bigger then the Earth that â—e may call an opinion That which by reason we can certainly conclude we may call knowlege but that which we believe upon the credit of him that speaks it that is faith or belief This is so of the being of faith that without it there is no faith neither humane nor divine The Nobleman of Israel 2 Kings 7.1 Zachary the father of John Baptist Luk 1.18 Martha John 11.39 40. were all of them herein faulty This Truth of God was above their reason and therefore they suspended their faith in it We believe not what man saith when we do not assent to the truth of that which he speaks and we believe not what God speaks further then we assent to the truth of his Word Thus far the devills go having sufficient experience of the Truth of God and thus far and further we must go if we be in the faith Now this assent hath these two properties first It is Firm secondly Vnlimitted absolute 1. Firm. and full First firm Not alwaies free from assaults and doubtings Satan and our own hearts will muster up objections but such that yeilds not but withstands and overcomes doubtings holds firm to truth when all means are used to wrest from it Herein Eve failed God had said The day that ye eat ye shall surely die Satan brought such objections that upon his word she believed that she should procure good to her self 2. Absolute and unlimited and not incur evil by eating and so yielded to unbelief upon Satans reasonings As our assent must be firm so also absolute and unlimitted to the whole of all that God speaks such was the faith of Paul Acts 24.14 Believing all things which are written in the Law and the Prophets and Christ blames the two Disciples that their faith was not such Luk 24.25 How little honour do we give to man when sometimes we give credit and belief to that which he saies because we see reason and probability of truth in his words and at other times call all to question that he speaks such is the honour that many give to God when they pick and choose in believing as they do in obeying Promises must be believed in the way of Gods tender of them with limit to the conditions annexed to them Threatnings must be believed upon those grounds that they are menaced commands must be believed that is Gods soveraignty in them the justice and equity of them and a necessity of our yielding to them As it must be an assent to the whole Word of God So it must be an assent to it in that sense as God propounds it The Word in that sense that it gives of it self is the Word of God and not otherwise when we put our sense upon it we make it our word not Gods Where we must not condemn all for unbelief that are any waies subject to mistakes or that through weaknesse of judgment do not apprehend every thing as it is Willing and wilfull wrestings of the Word are here spoke against when carnall reasonings out of singularity vain-glory carnall contentment hope of gain and admiration of men are set up against the Truth of God if we should go no further in our scrutiny how many would be found unsound in the faith Have we not those that are so far from any close adherence to truth tendred that every wind tosseth them to and fro and drives them up and down that hold no longer in an opinion then a mimick gallant keeps in a fashion and change their faith as these do their dresse Have we not those that believe where they list and that is where it may serve for their advantage or repute but where they list not they can deny all faith to any truth that God speaks deny it they wil where they see it tends to their danger No swearer no drunkard no adulterer no extorting oppressor c. can believe the truth of God in his Word but he must with it believe his own condemnation 2. In the will with the affections But faith is a work of the whole soul and implyes the will with the affections as well as the understanding Faith is exprest in Scripture by our coming to Christ Joh. 6.35 And that is a work of the will and not of the mind of the judgement and not of the affections It is called a receiving of Christ Joh. 1.12 this is also done by the will and affections Consideration and deliberation are works of the understanding but choise and imbracing are works of the will when the woman of Samaria Joh. 4.29 saith Is not this the Messiah There was matter of consideration and deliberation there was work for the understanding to be imployed in whether he were to be acknowledged indeed the Messiah But now to leave all and follow Christ to forsake all and cleave to him This is matter of choise and work for the will and affections whose work it is to take or refuse Therefore as faith is set out in Scripture by words implying knowledge and assent so likewise by words implying affiance trust rolling casting a mans self on the Lord. Faith then takes Christ and cleaves to him in all of those relations in which a Christian stands to Christ takes Christ and lookes for no other delight or comfort takes Christ and will not indure any other Lord or commander takes Christ and lookes for no other helper takes Christ and lookes for no other Saviour takes Christ as a Saviour and trusts in him takes Christ as an husband and delights in him takes Christ as a Lord and obeyes him Thus according to the several offices that Christ does there are several actings of faith for to answer The great work of Christ was to give his soul an offering for sin to shed his blood to take away our guilt there faith answers and it is not alone said that they that believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses which might imply no more then a qualification of the person to be justified but it is further said that Christ is set forth a propitiation through faith in his blood Rom. 3.25 which plainly denotes the instrument whereby we have our interest When there are many acts of faith that which respects his blood alone doth justifie Christ is set up as a King and hath all things put in subjection under him Here faith yields up all to him and consents as to be saved so to be ruled by him Christ in his Kingly power protects as well as commands as he holds out a Scepter so he is a shield Faith flyes unto him for shelter and so receives and quenches all Satans darts Christ is given as an head to his body the Chuch not onely for command but for quickning and enlivening power to supply with vitall energies every part and member Here faith answers and takes in from Christ the Spirit by the promises
in ignorance being so far knowing Christians SECT IX The seventh Proposition enlarged AS for those that are of years Admission of men of years examined though we are not much concerned scarce one unbaptized Person in an age being tendred to us yet it is not meet wholly to omit it when any in the Primitive times upon the Preaching of the Apostles was ready to professe and willing to engage in a way of Christianity he was streight according to the order of Christ to be admitted by Baptisme the Commission it self speaks thus much Disciple all Nations baptizing them is the charge being discipled there needs no further enquiry and accordingly was the practice the Eunuch upon profession of faith and water at hand was presently baptized by Philip Act. 8. and the Jaylour the self same hour that he was converted was baptized by Paul and Silas Act. 16. Those that limit Baptisme to years of discretion appear to be wholly of this mind Mr. Tombes Examen Pag. 159. is clear that profession of faith and holinesse is sufficient warrant to baptize And for their practice let their Proselytes wheresoever they prevail speak when such as we see are admitted we may well conclude that in their judgement none are to be refused There are others that set up a new Church-door having discipled any in their way they do not as Christ enjoyned concerning unbaptized Heathens or as others concerning baptized Christians baptize them but they tender a Covenant of Church-fellowship unto them and that is their way of Church entrance when yet their infants keep the old rode of Baptisme These at least some of them are exceeding strict and will have none admitted but those that the quickest sighthed Admission unto a Church-Covenant and membership looked into Eagle-eyed Christians judge so farre as they are able to apprehend to have both name and thing of Christianity And to add honour to this way the world must be born in hand and that with attestation of no mean ones that the conversion of the Gentiles and Jewes in that infinite number as we read in the Acts of the Apostles was all in reality and that the whole Church of Hierusalem consisting at least of eight thousand members was an homogeneal body under the same light conscience and tendernesse Of a more noble homogeneity and more pure constitution sure then ever came into Christs thoughts to see his Kingdom attain unto upon earth He compares it to a field made up of a mixture of Tares and Wheat Matth. 13.24 to a Draw-net cast into the Sea which taketh fishes of all kinds both good and bad Matth. 13.47 And in the close o◠two other Parables inferres that many are called but few are chosen Matth. 20.16 Matth. 22.14 This he spake in the ears of his Disciples and we may wonder if they should live to see it contradicted He tells his hearers Luk. 9.27 Matth. 16.18 There be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Kingdom of God And can we think that he understood a Kingdom in that resplendent glory which he had ever denyed when he made it his business to decipher and hold it forth unto them When they heare of it they hear of a field with tares and wheat of a draw-net with fish of all sorts They live to see flourishing fields of pure wheat full nets of fishes that are onely good being told that many are called but few chosen they yet see myriads of thousands called and all chosen Yea Paul after he had seen the contrary and gained fellowship according to these men in such an homogeneal pure body still symbolizes in like Parables of a great house that had vessels some to honour and some to dishonour 2 Tim. 2.20 applying it to the Elect and Reprobate in the Church of God We are told that the complexion of a visible Church under the Gospel is conversion the constituted matter converted ones and that this soul-complexion is the same in the whole body members having received the same Spirit of Adoption owning and experiencing the same grace of God But it is plain that Christ did neither see nor foresee any such purity of complexion nor can they that look upon Primitive Churches in the glasse of Scriptures see any more then Christ did discover Those words of Luke Act. 15.3 And being brought on their way by the Church they passed through Phenice and Samaria declaring the conversion of the Gentiles and they caused great joy unto all the brethren is made a fundamental ground-work of this building of such glory as though all conversion by the Word were attended by the changing work of the Spirit which happy glosse in case it would hold would turne all the grounds in the parable into good ground and a cōnvert or proselyte in an historical narrative would ever be the same with elect or regenerate But the words going before and following these if they may be but taken in will serve to spoil all this supposed glory and purity A sect riseth up and teacheth the Brethren that except they be circumcised after the manner of Moses they cannot be saved and what manner of men they were and how their Doctrine took we may read in Pauls Epistles to the Philippians Colossians and especially in that to the Churches of Galatia it almost wrought to the apostatizing of those Churches from the faith of Christ to another Gospel If ever these were one homogeneal body respective to soul complexion an abundant proof is given in against the Saints perseverance and for their falling from grace Paul was not so enamoured with their beauty when he tells them that he is afraid of them and travells again in birth of them And whether he had such high thoughts of the Corinthians let sundry passages in his Epistles to them witnesse Great complexion spots may be seen 1 Cor. Chap. 3.3 Chap. 6.8 Chap. 11.18 19 21. Chap. 15.12 34. 2 Cor. 12.20 21. So that it is plain that in primitive times Jewes and Pagans being wrought upon by the Word heard and miracles seen to make profession of and engage to a Christian faith and life were upon that account received of which as some had hearts sincere towards Christ so many were otherwise Through the whole Scripture there is no demurre put to the Baptisme of any who made profession of the Name of Christ save Saul concerning whom Ananias being warned of God to go to him and conferre sight upon him being struck blind objects the evil that he had done to the Saints at Hierusalem and that he had at present authority from the Chief Priests to bind all that called on the Name of Christ Acts 9.13 14. And when he afterwards assayed to joyn himself to the disciples that were at Hierusalem they were all upon that account afraid of him Neither Ananias at Damascus nor the Church at Hierusalem did put his sincerity in grace to the question upon that account they might
farre as I could learn that it did succeed and spread as little as almost any error that ever I knew spring up in the Church Plain Scripture proof of Infants c. pag. 294. so inconsiderable was the party that stood for it And Vorstius speaking in the name of Protestant Divines in general saith b Id potissimum quaeritur an Sacramenta sint signa tantum sigilla foederis gratiae sive externa symbola signacula foederi gratiae appensa divinitus ad hoc institura ut gratiam Dei salutarem in foedere promissam nobis significent atque ita fidem nostram suo modo confirment simul publice testaram reddant quae quidem communis est Evangelicorum sententia an vero preaterea sint causae efficientes hujus salutaris justificantis gratiae sive an sint effectiva gratiae ejusdem organa nempe ad hoc divinitus institura ut gratiam istam realiter instar vasorum in se contineant omnibus illa percipientibus candem vi sua imprimant reipsa conferant quae Bellarmini Pontificiorum omnium opinio est It is disputed whether Sacraments are onely signes and seales of the Covenant of grace or outward signes annext the Covenant and appointed for this of God that they should signify saving grace of God promised in the Covenant and signifying seal and after their manner confirm our faith and give publick testimony of it which saith he is the common opinion of Protestants or whether they be further efficient causes of this saving and justifying grace or whether they be effective instruments of this grace appointed of God for this thing that they should indeed containe it in them and convey it which is the opinion of all Papists Vorstius Anti. Bellar. ad Contro 1 Gen. And our men further judge that opinion of the opus operatum or of the outward Sacramental action as though without the faith and pious motion of those that use it it could justifie any to be evidently false and pernicious And they teach that all Sacraments by the ordination of God himself have onely a power to signifie and seal and not to conferre the grace of the Gospel it self And whereas several passages in the Liturgy of this Church did seem to favour the opposite opinion affixing adoption membership of Christ and inheritance of the Kingdom of heaven and regeneration to Baptisme we know how great offence it gave to many eminently Learned and pious putting them upon omission of those passages And also what Interpretation as with a grain of salt others put upon them that they were onely Sacramentally such And doubtlesse these either hit upon the meaning of the Church which was held to these phrases in imitation of many hyperbolical speeches in the Fathers or else the Church had mist the meaning of Scriptures so loth were the sons of the Church to be quarrelling with their mother and yet more loth with her to run into errors The Observation it self if heeded hath a caution or limit in it Affirming that Sacraments work no otherwise then as signs and seals and that they conferre no inward graces or priviledges further then they work upon the understanding and faith of those that receive them it implyes that they do conferre what an outward symbole or sign is apt to and of powder to convey and that outward priviledges in Sacraments are either conferred of infallibly evidenced This is clear the Apostle having so far undervalued Circumcision in the flesh as to make it Parallell with uncircumcision so that a circumcised Jew and an uncircumcised Gentile differed nothing as to their Spiritual state and condition inferres by way of objection What advantage then hath the Jew and what profit is there of circumcision And answers not that outward circumcision is altogether unprofitable but that it hath much profit and instances in one eminent one To them are committed the Oracles of God This is the inheritance of the Congregation of Jacob Deut. 33.4 as Moses speaks and carrying with it this great priviledge it conveyes with it all other inferiour Church-priviledges right to the Passeover upon this account was theirs Exod. 12.48 and not otherwise So it is with Baptisme men are taken into the Church at this door according to the Commission given to the Apostles Disciple all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father c. Whatsoever they were and whomsoever they professedly served before they are this way taken in as the consecrate servants of the whole Trinity and added to the Church Act 2.47 When they had by the Covenant a precedent title in Baptisme they have a solemn inauguration By one Spirit we are all Baptized into one body 1 Cor. 12.13 It is the Spirits work to shape the heart of unbelieving Corinthians to enter into one visible Church-body as that work of Gods power whereby he did perswade Japhet to dwell in the tents of Shem Gen. 9.27 And therefore when c Durandus docet characterem esse ens rationis id est respectum advenientem ex deputatione ad certum officium qualis est relatio in Doctoribus Praetoribus c. Quae sententia vix distinguitur ab haeresi hujus temporis Durand denyed that the Character which the Church of Rome speaks of was any quality in the soul but meerly a relation comming as by way of deputation to an office or duty exemplifying it by the relation that is seen in Doctors Praetors c Bellar. lib. 2. de Sacramen effectu cap. 14. saith That this opinion can scarcely be distinguished from the Heresie of this time d Haeretici non negant neque negare possunt quin sit aliqua relatio rationis in Ministris quae non est in aliis qui non sunt deputati ad ministrandum And further saith That Heretiques do not deny nor can deny but that there is some relation in Ministers which is not in others who are not deputed to the Ministery We do confesse indeed that there is that relation in Christians to Christ by the work done in the Sacrament of Baptisme which is not in Heathens And though we deny Orders to be any Sacrament yet we confesse there is that relation in Ministers to Christ by vertue of their Ordination that is not in those that are not called to the work of the Ministery There are those indeed that do deny it But those that Bellarmine had to deal with and that he charges for Heretiques as Luther Melancthon Calvin Beza Peter Martyr Chemnitius willingly yeeld it And in case this were all the character that they talke of to be imprinted in Baptisme yea in Ordination we should never contend about it And as these priviledges are conferred as to actual interest in the initiatory Sacacraments both of Baptisme and Circumcision so the same priviledges in the following Sacraments are infallibly evidenced as appears in that text 1 Cor. 10.17 The Apostle there making it
and received by a Whale and after three dayes and three nights cast safe upon the shore Satan must set up his Arion and make him famous in his Historians and Poets A skilfull Harper of Greece having by excellency in musick gained a great summe of money in Italy and Sicilia returning to his own Countrey with his treasure Mariners with whom he agreed for his Fare greedy of his money cast him into the Sea a Dolphin delighted with his musick carries him safe and landed him at Taenarus See the relation and application elegantly brought home to this purpose by Dr. Abbot Lect. 15. on Jonah making notable observations of Satans policy In case the Narrative carry any truth in it by his wonders so far as his art and power can reach Satan then makes it his business to disgrace Gods miracles and cast dishonour upon them by his imitation though he falls farre short of the Originall as he there shewes and followes him as little Ascanius his Father with very unequal steps And in case we take it for a meer fiction which is his judgement upon it his art is no lesse observable to discredit as farre as in him lyes the writings of Scriptures When this miracle of Jonahs shall be Preached and published in the world Arions fable shall be produced that like faith may be yeelded to either of both See Mr. Burges Spiritual Refining Pag. 131 132. Where this thing in many particulars is enlarged And the more high the wayes of Religion are raised of God in a Spiritual way the more easie it is for Satan who is a spirit to delude The Spirit is the great Gospel-promise to be poured out on all flesh that is on men of all sorts Joel 2.28 God will be served in types and shadowes no longer but in Spirit and truth Joh. 4.23 When the Jewes gloried of Circumcision as that which did denominate them a people of God and distinguished them from all other Nations and urged the necessity of it to salvation the Apostle tells us that they are the Circumcision that worship God in Spirit Phil. 3.3 Satan now on the other hand can take the hint and heighten his way in a destructive manner to Gospel wayes All outward Ordinances shall now be decryed as formes and beggarly rudiments and with Circumcision in the letter laid aside though they be Ordinances of the Spirit it self in which the Spirit expresses its power and efficacy 1. The written Word which was dictated by the Spirit 2 Pet. 1.19 is the sword of the Spirit by which it exercises his power on the soul must be laid aside as a dead letter and over carnal The Ministers of the Word that great gift from the Fathers right hand Ephes 4.11 set over the flocks by the holy Ghost Act. 20.28 on this pretence are to be cast off with Moses and Aaron taking too much upon them when all the Congregation is holy notwithstanding for a real confutation when this Spirit was first given in glory it came upon the heads of his Ministers in forme of tongues fiery cloven Act. 2.3 To let all know is that great appearance that was there that their tongues are sanctified of God to Preach the Word in power and life to all Nations And as the gifts of the Spirit encreased so the Ministers of the Spirit were multiplyed and that very title and name given Ministers of the Spirit 2 Cor. 3.6 And the mind of Jesus Christ made known that these in a peculiar order distinct from other men are set apart to preach the Gospel as the Priests under the Law in a peculiar order were to wait at the Altar 1 Cor. 9.13 14. Upon the same pretence Sacraments must be laid aside the Baptisme of the Spirit is pleaded for the overthrow of the Baptisme of water Though the Apostle that first spake by the Spirit after it was given in glory doth argue the clean contrary Act. 10.47 Who can forbid water that these should not be baptized which have received the holy Ghost as well as we They that have the Spirit will be raised in zeal for the honour and establishment of every Ordinance of God by the Spirit the more spiritual men are the more care they will take to advance the Word the Ministers of the Word Sabbaths Sacraments Let us then observe his imitations his falsifications He vents doctrine of his own sets up wayes of his own that carry a resemblance of Gods wayes And similitude is mater erroris we shall never heed them as long as we know they are the Devils but when he transformes himself into an Angel of light and puts the stamp of God upon his own coyn we must not be ignorant of his sleights but to have our senses exercised to discern between good and evill CHAP. III. Whether there were any Sacraments from the fall to the institution of Circumcision THe next consideration of Sacraments is in mans fallen condition under a Covenant not of works but grace not for mans preservation in life but his restitution to life A further distribution of Sacâ—aments And these are to be distinguished according to Gods way of dispensation of us Covenant to his people which is wont to be done into three periods The first is from the fall till Abraham or unto the time that God entered Covenant with him and his seed which Suarez saith according to the common account doth end at the giving of the Law by Moses when the old Law began yet Circumcision which was in use long before the Law continuing the same under the Law he determines the law of nature at that time when Circucision began The second from Abraham till Christ The third from the first comming of Christ in the flesh till the second comming of his to judgement The first juncture of time hath usually been known by the time of the Law of nature The second the time of the Old And the last the time of the New Covenant Why the first of these should bear the name of the Law of nature I can read of none that have given satisfaction The phrase should seem to imply that then men had no more light then that of nature for their guide in the wayes of God But this is evidently false God did not then begin by way of supernatural revelation to speak to men in the world Suarez in tertiam partem Thomae Tom. 3. Disput 4. Sect. 1. taking upon him to answer the question hath much to amuse the Reader nothing to satisfie him he sayes a Lex naturae intelligitur dictamen rationis non solum ex naturali sed etiam ex supernaturali lumine ortum The law of nature is the dictate of reason arising not onely out of natural but supernatural light And in ihat sense the Gospel is the Law of nature Concerning this space of time whatsoever is the period of it much enquiry is made whether there were any Sacraments at all instituted of God and enjoyed
known There have been transubstantiations but those were never hidden Moses his rod was turned into a Serpent and it was seen to be a Serpent so that Moses on sight fled from it Exod. 4.3 It was turned again into a rod and known to be a rod vers 4. Christ turnes water into wine Joh. 2.9 that was not judged to be still water or called by that name but by the taste known to be of the most precious wine vers 10. But our senses having thus deceived us and made us believe that there is still bread and wine when by miracle bread and wine is gone where shall we find any Word to ground our faith to believe this delusion The words of the institution or nothing must carry it This is my body this Cup is my blood in the New Testament But such an interpretation 1. Destroyes the outward sign and makes it no Sacrament 2. Makes the speech wholly not Sacramental No Sacramental speech can be proper and we have enough from out adversaries to excuse our faith from the acknowledgement of any such a change If we look no further then three testimonies quoted by learned Mr. Gataker from three Romish Cardinals in his discourse of transubstantiation Pag. 2. 3. Cardinal Bellarmine saith he granteth that these words This is my body may imply either such a real change of the bread as the Catholiques hold or such a figurative change as the Calvinists hold but will not bear that sense that the Lutherans give it And Cardinal Cajetan acknowledgeth and freely confesseth that there appeareth not any thing out of the Gospel that may enforce us to understand those words This is my body properly And he addeth that nothing in the text hindreth but that those words may as well be taken in a metaphorical sense as those words of the Apostle the Rock was Christ and that the words of either proposition may well be true though the thing there spoken be not understood in a proper sense but in a metaphorical sense onely And he further q saith he finds alleadged out of Bishop Fisher whom Bellar. lib. de Scriptor Ecclesiast Pag. 209. makes both a Cardinal and a Martyr that there is not one word in St. Matthewes Gospel from which the true presence of Christs flesh and blood in our Masse may be proved out of Scripture it cannot be proved And being traduced for this quotation by an adversary as taking king it out of a nameless Author ignorant and unsincere in his assertions In his defence of the said discourse Pag. 44. he tells his adversary that his Author whom he thus brands as ignorant and unsincere is Bishop Andrewes in his answer to the Apology of Card. Bellar. against King James his admonitory preface Chap. 1. and I find Musculus in his common places de Coena Domin Pag. 365. quoting the same words out of the same Author and much more to the same purpose He that would be further furnished against this monster of transubstantiation in our own language let him read the fore-mentioned discourse of Mr. Gatakers together with the defence as also Bishop Mortons his Treatise divided into eight parts of the institution of the Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ Gods goodnesse seen in his condescension to our weaknesse Thirdly We may see the goodness of God in this way of condescension by earthly things carnal sensible and suitable to our natures to help our understandings and strengthen our faith in things heavenly If we were meer incorporeal substances and had spirits not shut up and imprisoned in bodies then saith Chrysostome we should have had spirituall things in an answerable way nakedly in themselves held out unto us then Parables had not been used nor similitudes borrowed nor Sacramental signs instituted But having souls affixt to bodies that which our spirits should learn these things of earth are imployed of God to teach God looked not at himself when he chose this method It is farre below him to fill up his sacred Oracles with these things but at our imbecillity In case he should speak as God that is in a language answering the Majestie of God we must be as gods to comprehend his words and understand his speech but dealing with us that have bodies made up of earth and minds over eagerly addicted to earth he is pleased in his transactions not to deal if I may so say as God but as with man seeking glory onely in manifestation of his goodness and tender regard of our weakness Christ saw a necessity of this way of dealing not onely as God by his omniscience but as man by his practical experience He taught Nicodemus the nature of regeneration by similitudes borrowed from water and from the wind Except a man be borne of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdome of God The wind bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth So is every one that is born of the Spirit Joh. 3.5 8. Notwithstanding all this endeavour of Christ to cleare this truth Nicodemus still remaines ignorant he answers and saies to Christ How can these things be Christ after a sharp reproof ver 10. Art thou a master in Israel and knowest not these things not onely a Scholar but a Teacher and that not in any place of darknesse but in Israel that valley of vision addes ver 12. If I have told you earthly things and ye beleeve not how shall ye beleeve if I tell you of heavenly things Christ had not read a Lecture to Nicodemus of the water or of the wind neither had Nicodemus questioned either of those assertions The wind bloweth where it listeth thou knowest not whence it comes nor whither it goes that he should on this account charge Nicedemus with not beleeving doctrine of this kind But the meaning is If I speak of regeneration by earthly similitudes and expressions obvious to the senses and you are not able to apprehend and understand them how then if I speak to you of heavenly things in an heavenly manner without any such sensible representation at all would you then understand This interpretation of these words Maldonate doth give notwithstanding Bullinger Decad. 5 Ser. 6. had gone before him in it Ravanellus in his Thesaurus and Mr. Burges in his Ser. 35. pag. 211. give the same In which we see our need of help this way and the singular condescension of Christ Jesus in dealing this way for our help which place in my thoughts serves to cleere that speech of the Evangelist Mar. 4.33 And with many such parables spake he the word unto them as they were able to beare it many are there reckoned up and more by Matthew Matth. 13. many more perhaps were uttered then either Matthew or Mark relate as they were able to bear saith the text according to their capacities say the larger Annotations And so Jansenius upon the words
the Disciples of Christ for discovery of a Disciple in the former sense by their affections to him and suffering of affliction for him are of singular use Christ himself hath gone before us in it But upon the notation of the word because Christ gave the Bread and Cup to Disciples to make the subject of that Sacrament to be onely those that reach these markes is besides the holy Ghosts intention All outward Ordinances are for the Church in fieri and not onely in facto for the bringing of it on to Christ I should desire to know where any outward sensible Ordinance is made or how in reason and according to Scripture it can be made the proper peculiar right of invisible members SECT XI Proposition 9 THe Sacrament of the Supper no more then other Ordinances is not limited to those that have received a new life in Christ by the Spirit that are actually regenerate and in grace The Lords Supper is not limited to those that have received a new life by the Spirit others as they may be admitted without sin so they are in a capacity and possbility to receive benefit from it This I am not ignorant that some will question But let these consider before they censure First That it is an external Ordinance as hath been said Arguments a priviledge of the Church as visible put into the hands of those for edification that are not able to discern men of spiritual life and invisible interest And though there be characteristicall differnces whereby a man in grace and he that is short of it may be distinguished whereby all bad ground at the best may be differenced from that which is good yet they are such whereby a man is to make trial of himself onely they are Spirit-works and none knowes them in any man save the Spirit that is in him and therefore no marks for any others cognizance For a Minister of Christ to dispence by command the Sacrament to many when he knowes that it is of possible use and benefit to some few unto these it is food and nourishment unto life unto the others as Rats-bane Poyson and onely for death is such a snare that may hold him in his administration in all horror and amazement A fad dilemma either to lay aside an Ordinance of Christ and so never come up in his place to the whole of his duty or else to deliver to them that which will inevitably be the ruine and destruction of so many of them I know no possible way that can be supposed or so much as pretended for avoidance but in the Name of Christ to give warning to all in whom this new life by the Spirit is not to abstain every man and woman not actually regenerate on their peril to keep off Let them say some know their danger in the highest terms that can be uttered and then if they come their blood is on their own heads and the Minister of Christ hath by this means delivered his soul But to this I have three things to say 1. That it is as I suppose without all Scripture-precedent to warn men upon account of want of a new life by the Spirit wholly to keep off from this or any other Ordinance of Christ I know we must warn men of their sin and the judgement hanging over their heads for sin in which let it be our prayer that we may be more faithful but that we should warn men upon this account upon this very ground to hold off from all addresse to Ordinances I have not learnt 2. I say this doth presuppose that which is wont to be denyed unregenerate men to be in a capacity to examine themselves respective to this Ordinance How can we warn them upon want of justifying faith and the saving work of repentance to hold back when they are in an incapacity upon trial to find themselves thus wanting 3. Shall we not hereby pluck the thorne out of our own sides and as much as in us lyes thrust it into the sides of many of our hungry thirsty and poor in spirit people How many may we suppose are in grace through a work happily begun on their souls yet for several reasons are not able to see this grace or reach to any discovery of it Sometimes by reason of the infancy of the work upon their hearts being yet babes or rather embryo's in grace The first that appears upon light received is an army of lusts and potent corruptions as we know Paul sets it out This cloudes for present any other weak work that as yet in present is wrought In this time Satan is not wanting he did not shew so much artifice before to lessen their sin but he now makes use of as much to aggravate it and as he was industrious before to seduce now he is as busie to accuse He led the incestuous man to incontinency 1 Cor. 7.4 And we know Paul feares least upon continuance of the Church-censure he would gain advantage to swallow him up in overmuch sorrow 2 Cor. 2.8 11. These perhaps as yet are not able to give an account of the nature of faith and repentance or their genuine fruits much lesse are they able by a reflex act to conclude the truth of them in their souls Sometimes by reason of some sharpe conflict of temptation being under the shock and assault of it and therefore whatsoever they have seen of grace heretofore or the favour of God now it is under a cloud which I believe was Pauls case when a messenger of Satan was sent to buffet him and a thorne in the flesh given him seeing it is put in opposition to the abundance of revelations that he had being taken up into the third heavens 2 Cor. 12. and therefore had need of Ordinances for support Sometimes on a soyle received by temptation of which his own heart and not the Church is witnesse and therefore is at a losse of the joy of his salvation and stands in need of strength for recovery Sometimes by over-much sloath and rust contracted on his graces through negligence which is supposed to be the case of the spouse indulging her self too much in carnal ease Cant. 5.2 I have put off my coat how shall I put it on I have washed my feet how shall I defile them Sometimes God out of prerogative withdrawing the rayes of his Spirit and refusing to testifie with our spirits in which case the soul that is most upright with God and sincere in his feare walks in darknesse and sees no light in which there is need of all communications from God and attendance upon him in Ordinances When these shall hear all in whom the work of grace is not in truth thus warned to keep back and told of the high danger of approaching to this Table in such away aggravated will not they put in their name and say their souls are now spoke to They must therefore absent themselves and so the smoaking flax is quenched
almost forgotten and looked upon as a Ceremony antiquated and obsolete Christian prudence should interpose and discern a mean between both To quicken and put us on against this last of which the most had need instead of a Book of Canons Directions for our guidance about it or compulsory Lawes Let us 1. Affect our soules with an ardent love of Christ and then we shall not be so slack in celebration of this memorial of him We will keep up the memory of an endeared friend this way Christ hath commended to endear his memory to us If love be such as it ought we shall not desire that it be seldome if it may be possibly often Peter had it three times in charge from Christ to feed his Lambs to feed his sheep how often he must preach Christ he is not told that is left to his love If thou lovest me feed my sheep Love would not let him be slothfull 2. Let us take into consideration our own necessities of which here we may have supplyes first our want of humiliation and heart-breaking how slight and overly is all our feeling and sense of sin if let alone are we not in danger to grow past feeling which was the case of the Heathen when they had arrived at the greatest height of wickednesse Ephes 4.19 Here is an hammer for that purpose when once the Law hath discovered by the light that is given that we have sinned No way to this for the aggravation of it Here we see Gods detestation of sin that would not spare it in his onely Son as he spared not the Angels that sinned but having no Mediatour to bear it for them they bore the punishment of it in their own persons so he spared not his own Son when he had taken upon him our sin Here we see the desert of sin in all those torments which Christ bore for us If we would know sin and be sensible of wrath study the Sacrament the dead soul may be here awakened Secondly our spiritual weaknesses and wants which I shall set out in Mr. Pembles words Let them look inward and see how great need they have of many and often confirmations of their faith renovations of their repentance of stirring up the graces of God in their soules to adde an edge an eagernesse to all spiritual affections after holinesse to get unto themselves the most powerfull provocations unto obedience Every one that hath grace knowes how frequently the power thereof is impaired by temptations weakened by wordly distractions even of our lawful employment and over-mastered by the force of sinful lusts so that they must needs discover a great deal of ignorance in their spiritual estate that feel not in their own soules a pronenesse to astonishment as well in their soules as in their bodies at least they bewray intolerable carelesnesse that finding the emptinesse and leannesse of their soules yet neglect to repair often to this holy Table whereon is set forth the bread of life whereof when they have eaten their spirit may come again 1 Sam. 31.12 their hearts may be strengthened their soules may be replenished as with marrow and fatnesse These considerations may quicken our appetites after this spiritual food And such a meal extraordinary with the help of our ordinary refreshments in hearing prayer and meditation may carry us on more then 40 dayes towards our heavenly Mansion That we hasten not too fast on the other hand Let us take into consideration our inabilities for a suitable preparation and fitnesse for addresse to this Ordinance we have fasted so long in course that we have scarce known what humiliation of our soules in fasting is yea some would be every day at â—t as we can rise in our spirits to the extraordinary weight of it and fit our soules with suitable preparations for it These that I have named are the best gages that I know to regulate us in it that in over-eager haste in duties extraordinary we do not run our selves out of breath nor in over-much sloth give our selves over to faintnesse and leannesse SECT III. A Corollary from the former Doctrine Men called to the Sacrament may not othewise then upon weighty reasons absent themselves from it THen it will follow by way of necessary inference from this consideration of the necessity of Sacraments that When Sacraments are dispensed Christians should see weighty reasons such in which they may have confidence that they will bear them out at the day of Judgment for their omission of them This duty is in the number of affirmative precepts which alwayes bind A man is never from under the obligation of that Precept Do this in remembrance of me though it doth not bind to all times A man is not to be ever in the doing of it and he is never to be found in the neglect of it Loco tempore debitis in due time and place they must be done A journey would have dispensed with a man for absence from the Passeover so it will when necessity of a mans calling makes it necessary from the Lords Supper so also will sicknesses imprisonments or like providences But when the servant comes and calls and sayes All things are made ready then take thou heed how thou makest excuses They that were called to the wedding Feast might have pleaded that other businesses lay upon them that they could not alwayes attend weddings But when the King sends and sayes All is ready come there is no time for other occasions td be lookt after It were an endlesse work to find out the reasons that men frame for absenting themselves Excuses for absence from the Lords Table removed Some see that it is a duty above them neither their knowledge nor their life doth answer to that which is required in a Communicant and so despair of coming up to it and therefore keep off lest they should as they fear encrease their judgment In case these speak out of a serious consideration of the work with a sad reflexion on themselves upon a diligent scrutiny into their hearts and wayes and so take a day over for it and in the mean time digge for knowledge as for hid treasures and do strengthen their resolutions to withstand all temptations to sin they are by all meanes to be encouraged and holpen every Christian of strength should commiserate these weak soules But in case they clearly see all to be so as we have said and resolve to let all alone as a man that sees himself near to a bankrupt regards not whether end goes forward This is then a sad and saddening reason It lyes upon these to take their state and condition into further consideration that by the good hand of God it may be better with them To provoke these to further care of their eternal state I shall put to them these questions First What is it that thou dost respective to other duties The excuse of unfitnesse examined the duty of
world and death by sin so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned or in whom all have sinned 4. The readinesse and pronenesse of little ones to run upon sin is an evidence of it The thornes bryars and weeds that the earth casts out when precious flowers and choise plants are more hardly nourished is an argument that the earth is under a curse and is not now as once it was The sins that even in childhood appear and together with age grow forwards when graces are difficultly planted and that which is good very hardly produced is as great an evidence of a mans innate degeneration This even Heathens could see though they knew not whence it was e Homines natura sua esse malos induci non posse ut justitiam colant Plato observed that men by nature are wicked and that they cannot be brought to learne righteousnesse and f Hominem à natura noverca in lucem edi corpore nudo fragili atque infirmo animo ad molestias anxio ad timores humili in quo divinus ignis sit obrutus Referunt Theol. Lydenses Disp 15. Thes 6. Tully lamented that man is brought into the world by his stepdame nature with a body naked frail and weak a mind anxious in troubles low under fears weak for labour prone to lust in whom every Divine spark is overywhelmed If any man demand how it comes to passe that we are thus we must look as far as Adam to see the inlet of it By one mans disobedience many were made sinners Rom. 5.19 His was peccatum originans giving the rise to all evils in us thence issued peccatum originatum our original condition as before decribed Sin seizing upon the Angels made them unclean and they have through that defilement the denomination of unclean spirits sin seizing upon man hath rendered him unclane It defiled not onely the person of man but the nature of man had man stood all mankind had stood man falling all mankind became filthy Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean not one Job 14.4 Adam begat a son in his own likenesse Gen. 5.3 like himself when he had lost the image of God what sin made man that an infant is so far as of capacity to be not to act sin he that can do nothing cannot do evil but in them there are those principles that shew themselves in action so far as there is power to act A young Serpent doth sting none poysons none but there is in them a poysonous and destroying na ure which growes as nature growes 5. By the duty incumbent upon Christians to put off the old man Ephes 4.22 which is not so called in opposition to that which is young as though man grew up to it by degrees many years being gone over his head before he had gotten that name but in opposition to that which is new as we see ver 23. The old hath the precedency of the new and is before it as the old garments are worne and put off before the new put on why must all of necessity be new if the old would serve the turn Secondly This sin which is mans hereditary estate This Original state of man is not onely a want of Primâ—tive integrity but is attended with universal defilement hath in it not onely a want of that Priwitive purity which God stamped upon man according to his own likenesse but also an universal defilement and pollution Therefore the Apostle setting out this estate under the name of the old man gives it this character corrupt according to deceitfull lusts Ephes 4.22 All the pollution in the world is from lust 2 Pet. 1 4. that is the sink and source from whence all proceeds and the old man is wholly made up of these corrupt filthy and defiling principles They promise better when they draw aside but that is their work and therefore as they are corrupt so they are branded as deceitful likewise Upon this account it is that man is dead in trespasses and sins able to rise no higher in nature then that which is sin and this renders his conversation to be according to the course of this world after the prince of the power of the air the former is his pattern and the later is his Soveraign the one is followed the other served And consequently with guilt or ordination to punishment In fulfilling the desires or wills of the flesh and mind Ephes 2.23 serving divers lusts and pleasures Tit. 3.3 as wholly enslaved by this defiling principle And as this is of the being so guilt or ordination to punishment is a necessary adjunct or consequent of it Death is in as great a latitude as sin Rom. 5.12 the proper wages of that work Rom. 6.23 Therefore all that have a nature thus defiled are by nature the children of wrath Ephes 2.3 Men may descant as they will upon the word and tell us of another use of it in prophane Authors but all their wit will not work men from under this guilt or gain him any thing more in his birth-state but wrath for his portion Thirdly To restore man to his Primitive happiness his nature must be healed Nature must be healed and guilt removed for restitution of man to his Primitive glory and his guilt removed there must be a change wrought in his principles and a pardon vouchsafed of his sin If either the stain continue or the guilt hold man will be wretched till he be again like God and reconciled to God his case is forlorne This needs no proof man was without stain or guilt when God made him upright his stain must be washed and guilt removed or else his happinesse is not repaired And this was the converted Corinthians glory they were under the defilement of Adultery Idolatry Fornication Drunkennesse c. and upon this account under the sad doome of exclusion out of the Kingdom of heaven but being washed sanctified justified the doome is reversed However you Interpret these several phrases we have their deliverance from the stain and guilt of sin in them Fourthly Either of both of these is the work of Christ and the happy priviledge of all of Gospel-interest Either of both of these is the work of Christ by his blood and Spirit He takes off the stain in the work of Regeneration and Sanctification by the power of his Spirit as by our fall we were dead in sin so by this new work on our hearts we are dead to sin we were free from righteousnesse now we are alive to righteousnesse Rom. 8.11 If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you When we were dead in sins he hath quickened us together with Christ Ephes 2.5 Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it that he might Sanctifie and cleanse it
perish if we look unto the order in which he stands in respect of God that predestinates See the suffrage of the Divines of great Brittain art 5. part 2. thes 3 4 5 6. Davenants Epist prop. ult Burges on Justification pag. 240. The Assemblies confession of faith Position 3 3. Sins of this nature in an unregenerate man bring him under Gods wrath and present displeasure though they do not work him into a state of wrath or utter losse of his justified state They cause him to bear his Fathers frown though he shall not dye as a Malefactor He shall not enter into condemnation yet he is not taken out of the hands of discipline see Isai 57.17 18. For the iniquity of his covetousnesse was I wroth and smote him I hid me and was wroth and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart I have seen his wayes and will heal him I will lead him also and restore comforts to him and to his mourners These of whom the Prophet here speaks were a people of Gods everlasting love being those whom he heals and to whom he restores comforts They were yet overmuch carried out to covetousnesse and pursuit of creature contentments Gods wrath was upon them for this miscarriage of theirs he was moved here upon to appear in displeasure against them he smites them in his wrath and hides his face in displeasure from them having his eye open to their sin but his face withdrawn from their consolation Num. 20.13 we may find Moses and Aarons sin and the Psalmists observation upon it Psal 106.32 33. They angred him also at the waters of strife so that it went ill with Moses for their sakes because they provoked his spirit so that he spake unadvisedly with his lips Moses suffers from God for his sin when he suffered the people to provoke him to sin This Moses seems never to have done with Deut. 1.37 3.26 4.21 so that God punishes for sin and in anger punishes for it If love and wrath cannot consist as some would have it then Moses was none of Gods beloved 2 Sam. 11. we find Davids sin set out at length and how it took with God we find in the end of the chapter The thing that David did displeased the Lord and that it was no otherwise in New-Testament-times is clear As the onenesse and samenesse of the Covenant which we and they were under doth evince it so also Gods dealings with the Corinthians upon their prophanation of the Lords Supper is a proof of it 4. Sin thus committed is such an obstruction in the way of blisse Position 4 and salvation that there lyes a necessity on the soul to come in by repentance and by prayer to make application to the throne of grace in order to pardon and forgivenesse This is Gods way to bring his into the wayes of salvation and life when they have stept aside into the wayes of death To this end God keeps up Discipline with his own hand as we may see 1 Cor. 11.31 32. The Apostle having there reproved these Corinthians in a tart way for prophanation of the Lords Supper and disswaded them from it by the deadly nature of the crime they were herein guilty of the body and blood of the Lord and the danger they incurred eating and drinking judgement to themselves he farther sets before them present experiments of Gods hand For this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep In this place he lets them know how they might avoid this judgement If we would judge our selves we should not be judged Our examination and sentence might avert the examination and sentence of heaven And then acquaints them with Gods end in this visit of his to correct as a Father and not condemn as a Judge But when we are judged we are chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world The application here is easie They are the Elect of God and of saving Gospel interest that are kept from condemnation A way in sin would have brought them as others in the world into condemnation If they might have been saved in sin when the world was damned for sin this correction for that end did not need To avoid condemnation therefore for sin God by his judgements lashes them out of it By this shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged and this is all the fruit to take away his sin So that the tendency of sin even in a child of God is to bring to condemnation and the care of God is by afflictions to take him off from sin that he might not be condemned To this end Church-discipline is also set up of God 1. Cor. 5.3 4 5. For I verily as absent in body but present in spirit have judged already as though I were present concerning him that hath so done this deed in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ when ye are gathered together and my spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ to deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus How farre that sentence of giving up to Satan did reach I shall not stand to determine whether barely to cast him out of the Church and put him among those over whom Satan reigned or as consequent of it horrors and terrors from Satan by Gods just permission when the Church leaves him off from their communion God casts him off from his protection and consolation which as is said ordinarily followed upon this sentence in Primitive times The end is plain the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus If this mans former justification would have brought him on in his sin without step to salvation all this had not needed that his spirit might be saved See further 2 Cor. 7.9 the Apostles severe dealings with these Corinthians concerning this incestuous member had cast them down with grief and this grief raised the Apostles spirit with joy not that they had grieved but that their grief had so happy an issue Now I rejoyce not saith he that ye were made sorry but that ye sorrowed to repentance adding ver 10. For godly sorrow works repentance to salvation not to be repented of They were stepping therefore out of the salvation-way repentance brings them back This in reason is plain If new sins thus committed occasion no such obstruction as to bring a necessity of repentance as some would have it then the free grace of God gives a man full liberty to sin opens a gap to all ungodlinesse this will then follow which some have prophanely inferred from some Gospel-principles Live as I list and shall be saved What shall hinder if no way in sin either hath any tendency to condemnation or is any obstruction in the way of salvation Some I know to avoid this speak of that holy filial ingenuous disposition in a
a principal efficient Mr. Baxter is I am sure as zealous as I can be to assert a conditionate Covenant and if an adversary be as streight-laced to him and me in that as he is to me in this he will hardly prove a condition either in the Covenant of works or grace I will as soon find the word instrument in Scripture applyed to justification as he shall find the word condition applyed to either Covenant And he can name I think no word implying a condition that is alwayes put for a condition and the context wheresoever we are said to be justified by faith or that Christ is a propitiation through faith is in all indifferent Readers eyes as clear for an instrument in justification as those which he and I can bring which yet are clear enough for a conditionate Covenant And that doctrine hath farre more adversaries then this though there is little cause that any man should be an adversary in either He sayes the same answer serves to Act. 15.9 and then the same reply may serve There followes To what you say from Rom. 8.13 I reply 1. An adjutor or concause is ill called an instrument must the Spirit needs be our instrument because it is by the Spirit as if by signified onely an instrument Mr. Baxters head was doubtlesse on somewhat else either when he read these passage of mine or when he framed his answer I never had it in my thoughts that justification is expressely spoken to in any of these texts nor was it my businesse to find out any instrument in them though I doubt not but that faith is spoken to instrument in two of them and as a condition non-instrumental in none of them neither did I dream of making the Spirit an instrument All that I intended was to prove The acts of God are entitled to man and the acts of man to God in Scripture that the acts of man were intitled to God and so the acts of God to man not considering as the businesse in hand let not to it about what these acts are exercised if they prove that It is to me sufficient whether it be in Justification Sanctification Mortification or any other work There is added 2. All this is nothing to the businesse of justification nothing directly immediately but much by way of Analogy It is enough to prove That to be the instrument of man and the instrument of God are not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And if he desire a proof more punctually applyed to justification let him consult Rom 3.30 It is one God that shall justifie the circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision through faith and Gal. 3.8 The Scripture foreseeing that God would justifie the Heathen through faith Faith for justification is usually ascribed to man being properly his act and therefore that text of the Prophet Hab. 2.4 The just shall live by his faith is by the Apostle more then once applyed to justification And in the text now quoted this act of faith is ascribed to God for that work I explained my self man neither justifies nor sanctifies himself yet by faith he is raised to close with God in both c. To this is answered If man justifie not himself and yet faith be his instrument of justifying then farewell old Logick Mr. Baxter is the first great Logitian that I ever heard talk so much of his Logick in the last Section but one we had it and now we have it in the same thing again there I shewed that old Logick may stand and yet his consequence not yeelded 2. It is said If man sanctifie not himself under God as to the progresse and acts of sanctification then farewell old Theology And if man may be said to sanctifie himself further then hath been said or so as to be a principal efficient which will follow from Mr. Baxters reasonings then welcome the newest Divinity It will not be denyed that a sanctified man differs from one that is unsanctified and then in case it may be allowed to say I sanctifie my self he may say I make my self to differ which I never heard that any in direct termes would say against the Apostle but Grevenchovius as I find him cited by Dr. Featly and yet it seems it is my great error that I will not say so I lift man up in that height in justification as to pardon his own sin in holding that it is of faith that it may be of grace not of works lest any should boast And I raise him not high enough in sanctification If I say no more then that by faith he receives power from God by the Spirit for it that text 1 Pet. 1.22 would farre better have served my purpose if I had first hit upon it The Spirit of God and not man is to have the denomination in sanctification Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit They that have done any thing in purifying their hearts through the Spirit will rather entitle the Spirit of God then themselves to it and will judge that he rather then they should be denominated a sanctifier And for other texts that are hinted and one mentioned 2 Cor. 7.1 To argue from the Command to the power is that old Theologie that I am ready to bid farewell to As God requires it so he doth often undertake it and declares that it is his work to do it Ezek. 36.25 26. Deut. 30.6 I think few will say that they make their own hearts new There is added 3. To close with God in pardoning me signifieth not that I pardon my self or that I or any act of mine is an efficient cause of pardon This is for me therefore I am contented it should be said over again and my faith is the instrument wherewith I close with God In case it be the instrument wherewith I receive Christ as Mr. Baxter hath sometimes yeelded There followes 4. When you say that faith as an instrument receiveth righteousnesse to justification you speak exactly the conceptions of most Divines that I have met with or read that go your way and therefore these words deserve a little further consideration and after some enquiry into their meaning There is added but these things must be more accurately considered I think Here it is confessed that I tread in the beaten road and that I do appear in the common cause and comparing what is here said with that which in his conclusion he delivers The Author is confest to appear in the common cause in behalf of Protestants It appears that the Divines of this corner of the world for 1300. years past have all taken this way which is all that go under the name Protestant whether Calvinist or Lutheran as they are wont to be distinguished I shall therefore expect that some of those that by grace have obtained to be as of the first three among Davids worthies will step in with their Auxiliary helps in case the