cast them out as Dead Branches They teach that as the daily Study of Sanctification is a necessary exercise to all that are in Christ so that the Rule of their Direction therein is the Holy spotless Law of God in Christ's Hand That the Holy Ghost is the Beginner and Advancer of this Work and Faith in Jesus Christ the great Mean thereof That no Man can be Holy till he be in Christ and united to him by Faith and that no Man is truly in Christ but he is thereby Sanctified They Preach the Law to Condemn all Flesh out of Christ and to shew thereby to people the necessity of betaking themselves to him for Salvation See the savory words of blessed Tindal called the Apostle of England in his Letter to John Frith written Jan. 1533. Book of Martyrs Vol. 2. Page 308. Expound the Law truly and open the Vail of Moses to condemn all Flesh and prove all Men sinners and all deeds under the Law before Mercy have taken away the condemnation thereof to be Sin and Damnable and then as a faithful Minister set abroach the Mercy of our Lord Jesus and let the wounded Consciences Drink of the Water of him And then shall your Preaching be with Power and not as the Hypocrites And the Spirit of God shall work with you and all Consciences shall bear record unto you and feel that it is so And all Doctrine that casteth a mist on these two to shadow and hide them I mean the Law of God and Mercy of Christ that resist you with all your power And so do we What is there in all this to be offended with is not this enough to Vindicate our Doctrine from any tendency to Licentiousness I am afraid that there are some things wherein we differ more than they think fit yet to express And I shall guess at them 1. Is about the Imputed Righteousness of Christ This Righteousness of Christ in his Active and Passive Obedience hath been asserted by Protestant Divines to be not only the Procuring and Meritorious Cause of our Justification for this the Papists own But the Matter as the Imputation of it is the Form of our Justification Though I think that our Logical Terms are not so adapted for such Divine Mysteries But whatever Propriety or Impropriety be in such School-Terms the common Protestant Doctrine hath been That a convinced Sinner seeking Justification must have nothing in his Eye but this Righteousness of Christ as God proposeth nothing else to Him And that God in justifying a Sinner accepts him in this Righteousness only when he imputes it to him Now about the Imputed Righteousness of Christ some say That it belongs only to the Person of Christ He was under the Law and bound to keep it for himself that he might be a fit Mediator without Spot or Blemish That it is a Qualification in the Mediator rather than a Benefit acquired by him to be communicated to his People For they will not allow this Personal Righteonsness of Christ to be imputed to us any otherwise than in the Merit of it as purchasing for us a more easie Law of Grace in the Observation whereof they place all our Justifying Righteousness Understanding hereby our own Personal inherent Holiness and nothing else They hold That Christ died to merit this of the Father viz. That we might be Justified upon easier Terms under the Gospel than those of the Law of Innocency Instead of Justification by perfect Obedience we are now to be justified by our own Evangelical Righteousness made up of Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience And if we hold not with them in this they tell the World we are Enemies to Evangelical Holiness slighting the practice of all Good Works and allowing our Hearers to live as they list Thus they slander the Preachers of Free Grace because we do not place Justification in our own inherent Holiness but in Christ's perfect Righteousness imputed to us upon our believing in him Which Faith we teach purifies the heart and always inclines to Holiness of Life Neither do we hold any Faith to be true and saving that
rather for that they are not done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done we doubt not but they have the Nature of Sin So Confession of Faith Chap. 16. Art 7. Calvin Instit Lib. 3. Cap. 15. Sect. 6. They saith he speaking of the Popish Schoolmen have found out I know not what moral good works whereby men are made acceptable to God before they are engrafted into Christ As if the Scripture lyed when it said They are all in death who have not the Son 1 John 5.12 If they be in death how can they beget matter of life As if it were of no force whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin as if evil trees could bring forth good fruit Read the rest of that Section On the contrary the Council of Trent Sess 6. Cannon 7. say boldly Whosoever shall say That all Works done before Justification howsoever they be done are truly sin and deserve the hatred of God Let him be Anathema And to give you one more bellowing of the Beast wounded by the Light of the Gospel see the same Council Sess 6. Can. 11. Si quis dixerit Gratiam quâ justificamur esse tantùm favorem Dei Anathema sit This is fearful blasphemy saith Dr. Downham Bishop of London-derry in his Orthodox Book of Justification Lib. 3. Cap. 1. Where he saith That the Hebrew words which in the Old Testament signifie the Grace of God do always signifie favour and never grace inherent And above fifty Testimonies may be brought from the New Testament to prove that by God's Grace his favour is still meant But what was good Church of England Doctrine at and after the Reformation cannot now go down with some Arminianizing Nonconformists If then nothing will satisfie our quarrelling Brethren but either Silence as to the Main Points of the Gospel which we believe and live by the faith of and look to be saved in which we have for many years preached with some seals of the Holy Ghost in converting sinners unto God and in building them up in holiness and comfort by the faith and power of them which also we vowed to the Lord to preach to all that will hear us as long as we live in the day when we gave up our selves to serve God with our Spirit in the Gospel of his Son If either this Silence or the swallowing down of Arminian Schemes of the Gospel contrary to the New Testament and unknown to the Reformed Churches in their greatest purity be the only terms of peace with our Brethren we must then maintain our peace with God and our own Consciences in the defence of plain Gospel Truth And our Harmony with the Reformed Churches and in the comfort of these bear their Enmity And though it be usual with them to vilifie and contemn such as differ from them for their fewness weakness and want of Learning yet they might know that the most Learned and Godly in the Christian World have maintained and defended the same Doctrine we stand for for some Ages The Grace of God will never want for it can and will furnish Defenders of it England hath been blessed with a Bradwardine an Archbishop of Canterbury against the Pelagians a Twiss and Ames against the Arminians And though they that contend with us would separate their Cause altogether from that of these two pests of the Church of Christ I mean Pelagius and Arminius yet judicious observers cannot but already perceive a coincidency and do fear more when either the force of Argument shall drive them out of their lurking holes or when they shall think fit to discover their secret sentiments which yet we but guess at Then as we shall know better what they would be at so it is very like that they will then find Enemies in many whom they have seduced by their craft and do yet seem to be in their Camp and will meet with Opposers both at home and abroad that they think not of Our Doctrine of the Justification of a Sinner by the free grace of God in Jesus Christ however it be misrepresented and reflected upon is yet undeniably recommended by four things 1 It is a Doctrine savoury and precious unto all ser ous Godly Persons Dr. Ames his observation holds good as to all the Arminian Divinity that it is contra communem sensum fidelium against the common sense of Believers And though this be an argument of little weight with them that value more the judgment of the Scribes and the Wise and Disputers of this World 1 Cor. 1.18 19 20 21. than of all the Godly Yet the Spirit of God by John gives us this same argument 1 John 4.5 6. They are of the World therefore speak they of the World and the World heareth them We are of God he that knoweth God heareth us he that is not of God heareth not us Hereby know we the Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error How evident is it that several who by Education or an unsound Ministry having had their Natural Enmity against the Grace of God strengthned when the Lord by his Spirit hath broke in upon their hearts and hath raised a serious Soul-exercise about their Salvation their turning to God in Christ and their turning from Arminianism have begun together And some of the greatest Champions for the Grace of God have been persons thus dealt with as we might instance And as it is thus with men at their Conversion so is it found afterward that still as it is well with them in their inner man so doth the Doctrine of Grace still appear more precious and savoury On the other part all the ungodly and unrenewed have a dislike and disrelish of this Doctrine and are all for the Doctrine of doing and love to hear it and in their sorry exercise are still for doing their own business in Salvation though they be nothing and can do nothing but Sin and destroy themselves 2. It is that Doctrine only by which a convinced sinner can be dealt with effectually When a man is awakened and brought to that that all must be brought to or to worse What shall I do to be saved Acts 16.30 31. We have the Apostolick answer to it Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house This Answer is so old that with many it seems out of date But it is still and will ever be fresh and new and savoury and the only Resolution of this grand Case of Conscience as long as Conscience and the World lasts No Wit or Art of Man will ever find a crack or flaw in it or devise another or a better answer nor can any but this alone heal rightly the wound of an awakened Conscience Let us set this man to seek resolution in this case of some Masters in our Israel According to their Principles they must say to him Repent and Mourn for your known Sins and leave and loath them and God will have mercy on
Reproachers There are some things we complain of as That they load their Brethren so grievously with unjust calumnies either directly or by consequence As when they preach up holiness and the necessity of it as if it were their proper Doctrine and disowned by us when they cannot but know in their Consciences that there is no difference betwixt them and us about the nature or necessity of Holiness but only about its Spring and Place in Salvation We derive it from Jesus Christ and Faith in him and know assuredly that it can spring from nothing else We place it betwixt Justification and Glory and that is its Scripture place and no where else can it be found or stand let men try it as much and long as they will That they seem very zealous against Antinomianism and forget the other extream of Arminianism which is far more common as dangerous and far more natural to all men For though there have been and may be this day some true Antinomians either through ignorance or weakness reeling to that extreme or by the heat of contention with and hatred of Arminianism as it is certain some very good and learned men have inclined to Arminianism through their hatred of Antinomianism and have declared so much And some may and do corrupt the Doctrine of the Gospel through the unrenewedness of their hearts yet how destructive soever this abuse may be to the souls of the seduced such an appearance of Antinomianism is but as a Meteor or Comet that will soon blaze out and its folly will be quickly hist off the Stage But the principles of Arminianism are the natural dictates of a carnal mind which is enmity both to the Law of God and to the Gospel of Christ and next to the Dead Sea of Popery into which also this stream runs have since Pelagius to this day been the greatest plague of the Church of Christ and its like will be till his Second Coming We do also justly complain that in their opposing of true Antinomian Errors and particularly the alledged Tenents of Dr. Crisp they hint that there is a party of Ministers and Professors that defend them whereas we can defie them to name one Minister in London at least that doth so That expressions capable of a good sense are strenuously perverted contrary to the scope of the Writer or Speaker But this and such like are the usual methods of unfair Contenders Were the like method taken on the other side how many Popish Arminian yea and Socinian expressions might be published If any Gospel-Truth be preached or published that reflects on the Idol of Self-Righteousness and Justification thereby it is soon quarrelled with Put Reproaches cast on the free Grace of God and the imputed Righteousness of Christ are with them if not approved yet but Venial well meant Mistakes Let mens stated Principles be Known and their Expressions explained accordingly or Mistakes and Contentions will be endless We do also complain That Love to Peace hath made many grave and sound Divines forbear to utter their Minds freely in publick on these Points Whereby the adverse Party is emboldened and such Ministers as dare not purchase Peace by silence when so great Truths are undermined are exposed as a Mark But we do not question but these Worthy Brethren when they shall see the Points of Controversie accurately stated as they may shortly will openly appear on Truth 's side as we know their hearts are for it Lastly We complain that the Scheme of the Gospel contended for by our Opposers is clouded vailed and darkned by School-Terms new uncouth and unscriptural Phrases whereby as they think to guard themselves against Opposition so they do increase the Jealousies of their Brethren ánd keep their Principles from the Knowledge of ordinary people who are as much concerned in those Points as any Scholar or Divine This Controversie looks like a very bad Omen We thought we might have healed our Old Breaches in smaller things and behold a New one is threatned in the greatest Matters We did hope that the good Old Protestant Doctrine had been rooted and rivetted in the hearts of all the Ministers on our side but now we find the contrary and that the sowre Leaven of Arminianism works strongly Their Advocates do not yet own the Name but the younger sort are more bold and free and with them no Books or Authors are in esteem and use but such as are for the New Rational Method of Divinity Rational is a fitter Commendation of a Philosopher than of a Divine and yet it 's somewhat better applied to a Divine than to Divinity For true Divinity hath a higher and Nobler Original than Man's Reason even Divine Revelation and it can never be rightly learned by them that have no higher Principle in them than Reason even the Teaching of the Holy Ghost But for Luther Calvin Zanchy Twisse Ames Perkins and Divines of their Spirit and Stamp they are generally neglected and despised We were in hope that after the Lord had so signally appeared for his Truth and People in preserving both under the Rage of that Antichristian Spirit of Persecution and Apostasy to gross Popery that wrought so mightily under the Two Last Reigns and when he had given us the Long-desired Mercy of a Legal Establishment of our Gospel-Liberty in This that all Hearts and Hands should have been unanimously imployed in the advancing the work of Christ But we find that as we have for a Long Time lost in a great measure the Power we are now in no small danger of losing also the Purity of the Gospel And without them what signifies Liberty It is undoubted that the Devil designs the obstructing of the Course of the Gospel and in this he hath often had the Service of the Tongues and Pens of Good Men as well as of Bad yet we are not without hope that the Lord in his Wisdom and Mercy will defeat him and that these Contentions may yet have good Fruit and a good Issue For furthering of this good End let me request a few things of my Brethren 1. Let us not receive Reports suddenly of one another In times of Contention many false Reports are raised and rashly believed This is both the Fruit and the Fuel of Contention For all the Noise of Antinomianism I must declare that I do not know and I have both Opportunity and Inclination to inquire any one Antinomian Minister or Christian in London who is really such as their Reproachers paint them out or such as Luther and Calvin wrote against 2. Let us make Christ Crucified our great Study as Christians and the preaching of him our main work as Ministers 1 Cor. 2.2 Paul determined to know nothing else But many manage the Ministry as if they had taken up a contrary determination even to know any thing save Jesus Christ and him Crucified We are amazed to see so many ashamed of the Cross of Christ and to behave as if they