left to their own discretion in such and such circumstantials But do they dream of Perfect Concord on earth and that men of such various Interests tempers educations converse and degrees of knowledge should not differ in a word or gesture Our English Rulers make no Laws what Gesture shall be used in singing Psalms or in Hearing Sermons and there is no division or great disorder in them But if on pretence of nearer Concord they should tye all to one Gesture this or that we should presently find it an engine of division And O how many such Engines have the Papal Clergie made and used long and to what purpose To silence faithful Ministers to torment faithful Christians in the Inquisitions to brand the best men with the names of Hereticks and Schismaticks to gratifie all profaneness and malignity to quench brotherly love and to tear the Church into pieces And no experience will make them wiser II. And the DOGMATISTS also have done their part by departing from the Simplicity of the Christian Doctrine to set the Christian world together by the ears Of which Hilary hath written sharply against the Making of new Creeds not sparing to tell them that even the Nicene Fathers led others the way And Hierome wonders that they that were for the word hypostasis questioned his Faith as if he that had been Baptized had been without a Faith or Creed which all at Baptism do profess But this will not serve turn to these Corrupters Councils Doctors and Schoolmen have been led by the temptation of more subtle-knowledge to be Wise and Orthodox over-much till the Churches Faith is as large as all the Decrees of General Councils de side at the least and the Churches Laws a great deal larger And what abundance of dubious Confessions Declarations or Decrees are now to be subscribed or believed and justified before a man can have his Baptismal birth-right even the Love peace and Church-Communion bequeathed to him as a Christian by Christ And now controversal writings fill our Libraries by Cart-loads And a Use of Confutation is a great part of most Sermons among the Papists Lutherans and many others And men are bred up in the Universities to a Militant striving kind of life that their work may be to make Plain Christians seem unlearned dolts and dissenters seem odious or suspected men and themselves to be the wise and Orthodox persons and triumphant over all the erroneous that were it not for these Contenders would destroy the And so Ministers are armed against Ministers Churches against Churches Christians against Christians yea Princes against Princes and Countreys against Countreys by wrangling contentious Clergie men And O what an injury is â—t Young Students are almost necessitated to waste much of their lives which should be spent in preparing them to promote faith holiness and Love in reading over multitudes of these wrangling writers to know which of them is in the right And most readers catch the disease hereby themselves And those few that at great cost and labour come to the bottom of the differences do perceive that the Proud Opiniators have striven partly about unrevealed or unnecessary things but chiefly about meer ambiguous words and arbitrary humane notions and multitudes condemn and revile each other while they mean the same things and do not know it One writeth a Learned Book against such a party and another confuteth such an Adversary especially about Predestination Redemption Free-will Humane Power Grace Merit Justification Pardon Imputation c. and then many read and applaud all as excelently done Alas for the low estate of the Clergie that while when a truly discerning man perceiveth that it is but a striving about unexplained words for the most part And thus being Over-wise in pretences of Zeal for Truth and under-wise in understanding it and departing from Christian simplicity of doctrine and even deriding the Christian Creed hath made even some honest men become dividing Engineers and their Articles and Controversies the Churches calamity III. And what Practical misguided zeal about worship hath done almost all Sects Novatians Anabaptists in Germany and here and the various sort of Churches that refuse Communion with one another and that condemn or cast out dissenters from them and preach and talk and backbite their brethren into the odium or distaste of their seduced auditors the bitter invectives in Pulpit talk and press of the several Pastors and people against each other and worse than words where they have power all these speak so loud as may spare me the labour of any further discovery and calls us all to make it the matter of our lamentation And what shall I say in the conclusion now I am near to my departure from this contentious world but sound a Retreat to all these unhappy militants that will not let Holiness prosper by the necessary advantage of Peace Cease your Proud contendings O vain-glorious Militant Clergie Learn of the Prince of peace and the holy Angels that preached him to give Glory to God in the highest who giveth Peace on Earth and well-pleasedness in or towards men Did Christ or his Apostles make such work for Christians as you do The great Shepherd of the flock will take your pretences of ORDER ORTHODOXNESS or Truth and PIETY for no excuse for your corrupting ORDER FAITH and PRACTICE by your TYRANNY SELF-CONCEITEDNESS and blind ZEAL and SUPERSTITION and for using his name against himself to the destroying of that Love and Concord and Unity which he hath bequeathed to his Church and for serving his enemy and dividing his people and hardning Infidels and ungodly ones by these scandals Return to the primitive simplicity that we may return to unity Love and peace Dream not of them upon your own corrupting terms And read and read over again and again Jam. 3. which doth describe you condemn you and instruct you If you say Physicion heal thy self Who hath wrote more of Controversies I answer peruse what I have written and you will see it is of Controversies but against Controversies tending to End and reconcile If any thing be otherwise except necessary defence of certain necessary faith or duty I retract it and condemn it Let it be as not written I have meddled much with Controversies in this Book but it is to end them The God of Peace give Wisdom and peaceable principles minds and hearts to his servants that though I shall not live to see it true Love and Piety may revive in the Christian world by the endeavours of a healing Ministry and the shaming restraint and reformation of the CONTENTIOUS CLERGIE whether TYRANNICAL DOGMATICAL or SUPERSTITIOUS Amen Jan. 25. 167â— Of DIVISIONS and CONTENTIONS among Christians Consider I. The EFFICIENT I. PERSONS 1. The Devils 2. Men 1. A Contentious Clergie 2. Unwise and wicked Rulers instigated by them 3. The deceived people that follow them II. QUALITIES viz. I. Remotely 1. Selfishness in Carnal hypocrites who prefer worldly interest 2.
Head and of Pardon and Salvation 8. It is Christ's stated Constitution that he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved and be that believeth not shall be damned Mar. 16. 16. That if thou confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved for with the heart man believeth Christ's resurrection unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto Salvation Rom 10. That except you repent you shall all perish Luke 13. 3 5. That men must repent and be baptized for the remission of sins Acts 2. 38. And repent and be converted that their sins may be blotted out Acts 3. 19. So Rev. 22. 14. Matt. 6. 14 15. Ezek. 33. 14 16. 1 Tim. 4. 8. Godliness is profitable to all things having the promise of the Life that now is and of that which is to come Call these Laws or Covenants or what you will we are agreed that all this is the word of God 9. These terms of life and death are the rule of our practices and our expectations by which we must live and by which we shall be judged and therefore we may truly say that they are Christ's Law And they are God's signified determination of the conditions of life and death and his donation of our right to Christ Pardon and Life is contained herein and therefore this may truly be called Christ's Testament and Covenant in several respects 10. Though all duties be prescribed by God's Law and so each Precept is a material part yet formally or specifically the Laws to which these material parts belong must be distinguished by the distinct conditions of life and death 11. God hath made more Promises Donations and Covenants than one or two which must not be confounded 1. His Law and Covenant made to and with man in innocency is one 2. And his Law and Covenant made to and with Christ as Mediator is another 3. And his absolute promise of a Saviour to the World with the conditional promise or Law of Grace conjunct was the first edition of another And the Gospel as after the incarnation promulgate was a more perfect edition of it to pass by Abraham's Covenant of Peculiarity and the Mosaical Law as such 12. Though Christ be promised in one of these and be God's antecedent gift he may nevertheless be the Author of another and so far the foundation as well as the meritorious cause 13. That may be of free Grace which is merited by Christ yea and that which is annexed to the Evangelical worthiness of a believer 14. That may be a condition required of us to be done by the help of Grace which yet is the effect of that Grace and given us by God 15. It is a true Covenant between God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and man which is solemnly entred into in Baptism And this is a Covenant of Grace even that proceedeth purely from Grace and of Grace as given by God and by us accepted He that will confound these various Covenants Promises and Laws on pretence of their unity though there is doubtless a wonderful unity of all the parts both of God's moral signal means and his physical works shall confound much of Theology 16. The Law made to Adam never said either thou or another for thee shall obey but it bound man to perfect perpetual personal obedience 17. Therefore that Law as it obliged us is not fulfilled by the obedience of Christ but only as far as it obliged him nor can any man be justified by it as a fulfiller of it by himself or by another nor did Christ fulfil it in any other mans person though in his stead so far as is aforesaid 18. The Law doth not command any man since Adam perfect personal obedience as the means or condition of life nor promise any life on such a condition as is now naturally impossible but though it be not repealed by God is so far ceased by the cessation of the subjects capacity to be so obliged 19. The Laws obligation of us to punishment is dispenced with and dissolved by a pardon purchased by our Mediator 20. Christ's righteousness is nevertheless the meritorious cause of our righteousness or justification though he justify us by the instrumentality of his donative Covenant as giving us right to our Union and Justification and Life and though our Faith and Repentance be the condition of our Title 21. We accept two Concessions as containing that truth which sheweth that we do not much differ de re could we more happily order our organical conceptions 1. That Christ's righteousness is not the formal cause of our Justification 2. p. 596. Seeing the satisfaction was not made IN THE PERSON of the offender but his substitute it was necessary that THE BENEFIT of ANOTHERS satisfaction should be communicated in such a way as might best please that God whose Grace was the only motive to his acceptation of a substitute It is the undoubted priviledge of the Giver to dispose of his own gifts in his own way And it was absolutely and indispensibly necessary that the sinner should be duly qualified to receive such transcendent favours purchased at so dear a rate and fitted to return the glory to a Redeemer which an unhumbled unbelieving unconverted and unsanctified sinner could not possibly be He that writeth this cannot sure much differ from me hereabouts But he is charitably uncharitable when he saith Never any man in his wits affirmed it so that the righteousness of Christ is the formal cause of our Justification It 's too charitable to hide that which cannot be hid of so great a number whom it seems he never read for all his Commission from all the Systematical Divines of Germany c. p. 696. And it 's too uncharitable to judge so many excellent men out of their wits The truth is so many speak so that I have been doubtful I should be smartly censured for saying otherwise Forma qua justificamur est misericordia Patris perfecta Justitia filii saith Ant. Fayus in his Accurate Theses Th. 60. p. 280. And by misericordia Patris being the form you may see how he understood Imputation The number that thus speak are too great here to be recited so that even the most judicious Davenant lest he should go out of the road was fain to make this the Theses to be proved by him Imputatam Christi obedientiam esse causam formalem justificationis nostrae probatur Cap. 28. p. 362. c. de Instit habit But let none turn this to our reproach nor take all these for mad for it is but an unapt name and by him and many others soundly meant for the greater part of these Divines say but that Imputatio Justitiae Christi Remissio peccatorum are the form not of Justification as in us but as it is Actus Justificantis as Altingius Maresius Sharpius Bucanus Spanhemius Nigrinus Sohnius
elect and should persevere So that they denied all certainty of Salvation by ordinary means And that none of all the Greek or Latin Fathers then or long after went further from the Pelagians than Augustine did I think I need not perswade any that hath read them 259. This historical Truth is useful to be known From whence I infer that it is possible for Christians to live in setled peace and comfort in respect to their heavenly Felicity without a certainty of perseverance and Salvation For to think that no Papists no Greeks no Arminians no Protestant Lutherans nor any of the ancient holy Doctors nor any of all the Martyrs or other Christians of their judgment did attain to such holy peace and comfort is unreasonable and contrary to all Church-History and to experience 260. And though it were a far more joyful state to have proper certainty yet reason and experience in other cases tell us that without certainty a man may live a joyful and peaceable life where probability is strong enough to remove all reasonable cause of fearfulness though there be a possibility of the worst As we see that men in youth and health though they may possibly die or fall into torments the next hour yet do not therefore cast off comfort and live in such trouble as they would do if they had probable cause to expect it There is no wife living is certain that her own Husband will not murder her the next night nor no Child certain that the Parents will not cast them off or kill them nor no Friend certain that his dearest Friend will not do so And yet few but melancholy people will therefore take up sorrow and cast away all their comfort in life and peace and in these Friends Even these persons are their trust and joy There is no man sure but he may be executed among Malefactors And yet while there is no reason to expect it a man may live a comfortable life There is no man certain that he himself shall not fall into a particular crime of Murder Theft Perjury or the like And yet we live not therefore uncomfortably For mens affections follow the powerfullest cause 261. Hence also I conclude that certainly the denial of certainty of persevering and Salvation is not a thing that should break the love peace or concord of the Christian Churches or for which they should cast off or revile each other For what sober man could do so by all those that I have instanced in 262. It is a shameful self-delusion of some Disputers who think when they have once believed that certainty of Salvation may be had that they are then certain themselves or next to certain of their own Salvation But he that hath no more certainty to be rich or healthful thaâ— to believe that Health and Riches may be got is far from having them 263. Who was more full of confidence and joy than Luther who speaketh more against the Papists commanding men to doubt of the pardon of sin who speaketh of a higher Faith than he on Galat. Yet he with Melancthon and all the first Protestants in the August Confess Art 11. saith They damn the Anabaptists who deny that those that are once justified can again lose the Holy Ghost 264. If Adam in Innocency had neither solid comfort or cause of such the state that we fell from was not so good as we commonly believe But Adam had no assurance of his perseverance in that state For he fell from it 265. No man as is said is certain that he shall not fall into such a Vid. Judic Theol. Palat. de persever in Synod Dord p. 1. pag. 208. pr. 3. hainous sin as Peter David c. did 266. The Synod of Dort saith By such enormous sins they greatly offend God they incur the guilt of death they grieve the Holy Ghost they interrupt the exercise of Faith they most grievously wound Conscience sometimes they lose the sense of Grace for a time till by serious Repentance returning into the way Gods fatherly countenance again shine upon them And the Brittish Divines in their Synodic Explic. say They contract damnable guilt and lose their present aptitude to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Adding So that while they remain in that state of Impenitence they neither ought nor can perswade themselves otherwise than that they art obnoxious to death Rom. 8. 13. If ye live after the flesh ye shall die For they are bound in a capital Crime by the desert whereof according to Gods Ordination they are subject to death though they be not yet delivered to death nor shall be if we respect Gods fatherly love but shall be pluckt out of this sin that so they may be pluckt out of the guilt of death Lastly For their present condition they lose their aptitude to enter into Heaven c. And Thes 4. p. 193. Gods unmovable ordination requireth that a Believer thus exorbitant do first return into the way by renovation of Faith and the act of Repentance before he can be brought to the ways end which is the heavenly Kingdom By the Decree of Election the faithful are so predestinated to the end that they can no otherwise be brought to it than by Gods instituted means as by the Kings high way And Gods Decrees of the means and of the end and order of events are as firm and certain as those of the end and of the events themselves If any man therefore go on in a way contrary to Gods Ordination as the broad way of uncleanness and impenitence which directly leadeth to Hell he can never come that way to Heaven Yea if death surprize him wandering in Luk. 13. 3 5. 1 Cor. 6. 9. Heb. 12. 14. 2 Tim. 2. 19. Act. 27. 31. that out-way he cannot but fall into everlasting death This is the constant and clear voice of the Scripture As Paul said of those in the Ship c. Act. 27. 31. It is certain that David and Peter Gods Elect Servants were to come to Heaven But it is as certain that if one had remained impenitent in his Adultery and Murder and the other in his denial of Christ and perjury neither of them could have been saved Providence and Mercy unty this knot by providing that no elect person die in that state in which according to any Ordination of Gods Will he should have been shut out of Heaven And Thes 5. In that interspace which is between the guilt of sin contracted by a grievous sin and the renewed act of Faith and Repentance such a Sinner standeth a person to be damned by his own desert but by Christ's Merit and Gods firm purpose a person to be saved but not before by excited Faith and Repentance he hath obtained pardon is he actually absolved But in such guilt the condition of the Faithful and of the Wicked is not the same To the Unbelievers is wanting the inward principle of Faith without which the
* * * Such as are most of the sober Heathens in the world For the most religious and sober of them are Pythagorears to this day Lege Varenium de divers Relig. post Hist Japâ—n Bless Lord thy own reconciling Truths to the healing of thy Churches or at least of some dis-joynted minds And teach me with patience to bear the Obloquy and Reproach of mistaken zealous Consurers And forgive them that know not what they say or do And wherein I err forgive and rectifie me and better inform both the Reader and me The Third Part OF God's Gracious Operations ON MANS SOUL Their DIFFERENCE and the OPERATIONS OF MANS WILL. For the fuller Decision of the Controversies about EFFECTUAL and DIFFERENCING GRACE By RICHARD BAXTER LONDON Printed by Robert VVhite for Nevill Simmons at the Princes Arms in S t. Pauls Church-yard MDCLXXV THE CONTENTS THE Preface Pag. 1. Sect. 1. The Presupposed Principles briefly repeated p. 7 Sect. 2. The Order of Divine Operations p. 9. Sect. 3. Of the Operations and Principles as compared p. 12. Sect. 4. How far God useth Means p. 16. Sect. 5. Of the Causes of the different Effects of Grace and Means p. 18. Sect. 6. Of the Limitations of Gods Operations on the Soul p. 20. Sect. 7. Of the Resistibility of Grace p. 21. Sect. 8. What is that Operation of God on the Soul enquired of in many following Questions And whether searchable by man p. 22. Sect. 9. Whether Gods Operation be equal on all p. 31. Sect. 10. Whether it be Physical or Moral p. 32. Sect. 11. What Free-will man hath to Spiritual Good p. 35. Sect. 12. More of Predetermination by Physical Premotion p. 37. Sect. 13. More of Mans Power Natural and Moral p. 43. Sect. 14. Whether the giving of Faith be an act of Omnipotency and a Creation and a Miracle p. 46. Sect. 15. Of the Sufficiency and Efficacy of Grace p. 48. Sect. 16. Of Infused Habits and the Holy Ghost even special Grace p. 53. Sect. 17. Whether Man be meerly Passive as to the first Grace p. 55. Sect. 18. Whether the first Grace and the New and Soft Heart or Faith it self be Promised or Given absolutely or on any Condition to be performed by man ibid. Sect. 19. How God may be said to Cause the Acts of Sin p. 57. Sect. 20. How far God and how far man himself is the Cause of Hell and other punishments p. 62. The Conclusion § 1. The Concessions of the Synod of Dort specially the Brittish Divines More of Divine Motion or Impress p. 67. § 2. The Epitome of Alvarez de Auxil drawn up by himself in Epilogo in Twenty Conclusions considered p. 70. § 3. A Censure of the other three wayes described by him viz. 1. The Jesuits de Scientia Media p. 75. § 4. 2. Durandus's Way p. 76. § 5. 3. That of the Scotists and Nominals Of Gods partial Caâ—sality p. 79. § 6. The true face and Scheme of the Dominican Predeterminant way in the Sense and Consequents in Fifty Propositions and the Reasons of my preferring any before this p. 80. A Summary of all to satisfie sober minds p. 100. Additional Animadversions on Mr. Peter Sterrey's Book of Free-will making God the Author of Good and Evil as he is of Light and Darkness p. 106. The Third Part OF GOD'S GRACIOUS OPERATIONS ON MANS SOUL AND THE SUB-OPERATIONS OF MANS WILL. For the Ending the Contentions about Sufficient and Effectual Common and Special Grace and Free-VVill The Preface THE first Part of this Treatise though largest and fullest of mens contentious Questions and opinions is furthest from the true point of the difference and difficulty which troubleth the Church And is made large by accident by way of disquisition and detection of the many ensâ—aring questions and vain or hurtful wranglings of the Schoolmen The Second Part cometh nearer our chief Controversies and resolveth many other on the by and containeth the summ of that part of Theologie which is most clear and sure and necessary This Third Part which cometh up to the main Controversie is short and troubleth you less with other mens opinions and Schoolmens Wranglings about Grace and Free-will Partly because you had enough of them by the way before And chiefly because I would not by tediousness and recitation of Contentions obscure that which I most desire to make plain nor discourage the Reader by the length I think if I can manifest that there is no real or considerable difference among the Learned and Moderate on each side such as are the Synod of Dort on one side and even Bellarmine Suarez Ruiz c. on the other besides the moderate Lutherans and Arminians who may be ashamed if they go farther from us than the Jesuites besides abundance of Schoolmen that are of a middle strain between the Dominicans and Jesuites few understanding Divines would then think that there were any considerable difference remaining about Predestination or the universality of Redemption Those differences being but respective unto this But about Perseverance I confess that there doth a real difference remain But that it is of less moment than most on both sides say and such as is no way fit to quench Christian Love or alienate Christians from each other or hinder their liberties or peaceable communion I have fully proved in the Second Part and formerly in a peculiar Treatise entituled My Thoughts of Perseverance If therefore I can truly disprove our pretended difference about the â—â—â—rations of Grace or at least prove it to be but as it is no greater not more intolerable than that of Perseverance I shall think that all is done that is thus necessary The main difference seeming or real is about the Power of Mans Will Of which I have spoken much in the First Part and purposely leave much to the Reconciling Praxis in the Second Book which shall dissipate the cloud of ambiguous words Till then it shall here suffice to manifest 1. That we are agreed with them whose conciliation I endeavour that â—â— is not the natural Powers essential to a man which we are deprived of 2. But that these Powers have by our common corruption a sinful Disposition unfitting them for a due exercise for God and against sin 3. And that all men at least at age are not depraved in the same degree 4. That this Ill disposition is called a Moral Impotency when it is such as while it remaineth the sinful Act is ever done or the commanded act is never done There is then no Moral Power 5. That the vitious sinful impotency of the will and its Habitual or dispositive unwillingness to good and proneness to things forbidden is all one 6. That he is Morally Able who without any other grace than he hath can do the thing commanded or forbear the thing forbidden 7. That there is no Power but of God 8. That Nature common grace and special grace give several powers or dispositions 9. That a moral power
hundred and twenty ancient Writers and sixty three Protestant Synods Churches and Divines for Universal Grace read Dallaei Apolog. part 4. A. I am sure God saith That he would not the death of a Sinner but rather that he repent and live and that he would have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the Truth which they deny B. No man denieth it who denieth not the Scripture And I can hardly believe that really you differ about the meaning of the words Quest. 1. Do you believe that God is absolutely unwilling that any perish and absolutely willeth that all shall be saved A. No but conditionally he is B. Quest 2. Do you think that he absolutely willeth the performance of that condition A. I know you will say If absolutely it must come to pass or God must be overcome If conditionally how doth he will that condition and so in infinitum But I will say that he willeth it absolutely and yet is not overcome or srustrate by a greater Power For he willeth it only voluntate inefficaci or with a velleity which is not a willing to do it all himself but that it be done by man B. If he will that man repent eventually with an absolute Will the Impenitent then frustrate his Will or Desire And it is a note of infelicity to have absolute Desires not obtained If Gods Will be not done is it not for want of Power or Wisdom to accomplish it A. No it is because he willeth not to effect the thing but that man effect it B. If you had said that he conditionally willeth that man effect it the failure had been no frustration But that had been but to say that he willeth that man shall will if he will or at least if he excite his own Will and so the question would recur How he willeth that excitation But seeing you say that God absolutely willeth that man shall will or excite his own Will you must needs mean that God desireth that which he cannot obtain and so is imperfect A. No I only say that he desireth that which he cannot obtain by mans free agency without exerting more of his own efficient power to obtain it He could obtain it if he would do all that he can B. * Hoc vâ—lt Dtus ut omneâ—â—jus vitâ— participes sâ—â—t circumstaâ—tiâ— vero pâ—nâ—rum non ipsius vâ—lâ—â—tatâ— fiunt sed pro merito â—â—ruâ—â— qui pâ—ccaverunt inferâ—â—tâ—â— Vitam Deâ—â— cuique propria voluntatâ— tribuitâ—ram vero sibi quisque theâ—aurizat Basil in Psal 26. This is no more than to say that either properly he doth not will that man excite his own Will to the act in that he will not do that without which he knoweth it will not be done or that he willeth it but conditionally If so much help will procure it And for want of plain opening the case as it is you do but entangle your self in unintelligible words when you talk of uneffectual velleities of the event which yet are absolute A. How will you explain it better B. As is sufficiently done before 1. God absolutely willeth that it shall be mans duty to repent and believe Duty is the thing antecedently willed with an absolute Will 2. God willeth that Heaven shall be his due if he perform that condition 3. But if he will not perform it that Hell be his due This Will is conditional as to the thing willed 4. These Volitions of God belong to him as Rector supposing him a Benefactor giving out his benefits by a Law And this Will is expressed by Gods Law which actually constituteth the absolute Debitum obedientiae and the conditional debitum premii vel poenae 5. The condition being past Gods consequent Will is absolute de premiando vel puniendo He willeth the death of the Impenitent consequently And this is but Gods Will qua judex expressed by his Judgment actually 6. Though in strict sense the thing that God antecedently willeth is not the event but the debitum vel jus man's duty and his due thereupon yet because it belongeth not to a Legislator as such to do any more towards the event than command it supposing necessary power and helps therefore after the manner of men it is said that God willeth the event Repentance and Salvation because he willeth to do so much towards it even all that concerneth him to do as a meer Rector besides the donation of necessary power or help as a Benefactor And this is all that you mean in which both sides are really agreed A. I confess we use to explain it by his Antecedent Will and saying that quantum in se he would have all repent and live But by quantum in se we do not mean that God doth as much as he is able to it Therefore your explication seemeth true as well as conciliatory that he doth quantum in se as Rector per leges supposing also his necessary help B. So God delighteth not in the death of Sinners because it is not his Antecedent Will that they die but only his consequent on supposition of impenitency which he willeth not And also because it is the good of Justice and not our death and hurt as such or for it self that God loveth and delighteth in But when men return and live they fulfil his antecedent Will and do that which he loveth as good in it self And he would have all men come to the knowledge of the Truth and be saved that is He obligeth both Ministers to preach to them and others to pray for them and help them and themselves to obey and receive his Grace And he giveth them means and giveth Christ and Life by free donation to all on condition they will but accept the Gift And he that strictly willeth this much may be said after the manner of men to will the event And this is all that both sides mean if they understood themselves The second Crimination A. The great difference between us is that they hold Gods Grace to be unresistible * Okam Gabriel and Catherinus do hold that there are three ranks of men in Gods Decree 1. One of persons eminently predestinated to whom God will give such extraordinary Grace as shall ex se ascertain their Conversion and Salvation 2. Another of the the ordinary Elect who are fore-seen to use well sufficient Grace and so elected to Glory upon that fore-sight 3. The Reprobates who are decreed to Hell for their fore-seen sin Vide Okam in 1. d. 41. q. 1. Gabr. ibid. q. 1. a. 2. de hisce Vasqutz in 1. Tho. q. 23. disq 90. c. 1. who contradicteth them cap. 2. 23. Yet denieth that in man there is any cause condition or occasion of his predestination disp 91. Tilenus against Camero layeth all upon the resistibility of Grace but never sufficiently explaineth the word The Arminians Synod p. 15. assert Etiam supernaturalem potentiam voluntati conferri hac ratione Deum immediate
that we are commanded not only Thankfully to Accept but Thankfully to obey our Lord Redeemer and Saviour Lib. No. P. Quest 3. Date you deny that life or death eternal dependeth on this as a Condition or Moral means and that we shall be judged according to it Lib. No. I deny it not P. Quest 4. Is it not a Law that thus commandeth us and by which we must be judged Lib. Yes If it were no Law there were no duty and sin in belief and unbelief P. Quest 5. Is not a man so far just and justifyable by that Law as he keepeth it and justifyable against the charge of being one that must be Damned by producing the Condition of pardon and life performed Lib. Yes I deny it not P. Quest 6. And doth not the same Law virtually justifie the performer now whom it will justifie as the Rule of Judgement at last Lib. Yes no doubt P. Quest 7. And is not the Name of Righteousness many score times given in Scripture to our own actions done by Grace and measured by the New Covenant Lib. Yes I cannot deny it P. Why then while you deny neither Name nor Thing what wrangle you about And let me plainly tell you that such men as you by indiscreet ever-doing are not the least of Satans instruments to bring the Gospel under scandal and harden the world in Infidelity and the scorn of Christ while you would so describe the Christian Religion as if this were the very heart and summ of it Believe that all the Elect have fulfilled perfectly all Gods Law by another and that Christ did it as personating each of them and therefore no crime of their own is imputable to them nor any kind or degree of Goodness or Righteousness in and of themselves is at least required of God as any means or condition of their present or future justification by their Judge or as having any hand therein As if God were become indifferent what we all are so that Christ be but Righteous for us when as it was Christs grand design to restore lapsed man to God which he doth not only by Relative benefits but by Renewing them to his Image in love and holy obedience Lib. Have you not lately and oft been told that holiness and obedience are necessary now but it is to other Ends than to justifie us as for Cratitude c. P. 1. We easily grant it is for other Ends than Christs Merits were and not to justifie us as they do nor in that Causality They are not to purchase for us a free gift of pardon and life nor the Holy Ghost c. as Christ did 2. But again tell me Hath not Christ a Law that commandeth our obedience to those ends as Gratitude which you mention And is not the keeping that Law a thing that the same Law will so far justifie us for Yea a Condition that life dependeth on And if the Cause in Judgement be Have you kept it or not must you not in that be accordingly Justified or Condemned Give over cavilling against plain necessary truth Lib. By this you will fall in with the Papists who take Justification to be partly by Christs Righteousness and partly by our own and partly in pardon and partly in faith and holiness P. Tell not me of the Names of Papists or any to frighten me from plain Scripture truth 1. Why may not I rather say Why go you from all the antient Writers and Churches even Augustine himself by your new and contrary opinion Was true Justification unknown for so many hundred years after the Apostles 2. The most zealous Antipapists do confess that some Texts of Scripture do so take the word Justification And multitudes of Texts so take the words Righteous and Righteousness And he that will impartially consider them may find that more Texts than are by us so confessed do by Justifying mean Making us Just and so Accounting us on all these causes conjunct 1. As being Redeemed by Christs Merits 2. And freely pardoned 3. And having Right to life 4. And renewed to Gods love and Image 5. And so justifyable at the Bar of Grace by the Law of faith and liberty 3. And the reality of all the Matter of this Doctrine is past doubt if the Controversie de nomine Justificationis were not so decided CHAP. IV. Whether the Gospel be a Law of Christ Lib. III. YOu bring in your doctrine of personal Righteousness to Justification by feigning Christ to have made a new Law whereas the Gospel is but a Doctrine History and Promise and not a Law and so no Rule of Righteousness and Judgement And this many Protestants have asserted P. I have read some such sayings in some men And some I think meant no more but that Christ did only expound and not add to the Law of Nature called by them the Moral Law And these I have excused for their unhappy kind of expression But for the rest that mean as the words sound universally they subvert Christianity and as the Arrians denyed Christs Godhead so do they his Office and Government and are somewhat worse than the Quakers who say that the Spirit within us is the Law and Rule of Christ which is better than none I pray answer me Quest 1. Is Christ the King and Ruler of the Church Lib. Yes P. Quest 2. Is not Legislation the first and principal part of Government Lib. Yes P. Quest 3. Do not they then that deny Christs Legislation deny his Government Lib. Yes P. Quest 4. Is it not essential to Christ as Christ the name signifying Relatively his Office to be King Lib. Yes P. Quest 5. Do they not then by this deny Christ to be Christ Lib. No for they confess that he hath a Law but not that he made any since his birth P. We grant 1. That the Law of Nature now is His Law 2. And that the first Edition of the Law of Grace to Adam after the fall was his Law 3. And Moses Law was partly his But you will not say that we are under this last nor I hope that he hath no other than the two first Lib. Why what other can you prove P. It is the Name or the Thing that you deny for you use to confound the cases 1. Whether the name be fit judge by these Texts Gal. 6. 2. Bear ye one anothers burdens and so fulfil the Law of Christ James 1. 25. The perfect Law of Liberty Rom. 8. 2. The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus c. Rom. 3. 27. Boasting is excluded By what Law Of Works Nay but by the Law of faith Mic. 4. 2. For the Law shall go out of Zion c. So Isa 2. 3. 8. 16 20. 42. 41. The Isles shall wait for his Law 1 Cor. 9. 21. We are under the Law to Christ Heb. 8. 10 16. I will put my Laws into their minds and hearts James 4. 12. There is one Law-giver c. Isa 33.
believe and accept the gift So that it is only Meriting under a Law made by a Governing Owner and Benefactor for the sapiential orderly disposal of a free Gift As a Father will teach a Child Obedience by telling him that he will give him Gold or Meat if he will thankfully accept it 9. It is not true therefore that it is only a free Gift For as it is a free Gift in regard of the Value and quoad rem so that Gift is a Reward in regard of the Order of Conveyance and tenour of the Donation and the moral capacity of the Receiver which men call Merit 10. That we cannot per impotentiam voluntariam moralem perform the Condition without Divine Grace is nothing against the Tenour of the Donation nor the nature of the Relation of a Reward 11. But Reward and Merit in this case are furthest from that of Commutation and leaveth least to man to boast of 12. Yet may he truly glory in the effects of Grace with thankfulness to God as Paul did 2 Cor. 1. 11 12. that in simplicity and godly sincerity c. and 2 Tim. 4. 8. that he had fought a good fight c. And he may justifie his sincerity with Job chap. 13. 15 16. And Christ will say Well done good and faithful servant c. Let him that glorieth glory in this that he knoweth me saith the Lord c. And Paul would rather dye than any should make his glorying void as to his free preaching the Gospel 13. And it is very false that in this sense a Christian is not bound to trust to his Faith Repentance Love Obedience only in their own place and office assigned them by God but no further As we may trust to the Bible Preacher Parents so to hearing reading praying c. for their proper part else we shall take them all to be in vain Are they Means or no Means If Means they must be judged and trusted as they are and no further And people are not to be frightned from necessary truth by putting an ill sense upon words 14. And though here be nothing of Commutative Justice yet there is that which Justifieth the name of Wages used analogically in the Scriptures Because Love in a Father maketh a Childs interest to be partly his own and the Pleasure of his Will is that to God who is Love it self and delighteth in his Childrens good which Profit is to a humane proprietor And now I will proceed with you in my Questions Quest 9. Do you think that Papists or Arminians do believe that either Man or Angel or Christ can merit of God by Profiting him in Commutative Justice Or that it is possible for any creature to have any Good which is not the free gift of God supposing man a free agent in his duty L. I have hitherto thought that they so judge Why else talk they of Merit of Congruity and Condignity and that say some ex dignitate yea and ex proportione operum R. It seemeth you think not that you hold all this your self Let us try 1. By Merit they still mean a subordinate Merit which supposeth the Benefit 1. To be Gods Gift 2. Merited by Christ L. How prove you that R. It is the express words of the Trent Council de Justif Can. 8 We are said to be Justified gratis because nothing that goeth before Justification whether it be Faith or Works doth merit the Grace it self of Justification For if it be Grace it is no more of Works else Grace is not Grace Can. 16. Though so much be given in Scripture to Good Works that Christ promiseth him that giveth but a Cup of cold Water to one of the least that he shall not lose his reward yet far be it from a Christian to trust or glory in himself and not in the Lord whose Goodness is so great to all men that he wills those things to be Their Merits which are His Gifts And Anath C. 26. they thus open their Doctrine of Merit If any say that the Righteous ought not to expect eternal retribution from God by his Mercy and Christs Merits for the good works done in God if by well doing and keeping God Commandments they persevere to the end let him be Anathema C. 31 32. If any say that a Justified mans good works are so Gods Gifts that they be not also the Justified mans good merits or that the Justified do not truly merit increase of grace and life eternal by the good works which are done by Gods Grace and Christs Merit of whom he is a living member c. Anath sit C. 16. To them therefore that do well to the end and hope in God Life eternal is to be proposed both as Grace mercifully promised to the Sons of God through Jesus Christ and as a Reward faithfully to be given by Gods own promise to their Works and Merits L. Yes this ridiculous Doctrine of our Meriting by Gods Grace and Christs Merits I have often read and heard of in them R. It is somewhat bold to deride that which Scripture Reason and all the antient Churches do accord in That Christ merited that we should subordinately merit that is be Rewardable as before explained hath no less consent And Contra Rationem nemo fobrius Contra Scripturam nemo Christianus Contra Ecclesiam nemo Catholicus L. But if the Council of Trent deny that Justification is at all merited what is meant by the Papists Merit of Congruity R. II. I think you hold not only as much of that as they but do you think it somewhat more 1. As much For 1. De nomine some of them deny that this is any merit at all as well as you And their Council asserteth it not that I see 2. De re They mean the same thing by Merit of Congruity which Mr. Rogers Bolton Hooker and the rest call Preparation for Christ or for Conversion And so the Council of Trent calls it Which maketh a man a more Congruous Receiver of Grace than the unprepared but doth not prove God obliged to give it him as a Reward And do not you hold all this de re 2. Yea and more For the Council of Trent taketh Justification for Remission of sin and sanctification together as after Faith And so hold that Faith it self doth not merit Justification But do not you hold more de re that Faith hath a flat promise of Justification which is true And so God hath as it were obliged his fidelity to give it which is it they mean by Merit L. But what is their Merit of Condignity then Is not that abominable R. III. 1. You know that the words Worthy and Worthiness are used in the Scripture Bear therefore with Scripture words 2. And de re they mean not all one thing or use not the same expressions at least Some and many with Scotâ—â— say that it is ex pacto from Gods Promise that the Merit and dueness do result or from Gods
me of my error 6. Is not unrighteousness a sin in your judging and reports as it is in publick Judgements Should not a man be heard before he be condemned especially a Minister of Christ 7. What a sin is it to receive false reports from others and encourage backbites whom you should rebuke and frown away 8. What a heinous sin is it thus to destroy the Hearers souls and as those that have the Plague to carry your infection from house to house and kill mens Love and breed in them false conceits and bitter injurious thoughts of others 9. What a sin is it with such unthankfulness to requite Christs servants that spend their dayes and strength and estates in labouring for mens good When I take none of your money when I have these twelve years preached as I had liberty freely without hire when I had been put on to plead the Non-conformists Cause in the costliesâ— circumstances and to bear the greatest odium for it when I was I think the first that was silenced on such accounts when I have been twelve or fourteen years deprived of all Ecclesiastical maintenance when I refused a Bishoprick when I have laboured in Writings and other duties to the consuming of my flesh in daily and hourly pain and weakness and now look every Sermon for my last and am ready to appear before my Judge to be to the very last thus calumniated and reviled by pievish Sectaries would be a sad reward were your favour my reward But is this just or grateful or shall the unrighteous and unthankful be accounted the best men I know I could have been one of the highest in your favour and applause if I would have humoured and followed you But I had rather that God should keep me from your honour than buy it at so dear a rate 10. And is it no sin thus to hinder the success of our labours by making us odious or suspected by them that should profit by us 11. Is it not hypocrisie to cry out of the Bishops for silencing us when you shew that you would fain do it your selves Would not you silence me now if it were in your power Yea I doubt not but when I die some of you will rejoyce and say that God did it in judgement on me 12. And thus to make divisions among Christians that should hold the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace will one day be known to be a sin 13. And so it is hereby to harden the enemies of Religion by your clamours and the divisions which you cause and tempt them to hate both you and us 14. And it is worst of all to father all this on God and Truth and Godliness and use such holy Names for so bad a Cause 15. And it aggravateth your sin that you take no more notice of all those plain and terrible Scriptures which as openly condemn your sin as the sin of Drunkards or Swearers is condemned were it but James 3. it would leave you utterly without excuse 16. Yea and that you can see the sins of such Drunkards and Swearers yea and see the Mote in the eyes of one that doth but use a Form or Ceremony which you dislike and cannot see these Beams in your own For all these sins I admonish you presently to repent S. Who is it that is censorious you or I It is sin with you to open your sin P. I desired you to open it But see now how hard a work Repentance is when in a Professor such sins as these will not be confessed S. Well come to the cause it self Is it I or you that comply with Papists P. I make that the business of this Conference with you It is not you only but some wiser men than you that look so much at the evil of Popery that they forget the evil of an unrighteous opposition and of the other extream And they do as one that by labouring to cure another of a Dead Palsie casteth himself into a Phrensie or a Feaver or like one that to avoid a Carrion that stinketh in the Ditch doth run himself into the Ditch on the other side the way Gods Truth must be vindicated only by Truth and Wisdom is best justified of her own children by Wisdom God hath no pleasure in fools noâ— doth his Glory need our lye There is a time when the Devil will seem to be against error and sin and so against Popery but it is in a way which shall promote it which commonly is by ill-doing and over-doing I tell you plainly the Cause of Truth and Reformation gets nothing by some men that seâ—m most zealous for it For an unstudied half-wise honest Minister or private man to believe false reports of the Papists and to mis-state Controversies and to rail on them on such suppositions and to mix many errors of his own in his opposition and to backbite those that know more of the matter as symbolizing with the Papists this is certainly serving the Devil how honest soever the instruments in the main may be S. I perceive that you have an aking tooth at the Protestant Divines as well as at me Are you wiser than all they or are you not warping to Grotianism which you have written against P. Among the Protestant Divines there are well studied knowing solid men that understand what they say such as Bishop Usher Dr. Chaloner Dr. Field Dr. White Chillingworth Morton Davenant Andrews and many such and abroad Camero Dallaus Blondell Drelincourt Amyraâ—dus Placaeus Vâ—ssius Junius Martinius Crocius Bergius Bucer Musculus Melanchthon and many others and there are ignorant hot-headed self-conceited men that rave in extreams as Gallus Ambsdorsius and their companions did against Georg. Major for saying Bona opera sunt necessaria ad salutem And it is no wonder that the best Churches have many such and if such are the forwardest to judge and cry down all that are not as ignorant as they And in our times the World is more beholden to the fewness of buyers and the wit of Booksellers refusing to Print them than to the humility or modesty of such men that the Shops do not abound with such furious Writings â—s Mr. Brownes Antichristomachus Mr. Danvers Mr. Bagshaw c. and that Antichrist Antichrist is not made in Print the Universal Consutation of sober truth as commonly as it is bawled out in words S. Is it not safest to get far enough from Antichrist and Popery Your study is to teach men how near they may come to sin without sin and how to dance about the brink of Hell For my part I will be one of them that shall come out of Babylon and partake not of her sins nor touch the unclean thing and that keep their garments undefiled and not one that like you is grown Lukewarm by being over-fond of Unity and Peace You will follow Grotius it's doubt at last P. Uncleanness must not be touched nor sin partaked of nor lukewarm indifferency
to perswade men that we are not of the same body and to own a sinful dishonourable separation 17. And by all these means these Over-doers do greatly increase Atheism and Infidelity and prophaneness among us while their zeal against Truth and reproaches of sound doctrine do make men think that our Religion is nothing but proud humour and self-conceit and while they see us so boldly condemn almost all the world except our selves they will think that so few as we deserve not to be excepted 18. By this injurious extremity against the Papists we do but kindle in them a bitterer enmity to us and hatred of them breedeth hatred in them of us and so we set them on plotting revenge against us as implacable injurious enemies when we should deal soberly and righteously with all men and seek to win them by truth and gentleness 19. I And such dealings with them do draw Persecution on the Protestants that live under their Dominions and if we refuse to use them here as Christians no wonder if abroad they use not the Protestants as Men. 20. And by such great abuses of Reformation men hinder Reformation for the time to come and do their part to make it hopeless while they discourage such attempts by dishonouring the Reformation which is past Even as David George and Muntâ—er and the Munster Doâ—ages and Rebellions do hinder the â—eviving of Anabaptistry in the world and the shame of their old practices and successes is as a Grave stone upon the Sepuleher of their Cause so do these men do their part to make it with the whole Reformation that none hereafter may date to own or meddle with such work These that I have opened briefly to you are the real fruits of false injurious and ignorant zeal and over-doing against the Papists And if Popery revive it 's like to be by such men S. But Popery is an heinous evil and corrupt nature is so prone to evil thaâ— you need not thus disswade men from going too far from it or from over-doing against it no more than from being overmuch religious P. You may say the same as truly of the errors on the contrary extream All of them are evil and men are prone to evil But 1. Little know you how common it is in the world to spend mens zeal against the real or supposed evil of other mens Opinions and thereby to strengthen the mortal evil of their own carnal affections and passions and worldly lives and to take a zeal for Truth and Orthodoxness for real Holiness while usually such miss of Truth it self 2. And you know not the wiles of Satan how ordinarily he betrayeth a good Cause by the ill management of its most zealous friends and doth undo by over-doing When he will play the Devil indeed with Eve he will seem to be more than God himself for Knowledge of Good and Evil and for the advancement of mankind to be like God and God shall be accused by him as if he were untrue and envyed our perfection When he will play the Devil indeed with Christ he will seem to be more for valiantness and trusting God than Christ was and pleadeth Scripture for tempting God When he will play the Devil indeed in the Pharisees he will be stricter for the â—abbath and for Discipline in avoiding the company of the Publicans and sinners and stricter in fastings and dyet and other observations than Christ himself And he will be a zealous enemy to Blasphemy and a zealous Royalist for Caesar and a zealous honourer of the Temple and the Law when Christ or Paul or other Apostles are to be destroyed by it And when he will play the Devil in the Nicolaitans Simonians and Gnostick Hereticks he will seem to be for higher knowledge and greater liberty than the Apostles were And so when he would sow discord among Christians and would kill their Love and divide Christs Church and set them in a mental and oral War against each other he will aggravate the errors and faults of others and he will seem a more zealous friend of Truth and enemy to Popery Heresie Error Superstition false Worship or other faults than Christ is But he knoweth why S. But God telleth us himself that he is jealous about his Worship and hath in Scripture more severely executed his Justice upon the corrupters of his Worship than almost any other crime P. No doubt but God is jealous against Idolatry He that knoweth not the true God from Idols cannot honour him And he that worshippeth him not as a most Great and Holy God dishonoureth or blasphemeth him on pretence of worshipping him And to worship him by an Image is to perswade men that God is like that which that Image doth represent which is to deny him to be God And no doubt but the Jews great temptations to Idolatry from the Nations about them were to be oppugned by great severities of God And no doubt but Moses Law was to be honoured by Gods severe executions on the breakers of it But when you come to Christs preaching you find how oft he teacheth the Pharisees to go learn what that meaneth I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice When he conferreth with the Woman of Samaria John 4. she presently turneth from the doctrine of faith as Sectaries do among us to the Controversies of the times Our Fathers say In this Mountain and you say At Jerusalem men ought to worship But Christ calleth her off such low discourse and teacheth her to worship God as a Spirit in spirit and truth if ever she would be accepted of him S. But it is a time now when Popery is striving to rise again and how unseasonably would you abate mens zeal against it P. No more than he was against his Lawyers Zeal who grew hoarse with senseless bawling for him saying I am glad he hath lost his voice or else I might have lost my Cause I am so much against Popery that I wish it wiser and abler adversaries than self-conceited unstudied Zealots who will honour Popery by entitling it to the Truths of God and the Consent of the Antient or Universal Church or would make people believe that it consisteth in some good or indifferent things as in some Doctrines Forms or Government which others can see no harm in And so teach men to say If this be Popery we will rather be Papists than of them that rave as in their sleep against they know not what Could these men be perswaded to lay out their Zeal and diligence in propagating the practical knowledge of Christianity it self and let things alone which they understand not and SUSPEND TILL THEY HAVE THROUGHLY STUDIED or at least to forbear hindering wiser men and calumniating and backbiting those that would by wisdom defend that truth which by folly and rashness they go about to betray they might be meet for their share of that honour which now they forfeit S. You strive against Gods Judgements by which he