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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	apprehend_v	faith_n	justify_v	5,487	5	8.9539	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85510	A modest vindication of the doctrine of conditions in the Covenant of Grace, and the defenders thereof, from the aspersions of arminianism & popery, which Mr. W. E. cast on them. By the late faithful and godly minister Mr. John Graile, minister of the gospel at Tidworth in the county of Wilts. Published with a preface concerning the nature of the Covenant of Grace, wherein is a discovery of the judgment of Dr. Twisse in the point of justification, clearing him from antinomianism therein. By Constant Jessop, minister of the Gospel at Wimborn minister in the county of Dorset. Whereunto is added, a sermon, preached at the funeral of the said Mr. John Grail. By Humphrey Chambers, D.D. and pastor of the church at Pewsie.	Graile, John.; Chambers, Humphrey, 1598 or 9-1662.; Jessop, Constantine, 1601 or 2-1658. Pauls sad farewel to his Ephesians.	1654 (1654)	Wing G1477; Thomason E817_1; Thomason E817_2; ESTC R207370	97,971	125

Controversie doth turn 2. That your saying That Papist ascribe not any meritoriousnesse to conditions c. is most false if there be any truth in these Protestants collections yea that it doth asperse these reverend Protestant Authours fore-named who oppose the Papist in the very particular 3. That those of our Divines who maintain conditional promises in the Covenant whilst withal they exclude all claim of dignity worth merit or any such causality from these conditions do not joyne with Papists as you would make the people believe but with Protestants against Papists and differ not one hairs breadth from those who aver the Covenant to be absolute not conditional for by the Conditions which they deny they understand meritorious Conditions 4. That in rejecting this distinction between a Condition and a meritorious Cause and asserting the Covenant to be without not only meritorious conditions but all other also you oppose all Orthodox Divines that ever I met with not only those that hold the Covenant to be conditional but those also who in terminis aver the absoluteness of it for by the conditions they reject they understand meritorious ones as hath been shewed and joyn with Mr. Saltmarsh Dr. Crisp and such other whom the Othodox not out of malice but for distinction sake and for the due desert of some of their Tenents do call Antinomians But let us see what further strength you bring to the battering of this distinction for your charge of Popery will not hold You add therefore farther Did Adams doing merit life None will say it Yet the Grace of God is more shewed in the latter then in the first Covenant Therefore in it no conditions at all Sir The Apostle saith To him that worketh the reward is reckoned not of grace but of debt Rom. 4. 4. I know some hold the Covenant with Adam wherein works were injoyned to be a Covenant of Grace I have heard Mr. Symonds of Holland deliver that in a Sermon at Rederith and thereupon divide the Covenant of Grace into the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Faith Certainly had Adam kept the condition of the first Covenant he had done no more then his Duty nor had he profited God at all besides there would have been small or no proportion between that his Work and the reward all which are required to merit proper So that in some sense that may be called a Covenant of Grace Neverthelesse in the latter Covenant of Faith the grace of God is so far more fully richly and gloriously manifested then in that of Works as that it obtaineth the title of the Covenant of Grace The Apostle saith it was by Faith that it might be by Grace Rom. 4. 16. And the Scripture being so plain for it I ought to believe it though I could not make it out to others wherein it was freer nor yet apprehend it my self But my good friend the businesse is not so difficult but that it may be and hath been already dispatch'd by some of our side and the freenesse of the latter above the former notwithstanding the conditionality of both at large discovered And that not by excluding faith or the condition of faith from the latter as you would have it for that would interfere with that of the Apostle now cited By Faith that it might be of Grace where Faith is taken in not left out to make out the freenesse Nor yet only because faith is given of God and so ability to keep the latter Covenant is given which is something For though that strength Adam had to keep the first Covenant was freely bestowed on him by God in his Creation yet when God was pleased to enter into a Covenant with him he had it in him and was to work in his own strength and power Whereas in the New Covenant God finds man in an impotent weak and dead condition and graciously promiseth to work in him ability to do what he requireth This I say is something that serves to shew the freenesse of Divine Grace in the new Covenant for the Apostle saith expresly Ephes 2. 8. We are saved by Grace through faith and that not of our selves it is the gift of God where the giving of the thing required to wit Faith is introduced by the Apostle to shew the freeness of Grace But the superabundancy of Grace in the latter Covenant appears mostly in this that in the former the matter of mans Justification had been something of his own his own exact and perfect obedience to the Law of God but in the latter the matter of it is an others the perfect Righteousness of Christ In the one man runs into himselfe for the price of his life and happiness But in the other faith carries him out of himself unto another the Lord Jesus Christ for all In the one the condition it self and the keeping of it was to have been the matter of mans Righteousness the ground of his Justification In the other it is only the Instrument and Mean In the one the condition it self Works procured life in and of themselves without any reference to any other but in the other Faith is looked on not as a Work but as an Instrument nor doth it save for any excellency worth or vertue that is in it but only because it layes hold on Christ I cannot better expresse my self then in Mr. Gatakers words Rejoynder p. 46 47. In the one Works are considered as in themselves performed by the Parties to be justified and live In the other Faith is considered and required not as a work barely done by us but us an Instrument whereby Christ is apprehended in whom is found and by whom that is done whereby Gods Justice is satisfied and life eternal meritoriously procured for us so that they differ as much as these two Propositions 1. Pay your debt of a thousand pounds and be free 2. Rely on such a friends satisfaction made for it and be as free as if you had made full payment and satisfaction your self All this and more you may find in that reverend Divine your contempt of whom and all other not of your way sads the hearts of your friends and makes them fear that which they are loath to suspect concerning you You proceed and tell us that though it be not meritorious yet if it be Antecedent it must be Effective For an Antecedent condition is effective Sir By your own maintaining faith to be an instrument in the work of our salvation which I think is more then a condition though no more I believe then truth you must of necessity grant it both a precedency and efficiency therein for instruments are alwayes reckoned to the efficient cause and in order of nature precede the effect And thus I conceive that faith is effective in the work of our salvation as an instrument receiving Christ not as a condition Conditions are not effective but instruments are As for that of Chamier that a

one spark of the Law of God therefore he justifieth God in his Word and confesseth that he is guilty of death and eternal damnation The first part then of Christianity is the preaching of repentance and the knowledg of our selves And some few lines after The Law doth nothing else but utter sin terrifie and humble and by this meanes prepareth us to Justification and driveth us to Christ And about two leaves after Being thus terrified by the Law the man utterly despaireth of his own strength he looks about and sigheth for the help of a Mediator and Saviour Here then cometh in good time the healthful Word of the Gospel and saith Son thy sins are forgiven thee believe in Jesus Christ crucified for thy sins These sayings of Luther Sir do fully assure me that Luther held a necessity of Legal sorrow and humiliation in persons to be justified and that to prepare them for Justification which is directly against the second Position of your former Sermons concerning the absolutenesse of the Gospel wherein you pleaded what you could against the necessity of such legal sorrow and humiliation But passe we over these and consult we Luther about that necessary mean of faith Let the Question be whether in the Gospel faith be not required to the actual enjoyment of Justification and Remission and to the obtaining of a right thereto and interest therein Or whether we may have a right to and interest in or actual enjoyment of these benefits without faith or before faith We wil not go beyond his Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians for the discovering of his mind herein and begin we where we left Chap. 2. ver 16. Here is to be noted that these three Faith Christ and Acceptation or Imputation must be joyned together Faith taketh hold on Christ and hath him present as a Ring doth a precious stone and whosoever shall be found having this confidence in Christ apprehended in the heart him will God account for Righteous This is the mean and this is the merit whereby we attain the remission of sins and Righteousnesse So on vers 20. of the same Chapter a place cited already he teacheth that it is through faith we are united to Christ and come to call the benefits we have by him ours Cap. 3. 13. about the middle For as much then as Christ reigns by his grace in the hearts of the Faithful there is no sin no death nor curse But where Christ is not knowne there all these things do still remain Therefore all they that believe not do lack this inestimable benefit and glorious Victory And on ver 14. We are all accursed before God before we know Christ and there is no other way to avoid the Curse but to believe A little after This gift of the Spirit we receive not by any other Merits then by faith alone Ver. 26. Faith in Christ maketh us the children of God And Verse 28. comparing our believing to the looking on the brasen Serpent saith thus This is true faith concerning Christ and in Christ whereby we are made members of his body flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone In him therefore we live move and have our being Christ and our faith must be throughly joyned together Vers 29. If ye be Christs then are you Abrahams Seed that is to say If ye believe and be baptized into Christ If ye believe I say c. then are ye the children of Abraham not by nature but by Adoption Yea in the place first cited with which we shall conclude this testimony cha 2. 16. Because thou believest in me saith the Lord and thy faith layeth hold on Christ whom I have freely given unto thee that he might be thy Mediator and High Priest therefore be thou justified and righteous Wherefore God doth accept or account us as righteous only for our faith in Christ Because we do apprehend Christ by Faith all our sins now are no sins But where Christ and faith bee not there is no remission or covering of sins but meer Imputation of sinne and Condemnation I hope Sir in those places Luther speaks plainly enough to the purpose in hand and doth sufficiently declare his belief in this particular to be that faith is required to our justification and that to the obtaining of it that it doth marry us to Christ and so state us in a right unto his benefits that till we have this faith we are accursed caitiffes under death wrath and condemnation and that before God or in his sight Nay Sir he doth say that it is because of our faith and for our faith and that faith is the merit by which we have it which though I doubt not but may passe with a favourable construction yet are higher titles of Honour then any of our Divines do give unto her in pleading for Conditions in the Covenant Your next Author was Peter Martyr his Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans I have where I meet with that common place De Justificatione in it the passage you cite viz. We deny that the Testament of God concerning the remission of sins in Christ hath a condition annnexed to it But first I conceive that Martyr here denies only a condition of Works or a Legal condition Such legal conditions Pighius did plead for And that these are the conditions which Martyr doth deny his owne words in the very same page do clearly expresse For having in the line next after the passage you quote out of him alledged that of the Apostle at large Gal. 5. 15 16 17. hee presently from this Testimony drawes this inference as an Explication of his former negation of conditions in the Testaments Haec verba clarissimè docent These words do most clearly teach that the Testament which God made with Abraham was pure and absolute et sine ulla legali conditione and without any legal condition But that he should deny the condition of faith or that faith was required to Justification that common place shewes not but rather the contrary for about some leaves after speaking of that Rom. 4. It shall be imputed to us as it was to Abraham if we believe he thus saith Is it not here clearly enough said That we must believe that that Jesus Christ whom God raised againe died and rose again that we might be justified and that all our sins might be forgiven us And a little after Every one that seeth the Son and believeth on him hath eternal life Thus therefore we infer But I believe on the Son of God therefore I now have and shall have that which he hath promised Vnlesse faith be wanting wher by we may apprehend the things offered we are justified by the Promises Martyr in that common place reasons wholly against Justification by works And the condition there spoken of unlesse we will do apparent injury to the Author we must understand the condition of works or of the Law which

for application say they is the end of impetration and impetration the foundation of application So that the Arminian doctrine of conditions to be performed by mans owne power which make the issue of Christs death to be uncertaine and pendulous on mans free will is wholly razed thereby but our doctrine of conditions purchased for us by the death of Christ and to be wrought in us by the Spirit of Christ are no way shaken The purchases of Christs death may be surely applied to them for whom they are purchased though they be applyed conditionally Nor is that other maxime of any more strength positâ causâ totali sequitur effectus the totall cause being put the effect followeth for if you speak of mans actual salvation or the application of salvation unto man you cannot say that Christs death is the total cause of it The whole and sole meritorious cause it is But I hope Gods grace is the impulsive cause Christs spirit the efficient cause and faith the instrumental cause And bonum est ex integris causis Good doth arise from all causes entire Now though an instrument be the meanest of causes yet is it necessary in the way of an instrument nor can the effect be in act before it be used Your third head contained such Scriptures as speake of Christ and salvation as of a gift a free gift In pursuance of which you delivered Christ is given freely given of God And if by grace then not of works And what can be laid on the creature that is not a worke If but a Rose not free To be freely and by condition is an absolute and flat contradiction For answer the Covenant with Adam in a passage before you aver to be conditional And in a passage following you seeme to intimate that it is free by saying that he could not have merited had he kept the condition It seems then that to be free and yet to be conditional as flat a contradiction as it is you your selfe have admitted in the Covenant with Adam Did you seriously consider what you spake when you said if but to pay a rose the tenure is not free Certainly my Country men in Glocester-shire account that a very free tenure nor think I them therein mistaken And if some Gentlemen should bestow on you an hundred pound a year on condition you should be more liberal to the poor to the expence not of a rose or two or a penny or two but it may be ten or twenty pound a yeare which unlesse you constantly exhibite you were to lose the principal If for all this condition you should not say that this were a free gift I should account you fowly unthankful If my memory faile not our ancient godly Divines use those similitudes of a Rose or pepper corne to set out the condition not of faith but of good works which they maintaine to be required under the Gospel as a consequent condition By which expression of theirs they do as you say destroy the freenesse of grace But your bare saying so doth not prove it The truth is the Arminians and Papists were more beholding to you for some passages in your Sermons then our ancient godly Protestant Divines But come wee to your Argument which if not taken out of Doctor Crispe is yet certainly the same with his vol. 1. p. 64. p. 179. By gift and on condition is a flat contradiction But take heed that you and the Doctor make not the Scriptures to speake absolute and flat contradiction which say wee are saved by grace through faith Eph. 2. 8. And therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace Rom. 4. 16. And being justified freely by his grace through faith in his blood Rom. 3. 23 24. And in the very place cited by you and the Doctor Rom 11. 6. If by grace then it is no more of works otherwise grace is no more grace But if it be by works it is no more of grace otherwise works are no more works where it followes what then Israel hath not obtained what he seeketh for And if you ask wherefore the Apostle will tell you Rom. 9 32. Because they sought it not by faith but as it were by the works of the law So likewise Where is boasting then it is excluded By what Law of works Nay but by the law of faith Rom 3. 27. And to him that worketh not but believeth Rom. 4. 5. The Scriptures joyn faith and free grace yea they tell us that freenesse of grace is upheld by that requisite or condition of faith But you call it a flat contradiction The Scriptures oppose faith and works But you say What can be laid upon the creature that is not a work You would beare men in hand that we teach contradictions But I am sure these passages of yours contradict the Scripture Again did not Christ lay repentance and faith upon the creature when he said repent and believe the Gospel Matth 4. 17. Mark 1. 15. yea doth he not lay it on them upon paine of damnation when he doubles it Luke 13. 35. except ye repent ye shall perish Did not the Apostles lay something on the creature when they thus answered their troubled converts who in anguish of spirit came with these queries to them men and brethren what shal we doe Acts ● 37. And Sirs what shall I do to be saved ch 16. 20. I say when they thus answered them repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be converted Did they not require something of them and lay something on them And did Christ or his Apostles think you preach any thing contradictory to free grace or free gift I hope whatever contradictions you pinne on our Sermons you will take heed what you fasten on the sayings of Christ and his Apostles whose doctrine we must take leave to believe and follow how contradictory soever it be deemed in the world Do not say here that Christ did not require them nor his Disciples presse them as conditions or as a worke which is the Doctors evasion for you your selfe know that we disclaime faith as a worke as much as you Wee maintaine not any worthinesse excellency or merit in faith I desire you to shew me if you can in any of ours that faith doth justifie as a work done by us or for any worthinesse or excellency that is in it I am sure that I can shew you the contrary and you may also see it if you be pleased to peruse Mr. Gatakers rejoynder to Saltmarsh p. 51. 53. This is that we maintaine that faith is so required of God that if we have it we shall have salvation and if we have it not we cannot have salvation and that not only in knowledge but in the being of it not only the evidence declaration and manifestation of that which is the Doctors opinion p. 168. and I feare is also yours but not the receipt benefit or being of it and that because it

6 15. John 8. 24 Matth. 18. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mark 11. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mark 5. 36. If but if unlesse except only si sin modo dum dummodo were conditional when I learned my Grammer 3. The Office of the Ministry what is it for but to prepare people for mercy by working something in them that may fit them for the receipt of the benefits promised in the New Covenant As John was so are they to be Christs Harbingers and are to make ready a people prepared for the Lord Luke 1. 17. To preach to them that they might be saved 1 Thess 2. 16. To open their eyes and to bring them from darknesse to light and from the kingdom of Satan unto God that they may receive remission of sins c. Acts 26 18. Thou hast ascended up on high thou hast lead captivity captive and hast received gifts for men even for the rebellious that the Lord God may dwell among them Psal 68. 18 On which Dr. Crisp thus glosseth Vol. 2. p. 410. Who is that Them The Rebellious saith the Text And p. 412. The Holy Ghost doth not say that the Lord takes Rebellious persons and fits and prepares them by Sanctification and then when they are fitted he will come and dwell with them but even then without any intermission without any stop even when they are rebellious the Lord Christ hath received gifts for them that the Lord God may dwell among them Thus the Doctor But certainly the Apostle Paul was more acquainted with the mind of the Holy Ghost then Dr. Crisp now he Ephes 4. 8. alledging this of the Psalmist openeth it far otherwise and delivereth it so as to me it seemes full for the confirmation of that we have in hand When saith he he ascended up on high he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men I hope he gave no other then what he received for them Now what gave he It followes He gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers and for what end For the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ till we come c. He did not then receive this gift that though they were rebellious the Lord God might dwell among them whilst they remained so as the Doctor avers But on the contrary he received and gave abroad these gifts of the Ministerial function that thereby people might bee taken off their rebellious principles and broken off their rebellious practices and fitted for the communion with the Most High The sum is the Ministers of the Word are sent on this businesse to prepare people for the Lord for remission and salvation therefore there is something required of them some work to be wrought in them on them before they can actually partake of remission or salvation from the Lord or enjoy communion with the Lord. 4. That which these Ministers of the Gospel have directed sinners to do for the obtaining of Remission Justification and Salvation that in order of nature is to be done before Remission Justification and Salvation can actually be obtained But the Ministers of the Gospel have directed sinners to repent and believe for the obtaining of c. Acts 2 38. chap. 3. 19. chap. 16 30 31. Gal. 2. 16. Nor was it remission or justification in cognoscend only that they were directed to seek in this way of faith and repentance Can any imagine that the meaning of that Query of the Jaylor Sirs what shall I do to be saved should be no more then this What shall I do to be certified and assured of my Salvation Besides that Justification that Paul did himself and directed others to seek by faith Rom. 3. 28. Gal. 2. 16. was such in which works have no hand But to Justification in cognoscendo or in foro conscentiae to the evidencing to us and assuring us that we are justified works do concur James 2. 16. 24. A man is justified assured of Justification by Works and not by faith only So that the other Justification must be of another and different kinde works being wholly excluded from having any thing to do therein 5. They who are in an estate of wrath and death until they do believe and then upon their believing passe out of that estate into an estate of life they are not actually justified till they do believe But the Elect are in such an estate of wrath and death till they do actually believe Ephes 2. Children of wrath even as others Tit. 3. 3. and then when they believe they passe out of that estate 1 John 3 14. We know we are passed from death to life Under the power of death we were then otherwise we could not have passed from it And when passed we from it the same Apostle in his Gospel tells us John 5. 24. chap. 3. ult in one of which places he assures us that he that heareth and believeth is passed and in the other He that believeth not the wrath of God stil abides on him which terms of passing and abiding clearly shew that all the Elect are and continue actually in that woful estate until they do believe I hope you will not say they passe in their own sense and apprehension and so are children of wrath according to their apprehensions The Apostle saith They are children of wrath even as others and certainly others are not only sensibly and appearingly so nay perhaps neither of these wayes but really so For my part I conceive no difference between a vessel of Election and a vessel of wrath but only in regard of Gods purpose and Christs purchase which til it be brought into act doth make no real change in the parties state and condition 6. Until men come actually to have Christ to be united unto him and one with him they cannot partake of Justification nor have any right thereto 1 John 5. 12. He that hath the Son hath life he that hath not the Son hath not life But until men have faith they have not Christ nor are united to him for by faith they receive him John 1. 12. go to him John 6. 35 37. Feed on him dwell in him and he in them John 6. 40 56. By faith they live in him and he in them Gal. 2. 20. By faith he dwelleth in their hearts Ephes 3. 17. Ergo Until men have faith and by faith do actually believe on him they cannot partake of Justification through him John 3. 36. I remember that when in a private conference I pressed some of these places of Scripture in stead of answering to them you demanded Whether the Elect had no benefit by Christ nor right to Christ before they did believe To which I replyed 1. That though there be a purpose in God to give salvation to them and a purchase of it by Christ for them yet had they no right thereunto until they had faith 2 That they might

marry without advising with her Uncle about it she loseth her right to the Legacy given her which by the way may shew the weakness of that Argument that is taken from the word Testament which some use against Conditions as if Conditions could not stand with a Testamentary disposition Now such is Gods grant of salvation it is made in Christ it is made in him unto Believers it is not made to sinners as sinners as some aver but to repenting and believing sinners John 6. 38. 39 40. This is the will of him that sent me that every one that seeth the Son and believeth on him have everlasting life The Grant being made unto us as Believers I conceive we have not right unto the benefit granted until we doe believe Sure I am we cannot have right but by and through our union to him which union being an inestimable benefit we cannot have right before we have benefit 7. Because you are so ready to charge your Adversaries with nonsense and contradictions let us mind you of the old rule He that accuseth another of dishonesty must look well to himself and let the inconsequences which necessarily follow from your Doctrine be our last Argument I beseech you therefore to read me those riddles your Tenents seem to me to contain and to lead me out of those mazes and Meanders which I think your Positions lead unto at least to deliver your self out of them for perhaps my senses may not lead me to follow your clue unlesse I see better solutions then I have seene or heard from you hitherto I beseech you tell me then 1. How there can be Many yea or any true Believers who were never humbled when yet all men must see their Righteousnesse drosse and dung must be schooled by the Law to know their need of Christ before they can or will make out unto him 2. How the same man may be actually reconciled to God have wrath removed from him and be beloved of God with the love of complacency and yet at the same time in regard of the same evil works be an enemy unto God a child of wrath and have wrath abiding on him 3. How the same man may be actually justified and quickned and yet actually dead in regard of the same sins at the same time 4. How the same man at the same time can be a member of Christ one in him and united to him as he must be who is actually justified and a member also of the divel as he cannot but be who still remains an ungodly impenitent and unbelieving person 5. How faith in the work of Justification serves for any farther use then to assure us that we are justified seeing it doth not concur to the essence and being of it or to the constituting of us in a state justifiable and how we are said to be justified by Faith and not by Works when Works assure us of our being justified as well as Faith 6 How in the Petition Forgive us our debts we can pray for any thing more then assurance of pardon when actual pardon is passed long before And how sins can be actually pardoned before they be committed and the guilt removed before it is contracted 7 How God who promiseth pardon to Believers only and condemneth thousands for their impenitency and unbelief can without blemish of his Honour Truth and Justice give pardon to any in his impenitency and unbelief 8 How a man can be said to be bound by Covenant to keep or break the Covenant when yet in the Conant there are no conditions on mans part required to be performed 9 Why it doth not follow from your Tenents that a man may be actually Justified and saved without faith when yet you maintain actual Justification before faith and faith to be required not to the essence of it or interesting of persons in it but only to the assuring them of their interest therein 10. Why it follows not also from them that Christians may live as they list seeing you hold that no conditions are on their part required so that they cannot break the Covenant Whether Doctor Preston dares the Believer to sin if hee can I yet finde not but this I find That hee holds that the Believer may both sin and by sinning may break the Covenant as you may find in his Treatise of the New Covenant p. 458 459 460. c. These are some of the many for more might be named straites and intricacies your Positions lead your self and your followers into out of which how you will rid your self I wot not but sure I am that your Solutions hitherto given do yeild no manner of real satisfaction not only not to my self but not to any other of your godly and intelligent Auditors that I have yet met with Toward the close of your Sermon you ushered in your Authorities with this Objection But many good Divines call it a Conditional Covenant But Sir you are meal mouthed in the very Objection for not only many but the most part of Divines call it so All that I have ever yet met with Dr. Crisp Mr. Saltmarsh and your self exepted As for those Authors you bring I shall by and by shew your fowle play in citing some of them and your mistake of others and discover most if not all of them to be on my side and to be only against meritorious Conditions The like mincing you used in a passage in the beginning of your Sermon viz. That some good Divines say That Faith and Repentance are the way to glory Whereas if you be pleased to rub your poll I believe you may call to mind not only that some but most good Divines call these Conditions and say as much of good Works as you here allow to Faith namely that they are via ad regnum the way to the Kingdom though not Causa regnandi the cause of reigning I am sure Mr. Perkins Dr. Preston Bishop Davenant and most others I have read do call them so But you are politick in these expressions for thereby you would perswade your hearers that you had many on your side like some Travellers who passing on in solitary wayes keep a whistling and a hooping as if they had a great deal of company whereas alas they are either wholly alone or at most have but one or two Companions Now Sir for your reply to this Objection we shall refer it to the close of all and at present shall look into the Authours you bring and see whether they stand for the opinion for which you cited them or rather against it as shall be made to appear and then shall add some others to them You begin with the Fathers but there you are sparing in your citations you tell us the Question was rarely agitated then But you might have said that the Fathers if they faulted in any thing about the matter in Controversie it was in giving too much to Faith Repentauce and good Works by

salvation or the perfection of that and not in reference to the beginning and being of them for so much some following passages hint out unto us of which we shall speak more when we come unto them Not long after you challenge Malice it selfe to shew if it can any one of your side that maintains salvation without repentance and faith And here Sir if I should produce some that doe assert it should I not very prittely get me the odious name of malicious Wel the Lord give us to hate the affect and fact as much as we doe the name Truth is truth and must be discovered And I would to God there were not too many expressions vented both in Pulpits and Presses too much tending this way I find in Mr. Saltmarsh Free grace p. 102. Do not the promises belong to sinners as sinners And p. 104. The promises of Christ are held forth to sinners as sinners not as repenting sinners or humble sinners p. 105. Whatever promise hath a condition in it is ours in Christ who only is the conditioned person for all promises p. 84. So as we are to believe our repentance true in him who hath repented for us p. 126 All the conditions were on Christs part none on ours So p. 153 In the new Covenant God gives himself freely in Christ undertaking all both with the Father and the Soule nothing being required on mans part Occasional word That those Ministers who presse repentance and faith do overheate the wine of the Gospel with conditions and qualifications so the poore soules cannot taste it So also in Doctor Crispe I meet with many such like or the same passages as in his Christ alone exalted vol. 1. p. 120. Christ belongs to sinners as sinners p. 211. He receiveth sinners as sinners p. 164. All the tie lies on Gods part to do every thing that is mentioned in the Covenant p. 73. Hast thou but a mind to Christ come and taste of the water of life freely there is nothing looked for from thee to take thy portion in this Christ. And in his second Volume p. 420 We are justified without works not only without the concurrence of them to justification but even without the being of them and presence in the person to be justified I might name many more but these may suffice and I pray consider seriously whether from most if not all those assertions doth not follow by natural and necessary consequence that monstrous conclusion now enquired of viz. that wee may be saved without faith and repentance Or that faith and repantance are not necessary to salvation Truly they speak so fully to this particular in my apprehension that all that I can see left you to save your selfe is not to own these men for men of your side which I should be heartily glad to heare But consider one passage more frequent as in these Authors so in your owne Sermon This That the Covenant of free grace is as free as that with Noah Now concerning that we know that men are partakers of the benefits promised in it though they neither know nor believe any such Covenant And if this of salvation be as free wil it not thence follow that men may be saved in it though they never believe it or so much as know it To me it seems to follow without any constraint at all as I shall labour to manifest by reducing it to an Argument which I forme thus By vertue of the Covenant with Noah men are sure to be saved from an universal deluge though they neither know nor believe such a Covenant Therefore if the new Covenant be as free as that with Noah a man may be saved in it though he neither know it nor can believe it More of this particular you may read in Mr. Gataker against Saltmarsh both in the former Treatise pag. 25. and in the Rejoynder pag. 11 13 88. where he clearly sheweth this very inference to be unconstrained and makes good the charge now in debate against Mr. Saltmarsh which Reverend Author if you had any reference unto in that unsavory and noisome passage in your Sermon I challenge malice it self I must needs tell you you were exceedingly to blame Come wee to your Arguments whereby you labour to prove that no conditions are annexed to the purchases of Christs death in regard of application Your first was from those places of Scripture which declare the all sufficiency of Christs death and the perfection of that in regard of impetration as Heb. 10. 14 and 1 3 9 12 Unto which may be added your second head of Scriptures viz. those which hold out unto us Gods acceptation of this price and acquiesence in it as This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased c. Now these doe prove that the price paid by Christ was perfect and sufficient yea that it did fully impetrate merit and purchase at the Fathers hands the perfect and complete redemption of his Elect So that God lookes for nothing more to be done or suffered towards the making up of the price but rests fully satisfied with the sufferings of his Son But they are of no force at all to take off any requisite necessary to the application of this purchase be it qualification condition instruments or agent for instance If I should on your ground argue Jesus Christ hath by himselfe purged our sins and perfected c. Therefore there is no neede the Gospel should be preached unto men or that the spirit of grace be sent unto them to regenerate them I doubt not but you would deny my inference as well you might So where you reason Christ by dying hath paid a perfect price which was also accepted of God the Father Ergo there are no conditions annexed to the purchase of his death you must give me leave to deny your Argument And the reason is because they are not annexed as any part of the price to make up it complete But only as the way and manner in which the means and instrument by which the terms and condition on which and according to which God doth give and man receives salvation purchased Notwithstanding that Christ hath thus perfectly purchased it yet himself doth tell me that unlesse I repent I shall perish Luk. 13. 3 5. And If I believe not I shall be damned Mark 16. 16. As for that maxime you cited in the prosecution of your Argument Impetratio est fundamentum applicationis it makes for us and not at all against us For if it be fundamentum the foundation then it is not ipsa applicatio the application it self which is the monster your side doe hug and suckle It makes indeed against Arminian salvability for which end it is used by our Authours viz. to shew that though impetration and application may be distinguished yet they cannot be separate or divided in their object But that for whomsoever Christ doth impetrate to him the benefits impetrated must be applyed

against the Papists And truly I wonder that you should cavil at that distinction I gave between a condition and a meritorious cause And more that you should say that Papists ascribe no merit to conditions and preparations You know the question concerning the conditional promises of the Gospel is handled under that concerning the necessity of works where our Writers grant a necessity of presence but not of efficiencie which Bellarmine contends for Now I pray what doe they understand by that efficiency but a meritorious efficiency or what other then that can be ascribed unto works yea that our Authours understand merit by that efficiency they deny Adde to Chemnitius Chamier and consider two passages in him But the Gospel doth not promise salvation without any condition of observing the law nor did ever any of ours teach that so that he do not take the word condition for merit And in ch 5. Sect. 11. For the condition of faith is not antecedent but consequent because there is no merit of faith considered or faith is not the cause of salvation To these joyne Doctor Ames who saith We doe not deny that good works have any relation to salvation for they have the relation of an adjunct consequent and of the effect to salvation obtained as they speake and of an adjunct antecedent and disposing to salvation to be obtained and also of an Argument confirming our assurance and hope of salvation But we deny that any works of ours can be a meritorious cause of justification and salvation And in the Chapter before Promises with a condition of obedience as the causes of that right which we have to the thing promised are proper to the law but promises with condition of obedience as of the adjunct or effect of the thing promised or the donation of it have place in the most bountifull kingdome of grace where there is no place found for our merits Bishop Davenant shall be the next who averring repentance faith and love to be necessary to justification adds by way of explication and in opposition to the Popish sense of necessity These and the like inward works of the heart are necessary to all that are justified not because they conteine in themselves that efficacy or merit of justification but because according to Gods ordination either they are required as conditions precedaneous to or concurrent with justification as to repent and to believe or else as effects necessarily flowing from justifying faith as to love God to love our neighbour And in his next Chapter stating this question whether good works may be said to be necessary to justification and salvation he sets downe in his first and second conclusions that in controversies with Papists and Sermons to vulgar people wee should not use such expressions without due explication of them and that because both Papists and people wil be ready to understand them necessarily as meritorious causes of salvation Shewing by example of the Ancient Fathers how careful they have beene to forbeare some forms of speech by reason of the corrupt sense of hereticks to which purpose he alledgeth that of Hierom that which may well be spoken is not sometimes to be spoken by reason of the Ambiguity Neverthelesse in his fifth sixth and seventh Conclusions he maintains that they are necessary thereto though not as meritorious causes yet as previous and concurrent conditions Let Mr. Perkins be the first wee name for this particular who in his Reformed Catholick besides the head of Merit which wholly makes for us and shewes sufficiently the Papists to be Patrons of merit in that of Repentance speaking of the differences between us and Papists therein saith The fourth abuse is touching the effect and efficacy of Repentance for they make it a meritorious cause of remission of sin and of life everlasting flat against the Word of God And a little after They ascribe to their contrition the merit of congruity which cannot stand with the sufficient merit of Christ We for our parts hold that God requires contrition at our hands not to merit remission of sins but that we may acknowledge our owne unworthinesse be humbled in the fight of God and distrust all our own merits and further that we may make more account of the benefit of Christ wherby we are received into the favour of God and more carefully shun sin for time to come But we acknowledge no contrition at all to be meritorious save that of Christ I might adde to these learned Camero and repeate that which I cited out of him before it being the very distinction which you call a most weake evasion and the defence of which we are now upon As also renowned Pemble who spends a whole Chapter in refuting that opinion of Bellarmine and the Romanists viz. That faith justifies us as an efficient and meritorious cause obtaining deserving and in its kinde beginning justification But I shall content my self with the recitall of two more who handle the very Question now in controversie Whether the Promises of the Gospel be absolute or conditional And determine that they are absolute not conditionall The first of these is Broachman who saith It is not controverted Whether the promises of the Gospel that they may be fruitfull and saving do require faith Neither is it called into controversie Whether the promises of the Gospel be so free and absolute that they discharge a man from a serious sorrow for sins and from all study of good works For he must be an infant in Scripture that is not acquainted with these assertions of the holy Spirit But the true state of the question is whether the Gospel for any our worth intention work merit or any disposition in us doth promise to us grace mercy remission of sinnes and eternal life or rather for and through Jesus Christ apprehended by faith And againe in answer to Bellarmines fifth objection which was that the promises of the Gospel doe alwayes require the condition of Faith Thus hee saith which wee grant And further averrs that this condition of faith will stand with his Assertion of absolute promises For saith he We warned you in the beginning that it is not controverted Whether the promises of the Gospel doe require faith which wee willingly grant But whether in the free remission of sins the condition of Faith be required as any work of ours or certain disposition in us to which as to an efficient helping or cooperating cause the free remission of sins may be ascribed which we do roundly deny The other is Mr. Burges who asserts the same out of Broachman as I conceive By these Citations I hope it will more then sufficiently appear to an eye not strangely possest with prejudice 1. That the distinction between a Condition and a meritorious Cause is no slender and weak Evasion but a maine and fundamental Distinction in this Controversie such as on which the very hinges of the