two propositions are asunder Pay your debt of a thousand pounds and be free and Rely on such a friends satisfaction made for it and be as free as if you had made full payment and satisfaction your self He is either very dim-sighted or wilfully wincks that sees not what distance there is between these two agreements and how they suit with the two Covenants that we to are distinguish which Mr S. would here make to be a matter of so great difficulty that we must needs be non-plussed in it As for repentance and new obedience there is as much difference between them and faith in regard of its peculiar office in this latter Covenant so much more between them and works in the former 1. Between them and faith in the point of justification or the discharge of a sinner from the guilt of his sinnes for that howsoever they are both reqired as conditions to be necessarily performed by all those that expect life or pardon of sin and salvation by Christ yet neither of them comes in as having any hand in the businesse of our justification or discharge of us from the guilt of our sin because that neither do they cast ought in toward the discharge of our debt nor have they any peculiar act in the application of or speciall relation unto that whereby our debt is discharged Whereas our faith tho it afford not the least mite of it self toward the making up of that price wherewith our debt is to be discharged yet it is that whereby we h Ioh. 1.12 receive Jesus Christ and in him and with him the price by him paid for us and whereby we trust to him and rely upon him for the discharge of our debt by the merit of his sufferings in regard whereof it is called as i Act. 20.21 26.18 faith on Christ so more specially k Rom. 3.25 on his blood 2. Between repentance and new obedience in the latter Covenant and works in the former for works in the former are required as fully and exactly answering Gods justice and the utmost rigour of the Law whereas in the latter they are reqired tho as necessary duties and such as without which none can expect salvation by Christ yet not as any way answering Gods jstice but as finding gracious acceptance with God notwithstanding their manifold defects through his mercy in Iesus Christ Thus Sir you see that such sely novices as we are esteemed by you yet are able to distinguish those things which you presume impossible to be distinguished by such shallow wits at least as you conceive or conceit ours to be Now what hath been said being duly weighed will meet with all that is by you here further objected For 4. to your first demand l 〈◊〉 ibid. is this free grace I shall crave leave to return you a counter-demand Suppose a King be content at the suit either of the parties themselves or some friend of theirs to grant his gratious pardon to a company of notorious rebels that had risen against him set up some base desperate rogue in his roome done him all the despight and mischeif they were able to do and being apprehended arraigned and condemned to such death as by their wicked demerits they had most justly deserved upon condition that they aknowledge their offence and their sorrow for it with purpose and promise of living loyally for time to come whether you would deem this to be free grace or no Or because I may well doubt that you would little regard what you say to put off ought for the present I shall not stick to referre it to any indifferent Reader whatsoever to determine whether he were not a most ungratious wretch that having his pardon on such termes granted and signed him should in regard of those conditions deny it to be of free grace and whether they do not blaspheme Gods free-grace that deny it to be free grace if it be propounded on terms of belief repentance and amendement of life Sir whatsoever you say of us take heed how you tell Christ that he doth not freely save you if hee will not save you unlesse you believe And for your next Qere m Reply ibid. concerning faith granted to be a gift of God whether this bee more free grace respectively to what we do then the Covenant of works had since that all the works wrought in us then were freely of God and of free gift to as Arminius you say well observes and we wrought only from a free-gift given To passe by many differences that might be observed between the one Covenant and the other not to stand to discusse what Arminius saith who I suppose would deliver his minde there cleerly then you here relate him It is not denyed but that whatsoever Adam wrought or was reqired to be wrought by him did proceed and was to proceed from such power and ability as God together with his reasonable soul at first freely conferred on him but yet this proves not that there was no other difference between the one Covenant and the other or that life promised is no more of free-grace in the one then in the other since that such exact working as might fully answer the justice of God was to life reqired in the one whereas that which comes farre short of it is in and for Christ unto life accepted in the other And not frivolous only but scandalous also is that which you further subjoyn n Reply ibid. Either place salvation upon a free botome or else you make the New Covenant but an old covenant in new terms instead of Do this and live Believe this and live repent and live obey and live and all this is for want of reveiling the mystery more fully This I say is frivolous because as hath been shewed salvations free botome is no way impeached by such conditions as these reqired scandalous because therein the Apostles doctrine is not covertly but directly challenged as overthrowing and razing the very foundation of free-grace For what is o Act. 16.32 Believe in the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved but Believe and live or what is p Act. 3.19 Repent that your sinnes may be done away but Repent and live or what is q Heb. 5.9 He is the Author of salvation to all that obey him but obey and live And I demand then what this amounts unto and whither it be any better then blasphemy to say that the Apostles by such their doctrine did not place salvation upon a free-botome but brought in the old Covenant again in new termes Sir dare you say in your new reveiled mystery Believe not and yet live Repent not and yet live Obey not and yet live or believe repent and obey and yet be damned understanding such belief repentance and obedience as the Apostels speak of If you dare speak it out that we may understand from you what your mysteries are and together with us give the
Reply ibid. Consider say you what straits you bring the Gospel into first yâ—u make life appearing to be had in the covenant of grace as at first in the covenant of works do this live so believe repent obey and live thus runs your doctrine nor can you with all your distinctions make faith in this consideration lesse then a work and so put salvation upon a condition of works again Is this free-grace I passe by your first here without a second we shall meet with the like again hereafter as also that to say believe and be saved repent and be saved is to put salvation upon a condition of works again t Qâ—d ille aâ—ud Coâ—â—icum Aâ—lul 1. Pactum non pactum est pâ—ctum non pactum ubi vobis lubâ—t A condition is a condition when it pleaseth you and may seem to make for you it is no condition when you list to mislike it because it will not serve your turn But 1. Sir you should do well or ill rather if you dare be so bold to tell our Saviour he hath brought the Gospel into straits by saying a Mark 16.16 whosoever doth not believe shall be damned and b Ioh. â— 24 unlesse you believe in me ye shall dy in your sinnes and c Luk. 13.3.5 unlesse you repent you shall perish and d Ioh. 6.53 unlesse ye eat my flesh and drink my blood you have no life in you and e Math. 18.3 unlesse ye be converted you shall not enter into the Kingdome of heaven and f Math. 7.21 none shall enter into the Kingdome but he that doth the will of my Father in heaven according whereunto also the Apostle g Heb. 5.9 He is Author of salvation to all that obey him Now suppose Sir we were not able to answer all your cavils yet were we bound to stick close to these truths so expresly delivered and taught us by Christ and not suffer our selves to be beaten off from them by any exceptions that any froward heart or wanton wit should to puzzel us make against them Be pleased therefore Sir to set us a while aside and if you lust to be contending with Christ advise or request whither you please him to consider a litle better of the businesse what streights he hath brought the Gospel into by these and other the like assertions for we have no cause to doubt but that he will own his own words tho you may well have just cause to doubt what thank you shall have from him for qarelling with and cavilling in this manner against them 2. You say that thus runns our doctrine but we demand of you whither Christs doctrine run so or no whereunto you dare not return any direct answer for you cannot deny it onely you tell us of a further mystery that is of late reveiled unto your self and I know not who which is all nothing to the purpose nor doth any thing that out of Scripture you have alleadged at all crosse or contradict that which you here call our doctrine but is indeed Christs as unlesse you have so brazed your brow that you have rubd all shame off it you cannot but acknowledge but whither you do or no others seeing it thus laid in precise termes before you will thereby easily know what to deem of you unlesse you so do 3. But h Reply ibid. we cannot say you with all our distinctions make faith in this consideration lesse then a work and so put salvation upon a condition of works again 1. The Apostle could distinguish and doth distinguish between faith and works and we know therfore that in this businesse they may be distinguished and are distinct and tho we were not able to shew how they are to be distinguished yet would not that prove that distinguished they could not be But Sir you are not able with all your Sophistry for Logick you renounce and fond flourishes to take off that aspersion which you have cast upon the Apostle as if he therefore preached life to be had in the covenant of grace 〈◊〉 otherwise then as before in the covenant of works because he presseth faith as n cessary to the attaining of salvation by Christ whereas he thereby in expresse terms distinguisheth the two covenants the one from the other not by rejecting or excluding faith but by taking it in as opposed to works in that manner as in the former they were exacted for these are his words i Rom. 10.5 6 9. Moses discribeth the righteousnesse which is of the Law that the man which doeth these things shall live by them But the righteousnesse which is of faith speaketh on this wise If thou confesse with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe with thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved and the words are so cleere to evince his acknowledgment of that that you would fain fasten as an aspersion upon us that if the aspersion be just it must of necessity light as well on him as on us and k Cernis nempe cum qâ—buâ— tua maledicta sustineamus cernis cum qibus nobis sit causa communis qam nulla consideratione sobria pulsare calumniis expugnare conaris cernis qam tibi pernici sum sit tam horribile crimen objicere talibus qam nobis gloriosum sit qodlibet crimen audire cum talibus Aug ad Iul. l. 1. c. 2. we are not unwilling with him to beare it 2. Nor yet is this spoken as if according to your vain and peremptory sentence past upon us we were unable to distinguish between the act of faith reqired in the latter covenant and works exacted in the former For we might stop your mouth with your own words in your next paragraph where you tell us that faith is the glorious Gospel work and so point us to a distinction that we might make some use of in this argument but that we find you so flagging and fluttering too and fro that we scarce know where to have you or how to lay hold on you The difference between these hath by our writers been long since observed whereof from their writings you might easily have been enformed had you deigned to consult them to wit that in the Covenant of workes works are considered as in themselves performed by the parties to be justified and to live without reference unto ought done or to be done for them by any other whereas in the Covenan of grace Faith is required and considered not as a work barely done by us but as an instrument or mean whereby Christ is apprehended received in whom is found by whom that is done whereby Gods justice is satisfied and life eternall meritoriously procured for us that which carieth the power and efficacy of all home to Christ Now Sir what a vast difference there is between these two may appear if you will be but pleased to consider how farre these
holy Ghost the lye But in your wonted manner you proceed and r Reply p. 8. § 3. to that say you that where we find faith only preached and so salvation made short work it is because we have but the Summaâ—ies I agree with you that we have but the doctrine of the Apostles as Johns of whom it is said he spake many other things in his exhortation to the people It is true we have much of what they said and we want much You misrelate mee Sir as once before in this very passage 1. I say not that in the Apostles preaching salvation is made such short work but that Å¿ Answ p. 9.11 you so make it in cutting of all those reqisites else-where mentioned and which are necessary and inseparable attendants of true faith that which also I expresse but you deign not to take notice of 2. I say not that we have the doctrine of the Apostles as Johns c. I say onely that we t Answ p. 15. have but the Summaries or principall heads of some of their Sermons Nor do I therefore herein agree with you who if u Vnciâ concessâ libram totam tollitis Optat. l. 2. one give you but an inch I see will soon take an ell much lesse dare I to say as you do which amounts to litle lesse then blasphemy against the Scriptures sufficiency concerning their doctrine for that yours words manifestly imply that much of it we have and much we want Of which manner of speaking let others judge and from what spirit it doth proceed v Reply p. 9. § â— Yet we have so much say you as may shew us that according to the work of salvation in us Faith is the work which gives most glory to God Abraham believed and gave glory to God they that believe give glory and Faith of all the works of the spirit is the glorious Gospel work Christ calls it the work indeed this is the work that ye believe So as the onely reason why we hear so much of faith in the Gospel is not only and meerly as you insinuate because we have but their Sermons in Summaries nor because of another reason of yours drawn from the qualifications of those they preached to that had other gifts and not Faith but because faith is of all spirituall encreasings in us the most gloriously working towards Christ faith goes out and faith depends and faith brings down Christ and faith opens the riches and faith believes home all strength comfort glory peace promises But Sir what doeth all this glorious flourish here or to what purpose is it here inserted doeth it either prove that life and salvation is not propounded in the Gospel upon a condition of believing in Christ or that repenting and amending are not to life eternall as necessarily reqired as it If not for that is the subject we are about this is all but a needlesse x De qâ vere uâ—u pa â—p test iâ—lud Scaligeri exeâ—c 107. § 20. Declâ—matiâ—nes in disputando amâ—itiosorum opera â—tiosorum ciâ—i sunt declamatory digression whereby you endeavour cunningly to divert your reader frâ—m the matter that is in hand Yet let us see what it is you say 1. That faith is a grace of great excellency and most usefull is by no man denied or that thereby we give glory as did a Rom. 4.20 Abraham to God but that is not the reason why b Rom. 3.28 5.1 by faith we are said to be justified for to omit that c Iosh 7.19 by confessing out sins we give glory to God we bring glory to him both by our d Math. 5.16 constant obedience in life and e Ioh. 21.19 Phil. 1.20 Christian patience in death this were to found life on the worth of the work the excellency of the gift and so other graces might as well lay claim to the same priviledg with it as shall afterward appear but because it is that whereby we f Ioh. 1.12 receive Christ and g 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost in Gal. 220. make him our Christ according to that that you at length come to in the close of this paragraph tho els where again you fall from it wherein we consent with you that which is the peculiar office of faith as was before said So that here Sir you runn your selfe on that rock whereon even now you told us that we miscaried in placing the foundation of our justification and salvation on the eminency and excellency of something in us â— Albeit faith be a glorious grace yet I dare not say that it is the most glorious of any of the graces of the Spirit for should I so say I should contradict the Apostle which tho you make no bones of yet dare not we do who expresly tels us that h 1 Cor. 13.13 love or charity is greater then either faith or hope and altho faith be the most usefull and beneficiall grace to us yet is it such a grace as carieth us out of our selves implying us to be i 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom 5.6 impotent insolvent very banckrupts unable to contribute any one farthing toward the payment of our debts And albeit thereby we give glory to God yet by it are we bereaved and utterly k Rom. 3.27 4.1 2. 1 Cor. 1.29.31 stripped of all glorying in our selves Nor is the terme of glory therefore to speak exactly the peculiar of this grace which shall also cease and become uselesse together with l Rom. 8.24 hope her most proper fruit when glory shall come when as yet m 1 Co. 13.8 13. love tho the last of the three in the Apostles recitall yet pronounced the greatest of the three because the longest laster shall continue and abide with us and in us for ever 3. Christ it is true saith of Faith n Ioh 6 2â— This is the work of God that is the work that God reqires of us that we believe on him whom he sent But the same Christ tells us that o Ioâ— 15.12 this is his commandement that we love one an other and p Iâ—h 13.34 the new commandement and that which he makes q â—oh 13.35 his cognisance and the very r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost in Ioan. orat 72. iâ— H b. 31. At Basil apud Greg. Na◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Character of a Christian love therefore is the work of God as well as Faith and Å¿ 1 Ioh 3.23 John joyneth them both together 4. I give other reasons why faith alone is sometime mentioned which you passe by but that which you say I give is untrue to wit that those they preached to had others gifts and not saith For t Answ p 13. neither of Paul nor of Cornelius do I say that they wanted faith either of them before that Ananias resorted to the one and Peter repaired to the other nor
do I omit that which you close with concerning u Answ p. 11. the peculiar office of faith Concerning which this may further be added that that howsoever the sweete and comfortable effects of faith here mentioned may evince the beneficialnesse of that grace unto our selves yet they argue not any excellency or eminency above other graces simply considered which in regard of their proper nature and peculiar employments make us more beneficiall and usefull to others Faith is as the houswife Love as the Almoner Faith brings all in Love layeth all out faith brings God and Christ home to us love carieth us out and x Act. 20.24 21 13. Phil. 1.20 â—1 2.17 2 Cor. 12.15 expends us in all pious offices unto the glory of God and good of man Now this adde I the rather to take off your ensuing complaint of that from which your self here are not wholly free to wit that a Reply ibid. Faith hath so much put upon it as becomes a stumbling stone and a rock of offence to many Just fication Imputation of Righteousnesse is put upon faith Salvation upon Faith as Christs bloud is put upon the wine b 1 Cor. 10 16. the Cup that we blesse is it not the Communion of the blood of Christ and Christs body upon the bread c Ibâ—d the bread that we break is it not the communion of the body of Christ and yet neither the wine nor the bread is his bloud or his body no more then faith is either justification or righteousnesse but such a work as goes out most into him and caryes the soule into him who is righteousnesse and Justification to us The word were no mystery if it were not thus ordered and things so mingled that t e Spirit onely could discern and distinguish the Papists stumble at works because they see not faith for works and others stumble at faith because they s e not Christ for faith What all this ayms at is hard to say It concerns nothing I am sure that Mrs S. and I had in debate But let us rove a litle to beare him company and go along out with him into his impertinent excursions and his intricate discourses 1. Truly Sir I dissent as much if not much more then your self from any that put too much upon faith as some of the Ancients have done making it d Chrys st in Rom. 4. a matter of more worth and excellency then the keeping of all Gods commandements from whom I have also therein e Animadv in â—ud â—ucii Scrip. de Iustif part 1. Sect 9 n. 7. elsewhere testified my dissent But Sir it is your selfe rather then any of us that trip at this stone when you would have faith so much pressed in the doctrine of salvation in regard of the gloriousnesse and eminency of the grace it self which to assert is not sound 2. As for the putting of justification and imputation to righteousnesse and salvation upon faith as Christs bloud is put upon the Cup and Christs body upon the bread I mislike not much the resemblance tho it bee nothing exact nor conceive well what it drives at But Sir who of us ever affirmed faith to bee either justification or imputation to righteousnesse or salvation wee affirm with the Apostle that f Rom. 5.1 wee are justified by Faith and g Eph 2.8 wee are saved by Faith and that h Râ—m 4.9 Faith is imputed to righteousnesse And in all this wee say no more then the Apostle himselfe in expresse tearmes doth Yea even those of us who maintain Faith to bee taken in a proper Sense and not by a Metonymicall Trope as well in any one of those phrases as in another do not say any more then may well bee justified nor do they differ at all in doctrine so farre as I am able to conceive and I love not to make differences where I apprehend none that say the one or the other but contend onely about the Analysis of the Text and the Grammaticall acception of one term in it to make this clear by some instances of the like kinde when it is said This Childe is fed not by the breast but by hand if one shall hold that the hand is in such speech taken in a proper sense without trope or scheme for the hand of the dry Nurse wherewith the child is fed it being the instrument whereby meat is conveyed into the mouth of it and another shall maintain that the hand is there taken not properly but by a trope or a metonymie for the meat wherewith the child is indeed fed because the hand of it selfe hath no power to feed the child but is said to feed it as it hath relation to the meat would any understanding man from hence conclude that they were of divers minds concerning the thing it selfe and not rather that they dissented in a qestion of Schoole-learning concerning the Analysing of an Axiom and the Grammaticall interpretation of a word in it Or when it is said The mouth feeds the body if one should contend that the mouth were taken for the meat that goeth into the mouth another for the mouth it selfe whereat the meat goes in what difference were there in matter of judgement here between the one and the other concerning the thing it selfe Or to make use of an instance given by k â—ubbert collat cum Bert. § 57. an eager stickler in this Argument who l Ibid. § 58. reckons up for his party a larger bead-roll of Writers then I suppose he is able to produce Suppose a Painter holding out a Pencill shall say m Si dicis Pencillum dealbare parietem This Pencill drew that Picture if one shall affirm that the word Pencill in such a sentence must not be taken properly for the Pencill it self but for the Picture-drawer himselfe that made use of that pencill in the drawing of that picture or for his hand that guided it in that work or for the colours wherewith the picture was drawn another that the word pencill is to be taken properly as well as the word picture the one for that very instrument which the artist held in his hand the other for the work he pointed to when he so said I suppose it would not be deemed that there were any difference at all between them concerning the thing intended notwithstanding the controversie between them about the phrase or form of speech In like manner concerning the word Faith in the fore mentioned forms * Phrases sum aeqipollentes Paraeus ad Rom. 4.3 Obs 3. which in effect come all to one when some shall say that the word is taken properly for that grace or that act of grace whereby wee apprehend Christ and his sufferings n Vide Calvin Lubbert insra the meritorious cause or subject matter term it whether you please of our justification or that whatsoever it be in Christ for which wee are justified
of the Antinomian party propound to wit that there is nothing reqired to be done by any for the obtaining of a shâ—re in the redemption and salvation procured and purchased by Christ or for the application of Christs merits unto any and they may therefore be saved by Christ without faith or repentance or new obedience tho they continue in infidelity impenitency and the worst sins that are To this purpose take these assertions from some of those Wriâ—ers whose works I presume are no strangers with you t Christs Counsell to the Angel of Laodicea p. 27. The end saith one of them for which Christ came was to dy for the ungodly to purchase redemption for their sins and to reconcile them unto God and all this he did freely upon no condition fully and perfectly leaving nothing undone or to be done by way of application for in the performing thereof he fully and perfectly applyed it for he took upon him our nature and by vertue of this our humane nature in the person of Christ we are made truly the Sons of God heirs and coheirs with him And again u Ibid. p. 35. Salvation is not tyed to belief nor is faith a condition without which a man can not be saved All men women and children that is the whole Church of God are all saved only and totally by the merits of Christ whose merits are applyed unto us sufficiently and effectually too by hiâ— own assumption of our nature by which we are incorporate into him * Ibid. p. 40. And they are false teachers that make redemption conditionall and make it depend upon duties x Ibid. p 41. Nothing at all being required in any respect of him for whom Christ dyed they are deceivers that teach otherwise neither faith nor repentance nor self-deniall nor hearing nor use of ordinances nor observation of Sabbath nor doing as we would be done to and the rest y Ibid. 42. they are fals teachers that make these duties and teach that we must exercise our selves in these things or we shall have no part in Christ. And another of them z Power of Love p. 30. This work of our redemption and reconciliation with God was perfected when Christ dyed and nothing shall be able to separate you from his love then purchased neither infidelity nor impenitency nor unthankfulnesse nor sin nor any thing whatsoever can make void this purchase no tho with the Iews you should deny the Lord that bought you And for want of this knowledge many of us have walked very uncomfortably spending our time in fasting and weeping and mourning in praying reading and hearing and in performance of other duties and all to get Christ while we consider not what the Scripture setteth forth unto us to wit salvation purchased and perfected for ever to sinners to the ungodly to all the world a work perfected depending on no condition no performance at all Now I would gladly understand from Mr S. whither the course that these propound be not a shorter cut and an easier passage then Gods Ministers out of Gods Word or Gods Prophets and Christs Apostels yea God and Christ himselfe in the Word have formerly chalked out unto us and how these things agree with those words of our Saviour a Mark 16 16 Whosover doth not believe shall be damned And b Luk. 13.3 5. unlesse you repent you shall perish And c Math. 11.20 24. It shall be worse in the day of jugdement with Chorazin Bethsaida and Capernaum then with Tyre and Sidon Sodom and Gomorrah because thy repented not at his preaching And d Math. 10.33 He that denys me before men I will deny him before my Father in heaven and those passages of the Apostle e Phil. 3.12 Work out your salvation with fear and trembling And f Rom. 8.13 If ye live after the flesh ye shall dy And g 1 Cor. 9.27 I keep under my body and bring it into subjection lest having preached to others my self prove a h 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rejectaneus ut 2 Cor. 13.5 6. cast-away And i Heb. 12.14 Follow holinesse without which no man shall ever see God and that of Peter who telleth us that those that k 2 Pet. 2.1 bring in damnable heresies denying the Lord that bought them bring swift damnation upon themselves Let any man lay these two ways together and then tell whither of the two is the shorter cut and the easier passage For they are not sure both the same Now Sir if you shall disclaime and refuse to own these and the like as pretending that you are not to make good what every one prints or preaches Yet 1. hereby may appear what new cuts are abroad which there was just cause and good ground therfore to give warning of And 2. that your self are not far from compliance with them herein it is too palpable too apparent For 1. that main part of your Treatise contrived dialog-wise wherein in a jeering and scoffing way you traduce as they also do the faithful Ministers of Christ and their manner of propounding and pressing such things as these men make wholy needlesse and unnecessary unto the attaining of life eternall runneth all along just in the same tone with them as may appear by those parcels in mine k Sâ—e Aâ—s p. 9. 10. 14. 17. Answer thereunto thence represented 2. In that your Treatise you tell us in expresse terms that l Treat p. 126. in the Gospel God agrees to save man And that all the conditions are on Christs part no conditions on our parts And that m Ibid. p. 191. Salvation is not made any puzzling way in the Gospel a puzzling way then belike before time it was it is plainly easily and simply reveiled Iesus Christ was crucified for sinners this is salvation we need go no further all that is to be done is to believe that there is such a work and that Christ died for thee amongst all other sinners he dyed for n Ibid. p. 193. This is short work And it is short work indeed and this is the only Gospel work and way You see Sir what a short cut your selfe here make for here is Repentance and new Obedience and Mortification and the study pursuit and practise of Holinesse and the like all cut off at one blow as being neither Gospel work nor way And it may justly be questioned whether this be o Matth. 7.13 the streight gate and narrow way that Christ pointed his to Yea but Faith may some say is at least reqired by you for the application of Christ and the attaining of interest in him How it is reqired by you your self inform us p Treat p. 189. Christ you say is ours without Faith but we can not know him to be ours but by believing and you reject this under the Title of the Reformed opinion and more generall q Ibid. p. 198. That none are justified
or partakers of salvation but by faith And if no conditions at all be reqired for obtaining salvation by Christ as was formerly affirmed by you then neither Faith also Yea to this you come fully home where you say that r Ibid. p. 15â— 153. The Covenant now under the Gospel is such a kind of Covenant as was established with Noah Gen. 9.11 clear against the strain of the old wherein man was to have his life upon condition And in this your Reply you deny Å¿ Reply p. 14. § 8. the receiving of Christ to be acknowledged by you as a condition And indeed if the promise of salvation by Christ be as absolute and free from all condition as that Covenant made with Noah then may a man be saved by Christ tho he never know or look after Christ as he is sure never to perish by an oecumenicall deluge tho he neither know nor believe nor do ever heare of such a Covenant concerning it Whereunto also t Answ p. 8. 9. 24. 25. where it came to be scanned whence you might have informed your self what this shorter cut meant as a thing materiall you have returned nothing at all But thus the Reader may be pleased to take notice of that shorter cut and more compendious way and easier passage to heaven that your self have cut out as well as those other of your way not without onely but contrary to all warrant of Gods Word 3. For what you add of the Popish way by works whereby men are said to merit heaven we abhorre and detest it as much as you do Of some protestants by Iesus Christ and works Sir when you set Iesus Christ and works as cheek by joull the one with the other you wrong those whom you would by such an expression aspers They teach Christ Iesus to be the only purchaser and procurer of our Iustification and salvation and his bloud to be the only price that was laid down and paid for the purchase thereof But they hold withall that faith and repentance and self-deniall and new obedience are necessarily required in the Gospel as conditions to be performed by all those that will have part and interest in Christ or look for salvation by Christ and that none shall without these ever attain to that salvation so deerly purchased by Christ And for this Sir we have the Scriptures pregnant and plentifull as your self can not be ignorant and as in the Answer to your book hath sufficiently u Answ p. 11. 15. been shewed which how you seek either to shift off or to slubber over shall appeer when we come to that part of your Reply Lastly for taxing me x Reply p. 2. § 3. with frowardnesse and qarrelsomnesse which yet you impute partly to mine age and partly to the remainders of my disease rather then my judgment and the infirmity of my body not the strengh of my Spirit but withall demand of me why I chose not a better time to try truth in when I were not so much in the body 1. Sir froward or qarrelsome I have not shewd my selfe in this businesse The beginner of the qarell here was your self who as an insolent Golias first entred the feild with a flag of defiance y Treat p. 40. to the Divinity both of this age and former times reproaching in base and scurrilous manner Gods faithful Ministers men many of them much better then your self and endeavouring by your unchristian charges and vile calumnies to bring shame and contempt upon them and their Ministery and were pleased to single me out and draw me forth among others whom tho comming all within verge of your magisteriall censure you call in for seconds as complying in part with you and the party you fight for acknowledging litle difference at least between us and them nor doth it argue any frowardnesse or qarelsomnesse in one so engaged to endevour z 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Menander Olynth Chaeremon Ther 's Svid Principium non est â m qi me vindico Et Achaus apud Athen. l. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Nâ—n haec ego ultro diâ—o sed me vindicans to vindicate himself and those with himself whom he finds to be so abused 2. For my yeers Sir scof not at old age you may live if God pleas to come to it your self and for the remainders of my sicknesse which I am not yet freed from nor am like to be in hast a Eccles 3. 1 2 c. Vide Iuâ— Coch. sicknesse and health are passages of Gods providence above mans power to dispose of nor was it therefore in mine hand to make choyse of my time for this tryall of truth but was necessitated to take it as the wrong offred by your self occasioned it and as God had pleased to dispose Besides that the triall of truth in this cause was not now to be first new taken up by me but had formerly been laboured in as by b Gods Eye on his Israel my other work may in part appear in time of better health and you may see if you please thereby to understand that my judgement then was the same that now still it is Nor is sicknesse I suppose wont to make men much in the body as you seem here to imply but lesse rather Howbeit Sir I seem to understand your jeer and to conceive what spirit and body you intend such spirit and body as may be justly suspected notwithstanding all your vauntings of such a glorious spirit and light that you have litle yet of the one but too much still of the other otherwise being c 2 Cor. 4.16 12.10 much in bodily weaknesse is not wont to be deemed any means of impeaching the work of grace in the soul And thus farre shall suffice to all that you have replyed either to my Preface or to the former part of mine Answer all in effect as good as nought Passe we now to consider of your Reply to the latter part concerning divers Passages in your Treatise Here at the very entrance into this Part of your Reply you manifest your self to be of that qarelsome disposition that you pleased even now to fasten on me For to pick out matter for a new qarell to begin with you d Reply p ◠§ 1. relate my words thus That our Antinomian free-grace is not the same with the Prophets in the Old Testament and the Apostles in the New And then you fall as one in a chafing heat to chide and demand Why do you tell us of Antinomian of Prophets and Apostles free grace It is not the free grace of any of these I could as easily say Mr Gatakers free-grace and the Legalists free-grace as he the Antinomians free-grace but such words and repoaches make neither you nor I speak better truth Good Sir e Ne saevi magâ—e Sacerdâ—s have patience awhile I pray you be not so hot and eager in your first
dy g Ephes 5.5 you know that no Whore-mongers nor unclean person or covetous man who is an Idolater hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of God and of Christ with many others of the like straine But h Reply p. 5. § 1. you blame not you say any that bid men repent or be sorry for sins be humbled c. if they preach them as Christ the Apostles did as graces flowing from him and out of his fulnesse and not as springings of their own and waters from their fountain as if these legall Teachers with Moses would make men believe that they could with such rods smite upon mens hearts as upon rocks and bring waters out of them be they never so hard and stony But Sir in all this your rhetoricall flourish for that it seems you have not lost or left with your Logick you doe but i Omissis super qibus pugna est de scammate loco certaminis egred ens in peregrinis alienis disputationibus immoratis Hier. ad Pammarh run out of the lists and leaving your adversary k 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Non po est adversarium vincere qi in dimicando non hostem sed umbram petit Lactant. l. 3. c. 28. skirmish with your own shadow For 1. That they preach these things as Christ and his Apostles did hath formerly been shewed and shall hereafter again be further made manifest when we have occasion to consider of and compare together the particulars of either 2. It cannot be proved nor doth it any way appear that either Christ or his Apostles in the pressing of these things no more then the Prophets before them did alwayes in their sermons and preachings make mention withall of Christ as the person from whose fulnesse the grace did flow whereby they were or might be enabled to do that which was then required 3. That we preach these things to people as springings either of their own or our own and waters from our own fountain or theirs to whom wee preach them for you so speak as it is not easy to tell whither you mean but whither of the two it be that you entend it is a calumnie and l Turpe est hominem ingeniosum aut ingenuum etiam id dicere qod si neges probare non possit Lact. Ibid. such a charge as you are no way able to make good but would fain fasten somewhat whereon to ground matter of reproof on those whom you have engaged your self to traduce that you might have some colour to bear out your satyricall jeering and girding at them in that your dramaticall discourse 4. You grant Sir that we presse these things as the Prophets did But Sir should either you or any other say that the Prophets of God did so preach them as you here imply that we do he should therein do them most notorious wrong as charging them with a deniall or not ackowledgment at least of that grace of God wherby those whom they preached these things unto should be enabled unto the doing of them nor can there be any difference assigned between the spring and fountain from whence any such grace then issued and that from whence the like now flows In plain terms look from whence or from whom any now receive power to beleive repent be humbled and the like from thence and from him so many as in those times beleeved repented were humbled received the like power then and the Prophets teaching herein was according to the truth of God and of the thing it self in those times as well as Christs and his Apostels in their times was 5. You abuse us notoriously when you bear men in hand that we would have them to believe that we can by such rods as these so smite upon their rocky hearts as to make water run out of them No Sir you speak untruly we professe no such matter yet we believe that by such preaching God is able to break and mollifie the most flinty heart that is and we find by good proof that by such preaching and pressing of repentance and reformation as you scof at God hath to admiration wrought in this kind and m See Act. 2.23 38 41. 3.19 with 4.4 given thereby such successe to his own ordinance as may justly give you cause to be ashamed and abased as well as abashed for your jeering of it and girding at it in that manner as you do 6. How bold soever you think you may be with us you might have done well to forbear your unmannerly dealing with Gods Prophets with whom too oft you are overbold Could it not suffice you to spend your purulent matter on us but you must needs spit some of it in Moses his face where find you that n Exod. 17.6 Moses believed that he could with his rod make the Rock give water It was neither Moses nor the rod that made the Rock run with water but God who stood by to the deed upon his smiting of the Rock Nor did Moses believe that he could himself effect such a work by any power that himself had nor did either he or any other of Gods Prophets presume that by any power of their own they or their preachings were able to work on the hearts of those whom they spak to o See Deut. 29.4 30.6 Esai 1. â—5 57.18 63.11 17 18. Ier. 5.23 31.18 Zech. 12.10 unlesse God pleaseth to second them and to accompany that his ordinance by them with the powerfull work of his holy Spirit But say you p Reply p. 6. § 1. we agree with you that repentance and sorrow for sin and humiliation and self-deniall are all to be preached and shall contend with you who preacheth them most and clearest And Sir for this I may very wel refer my self unto those that have been frequent auditors of your Antinomian teachers how rise and serious or how sparing rather and superficiall they are in this subject if ever at least they light on it It is to to well known to be concealed or dissembled what their dealings are in this kind by the concurrent reports of persons judicious and well affected who having either occasionally or living in those places where they have lectured oft heard divers of them too constanly and consonantly affirme that they could seldom or never hear them handling this theam unlesse it were by telling them as you do in this Treatise that it is enough for them q Treat p. 84. to beleive that Christ hath repented for them and confessed r See Gods eye c. p. 25. their sinns for them No Sir their teaching runnes in an other strain and bends mainly an other way to encite to joviality and being fro-like and making merry To which purpose they have not stuck some of them to tell their hearers that Jesus Christ when he was here upon earth lived all his life long as if he had been set upon
tho we preach them in pieces as we find them preached by Christ and his Apostles before us yet preach we the whole for b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist metaphys l. 4. c. 26. all the parts and pieces make up the whole and your censure of us is most frivolous 3. Consider Sir what an insolent claim after your wonted manner you here made as if you were the only men forsooth that preach the fulnesse of the mystery the riches of the Gospel and the glory of the New Testament But Sir I see we must bear with you for you seem so highly conceited of and strongly yea strangly transported with the conceit of your own way of preaching that unlesse you be vaunting and bragging of it you burst 4. Consider what aspersions you cast hereby upon the Apostles of Christ yea upon Christ himself to wit that they preached not the fulnesse of the mystery nor the riches of the Gospel nor the glory of the New Testament for they delivered these things in pieces as by their Sermons and Epistles whence we take them your self confessing it as we find them appears but left that it seems to be done by you and those of your side Whither will not the insolency of mans hauty heart dare to ascend and yet observe their hyprocrisy they dare not forsooth do as we do preach these things in pieces as the Apostels did humble minded men that dare not be so presumptuous as we are and yet under colour of this not daring to do as not we alone but the Apostles also before us did dare advance and extoll their own way of teaching above not our teaching alone but theirs also and the Holy Ghost it self that taught by them c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 M rc Imp. l. 12. § 27 no pride worse or more abominable then that which commeth shrowded under the weed and wimple of humility and by seeming to stoop strives to lift up it self 2. d Reply Ibid. You find you say that in the fulnesse of the New Testament Christ is sit up as a Prince as a King as a Lord as a crown and glory to every grace and gift nay he is made not only righteousnesse but sanctification to and so you preach him Whereas to preach his riches without him his graces by themselves singel and private as repent and believe and be humbled and deny your selves we make the gifts loose much of their glory Christ of his prayse and the Gospel of its fulnesse To all which vain glosing I Answer 1. Which of us deny Christ any part of this his honour or how preach we faith in Christ repentance unto remission of sin by Christ or self-deniall as a duty reqired by Christ of all those that look for salvation from Christ how can we preach any of these thus and not withall preach Christ But Sir still you proceed without fear or shame as if you had cast both away to asperse our Saviour himself and his blessed Apostles in whom and with whom we find the duties by you here mentioned in the self same manner pressed as you here propound them nor is there any ground or colour of reason for any to imagine that whensoever they preached any of these duties unto any or pressed them upon any they did withall instruct them in the whole doctrine and mystery concerning the power and principality of Christ Read over our Saviours e Math. 5. 6. 7. large Sermon in the Mount his other long f Math. 13. Sermon by the Sea-side his discourse g Math. 24. on Mount Olivet with his Disciples his h Math. 16.23.27 lessoning of them upon Peters carnall advice i Act 8.20.23 Peters spirituall exhortation and advice to the Sorcerer James whole Epistle and Johns and Judes and as you finde their exhortations to be framed so judge whither they come not within the compasse of this arrogant mans censure who litle regards how he brands or upbraids Gods Pâ—ophets Christs Apostles yea Christ himself and their preaching and teaching so long as together with them he may ding some dirt on the faces of them and their doctrine whom in the height and pride of his censorious spirit he looks upon either k See Ans p. 30 as meer imposters or as punies to himself in the mystery of Christ and the Gospel But 2. Sir we have learned to distinguish between Christ himself and the Graces of his Spirit and those duties or actions the performance whereof is reqired of all those tho by grace from God received thereunto enabled that desire or expect to be saved by Christ and to give each his due and proper place nor do we jumble these things together as you and those of your strain are wont to do whereof to give the Reader a tast tho of no very good relish I shall relate some passages that my self heard delivered by c Heydon a â—usie spread r of Mr Eatons books one of them in a Sermon which as I was afterward enformed had been preached in divers places The Scripture he undertook to handel was 1 Joh. 3.7 Litle children let no man deceive you He that doth righteousnesse is righteous even as he is righteous In opening whereof he told his Auditory that there was a twofold righteousnesse a righteousnesse inherent and a righteousnesse imputed an active and a passive righteousnesse the former was the righteousnesse of the Law the latter of the Gospel and that the latter to wit the imputed or passive righteousnesse was the righteousnesse that the Apostle here spake of and in prosecution of his matter he expounded all the places he qoted wherein any duty was reqired not as to be done by us but as done by Christ for us so to be believed of us For example d Math. 7.21 Not every one that cals me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father in Heaven that is he that hath done it in Christ and believeth that Christ did it for him and e Math. 12.50 He that shall do the will of my Father in heaven the same is my brother and sister and mother that shall do it in Christ and believe that he hath done it for him and f Eph. 4.24 put on the new man which is after God created in righteousnesse and true holynesse that is Jesus Christ by believing his holynesse and righteousnesse imputed unto you and g 1 Cor. 15.58 abounding in the work of the Lord that is in believing in Christ for that is h Ioh. 6.29 the work of God and what he hath wrought for you Beside many other Scriptures in like-manner vexed and racked and being afterward charged with wronging his text in expounding it directly contrary to the expresse words of it and to the coherence of it with the rest of the context he boldly and peremptorily affirm'd that all that went before of i