before Repentance in Calvin's Judgment is not the Faith that our sins are already pardoned but that they shall be pardoned upon our sincere Repentance which Faith puts us upon acting Repentance and having put forth an Act of sincere Repentance we immediately act Faith upon the promise and apply it to our selves and trust in the Lord according to his gracious promise If this be not Calvin's sense let them free him from self-contradiction that can for we cannot otherwise do it However it be we have him expresly affirming that Faith in some sense is before Repentance and that Repentance such Repentance as that in Ezek. 18.23 is before Remission of Sins and Justification From whence it follows necessarily that in his Judgment both sincere Faith and Repentance are in order before Justification and so that there is a real change and some holy principle and disposition wrought in the Soul before Justification The same he affirms again elsewhere for thus he writes on Mark 4.12 lest at any time they should be converted and their sins should be forgiven them Caeterùm ex eo minimè colligi debet poenitentiam esse veniae causam c. But from this it ought by no means to be inferred that Repentance is the cause of pardon as if God received into favour those who are converted because they have merited or deserved it For even Conversion it self is a sign of God's free Grace and Favour but only ordo consequentia notatur the order and consequence of things is marked out because God doth not forgive any sins but those for which Men are displeased with themselves From which Words of Calvin we observe that where there is an order and consequence of things there is a priority and posteriority and one of them is before another but so it is that in Calvin's opinion between Repentance and pardon of sin there is an order and the one is consequent upon the other pardon of sin is consequent upon Repentance therefore Repentance is before pardon of sin but Repentance can never be without some real holy change and disposition in the Penitent Therefore there is such a change and holy disposition before Pardon and Justification Again on Luke 3. v. 4. The voice of one crying in the wilderness prepare ye the way of the Lord. Eadem inquit vox auribus nostris quotidie insonat ut Domino paremus viam hoc est sublatis vitiis quae regno Christi viam praecludunt accessum demus ejus gratiae The same voice saith he dayly sounds in our ears that we should prepare the way for the Lord that is that we should give access unto his grace by putting away our sins which stop up the way against the reign of Christ in us These Words plainly give us to understand that according to Calvin Repentance and turning from sin goes in order before pardon and that it prepares us for the grace of Pardon and Justification There needs no more to shew that Calvin held true Repentance as to the beginning of it to be in order before pardon of sin and Justification Yet when Repentance is taken for a course of holy living in the actual performance of our first purpose to forsake our sins and return unto the Lord then in that sense it is confessed that Calvin and we with him hold Repentance to be after the several acts of Justifying Faith and after Justification it self and that it runs parallel with our Lives and must be continued unto Death This was that which our first Reformers called the best Repentance which so enraged the Papists that in the Council of Trent they Anathematized us for this Opinion Si quis dixerit optimam poenitentiam esse tantùm novam vitam Concil Trid. Sess 14. Can. 13. Anathema sit If any shall say that a new life is onely the best Repentance let him be accursed Thus they But we do not at all fear their Curse for notwithstanding it or any other thing to the contrary we firmly believe and say that a new life is the onely best Repentance And this best Repentance this Repentance in its perfection we grant to be not only after justifying faith but also to be after Justification it self and after the forgiveness of all the sins that we had been guilty of before our Regeneration and Conversion yet for all that we still maintain according to the Scriptures of Truth that the beginning of true Evangelical Repentance is in order before forgiveness of sins and justification and we think we have Calvin on our side if we may believe his own words To Calvin succeeds Beza giving in his Testimony plainly for us and saying in his large Confession of faith Sed necesse est imprimis ut idem spiritus sanctus nos ad Jesum Christum recipiendum aptos idoneos reddat cap. 4. art 3. c. But it is necessary saith he in the first place that the same holy Spirit make us apt or fit and meet to receive Jesus Christ And in his short Confession of faith Art 11th As it was not saith he in our power to invent or find out the Medicine of Salvation so neither is it possible for us to find out the way to use that Medicine rightly Because that falls out in this matter which useth to be in bodily Diseases for as when one desperately sick is ignorant of his Disease it is necessary that the Physician not only find out a Medicine for him but likewise that he so dispose the sick Person that he may be both willing and able to use the Medicine and that he may know the way to use it aright so in the Disease of the Soul which is the most dangerous of all and in which Men are not only ignorant of but also Adversaries to their Salvation It is necessary that we understand from the same Physician First What that Medicine is then which way it is to be used Finally That by the same Physician we be made fit and meet for this that we may be both willing and able to use the Remedies proposed Again Art 19. This Remedy of free Salvation through Christ is applyed by a double efficacy of the Holy Spirit For first The Holy Spirit disposes or fits our understanding to perceive the Doctrine of the Gospel which otherwise seems meer foolishness to the World Then he perswades our minds that that Doctrine of free Salvation through Christ is not only true but also that it pertains to us And that is it which we call Faith so much commended in Scripture to wit when one perswades himself assuredly that the promises of Salvation and Eternal Life particularly and properly belong to him By these passages of Beza we see that he held as we do that before a Man do or can actually believe with a justifying Faith he is disposed fitted and prepared by Christs Holy Spirit for the right performing of that great work of believing aright And in his little Book
and preach a new Gospel that can make it to be true or prove that it is so The Nature of things are not so soon changed no things will still remain to be what they are though weak passionate Men should never so often think and boldly say that they are not what they are that which is once true will still remain true though men think and say ten thousand times over that it is false As on the contrary that which is once false as it is most false that we preach a new Gospel will still remain false though our Author and his whole party should ten thousand times over both think and say and swear too that it is true We therefore beseech all Christian People neither to believe our Author nor Us upon our bare Words he confidently affirms that we preach a new Gospel We deny it he brings no proof but his own reproachful Word for what he says against us We bring Scripture Reason and the Testimonies of Ancient Fathers and Modern Divines for what we say against him in Vindication of our own Innocency and for Proof that the Gospel which we preach is no other than the Everlasting Gospel of Christ which always hath been now is and ever will be preserved in the Christian Church to the end of the World Now we advise People not to trust either him or us without Tryal but to examine what is said on both sides and then to trust those whom they find upon Tryal to be most trusty and to have given the best Reasons why they should be trusted in these Matters Consider Christians what our most blessed Lord and Saviour saith Matth. 15.14 That if the blind lead the blind both shall fall into the Ditch It will not excuse People before God that they followed their Leaders for they are rational Creatures and they ought to see with their own Eyes and not to follow their Ministers blindly without considering and knowing whether they lead them right or wrong whether they lead them in the way of Error or in the way of Truth Therefore our Saviour saith again Matth. 24.4 Take heed that no Man deceive you The like Advice our Lords great Apostle gave unto the Churches to whom he wrote his Epistles Let no Man said he deceive you with vain Words 1 Cor. 6.9 10. Ephes 5.6 This Advice he gave with respect to some of the things that are controverted amongst us at this Day And again Let no Man deceive you by any means 2 Thes 2.3 And as a Preservative and Antidote against being deceived he exhorted them to prove all things and to hold fast that which is good 1 Thes 5.21 Moreover though he was extraordinarily assisted by an infallible Spirit yet he commended the Bereans as People of a noble generous Mind for trying his own Doctrine by the Touchstone of Holy Scripture before they believed it Acts 17.11 It was not any slowness in them to believe which made them examine his Doctrine but it was Wisdom and Prudence for the Scripture saith they received the Word with all Readiness of Mind and searched the Scriptures daily whether those things were so they received readily and yet searched diligently making no more haste than good speed and by searching they found all that Paul preached to them to be according to the Scripture therefore they believed his Doctrine and believed in Christ according to his Doctrine ver 12. And this was it which Paul commended them for that though he was an Apostle inspired with a Spirit of Infallibility and could and did Work Miracles to confirm the Truth of his Doctrine yet they searched the Scriptures daily to see whether his Doctrine was according to the Scriptures before they believed it and when by searching they found it to be all according to the Scriptures they immediately believed and readily received it for that very Reason because it was according to the Scriptures of Truth And Paul was of such an excellent Spirit that if the Bereans or any other People had by diligent search found any part of his Doctrine to be really contrary unto the Scriptures of Truth which was impossible for them to do he would have commended them also for not believing it Acts 26.22 23. 1 Cor. 15.1 2 3 4. 1 Cor. 7.25 40. Gal. 1.8 Yea our blessed Lord himself when he was on Earth in his State of Humiliation as a Man and Minister of the Circumcision for the Truth of God to confirm the Promises made unto the Fathers Rom. 15.8 He did not desire that his Hearers should believe him upon his bare Word John 5.31 If I bear Witness of my self my Witness is not true That is though it be never so true in it self yet it is not true with respect to you or it doth not appear true and convincing to you therefore as we read in that Chapter and elsewhere our Lord over and besides his own Verbal Testimony used to prove the Truth of his Doctrine by Scripture and to confirm it by such miraculous Works as could not be done but by the infinite Power of God who neither would nor could give his Seal to ratifie and confirm a lie And thereupon he said unto the unbelieving Jews John 10.37 38. If I do not the Works of my Father believe me not but if I do though ye believe not me believe the Works that ye may know and believe that the Father is in me and I in him And when convinced by the Notorlety of the Matters of Fact that he did wonderful Works above the Power of Man they were forced by the Evidence of common Sense and Reason to confess it yet being unwilling to believe in him on that account they found out a way to elude the force of his Argument deduced from his Miracles by raising a dispute about the invisible Secret cause of them and by blasphemously ascribing them to the Devil and not to God Matth. 12.24 Mark 3.22 He did not in Answer to that blasphemous Cavil tell them that they must believe on his bare Word that his Miracles were wrought by the Power of God and not of the Devil But by plain Reason and strong Argument taken from the circumstances of his Miracles he proved against them that they could not possibly be from the Devil and therefore they must be from God Mark 3.23 24 25 26 27. with Matth. 12.25 26 28 29. He said unto them How can Satan cast out Satan And if a Kingdom be divided against it self that Kingdom cannot stand c. The Summ of our Saviours Argument was this That his Miracles were wrought to confirm a Doctrine that is directly contrary to and destructive of every thing that is Devilish and wherever it is received in Faith and Love there always the Devils Interest decays and himself is despised and abhorred yea many of Christs Miracles were done immediately upon the Devil himself and he was thereby cast out of that Power and Possession which he had got by
it is the cause though Calvin Twiss Ames Rutherford c. have not spared to say and write that it is in some sense a cause an inferiour disposing cause c. but a duty and condition until the performing whereof God hath suspended the Gift of Eternal Life and Glory and to the Performers of which duty and condition he hath freely promised and according to his promise he graciously giveth Eternal Life and Glory for the sake of Christs meritorious Righteousness only And we desire it may be alwayes remembred that from this condition of sincere obedience we do by no means exclude but include the continued exercise of Faith in Christ as that which is the spring of it and which runs through all the parts of it as also we hold that it comprehends the continued practice of Repentance and Love to God and Man Such sincere Obedience we hold to be a condition to be performed on our part Ezek. 18.24 25. Heb. 10.38 for the obtaining of Eternal Life and Glory For we learn from the Scriptures of Truth that if any of God's People should apostatize from Faith in Christ fall from the Profession and Practice of Christs true Religion and give themselves up to the wilful commission of all manner of Abominations and dye in that state without Repentance they would lose their Right to Eternal Life be shut out of Heaven and cast down to Hell there to suffer the Vengeance of Eternal Fire Whereas on the contrary all that continue to the end in the exercise of Faith in Christ and in the practice of Repentance and Evangelical Obedience they have their Right to Life and Glory still continued to them and shall through God's Grace and Mercy and Christ's Righteousness and Merits be put into the full and eternal possession of it If our Authour should object and say that we suppose an impossibility from whence there is no right arguing for or against any thing We desire him to consider what Dr. Twiss sayes in the 29 Page of his Answer to the Book called The Synod of Dort and Arles reduced to practice His Words are When we say the elect Saints cannot fall from Grace this is spoken not in respect of any absolute impossibility but meerly upon supposition of God's upholding them And accordingly they are said to be kept by the power of God through Faith unto Salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 Now this impossibility of falling away from Grace in Scholastical account is but an Impossibility Secundum quid like as we say It is impossible that Antichrist should fall or the Jews be called till the time which God hath appointed is come for bringing forth these great and wonderful Works of his but the contrary is simply possible on either part Thus Twiss Our Answer then is that the Apostacy of a Saint is not simply and absolutely impossible Alas it is but too possible with respect to us considered in our selves but it is onely impossible in some respects to wit in respect of God's Purpose and Promise and Christ's Intercession c. And notwithstanding its being impossible in this sense yet we find it supposed and granted also to be possible in another sense And further we find that the Spirit of God in Holy Scripture supposes greater Impossibilities than that seems to be and rationally argues from them too Witness John 8.55 Gal. 1.8 If any should further object and say that hereby we destroy the Saints Assurance of Eternal Life and Glory by holding that their obtaining of it is suspended on a condition We Answer the consequence is false because those who are assured upon good Grounds that they are truly Converted and Justified by Faith in Christ's Blood See 1 Joh. 2.19 may from Holy Scripture be assured of the condition of perseverance through Grace in Faith Repentance and whatever God hath made necessary to their obtaining Eternal Life and Glory Indeed if our Glorification depended upon a Condition of which we could not be sure then neither could we be sure of Glorification it self But we believe and maintain that through Grace we may and ought to be sure of the Condition to wit of Perseverance and consequently that we may and ought to be sure of our future Glorification which is infallibly promised to perseverance in Faith and Holiness We know the Followers of Luther whom our Authour so much magnifies as if he were for him and his Party deny that a Saint can be absolutely sure ordinarily in this World that he shall be saved in the World to come It is true they maintain that a Saint may and ought to be absolutely sure that he is in a state of Grace and Salvation for the present but they deny and on their Principles must deny that he can have an absolute but onely a conditional assurance of his Eternal Salvation and Glorification because they say he cannot be absolutely sure that he shall not fall totally and finally from the state of Grace that he is now in If we should follow Luther or the Lutherans in this what a Clamour would our Authour raise against us how would he proclaim us to the World to be Arminians or Papists yet Luther was a blessed Man and most Orthodox Divine because in his Commentary on the Galathians he seems to hold with our Authour in some things though in other things of greater importance he be against him and us too But Holy Scripture is the Rule and Measure of our Faith in these and all other Religious Matters and according to the Prescript thereof we believe profess and preach to the People that as Christ purchased all Grace for us by his Blood so he gives it unto us by his Spirit in the use of his appointed Means and what Saving Grace he once gives unto his People he never wholly takes away from them again and that if at any time they fall into Sin against Knowledge and Conscience he raises them up again by causing them to renew their Faith and Repentance and never wholly leaves them nor forsakes them but gives them still more Grace according to their need and by Grace prepares them for and at last brings them unto Glory Thus we desire and endeavour to Preach Christ and now we appeal to all who have any Conscience of Truth and Honesty whether we neglect to Preach Christ or whether in the preaching of Christ we set up any thing in co-ordination with him yea whether we be not so far from it that on the contrary we make all subordinate to him and derive all Grace from him not only the Grace of Justification and Glorification which are promised on Condition of Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience but also the Grace of effectual Vocation Faith and Repentance in a Word all the Grace whereby we perform the whole condition of the Covenant from first to last From the premisses it may manifestly appear to any that are not stark blind that we do not hold Faith Repentance and
AN APOLOGY FOR THE MINISTERS Who Subscribed only unto the Stating of The Truths and Errours IN Mr. WILLIAM's Book SHEWING That the Gospel which they Preach is the Old Everlasting Gospel of Christ AND Vindicating them from the Calumnies wherewith they especially the younger sort of them have been unjustly aspersed by the Letter from a Minister in the City to a Minister in the Countrey Nos quidem neque expavescimus neque pertimescimus ea quae ab ignorantibus patimur cùm ad hanc Sectam utique Susceptâ conditione ejus pacti venerimus ut etiam animas nostraas auctorati in has pugnas accedamus ea quae Deus repromittit consequi optantes ea quae Diversae vitae comminatur pati timentes Tertullianus ad Scapulam in ipso libri principio LONDON Printed for John Lawrence at the Angel in the Poultry MDCXCIV THE PREFACE TO THE READER IF a Profest Enemy or a Common and Known I yer had fallen foul upon us with his Tongue or Pen and called us Hereticks Arminian Pelagian Hereticks Corrupters of the Old and Preachers of a New Gospel we should have held our peace and in silence despised his Lies and Revilings But since a Brother who professeth seriousness in Religion and hath some credit amongst good People that fear God and love the Truth and Purity of Christ's Gospel has publickly in Print proclaimed us to be Hereticks and Preachers of a New Gospel our Consciences would not suffer us any longer to keep silence Because it might have been justly interpreted to be an Argument and Evidence of our guilt and good People might have thought that we could say nothing in our own defence and therefore that they had good reason upon the uncontrolled Testimony of a serious Brother to believe that we are Hereticks indeed Pelagian Arminian Hereticks Corrupters of the Old and Preachers of a New Gospel Wherefore to remedy this and to undeceive the Lords People and maintain the Truth and Purity of his Gospel with the credit of his Ministry we judged our selves obliged in Conscience to write and publish this Apology wherein our design is to do wrong to no Man no not to him who hath wronged us But to do right unto the Truth to clear up our own Innocency as to the things we are falsly charged with and to let good people see that the testimony of our accuser is not true and therefore can be no proof that we are Heretical Preachers of a New Gospel or Corrupters of the Old If we had still kept silence and suppressed this Apology all the World that should have heard how we were accused might have either suspected us of Heresie or have blamed us if guiltless for keeping silence and suffering our Ministry to remain aspersed with such a publick charge of Heresie unanswered But we are sure none can have just cause to be offended with us for our now publishing it Since if Men would suppose our case to be their own and that a reputed serious good Man had in a printed Lybel accused them of damnable Heresie they cannot but see That they should judge it their Duty to defend themselves and to clear up their own innocency as to that matter Now if Men would judge thus if it were their own case right reason will assure them that they should pass the like judgment in our case upon supposition that we know our selves not to be guilty of the Crime which we are charged with And the supposition is most certainly true for we know as certainly that we are not guilty of that crime as we know any other thing in the World we know as certainly that we do not preach a New Gospel as we know that there is an Old Gospel in the Church or World So then if we are to be blamed for any thing it is for not doing this work sooner but for that we could alledge more Reasons than we need here to mention It is enough to tell the World that there being more than one conâ—erned in this cause it was fit that we should know one anothers mind and proceed in it with one joint consent which it required some time to do Whereunto we add That the Collecting and Transcribing so many and large Testimonies out of the Writings of Ancient and Modern Divines required yet more time Moreover we profess our selves not to be of the number of those who make boast of their quick and hasty Births and boldly venture to publish unto the World any thing as it comes into their heads without taking time to consider whether it be such as will endure a strict Tryal by the Rule of Truth and Righteousness If our Accuser had taken more time to consider of the several particulars of his Letter of Information before he had printed it we are apt to think that if he be a good Man as we would hope he is he would have seen cause to have altered much of it or to have suppressed it altogether as well for his own particular good as for the common good of Christ's Church But it seems that since all the World almost is ingaged in War at this day he had an ambitious desire to be a Warriour likewise and that desire if he was not put on by others would not let him be quiet but he must sound the Trumpet and both proclaim an Ecclesiastical War and also himself make the first Attack But fâ—r us we are not of such a Spirit so far from it that we have a real aversion to such Ecclesiastical War and are not easily brought to it Indeed it is purely defensive on our side and we were necessitated to it In the managing of it we have endeavoured no farther to offend the first aggressour than was necessary to defend our selves We are not conscious to our selves of having given him just cause of offence unless our refuting his errours vindicating our selves from his Calumnies and exposing the weakness and sometimes the ridiculousness of his reasonings be matter of offence to him And if that be all it is offence taken not given for which he may blame himself For he having attackt us in such Hostile Rude Unbrotherly and Unchristian manner we could not repel his Attack so as to secure the Truth of God the Honour of Religion and our own good Names without answering him as we have done But if it shall be made appear to us that in any thing we have passed the limits of a just self-Defence and have done him any real injury which is more than we know we shall be sorry for it and willing to do him right For we do really wish him well and should be ready to do him any office of love and kindness that lyes in our power But we have no moral lawful power to suffer any Brother to throw Dirt on us the vile Dirt of Pelagian Heresie and to hold our hands and not endeavour to wipe it off again Certainly Pelagianisme is one of the things in
not so with us at this day But when we look abroad into the World and into the present state of the Reformed Churches at home and abroad and see or hear what lives Men generally lead how they fight against God and against one another against God by transgressing all his holy just and good Laws and by turning his Grace into Lasciviousness And against one another by injustice and uncharitableness by malice and envy by lying and slandering c. We cannot but fear that God is against us and will fight against us as we are against him Levit. 26.23 24. and fight against him And it greatly encreases our fear to see that those who pretend to greatest seriousness in Religion have lately fallen out and have been quarrelling together about such a practical point of Religion as that is Whether true Repentance is necessary before we can obtain from God the pardon of our sins through the alone satisfaction and Merits of Christ When God is loudly calling us to Repentance for obtaining the pardon of our sins and we should all be found in the practice of Repentance in order to that end we are like Mad-men fallen to disputing Whether our Repentance be necessary before we are pardoned when we are pardoned or after we are pardoned And there are those amongst us who have raised a great clamour against such honest and faithful Ministers of Christ as dare tell and dare not but tell the People that they must truly repent of their sins before they can obtain the pardon of them although at the same time they assure the people from the Lord that God for Christs sake will most certainly pardon them immediately after they have repented This is cried out against as dangerous Doctrine by a sort of Religious People amongst us who will have it that Repentance is only necessary after God hath pardoned us but not before And though to please these People some Ministers have openly granted That Repentance and pardon of Sin are simultaneous in time that is they are not one before another for any space of time but are both together only Repentance is first in order of Nature by the grace thereof to dispose and prepare us for receiving our Pardon by Faith in Christs Blood Yet this will not give them content but they will have their Pardon before Repentance and the Ministers who preach or write otherwise shall be proclaimed to be Antichristian Arminian or any thing that Passion suggests This we say greatly encreaseth our fears for to us it seems evident that the hand of Joab is in this matter that is plainly that Satan has a wicked design by this means to keep the People from Repentance and so from obtaining the pardon of their sins that the desolating Judgments of God may come upon the Nation and that we may be all destroyed together And that Satan may not be discovered he hath artificially disguised himself and appears on the Stage transformed into an Angel of Light pleading for the exaltation of the glorious riches of free grace in the Justification of Sinners by the Blood of Christ without all works of any Law whatsoever and with great appearance of Zeal asserting That the freeness of Gods Grace in the Justification of Sinners by Faith in the Blood Merits and satisfaction of Christ cannot possibly be maintained unless it be denyed that true Repentance is antecedently necessary to our obtaining the pardon of our Sins It seems to us that this is Satans Plot against us and that he hath thus disguised himself the better to carry it on and the more effectually to compass his design upon us And this is the more probable because we find that at the beginning of the Reformation Satan plaid the same game when he perceived that by our first Reformers preaching up Justification by Faith only and not by Works many People were induced to separate from the Church of Rome and embrace the Reformation he endeavoured to make them believe that since Sinners are Justified and Pardoned by Faith only and not by Works then there was no necessity that they should repent of their Sins in order to their obtaining the Pardon of them And thus he thought that though they had got their feet loosed out of one of his Snares yet he should still keep them fast in another and lead them Captive at his will That this is so indeed and no Fiction of ours is manifest from the Testimony of Bishop Hooper that blessed faithful and valiant Martyr of Christ who in the Reign of Queen Mary was burnt alive for the Protestant Religion in a slow Fire about the space of three quarters of an hour and sealed the Truth of the Gospel with his blood This Man of God in a Book of his Intituled A Declaration of Christ and his Office Printed at Zurich in the Year 1547. Chap. VII th handling the point of Justification saith This is certain and too true Let the whole Gospel be preached unto the World as it ought to be Repentance and a vertuous Life with Faith as God preached the Gospel unto Adam in Paradise Noah Abraham Moses Isaiah saying Vae Genti Peccatrici c. Isa 1.4 c John the Baptist repent ye for the kingdom of heaven is at hand As Christ did Repent and believe the Gospel Mark 1. and then of an hundred that come to the Gospel there would not come one When they hear sole or only faith and the mercy of God to justify and that they may eat all ments at all times with thanksgiving they embrace that Gospel with all joy and willing heart And what is he that would not receive this Gospel the flesh it self were there no immortal soul in it would receive this Gospel because it promiseth aid help and consolation without Works But now speak of the other part of the Gospel as Paul teacheth Rom. 8.13 If ye live after the flesh ye shall dye And as he prescribeth the life of a Justified man in the same Epistle Chap. 12 13 14 15 16. And Christ Mat. 10. And Peter in the 2 Epistle and 1 Chap. This part of the Gospel is not so pleasant therefore Men take the first liberty c. Thus that blessed Saint who feared neither Man nor Devil but in the true faith and fear of God set himself with a Divine courage and holy boldness to oppose the Devil and all his Instruments to destroy his Kingdome in the World and on the contrary to exalt the Name and Glory of God and to set up Christs Spiritual Kingdom in the hearts and lives of Men. Would to God! that we had many Hoopers amongst us at this day who saith again in the same Chapter not far from the beginning Nothing maketh the cause wherefore this mercy to wit of Justification should be given saving only the death of Christ which is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the only sufficient Price and Gage for sin And although it be necessary and
than this For we freely acknowledge that any person or party who find themselves unjustly suspected of and charged with horrid crimes whereof they know themselves not to be guilty may and ought to clear themselves the best way they can and if they cannot do it by Word they may very honestly do it by Writing provided that in clearing themselves they do not falsely accuse others and so fall into the same fault which they blame others for which if they do assuredly they take wrong measures for all considering Men will be apt to suspect them more than ever of Libertinism when they plainly see that they run themselves into Libertine practices in order to clear themselves of Libertine principles But after all he hath said of his Party their being falsely accused of Antinomianism and that they could no longer be silent Let. pag. 10. but must speak and write in their own defence and in defence of the Gospel we are at a loss to know who they are that so accused them We can find no such thing in Mr. Williams Book nay we find that in it which clears the chief of them of the charge of Antinomianism At the beginning of the Digression Concerning the necessity of Repentance to forgiveness of Sin pag. 113. these are Mr. Williams Words My business in this Digression is with Men of more Orthodox Principles to wit than the Antinomians There is one whom we know as well as any Man in the World to whom Mr. Williams said before his Book was all printed off This is said with respect to Mr. Cole him I mean and here I endeavour to state and make up the difference between him and Dr. Bates Hereupon that Minister looked into the Digression and read some part of it which he liked so well as thinking it might be very useful both to consirm Truth and also to maintain Peace and Love among Brethren that it was to him one motive amongst others which induced him to subscribe unto the stating of the truths and errours in Mr. Williams Book This we know to be true we know it as certainly as any other thing in the World and we mention it to show that we did not suspect that Party as our Authour hath been pleased to distinguish them much less did we accuse them of real Antinomianism So far were we from it that we were heartily glad to find that our Reverend Brother had expresly owned them to be Men of more Orthodox Principles than the Antinomians against whom and no other that Book was written How comes it then to be so often asserted or insinuated throughout the Letter that we falsely accuse them See p. 26. and charge them with Antinomianism and put them upon a necessary self-defence We think we are wronged in this matter and must think so till we see better proof than the bare word of this Authour Or if any of us had really been so unjust and uncharitable as to accuse their whole Party of Antinomianism did that warrant this Brother falsely to Recriminate as he hath done and to charge us especially our younger Brethren with Arminianism and Pelagianism Where did he learn such Morals Sure we are not in the School of Christ For Christ hath taught us all not to render evil for evil This we say upon supposition that some of us had sometime or other done him wrong in this matter which is unknown to us But if there was no such provocation given then this Authour was the more to blame to fancy or feign that we had accused his Party of Antinomianism that from thence he might take an occasion to accuse us of Arminianism and Pelagianism As for what any of us have at any time spoken or written against the Antinomian Tenents in Dr. Crisps or such Books we thought it did not at all concern them as being Men of more Orthodox Principles Tho' we could not be ignorant that there was some little difference of Judgment between some of them and us in some things yet we did not think nor say that that difference amounted to Antinomianism on their side nor could we have ever thought till the Letter informed us they would have said that it amounted to Arminianism and Pelagianism on our side But now we find we are mistaken for they have made us know that they had not so good an opinion of us as we had of them Yet we had rather be mistaken in this than in the other that is we had rather they should without cause think us to be Arminians and Pelagians than that ever we should have just cause to conclude any of them to be indeed Antinomians They tell the World by the Authour of the Letter that they have been suspected And we are afraid the late Writings of some of them will increase the suspicion But what ever suspicious Thoughts may be thereby raised in the minds of many we will endeavour to hinder such Thoughts from setling in our own Minds and still have the best opinion we can of our Brethren till we see further what the issue will be We do not then now account that Party to be really Antinomian whatever Mens Thoughts may be of some particular persons amongst them and we hope and wish we may never have cause so to do The Authour of the Letter in their name hath most solemnly protested that they are not Antinomians and we do believe it not so much because he says it as because we have other evidence to ground our belief upon For we have known very worthy Men of those who were formerly called Congregational that have been as much against Antinomian errours as we our selves are Such there are at this day and such we doubt not there will be when we are dead and gathered to our Fathers If then by his Party our Authour mean the Reverend Brethren of that Perswasion aforesaid we neither did nor do suspect them as such But for all that we are sorry that some who have made themselves of a Party should have also made themselves to be suspected at least of favouring Antinomianism This is the case of the Authour of the Letter who raised such a suspicion in the minds of some that truly loved him by recommending Dr. Crisps Book as Mr. Williams says in his late Preface and we know it to be true and by lending it to one without giving the least caution against any of the errours in it His own Conscience knows this to be true And this might very probably raise a suspicion of him in particular And we think lie was concerned to have cleared himself and expected that in his Letter he would have done it by disowning some of the Doctrinal errours in the said Booke But we are disappointed for there we do not find that he hath so clearly disowned any of the Doctrinal errours in that Book as that the People who want judgment as his expression is can discern that he hath done it This we shall
be really his meaning and he be of that mind that he will neither repent of his sins in order to obtain the pardon of them nor pray for the pardon of them for fear lest he should seem to merit the pardon of them we cannot but think him to be a very weak man and that he fears where no ground of fear is For assuredly if he do but exclude out of his own mind the proud Conceit and Opinion of meriting by his Repentance and Prayer he needs not forbear repenting and praying for the pardon of his sins for fear of thereby meriting pardon or for fear of doing that which looks like meriting pardon His own common Sense and Reason may teach him that by the very acts of repenting and praying for pardon he doth renounce all pretence to merit as well as by the Act of believing in Christ for pardon he doth renounce all pretence to the meriting of his pardon 4. We do not believe that Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience are the legal but evangelical Condition of the Covenant of Grace Which that our meaning may be understood by all we explain thus we do not believe that our Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience which are the Conditions of Justification and Glorification according to the tenour of the Covenant of Grace have the same Place and Office in this new Covenant and Law of Grace which most perfect sinless Obedience had and was to have had in the first old Covenant and Law of Works for in that first old Covenant personal perfect sinless Obedience was to have been Mans Righteousness by which alone he was to have been secured from Death and to have had still a Title and Right to Life but in the new Covenant and Law of Grace neither our Faith Repentance nor sincere Obedience are or can be that righteousness which secures us from Eternal Death and purchases for us a Right and Title to Eternal Life when God first made the new Covenant with us in Christ we had all lost our Right and Title to life and were become guilty of Death In which state we could never by any Act or Acts of ours by any Righteousness in us or done by us secure our selves from Death and recover our Right and Title to Life It was the satisfactory meritorious Righteousness of our Lord Redeemer Christ Jesus that could do and did do this for us It was Christs Righteousness alone that satisfied for our Sins and redeemed us from Death and that merited and purchased for us a Right and Title to Life Christ's Righteousness alone procures us the pardon of our sins and a Right and Title to Life so that it is Christ's satisfactory meritorious Righteousness alone that comes in the place of that perfect sinless Righteousness which was the Condition of the first Covenant and Law of works It is Christ's Righteousness that stands us in stead of that perfect sinless Righteousness which we should have had but have not It is Christ's righteousness alone that procureth to us the Restauration of all the good we had lost and more and better Our Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience have nothing to do at all in this matter This was Christ's work alone and we give him all the Glory of it with all our Hearts and Souls And as it was Christ's Righteousness alone that merited our pardon of sin and deliverance from Death and that purchased our acceptance with God as righteous in his sight and our Right and Title to Life so it is by his Promise and Law of Grace that the Lord gives us that which he had merited and purchased for us that he gives us the pardon of our sins and Right or Title to Life upon our repenting and believing so that our repenting of our sins and believing in Christ are but the immediate nearest means which God hath ordained to be used on our part that we may be fit to receive and accordingly may receive those blessings and benefits which Christ hath purchased and which by the promise are given unto us The use of this means the performance of those Duties of Faith and Repentance is that which our Orthodox Divines call the Condition of the Covenant of Grace For upon Condition that through Grace we do those Duties we shall have those blessings and benefits The Lord will graciously give us them according to his promise on condition that we by Grace do such and such Duties according to his Command Our Faith and Repentance are not our Legal Righteousness nor instead of it that is the Place and Office of Christ's Righteousness only but they are the Condition which the Lord in the Gospel hath required of us that according to his promise we may be blessed with the pardon of sin be accepted at Righteous in his sight and have a Right and Title to Eternal Life From the premisses it is manifest that according to our Principles Faith and Repentance are not a Legal but an Evangelical Condition of the Covenant of Grace and that they do not in the least detract from the Grace of it And we desire it may be remembred that though speaking of Faith and Repentance joyntly we call them sometimes the Condition of the Covenant or the Condition of Justification yet we make a difference between them and because Repentance includes an hearty sorrow for sin and purpose to for sake it and to return unto the Lord we call it the disposing Condition but finding by Holy Soripture and the Nature of the thing that Faith above other Graces hath a peculiar respect unto Christ and his Righteousness we call it the receiving Condition so doth our Reverend Brother Mr. Williams call it in Gospel truth stated c. page 114. and we approve the distinction He was not the first inventer of it for it was used by others before either he or we were born Now if this be true as the Lord who searcheth all hearts knows it to be then let the World judge how false and injurious that Authour is unto us when in page 6. he giveth the People an account of our Principles as to this matter in these following words They will not allow this personal Righteousness of Christ to be imputed to us any otherwise than in the merit of it as purchasing for us a far more easie Law of Grace in the observation whereof they place all our justifying Righteousness Vnderstanding hereby our own personal inherent holiness and nothing else They hold that Christ dyed to merit this of the Father viz. that we might be justified upon easier terms under the Gospel than those of the Law of Innocency in stead of Justification by perfect Obedience we are now to be justified by our own Evangelical Righteousness made up of Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience And Page 28. Many manage the Ministry as if they had taken up a contrary determination even to know any thing save Jesus Christ and him crucified We are amazed to see so many
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
truth that Repentance is before Justification at least in order of Nature They object further if Repentance be before Justification then it is either before or after Faith but it cannot be before Faith for it is impossible that a man should sincerely repent before he believe Nor can it be after Faith if it be before Justification for a man is justified by Faith and that assoon as he believes We answer That men needed not to be deluded by such a silly sophism if they would distinguish 1. Between the Abiding Seed and Principle and the Transient Act of Faith 2. Between the Assenting Act of Faith and it s fiducially consenting act For though Faith in the Principle of it be but one single Grace yet in the Exercise of it it hath several acts successively following one another and yet not so closely neither but that the Act of Repentance may come between them Now to apply these distinctions we say that from Repentance's being before Justification it doth by no means follow that it is altogether and in all respects before Faith For 1. The Seed and Principle of Faith is before the Act of Repentance 2. The assenting Act of Faith is also before the Act of Repentance And thus from a principle of Faith and by the help of an Act of Faith the Soul sincerely repents in order to Justification and pardon of sin then after the said Act of Repentance there comes another Act of Faith to wit the Act of Fiducial consent to receive Christ as he is offered in the Gospel whereupon the penitent believing Soul is immediately justified and pardoned This we learn of Calvin who in his Institutions lib. 3. cap. 3. Sect. 19. writes thus Sic Christus suas conciones auspicatus est c. So also Christ began his Sermons Mark 1.15 The Kingdom of God is at hand repent ye and believe the Gospel First he declares that the treasures of God's mercy were opened in him Then 2. He requires Repentance And 3. and lastly He requires a trust or relyance on the promises of God Here we have the Lords order of things judiciously set forth 1. He declares that the Treasures of God's Mercy are opened in him This Declaration of God's Infinite Mercy in Christ held forth to lost Sinners of Mankind is the object of our Faith of assent and we are bound to assent to it as an infallible Truth and to be firmly perswaded of it 2. He requires our Repentance he requires that assenting to the Truth of the Gospel and being firmly perswaded that God is upon terms of Mercy with us through him we should repent and be heartily sorry that by our sins we have offended so merciful a God and resolve in God's strength to do so no more 3. And lastly That supposing we so repent from a principle of Faith assenting to the Revelation of God's great Mercy in Christ to lost Sinners indefinitely he requires that we trust and rely on God's promises and on Christ as held forth to us in the promises that according to his promises he will for Christ's sake be merciful to us in pardoning us all our sins When we are through Grace arrived at this Act of Faith whereby we trust and rely on God's promises and on Christ as held forth to us in the promises then we are instantly pardoned accepted as Righteous and get a right to Life for the alone satisfactory meritorious Righteousness of our Lord Redeemer But we could never attain to this Act of Faith and thereby to pardon of sin for Christ's sake if we did not first believe with the Faith of assent that God through Christ is upon terms of Mercy and Peace with us That is the first Act of Faith and when it is of the right kind and proceeds from the right Principle the super-natural Seed of Faith put into the heart it is through the influence of the Holy Spirit of mighty force and efficacy 1. To make us repent to make us through Grace heartily sorry for having displeased and dishonoured so good and Merciful a God by our sins and to make us resolve through Grace to do so no more 2. It is of as great force and efficacy to make us trust and rely on Gods promises and on Christ revealed in the promises that God according to his promises will for Christ's sake justifie and pardon us Thus we have answered that frivolous Objection and clearly shewed how true Repentance is in order before Justification and pardon of sin and yet not altogether and in all respects before Faith but partly after and partly before Faith after the principle and assenting Act of Faith but before the fiducially consenting and trusting Act of Faith And what though no Man could give a clear account of the exact order observed by our Souls in the acting of their several Graces yet that should hinder no Christian from believing that true Repentance is in order before pardon of sin because God who cannot he hath plainly told us in the Scripture of Truth that it is in order before pardon as hath been proved If then we have any Faith in God and his Word We should say Let God be True who ever proves a Lyar. Certainly it is very unreasonable foolish and dangerous too to deny or doubt of that which is clear because we cannot throughly understand that which is obscure to wit the precise order of the Souls acting its Graces This may suffice at present to prove that the Gospel-promise of Justification and pardon of sin is conditional and that Faith and Repentance are the Condition of it 2. In the second and last place we shall briefly prove by Scripture that the Gospel-promise of Glorification and Eternal Salvation is conditional and that sincere obedience is the Condition of it For the better understanding of our meaning in this matter we premise a few things As 1. That this is to be understood upon supposition that a man lives some considerable time after that he is effectually called and justified and pardoned upon his first believing and repenting and that he hath space and opportunity to perform his Covenant Engagement unto the Lord and to bring forth Fruits meet for Repentance If the Man dye presently after his Justification and pardon there is no more required on his part the Spirit perfects his begun Sanctification and God through Christ consummates his Salvation without requiring any more of him than what he is inabled to do as he is a dying But if God give him time and opportunity and he live It is required that proportionably to his Talents and time he serve the Lord in Faith and Holy Obedience that he renew his Faith and Repentance for pardon as often as he finds that he has fallen into sin and that he return to his Duty again serving the Lord all his days in Faith Hope Love Fear Patience Meekness Humility and Heavenly-mindedness c. 2. The Obedience that is required as aforesaid must
life And therefore as he saith again John 13.17 Rom. 6.23 If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them And his Apostle Paul saith that God gives eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. But to whom doth he give it Why that is visible from the 22. Verse immediately before It is to them who being made free from sin and become servants to God have their fruit unto holiness It is we say to them that God through Christ gives Eternal Life as a Reward of their Holy Obedience and well-doing God in Christ is most certainly a Rector or Ruler who according to his Law of Grace will distribute at last glorious Rewards to all that fear his Name Revel 11.18 2 Cor. 5.10 James 1.25 Rom. 2.6 7. small and great And as St. James saith Then shall the Obedient Believer the doer of the Lord's Work be blessed in his deed Then as Holy Paul says To them who by patient continuance in well-doing have sought for glory and honour and immortality God will render eternal life This God will do at the Last Day to all that have so continued in well-doing to the end For so the Spirit of Truth hath plainly said by Paul and it is infallibly true and will continue to be for ever true 1 Cor. 7.19 with Gal. 5.6 Let who will contradict it and say it is false Blessed Paul assures again that Circumcision is nothing and Vncircumeision is nothing but the keeping of the Commandments of God Heb. 5.9 And that Christ is become the Authour of eternal salvation to all them that obey him Yea our Lord Christ himself saith Be thou faithful unto death Rev. 2.10 and 3.21 Rev. 22.14 and I will give thee a Crown of life and that he who overcomes shall sit with him on his Throne To all which agrees that we read in the Last of the Revelations Blessed are they that do his Christ's commandments that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates into the city Here we see the Lord himself hath declared them blessed that sincerely keep his Commandments because thereby 1. They have a Right to the Tree of Life whilst they live And 2. When they dye they enter upon the full possession of that which before they had a Right unto They enter in through the gates into the city But you will say how have we right unto and entrance upon full possession of Eternal Life and Glory by keeping Christ's Commandments We Answer the keeping Christ's Commandments doth not merit or give us either one or the other of them but it is the way and means which we use and the Condition which through Grace we perform for the having our right to the Tree of Life continued to us or not taken from us whilst we live And for our having full possession of Life and Happiness given us when we die So that 't is God who first for Christ's sake gave that still continues our right to us and at last will for the same cause that is for Christ's sake give us full possession But he will do all this for us in the way of continued Faith and Obedience and on Condition that we sincerely believe in Christ and keep his Commandments unto the end Thus we have proved from Scripture That sincere Obedience to the Law of Christ is a Condition of Glorification as our first believing and repenting is the Condition on our part of our Justification and of the pardon of our Sins For as the definition of a Gospel-Condition agrees to Faith and Repentance with respect to our Justification and Pardon of Sin so it agrees to sincere Obedience with respect to our Glorification and Eternal Salvation And to whatsoever the definition of a Gospel-Condition agrees to that the Nature and Essence of a Gospel-Condition must agree also From all which we conclude that the Covenant of Grace is Conditional with respect to the subsequent blessings and benefits of it The two principal promises to wit of Justification and Glorification are certainly conditional which was the thing to be proved And having first demonstrated it by Scripture Second Head of Arguments We Secondly prove it by reason agreeable to Scripture And Reason 1. First If the Covenant of Grace be not Conditional with respect to its subsequent Blessings and Benefits particularly if the Promise of Justification and Pardon of sin be not conditional we do not see how it is possible for a Minister to be faithful to God to his own Conscience and to the Souls of the People in preaching the Gospel to them It is true it is easily conceivable how a Minister may be faithful in laying before People the Commandments of the Lord and in telling them that those Commandments oblige them to believe and repent And that if they do not believe and repent they will grievously sin against the Lord and draw down his wrath upon their own Souls But now whâ—n he proceeds to encourage them to believe and repent by setting forth to them God's Promise of Justification and Pardon of Sin we do not conceive how he can do it honestly and faithfully if the Promise of Justification and pardon of Sin be not conditional For when a Minister is preaching to a promiscuous mixed Multitude of People and for their encouragement to believe and repent is declaring to them Gods Gospel-promise of Justification and pardon of Sin either he must declare and preach this Promise to them conditionally or absolutely If conditionally assuring them from the Lord that they shall be justified and pardoned through Christ's Righteousness imputed to them if they sincerely believe and repent then the Promise it self is conditional and the Covenant also is in that respect conditional For if there be no Condition in the Gospel-promise and Covenant how can the Minister preach it conditionally to the People Doth he not take God's Name in vain and abuse the People also by telling them from the Lord that all they who perform the Condition of the Gospel-promise by believing and repenting shall have the promised Benefit to wit Justification and pardon of Sin if there be no Condition in the Promise necessary to be performed by them for obtaining the promised Benefit Either then a Minister must not preach the Promise conditionally to the People or there is and must be a Condition in the Promise and if there be a Condition in the Promise then we have what we aim at for we desire no more to prove the Covenant of Grace to be conditional But 2. If our Authour will say that the Minister must preach the Promise of Justification and pardon absolutely to all the People assuring them from the Lord that they are or shall be justified and pardoned through Christ absolutely whether they perform any Condition or not whether they do any duty or not whether they believe and repent or not Then we Answer That the Minister who shall preach
per impossibile that a Christian have a sincere Faith separated from sincere Obedience if nothing but a sincere Act of Faith be required of him as indispensably necessary to Salvation he is safe and runs no hazard of loosing Eternal Salvation though he lead a wicked life as aforesaid But this is false and absurd therefore that principle from whence this follows is false and absurd also that is it is false and absurd that nothing but an Act of Faith is required as indispensably necessary to Salvation And not only Logick allows us to argue thus sometimes from a supposed impossibility John 8.55 but even our blessed Saviour who is truth it self hath done it before us If I should say quoth our Saviour I know not the Father I should be a lyer like unto you but I know him c. In like manner S. Paul argues ab impossibili saying Though we or an angel from heaven Gal. 1.8 preach another Gospel to you than that which we have preached unto you let him be accursed 3. We Answer That when it is said that sincere Faith cannot be without sincere Obedience the meaning is that sincere Faith is of an Obediential Nature and is of it self apt to put us upon the several Acts of sincere Obedience and will certainly do it if it be rightly used and put forth into strong vigorous Acts if the Spirit of the Lord concur with it if it be not hindred by the flesh and by the prevalency of tentations But the meaning is not that sincere Faith always actually and infallibly produceth the imperat acts of sincere Obedience as necessarily as the Sun produces light and as the Fire produceth Heat For the Principle of sincere Faith doth not so necessarily produce its own formal elicit Acts much less doth it so necessarily produce the Acts of other gracious Principles and Habits whose Acts are not the formal elicit but the imperat Acts of Faith And it is but too well known by sad experience that the Principle of sincere Faith or even the languid weak Act of that Principle doth not necessarily and infallibly alwayes produce all those Acts of sincere Obedience to the Lord which are necessary towards the obtaining of Eternal Life and Glory For had not David and Solomon a Principle of sincere Faith and who can say and prove that they had not then some weak languid Acts of Faith And yet that Faith in them for some considerable time was separated from that sincere Repentance and Obedience which is required as indispensably necessary to the obtaining possession of Eternal Life and Glory This is too evident to be denyed And surely what hath been is possible to be though we heartily wish that it may never actually be any more and that none of God's People may ever fall so foully nor lye so long in Sin as David and Solomon did But we think our Authour or any for him will find it a hard Task to prove that sincere Faith both as to the Habit and some weak Act cannot be for some time actually separated from such imperat Acts of Repentance and sincere Obedience as are indispensably necessary to the obtaining possession of Eternal Life and Glory in Heaven and further he may find it a Task no less hard to determine precisely how long time they may be actually separated but not one Minute longer If he think that he can do either or both of these we do intrent him to do it for in truth it will be a kindness to us who do really find the difficulty so great that we are not able to master it without help 4. We Answer That though it were well proved that sincere Faith can in no case be separated for one Minute from the imperate Acts of that sincere Repentance and Obedience which is indispensably necessary to the obtaining possession of Eternal Life and Glory in Heaven yet it doth by no means follow that Faith onely and not sincere Obedience distinct from Faith is required of us as indispensably necessary to the obtaining possession of Eternal Life and Glory in Heaven for Faith and Obedience may both be required and we have already proved by plain Scripture that they are both required as indispensably necessary to the obtaining of Eternal Life and Glory and without our having both as the Lord hath required we cannot be out of danger of coming short of Eternal Life and Glory The clear evidence of this Truth hath made our ablest and most Judicious Divines acknowledge that upon supposition that the Saints fallen into gross sins against Knowledge and Conscience like those of David and Solomon should dye in them before they had through Grace returned unto their Obedience to the Lord renewed both their Faith and their Repentance and got both the Guilt and Filth of those Sins washed and purged away by the most pretious Blood and holy Spirit of Christ they would be damned and lost for ever This Mr. Rutherford in his Examen Arminianismi p. 620. acknowledges to be a Truth in these Words Nisi renati in atrecia peccata lapsi resipiscerent in aeternum ipsis pereundum esset juxta comminationes Evangelicas Vnless the Regenerate after they have fallen into atrocious sins did repent they must perish everlastingly according to the threatnings of the Gospel Of this Perswasion were our excellent Divines in the Synod of Dort so was Mr. Perkins Bishop Abbot Downham Mr. Burgess Pareus Turretin c. as shall be shewed hereafter by the express Words of most of them This same Truth hath also been acknowledged and maintained by the French Divines who Answered that pestilent Book of the Jansenians called the Renversement and corruption of the Morals of Jesus Christ by the Errors of the Calvinists in the point of Justification Jurieu and others in answer to that most virulent Book go upon our Principle aforesaid and thereby vindicate the Reformed Churches from the blasphemous Reproaches which the Jansenians cast upon us all upon pretence that we all hold the abominable Opinion aforesaid that we are safe as to our Eternal state if we have but a true Faith though we live in the love and practice of all manner of Villanies except Unbelief 5. One great Reason we do not say the onely but one great Reason on our part why a sincere Faith is of its own Nature obediential that is it inclines to obedience and is of it self naturally apt to produce in us sincere Obedience and will not fail to do it if it be rightly used and be not hindred It is this a sincere Faith firmly assents to the Truth of the foresaid Commands Promises and Threatnings of the Gospel whereby we have proved that sincere Obedience is by the Lord made indispensably necessary unto and the condition of obtaining Eternal Salvation and from the infallible Truth of God's Word it assures us that there is no obtaining of Eternal Salvation unless we be sincerely obedient unto the Lord that if
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
But it must be confessed that the Spirit doth otherwise help before he doth inhabit and otherwise when he doth inhabit in the Soul for before be come to inhabit in the Soul he helps men that they may be Believers but when he doth inhabit and dwell in the Soul he helps them who are Believers This one Distinction of Austins attended unto would help People to understand this matter and to answer all that our Authour saith against any real change or Holy Seed Disposition or Qualification wrought in the Soul before it be justified For our Blessed Lord by his Holy Spirit first prepares and qualifies and makes us meet to be an Habitation for himself and then he comes unto us by the same Spirit and dwells in us and abides with us for ever Ephes 2.22 and 3.17 and 1 Cor. 3.16 Now the first of these is in Order before Justification God by his Spirit and Word first makes us such as his Word requires us to be that we may be justified he savingly enlightens our Minds and enlivens our Hearts he gives us a Seed of Faith and a Holy Principle of Light Lise and Love and by an influence of actual Grace causes us freely to reduce the said Seed and Principle into Act and so actually to believe and repent which when we do through Grace then he justifies us on the account of Christs satisfactory meritorious Righteousness imputed to us And after that we are effectually Called and thereupon are become Penitent Believers and are justified and reconciled the Lord gives us his Spirit and by his Spirit he comes and dwells in us he strengthens and encreases the Grace that he had begun in us and makes us more and more Holy in Heart and Life This is that which is commonly called Sanctification and follows after Justification and through Christs dwelling in us by his Spirit is carried on from one decree to another till it have attained its gradual Perfection and be consummated in Glory Let. p. 11. But he objects 2. Shall we tell Men that unles they be Holy they must not believe on Jesus Christ nor venture on him for Salvation till they be qualified and fit to be received by him This were to forbear Preaching the Gospel at all or to forbid all Men to believe on Christ for never was any Sinner qualified for Christ nor is it possible that ever any Sinner should be qualified for Christ We Answer our Author had said a little before in the same Page That every one who Believes on Christ acts that Faith as the chief of Sinners that is believes as an unbeliever as was before proved to be his meaning by his own express Words if his Words be expressive of his Mind And now by the Question which he puts to us here he seems plainly to be of Opinion that every man must believe as an unbeliever or else no man can ever believe at all and Ministers must give over Preaching the Gospel for they can never preach it as it should be preached unless they tell People that they must Act their Faith as the chief of Sinners that is they must believe as unbelievers for either we must tell People that they must believe as Unbelievers or else that they must not believe till they be first Holy and that is that they must never believe at all because it is impossible for them to be Holy till after they have believed in Christ and be united unto him by Faith This is plainly the sense of our Authors Words and the force of his Reasoning which puts us in mind of what Calvin says out of Augustin de bono perseverantiae Cap. 22. Calv. Instit lib. 3. Cap. 23. § 14. that there are insulsi doctores gratiae some foolish Preachers of Grace and surely if any they are to be accounted such Preachers who in effect tell People that they must believe as unbelievers or else they must not believe till they be first Holy and that is they must never believe at all But is there no way to avoid this foolish senseless way of Preaching Our Author thinks there is not we on the contrary are perswaded that there is a way to avoid it and in our Judgment it may thus be easily done we tell People that they must believe in Christ not as Unholy Unbelievers nor yet as Holy with that Holiness which is the effect of Believing and follows after Faith in Christ but by ceasing to be Unholy Unbelievers and by becoming Holy Believers and if they ask us how this can possibly be done we answer Not by Power of Nature but by the Power of Gods special Grace if they ask further How they can obtain that special Grace before they believe and be in Christ by Faith since all Grace is derived from Christ by Faith we answer that all Grace indeed is derived from Christ but it is a most notorious falshood that all Grace is derived from Christ by Faith for the first special Grace which is the Cause of Faith and whereby we believe in Christ is not from Christ by Faith but it is from Christ before Faith and it is given us by the Holy Spirit of Christ to work Faith in us and to bring us into Union with Christ by Faith if they say that even according to this way People must still believe before they are Holy and so must believe as not being yet Holy We answer that is true in one respect and false in another It is true that People must believe before they are Holy with that Progressive Holiness which is the effect of justifying Faith and follows after Justification but it is utterly false that People do believe or can believe savingly before they are Initially Holy before they are Holy with that first beginning and Principle of Holiness which consists in removing the ill Disposition of our Faculties and in giving our Faculties a right spiritual Supernatural Disposition and fitness for the Act of Believing this Holy Principle concurs to the producing of the Act of Faith and so must be in Order before it and then the Act it self of Faith which is an Holy Act must be in order before Justification Therefore it is utterly false that there can be no Holiness at all in any kind or degree before Faith and Justification by Faith since before actual Faith there is the Holy Seed and Principle both of Faith and Repentance and of other Graces too and in order of Nature there is an Holy actual Faith before Justification and this is a Truth so clear that our Author himself sometimes could see it as Pag. 21. Where he says that no man can do any thing that is good till Gospel Grace renew him and make him first a good man this is very true if it be rightly understood thus No man can do any thing that is spiritually supernaturally and savingly good till Gospel Grace that is internal special Grace renew him and make him first a
Scripture We Answer by denying the Consequence of the first Proposition as false for it doth not follow that we should warn People not to believe on Christ too soon And we have nothing Offered to prove that such an absurdity follows from our Doctrine but this mans bare Word which we have found to be so often false in matter of Fact that we can give no credit to it in other things And he is so unhappy here and elsewhere throughout his Letter that he makes his own Tongue or Pen to fall upon himself for he confesses that it is no good Argument that if People cannot be truly Holy before the Tree be changed Matth. 12.33 34 35. and before they have a new Heart Ezek. 36.26 27. as he grants they cannot then Ministers should warn People not to be Holy too soon For to give them any such warning he grants to be absur'd Let him then consider Let. p. 11 12. whether the same or the like Answer he can give to this Argument which would prove that Ministers should warn People not to be Holy too soon may not be given to the other silly Argument whereby he would prove that upon our Principle Ministers should warn People not to believe on Christ too soon for it is as certainly true that People cannot actually believe on Christ with a saving justifying Faith before the Tree be changed and the Heart be in part renewed as it is that they cannot be truely Holy before the Tree be changed and the Heart be renewed When we are to deal with Unbelievers our Lord hath given us other Work to do than to warn them not to believe too soon and let our Author try when he pleases he will find enough to do to convince them that their present Indisposition and disability to believe doth not free them from the Obligation which the Lord by his Word hath laid upon them to believe and to direct them unto the right means in the use whereof they may obtain from the Lord both the necessary Disposition unto Faith and also the Principle and Act of Faith it self Our Author we perceive has been at this Work and before we have done with him we shall see what a rare Specimen of his skill this way he hath given the World Fourthly But he farther Objects We hold forth that God justifieth the Ungodly Pag. 25. Rom. 4.5 Neither by making him Godly before he justifie him nor leaving him Ungodly after be hath justified him but that the same Grace that justifies him doth immediately sanctifie him We Answer this is the Text that our Antinomians much insist upon and think it sufficient to make all Men Antinomians And we are glad to find that it hath not that full effect upon him for tho he be one with them with respect to any Holy change in Order before Justification and denies it as they do yet he separates himself from them with respect to what follows after Justification and saith that we are sanctified immediately after Justification and so he joins himself to us now there may be good worldly Policy in this to hold with both sides as much as he can But if he do not agree with himself what ground can others have to trust him that ever he will heartily agree with them and that he doth not agree with himself we think is apparent from what he writes Pag. 16. A Man saith he is to believe that he may be justified Gal. 2.16 Again Pag. 32. No Words or Warnings repeated nor plainest Instructions can beat into Mens Heads and Hearts that the first coming to Christ by Faith or Believing on him is not a Believing we shall be saved by him but a Believing on him that we may be saved by him And again Pag. 7. The direct Act is properly justifying saving Faith by which the lost Sinner comes to Christ and relies upon him for Salvation Yet when we do press Sinners to come to Christ by a direct Act of Faith consisting in an humble reliance on him for Mercy and Pardon they will understand us whether we will or not of a reflex Act of Faith by which a Man knows and believes that his Sins are pardoned and that Christ is his when they might easily know that we mean no such thing These three Passages show clearly that he holds saving Faith to be both before Justification and before Assurance of Justification We confess that we do very well understand this to be the meaning of these Words now quoted ouâ— of his Letter for we think they are not capable of any other sense but though we understand the Words of the Letter yet we do not understand the Author of them and we much doubt whether he understands himself and that because he immediately adds Page 7. that Mr. Marshal in his excellent Book lately Published hath largely opened this and the true Controversie of this Day And Pag. 35. Marshals Book saith he is a deep practical well jointed Discourse and if it be singly used I look upon it as one of the most useful Books the World hath seen for many Years I fear not but it will stand firm as a Rock against all Opposition and will prove good Seed and Food and Light and Life to many hereafter Who that reads this can doubt but that our Author has read Marshaâ—s Book and that he approves it and believes every thing at least that is material in it and yet there is one thing very material in it and it is one of the main joints in it That justifying Faith is a Believing that we are now justified and shall be Eternally saved and that the Assurance of this that we are now justified and shall be saved is essential to the direct Act of Faith This Marshal with all his might strives to prove and it seems he hath done it to the Conviction of our Author who believes that that Opinion can never be disproved again Yea he seems so Confident of the Truth of Marshals Opinion that he spares not to reflect on the Westminster Assembly of Divines for denying it as they do in their Confession of Faith Chap. 18. Art 3. In these Words This infallible Assurance doth not so belong to the Essence of Faith but that a true Believer may mait long and conflict with many difficulties before he be partaker of it Thus the Assombly But doth he reflect on them for this why if he doth not let him tell us what he means by these following Words Was not the Holiness of the first Protestants eminent and shining Let. p. 22. and yet they generally put Assurance in the Definition of their Faith We cannot say that Gospel Holiness has prospered much by the Correction or Mitigation of that harsh-like Definition If these Words of his whatever might be his Intention do not reflect upon the Assembly we do not understand plain English and moreover we cannot but think also that they imply his owning of Marshals
meruisse aut illa virtus gratiae quae sibi quos volicit subdidit convertere eos qui inconvertibiles permansere non potuit tales fuerunt qui sunt attracti quales bi qui in suâ duritiâ sunt relicti fed illis tribuit gratia stupenda quod voluit istis tribuit veritas justa quod debuit ut judicium Dei magis inscrutabile sit in Electione gratiae quam in retributione justitiae How much soever the Malignity of the Wicked which resists the Grace of God be accused can it ever be proved that they to whom special Grace is given have deserved or merited it Or that powerful Efficacy of Grace which hath subdued to it self whom it would could it not convert those who remained unconverted They who are drawn to the Lord were such as those are who are left in their hardness But wonderful astonishing Grace gave what it would to those that are converted and just Truth that is the True and Just God rendered what he owed unto the others who are unconverted So that the Judgment of God is more unsearchable in the election of Grace than in the Retribution of Justice That is it is more difficult to give a reason why God gives special effectual converting Grace to such and such particular persons who could never deserve to have it than why he with-holds it from other persons who have really deserved to want it This is the true meaning of the last clause of that excellent Writer whereby we see that the Father on the one hand assigns the just demerits of the ungodly Resisters of Gods Grace for the reason of their not being converted by special and victorious Grace but on the other hand he acknowledges that no reason can be given why the like resistance is overcome and taken away in the Elect and they are savingly converted by discriminating Grace but that it is Gods good will and pleasure to have it so of the same judgment are we in this matter and as we derive the reason on the part of Gods Select People why they rather than others are infallibly converted by special Grace from the meer will and pleasure of God because we know no other reason of it so we ascribe unto God all the Glory of it saying with our Blessed Saviour We thank thee O Father Lord of Heaven and Earth because thou hast hid these things from the Wise and Prudent Mat. 11.25 26. and hast revealed them unto Babes Even so Father for so it seemed good in thy sight Thus we have briefly declared what our opinion is concerning the Preparations and Dispositions which ordinarily go before saving Conversion in some more in others less in some for a longer in others for a shorter time but in all so as to enlighten convince and humble them Thirdly Now in the third and last place we shall show that our opinion concerning them is neither new nor singular but that 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 And our first Witness is Calvin who writing against Pighius doth plainly confess that Sinners are disposed and prepared by the Grace of Gods Holy Spirit before they be savingly converted and justified His words are these Neque verò hoc medo praeparari hominem ad recipiendum justitiae donum negamus sed Spiritus Sancti directione Calvin contra Pighium de lib. arbit lib. 5. §. adducit tamen non suo ingenio c. But neither do we deny that man is thus prepared to receive the gift of Righteusness but it is by the direction of the Holy Spirit and not by his own natural understanding and strength Christ doth not call any to come unto him but such as labour and are heavy laden But yet it is he himself who makes us to feel our burden and to groan under it We confess that the common Proverb is most true that it is the only hopeful beginning of a cure where the sick Person is sensible of his Disease Therefore that Christ may become thy Physician it behoves thee to acknowledge and be sensible of thy Disease Again in his Institutions he expresly confesses that there are some common operations of the Spirit Idem Instit lib. 3. cap. 2. §. 11. whereof the Non-Elect are partakers in the visible Church Experientia inquit ostendit reprobos interdum fimili ferè sensu atque Electos affici ut ne suo quidem judicio quicquam ab electis differant c. Experience says Calvin shews that the Reprobate are sometimes affected with a sense and feeling to wit of Spiritual things almost like to that which is in the Elect in so much that in their own Judgment they differ not at all from the Elect. Wherefore there is no absurdity at all in this that by the Apostle a taste of Heavenly Gifts and by Christ a temporary Faith is ascribed unto them Thus Calvin who there shews that in the Elect after saving Conversion and Justification there is always something of a higher nature which differenceth them from the Non-elect and then adds Sed hoc minimè obstat quin illa inferior Spiritus operatio cursum suum habeat etiam in reprobis Yet this doth no ways hinder but that that inferiour operation of the Spirit hath its course even in the Reprobate And more he hath to this purpose whereby it evidently appears that in his Judgment there is such a thing as we call common Grace which oftentimes makes such a change upon the Unregenerate that it is hard to distinguish them from the truely Regenerate We might also alledge to this purpose the Testimonies of Chemnitius in his Examination of the Council of Trent of the Divines of Wittenberg in the Conference at Alâ—enburg of Pareus writing against Bellarmine about Justification of Paulus Ferrius in his Specimen of Ecclesiastical Orthodox Divinity and of others acknowledging and maintaining that there are such preparations and dispositions wrought in Sinners by the Grace of Gods Spirit before their Regeneration or Conversion and Justification but because we have been longer already than we first intended we will pass them and come to the Testimony of the Synod of Dort which ought to be of more weight with us than any other Testimonies of Protestant Divines that can be brought either for or against those previous dispositions we speak of And from amongst all that might make for our purpose in that famous Synod we will single out and content our selves with what our own British Divines have said for this opinion in their Collegiate suffrage approved by the Synod and Recorded in its Acts. And for the sake of our Countrey-Men who cannot have recourse to the Original to examine our Translation Act. Synodi Dordr part 2. p. 165.6 7 8. we will as we have done before make use of the old English
plainly shewed the falshood and folly of it in several particulars the World will not be so unjust as to reproach the Non-Conformist Ministers in England with that Ridiculous way of Preaching the Gospel to Unbelievers which we our selves have Confuted and exposed on purpose to prevent the Scandal which might otherwise arise if such things should be suffered to pass current amongst us without any publick disapproving of them CHAP. IV. Of the Calumnies wherewith he Asperses Christs Ministers and particularly of the Middleway First Calumny HIS First great Calumny which comprehends all the rest that lye scattered here and there throughout his Letter is that we are Corrupters of Christs pure Gospel and differ from him and his party in the main points of the Gospel which they believe and live by the Faith of and look to be saved in And by the Preaching whereof they have Converted Sinners unto God and have built up Saints in Holiness and Comfort Yea he carries the Accusation so far as to say that we Preach a New Gospel an Arminian Gospel to the certain peril of their Souls that Believe it And that our cause is Coincident with the cause both of Arminius and also of Pelagius That this is asserted by him and that we do not Calumniate him in reporting his Calumny against us is evident from the express words of his Letter For pag. 10. He says We see the pure Gospel of Christ corrupted and an Arminian Gospel New-Vampt and obtruded on People to the certain peril of the Souls of such as believe it And a little after in the same page he says That we are such Ministers as creep in not only to spy out but to destroy not so much the Gospel-Liberty as the Gospel-Salvation we have in Christ Jesus and to bring us back under the Yoke of Legal-bondage And indeed saith he the case in that Epistle to the Galatians and ours have a great affinity By which words he gives the World to understand that we are such Ministers as are like the false-teachers in the Churches of Galatia who taught people that they could not be justified and saved unless they became Jews so far as to be Circumcised and to keep the Law of Moses and therefore that Pauls curse recorded Gal. 1.8 falls upon us Though we or an Angel from Heaven Preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have Preached unto you let him be accursed Again in Pag. 13. he intimates that he and his party cannot be at peace with us unless they be either silent as to the main points of the Gospel or else swallow down Arminian Schemes of the Gospel contrary to the New Testament and unknown to the Reformed Churches in their greatest Purity And in the same page he says That we might know that the most Learned and Godly in the Christian World have for some ages maintained and defended the same Doctrine which he and his party stand for And he names three Authors who have done so to wit Bradwardin Twiss and Ames And then to drive the nail home that it may stick to us he saith That Judicious Observers cannot but already perceive a Coincidency between our cause and the cause of those two Pests of Christs Church Pelagius and Arminius and that they fear more when we shall either be driven out of our Lurking holes by force of Argument or shall think fit to discover our secret sentiments And when that day comes he threatens us that we shall find Enemies and Opposers enough both at home and abroad This is his first great Charge which we have faithfully Collected from his own express words and a dreadful charge it is if it were true but of the truth of it we find no proof but his bare word and what credit his word deserves we have seen already Indeed what he saith of his Judicious Observers their searing that our cause is not only Coincident with Pelagius his cause but that we are further gone off from the Truth than he we cannot tell whether it be true or false It may be true for we read in Psal 53.5 That some men have been in great fear where there was no just cause of fear And it may be false for some men can write lyes and say that they and their Confederates do fear that which they do not fear but only for their own ends would make simple People believe that they fear So that for ought we know it may be either true or false that he and his party have such fears of us But the Lord himself knows and we know that they have no just cause to entertain such fears and jealousies of us and it is a sure sign that they have but little if any Christian Love when without cause they entertain such jealous fears of their Brethren that they are departed or will depart from the Truth of the Gospel more than Pelagius And as to what he says that our Cause is Coincident with that of Arminius and Pelagius we are as sure that it is false as we can be that there is any such thing as truth or falsehood in the World And our Author also must needs know it to be false and must lye against his knowledge and conscience if he knows what the Errors of Pelagius were and that we are as he affirms us to be middle-way-men who steer a middle course between the Orthodox and the Arminians For the great fault that these middle-way-men are charged with is that they hold Universal Redemption in such a sense as neither to agree with the Orthodox that is the most rigid Calvinists who contrary to the express mind of Calvin deny that in any sound sense Christ can be said to have Redeemed all mankind nor yet with the Arminians who affirm that Christ hath Redeemed all the Reprobate World in the same sense that he hath Redeemed his Select People whom he chose in Christ before the foundation of the World unto special effectual Grace in this life and unto eternal Glory hereafter in the life to come This is to be a middle-way-man to hold universal Redemption in such a sense as neither pleaseth the Arminian nor the Rigid Antiarminian This our Author knows well enough and if he knows as well what were the Errors of Pelagius then he cannot choose but know that it is a lye to say that Our Cause is Coincident with the cause of Pelagius For to be Coincident is to be the same But it is not possible that our cause should be the same with Pelagius his cause if we be middle-way-men and hold universal Redemption as we are said to be and to do for Pelagius did not hold but denyed universal Redemption from sin or punishment of sin and it was accounted one of the Pelagian Errors above twelve hundred years ago that he so denyed universal Redemption This may be unknown to our Author and he may be apt to think that sure this is a Fiction of the middle-way-men but
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
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