him occasion to speak there of God's Law according to which he glorifies or damns men eternally and not of the Gospel-law according to which he either justifies or not justifies Men. But 2. We say that the Doctor 's Judgment was the same as to both to wit as to Justification as well as to Glorification and that 1. Because in his Answer to the foresaid Arminian Book called The Synod of Dort and Arles reduced to Practice Pag. 16. these are his express Words We say that Pardon of Sin and Salvation of Souls are benefits purchased by the death of Christ to be enjoyed by men but how not absolutely but conditionally to wit in case and onely in case they believe And Pag. 28. Men are called upon to believe and promised that upon their Faith they shall obtain the grace of remission of sins and Salvation and these graces may be said to be offered unto all upon condition of Faith And Pag. 189. The Promises assured by Baptism according to the Rule of Gods word I find to be of two sorts Some are of benefits procured unto us by Christ which are to be conferred on us conditionally they of this first sort are Justification and Salvation And Pag. 190. Justification and Salvation is promised in the Word and assured in the Sacraments upon performance of a condition on mans part Now the condition of Justification and Salvation we all acknowledge to be Faith And in his other Book against Hoard Some Benefits saith the Doctor are bestowed upon man only conditionally though for Christs sake and they are the pardon of sin and salvation of the Soul Twiss against Hoard p. 154. and these God doth conferr onely upon the condition of Faith and Repentance All these are the Doctor 's own express Words by which it plainly appears that his Judgment was the same with respect both to Justification and Glorification and that he held that God dispenseth to us both these benefits for Christs sake according to a Law 2. We say that the Doctor 's Judgment was the same as to both because there is the like reason for both and the Doctor 's own Argument holds for the Law of Justification as strongly as for the Law of Glorification since God hath as much constituted and ordained that all penitent Believers and none of ripe years but penitent Believers shall be justified as that all penitent persevering Believers and no others shall be glorified As it is written John 3.18 He that believeth on Christ the Son of God is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already Acts 3.19 26.18 because he hath not believed in the name of the onely begotten Son of God Luke 13.3 5. Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Acts 2.38 Repent and be Baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins Acts 10.43 To him give all the Prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins Acts 13.39 By him all that believe are justified c. Rom. 3.25 God hath set him forth to be a propitation through faith in his Blood Rom. 4.24 It shall be imputed to us if we believe These Testimonies of Holy Writ do as certainly and evidently shew that God proceeds according to a stated Rule and standing Law of his own making in Justifying or not Justifying Men as any other Testimonies do shew that he proceeds according to a stated Rule and standing Law in Glorifying or not Glorifying Men. 3. We Answer that our wise Accuser in the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th Pages of his Letter seems plainly to be as much against God's proceeding according to a Law in Glorifying Men or not Glorifying them at death as he is against God's proceeding according to a Law in Justifying them or not Justifying them before death Otherwise we would fain know what he means by saying that the Doctrine of Conditions Qualifications and Rectoral Government and the distribution of Rewards and Punishments according to the new Law of Grace will make but an uneasie Bed to a dying Man's Conscience and will leave him in a very bad condition at present and in dread of worse when he is feeling in his last Agonies that the wages of sin is death if he cannot by faith add the Gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. We profess we cannot see what our Authour should design by this passage but to reflect upon us as Subverters of the true Grounds of Christian Comfort and as driving People to despair by our Doctrine of God's being a Governour and Judge who distributes eternal Rewards and Punishments unto Men See Rev. 11.18 who live in the visible Church according to the Rule of the Evangelical Law and as he finds them to be qualified through Grace or not qualified to have performed the Condition or not to have performed the Condition to have complyed with the terms of the Evangelical Law or not to have complyed with them We say we cannot see what other design he should have therein but thus to reflect upon us And if this was really his design then he denies that God proceeds according to a Law as well in Glorifying or not glorifying as in Justifying or not Justifying Men And therein he opposes Dr. Twiss and all our other Divines that he knevv of as well as us And further upon that Principle that there is no such stated Rule and known standing Law according to vvhich God hath assured us that he vvill either give eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord or inflict eternal death We chalenge our Authour to shevv us hovv in an ordinary vvay vvithout a Miracle the dying disconsolate Man can be assured by Faith that God for Christs sake will give eternal life to him in particular and not inflict upon him eternal death for his Sins For if God have not revealed in his vvritten Word to Men that through Christ he vvill give eternal life unto all penitent Believers and consequently to that dying Man in particular if he be really a true penitent Believer We say if God hath not revealed this in his vvritten Word but kept it secret vvithin himself as a thing vvhich he vvill give arbitrarily as he pleaseth without regard to any stated Rule or knovvn Lavv hovv is it possible for the poor dying Man vvithout an immediate extraordinary Revelation to knovv but that eternal death vvhich he knovvs he hath deserved and not eternal life vvhich he cannot possibly deserve shall be his everlasting portion What depends upon the meer arbitrary will and pleasure of God can never be knovvn by Man unless God reveal it either by his vvritten Word alone or by his Word and Spirit conjunct or by his Spirit immediately vvithout the Word But the poor disconsolate Man can have no hopes that God will reveal it to him by his Written Word alone or by his Written Word and Spirit together because according to the Principle aforesaid the Written Word is supposed to say nothing at all of that matter Therefore if ever it be Revealed to the Man and so if ever he be comforted in this World it must be by the Spirit without
the Word And then all the poor disconsolate Mans ground of Comfort must be reduced to this That God will reveal it to him by his Spirit immediately without the Written Word But then we demand how our Authour will be able to assure the poor disconsolate dying Man that God will really do so that God will reveal it to him by his Spirit immediately without the Written Word For that immediate extraordinary Revelation being a thing that depends also upon Gods Arbitrary Free Will he may do it or not do it as he pleaseth and if God may freely not do it how can our Authour ever assure the Man that he will do it That is that he will by his Spirit immediately and extraordinarily reveal to him without the Written Word that he shall have Eternal Life and not Eternal Death for his Portion But now if our Authour should say that God hath given unto Man a Promise in his Written Word to ground his Faith upon though he hath not given a stated Rule and standing positive Law according to which he will proceed with Man at Death and Judgment We would readily reply thus Either the Promise in the Written Word made to the dying disconsolate Man is an absolute Promise that God for Christ's sake will give him Eternal Life however it be with him whether he be converted or unconverted penitent or impenitent believer or unbeliever And we are sure there is no such promise in the Bible and to tell him of such a Promise would be at once to belie God and to delude the poor Man Or 2. It is a conditional Promise That God for Christ's sake will give him Eternal Life If through Grace he unfeignedly repent of all his sins and believe on Christ with a lively effectual Faith a Faith working by Love which he is bound to do under the pain of Eternal Death If this be the Promise that the poor dying Man must ground his Faith upon that God for Christ's sake will give him Eternal Life then this is the very thing which Dr. Twisse and we after him call the Law according to which God proceeds in dispensing to his People the subsequent Blessings of the Covenant such as Justification and Glorification are And so our Authour comes over into our Camp which he must do at last and confess if not to us at least to God that he hath grosly misrepresented and falsly accused Christ's faithful Ministers and hath endeavoured to delude the People and to render the Ministers odious to the People and thereby to hinder the success of their Ministry And he must sincerely repent of having done so But if he will yet go on in the way of his own heart we shall be sorry for him and not cease to pray the Lord if it be his will to have Mercy on him and to give him repentance for the scandalous sin which he hath committed in publickly slandring Christs Ministers and in boldly asserting a notorious falsehood in matter of fact saying That the new Law of Grace is a new Word of an old but ill meaning And that he hath really done so we have not only said but proved by the plain testimonies of credible Witnesses whereof two Sealed the Truth of the Gospel with their Blood above fourteen hundred years ago SECT II. Of his second Error that the Covenant of Grace is Absolute and not Conditional SEcondly the Author of the Letter asserts that the Covenant of Grace is Absolute and not Conditional as appears from page 18. at the end and page 24. And particularly he denies that Faith in Christ is the Condition of Justification page 8. Some say that faith justifies as it is a fulfilling of the condition of the New Covenant if thou believest thou shalt be saved This he finds fault with and opposes to it the old Protestant Doctrine as he calls it That the place of Faith in Justification is only that of a Hand or Instrument c. Where we observe 1. That he makes faith its being a Condition and its being a hand or instrument to be two opposite things the one whereof is inconsistent with and destructive of the other and so in this he not only fights against us but likewise against the Assembly of Divines at Westminster who held Faith to be both an Instrument and a Condition in the matter of Justification as was shewed before 2. He makes it to be New Doctrine and contrary to the Old Protestant Doctrine to hold that Faith is a Condition of the Covenant of Grace and that we are Justified by Faith as a Condition of the Covenant wherein he makes the Assembly as well as us to be Preachers of a New Doctrine and Corrupters of the Gospel since they likewise held Faith to be a Condition of the Covenant as aforesaid And again in page 9. We say that Faith in Christ is neither Work nor Condition nor Qualification in Justification but is a meer instrument and he affirms that their saying so is that by which the fire is kindled So that saith he in page 10. It is come to that as Mr. Christopher Fowler said that he that will not be Antichristian must be called an Antinomian Here it is very remarkable that he not only denies Faith to be either Work Condition or Qualification in the matter of Justification but he also in effect affirms that it is Antichristian to assert that Faith is either Work Condition or Qualification and that he will therefore rather choose to be called an Antinomian for denying than to be an Antichristian for affirming it This is and must be his meaning or else he was dreaming and knew not what he did when he cited Mr. Fowler and brought in his Judicious saying with a so that it is come to that as Mr. Fowler said c. Finally in page 25 at the beginning he says that Faith in the Office of Justification is neither Condition nor Qualification but in its very act is a renouncing of all such pretences From all which it is plain that we do not wrest his Words nor charge him with an Opinion which he doth not hold for he so firmly holds the Covenant of Grace to be Absolute and not Conditional and particularly that Faith is neither the Condition of obtaining Justification nor a qualification of the Person then Justified when he believes that he glories to be accounted an Antinomian rather than renounce that Opinion page 24. And he holds it to be New and Antichristian Doctrine to maintain that Faith is either a Condition of obtaining Justification or a qualification of the Person justified or to be justified in that instant of time wherein he believes Before we refute this Opinion we will briefly
Goaler Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved He would not only give Peter but the Holy Ghost the lye and might justly expect that the Lord would confound him Therefore we do not think that he will be so impious as to say that Peter did not give the Men a right Answer 2. If he say that it was a right Answer which Peter gave them then in effect he gives himself the lye he condemns himself and justifies us For it is the same Answer upon the matter which we give unto the Sinner that comes to us for advice which Peter gave unto the convinced Jews Peter bid them repent and be baptized c. We bid him repent of mourn for and turn from his Sins and God will have Mercy on him for Christ's sake and if the man be unbaptized as the Jews were we bid him be baptized for the remission of sins as Peter did by those Jews Whatever therefore our Authour hath said against us in this matter he hath said against Peter and which is more against the Holy Spirit himself If our Answer be wrong then Peter's was wrong before us and he it was that deceived us for we have ours from him and from God by him If Peter's Answer was right then ours is right likewise for ours is the same with his exactly if the Person be unbaptized excepting that upon his Repentance and Baptism for the remission of sius we do not promise him the miraculous extraordinary Gift of the Holy Ghost as Peter promised those Jews but onely the ordinary Gift which is common to all true penitent Believers in all Ages If our Authour say that implicitely Peter bid them believe in Christ as well as repent by bidding them to be baptized in his Name Most true and so do we nay which is more whether the Person be baptized or unbaptized when we exhort him to repent we never fail to exhort him also and that explicitely and in formal express terms to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ us Paul did by the Jaisour Where is the Fault then of our Answer taken fully and fairly as we give it Certainly no where unless Peter and Paul's Answers were both faulty for our Answer comprehends both theirs and is exactly the same so far as the different Circumstances of the Persons and Times will admit Let our Authour then look to it that by his writing thus against us he be not found fighting against God and the Holy Apostles of Christ our Saviour By what hath been said we have made it sufficiently evident that the Covenant of Grace is not absolute but conditional with respect to its subsequent Blessing and Benefits for we have proved it both by clear Scripture and Reason We have shewed also that our Authour 's own Conscience could not altogether deny it and therefore he grants that an accepting Faith is the native Condition of it How far and in what sense this is true we have shewed at large and withal we have proved that though Faith be the one native receptive applicative Condition of Justification yet is it not the only Condition absolutely but the only receptive Condition with which it is very well consistent that Repentance be the dispositive Condition which it really is and that as natively and necessarily in its kind and order as Faith can be in its kind and order It remains now that having proved the Covenants Conditionality by Scripture and Reason we shew in the third and last place by Testimonies of Divines Antient and Modern even of those very Divines whom our Authour affirms to be against us that they believed the Covenant to be conditional in the same sense as we do and consequently that our Authour has fouly belyed us in telling the People that we have invented a new Divinity corrupt the old and preach a new Gospel And 1. We shall begin with the Antient Doctors of the Christian Church and give a few Testimonies of theirs relating to the Matter in hand even as many as can well consist with our designed Brevity 2. We shall come to the Testimony of Orthodox Divines since the Reformation 1. We begin with the Fathers and among them Blessed Clement deserves the first place because he was the Antientest of them he was contemporary with the Apostles Testimonies of Fathers St. Paul speaking of him in Phil. 4.3 gave him this honourable Testimony that his Name was in the Book of Life Of this Blessed Pastour of Christ's Church we have the first Epistle to the Church of Corinth which is by all acknowledged to be genuine and which was so much esteemed in the Primitive Church that it was read publickly in their Congregations Now in the Oxford Edition 1677. pag. 17. he writes thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Let us with fixed eyes behold the Blood of Christ and consider how precious his Blood is unto God which being shed for our Salvation hath offered the Grace of Repentance to the whole World Let us earnestly take a view of all Generations and learn that in every Generation the Lord hath given place of Repentance to such as were willing to turn unto him This Testimony of Clement with what follows there shews plainly that God hath made Repentance necessary antecedently in order of Nature unto Pardon of sin and that upon Condition of Repentance he hath promised Pardon of sin unto all in consideration of the Blood of Christ shed for the remission of sin This seems plainly to be the meaning of the foresaid Words that the precious Blood of Christ being shed for our Salvation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath offered the Grace of Repentance to the whole World For either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Grace of Repentance signifies here the gracious Principle of Repentance wrought in Men and the gracious Influences of the Spirit whereby Men are effectually enabled to exert and put forth that Principle into act and such Grace is not common to all the World nor is it said to be barely offered unto Men but rather to be effectually given to some and wrought in them and by them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apud Scapulam significat benesicium praemium Or else it must signifie here the Grace and Favour of God in now admitting all Men to Repentance and the gracious benefit which he hath promised them if they do repent And this we take to be the true meaning of Clement's Words For 1. This is a Grace and Favour common unto all Men by the Law of Christ that they are admitted to Repentance as a means of obtaining Pardon through his Blood which the Law of Works and Innocency did not admit but required a most perfect personal never-sinning Obedience as absolutely and indispensably necessary to Life and Salvation 2. This is a Grace and Favour which is really offered unto all the World that hear the joyful sound of the Gospel that if they sincerely repent of their sins they shall
believed but by the supernatural teaching and assistance of Gods Holy Spirit so it cannot be rightly learned known and believed without our own Reason For 1. Grace doth not destroy but refine and perfect Nature the Holy Spirit doth not put out the eye of our reasoning Faculty Luke 24.45 out opens it clears it elevates and raises it up above its natural ability and strengthens it to see Spiritual objects in such a Spiritual way as it could not see them by its own natural power alone 2. The Spirit of God teaches us by the Word of God and both the Word and Spirit suppose us to be rational for the Word and Spirit of God are given to none but rational Creatures and if we were not rational creatures we should not be subjects capable of being taught by the Word and Spirit or of teaching others We do not then make reason to be either the formal object or rule of Faith and Religion But we hold it to be a light which God himself hath set up in our Souls Whereby 1. We discern through Grace the Written Word to be indeed the Word of God and the Spirit that teaches us by the Word to be indeed the Spirit of God and whereby we discover that every Word and Spirit which are contrary thereunto are not the Word and Spirit of God 2. We hold Reason right Reason to be a light which God hath given us wherewith to search into the meaning of his Word and by studious inquisition and observation to discover and find out the true meaning of the Word and to make it known to others and by good reason out of the Text to convince others of â—he truth of it These things we can never do unless we be rational Divines and unless we use our reason in Studying Speaking or Writing of matters of Divinity and doth not our Author do the same If he say that he doth not because then he should be in danger of being a rational Divine but he is not nor will be a Rational Divine Doubting Conscience resolved p. 46. We demand in the words of Dr. Twiss Doth this Authors Reason go to Bed and Sleep when he comes to Read and Studiously to consider the word of God If it doth he will prove no better than a drowsie Student and we know no reason but such a one may be in Love with Dreams as well as Anabaptist saith Dr. Twiss But we rather say as wâ—ll as those Prophets of wâ—â—om we read in Jerem. 23.25 That they Prophesied Lyes in the Lords Name saying I have dreamed I have dreamed Thus we make an end of what we thought fit to say on the Fourth General Head We have laid before the Reader some of his Calumnies and Aspersâ—ons cast upon us and have wiped them off and we could do no less though it thereby appear that he hath been a false Accuser of Christs Ministers against the sincerity of Christian Love CHAP. V. VVhere People are advised to try before they trust and not suffer themselves to be imposed upon and led into Error by the bold unproved Assertions and Dictates of any Preachers or Writers whatsoever FOR our parts we neither have nor desire to have Dominion over Peoples Faith 2 Cor. 1.24 And therefore we do not desire that any man should believe us and be of our Judgment any further than what we say or write is agreeable to Holy Scripture and to right Reason grounded upon Scripture In those things wherein we affirm that our Author hath erred from the Truth we have endeavoured to prove by clear Scripture and plain Reason consonant to Scripture that he hath so erred And before People positively conclude that we are in the right we intreat them to weigh and consider well what we have written to prove the Truth of our Assertions and after due consideration to judge according to the evidence of our proofs as they will answer to God and their own Consciences If we have clearly and faithfully declared to people the Mind and Will of God as it is revealed by holy Scripture though we do not desire that they should submit their Judgments to us and believe what we believe meerly because we believe it yet we do expect that they should submit their Judgments unto God as we have done And that they should believe what we believe because God hath revealed the matter of our belief both to us and them And whosoever shall either neglect or refuse to submit their Judgments unto God and to believe what they know or may easily know he hath revealed will be found guilty before the Lord of unbelief and Spiritual pride for which he will one day call them to an account But on the other hand if any think and affirm that we are mistaken in our Judgment of the things in controversie and that therefore they are not bound with us to believe them To such we say that if in any of them we are mistaken it is more than we know and our mistake is altogether involuntary for the Lord knows that we have diligently searched for the Truth as to all the matters in controversie with an earnest desire to find it and with frequent and fervent Prayers to the God of Truth that he would teach us the Truth that by his Spirit of Truth according to his Word of Truth he would lead us into the Truth of those Matters And we are fully perswaded in our own Minds that God hath heard our Prayers blessed our Endeavours and caused us to find the Truth which we have diligently sought and searched for We have also given the World an account of the Grounds and Reasons of this our Perswasion which we submit to the impartial Examination of all that fear the Lord and are sincere Lovers of Truth not doubting but that Persons so well disposed will find upon impartial Examination of the matters in Controversie that our Grounds are solid and our Reasons Cogent and Conclusive Yet if in any one thing we should happen to be mistaken which we believe we are not we declare that we are so far from desiring any to follow us in that mistake and to believe any thing in matters of Doctrine which God hath not revealed that on the contrary we shall through Grace be really thankful first to God and next to such men as shall convince us of our mistake by Evidence of Scripture or by Right Reason without Railing and Scolding As for those who have accustomed themselves unto that way of Writing let them not think that ever they shall be able to move us from our Perswasion by Railing at us and calling us Hereticks If any attack us with such Carnal Weapons they will buâ— discover their own Weakness and Folly and we hope it shall have no other effect upon us but to move us to pity them and to pray the Lord to make them better Christians It is not any mans bare thinking or bold saying that we are mistaken
the whole World which we do most abhor Jerome who was contemporary with Pelagius writing against the Pelagians saith Hierom. Epist ad Ctesiphontèm propè medium Asserunt se per arbitrii libertatem nequaquà m ultrà necessarium habere Deum c. Quid rursum te ingeris ut nihil pòssim facere nisi tu in me tua dona compleveris That they assert by reason of the free Will which God hath once given them they stand no more in need of God For saith the Pelagian unto God Thou hast once given me free Will that I may do what I will Wherefore dost thou intrude thy self again so that I can do nothing unless thou perfect thy gifts in me Which Jerome thus confutes They are ignorant of what is written 1 Cor. 4.7 What hast thou that thou hast not received and if thou hast received it why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it And It is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth Mercy Rom. 9.16 It is my part to will and to run Velle currere meum est sed ipjum meum sine dei semper auxilio non crit meum but without the continual help of God that very thing which is mine will not be mine That is it will never be done by me but will come to nothing For the same Apostle saith It is God who worketh in us both to will and to do Phil. 2.13 God is always bestowing always giving That which God hath once given me Non sufficit nihi quod semel donavit nisi semper donaverit c. is not sufficient for me unless he shall still continually give me I ask that I may receive and when I have received I ask again I am covetous to receive the gifts of God neither is he wanting in giving nor am I satiated in receiving By how much the more I drink in the Grace of God by so much the more do I thirst after it This which Jerome wrote Twelve hundred years ago against the Pelagians with his Pen we subscribe to it with heart and hand In like manner we subscribe to that of Coelestin in his Epistle to the Gauls in behalf of Prosper and Hilary Coelestini de gratiâ dei Epist cap. 9. Ita deus in cordibus hominum c. God so works in the hearts of Men and on Free Will it self that a Holy Thought Pious Counsel and every good motion of the Will is from God for it is by him that we can do any good without whom we can do no good And to the Seventh Canon of the second Council of Orange If any shall affirm that Man by the strength of Nature Si quis dixerit per naturae vigorem c. without the illumination and inspiration of the Holy Spirit can think or choose aright any good that pertains to the happiness of Eternal Life or that he can savingly consent to the Evangelical preaching He is deceived by an Heretical Spirit not understanding the voice of God saying in the Gospel John 15.5 Without me ye can do nothing And that of the Apostle 2 Cor. 3.5 Not that we are sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves but our sufficiency is of God All this we firmly believe and heartily embrace And therefore whosoever saith that we are Pelagians or Semipelagians either he knows us not and ignorantly defames us or if he know us and our Principles he knowingly belyes us which we hope our Accuser would not do And as we our selves are not Pelagians no nor Semipelagians so we do not plead for any that are such but are ready to plead for the Truth against them as the Lord shall call us and enable us thereunto As for the Brethren that are accused a number of them hath approved our Apology and we plead only for them who do or shall approve it But if there should be any of the Subscribers whom we have not consulted with who unknown to us are of a Judgment different from us in these matters we leave them to plead for themselves Yet though we thus write we doubt not but they will all agree to the Sum and Substance of what we have said and proved in this our Apology As 1. That the Gospel is a new Law of Grace in the Sense we have affirmed and proved it so to be by the Word of God and by the Testimonies of Antient Fathers and Modern Divines 2. That this Law of Grace or Gospel-Covenant is conditional as we have stated the conditionality of it that is It is conditional with respect to the subsequent Blessings and Benefits of it such as Justification and Glorification 3. That Evangelical Repentance is a Condition Dispositive of the Subject Man necessary in order to his being justified as we have proved by Scripture and Reason and by many Testimonies of Ancient Fathers and Modern Divines And that a lively effectual Faith is the Condition receptive and applicative of the Object Christ and his Righteousness by and for which only Man is justified Finally That sincere Evangelical Obedience proceeding from a Principle of true Faith is a condition necessary on Mans part unto his obtaining possession of Eternal Salvation in Heaven for the alone merits of Christ 4. That in effectual calling by the Word and Spirit of Christ there is a real change and holy qualifications wrought in the Soul of Man in order of Nature before he be justified and pardoned 5. That the Common distinction is true as we have explained it and Calvin and the Synod of Dort approved it That Christ dyed for all men sufficiently but for the Elect only efficaciously This is the summ of what we believe and here contend for and we doubt not but all the Subscribers even those of them whom we never saw do and will agree to these things which are the commonly received Doctrines of the Reformed Churches And it is for such Persons that we make an Apology and for no others In pleading for these things aforesaid we are perswaded in our own Conscience and we think upon good and solid grounds that we plead for the Truth and Purity of the Gospel the defence whereof to the Glory of God is the principal thing that we propose to our selves in this present Apology And next to God's Glory in the defence of his Truth we design the Edification and Common Good of Christ's Church and the defence of our selves only in subserviency to those higher ends That the Father of Lights the God of Truth and Love and Peace would pour out upon us all of all perswasions a Spirit of Light and Love Purity and Peace that we may all see the Truth with our minds believe and love it with our hearts and profess and practice it purely and peaceably in our lives to the Glory of God in Christ to the Honour of Religion and to the Spiritual and Eternal good of our own and others
ashamed of the Cross of Christ and to behave as if they accounted the Tydings of Salvation by the slain Son of God an old antiquated Story and unfit to be dayly preached And what comes in the room thereof is not unknown nor is it worth the mentioning For all things that come in Christ's room and justle him out either of Hearts or Pulpits are alike abominable to a Christian Again in Page 33. by an Innuendo he gives the People to understand that we teach that sincere obedience unto the Law is the Righteousness we must be found and stand in in our pleading for Justification and that in so doing we neither understand what we say nor whereof we affirm 1 Tim. 1.7 Lastly In his Appendix Page 39. by another of his Innuendo's he gives the People to understand that we bring our own pitiful holiness into Justification and thereby make it sit on the Throne of Judgment with the Precious Blood of the Lamb of God By these Passages that we have transcribed word for word out of his Letter it appears that he hath told the People a very tragical Story of some Ministers and if he mean it of us we know our selves to be so clear of those horrid Crimes he charges us with that we can declare with a good Conscience in the sight of God who will judge us all that it is as false with respect to us as any Story that ever came out of the Mouth of the Father of Lies For it hath been our chief desire and endeavour to preach Christ to the People to preach Christ both as humbled and exalted as crucified and glorified To convince them of their need of Christ of their being utterly undone without him that there is no help nor hope for them from any thing in themselves and of themselves or from any meer Creature either in Heaven or Earth that Christ is the way the truth and the life and that there is no coming to the Father but by him that there is no Salvation in any other but in Jesus Christ because there is no other Name under Heaven given unto Men whereby we must be saved That there needs no other because Christ being not onely Man but God also being God-man he is an all-sufficient Saviour able and willing to save able to save to the uttermost to save perfectly to save evermore all that come unto God by him It hath been our care and endeavour to teach the People that Christ hath not onely procured for us the new Covenant or Law of Grace according to which we may be Justified and saved if we comply with the Terms and Conditions of it but that he hath by his Humiliation and Obedience his Obedience unto Death even the Death of the Cross fully satisfied the Justice of God for our Sins merited for us the pardon of them with the acceptation of us as righteous in the sight of God and a Right or Title to Eternal Life if we sincerely Believe and Repent And moreover that he hath merited for us by his Blood and gives unto us by his Spirit all that Grace whereby we do both sincerely believe and repent and obey the Gospel We tell the People that God made with us the new Covenant or Law of Grace in and through Christ the Mediator and Surety of it That it is founded upon and ratified and confirmed to us by his Blood-shedding and Death and that he hath purchased for us all the Grace Blessings and Benefits of it We tell them and prove to them that Christ hath fulfilled all Righteousness that he most perfectly kept every Law of God that he was under the obligation of that he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross That it was for us Men and for our Salvation that he came down from Heaven and was humbled and became obedient unto death That his Obedience active and passive was equivalent fully equivalent to all that we ought to do and to all that we deserve to suffer for not doing what we ought for not doing what is commanded us and for doing what is forbidden us That by his Obedience and Sufferings he hath paid the full price of our Redemption and by paying that Price hath made full satisfaction to the Justice of God for our Sins and hath merited for us the full pardon of our Sins and Eternal Salvation of our Souls if we sincerely believe repent and obey the Gospel by that Grace which he hath also purchased for us by his Blood promised to us in his Word and gives unto us by his Spirit So that we are compleat in him we have all in and from him who is the Head the living and Life-giving Head the ever blessed and glorious Head of the whole Church in whom dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily and in whom it pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell that out of his fulness we might receive and grace for grace Moreover we call People we command them we exhort and beseech them in God's Name to believe in Christ the Son of God and Saviour of Men to repent of their Sins and to be subject and obedient unto him The more effectually to encourage and perswade them so to do we assure them in God's Name that if they do indeed through Grace believe repent and obey they shall be first justified and afterwards glorified and that not for their Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience but only for the satisfactory meritorious Righteousness of Christ imputed to them So that we teach People to plead Christs Righteousness onely as that which satisfies God's Justice for them and as that which procures and purchases to them the pardon of their Sins the acceptation of their Persons as righteous in God's sight with their Right and Title first to eternal life and at last the actual donation of eternal life for their everlasting portion and inheritance On the other hand we faithfully declare to them that they ought by no means to ascribe unto their Faith Repentance or Obedience any of these things that belong to Christ's satisfactory meritorious Righteousness That the place and office of Faith in reference to Justification is to be the consenting receiving trusting Condition of it or the Instrumental means of receiving Christ as offered in the Gospel and with him his Righteousness for which alone we are justified That the place and office of Repentance is to be the disposing condition of Justification or rather if you will of the Person to be justified it not being consistent with the Truth of God's Word nor with the Perfection of his Nature to pardon a Sinner whilst he continues his full obstinate Resolution to go on in his Enmity and Rebellion against the Divine Majesty And lastly that the place and office of sincere obedience in the notion under which we now consider it is to be a condition of obtaining Eternal Life and Glory we do not say that
us by the Devil and the World or by our own mistaken Consciences And who dare deny the Truth of this May not the Devil and the World falsly accuse do not they too often falsly accuse us and say that we are Hypocrites and have neither true Faith nor Repentance When this Brother accuseth us so falsly as he doth in his Letter we need not think it strange that the Devil and the World do falsly accuse us Yea we have that within our own breasts that may sometimes through the temptations of Satan or the remainders of sinful Darkness and Unbelief falsly accuse us of predominant Hypocrisie Unbelief and Impenitency Now if at the same time we are really true Converts and through Grace sincerely believe and repent what Man that is endued with common Sense and reason can reasonably deny that our sincere Faith and Repentance is a sufficient Defence and Justification of us against all such false accusations Sure we are that our infinitely Gracious God and Saviour allows our plea and we most heartily bless his Name for it hath sometimes by his Spirit and Grace sensibly helped us to make our defence by clearing up to us the sincerity of our Faith and Repentance and by enabling us to take unto our selves the Comfort and to give him all the Glory of our being sincere penitent Believers notwithstanding all that the Devil World or Flesh say falsly to the contrary But as for those who are impenitent Unbelievers indeed all the World knows that the Faith and Repentance which they have not can never justifie them from the Unbelief and Impenitency which they really have deeply rooted in their hearts In short We maintain that Christ's meritorious and satisfactory Righteousness only justifies us at Gods Bar from all our sins against any Law of God whatsoever as soon as we through Grace performe the Gospel-Condition of sincere Faith and Repentance And then that sincere Faith and Repentance is our Defence and Justification before our most Gracious God and before all honest Men against all false accusations of our not having performed the Gospel-Condition of sincere Faith and Repentance But as for those who continue still in Unbelief and Impenitence they have nothing to defend and justifie them but if they live and dye in that stare their Unbelief and Impenitence will bind upon them to Eternity the Curse and Condemnation of the Law and moreover will bring upon them the sorer Vengeance of the despised Gospel John 3.18 19 20. and Heb. 2.2 3. and 12.25 Thus Achilles is on his Legs again without receiving the least hurt from the weak efforts of that assailant who hath nothing to say to him without misrepresenting him but that he doth not like his Language pretending that it is unscriptural let p. 41 42. dangerous and tends to the dishonouring of Christs Righteousness c. but that pretence is utterly false For 1. That our sincere Faith Repentance and Gospel-Obedience is a righteousness is evident from the Nature of the thing For 1. They are Duties which we owe unto the Lord our God and it is self-evident that it is a righteous thing to give unto God the things that are Gods 2. It is confessed by our Divines in their Disputes against the Papists that our Faith Repentance sincere Obedience and Holyness is a Righteousness For they generally grant that we have a two-fold Righteousness 1. The Righteousness of Christ imputed to us 2. A Righteousness inherent in us and adherent to us which we receive from Christ by his Spirit and Grace This is expresly confessed by that same Bishop Downham in his Book of Justification which our Author page 12. of his Letter commends as an Orthodox Book There that Reverend and Learned Divine affirms that we are Righteous both by the Righteousness of Christ imputed to us which is our Principal Righteousness and likewise by another Righteousness wrought in us and performed by us which is our secondary subordinate Righteousness If our Authour should have the Confidence to deny this it will be proved against him by Authority both Divine and Humane 2. This our subordinate Righteousness is rightly termed Evangelical because it is required by the Word of the Gospel wrought by the Spirit of the Gospel and is a complying with the terms and a performing of the Condition of the Gospel 3. That our sincere Faith Repentance and Obedience is a subordinate Righteousness by which we are defended and justified against the false charge of Hypocrisie Unbelief and Impenitence is so far from being unscriptural that it agrees exactly with the very Letter Scope and Sense of the Scripture in the second Chapter of James if that Epistle be Scripture as I hope we all believe that it is for there a Man is expresly in formal terms said to be justified by works James 2.21 24 25. which words can signifie no less than this That the good Works and sincere Obedience of a good Man do justifie him against the false accusation of being an Hypocrite or prophane Libertine As to what our Authour says in page 41. That works of Righteousness are only a Justification of Faith and not of the Person of the Believer it is a notorious falsehood and expresly contradicts the Spirit of God who faith that a man is justified by works and particularly that Abraham and Rahab were justified by works and not that their Faith only was justified by Works We do not deny but that good Works do justifie Faith but we also affirm with James that they do likewise justifie the person of the Believer But how is that Why they justifie his Person in tantum in so far as they are his Defence and Justification against the false charge of his being a Hypocrite or Libertine and not a true penitent obedient Believer In all this neither doth James nor we after him dishonour the Righteousness of Christ in the least for our inherent and adherent Righteousness is intirely subordinate to Christ's imputed Righteousness it hath also quite another Vse and Office than Christ's imputed Righteousness and it proceeds from it as the only meritorious cause thereof We abhor all Opinions and Practices that have the least real tendency to dishonour Christ or his Righteousness We ascribe this to Christ as his peculiar incommunicable Glory that as was said before his righteousness alone comes in the place of that personal perfect sinless Righteousness which was the Condition of the first Covenant of Innocency and Law of Works And as for that personal imperfect yet sincere Righteousness which through the Grace of Christ we attain unto by Believing Repenting and Obeying the Gospel it is nothing but the Condition of the new Covenant by performing whereof we get and keep an Interest in Christs imputed Righteousness by and for which alone we are justified from all our sins of what kind soever and have a right unto and at last get possession of Eternal Life and Glory in God's Heavenly Kingdom We have
sometimes two as in Acts 20.20 21 27. compared the Apostle comprehends the whole counsel of God under Repentance and Faith also in that of Solomon Fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole of Man Eccles 12.13 So that if you could suppose a Man to be a Believer and to be a Believer alone it would not save him as the Apostle James saith chap. 2.14 What doth it profit my Brethren though a man say he hath faith and have not works can faith save him No no more than saying be ye warmed will warm any or be ye filled will fill any for Faith without works is dead And what is said of this may be said of the rest so that when the Scripture speaks of Salvation as annexed to any one thing it supposeth that to contain the rest The reason is evident for the Graces of God as saving are not parted There is no believing to Salvation without Repentance nor no Repentance to Salvation without believing there is no calling upon the Name of the Lord will save without departing from iniquity nor can they savingly depart from iniquity that call not on the Name of the Lord. It is not any one thing but things that pertain to the Kingdom of God Acts 1.3 It is not thing but things that accompany or as it may be better read contain Salvation Heb. 6.9 And he that takes one for all without all as our wise Authour doth will find nothing at all A part is no portion The great fallacy with which Satan deludes many men is that which Logicians call à benè compositis ad malè divisa When he gets them to take Religion into pieces and then take one piece for Religion One cries up God another cries up Christ another Faith another Love another good Works but what is God without Christ or Christ without Faith or Faith without Love or Love without Works But now take God in Christ by Faith which worketh by Love to the keeping of the Commandments of God and this is pure Religion It is the whole that is the whole of Man Yet again though I have spoken thus much to it let me make it clearer than a demonstration That one is put for all and as containing all by comparing these places of Scripture In 1 Cor. 7.19 You read that circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing but keeping the Commandments of God What 's that Why that is all in all In Gal. 5.6 It is neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but Faith which worketh by Love That 's that which availeth or is all in all Yet in Gal. 6.15 he saith neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new Creature That 's all in all And yet for all this as if all this were nothing he tells us in Col. 3.11 That Christ is all and in all cashiering both circumcision and uncircumcision as formerly Now my beloved if you should take any one of these though each be said to be availing I say if you should take any one and lay the stress of your Salvation upon it you were undone Let our Authour and his Proselytes look to themselves It is not keeping the Commandments of God nor Faith working by Love nor the new Creature no nor Christ himself considered alone and apart that availeth any thing but these in conjunction He names one onely because where one is it is not only one there is more than one wherever one is savingly there are all in their respective places as far as they are to be in relation to Salvation Thus you see that Faith as well as Works and Works as well as Faith every one in their own order are to be taken in or we shall not be taken into the Kingdom of Heaven This Rule of interpreting Scripture is one of Vennings things that are well worth the thinking on and therefore we have set it down at large If it be duly attended to it will give light sufficient to discover the darkness of our Authours Ignorance or Hypocrisie But he objects further That no answer but this alone can rightly heal the wound of an awakened Conscience pag. 15. We reply That what he says is false and delusive in his sense taking Faith for one single act of one Grace and Duty exclusive of Repentance and all other Graces and Duties But take it according to God's usual way of speaking much in a little and in a complex comprehensive sense as taking in or not excluding but rather supposing Repentance and it is most true For the Vertue and Efficacy of Christ's Blood applyed by the Spirit and Faith to the Soul prepared by Repentance is indeed the only Remedy that can heal it But if our Authour will say that Faith in Christ alone and without Repentance will heal the wounds of awakened consciences in wicked Men at their first Conversion we cannot choose but rank him amongst those Covetous deceitful Prophets and Priests who heal the hurt of the People slightly saying Peace peace when there is no peace Jerem. 6.13 14. We are infallibly sure from the Scriptures of Truth That the Apostles Commission was to preach Repentance as well as Faith in order to Mens Justification and Salvation and that they were obedient to the Commands of their Great and Glorious Lord and preached according to their Commission For we read in God's Holy Word that when the Consciences of a multitude of unbelieving Jews who had been accessory to the most barbarous murder of Christ the Son of God and Saviour of Men were throughly awakened and their Spirits were deeply wounded by the Arrows of Conviction which Almighty God by his Word and Spirit had shot into their Souls they feeling themselves pricked in their hearts said unto Peter and to the rest of the Apostles Men and Brethren what shall we do Acts 2.37 then as follows vers 38. Peter said unto them Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins c. Here we have a Company of People in great distress of Conscience as the Goaler was and in this their Spiritual distress they do as the Goaler did As the Goaler sought advice of Paul and Silas and asked them what he should do to be saved Just so the awakened convinced Jews sought advice of Peter and the rest of the Apostles and asked them What they should do To whom Peter answered Repent and be baptized c. Whereupon we demand of our Authour was this answer of Peter a right answer or not 1. We hope he will not he dare not say it was not a right answer For Peter was an Apostle as well as Paul and at that very time he was full of the Holy Ghost and spake as he was inspired by the Holy Ghost If then he should be so bold as to say that Peter did not give them a right answer because he did not say to them as Paul said to the
the Condition of it It is clear also that he held as we do that God by his Special Grace purchased for us by Christ and given to us for Christ's sake enables us and all the Elect to perform the Condition of Faith and Repentance and that effectually and infallibly As for the Non-Elect who do not perform the Condition he says the reason the culpable reason of that is because they will not and though it be true also that they cannot yet that is not a meer Physical but a moral cannot which ariseth from the evil disposition of their minds and affections whereby they will not That this was Dr. Twiss his Judgment is evident by these following Testimonies of his quoted out of the same Book Observe we farther how this Authour confounds impotency moral Ibid. p. 155 156. which consisteth in the corruption of mans powers natural and impotency natural which consisteth in bereaving him of power natural The Lord tells us by his Prophet Jeremiah cap. 13.23 That like as a Blackamore cannot change his skin nor a Leopard his spots no more can they do good that are accustomed unto evil Now if a man taken in stealth shall plead thus before a Judge My Lord I beseech you have compassion upon me for I have so long time inured my hands to pilfering that now I cannot forbear it will this be accepted as a good plea to save him from the Gallows As for Faith It is well known that Divines distinguish between fides acquisita and sides infusa acquired and infused Faith That we may call a Faith naturally acquired which is found in carnal Persons whether Prophane or Hypoâ—ritical And this to wit the infused is a Faith inspired by God's Spirit The object of each is all one and a Man may suffer Martyrdom for the one as well as for the other which manifesseth the pertinacious adherence thereunto And it appears that all Professions have had their Martyrs Albeit it be not in the power of Nature to believe side infusa with an inspired Faith yet it is in the power of nature to believe the Gospel side acquisitâ with an acquired Faith which depends partly upon a mans Education and partly upon reason considering the credibility of the Christian way by light of natural observations above all other ways in the World And when men refuse to embrace the Gospel not so much because of the incredibility of it but because it is not congruous to their natural affections as our Saviour tells the Jews light came into the World and men loved darkness Father than light because their deeds are evil John 3.19 Is there any reason why their condemnation should be any whit the easier for this Neither have I ever read or heard it taught by any that 〈◊〉 shall be damned for not believing with an infused Faith which is as much as to say because Goâ—d hath not regenerated them but either because they have refused to believe or else if they have embraced the Gospel for not living answerable thereunto which also is in their power quoad exteriorem vitae emendationem As to the outward Reformation of their Life though it be not in their power to regenerate their wills and change their hearts any more than it is to illuminate their minds Yet I never read that any mans damnation was any whit the more encreased for not performing these acts Again The Man bereaved of his eyes hath a will to read and consequently it is no fault for not reading For all sin is in the Will But it is not so in not obeying either Law or Gospel Ibid. page 170. If a Man had a will to obey and believe but he could not in such a case it were unreasonable he should be punished But in the case of disobedience unto God we speak of all the fault is in the will voluntarily and wilfully they neither will obey the one nor the other Like as they that have accustomed themselves to do evil cannot do good as a Blackamoor cannot change his skin yet with this difference that man is never a whit the more excusable or less punishable for not doing that which is good not so the Blackamoor for not changing his skin But such is the shameful issue of them that confound Impotency Moral with Impotency Natural as if there were no difference c. Again To the Rule of Law objected by Mr. Hoard That contractus sub conditione impraestabili nullus aestimatur a Contract or Promise made upon a condition not performable by the Party Ibid. p. 185 186. is esteemed none at all Twiss answers thus Conditio impraestabilis a Condition not performable is there such as cannot be performed by reason of Impotency Natural but the Impotency we speak of in the case between God and Man is merely Impotency Moral to wit therefore they cannot because they will not were it not for the Corruption of their Will no Power were wanting in Man to Believe and Repent Again Dost thou complain thou hast no power to believe but I pray thee tell me hast thou any will to believe If thou neither hast nor ever hadst any will to believe Ibid. p. 219 220. what a shamesul and unreasonable thing is it to complain that thou hast no power to believe St. Paul had a most gratious will but he sound in himself no power to do what he would but what is the issue of this complaint To sly in the face of God Nothing less But to confess his own wretchedness and flee unto God in this manner who shall deliver me from the body of this death And receiving a Gracious Answer concerning this concludes with thanks I thank God through my Lord Jesus Christ If I have a will to believe to repent I have no cause to complain but to run rather unto God with thanks for this and pray him to give that power which I find wanting in me And indeed this impotency of believing and infidelity the fruit of Natural Corruption common to all is merely a moral impotency and the very ground of it is the Corruption of the Will Therefore men cannot believe cannot repent cannot do any thing pleasing unto God because they will not they have no delight therein but all their delight is Carnal Sensual and because they are in the flesh they cannot please God and because of the hardness of their hearts they cannot repent Sin is unto them as a sweet Mirsel unto an Epicure which he rolleth under his Tongue This and much more to this purpose hath Twiss in his Book against Hoard And that this was his setled Judgment is evident by what he writes in his defence of the Doctrine of the Synod of Dort It is true that it is not in the power of man to add unto the word the efficacy of God's Spirit page 122 123. and it is as true that a carnal man hath no desire that God would add the efficacy of his Spirit
Condition of Justification SECT III. Of his Third Errour That there is no Real Change no Holy Disposition or Qualification no Good or Holy thing wrought in or done by Man in order to and before Justification That Faith is not so much as a Qualification of the Person to be justified and that Repentance is not in order before pardon of Sin HIS Third Errour against the Purity of our Christian Faith is That the Lord doth not by preventing Grace prepare dispose and fit his People for their Justification by and for the Righteousness of Christ imputed to them but that his first saving work towards them and upon them is their Justification by Christ's imputed Righteousness Error 3. That this is his Opinion is evident from his own words For in page 9 11 12 15 17 18 25 26 30 31 32. He denyes That there can be any qualification in us that any real change is wrought upon us that any condition is required of us in order to our Justification he will not so much as admit of Repentance as a dispositive Condition in order thereunto and often finds fault with us for holding Faith to be a Qualification or the Condition of Justification though he knew well enough that we hold it to be only the receptive applicative Condition of Christ and his Righteousness in order to our being justified thereby Now that this Opinion is Erroneous and against the purity of our Christian Faith we shall prove 1. By Scripture 2. By Reason agreeable to Scripture 3. By the Testimony of our most Famous Orthodox Protestant Divines But before we come to our Proofs we premise a few things to give light unto what shall follow As 1. That we hold the priority of any preparation disposition qualification or condition before Justification no farther than is necessary to verifie the Expressions of Holy Scripture concerning them 2. We hold that they proceed from the Grace of God 3. That that Grace is from Jesus Christ by the supernatural influences of his Holy Spirit 4. That some of those things whereby the Spirit of Christ prepares and disposes Souls before they be justified are such as by the Constitution and Ordination of God have a necessary infallible connexion with Justification they are dispositions or qualifications sine quibus nunquam cum quibus semper justificamur without which we are never and with which we are always justified of this sort is Effectual Calling and what is commonly called Regeneration or that seminal abiding Principle of Spiritual Life which is communicated unto us in Effectual Calling and the new Birth together with the first vital actings of that Principle in Faith and Repentance That Seminal Principle of Spiritual Life with its first Vital Acts of Faith and Repentance doth according to our Judgment so prepare and dispose and qualifie the Soul for Justification that it is always infallibly connected with them according to the Word and Promise of God and it is never in any case without them and let it be always remembred that in our Opinion Actual Faith qualifies us as a receptive Condition of Christ and his Righteousness But we think also that there are other dispositions antecedent to Justification which have not such a necessary Connexion with Justification and yet they are from God's Spirit too 5. That the said Seminal Principle of Spiritual Life with its first Vital Acts of Faith and Repentance which are in order before Justification and upon which Justification always follows is the first beginning of Holiness and may well be called Initial Sanctification for it is the Holy Thing first begotten in us by God's Word and Spirit it is the first forming of Christ in us and it is the Holy Root or Seed out of which grows our Progressive Sanctification through the Influences and Operations of the Holy Spirit given us after Justification to dwell in us and to abide with us for ever These Things premised we shall prove first by Scripture that it is an Errour to deny that there is any real change in us that there can be any Qualification or Disposition wrought in us by the Grace of Christ antecedently at least in order of Nature to our Justification by the imputed Righteousness of Christ For doth not the Scripture expresly put Effectual Calling before our Justification Rom. 8.30 Whom God called them he also justified Now it is confessed that it is an inward Effectual Calling that is there spoken of and that such a Calling makes a real change in the Persons so called But so it is that this Calling is by the Spirit of God put before Justification Again in Heb. 10.16 17. there we have the Order of God's bestowing on his Select People the Blessings of the New Covenant This is the Covenant that I will make with them after those days saith the Lord I will put my laws into their hearts and in their minds will I write them And their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more Here we see that the Lord according to his Covenant first writes his Laws in the Hearts of his People which cannot be without some real change wrought on them and some Holy Principle put into them Secondly Their Sins and Iniquities he remembers no more and that is he Justifies them for pardon of sin is an essential part of Justification and is put for the whole by a Form of Speech usual enough in the Scriptures of Truth Further our Saviour himself gives us plainly to understand that this is the order of his dispensing his Saving Grace Mark 4.12 Lest at any time they should be converted and their sins should be forgiven them In which Words our Lord plainly intimates that the sins of the unbelieving Jews were not forgiven them that is they were not justified because they were not converted and that whomsoever he pardons and justifies he first converts them And sure Conversion imports a real change and a Principle of Grace and Holiness implanted in the Souls of the Converted This is yet clearer from the Words of our Lord to Paul recorded by Luke Acts 26.17 18. I send thee unto the Gentiles to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness of sins c. By forgiveness of sins is meant Justification because forgiveness of sins is an essential part of Justification before the Gentiles could attain to this Justification consisting in the forgiveness of their sins their eyes were to be opened and they were to be turned from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God Is it not then self-evident that the Gentiles were to be really changed from what they had been in former times and that they must be renewed and become new Creatures before they could obtain the Blessing and Benefit of pardon of sin and Justification It is a wonder to us that any Man should doubt of this Matter who believes
Justifying Faith cannot come from a Heart that is neither renewed nor unrenewed neither regenerate nor unregenerate for there is no such Heart in any Man nor indeed can there be any such Heart For renewed and not at all renewed regenerate and not at all regenerate are contradictions which admit of no medium Every Heart of Man then in the whole World must be one of these but cannot be both at once nor any third thing distinct from both for there is no middle between the two betweenrenewed and not at all renewed c. Since then every Heart of Man in the World cannot be both renewed and not at all renewed at the same time nor yet be any third thing but must be either one or other 2. We say in the second place That the first vital act of Justifying Faith cannot come from an Heart not at all renewed nor regenerate For a vital act of Justifying Faith is too good and precious Fruit to grow upon the corrupt Tree of a Heart wholly unrenewed and unregenerate Our Saviour in Matth. 7.16 17 18. give us to understand that we may with as much reason expect to gather Grapes of Thorns or Figs of Thistles as that a vital act of precious justifying Faith should come from a Heart that is altogether unregenerate and unrenewed It remains then in the third place that since the first vital act of justifying Faith cannot come from a Heart that is altogether unrenewed and unregenerate that is all stony hard and obstinately bent unto evil It must of necessity come from a Heart that is at least partly renewed and regenerate partly Flesh or tender and pliable to the Will of God And from this it follows unavoidably that there must be a real holy change wrought in the Heart of Man before his Justification by faith for the Heart of Man cannot possibly be renewed and regenerated either in part or in whole without some real holy change wrought in it but it is renewed and regenerated in part at least in order of Nature before the first vital act of justifying faith as hath been proved and that first vital act of faith is in order of Nature before justification by faith therefore there is and must be some real holy change wrought in the Heart before justification by faith From all which it is evident that the Opinion of our Authour is erroneous and against the purity of our Christian faith to wit that there is no real change no holy disposition or qualification before Justification by faith And that on the contrary there is and must be a real change of the Heart there are and must be several holy dispositions and qualifications wrought in the Soul by the Word and Spirit of the Lord before we can be justified by faith and our sins can be actually and absolutely forgiven us This we have clearly proved both by Scripture and by Reason agreeable to Scripture Now in the Third and Last place we shall prove it by the Testimony of famous and orthodox Protestant Divines We begin with Calvin who as was shewn before in his Commentary on Ezek. 18. v. 23. saith Praecedit veniam poenitentia quemadmodum hîc dicitur That Repentance goes before pardon of sin as it is said to doe in this place of Scripture Whence we observe 1. That it is not a meer legal Repentance such as may be in an unconverted Man that he speaks of but it is an Evangelical saving Repentance for first it is a Repentance that consists in turning from sin v. 23. yea from all sin in Heart and Affection v. 21. Secondly in doing the whole known will of God that is doing it in desire and resolution v. 21. But a meer legal Repentance doth not consist in these things nor hath it so good an effect upon the Soul Thirdly It is a Repentance to which Pardon and Life is promised through Christ But no such thing is promised to a meer legal Repentance Therefore it is not a Legal but an Evangelical Repentance that Calvin there speaks of 2. We observe that if in Calvin's Judgment a true Evangelical Repentance goes before pardon of sin and Justification then a true justifying faith goes before it also For Calvin was clearly of the opinion that faith goes before a true Evangelical Repentance in so much that he saies Instit lib. 3. cap. 3. Sect. 1. Quibus videtur fidem potius praecedere poenitentia quà m ab ipsâ manare vel proferri tanquum fructus ab arbore nunquam vis ejus fuit cognita That they never knew the power of Repentance who think that it is rather before Faith than that it slows or proceeds from Faith as Fruit from a Tree These Words of Calvin manifestly shew that he held faith to be in order of nature before true Evangelical Repentance which we must thus understand as we said before that the seminal Principle of Faith with some of its Acts to wit the assenting Act is before any Act of true Evangelical Repentance and not that all the Acts of justifying faith are before any one Act of true Evangelical Repentance otherwise we shall make Calvin foully to contradict himself For as was proved before Calvin in the same Book fol. 210. and Chapter Sect. 19. lays down the right order of things exactly saying that the Lord Christ first declares that the Treasures of Gods Mercy are in him set open to us which Declaration of his calls for the faith of assent in us After that in the second place the Lord requires us to repent induced thereunto by the faith of the said Declaration And Thirdly and Lastly Exigit fiduciam erga Dei promissiones He requires our trust in the promises of God to us now truly repenting of our sins The Act of Faith then which Calvin held to be in order before Repentance and to be the root and spring of it is the Faith of the conditional Promise of God that he hath Mercy and Pardon for us if we truly repent And this seems to be his meaning by what he writes in the second Paragraph following For saith he whilst Christ and John preach thus Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Do not they derive the cause of Repentance from the very Grace and Promise of Salvation Therefore the import of their Words is as much as if they had said because the Kingdome of Heaven is at hand therefore repent And a little after he adds Quod etiam demonstrat illa Oseae exhortatio c. Which thing also that exhortation of Hosea demonstrates Come and let us return unto the Lord for he hath torn Hos 6.1 and he will heal us he hath smitten and he will bind us up Quia spes veniae tanquam stimulus additur ne in suis peccatis torpeant Because the hope of pardon is given as a spur to Repentance least they should lie secure in their sins By this Passage we see that the Faith which goes
of Christian Questions and Answers To the Question how we can be truly said to have all gifts from Christ received by Faith since if Christ be apprehended or received by Faith Bez. lib. quaest Resp p. 1. 149. 49. pag. edit 1587. then Faith it self must go before that apprehension or reception He Answers If thou consider the order of causes I confess that the principle or beginning of Faith and that also true Faith goes before the apprehension of Christ and therefore that it is not given to them who are already ingrafted but who are to be ingrafted By this passage we see likewise that Beza never thought that all saving Grace flows into us from Christ already united to us But that before Union he gives us saving Grace by his Spirit whereby we may be united to him Christ by his Spirit first apprehends and takes hold of us and sits us for and brings us into actual Union with himself and this Grace is in the order of causes before the Union on our part and so is before our Justification If our Author had understood and considered all this that we have quoted out of Beza he would never have thought it impossible that we can have any true Grace any Holy Disposition or Qualification before we be in Christ and justified by Faith in him For it is plain that we have the Grace from Christ whereby we come to be in Christ and Christ to be in us And if it were not so it would be impossible for us ever to be actually in Christ at all or to be justified by Faith in him Our Third Witness is Mr. Fox in his Book De Christo gratis justificante Although saith he it be an undoubted Truth That Faith in Christ the most high Son of God page 307. alone without works hath the Vertue and Power of justifying as appears from the most clear words of Paul and the Examples of Saints but yet it doth not put forth this its justifying Vertue and Power upon all praeterquà m in eos quos idoneos solùm invenit suscipiendae Divinae gratiae but only upon those whom it finds fitted or qualified for receiving the Divine Grace or Favour of Justification And that is the humble and Penitent as he shews in the following Section Where towards the end of it in page 310 he says Praeparat quiâ—tem poenitentia inateriam ad suscipiendam Justificationem c. Repentance indeed prepares the matter for the receiving the Grace of Justification That is it prepares the Soul for receiving Justification not as an inherent form in the Popish Sense but as a rich Priviledge and Favour bestowed upon those who are disposed and qualified for it by Repentance And that it is not only a Legal but an Evangelical Repentance which he speaks of is evident from what he saith at large in that Section and especially from the Testimonies of Scripture which he brings to prove it Such as Psal 34.18 Isa 57.15 Our Fourth Witness is Rollok whom we made use of before and to whom Bodius his Scholar in his Commentary on the Ephes p. 1081 gives this Testimony That he was a Man quo nemo nostra aetate Christum Jesum vel penitiùs imbiberat vel aliorum animis efficacius instillabat Then whom none in our Age either had drunk in Christ Jesus more deeply or thoroughly into his own heart or more Powerfully conveyed him into the hearts and Souls of others This Holy and Orthodox Minister of Christ in his Book of Effectual Calling saith page 3 4. That in effectual Calling considered as it is internal Duplex est Dei Gratia sive operatio in cordibus nostris c. There is a two-fold Grace of God or operation in our hearts The first Grace is whilst God by his Holy Spirit creates a new and heavenly light in the mind before involved in darkness which neither saw nor could see the things of the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 2.14 In the Will wholly perverted and turned away from God he creates a rectitude and lastly a new Sanctity in all the Affections Out of this Creation there exists or ariseth that which is called the new Creature that which is called the new Man which after God is created in Righteousness and true Holiness Ephes 4.24 The second Grace or the second Operation of the Spirit is the act of Faith it self or an action proceeding from the new Creature page 5. the action of the enlightned mind in knowing God in Christ the action of the sanctified Will in embracing or apprehending God in Christ Here the principal Agent is the Spirit of God himself the secondary Agent is the Humane Soul it self or rather the new Man and the new Creature it self in the Soul and its faculties In this second Grace which is the action or work of Faith we are not now meerly passive page 6. but being acted by the Holy Spirit we act being excited to believe we believe In one word with the Holy Spirit operating we cooperate and are workers together with the Holy Spirit Now he cap. 34. p. 258. tells us afterwards in the same Book that all this and more than this even the Holy Change that is wrought in the Soul by a true Evangelical Repentance is before Justification For saith he Repentance belongs to the place concerning Effectual Calling Repentance goes before Justification as Faith and Hope go before it From all which we observe that in the judgment of Rollock there is a real change made in the Soul before it be justified and that it is prepared for Justification by God's working in it an Holy Principle or disposition whereby it is inclined and enabled to produce the act of Faith whereby it receives Christ that for his sake and through his Righteousness it may be justified We might bring Dr. Ames and Dr. Twiss for our Fifth and Sixth Witnesses for they are of the same Opinion with Rollock as to this matter save that Rollock took the Word Regeneration to signifie the same thing with Sanctification which comes after Effectual Calling and Justification whereas they took Effectual Calling and Regeneration to be two words which signifie the same thing to wit the first saving change which is wrought in the Soul when a new Seminal Principle of Spiritual Life is put into it and it is brought off from Sin and the World unto Christ and unto God through Christ that it may be justified by Faith in his Blood This appears to have been their Judgment by what we have already quoted out of them upon the former head Let but any that can read in Ames his Marrow of Divinity the Twenty Sixth Chapter of the first Book concerning Vocation as likewise the Tenth Chapter of his Reply to Grevinchovius concerning the Nature of Faith where he proves That God by his Spirit puts a Seminal permanent Principle of Grace into the Soul at its first Conversion and that before any act of saving
Faith and consequently before Justification We say Let but any Man read those Two Chapters of Dr. Ames his Books now mentioned and he will see it as clear as the Sun that he was of the same mind with Rollock and held That an Holy Change is wrought on us and a Seed or Principle of Holyness is put into us and some Holy Act is produced by us before we be justified and our sins be forgiven us And as for Dr. Twiss though the Antinomians have laid claim to him and some of ours have almost given him up to them by Reason of some Expressions of his which seem to favour them yet Mr. Jessop in his Preface to Mr. Grailes Book hath shewed that they have no sufficient ground for their so doing and hath proved as we have further done that he is on our side against them Yea and against our Authour too We read that Arminius in the Preface to his Answer unto Perkins complained that though Mr. Perkins did not yet there were some others who did contend that Repentance doth not go before but follow after Remission of Sins Twiss Vind. gratiae Resp ad Arminii Praefat. pag. 17. Edit Amster 1648. fol. Whereunto Dr. Twiss answered by Confessing ingenuously That the places of Holy Scripture which prove that Repentance is before Remission of Sins are expressiora frequentiora both more express and more numerous than those that seem to favour the other Opinion And indeed the places of Scripture that speak of Peoples repenting after their Sins are pardoned prove nothing at all but what we and all sober Christians grant that our Repentance is to be continued all the days of our Life and that the Repentance which is begun before Justification and is but weak and imperfect is to be carried on through Grace unto greater Perfection afterwards by reducing our purposes into Practice and bringing forth Fruits meet for Repentance to the doing whereof the Assurance of Gods special Love to us in having pardoned our Sins and accepted us as righteous unto Life through Jesus Christ doth not a little animate and excite us As to what Twiss saith there that it is without Controversie that as Remission of Sins is an immanent Act in God it is before both Faith and Repentance that is neither more nor less than this that God himself and his Decree to remit Sin is before both Faith and Repentance which is indeed very true for God and his Decree was before this World or any thing in this World but though it be true it is nothing to the purpose for to speak properly as we ought and as the Lord speaks to us in his Word Remission of Sins is not an immanent Act of God that is it is not the Decree of God which is Eternal but the consequent and the effect of the Decree which is Temporal and is every where promised in the Scripture as a thing future and to come upon Condition of Faith and Repentance as Dr. Twiss himself expresly affirms most frequently over and over as we have shewed already and may do it yet farther hereafter From single Witnesses we pass to a whole Assembly of Divines who give in their Testimony for us and it is the Synod of Dort the most famous Assembly of Divines that ever was in the Reformed Churches for it consisted of a great number of Learned men delegated and deputed from all the best Reformed Churches in Europe In the eleventh and twelfth Canons on the third and fourth Articles their Words are as followeth Act. Synodi Dord Part. 1. p. 303. But when God executes this his good Pleasure in the Elect or works in them true Conversion he not only causeth the Gospel to be outwardly Preached to them and by the Holy Spirit powerfully enlightens their Mind that they may rightly understand and discern the things of the Spirit of God but also by the Efficacy of the same regenerating Spirit he penetrates or pierces into the innermost parts of Man he opens his closed he softens his hard and circumcises his uncircumcised Heart he infuses new qualities into his Will and of dead makes it alive of evil makes it good of unwilling makes it willing of disobedient makes it obedient and so Acts and strengthens it that as a good Tree it may be able to bring forth the Fruit of good Actions And then the Will now renewed is not only acted and moved by God but being acted by God it acts it self Wherefore even Man himself by that Grace received is rightly said to believe and repent This was subscribed by the whole Synod now here we have such a Testimony of the Reformed Churches for a real change for Holy Qualifications and Dispositions in the Soul of Man before Justification as we are sure our Author can never find the like to oppose against us for no real change no Holy Qualifications or Dispositions in the Soul of Man before sustification And that the Synod held this real change those Holy Qualifications or Dispositions to be in the Soul before Justification is manifest because they affirm all this to be necessary that the Will may be able to act and that the Man may produce the saving Acts of Faith and Repentance but so it is that the very Act it self of Faith is before Justification as hath been proved and so it was believed to be by the Synodic Therefore a fortiori all that is before the Act of Faith is also before Justification This were enough if we could say no more to prove that it is we who cleave to the old received Protestant Doctrine in this matter Yet something more we will adde from some of the Suffrages of the Colledges of Divines recorded in the Acts of the Synod And first we find that the Embdane Divines in their Judgment concerning the first Article do very particularly and clearly set down the way and order of Gods bringing his Elect unto Eternal Life and Glory Their Words are Actor Synodi Dord part 2. pag. 77. Via inter Electionis decretum decreti finem intermedia quâ Deus ex mera gratiâ peculiariter electos ad salutem provehit est 1. Christus 2. Vocatio ad Christum efficax 3. Fides 4. Justificatio per fidem c. The intermediate way between the Decree of Election and the end of the Decree by which God of meer Grace brings to Salvation those whom he hath peculiarly chosen is 1. Christ 2. Effectual Vocation unto Christ 3. Faith 4. Justification c. To these they speak particularly one after another First They shew that Christ is deservedly set in the first place for he is the second Adam through whom all the Elect are saved by unspeakable Mercy What they say of Christ there we all agree to and also that all the other particulars are subordinate to him and through him Then they speak to the second means which is Effectual Calling and that they say is Quando Vox Dei
per suos Ministros c. When the Voice of God by his Ministers so founds outwardly in the Ears of the Body that together with it the Spirit of God inwardly fits or prepares the Mind of the Hearer that it may be able to understand and Efficaciously disposes the Will to Assent or rather Consent Then they proceed to the next Tertium est fides vera c. The third is true Faith to wit when from Effectual Calling there arifeth the Knowledge of Salvation understood and again Assent follows that Knowledge and that such an Assent as applies the Promise of the Gospel to the Believers own Conscience c. Lastly They say that the fourth and fifth means are the Effects of true Faith in the Elect and they are Justification and after that Sanctification and Perseverance to the end From this Testimony of the Embdane Divines it is as evident that in their Judgment there are some Holy saving Preparations and Dispositions in the Souls of Gods select People before they be justified as it is evident that the second is before the fourth for Effectual Vocation whereby those Holy Dispositions are wrought in the Soul is the second and Justification is the fourth between which actual Faith comes in as the Third So that if we can but reckon two three four and can understand that if the second be before the third it must be also before the fourth then may we see that there are some Holy Dispositions and Qualifications in the Soul arising from Effectual Calling before Justification This was read in and approved by the Synod and therefore here we have again the Testimony of the whole Synod of Dort for Holy Dispositions and Qualifications in the Soul before Justification It would be almost endless to run over all the Suffrages of the several Colledges of Divines and to quote what they have said to this purpose therefore we shall pass that as superfluous and conclude with the Testimony of our own Brittish Divines which is to be seen in their Collegiate Suffrage translated into English and Printed in the year 1629. Their Words are God doth regenerate by a certain â—inward and wonderful Operation The Suffrage of the Divines of Great Brittain Art 3.4 pag. 70.80 81. the Souls of the Elect being stirred up and prepared by the foresaid Acts of his Grace and doth as it were create them anew by infusing his quickning Spirit and seasoning all the Faculties of the Soul with new qualities Here by Regeneration we understand not every Act of the Holy Spirit which goes before or tends to Regeneration but that Act which assoon as it is there we conclude presently or as the Original hath it it may presently be rightly affirmed This man is now born of God This Spiritual Birth presupposes a Mind moved by the Spirit using the Instrument of Gods Word whence also we are said to be born again by the incorruptible Seed of the Word 1 Pet. 1.23 Which must be observed lest any one should idlely and slothfully expect an Enthusiastical Regeneration that is to say wrought by a sudden Rapture without any foregoing Action either of God the Word or Himself Furthermore we conclude that the Spirit regenerating us doth convey it self into the most inward Closet of the Heart and frame the Mind anew by curing the sinful Inclinations thereof and by giving it strength and a formal Principle In the Original it is Principium formale Or Active Power to produce spiritual and saving Actions Ephes 2.10 We are his Workman-ship created in Christ Jesus unto good works Ezek. 36.26 I will take away the stony Heart and give you an Heart of Flesh From this Work of God cometh our Ability to perform spiritual Actions leading to Salvation as the act of Believing 1 John 5.1 Whosoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God Of Loving 1 John 4.7 Every one that loveth is born of God Lastly all works of Piety John 15.5 Without mere can do nothing Again Upon the former habitual Conversion Pag. 83.84 followeth our actual Conversion wherein out of our reformed or changed Will for the Original is ex mutata Voluntate God himself draweth forth the very act of our Believing and Converting and this our Will being first moved by God doth it self also work by turning unto God convertendo se ad Deum and Believing that is by executing eliciendo producing withal it s own proper lively Act. We say that God doth not only work that habitual Conversion or Change for the Word in the Original is Mutationem whereby a man gets new Spiritual Ability to Believe and Convert but also that God doth by a certain wonderful Efficacy of his secret Operation Pag. 85. extract out of our regenerated Sanatâ cured Will the very Act of Believing and Converting So the Scripture speaketh in divers places John 6.65 The Father giveth us Power to come unto the Son that is to Believe Phil. 1.29 To you it is given to Believe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very Act of Believing 2 Tim. 2.25 God giveth Repentance This Action of God in producing Faith doth not hinder Pag. 86. but rather is the cause that the Will doth work together with God and produce its own Act and therefore this Act of Believing howsoever it is sent or given from God yet because it is performed by Man is Attributed to Man himself Rom. 10.10 With the Heart man believeth unto Righteousness 2 Cor. 4.13 I believed therefore have I spoken Again This Action of God doth not hurt the freedom of the Will but strengthen it Pag. 87.88 Here we deny that by the Divine Operation there is any wrong offered to the Will or any hurt done to it for it is in the Original negamus loesionem voluntatis for God doth so work in Nature even when he raiseth and advanceth it above its proper Sphere that he doth not destroy the particular Nature of any thing but leaves to every thing it s own Way and Motion in actione producenda in producing its Action When therefore God worketh in the Wills of Men by his Spirit of Grace he makes them move in their own natural way or course that is freely and then they do the work the more freely by how much they are the more effectually stirred up by the Spirit of God John 8.36 If the Son make you free you shall be free indeed 2 Cor. 3.17 Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty Verily it seemeth incredible to us that God who made our Wills and gifted them with Liberty should not be able to work on them or in them after such a manner as that he may produce any good Action by them without hurting their Nature that is freely Ut quamlibet bonam actionem per easdem illaesâ earum naturâ hoc est liberé eliciat By these passages quoted out of the Suffrage of our Divines in the Synod of Dort it is most evident that
both they and the Synod which approved their Suffrage and gave them great thanks for it did all of them believe that there is and must be a great and holy change wrought on us and holy Dispositions and Qualifications bestowed on us before we are immediately able and that we may be able to believe and repent and consequently before we are justified Yea our Divines expresly reject it as the first Arminian Error against that part of the third and fourth Articles which relates to Regeneration and Conversion unto God by Faith and Repentance That in Regeneration there are no spiritual Gifts infused into the Wills of Men. Pag. 91. This Arminian Errour they disprove and amongst other Arguments against it Pag. 92. they use this for one As the Will of a meer natural Man is said to be vicious from a certain inbred and inherent wickedness which in a wicked man even when he doth nothing is habitual so again we must acknowledge that in the Will of the regenerate there is a certain Righteousness or Goodness as it is in the Original given and infused by God which is presupposed unto their Religious Actions St. Austin in many places setteth forth this habitual Righteousness or Goodness And Prosper calls this goodness of the Will Prosper de vocat Gentium lib. 1. c. 6. superni agricolae primam plantationem the first planting of the Heavenly Husbandman Now a Plantation Notes something ingrafted in the Soul not an Act or Action flowing from the Soul Thus our Divines at Dort whereby we see that it is a branch of Arminianism to deny that there is any Holy Habit Seed Root or Permanent Principle of Grace or any Spiritual Qualification wrought in the Soul before Justification And we find that long ago Robinson one of the rigidest Seperatists from the Worship and Discipline of the Church of England yet Religiously adhered to her Doctrine in this Point we are upon for thus he writes in Defence of the Doctrine of the Synod at Dort Robinsons Defence of the Doct. of the Synod at Dort p. 109. Pag. 132.133 That a man may have his Sins pardoned who yet wants all brotherly Love and goodness the Scriptures every where deny Mat. 6.14 15. 1 Joh. 3.14 15. Mark 11 24 25. Rom. 8.1 Psal 32.1 2. And afterwards in the same Book By the Word and Spirit saith he God regenerates Men or gives them Faith and Repentance which they must have before they can believe or repent as the Child must have Life before it can live or do Acts of Life and must be generated or begotten before it have Life or Being Regeneration therefore goes before Faith and Repentance Here we see that old rigid zealous Nonconformist held that there must be a real great change made on a Man a Holy Principle must be put into him and Holy Qualifications bestowed upon him before he can believe and repent and consequently before he can be justified Pag. 56. Again before in the same Book he saith expresly that Rom. 8.29 30. Shews plainly that our Predestination or Election goes before our Calling and our Calling before our Justification And in the same Page Gods chusing a Man whether in Decree from Eternity or by Actual and Effectual Calling and calling of him out of the State of Sin by giving him the Spirit of Faith and Grace goes before his believing for he cannot believe before he have Faith nor have it before God give him it but his actual saving by Justification and Glorificaton follows after Faith The same Truth is witnessed unto by Mr. Ball in his Treatise of Faith Part 1. p. 1.36 Every one saith he is not fit to receive the Promise of Mercy the Enemies of the Gospel of Christ Worldlings Hypocrites and all in whom Sin reigneth can have no true Faith in Christ he is only sit to receive Mercy who knows that he is lost in himself and unsatiably desires to be eased of the heavy burden of his Sins Faith is a Work of Grace of the Essicacy of Gods Spirit whereby we answer to the Effectual Call of God and come unto him that we might be partakers of Life Eternal And if saving Effectual Calling be precedent to Faith the subject of living Faith is Man savingly called according to the purpose of Gods Will. We can teach no Faith to Salvation but according to the Rule of Christ Mark 1.15 Repent and Believe the Gospel no Remission but according to the like rule Luke 24.47 Acts 2.37 38. Our last Witness is Mr. Gataker who saith God doth not actually remit or release Sin until he give Grace to repent Gatakers shadows without substance p. 55. which in the Gospel Phrase and Method goes constantly before pardon c. We might easily bring many more of our Reformed Divines to witness unto this Truth but these are sufficient to shew that it is the old Protestant Doctrine generally received in the Reformed Churches that there is and must be a real Holy Change a seminal permanent Principle of Spiritual Life some Holy Dispositions and Qualifications wrought in us by the Spirit of Christ before we are justified by Faith in the Blood of Christ And here by the way we must tell our Author what it may be he doth not know First that if he will believe Bardwardin Let. p. 13. with whom he saith God blessed England against the Pelagians then he will find it to be a Branch of the Pelagian Heresie that there is no Gracious Principle no Holy Disposition or Qualification wrought in us before our Justification For Bradwardin saith so expresly Bradward de causâ dei lib. 1. Cap. 43. p. 397. Asserunt ambae partes residuae opinionis Pelagii remissionem peccati Justificationem injusti praecedere gratiam tempore vel naturâ That is Both the remaining parts of the Opinion of Pelagius assert that Remission of Sin and the Justification of the unjust go before Grace in Time or in Nature Thus Bradwardin and then he falls a Confuting of this Pelagian Opinion by such Arguments as most manifestly shew that by the Word Grace there he meant not the Good-Will Love and Favour of God but the Effect of it upon the Soul even a Gracious Gift communicated unto and a real Holy change wrought in the Soul whereby of ungracious it is made inherently Gracious and of unjust and unholy it is made inwardly Just and Holy This Grace this Gracious change he maintains to be in Order before Remission of Sin and the Denial of this Grace this Gracious change before Remission of Sin he declares to be a Branch of Pelagian Heresie We thought fit to let the World know that what by some is accounted pure Gospel Doctrine now was in former times accounted a part of Pelagius his Opinion and that even by Bradwardin whom our Authour so highly commends Yet at the same time we must declare that we do by no means approve Bradwardins way of Confuting
good man that is a good man initially or make him begin to be a good Man But now this makes against our Author himself and clearly proves that no Man can believe with a saving justifying Faith till Gospel Grace renew him and make him first a good Man this Consequence from his own Words he can never avoid unless he will say that a saving justifying Faith is no good thing for if it be not an evil but a good thing no Man can do it till Gospel Grace have renewed him and make him first a good Man So then we have found by his own Confession that a Man is first good through Grace and then he believes in Christ to Justification And if a Man be thus good initially good before he actually believe with a saving justifying Faith then is he Holy also initially Holy before he do so believe for that Initial Goodness and this Initial Holiness is one and the same thing And further if a man may be and must be thus initially Good and Holy before he actually believe then he may be qualified before he actually believe for he cannot be Good and Holy as aforesaid without Gods putting some good qualities into him This the Synod of Dort hath determined in their 11. Canon on the 3d and 4th Articles as was shewed before and it is hoped our Author will not oppose the Determination of that Synod Now whenever God by his Spirit puts good qualities into a Man he thereby qualifies him for the very formal effect of good qualities is to qualifie the Man to whom God gives them Pag. 11. But saith our Author Whence should a Man have any good Qualification before he be in Christ by Faith since a Sinner out of Christ hath no Qualification for Christ but Sin and Misery We Answer that before a Man be in Christ by Faith he hath some good Qualification from Christ by his Spirit preparing him for and bringing him unto Union with himself by actual Faith As to what he saith that a Sinner out of Christ hath no Qualification for Christ but Sin and Misery We Answer by distinguishing thus he hath no Qualification but Sin and Misery of and from himself It is true But that he hath no Qualification of and from Christ by his Holy Spirit but Sin and Misery it is utterly false and the contrary is true to wit that a Man who hath no Qualification of and from himself but the evil Qualification of Sin and Misery yet of and from Christ by his Spirit and Word he hath the good Qualification of a Heart in part changed and renewed and of a Holy Seed and Prineiple of Grace put into his Heart Though a Man cannot qualifie himself for Christ yet nothing hinders but that Christ by his Spirit and Word can qualifie a man for Union with himself and for Justification by his Meritorious Righteousness Yes saith our Author something doth hinder for I boldly assert that such a man who were so qualified would not Let. p. 11. nor could ever believe on Christ We are not willing here to apply the Proverb That none is so bold as blind Bayard But this we must say that we cannot see that this Man hath any probable ground for such Confidence Sure we are it will be a very difficult task to prove that a man cannot possibly believe in Christ because Christ by his Word and Spirit hath fitted and qualified him for Believing But it seems nothing is difficult to this bold man and therefore he will prove it by an Argument taken from the Nature of Faith thus Faith saith he is a lost helpless condemned Sinners casting himself on Christ for Salvation But the qualified Man is no such Person And then the Conclusion if rightly inferred from the Premisses is this ergo The qualified Man is not Faith c. A goodly Argument indeed and a Foundation fit for this Man to ground his Confidence upon If he say that his Argument doth not so conclude but rather thus Faith is a Gracious Act whereby a lost helpless condemned Sinner casts himself on Christ for Salvation but the qualified Man is not a lost helpless condemned Sinner casting himself on Christ for Salvation therefore the qualified man is not what is he not why he is not a lost helpless condemned Sinner casting himself on Christ for Salvation Is this now his Argument And doth it thus conclude then his Argument is as Ridiculous as his Confidence Let him keep to his Premisses laid down in his Letter and if he can let him regularly inferr from them another Conclusion than one of these But let what will become of the form of his Argument We answer by distinguishing both Propositions And 1. For the first we say that a Person who by true Faith casts himself on Christ for Salvation is indeed a Sinnor lost and helpless in and of himself and he is condemned by the Law but tho that be true yet in Order of Nature before he believes and in the very Act of Believing he is found and helped by the Lord and hath a Pardon offered him by the Gospel and by Faith he receives it Acts 10.43 Then for the second Proposition we distinguish it also thus The qualified Man is not such a Person is not a lost helpless condemned Sinner that is the Man that is 1. Qualified with a Satisfactory Meritorious Qualification 2. That is so qualified by himself he is not such a Person It is true and we grant it But with all we say that indeed it is impossible for any Man so to qualifie himself Yet we maintain that a Man who is qualified by the Holy Spirit and free Effectual Grace of Christ is such a Person and doth by Faith â—ast himself on Christ for Salvation our being qualified by the Holy Spirit and free Effectual Grace of Christ is so far from hindring our believing as our Author boldly but ignorantly affirms that in Truth it doth very much further our believing it lets us see and causes us to feel that we are lost and helpless in and of our selves and condemned by the Law and that we are found and helped by the Lord and can be pardoned only by the Gospel Whereupon it inclines and moves us to flee unto Christ for refuge and to cast our selves on him for Justification and Salvation Thirdly In the same Page Let. p. 11. we have another of his Objections against the Truth we have been proving by Scripture Reason and Testimony of Protestant Divines Shall we saith he warn People that they should not believe on Christ too soon Either this Interrogation is altogether impertinent or there is this Argument implied in it if there be a real change and a holy gracious Principle wrought in Peoples Hearts before they do or can believe with a saving justifying Faith then it will follow that Ministers should warn people not to believe on Christ too soon but so to do is absurd and contrary to
Covenant he is found to be a Godly Man through Grace to be Evangelically Godly because he is just such a Man as the Lord by the New Covenant and Evangelical Law requires him to be that he may be first justified by Christs Righteousness imputed to him that is he is found to be a Man whom God hath blessed with a new Heart and who is a true Penitent Believer and that is a Man Evangelically Godly Now there is no Contradiction at all in this for the same Man at the same time to be legally ungodly and Evangelically Godly because it is with respect to different Laws and Covenants that such contrary things are affirmed of him Let our Author if he please consult Turretine and he will find that that Learned Calvinist saith expresly Turret Instit part 2. loc 16. pag. 714. That a true Believer when he is justified by Faith in Christ is impius partim antecedenter partim respectivè ad Justificationem non autem concomitanter Ungodly partly antecedently and that is because he was altogether ungodly in former times partly with râ—spect to Justification because he hath nothing in himself that can be the matter and cause of his Justification but he is not concomitantly ungodly that is he doth not remain Ungodly when God is justifying him and till immediafely after he be justified If our Author upon this should say to us what he saith to his poor awakened Sinner That it is Non-sense Ignorance and Pride Let. p. 31.32 to maintain that a Man must be in some measure Godly in Disposition and Principle before he be Godly in Act and that he must actually believe with a Godly Faith in Order of Nature before he he justified for this is as much as to say that a Man must be pretty well recovered before he make use of the Physician c. We should reply 1. That as for his Poor awakened Sinner he makes a poor Fool of him he puts what Words he pleases in his Mouth and makes him say in effect that if he first had Faith before he first had Faith then he would first believe before he had first believed which we think no Man ever thought or said nor is capable of saying unless it be some poor Creature that is awakened out of his right Wits or else it be such an one as our Author who hath the Art of Believing or Writing Contradictions 2. That he had need to take heed that he do not blaspheme our Saviour who hath said that the Tree must be good before the Fruit can be good Matth. 7.16 17 18. and 12. v. 33. And that is as much as if he had said what we hold that there must be some Renovation of the Inward Disposition of the Heart before a Man do actually believe with a saving justifying Faith 3. That if our Author will not believe us let him believe his own beloved self for he says Pag. 16. That a Man is to believe that be may be justified And that necessarily implies that he must bring forth some good Fruit in order of Nature before he be justified and in Pag. 12. He himself quotes Matth. 12.33 To prove that the Tree must be good before the Fruit be good 4. We believe that our Heavenly Physician comes first to us ordinarily in the Ministry of the Word by his preventing Grace and doth indeed recover us in part by curing the deadness and indisposedness of our Hearts before we go to him by an actual saving justifying Faith and thereby imploy him for our Justification Christ comes first to us by his Word and Spirit and begins to cure us of our Spiritual deadness to any thing that is savingly good before we go to him by actual justifying Faith and be by him delivered from our Legal Death in Justification by Faith in his Blood 5. If our Author will yet go on to tell the People that we teach them not to employ the Physician of Souls till they have first pretty well cured themselves we take Heaven and Earth to witness that he belies us and abuses the Simplicity of the People for we believe in our Hearts and confess with our Mouths to the Glory of Christ the Physician of Souls that it is he who by his Word Spirit and Grace both begins carries on and perfects the cure of all his select People and that he doth it in the way and order set forth in his Word of which we have here given the World an account according to that measure of Light which it hath pleased him of his rich Mercy and free Grace to bestow upon us 6. And lastly We desire it may be considered whether our Authors saying that to tell the People they must begin to be Godly through Grace by being Penitent Believers in order to their being justified is all one as to tell them that they must be pretty well recovered and must cure themselves before they employ Christ the Physician of Souls we say it is our desire People would consider whether this be not a piece of Antinomian Cant for it is certain that this is the Language of Saltmarsh one of the grossest of that Sect in England That the Promises belong to Sinners as Sinners not as repenting or humbled Sinners as is to be seen in Gatakers Shadows without Substance Pag. 53. And again saith Saltmarsh like our Author in this Do you look that Men should be first whole for the Physician or Righteous for Pardon of Sin or justified for Christ Ibid. Pag. 54. or rather Sinners Unrighteous Ungodly And Gataker there Confutes this precious Stuff in Pag. 54 55 56 57 58. Again You Saltmarsh say that every one who receives Christ receives him in a sinful Condition and consequently in an impenitent one Ibid. p. 73. And again saith Saltmarsh as our Author doth in Pag. 11. of his Letter Can any Man believe too soon Gatakers shadows without substance p. 75. To which Question Gataker Answers No more than he can repent too soon Thus we have at large answered every thing which we can find in the Letter that looks like an Objection or Argument against the Truth which we believe according to the Scriptures But after all it may be some will seriously put this Question Is it likely that God will give us any Grace to sanctifie us in any Kind or Degree before he so love us as to justifie us To which we answer that it is not only likely to be but it certainly is so that God loves us so far as to make Conditional Promises to every one of his People and so far as to give them for Christs sake Grace to begin to perform the Condition before he so far love them as actually to justifie them for Christs sake and that we say is a giving of Grace to sanctifie us Initially or to begin a Holy change in us before we be actually justified and our Sins be forgiven us This we have so clearly proved by
Spirit of God by means whereof Sinners come to know more of God and of his Word particularly of his Law than ever they did before 2. There is a Conviction of their Conscience that they have frequently and hainously transgressed Gods Law in habit and Act in Heart and Life And by their Sins Original and Actual are fallen under the curse of the broken Law and the Wrath of the offended Law-giver 3. There thence ariseth in them a fear of the Wrath and Vengeanceof an offended God 4. Thereupon they begin to be sorry that by their Sin and Folly they have brought themselves into such a dangerous Condition and to humble themselves before God if so be that his Wrath may be turned away from them 5. The Light whereby the Word and Spirit had given them a clearer Knowledge of God and of themselves than ever they had before and of their obnoxiousness to Gods Everlasting Wrath and Vengeance is increased by the Gospel and thereby is given them some Discovery and Knowledge of Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of God as one whom God hath ordained to be the Saviour of lost Sinners of Mankind and to reconcile them unto God by satisfying his offended Justice and by Meriting for them his Grace and Favour 6. Upon this Knowledge of Christ there follows some kind of common Faith and Hope that it is possible for them in particular to get their Sins pardoned and their Souls saved through the Mediation of Jesus Christ Mark 10.27 7. Then there ariseth some Joy in them from the foresaid Faith and Hope of the possibility of their obtaining so great Salvation from the Curse of the Law and Wrath of the Law-giver Mark 6.20 Luke 8.13 8. This Joy and Gladness of Heart arising from the Hope of the Possibility of their obtaining so great Salvation makes them desire that that possibility may be reduced into Act and that they may actually obtain the possible Salvation 9. The desire of actually obtaining it makes them in some sort willing to use the means appointed by God for obtaining so desirable an end whereupon they give themselves to consider What those means are and how to use them and from that they proceed to read and hear the Word of God more than formerly to pray unto God themselves and to desire the Prayers of others for the pardon of their Sins and the Salvation of their Souls 10. And lastly They endeavour to reform their Lives by abstaining from the outward Commission of those Sins which they have been most grosly guilty of and which do most burden their Consciences These are the Dispositions which are previous to Regeneration and a through Conversion for we humbly conceive it possible for Sinners to go thus far towards before they attain unto a saving Conversion Secondly To declare what our Opinion is concerning these Dispositions previous to Conversion 1. We do not think that they are all absolutely necessary on Gods part as if he could not possibly Convert a Sinner immediately without such foregoing Dispositions We know nothing to the contrary but that God can come unto a Sinner by the powerful Operation of his Spirit and Grace if he please in the midst of his greatest and deepest unpreparedness and turn him from his Sin and bring him to Christ by saving Conversion immediately But yet 2. We do not think that this is Gods usual way of drawing Sinners to Christ for though such previous Dispositions to Conversion be not absolutely necessary on Gods part yet they are ordinarily necessary on mens part especially in Countreys where God hath planted Churches hath sent Ministers to preach the Gospel publickly and hath established a course of outward visible means we think that in such places though God hath not tied himself to means yet he hath tied men to the use of them and that they have never so much Reason to expect Gods special help and Effectual Assistance for their faving Conversion as when they are using their best endeavours in the use of the means which God himself has ordained for the communicating of his saving Grace to lost Sinners of Mankind 3. The foresaid Preparations which we believe to be ordinarily necessary on mans part we do not judge to be the product of meer natural Light and Power in Man but to be the effect of common Grace which Grace we call common because not only the Elect but the Non elect also are made partakers of it in the Visible Church and we hold it to be of a supernatural Order of Beings whereby those who are made partakers of it are enabled to do things that are above their meer natural Capacity and which they could not possibly do of themselves without that supernatural Help and Assistance 4. We do not believe that any thing or all that man doth by the help of the said supernatural common Grace is Meritorious either ex condigno or ex congruo of Condignity or of Congruity of special saving Grace so as God should be obliged and could not with Honour but give special saving Grace to those unto whom he hath first given the foresaid common Grace 5. Yet we think that God doth not take away the said common Grace from any to whom he hath given it till they have first forfeited it and provoked God to take it from them by their neglecting to improve it as they ought and might have done For we are of Dr. Owens Opinion in this matter as he expresseth it in his Discourfe concerning the Holy Spirit Pag. 198. Where special Grace and real Conversion is not attained to wit by means of common Grace and its effects on the Soul it is always from the Interposition of an Act of Wilfulness and Stubbornness in those Englightned and Convicted they do not sincerely improve what they have received and faint not meerly for want of Strength to proceed but by a free Act of their own Wills they refuse the Grace which is further tendred unto them in the Gospel From this Passage of Dr. Owens we see that according to him the only culpable Reason why those who have the foresaid common Grace and thereby go so far in the way to Conversion but yet do not attain the end do not arrive at special Grace and saving Conversion thereby is because they were grosly wanting in their Duty to God and themselves of improving common Grace as far as it would go 6. Though we thus shew that men themselves are the only culpable Cause of their not obtaining special Grace and saving Conversion thereby yet we do not say on the other hand that the Elect are the laudable Cause of their infallibly obtaining special Grace and saving Conversion thereby No no we are no such Persons we hold no such Opinions but are of Prospers Mind and say with him Quantumlibet impiorum malignitas accusetur Prosper de vocat Gentium lib. 1. Cap. 25. resistens gratiae dei nurquid probabuntur eam quibus est collata
Translation which some of them may have or may meet with it Thus then they begin Of those things that go before Conversion The First Position There are certain external Works ordinarily required of men before they be brought to the State of Regeneration or Conversion On the 3d. and 4th Articles p. 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 c. which are wont to be performed freely by them and other whiles freely omitted as to go to Church to hear the word Preached or the like This they prove from Rom. 10.14 As also from Reason and Experience and other Scriptures Mark 6.20 Acts 13.46 Psal 58.4 5. The Second Position There are certain inward Effects going before Conversion or Regeneration which by the power of the Word and Spirit are stirred up in the hearts of Men not yet justified such as are a knowledge of Gods will a sense of sin a fear of Punshment a bethinking of freedom or deliverance and some hope or pardon The Grace of God is not went to bring men to the state of Justification in which we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ by a sudden Enthusiasm or Rapture but by divers degrees of foregoing Actions taming and preparing them through the Ministry of the Word 1st This we may see in those who upon bearing S. Peters Sermon feel the burden of their sin are stricken with fear and sorrow desire deliverance and conceive some hope of Pardon All which may be collected of those words Acts 2.37 When they heard this they were pricked in their hearts and said unto Peter and the rest of the Apostles Men and Brethren what shall we do 2. This the very nature of the thing requires for as in the natural Generation of man there are many previous Dispositions which go before the bringing in of the form so also in the Spiritual Generation by many actions of Grace which must go before do we come to the Spiritual Nativity 3 To conclude this appears by the Instruments which God uses for the Regenerating of men For he imployeth the Ministry of Men and the Instrument of the Word 1 Cor. 4.15 I have begotten you through the Gospel But if God would Regenerate and Justify a wicked man immediately being prepared by no knowledge no sortow no desire no hope of pardon there would be no need of the Ministery of men nor of the Preaching of the Word for this purpose Neither would any care ly upon the Ministers dividing the Word aright fitly and wisely First To wound the Confâ—iences of their Auditors with the terrors of the Law then to raise them up with the promises of the Gospel and to exhort them to beg Faith and Repentance at Gods Hand by Prayers and Tears The Third Position Whom God doth thus prepare by his Spirit through the means of the Word those doth he truly and seriously call and invite to Faith and Conversion By the nature of the benefit offered and by the most evident Word of God we must judge of those helps of Grace which are bestowed upon men and not by the abuse or the event Therefore when the Gospel of its own nature calls men to Repentance and Salvation when the Incitements of Divine Grace tend the same way we must not suppose any thing is done feignedly by God This is proved by those earnest Pathetical Intreaties 2 Cor. 5.20 We pray you in Christs stead be yeâ— reconciled to God Those exhortations 2 Cor. 6.1 We beseech you that you receive not the Grace of God in vain Those Expostulations Gal. 1.6 I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you to the Grace of Christ Those Promises Revel 3.20 Behold I stand at the door and knock if any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him But if God should not seriously invite all to whom he vouchsafes this gift of his Word and Spirit to a serious Conversion surely both God should deceive many whom he calls in his Sons Name and the Messengers of the Evangelical Promises might be accused of false witness and those who being called to Conversion do neglect to obey might be more excuseable for that calling by the Word and Spirit cannot be thought to leave men unexcusable which is only exhibited to this end to make them unexcusable The Fourth Position Those whom God hath thus disposed he doth not forsake nor cease to further them in the true way to Conversion before he be forsaken of them by a voluntary neglect or repulse of this initial or entring Grace The Talent of Grace given by God is taken from none but from him who first buries it by his own fault Mat. 25.28 Hence is it that in the Scriptures every where we are admonished that we resist not the Spirit that we quench not the Spirit that we receive not the Grace of God in vain that we depart not from God Heb. 3.12 Yea that is most evidently noted to be the reason of Gods forsaking man because God is first forsal 〈◊〉 by man Prov. 1.24 c. Because I have called and you refused I will laugh at your Calamity 2 Chron. 24.20 Because ye have forsaken the Lord He hath also forsaken you But never in the Scripture is there the least mention or Intimation that God is wont or that he will at any time without some fault of man going before take away from any Man the aid of his exciting Grace or any help which he hath once conferred towards Mans Conversion or as it is in the Original that is ordained unto Mans Conversion Thus the Orthodox Fathers who had to do with the Pelagians ever â—anght It is the Will of God that we continue in a good Will who before he be forsaken for sakes no Man Aug. vel Prosper aâ— Art fals ad 7. and ost-times Converts many that forsake him These are the Words of Prosper in Answer to the seventh Objection of one Vincentius against the Doctrine of Augustine and Prosper The Fifth Position These forgoing effects wrought in the Minds of Men by the Power of the Word and Spirit may be stifled and utterly extinguished by the fault of a rebellious Will and in many are so that some in whose Hearts by the virtue of the Word and Spirit some Knowledge of Divine Truth some Sorrow for Sin some Desire and Care of Deliverance have been imprinted are changed to the quite contrary they Reject and Hate the Truth they give themselves up to their Lusts are hardened in their Sins and without all desire or care of Freedom from them Rot and Puâ—rifie in them Matth. 13.19 The Wicked one cometh and catcheth away that which is sown in his Heart 2 Pet. 2.21 It had been better for them not to have known the way of Righteousness than after they have known it to turn from the Holy Commandment detrvered unto them But it is happened to them according to the true Proverb the Dog iâ— turned to his own Vomit again
Heb. 6.4 5 6. It is impossible for those who were once inlightned and have tasted of the Heavenly Gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted of the good Word of God and the Powers of the World to come if they shall fall away to return them again unto Repentance The Sixth Position The very Elect in those Acts going before Regeneration do not carry themselves so but that for their Negligence and Resistance they may be justly relinquished and forsaken of God but such is the special Mercy of God towards them that though they do for a while repel and choak the Grace of God exciting and inlightning them yet God doth urge them again and again nor doth he cease to stir them forward till he have throughly subdued them to his Grace and set them in the State of regenerate Sons John 6.37 All that the Father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me I will in no no wise cast out Jerem. 14.7 O Lord though our Iniquities testifie against us do thou it for thy Names sake for our backslidings are many Jerem. 32.39 I will give them one Heart and one way that they may fear me for ever And Phil. 1.6 He that hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ But if God should not go on thus to follow even those that hold off and retire from him no Calling would be effectual there would be no Filial Adoption and even Election it self grounded upon the good Pleasure of God would be frustrated Since the Fall of Man God would have it ascribed to his Grace that a Man doth come unto him neither will he have it ascribed Aug. de bonoâ— persever to any thing but his Grace that a Man doth not go from him The Seventh Position Those that are not elected when they resist the Spirit of God and his Grace in these Acts foregoing Regeneration and exstinguish the initial effects of the same in themselves by the fault of their own free will are justly forsaken by God whensoever it pleaseth him Whom by their own fault so forsaken we truly pronounce to remain by the same demerit hardned and unconverted We think it to be without all doubt that no mortal man doth so carry himself toward God but that either by omitting that which he should have done or committing that which he should not have done he deserves to have the Grace taken from him which be hath Which ground being forelay'd it is clear that God without all injustice or cruelty may take from such men that Grace which he hath extended to them and leave them to the hardness of their own hearts Rom. 9.18 He hath mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardneth God also oweth this to no man that when he resists enlightning and exciting Grace and serves his own lusts he should then soften and mollify him by that special Grace which no hard heart resists Rom. 11.35 Who hath first given unto him and it shall be recompenced unto him again Again he that is thus forsaken being not converted perishes through his own fault John 5.34 40. I say these things that ye might be saved and ye will not come to me that ye might have life Acts 28.27 The heart of this people is waxed groâ—â— and their eare are dull of hearing and their eyes have they closed least they should be converted and I should heal them Thus our Divines in the Synod and with the approbation of the Synod of Dort gave their Judgment at large and the grounds and reasons of it concerning the dispositions which are ordinarily previous to Regeneration and saving Conversation all which we have transcribed word for word out of their Collegiate suffrage that the world may see that our opinion concerning Preparations and Dispositions previous to saving Conversation is neither new nor singular but is the very same with that of the Synod of Dort from whom we learned it according to the Scripture Now we will shew that this same Doctrine of our Divines in the Synod of Dort is received and approved by those very Divines whom our Authour in his Letter would suborn to be Witnesses against us in the Controversie between him and us we shall demonstrate this by the Testimonies of Dr. Ames Dr. Twiss and Dr. Owen who do all three expressy approve of the suffrage of our Britain Divines in this matter 1. Dr. Ames hath an intire Disputation against Maccovius concerning the preparation of a Sinner to Conversion It and some other Dissertations of his are ordinarily bound up with his short Scholastical reply to Grevinchovius In that Disputation after he had in the first Position rejected as we have done all Dispositions any wise meritorious of Justification in the second Position he says That because there are no meritorious Dispositions for that reason so to hate the very name Disposition as without any distinction to take away and deny all Preparatory affections and motions in a Sinner whereby God makes way for his Congruous Conversion and in some sort puts him in an order and course of Actions which have a tendency unto Regeneration this is as judiciously and wisely doâ—e as if one should absolutely deny that there are any good Works at all because meritorious works are justly condemned And in his 3d. Position But we doubt not to assert says Ames that in every Sinner of ripe years who is to be Converted ordinarily some dispositions tending to Conversion go before it altho in a different degree according to the wise dispensation of God And in his 5th Position De istis inquit nihil certius est quâm quod in Syn. Dord ad art 3. 4. Proposuerunt Theologi Britanni sunt quaedam opera c. Concerning those Dispositions says Ames Nothing is more certain than that which the Brittain Divines proposed in the Synod of Dort upon the 3d. and 4th Articles There are some external works ordinarily required of men before they be brought to the state of Regeneration or Conversion And there are some internal Effects previous to Conversion or Regeneration which by the power of the Word and Spirit are stirred up in the hearts of those who are not yet justified such are the knowledge of Gods will sense of sin fear of Punishment thought of deliverance some hope of pardon For as in the natural Generation of man there are many previous dispositions so also in the Spiritual Generation c. Thus Ames highly approved what we have quoted before at large out of the Suffrage Then he quotes Perkins for the same opinion in his cases of Conscience Book 1. c. 5. In his 8th Position So great says Ames is the evidence of this Truth that he who opposeth it by one rash Sentence seems to blot out the whole first part of the Catechism with a great part of the Second and also to abrogate and make void the whole
Ministery of the Word in order to the Conversion of Sinners ☞ For as there is no use of the Ministery with respect to the Regenerate but that they may be prepared for and brought unto Glory so there is no use of it with respect to the Unregenerate but that they may be prepared for and brought unto Conversion In his 9th Position he brings two places of Scripture to prove that there are such dispositions previous to Conversion Mark 12.34 Thou art not far from the Kingdom of God Acts 2.37 When they heard this they were pricked in their heart Upon both these places of Scripture he quotes Calvin Observing from them that there are Preparations and Dispositions previous to saving Conversion Let Scholars consult the Author himself and read the whole Disputation if they please What we have transcribed out of it is abundantly sufficient to demonstrate that Ames is on our side and approved the said Doctrine of our Britain Divines in the Synod of Dort 2. Dr. Twiss in his answer to Mr. Hoard his Book called Gods love unto Mankind discoursing there of what our Divines at Dort Twiss against Hoard p. 205. on the Fifth Article said concerning the change which by Gods Word and Spirit is wrought in the minds affections and manners of men even of the Non-elect before Conversion and Justification he says Expresly That the dispositions which God grants unto men before saving Conversion as they are in the Elect they are preparations to further Grace and so in the Reprobate they might be preparations to further Grace if it pleased God so to ordain as to bring them on forward to Justification and true Sanctification conjunct therewith and thereby unto Salvation From which words we observe two things 1 That Dr. Twiss absolutely asserts that the previous Dispositions which God by his Word and Spirit works in the Elect before Conversion and Regeneration are preparations to further Grace 2. As for the like Dispositions wrought by the Word and Spirit in the Reprobate who are never Converted and Regenerated he affirms not that they are de facto but that they might be in them also preparations unto further Grace upon supposition that it pleased God to give them the like special effectual saving Grace which he gives unto the Elect. And afterwards in the same Book he approves what our Divines say on the 3d. and 4th Articles concerning previous dispositions and which we have quoted out of them at large only he saith he doth not sufficiently understand the last Clause of their Argument to prove their third Position Which is That calling by the Word and Spirit cannot be thought to leave men inexcusable which is only exhibited to this end to make them unexcusable Twiss against Hoard p. 218. This is the only thing in that Discourse of theirs concerning previous Dispositions which Dr. Twiss pretends not to understand Yet at the same time he says That he thinks by Gods making men unexcuseable they meant Gods so taking away all excuse from men as that thereby they become faulty and culpable before God for want of a sufficient excuse which he grants to be the ordinary meaning of the word unexcusable and then he adds In this sense I willingly subscribe unto them and therewithall shew what I take to be their meaning namely this that if God making shew that if they believe he will accept them and that they shall be saved did not indeed mean that he would in that case accept and save them then there were no reason why they should be accounted faulty and condemned for not believing Thus says he in a desire exactly to conform my self to the Judgment of these Worthies of our Church made choice of by our Soveraign to be sent in so honourable an Ambassage to countenance that famous Synod of the most Reformed Churches I have made bold to Interpret them and to show my concurrence with them c. By this passage it is evident that he approved all they wrote on that head of dispositions previous to Regeneration For he scrupled only one Clause which he so Interpreted as to remove the ground of the Scruple and then declared his Concurrence with them in that which he took to be the true sense of their words and indeed he needed not to have made any such Scrupulous Objection as he there doth for undoubtedly our Divines used the word unexcusable there in no other sense but what he yields to at last and approves of To wit That that calling by the Word and Spirit cannot be thought to leave men faulty by taking away their excuse which is only designed and exhibited to make them faulty for want of an excuse It appears plainly by the whole Series and Contexture of their discourse that this was the meaning of our most Learned and Judicious Divines and consequently that there is no difference between Twiss and them in this matter Especially it is most evident that Twiss and they exactly agreed that in the Elect the foresaid Dispositions before Conversion are Preparations to further Grace even to the speciall Grace of saving Conversion it self And this is the main thing that we now enquire after to wit Whether there be any preparatory Dispositions in the Elect before Conversion Thirdly Dr. Owen also in his Discourse in Folio concerning the Holy Spirit quotes the Judgment of our Brittain Divines at the Synod of Dort concerning the foresaid dispositions previous to Regeneration Dr. Owens discourse concerning the work of the Holy Spirit Book 3. Cap. 2. Pag. 191 192 193 194 195 196. and approves it and goes the same way that they do in discoursing of them and shewing what they are and how they are wrought First says he in reference unto the work of Regeneration it self positively considered we may observe that ordinarily there are certain previous and preparatory works or workings in and upon the Souls of men that are antecedent and dispositive unto it But yet Regeneration doth not consist in them nor can it be educed out of them This is for the substance of it the Position of the Divines of the Church of England at the Synod of Dort two whereof died Bishops and others of them were dignified in the Hierarchy I mention it that those new Divines by whom these things are despised may a little consider whose ashes they trample on and scorn Then the Dr. tells us 1. That he speaks not of the Regeneration of Infants but of the adult 2. That the dispositions previous to their Regeneration are not formal but material dispositions 3. That some of them are attainable by the power of nature alone such as are outward attendance on the dispensation of the Word and a diligent intension of mind in attending on the means of Grace to understand and receive the things revealed and declared as the mind and will of God and he says that the omitting or neglecting to use this natural ability is the principal occasion and
cause of the eternal ruin of the Souls of the Generality of them to whom or amongst whom the Gospel is preached John 3.19 4. That there are certain Internal Spiritual Effects wrought in and upon the Souls of Men whereof the Word preached is the immediate Instrumental cause which ordinarily do precede the work of Regeneration or real Conversion unto God And they are reduceable unto Three Heads 1. Illumination 2. Conviction 3. Reformation The first of these respects the Mind only The second the Mind Conscience and Affections And the third the Life and Conversation These are attained by the inward influence of the Holy Spirit upon mens Souls concurring with the Word to make it effectual unto those ends All these things may be wrought in the minds of men by the dispensation of the Word and yet the work of Regeneration be never perfected in them Yea although they are good in themselves and fruits of the kindness of God towards us they may not only be lost as unto any Spiritual advantage but also be abused to our great disadvantage Then Pag. 196. The Dectrine says he concerning these things hath been variously handled distinguished and applyed by many Learned Divines and Faithful Ministers of the Gospel Unto that Light which they received into them from the infallible Word of God they soined those experiences which they had observed in their own hearts and the Consciences of others with whom they had to do which were suitable thereunto And in the dispensation of this truth according to the measure of the gift of the Grace of Christ which they severally received they had an useful and fruitful Ministery in the World to the Converting of many unto God ☞ But we have lived to see all these things decried and rejected Thus Dr. Owen concerning Dispositions previous to Regeneration whose sense upon the whole we have here briefly and faithfully represented unto all into whose hands this may come And in the first and latter part of this long quotation we have transcribed his own words By all which we see that Dr. Owen received and approved as true good and useful the foresaid Doctrine of the English Divines at the Synod of Dort concerning Dispositions and Preparations before Regeneration and seems to have said it with some grief that he had lived to see all these things decryed and rejected to wit by some Arminian Divines of the Church of England And would it not have grieved him a little more to have seen all these things decryed and rejected also by Nonconformists that pretend to be the only party of Protestants who adhere to the old pure Doctrine of the best Reformed Churches when at the same time and in the same thing they join with the new Divines as Dr. Owen expresly calls them that is with the Arminians against the Synod of Dort and the old Doctrine of the Church of England But you may say doth our Author do so doth he decry and reject those Preparations and Dispositions before Regeneration and Conversion which our Divines maintained in the Synod of Dort and which Dr. Owen maintained after them against modern Arminians We answer if he doth not decry and reject them what means all that which he writes in the 12 page of his Letter against all Preparations and Dispositions before a saving and justifying Faith Surely he took wrong measures if the thought that those dispositions might be admitted before Regeneration and Conversion but not before a saving and justifying Faith For it is simply impossible and implyes a contradiction that they can be before Regeneration and first saving Conversion but they must be also before saving and justifying Faith So that either he must contradict himself after his usual manner if he hold the foresaid dispositions to be before Regeneration and Conversion but not before saving justifying Faith or if he affirm that they are neither before Regeneration and Conversion nor yet before saving Faith which is necessarily implyed in Regeneration and Conversion then indeed he doth not contradict himself but he doth that which is worse he contradicts the Truth and the Synod of Dort with Dr. Ames Dr. Twiss and Dr. Owen who all maintain this Truth that the said preparatory dispositions are before Regeneration and Conversion and so before a saving justifying Faith If he says that he doth not deny them to be before Regeneration and Saving Justifying Faith nor to be dispositive thereunto but that he only denies them to be dispositive unto Justification We Answer 1. That then he yields the Cause and comes over to us for we do not say that any thing before Regeneration and saving justifying Faith is or can be immediately Dispositive unto Justification but that the foresaid Preparations are Dispositive unto Regeneration and Conversion which are in Order before Justification 2. Then he is as much bound to Answer his own Argument against their being Dispositive unto Justification as we are for his Argument is this that nothing a Man doth before saving justifying Faith can dispose him for Justification because it is all Sin and Sin can never dispose a Man for Justification Now if this be true if all that a Man doth before saving justifying Faith be Sin if it be vain labour and an Acting of Sin and therefore cannot dispose him for Justification then for the same Reason it cannot dispose him for Regeneration and saving justifying Faith for it is self-evident that that which is vain labour and nothing but Sin can no more dispose a Man for Regeneration than for Justification Indeed Sin can dispose a Man for nothing but for Sin and Punishment and if that which is vain labour could dispose a Man for Regeneration and Conversion it would at once be both vain labour and not vain labour it would be vain labour for so it is said and supposed to be and it would not be vain labour because it disposes a Man for Regeneration and Conversion and that is not vain labour which is useful to so good an end as the Regenerating and Converting of a Man is But 1. our Author Objects the 13th Article of the Church of England To which we Answer 1. That the English Divines at the Synod of Dort understood the Articles of their own Church much better than our Author doth and yet they found nothing in the 13th Article against Dispositions before Conversion wrought in Sinners by the Word and Spirit of Christ 2. The Article speaks only of Works done by Infidels without any Grace of Christ at all and without any Inspiration of the Spirit Now it is Confessed that such Works are not pleasant to God See the 10th Art nor are they Dispositive unto Regeneration and Conversion But the Works which the Synod of Dort Ames Twiss and Owen affirm to be Preparatory and Dispofitive unto Regeneration and Conversion are not such Works they are not works done by the meer Power of Nature without any supernatural Grace at all but they are Works done
by the Power of the Word and Spirit of Christ they are Works done by a certain Inferior kind of supernatural Grace of Christ and Inspiration of the Spirit of Christ which is sufficient to elevate and raise the Faculties of a Sinner something above its natural Capacity to the producing of such Actions which though they be not savingly good and so not pleasing to God unto Justification and Salvation yet they are materially good and Relatively good too in Order to the use and end for which God has ordained them that is they are Dispositively good they have from God so much goodness as makes them fit to be a Material Disposition of the Sinner to receive from God that which is in a higher Order of goodness even that which is savingly good and in this respect being good they are so far pleasing to God as they are dispositive unto Regeneration and Conversion Hence it is written Mark 10.21 That Jesus beholding an unconverted man loved him the Man was certainly as yet in an unregenerated unconverted State as appears by the 22 verse and by the following Discourse of our Saviour yet he was something solicitous about his Salvation and had some small weak Disposition towards Conversion which our Saviour observed in him and was pleased with it and loved him under that Consideration as something inclined and disposed towards Conversion now our Saviour as Man and as Mediator was never pleased with any thing but as it was pleasing to God and never loved any Man further than God loved him 3. The Article doth not deny but that the foresaid Works or Actions of unregenerate Men done by the Grace of Christ and Inspiration of his Spirit are by the Ordination and free Constitution of God Preparatory and Dispositive unto the Reception of special saving Grace in Regeneration and Conversion But if it intends them at all it denies that of their own Nature they are meritoriously Dispositive either unto the Grace of Regeneration or Justification for the clearing of this it is to be well considered that before the Reformation there were several numerous Sects of Schoolmen in the Roman Church whereof one to wit the Scotists held that a Sinner by doing what he can as far as his natural Strength will go without any Supernatural Grace from Christ may Merit the first Supernatural Grace with a Merit of Congruity and this same Doctrine was taught at Rome even after the Reformation and Council of Trent and published by Nider in a Book intituled Consolatorium timoratae Conscientiae Printed at Rome in the Year 1604. as is to be seen in the 9. Chap. of the 2d part pag. 57. where he maintains that Facienti quod in se est solis naturae viribus Deus daâ— gratiam infallibiliter necessario That unto a Man who doth what he can by the alone Power of Nature God gives Grace infallibly and necessarily â—vâ—n as necessarily as the Sun gives Light to all that open their Eyes to receive it But others of the Schoolmen rejected this Opinion of the Scotists as a Semipelagian Error yet even they held that God having freely given to an unconverted Sinner the first supernatural preventing Grace he may thereby so Convert and Turn himself to God as to Merit of Congruity the Grace of the first Justification that is the Infusion of the Habit of justifying or sanctifying Grace Now the 13th Article of the Church of England was levelled against both these Opinions of the Papists especially and expresly against the 1st Works done by the alone Power of Nature cannot make Men meet to receive Grace or they cannot deserve Grace of Congruity because they are done before and without any Grace of Christ and Inspiration of his Spirit and so are not pleasing to God and what is not pleasing to him cannot possibly Merit the Grace of Regeneration or Justification at his Hand 2. Neither the Works done without any Grace of Christ nor the Works done by the help of Christs preventing common Grace before Regeneration make Men meet to receive or of Congruity deserve the Grace of Justification because they do not Spring out of Faith in Jesus Christ but are both of them before it and therefore are not pleasing to God unto Justification and Salvation yet that nothing hinders but the Works which are done by the preventing Grace of Christ before Conversion may by Gods free Ordination be Preparatory and Materially Dispositive unto Conversion and Faith in Christ 4. We willingly grant what the Article saith That Works done before Regeneration and Conversion have the Nature of Sin because they are not done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done that is they are not so circumstantiated as God requires good Works to be Yet it doth not follow that such of them as are done by the help of preventing Grace are Sin and nothing but Sin as our Author would make People believe for it is one thing for a Work to have the Nature of Sin cleaving to it and it is another thing to be Sin and nothing but Sin the Works of which we now speak certainly have the Nature of Sin cleaving to them as they proceed from an unregenerate Man whose Heart is not yet renewed and who is not endued with a saving Faith and as they are not directed by him to the Glory of God as the best and highest end and yet it is so far from being true that they are Sin in the abstrect and nothing but Sin that on the contrary they are Materially and Substantially good as they are commanded by God and as they proceed from the preventing exciting Grace of Christs Spirit causing a Man to do them in Obedience to Gods command and likewise they are Relatively and Dispositively good as they are ordered by God to be a means of preparing and disposing Man for the saving Grace of Regeneration and Conversion Hence Dr. Owen in the Book aforesaid Pag. 196. saith That they are good in themselves and Fruits of the kindness of God towards us And Pag. 198. He saith That in their own Nature they have a tendency unto sincere Conversion And Pag. 167. He saith that the Spirit of Grace ordinarily giveth not out his Aids and Assistances any where but where he preparen the Soul with Diligence in Duty Thus Dr. Owen whereby it manifestly appears that he was far from thinking that all a Man can do before he have the Spirit of God dwelling in him and in Order to a Holy change first in his Heart and then in his Life is both vain labour and an Acting of Sin And as far was Dr. Twiss from any such thought for thus he writes in the Book mentioned before Answer to the Doctrine of the Synod of Dort and Arles reduced to Practice p. 106. There is a legal Repentance and there is an Evangelical Repentance And that legal Repentance may be unto Desperation as Judas his Repentance was Again that legal Repentance may be a
Fruit of the Spirit of Bondage which prepares for the hearing of the Gospel and for the receiving of the Spirit of Adoption by the Gospel then in the Preaching the Gospel the tender Mercies of God displayed unto us and how ready be is to Pardon Sin in general and that of Free Grace may better our Repentance and when we are thus by Degrees brought to the Spirit of Adoption to cry Abba Father then our Repentance shall be most perfect as before I said And when we look upon him whom we have pierced and can in Assurance of Faith say with the Apostle I live by Faith in him who loved me and gave himself for me this is of Power to prick a Master vein and make us bleed out Repentance in the sight of our Gracious God whom we have offended and who yet in despite of our Sins hath loved us more Devoutly and Affectionately than ever before Yet is it true as he the Arminian saith That Repentance is nothing worth without Faith what thinks he of Ahabs Repentance when he put on Sackcloath and wallowed in Ashes upon the Word of Judgment against his House brought unto him by the Prophet Eliah Do we not know what the Lord said hereupon unto Eliah Seest thou how Ahab is humbled before me because he submitteth himself before me I will not bring that evil in his days The uttermost of the Ninivites Faith was but this that we read of who can tell if God will turn and Repent and turn from his fierce Wrath that we perish not Yet their Repentance was such that when God saw their works that they turned from their Evil Ways he repented of the Evil which he said that he would do unto them and he did it not Jon. 3.9 Thus Dr. Twiss whereby it is evident that he was far from thinking that all which a man can do before he have the Spirit of God dwelling in him and that he may get a Holy Heart and a saving Faith and so be fitted to lead a Holy Life is nothing but vain labour and an Acting of Sin Object 2. Secondly Our Author Objects the seventh Article of the 16. Chapter of the Westminster Confession of Faith And our Answer is That that Article of the Confession of Faith is the same in effect with the 13th Article of the Church of England and therefore is to be taken in the same Sence to wit That the Works of unregenerate men done before and without any Grace of Christs Spirit though they may be materially good yet they are formally so sinful that they do not make a Man meet to receive any Grace from God either the Grace of Regeneration or Justification and as for the Works of unregenerate Men which are done by the help of supernatural preventing common Grace though they be better than the former which are done by the alone Strength of Nature yet they are sinful too they are so defiled with Sin as they proceed from an unregenerate Man that they cannot please God so far as to make a Man meet to receive the Grace of Justification from God nor do they make a Man meet to receive the Grace of Regeneration from God by way of Reward due to them as Congruously Meritorious thereof Yet in another sound sence they may make a Man meet to receive the Grace of Regeneration and Conversion from God to wit as they are wrought in Men by the Spirit and according to the Word and are ordained by God to be means of removing such things as hinder Conversion and of the helping men forward in the way unto and of fitting and preparing them for Conversion as a Gracious Gift which ordinarily God freely gives to those who are so prepared by the Word and Spirit of Christ In this sound sence though not in the Popish or Semipelagian sense the foresaid works do indeed make men meet to receive Grace from God and the Article of the Confession of Faith saith nothing to the contrary Yea it is plainly against that absired opinion that all that an Unregenerate man can do by any means in order to the getting of his heart savingly changed and initially sanctified by the special effectual Grace of the Regenerating Spirit of Christ is vain labour and an acting of Sin we say that the foresaid Article of the Confession of Faith is plainly against that absurd opinion for it says expresly That works of Unregerate men are things which God Commands and are of good use both to themselves and others and one of the best uses they can possibly be of unto themselves is to dispose and prepare them for Regeneration and Conversion and to make them if not meet yet at least less unmeet to receive special saving Grace from God through Jesus Christ And thus according to the Confession of Faith and our principle agreeable thereunto we can give encouragement to unregenerate men to attend upon God in the diligent use of means for obtaining the free and effectual Grace of the Regenerating Spirit and so Conversion thereby but our Author seems to tell Unregenerate men that all they can do before they be Regenerated and have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them which is got only by Faith in Christ and therefore is in order of nature after Faith in Christ altho they do it with a desire that they may be Regenerated and may obtain a precious holy Faith in Christ and thereby the Holy Spirit of Christ it is all vain labour and an acting of sin Now is not this great encouragement for men to wait upon God in the use of his appointed means for the obtaining of converting Grace and a new holy heart to tell them that all they can do in order to that end is vain labour and acting of sin We hope such men will not believe our Author but if they do there is nothing can be expected from them but that â—hev should cast off all use of means and give over all reading hearing and praying for why should they trouble themselves with such Religious Exercises since all is an acting of sin and lost labour too Yet if our Author should intend to set up for a Quietist the foresaid Doctrine may be of good use to bring in Disciples to him for he can tell them holdly as his manner is that if they will become Quietists he will shew them an infallible way wherein they shall neither act sin nor yet lose their labour for if they will become right Quietists they shall neither act nor labour but wholly rest from action and labour and shall not act sin nor lose their labour because they shall not act nor labour at all but wholly rest from action and labour and whilest they are in a state of perfect rest without any kind of action or labour at all Then the Spirit of God shall fall upon them and Regenerate and Convert them 3d. Objection Thirdly He Objects the Testimony of Calvin who in his Institutions writes thus
wherewith this man either maliciously or ignorantly asperses us especially when they may clearly see that his Calumnies do not hang together but are inconsistent and contradict one another which is a sure mark whereby to know a Calumniator and false witness Mark 14.56 We do not positively say that he doth thus calumniate us out of meer malice but we are sure it is and must be either out of malice or ignorance and we willingly incline to the more charitable which is the safer side that he doth it rather out of pure ignorance and blind zeal than out of meer malice and Cain-like hatred of his Brethren But whatever moved him to it the thing it self is unwarrantable and injurious for which he must give an account to that God who is an infinitely more judicious Observer than he or any of his party and who as he observes all our opinions and practices so he judges always aright according to the true merits of every cause and in this cause we can with a good conscience lift up our face to the Lord our God and say Lord thou whose understanding is infinite and from whom nothing can be hid and who hast infinite power and right to punish us with everlasting destruction if we now lye to thee and dissemble with thee thou knowest that our cause is not Coincident with the cause of Pelagius and that this man doth Calumniate us in saying that judicious Observers cannot but perceive that they are coincident To thee O God we appeal from this false Accuser of the Brethren and unto thee we referr our cause to judge between us and this man whether it be coincident or the same with that of Pelagius But it may be our Author will object and say That if our cause be not coincident with that of Pelagius yet it is at least coincident with that of Arminius We answer that neither is that true For 1. Our Author and those of his way commonly say that the cause of Arminius and Pelagius is all one and therefore if they say true in that and do not calumniate Arminius our cause cannot possibly be coincident with the cause of Arminius unless it be also coincident with that of Pelagius they being both one and the same 2. Our Author saith That we are for the middle-way between the Arminians and the Orthodox as he calls them If that be true our cause must lye in the mid-way between the two extremes and then it is impossible to be Coincident with the cause of Arminius for that is one of the extremes and it is evident by ocular demonstration that the middle cannot be the same with either of the sides and so cannot be coincident with either of the extremes If our Author say that we are come off from the middle-way and are come over to Arminius and so are now on the other extreme and wrong side in opposition to the Orthodox who are on the extreme right side We Answer 1. If that be true and he know it then he is guilty of a gross lye in saying that our cause is coincident with that of Arminius and so that we are Arminians and yet that we are for a middle-way between the Arminians and the Orthodox If he will have us to be Arminians he must not if he be a true honest man say that we are for a middle-way between the Arminians and the Orthodox 2. If we be come over from the middle-way unto the Arminian extreme we desire our Author to tell us when it was and how long it is since and how he knows that we are come over to the Arminian extreme for we profess sincerely that we know none of these things We neither know when it was nor how long it is since nor do we know that we are yet come over or ever shall come over to the Arminian extreme Indeed we dare not pretend to any certain Knowledge of Future Contingents that are not revealed to us yet we trust in our God through Jesus Christ that by the Grace of his Spirit he will keep us so firm and fixed in the Truth of his Word that we shall never go over to the Arminian extream And since we know certainly what we are for the present as to this matter we can safely and with a good Conscience call Heaven and Earth to Record this day against this standerer that we are not Arminians and that he doth very sinfully reproach and calumniate us in saying that we corrupt Christs pure Gospel and obtrude on People a new Arminian Gospel to the certain Peril of their Souls and that our Cause is Coincident with that of Arminius But 3. Though according to the Light which God hath given us by his Word and Spirit we believe that the Arminians erre from the Truth in many things and we do from our Hearts dissent from their Errours yet we hold our selves bound in Conscience as we must answer to God at Death and Judgment not to calumniate them nor any other Erroneous Brethren and therefore we cannot in Conscience say that whilest the Arminians keep within the compass of the five Articles wherein they differed from our Divines at the Synod of Dort their cause is coincident with the cause of Pelagius We do indeed think that something and too much of Pelagianism or Semipelagianism is implied in and by consequence follows from their Principles but that doth not make their cause to be Coincident with the cause of Pelagius Therefore our most Judicious and Consciencious Divines do not scruple to declare Pelagianism to be a Heresie against the very Foundation of Christian Religion But as for Arminianism keeping within the Compass of the five Articles their Consciences will not suffer them to say that it is one or more Fundamental Errors or Heresies this might be sufficiently proved by many Testimonies of our Divines but instead of all that might be alledged we shall Content our selves at present with the Testimony of that famous General Assembly of the Church of Scotland which in the Year 1638. at Glasgow deposed all their Bishops though that Assembly had accused many of their Bishops of Arminianism yet did they not say that Arminianism was as bad as and Coincident with Pelagianism and that it was a Fundamental Heresie They were so far from saying so that in the seventh Session November 28. the Moderator Mr. Henderson in the Face and with the Approbation of the Assembly gave this Moderate Answer unto a Politick Objection of Dr. Balcanquel who appeared there for the Bishops Controversias omnes c. That all the Controversies especially if they exceed not the limits of the five controverted Articles between the Arminians and Anti-Arminians or Calvinists neither were nor are about Fundamental Doctrines that indeed the Arminians erred grievously but that he and the Synod were not yet perswaded that all Heterodoxies that is that all Erroneous Doctrines Hist motuum in regno Scotiae Dantisci An. 1641. p. 100 101. are
Scripture and Reason and the Testimony of the Synod of Dort that there can be no just ground to doubt of it And if it were otherwise and we were justified before we were sanctified in any Kind or Degree that is before there were any Holy Change wrought in us before we did begin to Convert and turn to God before we had any Holy Inclination to believe or any Holy Act of Faith and Repentance and any Holy purpose to lead a new Life then might we continue to be actually justified and pardoned without being in any Kind or Degree sanctified because by the same Reason that Justification might be begun without any Kind or Degree of Sanctification without any saving Faith and Repentance it might be continued without them But all true Protestants except Antinomians even our Author himself confess that Justification cannot be continued without any Sanctification without any true Faith and Repentance therefore Justification cannot be begun before and without them If any should say that this Argument may be retorted upon our selves for we confess that Sanctification begun in the Seed Principle and Disposition with Vital Acts of Faith and Repentance flowing from it cannot be continued without Justification therefore it follows by our own way of Reasoning that they cannot be begun before Justification at first We Answer by denying the Consequence because God hath expresly promised Justification through Christ to all that from a new Heart believe and repent and such Faith and Repentance are the Condition on which Justification is promised But God hath no where promifed either Initial or Progressive Sanctification on Condition of Justification This shows that our Argument cannot be justly retorted upon us because there is a peculiar Reason to the contrary a Reason from the Promise of God that shews Sanctification and Faith and Repentance cannot possibly be continued without Justification whereas if Justification might be begun without any Degree of Sanctification or Faith and Repentance there can no sufficient Reason be given we think why it might not be long continued without any Degree of Sanctification or any Act of Faith and Repentance As for the promise of the Spirit to sanctifie them who are justified it is made to and got by Faith by our Authors own Confession Let. p. 12. and so it presupposes Faith and Faith presupposes Effectual Calling and a Heart Renovation and Sanctification begun Now this makes for us and shews that if Sanctification begun in the first change of the Heart and first Acts of Faith and Repentance did not go before there would be no place for the Promise of the Spirit after Justification to carry on and perfect the begun Sanctification because there would be no such Person in the World as that Promise is made to for the Promise of the Spirit to sanctifie us throughly after Justification is made to true Believers which none can be till they be first initially sanctified by the Spirit of Christ not yet inhabiting but fitting up a Spiritual House for himself to inhabit which when he hath done and God hath thereupon justified us through the Righteousness of Christ imputed to us then according to his Promise he gives us his sanctifying Spirit to dwell in us and to carry on the work begun unto Perfection Thus we have made good what we undertook and have proved that there is some Preparation some Holy Disposition and Qualification some Holy Principle wrought in the Soul and some Holy Acts of Faith and Repentance produced by the Soul in order to and before Justification and that thereupon Justification follows necessarily and infallibly according to the Promise of God who cannot possibly lye and deceive But as we said at the beginning we hold this Priority of Initial Sanctification and of the first vital Acts of Faith and Repentance no farther than is necessary to verifie the expressions and fence of Holy Scripture concerning them and so we conclude this part of our Answer with that of the Learned Turretine Licet Poenitentiae c. Although Remission of Sins be Promised to Repentance Instit Theol. Elenct part 2. p. 744. because it ought to accompany Faith and to be in him who is justified as a certain Condition required of him because God cannot pardon Sin unto one who is Impenitent it doth not follow that it can be said to justifie with Faith because it Contributes nothing either Meritoriously or Instrumentally unto the Act of Justification That is because as we say Repentance is only a qualifying but not a Receptive Applicative Condition of Justification An Appendix of the third Section concerning Dispositions previous to Regeneration and through Conversion WE Remember that in our Preliminaries to the foresaid Discourse concerning the Preparations and Dispositions that are Antecedent to Justification we said that as there are some which have a necessary infallible Connection with Justification of which we have spoken already so there are others which have not such a necessary infallible Connection with it As to this last sort we do not say that they are Dispositions and Preparations with which Men are always and without which they are never nor ever can possibly be justified yet we think that ordinarily they do precede Justification and Effectual Vocation too in all that are Effectually Called and Justified All such Dispositions and Preparations our Author denies in the 12th Page of his Letter and pretends that Calvin the Church of England and Westminster Assembly of Divines do all concur with him therein We do not at all wonder that he denies all Preparations and Dispositions before Effectual Calling and the first saving Conversion since as we have seen he denies that there is any good wrought in us or done by us before Justification And as for Preparations and Dispositions before Conversion if he would or could assure us that he denies them in no other sense than all his Authors Calvin the Church of England and Assembly of Divines do deny them we should have no controversie with him about that matter but we think that he is of a different Judgment and either doth not understand in what sense it is that they deny them or if he understand them aright he doth not believe them or if he believe some part that he likes yet he doth not believe all that they say concerning those Dispositions previous to Regeneration and Conversion That it may be clearly known what our Judgment is concerning those Preparations that are ordinarily previous to Regeneration and Conversion we shall 1. Name them and shew what they are 2. Declare what our Opinion is concerning them 3. Shew that our Opinion concerning them is neither new nor singular but what we believe in this matter we have learned and received from the most eminent Pastors of the Reformed Churches whereof many lived and died in the true Faith before many of us were born First then to Name them there is 1. An Illumination of the Mind by the Word and
that Synod And we would hope also that our Author and those of his way will not be against this mutual forbearance when they consider that the said middle-way was not only tolerated but even approved by the Synod of Dort in that the suffrages which expresly asserted it were approved and that long before it was held by our first Reformers both at home and abroad For instance the Universality of Christs death in the sense before explained was believed and professed by the Blessed Martyrs Latimer and Hooper in England as also by the Church of England her self and by Luther in Germany and Calvin at Geneva as shall be proved by their own words to be seen in their writings extant at this day if any have the considence to deny it At present we shall only give our Brethren to understand First That Luther on John 3.16 God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever c. says Jam sanè tibi omnibus hominibus fatendum est mundum c. Now truly thou and all men must confess that the whole race of Mankind is called the World comprehending in one all men in general and every man in particular do'st thou believe therefore that thou art a man or if thou canst neither believe nor know that put thy hand in thy bosome or feel thy Nose make an experiment whether thou hast not all thy Members full of flesh and blood as other men Wherefore then wouldst thou exclude thy self out of this word World since Christ expresly declares that God did not send his Son to the Virgin Mary only nor gave him to Peter or Paul but to the World that all might lay claim to him even as many as are called the Sons of Man c. Secondly That Calvin on 1 John 2.2 says Ego verum esse illud dictum fateor sufficienter pro toto mundo passum esse Christum sed pro electis tantum efficaciter I confess that saying to be true That Christ suffered sufficiently for the whole World but efficaciously for the Elect only And on Rom. 5.18 Communem omnium gratiam fecit quia omnibus exposita est non quod ad omnes extendatur reipsa nam etsi passus est Christus pro peccatis totius mundi atque omnibus indifferenter Dei benignitate offertur non tamen omnes apprehendunt The Apostle saith Calvin Makes Grace common to all Men because it is exposed to all Men not that it is really and effectually extended unto all For tho Christ suffered for the sins of the whole World and through the goodness of God he is indifferently offered unto all yet all do not apprehend or receive him Here is that which is called the middle-way owned by Luther first afterwards by Calvin as plainly as can be expressed in so few words Whereupon we demand Did our First Reformers Luther and Calvin by this Corrupt the Old and Preach a New Gospel or not If they did corrupt the old true Gospel and preach a new false Gospel Then 1. We owe no great thanks to them or respect to their Memory for their Service in Reforming the Church 2. If we grant this to be true of Luther and Calvin we betray the Reformation and yield to the Papists that which their hearts do most earnestly desire that Luther and Calvin may be accounted Two Impostors and Deceivers who deluded the People corrupted the Christian Religion and Preached a new Gospel to the World For our parts we dare not thus far betray the Protestant Cause to the Papists rather than do so we maintain that Luther and Calvin by holding universal Redemption in the sense explained did not corrupt the Christian Religion nor preach a new Gospel And if they did not then those amongst us who hold universal Redemption as they held it do no more corrupt Religion nor preach a new Gospel than they did and consequently it is a vile Calumny and Reproach cast upon us and through us upon 〈◊〉 First Reformers that by the middle-way aforesaid we corrupt Religion and preach a new Gospel We have been something long in shewing the false-hood of our Authors first Calumny and in wiping it off because it is general and seems to comprehend or to be the ground of all the rest that abound in his Letter But for the rest of them since we have removed the grounds of them by the account we have given of our principles in the points of Justification and of the extent of Christs death they fall of themselves and light on the head of him that raised them and therefore we shall not much trouble either our selves in refuting them or others in reading a long Refutation of them Yet we will take particular notice of some of them and briefly shew how false they are Second Calumny HIS Second is to be seen in the the sixth page of his Letter where he saith Let. pag. 6. The righteousness of Christ in his active and passive Obedience hath been asserted by Protestant Divines to be not only the procuring and meritorious cause of our Justification for this the Papists own but the matter as the Imputation of it is the form of our Justification Here a gross Calumny is implyed to wit that we differ not from the Papists in the point of Justification and to make the simple people believe this he gives them to understand that we hold Christs righteousness to be only the procuring and meritorious cause of Justification and that the Papists own this as well as we do and consequently that there is little or no difference between us and the Papists in the Fundamental point of Justification But that this is a Calumny doth appear by what we have said before when we shewed that Christs Righteousness alone comes in the place of that personal perfect sinless Righteousness which was the condition of the first Covenant in Innocency and of the law of Works and by which personal Righteousness man was to have been justified according to that Covenant if he had perfectly kept it and had not fallen from his Innocency There we shewed that since no man in his lapsed state hath or can have in himself that personal sinless righteousness every man is to seek a righteousness in Christ that may serve him for his Justification instead of that which he should have had in himself but hath not and he that seeks it in Christ as he ought to do will there find it For Christ by his obedience unto death even the death of the Cross hath paid the full price of our Redemption and by paying that price hath made full satisfaction to the Justice of God for our sins and hath merited for us the full pardon of our sins and eternal Salvation of our Souls if we sincerely believe repent and obey the Gospel by that Grace which he hath also purchased for us by his blood promised to us in his Word and gives unto us by his
Spirit So that we are compleat in him who is our head our living and life-giving head in whom it pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell that out of his fulness we might receive and grace for grace Now will any man of Conscience who hath a competent Understanding of the controversies between us and the Papists say that they give as much to Christ in the point of the Justification of a Sinner as here we do and ever did We ascribe all satisfaction for sin both with respect to eternal and temporal punishment unto Christ and his righteousness We likewise ascribe unto Christ and his righteousness all merit of every good thing whatsoever all merit of pardon of sin of right to eternal life and of eternal life it self and all the degrees of it all merit of whatsoever Grace here and of eternal Glory hereafter Dare any man say that the Papists do all this that they ascribe all satisfaction and all merit unto Christ and his Righteousness And that as we so they deny that men do satisfie Gods justice for sin with respect to any punishment and that they properly merit any the least grace or favour at the hands of God We think no Protestant especially that is a Minister of Christs Gospel will be so impudent or so far imitate the Father of Lyes as to affirm these things to be true which all the World know or may know to be notoriously false There are indeed some Papists for instance Bellarmin lib. 2. da justif cap. 7 Who in dispute grant so much to us that they may seem unto some who do not throughly understand their principles to have yielded the whole cause to us And therefore some of our famous Divines as Dr. Downhame Prideaux Rivet Le Blanc Turretin have not stuck to say that Bellarmin there grants the very thing which Protestants plead for and he had disputed against and that if he would stand to those few words and not contradict them again there might be an end of that Dispute about the imputation of Christs Righteousness Turret Inst part 2. loc 16. p. 709. After Turretin had quoted Bellarmin saying That if the Protestants would have this only that Christs merits are imputed to us because they are given to us by God and we may offer them to the Father for our sins because Christ took upon him the burden of satisfying for us and reconciling us to God the Father their opinion or judgment would be right He adds immediately after this Concession and Confession of Bellarmin Atqui nihil aliud volumus nam quod addit nos velle ita imputari nobis Christi justitiam ut per eam formaliter justi nominemur simus hoc gratis falsò supponit ex praeposterâ suâ bypothesi de justificatione morali Yea but or surely we would have no other thing but what Bellarmin hath here granted us for as to that which he adds that we would have Christs Rigteousness so imputed to us that by it we may be denominated and may be formally Righteous he supposeth it without proof and falsely upon their perverse and preposterous Hypothesis concerning a moral Justification Thus Turretin writes of the Concession and Confession of Bellarmin and other Papists Then he proceeds to shew that notwithstanding those good words of theirs whereby they seem to come over to us yet they and we are never the nearer but remain at as great distance as before because by Gods imputing to us Christs merits in order to Justification they mean that for the sake of Christs merits imputed to us God infuses Grace into us by which infused Grace it is that we are justified according to their principles Whereas we hold that Christs merits are so imputed and communicated to us ut sint causa meritoria sola nosirae justificationis nec ulla alia detur justitia propter quam absolvimur in conspectu dei that they are the alone meritorious cause of our Justification neither is there any other Righteousness for which we are absolved in the sight of God Thus Turretin shews that notwithstanding the seeming agreement between Protestants and Papists in the point of Justification yet the reall difference remains still But how doth he shew it Doth he shew the difference by denying that Christs Righteosness is the meritorious cause of our Justification because the Papists affirm it to be so in some sense No no Turretin hath left that unto our Author to do if he please but he shews that there is a great difference in the point of justification between us and them 1. In that we hold Christs Righteousness to be the meritorious cause of Justification in another sense than they hold it so to be 2. In that we hold Christs Righteousness exclusively of all other to be the only meritorious cause of Justification whereas the Papists deny this and affirm that men are first formally jnstified before God by infused Grace and Justice and that by the exercise of that infused Grace and Inherent Justice they themselves do merit their further Justification in this World and eternal Life and Glory in the World to come And we think this is a very considerable difference Yet this is far from being all the difference for Monsieur Claude who was one of those Divines whom our Author calls middle-way-men in his defence of the Reformation shews Claudes Historical defence of the Reformation par 2. ch 6. p. 217 218. c. that notwithstanding the agreement that there may be in some things between Protestants and Papists in the point of Justification there still remain no less than twelve differences relating to that point whereof many are very considerable we pray all who desire satisfaction in this matter to consult the place in Monsieur Claudes Book which we referr to especially let those who can consult the original in which all is clear whereas some things are obscure and hardly intelligible in the Translation there a man may see the true reason why our first Reformers laid so great stress upon the Controversies they had with the Chuch of Rome about the Article of Justification and that they then had and we at this day still have great cause so to do and yet amongst all those Controversies which Claude observes to be between us and Rome upon that Article there is not a word of that Dispute about the matter and form of Justification about which our Author in his great Wisdom thought fit to inform the ordinary plain people who either want time or judgment to peruse large and learned Tractates Letter p. 35. with p. 6. The man it seems would have the people to think that surely he is mighty well acquainted with all the opinions that have been in the Church and that he can inform them of them all and tell them to a hair which is right and which is wrong therefore he reckons up so many Controversies as have been and are among Reformed