condition the free gift of God is eternal life Rom. 6.23 All the Orthodox deny the promise of the Gospel to be conditional for if good works be conditions of life in the Covenant of Grace what then are the conditions of the Covenant of works Or wherein do they differ As this is to confound Law and Gospel Nata est in scholis Pseudo Apostolorum thus to distinguish between justification and salvation so it is remarkable that this distinction and question did first come out of the school of the false Prophets who thereby occasioned great disturbance in the Church as Act. 15.1 5. So Gerard c. M. B. Now by the Antinomian Argument as a man may be justified while he is wicked and doth abide so so also he may be glorified and saved for this is their principle that Christ hath purchased justification glory and salvation for us even though sinners and enemies Answ Methinks your face should blush for shame at the framing of this so appareatly unjust charge and accusation doth any say that Justification leaveth a man wicked Nay do not all and every write otherwise let others judge I say no more But that their principle is undenyably true yet your Logick can finde no ground in it for this corrupt and absurd inference If Christ ever purchased glory justification and salvation for us it was when and while we were sinners and enemies or not at all for he purchased nothing since ye became holy and a friend to God or him neither needed to purchase righteousness and life for any but sinners How are you permitted to err and mislead M. B. 6. They are in their own nature a defence against sin and corruption if we consider the nature of these graces Eph. 6.14 16. there you have some graces a shield some a breast-plate c. Answ 1. Graces as you call them or gifts of Grace are improperly put in and reckoned among good works 2. The defence and power they have against sin is especially in regard of their object Christ his righteousness and promises For thence it is that all they are so good and useful armour If you have Faith and hope and ever was in any great conflict you have found that all your defence help stay and victory was onely from and by Christ the object he is the onely refuge plea and sure Rock when all works will fail M. B. 8. They are necessary by debt and obligation Answ The works of the Law are debts required to be payed first that we may have life and favour but the love and works of the Gospel are for life peace and favour first had and obtained M. B. 9. And the Law of God still remaineth as a rule and directory Answ As it ruleth so it reigneth reproveth and condemneth and when you have walked most precisely according to it it will subdue you and your obedience under the Curse Gal. 3.10 for all you can do is too light when it is put into this balance You say The Antinomian teacheth the abolition of all the Commandments He is an Antinomian indeed that doth so but I must you still thus wrong and slander us M.B. 10. They are necessary by way of comfort to our selves And this opposeth many Antinomian passages who forbid us to take any peace by our holiness Answ There be divers kindes of comfort arising from different grounds and considerations The Doctor speaks of that peace and comfort which ariseth from the true and certain knowledge of remission of sins and reconciliation with God the true proper and pure fountain whereof is Christ crucified as for your works they are like puddle-water a blundered and polluted stream or a deceitful brook yea as a broken Cistern that holdeth little or none You say in temptation they fail and are not to be regarded or looked at See this answered also in the third prejudicial inference Lect. 3. M. B. These good works though imperfect may be a great comfort to us as the testimony of Gods eternal love towards us Thus did Hezekiah 2 King 20.3 he is there a thankful acknowledger of what was in him c. Answ The best and most satisfactory testimony and assurance of Gods love is his giving of that dear Son of his love to die that we might live through him Joh. 3.16 1 Joh. 4.9 10. In this he commends sets forth and confirms his love Rom. 5.8 to put it out of all doubt 2 The next testimony is the giving of his Spirit for to reveal the things of Christ the unsearchable riches in him Joh. 16.14 Eph. 3.8 To shed abroad that love in our hearts that so the soul may know it feel the consolation of it c. 3 A third is the delivering and freeing of our hearts and natures from that bondage and pollution of sin by sanctifying us in body soul and spirit yet these are no causes but effects and expressions of his free and eternal love because he loved his own he doth all for them Our works are no causes or motives to him nor yet sure testimonies of Gods eternal love for many a Papist heathen and reprobate for the matter and shew of works exceed divers of them who believe Therefore if you will have them such testimonies and so have comfort from them you must look on them in all their causes especially in 1 The Efficient and the impulsive and moving cause which be neither the light judgement or dictamen of reason and natures principles nor the command coaction and commination of the Law by its rule and authority extorting them from us as being unwilling but they come from a free and voluntary spirit so made by the spirit of regeneration and Adoption moving to do good in love and delight Rom. 8.14 therefore be they called the fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5.22 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Secondly in the subject that the person be reconciled accepted and in favour through Faith in Christ Jesus Heb. 11.6 Lastly to say nothing of the form or object the end they are to be referred unto is not self-praise or profit to procure nor preserve by them our own peace favour or salvation with God which be the effects of Faith in Christ but simply Gods honour his Churches and our neighbours good even as our love is due also Mat. 22.37.39 And if these circumstances required necessarily to every good work Displicet deo dubitatio quare neque cols neque invocari cum dubitatione â—otest Melanct. be considered the soul will finde little need of works as testimonies and arguments of Gods love For that must be out of doubt first for a doubtful Conscience cannot please God by any work or obedience And your example of Hezekiah cometh nothing neer to make good your Assertion For as Gods works for us are testimonies of his love so our works at the most are but witnesses of our love unto him and therefore cannot be testimonies as you affirm of Gods
evident enough that those things whereof we are accused are not so we overthrow no force at all in your sense thus we have it in confesso that you do deny the condeming power the stones then that you cast may fall upon your own head M. B. 2. Some Swenckfeildians held that a man was never truely mortified till he had put out all sense of conscience for sin Answ Let the understanding reader judge whether this your doctrine of taking away the damnatory power of the law doth not directly tend to that end and can produce no other effect or fruits but senselesseness and wretched security for if I apprehend no danger in the law it revealing no wrath nor threatning nor condemning nor terrifying I can then rest quiet and secure under the law and in sin and so never seek nor desire to come and dwell under the protection of Christ in his Gospel LECT VII VIII IN these two Lectures I finde many things not currant with me and more which are dubious and questionable but as he medleth not with his Antinomian so I willingly let all pass as having no minde to raise or occasion new disputes the Church being too much disquieted already LECT IX Rom. 2.14 For the Gentiles do by nature c. M. B. Sect. 1. ANtinomians seem to deny all the preparatory works upon the heart of man Answ Can there be a heart desiring Christ and willing to receive him for righteousness reconcilation and life and yet be no preparatory work these a man with but half an eye may see and read in Doctor Crisp against whom this exception is made And what other preparation is needful or you do 〈◊〉 may be known hereafter M. B. Holding that Christ immediâ—â—◠〈…〉 himself to grâ—ss sinners abiding 〈…〉 Answ Your terms are ambiguous by that word immediately may be thought as if your adversary denyed all use of means as an Euthusiast or else that Christ communicateth himself before the sinner can or do prepare to meet him or receive him according to that of the prophet I am found of them that ask not after me Isa 65.1 as he called Matthew sitting at the receit of custome Mat. 9.9 and Peter Andrew James and John Mat. 4.18 21. And so he prevented Paul Act. 9.4 5. for will ever the stray sheep seek first to the sheperd or is it not the shepherds office to seek the scattered and lost Luk. 19.10 you are no patron of free-will why then do you wrangle in a matter so clear After that I was turned I repented Jer. 31.19 2. You say to gross sinners Do you make a difference before Christ and Faith come Paul saith There is no difference between the profane Gentile and legal Jew Rom. 3.9 the Jew is in no wise better then the other although the blinde Pharisee thought and judged otherwise Luk. 18.11 or is not Christ as free for one sinner as another for a gross and great offender an idolater a Necromancer as Manasses a blasphemer and persecuter as Paul for Publicans and harlors as for a refined and reformed legalist Alas Sir what then shall become of all gross sinners if Christ may not communicate himself unto them you would have them amended first that may like you but it pleaseth not Christ who is most glorified in the chief of sinners like that skilful physician whose art and faithfulness doth best appear in the healing and recovery of a patient desperately sick But by what power or means shall a gross sinner reforme and amend before Christ come to him who said truly Without me yo can do nothing you seem by this book to be just of the elder brothers that is the Pharisees minde Luk. 15.12 who was offended and murmured because the loose and sinful prodigal was so freely received and kindly welcomed and entertained What your fears or other reasons may be Eph. 1.6 I cannot well tell but Christ took more pleasure in conversing with gross sinners the mercy and grace of God is become most free and rich to the praise of the glory of it when such are freely justified and received into favor and never did nor shall any love so much and be so serviceable and full of expressions of love as such unto whom most are forgiven Luk. 7.47 3. But you add abiding so 1. Answ What after Christ hath communicated himself Impossible 2. You know your adversary can intend no such thing nor hath any such words but his expressions are otherwise as appeareth in his book to any reader 3. And if you mean abiding so till Christ come to him I say then you must work some strange cure on such an one in making him a Proselyte but I forbear M. B. And though they hold us passive at the first receiving of Christ which all Orthodox do yet they express it in an unsound sense comparing God unto a physician that doth violently open a sicke mans throat and poure down his physick whether he will or no. Answ 1. If you think that a man must or may prepare himself you are not so Orthodox as to hold us passive at the first receiving of Christ 2. You stumble at the similitude used but have not other approved Divines compared Gods dealing with man at first to a riders rough handling of a wilde colt who is forced to cast him ere he can shooe him and by a strong hand and sharpe usage to subdue break and tame him Neither of these do imply any more then is warranted Jer. 31.18 and other places Are you of opinion that God in the conversion of a sinner doth nothing against the will of man look then on Manasses Paul Adigondo peccatum in conscientiam the Jailor was there not violence done whilst God useth afflictions without and the terrors of the law within driving sin into the conscience and so compelleth the man to come in Luk. 14.23 no bitter potion or aloes is so unpleasant and loathsome unto the body as the due working of the law is ingrateful to the conscience besides the patient knowing that his physick is given not to kill but of purpose and with a minde to prevent death and to cure the diseased body will more willingly receive and digest what is so untoothsome but the soul when the law revealeth sin and wrath and the spirit of bondage beginneth to work knoweth nothing of Gods purpose herein unless it be that his minde is to destroy and therefore it doth struggle and refist as much as in it lyeth It may be truly said in a good sense that God who worketh the Will and the Deed Phil. 2.12 doth save a man against his will for man of himself is both unwilling to suffer and abide the work of God in him and upon him and also to have salvation in Gods way therefore said Christ You will not come unto me that ye may have life Joh. 5.40 and none will come unless the Father draw him Joh. 6.44 And how often would
all his so that I see not how you can make his Elect singly and simply to be any partys in undertaking and promising any thing You say Dr. Cr. giveth this reason why it is not on condition of our believing because man may fail in believing and so the condition failing Covenant faileth Reply His reason is good and sound for of it selfe faith is failing else Christ needed not to have prayed that Peters faith might not fail Luke 22.32 But all the whole Covenant being grounded on Christ as the foundation it is established on a firm Rock and so is everlasting Mr. Rutherf They object that God promiseth all as to give faith to put Law in the inward parts to cause to walk in his waies as Jer. 31. Ezek. 36.26 27. To circumcise our hearts Deut. 30.6 which the Arminians deny yet is the clear day-light of Scripture so that all lyeth on God Reply But you return not one syllable of a direct and satisfactory answer unto it you cannot deny but what God promiseth he is faithful to perform and do it You inferre some indirect and undue consequences as if you would rather wrangle against the truth which you cannot resist or were offended that it shineth forth so gloriously and convincingly in your face What if Dogs abuse it and Pharisaical Spirits otherwise principled spurne against it or mis-construe it as occasioning Libertinisme the sin be theirs yet this is the onely right ground and reason of prayer and using all Gods Ordinances in which the soul carrying it self passively waiteth that God may communicate and pour out his blessings according to his word Because God had promised first and that freely the building of Davids house and the King saw thereby that God had a gracious mind and purpose to do it and that it should be his act therefore David prayed that the Lord would bless his house that it might continue for ever before God For thou O Lord hast spoken it 2 Sam. 7.27 28 29. If all fulness be in the fountain and free access may be had it standing open to all It is an effectual invitation to come As for those opinions bred and breathed in New-England I know nothing of them neither am I so credulous or uncharitable towards any as to receive whatever an Adversary reporteth for if the liquor be never so pretious and pure yet if it come out of a fusty and tainted vessel it will taste of the Caske I see none of you so candid but in some things you wrong the Author in perverting his words or meaning even when it is printed and obvious to every eye But here you let all see that you cannot outwrangle the truth for at last you chide your self to agree and yeeld to it for 1 you say I grant God worketh the condition Then how is it mans condition or how can it be said to lye on him 2 Truth is say you It 's an unproper condition for the whole bargain is pure Grace Thus you are brought to grant all and no thanke to you for you would fain have it a condition still An unproper one must serve rather then none God indeed worketh orderly one thing after another the former as is said we may call a State-condition but not otherwise properly and without danger But ere you cease you tell us again of Libertinisme c. Reply Well receive the love of the truth and here shake hands and cast your stones against abusers of Free-grace if your side be not guilty of the like or worse You have a watchfull eye to look into our waies if in love to us we thanke you It might occasion us at least if we had any unfeigned desire that the good and fair way of the Lord might not be evil spoken of to walk more circumspectly but if the word of Grace leaven not the heart it will abide graceless And I rest perswaded that if it had not been either the licentious or loose life of some who are noted or because such as had been formerly wicked and prophane did flock after Dr. Crisp and attend to his Ministery as they did in Luke 15.1 2. and that it was more glorious and effectual then others else that you and your fellows would never have used tongue or pen against this way My reason is because it is so clear and undenyable that having searched and sifted it with all diligence there is found no solid and material cause of exception against it but all is resolved into envy and prejudice As for that question of justification before faith or after I have spoken to it in answer to Mr. Burgess It 's true God in his Gospels-dispensation onely pronounceth the sentence of absolution to the believer for he dealeth in it with men of actual understanding and the main end is to quiet and comfort the conscience for which purpose faith is mainly useful as to give glory unto God But you grant that the Covenant is with Christ and all his Heirs and kindred in him he being a publique person in whom all were acquitted and that is sufficient 4 Exception in pag. 102. Mr. Rutherf Can we saith Mr. Towne separate the directing or commanding power of the Law from the condemning power Is it a Law and hath no power to condemn Answ Actual condemnation may be separated as a Lyon is a Lyon though chained that he cannot actually devour it could not condemn Adam before sinne c. Christ hath removed the curse Reply The question is whether the Lyon be a devouring beast and you answer He cannot actually devour because he is chained but doth chaining change his devouring nature and so hath not the Law a condemning power still though it condemn not actually alway you see power to do it is not taken from it That it did not condemn Adam in innocency hath no more sinew of Argument in it then that the Law of the Land hath no power to condemn murther because there is no actual murtherer It hath power to do it but it is to exercise and put forth its power in a way of justice that is when the sinne is actually committed You say but they are vain words without light or weight that to condemn is accidental to a Law I reply as truely and in the like sense That to command and direct be as accidental so the whole of the Law in all its parts and offices shall be accidental for the Law doth not actually rule and govern Lawless rebels may not I then as solidly inferre It hath no authority nor power to do it yea in Hell among the damned as in our prisons there is Law onely actually condemning and tormenting but not ruling and directing in its way of holiness Lastly You should prove that Christ hath removed the curse from the Law he hath redeemed his from under it but left the Law with all the power it had But you speak what Mr. Burgess objected also If need be see more in Answer to
God humble us and yet we will not be humbled man standeth out till he be made to yeeld A frantick man will not be bound or cured besides he is held captive and letted by Satan though voluntarily the strong man must first therefore be cast out by one stronger 2 Tim. 2.26 Eph. 2.2 Yet being overcome converted and made willing by the Spirit of God his will believeth converteth and inclineth according to the way and voice of the Gospel so not at first but afterward man being changed is become willing and active M. B. page 86. Yet fifthly We may hold truly some antecedaneous works upon the heart before these graces be bestowed on us this take to antidote against the Antinomians who speak constantly of the souls taking Christ while it is a grievous polluted soul Answ There is no such fear of hurt by your Antinomian doctrine as you still pretend but is far more danger in your so many antidotes and the poison as is now apparent lyeth and lurketh elsewhere But that the world may yet more fully and cleerly see how in this also you wrong your adversaries 1. It is evident that both the honey-combe and the Assertion do grant and teach as much concerning the antecedaneous work upon the soul as it is Gods and not mans as you can rightly call for And whereas D. Crispe doth compare God to a physician so violently working upon and inforcing his patient c. Is not that a sufficient preparative yet further God giveth saith he an heart to desire and receive Christ c. Now who can be supposed to have an heart desirous of Christ but he that is a sensible sinner apprehensive of his fearful estate without Christ and convinced withall that Christ and Christ alone can reconcile and save The alone tender of our Saviour to any doth imply a lost condition without him and may not God even then let the soul see it hath no Christ and so is in sin and death and thus awakening it at that present stir up the desire and longing after him for salvation and so that free and gracious tender of a Saviour to such becometh very seasonable and acceptable I must you will so vainely quarrel with your friends and the truth too Oh but this will not be received that the soul should take Christ while it is a grievous polluted soul we have this often set before us and I think it is sufficiently answered at least I grow almost weary in replying unto it Will you have this so polluted soul to be half or in part washed and cleansed before Christ do it 2. Do you think that the tears of repentance humiliation confession c. have power to wash the soul from sin as you know Doctor T. did teach or will such acts or exercises diminish the evil of sin when a man is made to know and feel into what wo and misery his sin hath plunged him he cannot by that think better of himself but only grieveth complaineth and feareth the more Thus I write because which is the best I can make of it I take your meaning to be that Christ should be tendered to none but to such as feelingly do acknowledge their sin Now the sense of sickness and pain doth no whit extenuate the same or the confession of a great debt is no abatement of it Further when the woman with the bloody issue desired and sought to many for cure and health in vain was she by that diseased the less in body yea or when through the same or report of Christ she was strongly perswaded that if she could but touch the hem of his garment she should recover did even this perswasion remedy her disease till that vertue went from Christ to effect the cure Two blind men cryed Lord that we might see and were they less blind therefore before Christ opened their eyes then other blind folke who did not so complain nor seek to Christ Indeed these two were not contented with that comfortless condition but that did aggravate misery and afflict more rather then mitigate and ease it only the uncertain hope of some help did somewhat sustaine and relieve their spirits And so to conclude the soul is not less polluted when it knoweth and confesseth with tears its great pollutions and whatever work or exercise else you will put the soul unto it will not thereby cease to be polluted as much as before for it s no act or work of mans but Gods only that cleanseth and healeth sin LECT X. Rom. 2.14 If the Gentiles do by nature c. M. B. Pag. 95. THe law if it was not in it self a covenant of grace yet it was given Evangelically and to Evangelical purposes and therefore the Antinomian doth wholly mistake in setting up the law as some horrid Gorgon Answ Your if importeth that you question the matter and do rather incline to hold the law in it self a covenant of grace and if it be a covenant of grace then it is not a covenant of works for grace and works be as two things most contrary which cannot agree Rom. 11.6 2. If the law in it self was a covenant of grace then there were two of grace 3. You would confound Law and Gospel which you told us out of Luther are to be kept at a like distance as heaven and earth 4. Yet it was given Evangelically say you Answ Who can credit you in this for the law came in a terrible manner as in thunders and lightenings and the Lord descended upon mount Sinai in fire and the whole mount quaked greatly so that all the people trembled Exod. 19.16 18. But the Gospel came in a joyful manner The Angels said unto the shepherds Fear not for behold I bring you tidings of great joy which shall be to all people Luk. 2.10 Neither was the law in a proper and strict sense given for Evangelical purposes for God purposed by his Gospel to give pardon freedom peace joy refreshing health and rest to the souls and consciences of his people but by the law he intended to reveal sin and wrath to terrifie wound and condemn c. These two ministrations are to produce two contrary effects for humbling bruising and beating down of the soul being convinced of sin guilty of death and worthy of Gods everlasting wrath is the true and proper effect of the law and that for which it was especially given as Gal. 3.19 Wherefore then serveth the law it was added because of transgressions that is to discover them to cause fear and horrour in the conscience and so to conclude or shut up the soul under a fearful and inevitable bondage and malediction verse 22. And thus did Paul set up the law in a most horrid and terrible manner as if there were no Christ neither grace or redemption to be expected from God as Luther saith so that the mistake is wholly yours And if no such indignation and terrour be by the law what need a Mediatour
preach it at Rome also If the Law would have served and Paul had known also this your liberty and chose to use either law or Gospel he needed not to shun nor shrinke in the preaching of it for every mans heart is principled to approve and receive that doctrine having the seeds and effect of the law naturally in his bosome but the Gospel is supernatural and the soul is indisposed to receive it of it self yea and strongly by assed and inclined against that way of peace and life revealed by it for it maketh void rejecteth and casteth downe all the excellencies of man his free-will strength righteousness wisdome goodness as being vanity folly weakness sin and vile with God so to prepare and make way in the soul to bring in and commend Gods grace to be all-sufficient and that Christ alone may be exalted and rejoyced in Hence the mystery of the Gospel was to the Gentiles foolishness and to the Iew a stumbling-block 1 Cor. 1.23 Also it is more then evident that this word of the Gospel was the instrument of converting all those Churches to whom Paul writ as his Epistles do testifie as besides these mentioned places to the Romans Corinthians and Ephesians you may also see in Gal. 1.6.8.9 Col. 1.5 Phil. 1.5 who were called into the fellowship of the Gospel But what need the lighting of a Candle at noon-day unless it be still dark Saturday with us The second remarkable place is 1 Pet. 1.23 25. Being born again not of corruptible seed but incorruptible by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever and vers 25. he expounds himself saying And this is the word which by the Gospel is preached unto you If need were a cloud of expositors might be here produced to evince and confirm it that this instrumental word of regeneration is not the Law but the Gospel It is true some tell us of a twofold regeneration or rather a twofold sense of the word by the one the soul cometh to a second new being and by the other it hath the image of God reinstamped on it And of a regeneration of Faith and another of holiness of nature and life but I would trouble none with these distinctions yet this I add that Melancthon upon Iohn observeth that Christ calleth our justification regeneration and indeed it is a new creation and the putting of the soul into a new and happy condition for thereby it hath reconciliation and peace with God Rom. 5. 2. And there is a twofold healing 1. Of our spiritual estates and thus we are said to be healed by the stripes of Christ Isa 53.5 who is the repairer of this breach and as for that wound of conscience in that day when sin doth bite and sting and the law accuse and terrifie none other plaister can cure it but the blood of Christ who by his eternal spirit offered himself to purge and purifie the conscience Heb. 9.14 and this is done by the application of faith for health or salvation is onely in Christ and in nothing else you can name And as Moses lifted up the Serpent so must the Son of man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him might not perish but have everlasting life John 3.14 15. 2. There is an inchoate and partial healing of our natures hearts and lives which is effected by the Spirit of Christ renewing and changing all and every member of his mystical body whereof he is the head but as the Moral Law is not the instrument to reveal and hold forth Christ crucified so Faith by which the soul comes to be sensibly healed and having communion with Christ to receive vertue from him this Faith is onely instrumentally by the Gospel which is preached to all for the obedience of Faith Rom. 16.25 26. And if our inheritance come by the law in part or in whole then Faith is made void and the promise made of no effect Rom. 4.14 3. And lastly Conversion may be taken 1. for the change of the condition as when who was in bondage is enlarged set free delivered out of the hands of his enemies and of far off is made near as Iohn 8.36 Ephes 2.13 Col. 1.21 or 2. for the turning of the heart to God Act. 26.18 To turn them from Satan to God If thou wilt return return unto me 3. For the change and alteration in the soul when God sanctifieth a man throughout c. 4. A man may change his religion as did the Jewish-Proselytes and his outward way and manner of life being refined and reformed according to the letter of the law as the Pharisee Luke 18. Now to apply all Hence I infer and say that it is never read in the Scripture that the soul was made spiritually free and estated in grace and favour by the preaching of the Moral Law but the office of it is to arrest convince shut up the soul under sin the curse and condemnation Gal. 3.22 the law and the Gospel are the two keys that Christ gave that by the one sinners might be shut and bound and by the other set free and brought forth Mat. 18.18 2. Neither did the Law instrumentally convert and turn the heart to God for Christ is the way to the Father his blood and cross slayeth the enmity that is between divine justice and the sinner and removeth all lets whatever did hinder or separate and so openeth a free way for access Heb. 10.19 20. and his righteousness is the melius terminus bond or mean of union between God and the soul bringing them into a sure and everlasting covenant of peace he is first King of righteousness and after that King of Salem that is of peace Heb. 7.2 Now Christ his death and resurrection with the fruits and benefits thereof are the subject and peculiar treasures of the Gospel whereof Paul was made a Minister that he might preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ Eph. 3.7 9. further God cannot be com'd unto known nor enjoyed nisi in Christo suo but in Christ And he gaineth and draweth the soul with cords of love he appears gratious and merciful to poor sinners beaten downe humbled and brought to deaths door in the conscience of sin else the soul being afraid of him would with Adam flee away and hide it self from him hence passim men are exhorted to turne to the Lord because he is gratious and merciful Joel 2.13 Psal 86.5 Hos 6.12 We are to hold forth God in Christ reconciling the world unto himself and not imputing their sins unto them and as Ambassadours for Christ we pray men in Christs stead to be reconciled unto to God 2 Cor. 5.18 20. Now this cannot be by the ministery of the Law by which cometh the knowledge of sin for it worketh wrath Rom. 4.15 threatneth with the curse and death Gal. 3.10 And thus the Law doth by the will and appointment of God to force man out of himself to destroy all self-confidence
is that the Hebrew word doth signifie largely any doctrine and so may comprehend the whole word of God Answ You say that others as well as they Antinomian take the law so largely so that you see your Adversarie is not single in his opinion as you are who can produce no Author but onely say It seemeth good to expound that phrase in such a manner And otherwise it seemeth it would cross your designe else I see nor you do shew no reason But Luther and some others upon that place Psal 19.7 do take the law for the moral law but I dare say you will not stand to their exposition of it Luther saith This is no absolute commendation of the law but it is to be understood legem talem factans esse per fidem non talia facit lex The law worketh not these it self but they are effected by the influence of the Sun of righteousness inwardly quickning reviving and comforting the soul through the faith of the Gospel The law giveth nor hath no such heat or vertue of it self but produceth contrary effects It may indeed saith he convert the eye mouth hand ears omnes vires sed magis avertit cor odio paenarum indignatione prohibitae concupiscentiae sed cor non est rectum spiritus non est fidelis In brief his judgement is that after the soul is justified and converted by the Gospel then it loveth the law which it hated before and now it doeth not avert or as being afraid she from God in his law but with confidence and delight draweth nigh unto him and observeth the things of the law because the Spirit of Christ in the Gospel maketh them sweeter to the soul then all the riches and pleasures of this life Thus it s the doctrine of reconciliation by Christ believed on that marvelously altereth the Christians heart causing it to convert and turn to God as being thereby able to abide his sight and presence and to love his saw Et Amans legem non potest eam satis landare adeo placet quae prius adeo displicuit You say nothing that hath any strength in it against the truth held out and maintained by us And by this you may see whence it was that David so commended the law strictly taken because his heart was so altered by the faith of the operation of God It is remarkable saith Luther that the way to love and keep the law is to believe and receive the Gospel from this belief issueth love and all true obedience and it is not bred and effected by the law commanding and requiring it By faith we establish the law Rom. 3. ult M. B. That opinion which would make Christ not take an instrumental way for conversion of men in his first Sermon wherein he was very large that must not be asserted but to hold that the preaching of the law is not a Medium to conversion must needs be to say Christ did not take the nearest way c. Answ You answer your self page 169. where your words are That our Saviours intent was only to explicate the law better then did the Scribes and Pharisees that so they might be sensible of sin and discover themselves to be fouler and more abominable then ever they judged themselves unto which let me add And that by requiring and so letting the hearers see a necessity of a more absolute righteousness then was held forth even in the doctrine of the Scribes and Pharisees he might so destroy all confidence in their own works prevent the establishing of mans righteousness and prepare and dispose them to hearken after his righteousness for he is the end of the law for righteousness to al that believe Rom. 10.4 And by this it may appear that he used the law preparatorily to justification and conversion as you in part are forced to grant it to be the opinion and doctrine of all Orthodox Divines and yet it is thwarted by you who love to have a way by your self M. B. If the law of God have that objectively in it that may work exceedingly upon the heart when set home by Gods Spirit then it may be used instrumentally as well as the Gospel but it hath c. Answ Here is nothing but the vain reason of man If God be otherwise pleased what is it how glorious fit and worthy soever it may seem for this in our eyes The Sun in the firmament is a glorious object to look upon when we have eyes but God useth it not therefore to give and restore the use of sight to those that be blind the seeing man findeth variety of delightful objects to look at among the creatures but they finde him not eyes therefore M.B. 5. If the law of God may be blessed after a man is converted to the increase of his grace and holiness why not then to the first beginning of it That it is for the increase of of Godliness appeareth by experience Answ Every Christians experience teacheth him that the more he inwardly seeth and feeleth that divine love that pardoneth reconcileth and preserveth the soul in that everlasting covenant of sure mercies and peace the more it loveth againe and in love hateth evil escheweth it doth good is every way cheerfully obedient I love the Lord saith David because he heard me when I called upon him in the time of trouble and delivered my soul from death my eyes from tears and my feet from falling What bred and caused love and gained the heart to God at the first that same is of continual force still to enlive and enlarge the affections towards him But because sins are forgiven it is said she loved much Luke 7. and if this Candle be put under a bushel if this Sun the light of Gods countenance do not shine forth upon the Solissequium the soul of a believer it will be dark dull and indisposed to whatever good you can propound to it therefore is it requisite that faith be nourished and ever operative and lively in apprehending and feeding upon that exceeding kindness of God in Christ that so it may be more quick and free in all holy expressions Faith works by love if faith dye or wax cold by which the soul liveth the law can but little work upon or affect the heart Besides as the Christians beginning so his building up and increasing is in another way and by other means then are meerly legal he lives and grows in the Vine Christ and thereby fructifieth M. B. It is hard to think that a Minister having opened any moral duty of the law may not pray to God to cloath that word with power to change the heart of the hearers Answ Why should man thinke it hard or be offended at any thing where he findeth it Gods will that it be so and no otherwise 2. If God reveal not his minde and willingness to put forth any renewing power in the law how can you then pray in faith to be
it M. B. A third and last instance out of Scripture in answering of which all is answered from Gal. 3.2 Received ye the Spirit by the works of the Law or by the hearing of Faith that of the Gospel or doctrine of Faith In the opening of this Text we must take heed of three errors Answ A Caveat against all error is necessary but it is well that you accuse your Antinomian of none of those three And it had been wisdom in you to have taken heed of affectation of singularity for in rejecting all other of the Orthodox you substitute a most doubtful opinion of your owne as may appear by and by M. B. First I may demand whether any under the old Testament were made partakers of Gods Spirit or no. If they were how came they by it there can be no other way found but that God did give his Spirit in all those publick Ordinances unto the believing Israelites so that although they did in some measure obey the Law yet they did it not by the power of the Law but by the power of Grace Answ You might beware of co-incidency with the first error you named of having Faith before the Spirit for ever we come not to Faith by our reason and will yet you grant a giving of the Spirit to believers as if they first believed then received the Spirit but the gifts and operations of the Spirit are divers It s by the Spirit that the soul cometh to union with Christ and after the woman touched the hem of his garment she received a healing vertue but let this pass 2. By your next expression you might seem to be an Antinomian for They obeyed the Law say you but not by the power of the Law but by the power of Grace what difference now but I like not to force the joyning of hands where the parties hearts be not first linked yet the Reader may take it as if you contradicted your self for why are your words so exclusive but if it be not by the power of the Law originally as by the first and principal efficient yet you mean still it is a subordinate and secondary cause or mean of conveyance Egregie sane M.B. Again in the next place which hath alwayes much prevailed with me did not the people of God receive the grace offered in the Sacraments in the Circumcision Paschal Lamb They were partakers of Christ as well as we and yet the Apostle doth as much exclude Circumcision and these Jewish Ordinances from grace as any thing else wherefore that there may be no contradiction in Scripture some other way is to be thought upon about the exposition of these words Answ When a man willingly of himself is going down a steep place every thing will further him If you had not first conceived this silly and weak opinion of your self out of a humour of contradiction and desire to be accounted the vindicator of the Law you needed not to be so puzled and put to such shifts nor to seek out such sandy grounds and tottering Pillars to support what you see cannot be upholden I may so far credit you that this hath prevailed with you as you tell us but I cannot think it alway did so for you have not alway thought of this nor alway been of this private opinion that the Law is the doctrine of regeneration 2. Grant that this prevailed to keep and continue you in that minde yet would I learn if I might be so bold what brought you into it at first sure it came by some immediate inspiration for I see neither clear Scripture nor Author for it 3. As it hath so prevailed with you so I am sensible of no force at all in it whether to incline or carry the judgement unto it at first or to keep the minde the same still Consider better of it It is granted the people of God did receive the grace offered in their Sacraments c. and were partakers of Christ as well that is as truly and as really as we now what is this to your purpose I ingenuously profess I see not wherein it maketh one jot for you or to confirm your tenet what would you infer hence you say the Apostle did as much exclude these ordinances from grace as any things else and as well as much as the Law that must be your meaning Answ Your self have seemed still to exclude the Law from Grace and to make a direct opposition between them 2. As for Circumcision and these Ordinances being in their prime institution types yea signes exhibitive of Christ and if not essential parts yet appendances of their Covenant of Grace which cannot be said of the Law it being a doctrine of another nature and use therefore neither the Apostles nor Prophets in that case and sense did exclude them from Grace but onely as the hypocrites Ceremonia Legis in sua natura consideralae non autem quatenus suo tempore Sacramenta erant gratiae Pisc Gal. 3. and unbelievers did use them as resting in the things done or using them being antiquated and our of date or joyning them with Christ and Faith as necessary observances to salvation c. Now as this assertion will be too bold as unjustifiable That the Apostle doth as much exclude the Jewish Sacraments in their prime pure and right use from Grace as he doth the Law so that Argument is too childish viz. If the believing Jewes were partakers of Christ and did receive grace by these Ordinances so did they receive grace by the Moral Law also If you look again there is neither contradiction in Scripture nor occasion given to seek out such an uncouth and unwarrantable exposition of the words M. B. Some there are that understand by the Spirit c. Answ Here you first present your Reader with Beza's interpretation but that is misliked as not to your purpose Again say you thus it may be explained As by faith is meant the doctrine of faith so by the works of the Law is to be understood the doctrine of the works of the law thus far I approve which the false Apostles taught viz. That Chrict was not enough to justification unless the works of the law were put in as a cause also Answ If you look into Act. 15. and compare vers 1. and 5. it seemeth that they taught Christ for justification for it is said vers 5. they believed and what should they believe in Christ for but for righteousness and yet they required Circumcision and the keeping of the Law of Moses as necessary to salvation vers 1 5. when we are justified we must work to get heaven So many now hold and teach that good works and observing of the Law are not needfull to justification but they are to salvation of which sort you will prove one if I mistake not Contrary to Act. 15.10.11 Now why tempt ye God to lay a yoak on the Disciples necks c. that is as though he
faith to the everlasting Kingdom You thus swerve from the truth and the old and good way LECT XXII ROM 3.31 Do we then make void the Law Here you tell us It is hard to set up Christ and grace and not thereby to be thought to destroy the Law But it is easie with who was never suspected 2. You say Your Antinomians still are mistaken in this point and plunged into a dangerous errour You should make your words good and discover the errour if not help them out we expect this from you 3. But now like blind Sampson unto whose fact you allude you have raised a doctrine which will lead you to lay your hands on the chiefe pillars of the Antinomian edifice Mr. B. The question then at this time to be discussed is whether the Law be abrogated or no by Christ to the believers under the Gospel Answ Who would question it for Christ came not to destroy the Law but taught that every Apex or lota of it is imperishable Matth. 5.17 18. Indeed your doctrine is the Law is deprived of all power to justifie accuse or accurse but who can receive it If these be no tittle or part of the Lawd understand nothing And yet you tell us often of promises of great rewards for your legall obedience and good works cherefore there is a power to justifie command and bless established by you or else which I rather think your tenets be inconsistent and mutually overthrow each other Mr. B. If we would speak exactly and properly we cannot say in any good sense that the Morall Law is abrogated at all Answ If you would keep there denying according to the truth of the Scripture any mitigation at all either totall or partiall we might soon agree shake hands and lay down our weapons Mr. B. We may say it is mitigated Answ It is then because your Tongues are your own or that you will speak before God say so and so without your Warrant Such teaching of mitigating and Evangelizing the Law of Gods accepting the will for deed c. hath occasioned such dangerous confusion of Law and Gospel these sad controverfies in the Church much instabilitie and many mistakes in the peoples minds c. Mr. B. But you must still distinguish when we speak of the Law some parts of it from the whole Some parts of it may be abolished and yet not the whole nature of it for there are in the Law these parts 1. Commands 2. Promises of life to him that doth them 3. The threatnings of eternal death to him that faileth Now the Morall Law although it be abrogated in respect of the two later to a believer yet in respect of the former it doth still abide yea and will continue in Heaven it self as we have already proved that one part of the Law may abide when the other doth not Answ Like Foundation like Building This makes all your opposition dispute and discourse so weak and soon annihilated in that your ground is so faulty and failing 1. Why are you so inconsiderate thus to distinguish where God doth not and so audacious as to mutilate his good Law which he delivered and would have still to be preserved entire and perfect 2. All this tendeth to nothing but to make the Kingdom and way of the Law so easie and tolerable that the soul may here find a requiem where to settle her abode and never enjoy nor come to Christ and dwell under his shadow and Kingdom where Grace through his righteousness reigneth to eternall life Rom. 5.21 3. What is the reason your discourse is so loose and improper did you not even now tell us that to speak properly and exactly we cannot say in any good sense the Morall Law is abrogated and have you so soon forgotten what you said or are you regardless of any good sense or propriety of words You make three parts I would know what parts they may be called Homogeneal all of them truely law as a drop of the Ocean is as verily water as the whole Sea or Heterogeneal as Timber and Stones be parts of a House but not of the same kinde and nature in themselves and the Soul and Body be two essential parts constituting the man yet the one as flesh the other as spirit and not of one of these alone but the compositum of both is the man So here I demand when you tell us we must distinguish some parts of the Law from the whole Whether these parts be essentiall and requisite to the making or constituting of the whole Law If these three be all parts then to take away two will mutilate if not destroy the whole Law the whole consisting but of three cannot be entire and perfect having lost two And the rather I ask this because pag. 139. you say but prove not for it is not your manner your Disciples and so all other must be jurati in verba Magistri that the Law most strictly taken is meer Mandative without any promises at all Now if the meer Mandative be a Law why do you call the other two there excluded as not needfull parts of it and not rather with Dr. Tailer appendices to it 4. To distinguish between part and part may be granted and usefull but as to distinguish between soul and body between Christ and his Church or between the signe and grace in the Sacrament but to separate and sunder one part from the the other you know here its intoleable and destructive and you so distinguish that you plainly separate and cut off two parts from the third as abolished And yet the whole nature of the Law remaineth if we can believe you not abrogated to the believer you have often put your Adversarie to reconcile his tenets when there was no such cause as you see here is to agree yours The Law in regard of the threats and promises say you is abrogated a very bold assertion which never can be made good When you promise eternall life unto every good work a believer doth as pag. 40. is it not a legall and conditionall promise so as no good work no eternall life and how then can you here say that the promises of the Law be abrogated to a believer And when a believer with Noah David Lot c. doth fall into open and scandalous offences do you not threaten and terrifie him that he may be moved and stirred up if he be secure to seek for healing by faith in the blood of Christ And doth not this also convincingly argue that the reproofs and threats of the Law are of force and not abrogated Lastly if the preceptive part continue in Heaven you cannot say that justice there shall be without power for the two other also what though it doth not actually condemn any Is God without power to make another World because he maketh it not And whereas you say That you have already proved two parts to be abrogated and one still abiding you either forget
Father to him so that he will be dutiful and obedient to you now you are not his Father nor he your Child upon this condition though in this way you may manifest and express your affections at your pleasure Now take a view of your six Arguments and let us know what be your second thoughts of them and also your answer to those places so fully meeting and opposing you in this your way as the Angell did Balaam in his way is infirm and nothing satisfactory Mr. B. If that in Gal. 3.18 and Rom. 4.14 be rigidly and universally true then the doctrine of the Socinians would plainly prevail who from these do urge there was no grace nor faith nor nothing of Christ vouchsafed unto the Jews whereas they had the adoption though their state was a state of bondage Answ 1. Truth is to be received in love to it for it self though no errour nor danger a thing impossible should be prevented by it 2. If Socinians do urge those places to inferre that no grace c. come by the Law but by the promise onely made and given long before let us see how you would except against this but both you and the Socinians are wide and deceived though not in the same way 3. They had the adoption indeed but that was by faith in the promised seed and the putting them under that pedagogy of Moses made their state so servile What you say in the rest of this Lecture hath been presented to us before where also the answer and satisfaction is to be found LECT XXV Rom. 3.27 Where is beasting then c. I Cannot cease to muse that you so prosecute your matter in this large acception and sense of the Law knowing that the question is of the morall strictly taken You chuse rather to keep the thickets and bushes then to appear in the open plains we may guess why Yet take notice that the doctrine you raise doth not grow from your text no not in your own exposition for you expound it of the Law of works strictly taken as it is opposed to the Law of faith But your doctrine you so frame and carry as that you tell us The Law as a Covenant of grace given to the Israelites in some sense doth oppose the grace of the Gospel which assertion suppose true yet is no fruit of this tree hath not its rise from your text 2. Being witty to coyne and devise things of your own head without Scripture-ground you say it is for this end viz. To discover the nature of the Law and Gospel a fair pretence and promise without reality of performance for you rather cover and darken then otherwise 3. You bring in Calvin to little purpose who distributes the Law into three kindes and he doth not say that the morall Law differeth only from the Gospel in regard of clearer manifestation but denyeth it to have or contain any grace in it and so in nature and kinde to differ from the Gospel or word of grace and not gradually onely And the like may be said of Pareus 4. You have often received what is thought of your so often sod Coleworts presented here again to the Reader that they under the Law did enjoy grace c. viz. that they had it not by the Law c. Mr. B. That the doctrine of the Law in the more preceptive nature of it may be compared with the doctrine of the Gospel having the grace of God axnexed to it and going along with it now this in some respects is an unequall comparison Answ Why do you now more straiten the Law then did Calvin in that his testimony who takes the Law for that rule of life in which God requireth of us that which is his own giving us no ground of hope unless in every respect we walke according to it And you tell us of the Gospel having the grace of God annexed to it c. as if the Gospel could be separated from that grace which is the subject matter of it for doth the Gospel speak of or hold forth unto us any thing else beside the grace of God is so proper and peculiar to the Gospel that not one word of it is mentioned in the Law for the Law is of works and the Gospel is called the word of his grace But perhaps you will say By grace you mean the spirit of life that reneweth and quickeneth the soul if you do so yet it hath been cleared that although the Spirit do not alway and in all produce and work this work of renovation yet the Gospel is the ordinary instrument that is used for this and not the Law That expression of yours If you take the doctrine or letter of the Gospel without the grace of God is very improper for it is as if you could take the writing without the matter it specifieth and entreateth of Again observe that the difference between the letter of the Gospel and the letter of the Law as you call them is in that the Law is said then to kill when the spirit worketh effectually by it for then sin reviveth in the conscience and so J died saith Paul Rom. 7.9 and so the Commandment was found to be to death ver 10. but the Gospel then killeth and leaveth in death and condemnation when the spirit worketh not in the heart to receive and mingle it by faith Heb. 4.2 Joh. 3.19 2 Cor. 4.4 Your counsel is good to make the parallel equal but this is unequal in you still to make Law and Gospel equally and alike the instrument of grace and life Mr. B. pag. 2 3 4. I come to the Antinomian difference and there I finde such a one that I am confident was never heard of before In Hony Comb God saith he saw sin in believers of the old Testament but not in the new c. Answ Our weakness makes us stumble and to be offended where no cause is sometime and with too much confidence to condemn or reject such pretious truths as are received and justified by the Children of wisdome I have spoken before to this phrase In sobriety of mind ponder this The Scripture doth not say that Christ did actually take and do away sin till he came and shed his blood for that purpose and the object of their faith in the old Testament was the promise of future good things to be done and wrought by Christ when the fulness of time appointed came Gal. 4.4 so that God is said to have patience in bearing with his people till he received full satisfaction Rom. 3.25 and this finished and plenary work of redemption that the Gospel holdeth forth to us was the object of their hope who onely lived in a certain expectation of it according to the promise yet did that faith and hope both sustain save and serve them sufficiently according to that their condition wherein it pleased the Father to place them Their Gospel in brief was That Christ should appear and
I knew him not But I perceive this to be your fundamental error for from the want of knowledge of the true nature and efficacie of this doctrine of Free-grace have you raised all slanders Christian liberty is carnal licentiousness to a Legal eye a loveless apprehension and a faithless heart Such spirits as are not principled for it cannot skill of it and misconceit breeds misreports and too much credulity is an easie inlet for the worst you can say into such a minde as receives not the love of the truth Grace is by him turned into wantonness c. Thus you bely him and they that are not of the light believe you and hence is the overflowing of your gall which hath so filled the veins and passages of your book with bitter invectives and falshoods If you had produced one clause rightly interpreted crying down true holiness in its due place and for its proper ends you might have had credit Yet true Evangelical sanctification will discover the vanity and unsoundness of Legal reformation It is not all one To serve in the oldness of the Letter and in the newness of the Spirit Also Christ our righteousness is the bond of union with God by faith in whom we abide in God and walk with him We cannot deal immediately with God in our own holiness Lastly you think we are out of love with sin onely for fear of an ill turn and do not hate it as sin as if the love of God and the love of sin could lodge in one soul or the Spirit received by the hearing of faith did not work and cause an antipathy and contrariety against sinfulness or that the chain of the Covenant of grace could be broken and one link or branch sundered from another If you so mistake your Patients we will not have your for our Physician FINIS Reader these books following are printed for Nath. Brook and are to be sold at his shop at the Angel in Cornhil 1. TImes Treasury or Academy for Gentry excellent grounds both divine and humane for their accomplishment in arguments of discourse habit fashion with a Ladies Love-lecture and Truths triumph summing up all in a Character of Honour By Ri. Brathwait Esq 2. Morton on the Sacrament In folio 3. That excellent Piece of Physiognomy and Chiromancy Metoposcopie the Symmetrical Proportions and signal Moles of the body the subject of Dreams to which is added the Art of Memory By Ri. Sanders Student Fol. 4. Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum containing several Poetical Pieces of our famous English Philosophers which have written the Hermetique Mysteries in their ancient Language By Elias Ashmole Esq 5. Chiromancie or the Art of Divining by the lines engraven in the hand of man by Dame Nature Theologically Practically in 19 Genitures with a learned discourse of the soul of the World and universal spirit thereof By Geo. Wharton Esq 6. Catholike History collected and gathered out of Scripture Councels and ancient Fathers modern Writers both Ecclesiastical and Civil in answer to Dr. Vane's Lost Sheep returned home By Edw. Chisenhale Esq 7. The whole Art of Survey of Land shewing the use of all Instruments but especially the Plain Table Whereunto is added an Appendix to measure regular Solids as Timber Stone useful for all that intend either to sell or purchase 8. An Arithmetick in Number and Species in two Books 1. Teaching by precept and example the operation in Numbers whole and broken by Decimals and use of the Logarithms Napyers bones 2. The great Rule of Algebra in Species resolving all Arithmeticall questions by supposition with a Canon of the powers of numbers fitted to the meanest capacity by Jonas Moore late of Durham 8. 9. Tactometrica or the Geometry of Regulars after a new exact expeditious maner in Solids with sundry useful Experiments Practical Geometry of Regular-like Solids and of a Cylinder body for liquid vessel-measure with sundry new Experiments never before extant for Gauging A Work very useful for all that are employed in the Art Metrical By Joh. Wyberd Dr. in Physick 10. An Astrological discourse with Mathematical Demonstrations proving the powerful and harmonical influence of the Planets and Fixed stars upon Elementary bodies in justification of the validity of Astrologie By Sir Chr. Heydon Knight 11. Magick and Astrologie vindicated in which is contained the true definitions of the said Arts and the justification of their practise proved by the authority of Scripture and the experience of antient and modern Authors by H. Warren 12. An Astrologicall judgement of Diseases from the Decumbiture of the sick also the way of finding out the cause change and end of a disease also whether the sick be likely to live or die By N. Culpeper 13. Catastrophe Magnatum or the downfal of Monarchy by N. Culpeper 14. Ephemerides for the year 1652. being a year of wonders by N. Culpeper 15. Lux Veritatis or Christian Judicial Astrology vindicated and Daemonology confuted in answer to N. Homes D.D. By W. Ramsey Gent. 16. The History of the Golden Ass 17. The Painting of the Antients the beginning progress and consummating of that noble Art and how those antient Artificers attained to their still so much admired excellency Israels redemption or the prophetical History of our Saviours Kingdom on earth By Robert Matton 18. An Introduction to the Teutonick Philosophy being a determination of the Original of the Soul at a Dispute held in the School at Cambridge at the Commencement March 3. 1646. By Charles Hotham Fellow of Peter-house 12. 19. Teratologia or a discovery of Gods wonders manifested in former and modern times by bloody rain and waters By I.S. 20. Fons Lachrymarum or a fountain of Tears from whence doth flow Englands complaint Jeremiah's lamentations With an Elegie upon that son of Valour Sir Ch. Lucas By J. Quarles 8. 21. Oedipus or a Resolver being a clue that leads to the chief Secrets in Nature and true resolution of Amorous Natural Moral and Political Problems By C. M. 22. The Celestial Lamp enlightning every distressed soul from the depth of everlasting Darkness to the height of eternal Light By Tho. Fettisplace 23. Nocturnal Lucubrations or Meditations Divine and Moral with Epigrams and Epitaphs By Robert Chamberlain 24. The unfortunate Mother A Tragedy By Tho. Nabs 25. The Rebellion A Comedy By T.R. 26. The Tragedy of Messalina By Nat. Richards 8. 27. The remedy of Discontentment or a Treatise of Contentation in whatsoever condition Fit for these sad and troublesom times By Jos Hall late B. of Exon and Norwich 12. 28. The grand Sacriledge of the Church of Rome in taking away the sacred Cup from the Laity at the Lords Table By the late Reverend Daniel Featly D.D. 4. 29. The cause and cure of Ignorance Error Enmity Atheism and Prophaness or a most hopeful way to Grace and Salvation By R. Young 8. 30. A Bridle for the Times tending to still the Murmuring to settle the Wavering to stay the Wandering to strengthen the Fainting By Joh. Brinsley Minister of Gods Word at Yarmouth 31. Comforts against the fear of Death wherein are several evidences of the work of Grace By John Collins of Norwich 32. Iacob's seed or the excellency of seeking God by prayer By Jer. Burroughs Minister of the Gospel to the two greatest Congregations about London Stepney and Cripplegatâ—â— 33. The Zealous Magistrate a Sermon by Tho. Threscot 34. Britannia Rediviva or a Soverain Remedy to cure a sick Common-wealth preached in the Minster at Yorke before the Judges August 9. 1649. by J. Shaw Minister of Hull 35. The Princess Royal preached in the Minster in York before the Judges March 24. 1650. by Joh. Shaw Minister of Hull 36. Anatomy of Mortality divided into eight Heads 1. The certainty of Death 2. Meditations of Death 3. Preparations for Death 4. The right behaviour in Death 5. The Comfort in our own Death 6. The comfort against the Death of Friends 7. The Cases wherein it 's lawful or unlawful to desire Death 8. The glorious Estate of Gods Children after Death By George Strende 37. New Jerusalem in a Sermon for the Society of Astrologers August 1651. 38. Mirrour of Complements fitted for Ladies Gentlewomen Scholars and Strangers with forms of speaking and writing of Letters most in fashion with witty Poems and a Table expounding hard English words 39. Cabinet of Jewels discovering the nature vertue value of pretious Stones with infallible Rules to escape the deceit of all such as are adulterate or counterfeit by Tho. Nichols 40. Quakers Cause at second hearing being a full answer to their Tenets 41. Divinity no Enemy to Astrology a Sermon intended for the Society of Astrologers for the year 1653. By Dr. Tho. Swadlin 42. Historicall Relation of the first planting of the English in New England in the year 1628. to the year 1653 and all the material passages happening there Exactly performed 43. Select Thoughts or Choice Helps for a pious spirit A Century of Divine breathings for a ravished soul beholding the excellencie of her Lord Jesus By I. Hall B. of Nor. A new piece 44. The holy Order or Fraternity of Mourners in Zion To which is added Songs in the night or Chearfulness under Affliction By Ios Hall Bp. of Norwich A new Piece 45. The Art of Memory or a cure for a weak Memory Wherein the natural defects of that noble faculty are artificially repaired by the regular application of Images and Idea's easie to be apprehended by the meanest capacity and useful to all persons from the Gown to the Clown A new Piece 46. History of Balaam and Ionah and Iohn the Baptist in Verse with other Poems By Io. Harvy Esq A new Piece 47. Re-assertion of grace Vindiciae Evangelii or the vindication of the gospel Or a Reply to M. Anth. Burgess Vindiciae Legis and to M. Rutherford By Robert Towne A new Piece 48. Anabaptist anatomized and silenced or a Dispute with M. Tombs By Mr. Joh. Cragge A new Piece 49. Practical Divinity or the grounds of Religion in a Catechistical â—y By M. Christopher Love A new Piece