pleased him This Proposition is self-evident for it is of the very Essence of Free-will in God the First and Freest Agent that in all external temporal things which fall under his Free-will he might have done them or not have done them he might have done them thus as he doth them or he might have done them otherwise than he hath done if he had pleased But antecedently to his free Purpose and Decree the whole ordering of the Covenant of Grace and of its terms and receptive Condition depended upon God's Free-will and Soveraign Pleasure Hence the Gospel is called the Mystery of God's Will and the Revelation of the Gospel unto us is said to be the making known unto us the Mystery of his Will according to his Good Pleasure which he hath purposed in himself Eph. 1.9 Now if the whole Mystery of the Covenant of Grace depended on God's Free-will then the ordaining of this or that to be the receptive Condition of the Covenant depended on his Will also and so antecedently to the free Purpose of his Will there was no natural necessity that Faith alone and no other thing should be the receptive Condition of the Covenant 2. It is not yet past Dispute amongst Divines Whether antecedently to God's free Purpose and Decree to save us by the Satisfaction and Merits of Christ alone he might not have freely purposed and decreed to have pardoned and saved us some other way Amongst our Reformed Divines Calvin Twiss and Rutherford and others were of this Opinion yea even Dr. Owen himself was once of this Opinion though afterwards he changed his mind in that as he did in other things witness what he wrote in his Book called The Death of Death in the Death of Christ Or A Treatise of Redemption c. Book II. Chap. II. Page 57. The Foundation of this whole Assertion seems to me to be false and erroneous viz that God could not have Mercy on Mankind unless satisfaction were made by his Son It is true indeed supposing the Decree Purpose and Constitution of God that so it should be that so he would manifest his Glory by the way of vindicative Justice it was impossible that it should otherwise be for with the Lord there is neither change nor shadow of turning Lam. 1.18 1 Sam. 15.29 But to assert positively that absolutely and antecedently to his Constitution he could not have done it is to me an unwritten Tradition the Scripture affirming no such thing neither can it be gathered from thence in any good consequence if any one shall deny this we will try what the Lord will enable us to say unto it and in the mean time rest contented in that of Augustin though other ways of saving us were not wanting to his Infinite Wisdome yet certainly the way which he did proceed in was the most convenient because we find he proceeded therein Thus Dr. Owen in that Book and though he unsaid this again and embraced that Opinion which he then called an unwritten Tradition yet there are other Learned Divines of that same Opinion at this Day Mistake us not for we do not say that we are of it but that some are and that the matter is not yet past dispute And the Consequence which we infer is undeniable that if God antecedently to his Constitution and Degree could have pardoned and saved us some other way without the Satisfaction and Merits of Christ then surely he could have offered and promised us Pardon and Salwation without the Condition of Faith in Christ and upon what other Condition he pleafed 3. Though we grant that upon supposition that God would pardon our Sins and save our Souls it did not consist with the Glory of his Justice and Honour of his Law and Government to do it without Satisfaction for the Offence we had given and the Dishonour we had done him by our Sins and therefore it was necessary not onely from the free purpose of God's Will but also from the nature of his vindictive governing Justice that Christ by suffering in our stead should satisfie his Justice for our Sins yet doth it not follow at all by any natural necessity arising immediately from the essential nature of Faith without any appointment and constitution of God's Will that Faith because it is of a receptive nature and nothing else shall be the Condition upon the performance whereof Christ with his Satisfaction and Merits shall be not only offered but given unto us For as Dr. Owen saith very well in his little Book of the Trinity and Satisfaction of Christ pag. 208. The satisfaction made for Sin being not made by the Sinner himself there must of necessity be a Rule Order and Law-constitution how the Sinner may come to be interested in it and made Partaker of it for the consequent of the freedome of one by the suffering of another is not matural or necessary but must proceed and arise from a Law-constitution Compact and Agreement Now the way constituted and appointed is that of Faith or believing as explained in the Scripture Thus Dr. Owen To which we add that the Scripture explains it thus Gal. 5.6 That in Christ Jesus neither Circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth any thing but Faith which worketh by Love From this Passage of Dr. Owen and the Argument contained in it it is most evident that it doth not arise immediately and necessarily from the receptive nature of Faith that it is the Condition of the Offer and Promise but from the Will of God constituting and appointing it to be the Condition Faith's receptive apprehensive nature is but a remote Reason of its Conditionality and doth but make it fit to be the Condition if God please to make it so And it is God's Will and Law-constitution onely which is the nearest and formal Reason of its Conditionality and which doth immediately and formally make it to be the Condition of the Covenant Joh. 6.40 This is no new notion of ours we find it long agoe before many of us were born Walaeus Doctor and Professor of Divinity in Leyden in his Enchiridion Religionis Reformatae pag. 112. said that Fides nos Justificat sed relativè considerata quia haec est Voluntas Dei ut qui credit in Christum ejus meriti fiat Particeps Faith Justifies us but relatively considered because this is the Will of God that he who believes in Christ shall be made Partaker of his Merit And not onely Mr. Baxter but Cartwright also pag. 179. of his Book against Baxter agrees with him in acknowledging this Truth his Words are these The Reason why Christs Righteousness cannot Justifie except it be apprehended by Faith is this That God doth require Faith of us Faith I say apprehending Christ and his Righteousness believe in the Lord Jesus Christ that so we may be Justified Gods Will is properly the cause yet there is a congruity in the thing it self an aptitude you grant in the nature of Faith It is of an
we believe in God because he gives us Repentance that we may begin to believe in God 3. That we cannot believe in God at all unless God first give us Repentance which must be understood in this sense that we cannot believe at all with the Faith of fiducial consent and recumbency unless it be first given us to repent for it is self-evident that we can and do believe with the Faith of assent before we do repent and indeed we neither do nor can repent till we first believe with the Faith of assent as was shewed before And it is clear from their own words that they meant not that we cannot believe with the Faith of assent but that we cannot believe with the Faith of consent and fiducial recumbency unless it be first given us to repent Their words are A Man receives from God Repentance unto Life ut in Deum credere incipiat that he may begin to believe in God Now by believing in God undoubtedly they meant believing in him so as to consent to have him for our God and so as to trust him as our God And could not mean only believing so far as to assent that there is a God and that his word is true For they were the Disciples of Holy Austin and had learned of him to distinguish between credere Deum credere Deo credere in Deum believing a God and believing that all God saith is true and believing in God so as to love him and take him for our God and trust him as our God It is this believing in God which they say cannot be begun till we have first repented through Grace and this is a great Truth as we shewed before out of Calvin And since this believing with fiducial consent and recumbency is justifying Faith it follows evidently that those Fifteen Fathers held Repentance to be before Remission of Sins and before Justification as it consists in Remission of Sins because they held it to be before Justifying Faith whereby we receive Remission of sins Act. 10.43 4. We observe they say that Repentance is a change of our Will and God himself by giving us Repentance changes our Wills Therefore in the Judgment of those Fifteen Fathers there is and must be a real change in us before we be justified and pardoned And we must let our Authour know that these Fathers which are for us against him were burning and shining Lights in their day Most of them if not all suffered banishment for the true Faith of Christ under the persecution of the Arian Vandals in Africa For we have a Synodical Epistle of theirs concerning the Grace of God and the will of man which was written by them in their Exile in Sardinia to which Twelve of their Names are prefixed the self-same names which are prefixed to the foresaid confession of Faith concerning the Incarnation and Grace of our Lord Jesus directed to Petrus Diaconus and his Brethren who were come from the Eastern Churches to receive information concerning the Faith of the Westorn Churches We will here cite one short passage out of the Synodical Epistle of those Twelve banished Pastors of Christ's Church It is in the 10th Chapter Quod autem vos dicitis c. As to what ye who wrote to us say that man is saved by the alone Mercy of God but they say unless a man run and labour with his own will he cannot be saved We answer that both are fitly held if the right order be kept between the Mercy of God and will of man that Mercy go before and the Will follow that God's Mercy alone confer the beginning of Salvation with which afterwards the Will of Man may cooperate towards its own Salvation that God's Mercy preventing or going before may direct the course of mans will and that mans will obeying through the same Mercy or Grace following it may according to its intention run towards the heavenly prize Here we see that it was the Judgment of those Twelve Confessors That we are saved by the alone Mercy and Grace of God if through Grace preventing and assisting us we yield Obedience to the Lord and run and labour to obtain the prize of Eternal Life and Glory And that if we do not this we cannot be saved This is what we say that sincere Obedience is so indispensably necessary that without it we cannot be saved It shall suffice at present to have demonstrated by the Testimonies aforesaid that we are no Innovators no Preachers of a new Gospel and Divinity in this matter since we have Christ and his Apostles and the Fathers of the best and purest Ages on our side all giving in testimony for us and against our Authour It will not consist with our designed brevity to alledge more testimonies of the Doctors of the Primitive Church and therefore we pass from them to the Modern Divines the Doctors and Pastors of the Reformed Churches We begin with the Augustan Confession of Faith and the Edition we make use of is that which was printed at Wittenbergh in the year 1540. In the 20th Testimonies of Modern Divines Article concerning Faith these are its words Primum igitur de fide justificatione sic docent Christus apte complexus est summam Evangelii c. First therefore they the Protestant Ministers and Churches thus teach concerning Faith and Justification Christ hath fitly comprehended the Sum of the Gospel when in the last Chapter of Luke he commands Repentance and Remission of sins to be preached in his Name For the Gospel reproves sin and requires Repentance and at the same time offers Remission of sins freely for Christ's sake and not for our own worthiness And as the preaching of Repentance is universal so also the promise of Grace is universal and commands all to believe and receive the benefit of Christ as Christ says Come unto me all ye that are heavy laden And Paul says He is rich unto all that call upon him Therefore though some Contrition and Repentance is necessary yet we must believe that Remission of sins is given unto us and that of unjust we are made just that is reconciled or accepted and made the Children of God freely for Christ's sake and not for the worth or merit of contrition or of other works that go before or follow after But this benefit is to be received by faith c. Therefore when we say that we are justified by Faith we do not understand this that we are just for the Dignity Worth or Merit of the Vertue of Faith it self But this is the meaning that we obtain the remission of sins and the imputation of Righteousness through Mercy for Christ's sake but this Mercy cannot be received but by Faith And here Faith signifies not merely the knowledge of the History but it signifies to believe the promise of Mercy which we obtain for Christ the Mediator For what can be more acceptable to an afflicted trembling conscience in its true
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
unwilling to believe of so great and good a man But we cannot be so confident of the sincerity of our Author as we are of Calvins and therefore we commend to his serious Consideration a passage of the Reverend and Learned Pitcarne in his Evangelical Harmony of the Apostles Paul and James in the Doctrine of Justification Art 1. Pag. 10. Tantum addo quod c. I only add says he that in the Scriptures the word Faith is also used for the Conscience or perswasion of the will of God approving our Fact or that which we are to do Whatsoever is not of faith is sin That is It is sin whatsoever it be that is done with a Conscience that is doubting and uncertain of the will of God I was not a little grieved when I read Suarez accusing our Divines that they acted the part of Sophisters when to prove Justification by Faith alone they alledge without making a right choice or putting a difference between one and another any places of Scriprure where faith is mentioned although in them there is not the least tittle to be found of Faith related to Christ and the promises of the Gospel or that hath respect unto absolution from the guilt of sin This should teach us all to take great care how we quote and apply Scripture to prove our opinions least by misapplying Texts we wrest the Scripture grieve Gods Spirit and harden our Adversaries in their Erroneous opinions 4th Obj. Fourthly He Objects against us The Seventh Canon of the Sixth Session of the Council of Trent which Anathematizeth all those who say that all works done before Justification howsoever they be done are truly sins We answer that this objection is impertinent and makes against himself as well as against us Let. p. 16.32 For 1. He says that Faith is in order of nature before Justification as we have proved from several passages in his Letter 2. He saith Pag. 11. That Faith is a work that it is a great work that it is a work of God yea a work of God which we do and cannot do too soon Now we hope he will not say that this great work of God which through Grace we do before Justification and cannot do too soon is an evil work and is truly sin And if it be not an evil work and truly sin then it must be a good work and truly Gracious And thus we have himself holding with the Council of Trent as well as we do that before Justification there is a good work which is not truly sin but truly good and Gracious If he say that Faith doth not justifie as a work that is nothing to the purpose for the Question now is not whether Faith justifie as a work or as an instrument but whether Faith really be a work an internal work of the Soul which it may well be and yet not justifie as a work And he himself hath expresly confessed that it is a work and a great work too and likewise that it is a great work which not only God doth but which we do through the Grace of God enabling us But after all if he be so resolved that he will have nothing common with the Council of Trent but differ from them in all things true or false right or wrong and therefore because they hold that justifying Faith is a good work before Justification that is not truly sin he will hold the contrary that tho justifying Faith be before Justification yet it is not a good work but an evil work and is truly sin we can say nothing to it he hath his free choice for any thing that we can do to the contrary yet we should advise him to be wiser and not to reject any Truth of the Gospel because an adversary holds and believes it And that it is a gospel-Gospel-truth that justifying saving Faith is a good work tho it be in order before Justification we doubt not but his own Conscience knows it and is convinced of it Sure we are that our Conscience is fully perswaded of it And tho' we believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths that justifying Faith in the best of us is too too little and weak and that the gradual defect of it is truly sin and deserves the hatred of God yet are we infallibly sure that the Grace and gracious Act it self of justifying saving Faith so far as we have any of it is truly good and cannot be truly evil and sin This we are sure is a truth and we believe it and are resolved through Grace so to do and never to like it the worse because the Papists believe it and curse all those who disbelieve it We join with them in believing the truth so far as they do believe it but we utterly abhor their cursing of Dissenters If our Author think fit to Dissent from us in this matter we shall be so far from cursing him that we shall pray God to bless him with a better understanding of this and all other things wherein he may be mistaken As for the other passage which our Author quotes out of the 11th Canon and calls the bellowing of the Beast We might pass it over for it doth not at all concern us nor the Controversie that is between the Author of the Letter and us Yet this we will say that he seems not to understand the Language of that Beast of Trent for they confess with us That the Grace whereby we are justified is the favour of God as plainly appears from what they say before the Canons in the 7th Chapter but they curse all those who say that the Grace whereby we are justified is only the favour of God For they hold that we are justified by a two-fold Grace the one External without us and it is the mercy and favour of God which is that that principally moves him to justifie us the other Internal within us the effect of the first and it is the habit of Grace or Charity infused into us by the holy Spirit to make us formally just by something Inherent in our selves Now we do not say any more than they do that we are justified by the favour of God only and exclusively of all other things for we maintain that we are justified by the Grace and Favour of God and also by the Righteousness of Christ imputed to us according to Rom. 3.24 And this is the ground of the Quarrel this is it for which they Curse our Author and us both because we both believe that we are justified by Christs Righteousness imputed to us and not by Gods Grace infused into us and inherent in us And yet we believe this too to wit that Gods Grace is infused into us and inherent in us only we do not call this Justification but give it another name and call it Sanctification Those Trent Fathers therefore had no reason to be so angry with us and in their Beastly wrath to fall a cursing of us
whereby we receive Christ with siducial consent that through him we may be justified and saved But there is not one of them that proves that an absolute Assurance that Christ for the present is ours and that we are now justified and in the State of Salvation is essentially necessary unto and included in the direct Act of justifying Faith And whereas it is Confidently said that all our Reformed Divines were for this sort of Assurance as essential to the direct Act of that Faith whereby we are first justified we Answer That it is indeed said with Confidence enough but it is a vain groundtess Confidence for though some might be of that false Opinion yet it is notoriously false that all were we shall at present give one considerable instance to the contrary and our Instance shall be in Mr. Fox the Author of the Book of Martyrs De Christe gratis Justificante p. 246 247. who in his Book of Justification written against the Papists says expresly Sic mea feri ratio ut existimem c. Such is my Judgment that I think this Confident Perswasion of Mercy and Assurance of the Promised Salvation is not the thing which properly and absolutely delivers us from Sin and justifies us before God but that there is some other thing proposed in the Gospel which must some way in Order of Nature go before this Assurance and justifie us before God for Faith in the Person of the Son necessarily goes before which Faith in the Person of the Son first reconciles us to God Afterward a confident or sure perswasion of most certain mercy follows this Faith Concerning which Mercy none of those who believe in Christ can justly doubt By this and more that Mr. Fox saith in the same place it is clear as the Light that he did not believe that an absolute Assurance of our being now pardoned justified and reconciled to God is included in and essential to the direct Act of Faith whereby we are justified in the sight of God but on the contrary he held that the direct Act of Faith in the Person of the Son of God whereby we are justified goes before the said Assurance and Assurance follows after it which is what we believe and so doth our Author with us for he tells the Unbeliever That a Man is not called to believe that he is in Christ Mark the Expression he doth not only say A Man is not called to believe that he was in Christ before he believed For that Marshal and all but Antinomians do say but he says that a Man is not called to believe that he is in Christ pro praesenti for this present that his Sins are now pardoned and he now a justified Man but he is called to believe the Gospel Record and to believe in Christ according to the Record that is he is to believe that he may be justified and not that he is justified But now Marshal unto whom our Author appeals for the opening of this matter hath so opened it that he hath shut it up in darkness Confusion and Self-contradiction as it were no difficult task to demonstrate He maintains confidently 1. That Assurance of our being now justified and of the Pardon of our Sins is necessarily and essentially included in the direct Act of justifying Faith Pag. 169 170 171.172 173 177 178 179 180 181 182 c. 2. He maintains That all the Reprobate who live in the visible Church are by God strictly obliged under Pain of Eternal Damnation to believe with the foresaid justifying Faith and absolute Assurance which is essential to it that they are now justified and that their Sins are now pardoned though it be then and always false that they are justified and their Sins pardoned Pag. 202.204 Yet he saith that this is but the Appearance of a great Absurdity Pag. 171. whereby he gives us to understand either 1. That it is no real Absurdity to hold that God obliges Men under pain of Eternal Damnation to believe assuredly that a falshood is truth and that they who are not pardoned are pardoned Or 2. That he denies the Consequence to wit that God obliges the Reprobate to believe a falshood And the meaning of that is that though he hath granted both the Premisses yet he will stifly deny the Conclusion whereby men whose eyes are open may see what a rare Gist of Reasoning Mr. Marshal was endowed with Again though he maintain that an absolute Assurance of our present Justification and future Eternal Salvation is essential to the direct Act of justifying Faith yet he saith many precious Saints who have that Faith and that Assurance of Justification and Salvation which is essential to it may not know at all that it shall go well with them at the day of Judgment Pag. 173. and this for want of the other after-Assurance which comes by the reflex Act and by Self-examination Now is not that a strange Assurance which a Man hath by Faith of his Eternal Salvation whereby he doth not know at all whether he shall be Eternally Saved or Eternally Damned for want of another kind of Assurance by Spiritual Sense and feeling whereby he may know how it shall go with him at the Day of Judgement whether he shall be then Eternally Saved or Damned to what purpose serves the first Assurance when a man can know nothing at all by it without a second Assurance Is not that a plain Indication that the first pretended Assurance is nothing but an ens rationis a Creature of a Man 's own making which hath no real Existence but in his vain Imagination Our Author sometimes seems to be wiser than to believe such vain Fancies and yet at other times he appears to be deeply in love with them as when he most highly commends Mr. Marshals Book in which we deny not but there are good things as the most Soveraign Antidote against the Poyson of the new Divinity and says that he hath largely opened this matter For our parts we are willing to impute this to his not having Attentively read that Book and so to his not knowing that Mr. Marshal did manifestly contradict and dispute against his Opinion as a Limb or Joint of the new Divinity But we are afraid his unbeliever will be really scandalized at his telling him that he is not called at the first to believe that he is now in Christ that his Sins are pardoned and he is now a justified Man though in the same Letter he sends him to Marshals Book for Information and Direction in this very matter and it tells him the quite contrary and confidently maintains that an Unbeliever is called and commanded at first upon Pain of Eternal Damnation to believe with absolute Assurance by the direct Act of Faith in Christ that he is now in Christ his Sins pardoned and he a justified Man This we are afraid will tempt his Unbeliever to say Either Sir you believe this of Marshal or not
suspicion of Antinomianism which he had brought upon himself But we are really perswaded better things of our Authour though we thus write upon a supposition which we hope he will never admit but rather than admit such a supposition with its necessary consequence he will join with us and say that Luther and Mr. Hamilton meant no more but that evil works do not first make a Man evil because ever since the first Sin of Adam and Eve all meer Men besides them two are evil by Original sin before they commit any Actual Sin Thus much shall suffice to have said of the Occasion and Design of the Letter CHAP. II. Of the Authours Errours in Doctrine against the Purity of our Christian Faith SECTION I. Of his First Errour That there is no New Law of Grace THE First Error against our Christian Faith which we find in the Letter is that there is no new Law of Grace according to which the Lord dispenseth unto his People the Benefits and Blessings of Justification and Eternal Savlation That we do not wrong him in charging him with this erroneous Opinion is evident from his Letter pag. 9 18 29. and pag. 30 31. Where he saith that Justification upon the terms of the new Law of Grace doth not agree with the sound Words of the Reverend Assembly of Divines at Westminster and that the new Law of Grace is a new word but of an old and ill meaning Thus he And this the people must believe upon his bare word without any proof Now to refute this we need do no more but refer them that desire to know who is in the right as to this matter unto Mr. Williams defence of Gospel truth from pag. 18 to 34. where it is sufficiently proved by Scripture by reason grounded on Scripture and by the Testimony of Divines of the Reformed Churches That there is a new Law of Grace that the Gospel is that Law of Grace and that it is a new Law of Grace in the same sense that the Covenant of the Gospel is a new Covenant of Grace This Error then that there is no new Law of Grace being refuted to our hand we might well pass it and proceed to another Yet because the Authour discovers so much ignorance and boldness in what he says to the People upon this point we judge it expedient to insisâ— a little upon it both to instruct and also to rebuke him And because he would make the people believe whether he believe it of us himself God and his own Conscience know that we consider God only as a Rector ruling by a prescribed Law in all his Purposes concerning and Dealings with the Children of Men That he may not go on deceiving and being deceived We declare to the World that we never thought spoke or wrote any such thing as he would fasten upon us that he may the better misrepresent us to the people pag. 9. at the beginning to wit that God is only to be considered under the notion of a Rector and Judge as aforesaid Where by the way we cannot but take notice how honestly he deals by our Reverend Brother Mr. Williams in drawing this inference from a pretended Scheme of his Doctrine Thus saith our Authour they antedate the Last Day and hold forth Christ as a Judge rather than a Saviour Here the World sees what Doctrine he fixes upon Mr. Williams Next Let them turn to pag. 56. of Gospel Truth stated c. and there they will find these express words of Mr. Williams He Christ treats with men as his Subjects whom he will now Rule and hereafter Judge Now cannot Christ be our Saviour but by ceasing to be our Ruler and cannot we be saved by him but by ceasing to be subject to him Where is that Man's Brains who cannot see if he will that these two things do very well consist that Christ is both our Saviour and Ruler at the same time But this only on the by We declare therefore again that we never thought spoke or wrote that God is to be considered only under the notion of a Rector or Judge in all his Purposes concerning and Dealings with the Race of Man-kind On the contrary we believe that First God as an absolute Soveraign Lord of his own most Free and Gracious Will and Pleasure purposed to give and accordingly gave his only begotten Son to be the Redeemer and Saviour of sinful Men but not of fallen Angels Secondly That God as an absolute Soveraign Lord of his own good pleasure and according to the Counsel of his own will did before the foundation of the World choose some and not others of the lapsed and lost Race of Man-kind unto the participation of Special Effectual Victorious Grace and Eternal Glory through Christ Jesus Thirdly That in the first making of the Covenant and enacting of the Law of Grace with us through Christ Jesus God did not act as a Governour Ruling us according to an external Law which he had before made for us but as a Soveraign and gracious Lord who had freely purposed to save us in such a way by Jesus Christ Fourthly That in giving the foresaid Special Effectual Victorious Grace to the Elect rather than to others God doth not act as a Rector or Governour according to a stated Law prescribed to us and known by us but according to the counsel of his own Will and his hidden Purposes and Transactions with Christ concerning us Fifthly But yet in good consistency with what we have said we do firmly believe that God hath enacted and constituted a Law of Grace for bestowing upon us the subsequent Blessings and Benefits of the Covenant such as Justification and Glorification This Law God hath revealed to us in the Scriptures of Truth by this Law he both obliges and encourages us to certain Duties and also by the promises of it obliges himself to Justifie and glorifie us for Christs sake if we perform the Duties prescribed and comply with the Terms injoined It is with respect to those subsequent Blessings and Benefits of the Covenant that we say the Lord deals with us as a Rector and Governour Ruling us by a Law of Grace This Law is expressed in Holy Scripture in several Forms of Words as that See also Ps 103.17 18. Pr. 28.13 Isa 1.16 17 18. 55.7 Jer. 36.3 Acts 2.38 â— 19 16.31 26.18 Heb. 5.9 12.14 Revel 2.10 3.21 22.14 John 8.51 Ho who believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned Mark 16.16 And If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the Dead thou shalt be saved Rom. 10.9 Whosoever believeth in Christ shall receive Remission of Sins Acts 10.43 Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Luke 13.5 This is that which we mean by the Law of Grace and our meaning is so plain that any Man endued with
declare to the World what our Faith is in this matter And First We do not hold that there is any Antecedent Condition of the Covenant of Grace Our meaning is plainly this That there is nothing required to be necessarily performed by us as a Condition before the Lord will make us Partakers of any Grace even of the first Grace of the Covenant For we believe that the first Grace is given Absolutely and the Lords giving of it is not suspended on our performing of some antecedent Condition by our meer natural Strength This indeed would be Pelagianism or rather Semi-Pelagianism condemned by the Ancient Church and we condemn it as much as the Ancients did We hold that there are Absolute Promises Promises of Regenerating Grace of the New Heart the Heart of Flesh of special Grace through which the Elect believe and repent This is the Grace whereby we performe the Conditions required of us in the Covenant and therefore it must be promised and given Antecedently to our performing those Conditions forasmuch as it is the cause of the performance of those Conditions and the cause must always be in order of nature and causality before the Effect There hath been and is some difference of Opinion amongst Orthodox Ministers about the Person or Persons to whom God hath made those absolute Promises Some think they are made only to Christ for the Church according to these Scriptures Isai 49.6 compared with Acts 13.47 48. and Isai 53.11 Psal 22.30 and 110.3 Others think they are made through Christ only to the Catholick Church that God for Christ's sake would shew special Mercy unto his Select People in all Ages and add them to the Church Mystical by saving Illumination Regeneration and Conversion And so that God through Christ hath promised unto the Catholick Church that she should be a fruitful Mother that should still bring forth Children unto God which should continue the Succession unto the end of the World as in Isa 54.1 Sing O barren c. ver 5. For thy maker is thy husband c. See also ver 8 10. and then consider the Promise ver 13. That all her children should be taught of the Lord. And compare that place with Gal. 4.26 27 28 29. We humbly conceive that the Absolute Promises of the first saving Grace are not made immediately to Individual Persons but to the Body of the Church to the Mother in behalf of her Children Such are the Promises recorded Isa 44.3 4 5. Isa 59.21 Ezek. 36.22 compared with ver 26 27. and with Heb. 8.10 These and all absolute Promises of the first saving Grace seem not to be made immediately unto nor to be immediately pleadable in Faith by any Individual Persons before their first Conversion but to be made unto the house of Israel as the Text expresseth it that is unto the true Church which is the Mystical Living Body of Christ in behalf of all the Children which she as a Spiritual Mother is to bring forth unto God Or 3ly To Reconcile these two Opinions and to reduce them into one it may be some judge it best to say that the aforesaid absolute Promises are made both to Christ and his Church as one Mystical Body consisting of Head and Members which is to be filled up from time to time by adding New Members to it and that continual addition of new Members is made by the fulfilling of the foresaid absolute Promises and for this may be alledged Gal. 3.16 and this way we oppose not Thus it is confessed that there is some difference of Opinion about the Persons to whom the Absolute Promises of the first Saving Grace are made and we cannot help it for it is not in our power to make all good Men to be of one mind in lesser matters and we think we are bound in Conscience to bear with one another in love notwithstanding such little differences But we thank God that we are all agreed that the Promises of the first Grace are Absolute so as to exclude the necessity of our performing any Antecedent Condition to make us capable of that first Grace And we desire it may be well remembred That we say those Promises are absolute so as to exclude any antecedent Condition but not so as to exclude the use of Gods appointed means for the obtaining of that promised Grace We plainly distinguish between an Antecedent Condition which is always and in all cases necessary to obtain the promised Grace and the use of God's means appointed for the obtaining of the promised Grace which use of means is indeed ordinarily necessary unto Men so that they have no ground to expect that ever God should give them the aforesaid Grace without their attending upon him in the use of those means yet is not the use of them so absolutely necessary as that Grace at no time and in no case can be had without them For though God hath tyed us to the means he hath not tyed himself to them by any Law or Constitution so that he can never give the first Saving Grace to any without the use of them We know God hath been found of them that sought him not so he was found of Paul and others and so he may be again in these latter days if he please God may give Faith and Repentance to a man absolutely in what way he pleaseth he may do it in the use of means or out of the use of means which is his ordinary way because he hath not made the use of means the Condition upon the performance of which he hath declared that he will always give it and never in any case without the performance of it Thus indeed it is in the matter of Justification and Glorification It is not consistent with the Truth of God's Word and Perfection of his Nature to justifie or glorifie an Impenitent Unbeliever remaining such because he hath declared that he will not and it is not consistent with his own Honour that he should do it but upon the performance of the Duty and Condition of Faith and Repentance But in the matter of Regeneration and giving Faith and Repentance in the use of means God hath not so tyed up himself by any Declaration of his Will that we know of but that he hath left himself at free Liberty as a Gracious Lord and Merciful Benefactor to give the Grace of Regeneration Faith and Repentance when and how he pleaseth ordinarily in the use of means and extraordinarily without the Antecedent use of Means This we learn of Doctor Twisse who as he affirms frequently that the first Grace and particularly the new Heart Faith and Repentance are promised and given absolutely and not upon the performance of any Antecedent Condition so he positively asserts that the said new Heart Faith and Repentance are usually given in the use of Means and not otherwise ordinarily You shall have it in his own words Thus then he writes in his Answer to the
have everlasting Life And Art 6. he sayes that Faith embraces and appropriates to ones self Christ and all that is in him for since be is offered us to be possessed by us with this condition if we believe in him one of the two thâ—n must necessarily be to wit either that all is not in Christ which is necessary to our Salvation Or if all be in him then he possesseth all things who possesseth Christ by Faith And in his short Confession Art 10. Itaque meritò concludere possumus in uno Jesu Christo contra omnia mala quae conscièntias nostras terrere possunt praesentissima remedia reperiri Sed addenda est conditio si ista remedia nobis applicemus Therefore we may justly conclude that in one Jesus Christ there are found soveraign infallible remedies against all the evils that can terrifie our Consciences But this condition must be added if we apply those remedies to our selves We see Beza put it into his Confession of Faith as an Article of his Belief that the Gospel Covenant hath a Condition and is conditional The same Authour in his little Book of Questions and Answers the First Part to the Question You say then that Good Works are necessary to Salvation he Answers that if Faith be necessary to Salvation then Good Works are likewise necessary to it non tamen ut salatis causam yet not as the cause of Salvation for we are justified and therefore live onely by Faith in Christ but as something that is necessarily joined with Faith as Paul saith they are the Children of God who are led by the Spirit of God Rom. 8.14 And John that he is righteous who doth righteousness 1 John 4.7 So that it plainly appears they are contentious Men who condemn the necessity of Good Works as a false Doctrine Thus Beza And we do no more say that Good Works are necessary as the cause of Salvation than he doth nor do we any more than he say that Good Works without Faith are the necessary Condition of obtaining Salvation On the contrary we say that Faith is the Spring of all our good Motions and runs through them all and that it is Good Works done from a Principle of Faith and Love which are the necessary Condition of obtaining Salvation Lastly To the Question What then if Faith be first given to a Man at the point of Death For this seems to have been the case of the penitent Thief who was crucified with Christ What good Works can such a Man do Beza Answers Yea the Faith of that Thief in a most short time was unspeakably energetical or effectual and operative for he reproved the other Thief for his blasphemies and wickedness he abhorred his own Crimes with a firm and most wonderful Faith he acknowledged Christ to be an Eternal King and prayed unto him as a Saviour under the very ignominy and shame of the Cross when all his own Disciples were silent and spoke not one word for him he did also openly rebuke the Jews for their Cruelty and impious Expressions But so it is that Confession of sin Prayer to God the Father through Christ and thanksgiving are the most excellent Works of the First Table which in no Man can be wholly separated from Faith And although some may be so prevented by Death as not to have power to shew forth any works of the Second Table yet in such a Man Faith is not therefore to be esteemed idle and unfruitful because it hath Love conjoined though not in Energie and Act yet in Power and Principle Thus far Beza To which we agree as we said before In such extraordinary cases God requires no more of Men as absolutely necessary to their Salvation than they have time and strength to perform but accepts the will for the deed through Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 8.12 Our next Witness is Mr. Fox the Authour of the Book of Martyrs The World hath been told already in the defence of gospel-Gospel-Truth pag. 35. that holy Mr. Fox in his Latine Book of Christ freely Justifying maintains that Faith is the proper receptive applicative Condition of Justification and that Repentance is the dispositive Condition it is that which prepares us for receiving Justification But some who read that Discourse of his in the Book of Martyrs which our Authour directs them unto may possibly object that in the second Volume of the Book of Martyrs pag. 192. he saith The Promise of Life and Salvation is offered unto us freely without any Condition We Answer It is true he doth say so but he means that it is without any Meritorious Legal Condition and all such Conditions we reject as much as he did or any Man can do as appears by what we have said at large in giving account of our Judgment concerning the Conditionality of the Covenant That this was Mr. Fox's true meaning appears from his own Words in the same Page a few Lines after The Voice of the Gospel saith he differeth from the Voice of the Law in this that it hath no Condition adjoined of our meriting but only respecteth the Merits of Christ the Son of God If our Authour will not admit of this explication of Fox's Words that he only rejected all Meritorious and Legal Conditions but will needs have it that he absolutely rejects all Conditions of the Covenant of Grace both Legal and Evangelical then we must say that he hath little respect to the Memory and Credit of Mr. Fox since he makes him most shamefully to contradict himself And was he fit then to write a Book of Martyrs or to be himself a Witness for the Truth against the Papists Can he be justly admitted to bear witness against others who by self-contradiction is a false Witness against himself Truly we should be loath so to expose that good Man to the scorn of the Papists and therefore we positively affirm that he doth not contradict himself at all because the Conditions are of different kinds which he denies and affirms He denies that there are any properly meritorious legal Conditions of the new Covenant and so do we He affirms that there is a proper Evangelical Condition to wit Faith and constant Confession They are his own Words in his Latine Book aforesaid And we join with him in affirming the same And now we do further make it known to the People that Mr. Fox in the said Book concerning Christ freely Justifying doth grant that after we are freely justified by Faith in Christ sincere Obedience to Christ's Commandments is necessary to retain or not to lose our Justification These are his own Words Quod autem dici solet per obedientiam retineri justificationis gratiam Page 369 370. ut hoc concedatur aliquo modo non tamen hinc c. As for that which useth to be said that the Grace of Justification is retained by Obedience though that be granted in some sense yet it doth not follow from hence that Justification
without just reason we think to satisfie them we may well say what is a great truth that the habitual Seminal Principle of Faith is a qualification of the Person to be justified and that the actual Exercise of Faith is the receptive applicative Condition of Justification This is our first Reason 2. Reason The seminal abiding Principle of Faith is a holy disposition of the Soul whereby it is inclined and fitted to elicit and produce the Acts of Faith This is clear because it is in a special manner the gift of a Holy God and the fruit of his Holy Spirit who cannot be the Authour of any Seed Disposition Inclination or Habit in the Soul of Man but what is good and Holy But now that Seminal abiding Principle of Faith is before Justification This is clear as the Sun because it is before the Act of that Faith whereby alone we are said to be justified and that it is before the justifying act of faith we thus demonstrate That which concurs to the producing of the Act is before the act since it is in part the cause of the act and the cause as such must always be in order of Nature at least before the effect and it implies a contradiction that it should be otherwise But the Seminal abiding Principle of Faith concurs to the producing of the Act of justifying Faith for it is given unto us for that end that it may fit us for inclines us to and help us in acting Therefore it is before the Act of justifying Faith and consequently before Justification it self Here then we have found a Holy Seed and Principle put by God into the Soul before Justification And therefore it is utterly false which the Letter saith that there neither is nor can be any good or holy thing in the Soul or any real change wrought on the Soul before Justification 3. Reason The Act of Justifying Faith is a good and holy thing since it is the effect of God's Holy Spirit and the first Fruit of the foresaid Holy Seed of Faith in the Soul But so it is that even according to our Authours own Principles the Act of Faith is before Justification For as was observed before he says out of Gal. 2.16 We believe that we may be justified and if so then it is evident that our believing is in order of Nature at least before we be justified 2. He holds that Faith is the Instrumental cause of Justification and lays great stress upon that Notion as if it were the great fundamental of his Religion he likewise finds great fault with us for not holding with him that Faith is the Instrumental cause of Justification Now according to this Opinion of his he cannot avoid the placing of the Act of Faith before Justification because it is the Act of Faith that receives Christ and his Righteousness and that is the instrumental cause of Justification But all the World knows that every proper cause as an instrumental cause is in its kind is in order of Nature before its effect Either then some holy good thing is in us before Justification or Actual Faith is no holy good thing and his instrument wherewith he makes such a noise is good for nothing but to blow the Coals of Strife and Contention 4. Reason Before a Man can be justified by Faith there must be a real and holy change in him because of an Unbeliever he must become a Believer and that cannot be without a real change and a holy one too Now that a Man from being an Unbeliever must come to be a Believer in Christ before he can be justified by Faith in Christ is self-evident for how can a Man be justified by Faith in Christ who yet hath no Faith in Christ he must then have Faith before he can be justified by Faith But how shall he get this Faith Can he get Faith whilst he still remains in Unbelief that is impossible For Unbelief either signifies not believing or it signifies positive disbelieving and 1. If it signifie not believing it stands in a contradictory opposition to believing and contradictions are utterly inconsistent Can a Man believe in Christ and not at all believe in Christ at the same time We hope our Authour will not be so ridiculous as to go about to reconcile contradictions 2. If Unbelief signifie positive disbelieving disbelieving in power and prevalency then it stands in a contrary opposition to believing and two contraries in power and prevalency are likewise utterly inconsistent in the same subject at the same time A Man that is in the very Act of positive disbelief and under the power and prevalency of it cannot possibly have an actual Faith in Christ at that time Therefore that an Unbeliever may get actual Faith in Christ and be justified by that Faith he must of necessity be changed really and effectually changed he must be changed from being an Unbeliever to be a Believer he must come off from his sin of not believing or of disbelieving unto the practice of his Duty of believing in Christ that he may be justified by Faith But this cannot possibly be without a real change nay this coming off from the sin of Unbelief to the Duty of Believing is a real change and a holy change too therefore there is and must be a real holy change in Man in order of Nature at least before his Justification by Faith in Christ This is as certain and evident as that Two and Two make Four Yet our Authour finds fault with us for making it a part of our new Scheme that there must be a real change in a man let page 30. that he must be changed from his Unbelief that he may come to Christ by Faith for Justification And elsewhere he says That it is the experience of every Believer that every one who believeth on Jesus Christ page 11. acts that Faith as the chief of Sinners And if so then it follows by necessary consequence that every one who believes on Christ acts that Faith as an Unbeliever for according to him unbelief is the chiefest sin so he writes expresly That Vnbelief is the most provoking to God page 15 16. and the most damning to man of all sins Unbelief then is the chiefest sin and if so certainly the Unbeliever must be the chiefest Sinner and the Believer who acts his Faith as the chief of Sinners must act his Faith as an Unbeliever And that is a very odd way of acting Faith to believe as an Unbeliever Yet no man can help it for if our Authors Doctrine be true it must be so and cannot be otherwise because it is that which the experience of all Believers witnesseth unto and as he writes page 24. The Believer or Accepter of Christ in the very act of believing or accepting of Christ expresly disclaims all things in himself but sinfulness and misery And if he do so then he disclaims that is renounces his Faith it self in
of Christian Questions and Answers To the Question how we can be truly said to have all gifts from Christ received by Faith since if Christ be apprehended or received by Faith Bez. lib. quaest Resp p. 1. 149. 49. pag. edit 1587. then Faith it self must go before that apprehension or reception He Answers If thou consider the order of causes I confess that the principle or beginning of Faith and that also true Faith goes before the apprehension of Christ and therefore that it is not given to them who are already ingrafted but who are to be ingrafted By this passage we see likewise that Beza never thought that all saving Grace flows into us from Christ already united to us But that before Union he gives us saving Grace by his Spirit whereby we may be united to him Christ by his Spirit first apprehends and takes hold of us and sits us for and brings us into actual Union with himself and this Grace is in the order of causes before the Union on our part and so is before our Justification If our Author had understood and considered all this that we have quoted out of Beza he would never have thought it impossible that we can have any true Grace any Holy Disposition or Qualification before we be in Christ and justified by Faith in him For it is plain that we have the Grace from Christ whereby we come to be in Christ and Christ to be in us And if it were not so it would be impossible for us ever to be actually in Christ at all or to be justified by Faith in him Our Third Witness is Mr. Fox in his Book De Christo gratis justificante Although saith he it be an undoubted Truth That Faith in Christ the most high Son of God page 307. alone without works hath the Vertue and Power of justifying as appears from the most clear words of Paul and the Examples of Saints but yet it doth not put forth this its justifying Vertue and Power upon all praeterquà m in eos quos idoneos solùm invenit suscipiendae Divinae gratiae but only upon those whom it finds fitted or qualified for receiving the Divine Grace or Favour of Justification And that is the humble and Penitent as he shews in the following Section Where towards the end of it in page 310 he says Praeparat quiâ—tem poenitentia inateriam ad suscipiendam Justificationem c. Repentance indeed prepares the matter for the receiving the Grace of Justification That is it prepares the Soul for receiving Justification not as an inherent form in the Popish Sense but as a rich Priviledge and Favour bestowed upon those who are disposed and qualified for it by Repentance And that it is not only a Legal but an Evangelical Repentance which he speaks of is evident from what he saith at large in that Section and especially from the Testimonies of Scripture which he brings to prove it Such as Psal 34.18 Isa 57.15 Our Fourth Witness is Rollok whom we made use of before and to whom Bodius his Scholar in his Commentary on the Ephes p. 1081 gives this Testimony That he was a Man quo nemo nostra aetate Christum Jesum vel penitiùs imbiberat vel aliorum animis efficacius instillabat Then whom none in our Age either had drunk in Christ Jesus more deeply or thoroughly into his own heart or more Powerfully conveyed him into the hearts and Souls of others This Holy and Orthodox Minister of Christ in his Book of Effectual Calling saith page 3 4. That in effectual Calling considered as it is internal Duplex est Dei Gratia sive operatio in cordibus nostris c. There is a two-fold Grace of God or operation in our hearts The first Grace is whilst God by his Holy Spirit creates a new and heavenly light in the mind before involved in darkness which neither saw nor could see the things of the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 2.14 In the Will wholly perverted and turned away from God he creates a rectitude and lastly a new Sanctity in all the Affections Out of this Creation there exists or ariseth that which is called the new Creature that which is called the new Man which after God is created in Righteousness and true Holiness Ephes 4.24 The second Grace or the second Operation of the Spirit is the act of Faith it self or an action proceeding from the new Creature page 5. the action of the enlightned mind in knowing God in Christ the action of the sanctified Will in embracing or apprehending God in Christ Here the principal Agent is the Spirit of God himself the secondary Agent is the Humane Soul it self or rather the new Man and the new Creature it self in the Soul and its faculties In this second Grace which is the action or work of Faith we are not now meerly passive page 6. but being acted by the Holy Spirit we act being excited to believe we believe In one word with the Holy Spirit operating we cooperate and are workers together with the Holy Spirit Now he cap. 34. p. 258. tells us afterwards in the same Book that all this and more than this even the Holy Change that is wrought in the Soul by a true Evangelical Repentance is before Justification For saith he Repentance belongs to the place concerning Effectual Calling Repentance goes before Justification as Faith and Hope go before it From all which we observe that in the judgment of Rollock there is a real change made in the Soul before it be justified and that it is prepared for Justification by God's working in it an Holy Principle or disposition whereby it is inclined and enabled to produce the act of Faith whereby it receives Christ that for his sake and through his Righteousness it may be justified We might bring Dr. Ames and Dr. Twiss for our Fifth and Sixth Witnesses for they are of the same Opinion with Rollock as to this matter save that Rollock took the Word Regeneration to signifie the same thing with Sanctification which comes after Effectual Calling and Justification whereas they took Effectual Calling and Regeneration to be two words which signifie the same thing to wit the first saving change which is wrought in the Soul when a new Seminal Principle of Spiritual Life is put into it and it is brought off from Sin and the World unto Christ and unto God through Christ that it may be justified by Faith in his Blood This appears to have been their Judgment by what we have already quoted out of them upon the former head Let but any that can read in Ames his Marrow of Divinity the Twenty Sixth Chapter of the first Book concerning Vocation as likewise the Tenth Chapter of his Reply to Grevinchovius concerning the Nature of Faith where he proves That God by his Spirit puts a Seminal permanent Principle of Grace into the Soul at its first Conversion and that before any act of saving
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
Covenant he is found to be a Godly Man through Grace to be Evangelically Godly because he is just such a Man as the Lord by the New Covenant and Evangelical Law requires him to be that he may be first justified by Christs Righteousness imputed to him that is he is found to be a Man whom God hath blessed with a new Heart and who is a true Penitent Believer and that is a Man Evangelically Godly Now there is no Contradiction at all in this for the same Man at the same time to be legally ungodly and Evangelically Godly because it is with respect to different Laws and Covenants that such contrary things are affirmed of him Let our Author if he please consult Turretine and he will find that that Learned Calvinist saith expresly Turret Instit part 2. loc 16. pag. 714. That a true Believer when he is justified by Faith in Christ is impius partim antecedenter partim respectivè ad Justificationem non autem concomitanter Ungodly partly antecedently and that is because he was altogether ungodly in former times partly with râ—spect to Justification because he hath nothing in himself that can be the matter and cause of his Justification but he is not concomitantly ungodly that is he doth not remain Ungodly when God is justifying him and till immediafely after he be justified If our Author upon this should say to us what he saith to his poor awakened Sinner That it is Non-sense Ignorance and Pride Let. p. 31.32 to maintain that a Man must be in some measure Godly in Disposition and Principle before he be Godly in Act and that he must actually believe with a Godly Faith in Order of Nature before he he justified for this is as much as to say that a Man must be pretty well recovered before he make use of the Physician c. We should reply 1. That as for his Poor awakened Sinner he makes a poor Fool of him he puts what Words he pleases in his Mouth and makes him say in effect that if he first had Faith before he first had Faith then he would first believe before he had first believed which we think no Man ever thought or said nor is capable of saying unless it be some poor Creature that is awakened out of his right Wits or else it be such an one as our Author who hath the Art of Believing or Writing Contradictions 2. That he had need to take heed that he do not blaspheme our Saviour who hath said that the Tree must be good before the Fruit can be good Matth. 7.16 17 18. and 12. v. 33. And that is as much as if he had said what we hold that there must be some Renovation of the Inward Disposition of the Heart before a Man do actually believe with a saving justifying Faith 3. That if our Author will not believe us let him believe his own beloved self for he says Pag. 16. That a Man is to believe that be may be justified And that necessarily implies that he must bring forth some good Fruit in order of Nature before he be justified and in Pag. 12. He himself quotes Matth. 12.33 To prove that the Tree must be good before the Fruit be good 4. We believe that our Heavenly Physician comes first to us ordinarily in the Ministry of the Word by his preventing Grace and doth indeed recover us in part by curing the deadness and indisposedness of our Hearts before we go to him by an actual saving justifying Faith and thereby imploy him for our Justification Christ comes first to us by his Word and Spirit and begins to cure us of our Spiritual deadness to any thing that is savingly good before we go to him by actual justifying Faith and be by him delivered from our Legal Death in Justification by Faith in his Blood 5. If our Author will yet go on to tell the People that we teach them not to employ the Physician of Souls till they have first pretty well cured themselves we take Heaven and Earth to witness that he belies us and abuses the Simplicity of the People for we believe in our Hearts and confess with our Mouths to the Glory of Christ the Physician of Souls that it is he who by his Word Spirit and Grace both begins carries on and perfects the cure of all his select People and that he doth it in the way and order set forth in his Word of which we have here given the World an account according to that measure of Light which it hath pleased him of his rich Mercy and free Grace to bestow upon us 6. And lastly We desire it may be considered whether our Authors saying that to tell the People they must begin to be Godly through Grace by being Penitent Believers in order to their being justified is all one as to tell them that they must be pretty well recovered and must cure themselves before they employ Christ the Physician of Souls we say it is our desire People would consider whether this be not a piece of Antinomian Cant for it is certain that this is the Language of Saltmarsh one of the grossest of that Sect in England That the Promises belong to Sinners as Sinners not as repenting or humbled Sinners as is to be seen in Gatakers Shadows without Substance Pag. 53. And again saith Saltmarsh like our Author in this Do you look that Men should be first whole for the Physician or Righteous for Pardon of Sin or justified for Christ Ibid. Pag. 54. or rather Sinners Unrighteous Ungodly And Gataker there Confutes this precious Stuff in Pag. 54 55 56 57 58. Again You Saltmarsh say that every one who receives Christ receives him in a sinful Condition and consequently in an impenitent one Ibid. p. 73. And again saith Saltmarsh as our Author doth in Pag. 11. of his Letter Can any Man believe too soon Gatakers shadows without substance p. 75. To which Question Gataker Answers No more than he can repent too soon Thus we have at large answered every thing which we can find in the Letter that looks like an Objection or Argument against the Truth which we believe according to the Scriptures But after all it may be some will seriously put this Question Is it likely that God will give us any Grace to sanctifie us in any Kind or Degree before he so love us as to justifie us To which we answer that it is not only likely to be but it certainly is so that God loves us so far as to make Conditional Promises to every one of his People and so far as to give them for Christs sake Grace to begin to perform the Condition before he so far love them as actually to justifie them for Christs sake and that we say is a giving of Grace to sanctifie us Initially or to begin a Holy change in us before we be actually justified and our Sins be forgiven us This we have so clearly proved by
cause of the eternal ruin of the Souls of the Generality of them to whom or amongst whom the Gospel is preached John 3.19 4. That there are certain Internal Spiritual Effects wrought in and upon the Souls of Men whereof the Word preached is the immediate Instrumental cause which ordinarily do precede the work of Regeneration or real Conversion unto God And they are reduceable unto Three Heads 1. Illumination 2. Conviction 3. Reformation The first of these respects the Mind only The second the Mind Conscience and Affections And the third the Life and Conversation These are attained by the inward influence of the Holy Spirit upon mens Souls concurring with the Word to make it effectual unto those ends All these things may be wrought in the minds of men by the dispensation of the Word and yet the work of Regeneration be never perfected in them Yea although they are good in themselves and fruits of the kindness of God towards us they may not only be lost as unto any Spiritual advantage but also be abused to our great disadvantage Then Pag. 196. The Dectrine says he concerning these things hath been variously handled distinguished and applyed by many Learned Divines and Faithful Ministers of the Gospel Unto that Light which they received into them from the infallible Word of God they soined those experiences which they had observed in their own hearts and the Consciences of others with whom they had to do which were suitable thereunto And in the dispensation of this truth according to the measure of the gift of the Grace of Christ which they severally received they had an useful and fruitful Ministery in the World to the Converting of many unto God ☞ But we have lived to see all these things decried and rejected Thus Dr. Owen concerning Dispositions previous to Regeneration whose sense upon the whole we have here briefly and faithfully represented unto all into whose hands this may come And in the first and latter part of this long quotation we have transcribed his own words By all which we see that Dr. Owen received and approved as true good and useful the foresaid Doctrine of the English Divines at the Synod of Dort concerning Dispositions and Preparations before Regeneration and seems to have said it with some grief that he had lived to see all these things decryed and rejected to wit by some Arminian Divines of the Church of England And would it not have grieved him a little more to have seen all these things decryed and rejected also by Nonconformists that pretend to be the only party of Protestants who adhere to the old pure Doctrine of the best Reformed Churches when at the same time and in the same thing they join with the new Divines as Dr. Owen expresly calls them that is with the Arminians against the Synod of Dort and the old Doctrine of the Church of England But you may say doth our Author do so doth he decry and reject those Preparations and Dispositions before Regeneration and Conversion which our Divines maintained in the Synod of Dort and which Dr. Owen maintained after them against modern Arminians We answer if he doth not decry and reject them what means all that which he writes in the 12 page of his Letter against all Preparations and Dispositions before a saving and justifying Faith Surely he took wrong measures if the thought that those dispositions might be admitted before Regeneration and Conversion but not before a saving and justifying Faith For it is simply impossible and implyes a contradiction that they can be before Regeneration and first saving Conversion but they must be also before saving and justifying Faith So that either he must contradict himself after his usual manner if he hold the foresaid dispositions to be before Regeneration and Conversion but not before saving justifying Faith or if he affirm that they are neither before Regeneration and Conversion nor yet before saving Faith which is necessarily implyed in Regeneration and Conversion then indeed he doth not contradict himself but he doth that which is worse he contradicts the Truth and the Synod of Dort with Dr. Ames Dr. Twiss and Dr. Owen who all maintain this Truth that the said preparatory dispositions are before Regeneration and Conversion and so before a saving justifying Faith If he says that he doth not deny them to be before Regeneration and Saving Justifying Faith nor to be dispositive thereunto but that he only denies them to be dispositive unto Justification We Answer 1. That then he yields the Cause and comes over to us for we do not say that any thing before Regeneration and saving justifying Faith is or can be immediately Dispositive unto Justification but that the foresaid Preparations are Dispositive unto Regeneration and Conversion which are in Order before Justification 2. Then he is as much bound to Answer his own Argument against their being Dispositive unto Justification as we are for his Argument is this that nothing a Man doth before saving justifying Faith can dispose him for Justification because it is all Sin and Sin can never dispose a Man for Justification Now if this be true if all that a Man doth before saving justifying Faith be Sin if it be vain labour and an Acting of Sin and therefore cannot dispose him for Justification then for the same Reason it cannot dispose him for Regeneration and saving justifying Faith for it is self-evident that that which is vain labour and nothing but Sin can no more dispose a Man for Regeneration than for Justification Indeed Sin can dispose a Man for nothing but for Sin and Punishment and if that which is vain labour could dispose a Man for Regeneration and Conversion it would at once be both vain labour and not vain labour it would be vain labour for so it is said and supposed to be and it would not be vain labour because it disposes a Man for Regeneration and Conversion and that is not vain labour which is useful to so good an end as the Regenerating and Converting of a Man is But 1. our Author Objects the 13th Article of the Church of England To which we Answer 1. That the English Divines at the Synod of Dort understood the Articles of their own Church much better than our Author doth and yet they found nothing in the 13th Article against Dispositions before Conversion wrought in Sinners by the Word and Spirit of Christ 2. The Article speaks only of Works done by Infidels without any Grace of Christ at all and without any Inspiration of the Spirit Now it is Confessed that such Works are not pleasant to God See the 10th Art nor are they Dispositive unto Regeneration and Conversion But the Works which the Synod of Dort Ames Twiss and Owen affirm to be Preparatory and Dispofitive unto Regeneration and Conversion are not such Works they are not works done by the meer Power of Nature without any supernatural Grace at all but they are Works done
Essential to the very first Act of justifying Faith whereby we first receive Christ and rely on him for Justification and Salvation He distinguisheth indeed as our Author doth between the Direct and Reflex Act of Faith and two things he hath there concerning the Reflex Act. 1. He doubts whether it be properly an Act of Faith at all and rather thinks that it is an Act of Spiritual sense and feeling of what is within our selves Page 172. 2. He positively affirms that the assurance we get by the Reflex Act of Faith or of Spiritual sense comes after Justification and is not of the Essence of that Faith whereby we are justified and saved and that many precious Saints are without it and subject to many doubts that are contrary to it so that they may not know at all that it shall go well with them at the day of Judgment 10th Direction Page 172 173. Then for the Direct Act of Faith he saith and so doth our Author after him that it is two-fold The 1st Direct Act of Faith is that whereby we Believe the Truth of the Gospel The 2d Is that whereby we believe on Christ as promised freely to us in the Gospel for our Salvation By the 1st Act Faith receiveth the means wherein Christ is conveyed to us By the 2d It receiveth Christ himself and his Salvation in the means And both these Acts must be performed heartily with an unfeigned Love to the Truth and a desire of Christ and his Salvation above all things This is our Spiritual Appetite which is necessary for our eating and drinking Christ the food of Life as a natural Appetitite is for bodily nourishment We must receive the love of the Truth by relishing the goodness and excellency of it and this love must be to every part of Christs Salvation to Holiness as well as to the Forgivenness of sins The former of these Acts doth not immediately unite to Christ because it is terminated only on the means of conveyance the Gospel yet it is a saving Act if it be rightly performed because it inclineth and disposeth the Soul to the latter Act whereby Christ himself is immediately received into the heart He that believeth the Gospel with hearty love and likeing as the most excellent Truth will certainly with the like heartiness believe on Christ for his Salvation Psal 9.10 Therefore in the Scripture saving Faith is sometimes described by the former of these Acts as if it were a meer believing the Gospel Sometimes by the latter as a believing on Christ or in Christ Rom. 10.9 10 11. 1 John 5.1 13. Then he saith that This Second Principal Act of Faith in Christ includeth believing on God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and that it is the same thing with trusting in God 4th Direction page 61 62 63. And elsewhere he affirms that the Direct Acts of Faith include love Now touching these Direct Acts of Faith we acknowledge that there is an Assurance Essential to the first of them whereby we believe the promises of the Gospel and that assurance is two fold Absolute and Conditional First By our Faith of the Gospel we are Absolutely sure that God according to his promise doth give Christ and Justification and Salvation through him unto all true penitent Believers 2. By our Faith of the Gospel we are Conditionally sure that if we are true penitent Believers God according to his promise doth give Christ and Justification and Salvation through him unto us in particular For the Conditional promises of the Gospel being general to all penitent Believers they comprehend all the Particulars of the same kind and therefore if we believe with an absolute assurance that God justifies and saves through Christ all penitent Believers we must by necessary consequence believe at the same time with a conditional assurance that God justifies and will save us through Christ if we be true penitent Believers This conditional assurance with respect to our selves upon supposition of our being true penitent Believers is necessarily included in the former absolute Assurance that God for Christs sake justifies and saves all true penitent Believers Then for the second Act of justifying Faith whereby we believe on Christ himself with fiducial consent according to the Gospel we freely grant that it also is accompanied with assurance but mark it not with an assurance that is Essential to it self and Essentially included in it self but with the assurance the double assurance of the first assenting Act which though it go before yet it continues and accompanies the second Act of fiducial consent And for this reason we approve of that assertion of Mr. Marshals in the 179 page of his Book That believing on Christ for Salvation as freely promised to us must needs include a dependance on Christ with a perswasion that Salvation shall be freely given as it is freely promised to us Thus he And we subsume But it is freely promised to us only on Condition that we through Grace are true penitent Believers as we before proved at large Therefore the perswasion or assurance of it which accompanies our dependance on Christ by the Second Act of Faith is a Conditional perswasion or assurance as it concerns our selves and our own Salvation in particular Yet afterwards when by Reflex Acts of Faith and self Examination we clearly perceive through the speciall assistance of the Holy Spirit that we are indeed true penitent Believers then our assurance becomes absolute and we are absolutely perswaded and assured that Christ is ours and that God is our God in Christ and that through Christ we are justified and shall be saved This is all the assurance that the Scriptures hold forth to us as attainable in this life by the ordinary assistance of Gods Spirit and Grace and if any good Men have at any time by extraordinary favour and priviledge attained to any other or more assurance they had best keep it to themselves and be very humble under it and thankful to God for it and they should not affirm it to be Absolutely and Essentially necessary to the Fiducially Consenting Act of justifying saving Faith and by that means condemn all who have not that sort of assurance as having yet no justifying saving Faith but as being still in a state of nature and Children of Wrath and of the Devil It were easy to shew if we had time and room for it here that all the reasons Scriptures and Examples which Mr. Marshal brings to prove That an absolute assurance that Christ is now ours that our sins are now pardoned that we are justified and shall be eternally saved is absolutely and essentially necessary to the direct Act of justifying Faith whereby we first receive Christ and trust on him for Justification and Salvation prove no such thing The utmost that they prove is that the foresaid assurances which we willingly admit are partly antecedent to and concomitant with and partly consequent upon the Direct Act of Faith
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
endeavour to make out from several passages in the Letter it self As 1. In Page 10. All that he saith against that Book is this There are many Expressions in it that we generally dislike Now this he might safely say and yet not disown any but in his heart believe every Doctrinal point in it There are many precious Truths ill expressed by some very Orthodox Divines and in such a case we may well say that we dislike the way of expression tho' we dearly love the Truth so expressed We find that the Reverend and pious Mr. Rutherford in a Fast Sermon preached before the House of Commons in the Year 1643. on Dan. 6.26 saith Page 32. That the Antinomian is the Golden white Devil a Spirit of Hell cloathed with all Heaven and the Notions of Free Grace It seems the Devil of Antinomianism did not appear white enough to our Authour in Dr. Crisps Book but what if he had appeared in a better and whiter Dress what if the Antinomianism had been better expressed how would the Authour of the Letter have liked it then Truly for any thing he hath here said to the contrary he might have liked it well enough It is true in the end of that Paragraph he says That Error is often and unhappily opposed by Error under Truths name And we confess he may possibly apply one part of that passage unto Dr. Crisps Book and we would hope that he thereby meant that indeed there are Errours in Dr. Crisps Book but withal we must say that such an acknowledgment of Errour to be in that Book is too obscure to be discerned by the ordinary people that want judgment and for whose use he saith he wrote his Book and that because it is a general expression which is true enough in it self without respect to Dr. Crisps Book and whether it be applied thereunto or not 2. In Page 26. he sayes We justly complain that in their opposing of true Antinomian Errours and particularly the alledged Tenents of Dr. Crisp they hint that there is a Party of c. Now pray mark how warily he expresseth himself and how tender he seems to be of the credit of that Book He doth not say true Antinomian Errors and particularly the Tenents of Dr. Crisp for then indeed he had plainly confessed that there are true Antinomian Errours in the Book but he only saith the alledged Tenents of that Doctor by which Word Alledged he may make some People believe that he never meant there were any true Antinomian Errours in that Drs. Book but that true Antinomian Errours are alledged out of it by Mr. Williams and others and that very wrongfully as Mr. Chancey pretends 3. In Page 24. he says It is not yet called in question by any but that there is a decreed Justification from Eternity Here may be another Juggle for these words there is a decreed Justification from Eternity are capable of the Antinomian sense nay more they are not fairly capable of any other sense to understand them properly For a decreed Justification is not the Decree it self but the object or effect of the Decree The Decree it self is from Eternity but the object and effect of the Decree is in time as Dr. Twiss tells us and even common sense and reason may assure us of it For the Decree being from Eternity and the object and effect of the Decree being after the Decree it cannot be from Eternity too and if it be not from Eternity it must be in time And yet the Letter saith that a decreed Justification though it be the object or effect of the Decree is from Eternity which is the very Errour of the Antinomians who ignorantly confound the object and effect of the Decree with the Decree it self We are sure the Words of the Letter bear this sense yet we will not positively affirm that he meant them in this sense because we would hope though he hath said expresly that there is a decreed Justification from Eternity that yet he onely meant and would have said that there is a Decree of Justification from Eternity If any now should object on his behalf and say the that foresaid words not only may but must be understood of the Eternity of the Decree it self and cannot be understood of the Eternity of the decreed Justification which is the effect of the Decree because of the distinction which follows of a virtual and actual Justification We can easily answer that if we our selves were true Antinomians and durst so far dissemble as sometimes to seem not to be Antinomians we could make the opinion of Justifications actual existence from Eternity consist well enough with the distinction of vertual and actual Justification mentioned in the Letter For we would understand it with respect to manifestation Thus 1. Justification which actually existed from Eternity was virtually manifested in and by the Death and Resurrection of Christ 2. It is actually manifested and is actual in manifestation when we lay hold on and plead Redemption in Christs Blood by Faith And thus by a different use of Words a Man void of the fear of God might juggle and at different times and upon different occasions might please two contrary Parties and make them both believe that he were of their Judgment We do not say that our Authour doth so only we wish that he had not expressed himself so ambiguously but that with more plainness and simplicity he had declared himself against those Antinomian Errours Thus he had effectually removed all grounds of suspecting him any more whereas as he hath carried the matter in general doubtful expressions it may be to avoid the displeasure of some of his good Friends instead of fully clearing himself he hath left ground to suspect him still that if he be not a real Antinomian he is at least a Favourer of them and one that would keep up his Interest amongst them and therefore in speaking of Dr. Crisps Book all that he sayes is that he likes not his way of expressing himself and that there are true Antinomian Errours alledged out of it but not that there are any really in it as also he grants to the Antinomians that there is a decreed Justification from Eternity which is as much as they desire for decreed Justification is distinct from and is the object and effect of the Decree And so if Justification as it is the object and effect of the Decree be from Eternity then the Antinomians and he are agreed in that matter and both of them hold that not onely the Decree of Justification as of all other things is from Eternity but that Justification it self is from Eternity We do not see how Men of their Principles can gather any other sence from his Words But whether he used such Words on purpose to make them conceive good hopes of him we shall neither affirm nor deny but leave it to his own Conscience And as the Antinomians may hope well of him so will
uncere Obedience to be a Legal but an Evangelical Condition of the Covenant of Grace and consequently that in our Judgment they do not hold the same Place and Office in the New Covenant of Grace which personal perfect sinless Obedience had and were to have had in the first Covenant of Innocency and of Works Object But saith our Authour in his Appendix Pag. 39. It is the Achillaean Argument of the New Divinity that Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience is our Evangelical Righteousness and that Righteousness is our defence against the charge of Vnbelief Impenitence c. And what then Why in the following Pages he so shapes it as might best serve his Design which was to make the People believe that we set up our own Righteousness in the place of Christ's and maintain that Men must be Justified by their own Righteousness and not onely by Christ's And so he trips up Achilles Heels by the Fallacy of many Interrogations But it will be no very difficult Task to scatter this Mist which he hath cast before the Peoples Eyes In order thereunto let it be considered 1. That the Substance of this Argument was not invented by any amongst us dead or alive that we know of but some in this Nation having read it in some very eminently learned forreign Divines particularly Ludovicus de Dieu at large and the Holy Humble Learned and most Acute Placeus they received it and improved it as useful to clear some seeming Difficulties in Scripture obiected to us by our Adversaries the Papists 2. Consider that this way of reconciling James with Paul in the matter of Justification for the Substance of it was taken up also by the Learned Turretin 3. That it doth not appear that all of us ever expressed our selves in those Words for the clearing up of the seeming difference between James and Paul 4. That those who do take that way do not impose it upon others We know there have been many ways taken by Reformed Divines to expound James so as not to contradict Paul And some considerable difference there may seem to be among Divines in the methodizing and expressing of their Notious of those Matters But yet there appears to be very little difference amongst them as to the things themselves Indeed upon the Matter all seems to come almost to the same thing And particularly let it be considered 5. That this way of Interpreting James his Justification by Works and reconciling it with Paul's Justification by Faith seems to differ from the more common modern Opinion mostly in the manner of expression which some of us think most agreeable to the Scripture Phrase But we leave every Man to express his Notions as best pleaseth him provided that if he do not use Scripture Words yet he do not contradict Scripture sense And therefore 6. We desire it may be considered that this way of expounding James which we are now speaking of doth not in the least contradict the Holy Scripture but rather serves to explain it if it be understood as it ought to be in the true genuine sense of its Authours For 1. Though they say that our Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience is an Evangelical Righteousness as indeed it is yet at the same time they declare that this Evangelical Righteousness is no other thing but the Condition of the new Covenant on our part whereby we are interested first and still keep our interest in the satisfactory meritorious Righteousness of Christ by and for which alone we are justified from first to last They do not say that this Evangelical Righteousness which is the Condition of the Covenant doth satisfie God's Justice for the least sin either against Law or Gospel or that it doth properly merit to us the least good so much as a Cup of Cold Water They give unto Christ alone the whole Glory of having by his Righteousness satisfied Justice for all our Sins and merited to us all our Mercies So that our Authour was we think a little impertinent in putting his question page 41. What is that Righteousness which justifies a man from the sin of Vnbelief For he knows well enough that the Worthy Divines as he deservedly calls them with whom he has to do in that Argument have published it to all the World under their hands That assoon as a Man who was before an Unbeliever begins through Grace sincerely to believe in Christ and to repent of his Unbelief and of all his other sins immediately thereupon Christ's satisfactory meritorious Righteousness justifies him from his sin of Unbelief and from all his other former sins both Original and Actual that is God by and for Christ's Righteousness justifies him from them upon his believing and repenting And as our Authour knows this to be true so he hath honestly confessed it in the end of the same Paragraph Will any man says he dare to tell a person who is troubled in Conscience about his sin of Vnbelief that Christ's Righteousness is his legal Righteousness against the charge of sins against the Law but for Gospel-charges he must answer them in his own name I know our hottest opposers would abhor such an answer and would freely tell such a Man that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin and that his Justification from his Vnbelief must be only in that Righteousness which he so sinfully had rejected while in Vnbelief and now lays hold on by Faith Here the Truth comes out at last and in effect he gives the lye to his own false accusations of the Lord's Ministers and acquits the accused For if his hottest Opposers freely tell People that the Blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin and that their Justification from the sin of Unbelief must be only by the Righteousness of Christ then how can those things be true whereof as was observed before he had accused us in page 6 28 33 and page 39. That we bring our own pitiful Holiness into Justification and make it sit on the Throne of Judgment with the precious blood of the Lamb of God Ex ore tuo c. But 2. The Authors of the Argument we are upon never said wrote or so much as thought that can be known That our sincere Faith and Repentance is a Defence or Justification against a charge of Unbelief or Impenitence given in against us by God for they knew full well without being taught it by this Authour That the God of Truth cannot be the Authour of a Lye which he would certainly and evidently be if he should charge us with being Unbelievers and Impenitent at that very time when he knows that by his own Spirit and Grace we sincerely believe and repent But that which the aforesaid Excellent Divines said is yet to be seen in their Writings and it is this That our sincere Faith and Repentance is a Defence and Justification against any false charge of Unbelief and Impenitence that is or possibly may be given in against
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
Souls whose lot it is to be led into the Ditch by such blind guides But good Sir how doth it appear that our answer is wrong and yours only is right Why may not both be right and why must not both be right and both concur to make up one entire answer and full advice to a wicked man who under Conviction comes and asks Ministers what he must do to be saved If you had behaved your self in this matter like a fair adversary or an honest Man you had given in our answer fully without curtailing it for you know in your conscience that in such a case our full Answer and Advice to a Man is that he must do both he must both believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and repent of mourn for and turn from his Sins The Conscience of Truth extorted this Confession from you in your appendix page 41. as we observed before That your hottest opposers would freely tell such a man that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin Why did not you then if you be an honest man give in our full answer and refute it if you thought it was wrong If you say that Paul did not give such a full answer and advice to the Goaler Acts 16.30 31. but bid him believe only in the Lord Jesus Christ and thereupon promised him Salvation without advising him to repent and turn from his sins We answer It is true Paul bid the Goaler believe in the Lord Jesus Christ but it is utterly false that he bid him only believe there is no such exclusive particle in the Text and though the Sacred Historian Luke mention not expresly that Paul bid the Goaler repent yet it doth by no means follow that because Luke doth not say expresly that Paul bid the Goaler repent therefore he did not bid him for it was never Lukes intention to set down in his History every Word or Sentence which Paul at any time spoke to the People Nay in the very next verse Acts 16.32 Luke says that Paul and Silas spake unto the Goaler the Word of the Lord and to all that were in his house but he doth not tell us particularly what that Word was Nor doth our Authour know nor can he with a good Conscience say that it was not an Advice and Exhortation to repent to mourn for his known sins and to leave and loath them assuring him that thereupon God would have mercy on him and pardon his sins and save his Soul for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake If our Authour say that as he cannot be sure of the negative that he did not so we cannot be sure of the affirmative that he did preach the necessity of Repentance to the Goaler We answer that we can prove and do thus prove the affirmative 1. Because it was a part of the Apostles Commission to preach Repentance unto all People as well as Faith in Christ for which see Mark 16.15 16. compared with Luke 24.47 48. But Paul was an Apostle therefore he acted according to the Apostolical Commission 2. Because Paul baptized or caused the Goaler to be baptized and it was necessary that Repentance should be preached to him and professed by him before such an one as he were admitted to Baptisme 3. Because Paul himself tells us as his words are recorded by the Sacred Historian Luke that it was his common Practice to preach Repentance as well as Faith unto all those whom he Converted or intended and endeavoured to convert unto the Christian Religion Thus did he at Lystra Acts 14.15 He exhorted the people to turn from their vanities unto the living God which made Heaven and Earth c. Thus also at Athens Acts 17.30 31. He commanded them all from the Lord to repent and perswaded them so to do by a most powerful Motive and Argument taken from God's being Rector and Judge of the World and from his having appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by Jesus Christ and will then justifie or condemn reward or punish every man according to their works and this he assured them of by an Argument taken from Christ's Resurrection from the dead Again in Acts 20.21 he tells us That Repentance towards God and Faith towards our Lord Jesus were the sum and substance of his Sermons these were the two subjects that he â—ordinarily preached upon both to Jews and Gentiles And lastly in Acts 26.20 22 23. we read that he declared openly to Ring Agrippa that from the first time he was miraculously called to be an Apostle his business had been to preach Repentance and Faith From all which we conclude that we have good reason to believe and assert the affirmative that Paul did not preach Faith only but that he preached Repentance also to the Goaler and withal we challenge and defie our Authour to prove the Negative that Paul preached not the necessity of Repentance but of Faith only in order to his Salvation But saith our Authour page 15. No wit or art of man will ever find a crack or flaw in or devise another or a better answer than Pauls to the Goaler believe in the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved We Reply It is far from the thoughts of any of us or of any good Christian to find fault with or to go about to mend Paul's Answer to the Goalers question all that we say is that his whole answer is not set down expresly by the Historian Luke and we have proved it A truer Answer cannot indeed be given than it was but a fuller may be given and we have proved it was given by Paul though not particularly expressed by Luke This may satisfie any reasonable Man for we are sure it cannot be confuted Yet for the farther satisfaction of all Men if possible we will here transeribe and set down a passage of Mr. Venning a famous Congregational Minister once in this City It is in his Sermon called the way to true happyness preached before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen January 28. 1654 5 on Matth. 7.21 page 10 11 12. I ground it further saith he on this Rule which is an undeniable one and for not attending whereunto we have had so many needless groundless and unprofitable disputes in the World The Rule is this That the Scripture doth often yea very usually put particular Duties for all Religion and therefore annexeth Salvation to distinct Graces Sometimes it is he that believeth shall be saved Elsewhere he that calleth upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved Here it is He that doth the will of God Now all these and the like are complex and comprehensive propositions and contain more in them than they make shew of for God speaks much in a little Acts and Duties of Religion being as Moralists speak of their Vertues inter se connexae linked together in a Golden Chain Religion is not this or that piece but the whole which is usually expressed in a word or
thereunto The Discipline of Christ's Kingdom is as Cords and Bonds unto them they desire to break them and to cast off the yoke of obedience unto him And again it is as true that 〈◊〉 man is damned for not adding the efficacy of Gods Spirit unto his word They are damned for contemning Godâ—s Word and not hearkning to his Gracious Admonitions but they could do no other as this Arminian Authour intimates But what impotency is this Is it any where else than in their wills Which this Authour considers not nor distinguisheth between impotency natural and impotency moral were they willing to hearken hereunto but could not then inâ—â—gd their impotency were excusablâ— but they please themselves in their obstinate courses and if they would do otherwise I make no question but that they should have no more cause to complain of their impotency to do that good which they would do than the servants of God have yea and holy Paul himself had How can you believe saith our Saviour John 5.44 Here is a certain impotency of believing which our Saviour takes notice of but what manner of impotency is it Observe by that which followeth who receive Honour one of another and regard not the Honour which cometh of God only Therefore you hear not my words because ye are not of God John 8.47 This is as true as the word of the Son of God is true although this Authour sets himself to impugne this kind of Doctrine all along But withal consider do they deplore this impotency Doth the consideration hereof humble them Nay rather they delight in it as the Prophet noteth Jerem. 6.10 Their ears are uncircumcised and they cannot hearken Behold the Word of God is as a Reproach unto them they have no delight in it By these Testimonies of Dr. Twiss and more which might be quoted to this purpose we plainly see that though he doth every where maintain that God by his special discriminating effectual Grace enables the Elect but not the non-Elect to believe repent and obey the Gospel and so to performe the Condition of the Covenant yet at the same time he declares that the inability of the Non-Elect to believe repent and obey is a meer moral impotency arising from the ill disposition of their own minds and affections that therefore they cannot because they will not and that if they would they should be able to believe and repent and obey the Gospel Now though we heartily agree with the Doctor that it is by the special discriminating effectual Grace of God in Christ Jesus that the Elect believe repent and obey the Gospel and also that the inability and impotency which others are under to do these things is a moral and not a meer natural inability and impotence yet to show that we are far from being Pelagians or Arminians we must declare to the World That Dr. Twiss seems sometimes to ascribe more to the Natural Power of an Unregenerate Man without the Grace of God than we can allow of This he doth in the foresaid Book in defence of the Doctrine of the Synod of Dort page 48. Where after he had discoursed of natural and moral Impotency and shewed 1. That the wicked are punished for refusing to believe that this refusal is the free act of their wills and by their natural power they might abstain from this refusal and might believe with an acquired Faith as many Vnregenerate Men have done And 2. After he had likewise shewed out of Augustin That the reason why the wicked do not believe is because they will not and that if they would they might believe and that since they might believe if they would it is just with God to punish them sor not believing And 3. After he had shewed out of the same Augustin That the reason why they will not believe is either because they do not see the truth and goodness of that which they should believe or else because it doth not delight them 4. In the fourth place he adventures to go one step further and of his own head to say That except the supernatural acts of the Three Theological Vertues Faith Hope and Love all Acts and Duties inward or outward are natural and may be performed by a natural man though not in an acceptable manner for want of Faith Hope and Love supernatural Now saith he they are his own very words suppose that a man were so exact both in natural morality and in an outward conformity to the means of Grace as not to fail in any particular as he hath power to performe any particular hereof naturally in this case I say if there were any such he should be in the same case with those that are guilty of no sin but sin original c. Upon this passage we observe that the Doctor supposeth it possible for a natural man by the meer power of nature without any supernatural Grace to be so exact in doing all the Duties which God requires of him as not to fail in any particular and so to keep himself free from all actual Sin He doth not indeed say that there is or ever was or ever will be such a Man but he plainly enough says that it is naturally possible and supposes it so to be he supposes it possible for a natural man by the power of Nature so to live as to be without all actual sin This we are so far from agreeing to that on the contrary we hold it to be naturally impossible for any natural man by natural power so to live as to be without all actual sin For surely original sin in such a Man would so vigorously put it self forth into act upon the presentation of outward objects to his Senses or the formation of Notions and Idea's of things in his mind that by his meer natural power he could not possibly hinder all the Sallies and Eruptions of it This is the Catholick Faith and the contrary is pure Pelagianisme which we wonder how it should ever fall from the Pen of Dr. Twiss who was really a hater of Pelagianisme We should never have mentioned this but to let men know how far we are from Pelagianism even farther than Dr. Twiss was as to the power of a Natural Man Indeed we are so far from thinking that a Natural Man by his meer natural powers can live without all actual sin that we do not believe that a Spiritual Regenerate Man can live so exactly as to keep himself free from all actual sin although he be furnished and assisted with such a measure of supernatural Grace as the Lord doth ordinarily give out unto his own select People This is the Common Doctrine of the Reformed Churches which we can demonstrate to be true and which we firmly believe Surely then it must be a vile slander cast upon us that we are so far gone off from the Truth of the Reformed Religion Let. p. 13. as that our Cause and the Pelagians is coincident and
the Scripture and considers the form of Words used there by the Holy Writer which plainly sets forth the Justification of the Gentiles as an End and their Conversion from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God as a Means to attain that End Now the Means is always in execution before the End Consequently Conversion is and must be before Justification And if so then there is a real change in the Soul before Justification the Person to be justified is prepared disposed and qualified by converting Grace in order of nature at least before he be Justified And till he be so changed by converting Grace he is not capable of being Justified according to Gods Order of dispensing Saving Grace unto his People This our Authour saw well enough Lett. pag. 16. when he quoted Gal. 2.16 to prove that a Man is to believe that he may be Justified For that plainly shews that Faith is a Means to obtain Justification and all the World knows that the Means is always first in execution as hath been said before the End be thereby obtained Now we demand if a Man must have Faith before he be Justified must there not be a real change in him must he not be changed from being an Vnbeliever to be a Believer and must he not also be initially sanctified Is not true Faith a Holy Vertue and doth it not denominate the subject of it to be so far holy as he is a true Believer Peter saith that sincere Faith is a pretious thing 2 Pet. 1.1 and Jude v. 20. affirms that our Faith is a most holy faith and it is true both of the object of our Faith the things which we believe and of our Faith it self the Habit and Act whereby we do believe both are holy And how can it be but Faith must be holy since it is one of the fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5.22 And surely nothing but what is holy can be a Fruit of the Holy Spirit From all which we may confidently conclude that something which is holy is wrought in us and by us before we be Justified for it is wrought in us and by us that we may be Justified Thus we learn from Scripture that by preventing converting Grace there is a real change wrought in the Soul before we be Justified that that change is from falsehood to truth from evil to good and that thereby the Person to be Justiâ—ied of an unholy Vnbeliever becomes an holy Believer and so is a Subject capable of being immediately justified by Christs Righteousness imputed to him upon his Conversion and penitent believing And here we might further demonstrate that there are through Grace some holy Dispositions wrought in the Soul before Justification by all those Scriptures that put Repentance before Remission of Sins but this we have done already when we proved sincere Repentance to be a dispositive Condition of Justification Therefore we pass from this First to our Second Head of Arguments Secondly We prove by Reason agreeable to Scripture that it is an Errour to deny that there is any real change that there can be any holy qualification or Disposition wrought in us by the Grace of God antecedently to our Justification Reason 1. First we reason thus Faith is a Condition of Justification as we have proved at large therefore it may well be a qualification of the Person to be justified and we much wonder that our Authour should boldly deny the possibility of any such qualification For it is less to be a Qualification than to be a Condition If then Faith be a Condition it may much more be a Qualification And that for Faith to be a Qualification is less than to be a Condition is hence evident because Faith as the Gift of God without any Act of ours may be a Qualification but to make it a proper Condition it must be our own free Act receiving Christ and his Righteousness though produced by the strength of God's Special Grace Now it is plainly less for us to be the Subjects only passively receiving the Gift of Faith than to be the Agents freely producing the Act and performing the Condition of Faith Although then our Authour might seem to have some Reason to doubt whether Faith be the proper Condition of the Covenant with respect to Justification yet we cannot imagine why be should deny that it can possibly be a Qualification of the Person to be justified for it is very easily conceivable that it may be such a Qualification as it is a Grace given unto and wrought in the Person to be Justified on purpose that he may be thereby qualified for the great and blessed Priviledge of Justification What impossibility is there in all this That God should constitute and ordain that none thould ever be Justified by Christ's Righteousness but those that are so qualified and that Faith shall be the Qualification And then because no Man can by his natural power qualify himself with this Faith that God for Christs sake should by his Spirit give Saving Faith unto all his Select People and special Favourites and thereby qualiâ—ie them for Justification We can see no Shadow of Repugnancy and Impossibility but that God may do this if he please And when he hath done it when he hath qualified a Man with faith he most certainly hath a Qualification for the Benefit of Justification And this is so far from darkning the Glory of God's free Grace in Christ that on the contrary it greatly sets it forth and illustrates it that God will not only freely promise Justification through Christ unto all that are qualified with true faith but that for Christ's sake he freely gives them that faith and doth himself qualifie them therewith The like we say of Repentance it is a Qualification of God's own ordaining and of God's own giving Nor doth Faith and Repentance their being Conditions hinder their being Qualifications for they may be and are both All that we have hitherto ascribed to Repentance in order to Justification is to be a dispositive Condition of the Subject and that is the same thing with a qualifying Condition and a qualifying Condition is a Qualification We have indeed given more to faith for according to the Scripture we have owned it to be the only receptive applicative Condition of Justification which is more than to be either a meer Qualification or a meer Condition for neither is Qualification nor Condition meerly as Qualification and as Condition receptive and applicative of Christ and his Righteousness unto Justification To be so receptive and applicative is not essential to the general notion of a Condition but to the special notion of such a condition And yet this receptive applicative nature of Faith as such a special condition doth not at all hinder it from being a qualification of the Person to be justified For the same Faith in different respects is capable of different Notions Or if any should doubt of that
that Pelagian Opinion for he was himself Erroneous in the Point of Justification and held that we are justified before God by inherent Holiness and in this very place endeavours to prove against Pelagius that Grace is before Remission of Sin because Sin is a Privation which is no otherwise remitted than by the Habit of Grace its coming in and driving Sin out of the Soul just as Death is expelled or driven away by Life Blindness by Sight Darkness by Light Ignorance by Knowledge Thus he Confuted Pelagius's Error in the Point of Justification And now let all Protestants Judge whether Pelagius was not well Confuted and whether England was not greatly blessed with such a Confuter of Pelagius in the Point of Justification We are Confident our Authour was wholly Ignorant of the Principles of Bradwardin otherwise he would have been wiser than to have quoted him against us in this Controversie But it is his way to talk Confidently of what he doth not understand Yet our God is infinitely Wise and brings Light out of his Darkness for by this we come to understand by the Testimony of Bradwardin who we Hope may be believed in a matter of Fact that it was a piece of Pelagianism to hold that we are justified and our Sins pardoned before there be a real change made in us and Holy Dispositions or Qualifications wrought in our Souls by Christs Holy Spirit And if any Body should Question the Truth of Bradwardins Testimony concerning Pelagius's Opinion about Justification we can prove the same matter of Fact by the Testimony of a better Witness and that is the famous Augustine who was Contemporary with Pelagius and wrote against his Opinions at their first appearance in the World The other Secret which we have to tell our Authour is that it is a Popish Opinion to assert that there is no Gracious Principle infused no Holy Disposition or Qualification wrought in us by Gods Spirit before the Remission of our Sins Of this Opinion was Jacobus Almainus a Doctor of the Sorbon who lived in the 15th Century a little before the Reformation as appears by what he writes in his Book of Morality Lib. Moral Tract de charitate Ista rationalis est vera quia Deus acceptat aliquem ad vitam aeternam dat illi Charitatem non è diverso nam ista est falsa quia dat Charitatem acceptat ad vitam aeternam ergo prius naturâ acceptat ad vitam aeternam quam det Charitatem infusam This way of reasoning is true because God accepts a man unto Eternal Life therefore he gives him Love or infuses into him a Principle of Grace but not on the contrary for this is false that because God gives him Love or infuses into him a Principle of Grace therefore he accepts him unto Eternal Life and therefore God doth first in Order of Nature accept a man unto Eternal Life before he give him infused Charity Thus Almain whereupon we observe that he held Justification taken in the Protestant Sense to be before any real Holy change be made in the Soul by infused Grace in Regeneration and Effectual Calling For 1. By Acceptance unto Eternal Life he meant that we call by the Name of Justification 2. By Gods giving infused Love he meant that which we call Regeneration and Effectual Calling or the Holy change that is thereby begun in the Soul But so it is that he held Acceptance unto Eternal Life to be before the Gift of infused Love or infused Grace which they call by the Name of Love therefore he held Justification to be in Order before Effectual Calling or any Holy Principle put into or change wrought in the Soul thereby And the Popish Bishops of Walemburgh are yet more clearly for this for thus they write Walemb de justificat cap. 11. Num. 9. Remission of Sins taken for the not imputing of them in Order of Nature goes before inherent Justice That is in their way of speaking before the Infusion of any Principle of Grace and Holiness and this they prove by the Worde of the seventh Chapter of the Sixth Session of the Councel of Trent whereunto they adde that Remission of Sins is not the same thing with inherent Justice because that according to Bellarmine Vasquez and many other School Divines our Sins may be absolutely pardoned and remitted by the meer Non-imputation of them without the Infusion of Inward and. Inherent Justice or Holiness and consequently the Remission of Sins or Justification as the Protestants speak and Inward Inherent Justite which according to them is Sanctification begun may be separated and may be given unto us the one without the other These are the very Words truly Translated of Monsieur Le Fevre a Doctor of the Sorbon in a Book written against the Famous Monsieur Arnauld in the Year 1685. The Case was this Monsieur Arnauld in his Renversement de la Morale had laboured hard to prove that such Calvinists as our Author Replique a Monsieur Arnauld pour la Defence du livre des motises invincibles p. 61 62. had so corrupted our Christian Morals by their Errours about Justification that they are the vilest of Hereticks and can never be good Catholicks this was the Judgment of the Ring-leader of the Jansenists whom our Authour commends P. 21. of his Letter that such Protestants as he is are damned Hereticks by Reason of their Errors in the matter of Justification but on the contrary Monsieur Le Fevre undertakes to prove by Invincible Arguments that such Calvinists as our Authour may be good Roman Catholicks notwithstanding all that Monsieur Arnauld hath written to prove them Hereticks for tho' they hold that men may be pardoned and justified before there be any real change made in them or any holy permanent Principle of Grace Disposition or Qualificatien wrought in their Souls by the Holy Spirit yet they may be good Catholicks for all that because Almain and the Bishops of Walemburgh were of the same Opinion concerning Justification and tho' Bellarmine and Vasquez do not think that de facto Justification is after that manner yet they confess it is possible it may be so and the Council of Trent is not against but rather for its being so de facto And these were all good Roman Catholicks Therefore such a Calvinist as eur Author may likewise be a good Roman Catholick for in this matter he agrees with the Doctrine of the Roman Church This to us seems to have been the design of that Learned and Politick Sorbonist to shew that such Opinions about Justification as this is should not hinder a Reconciliation with the Church of Rome since she holds the same Doctrine her self Whether Le Fevre do right to his own Church or not in fastening that Opinion upon her concerns not us to inquire after but we think he has sufficiently proved that it is a Popish Opinion that is an Opinion that hath been long in the
if you do not believe it why do you commend his Book to me as that which will give me best Direction in this matter and preserve my Soul from being poysoned with the new Divinity But if you do believe him why do you contradict him he telling me one thing and you telling me the quite contrary yea the contradictory thereof Why do you also join with the new Divines against him or his Book and go about to poyson my Soul with the new Divinity in the great Point of Assurance it s not being essential to the direct Act of justifying Faith whereas the contrary Opinion of Marshal which you deny was the great Engine wherewith our first Reformers battered down the Walls of Rome Thus our Author by his way of Writing is more like to hinder men from believing and to harden them in their unbelief than to be instrumental in Converting them from unbelief to Faith in Jesus Christ Thirdly Unbeliever This believing is hard Minister This is a good doubt but easily resolved Here again the Minister makes himself ridiculous and exposes himself to the scorn and contempt of the Unbeliever for the Unbeliever makes no doubt of the matter but positively afferts that this believing is hard as being firmly perswaded in his Mind without the least Hesitation or Doubt that this believing is hard indeed and when the Minister has heard him say yea has put the Words in his Mouth and made him to say positively without doubting that this believing is hard then he answers him and says this is a good doubt and easily resolved and the plain English of that is that no doubt but a Positive Affirmation is a good doubt But supposing for once with the Minister that no doubt is a doubt yet how doth he make it appear that it is a good doubt for there are bad doubts as well as good doubts and why may not this be a bad doubt rather than a good doubt Yes saith the Minister I prove it and make it appear thus that it is not a bad but a good doubt because it bespeaks a man deeply humbled Rarâ—ly proved But why may it not as well bespeak a man to be deeply hardened in unbelief and highly listed up in pride For were not the Capernaites deeply hardned in unbelief and yet when they heard Christ himself with his own Blessed mouth preaching to them of the great necessity and usefulness of believing on him under the Figurative expressions of Eating his Flesh and Drinking his Blood they both doubted and dishelieved and thus expressed their doubts and unbelief John 6.42 How is it that he saith I came down from Heaven And V. 52. How can this man give us his Flesh to eat And V. 60. This is an hard saying who can hear it Likewise those Jews and Heathens of whom Paul writes 1 Cor. 1.23 That Christ Crucified was unto the one sort of them a stumbling block and unto the other foolishness could doubt and say this believing in a Crucified Christ is hard and in effect they did say it and so they doubted if that be to doubt for they said it was an unreasonable foolish thing to believe to be saved by a crucified Man and that was in effect to say that it was hard to believe in Christ For it is certainly hard for a reasonable man to believe that which in his heart he judges to be unreasonable and foolish But now did this bespeak those unbelieving Jews and Heathens to be deeply humbled no sure it was so far from it that it bespoke the quite contrary it bespoke them deeply hardned in unbelief and highly lifted up in pride and self conceit Our Author has another Argument to prove it to be a good doubt because says he Any body may see his own impotency to obey the Law of God fully but few find the difficulty of believing Well be it so that few find the difficulty of believing and that few doubt whether it be difficult or not doth that prove that this particular unbeliever doubts because he finds believing to be so difficult that he is past all doubt of its being difficult and thereupon positively affirms that it is difficult and hard to believe He must have lost his reason that can deliberately think that a Man who is fully convinced of the difficulty of believing and thereupon affirms that it is hard to believe hath a good doubt whether it be difficult or not because the generality of other Men seldom think of believing or endeavour to believe and so find not the difficulty of it But 2. suppose this particular Unbeliever do not find it so difficult to believe as to be past all doubt that it is difficult only his mind is brought to an aequilibrium even ballance and hangs in suspence between these two whether it be difficult or whether it be easse to believe This supposition being true will prove indeed that the man hath a doubt in his mind concerning the difficulty of believing but it doth not at all prove that it is a good doubt The Truth is such a doubt is evil and cannot be good for the man ought to be fully perswaded in his mind that to believe in Christ crucified with a saving Faith it is really difficult and hard yea impossible to Unregenerate Nature and without the Grace of God but that to Regenerate Nature it is easie through the affistance of Gods special Grace And so here can be no room at all for the Unbelievers good doubt Next our Author falls upon the resolving of the Unbelievers pretended good doubt And in order thereunto he asks him What it is which he finds doth make believing difficult to him 1. Our Author asks the Unbeliever Whether he finds it difficult to believe because he is unwilling to be justified and saved And this saith he the Unbeliever will deny And he may well deny it and further tell our Author Sir You are very impertinent to ask me such a Question for you knew well enough without asking that that could not be the reason wherefore I think it difficult to believe for no man in his right wits was ever unwilling to be justified and saved that is unwilling to be happy for it is naturally necessary unto all men to desire happinness and therefore if the Justification and Salvation which you talk of be necessary to make me happy and if my happiness partly consist therein you know I cannot be unwilling to be justified and saved because I cannot be unwilling to be happy 2. He asks the Unbeliever Whether he finds it difficult to believe because he is unwilling to be so saved by Jesus Christ to the praise of Gods Grace in him and to the avoiding of all boasting in himself And he saith The Unbeliever will surely deny this also To which the Unbeliever may be supposed to answer Sir I thank you for your good opinion of me by this I perceive you take me to be deeply humbled indeed but
how you should come to be sure of that I cannot understand for I am not sure my self that I am so deeply humbled It is true I confess and I am sure of it that I am willing to be saved that is to be happy But I am not yet sure that I am willing to be so saved in that way of deep humiliation I find by your Letter that those whom you confess to be already true Believers find it diffioult to be throughly willing to be so saved by Jesus Christ as to give all the glory of their Salvation to Gods Grace and to take nothing of it to themselves how then is it possible for you to be sure that I who am an Unbeliever will not confess that I find a great unwillingness in my nature to be saved in such a way of self-denial and deep humiliation and that that very unwillingness makes it very difficult for me to believe in a Crucified Christ you cannot be sure but I may be such an unbeliever as will not deny what I really find to be the natural frame and temper of my heart And you who are a Believer and a Minister should not teach me to deny it against my natural Conscience nor blame me for confessing it And when you have heard my ingenuous confession if you think my heart is in a very ill frame and that I am a very wretched creature you should give me what help you can towards the getting of my nature changed and my heart deeply humbled but you think I am deeply humbled already because I said this believing is hard whereas for any thing you know to the contrary the true reason of my so saying might be because I am not yet deeply humbled Yet however it be I thank you for your good opinion of me 3. He asks the Unbeliever Whether he finds it difficult to believe because he distrusts the Truth of the Gospel Record and then adds that he dare not own this To which again the Unbeliever may reasonably enough Answer Sir What mean you by this do you mean that I dare not own it because of you or because of mine own natural Conscience If you mean that I dare not own it because of you then it seems you threaten me that if I confess my self to you and tell you what distrust I find in my own heart you will persecute me or do me some mischief This better becomes a Minister of the Inquisition than a Minister of the Reformed Church Or if you mean that I dare not own it because of my natural Conscience as if it were against my natural Conscience to distrust the Truth of the Gospel record how do you know that You are indeed a man of Confidence enough but you may be mistaken for all that And I tell you that in this you are mistaken for it is an ordinary thing with us Unbelievers to distrust the Truth of the Gospel Record and I find that same distrust often within my self I cannot conceal it from God who made and Governs the World and knows all things in the World as natural Religion teacheth us and many of us believe this though we do not believe your Supernatural positive Religion and since I cannot conceal it from God why should I be afraid to confess it to Man especially to the Ministers of Supernatural Positive Religion a part of whose Office it is to maintain the Credibility and Truth of the Gofpel Record against Unbelievers and to do what they can by good and solid Arguments to prove the Credibility and Truth of the Gospel and thereby to Convince and Convert Unbelievers to the Faith of it and to Faith in Christ acording to it Sir If you believe that Record your self and can give a reason of the Faith and Hope that is in you as ye are bound to do you should not discourage Unbelievers from confessing the true Grounds of their not believing in Christ but should rather desire and intreat them to tell you their grounds ingenuously what ever they be that when you know them you may answer them and shew there is no solidity in them by this means you may be instrumental to bring Men off from their unbelief and then by laying before them the solid Grounds and Reasons you have for the Credibility and Truth of the Gospel-Record you may through the Blessing of God Convince and Convert such Unbelievers as I am to the Faith of the Gospel and to Faith in Christ according to the Gospel 4 He asks the Unbeliever whether he finds it difficult to believe Because he doubts of Christs ability or goodwill to save And then he saith that this is to contradict the Testimony of God in the Gospel To this the Unbeliever may readily reply Sir What do you mean by Christs Ability or Goodwill to save Whether do you mean it of his Ability or Good-will to save others to wit all the Elect in general or of his ability or good-will to save me in particular If you mean it of his Ability or Good-will tosave others to wit all the Elect in General then I tell you that so far as I do Historically and Dogmatically believe the Scripture to be the Word of God I do not at all doubt of Christs ability and good-will to save all the Elect in General for I find that God hath clearly testified so much in the Gospel and I firmly believe his testimony and do not in the least contradict it But if you mean it of his ability or willingness to save me in particular I desire you to name the Chapter and Verse in the Gospel where God hath testified that Christ is willing to save me in particular so that I cannot doubt of his willingness to save me without contradicting that Testimony You cannot positively say that I am one of the Elect whom Christ is certainly willing to save because I am yet an Unbeliever and so long as I am an Unbeliever neither you nor I can possibly know without an immediate Revelation whether I be one of the Elect or not I may be or I may not be one of them But neither you nor I can say determinately that I am certainly the one of them and not the other If you shall say and you have nothing else to say That whether I be one of the Elect or not I must believe without doubting that Christ is able and willing to save me otherwise I contradict the Testimony of God in the Gospel Then indeed you will say something to the purpose But We have not yet done for I must now ask you whether you would have me believe without doubting that whether I be Elect or Non-Elect Christ is willing to save me absolutely or conditionally And if 1. Christ be willing to save me an Unbeliever absolutely and that whether I be Elect or not then it will follow by necessary consequence that one Unbeliever shall be infallibly saved even tho he be a Reprobate and if one
why not another and another yea why not all cum fit eadem ratio unius omnium Since there is the same reason for one and all The consequence of this from Christs being willing to save me an Unbeliever absolutely and that whether I be Elect or not is clear and unavoidable for Christ never fails to do that which he is willing absolutely to do if he be able to do it but he is certainly as able as he is willing Therefore if Christ be both able and willing absolutely to save me an Unbeliever whether I be Elect or not then I an unbeliever whether Elect or not shall be infallibly saved This would be good news and rare Gospel to Unbelievers and Reprobates if there were any Testimony of God for it in the Old or New Testament But an Unbeliever may doubt of Christs willingness to save in this absolute sense without fear of contradicting the Testimony of God in the Gospel 2. If to avoid this absurdity you say that whatever I be Elect or not Elect Christ is willing to save me an Unbeliever conditionally If I sincerely believe and Repent now I Understand you very well and have nothing to say but that you are come off from your principle and fall in with those you call the New Divines and preached to me the new Divinity that there is a Conditional Gospel Covenant according to the tenour whereof Christ is willing to save any unbeliever whatever he be on condition that he sincerely and effectually believe If to break through this net in which your are caught you shall say that if I be not one of the Elect Christ is no wise willing to save me either absolutely or conditionally I reply why did you then speaking to me in particular say That for me to doubt of Christs good-will to save is to contradict the Testimony of God in the Gospel The Question was not whether or no Christ be willing to save some other men but whether he be willing to save ME or not And whereas you made a shew as if you would resolve my doubt by determining that question in the affirmative that Christ is willing to save me and that I must not doubt of his willingness to save me or if I do then I contradict Gods Word Now to keep up your separation from those you call the New Divines you would bring your self off by telling me that you do not know whether Christ be any wise willing absolutely or conditionally to save me Is not this an excellent way to resolve my doubt which you put into my head whether Christ be willing to save me to tell me that truly you do not know whether he be any wise willing to save me or not but if I doubt of his willingness to save some other men I contradict the Word of God Thus you resolve my doubt Whether Christ be any wise willing to save me or not by confirming it I say I doubt of Christs willingness to save me an Unbeliever and you say you doubt of it too for you do not know whether he be willing or not and because the thing is thus doubtful both to me and you therefore I must no more doubt of it This is the best way that you have to resolve this doubt of mine which your self have raised unless you go over to your Brethren and say that Christ is undoubtedly willing to save me whatever I be upon condition that I sincerely believe and repent And yet you shall not escape into their Camp without one thrust more at you I mean without objecting one difficulty more which lyes in my way to believing This last Objection I have learned of your self likewise and therefore I expect a clear answer from you for it 's to be hoped that you are a wiser man than to raise a Spirit which you cannot lay again Thus then I argue as you have taught me Unbeliever I cannot believe on Jesus Christ because of the difficulty of the acting this Faith for a Divine Power is needful to draw it forth which I find not Let. pag. 17. This is a very powerful argument to prove the difficulty of believing for if it be impossible for me to believe then it is difficult with a witness for me to believe But it is impossible for me to believe without a Divine Power that being needful to draw forth the Act of believing and I do not find that divine Power in or with me Therefore it is difficult for me to believe This is the argument which you have taught me and it has the appearance of a demonstration at least it proves invincibly that I had reason to say before without any doubt That this believing is hard though by your Logick which draws quidlibet ex quolibet darkness out of light c. ye inferred that I was a good doubter because I did not doubt at all but was sure that it was hard for me to believe and since ye your self have furnished me with so strong an Argument to Evince the Truth of what I said that it is hard for me to believe I do expect from you a clear solid satisfactory answer otherwise I shall be tempted to suspect you to be your self a secret unbeliever and that your design in suggesting such Arguments to Unbelievers and not giving a solid Answer to them is to confirm such as I am in unbelief and as it may happen to increase the number of unbelievers Or if I should be mistaken in suspecting that you your self had such a formal design yet I no wise doubt but am sure that the thing hath a natural tendency to confirm and harden sinners in their unbelief Ministers Answer I desire you Unbeliever not to suspect me as if I were secretly one of your Fraternity nor yet to be afraid of any mischief that may ensue upon my method for Converting Unbelievers which I have published for the Instruction of the younger Ministers To cure you of your suspicion of me and to prevent any hurt to your self or others I have given an Answer to your Argument which you had from me and thus it is word for word Believing in Jesus Christ is no work but a resting on Jesus Christ And this pretence of its being difficult is as unreasonable as that if a Man wearyed with a Journey and who is not able to go one step further should argue I am so tyred that I am not able to lye down when indeed he can neither stand nor go This is my answer Unbeliever and what do you think of it Is it not a clear solid satisfactory answer Do not you see the light breaking forth from all the parts of it Do not you also see the darkness of your Objection flying away before the light of it as the small dust and dry leaves fly before the wind Unbelievers Reply Sir I will tell you by and by what I see But First I must tell you what I think and to be
of the difficulty of believing so in the Name of the whole Fraternity of Unbelievers I thank you for your great kindness to them and for this sweet and comfortable Doctrine if it be true which you have taught us all in your Letter which I hear is much cryed up by some Women in London who love rest and ease Now we might have all rested quietly together were it not for those you call the New and Young Divines whom you have charged with Pelagianism This was not wisely done of you for you have thereby awakened them from their rest and it is to be feared that by loud Recriminations they will disturb you and us both and proclaim the secret to the World that you your self are Confederate with Pelagians Semipelagians and Unbelievers For it is undeniable matter of Fact that it is a branch of Pelagianism and the very Root and Heart of Semipelagianism That Men can believe in Christ with a justifying Faith by the Power of Nature without the Supernatural Grace of God And if your similitude hold good men not only can believe but which is more they cannot possibly choose but they must of Necessity believe without the help of Grace unless they be hindered by a Miracle exciting them to Act and Work and to cease from rest Sir how you can come to Rest and Peace with those brisk Young Divines whose Age inclines them to Action more than to Rest I do not pretend to know but this I know that upon your foresaid Principle the Unbeliever and you are agreed and if you will be stedfast and stand to your Principle we shall live together in perfect quietness and never more differ about Believing Thus we have given an account of our Authors Way and Method of Converting an Unbeliever to Faith in Christ which is more than a resting on Christ for it is a Grace whereby we assent to Jesus his being the Christ the Son of God and only Saviour of Men and Consent to take him for our Prince and Saviour and as such receive him on his own Terms and then rest relie and trust on him for Justification c. We have shewed also what a weak and ridiculous way and Method it is and how easily an Unbeliever may Answer all that he hath said in the 16. and 17. Pages of his Letter mentioned before except a few at his first setting out he hath hardly made one right step in the whole course of that Advice which he takes upon him to give unto Ministers how they ought to deal with Unbelievers in labouring to Convert them unto Faith in Christ He hath plainly betray'd our Cause to the Unbeliever who hath brought him by his last Objection to take up with a Piece of Pelagianism and with the grossest Semipelagianism that hath been heard of in the Christian Church so weak is he not wicked we hope that he could think of no other way to Answer that Objection but by denying that Faith is any Work at all though therein he shamefully contradicts himself and the express Word of God and by affirming that it is a resting in such a sense as imports that it is neither Work nor Act but a meer Cessation from Working and Acting a doing nothing at all and from thence he labours to shew the Unbeliever that it is not difficult to believe and illustrates it by such a similitude as will make any considering man who reads it and understands the use he makes of it to think that he must be a Semipelagian who holds that a man can believe unto Justification without any Subjective Supernatural Grace of God at all Whereas he ought to have acknowledged the Truth of the Objection that it is indeed difficult and impossible too for a natural man by the power of nature ever to believe but that it is possible and easy too by the Grace of God And then he should have directed the Unbeliever unto the means whereby Grace to believe is ordinarily obtained from God through Christ and should have advised him to wait and continue waiting on God in the use of his appointed means and particularly to be much in praying as well as he can for Grace to help in time of need and desiring the prayers of Christs Ministers and People But not a word of this nay instead of advising the Unbeliever to use Gods means and seek the Grace of Faith from God through Christ he gives him to understand that Faith is nothing but a resting from all work and action and that it is no more difficult to believe than it is for a weary Traveller to lye down and rest when he is so tyred that he can neither stand nor go And after he hath told the Ministers that they ought thus to resolve the doubts and answer the arguments of Unbelievers he hath the confidence to conclude that by such reasonings with an Unbeliever from the Gospel the Lord will as he hath often done convey Faith to him and joy and peace by believing This is like all the rest the Conclusion and the Premises are at irreconcileable variance with one another The Conclusion saith that the Lord will convey Faith to the Unbeliever by the reasonings in the premises and yet one of those reasonings is that Faith is nothing but a resting and such a resting as signifies a Cessation from all actings and that an Unbeliever needs no more help to believe than a weary Travellour needs help to lye down and rest when he is so tyred that he can neither stand nor go We think it is a sort of Blasphemy to say wittingly and willingly that such reasonings as some of those we have noted in the 16 and 17 Pages of the Letter are either in and from the Gospel or that the Lord makes use of such self contradicting confounding fulshood as means of conveying Faith into the Hearts of his people And because in this part of his Letter he speaks to us that are Ministers and either bids us tell the Unbeliever so and so or else he affirms that we do tell him so and so we must declare to the World that we will follow his advice no further than we find it agreeable to Scripture and Reason which sometimes we do find and oftentimes the contrary as we have proved but as for what he affirms that Ministers tell the Unbeliever that Faith is not difficult that it is no more difficult to an Unbeliever than lying down is to a man when he is so tyred and weary that he can neither stand nor go we protest we are none of those Ministers we never did and through Grace never will tell any Unbeliver such an abominable falshood We know no other Ministers but our Author that Preaches such Doctrine and we have endeavoured to make him ashamed of it in hopes to bring him off from it We trust that after we have thus publickly declared against our Authors Way and Method of Converting Unbelievers to Faith in Christ and
if he be ignorant of this matter of fact let not his ignorance make him boldly deny it before he know what evidence there is for the Truth of it We give him these two Arguments to prove the Truth of this matter of fact that Pelagius denyed universal Redemption 1. It is known and acknowledged by all who have any understanding of these matters and our Author himself knows it That Pelagius denyed Original sin from whence it follows by necessary Consequence that he must needs also deny Universal Redemption of all Mankind For Infants that dye in their Infancy before they commit any actual sin are a considerable part of Mankind the Infants who from the beginning of the World have dyed and who daily do dy and hereafter will be dying to the Worlds end and that both within and without the Church before they commit any actual sin will make up a vast number even many Millions of the race of Mankind But Pelagius denyed that these Infants who so dye in their Infancy have any sin either Original or Actual to be redeemed from and therefore he must needs deny also that they were Redeemed and consequently he must needs deny universal Redemption of all Mankind Where there is no manner of sin there is no manner of punishment due for sin and consequently no room for Redemption by the Blood and Death of Christ either from sin or punishment But Pelagius denied that Infants who dy in their Infancy have any manner of sin or that any manner of punishment is due to them for their sin Therefore Pelagius denyed that such Infants are Redeemed by the Blood and Death of Christ either from sin or punishment and consequently he denied universal Redemption 2. Our Second Argument to prove the truth of this matter of Fact is from the testimony of Augustin who is a very competent witness because he lived at the same time with Pelagius and wrote against him and confuted his Errors and Heresies Now Augustin in his writings against Pelagius and his Disciples testifies plainly that they denyed universal Redemption on the account aforesaid For thus he writes Contra duas Epistolas Pelagianorum lib. 2. ad Bonifacium cap. 2. Manichaei dicunt Deum bonum non omnium naturarum esse creatorem Pelagiani dicunt Deum non esse omnium aetatum in hominibus mundatorem salvatorem liberatorem Catholica utrosque redarguit c. The Manicheans say That the good God is not the Creator of all natures The Pelagians say That God is not the Purifier the Saviour the Deliverer or Redeemer of all Ages among men But the Catholick Church refutes them both defending both against the Manichaeans the Creature of God least any nature should be denyed to be made by him and also against the Pelagians that the human nature which is lost in all Ages might be sought out and saved Again the same Augustin in several other of his Books proves against the Pelagians from 2 Cor. 5.14 both that all mankind even Infants who dy in their Infancy Lib. 20. de Civit. dei cap. 6. contra Julian lib. 6. cap. 4. are guilty of Original sin and also that in some sense all are Redeemed by the death of Christ In the Second Book of his imperfect Work against Julian a Pelagian Bishop Chap. 28. having alledged 2 Cor. 5.14 15. We thus judge that if one died for all then were all dead And that he died for all c. He adds Unde colligitur quod dicit Apostolus ergo omnes mortui sunt pro omnibus mortuus est Dic apertè mortui parvuli non sunt qui peccatum nullum habem morte pro se Christi in quâ baptizentur non opus habent Jam dic evidenter quod latenter sentis quoniam saâ—is prodis tuâ disputatione quod sentis From which words we gather or inferr for what the Apostle saith Therefore all are dead and he Christ died for them all say plainly Infanâ—s are not dead who have no sin They have no need of the death of Christ for them into which they should be baptized Now speak out evidently that which thou thinkest secretly for thou do'st sufficiently discover by thy Disputation what it is that thou thinkest By this and the forgoing passage of Augustin it is very evident that the Pelagians first denied that Infants had any Original sin Secondly That Christ died for Infants to Redeem them either from sin or punishment of sin For though they declined to speak out and say plainly that Christ died not for Infants yet they really believed and held it for a truth that he did not dy for Infants to Redeem them because they were not guilty of any evil either of sin or punishment from which they could be Redeemed By these two Arguments our Author and others may plainly see that the Pelagians denied universal Redemption by the blood-shedding and death of Christ And this being so how is it possible that we should be middle-way-men who hold universal Redemption and yet that our cause should be Coincident with that of Pelagius who denied universal Redemption Surely our Author cannot think both these things to be true of us without supposing us to believe both parts of a contradiction at once But whatever he himself may be able to do as to believing of contradictions he is greatly mistaken if he think that we have so strong a Faith or so wide a Swallow For we that know our selves much better than he doth declare sincerely that we were never Masters of such a Faith as can believe known contradictions and that we could never make both ends of a contradiction meet so as to be able to swallow them down both at once Either then our Author knew that the Pelagians deny Original sin and universal Redemption or he knew it not if he knew that they deny both how can he be excused from lying against his Conscience in telling the World in Print such a known untruth and contradictious falshood that we are Middle-way-men and that our cause is Coincident with that of Pelagius that is that we are for the middle-way and the extreme way for the middle-way and not for the middle-way at the same time But if he knew not what the cause of Pelagius was and is with what Faith and Conscience could he say that our cause is Coincident or is the same with the cause of Pelagius Is it lawful for him and his judicious Observers to defame the Ministers of Christ and to charge them with Pelagian Heresie and Confederacy with Pelagian Hereticks when they do not well know what the Pelagian Heresie was Hath our Author a priviledge boldly to affirm what he doth not know nor understand And is he fit to inform the people of that which he is ignorant of and wherein he needs to be informed himself We expect the People for whose Information he pretends to write will be more just and reasonable than to believe the Calumnies
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
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
Usurpation over the Bodies and Souls of Men and the ultimate end of them all was to set up Gods Kingdom among Men and to destroy Satans Kingdom Therefore the Devil could not possibly be the Author of Christs Miracles since they were directly contrary to his Nature and destructive of his Kingdom and Interest in the World The consequence is evident because if the Devil be supposed to do such Miracles so circumstantiated he is and must be ipso facto supposed to be a silly weak Prince that for want of a Politick Head and Ambitious Heart acts quite contrary unto his own Nature and doth what he can to destroy his own Kingdom and Interest in the World But the Devil cannot be supposed to be a silly weak Prince who so Acts for want of Policy and Pride Such a Supposition is evidently false and self-contradictious for the Devil is a most Politick proud Spirit that is his very Nature as he is a Devil and his Politick proud Nature always Acts like it self and ever prompts him to defend maintain and propagate his Kingdom and Interest among Men. Therefore it 's impossible that the Devil should be the Author of such Miracles as are so contrary to his Nature and destructive of his Kingdom and Interest among Men since it cannot be that such a Politick Ambitious Spirit as the Devil is should be so filly as to make war upon his own Subjects pull down his own Kingdom and take the Crown from his own and set it on anothers Head This was our Lords Argument whereby he proved his Miracles to be from God and not from Satan And this Reason with others he hath given us why we should believe both his Doctrine and Miracles to be from Heaven and doth no where require us to believe it without any Reason Now if neither Christ nor his Apostles desired Men to believe them upon their bare Word without good proof who are we and who is our Author that either we or he should desire People to believe either the one or the other of us upon our bare Words without good proof Especially when the matter in Controversie is of the highest Nature and greatest Importance to wit whether we preach a new Gospel which he affirms and we deny and without any Reason but with a great many Falshoods and Calumnies he affirms it but with good and solid Reason we deny it and have disproved his Falshoods and wiped off his Calumnies Amongst other things our Author reproaches us as hath been shewed with the Name of Rational Divines by which it plainly appears that he himself would not be accounted a Rational Preacher or Writer of matters of Divinity and then belike he would not have the People to be Rational Hearers and Readers but to believe all that he either Preaches or Writes without knowing any good Reason why or wherefore But that which he casts upon us as a reproach we take it as a Crown being rightly understood as we have shewed it ought to be And if we be indeed Rational Divines we bless God who hath made us such and pray him so to continue us whilest he hath any Service for us here and still to make us more Rational that we may be the better able to open unto his People the true Grounds and Reasons of the Christian Faith And as we desire to be Rational Divines in the sense before explained so we desire that the People may be Rational Hearers Readers and Believers so rational as not to receive every Doctrine they hear from the Pulpit and read from the Press without knowing by Scripture and Scriptural Reason why and wherefore they receive it Therefore we exhort and beseech them to try before they trust Believe not every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they are of God 1 Joh. 4.1 1 Thes 5.21 prove all things and hold fast that which is good Consider what we have said to clear up God's Truth and to vindicate our own Innocency from the Aspersions and Calumnies of the Accuser of the Brethren and according to the Evidence we offer you judge impartially as you will Answer to God and your own Consciences FINIS Some Books Printed for John Lawrence at the Angel in the Poultrey SEveral Discourses 1. Of Purity 2. Of Repentance 3. Of Seeking first the Kingdom of God By Hezekiah Burton D. D. late Rector of Barns near London and Published by the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Dr. Tillotson in 8vo Bishop Wilkins hâ—s Gift of Prayer and Preaching newly Reprinted with the Addition of near a thousand Authors to the Preaching in 8vo Mr. Slaters Thanksgiving Sermon October 27th 1692. 4to His Sermon at the Funeral of Mr. John Reynolds Minister of the Gospel Jan. 8. 1692. 4to His Sermon at the Funeral of Mr. Richard Fincher Minister of the Gospel Feb. 19. 1692. 4to Mr. Daniel Burgess his Mans whole Duty and Gods wonderful intreaty of him thereunto from 2 Cor. 5.20 in Twelves His Advice to Parents and Children the summ of a few Sermons Contracted in 12o The Death and Rest Resurrection and Blessed Portion of the Saints in a Discourse on Dan. 12.13 Being preached on the Occasion of the Death of Dr. Daniel Rolls Minister of the Gospel Together with the Work of the Redeemer and the Redeemed in 12o A Good Minister of Jesus Christ a Funeral Sermon for the Reverend Mr. Richard Steel a faithful and useful Minister of the Gospel Nov. 27. 1692. By George Hammond M. A. and Minister of the Gospel