justifie him For so all Instruments do help the principal cause And yet by a self contradiction this opinion makes Faith to be of no moral worth and so no vertue or grace yea I think it lays the blame of mans infidelity on God For the assertors of it have a device to make it a passive Instrument from whence follow these absurdities N. C. I will not trouble my brains about it but I see I may omit a Question which he asks you viz. Do you not think that good works are the Instrumental cause of our Justification as well as Faith C. I must tell you in brief that all the Questions he propounds to me in that place are such as he would never have askt if he had but attain'd a smattering knowledg in Mr. Baxter's writings whom he commends just as he discommends me without understanding him For he would have taught him That neither Faith nor any work of ours are causes of our Justification either Principal or Instrumental u Confess of Faith pag. 31. and other places Disput of Justific pag. 75. N. C. But there is one Question he asks wherein he prays you to speak out for it is suspected there is a Snake in your Grass C. A Maggot in his Brain N. C. And that is are not Faith and Obedience both one and the same thing C. He hath a resolution in Mr. Baxter Our first Faith is not the same with Obedience to Christ how should it yet it essentially contains are solution and Covenant to obey him x Confess of Faith p. 38 39. But there is no end of these impertinent Questions You will ask me next how I prove my self not to be a Papist N. C. No I 'le let the rest alone because I see what you will say and this indeed was not the main thing that you and I first intended to debate Yet there are some Questions about this matter in another place to which I would gladly have though it be but a brief Answer C. Where shall we find them N. C. There where he comes to your description of Faith pag. 63. C. I remember the place Where I find him in the same posture that the Bishop of Galloway did his Reprover vexing himself with his own anger tumbling and weltring in the puddle of his tumultuous thoughts whereof he cannot rid himself bragging most vainly but producing nothing that may be accounted worthy of an answer y Defence pag. 169. For I having told you that the Faith our Saviour speaks of in those words Joh. 6.29 This is the work of God that you beleive on him whom he hath sent viz. justifying and saving Faith is an effectual perswasion that Jesus is sent of God He very gravely tells me that I deny Faith to consist in assent or perswasion which are the same thing and so contradict the men of my way Was there ever such a giddy-braind man as this set a cock-horse who posts away without his Errand and tells the world I deny Faith to be an assent or perswasion when I tell him it is Doth he no◠deserve to have his fingers rapt or to be soundly scourged that takes Pen in hand to confute a Book and never minds or else understands not what he writes against N. C. But you say Faith consists not in a bare perswasion c. C. True That saving Faith which I speak of doth not consist in a bare assent to the Truth of the Gospel but yet it is an assent though it be something more Assent is the General nature of Faith but there is a difference between Faith that is saving and Faith that is not saving which I there expressed by the word effectual And here again he blunders and keeps a pudder to make a plain ching obscure N. C. You will not say it was plain sure C. Yes but I will though nothing can be so plain and clear which th◠mans confused thoughts shall not trouble The difference I made between this Faith which our Saviour speaks of and a bare perswasion that he came from God was this that it is a perswasion of that Truth with its fruits and effects Which I expessed in these words becoming his Disciples sincere Profession of his Religion and living according to it For unless our minds being convinced of the Truth it have this effect upon our wills to make us consent to obey it and sincerely purpose to do according to our perswasion and unless also if we live we make good this purpose and both profess and perform obedience to the Gospel we do not the work of God which our Saviour speaks of nor have that faith which will bring us to everlasting life This he might have found affirm'd by Mr. Baxter in as round words as mine if he had spent that time in reading and meditating which he spends in scribling It 's all one saith he z Appendix to Disput of Right to the Sacraments p. 509. in my account to believe in Christ and to become a Christian c. To be a believer a Disput of Justif p. 77 78. and to be a Disciple of Christ in Scripture sense is all one and so to be a Disciple and to be a Christian and therefore Justifying faith comprehends all that is essential to our Discipleship or Christianity as its constitutive causes To which he adds this Proposition Those therefore who call any one act or two by the name of Justifying Faith and all the rest by the name of works and say that it is only the act of recumbency on Christ as Priest or on Christ as dying for us or only the act of apprehending or accepting his imputed righteousness by which we are justified c. do pervert the Doctrine of Faith and Justification ☞ and their Doctrine tendeth to corrupt the very nature of Christianity it self I could add a great deal more with as much ease as I can write but that I think this sufficient to be replyed to his long babble about the Nature o◠Faith and we must not suppose the world at leisure to read the same thing over perpetually If it do not satisfie him let him enjoy the vain conceit of his own skill nay let him crow over me and bear himself with the same pertness to use an expression I have somewhere met with that a Daw sits cawing an◠pecking upon a Sheeps back He will be but a Jack Daw for all that N. C. You grant then that there may be a perswalion where it is not effectual C. Who doubts of it But it is not saving Faith which was the thing 〈◊〉 were speaking of As he might have observed had he not kept such a cawing to himself that he could not hear us N. C. He makes account the Questions he asks you there are unanswerable C. He doth so And not to dissemble they seem to be no less subtil and profound than the admired Cryptick Question of Chrysippus if you ever heard
of your own party to the very skie to magnifie their gifts their zeal their sincerity their self-denial their tenderness of Conscience their pains taking together with their sufferings though never so small And on the other side to disparage ours or at the best to speak very coldly of them though never so pious and learned nay to shake your heads sometimes and lament their Ignorance in the mystery of Christ the meanness of their spiritual gifts the formality of their pravers their unedifying preaching and as it is to be feared their straining Conscience to comply with the times N. C. Pray let 's have no more of this C. Why may I not tell you a few other Devices that have been in use to win and keep your Proselytes As to brag of your numbers to spread stories and lyes by your Agents and correspondents from one end of the land to the other to fill every Country with the very same tales to possess the people against the writings of those of our way to give glorious titles to your own Books to cry up your sufferings as if they were for the cause of Christ to call all things you do not like I dolatry Antichristianisme Popery and such like odions and frightful names nay such hath been the tenderness of some of your hearts as to threaten your poor neighbours they shall have no work at least to deny to imploy them unless they will come to your meetings N. C. Now you calumniate to purpose C. It was a thing notorious in the late times as Mr. Edwards assures us and I have cause to think this evil humour is not spent but rather encreased But be that as it will you have a number of far more efficacious Arts then this As to vaunt of the power of your preaching of the glorious appearance of God among you and of the multitude of Converts to you to bespatter all that oppose you to perswade the people it was good livings that made so many turn Conformists and that they have lost their gifts and are much decreased in their graces at least you have thought good to terrifie them and bid them take heed for they have lost the prayers of thousands But if any adventure to write against you wo be to them Whatsoever they were before immediately they become the enemies of God and all goodness The people are told that they strike at the power of godliness through your sides and that they reproach Religion when they reprove your Superstition Every reprehension is called railing and hatred to the people of God and whatsoever fault they find it is done on purpose you say to bring all godliness into contempt In short to suppress you is to suppress the Spirit and but to speak against your affected language is to be desperately profane for who ever saw the beauty of Sion and the glory of the Lord filling the Tabernacle but in your Congregations Let any man go about to contradict this it is but pouring out half a dozen Scriptures against him nothing to the purpose and he is confuted nay one word will do the work and he shall be thought to write rarely and to come off like an Angel who can but say The Lord rebuke thee N. C. You had as good hold your peace for I beleive nothing that you say C. I can prove in every particular by true and faithful histories that this hath been the humour of your Sect. N. C. Save your self the labour I have no time nor list to hear you C. Nor to read good Books but only to babble as your Answerer doth out of your own head Did you never see a little Book called A wise and moderate Discourse concerning Church Affairs N. C. No. C. It was Printed in the beginning of our Warrs 1641. And I find it since put among my Lord Bacons Works there you may find several of these things noted First saith he * Speaking of the Oppugaers of the present Ecclesiastical Government they have appropriated to themselves the name of zealous and sincere and reformers as if all others were cold minglers of holy things profane men and friends to abuses Nay if a man be indued with great vertues and fruitful in good works yet if he coneurre not fully with them he is called in derogation a civil and moral man and compared to Socrates or some Heathen Philosopher Just contrary to St. John who would have called such a man Religious and told such as many of them that hâ— vainly boasts of loving God whom he hath not seen who loves not his neighbour whom he hath seen St. James also saith that this is true Religion to visit the Father less and the Widdow So as that which is but Philosophical and moral with them is in the phrase of the Apostle true Religion and Christianity And as in affections they challenge the said virtue of zeal and the rest so in knowledge they attribute 〈◊〉 themselves light and perfection The Church of England in King Edwards daies waâ— but in the swadling cloaths or in the Cradle in Queen Elizabeths time but in it infancy and childhood The Bishops hâ— somewhat of the Day break but the Mâ—turity and fulness of light is reserved foâ— themselves And as they consure virtuâ—â— men by the names of Civil and Moral 〈◊〉 those who are truly and godly wise aâ— discern the vanity of their Assertions they term Politicians and say their Wisedome is but carnal and savouring of mans Brain And in like manner if a preacher speak with care and meditation ordering his matter distinctly and inforcing it with strong proofs and warrants they censure it as a form of preaching not becomming the simplicity of the Gospel and refer it to the reprehension of St. Paul speaking of the enticing words of mans wisdome You may read there a great deal more to the same purpose if you have a mind to see your own picture But nothing methinks is more memorable then the blind rage and fury which the discovery of a most impious cheat excited in some of your predecessors hearts There was a young Preacher pretended to a power of Casting out Devils which he began to assume in the year 1586. and more openly professed 1597. This made a great noise of glory lights lamps and shining beams which now appeared in the work a Discovery of the fraudulent practices of John Darrel c. Aâ— 1599. p. 19. It was given out to be a marvelâ—us work a mighty work of the Lord Jesas which all that loved him in sincerity must be careful to publish a matter of as great consequence and as profitable to all that sincerely professed the Gospel as ever any was since the restoring it amongst us b Ib. p. 16. And though first her Majesties Judges and then her commissioners in causes Ecclesiastical found by the free confession of the party said to be dispossessed that it was a meer cheat and a wicked combination to abuse the
people yet they ceased not to cry out that to deny the dispossession was in a sort to deny the Gospel It appeared so evidently said the Author of the brief Narration to be the finger of God as though we our selves should forsake it and with Judas betray our Master yea with Pharoah set our selves to obscure it yet the Lord if he love us will rather make the stones to cry out and utter it Yea the Devils themselves to acknowledge it then it shall be hid And I would advise them that slander this work and persecute the Servants of God without cause * For Darrel you must know was imprisoned to take heed lest they be found even fighters against God Now would you know what the business was which made these men stickle and clamour in this fashion It was briefly this When Mr. Darrel and his friends prayed by the Book the boy or as they said the Devil in him was but little moved but when they used such prayers as for the present occasion they conceived then the wicked spirit was much troubled He acknowledged them also to be powerful men and that he was much tormented by their powerful preaching ** Disco very p. 35.48.49.50 This was it which tormented the Bishops also to see such mean persons do such wonderful things or to use their own words It cannot be indured said the Narration c vid. p. 6. that these kind of men which are accounted the off-scouring of the world should be thought to have such interest in Christ Jesus as that by their prayers and fasting he should as it were visibly descend from Heaven and tread down Satan under their feet whereas other men ☞ who account themselves more learned excellent and wise than they do not with all their Physick Rhetorick pomp and primacy accomplish the like But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and the weak things of the world to confound the mighty A place of Scripture as well applied as that in the 4th of St. Matthew He shall give his Angels charge over thee c. and very fit to stir up the peoples hatred against their Governours who appeared against this Holy Cause as they called it and laboured to suppress this mighty work of God N. C. I haue no leisure to hear these old stories long since dead and buried C. Nor have I any need to look so far back For this very Scriblers Book which you tell me of is a bundle of such like lewd and impudent tricks and shifts as I have mentioned though the truth of it is they are so poorly managed that any one may see he is a meer bungler in his own trade and elther for want of wit or through the violence of his passion cannot understand so much as common sense N. C. O Luciferian Pride O attempts to outrail Ralyhakeh You may make another Lucian in time I had almost said another Julian if you persist in this way C. You have his words by heart a p. 31. of his answer and it is most stoutly and resolutely answered But I must tell you it hath been alwaies thought as Mr. Chillingworth well observes a mark of a lost and despairing cause to support it self with impetuous outcries and clamours the faint refuges of those that want better arguments And little doth he know whom he imitates in these brutish exclamations I never saw any man more like that fellow in Lucian who cryed O b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 accursed wretch O damn'd villain when he could say nothing else N. C. Yes both he and we have something else to say C. That is you have a scornful and supercilious way of pittying those whom you have a mind to vilifie which carries with it some shew of goodnesse when it proceeds from a great disdain of others and an high opinion of your selves You may remember it is like without sending you to a Book of undoubted credit where you may find it who it was that said publiquely He intended to have preached before the poor wretch viz. his late Majesty then near his death upon 14. Isa 18.19 c. but the poor wretch said he would not hear me Another also having jeered our Divine Service as much as he pleased at last wiping his mouth sanctified all with a sigh or two over us as poor deluded Souls and then we were much indebted to his charity N. C. You will be called to an account one day for your malevolent and mischievous writings C. That 's another way you have to astonish and delude the Multitude by thundring out Threatnings and denouncing Judgments against us in which this Gentleman is very powerful and may pass for a Boanerges There being this device also accompanying it to make the Art more effectual which is to cry out Blasphemy if we do but mention any of your Follies to tell the people as T. W. doth a Epistle to a new sermon câ—lled the Fiery Serpents 19. Febr. 1668. that you wish we have not sinned the sin unto death and to bid us take heed that some do not think as this scribler speaks we have done despight to the spirit of grace b p. 101. of sober Answer Thus I remember some wrote a letter to Bp. Mâ—ntague c Annexed to the appeal of the Orthodox Ministers as they called themselves to the Par. against him printed at Edinburg 1641. wherein they do bat charitably hope he hath not committed the Unpardonable sin exhorting him to recant publiquely of his malitious Errors and Heresies or else they tell him he could never have Salvation But after this as if they were in no danger do they what they would a fit of railing follows wherein they upbraid him with his birth and parentage nay with his very looks and visage in such vile language as I will not name and at last conclude in this fashion If you can love the Lord Jesus and do belong to his Election of grace d p. 31. N. C. Me thinks you have an art beyond all these having shifted and put me off thus long from what I was going to say that your Book is answered and C. And soberly too as the Title pretends N. C. Yes C. That 's strange when he roars and cries out so hideously as we have heard and complains that he is in a passion that I have made him spit and sputter nay spue in my very face N. C. Do not use such words C. They are his own confessions a p. 14.31 289. And he acknowledges withall that he was impatient till he came out against me that he could not find a man so imprudent and desperate as himself b pag. 2.3.31 and having lay'd about him very furiously he puffs and blows and saies he is overheated in so much that he is fain to cool himself again with some Holy breath and falls to prayer when he can exclaim against me no