into a State Condition Use nor End not given it of God nor any Reason Cause Motive End Necessity of it on the other hand taken away weakned or impaired is a matter of great importance Some make our Obedience the works of Faith our Works the Matter or Cause of our Justification some the Condition of the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ sâ—â—â— tâ—e Qualification of the person Justified on the one hand some exclude all the necessity of them and turn the Grace of God into Lasciviousness on the other To debate these Differences is not my present Business only I say on this and other Accounts the right stating of our Obedience is of great importance as to our walking with God 2. We do by no means assign the same Place Condition State and Use to the Obedience of Christ imputed to us and our Obedience performed to God If we did they were really inconsistent And therefore those who affirm that our Obedience is the Condition or Cause of our Justification do all of them deny the Imputation of the Obedience of Christ unto us The Righteousness of Christ is imputed to us as that on the account whereof we are Accepted and esteemed Râ—ghteous before God and are really so though not inherently We are as truly Righteous with the Obedience of Christ imputed to us as Adam was or could have been by a compleat Righteousness of his own performance So Rom. 5.18 By his Obedience we are made Righteous made so truly and so accepted as by the Disobedience of Adam we are truely made Trespassers and so accounted And this is that which the Apostle desires to be found in in opposition to his own Righteousness Phil. 3.9 But our own Obedience is not the Righteousness whereupon we are accepted and justified before God although it be acceptable to God that we should abound therein And this Distinction the Apostle doth evidently deliver and confirm so as nothing can be more clearly revealed Eph. 2.8 9 10. For by Grace we are saved through Faith and this not of our selves It is the Gift of God Not of works lest any Man should boast For we are his workmanship Created in Christ Jesus unto Good Works which God hath prepared that we should walk in them We are saved or Justified for that it is whereof the Apostle treats by Grace through Faith which receives Jesus Christ and his Obedience not of Works lest any Man should Boast but what Works are they which the Apostle intends The Works of Believers as in the very beginning of the next words is manifest for we are we Believers with our Obedience and our Works of whom I speak yea but what need then of Works need still there is We are the Workmanship c. Two things the Apostle intimates in these words 1. A Reason why we cannot be saved by Works Namely because we do them not in or by our own strength which is necessary we should do if we will be saved by them or Justified by them but this is not so saith the Apostle for We are the Workmanship of God c. all our Works are wrought in us by full and effectual undeserved Grace 2. An Assertion of the Ncessity of good Works notwithstanding that we are not saved by them and that is that God has Ordained that we shall walk in them which is a sufficient Ground of our Obedience whatever be the Use of it If you will say then what are the true and proper Gospel-Grounds Reasons Uses and Motives of our Obedience whence the Necessity thereof may be demonstrated and our Souls be stirred up to abound and be fruitful therein I say they are so many and ly so deep in the Mystery of the Gospel and Dispensation of Grace spread themselves so throughout the whole Revelation of the Will of God unto us that to handle them fully and distinctly and to give them their due weight is a thing that I cannot engage in lest I should be turned aside from what I principally intend I shall only give you some brief heads of what might at large be insisted on 1. Our universal Obedience and good Works are indispensibly Necessary from the Soveraign Appointment and Will of God Father Son and Holy Ghost 1. In General This is the Will of God even our Sanctification or Holiness 1 Thes. 4.3 This is that which God Wills which he requires of us that we be Holy that we be Obedient that we do his Will as the Angels do in Heaven The Equity Necessity Profit and Advantage of this ground of our Obedience might at large be insisted on And were there no more this might suffice alone If it be the Will of God it is our Duty 1. The Father hath Ordained or appointed it It is the Will of the Father Ephes. â— 10 The Father is spoken of Personally Christ being mentioned as Mediator 2. The Son hath ordained and appointed it as Mediator John 15.16 I have Ordained you that you should bring forth Fruit of Obedience and that it should remain And 3. The Holy Ghost appoints and Ordains Believers to Works of Obedience and Holiness and to work Holiness in others so in particular Acts 13.2 He appoints and designs Men to the great Work of Obedience in preaching the Gospel and in sinning Men sin against him 2. Our Holiness our Obedience Work of Righteousness is one Eminent and Especial End of the peculiar Dispensation of Father Son and Spirit in the Business of Exalting the Glory of God in our Salvation of the Electing Love of the Father the purchasing Love of the Son and the Operative Love of the Spirit 1. It is a peculiar End of the Electing Love of the Father Ephes. 1.4 He hath chosen us that we should be Holy unblameable So Isa. 4.3 4. His aim and design in choosing of us was that we should be Holy and unblameable before him in Love This he is to accomplish and will bring about in them that are his He chooses us to Salvation through the Sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the Truth 2 Thes. 2.12 This the Father designed as the first and immediate End of Electing Love And proposes the consideration of that Love as a Motive to Holiness 1 John 4.8 9 10. 2. It is so also of the Exceeding Love of the Son whereof the Testimonies are innumerable I shall give but one or two Tit. 2.14 Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all Iniquity and purify to himself a peculiar people zealous of good Works This was his Aim his Design in giving himself for us as Ephes. 5.26 27. Christ Loved the Church and gave himself for it that he might Sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of Water by the Word that he might present it to himself a Glorious Church not having spot or Wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be Holy and without blemish 2 Cor. 5.15 Rom. 6.5 3. It is the very work of the
contrary and declared those Resolutions as I had occasion Neither was it until very lately that my second Thoughts came to a compliance with the desires of some others to consider my own peculiar concernment therein And this is all which I now design for the examination of the Opinions which this Author hath veuted under the countenance of publick License whatever they may think I know to be more the concernment of other Men than mine Nor yet do I enter into the Consideration of what is written by this Author with the least respect unto my self or my own reputation which I have the satisfaction to conceive not to be prejudiced by such pittiful Attempts nor have I the least desire to preserve it in the minds of such Persons as wherein it can suffer on this occasion But the Vindication of some sacred Truths petulantly traduced by this Author seems to be cast on me in an especial manner because he hath opposed them and endeavoured to expose them to scorn as declared in my Book whence others more meet for this work might think themselves discharged from taking notice of them Setting aside this consideration I can freely give this sort of Men leave to go on with their Revilings and Scoffings until they are weary or ashamed which as far as I can discern upon Consideration of their Ability for such a Work and their Confidence therein is not like to be in haste At least they can change their course and when they are out of breath in pursuit of one sort of calumnies betake themselves unto another Witness the late malicious and yet withal ridiculous Reports that they have divulged concerning me even with respect unto Civil Affairs and their industry therein For although they were such as had not any thing of the least probability or likelihood to give them countenance yet were they so impetuously divulged and so readily entertained by many as made me think there was more than the common artifices of Calumny employed in their raising and improvement especially considering what Persons I can justly charge those Reports upon But in this course they may proceed whilst they please and think convenient I find my self no more concerned in what they Write or say of this Nature than if it were no more But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is the Doctrine traduced only that I am concerned about and that as it hath been the Doctrine of the Church of England It may be it will be said for there is no security against Confidence and Imodesty backed with secular Advantages that the Doctrinal Principles asserted in this Book are agreeable with the Doctrine of the Church in former Times and therefore those opposed in it such as are condemned thereby Hereabout I shall make no long contest with them who once discover that their Minds are by any means emboldned to undertake the Defence of such shameless Untruths Nor shall I multiply Testimonies to prove the Contrary which others are more concerned to do if they intend not to betray the Religion of that Church with whose Preservation and Defence they are intrusted Only because there are Ancient Divines of this Church who I am perswaded will be allowed with the most to have known as well the Doctrine of it and as firmly to have adhered thereunto as this Author who have particularly spoken unto most of the Things which he hath opposed or rather reproached I shall transcribe the Words of one of them whereby he and those who employ him may be minded with whom they have to do in those things For as to the Writers of the Antient Church there is herein no regard had unto them He whom I shall Name is Mr. Hooker and that in his Famous Book of Ecclesiastical Policy who in the 5th Book thereof and 56 Paragraph thus discourseth We have hitherto spoken of the Person and of the presence of Christ. Participation is that mutual inward hold which Christ hath of us and we of him in such sort that each possesseth other by way of special Interest Property and Inherent Copulation And after the interposition of some things concerning the mutual in-being and Love of the Father and the Son he thus proceedeth We are by Nature the Sons of Adam When God Created Adam he Created us and as many as are descended from Adam have in themselves the Root out of which they Spring The Sons of God we neither are all nor any of Us otherwise than only by Grace and Favour The Sons of God have Gods own Natural Son as a second Adam from Heaven whose Race and Progeny they are by Spiritual and Heavenly Birth God therefore loving Eternally his Son he must needs Eternally in him have loved and preferred before all others them which are Spiritually sithence descended and sprung out of him These are in God as in their Saviour and not as in their Creator only It was the Purpose of his saving Goodness his Saving Power and his Saving Wisdom which inclined it self towards them They which thus are in God eternally by their intended admission to Life have by Vocation or Adoption God actually now in them as the Artificer is in that Work which his hand doth presently frame Life as all other Gifts and Benefits groweth originally from the Father and cometh not to Us but by the Son nor by the Son to any of Us in particular but through the Spirit For this cause the Apostle wisheth to the Church of Corinth the Grace our Lord Jesus Christ and the Love of God and the Fellowship of the Holy Ghost which three Saint Peter comprehendeth in one the Participation of the Divine Nature We are therefore in God through Christ Eternally according to that intent and purpose whereby we are chosen to be made his in this present World before the World it self was made We were in God through the knowledg which is had of Us and the Love which is born towards Us from Everlasting But in God we actually are no longer than only from the Time of our Actual Adoption into the Body of his true Church into the Fellowship of his Children For his Church he knoweth and loveth so that they that are in the Church are thereby known to be in him Our being in Christ by Eternal foreknowledg Saveth Us not without our actual and real Adoption into the Fellowship of his Saints in this present World For in him we actually are by our actual incorporation into that society which hath him for their head and doth make together with him one Body He and they in that respect having one Name For which cause by vertue of this Mystical conjunction we are of him and in him even as though our very flesh and bones should be made continuate with his We are in Christ because he knoweth and Loveth Us even as parts of himself No Man is actually in him but they in whom he actually is For he which hath not the Son of
really into Us are made our own and we by having them in us are truly said to have him from whom they come Christ also more or less to Inhabit and impart himself as the Graces are fewer or more greater or smaller which really flow into us from Christ Christ is whole with the whole Church and whole with every part of the Church as touching his person which can no way divide it self or be possest by Degrees and Portions But the participation of Christ importeth besides the presence of Christs Person and besides the Mystical Copulation thereof with the parts and Members of his whole Church a true actual Influence of Grace whereby the life which we live according to Godliness is his and from him we receive those perfections wherein our Eternal Happiness consisteth Thus we participate Christ partly by Imputation as when those things which he did and suffered for us are imputed unto us for Righteousness Partly by habitual and real Infusion as when Grace is inwardly bestowed while we are on Earth and afterwards more fully both our Souls and Bodies made like unto his in Glory The first thing of his so infused into our hearts in this Life is the Spirit of Christ whereupon because the rest of what kind soever do all both necessarily depend and infallibly also ensue therefore the Apostles term it sometimes the Seed of God sometimes the Pledge of our Heavenly Inheritance sometimes the hansel or earnest of that which is to come From hence it is that they which belong to the Mystical Body of our Saviour Christ and be in number as the Stars in Heaven divided sucessively by reason of their Mortal Condition into many Generations are notwithstanding coupled every one to Christ their Head and all unto every particular person amongst themselves in as much as the same Spirit which anointed the Blessed Soul of our Saviour Christ doth so formalize unite and actuate his whole Race as if both he and they were so many Limbs compacted into one Body by being all with one and the same Soul quickned That wherein we are partakers of Jesus Christ by Imputation are each equally unto all that have it For it consisteth in such Acts and Deeds of his as could not have longer continuance than while they were in doing nor at that very time belong unto any other but to him from whom they came and therefore how Men either then or before or sithence should be made partakers of them there can be no way imagined but only by Imputation Again a Deed must either not be imputed to any but rest altogether in him whose it is or if at all it be imputed they which have it by Imputation must have it such as it is whole So that Degrees being neither in the personal presence of Christ nor in the participation of those Effects which are ours by Imputation only it resteth that we wholly apply them to the participation of Christs infused Grace although even in this kind also the First beginning of Life the Seed of God the First-Fruits of Christ's Spirit be without Latitude For we have hereby only the being of the Sons of God in which number how far soever one may seem to excel another yet touching this that all are Sons they are all Equals some happily better Sons than the rest are but none any more a Son than another Thus therefore we see how the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father how both are in all things and all in them what Communion Christ hath with his Church how his Church and every Member thereof is in him by Original Derivation and he personally in them by Way of Mystical Association wrought through the Gift of the Holy Ghost which they that are his receive from him and together with the same what benefit soever the Vital Force of his Body and Blood may yield Yea by Steps and Degrees they receive the compleat Measure of all such Divine Grace as doth sanctify and save throughout till the Day of their Final Exaltation to a state of Fellowship in Glory with him whose partakers they now are in those things that tend to Glory This one Testimony ought to be enough unto this sort of Men whilst they are at any consistency with their own Reputation For it is evident that there is nothing concerning personal Election Effectual Vocation Justification by the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ Participation of him Union of Believers unto and with his Person Derivation of Grace from him c. which are so reproached by our present Author but they are asserted by this great Champion of the Church of England who undoubtedly knew the Doctrine which it owned and in his Days approved and that in such words and Expressions as remote from the sentiments or at least as unsavoury to the Palats of these Men as any they except against in others And what themselves so severely charge on us in point of Discipline that nothing be spoken about it until all is answered that is written by Mr Hooker in its Defence may I hope not immodestly be so far returned as to desire them that in point of Doctrine they will grant us Truce until they have moved out of the way what is writâ—en to the same purpose by Mr. Hooker Why do not they speak to him to leave fooling and to speak sense as they do to others But let these things be as they are I have no especial Concernment in them nor shall take any farther notice of them but only as they influence the Exceptions which this Author makes unto some passages in that Book of mine And in what I shall do herein I shall take as little Notice as may be of those Scurrilous and Reproachful Expressions which either his Inclination or his Circumstances induced him to make use of If he be pleased with such a course of procedure I can only assure him that as to my Concernment I am not displeased and so he is left unto his full Liberty for the Future The first thing he quarrels about is my asserting the Necessity of Acquaintance with the person of Christ which Expression he frequently makes use of afterwards in a way of Reproach The Use of the Word Acquaintance in this Matter is Warranted by our Translation of the Scripture and that properly where it is required of Us to acquaint our selves with God And that I intended nothing thereby but the Knowledg of Jesus Christ is evident beyond any pretence to the contrary to be suggested by the most subtile or Inventive Malice The Crime therefore wherewith I am here charged is my Assertion that it is necessary that Christians should know Jesus Christ which I have afterwards increased by affirming also that they ought to Love him For by Jesus Christ all the World of Christians intend the person of Christ and the most of them all of them the Socinians only excepted by his Person the Word made Flesh or
Love of the Holy Ghost his whole work upon us in us for us consists in preparing of us for Obedience enabling of us thereunto and bringing forth the fruits of it in us and this he doth in opposition to a Righteousness of our own either before it or to be made up by it Tit. 3.5 I need not insist on this The fruits of the Spirit in us are known Gal. 5.22 And thus have we a twofold bottom of the Necessity of our Obedience and personal Holiness God hath appointed it He requires it And it is an eminent immediate End of the distinct Dispensation of Father Son and Holy Ghost in the Work of our Salvation If God's Soveraignty over us is to be owned if his Love towards us be to be regarded if the whole Work of the ever-blessed Trinity for us in us be of any Moment our Obedience is necessary 3. It is Necessary in respect of the End thereof and that whether you consider God our Selves or the World 1. The End of our obedience in respect of God is his Glory and Honour Mal. 1.6 This is God's Honour all that we give him It is true he will take his Honour from the Stoutest and Proudest Rebel in the World but all we give him is in our Obedience The Glorifying of God by our Obedience is all that we are or can be Particularly 1. It is the Glory of the Father Mat. 5.16 Let your Light so shine before Men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven By our walking in the Light of Faith doth Glory arise to the Father The Fruits of his Love of his Grace of his Kindness are seen upon us and God is Glorified in our Behalf And 2. The Son is Glorified thereby It is the Will of God that as all Men Honour the Father so should they Honour the Son John 5.23 and how is this done by believing in him John 14.1 obeying of him Hence John 17.10 He says he is Glorified in Believers and prays for an increase of Grace and Union for them that he may yet be more Glorified and all might know that as Mediator he was sent of God 3. The Spirit is Glorified also by it He is grieved by our Disobedience Eph. 4.30 And therefore his Glory is in our bringing forth Fruit. He dwells in us as in his Temple which is not to be defiled Holiness becometh his Habitation for ever Now if this that hath been said be not sufficient to evince a necessity of our Obedience we must suppose our selves to speak with a sort of Men who regard neither the Soveraignty nor Love nor Glory of God Father Son or Holy Ghost Let Men say what they please though our Obedience should be all lost and never regarded which is impossible for God is not unjust to forget our Labour of Love yet here is a sufficient bottom ground and Reason of yielding more Obedience unto God than ever we shall do whilst we live in this World I speak also only of Gospel-Grounds of Obedience and not of those that are Natural and Legal which are indispensible to all Mankind 2. The End in respect of our selves immediately is threefold 1. Honour 2. Peace 3. Usefulness 1. Honour It is by Holiness that we are made like unto God and his Image is renewed again in us This was our Honour at our Creation this exalted us above all our Fellow-Creatures here below we were made in the Image of God This we lost by Sin and became like the Beasts that perish To this Honour of Conformity to God of bearing his Image are we exalted again by Holiness alone Be ye Holy says God because I am Holy 1 Pet. 1.16 And be you perfect that is in doing good as your Heavenly Father is Perfect Math. 5.48 in a Likeness and Conformity to him And herein is the Image of God renewed Ephes. 4.23 24. Therein we put on the New Man which after God is created in Righteousness and Holiness of Truth This was that which originally was attended with Power and Dominion is still all that is Beautiful or Comely in the World How it makes Men Honourable and Precious in the sight of God of Angels of Men how alone it is that which is not despised which is of Price before the Lord what contempt and Scorn He hath of them in whom it is not in what Abomination he hath them and all their ways might easily be evinced 2. Peace by it we have Communion with God wherein Peace alone is to be enjoyed The wicked are like a troubled Sea that cannot rest and there is no Peace to them saith my God Isa. 48.21 There is no Peace Rest or Quietness in a Distance Separation or Alienation from God He is the Rest of our Souls In the Light of his Countenance is Life and Peace Now if we walk in the Light as he is Light we have Fellowship one with another 1 Joh. 1.7 and verily our Fellowship is with the Father and with the Son Jesus Christ v. 3. He that walks in the Light of new Obedience he hath Communion with God and in his Presence is fulness of Joy for ever without is there nothing but darkness and wandring and Confusion 3. Usefulness a man without Holiness is good for nothing Ephraim says the Propbet is an empty Vine that brings forth Fruit to it self And what is such a Vine good for Nothing saith another Prophet a man cannot make a pin of it so much as to hang a Vessel on A barren tree is good for nothing but to be cut down for the Fire Notwithstanding the seeming Usefulness of men who serve the Providence of God in their Generations I could easily manifest that the World and the Church might want them and that indeed in themselves they are Good for nothing only the Holy man is commune bonum 3. The End of it in respect of others in the world is manifold 1. It serves to the Conviction and stopping the mouths of some of the Enemies of God both here and hereafter Here 1. Pet. 3.16 Keeping a good Conscience that wherein they speak against you as Evil Doers they may be ashamed beholding your good Conversation in Christ. By our keeping of a good Conscience Men will be made ashamed of their false Accusations That whereas their Malice and Hatred of the ways of God hath provoked them to speak all manner of evil of the Profession of them by the Holiness and Righteousness of the Saints they are convinced and made ashamed as a Thief is when he is taken and driven to acknowledge that God is amongst them and that they are wicked themselves Joh. 17.23.2 Hereafter it is said that the Saints shall judg the World It is on this as well as upon other Considerations Their Good Works their Righteousness their Holiness shall be brought forth and manifested to all the World and the Righteousness of God's Judgments against Wicked Men be thence evinced See says
already that I will not come to him nor any of his Companions to learn to Express my self in these things and moreover that I despise their Censures The Discourses he is carping at in particular in this place are neither Doctrinal nor Argumentative but consist in the Application of Truths before proved unto the Minds and Affections of men And as I said I will not come to him nor his Fraternity to learn how to manage such a subject much less a Logical and Argumentative way of Reasoning nor have any inducement thereunto from any thing that as yet I have seen in their Writings It also troubles him pag. 208. That whereas I know how unsuited the best and most accurate of our Expressions are unto the true Nature and Being of Divine things as they are in themselves and what need we have to make use of Allusions and sometimes less proper Expressions to convey a sence of them unto the Minds and Affections of men I had once or twice used that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if I may so say which yet if he had not known used in other good Authors treating of things of the same Nature he knew I could take protection against his severity under the Example of the Apostle using words to the same Purpose upon an alike Occasion Heb. 7. But at length he intends to be serious and from those words of mine Here is Mercy enough for the greatest the oldest the stubbornest Transgressor he addes Enough in all Reason this what a Comfort is it to Sinners to have such a God for their Saviour whose Grace is boundless and bottomless and exceeds the largest Dimensions of their Sins though there be a world of sin in them But what now if the Divine Nature it self have not such an endless boundless bottomless Grace and Compassion as the Doctor now talks of For at other times when it serves his turn better we can hear nothing from him but the Naturalness of Gods Vindictive Justice Though God be rich in Mercy he never told us that his Mercy was so boundless and bottomless he had given a great many Demonstrations of the severity of his Anger against sinners who could not be much worse than the Greatest the Oldest and stubbornest Transgressors Let the Reader take notice that I propose no Grace in Christ unto or for such Sinners but only that which may invite all sorts of them though under the most discouraging Qualifications to come unto him for Grace and Mercy by Faith and Repentance And on supposition that this was my sence as he cannot deny it to be I adde only in Answer that this his prophane scoffing at it is that which reflects on Christ and his Gospel and God himself and his Word which must be accounted for See Isa. 55.7 2 dly For the Opposition which he childishly frames between Gods Vindictive Justice and his Mercy and Grace it is answered already 3 dly It is false that God hath not told us that his Grace is boundless and bottomless in the sence wherein I use those words sufficient to pardon the greatest the oldest the stubbornest of sinners namely that turn unto him by Faith and Repentance And he who knowes not how this consists with Severity and Anger against impenitent sinners is yet to Learn his Catechism But yet he addes further pag. 208 209. Supposing the Divine Nature were such a bottomless Fountain of Grace how comes this to be a Personal Grace of the Mediator For a Mediator as Mediator ought not to be considered as the Fountain but as the Minister of Grace God the Father certainly ought to come in for a share at least in being the Fountain of Grace though the Doctor is pleased to take no notice of him But how excellent is the Grace of Christs Person above the Grace of the Gospel for that is a bounded and limited thing a straight Gate and narrow Way that leadeth unto Life There is no such Boundless Mercy as all the sins in the World cannot equal its Dimensions as will save the Greatest the Oldest and the stubbornest Transgressors I begg the Reader to believe that I am now so utterly weary with the Repetition of these impertinencies that I can hardly prevail with my self to fill my Pen once more with Ink about them And I see no reason now to goe on but only that I have begun And on all accounts I shall be as brief as possible I say then First I did not consider this boundless Grace in Christ as Mediator but considered it as in him who is Mediator and so the Divine Nature with all its Properties are greatly to be considered in him if the Gospel be true But 2 dly It is untrue that Christ as Mediator is only the Minister of Grace and not the Fountain of it for he is Mediator as God and Man in one Person 3 dly To suppose an exemption of the Person of the Father from being the Fountain of Grace absolutely in the Order of the Divine Subsistence of the Persons in the Trinity and of their Operations suited thereunto upon the Ascription of it unto the Son is a fond Imagination which could befall no man who understands any thing of things of this Nature It doth as well follow that if the Son created the World the Father did not if the Son uphold all things by the Word of his Power the Father doth not that is that the Son is not in the Father nor the Father in the Son The Acts indeed of Christs Mediation respect the Ministration of Grace being the procuring and communicating Causes thereof but the Person of Christ the Mediator is the Fountain of Grace So they thought who beheld his Glory the Glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of Grace and Truth But the especial Relation of Grace unto the Father as sending the Son unto the Son as sent by him and incarnate and unto the Holy Spirit as proceeding from and sent by them both I have elsewhere fully declared and shall not in this place which indeed will scarce give Admittance unto any thing of so serious a nature again insist thereon 4 thly The Opposition which he would again set between Christ and the Gospel is impious in it self and if he thinks to charge it on me openly false I challenge him and all his Complices to produce any one word out of any Writing of mine that from a Plea or pretence of Grace in Christ should give Countenance unto any in the neglect of the least Precept given or Duty required in the Gospel And notwithstanding all that I have said or taught concerning the Boundless Bottomless Grace and Mercy of Christ towards believing humble penitent Sinners I doe believe the Way of Gospel Obedience indispensibly required to be walked in by all that will come to the Enjoyment of God to be so narrow that no Revilers nor false Accusers nor Scoffers nor Despisers of Gospel Mysteries continuing so to be can walk