Estates and may forfeit the one sometimes without the other 7. There is a Priority in Justification to Adoption tho' not in Time yet in Order of Nature this follows consequentially from all the rest John 1.12 The right to Sonship follows Justifying Faith Tit. 3.7 being Heirs follows being Justified Rom. 8.17 We are first Children then Heirs and a Spirit of Prayer and Divine Conduct for a Holy Life answers Adoption First Life then Estate in Order of Nature The Arguments brought against it by the Learn'd Forbesius are answerable First To Adopt is the Act of a Father and the Acts of the Father in the Trinity are before the Acts of the Son and Spirit Resp That Order holds more in their Concurrence to one Act than in distinct Acts for Justification is the Act of the whole Trinity so is Adoption 2. That Order holds more in Antelapsarian than Sublapsarian Actions for in the latter Redemption which is Christ's Act is first for there Actions flow not from God immediately as God The Second What is first in Christ is first in us but Christ is a Son first before Justified as a Redeemer Resp This is true in the Order of Intention for we are first design'd Sons to be the Companions and Fellows of that only begotten but 't is not true in Order of Execution 3. We are Christs Brethren by Adoption Resp He is a Brother by Incarnation and fitted for being our Redeemer by it It is not our Brotherhood by Adoption fitted Christ for Redemption but his becoming our Brother by Incarnation The relation of the absolute Blessings Regeneration Sanctification c. may be understood by the following head A Second Help for more distinct Knowledge of this Blessing is what supplies the room or place of the Justificatory Sentence By Virtue of what Act of God upon the Arraign'd Person doth he become formally free from the Curse of the Law By what doth he publickly manifest such a particular Person pardon'd Resp There are four apparent Competitors for this place 1. The Voice of the Gospel declaring all that believe are justified Act. 13.39 but the Voice of the Law and the Voice of the Judge are of distinct Natures The Gospel is in room of the Law it 's the Constitution of Christ's Kingdom and it is also in room of the Records of a Court it shews in general what is Constitutive of Justification Rom. 5.19 By the Obedience of one shall many be made righteous and is Decisive of them that are Justified or to be Justified and them that are not or shall not be Joh. 3.36 He that believeth on the Son hath Life and he that believeth not shall not see Life But the Judg's part is to make an Authoritative Application of this Law or Constitution to an individual Person this the Scripture doth not All that Christ dy'd for are Justifiable by the Gospel Constitution but they often live a considerable time before they be actually Justified 1 Cor. 6.11 Such were some of you but you are sanctified but you are justified Mr. Baxt. Confes p. 40. There is a treble Pardon constitutive by God as a Law-giver declarative by God as a Judge determining our Right and Executive in not inflicting the Poenalty The Gospel doth the first the second is that in question There are others such as the Testimony of the Spirit in a Person 's own Conscience and the solemn Sentence at the Day of Judgment which I referr to the several Courts our Cause is try'd in That which I shall conclude on as bearing nighest resemblance to it is God's Act of Regeneration his first Gift of Saving Faith and Sanctifying Grace that beside its absolute Nature in Conforming the Soul to Christ and raising his Image in it it has a relative signification of Divine Favour that is better than Life God by that Deed or speaking Action says All thy sins are blotted out thy Iniquiâ—ies forgiven thou art a Freeman in the State 1. 2 Cor. 3.17 Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty Rom. 6.7 He that is dead is freed Orig. justifi'd from sin 2. As soon as ever man sinned Gen. 3. he became guilty and as soon as guilty the Punishment of spiritual Death followed so if as soon as sinn'd condemn'd as soon as Christ's Righteousness applyed he is justifi'd the receiving such a blessed Fruit of it as the Spirit is a sure Application of it there is as present and effectual Vertue in the Medicinal Potion for Life as there was in the Poyson to Death 3. Eph. 1.14 The Spirit of the Lord is an Earnest of the Inheritance wherever he is and since he ensures Adoption much more he ensures Justfication 4. Regeneration makes us Sons and the Priviledge of a Son is more than that of a Subject 5. Rom. 5.10 11. Whenever we are reconciled we are justifi'd for they are but different representations of the same Priviledge and Sanctification takes away the Enmity 6. When the Spirit is given to us we receive a great Trust many Talents and called to a great Office in Christs Kingdom to praise and glorifie him to propagate his Kingdom created unto all good Works Sir Walter Raleigh and with him all Lawyers judg'd his being put in a place of Office and Trust did virtually contain a Pardon in it It implies much weakness in Government or Governours to employ Traytors Rebels and Criminals in places of Trust who must strive for their Lives to hinder the just administration of the Government which would take away their own Life 7. Mat. 9.2 When Christ the Judge of the World verbally pronounces Forgiveness he signifies all imports one thing Arise and walk Eyes be ye open Be thou healed Or Thy sins be forgiven thee His gifts are in a comprehensive Cluster there is a strong Chain of connexion among them and he may name what is most easie hence are they so united and involved into one another by Scripture Titus 3.5.7 1 Cor. 6.11 Rom. 8.30 Act. 5.31 And 8. There is not only the Example of Christs Justifying but the Example of his being justify'd Who was justified in the Spirit 1 Tim. 3.16 All the Works of the Spirit on him and by him were God's justifying him His Resurrection was his declared Justification Rom. 4.25 It was the Pattern of ours besides other great Influences on ours By it was he taken from the Prison of the Grave and acquitted from the Judgment where try'd therefore our spiritual Resurrection Rom. 6.7 is call'd Justification 9. Ancient Custom shews that Authority did intimate their Sentence by symbolical Actions and things as well as words Ovid. Albis atrisque Lapillis The White Stone was sent as a Symbol of Absolution to the Person whose Name they wrote upon it Pierius in his Egyptian Hierogliphicks gives this Account of the Rights of a Slaves Manumission That he was Cloath'd in White Raiment and his Patron 's Ring put upon his Finger and did eat at his Master's Table The Scripture
bear both the Place of a Sentence and a Condition which is needfull to reconcile these two Opinions R. 1. By Condition they mean not a Condition properly in a Law or a foederal Sence as we use the Word in Bargains between Man and Man for the Civilians inform me these three Properties make a Condition 1. Potestative that it be in the Parties Power to perform 2. Casualty in it self and to the other Party uncertain 3. Causal in that it bear a Valuable Consideration The Law will not suffer a Man to injure himself so far or another to deceive him as to get a Title to an Estate of two or three hundred Pounds per Ann. for an hundred Guineas But the Apol. informs us that This Condion is neither in our Power 2. Nor Uncertain 3. Nor Meritorious therefore not a Condition properly Nay further tho' the Gospel be a Law and this Law is the Condition of the Covenant yet it is not a Legal Condition Therefore it must be in a Physical or Logical Sence if not in a Law Sence and a Necessary Connection is enough for the one viz. Logical as if a Man be Reasonable he is capable of Learning and if capable of Learning he is reasonable and Priority enough for the other as that Wood must be laid to the Fire before it can be burnt And this Opinion is very agreeable with Condition in this Sence for there is not only a Necessary Connexion between Faith Repentance and Justification but there is a Priority the Covenant of Grace partakes more of Orderliness it is Order'd in all things than of Conditionalness for the Foundation is before the Relation the Sign before the Signification the Gift of Faith and Repentance is before its Connotation of our Pardon or being receiv'd into Favour Nay further there is not only the Gift of Faith but the exercise of this Grace as mix'd with our Faculties and become a Duty in order of Nature antecedent to this Connotation or Signification of our being now brought under Divine Favour because the way of Communicating this Gift is by Calling speaking immediately to the Soul and representing spiritual Ideas making us behold as in a Glass the glorious Image of the Lord discovering unseen and hoped for things as before and after both is further explained and the Gift cannot be without this exercise by which God and the Soul unite and mutually apprehend one another In short thus That this Gift may not only be long unperceiv'd by the Receiver but that it cannot Signifie untill in Exercise tho' as a Gift it doth signifie There is but one thing more that Justification and Glory are suspended upon these Duties of Faith and Repentance R. Either by Suspension he means no more but Necessary Consequential so we Agree and I do not find his Arguments will prove more For a Testament is fully as proper a Title that gives Name to the whole Bible as Covenant or Bargain and Civilians say the If used in Testaments which is so frequent in Scriptures is a demonstrative If that doth not Suspend but Design the thing Promised and some certain Time or Manner of Conveyance If he understand it a Legal Suspension it 's the same with a Legal Condition which he has deny'd before for Conditio est dispositionis suspensio ex eventu incerto ei opposito and has an Obliging Influence on the Promiser and Conferrs a Title of Right to the Benefit promised I might Conclude this with some Testimonies out of the Fathers but though I find Phrases to answer my Purpose I find the Style sometimes Loose and Oratorical and sometimes they Design another thing which I wish a late Author had minded who Attempts to prove the New Law out of the Fathers when Daille who was better acquainted with them says It 's in vain to make them Judges in many of the Controversies between us and the Papists and yet this Authour would bring them to Prove a more Nice Point become a very late Question In what sense the Law is New thoro the Gospel or the Gospel may be call'd a Law I shall only instance his first Citation out of Justin Martyr p. 228. c. and I am willing to be judged by any of the Subscribers that will take the Pains to read it if Justin intends any thng more than the recommending the Christian Constitution and proving it preferable to the Mosaical For he says This New Law is Posterior to Moses his Law but the Apologist's New Law has been ever since the Fall of Adam He says this New Law is Christ and his Testament Any may see he took Law in no strict Sense when he calls Christ and his Testament a Law he calls it a Testament Eight times in that Page and nigh Seventy times in that Dialogue and seldom I think not above Four times a Law without the Explicatory word Testament added yet I think this Opinion will help to wrest the Fathers out of the Papists Hands The Fathers use the Words Justifie and Sanctifie often promiscuously for making Just and Holy The common Answer by Protestants is the Fathers use the Word according to its Grammatical Signification not Forensical Use To which the Papists answer Then they were not acquainted with that sense This affords another for we may say to Sanctifie is to Justifie in the same Sense that Christ says This Bread is my Body that is a Sign of it And so we may understand the Fathers Est or Is Metonymically for est Signum and we may find enough among their Writings to shew that all the Parts and Degrees of Sanctification are Signs of Justification which doth sufficiently shew that tho' this Phrase is New that the Gift of the Holy Spirit in order to our Sanctification stands in the room and place of a Justificatory Sentence yet the Sense is not for it is the Sign yea the spiritual Initiating Sign of our being in Covenant with God This is the Covenant I will make with them I will pour out my Spirit on them Being in Covenant is a Relative Blessing as well as Justification and they are inseparable Now says the Lord my giving my Spirit imports this I take thee to be one of my People I avouch thee this Day to be mine The Prince's Proclamation of Pardon to a Rebel or the Judges Justificatory Sentence of a Person suspected accused imprison'd is the first Authoritative Signification of the Governments Favour So what is the first Sign of Divine Favour must stand in the place of a Justifying or Pardoning Sentence but these absolute Blessings that are proper to the Elect of Faith and Repentance are the first Intimations of Divine Governments receiving us into Favour therefore the Gift of them is the Absolving Sentence A third Propos'd Head was the Time of our Justification which being meant of the first Act necessarily follows from the former Proposition to be neither later nor sooner than the first Moment of our Conversion
the Power of Heaven except the Fear of Heaven that is Religion There is a difficulty of reconciling their Opinions about this Point because they also owned a Fate which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Josephus who was one of them says lib. 2. chap. 7. that they attributed all things to God and Fate but it is no wonder for wherever Error is there is Contradiction for every Man holds some Truth and whatever Error he holds is repugnant to the Truth he holds but Camero thus explains their Sense from Josephus his own words That by Faith is meant God's Providential Help but most is to be placed in Man and lib. 18. chap. 2. We are not to separate Man's Will from enclining Fate so that the Sense of it is Providence gives Occasion to Work but the Work it self is wholly Man's own 3. The Pelagians are not inferiour in this Pride to any of the former who confine all God's Grace to Man in giving of this Noble and Natural Endowment of Free-Will by which a Man is able to do all good Commanded They say none can give a Man spiritual Riches but himself for these he is justly Praised and jure Preferred to others for these can have no Being but in himself and from himself hence he taught this Form of Prayer Lord behold the Purity of my Lips by which I Pray to thee and the Innocency of my Hands which I stretch forth before thee 4. The Papists especially Jesuites and Molinists tho' others seem to diminish the Power of Free-Will when they write on that Head yet when they come to the Point of Merit they again extoll it Bel de Just lib. 5. chap. 3. because it is more honourable to obtain a thing by Merit than by Grace alone therefore that God might Honour his Children he has granted that they might prepare Eternal Life to themselves by their Merits and more proudly Ruard in Top. Art Lov. God forbid that the Righteous should expect Eternal Life as a Poor Man doth an Alms since it is more glorious for them as Victors and Triumphants to possess it as the Crown and Palm due to their Sâ—eats and Labours and their Common Doctrine is that by the strength of Nature preparing our selves we Merit ex Congruo special Grace and afterwards being made just by it we can so perfectly fulfill the Law that we Merit Heaven ex Condigno and why may not a Workman glory in his Work 5. Socinians and Arminians who hold the Freedom of the Will inconsistent with any Necessity and that it is out of the Power of God effectually to Call a Sinner when he will or according to the Terms in Dispute Grace is always resistable but the Will of Man unconquerable 6. We find many others and more ancient too much extolling Man on this account as Prudentius in his Poems on that Subject Insubjecte potens rerum arbiter arbiter idem judex Mentis propriae Powerfull being subject to none Lord of all things Lord also and Judge of thy own Mind And elsewhere He that made thee Lord of all things would he not make thy self free He that made thee King of the World would he not make thee King of thy self would he so Curtail thine Honour and Matter of glorying Besides the common Definition of it signifies no less that supposing all things in act that are fit or have Power to move or encline it it may Act or not Act or act the contrary as it will Neither God nor Angels Men or Devils have Poweâ— certainly to determine it 7. They who have their Minds better instructed yet have Practical Sentiments secretly latent in their Minds of this kind which we may learn from our Observation of our selves As 1. When Men adventure on sin because they think they can make amends by Repentance 2. When Peâ—sons delay Repentance upon this ground that they can do it afterwards 3. When Persons stifle Convictions and quench the Spirit because they think they can enjoy it again when they will 4. When Persons do not Pray from this latent Error that they have a Power to Accomplish their Designs themselves 5. When men Neglect the outward Ordinances and Means of Salvation which God has appointed not only as Means between Us and the End but as Means between our Can and our Cannot because we cannot do any thing of the Essentials of Salvation Meriting Pardon Enlightning the Understanding or Sanctifying our Wills God has prescribed these Means that we can do and has Promised to Perform that which we cannot Phil. 3. Work in and about your own Salvation with fear and trembling for he worketh in you to will and to do Now that which many Neglect the Means for is because they think they can go about the thing it self The Security that destroys the most of perishing Souls is founded on this corrupt Root that we have a Power in a very short time to do all the Business of our Salvation Were it not for this Sinners Despairing wholly in themselves wou'd be rolling themselves in the Dust and prostrating themselves before a Father of Mercies and God of Grace and constantly Watching for the Angels troubling of the Waters they would be daily waiting at Wisdoms Gates for the Spirit promised to Attendants upon appointed Means In opposition to all this I shall lay down these Eight Propositions with their several Confirmations to prove that this Noble Principle that God hath endowed Man with though it hath exalted him above Brutes it affords him no ground of Pride or glorying before God four are Positive and four Negative 1. Free-Will is a part of that Excellency by which Man is the Image of God All in Man by which he excells meer Animals he therein is God's Image This is a great Dignity to be in the Image of God but this should humble Man before God because he is but an Image tho' in respect of inferiour Creatures they being only a Vestigium or a Print of some one perfection as the Print of a Man's Foot represents but one part of him an Image represents the whole or most principal Parts Free-will is founded in Wisdom and Power and in these Man is God's Image but this Excellency affords no Matter of glorying 1. From the Scriptures own Expression Psalm 39.6 there is a Reason given why Man in his best Estate that is in the Purity of his Nature in the unfaded and unstained flower of all his Senses and spiritual Faculties is but Vanity because every Man walks in a Vain shew so we Translate it but the Original is Bezalim the same Word which in Gen. 1. is used for the Image of God Man is Vanity because at best but an Image Our greatest Perfections by Nature did not free us from Defectibility 2. Indifferency doth not represent the Will of God as terminate upon himself but as terminate upon the Creatures to him it was indifferent whether they should be or not
in the Mind So as the Seed of Grace in a Regenerate Man is called the Divine Nature So this Flesh or Carnal Disposition it is our Corrupt Nature and it is called Flesh from its opposition to the Spirit for as Substances Flesh and Spirit are opposite in the Scripture so also Spiritual and Carnal Disposition untill a Man hath a higher principle he only can converse about Carnal things Carnal and Earthly things are equivalent they did partake of your Carnal things So Galat. 6.12 2 Cor. 5.16 Phil. 3.3 The strength of the Argument lies thus That since by our Birth and by our Natural Disposition we are Carnal therefore by our Birth and Natural Disposition we are liable to Wrath. By our Birth we are Flesh John 3.3 That which is born of the flesh is flesh and the Text says this Flesh renders us liable to Wrath. 2. We are liable to Wrath from all the successful Temptations of the Prince of the Air for all the results saith the Context are Disobedience Now Satan both can and doth act us before any acquired Custom or Habit and according to the Common Notions of the Soul there is no apparent repugnancy why his suggestions may not be thrown into the Soul and succeed too before we are born 3. Nature and Grace here are opposed as Comprehending the two entire States of Man by Nature you are the Children of Wrath but by Grace you are saved So Nature comprehends the whole of a Mans Life before Grace else he may be sav'd without Grace except Nature were taken in this sense his Argument would be in two considerable Points defectible 1. In shewing as to Eternal Concerns that by Birth and Nature the Jews and Gentiles condition were alike as well as by Conversation 2. In depressing the Jews false grounded Pride who reckon'd all the Seed of Abraham in a sinless Condition untill adult Gal. 2.15 Is it supposable that when the former is so true and the latter so dangerously false and both the Apostles design in the very place that there should be nothing in his Argument to signifie them or that when no word more proper than this word Nature could be thought on that that word should be us'd in a most improper sense I might add four more to enforce this 1. Authority Austin and Prosper did interpret this Text of Original Sin 2. Etymology the word Children is changed it is not the same that in the second is called Children of Disobedience but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies our Birth 3. The other Texts of Scripture Psal 5. and Job I was conceived in Sin and born in Iniquity Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean 4. Matter of Fact Infants dye suffer Miseries Pains that are the Effects of Wrath in Scripture Language if they were not lyable to them how should they generally and frequently suffer them 2ly We are personally guilty To prove that all Men are guilty is because the Scripture describing the Heraldry of our Sinfulness doth not derive it from our Actions but derives the Evil of our Actions from our Persons We are Corrupt trees and therefore bring forth Corrupt fruit That which cometh out of a man defiles a man and Satan like when he speaks a lye speaks his Own John 8 44. If God from a Man's Birth do determine his Will and so sanctifie him it may stop this Course but being left to himself he cannot but sin for Nature will follow its own Course For the Wicked drink in Iniquity as the fish do the water they go astray from the Womb speaking lyes and being left to himself as soon brings shame as Wise Solomon observes Mat. 12.3 4. being evil ye cannot speak good An evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things Tit. 1.15 Vnto them that are defil'd every thing is impure Prov. 21.4.27 the plowing and praying of the Wicked are Sins Hag. 2.12 they defile whatever they touch the dead Carkass and other defiling things under the Law did typifie them The Nature of God is the Rule of ours antecedently to his Will being the Rule of our Actions and the want of Conformity to the Rule is a Sin and where the want of his Image is there is the want of a Likeness or Conformity to him this may be called a Personal Guilt antecedent to our Guilt by Actions and is a Confirmation of the former and much of the same Nature with it 3dly We are universally Guilty This is the Apostles great and demonstrative Argument to prove that we are not justified by Works 1. He supposes Salvation possible attainable 2. That a Righteousness was necessary to it for the Judge could not be just in justifying the Unjust 3. This Righteousness must be inherent or imputed a Righteousness to be believ'd or a Righteousness to be done by us a Righteousness by Works or Faith by our own Righteousness or anothers by a proper Righteousness or Vicarious what Soveraign Authority in Justice might accept in its room the former is by the Law the latter is by the Gospel the former is that the Apostle rejects with most industrious pains and strenuous proof For it 's a disjunction that admits of no Medium if guilty by the Law only sav'd by the Gospel 4. He proves that we are universally guilty as to the Law 1. The Gentiles are from Chap. 1.18 to Chap. 2.17 Because they knew God but did not glorifie him they detain'd the truth in unrighteousness they condemn'd in others what they did themselves their Conscience accus'd them for transgressing the Law wrote on their minds 2. He proves the Jews guilty and that in measure above the Gentiles from Ch. 2.17 to Ch. 3. From their having more Knowledge and worse Lives by which they made the Gentiles blaspheme their Religion and the Author of it 2. By doing the same things or things of like Nature they taught from the Law of God was not to be done After the obviating of an Objection against that Argument from Ch. 3. to v. 9. he there begins a New Argument to prove all guilty to v. 20. by the Authority of the Old Testament the Jews and Christians only owns the strength of the Argument but it 's Conclusive Universality doth not only prove the Jews are guilty but all v. 9. both Jews and Gentiles v. 10. None righteous no not one v. 19. All the World guilty before God The Citations are so interwoven as to guard against all Exceptions Negatively None righteous Positively All gone out of the way Subjectively understanding none understandeth Will none seeketh after God Words v. 13.14 Their throat is an open Sepulchre c. Works v. 15. Their feet are swift to shed blood Objectively against Men v. 16. Destruction and misery are in their ways Against God viz. There is no fear of God before their eyes Which may sufficiently discover the unreasonableness of their Opinions who to limit this Guilt and make some room for Works in
Law of Works Nay but by the Law of Faith So where-ever there is place for Works as the Condition of our Justification there is place for some boasting but the Scripture every where stops Man's mouth Rom. 3.19 That every mouth may be stopped and all the World may become guilty before God And it ascribes all the Glory to him Psal 115.1 Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy Name give Glory for thy Mercy and for thy Truths sake Eph. 1.6 To the praise of the Glory of his Grace 7. All kind of Works affords some Plea and pleading is a Glorying for it is a standing upon our own defence and this is another way of addressing God than either the Example of the Saints or the Rules of Holy Writ teach us Petition and Confession Deprecation and Lamentation with Praise and Thanksgiving on the Receipt of Mercies are the only ways we are taught to approach God The lowest kind of pleading is one of these four First By way of Comparison as when a Man can say I must have either done that or worse either to have neglected a Parent or a Wife either to have fled or suffered the Army to be cut off there was no room for this Excuse in Adam's Sin Secondly Relation when we throw the fault upon them that accuse us this did but aggravate Adam's Crime and add to the Sin when he said The Woman whom thou gavest me Thirdly When we remove the Evil of the Fact upon some other Person as Eve did the eating of the Apple upon the Serpent and Adam upon Eve Lastly A Purgation when we acknowledge the Fact but diminish it thrô some necessary Circumstances or Ignorance We do not find any of these ways usual or acceptable at the Throne of Grace but rather an aggravating of our own Guilt like Poreus when he was Converted from the Pelagian Error to the Catholick Truth What I shall first condemn in my self I know not wherein to excuse my self I know not Petition or Deprecation says the Learned Vossius out of Cicero is no pleading except for a Person whose former Actions have highly merited and therefore it becomes not a Court of Justice as Cicero for Ligarius before Caesar O Caesar I have brought many Pleas and that before thee when in Court where thy Honour and Authority was concerned but never as now when privately and before a Parent then I pleaded the Crime is a Fiction the Witnesses are false he never did it he never thought it But now O Father he has erred he has fallen he will never do the like But a Justifying Defence must be made before Authority Juridical I shall conclude this with Answering some Objections briefly that are brought as Arguments to prove that since no Works are excluded but what affords occasion of Glorying then some Works may have room for an Interest in our Justification For instance 1. God may freely first give Grace to work give Faith and Repentance and then justifie us for the Exercise of them whereof we cannot Glory because the Grace is receiv'd and they are the Fruits of Grace 2. God gives a Gracious Law a New Law the Law of Faith Rom. 3.27 that excludes Glorying and therefore we may be justified by the Works thereof 3. These Works come not in as the Meriting Cause of Justification but as the Condition of it Resp. In general this Contrivance of the Method of Justification is such a Fruit of Divine Wisdom that it is the special Glory thereof and therefore there is no wonder that the feeble Beam of our Light cannot show us the depth of it or pierce into all the Harmonies and Connexions of it's parts or their mutual Relations and Influence and consequently no wonder Divines do not agree about such things and the Disagreement ought to be born with Meekness Patience and mutual Endeavour to instruct one another I profess my self a Seeker and a Learner in many of these mysterious Points and I am never satisfied with a Sermon except I receive some Edification to my Understanding by it And if Divisions and bitter Language unbecoming Christians Scholars or Men were not the sad Fruits of these Disputants not the Disputes they ought to be encourag'd I bless God for the Sparks I have already receiv'd from them and I hope to receive more and that my Heart is as much united in Love to both Parties as ever and I am as much at a Loss as the poor Children when ask'd whether they Love Father or Mother best But in particular I shall begin with the first Objection Resp. 1. It is inconsistent with what I have before prov'd viz. that the Gift of absolute and distinguishing Grace the Spirit a New Heart c. that beside its absolute and sanctifying Vertue it is of a Relative Nature both to signifie and entitle as the Ring in Marriage or other Earnests and entitling Symbols Phil. Melanct. in his Annotat. on this Epistle in Comparison of which Luther says that Jerom and Origens Commentaries are but Merae nugae Ineptiae says Deus solus Justificat transfundens in nos Spiritum suum p. 17. We must either reckon him a Papist who was the first Protestant this Book I have is Printed 1522. or else say that Gift was the Sentence or its declarative Sign Mr. Baxter says When a Person is Converted the Angels rejoyce and therefore have some Notification of it and they who know our Conversion cannot be ignorant of our Justification which they cannot know without some Divine Manifestation A second part of the express'd or declar'd Sentence of our Justification he says is the illustration of our Minds with the Holy Spirit althò often obscure I think there is great Reason to unite these two in one thus The Angels who are so well acquainted with our Minds and the Language of Divine Operations know our Justification from the ruling of the Spirit in us after such a special manner Eph. 1.17 Who is the earnest of our Inheritance and so the Earnest of total and Compleat Pardon Now if Absolute Grace bear the Nature of a Title or Sentence the Exercise cannot be the Cause tho' it may be the Condition that is orderly Connexion for tho' it procure it 's own Confent it is not receiv'd except complyed with and yielded to Our Confession of Faith says We are not justifyjd until the Holy Spirit apply Christ to us and confirms it from Tit. 3.6 7. which Text seems to shew a greater Connexion between them than that of Time By the renewing of the Holy Ghost that being justified c. Resp. 2. All Glorying of boasting is not excluded by this half-workers should receive half-wages and half Credit Now when Grace is exercised the Work is ours Believing Repenting c. Tho' this is not Pelagian it is Popish Suppose a Man have a broken Arm or Leg and do some great or Heroick Act after it's Cur'd he will not ascribe the Glory of the