Universal Grace which is the very express Covenant of Grace it self that all men are already through Christs satisfaction reconciled to God and pardoned if they will believe or that a conditional pardon is already given to the World And to deny this is to deny the Gospel and Christianity it self and to be no Christians B. You would make your selves and others believe that they deny that which they never dreamed of denying Like him that dreamed that he was wounded and call'd out for something to stop the blood Do not all Protestaents profess to believe that Covenant and conditional Pardon as well as you Do they not preach it constantly and administer Baptism in the same terms as you do who denieth that all are reconciled if they will believe A. But by that they mean only exclusively that all are not reconciled or pardoned because all believe not And not inclusively that all men are conditionally pardoned already B. You mistake and slander them Do they not read the very express pardon made already in Gods Word That Whoever believeth shall not perish c. Joh. 3. 16. Mark 16. 16 Do they not all acknowledge that this is a Law of God an Act of Oblivion Enacted long ago by God And is not this visible written Promise or Law of Grace an existent conditional pardon of all No man of sense and understanding and faith denieth it A. But they say that in making it Gods secret intent was that none but the Elect should have any saving benefit of it * What say others less Malderus in 1. 2. q. 111. a. 3. d. 5. p. 486. Cum de Redemptore dando Deus constituisset ut secerneret illos quos elegit eum rerum ordinem elegit in quo certi quos voluit homines a reliquis discernerentur cosque pro beneplacito suo ad nullum bonum usum liberi arbitrii respiciens ad vitam aeterâ—am praedestinavit talemque tis gratiam decrevit cum qua certissimo infallibiliter ad regnum pervenirent Reliquos autem qui ex illo numero non sunt reliquit non quidem sint omni auxilio Gratiae sicut juste potuisset propter Adae peccatum sed cum auxiliis gratiae secundi Adae ad ipsos derivandis in ordine ac cursu rerum jam electo Et videns scieâ—tia visionis hos in peccato vitam finire reprobavit eos statuit in aeternum punire a regno excludere Thus the Jesuites ordinarily And what is here considerably different from the Synod of Doâ—t If the name of sufficient Grace be the quarrel call it Gratia efficax ad posse and all is ended B. 1. Still you are returning to the dispatched Controversie of the Decrees which is a confession that you disser not otherwise about Redemption 2. Do not you your selves hold the same which you quarrel with 1. Inclusively they hold that the Elect shall be saved by Christ And do you deny it 2. As to the exclusion of others they hold that God decreed not any mans Infidelity and Sin but fore-seeing their Infidelity and Sin decreed that they should not be saved by Christ but perish And do not you say the same Away with these contentious dreams A. I am sure I can name you divers that say otherwise B. It is the Synod still and the common Confessions and Doctrine of the Churches which you have to do with Tell not me of singular men The Doctrine of the Church of England I told you out of the Catechism The Synods words I recited And remember as Dallaeus tells Spanhemius that Davenant with the rest of the British Divines Martinius and the other Breme Divines who all gave their suffrages and writ for Universal Redemption did yet all subscribe in the Synod And therefore undoubtedly understood that no words of the Canons were contrary to their sense of Universal Redemption The later famous Helvetian confession saith We teach and believe that this Jesus Christ our Lord is the only and eternal Saviour of Mankind yea and of the whole world upon which words the English Collector of the Confessions giveth us a ridiculous Observation that he thinks they meant the restoring of the world at last contrary to the context As if he had not known that Musculus Bullinger c. were for Universal Redemption But that I be not over-tedious I pray you peruse in Dallaei Apolog. To. 2. the citations out of the Confessions and Catechisms and Liturgies of the Reformed Churches viz. Of Berne August Bohem. Helvert Saxon. Anglic. Palatin Synod Dord Colloq Torun with a multitude of Protestant Divines The fourth Crimination A. They make it impossible for any man to believe in Christ at first by a rational and true Faith For his dying for men being the Object of Faith must be before the Act. And no man by their way can know that Christ died for him till he is a Believer and yet they say that our first saving Faith must be a believing and trusting in Christ as one that died for us So that men must stay till they believe that Christ died for them that they may have reason to believe that he died for them For before the first Faith or belief of it they can have none B. You still make the world believe that men hold that which they do not This concerneth not the Churches but some singular men The common Protestant Doctrine is That Christ by his Death hath procured the universal conditional Gift of Pardon and Life contained in the Covenant of Grace Mark 16. 16. Joh. 3. 16 c. And that his death was thus far efficient by which it is sufficient for the actual Justification and Salvation of penitent Believers And that this is it that men must first believe and so accept of an offered Saviour for Justification and Life and give up themselves to him in the baptismal Covenant which when they do they are justified and adopted having right to and union with Christ and in him right to the Covenant-benefits And then Christ's death which was sufficient by its efficiency of Satisfaction Merit and the Covenant-grant becometh efficient of Justification c. And are not you and they agreed in this I confess that many singular Divines have given you this occasion But what 's that to the Churches The fifth Crimination A. They tell men that they must believe a Lye or an unrevealed thing that by believing it it may become true and they may be saved and ese they shall be damned For they say that Christ died for none but the Elect And yet that others also are bound to believe that he died for them And because they believe not this Lye God will damn them But if they did believe it it would be true As if the Objective Truth were not before the belief of it B. This also is but your quarrel with singular men and not with the Churches unless you wrong them Their common Doctrine is that no man
or cease it by his own will Sent. 13. He that saith that some men are not made by God to this end that they might obtain eternal life but that they might be the ornaments of their times and for the good of others would speak better if he said that God who is the Creator of all men maketh not them in vain who he foreseeth will not be partakers of life eternal Because even in bad men nature is Gods good work and Justice in their damnation is laudable But he cannot well be blamed that saith that even by the condition of such the World is adorned * * * But not by their sin i◠self and that those that hurt themselves by their own iniquity are born for the good of others For the multitude of the ungodly though innumerable is not disgraceful or a deformity to the World or unprofitable to the Kingdom of God seeing that by their propagation cometh the generation that is to be regenerate and by tolerating and loving them Gods people become the more illustrious Sent. 14. He that saith that they that believe not the preaching of the Gospel are unbelievers by Gods predestination and that God so decreed that they that believe not be unbelievers by his appointment or decree is not a Catholick For as Faith which worketh by Love is Gods gift so unbelief is none of Gods constitution Because God knoweth how to ordain Punishment for sin but not sin it self And it followeth not that what he remitteth not he committeth The predestinate therefore liveth by the faith which is given him The non-predestinate perish by Voluntary and not constrained infidelity Sent. 15. He that saith that Foreknowledge is the same with predestination doubtless in our good works conjoyneth or mixeth those two For what we have of Gods gift and is said to be foreknown must needs be predestinate And what is said to be predestinate must needs be foreknown But in our evil works only the foreknowledge of God must be understood Because as he foreknew and predestinated the things which he doth himself and giveth us to do so he FOREKNEW ONLY and DID NOT PREDESTINATE the things which he neither doth himself nor requireth us to do SECT XXI Prosper 's answers ad Object Vincent 662. I Will crave the Readers patience while I add the summ of hi◠Answers also to some of the Objections of Vincentius Obj. 1. That Christ died not for all Resp His death is a remedy in it self sufficient to profit all but if it be not taken it will not heal Obj. 2. That God would not have all saved though they would Resp We must sincerely believe and profess that God would have all saved That many perish is by the merit of them that perish That many are saved is the gift of him that saved them For that the guilty are damned is Gods inculpable justice that the guilty are justified is Gods unspeakable grace Obj. 3. That God made most of mankind that they might perish for ever Resp God is the Creator of all men but No man is made by him that he might perish For the cause of being born is one and the cause of perishing is another That men are born is Gods gift that they perish is the sinners desert He maketh men that they may be men Obj. 4. That the most of men are made of God not to do Gods will but the Devils Resp It is madness and against reason to say that it is by Gods will that Gods will is not done and that the damner of the Devil and his servants would have the Devil served Obj. 5. That God is the author of our sin in that he maketh mens wills evil and maketh a substance which by natural motion cannot but sin Resp This objection they make because we hold original sin and misery But we hold that whatever is of Nature is of God and none of that which is contrary to Nature But sin is contrary to nature from whence cometh death and all that is of death God is the author of no mans sin but the Creator of his Nature which voluntarily sinned when it had Power not to sin and by his own will man subjected himself to the deceiver And it is not by Natural but by Captive Motion that he liveth in sin till he die to sin and live to God which without grace he cannot do Obj. 6. That God maketh in men such a will as is in Devils that of its own motion can and will do nothing but evil Resp The whole world lyeth in wickedness But even very bad men may be reconciled and Devils cannot And God put not evil affections in men Obj. 7. That it is Gods will that a great part of Christians neither will nor can be saved Resp If you speak of them who forsaking the Godliness of a Christian conversation and faith do irrevocably pass over into prophane errours and damnable manners it 's doubtless that having such a will they will not be saved and as long as they will not be saved they cannot be saved But it is by no means to be believed that such men fell into this desperate case by the will of God when rather God lifteth up all that fall For no man is raised or established but by his Grace It is therefore Gods will that they continue in a good will And he forsaketh no man before that man forsake him and converteth many that do forsake him Obj. 8. That God will not have all Catholicks to persevere in the Catholick faith but will have a great part of them to apostatize from it Resp The same answer serveth to this blasphemy as to the former Obj. 9. That God would have a great part of the Saints to fall from the purpose of holiness * * * The Reader must note that their common opinion then was that some true Saints do fall away and perish Resp This madness also needeth no other answer Obj. 10. That Adulteries and corrupting consecrate Virgins do come to pass because God predestinated them to fall Resp It is a detestable and abominable opinion which believeth God to be the author of any mans evil will or evil action whose predestination or decree is never without Goodness and Justice †††That is of nothing but good and just For all the wayes of God are mercy and truth Adulteries and Corruptions of Virgins God knoweth not how to institute but to damn not to dispose * * * That is ut sint but to punish Which evils when men commit they serve their own lusts Gods predestination neither exciteth perswadeth or impelleth the fall malignity or lusts of sinners but plainly predestinateth his own Judgement by which he will reward every one according to what he hath done whether good or evil which Judgement would never be if men sinned by the will of God But be it will And every man whom the discerning of Gods knowledge shall set
be Believed in and as they were to be subject and devoted to him And what mouth can surelier reveal him And Heb. 11. 6. Without faith it is impossible to please God for he that cometh to God must believe that God is and that he is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek him Act. 10. 34 35. Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons but in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him And John's and Christ's Preaching were Repent And Except ye Repent ye shall all perish And Christ was a Prince and a Saviour to give Repentance to Israel and Remission of Sins 26. The belief of the pardoning Mercy of God to the penitent and the recoverable state of Souls and the duty of Repenting and seeking pardon and mercy of God in order to Salvation in opposition to despair and neglect of all endeavours for recovery is so common to all Mankind that though self-love may make them hope inordinately for that which they would have to be true yet it is most apparent that it proceedeth from some Natural notion of God and is to be numbred with the Notitiae Communes which are past controversie with all Mankind 27. Therefore though the Law of Innocency was the Law of Nature in the first and eminent sence yet this Common notice of Gods pardoning Mercy and man's duty to Repent hope and seek Salvation may well be called The Law of lapsed Nature as the other is the Law of Innocent Nature For the Nature of God and the nature of Man with all circumstant Natures and the course of natural Providence running so much in the way of great restoring mercy do certifie mankind of the foresaid hopes and duties 28. For it is not as some have said an absurdity but a certain Truth that the Law of Nature is as far mutable as Nature it self is mutable For the Law of Nature commonly mis-described is nothing else but the Nature of Man and all other Creatures of God so far as per modum signâ— they notifie to us Gods Will appointing what shall be Due from us and To us as the instrument of Gods Government of Mankind Now this Notification is most by the Resultancy of duty from the Nature of Man compared with God and all the Creatures that he hath to do with And the very variety of circumstances as in the case of Adam's Childrens Marriages and ours c. may alter Nature's signification obligation and Law 29. That which is called the Covenant of Nature or Innocency was in the Main the very Law of Innocent Nature in all the parts of it 1. Nature being perfect revealed Man's Duty perfectly to obey 2. Nature declared Punishment to be due to sin yea to all sin And this punishment to be suitable to the nature of the Offender compared with the God offended and the injury done Especially that if men will undoe themselves by forsaking Life and Love and Joy and casting themselves into darkness diseasedness and misery when it is foreshewn them God is not bound to hinder or recover them 3. Nature telleth man that God who made his Soul a simple Intellectual spirit and Life it self though created and dependant intended not to annihilate it and that its noble faculties fitted to know God and Love him and Live to him perfectly in Immortality were made for this employment in Immortality and not in vain And that he that Naturally maketh it mans duty to hope and seek for Immortal happiness hath not made this hope or duty in vain Nor will fail or frustrate or destroy them that forfeit not their hopes So that the Covenant depends not alone upon supernatural Revelation 30. But that which Nature revealeth about the penalty is 1. Not that God of necessity must punish the loss of Innocency as highly as he may do 2. But that he may justly punish the Sinner in rigour by temporal spiritual and eternal miseries 3. And that the Ends of Government the honour of his Wisdom Goodness Power Truth and Justice and the order of the humane world do require that sin scape not free but some exemplary punishment be a Vindication of God and a warning to Man which our death afflictions and spiritual sufferings manifest in part and the sufferings of Christ more fully So that pardon and dispensing in part with his Right to punish us according to the Law first broken is no falshood in God nor any injustice nor any violation of his Law of Nature 31. The Law which God put all mankind under after the fall and the world without the Church is under still is the Preceptive part of the Law of Innocent Nature as de futuro the promise of it being ceased and the penalty not totally nullifyed but made remedyable by an act of oblivion or Conditional Covenant of Grace q. d. Thou shalt perfectly obey me for the time to come and every sin shall deserve everlasting punishment so far as that I might justly inflict it and will do it if it be not remitted But all thy sin shall be forgiven thee and thou shalt have the free gift of pardon and salvation if thou Believe in me thy merciful Saviour and repent and give up thy self to me to be saved and to be Mine by sincere obedience and Love 32. The deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt by Moses and their imbodying into a new Common-wealth with a Theocratical Government in a peculiar manner and a new body of Divine Laws were all done in performance of Gods Covenant with Abraham Isaac and Jacob separating their seed as Holy from all the world Not as if no other were Holy in the world but as the Priests and Levites were sanctified to stand nearer to God than the people and so specially Holy even so Israel was a Holy Nation as being nearer God by separation than the rest of the Nations of the world 33. The entire Law of God which the Israelitish Nation was under had all these parts 1. The remaining preceptive and directive part of the Law of Nature 2. The Universal Covenant of Grace made with all mankind in Adam and Noah and personally renewed to Abraham for himself and his posterity 3. The special promise to Abraham and his seed as a peculiar people of whom the Messiah should come 4. The body of the Law of Moses as a Law for that Common-wealth or Politie which was not so given to any other Common-wealth or Nation * * * Lâ—g Suarez de Lâ—g l. 9. who c. 6. distinguisheth of the Law strictly taken and so it hath not saith he promises of eternal felicity and the Law as including the promise to the Fathers and so it had such promises But those promises being the Soul of the Law should not by the Jews have ever been separated from the rest in their conceits of it 1. The first of these undoubtedly is still in force 2. The second is turned into the
may be called 1. A Receiving Cause 2. And a mediâ—â— or dispositive Cause of the effect Justification as Received but not as Given As I said Dr. Twisse chooseth to call it But this causa Dispositiva is pâ—â— of the causa Materialis viz. Qua disposita A cause or more properly a condition why I receive Justification and by receiving it am Justified which is their meaning who call it A Passive Instrument that is A â—â—ceiving Instrument 199. The plain easie truth is that Faiths Nature which is to be â—â—lieving Acceptance of Christ and Life offered on that Condition being â—â— very essence is but its Aptitude to the office it hath to our Justification by which the Question is answered why did God promise us Christ and Life â—â— the Condition of faith rather than another Because of the congruity of its Nature to that office But the formal Reason of its office as to our Justification is Its Being the performed Condition of the Covenant And if God had chosen another condition a condition it would have been Now the true notion in Law being a Condition Logicians would call this improperly a Receiving cause and more properly A Receptive Disposition of the matter reducing it to Physical notions But the most proper term is the plainest We are justified by that faith which is the Believing Practical Acceptance of God the Father Son and Holy Ghost as Given us on that condition in the Baptismal Covenant because or as it is made by God the condition of his Gift thereby Understand this plain doctrine and you have the plain truth 200. They that say contrarily that Faith justifieth proximately as it is an Instrument or a Receiving Accepting act and not as a Condition of the Covenant do evidently choose that which they vehemently oppose viz. that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere justifieth For the very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere or the â—â—â—â— of Faith is to be an Acceptance of Christ given But if they will to avoid this say that By Faith they mean Christ believed in then they say that by Receiving Christ they mean not the receiving of him but Christ himself And why then do they not say so but trouble the world with such unintelligible phrases But to open the senselessness and coâ—sequents of that Doctrine would but offend All know that Chriâ—â—â—â— the object is connoted as essential to the act of Faith SECT XII How Repentance is joyned with Faith 201. Repentance is a Dispositio materiae recipientis too and a part of the condition of the Covenant And so far a Material or dispositive Receiving Cause But not an Acceptance of the Gift formally in its averting act 202. Faith and Repentance are words used in Scripture in divers significations Saith Malderus Gu. Amesius a parte recedit ab antiquo Calvinismo quiae requirit ad justitiam bonae operâ— tanquam conditionem praerequisitam quod â—tiam extendit ad ipsam â—lectionem See here how little the Papists understand us As Faith is sometimes taken for bare Assent as Jam. 2. and usually for Affiance or Trust and always when it denominateth a Christian or Justified Believer as such it essentially includeth all the three parts Assent Consent and Affiance but yet denominateth the whole by a word which principally signifieth One act which commonly is Affiance as including the other two so Repentance is sometime taken comprehensively for the whole Conversion of a Sinner to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and so it includeth Faith in the narrower sence and is the same thing as Faith in the larger sence but express'd under another formal notion Sometimes it is taken more narrowly and that 1. As to the Act. 2. As to the Object 1. As to the Act and so the word Repentance signifieth only the Aversion of the Soul from evil by sorrow and change of mind And this is the strict formal notion of the word though usually it be taken more largely as including also the Conversion of the Soul to Good which is the usual Scripture and Theological sense though the word it self do chiefly signifie the Averting act 2. As to the Object 1. Repentance sometime signifieth the Turning of the Soul from Sin and Idols to God as God And so Repentance towards God is distinguished from Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ 2. And sometimes it signifieth only the turning of the Soul and life from some particular Sin 203. Repentance as it is the turning of the Soul from sin and Idols * The Papists take Repentance it self to be part of the Remission of Sins And let the Reader note for the fuller opening of what I have said of their darkness thereabouts that Jansenius Aug. To. 1. li. 5. c. 22. p. 126. maketh four things to be inseparably conteined in Remission though distinguishable 1. The Conversion of the Soul to God 2. The abstersion of the Macula or filth 3. Reconciliation or the remission of Gods offence 4. The relaxation of the aeternal punishment That all these are then at once given us we are all agreed But whether the name Remission or Pardon of sin â—e meet for them all we disagree Is it not visible then how unhappily we strive about words wheâ— we talk like men of several Languages But all is but removation and remitting the penalty of which Gods offense is the first part And Macula is either the sin it self or the relative consequents to God is the same with Faith in God in the large Covenant-sence and includeth Faith in God in the narrower sence Repentance as it is our Turning from Infidelity to Christianity is the same with Faith in Christ in the large Covenant-saving-sence and includeth Faith in Christ in the narrower sence as it is meer Assent Repentance as it is a Turning from the Flesh to the Holy Ghost as our Sanctifyer is the same thing as our Faith in the Holy Ghost in the large Covenant sence and includeth Faith in the Holy Ghost in the narrower sence But when they are the same thing the ratio nominis or formal notion is not the same As man's mind is not so happy as to conceive of all things that are one by one entire single Conception so we are not so happy in our language as to have words enough to express things entirely by one name but we must have several words to express our inadequate conceptions by And so that is called Repentance as the Souls motion from the Terminus a quo which is called sometimes Faith or Affiance and sometimes Love from the motion of the Soul to the Terminus ad quem though the Motus be the same But when Faith and Repentance are distinguished as several parts of the Condition of the new Covenant the common sence is that Repentance signifieth the Conversion of the Soul from Sin and Idols to God as God which is or includeth Faith in God And Faith signifieth specially Faith in Christ as the Mediator and way
I believe I grant it if 1. This be in it self as evident 2. And as certain to me as Gods Word is otherwise I deny it 236. Obj. A man cannot believe and not know that he believeth Ans But a man may sincerely believe and yet through ignorance either of the Scripture or himself be uncertain that indeed his Faith is sincere and not such as is common to the justified 237. Some Protestants by erring in this point and saying that justifying Faith is a certain perswasion or belief that we are justified and that it is Gods own Word that I or you are actually justified or are sincere Believers and that the believing it is properly fides Divina have greatly scandalized and hardened the Papists to our disgrace 238. And so have those that say that in the Creed the meaning of I believe the Remission of Sin is I believe that my sins are remitted actually And that all must thus believe 239. Some say that the Spirit within them saith that they are sincere Believers and the Word of the Spirit is the Word of God and to believâ— it is to believe God Ans This is the Enthâ—sâ—asts conceit which if true all such have prophetical Inspiration For the Spirit to bring any new word from God is one thing and to give us the Understanding Love and Obedience to such a Word is another thing The Spirit doth indeed assure us of our sincerity but not by a new Word from God to tell us so but 1. By giving us that sincere Faith it self 2. By acting it and increasing it 3. By helping us to know it 4. By giving us the love of God and other Graces 5. By giving us the comfort of all But the reception and perception of these internal Operations is not properly called a Belief of the Word of God Else when we make Gods Word the adequate Object of Faith we shall be still at an uncertainty what that Word is 240. Yet this perswasion that we are sincere and justified is divine where the Spirit causeth it but not a divine Faith Yea it is participatively of divine Faith because Gods Word is one of the premises though the weaker must denominate the conclusion * * * Of this see Albertinus's Disp at large 241. Obj. A Reprobate or Devil may believe all the Articles of Faith without application but justifying Faith applieth Christ and his benefits to our selves Ans It 's true But this application is not a certainty nor a perswasion nor a believing that I am justified no more than that I am glorified no nor that I shall be so neither But it is an accepting of Christ offered that I may be justified and saved So that here are all these applying acts in it 1. I believe that Christ as the Saviour of the World is my Saviour as he is all other mens and is not the Devils that is that he hath done that for me which he hath done for all mankind 2. I believe that he is offered to me personally in the Promise or Covenant of Grace on condition of believing-acceptance and that with and for all his purchased benefits and so for my Justification 3. I believe that if I so accept him I shall be justified 4. By true consent I do accordingly accept him to justifie sanctifie and save me But when all this is done 1. I do not believe that God hath said in his word that I am justified nor that my Faith is sincere 2. And my Faith is so weak that I may long doubt of that sincerity which I have and so of my Justification 3. And when I come to be certain of my Faith it is not by believing God as saying that I do certainly believe but by experience of its sincerity upon just trial by the Spirits help 242. No man can be sure that his Faith is sincere and saving who is not assured that it will help him to love God as God above all yea already doth so and that it mortifieth selfishness and will prevail with him to deny even life it self and all the world for Christ and Salvation So far as a man doubteth of any of this he must needs doubt of his own sincerity 243. So weak is Faith in most that are sincere and so little kept in exercise and so strong is sense and self and flesh and worldly bâ—its and interest and Satan's temptations that in my experience who have conversed with as many that are careful of their Souls as most have done I think it is a very small number that I could ever hear say I am certain of my Justification and Salvation But a great number who have lived in holy confidence hope and peace and some in great joy but most in tollerable fears and doubting and some few oppressed by those doubts So that certainty of Salvation is very rare 244. When Bellarmine saith that our assurance more belongeth to Hope than Faith and that it is but moral certainty by signs that we have of our Justification Sincerity and Salvation he so little differeth from the sense of almost all godly Protestants that were it not through other distances and partiality we had never read in Luther's days that for this one point alone we have cause enough of our alienation from the Romanists 245. They err on one extream who say that all are commanded to believe that they are justified or any as if it were Gods Word And they err on the other hand who command doubting or commend it as if it were a duty or a benefit And they speak the truth who say that our doubting of our own Sincerity and Justification if we are sincere is a sin of Infirmity and a Calamity proceeding from weakness of Faith Hope Love and Self-acquaintance which we should use all possible diligence to overcome But they that are not sincere are bound to know it And first to seek and get sincerity and then discern it 246. It is by the Spirit that all Christians must come to their assurance But not by the Spirit as speaking this in us as a word from God Thou art justified or shalt be saved or art sincere But by the aforesaid Acts The Spirit in us is first Christ's Agent Advocate and Witness to assure us that he is the Saviour of the World And next he is our Witness to assure us that we are Gods adopted Children which he doth by being in us Gods Mark and the Pledge First-Fruits and earnest of our heavenly Inheritance by effectual habituating our Souls to the predominant love of God and Holiness and Heaven Where-ever this Sanctification is there is the Evidence and Witness of our Adoption He that findeth by the Fruits that he hath the Spirit findeth the certain proof of his Justification and earnest of Glory SECT XVII Of Love as the end of Faith 247. This predominant Love of God and Holiness is so proper a Cui non unus idemque vitâ— scopus est hic
Conditional Covenant of Grace for I talk of no other extendeth not universally to all men but that any men are yet lest under no other Law or conditional-promise or Covenant than that of Innocency For if that were true 1. Then God should be supposed to make men a promise of Life on a condition of present natural impossibility And to say to sinners If you be not sinners you shall live 2. And to oblige men to the same Impossibilities as the means of their salvation saying still to sinners I require you sinners that you be no sinners that you may be saved 3. Which is indeed to say that the case of all that are under the first Law of Innocency only is desperate and they have no more hope or remedy than the Devils 4. And then Christ had mistaken the matter himself when he commanded his Ministers to Preach this Gospel or Covenant to all the world and every humane Creature and tell them that If they believe they shall be saved and to offer them Baptism if they consent 5. And either Preachers must preach an untruth to many or else not know what man to preach to 6. But the actu-al force and obligation of the Covenant puts all out of doubt that the world is under a Law of Grace For what man that by siding hath not his understanding utterly distorted to look only on one side can say that none but the Elect are bound to Believe in Christ or to Repent of sin or to turn to God and this as a means of their salvation What man dare say that any Heathens in the World are under no obligation to use any means at all for the pardon of their sins or the recovery and saving of their souls What man dare say that it is no sin in them not to use any such means And what duty or sin can there be without a Law And what Law can bind men to accept of Grace and to seek it and use means for pardon renovation and salvation but the new Covenant or Law of Grace Sure the Law of Innocency hath no such obligation 7. Lastly And Gods usage of all the world puts the case past Controversie For he useth no man according to the meer Law of Innocency All the world have a great proportion of the Mercies of the New Covenant and therefore are not under the Covenant of Innocency alone Yet we maintain that the preceptive part of the Law of Innocency as to the future is still in force to all men Obey perfectly And that the penal part is so far in force as to make death in the first instant due for every sin But we add 1. That the Remedying pardoning Law being in force with it doth immediately dissolve that obligation and make it uneffectual to the punishment of believers 2. And that the Promising part of the Covenant of Innocency is utterly ceased by the cessation of mans capacity And therefore that the Preceptive part for perfection is now no Condition of Life to any man Two things I was wont in my Ignorance to say against the universal tenour of the new Covenant 1. That God distinguished and excluded some at the first making of it under the name of the Seed of the Serpent But 1. No Scripture giveth us the least ground to think that men equally guilty are some called the Seed of the Serpent and some of the Woman meerly as denominated from or distinguished by Gods own will or decree without any real difference in the persons 2. And if the Image of Satan in Original sin were it that denominated the Seed of the Serpent then all the world should be excluded because all are such before they are regenerate 3. Therefore it is plain that it is not meer Original sin that denominateth any one the Serpents Seed in the sence of that Text but a consequent rejection and opposition of the Mediator or Grace of the new Covenant 2. I was wont in my great Ignorance in my youth to think that All men were meerly under the first Covenant till Conversion and then they came under the second only But this was but Confusion To be under a Law or offered Covenant as the terms of life or death is one thing And so all are under a Law or Covenant of Grace and no man under the meer Law of Innocency obliged to perfection as the sole condition of life And to be obedient to this Law and a Consenter to this Covenant and so to be in the Covenant as Mutual is another thing And this is the case of Consenters only So that I may take it for granted that we are agreed that as to the first Edition of the Law of Grace to Adam and Noe it extendeth or is in force to all the world at least till by enmity against Grace they have made themselves desperate as the Serpents seed Yea then the Law of Grace is in force to them though they reject the Grace of it 2. And as to the last Edition of the Covenant of Grace by Christ 1. The tenour of it extendeth to all as is visible Matth. 28. 19. Mark 16. 16. Joh. 3. 16. 2. And Christ hath made it the office of his Ministers by his commission to promulgate and offer it to all 3. And whereas providence concurreth not to the universal execution we must all confess that Christ came not to put the world into a worse condition than he found them in If he did any no good by his Incarnation he would do them no harm Therefore they that never hear the Gospel are still under the first Edition of the Covenant made with Adam and Noah so far as it is unaltered I add that word because that so far as the Promise was to give salvation by the Messiah hereafter to be incarnate none is now bound to expect his future Incarnation because it is past But the same benefits that were due to believers before Christs incarnation are due since upon the true performance of so much of the condition as is still in force and not repealed 3. And we must needs agree that the Ignorance of the Apostles before Christs sufferings of his death sacrifice and resurrection doth shew that the faith of the Godly Jews then was far more general and less particular than the faith now required of Christians 4. And also that more was required then to be known particularly by the Jews that had the Scripture and Tradition to acquaint them with the Messiah to come than of the rest of the world that had not those distinct discoveries nor Abraham's promises made known unto them And how much Gen. 3. 15. might cause them to understand we may conjecture by the words At least this much was required of all that they believe that their sin deserveth punishment and misery and yet that God of his abundant mercy by his Wisdom securing his Truth and Justice will pardon sin and grant salvation to all that truly Believe and Trust in
make this motion to be somewhat received before we act and yet nothing but our act which is absurd IV. Other Thomists hold that It is somewhat really distinct from our operations and that is Quoddam complementum virtutis activae quo actualiter agat And he that knoweth what predicament this complementum belongeth to and what it is let him take this opinion for more than a meer complement And here they tell you that they speak not of Gods simultaneous concurse for that Alvarez confesseth is nothing besides Gods essence and mans act But of his previous motion which he saith is somewhat more So Amesius Antisynod de Grat. c. 2. pag. 255. Satis esset apud omnes pios dicere Dei Velle sine ulla Impressione intercedente certe posse efficere ut Voluntas consentiat ipsius Vocationi I now meddle not with the truth of this and Twisses argument is easily answered But I intreat the Reader to note into what all our controversies are by these excellent men reduced who yet most aggravate them What now is the Gratia efficax ad credendum Nothing besides Gods esse but ipsa fides Is faith effective of it self No. Is Gods essential will effective of it Who ever denyed it What place is there for Controversies of sufficiency and efficacy when it is but Gods essence and the known effect of which they speak and hold not as Alvarez doth any motion or Impress made by God upon mind or will at all Gods will then is effectual quia vult effectum and it is virtually sufficient for whatever he willeth not but could will But then no man can possibly do any more good or less evil than he doth because no more or less is willed of God which volition is the first necessary Cause of all things And is not all their Volumes de Auxiliis Gratiae and the several sorts previous simultaneous operating co-operating c. meerly vain when there is no such thing as any Grace besides Gods meer will and the Act of man And yet Dr. Twisse elsewhere saith that Gods Decrees do nihil ponere in objecto As if they differed in the nature of motion And he saith that this is true both of supernatural acts which are from Infused habits as faith hope Love and of Imperfect supernaturals as fear of hell and attrition by which man is remotely prepared for Justification ◠which proceed not from supernatural habits but from the spirits special impulse not yet inhabiting but moving And Alvarez thus concludeth I. That which God doth in second causes by which these act is Aliquid habens esse quoddam incompletum per modum quò colores sunt in aere virtus artis in instrumento artificis It is Aliquid incompletum transiens cum ipsa operatione Are you ever the wiser for all this II. Hoc ens incompletum praevium actioni causae secundae producitur in illa effective à solo Deo nullo modo dependet efficienter ex influx◠ipsius causae secundae And therefore herein the will is passive though not in its own Act as he falsly affirmeth Luther to assert for what can act and not be active III. When second causes natural or supernatural have by their inherent form sufficient Active virtue per modum actus primi proportioned with the effect then Gods premotion is not a Quality but proprio vocabulo dicitur Motio Virtuosa by which the universal cause maketh the second actually operate according to its proper mode Therefore it is not a Habit or disposition or natural power IV. Yea in Imperfect supernatural acts as fear of hell which go before habits and by preventing grace are elevated to the acts it is not a Quality but Motio Dei virtuosa by which they are done and is of the same sort with that which causeth acts from habits V. This previous Motion is Really distinct from the operation of the second cause and is not our act it self but is immediately from God Which he useth many arguments to prove And can all this give any man a formal conception what it is which he calleth aliquid incompletum and Motio Virtuosa We know not what the Vis projectis impressa is in corporeals And can we tell how spirits and how the God of spirits maketh his Impressions or what the word Impression or Motion here signifieth We know that we know it not if we know what we know and know-not And why is it called Motio Virtuosa Virtus he maketh a quality It is no quality and yet Virtuosa Omnis motio est Actio Is it Actio Increata Then it is God himself which he denyeth and speaketh of somewhat between God and mans Act. Is it Actio creata Then it is a Modus Agentis for so is every Action as such as distinct from its effect in patiente And if so it cannot be modus Dei for then it is Ipse Deus And if it be modus hominis it is either homini◠agentis vel patientis If the first then it is mans Action If the second it is formally no action For modus patientis is passio though many would confound action and passion with saying after their Masters that Actio est in patiente which is equivocation So that the plain truth is that mans understanding can reach no further than to conceive 1. That our souls are the termini of Gods Volition and Active power 2. That though God act not on us by corporeal contact yet we must call our selves Patients and think of the Attingency of his Active essence with its effects by some Analogie of Corporeal attingency contact and impressed moving force But truly to know how God toucheth moveth operateth on any Creature and by what Impressions or what there is indeed between Gods essence and mans Act we know not at all And if Christ had never said Joh. 3. so is every one that is born of the spirit our own experience might have told us that we know it not Boldly then tell our Church-distracting wranglers that contend about the nature sufficiency efficacy resistibility of this Act of Grace that they know not the very subject of their disputes And shall we still fire the Church by striving about words that profit not but subvert the hearers and tend to the increase of ungodliness Yea and shall bold blind zeal use the Reverend names of God and his precious Truth to colour and countenance these pernicious contentions I grant that the nature of Grace and the concord of it with Free-will may be soberly treated of But when men have followed the controversie beyond the ken of humane understanding and there will proceed to build great Fabricks upon unknown suppositions and perversly contend for them against Love and peace they do but serve Satan against God under the colour of his sacred truth and name And I think it not amiss here to tell you what Alvarez saith to this Question de Aux l. 12. disp 118. p.
his overlooking and undervaluing Gods Design in Making and Governing free Intellectual agents by his Sapiential Moral Directive way He supposeth this way to be so much below that of Physical Motion and Determination as that it is not to be considered but as an instrument thereof As if it were unworthy of God to give any creature a Meer Power Liberty Law and Moral Means alone and not to Necessitate him Positively or Negatively to Obey or Disobey And this looking only at Physical Good Being and Motion and thereby thinking lightly of Sapiential Regency is the summ as of his so of Hobbes Spinosa's Alvarez Bradwardines Twisses Rutherfords and the rest of the Predeterminants errors herein And had not I other thoughts of this one thing I should come over to their Opinion For I confess the case to be of very great difficulty § 28. I think that as the Divine Life and Power glorifieth it self eminently in the Causation of the Being Motion and Life of the creatures so the Divine Wisdom eminently glorifieth it self in the Order of all things and in the Moral Directive Sapiential Regiment of Intellectual free agents And that Gods Laws and Doctrine are the Image of his Wisdom and an admirable harmonious and beautiful frame And that all would think so and be wonderfully delighted in them were they compleatly printed on our Minds and Hearts § 29. II. And accordingly I think that the glory of his governing Wisdom and Punishing and Rewarding Justice is a great and notable part of that glory which man must give him now and for ever And that this Justice is not his physical using all things according to their physical aptitude only But his Judging and Executing according to that moral aptitude commonly called Merit by Punishments and Rewards And that to deny God the glory of all this is no small error in a Philosopher or Divine § 30. III. Accordingly I think that God made man a free self-determining agent that he might be capable of such Sapiential Rule And that it is a great Honour to God to make so noble a Nature as hath a Power to determine its own elections And though such are not of the highest rank of Creatures they are far above the lowest And that God who we see delighteth to make up beauty and harmony of diversities doth delight in the Sapiential Moral Government of this free sort of Creatures And though man be not Independent yet to be so far like God himself as to be a kind of first-determiner of many of his own Volitions and Nolitions is part of Gods Natural Image on Man § 31. IV. Accordingly I take Duty to be Rewardable and Laudable and sin to be odious as it is the Act of a free agent And that the Nature of Moral Good and Evil consisteth not in its being the meer effect of physical premotion but in being a Voluntary Conformity or Disconformity to the Sapiential Rule of duty by a free agent that had Power to do otherwise § 32. V. Free-will then is not only the same with willing it self or a meer agency according to Nature by the premotion of the first determining necessitating Mover It is not only such a freedom as Fire Water Beasts and every moved thing hath to be moved according to the first Moyers action which is in the will of man But it is a Power to be a first determining Specifier of its own acts as Moral Not that it is never predetermined but that it can do this § 33. VI. Accordingly I judge of Guilt and Shame and the Accusation of Conscience which will not be a bare discerning what God made us do or be but what we voluntarily did or were when we could do otherwise § 34. VII And I am past all doubt that he grosly mistaketh the nature and distinction of Law and Gospel 1. To think that Gods Law when it is not accompained with physical predetermination is but to shew us that we are creatures that cannot but sin 2. Yea hereby he wrongeth the glory of the Creator that made no creature with a power to do any thing but evil unless predetermined physically thereto 3. It 's gross to say that all the Doctrine of Redemption and Faith and Justification by Christ as a meer signum Letter or Law is the Law or Covenant of Works and so that every Command is the Covenant of Works and Physical Efficiency of Good in us is the Gospel or Covenant of Grace For that which we call the Gospel is not true if this be true For this Gospel is a preached word spoken by mans mouth which some believe and some believe not but reject and disobey and therefore perish Matth. 4. 23. 11. 5. 24. 14. 26. 13. Mark 16. 15. Luke 4. 18. 1 Cor. 9. 14 16 18. Heh 4. 2. 1 Pet. 1. 25. 1 Pet. 4. 6. 2. Thess 1. 8 10 11. Matth. 13. 10. Acts. 13. 7. It is a Law by which men shall be judged to life or death Rom. 2. 16. Mar. 16. 15 16. 2 Thes 1. 8. Rom. 10. 16. John 3. 19 20 21. 2 Cor. 4. 3 4. It is a word which some pervert Gal. 1. 7. and many sin against Gal. 2. 14. 1 Pet. 4. 17. The rejecters of it are to speed worse than Sodom and Gomorrah and they cannot escape that neglect so great salvation Whereas by his description 1. No man ever yet sinned against the Gospel or Covenant of Grace For it is not that Covenant or Gospel further than it is a physical effect on the soul 2. And every Heathen that hath any good effect on his soul by Common Grace hath so much Gospel 3. Yea why is not then all Gods Creation being a physical effect the Covenant of Grace if that he doth be it and all that he commandeth as such be the Law of Works 4. And how then can the Law of Works and Grace be two if every proper Law be the Law of Works For a Law is sub genere signi and a produced event is another thing 5. And what sense will be found throughout the Scripture if we must hold that It is the Covenant or Law of Works which telleth us that the Law of Works is abolished and calleth us to believe in Christ for free Justification and not to expect Justification by the Works of the Law and offereth us pardon and life in Christ c. But I will add no more seeing the plainness of the matter makes it needless § 35. The truth is he distinguisheth between the Law and the effect of the Law and Spirit of God and calleth one the Law of Works and the other the Gospel whereas the Scripture only maketh it the excellency of the Gospel that by it the Spirit effectually worketh on the soul more usually and more excellently and no meer Law of Works or Grace will renew us without the Spirit § 36. VIII And if Redemption be nothing but Physical efficiency by Christ who as a creating Mediator
in his first act of Faith is bound to believe that he is Elect or that Christ died for him any more than for lost Mankind But that he must first believe that Christ by his Death hath so far satisfied and merited for Mankind in general as to procure the universal conditional Gift of Christ Pardon and Life And that they must believe that this is procured for and offered to themselves as well as other Sinners And hereupon they are to accept this free Gift and so it is theirs What lye or unrevealed matter is in this or what difference about it among the Churches The sixth Crimination A. They disable Ministers rationally to preach the Gospel For if Christ died for none but the Elect and no Minister know the Elect they know not whom to offer and preach Christ to For the objective Gift must go before the offer And that which is to be offered to every Sinner is A Christ that hath already died and satisfied for him and not one that is to die and satisfie for him yet if he will believe Therefore the very offer is as much as to say Accept Christ as one that hath satisfied for thee And so they make the very preaching of the Gospel a lye to most B. I will not answer you as some that say they tell not men that they are Elect and that Christ died for them but that if they will believe then it is a sign that they are Elect and Christ died for them And they may offer him to all that some may accept him For I say as you do that it is a Christ that hath already made satisfaction and thereby is become a sufficient Saviour who is to be offered to men And the being of the Gift is before the offer of it in nature But I say again that you fight against straglers in a Cause which the Churches are not concerned in They say that it is a Christ who died for all as to sufficiency who is to be offered to men that he may efficiently save them The seventh Crimination A. They leave most men in the World as remediless as the Devils who had no Redeemer whereas God judgeth the wicked at last as Rejecters of his remedying Grace If Christ died not for them what differ they from the Devils in point of hope B. I will not answer you as some that though Christ died not for them yet they know it not and the offer differenceth their Case For still I confess that none is to be offered to men but a Christ that was already offered to God for them and hath made satisfaction But again I tell you that you fight with a shadow and feign the Churches to differ from you because some singular persons do so The eighth Crimination A. They harden men in impenitency for the most damning sin even denying the Lord that bought them For they tell all the Reprobates that they never sinned against a Christ that died for them B. All this is the old fiction and concerneth only some singular men The ninth Crimination A. They would exempt the Infidel World from much of the torments of Hell For he that in Hell knoweth that Christ never died for him especially adding that God unresistibly predetermined him to sin and unbelief cannot rationally have an accusing Conscience for his not accepting a Gift that never had a Being B. I will not repeat the same answer as oft as you call for it by the same false supposition Let them answer it that are concerned The tenth Crimination A. They teach the World abominable Ingratitude and reproachfully deny a great deal of the Grace and Mercy of Christ and the fruits of his Death and Sacrifice For they teach men that all the Mercies given to any besides the Elect were no fruits of the death of Christ for them nor were at all by him purchased for them yea that they are no Mercies to them at all because God eternally decreed that they should turn them into sin and suffer the more for the abuse of them for ever And so all the rest of the World may say that they are not at all beholden to the death of Christ for their Lives Liberties offers of Grace and all other Mercies B. Let them answer you that are concerned in the Charge The Reformed Churches hold That Mercy is to be judged of by its nature and tendency in it self and not by mans abuse and that God decreed no mans abuse of it and that all the Mercies given to Mankind since the forfeiture of all by Adam's sin are procured and given by Christ as the Intercessor and Redeemer of the World and that wicked men justly are deprived of life for rejecting it and suffer Hell for abusing Mercy and refusing Heaven The eleventh Crimination A. They are Anti-christian half-Infidels For they deny Christs Kingdom as to its far greatest part For when the Scripture telleth us That to this end he both died rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and living Rom. 14. 9. And that the Father hath committed all Judgment that is Government to the Son Joh. 5. 22. And given him all power in Heaven and Earth Matth. 28. 18. And that his dying for all obligeth all men not to live to themselves but to him that died for them 2 Cor. 5. And so that he hath by his death acquired a jus Dominii Imperii over all Mankind they deny him his Crown and Dignity even this Right of Dominion and Empire as Redeemer and deny the World to be obliged to subjection to him as their Redeemer And so make that Rebellion for which they shall perish Luke 19. 27. to be no sin B. The Protestant Churches hold all that you charge them with denying It 's a pitiful work to caluminate that you may divide Tell those singular men of all this that are guilty of it The twelfth Crimination A. They make Christ to come on so narrow a design into the World as if they would tempt Unbelievers to despise him Even to die for none in all the World for 4000 years save a very few of the little Country of Judaea which was mostly wicked and even since the Church was Catholick but for a few called the Elect. B. 1. If you and they differ about the conditions of Salvation say so and tell the World the difference If you do not but are agreed that it is Faith Repentance and Holiness what are all these Objections but fighting by fictions against Concord and Peace They never held that none out of Judaea were saved And how many in the World are holy Believers they pretend not to judge They believe that all that are holy are saved by Christ in all Ages and Nations of the World And that all the Order and Government and common Mercies of the World with the offers of Grace and Salvation to them that wilfully refuse it are all to be ascribed to the death and procurement
the moral pravity of the Will hath divers degrees And the same degree of received help from God will not cure it in one that will in another The godly have some of it and the ungodly more and some of them more than others But we use to call it absolutely a moral impotency when the indisposition of the Soul is such as that none such ever do believe and consent without more help of Grace than yet they have received And we use to say that he is morally able or hath power whose indisposition is not so great nor Grace so small but that some in that case by that same help do believe and consent though it be rarely But that power is morally called impotency which no man ever reduceth to act XXXIV This moral Power is yet short both of Act and Habit For a Habit is not only a power to Act but to Act promptly and easily and aright XXXV By all this you may partly see how to answer the common questions about mens power or impotency to believe and to love God Quest 1. Is every man able to believe and love God Answ Every man hath that natural faculty which hath sufficient of that sort of power called natural to do it supposing necessary concurrents Quest 2. Is any man naturally able without Divine support and concurse and without necessary Objects Concauses and Media Answ No no more than to make himself an Angel He never had such power in Innocency Quest 3. * That Potentia peccandi is of God see Aureolus in 2. d. 44. art 2. pag. 327. 328. Utrum praeceptâ— supernaturalia possit bomo servare fine speciaâ—i auxilio gratiae Resp Quod non quia ipsa nequeâ—nt servari nisi eliciendo actus insusarum virtutum c. Carera sum Theol. 2. 2. c. 1. And what would you have higher than his q. 4. a. 1. An lâ—men supernaturale infusum fidei fit tota virtus agendi actum fidei Resp Ass-Quia actus fidei est quoad omnem rationem â—odum substantiam denominationem quidditatem supernaturalis ejus vita in actu secundo supernaturalis Deum authorem supernaturalem attingens nec continetur intra vires ordinem naturae intellectus creatus suaptâ— natura est ad illam improportionatus p. 38. 39. So other Thomists But here wanteth some explication of supernaturality Yea they assert ut idem ibid. p. 39 c. That the Intellect hath not so much as a potentia obedientialis activa but only passiva to the act of Faith but conceive that the supernatural infused Grace of Faith is as necessary to enable the faculty to that act as the faculty to the Essence of the Soul therein Though yet they grant that the Intellect is causa fidei principalis as the essence is which yet can do nothing but by the faculty And thus they make potentiam fundari in potentia which Dr. Twisse denieth But a hard question troubleth some of the School-men seeing saith is wholly supernatural and Gods work and it was so in the Jews that believed that Christ was to come if that Faith continued in any some time after as in Nathanael c. Whether God still caused it when it became false as he did before which must needs put them upon some exception They say How it is fides humana but per opporentiam divinam Dâ—us omnium dominus efficere potest ut quis â—liâ—â—â—ecidat finâ— paccâ—â—o Idem ibid. But a further answer may and must be given which will be useful to the Case before us when conside ed. Of which in due place Is a man able to sin if God Decree he shall not or able to forbear sin or obey if God fore-know that he will not Answ Yes for God is not supposed to decree or fore-see that he shall not be able nay if God fore-see that he will not do what he can it inferreth that he can But the event is a logical impossibility that is it is not true that it will be Quest 4. Is the Intellect truly informed able to set right an habitually undisposed Will Answ It is able to do that towards it which on a better disposed Will would be effectual But not to produce the effect Quest 5. Is a power not excited to Act able to do that act Answ The question is Whether a power not excited be a power Yes It is a Power but such as will not act till excited Quest 6. Is that Grace which exciteth our Powers another second Power Answ It is the excitation of a Power or a received impulse Call it Power or what you will so you trouble not the Church with a needless wrangling about a Name when there are others as fit Quest 7. Is a Habit a Power Answ It is somewhat not well known by man But we know that it is less than the natural Power in point of substantiality as being but an Accident But it is more than both natural and moral power in order of perfection to the act For to be able and prompt is more than to be meerly able Quest 8. Is a hindered Power truly a Power Answ If the hinderance be such as the faculty is not able to overcome it is not formally a power ad hoc But otherwise it is Quest 9. Can God make a man able without any change on himself to do that which he was unable for Answ Yes If his disability lay in the want of extrinsick Concauses Objects or Media Quest 10. May a meer change of the Understanding enable the Will to do what it could not do Answ Not what it had not a natural Power to do But what it wanted but a moral power or disposition to do it may in two cases 1. If God do powerfully illuminate the Understanding and by the Understanding powerfully operate on the Will Or in ordinary cases if the understandings acts be clear and strong 2. If the Will it self be not obstinately before ill disposed Quest 11. Is an unwilling Will able to excite or change it self Answ Even in the point of believing it hath natural power and liberty to act otherwise than it doth even to turn it self from the act of Unbelief to the act of Faith But being undisposed and ill disposed it will not do that which it hath a natural self-determining power to do till God assist it or turn it by his Grace Quest 12. Can any man believe that Will Answ 1. A man that knoweth not the Gospel or what to believe upon a general rumor of it may wish that he had it knew it and believed it And yet cannot believe it indeed till he know what to believe 2. A man that perceiveth not the evidence of verity or credibility in the Gospel and therefore believeth it not to be true may for the end and matter wish he could see evidence of truth and believe it And yet is not able till he see it And a Believer that believeth it weakly may
hyperphysica qualem fieri fingit Chimera that is the Liber Concordiae non sine sensu quidem sed sine motu ut subjectum patiens convertibile eousque donec tantas accepit facultatis virium quibus agere possit moral Government of Men and Angels And his wondrous Love as the special Benefactor to the Vessels of Mercy Power Wisdom and Love or Goodness are never separated But each hath its eminent demonstration And the Omnipotent Father is most eminently glorified in his Power in the Creation and sustentation and motion of the Universe so the Son who is the Wisdom and Word of the Father and the Father in him is eminently glorified in his Wisdom in the Regency of the Intellectual World by a sapiential way of Government by Laws and Judgment And then steps up the physical Disputer and prophanely blasphemeth this honourable Work of God and calleth it moral Operation in contempt and thinks that unless God move man to every Volition as he doth the appetite of a Beast if not as we move a stone or shoot an Arrow he doth nothing and it is his reproach And to say that he can or did make a Creature that can freely will or not comparatively even by the Power and general Concurse of God they say is to feign him to make a God And so both the Honour of God as Creator is denied him and his Honour of sapiential Government is vilified It is an excellent Work of the Creator to make a free Agent in his own Image And it is a suitable and excellent Work as his King to appoint him his end and means and work and rule him by perfect Laws and Judgments In all which also he acteth as a Benefactor while he freely offereth him so glorious a Reward to which as Rector he would lead him And in that Relation will not be wanting unto him in any thing which perfect Regiment requireth * Of all this if the Reader please to peruse a very small book which I have written called A Vindication of Gods Love he may see more than I must here say But contrarily saith Bradwardine li. 2. c. 3. p. 614. Quam facile posset Deus si veilet tollere obicem sive actum Hujusmodi quoque obex ponitur a Deo antecedenter Quommodo ergo vult Deus conferre buic gratiam in quo parat obicem gratiam repellentem Vel si Deus non dat gratiam propter obicem resistentem ipse Deus scienter praecedenter causat hunc obicem quomodo ipse Deus non est causa non acceptionis gratiae salutaris I can hardly believe that they that thus take Sin and Hell to be nothing but the fruits of Gods good will do believe that either of them are so bad as Scripture doth describe them or so much to be hated or feared 3. Consider also that Divine Love the third Principle as it hath its common demonstration and glory in the Works of the Omnipotent Creation and in the Works of sapiential Regiment so hath it also its peculiar eminent demonstration on the Elect in their Grace and Glory or in their Holiness and Glory begun and perfected And it doth not follow that because this Love is eminently glorified on a peculiar treasure therefore there is no Glory in Gods other Works or no reason for them O that men had the wit to be humble and confess that God is wiser and better than they till they can come to more Wisdom to understand the Methods and Reason of his Works As God hath his Honour in making Stars as well as the Sun and Earth as well as Stars and Beasts as well as Men and Serpents and Toads as well as Birds and Clay as well as Gold so hath he his Honour in making a World of mutable defectible Intellectual free Agents Men as well as in making the confirmed Angels and in gracious sapiential Government of them all as well as in his extraordinary Beneficence and Love to his Elect. 4. And you must not feign the damnation of the Wicked themselves to be any such state as is inconsistent with the goodness of God to cast a Sinner into We know not perfectly what Hell is But as we know that it is the extreamest humane misery so we know that it is not at all worse than mens sins deserve And that when we come to Heaven we shall be perfectly satisfied of the Justice of God in mens damnation And though I say not melius est peccatori miserum esse quam non esse yet I will so far accord with worthy Dr. Twisse as to say that melius est peccatores miseros esse quam non esse Because else God would rather have annihilated them For God doth that which is best And his Wisdom and Will and Glory are fitter Rules of Meliority than the Will or Interest of Sinners And it seemeth by the Devils Kingdom and Conversation in the Air and on the Earth while yet they are in Hell and reserved in Chains of Darkness that their Hell is a state consistent with all that voluntary mischievous negotiation which they do And it 's like that though they have no Joy yet their Wills have some pleasedness in the mischief which they do as an angry and malicious man hath in revenge And we have no reason to believe that the Hell of the damned is any worse or more violent or irrational than the Hell of the Devils when they must go to that which was prepared for the Devils Matth. 25. But if I should but open to you the plain evidence of this truth how much of Hell consisteth in their sin it self in which undoubtedly they are voluntary though necessarily so by their own doing and desert it might tend yet more to the abatement of all disparaging and unbelieving thoughts of the Glory of Gods gracious sapiential Regiment of the World And to say that God could have made man better and given him more Grace is but as to say that he could have made Toads to be Larks and Beasts to be Men and Men to be Angels And what if he did not 5. And I again repeat what I have oft said that all this Earth is but a point next inconsiderable in the vast Universe And immeasurable spaces of those superior parts of the Creation are like to have proportionable Inhabitants for glory and number And we know that we are come to an innumerable Company of Angels Heb. 12. 23 24. And for ought we know God may have millions of blessed Spirits for one miserable wicked Soul Therefore we must not talk against that which we do not understand And if the Saints shall judge wicked Angels and the World judging being usually put for ruling and punishing we know not what hand we shall have our selves in the execution of Gods Wrath upon them and how far they shall be as Slaves to Saints C. You have said that I confess that tendeth to reconcile us all
will in the use of such Power as he hath is a condition sine qua non ut dispositio Gratiae receptiva ordinarily 8. But that God is not tied to this but may extraordinarily do otherwise 9. But that this * Ruiz de praedif tr 3. d. 18. p. 222. Resp dispositiones proximas proâ—ertionatas ad gratiam nâ—â—il ob esse quidditati gratiae quoniam ex prima radice nascuntur ex prima gratia quae absque ulla dispositione quasi creata est a Deo sine materia At pugnabit cum quidditate gratiae quaelibet dispositio etiam remota si ab illa sumit initium gratia ita ut prima gratia detur intuitu talis dispositionis Iâ— not this enough pre-requisite disposition and the concurse of mans will is only the use of a power freely before given of God with all necessary helps to use it 10. And therefore that God is from first to last the first cause of all that 's good in man though not the only cause and that of himself man can do nothing Have I not taken your meaning right B. Yes so far as you have recited it C. But methinks yet you answer not the great question which Camero baffled Tilenus with It is not why Paul believeth Nor why Nero believeth not as singly considered But comparatively why Paul believeth rather than Nero Speak to that B. Camero and Tilenus were great and excellent wits But if you can forgive the Truth I must add that which they said nothing to which will prove that a few degrees more of acuteness might have shortned or better ended their dispute It is the Comparatio personarum that is now the subject of that Controversie why this man rather than that as compared Here then we are to consider 1. The Comparabilitas 2. The Ipsa Comparatio 1. The question as to the first is either 1. Whether there was antecedently any such ratio comparandi in them as might be a reason or motive to God himself quoad actum ex parte agentis why he should decree to give or actually give Faith to one man rather than to another 2. Or else whether there were any such difference antecedent as might be Ratio discriminis ineffectis the reason why one received or had Faith and the other not II. And then quoad actum comparandi the question is whether God in his Decree or mind did truly compare the persons antecedently and say not only I will cause this man to believe and say I will not cause that man to believe or not say I will But also said I will cause this man to believe rather than that To these several questions then I answer 1. Negatively to the first For Gods acts ex parte agentis are his essence and as he hath no cause but is the cause of all things so thus far nothing in the world is a causal reason or motive to God He willeth because he willeth or rather without cause II. To the second There are in the Creatures different capacities for terminating Godâ— will and action objectively and accordingly denominating his Volitions and Actions variously And so this question must be divided into three 1. Whether always 2. Whether ordinarily 3. Whether sometimes there be an objective ratio comparabilitatis and of preferring one before another as to the effect of believing or why Gods operation should effect Faith rather in this man than in that To which I answer Ad primum 1. There are nearest Reasons in the immediate aptitude of the receiver Such as is the highest degree of preparing Grace in one which another hath not And there are remote reasons or aptitudes As e. g. A man of great learning wit and zeal or some other remote aptitude will be a fitter person for Gods work than another when he believeth 2. It is not known to any mortal man what different aptitudes in both these kinds God the only heart-searcher seeth which no man can see And therefore this question cannot certainly be answered as to both sorts 3. But as far as our blind eyes can reach it seemeth most probable to us that God doth not always effect Faith according to the degrees of receptive aptitude of either sort Because we see that sometimes he suddenly calleth very great sinners and also some that are silly and little serviceable in the world But yet what special aptitudes God may see in them we know not Ad secundum Qu. I answer That it is Gods ordinary way to give Faith according to the first sort of predisposition alone were there no difference in the last that is To those that have the highest degrees of moral preparation or Common Grace I take to be a certain truth 1. Because in all Gods Works we see that he operateth by degrees in order and on predisposed matter and that efficit juxta dispositionem recipientis 2. But specially because he hath himself appointed a course of means for the obtaining of his special Grace to be used by all men And he cannot be thought to do all this in vain nor to set men on doing their part in vain And all practical Divines who preach so much for the souls preparation are of this mind that such preparation is the ordinary predisposition Ad Qu. 3. I answer That at least sometimes it is so is past question with any sober man For it is a contradiction to call it preparing Grace or Disposition and yet to say that by it no man is made ever the more receptive or nearlier capable of Faith or special Grace So much to the two questions de Comparabilitate * Mark what Bannes himself saith of Common Grace in q. 23. pag. 274. Pie credi potest quod omnibus venientibus ad usum rationis Deus opem aliquam ferat supernaturali quodam auxilio secreto instigante ad operandum bonum 2. Si vera est opinio Thomae c. necesse est dicâ—re quod omnis qui justificatur receperit gratiam praeparantem saltem prius natura quam praeceptum naturale adimpleverit 3. Quotiescunque aliquis pecâ—at speciale peccatum contra supernaturale praeceptum vel fidei vel pâ—nitâ—ntiae c. necesse est ut ille de facto receperit aliquam divinam inspirationem illuminantis Dei dut vocantis aut incitantis ad fidem c. Immo necesse est hominem tangi aliqua supernaturali inspiratione ut nullam â—abtat excusationem Possibile est seâ—undam legem ordinariam quemlibet dum est in hac vita salvari Dâ—us paratus est dare omnibus quamdiu sunt in hâ—c vita auxilium quo fiant potentes converti immo auxilium specialius quo convertaâ—tur si velint I cite this because for his Doctrine of Predetermiâ—ation Protestants much value Banâ—es a boasting Author who thanketh God that their King burneth Protestants Indeed the Dominioâ—â—s commonly confess sufficient Grace which is not effectual III. But as to the third question
Children and not to strive by needless disputes I pray you be you the Teacher and I will be the Learner and tell me what you would have us believe in these particulars which you have named And first of the first Lib. I. Men must be taught to come presently to Christ without staying for Preparations and not discouraged delayed or kept off The first Charge P. By Coming I suppose you mean Believing and Accepting I pray you teach me further then Quest 1. Must men believe in Christ before they Hear of him Lib. No How shall they believe on him of whom they have not heard P. Quest 2. Must they Believe that he is the Mediator between God and man before they have learned that there is a God and that this God is True and Just Quest 3. Or before they have learnt that man is a sinner and deserveth death and what sin is Quest 4. Or before they have learnt that we cannot redeem and save our selves Lib. No That were a contradiction P. Quest 5. Must men Believe that Christ is the Son of God and the Saviour of his Church before they have learnt what it is to be the Son of God or what a Saviour is and what is the salvation which he hath wrought and will vouchsafe us before they understand the Articles of the Christian faith that he was conceived born suffered was buried rose ascended is glorified and the like Lib. No man can Believe that which he doth not Understand P. Quest 6. Must men take Christ for their Saviour before they heartily peâ—ceive that they want a Saviour through sin and misery and that they are lost for ever if he save them not and that no other can do it Lib. No this is an impossibility and contradiction P. Quest 7. Must a man take Christ for his Saviour before he is willing to be saved Lib. Yes He must come to Christ to make him willing and not think that he must bring willingness with him This is your Legal doctrine P. Quest 8. Is not Accepting Christ an Act of the will a willingness that he shall be my Saviour And do you say that a man must be willing to have Christ before he is willing and not stay till he is willing Lib. You would make me ridiculous I say not that he must take Christ before he is willing But he must come to Christ for a will P. In despight of edification you will stick in the Metaphor Come to Christ What mean you by coming Lib. Poor blind soul If you had been taught of God you would have known what it is to Come to Christ But you will not come to him P. With such exclamations you cheat the ignorant Cannot you tell your own meaning What mean you by Coming to Christ Lib. I mean Believing in him and casting my self wholly on him P. Still you stick in Metaphors Can you cast your self upon him for a will before you are Willing Is not that casting your self the act of your will which we call Trust or Affiance Lib. You would hide your Lyes with words You teach that men must have good desires before they come to Christ as if they must bring with them good desires of their own or by Preparatory Grace P. Quest 9. Can a man Accept of Christ as a Saviour to save him from sin and punishment and Gods displeasure and to justifie sanctifie and glorifie him before he hath any desire to be saved from sin or punishment or Gods displeasure or to be justified sanctified or glorified Lib. He that hath no such Desires must come to Christ for them and believe P. Still Coming must hide your sense Doth Christ give these Desires to be saved before we Take him for our Saviour by Consent Or after Lib. You are catching me by craft If I say Before you will say Then it is Preparatory to our Consent If I say After you will say that it is impossible to consent to the Means till a man desires the end and to Accept a Saviour before he is willing to be saved But besides this you tell men that they must not come to Christ till they are broken hearted and sorrow for their sins You heat the Winâ— of the Gospel so hot that it shall burn mens lips and then invite them to it P. Quest 10. Is it possible for a man Heartily to perceive that he is a heinous sinner and hath displeased God abused mercy hilled Christ undone his soul and wronged others and not be sorrowful for it nor be vile in his own eyes or feel that he is a lost sinner Lib. No but all this he must come to Christ for or Believe for P. Do you mean that he must first Believe that the Gospel is True and that Christ is an Offered Saviour or else do you mean that he must first Accept him as offered for a Saviour or do you mean that he must first Believe that he is his Saviour accepted or do you mean that he must first Trust in him as his Saviour All these are different acts Lib. You would confound us with your distinctions to keep out the light This is the trick of such carnal Sophisters P. Saul You hear what this man hath to say against us You hear that when he hath cryed out against Preparations to Believing that here are ten several Preparations which he cannot deny I will now tell you what is our Doctrine and the truth about Preparations We hold that Christ is the True Light who lighteth every man that cometh to God but in various degrees by various means He is the Lord of Nature as its Restorer Rom. 14. 9. All power in Heaven and Earth is given to him and all things put into his hand Matth. 28. 18 19. John 17. 2 3. John 5. 22. He teacheth those that have not the Gospel and those that have it first by the Light of Nature many Natural Truths as that there is a God who is Almighty Wise and Good that we owe him our Love and duty that he is Just c. As the Sun enlightneth the earth at its rising before it appear it self so doth Christ the world By the Gospel he teacheth us more even supernatural truths about himself and our Redemption c. Some commoner co-operation of his Spirit goeth along with the Gospel convincing and moving many that are not yet or at all converted Those that Christ converteth savingly are first in order brought to understand the Meaning of the word and next to Believe the Truth of it and so to Believe what Christ is and what he hath done and suffered for us and what need we have of him by sin and misery and how freely he is offered to our salvation And they are moved so seriously to consider all this till it prevail with their wills first to desire not only their own deliverance from Hell and misery as all men may do but also from a state of sin and then to desire
but the Baptismal Covenant where sure the condition is notorious and every Baptizing Minister prerequireth the profession of it CHAP. VII Whether Justifying Faith be a Believing in Christ as a Teacher Lord c. or only a Receiving of his Righteousness P. VI. AS to this your sixth Charge I have said so much elsewhere in my Disputations of Justification and in other Books that I cannot justifie the tiring of Readers by repeating it And will say now but this little following 1. That Paul doth not distinguish between justifying faith and saving faith but excludeth the Works excluded by him from being the causes either of Justification or Salvation 2. That if Receiving Christs Righteousness be meant by them properly and physically it is no sort of faith at all but only the effect of the donation which they call Justificari or passive Justification But if it mean a moral metonymical Reception that is nothing but Consent to have the offered gift And if only Consent to have Christs Righteousness be Justifying faith then all the Assenting part is excluded in which Scripture much placeth it and most Divines in part and many in whole besides Camâ—ro and his followers And so also all the Affiance or Fiducial â—cts are excluded which almost all include even that which they call Recumbency being distinct from Consent 3. All these acts following are essential to Justifying faith as well as this Consent to be Justified 1. An Assenting belief in God in the baptismal sense 2. An Assent to the truth of Christs Person Office and Doctrine 3. A belief in the Holy Ghost 4. A belief of Pardon Sanctification and Glory as possible purchased and offered by Christ 5. A Consent that God be our God in Christ 6. And a Consent that Christ be our Teacher 7. And our King and Ruler 8. And our Intercessor 9. And our Judge and Justifier by sentence and as our Advocate 10. A belief of his Resurrection Power and Glory 11. A Trusting to the Father and the Son according to these forementioned Offices 12. A Consent to be Sanctified by the Holy Ghost 4. Plainly our Justifying and Saving Faith in Pauls sense is the same thing with our Christianity or becoming Christians And the same thing with our Baptismal faith and consent 5. To believe in Christ as Christ is in Scripture Justifying faith But to accept his righteousness only and not to believe in him as our Lord and our Teacher and Intercessor c. as aforesaid is not to believe in him as Christ 6. In my Answer ubi sup to Mr. Warner and elsewhere I have detected the fraud of their quibling distinction who say that All this is in faith quae justificat but not quà justificat as supposing a falshood that any act of faith quà talis justifieth 7. They that say that only our Acceptance of Christs Imputed Righteousness is the Justifying act of faith and that to expect to be Justified by any other viz. by Believing in God the Father and the Holy Ghost and believing a Heaven hereafter and believing the Truth of the Gospel and of Christs Resurrection Ascension Glory c. and by taking him for our Teacher Ruler Intercessor c. is to expect Justification by Works in Pauls disclaimed sense and so to fall from Grace I say they that thus teach do go so far towards the subverting of the Gospel and making a Gospel or Religion of their own as that I must tell them to move them to repentance not only the adding of Ceremonies is a small corruption in comparison of this but many that in Epiphanius are numbred with Hereticks had far lesser errors than this is CHAP. VIII Of Faiths Justifying as an Instrument P. VII ANd I have said so much in the foresaid Disputations of Justification and other Books of Faiths Instrumentality and the reason of its Justifying interest that I cannot perswade my self now to talk it out with you all over again but only to say 1. That I have fully oft proved from many plain Scriptures that pardon and salvation are given with Christ in the Covenant of Grace on Condition of a penitent believing fiducial acceptance And therefore that it is most certain that faith is a Condition of our Justification and so to be profest in Baptism 2. The name of An Instrument given to faith and its Justifying as an Instrument are of mens devising and not in Gods Word 3. But as to the sense It is certain that faith is no Instrument of our Justification Gods or Mans if it be meant properly of an Instrumental efficient cause 4. But if it be taken Metaphorically for an Act whose Nature or essence is An Acceptance of a free Gift and so by Instrumentality be meant the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere that is Faith 's very Essence in specie then no doubt it is what it is 5. Or if by an Instrument be meant A Moral aptitude or Disposition of the person to be justified answerable to the Dispositio Recipientis vel materiae in Physicks then it is such an Instrument But how well this is worded and what cause there is to contend for a word both of humane invention and metaphorical and this as if it were a weighty Doctrine I leave to sober judgements 6. But it is certain that the Accepting Act of faith is but its Aptitude to be the condition of the Gift and therefore that its being made by Christ the Condition is its Moral nearest interest in our Justification CHAP. IX Whether Faith it self be imputed for Righteousness Lib. VIII WHat do you but subvert the Gospel when you put faith instead of Christ or of his Righteousness When the Scripture saith that we are justified by Christs Righteousness Imputed to us you say it is by faith imputed P. Do you think any sober Christians here really differ or is it only about the Names and Notions Which ever it be 1. Of the name Is it not oft said that Faith is and shall be imputed for Righteousness Rom. 4. 22 23 24. James 2. 23. Lib. Yes I must grant the words but not your meaning P. Where doth the Scripture say that Christs Righteousness is Imputed to us Remember that it is only the Name that I ask you of Lib. It saith that Righteousness is Imputed and what Righteousness â—an it be but Christs P. I tell you still it is only the phrase or words that we are first trying Are these the same words Righteousness is Imputed and Christs Righteousness is Imputed If not where are these latter words in Scripture Lib. Grant that the words are not and your words are P. Then the question is Whether Scripture phrase or mans invented phrase be the better and safer in a controvertible case And next Whether you should deny or quarrel at the Scripture saying that faith is imputed to us for righteousness and not rather confute our misexpounding it if we do so Lib. Well Let us examine the sense then What