gifts of prayer does but offer a stinted form which is said commonly as to the hearers particular state and the stinting of the Object does not yet stint the Spirit however in his operation on the affections Praying alwaies with all manner of prayer and supplications in the Spirit Praying with the Spirit or by it in the last place is that we find in the dayes of the Apostles when they had extraordinary administrations of the Spirit in gifts that were miraculous insomuch that they spake with tongues and so preached and prayed Those that spake I apprehend understood not themselves what they delivered but every one in whose tongue they spake were edified and therefore we read of some that did interpret Those were such it is like as had skill in more tongues than their own or else in case there were none such the fame miraculous power might enable some for the interpretation as others to speak Thus praying with the Spirit is opposed to praying with the understanding and the Apostle prefers praying with the understanding before it There is no person had cause therefore to brag of this if he had it and there is none of any sect among us that pretend to it And so I think having said what I intended otherwise that neither the Gentleman nor I need to be put to any more words about it I will pray with the Spirit and I will pray with the understanding also CHAP. IV. Of the closer judgement of the Author in his sixth Chapter which is Arminian and of Election Free-will and Grace upon account of his opinion Of the salvability of Heathen and other incidental matters I Descend to his sixth Chapter which is to shew us who those are to whom the Spirit is promised and given These persons are Believers who yet are not holy persous This is his Notion They cannot be holy till they have the Spirit to sanctifie them and yet they must believe and pray because that is the condition upon which the Spirit is given The holy Spirit consequently and his special grace is necessary to Good works or sanctification but Believing is antecedent to it or must be in a mans power before it I must confess I am made sensible of the sagacity of this Author upon my reading this Chapter which I did not heed so much before and I perceive which way his mind is hankering It was this very light which carried St. Augustine so much in his first writings The doctrine of Pelagius at the first broaching consisted mainly in this point that God did give his grace according to mens merits This doctrine seemed to the Father too arrogant for man and derogatory to God That the grace of God and eternal life is given to some and not to others is manifest That the reason must be in regard of something that one man does and not another seemed to him undeniable That good works should be it appears against the Scripture not by works lest any man should boast Besides if a man should be allowed to be able to do any good works to merit Gods grace by the strength of nature what need were there of prayer for aid from God or the help of his Spirit Man should have need of industry here not prayer If not works then what must it be but that which is so often contradistinguished to works and that is Faith For the Scripture that saies not of Works but of Grace does say likewise It is of faith that it may be of Grace Here then is that which must be in mans power That a man could not do good works without grace St. Austine always asserted for this was his meaning when he saies that good works do not preceed but follow justification understanding by justifying the making a man just by inherent grace as the Schools do after him But that a man can believe if he will by the use of his natural faculties only is what he did maintain readily thinking no body could deny it According to this clear apprehension prehension as he then took it up he did proceed to his doctrine of Election which being defined by the Ancients before his time always ex praescientia he now determines to be of this Faith foreseen It must not be ex operibus praevisis because that will oppose grace but ex praevifa fide and that will salve all objections We are to conceive of other things to follow agreeably as Arminius that acute and I think pious Divine hath since taken up the notion when Augustine himself retracted it and upon his own stock improved it It is me now I must say something notable to see the seeds of the same light springing up in this Gentleman as formerly actuared two such searching Divines as Austin and Arminius were and I cannot therefore without guilt of disingenuity pass over any thing which he hath offered for the farther cultivation of it For doing this I observe he enters first upon an adventure to make some change of our terms in Divinity The state of nature and a state of Grace are terms that signifie Regeneration and Unregeneration with all men even in our practical Books and he will have us by a state of Nature to understand the state of a Heathen and by a state of Grace the state of every one under the Gospel The Gospel now bringing a man into this state a state of Grace he distinguishes of this Grace the Gospel brings And it is either that which goes before our Faith or follows it That which goes before he accounts it all Common Grace that which is given after it special Grace Ordinarily by the way that grace which is given to the Reprobate as well as to the Elect we call Common Grace and that which is peculiar to the Elect we call special grace whether before or after Faith But he offers his reason The Grace which the Gospel brings is either says he that which is given upon condition or that which is given upon none That which is conditional must be given only to some because it is some only perform that condition and that which is given but to some is special Grace That which is given upon no condition must be therefore or rather may be appropriated to all and so is Common Grace Thus he Theologizes when we ordinarily do not account it common grace because every one has it but because the Reprobate as well as the Elect have it and we do not call it special Grace only because some have it but because the Elect only have it so that that Grace which is given but to some if it be given to any Reprobate as well as the Elect we call not special but common Grace Well but these terms being premised that Grace now which he calls special the grace of the Gospel is promised on the condition of Faith It is Faith is the first thing upon which all depends If this be not in the power of every one the
have been more kind to the Nations I have some little light therefore here or I believe it to be so to offer to this very susceptible person There is a three-fold Government in one to speak accurately that God hath had in the world over man in reference to his chief end the salvation of his soul The first was by the Law of Nature the second by the Law of Moses and the third by the Law of Christ Before God gave his Law unto Israel the whole world was under that Law which is written in the heart God must govern man by that only when there was no other This Law now writ in mans heart we are to know is two-fold for Nature coming under a double consideration as entire and as fallen the Law must be double the Law of innocent nature or Law of Innocency and the Law of lapsed nature which is the Law of Grace or mercy toward man in regard to that condition To express it more fully there is Lex Naturae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Lex connaturalis gratiae The Law of Nature and the connatural Law of Grace as Suarez has it in his Book De Legibus I am pleased much with the terms though I found not that he did well understand them or explain them himself Only thus much he says that the Ancients before Moses who were governed by the Law of Nature only must have this Lex connaturalis gratiae together with it or comprehended under it or else no man then upon earth could be saved which is a truth so evident as makes the proof of that Law by that reason alone to be good When he terms this Law then a Law connatural I understand by it that this Law of lapsed Nature this Law of Grace or remedying Law is written in the heart of man in regard to his fallen nature no less than the Law of pure nature it self was The Law of Nature as I take it is the dictates of right reason declaring to us our duty to God to our selves and to our neighbours and the light of the same reason will dictate to us when we have failed in that duty to repent and turn to God with trusting to his mercy and pardon if we do so and not else We do find it legible in our hearts that God is good and wisely gratious to pity our infirmities and consider our lost estate and necessary frailty as that there is a God and any worship that is at all due to him There is mercy with thee that thou shouldst be feared And these Characters thus engraven in the heart of man is the same law of Grace in the practical contents as is more largely paraphrased upon by the Prophets in the Old and the Apostles in the New-Testament There is no difference at all in the Substance as Divines speak but in the Administration It is as one lately hath expressed it lively no otherwise than as a Book thrice Printed the second Edition is larger than the first and the third most compleat and perfect This I will say the Covenant was still on foot the Condition sincerity according to their light men were judged by it and many saved Here only is the difference that the foundation on which all this is laid the Mediation Righteousness and Sacrifice of Christ comes not to be revealed but in Types and darker promises till the promulgation of the Gospel Now I say that though the Heathen be not under or have not this Law of Grace in the third and last setting our or in the state under the Gospel yet they are under it or have it in the state of the Ancients or as they had it in the first promulgation and upon supposition that any of them do according to the light they have live up in sincerity to this Law I dare not be the man that shall deny but through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ procuring this Law or Covenant for them as for us and all the world they shall be saved even as we and we shall be saved even as they Not to leave this yet I have learned from Cicero that all Laws must be derived from the Divine Reason and Will I have learned from others that this Reason of God in his Government of all things agreeably to his own nature and the nature of his Creatures is the Eternal Law I have learned from the Scripture that there is a Law of Works and a Law of Grace I do learn by consequence that these Laws as frames of Gods Government over man must be reconcileable with the Eternal Law or the reason of his Wisdom and Justice and Goodness the one of them being fit for the estate of man in Innocency the other for his Lapsed condition How these Laws do now consist and not consist with one another while the Scripture saies sometimes we are freed from the Law and sometimes that it is established That not a tittle of it shall pass and that we are not under the Law but under Grace I do not intend here any full decision I will draw only one chief stroke towards it The Law may be considered as the Rule of man's duty or Measure of Good and Evil according to his own nature and Gods Or as the Instrument of God's Government over man or Measure of his dealing with us or judging of us according to our discernings It cannot be conceived but so long as the Nature of God and Man is the same and Good and Evil which consists in an agreeableness to them both is the same the Law of Nature must remain unchangeable as the measure of our moral actions But as it is the instrument of Gods Government in the world it is as certain that through the Mediation of Christ who hath satisfied his Father for our breach of it it is relaxed so as we are not dealt withal according to the tenour of the Law in the matters of this life or of that which is to come I distinguish these two things a Rule of Life and a Rule for Life A Rule for Life is expressed in these words He that doeth them shall live in them We are freed from the Law upon the later account we are made free to it in regard to the former That is we are under the Law so as we are still bound to live according to it but we are delivered from it so as through mercy and the merits of Christ we shall not be judged by it There is Norma vitae and Norma judicii The Law is of force as a rule of Life or Duty but we are not under it as a rule of Judgement We shall be judged saies St. James by the Law of Liberty and Paul saies according to my Gospel Blessed be God for this truth Now that the Government of God over the whole world is by the Law of Grace and not of Works thus much being said imperfectly only for light in the way does appear as the Sun
or Moon in the Heavens For God hath not left himself without witness in that he does good and gives us fruitful seasons These are effects of his mercy which he could not shew to the world as he does if he dealt with it according to the Law of Works When Abraham pleads with God for Sodom that he would spare it if there were ten righteous persons in it it is manifest that he must account of Gods Government over the earth to be a Government of Grace That the righteous be as the wicked that be far from thee saies he shall not the judge of all the earth do right If God should do but right to the best of men according to the righteousness of the Law of Works there could be no such pleading as this Neither is there any righteous no not one saies the Scripture nor could God have accepted of Abraham himself for one had there been nine besides but upon the account of the Law of Grace It is a righteousness consisting in a condecency of his Goodness and Mercy and not in the Rule of his district Holiness that Abraham intends When the Prophets call upon Israel to repent and to do righteousness that they may live it is a perpetual discovery that God dealt not with them according to the Covenant of Works The Law admits no repentance and there is no righteousness that a man can live by according to the Law It is such a righteousness then they must mean still which is the same with the just mans faith whereby it is said he shall live and that is the righteousness of faith in the Gospel or righteousness of God which lies in a conformity to the law of Grace See Mediocria about the beginning of my Paper of the Covenants We are righteous according to this Law when we perform the condition God is righteous according to it when he accepts us thereupon unto Pardon and Life We have a most signal instance in the Ninevites of these two things I do here stand upon If Gods government over the Heathen was not by the Law of Grace how could the Ninevites by their repentance have diverted his judgments And if this Law had not been connatural with faln man so as to be written in their hearts how could they trust in God that upon their forsaking sin and their turning to him they should find mercy and be saved from destruction Both these things I say have in this one instance their full evidence And what think we of Cornelius the Centurion and Roman how could his Prayers and Almes be accepted with God if Cornelius as well as Paul a Roman as well as Jew were not under the same Government of Grace when there is nothing we do but is imperfect and lyable to a curse by the Law of Works And what shall we conclude then from both instances but that which Peter upon conviction himself concludes Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons but in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted of him There are three things go to a Law That it be for the publick good That it be the will of the Lawgiver That it be promulgated to the subject That the Law of Grace is good for the world there can be no question That it is Gods will the world should be governed by it appears by what is spoken and that this Law hath been promulgated to mankind appears both in the general notice of it in mens hearts I will write my Law in their hearts saies God in the New Covenant as distinguished from that of the Jews and in the express declaration of God to our first Parents that the seed of the Woman should break the Serpents head and in his Covenanting with Noah which must be understood without dispute in regard to them and their posterity Now when such a Law hath been promulgated to Adam and Noah as belonging to all the world being to come of them it must be proved that this Law is or hath been somewhere or at some time again repealed by God or else must every man and woman in the world be under this government of God according to it and consequently be in a capacity of Salvation I will to these Reasonings add one syllogism It is not the hearers of the Law but doers shall be justified This is express in one Verse of the second to the Romons But same Heathen are doers of the Law though not hearers of it This is affirmed in the next Verse For when the Gentiles which have not the Law do by nature the things contained in the Law with the rest following Ergo some Heathen are justified and saved If any cavil and say that no man is a doer of the Law he must be answered that the Apostle here speaks of such a doing only as is supposed to be among the Jews that were godly or Jews inwardly in the Verses after And I renew my argument They that are doers of the Law according to the sense of such Texts as make the keeping the Commandments of God necessary to Salvation such as when Christ saies If thou wilt enter into life keep the Commandments and such as when the Apostle saies They that by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory shall have eternal life that is They who are doers of it as all that are Jews inwardly and in the Spirit do keep it and no otherwise to wit not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not according to the rigour of the Law but according to acceptation by the equity of the Gospel They I say shall be justified and saved But some Heathen are doers of the Law in this sense which is the sense of the Apostle Ergo some Heathen are justified and saved I confirm the Minor by the words ensuing that we may be sure we have the mind of the Apostle Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the Law shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature if it fulfil the Law judge thee who by the letter and circumcision doest break the Law It follows that such as these therefore are Jews inwardly and in the Spirit though they were not outward Jews or in the flesh or of the Circumcision as is apparent in the words already and the last Verses They that are Jews inwardly and in the Spirit then I follow my argument though not outwardly so and in the flesh do fulfill the Law in the sense of this place and are justified But such are some of the Heathen here according to the Apostle Ergo some Heathen are justified and saved And what could be desired more full and convincing if it were not for the first Verse which follows in the next Chapter which does yet add such abounding confirmation to it as I must profess my self perfectly striken with the evidence as with a Beam of light
the one does ever savingly believe and repent or is truly converted till he have the other also there is no hurt in it but I see no need of it What need is there of Grace only to bring us power which we have already There is no man shall be condemned for his cannot but his will not Every man then must have power A man hath his faculties his Understanding his Will and his Executive power the object is proposed His duty known There is nothing to hinder He may act if he will The Scripture indeed speaks of a Cannot that we can do nothing that we are dead in trespasses and the like but all these expressions put together comes to this to wit such an indisposition on the soul as that a man certainly never will of himself This is the Scriptures cannot truly defined See Mediocria in the Paper of Election which otherwhere therefore is ordinarily called a will not You will not come to me that you may have life There is Natural power still where yet there is Moral impotency as others have it And it is no absurd thing I hope to say a man can do what he can that is he can do what he hath natural power to do Here then I will stick Power is of Nature I said it before but to exert that power into act is of Grace Power is of Nature but to Will and to Do is of God There is no people but have the Object I count and some light of it in their measure so that every body may live according to what he hath and be accepted if he will I grant this to the Pelagian to the Schools to the Arminian that every one may if they will The Spirit saies come and the Bride saies come and whosoever will let him come What 〈◊〉 I say more Whosoever will believe and repent may believe and repent whosoever will be saved may be saved This I say with them but I must then say again with the Orthodox that if any will it is of the grace of God If he will it is of Gods grace against Pelagius No man cometh to me unless the Father draw him If he will it is of Gods special grace against the Arminian But ye believe not because ye are not of my sheep As many as were ordained to salvation believed In short then whosoever will may or can but no man will though he can without grace and this grace Here is the decision of this great controversie And as for the Arminian grace what good of that which if one had it not he should have pleaded a Cannot and been excused but by having it he must be condemned In the last place seeing I perceive this Gentleman is listed for Arminianism I care not if I tell him yet some more of my heart about it I am pretty sensible how things hang together If God intend to give grace and salvation to a few particular persons it is suitable that such only should be redeemed and if this grace be free as decreed absolutely to these it is suitable the will be not free so as to be able to choose or refuse it It is then agreeable that those be kept by the same almighty power to salvation Here are the five points on one side On the other hand If a man that hath grace is to take heed lest he fall it is suitable that grace be such as might be refused at first as well as it may after be lost That the will consequently is free so as to co-operate with it or not That Christ therefore hath purchased but the same grace for one as well as another That Election then be of such persons as use their own liberty and Gods grace as they ought when those that do not are justly rejected and condemned I must declare now I find here no aversion in my mind against the last set of opinions but rather some disinclination to the former I feel my genius more afraid of a captivity by that we call Orthodoxism than by any thing else which makes me come with less prejudice to read Vorstius than Rutherford or Twisse I have no preocupation therefore I am sure on my affections whatsoever I have on my judgement in these points Nevertheless there is a chain laid on my soul from the holy Scriptures which holds it fast The chain consists of these links Personal Election Regeneration and that Few shall be saved These three Doctrines I must say are so concatenated in my mind one with another that so long as any one of them will hold it is in vain to make any attempt to get loose from either of the other I cannot but confess many times they are grievous to my mind and I could wish they were otherwise but if they are the dictates of holy writ I must pray to God to forgive my reluctancy and submit to them I have had indeed sometimes in my soul some other notion of Election than is expressed ordinarily by others I have lookt methinks on the deliberations of the Almighty with his Son from eternity to speak after the manner of men to be how they should be glorified most in the Salvation of man and there are two waies to that end the way of Works and the way of Grace If man being made after Gods image does live according to the law of his Creation and stand in that estate he must be happy and glorifie his Maker in a method of works but if he be left to himself and fall and be recovered by the rdemption of the Son and then have a new Law for his faln condition and continued help to live according to it then shall God glorifie himself in mans salvation by the methods of his most wonderful grace Now what if Gods election from eternity be nothing else but this design that mans salvation shall be in a way of Grace and not of Works He hath chosen us in him saies the Text that we should be holy I put the Emphasis on the words in him It is Christ hath procured the new Law according to which we may be holy and accepted when else we could not be holy by the Law of our Nature and so it is not by the works of righteousness which we have done or works by that Law but by the renewing of the Holy Ghost or his assistance to perform the Law of Grace so that when it is said other-where Not of works lest any should boast it is added For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus to good works We were created at first to a law of righteousness but this being once broken unless we had had a new Law purchased by Christ and a new Creation through him we could not have been righteous any more so that it is not of works which are properly mans own according to the Law of his Nature but of those which we are created to in Christ Jesus to wit those which are called the righteousness of
Election and Inchoate Salvation There are three that bear record in Heaven and three in Earth saies St. John These three agree in one and those three are one I will say so here There are three things that bear record in Scripture Election Regeneration and That few shall be saved These three agree in one that is in their testimony for the Orthodox against the Arminian and so for St. Austine the Synod of Dort and Dr. Owen against this Author And these three are one in their concatenation one with another Election is the preparation of that special effectual grace which works our regeneration and our regeneration is the begetting in us that life that spiritual life which runs on to eternity Effectual grace is the Execution of Election and entrance of Salvation Grace is glory in the infancy and Glory is grace in full age at maturity or in consummation These things are thus linked and this is the Chain that holds me I do endeavour to make the chain as casie as I can and get as much room in it as I can by going the middle way but I am held under it If you cannot break every link you shall never break any one of them or if you could it were in vain to do it And now would I look into this Gentlemans heart how it can serve him to meditate a reply to these things I will tell him in his own words the issue it must come to But what if the Scriptures teach that the promise of Regenerating grace are made only to those that are absolutely elected to glory This hereby I count is proved in the very root of it I answer saies he If this can be once shewn I have done or if it can be made to appear but probable by the Scriptures I shall begin to suspect all my reasoning against it For I heartily believe the Scriptures to be the word of God and all my Reasonings shall submit to this one Proposition Whatsoever God hath said that is true This is said well and so well said as I will end this Chapter with it and I think we must both end the Controversie with it They shall make war with the Lamb and the Lamb shall overcome them for he is the Lord of Lords and King of Kings and those that are with him are called and faithful and chosen CHAP. V. Of the Resistibility or Irresistibility of the Spirits Operations in reference to his last Chapter I Come to the Authors last Chapter which is concerning the manner and measure of the holy Spirus operations And I observe here the Controversie of it the Doctrine of it and the Vse of it For the Controversie of it it may be reduced to two Questions Whether the Operations of Gods Spirit be by way of moral swasion or physical operation and whether these Operations or the effectual grace of God on the heart in a Sinners conversion be irresistible I will content my self with the last point unto which the other I conceive may be reduced and this is a controversie as others before which hath the Arminians on one side and Synod of Dort on the other The Dr. is for the Synod we may be sure and this Author for the Arminians The only thing to be understood between both is what they mean by the term irresistitle If the Dr. hath received by it an apprehension as if the work of grace on the soul was such as disarmed the will of its liberty and left it no power of resisting according to that saying which this Author quotes for his that the Will cannot make use of that grace which it can refuse the Doctor is out for the Will cannot be without natural liberty of refusing or willing and if that beraken away it is destroyed but if herein he be miseited or his intention perverted and he does hold only that this work is irresistible in regard to the event that is where that grace which is effectual is given it will infallibly have its effect the Doctor is in the right Again if this Author by resistible undersiands that where this grace is given or where the Spirit thus operates the will hath not only power of resisting but many times does resist so that Christ may say but to any one who hath that grace I would and you would not this Author is out for this special effectual grace flowes from the decree of Election and can neverfail but if he mean by resistible only that though the will be carried by it and does not resist yet it hath power still to resist so that its liberty for all that cannot be lost he is in the right The decree of Election and this grace that flows from it is not consistent with a contrary event but they are consistent with a contrary power a power I mean to do the contrary They will certainly and infallibly carry the Will because Gods will must stand and his decree cannot fail but the power of doing the contrary or not doing is not inconsistent with the certainty of the thing being done The power of doing otherwise and doing otherwise are two things Where the Decree and Grace is they infallibly produce the effect that we shall not do otherwise but the power of doing otherwise is untouched The thing is necessary in regard to the decree and it is free or contingent in regard to this power in man to resist Man hath power to resist so grace is resistible but it is irresistable in regard to the act or effect When the power then and liberty remains this work of God upon the soul is not by such a way of physical operation as the raising one from the dead or as creation is but it is by such a way as is suitable to a free creature who is brought to act out of election it is by Argument and the Word as well as by the Divine motion It is therefore for ought I see neither by meer physical operation nor only by moral swasion but by an omnipotent perswasion By such a sweet attemperation to the faculties as will infallibly carry the Will and yet not by compulsion If you ask me any farther I will be exculed I remember Christ speaking of this work compares it to the wind which we cannot perceive either whence it comes or whither it goes And if we cannot tell the things that are with us how shall our vessels comprehend the wayes of the most High the workings the manner and the measure of the working of the Spirit of God I must add this only which is open Let the term irresistible be expounded right I am for the Doctor Let the term resistible be expounded right I am for this Author When I agree then with both of them if they both will agree with me we must grow all friends in this point For the Doctrine of the Chapter it comes to this summ which I can give here in the words of the Author The holy spirit of God
terms of the Gospel shall be unperformable And that this Faith may be in our power he will have a preventing Grace which is not the Grace it self of the Gospel that being all conditional but some Divine assistance accompanying it as enables every body that hears the Gospel to believe unless they wilfully reject it He is afraid of Pelagianism to allow that any do or can believe of their own strength without Grace though Austin when he entertained this mans thoughts made no scruple of that and therefore he will help out the good Father here very kindly with the intimation of a Grace that being not confined to any condition must be common and so belong to all who are brought into that state which is a state of Grace the state of being under the Gospel when Christ says Go preach the Gospel he that believes not shall be damned It is repugnant he argues to the goodness and justice of God that he should with-hold that assistance as is necessary to make this condition possible and believing without such Grace is impossible Upon this Grace then which all have who have the word preached a man becomes his Believer This Faith or bare Christianity with Prayer is the condition of that promise that God will give his Holy Spirit to those that ask him The Spirit being given we are to improve his Grace This improvement is the condition of that farther promise that God will dwell in us That God will give us his Spirit and that he will dwell in us are the principal promises of Grace in the Gospel I consent with this Author understanding Grace only of these operations This implies a plentiful communication of farther degrees of Grace for perseverance Upon the condition of perseverance we shall be saved Lo here the notion of this worthy Author wherein I think I have done him and my Reader right to present it with all the light about it as I was able to draw it from him I will now requite the ingenuity and liberty of his opinion with the like freedom in my Animadversions In the first place I do apprehend that these things have lien in the mind of this Gentleman not yet seven years and I think that a man had need to take no less time than Jacob served for Rachel to consider well before he wed himself to a Party in the controversie of the Five points especially if he take to that side which stands condemned by the Synod of Dort with our British Divines in it who being sent thither by Authority were to determine nothing we may be sure but what was agreeable to the Doctrine of our Church and also when the Father who first sprang that notion which this Author is in quest of did upon most mature deliberation himself forsake it and that only as I believe upon a full conviction from the Scripture which led him into the Doctrine of Absolute Election which this man as suddenly rejects as he maturely embraced shewing himself even fond of it in all his latter Writings even to the death Which makes me add this moreover that forasmuch as I see several of our younger Divines being of more quick parts so forward upon these points I will pass my conjecture that by that time they have well bred their teeth they will not perhaps be so much in pain as they seem now to be to run into disputation as they do either with Calvin or Doctor Owen In the second place I cannot lightly give the Gentleman my approbation to his new coin I am sensible of so much hurt and ill consequence that may come of this boldness to go about to alter terms that have gotten into our Divinity when it is not that of the Schools only but of our Sermons and practical Books that this Author is not aware of what he does It is the raw Divine will take up these terms and when he comes to use them he will be so confounded himself and confound the people that hear him that they will be as those that speak in a strange tongue one to another For instance what if a green Preacher comes and tells his Congregation after this Author that all that hear him are in a state of Grace What if he comes and preaches on that the Gospel gives no ground for us to expect any special Grace till we perform the condition of the Gospel How odd must this appear to the hearers in any judicious Congregation when we know the first Grace we mean effectual is given without condition Yet let this Author explain these words for him that by special Grace we must always understand Grace promised to qualified persons so that all he means must be that that Grace which is promised on condition is not given till we perform the condition the matter admits of no contradiction Besides this evil the new forming of terms which are received to other significations in the Church is methinks but like a man who hath some very curious work to engrave and when he has all those tools in his shop that are made on purpose for the doing that work he will use his knife only This may indeed commend the rarity and industry but not the wisdom of that workman who could have done his business better if he had used those Instruments which were ready by him and proper for it In the third place there is one thing I must needs observe wherein I think this Gentleman in his Hetorodoxy to be a little too Orthodox and that is in his ordering the scheme of his notion so as that the homo Evangelizatus only shall be the subject of God's Grace that is when he does hold forth a common Grace vouchsased to all who are under the Gospel enabling them to believe if they will upon which the promise of the Spirit belongs to them and so the special Grace of it upon Gospel conditions unto everlasting life he does leave all the world besides in such a state as is without all Grace and consequently in a remediless condition Whereas he may find in the Schools that there is an universal Grace maintained by many which they call sufficient and which indeed is that which this Author means by his common Grace as no man is without whether Heathen or Christian in the improvement whereof farther degrees are attainable upon the Habenti dabitur till it comes to be effectual so that it shall lie upon the liberty of the will in every body whether they be saved or damned I know the Author may desert these and not be singular in this point of his opinion so long as he hath the Fathers generally St. Cyprian and St. Augustine more particularly the Papist and Protestant Churches with the eighteenth Article of our own on his side and that which may please this Author something more I remember Arminius in some place of his works does expresly exclude all Heathens from salvation though many that have tread in his steps otherwise
is our head but he governs us by his Spirit which is infused though I think no habit be and when we are lead by this Spirit as there is Rule there is Influence and this Union must be Real and Mystical and not that which is Political only Suppose a man whâ—se head was high as the Heavens yet so long as the same soul animates all the members the feet as in the head it is one man Christ our head is in Heaven and we on earth yet as the same Spirit is in us which is in him the head and members make one dy nay in the words of the Scripture one Christ O Agrippa believest thou the Prophets O thou Author of this Book against Dr. Owen Believest thou these mysteries of the Christian Religion I know that thou believest For the later sort There is one place in his Book where we have two of his pernicious errors together The Doctor belike hath said that though a man should reform his life and be changed from vice to vertue and that by hearing the word preached This is the most I count he saies and which may be exemplified in Herod who heard John and did many things yet if there be not an habitual righteousness infufed it signifies nothing to regeneration To this purpose is it only and altogether the Doctor speaks Hereupon this Gentleman breaks out and challenges him before his own party as he speaks and before the world for contradicting the Scripture He that doeth Righteousness is born of God and then charges him with Pelagianism He professes he is in earnest and that this is rank Pelagianism that the Doctor allows so much to be done without saving grace I have the more reason to be moved at this because a certain person of quality and of a ready judgement having this Author by him turned me to this place as if the Doctor was much to be blamed when I must needs say that this Gentleman hath no where exposed himself so much in his Book as here where he endeavours to expose the Doctor There is no man that reads practical Divines that lay down characters of the truly godly man the sound Believer and how far the Hypocrite may go but does know they speak commonly as the Doctor does and there are few one would think so inconsiderate or raw but should also know here how to distinguish so easily as between the matter of what is done and the manner of the performance Good works may be considered quoad operis substamtiam or quoad modum quo ordinaniur id vuam aevernam There is no good act no not the least that can be done is performed in that manner as it ought or as it is required to be accepted in order to salvation but a man must be born of God according to his text and have the assistance of the Spirit But for the matter of the work or of our duty this Author must consider better that the Regenerate and Unrepenerate are alike as to that One can hear and pray and give alms and abstain from evil as well as the Other and many times the veryest Hippocrite pretends most Nay what saies this Gentleman to Socrates Aristides Epimomdas Plato Plutark Cato What saies he to Almanzor that Mahomet in Einperor whose life is set out by Sir Walter Rayleigh in a little Book for such singular vertues especially as to his goodness and righteousness that I find him not paralleld by any Christian Will this Author censure Sir Walter for a Pelagian for such a narration or will he make me one if I believe it Or will he come over here and when he hath placed such in a state of Nature and so out of a state of Grace will he allow an Heathen or Mahometan to be a regeherate person Hath the Gentleman read Ruiz or one such a kind of Schoolman as he all over Let him see when they have denied against pelagius all ability in man to do any thing even but to give an occasion which is active and not passive only to infuse in us their justifying grace whether they are also ignorant of some such distinction It is no Pelagianism in the Schools to say a man can do many things civily morally good through the power of nature education custome for company sake for glory but it is so to say he can do any thing without preventing grace in order to his justification There is no need therefore of such vehemence nor of any such expressions he uses otherwhere I will desire the Doctor to consider whether the Father of lies be not the representative of such shameful Writers as he is the example of These kind of words are not well There is a great deal of acrimony I see with a little truth mixt methinks like the fire and hail that ran together in one of the Egyptian Plagues in the Books of many late rising adversaries to this learned pious and reverend person It were happy if the opprobrious words of the prejudicate would make thewise mend their faults It were well also if such an inconsiderate confident piece of elation of mind as here indeed is be but repressed with the shame and blushes of another Let the righteous smite me it shall be a kindness and let him reprove me it shall be an oyle and not break my head CHAP. VII Of Dr. Owen's Book of Justification and of the reconciliation of St. Paul and St. James and the Imputation of Christ's righteousness upon his account HAving said this for the Doctor I have a little now also to say to him I was reading his later Book of Justification when this Author came to my hands and I had thought of making some remarks upon it I am not satisfied with what he hath offered for the reconciliation of St. James and Paul on that subject This is the reason I suppose that is the most solid why so many do choose here of late to go with the mediocrian or steer the middle way in that point I perceive that Dr. Tully with our first Reformed Divines and this excellent Doctor are for distinguishing of Faith and Justification but will not let us by no means distinguish of Works for the reconciliation of the Apostles I do wonder at this The Apostle James and the Apostle Paul do both agree that we are justified by Faith The one saies we conclude that a man is justified by Faith and the other saies also it is by Faith Their seeming difference is only about works when one saies by Faith without Works and the other by Faith and Works also And how then comes it to pass that we must not distinguish of Works but of Justification and Faith to compose the difficulty I will offer the Doctor therefore here one Argument under his favour which shall be but one and that not as others have so far as I know for then it were like he had already weighed it It is this That Justification which St. Paul