and trust in any goodness of his owne and to make him to seek out and to hearken after Christ the true and onely right door set open in the Gospel that by him the soul may have entrance being found in him not having its owne righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through faith in Christ The righteousness which is of God by faith Phil. 3.9 It is a vain and a strange conceit that the soul should convert to God by the preaching of the Law sith it can onely turne and come unto him by faith which nothing doth so much cross and hinder as the Law and it putteth the soul upon a contrary way 3. But if by conversion you mean as happily you do the change of the disposition and frame of the soul It is as certain also and clear that God doth not this by the law but by Gospel thus Act. 15.9 God purifieth the heart by faith and Acts 26.18 they sanctified by faith This is the special commendation that Paul giveth of the Gospel that therein we all with open face behold the glory of the Lord as in a glass and are changed into the same image from glory to glory even by the Spirit of the Lord. Againe can mans nature be changed till he be united and ingrafted into Christ the true vine and doth not vertue come by that insition or union And was it ever taught or read that the law should be that ministery by which this is wrought If the law do not set this object Christ before the soul nor is no mean to bring and joyn it to him how can it be an instrument to give and communicate the Spirit of Christ Indeed a legal spirit or power it hath which hath been effectual to work a great deal of reformation and legal strictness having a specious and deceitful shew and lustre as we see in the Pharisees who therefore were admired in their age O Sir if you would set before your own and the eyes of your people duely and daily that exceeding kindness of God and sweetness of his so surpassing love in Christ in so infinite expressions of it and seek to affect both your own and their hearts with it you would finde what an incredible force and vertue is in it far beyond any power in a legal Ministery to melt gaine and leaven the soul transforming it into its own nature and image which is love and mercy and so disposing you to do all things of the law freely and willingly which are but the offices and duties of love And the law was given not to beget this love but that by requiring it of us either love or enmity as it is in us might be bewrayed and made manifest In a word no sounder further nor better conversion can be wrought by the law then was in Paul before he received the Faith who in that his zeal of God was a blood-sucker and butcher of Christians Christs silly and harmless sheep for he was inwardly in the gall of bitterness c. and so are too many this day as we see finde and feel who might be metamorphozed by the Gospel and of wolves become lambs like Priest like People according to their pasture they feed in viz. as the nature of the doctrine is they receive so they are where much law is there hardness of heart cruelty self-love c. but want of meekness humbleness and mercy And it will ever be true that a legal zeal is persecuting 4. If lastly you hold this last sort of conversion to be by the law viz. to make a loose and profane man strict and religious in his course of life which is properly no souls conversion for both he may be in statu quo prius no changling in his state and his nature was principled for this way this may be granted you but alas who seeth not that this is hypocritical feigned unsound Luther saith The law can but make hypocrites if there be no further work but what is by it This I ingenuously profess what ever you may think of it that my desire is not to know or think of God out of Christ but to confine all the powers and workings of my soul unto that so pleasant and amiable object God reconciled in his Son And so to set him before me gracious propitious loving c. in all the events occurences and conditions of this life And this is the true and onely office and exercise of faith And thus I deal with God even as he also dealeth with me according to Luthers expression without the Law in his Covenant of meer grace the more I can do so the greater confidence I have towards him the better every thing he doeth pleaseth me the more welcome is the Cross and the more apt and able I am to bear and digest it the more is my heart and affections lively and sweetly stirred up and enlarged to love God and to delight my self in him by this mean the soul is made merry and kept joyful in the Lord and like an Instrument in good tune it is ready for use upon any occasion And the inward appearing and manifestation of God unto the soul in love and tender mercy doth melt it and effectually change and overcome the enmity and maliciousness of my naughty heart and nature And this light I endeavour to hold out to all and to walk in this way of loving kindness long-suffering and compassion towards every one in doctrine and life holding it the wisest most direct effectual and Gospel-like course and way thus to overcome the frowardness and evil that is in man with lenity and goodness even as God in this way prevented and overcame me The more I can look into that gentleness aimableness and those fatherly affections in God through Christ Jesus towards me and that secreet bosome of divine love is so laid open the more are all fears banished discontentments swallowed up and I am heartned to go on chearfully in a Christian course as best becometh that holy and heavenly calling And the more abundantly Gods thoughts of peace are discovered unto me the more peace and rest I thereby finde bred and preserved in my thoughts You may account it a licentious doctrine or otherwise asperse it with indignities because you have little skill of it and may bridle your self and disciples by another mean and kinde of woful doctrine but when you have done I wish you might feel how your owne pulses do beat But I proceed You deny the Law to work onely preparatorily in conversion And I thinke he never had experience of convesion that is of your mind you would make men believe you sit downe with a legal reformation as is the case of too many instead of a Gospels-conversion or that the law had never as yet its due and perfect work upon you for then you would sing another song When the commandment came sin revived and I dyed Rom. 7. Did ever any come
Woman doth endeavour to depresse and stifle under foot But Maugre all his enmity the truth will break out from amongst all the thick clouds of slanders and neither by his power nor policy shall be suppressed for he can but touch its heele Isa 11. the Ensigne must be lift up for the distressed of the Nations to repaire unto and his rest shall be glorious and he cannot let it for its the worke of God in which he will be glorified so that although the enemie come in like a floude yet the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him or put him to flight But because he is the accuser of the brethren day and night therefore he will never be quiet but will returne afresh with a new encounter so that it can never be expected that a truce shall be stricken and a reall peace concluded betweene the seed of the Woman and of the Serpent or that the child of the flesh will be at rest and sit still whilst he is in the recovery and view of the promised seed or the child that is borne after the spirit But what matter for he that keepes Israel neither slumbers nor sleepes and these do but crack the shell if so much but cannot reach to the kernell And the greatest enemies are those within of a mans own houshhold which solace themselves with the outward but are a bane to the inner man which daily accompany us and are our bosome companions nourished up together in and with us and yet little do we perceive them I having lighted upon this worke and perceiving the maine scape thereof to tend to a vindication and clearing of the bare and naked truth of God from aspersions of obloquie cast thereon and such glosses under which it lay obscured a plain patheticall and free publishing of the Gospell as the veine of good tidings through which the bloud of Christ runnes freely to sinners did set pen to paper and copy it out and having so done I returned the originall draught to the owner but expecting a good while its coming forth in another garment to publike view under the Authours owne papers and not hearing any thing of it and the Authour living at a distance from me I was afraide lest the child through these nationall cumbers and troubles of late should have beene smothered in the wombe and not have beene produced to light in a current hue to the Judgement of all that men might trie all things but hold fast that which is good And thereupon I endeavoured that thou mightest have a sight thereof in this habit in which it is now presented to thee by making use of my owne papers From the which if thou shalt through Gods giving of the increase receive the least profit though but as a graine of mustard-seede or satisfaction by the cleare light of the truth it selfe in any one of the controversies agitated in the ensuing discourse I know that the Authour will therein exceedingly rejoyce delighting if in any thing he may be beneficiall to the Church or the least in the Church of God And I shall also receive the full recompence of my labour if in the least manner I or rather God by me as a weake instrument should be pleased to doe any good who am lesse than the least of all his mercies Thine in the Lord SETH BUSHELL AN ADMONITION To the READER Gentle Reader I Could not but give mine attest concerning this Author and Booke he being a person known unto me for many yeares and I can justly witnesse that he hath been and is a godly faithfull and painfull Minister one whom I believe hath for many yeares tasted of and enjoyed the truth as it is in Jesus and walked blamelesly in the simplicity and power thereof Having been made through the grace of God a constant and zealous instrument to beare forth his testimony against all unrighteousnesse of men fleshly wisdome carnall formes and legall worship though through much persecution scandall and suffering wherein I judge him a faithfull steward of the talent committed to his charge being upholden through faith by the mighty power of God And I cannot but much rejoice that God hath at this season drawne forth his spirit to oppose that Antichristian darkness and fleshly wisdome that reignes in the children of disobediences and I hope and pray that the Lord will blesse it to the same end unto which purpose he commends it to all that know and love the Lord in truth and sincerity Who remaines The lowest and least of Saints Jo WEBSTER Decemb. 26. 1653. The Preface Christian and courteous Reader THere is a little book called The Assertion of Grace printed without my privity by some welwishers to the truth as it is in Jesus if yet thou hast seen it That with Dr. Crisp's Sermons and the Honey comb being thronged with pikes of despite ever since their publication have occasioned this Re-assertion to rescue and vindicate if it be possible the credit and truth of each wherein they have too long suffered The times are so frowning and the fiery spirit of Indignation so overswaying that I cannot promise but rather do fear the not-printing of it The Author is as that faithful Martyr Englands Apostle as Mr. Fox calls him said of himself ill-favoured to the world-ward more despised then the hateful Bat yet he casteth it upon the venture as was Moses on the water Providence may so over-rule and order that something of God appearing in it with which being enamour'd one or other may befriend it with a Printed-publication But if it have not free passage let it shame the Adversaries being a witness of my confidence but of their fear This is the grand Controversie in our Land this day The bloody sword hath pass'd thorow it The Prerogative Royal our Subject-liberties estates lives are laid at the stake But Free-grace is the richest and chief-Diamond belonging to the Crown of our King Jesus and what are all these that we hazard or can lose to our spiritual freedom peace of conscience everlasting life and that exceeding glorious condition in Gods Kingdom The loss of one soul the damnation of it in hell is more considerable then all these yea if thou adde the whole worlds worth it cannot by them all be ransomed Church-government is a fair flower in its native and original purity if so it could be happily planted and made to grow but this is the Prime-rose of the Church-garland What is Discipline to Doctrine the moral and temporary education to the spiritual regeneration and endless blessedness Indeed I am in the lowest Classis the weakest and unfittest of all to undertake and manage this quarrel I could wish it were done with far more dexterity by one furnished with better gifts and leasure But I see a Providence herein no man shews himself willing I am engaged and it is ordinary with the Lord to perfect his power in humane weakness The instrument can want no
eternal love to us and why should you or any other think that Hezekiah so approved and commended a long time for a truly-Religious King should now call his spiritual estate into question or doubt no circumstance in the Text arguing any such thing and if it had been so he had gone far about to fetch his comfort and assurance from his works and life and it would have been very uncertain and weak when he had done And so this makes nothing at all against Doctor Crispe who would have all to derive their comfort and peace from the pure fountain even Faith in the satisfaction discharge and atonement made by Christ as the most direct neer and infallible way and not from works which must be first carryed to our Faith or assurance that our state is good there to be proved to be good and so at best can but secondarily and weakly seal that comfort formerly had by believing I think Hezekiah might be reproved and condemned Linguae impiorum est quotidiena sornax Aug. as by Rabshakeh so others neerer unto him for his zeal in demolishing Idolatry whereupon he going to God maketh him the witness of the righteousness of the things done and of the integrity of his heart in doing them Notitia nostri certior intue As David many times did being wrongfully charged by Saul and others and as it is our case who are falsly slandered as Antinomians and yet can and dare boldly go and appeal to God before whom all things are naked saying Thou knowest O Lord we are no Antinomians no Libertines Non est plâ—x ponderis in alieno convitio quam in nostro testimoiro Teachers of licentious Doctrine c. and so the testimonie of Hezekiahs Davids and our Consciences being cleer of such things in the presence of God is a great support a sure defence and an effectual comfort against all those calumnies censures and false aspersions This is my rejoycing saith Paul being misreported to be what he was not the testimony of our Conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdom but by the Grace of God we have had our conversation in the world 2 Cor. 1.12 But now all this is touching things controverted between man and man where our innocency such as it is is and ever will be the best Buckler plea and comfort and it is not pertinent to what Doctor Crispe entreateth of or if this satisfie not I could add that as the Churches estate was then servile Gal. 4.1 2. and as servants not having the promised Spirit of Adoption they did all things rather ex timore then amore out of fear more then love so Hezekiah having discharged the office of a godly chief Magistrate and now being called upon by death to lay it aside presenting himself before the Lord hath his own thoughts to witness his integrity touching the generality of the course of his life and so they excusing and comforting him in that case do give him some boldness even as it is with a servant who hath answered the requirings and done the commands of his Master in the day of his accounts Thus it is one thing to be comforted from the inward testimony of my Conscience reflecting with an impartial eye upon my conversation in this world and finding it to be unblamable and in all integrity of heart especially when adversaries do accuse and speak evil of me Terret me tota vita mea nam apparet mibi aut petcataem aut tota florilitas Aus and another thing to fetch my peace and comfort thence concerning my spiritual estate and atonement with God he that is exercised with inward consticts and temptations will easily perceive how dangerous a thing it is to have the eye and consideration of the soul taken off Christ and his righteousness and to be set upon any work or qualification of our own then nothing but Christ all is accounted as dung and loss else our own righteousness as unclean and filthy rags Phil. 3.8 9. Isa 64.6 But without spiritual buffetings of Satan the Doctrine of Faith of Christ our righteousness our reconciliation and peace cannot be prized learned nor purely taught M. B. 11. They are necessary in respect of God c. a Leah though blear-eyed yet when she was fruitful in children said Now my husband will love me so may Faith say Now God will love me when it abounds in the fruits of righteousness Answ God is not as man his love to man is not begotten or caused by any thing he seeth in us he loveth before and without works even while we were enemies our mindes being in wicked works Rom. 5.8 Colos 1.21 thus the Word testifieth and Faith receiveth it what good he worketh in us or frameth and inableth us to work are they effects and fruits of his love not causes of it M. B. 12. In regard of others c. 1 Pet. 3.1 It is an exhortation to wives so to walk that their husbands may be won to the Lord So that thy life may convert him By the Word the Apostle meaneth the publike preaching Answ You rather make more obscure then cleer the sense and drift of the Apostle while you are minded to plead for good works you attribute too much to them Faith in Christ and conversion to God is by hearing of the Word Rom. 10.17 If the husband were an Idolatrous Ethnick or prophane yet by the sweet humble and dutiful carriage and vertuous life of the wife Maritos preparent ad amplexandam Christi fidem Calv. he might happily be gained to approve and like well of her Religion which had wrought such a sensible alteration and brought forth so plentiful and pleasant fruits in her and so be moved to give ear and attention to the Doctrine of the Christian Faith thus his minde becometh prepared and more ready to embrace that which did not so well please or perhaps was an offence before This is all that can be meant or intended in those words M. B. Obj. If good works be still necessarily requisite why then is not the Covenant of Grace still a Covenant of Works c. A. Although good works be requisite in the man justified or saved yet it s not a Covenant of Works but of Faith because Faith onely is the instrument to receive Justification and eternal life Answ I see no difference in effect between the Arminian Doctrine and yours in this you hold good works to be imperfect so they and you make all the promises of eternal life to belong and to be made unto them and what do they more 2 You Answer Although they be requisite in the Justified or saved before you said in a man to be Justified and saved yet it is a Covenant of Faith Answ Where do you finde it to be called a Covenant of Faith it is a Covenant of Grace and so it is entire without our Faith M.B. Good Works are to qualifie the subject
stand with a covenant of grace your own words imply that it is not then a covenant of grace as you formerly asserted M. B. page 155. How necessary it is to have this law promulged if it were possible as terribly in our congregations as it was on mount Sinai this would make the very Antinomians finde the power of the law and to be afraid to reject it Answ 1. If it were so necessary that the outward promulgation or preaching of the law should be so terrible as your wisdom requireth surely God would have it so for he hath power to do it but the special power and terror is inward and spiritual God by his convincing spirit making the heart shake and tremble in the conscience of sin and a cursed perishing condition of this terrour and consternation your Antinomian may scon have much experience as you yea more for he findeth death in that ministration by the reviving of sin Rom. 7.9 10. and therefore is dead to it as Gal. 2.19 but you say life cometh by the law and so live by doing and working an assured argument that you were never truely slain by the law 2. Would you now have the law become so terrible in your congregations why then did you reprove them that made it like a horrid Gorgon c. you mean surely this terrour only for the Antinomians not for others you thunder against your adversaries but deal gently with friends Also you dash sin out of countenance which is well but do not throw down mans righteousness but establish it rather A little after you say The Antinomian counteth sin nothing because of justification But in what sense doth he so vilifie it I dare affirme that none hateth sin more is so weary of it complaineth so of its remaining and dwelling in the flesh and the sorrow it sometime breeds him c. And yet if he make light of it how can he prize justification from it he that accounteth nothing of sin cannot rightly esteem of a Saviour to save from it therefore contrarily our counting all things loss and dung even our best works legal zeal reformation and worship because mingled and defiled with the leprosie of sin for the excellent knowledge sake of Christ Jesus our desire ever to be found in him not having our own righteousness to know nothing but Christ crucified c. do argue sin to be our greatest and most fearful evil to our apprehensions but it is not so with you and your disciples who seldome or never preach or desire to hear of a Saviour of free justification and do so wrangle with the doctrine of grace and faith And lastly it is confessed that by faith in the blood of Jesus and the grace of justification raigning in the conscience sin Satan and hell be conquered defied and triumphed over Who can lay any thing to their charge Thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ c. he that envyeth this in others is to be pitied because of his poor condition What account do you make of a debt you know is discharged It troubleth you little in reference to danger by suite or law Lastly That phrase of Gods not seeing sin in a believer is still an eye-sore to you and many other And to add this to the former It argueth that you make nothing of sin For 1. If you hated it you would seek to get your soul cleansed from it 2. If you loved God you would not come and appear in his sight untill you were washed from it seeing it is unto him so hateful and abominable that he cannot endure the sight of it and therefore calleth upon his people to wash and make them clean and then to come Or yet 3. If you feared God and stood in true aw of him knowing how terrible he and his presence is where he seeth and marketh iniquity for who may abide it Psal 130.3 or who then can stand you durst not abide in his fight without that faith and assurance that the blood of his Son Jesus hath washed and cleansed you from all your sinnes If as that Martyr said the vaile were taken off Moses face such a glory and dreadful Majesty would break forth as would confound your spirits and be intolerable your sins being set in the light of his countenance then you would not deal with God without faith in the blood of Christ Extrae Christum horrendum est imo de Deo cogitare Calv. nor durst entertaine a thought of him out of Christ in whom iniquity is done away never to be remembred any more Then you cry out Oh blessed man whose iniquities are for given and whose sin is covered and so use your own words say all that ever you preached or writ against this is false you knew not what you said Thus a day of temptation and trouble may come in which you all who have disparaged and despised this may be brought to acknowledge and embrace it as an useful and most acceptable truth of God full of soul-consolation which in your wretched security is now loathed and rejected the law is so mitigated and modified in your opinion and Ministery that Sinai is your Sion you are not afraid to stand there LECT XVII Exod. 20.1 And God spake c. M. B. THe Antinomian pleads for the universal abrogation of the law Answ He is an Antinomian that doth so but you cannot finde the adversaries you deal with guilty of such a crime yet you are no fit advocate to patronize or defend the law for it is abrogated by your self if that be true as it is most certaine that lex non damnans non est lex a law without power to condemn is no law for the law you would establish hath no condemning power as you say therefore the law is by you abrogated How fully satisfactory is Luther to any reasonable man Non quod lex pereat imo manet vivit regnat in impiis sed pius est legi mortuus sicut peccato diabolo Inferno mortuus est quae tamen manent mundus ac impii ea habebunt Ideo cum Sophistae intelligunt legem abrogari tu intellige paulum quemlibet Christianum universae legi abrogari mori tamen legem manere Sophisters do understand and take the law to be abrogated but the truth is the Christian is abrogated and dead to it and yet the law remaineth entire Henceforth correct your self and cease to slander or mistake your poor brethren and without cause so to embitter your words with gall and servour of spirit and the Lord forgive you What further is spoken in this Sermon against the Antinomians is either chargeable upon Islebius or some other not known to me or 2. Is grounded upon a meer mistake of our tenets or is answered elsewhere so that to avoide prolixity I meddle with no more LECT XVIII Mat. 5.21 22. Yee have heard that it was said by them of old time Thou shalt
yet the man is but one and his state but one not two and put the Law with its terrour and compelling power to the flesh what availeth this Can this draw the flesh to the waies of piety as your words are you imagine either that the flesh being and remaining flesh can move in the waies of piety or that the terrour of the Law can change the corrupt heart but can clear or justifie neither It is simple and free believing that leadeth and carrieth the soul into the right way and all the forcing and terrifying of the Law can provoke onely unto an externall and hypocriticall obedience such as is in the Children of the Bondwoman If the spirit in the godly be not alway so willing the Law cannot give aide and quickening to it but rather dampeth and deadeth the spirit of faith and love and doth vivifie the corruption in nature for so saith Paul when the Commandment came sin revived and I died Rom. 7.9 and againe the strength of sin is the Law 1 Cor. 15.56 It 's onely faith in the Gospel of Christ that exciteth to all goodness cheerfully and joyfully so Heb. 11. Noah Abraham Moses are said to do all by faith Sine qua multa faciendo nihil facimus impleudo Legem non implemus What caused life at first must preserve and quicken it being dead or dull 5. And your fifth Assertion is false for the Law doth as is said and proved increase sin even in the faithfull this being the bitter effect of it through the vitiousness of our nature Rom. 7.5 The motions of sin which were by the Law do work in our members to bring forth fruit to death and all along the chapter Paul saith It wrought no otherwise in him in his regenerate estate but that all the power to resist weaken and overcome sin and the flesh was from Christ the head and his spirit Therefore thankes be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ This take notice of that if infidelity be accidentally nourished and faith hindered and opposed by the Law as is most true then sin cannot decrease but doth increase by it Besides is not flesh and corruption in the regenerate of the same kinde with that in the unregenerate If the Law then be the occasion of the reviving of sin in the one why not in the other the nature of the flesh nor the operative vertue of the Law is not altered by grace though they both be overmastered and subdued In the sixth you slander your Antinomian again for disparaging the Law in that it was written in stones What good can it do say you Answ It doth good many waies else God would not have writ it there but that cannot make man good God therefore hath promised to write his Law in the Tables of the heart by his spirit whereby the Gospel also is made effectuall as he pleaseth but this inward writing of the Law is a promise and branch of the new Covenant Jer. 31.33 Mr. B. But the Law continueth to them as a rule which may appear first from the different phrases used concerning the ceremonial law nowhere applied to the moral as which Chemuitius doth reckon up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. which are not used of the Morall but when he speaketh of it he saith We are dead unto it We are redeemed from the curse of it which Phrases do imply the change to be wade in us and not in the Law Answ Your supposition is still false for we hold no abrogation mitigation or mutation in the Law as is already cleared 2. This maketh wholly for us for if there be no change in the Law then it continueth in all other offices and regards as well as to be a rule and so hath power to promise and to condemn also Hunc suo jugulo gladio 3. You reason nihil ad Rhombum viz. If the Antinomian could bring such places that would prove it were as unlawfull to love the Lord because the morall Law commands it as we could prove it unlawfull to circumcise c. Answ The rule of comparison requireth that it should be unlawfull to circumcise because the ceremoniall Law commands it And if that Law were of force still and not repealed it were as lawfull to circumcise so that the unlawfulness to do it is not from the nature of the thing but in that the ceremoniall requiring circumcision is abrogated but so is not the moral for then to love were not required But though the morall Law command love yet your heart wanting it it giveth it no power to do it Thus you have gained here nothing to your purpose but lost both labour and credit Mr. B. 2. From the sanctification and holiness that it requireth of the believer which is nothing but conformity to the Law Answ Though the Law require yet it proveth not it to be a rule regulating disposing and framing the soul to holiness for the Law doth not sanctifie but Christ is of God made to be sanctification whereby cometh true conformity to the Law The Law requireth to be just but doth not justifie so it willeth us to be Saints but sanctifieth not There is a mutuall relation between Christ and faith as a quality or vertue faith purifieth not but as it fetcheth and deriveth vertue from Christ Purity is not in us naturally the Law requiring it doth convince us both of the want of it and of the necessity to have it but it supplieth us not with it for then Christ need not be our root of holiness nor we by faith to have it from him but driveth us to Christ in whom all fulness dwelleth You have your Answer to the rest of the Section in what precedeth Mr. B. 3. In that Disobedience to it is still a sin to a believer Answ As Disobedience is a sin against the Law so it is condemned by the Law as was Davids adultery Peters deniall c. else what need they of faith to be justified from them so still by this the Law hath power to condemn as well as to rule As for the evasion you mention I know it not you have not as yet brought us into any such strait or danger as that we need seek evasion The residue of this Lecture maketh nothing for your purpose nor at all against us LECT XXIII Rom. 3.31 Do we then make void the Law yea we establish it HEre you do not invalidate the Authors assertion nor Arguments If the Law and Prophets lasted but till John And as John was greater then any before him so the least in the kingdom of Heaven is greater then he You will then find it hard to put John either under the old or new Testament or to evince your Adversary Inter Legem Evangelium interpositus fuit Johannes qui medium obtinuit munus utrique affine Calv. It 's true the Law or Moses and the Prophets write of Christ and agreed in that and did not onely typifie him
hath no Sovereignty by right ascribed to him 2. That God maketh and imposeth his law with such a command to be obeyed in it doth argue his Sovereignty in his law and mans subjection to him in it as his Sovereign But. 3. In the Scripture-language and use I finde no difference between them Psal 103.19 It is said The Lord hath prepared his throne in heaven and his kingdome ruleth over all Is not this all one with Reigneth Psal 110.2 God saith to Christ Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies As did he not rule and reigne as Lord and King see Luke 19.14 We will not have this man reign over us and verse 27. Those mine enemies that would not have me reign over them bring hither and slay them before me which is meant of Christ whom the Father appointed to be ruler over all to that in ruling he reigneth and they be indifferently used still Ezek. 20 33. As I live saith the Lord surely with a mighty hand with a stretched-out arm and with fury poured out will I rule over you Here is the word Rule and yet dominion and sovereignty in ruling unto the utmost extent Also Rev. 2.27 19. 15. He shall rule them with a rod of iron doth God rule where he reigneth not It s a strange conceit and a bold assertion of you and Doctor T. let it vanish as the smoke The law hath a kingdom and so hath Grace another if we can discerne and distinguish the one from the other we need not to lessen the power of either Lastly And in what sense it is said the law doth not reign over a believer in the same and no other may it be said the law doth not rule him but this is not because either reigning or ruling power be taken from the law but that in a true and proper sense the Scripture affirmeth the believer not to be under the law but under Grace Rom. 6.14 He that knoweth not this mystery cannot stand fast in that liberty wherewith Christ hath made him free nor endure in temptation You onely and vainly repeat what you read but consute nothing there is reason why As you do not like so you cannot oppose the clear truth your spirits fail you yet add to that you bring in out of D. T. That a Christian by Christ is freed from the law and also freed to it to love it live and walk in it In regard of that righteousness and salvation he standeth in with God which is the object of his faith he is freed from it but in regard of his holy and unblamable conversation and life here below Christ by his Spirit doth set free and enlarge the heart actively to run the way of Gods commandments so that yet in walking according to this rule he is not ruled by the law but by the Spirit within proceeding from Christ unto whom he stands in subjection as unto his Soveraign Lord and King I hope you will now be satisfied and the world too at least so far as to account of us no more for Antinomians If any thing yet be darke we must consider the Gospel is a great mystery You might well have kept in those reviling and hateful words or have been better advised ere you had shot so reproachful speeches though they be Arrowes taken from the quivers of other men yet is it that you might vent some spite by them and when they return you will finde the point of them towards your self Then you give Antidotes where there is no danger of infection If any need them he may use them in stead of better M. B. He sets up free grace and Christ not who names it often his book or in pulpit but whose heart is inwardly and deeply affected with it Answ A private Christian not gifted to preach or print may be more affected with it then the Minister and yet not so set it up in the hearts of others for want of those means of communication 2. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh If you were inwardly more affected with this doctrine you would preach and commend it more then any other as Paul who desired to know nothing but Christ Crucisied 1 Cor. 2.2 Phil. 1.20 and sought that he might be magnified whether by his life or death the main subject of his ministery was the unsearchable riches in Christ Eph. 3. 8. Consider these words of Luther in his preface to the Galations In my heart this one Article reigneth even the faith of Christ from whom by whom and unto whom all my divine studies day and night have recourse to and fro continually And I perceive that I could not reach any thing neer c. But it is a sure Argument of small reigning or power it hath in that soul whose mouth and pen is so busied to cavil and write against it Also may not another as truly say That he sets up the law not who names it often but whose heart is most sensibly and deeply affected with the power and inward work of it some would be Doctors of the law not knowing what they say nor whereof they affirm 1 Tim. 1.8 And now also who will most heartily and experimentally set up and endear Christ and free-grace he who teacheth the law to be onely a rule of life yet to have no reigning power but disableth it from cursing and condemning so that a man may bless himself and finde peace and rest in the righteousness of his owne works or he that teacheth that the law is ever revealing wrath threatning and pursuing with the dreadful curse and vengeance all that are of the works of the law in that when they have done their utmost they are come short of what it requireth and therefore it will suffer them to have no rest nor confidence save in the righteousness of God by faith Certainly this mans doctrine will much more make Christ and Free-grace desired and prized by all that have any discerning spirit and a broken and believing heart FINIS SIRS AS I have in part vindicated and cleared the lovely Truth so unworthily aspersed and used by your hands so in recompence of my great pains occasioned by you I desire that in patience you would suffer both your selves and others to see your own face and pourtracturei in your nature lineaments and colour without the least painting or mixture at all Truth rejoyceth in the light I have onely contracted and placed together some few of your assertions that were dispersed 〈◊〉 doubting but time may produce a fuller and more perâ—â—â—â—â—â—â—psâ—s and Inventory A Model of new Divinity or certain Miscellaneous Anti-evangelical inconsistent or ambiguous Positions and Tenents which the Adversaries having Decryed depressed and defaced the doctrine of Free-Grace do assert substitute and publish in Pulpit and Press Mr. Burgess 1. THe Law includeth Christ secondarily and occasionally 2. The Law given to Adam was not cursing and condemning 3. The Law hath no power to
their actions else perfection should be in us and no need of justification if we sin not What gaine you by this you say by justification there is no removal of sin but of the guilt or obligation to eternal wrath c. But the Scripture speaketh not of guilt nor obligation to punishment but of sin and the debt it self whereof we being discharged the obligation to the curse ceaseth upon that yet we may be discharged in our accounts with God of sin and it be still dwelling in us and we confess it too Now what flashly divinity is this nay is not your doctrine truely fleshly for it is self-liking and from a carnal principle That our good works are conditions of life and salvation And that Christ saveth from eternal wrath but we must suffer temporary punishment here we may sin and the law not curse us c. hence is your doctrine so currant and acceptable to all carnal mindes M. Rutherf pag. 572. Towne by the word Law Rom. 6. I understand saith he Moral law with all its Authority Answ If we be freed from all authority of the law then hath the sixth command no authority from God to teach that murder is a sin that Idolatry is agaainst the second commandment Reply By like consequence it may be said If there be no curse nor condemnation in the law we live under as you teach us then the sixth Commandment cannot curse or condemn for murder c. Your Argument holdeth not what the law saith it is to them that are under it The law may have power though you in a true sense be not under it So the Law teacheth what sin is and what curse is annext to sin though you agree with the prophane and secure in heart who in their imaginations deceitfully separate sin and the curse as they would sin without peril M. Rutherf Then the Believer when he lyes whores c. is not obliged to know and see from the light of the law that these be sins Reply In like manner by your doctrine he is to see no condemnation nor danger by the Law for these sins but may live and continue secretly in sinning for the Law to him hath no condemning power deliver your self and acquit me M. Rutherf Mark saith T. Three grounds of mistake 1. That justification and sanctification are separable 2. To ease men by faith of the yoke of the law is to suffer them to run after the course of the world 3. That all strict conformity to the law is right sanctification Answ 1. Not any of these is owned by Protestant Divines they are all in Mr. T. forged calumnies Reply I hate forging and wish you used it no more then I you finde not me charging Protestant Divines with these but whether Mr. Burgess with the President and fellows of Sion Colledge who unanimously justifie and commend to the whole Kingdome his Sermons and Doctrine and Dr. Taylor whom your self so much defend be Protestant Divines I leave that to your thoughts For 1. Mr. Burgess saith expresly That the Law is used as an effectual instrument of Sanctification Regeneration and Conversion And D. Taylor saith If a man be freed from the Law he may whore steal c. as if there were no power in the word of Grace and spirit to renew guide and keep us in the good wayes of God And to the third I say If hundreds teach not so then I am mistaken Who is now the forger of Calumnies whether they owne them or no. I avow them as I say Yet you say we never make the Law the efficient instrument of sanctification and you know it is otherwise They for whom you so plead and against whom for that cause we except have taught and published as I say Mr. Rutherf I cannot see that sanctification is any thing by Antinomian Doctrine but meer justification Reply You want eye-salve or will not see how often may you read them distinguished in the Assertion Mr. Rutherf Mr. T. passes by all guidance of the Saints by Commandment of Law or Gospel and tells us of a leading by a free Spirit onely So that by the Antinomian doctrine we are no more under the Gospel as a directing and Commanding rule then under law What hindereth then but Antinomian justification bids live as we list 2. A dead letter forbids no sin commands no duty but the Gospel without the Spirit is a dead letter as well as Law Reply 1. Is Mr. Rutherf guilty of denying all truths he never mentioneth but 2. The Assertion telleth you of a sanctifying vertue and power of the Spirit by the Gospel to subdue sin change the heart and freely dispose it to walk according to the rule of the Law this you read And under this dominion and guidance of this Evangelical spirit of Christ are all the Sons of God Rom. 8.18 What an indirect and undue inference then do you make saying We teach men to live as they lift First there is a change in their list and will from what they were The Spirit lusteth against the flesh Gal. 5. And 2. I tell you If this Spirit have not soveraignty over you and power to renew and guide you you will neither follow the rule of Law nor Gospel The unction leadeth into all truth You call the Gospel a dead Letter It s no Scripture-phrase which saith it s the ministration of the spirit 2 Cor. 3.8 yet it makes not against me at all Mr. Rutherf If by conformity to the law in the letter Mr. T. means external obedience without faith in Christ He knows Protestant Divines acknowledge no sound sanctification but that which is the natural issue and fruit of justification and flows from faith And such strict conformity to the law we hold to be true sanctification though all enemies to holy walking cry out against it such as are all mockers of all religion the Prelatical and Antinomian party who mock strait walking Reply Bona verba quaeso But 1. I know Protestant Divines hold sanctification to issue out of justifying faith and you cannot but know many who deny it and that some will have sanctification to be coetaneous unto yea to precede justification 2. If it be the issue and fruit of faith by which the heart believeth first to justification and salvation how is it that you teach strict conformity to be a necessary condition mean or way of salvation which by faith is attained in order before holy walking He that believeth is saved Abraham did believe and work both but he did onely by faith come to blessedness and so all his children Gal. 3.9 2. You are ill-transported when in your distemper you conjoyn us with the Prelatical party though I doubt not but amongst them were divers as sound for doctrine and life as in your party and make us both mockers and enemies to holy walking Sir doth the Law now regulate you when you are so far from charity and truth The Lord forgive and
grant you repentance Amen Mr. Rutherf pag. 575. There is a twofold keeping in of sinners one meerly legal they care not for Mr. T. Gaole Reply The law is not my Gaole but Gods and both they and you may be made to minde it more then either yet doth you speak too contemptibly Mr. Rutherf Mr. T. will have the believer so free so perfect as the law needs not to teach nor direct him in one stop he doth all without a keeper by the free compulsion of a Spirit separated from Scriptures which is right down A believer is neither under law nor Gospel but a Spirit separated from both guides him Reply When I say the Spirit of the Lord is his keeper do I teach then he hath no keeper 2. He receiveth the Spirit that leads him by the Gospel how false then is your charge who speak or dream of a spirit separated from Gospel and not I. And yet the Spirit breatheth and bloweth in the heart and the voice or sound of it is there heard when there is no sillable of outward Law or Gospel but you have sufficient answer before As for your instances of Joseph and David I ask of you whether it was the Spirit within that kept them from offending or the law T. pag. 5 6. I muse you omit to shew what it is to be under Grace Mr. Rutherf Dr. Taylor did not omit to shew what it is if you did not omit to read his words he is clear to any Reply Before you complained you could not see what was plain before you but now you can see what is not extant this is the fruit of partiality Mr. Rutherf But let your exposition stand you are not under the law as teaching directing regulating believers in the way of righteousness but the Gospel giveth power to subdue sin without any teaching or regulating power of the law But what is the power of subduing sin to the Antinomians not sanctification but justification that is a power to believe that Christ hath obeyed law for me we are obliged to no personal sanctification c. then to be inherently holy is unlawful to Antinomians Reply The exposition is not mine verbatim yet even in your owne expression the light of truth is so clear and convincing on our part that you turn your back on it as afraid to meddle And being disposed to take occasion to wrangle you demand what it is to subdue sin whereas it is set before you even the weakening of the power of sin within us that it domineer not over us Indeed the Prophet Micah 7.19 useth the phrase of subduing by justification and that is a true subduing it in the conscience that it there raign not to death condemnation And yet by your confession this must precede and is the proper cause of subduing it in conversation and then that will necessarily follow issuing out of this faith So that in fine this is but a Papistical cavil That to teach justification is the overthrow of holiness and good works Lastly whereas you tell of obliging to sanctification I answer we are to believe that God will sanctifie us and that throughout and put his Spirit into us to lead us in his wayes and so in that faith desiring and hungering after it to seek to him as a sick man longing for health unto his Physitian and to wait in the use of his ordinances that he may so perform The new Covenant properly requireth nothing of man but God knowing his spiritual poverty and utter disability calleth upon him to seek to him who worketh both the will and the deed of his owne pleasure Open thy mouth and I will fill it Psal 81. Your slanderous conclusion is both against the rule of Gods law and of all humane arts But such extravagancy becometh or still pleaseth Mr. Rutherford T. Assert pag. 6. I deny not the law to be an eternal and inviolable rule of righteousness yet the Grace of the Gospel doth truly and effectually conform us unto it Mr. Rutherf pag. 578. I ask to whom the law is a rule if to Believers then they must be under it 2. That rule the grace conformeth unto we must be under 3. An inviolable rule of justice cannot be violated without sin Then the Believer cannot violate the law and murder but they must sin and violate the rule c. Reply It s true the law is an inviolable rule but not to him as a Believer or in the things of his Faith but here he departs from it for he doth not the Law to be saved but believeth after the rule of the Gospel 2. If you consider him morally I see not but he may be conformed to the rule of the law and yet not under it but under grace and the rule of the spirit which conformeth him 3. In this your moral or civil conception of him you take him quite out of Christs kingdom where grace reigneth And now grant he doth murder and sin It is death and condemnation by the same rule and law so that he must be totally removed out of the limits of the law before he can be freed and secured from either sin or death You leave faith and fall from grace in all your arguments And they are as forcible to maintain the condemning power of the law to believers as the regulating for where the law regulates it may condemn and so it doth the best Saint here if you bring him and his life under it T. Assert pag. 7. Through faith is bred assured confidence lively hope c. M. Rutherf pag. 579. This is a close perverting of the word of truth the Antinomians faith may here be smelt then whoever once wavereth or doubteth are yet under the law of works A doctrine of despair to broken reeds who cry I believe help my unbelief Reply I must commend to you Jam. 1.6 7. But observe good Reader what is here excepted against viz. Through Faith in Christ is bred assured confidence lively hope pure love towards God invocation of his name without wavering fear or doubting not questioning his good will audience acceptance which would never be effected by all the zeal and conscience towards God according to the law of works And now judge impartially what truth can be current with Mr. Rutherf I aske 1. can assured confidence lively hope c. come or be effected any way else then by faith in Christ If there want light at Noon-day Read Heb. 3.9 where your Bible-Note saith That he calleth that excellent effect of faith whereby we cry Abba Father confidence and to confidence he joyneth hope which is termed a lively hope that God begets unto 1 Pet. 1.3 see also Heb. 10.22 23. Rom. 15.13 and 10.14 How shall they call on him on whom they have not believed But it is like this moveth M. Rutherf that it is said that these cannot be attained by all the zeal according to the law of works yet Paul clears it Eph. 2.18 That
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