understand a dream of being saved by Jesus Christ though they know nothing of him or of his way of saving men nor of the way of being saved by him 2. All Formalists are on their side People that place their Religion in Trifles because they are strangers to the substance thereof 3. All proud secure sinners are against us that go about with the Jews to establish their own Righteousness Rom. 10.3 The secure are whole and see no need of the Physician the proud have physick at home and despise that that came down from Heaven 4. All the zealous devout people in a Natural Religion are utter enemies to the Gospel By a Natural Religion I mean that that is the product of the remnants of God's image in fallen man a little improved by the Light of God's Word All such cannot endure to hear that God's Law must be perfectly fulfilled in every tittle of it or no man can be saved by doing That they must all perish for ever that have not the Righteousness of a man that never sinned who is also God over all blessed for ever to shelter and cover them from a holy God's anger and to render them accepted of him That this Righteousness is put on by the Grace of God and a man must betake himself to it and receive as a naked blushing sinner That no man can do any thing that is good till Gospel Grace renew him and make him first a good man This they will never receive but do still think that a man may grow good by doing good 3. Natural Reason is very fertile in its Objections and Cavils against the Doctrine of the Grace of God And especially when this corrupt Reason is polished by learning and strong natural parts When there are many to broach such Doctrines and many so disposed to receive it is it any wonder that the Gospel Truth makes little progress in the World Nay were it not for the Divine Power that supports it and the promises of its preservation its enemies are so many and strong and true friends so few and feeble we might fear its perishing from the earth But we know it is impossible And if the Lord have a design of mercy to these Nations and hath a vein of his Election to dig up amongst us we make no doubt but the Glory of Christ as a crucified Saviour shall yet be displaid in the midst of us to the joy of all that love his salvation and to the shame of others Isa 66.5 4. I might add the great Declension of some of the Reformed Churches from the purity and simplicity of that Doctrine they were first planted in The new Methodists about the Grace of God had too great an increase in the French Churches And which was very strange this Declension advanced amongst them at the same time when Jansonism was spreading amongst many of the Church of Rome So that a man might have seen Papists growing better in their Doctrine and Protestants growing worse See Mr. Gale's Idea of Jansenism with Dr. Owen's Preface What there is of this amongst us in England I leave the Reader to Mr. Jenkyn's Coleusma and to the Naked Truth Part 4. And if there be any warping toward Arminian Doctrine by some on our side in order to ingratiate themselves with that Church that hath the secular advantages to dispense and to make way for some accommodation with them I had rather wait in fear till a further discovery of it than offer to guess at Lastly It is no small disadvantage this Doctrine lies under from the Spirit of this Day we live in A light frothy trifling temper prevails generally Doctrines of the greatest weight are talked of and treated about with a vain unconcerned frame of Spirit as if men contended rather about Opinions and School-points than about the Oracles of God and matters of Faith But if mens hearts were seen by themselves if Sin were felt if mens Consciences were enlivened if God's Holy Law were known in its exactness and severity and the Glory and Majesty of the Law-giver shining before mens eyes if men were living as leaving Time and launching forth into Eternity the Gospel Salvation by Jesus Christ would be more regarded Object 1. Is there not a great decay amongst Professors in real practical Godliness Are we like the Old Protestants or the Old Puritans I answer That the Decay and Degeneracy is great and heavily to be bewailed But what is the cause and what will be its cure Is it because the Doctrine of Morality and Vertue and Good Works is not enough preached This cannot be For there hath been for many years a publick Ministry in the Nation that make these their constant themes Yet the Land is become as Sodom for all lewdness and the Tree of Prophaneness is so grown that the Sword of the Magistrate hath not yet been able to lop off any of its Branches Is it because men have too much Faith in Christ or too little or none at all Would not faith in Christ increase Holiness did it not always so and will it not still do it Was not the holiness of the first Protestants eminent and shining And yet they generally put assurance in the definition of their faith We cannot say that Gospel Holiness hath prospered much by the correction or mittigation of that harsh-like definition The certain spring of this prevailing Wickedness in the Land is peoples ignorance and unbelief of the Gospel of Christ and that grows by many Prophets that speak lies to them in the Name of the Lord. Object 2. But do not some abuse the Grace of the Gospel and turn it into Wantonness Answer Yes Some do ever did and still will do so But it is only the ill-understood and not-believed Doctrine of Grace that they abuse the Grace it self no man can abuse for its power prevents its abuse Let us see how Paul that blessed Herald of this Grace as he was an eminent instance of it dealeth with this Objection Rom. 6.1 c. What doth he to prevent this abuse Is it by extenuating what he had said Chap. 5.20 that Grace abounds much more where Sin had abounded Is it by mincing Grace smaller that men may not choke upon it or surfeit by it Is it by mixing somthing of the Law with it to make it more wholesome No But only by plain asserting the power and influence of this Grace wherever it really is as at length in that Chapter This Grace is all treasured up in Christ Jesus offered to all men in the Gospel poured forth by our Lord in the Working of Faith and drunk in by the Elect in the exercise of Faith and becomes in them a living spring which will and must break out and spring up in all holy conversation He exhorts them to drink in more and more of this Grace by Faith And as for such as pretend to Grace and live ungodly the Spirit of God declares they are void of Grace
by an Ignorant Flattering Minister though it may be the poor creatures never did in the whole course of their Life nor at their Death imploy Jesus Christ so much for an Entry to Heaven purchased by his Blood and only accessible by Faith in him as a poor Turk doth Mahomet for a Room in his Beastly Paradise How common and fearful a thing is this in this Land and City When we come to deal with a poor awakened sinner who seeth his lost state and that he is condemned by the Law of God we find the same Principles working in him for they are Natural and therefore Universal in all Men and hardly rooted out of any We find him sick and wounded we tell him where his Help lies in Jesus Christ what his proper work is to apply to him by Faith What is his Answer Alas saith the Man I have been and am so vile a sinner my heart is so bad and so full of Plagues and Corruptions that I cannot think of believing on Christ But if I had but Repentance and some Holiness in Heart and Life and such and such gracious Qualifications I would then believe When indeed this his Answer is as full of Nonsense Ignorance and Pride as words can contain or express They imply 1. If I were pretty well recovered I would imploy the Physician Christ 2. That there is some hope to work out these good things by my self without Christ 3. And when I come to Christ with a Price in my hand I shall be wellcome 4. That I can come to Christ when I will So ignorant are people Naturally of Faith in Jesus Christ and 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 it is less to be wondered at that ignorant people do not when so many learned men will not understand it When we deal with a Proud Self-Righteous Hypocrite we find the same Principles of Enmity against the Grace of the Gospel A Profane Person is not so enraged at the rebukes of Sin from the Law as these Pharisees are at the discovery of their ruin by Unbelief They cannot endure to have their Idol of Self Righteousness touched neither by the Spirituality of God's Law that condemns all Men and all their Works while out of Christ nor by the Gospel which Reveals another Righteousness than their own by which they must be Saved but they will have God's Ark of the Covenant to stand as a Captive in the Temple of their Dagon of Self-Righteousness until the Vengeance of God's despised Covenant over throw both the Temple and Idol and Worshippers There is not a Minister that dealeth seriously with the Souls of Men but he finds an Arminian Scheme of Justification in every unrenewed Heart And is it not sadly to be bewailed that Divines should plead that same Cause that we daily find the Devil pleading in the Hearts of all Natural Men And that instead of casting down 2 Cor. 10.4 5. they should be making defences for such strong holds as must either be levelled with the dust or the Rebel that holds them out must eternally Perish It is no bad way of Studying the Gospel and of attaining more Light into it that may be us'd in dealing particularly with the Consciences of all sorts of Men as we have occasion More may be learned this way than out of many large Books And if Ministers would deal more with their own Consciences and the Consciences of others in and about these Points that are most properly Cases of Conscience we should find an increase of Gospel-Light and a growing fitness to Preach aright as Paul did 2 Cor. 4.2 By manifestation of the Truth commending our selves to every mans Conscience in the sight of God Let us keep up in our Hearts and Doctrine a reverend regard of the Holy Law of God and suffer not a reflecting disparaging word or thought of it The Great Salvation is contrived with a Regard to it and the satisfaction given to the Law by the Obedience and Death of Christ our Surety hath made it glorious and honourable more than all the Holiness of Saints on Earth or of the Glorified in Heaven and than all the Torments of the Damned in Hell though they do also magnifie the Law and make it honourable But if men will teach that the Law and Obedience unto it whether perfect or sincere is the Righteousness we must be found and stand in in our pleading for justification they neither understand what they say nor whereof they affirm 1 Tim. 1.7 They become Debters to it and Christ profits them nothing Gal. 2 21. and 5.2.5 And we know what will become of that man that hath his Debts to the Law to pay and hath no Interest in the Suretys Payment Yet many such offer their own Silver which whatever coin of Man be upon it is reprobate and rejected both by Law and Gospel Let us carefully keep the bounds clear betwixt the Law and Gospel which whosoever doth is a right perfect Divine saith blessed Luther in his Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians A Book that hath more plain sound Gospel than many Volumes of some other Divines Let us keep the Law as far from the business of Justification as we would keep Condemnation its contrary For the Law and Condemnation are inseparable but by the Intervention of Jesus Christ our Surety Gal. 3.10 14. But in the practice of Holiness the fulfilled Law given by Jesus Christ to Believers as a Rule is of great and good Use to them as hath been declared Lastly Be exact in your Communion and Church Administrations If any walk otherwise than it becometh the Gospel if any abuse the Doctrine of Grace to Licentiousness draw the Rod of Discipline against them the more severely that ye know so many wait for your halting and are ready to speak evil of the Ways and Truths of God The Wisdom of God sometimes orders the Different Opinions of Men about his Truth for the clearing and confirming of it while each side watch the extreams that others may be in hazard of running into And if controversie be fairly and meekly managed this way we may differ and plead our Opinions and both love and edifie them we oppose and may be loved and edified by them in their Opposition I know no fear possesseth our side but that of Arminianism Let us be fairly secured from that and as we ever hated true Antinomianism so we are ready to oppose it with all our might But having such grounds of jealousie as I have named and it s well known that I have not named all men will allow us to fear that this Noise of Antinomianism is raised and any advantage they have by the Rashness and Imprudence of some Ignorant Men is
Contrariety Inconsistency and Incompatibility betwixt these two But the Nature of the things in themselves and the sense and conscience of every serious person doth witness to the same that our own Righteousness and Christs Righteousness do comprehend all the pleas of men to Justification one or other of them every man in the world stands upon and that they are inconsistent with and destructive one of another in justification if a man trust to his own Righteousness he rejects Christs if he trusts to Christs Righteousness he rejects his Own If he will not reject his own Righteousness as too good to be renounced if he will not venture on Christs Righteousness as not sufficient alone to bear him out and bring him safe off at God's Bar he is in both a convicted Unbeliever And if he endeavour to patch up a Righteousness before God made up of both he is still under the Law and a despiser of Gospel-Grace Gal. 2.21 That Righteousness that justifies a Sinner consists in aliquo indivisibili and this every man finds when the case is his own and he serious about it 5. These different Sentiments about Justification have been at all times managed with a special Acrimony They that are for the Righteousness of God by Faith in Jesus Christ look upon it as the only foundation of all their hopes for eternity and therefore cannot but be zealous for it And the contrary side are as hot for their own Righteousness the most admired and adored Diana of proud Mankind as if it were an Image fallen down from Jupiter when it is indeed the Idol that was cast out of Heaven with the Devil and which he hath ever since been so diligent to set up before sinful men to be worship'd that he might bring them into the same condemnation with himself And by true Sin and false Righteousness he hath deceived the whole world Rev. 12.9 6. As the Holy Ghost speaking in the Scriptures is the Supreme and Infallible Judge and Determiner of all Truth So where he doth particularly and on purpose deliver any Truth there we are specially to attend and learn And tho in most points of Truth he usually teacheth us by a bare Authoritative Narration yet in some Points which his Infinite Wisdom foresaw special Opposition to he doth not only declare but debate and determine the Truth And the Instances are two especially One is about the Divinity of Christ's Person and Dignity of his Priesthood reasoned argued and determined in the Epistle to the Hebrews The other is about Justification by Faith exactly handled in the Epistles to the Romans and to the Galatians In the former of these two the Doctrine of free Justification is taught us most formally and accurately And tho we find no Charge against that Church in Paul's time or in his Epistle for their departing from the Truth in this Point yet the Wisdom of the Holy Ghost is remarkable in this That this Doctrine should be so plainly asserted and strongly proved in an Epistle to that Church the pretonded Successors whereof have Apostatized from that Faith and proved the main Asserters of that damnable Error of Justification by Works That to the Galatians is plainly written to cure a begun and obviate a full Apostasy from the purity of the Gospel in the point of Justification by Faith without the Works of the Law And from these two Epistles if we be wise we must learn the Truth of this Doctrine and expound all other Scriptures in a harmony with what is there so setly determined as in Foro contradictorio Lastly It is not to be denied nor concealed That on each side some have run into Extreams which the generality do not own but are usually loaden with The Papists run high for Justification by Works yet even some of them in the Council of Trent discoursed very favourably of Justification by Faith The Arminians have qualified a little the grossness of the Popish Doctrine in this Article And some since have essayed to qualifie that of the Arminians and to plead the same cause more finely Again some have run into the other extream as appeared in Germany a little after the Reformation and some such there have been always and in all places where the Gospel hath shined and these were called Antinomians But how unjustly this hateful Name is charged upon the Orthodox Preachers and sincere Believers of the Protestant Doctrine of Justification by Faith only who keep the Gospel-midst betwixt these two Rocks is the design of this Paper to discover What we plead for is in summ That Jesus Christ our Saviour is the fountain opened in the House of David for Sin and for Vncleanness wherein only men can be washed in Justification and Sanctification And that there is no other fountain of mans devising nor of God's declaring for washing a Sinner first so as to make him fit and meet to come to this to wash and to be clean As for In herent Holiness Is it not sufficiently secured by the Spirit of Christ received by Faith the certain Spring and Cause of it By the Word of God the plain and perfect Rule of it By the declared necessity of it to all them that look to be saved and to justifie the sincerity of a mans Faith Unless we bring it in to Justification and thereby make our own pitiful Holiness sit on the Throne of Judgement with the precious blood of the Lamb of God Though I expect that a more able hand will undertake an Examination of the New Divinity yet to fill up a little room I would speak somewhat to their Achillaean Argument that is so much boasted of and so frequently insisted on by them as their Shield and Spear Their Argument is this That Christ's Righteousness is our Legal Righteousness but our own is our Evangelical Righteouness that is when a Sinner is charged with Sin against the Law of God he may oppose Christ's Righteousness as his Legal Defence But against the Charge of the Gospel especially for Unbelief he must produce his Faith as his Defence or Righteousness against that charge With a great deference to such Worthy Divines as have look'd on this as an argument of weight I shall in a few words effay to manifest that this is either a saying the same in other odd words that is commonly taught by us or a Sophism or a departing from the Protestant Doctrine about Justification 1. This Argument concerns not at all the Justification of a Sinner before God For this end no more is needful than to consider what this charge is against whom it is given and by whom The charge is said to be given in by God and a charge of Unbelief or disobeying the Gospel But against whom Is it against a Believer or Unbeliever And these two divide all mankind If it be against a Believer it is a false charge and can never be given in by the God of Truth For the Believer is justified already
by Faith and as to this charge he is innocent And Innocence is defence enough to a man falsly charged before a Righteous Judge Is this charge given us against an Unbeliever We allow it is a Righteous charge Ay but say they Will Christ's Righteousness justifie a man from this Charge of Gospel-Vnbelief The answer is plain No it will not nor yet from any other charge whatsoever either from Law or Gospel for he hath nothing to do with Christ's Righteousness while an Unbeliever What then doth this arguing reprove Is it that no mans Faith in Christ's Righteousness can be justified in its sincerity before men and in a mans own Conscience but in and by the fruits of a true lively faith In this they have no Opposers that I know of Or is it That a man may have Christ's Righteousness for his Legal Righteousness and yet be a Rebel to the Gospel and a stranger to true Holiness Who ever affirmed it Or is it That this Gospel-Holiness is that that a man must not only have for that we grant but also may venture to stand in and to be found in before God and to enter into judgement with God upon in his Claim to Eternal Life Then we must oppose them that think so as we know their own Consciences will when in any lively exercise These plain Principles of Gospel-Truth while they remain and remain they will on their own foundation when we are all in our Graves and our foolish contentions are buried do overthrow this pretended charge 1. That Christ's Righteousness is the only Plea and Answer of a Sinner arraigned at God's Bar for Life and Death 2. This Righteousness is imputed to no man but a Believer 3. When it is imputed by Grace and applied by Faith it immediately and eternally becomes the mans Righteousness before God Angels Men and Devils Rom. 8.33 35 38 39. It is a Righteousness that is never lost never taken away never ineffectual answereth all charges and is attended with all Graces 2. I would ask What is that Righteousness that justifies a man from the Sin of Unbelief We have rejected the imaginary charge let us now consider the Real Sin Unbelief is the greatest Sin against both Law and Gospel More remotely against the Law which binds all men to believe God speaking say what he will more directly against the Gospel which tells us what we should believe and commands us to believe Let us put this case and it is pity the case is so rare when the Sin is so common that a poor soul is troubled about the greatness of the Sin of Unbelief in calling God a Lyar. 1 John 5.10 in distrusting his faithful promise in doubting Christ's ability and good-will to save in standing aloof so long from Jesus Christ as many of the Elect are long in a state of Unbelief till called and the best of Believers have Unbelief in some measure in them Mark 9.24 Abraham's faith staggered sometimes Gen. 12. and 20. What shall we say to a Conscience thus troubled Will any man dare to tell him 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 Unbelief must be only in that Righteousness which he so sinfully had rejected while in Unbelief and now lays hold on by Faith 3. But some extend this Argument yet more dangerously For they say That not only men must have their Faith for their Righteousness against the Charge of Unbelief but Repentance against the charge of Impenitence Sincerity against that of Hypocrisie Holiness against that of Vnholiness and Perseverance as their Gospel-Righteousness against the charge of Apostasy If they mean only that these things are Justifications and Fruits of true Faith and of the sincerity of the Grace of God in us We do agree to the meaning but highly dislike the expressions as Unscriptural and Dangerous tending to the dishonouring of the Righteousness of Christ and to run men on the Rocks of Pride and Self-Righteousness that natural corruption drives all men upon But if they mean that either jointly or separately they are our Righteousness before God or that either separate from or mixed with Christ's Righteousness they may be made our Claim and Plea for Salvation I must say that it is dangerous Doctrine and its native tendency is to turn Christ's imputed Righteousness out of the Church to destroy all the solid Peace of Believers and to exclude Gospel Justification out of this world and reserve it to another and that with a horrible uncertainty of any particular mans partaking of it But these Blessed Truths of God and blessings of Believers stand on firmer foundations than Heaven or Earth and will continue fixed against all the Attempts of the Gates of Hell Blessed be the Rock Christ on which all is built blessed be the New Covenant ordered in all things and sure and blessed is he that belieneth for there shall be a performance of those things which are told him from the Lord Luke 1.45 Amen London Sept. 1. 1692. FINIS ADVERTISEMENT MR. Rutherfoord's Letters the Third Edition Now divided in Three Parts The First containing those which were written from Aberdeen where he was confined by a Sentence of the High Commission drawn forth against him partly upon the account of his declining them partly upon the account of his Nonconformity The Second and Third containing some which were written from Anwoth before he was by the Prelates persecution thrust from his Ministry and others upon occasions afterward from St. Andrews London c. Published for the use of all the People of God but more particularly for those who now are or afterwards may be put to suffering for Christ and his Cause By a well-wisher to the Work and People of God Printed for Dorman Newman at the King's Arms in the Poultry
rather for that they are not done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done we doubt not but they have the Nature of Sin So Confession of Faith Chap. 16. Art 7. Calvin Instit Lib. 3. Cap. 15. Sect. 6. They saith he speaking of the Popish Schoolmen have found out I know not what moral good works whereby men are made acceptable to God before they are engrafted into Christ As if the Scripture lyed when it said They are all in death who have not the Son 1 John 5.12 If they be in death how can they beget matter of life As if it were of no force whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin as if evil trees could bring forth good fruit Read the rest of that Section On the contrary the Council of Trent Sess 6. Cannon 7. say boldly Whosoever shall say That all Works done before Justification howsoever they be done are truly sin and deserve the hatred of God Let him be Anathema And to give you one more bellowing of the Beast wounded by the Light of the Gospel see the same Council Sess 6. Can. 11. Si quis dixerit Gratiam quâ justificamur esse tantùm favorem Dei Anathema sit This is fearful blasphemy saith Dr. Downham Bishop of London-derry in his Orthodox Book of Justification Lib. 3. Cap. 1. Where he saith That the Hebrew words which in the Old Testament signifie the Grace of God do always signifie favour and never grace inherent And above fifty Testimonies may be brought from the New Testament to prove that by God's Grace his favour is still meant But what was good Church of England Doctrine at and after the Reformation cannot now go down with some Arminianizing Nonconformists If then nothing will satisfie our quarrelling Brethren but either Silence as to the Main Points of the Gospel which we believe and live by the faith of and look to be saved in which we have for many years preached with some seals of the Holy Ghost in converting sinners unto God and in building them up in holiness and comfort by the faith and power of them which also we vowed to the Lord to preach to all that will hear us as long as we live in the day when we gave up our selves to serve God with our Spirit in the Gospel of his Son If either this Silence or the swallowing down of Arminian Schemes of the Gospel contrary to the New Testament and unknown to the Reformed Churches in their greatest purity be the only terms of peace with our Brethren we must then maintain our peace with God and our own Consciences in the defence of plain Gospel Truth And our Harmony with the Reformed Churches and in the comfort of these bear their Enmity And though it be usual with them to vilifie and contemn such as differ from them for their fewness weakness and want of Learning yet they might know that the most Learned and Godly in the Christian World have maintained and defended the same Doctrine we stand for for some Ages The Grace of God will never want for it can and will furnish Defenders of it England hath been blessed with a Bradwardine an Archbishop of Canterbury against the Pelagians a Twiss and Ames against the Arminians And though they that contend with us would separate their Cause altogether from that of these two pests of the Church of Christ I mean Pelagius and Arminius yet judicious observers cannot but already perceive a coincidency and do fear more when either the force of Argument shall drive them out of their lurking holes or when they shall think fit to discover their secret sentiments which yet we but guess at Then as we shall know better what they would be at so it is very like that they will then find Enemies in many whom they have seduced by their craft and do yet seem to be in their Camp and will meet with Opposers both at home and abroad that they think not of Our Doctrine of the Justification of a Sinner by the free grace of God in Jesus Christ however it be misrepresented and reflected upon is yet undeniably recommended by four things 1 It is a Doctrine savoury and precious unto all ser ous Godly Persons Dr. Ames his observation holds good as to all the Arminian Divinity that it is contra communem sensum fidelium against the common sense of Believers And though this be an argument of little weight with them that value more the judgment of the Scribes and the Wise and Disputers of this World 1 Cor. 1.18 19 20 21. than of all the Godly Yet the Spirit of God by John gives us this same argument 1 John 4.5 6. They are of the World therefore speak they of the World and the World heareth them We are of God he that knoweth God heareth us he that is not of God heareth not us Hereby know we the Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error How evident is it that several who by Education or an unsound Ministry having had their Natural Enmity against the Grace of God strengthned when the Lord by his Spirit hath broke in upon their hearts and hath raised a serious Soul-exercise about their Salvation their turning to God in Christ and their turning from Arminianism have begun together And some of the greatest Champions for the Grace of God have been persons thus dealt with as we might instance And as it is thus with men at their Conversion so is it found afterward that still as it is well with them in their inner man so doth the Doctrine of Grace still appear more precious and savoury On the other part all the ungodly and unrenewed have a dislike and disrelish of this Doctrine and are all for the Doctrine of doing and love to hear it and in their sorry exercise are still for doing their own business in Salvation though they be nothing and can do nothing but Sin and destroy themselves 2. It is that Doctrine only by which a convinced sinner can be dealt with effectually When a man is awakened and brought to that that all must be brought to or to worse What shall I do to be saved Acts 16.30 31. We have the Apostolick answer to it Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house This Answer is so old that with many it seems out of date But it is still and will ever be fresh and new and savoury and the only Resolution of this grand Case of Conscience as long as Conscience and the World lasts No Wit or Art of Man will ever find a crack or flaw in it or devise another or a better answer nor can any but this alone heal rightly the wound of an awakened Conscience Let us set this man to seek resolution in this case of some Masters in our Israel According to their Principles they must say to him Repent and Mourn for your known Sins and leave and loath them and God will have mercy on
Reproachers There are some things we complain of as That they load their Brethren so grievously with unjust calumnies either directly or by consequence As when they preach up holiness and the necessity of it as if it were their proper Doctrine and disowned by us when they cannot but know in their Consciences that there is no difference betwixt them and us about the nature or necessity of Holiness but only about its Spring and Place in Salvation We derive it from Jesus Christ and Faith in him and know assuredly that it can spring from nothing else We place it betwixt Justification and Glory and that is its Scripture place and no where else can it be found or stand let men try it as much and long as they will That they seem very zealous against Antinomianism and forget the other extream of Arminianism which is far more common as dangerous and far more natural to all men For though there have been and may be this day some true Antinomians either through ignorance or weakness reeling to that extreme or by the heat of contention with and hatred of Arminianism as it is certain some very good and learned men have inclined to Arminianism through their hatred of Antinomianism and have declared so much And some may and do corrupt the Doctrine of the Gospel through the unrenewedness of their hearts yet how destructive soever this abuse may be to the souls of the seduced such an appearance of Antinomianism is but as a Meteor or Comet that will soon blaze out and its folly will be quickly hist off the Stage But the principles of Arminianism are the natural dictates of a carnal mind which is enmity both to the Law of God and to the Gospel of Christ and next to the Dead Sea of Popery into which also this stream runs have since Pelagius to this day been the greatest plague of the Church of Christ and its like will be till his Second Coming We do also justly complain that in their opposing of true Antinomian Errors and particularly the alledged Tenents of Dr. Crisp they hint that there is a party of Ministers and Professors that defend them whereas we can defie them to name one Minister in London at least that doth so That expressions capable of a good sense are strenuously perverted contrary to the scope of the Writer or Speaker But this and such like are the usual methods of unfair Contenders Were the like method taken on the other side how many Popish Arminian yea and Socinian expressions might be published If any Gospel-Truth be preached or published that reflects on the Idol of Self-Righteousness and Justification thereby it is soon quarrelled with Put Reproaches cast on the free Grace of God and the imputed Righteousness of Christ are with them if not approved yet but Venial well meant Mistakes Let mens stated Principles be Known and their Expressions explained accordingly or Mistakes and Contentions will be endless We do also complain That Love to Peace hath made many grave and sound Divines forbear to utter their Minds freely in publick on these Points Whereby the adverse Party is emboldened and such Ministers as dare not purchase Peace by silence when so great Truths are undermined are exposed as a Mark But we do not question but these Worthy Brethren when they shall see the Points of Controversie accurately stated as they may shortly will openly appear on Truth 's side as we know their hearts are for it Lastly We complain that the Scheme of the Gospel contended for by our Opposers is clouded vailed and darkned by School-Terms new uncouth and unscriptural Phrases whereby as they think to guard themselves against Opposition so they do increase the Jealousies of their Brethren ánd keep their Principles from the Knowledge of ordinary people who are as much concerned in those Points as any Scholar or Divine This Controversie looks like a very bad Omen We thought we might have healed our Old Breaches in smaller things and behold a New one is threatned in the greatest Matters We did hope that the good Old Protestant Doctrine had been rooted and rivetted in the hearts of all the Ministers on our side but now we find the contrary and that the sowre Leaven of Arminianism works strongly Their Advocates do not yet own the Name but the younger sort are more bold and free and with them no Books or Authors are in esteem and use but such as are for the New Rational Method of Divinity Rational is a fitter Commendation of a Philosopher than of a Divine and yet it 's somewhat better applied to a Divine than to Divinity For true Divinity hath a higher and Nobler Original than Man's Reason even Divine Revelation and it can never be rightly learned by them that have no higher Principle in them than Reason even the Teaching of the Holy Ghost But for Luther Calvin Zanchy Twisse Ames Perkins and Divines of their Spirit and Stamp they are generally neglected and despised We were in hope that after the Lord had so signally appeared for his Truth and People in preserving both under the Rage of that Antichristian Spirit of Persecution and Apostasy to gross Popery that wrought so mightily under the Two Last Reigns and when he had given us the Long-desired Mercy of a Legal Establishment of our Gospel-Liberty in This that all Hearts and Hands should have been unanimously imployed in the advancing the work of Christ But we find that as we have for a Long Time lost in a great measure the Power we are now in no small danger of losing also the Purity of the Gospel And without them what signifies Liberty It is undoubted that the Devil designs the obstructing of the Course of the Gospel and in this he hath often had the Service of the Tongues and Pens of Good Men as well as of Bad yet we are not without hope that the Lord in his Wisdom and Mercy will defeat him and that these Contentions may yet have good Fruit and a good Issue For furthering of this good End let me request a few things of my Brethren 1. Let us not receive Reports suddenly of one another In times of Contention many false Reports are raised and rashly believed This is both the Fruit and the Fuel of Contention For all the Noise of Antinomianism I must declare that I do not know and I have both Opportunity and Inclination to inquire any one Antinomian Minister or Christian in London who is really such as their Reproachers paint them out or such as Luther and Calvin wrote against 2. Let us make Christ Crucified our great Study as Christians and the preaching of him our main work as Ministers 1 Cor. 2.2 Paul determined to know nothing else But many manage the Ministry as if they had taken up a contrary determination even to know any thing save Jesus Christ and him Crucified We are amazed to see so many ashamed of the Cross of Christ and to behave as if they