is a truth somthing more considerable as I take it than that alone which our Divines contend for against the Sooinian in this matter In the next place when Divines make a difference between the Law and Gospel as to the power of doing that the Law commands to do but the Gospel gives power to do The Law commands the tale of Brick but gives not Straw and the like expressions I doubt not but they have some verity at the bottom which should have nakedly been laid down if he could by this Bright person For the delivery of things after others by roat without disgestion is the great fault which he finds so often in other mens Books The Law and Gospel we know are liable to a diverse acception By the Law most properly I think we are to understand that Law which is written in the heart of man by Nature in Adams and ours the copy whereof is the ten Commandements called the Moral Law and by the Gospel the Law of Christ That which he delivered and his Apostles The matter whereof in both may be considered qua faedus or qua regula to use the terms of others Qua regula the things required in the Law moral and the Gospel or Law of Christ are the same but qua faedus the Law of Nature originally requires these things in perfection to be accepted unto life and the Law of Christ requires them in sincerity only accepting them though imperfect unto life through his Mediation and Redemption This is the only difference that concerns us here between the Law and the Gospel The Law then and Gospel both being considered as the Doctrin of life how does this Author speak that the one gives power and not the other The rule shews what we are to do the power to do is not given by our being shown That which therefore is to be understood by such terms may come to this that that which the Law thus taken that is the Law of our Creation and qua faedus does require of man is not in our power to do and consequently none can attain Salvation by it but that which the Gospel requires we have power to perform and if we be not wanting to God's Grace upon the performance we shall be saved In the third place when he says the Gospel enables us to do with a more willing and chearful mind then the Law if we understand this kind of speech as those Divines do I think ordinarlly that use it in such a sence that Christ having done all our works for us that Righteousness of his which was a most perfect conformity to the Law being imputed or accepted in our behalf for life there are no good works now required of us to do but only as the testification of our thankfulness and belief of this and therefore we perform all we do with gladness joy and love altogether without bondage fear or doubt it being not in order to our Justification though we miscarry in the doing I do apprehend this Learned Man would be one of the first to dislike such Teaching Yet is there thus much here of truth also That when the Law so taken as before does give us no heart at all to do that which through the flesh as the Apostle speaks is indeed impossible to any the Gospel does give us encouragement to do upon the account that what it requires may be performed and by that performance through the assistance of God's Spirit as the condition Man is both justified and saved I know well that St. Augustine does use the like expressions and I think often but he does explain his meaning which comes to this that when the Law of works commands us what is our duty and threatens us if we do it not the Law of Faith he counts directs us to God for his assistance grace or spirit to do what he commands I do not forget neither that God hath promised his spirit and so his grace for the performance of the New Covenant and though it does not follow that if Adam had stood he should not therefore have given man his grace and spirit for performing the perfect obedience of the Old as well as to us for the performing imperfect under the New seeing that Father does speak of grace to Adam as to us and if we should ascribe the obedience he performed during his Innocency to his own strength and not to the adjutory of God's spirit altogether he would not endure it Yet if the Authour or those Divines of ours that speak as he does will chose rather to make good what they say upon the contrary assertion then can I tell how to understand with them When God made Man at first we know he endued him with original righteousness Let us suppose this righteousness alone sufficient to him for the performing the Law unto which he was made so that before the fall there was no need of that we call grace which is properly such help of the spirit as consists in the healing and relief of our falne estate to enable man to do that which he had strength to perform by nature until he did voluntarily deflect from it But when he was fallen and lost that righteousness which was his strength then are we to conceive a need streight both of a new Law to be lowerd brought down or fitted to his weakness that he may be able and also of grace that he may be made willing to perform it And thus shall there be grace the spirit and the promise of it belonging to the Covenant of our Redeemer when there was none nor need of it to belong to the covenant of our Creation However there is this I count most certain and I would have it to be noted that the spirit which is promised or given to man for his obedience to God is promised and given only in respect to this Covenant not for the performance of the Covenant of Nature for then should Adam never have falne nor we have had any need of a Redeemer It is true that there are some Divines are so much with Austin to have Adams standing supposing he had stood to be of grace that they will have mans original righteousness to be a work or habit supernatural from which when Adam fell he returned as they would teach us to his pure naturals and so his Posterity are born But this is a kind of Pelagianisme no ways to be received For what indeed should be a Creatures Nature if that be not which it receives from its Creation Besides if mans original righteousness be not lookt on as natural how shall original sin which consists in the loss of it be defined by the depravation of our nature according to the doctrin of the Church of England as well as the Catechisme of the Assembly Neither is Dr. Taylor here to be heard who cannot abide that that whatsoever he will call it which we contract from Adam without any will of our own
should be held to be sin or so much as damnable though it should be granted him through Christ's redemption actually to damn no body It may be the want of a plainer consideration what the immediate benefit of Christ's redemption to the world is made that excellent person think this so grievous It is not grievous I hope that God should give a Law to his Creature according to his nature and that therefore having made man righteous he should require of him to continue in that righteousness and walk up according to it It necessarily follows without any thing else that this Law being made in Innocency must condemne all man-kind in whom this righteousness and perfection is no longer to be found so that by nature or according to this Covenant of mans nature we are and must be all the Children of wrath as the Apostle speaks It would now be indeed a grievous thing if God should deal with any in that justice as he might according to this Covenant and therefore it hath pleased him according to a Righteousness of his declared in the Gospel in opposition to the righteousness of this Covenant of works to give us his Son who by the work of his Mediation for man-kind should prepare a remedying Law or universal conditional remission against that condemnation As for Children then if they are Baptized we are to account they do perform this Covenant or new Law by the Faith of their Parents bringing them to Baptisme This is my Covenant you shall keep every man-child shall be Circumcised If they be not Baptised we are yet to look on them as such who have not broken this new Law or never refused and rejected their remedy and so long as by the Redemption of Christ they are delivered over with all the world from the Covenant of works to the new Law to be judged I will not be the man that shall condemn one Infant to Hell or unto torments although if there be any that will make a difference of place or state in the future life for Children proportionable only to the difference there is between performing the condition and not being guilty of any breach at all of it I will not gain-say them nor determine any thing in a matter so lubricous and above what is written To return By the Law and the Gospel it may be thought perhaps by some that we are to understand the state of the Old and New Testament and so must this Authour mentioned be made to conceive that David and the like holy men had not the same spirit or power or not so much to enable them to observe God's precepts as we have now when he uses these expressions That the spirit was given under the Gospel as to his miraculous gists in another measure then under the Law I believe and that such Texts as the spirit was not yet given because Christ was not yet lorified and that they had not yet heard that there was a Holy Ghost with the like may be happily so understood I believe But to think that the Spirit as to sanctification of the heart and inclining it to a ready service of God was not given under the Old Testament as well as under the the New is a conceit I will not fasten on any To say it is given more to us now than to David Samuel Jeremy and such persons in respect to this end will yet require explanation and proof if that be intended wholly by these speeches Before I pass there is one passage of this apt Writer I cannot but note with much approbation It is Grace that accepts of our Repentance and Obedience after we have sinned This passage contains more in it then the most are like to be aware of The Scripture tells us in several Texts that by Grace we are saved freely justified and not by Works By Works we are to understand the works of the Law and that quâ faedas as before and no body is justified or saved by these works they being above the ability of any to perform By Grace I will understand with him this accepting our sincere though imperfect obedience for life through Christ as if it were perfect righteousness Not unto him that worketh that is unto him that hath not performed the works of the Law which if they were perfect he should live by them but unto him that believeth on him that justifies the ungodly that is but is ungodly in reference to these works or is one that his Conscience tells him hath sinned and does sin or is imperfect and falls short of these works yet believes that God is gracious and merciful for all that and will pardon these sins and failings if he repent and walk sincerely though imperfectly his Fath is imputed for Righteousness his Faith that is such a believing this as produces that repentance and sincere walking is imputed to him for Righteousness that is is made to stand him in that stead as a perfect righteousness would do so that through grace or this gracious acceptance he shall live by it There are works if I may still say over what hath been somwhere also said before that would make life to be of debt according to God's Covenant of Nature if any could perform them and so there are none justified or saved by works for all have sinned and fall short under this sence of the glory of God Or there are works that cannot be accepted or imputed unto life but through grace and so is it that by grace only or gratis that the Scripture teaches us we are justified and saved Nay the acceptance of our imperfect sincere obedience for righteousness or that we should live by it is that very grace it self that saves us So well am I pleased with this Note from that Authour If this seem to savour too much of inculcation you must pardon me I do apprehend that the Doctrin of grace and justification whereof I have been and therefore am still the longer hath been the occasion of several apprehensions in good men that instead of being conducive to have proved but hinderances of true sober practical Godliness There are two of these mentioned by the same understanding person ☞ The one is a conceit that a Christian may not avoyd sin and do good for fear of Hell and to obtain Heaven that is for the sake of Reward This the Mentioner hath confuted with plain text that it needs not a second hand Onely that it may not needlesly disquiet any I will advance this contrary truth that whatsoever person out of any principle fear or hope or love does or shall in the prevalent intentions of his Soul and endeavour as to the constant tenour of his life prefer his Eternal Salvation before his Flesh-pleasing in this world is surely in a good Estate the Converted man or the Godly man that shall be saved He that does Righteousness is born of God I will suppose him a Christian and one that acts according
to the Sripture but if he be a Heathen and acts herein but fully up to his light I dare not deny the same of him And indeed what is that pure love of God out of which you will say alone a man must act If you love me says Christ who knows best keep my Commandements The love of God and keeping his Commandments are the same The commands of God are to be kept that we may inherit Eternal Life Christ tells the Ruler in the Gospel express I have noted before and consequently we may love God to that end If man could do any good to God by his duties or any hurt by his sins then should I believe there was some other end of our duty than man's Salvation You may say this appears selfish or self-love only I answer that that man then who does but love himself so as to seek the Salvation of his Soul above his flesh this world and any thing therein is the man he should be in the sight of God If you stick at it consider what is Salvation A loving God a delighting in him a conformity to him I love God in keeping his Commandements in this life that I may be conformed to him and have complacency in him to all Eternity I will adde our Orthodox Divines say not and are not to be so understood that good works may not be done with respect to the reward but with respect to the reward as due to them ex condigno For to expect that God should accept of what we do in bearing with our failings and rewarding us out of Grace when we walk sincerely before him is but to act our Faith on or putting our trust in his declared goodness Christs Merits and the promises of the Gospel The other Apprehension is that a Christian must not live on his own Purse or Earnings A pretty sound of somthing which as I suppose does signify that which other Divines intend by Resting in Dutys There is therefore a resting in Duty I may say and a resting on God in Duty I doubt not but a Christian is to trust to God for whatsoever he seeks of him upon the performance of his duty when it were but presumption to do so without that performance It is true that no man by any thing he can do seeing when he hath done all he is but an unprofitable Servant can deserve or merit any thing from God's hand and much less his saving Grace which is most free so as it may be properly said to be earned as wages is due unto work or to make his blessings of debt yet is a Christian by his prayers and the like duty said to get or obtain from God whasoever he hath from him and as a man does live on his Estate which he gets so may a Christian be said to live his spiritual life upon the riches of God's grace which he gets by his duty The want of trusting to duty therefore in a right sense is indeed I doubt me more reprovable in our Protestants ordinarily than their resting in duty And I am seriously troubled very often at what I have observed in some of our special practical Divines about this point of resting in duties I will particularly name Mr. Shepheards sincere Convert which is enough to bring any man Religiously melancholly for the more pious his Soul is in the case the more liable it must be to such stroaks into desperation I will therefore say thus much in zeal against that danger Let a man be but careful of two things about resting in duty and trouble himself henceforth no more but about the doing of it The first is Let him take heed of making any duty a pillow to lay his head on to rest in sin Thus it is dangerous indeed to rest in duty and this may be either when a man thinks he may sin and go on in it because he Prays gives Almes or the like as if that would bear him out Or chiefly when a man shall sit down short of sincere Conversion by doing of some duty that is by taking up in leaving some sins and doing many things he did not before he shall content himself and not come up to that universal unreserved giving up himself to Christ as is required of him to that sincerity of life which is the condition of Salvation This is the most deadly dangerous resting in duty that I will admonish every Soul of And then for the second I will say only Let him be a Protestant which I count he is and I doubt not but his opinion alone against merit and that he is justified through Christ will secure him for the rest of this business Provided though he remembers still that humility and the like qualification of Soul when he hath done all he can do is also his duty And now after I have spoken of these Heads if any be otherwise minded in whatsoever I have hitherto said and are resolved to keep to that only which they count the soundest Calvinisme in them all I will be so candid as to lay down their doctrin for them to the best advantage God hath Elected some to Salvation Christ dyed only for them That which he hath Purchased by his Death is not only the benefit conditionally but Faith it self the condition Faith is the perswasion of a man that Christ hath died particularly for him and so his sins are forgiven This perswasion or apprehension of Christ makes Christ ones own and so justifies instrumentally without works either Legal or Evangelical and how also to serve this turn I have set down in my paper of Justification page 15. No man can be ever in good earnest thus perswaded but the Elect for whom alone this Faith is purchased When a Minister then declares the Gospel and requires of all in God's name to Believe to wit to believe particularly that Christ hath dyed for their sins as knowing not for his part who the Elect by name be there is no fear of hurt unto any seeing no person on earth shall be able to be perswaded hereof indeed that perswasion with Calvin and Luther being true Faith but the Elect only Besides as soon as this perswasion once is but wrought it does so possess the Soul with love and gratitude to the Redeemer that it constrains it to Christian duty so that unfained Conversion Self-denyal a Crucifixion with Christ to the world and the flesh and the life of God and that with perseverance to the end do follow as naturally to wit according to the new Nature as the Fig-tree brings forth Figgs or the Olive Olives without all possibility of separation from it This Doctrin if any will so concatenate the parts does seem to me to carry a kind of mysterious authority in it that I find some awe for it at my heart although really I am convinced both of the danger of it and also excepting only in the first proposition that it is untrue So far am I from despising of those against whom the spirit of that Authour in the book intimated seems so much over-sharpened when yet I do encline in my own sentiments to hang things together much rather after his fashion than theirs who would look upon me as more Evangelical in such a Determination Deo Gloria mihi Condonatio J. H. ERRATA PAge 16. l. 21. for desires read deserves p. 18. l. 7. for Clouds read Cloud