their hyperbolical commendations of them stiling them meritorious and the like as both Mr. Gataker in his Rejoynder to Mr. Saltmarsh p. 53. and Bishop Davenant de Justit Actual cap. 53. Men better vers'd in the Fathers then you or I will tell you That you bring out of Augustin makes not at all against conditions in the Covenant but against the power of free will asserted by Pelagius The same Authour will tell you He that made thee without thee will not save thee without thee as I have often heard out of Pulpits when I was a Scholer And Whomsoever he draweth he draweth him being willing Our faith distinguisheth the just from the unjust not by the Law of Works but of Faith it self Christ is not awake in him in whom faith doth sleep The Justification by the Faith of Jesus Christ hath been given is given and shall be given to Believers before under and after the Law By faith we find that which the Jewes have lost And elsewhere answering the Objection of the Pelagians from the command of faith and repentance whereby they would prove that we had power to do them else the command of them would be to no purpose he saith By commanding he God doth admonish us to do what we can and to beg for that which we are not able to do Know O man saith he in another place by the precept what thou oughtest to have in the reproof that 't is through thy owne fault that thou hast it not in the prayer learne from whence thou maist recieve that which thou wouldest have He shews in another place in what respect the Apostle saith The Justification of life came upon all men Not because all men do believe in Jesus Christ but because no man is justified except he do believe in him It is therefore said all men that it might not be thought that any one might be saved by any other meanes whatsoever but by him Yea this Champion of free grace hath so many high yea haply over high commendations of faith that out of him Bellarmine produceth not one or two but many Citations to prove a meritorious caue sality of faith in the work of Justification as you may sein his first Book de Justific c. 17. 2. Prosper I have not yet by the allegations I have read cited out of him I cannot conceive that Author to be against Conditions but rather for them I shall name a sentence or two Faith is the foundation of Righteousness which no good works go before but from which all do proceed from thence i.e. from the Doctrine of the Apostles every one doth receive life which faith alone doth bring forth 3. Add to Prosper Jerome in Psalm 5. Therefore thou shalt besprinckle me with this hysop when thou shalt poure upon me the vertue of his blood when Christ shall dwell in me by faith And Moses distinguished in Leviticus between the Righteousnesse of Faith and Deeds that the one is by works the other only by the credulity of faith 4. So Ambrose According to the purpose of Grace it is so decreed by God that the Law ceasing the Grace of God should require faith alone to Salvation And this Law to wit of the Spirit doth give liberty requiring Faith alone 5 Chrysostom as I find him cited by Bishop Downham Thou obtainest Righteousnesse not by sweat and labour but receivest it by gift from above bringing one thing only from within viz. to believe Nothing therefore in us doth concur to the Act of Justification but only faith in Rom. 1. 17. and again in Rom. 3. 27. What is the Law of Faith to save by Grace Here he sheweth the power of God that he hath not only saved but justified and brought to glory and that not requiring works but seeking faith only 6. Theodoret cited by the same Author Our Lord Christ hath by his bloud procured our salvation Solam à nobis fidem exigens requiring of us faith alone in Rom. 3. 25. 7. Theophylact in Rom. 4. 5. Doth he that is to be justified bring any thing Faith only By these I hope it doth sufficiently appear That the Fathers held not Redemption to be absolute as if nothing were required from us in regard of Application but on the contrary that faith was required of us if we would be partakers of the Salvation purchased that it was required of us before our actual Justification and did concur thereto Passe we from these to later Writers among whom let Martin Luther be the first Now it is true that in the place you cited he saith The Promises of the Law are conditional but the Promises of the New Testament have no such conditions nor require any thing of us nor depend upon on any Conditions of our worthinesse But here I conceive he excludes meritorious Conditions partly because he expresseth himself very cautelously saying No such conditions and no conditions of our worthinesse And also because he doth elsewhere often aver that something is required of us I might here mind you of what Chemnicius saith in the place before cited who being a Lutheran could not but be better acquainted with Luthers Tenents then you or I namely that Luther was not against Preparations of order but only Preparations of merit and for proof of it cites him on the third Chapter to the Galatians where we find vers 30. this passage The use of the Law is to terrifie and fright to Christ who is the end of the Law for Righteousnesse And vers 2. Christs coming profits neither the carelesse nor the desperate but only such who have been tormented and terrified with the Law for a time and now with sure trust come to Christ Which passages do clearly shew that he held there ought to be a work of the Law upon the heart before its close with Christ not to make it worthy of Christ but to make it long and gasp after Christ I might tell you also How in a Letter written to Mr. Gasper Guttil and translated by Mr. Rutherford the same Martin Luther vehemently inveighs against those who would have the Doctrine of Grace to be preached in the first place and afterwards the revelation of wrath calling it a new method a curious crotchet and the broachers of it jugling Gypsies and averreth expresly that the Apostles method Rom. 1. 2 3. was directly opposite thereto which was first to denounce the wrath of God from heaven and make all the world sinners and guilty before God then when they see this to teach them farther how they may obtain grace and be justified As also that notable place on Gal. 2. 16. The true way to Christianity is this that a man do first acknowledge himself by the Law to be a sinner A little after When a man is thus taught and instructed by the Law then he is terrified and humbled then he seeth indeed the greatness of his sin and cannot find in himself
a gold chain with a rich Jewel of the Crown in it and withal should bind himself to give her both the chain and a will to wear it Again He is both without doors knocking and within doors opening yet he never cometh in but upon condition we open which condition is also his own work He offers Righteousness so the sinner believe and he works belief that the sinner may have Righteousnesse pag. 109. Thus you see others as well as Dr. Preston assert the absolutenesse of the Covenant in that part who yet still maintain the other part viz. the promise of life and salvation to be conditional which as hath been already shewed Dr. Preston doth maintain 8. As for Mr. Walker he denies not all kinds of conditions in the place cited but only Conditions Legal and conditions for which meritorious ones but conditions which are as a means by which the free gift is received and as a qualification whereby one is made capable and fit to receive and enjoy the free gift such he granteth and calleth them Conditions in the place cited by you saying There is no condition of the Covenant propounded but only the way and means to receive the blessing or the quality and condition by which men are made capable and fit to enjoy the blessing which is as much as I plead for under that Title As for Mr. Strong though both what I have heard from him my self and also what I have heard from others who have seen his Sermon induce me to believe that he is not against our conditions yet having not his Sermon I must be altogether silent at this time concerning him By this Sir you may see that I have looked into the most of the Authors which you cited and amongst them all I must professe unto you that I find not one that speaketh fully for you but more against then for your Tenent and for that sort of conditions whose cause I plead I must intreat you therefore to shake hands with them and leave them to stand on my side To them I shall add some few more 1 Mr. Perkins shall be the first who puts down conditions in the very description of the Covenant saying The Covenant of Grace is that whereby God freely promising Christ and his benefits exacteth again of man that he would receive Christ by faith and repent of his sins In the Covenant of Grace two things saith he elsewhere must be considered the substance thereof and the condition The Substance of the Covenant is that Righteousnesse and life everlasting is given to Gods Church and people by Christ The Condition is that we for our parts are by faith to receive the foresaid benefits and this condition is by grace as well as the substance 2. Mr. Reynolds shall be the next in his Treatise of the Life of Christ p. 399. he calls Faith the conveyance and p. 403. We expect Justification by faith in Christ Faith unites us to Christ and makes his death merit life kingdom sonship victory benefits to become ours You may see p. 451 452 453. That to marriage between Christ and his Church whereby the Church hath a right and propriety created to the Body Name Goods Table Possession and Purchases of Christ is essentially required consent which consent must be mutual for though Christ declare his good will when he knocketh at our doors yet if we keep at distance stop our ears at his invitations there is then no Covenant made It is but a wooing and no marriage c. Pag. 465 466 467. That the office of Faith is to unite to Christ and give possession of him till which union by Faith be made we remain poor and miserable notwithstanding the fulness that is in Christ Pag. 478 479. and to name no more pag. 512. setting down the difference between the two Covenants he saith They differ in the Conditions for in the old Covenant legal obedience but in the new Faith only is required and the certain consequent thereof Repentance 3. Mr. Ball shall be the third who saith The Covenant of Grace doth not exclude all conditions but such as will not stand with grace and pag. 18. The stipulation required is that we take God to be our God that is that wee repent of our sins believe the Promises of mercy and embrace them with the whole heart and yeild love fear reverence worship and obedience to him according to the prescript rule of his Word and p. 20. If then we speak of Conditions by conditions we understand whatsoever is required on our part as precedent concomitant or subsequent to Justification Repentance Faith and Obedience are all conditions But if by conditions we understand what is required on our part as the cause of that God promised though only instrumental Faith or belief in the Promises of free mercy is the only condition 4. Let learned Pemble be the fourth who speaking of the difference between the Law and the Gospel saith The diversity is this The Law offers life unto man upon condition of perfect obedience cursing the transgressors thereof in the least kind with eternal death The Gospel offers life unto man upon another condition viz. Repentance and Faith in Christ promising remission of sin to such as repent and believe That this is the main essential difference between the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace we shall endeavor to make good against the Romish Apostacy And about a leaf after Hence we conclude firmly that the difference between the Law and the Gospel assigned by our Divines is most certain and agreeable to the Scriptures viz. That the Law gives life unto the Just upon condition of perfect obedience in all things The Gospel gives life unto sinners upon condition they repent and believe in Christ Jesus Where you may take notice that he layes it down not as his own private opinion but as the general Tenent of all the Orthodox Divines in his time and that in opposition to our Popish Adversaries It was then no Popery to hold conditions in the Covenant and as he of the Divines of his time so may I of the Divines of this present age See their consent and harmony herein Larg cat p. 9. 5. Doctor Downam shall be the fifth That which is the only condition of the Covenant of Grace by that alone we are justified But Faith is the only condition of the Covenant of Grace which is therefore called Lex fidei And l. 7. c. 2. Sect. 6. Our Writers distinguishing the two Covenants of God that is the Law and the Gospel whereof the one is the Covenant of Works the other is the Covenant of Grace do teach that the Law of Works is that which to Justification requireth Works as the condition thereof The Law of Faith that which to Justification requireth faith as the condition thereof The former saith Do this and thou shalt live the latter Believe in Christ and thou shalt be saved
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
is required to the very obtaining of it not in any meritorious but in an instrumentall way Now do not the Apostles averre as much when they answer this quaerie what shall I do to be saved thus repent and believe c. do they not in these answers lay repentance and faith on the creature as things required of God in them that would be saved and that towards the obtaining of their salvation not the evidencing or manifesting it only to themselves And when the Apostle saith the Jewes came short of righteousnesse which the Gentiles attained unto because they sought it not by faith as the Gentiles did Rom. 9. 31. Doth he speak of the manifesto of Righteousnesse and not rather of righteousnesse and justification it selfe the being of it Certainly the Jewes fel short not only of the assurance but of the essence and being of righteousnesse and that because they sought it not by faith So that faith is required of God from the creature so and laid on the creature so that by it the creature must seek everlasting righteousnesse the being of it or he shall for ever goe without it But for the thing it selfe that a gift may be free and yet conditional is no such contradictory proposition but that both parts may be true well stand together and uphold rather then destroy each other you might have seen in our Authors if you had beene pleased to look in to them or to have called to mind what I perswade my self you have formerly read in them Camero would have informed you that all conditions do not destroy free grace Sed eae quae possunt habere rationem meriti but only such as are meritorious And Doctor Prideaux That to a meritorious worke foure things are required which are all of them wating in our conditions First it must wholly and entirely proceede from the undertaker The person that will merit must doe it of himselfe out of his owne strength and power So was the condition of works to have been performed Man had strength conveyed to him in created nature and was to have kept the condition by this his strength But thus it is not in the conditions of the Gospel we receive strength from grace to performe the conditions of grace God who requires them of us works them in us he gives to repent he gives us to believe which I think is the Crowne of free grace that gives us a crowne upon our bare receiving it and gives us also withall a hand to take it Secondly It must be a mans owne no way due or belonging to the person of whom we me merit Suppose a tenant be three or foure years rent behind with his Landlord to the value it may be of one hundred pound or two hundred pound and having nothing to pay should be freely forgiven by his Landlord only on this condition that he carefully pay his rent for time to come Shall this person say the gift was not free because upon this condition Why the condition is due unto the Landlord whether he forgive what is past or no and therefore can no way detract from the freenesse of the gift So is our faith due our repentance is due the fall and the recovery by Christ supposed to God from us whether he forgive and justifie upon them or no. And therefore the frenesse of the gift of righteousnesse is no way impaired by the requirement of them When we have done all wee are commanded we must say we are unprofitable servants Luk. 17. 10. unprofitable saith Chamier to our selves we have not earned so much as thanks for our selves and that because we have done no more then what 's our duty Opposita sunt solvere debitum et mereri To pay or discharge a debt and to merit or deserve are opposite Thirdly It must be some way profitable or advantageous to the person of whom we merit Now this also failes for can a man be profitable to God as a wise man is profitable to himselfe Is it any gaine or pleasure to him that thou makest thy waies perfect Job 22. 2. 35. 4 5. What profit is it to the Sunne that wee receive its light into our houses or to the spring that we drinke of its water God is no way indamaged by our impenitency nor advantaged by our returne in to him All the emolument accrues to us our selves And therefore though he require our return unto him and beliefe on him if we will be saved by him yet is his gift of salvation neverthelesse free because he is no way the gainer by the things required Nay the conditions required by him are matter of further charge and expence unto him he being the worker and donor of them as was shewed in the first particular Suppose that some rich person should adopt a poore mans child to be his heire upon condition that the child be sent home unto him to live with him and to be trained and bred up in learning by him Shall the young man say it is not free because it is upon condition he leaves his fathers cottage for it he goes to school for it c Alas what profit are either of these to his forster father Nay rather they are matter of further charge to him For by reason of these he is at cost for his food apparel schooling and other necessaries to his breeding and education So when the Lord who chuseth amongst his enemies those whom he adopts to be heirs of salvation doth require of them that they repent of their sin beleeve on his Sonne leave off all their vaine wayes and learne to be like himself who is their father These heires of grace cannot say that their inheritance is not freely given because it is given on these termes and conditions for the things required are no way profitable to God who doth require them but rather matter of further cost and charge unto him who sends his word his messengers his graces his spirit for the working of them 4. It must be some way proportionable to the reward we expect for it which also failes in our conditions for what proportion is there between our repentance and remission between our faith and justification As the Apostle our light afflictions which are but for a moment work forth unto us an exceeding and eternal weight of glory So may we also say of our repentance and faith If the Landlord should say to his Tenant one hundred or two hundred pound indebted to him These summes you owe and I do not see where you have a penny to pay I might use extremity towards you cast you into prison and there let you rot but I will not deale so severely with you Do but make an ingenuous acknowledgment of what you owe and that you will be beholding to me and I will freely remit it Shall this person say he was not freely forgiven because it was on this condition his acknowledgment Alas what
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
doth not justifie for it is against both his truth and justice 2. It may be taken for one that is ungodly and unjustifiable in himself but yet believing on Christ is through him and his satisfaction Just and so justifiable Such an ungodly person God doth Justifie and thus Ames Paraeus Bishop Downam and those other Divines I have in their descriptions of Justification make not a sinner simply but a believing sinner to be the subject of Justification or the person to be justified Now whereas you say That no where in Scripture a Believer is called ungodly I conceive it false He is called so there For who is the ungodly person spoken of there but Abraham and he was justified as hath been shewed when he did believe Besides God the object of faith Justifying who is described there to be the Justifier of the ungodly is said in ver 26. of the foregoing Chapter to be the Justifier of him that believeth in Jesus I beseech you tell me doth not the Apostle speak of one and the same Justification in both places Doth he not in both places describe one and the same person the person that is justified Him then whom he calls a Believer on Christ in one place the same he calls an ungodly person in the other and whom he cals an ungodly person in this in that he stiles the same a believing person Certainly seeing as it is Chap. 3. vers 30 that it is one God that justifies both the Circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision through faith i.e. All that are justified both Jew and Gentile circumcised or uncircumcised by or through one and the same mean of faith It must needs be that the ungodly person spoken of in the next Chapter is such an ungodly person as hath faith and doth believe or else God should justifie some without faith to which the former place doth aver the contrary That place in the Romanes then concerning Gods justifying the ungodly will not bear the Position you ground upon it viz. That sinners are justified before they do believe or that we do not believe that we may be justified as the Doctor expresseth it an assertion as rotten as the foundation on which it is built and expresly contrary to the Apostle who tells us Galat. 2. 16. that hee had believed on Christ that so he might be justified by the Faith of Christ Thus have I given you an account of some and those of the main of your Arguments both wherein they have not satisfied me concerning the Tenent you endeavoured to maintain and wherein also they have offended me whilst they wounded that I hold for truth through the sides of Popery and Arminianism I shall now shew you some grounds of my belief on the contrary first taking leave in a word to state the Question and to set downe how and what I hold concerning it First then I distinguish between both a condition and a meritorious cause as also between it and an impulsive cause By condition I understand neither any thing meriting Justification at Gods hands in the least degree nor yet any thing moving the Lord to Justifie or bestow Salvation on us Secondly By Conditions I understand the restipulation or repromission in a Covenant the termes and Articles of Agreement in a Covenant betweene equals and the thing commanded or required in a Covenant betweene Superiors and Inferiors such as is the Covenant between God and man Thirdly Whereas there are conditions yet I assert them not in any rigid and legal but in an Evangelical way Not so as if they were not strictly and in a rigid exactnesse perfectly kept there were no hope of Salvation but so as if that they be not in some measure sincerely observed there is sure damnation Mr. Ball will tell you that whereas in the Covenant of Nature perfect obedience is exacted so that if there be the least failing in any jot or tittle and that but once a man can never be justied thereby nor can the breach be made up by any repentance In the Covenant of Grace perfect obedience is indeed required yet so as Repentance is admitted and sincerity accepted Conditions in this Evangelical way I plead for and conceive That God in the New Covenant doth not promise life and salvation absolutely unto his chosen whether they believe and repent or no but doth require from and command them to repent and believe if they will be partakers of the benefits purchased by his Son and promised by himself in that his Covenant which that they may do he himself of his own grace and for his own Sons sake bestowes faith and repentance on them Nor have they a right to any actual enjoyment of these benefits untill they do actually repent and believe The Grounds of my perswasion in this particular follow 1. That Covenant wherein is a mutual stipulation is conditional But such is the new Covenant therefore that is conditional As on Gods part life and salvation are promised so on mans repentance and faith and perseverance therein are required and to be promised Mar 1. 15. Chap. 6. 12. Acts 2 38. chap. 3. 19. chap. 20. 21. John 6. 28 29. chap. 3. 15 16. John 8. 24. Rom. 10 6 7 8 9 John 8. 31. Chap. 15 5 6 7 10. Heb. 3. 6. Chap. 10 38. He cannot see wood for trees that doth not take notice of these Evangelical commands wherein performance of Gospel conditions and perseverance in that performance are required they every where so abundantly occur Choose we out one of the places named and a little insist on it that Rom. 10 9. the rather for that in your answer to Mr. S. you make some reply thereto How say you do you prove that Rom. 10 9. is set down the forme and tenure of the New Covenant I deny it The Apostles intent is c. Sir It is clear as Calvin notes that the Apostle here opposeth the Righteousnesse of faith to the Righteousnesse of Works It is also clear that in describing the Righteousnesse of Works he setteth downe the very tenor and form of that Covenant The man that doth them shall live by them ver 5. And in opposition thereunto delivers this to be the speech of the Righteousnesse of Faith If thou confessest with thy mouth and believest with thine heart c. If then it be granted which cannot be denyed that in these words The man that doth them shal live by them the tenor of the Covenant of Works is contained it must needs follow by the rule of opposition that in these words If thou confessest and believest c. the tenor of the Covenant of Grace is also contained Besides when the Apostle saith The Word is nigh thee c. That is the Word of faith which we preach That if thou confesse c. What I pray you doth he mean by the Word of Faith but the Gospel or what else did the Apostle preach but the Gospel The sum of which he
saith to be this If thou confesse if thou believe c. Sir That Word or Gospel which the Apostle preached wherein he held out the Righteousnesse of faith and which he set in opposition against the Covenant of Works That same must needs be the Covenant of Grace But such is the word here the tenor whereof he saith is If thou confesse c. Ergo It is the Covenant of Grace And whereas you say That the Apostles intent there is to shew Gods order and method in fulfilling the promises of the Covenant and to describe those whom he will bring to Glory though it make nothing against us for if that were his intent he might have his intent and describe both the one and the other in setting down the Covenant The conditions which lead to annexed promises holding out Gods method unto us and the counterpane of the Covenant or Conditions engraven on the heart being the best character of a person to be glorified Though I say this makes nothing against us yet if you consider the sense of the Apostles discourse both in the latter end of the the foregoing Chapter and in this or if you please to consult with Junius Parallels where he hath a whole Parallel about this place you shal find that the Apostles intent and scope is otherwise then you say namely to prove unto the Jew even out of Moses that the end of the Law was not that they might be justified thereby but that by the impossibility of keeping it they might be driven to seek Justification from Christ by faith in another Covenant which Covenant of faith Moses though obscurely did intimate unto them in those expressions Say not in thy heart c. The Word is nigh thee By which he meant no other then that Word of Faith Gospel or Covenant of Grace which the Apostle preached the sum whereof was That if thou confesse and believe thou shalt be saved Come we to some other Texts formerly alledged to prove a stipulation in the Covenant of Grace and replied unto by you in your Sermon That out of Gen. 17. touching the Covenant with Abraham was one To which you say If any condition were required then that of Circumcision which ought also to be performed by all under the Gospel so we should obtrude Judaism upon Christians First My good friend Are intimations of preaching Judaisme Papisme and Arminianism no calumnies Consider I pray you how you besmear the adversaries of your Opinion to bring an odium upon them Secondly What you reply serves only ad faciendum populum there being no manner of Answer made unto the Argument For whether Circumcision belong to us or no it was required of Abraham and his Seed and the soul that refused to take it is said to break the Covenant and was to be cut off ver 14. So that the Argument remaines firme against you yea not at all replyed unto which is this The Covenant with Abraham was the Covenant of free grace But in the Covenant with Abraham there was a Condition required of the federates Abraham and his Seed Therefore in the Covenant of free grace there is a Condition required of the Federates Thirdly As for that you say We distinguish between the external Signe of the Covenant and the substance of it The one is alterable the other remaines stil the same Now Circumcision was but the external Sign of Abrahams part The things or duties God did especially require of Abraham were faith and sincere obedience Rom. 4 3. Gen. 17. 1. Now these belong to Christians as much as to Jewes and to presse them on Christians is no Judaism Circumcision was a Sign obligatory to those which were in Covenant or a token of the restipulation of Abraham obliging him and his posterity to faith and obedience of the Covenant to be performed to God saith Paraeus Fourthly I conceive that mandate from the external signe of Circumcision to reach to us Christians Though not in the letter yet in the Analogy and by vertue of it Christians stand to be baptized themselves also to bring their seed to partake of that Sacrament which as the Apostle teacheth us is our Christian Circumcision and he that wilfully refuseth may be said to break the Covenant as well as he that formerly refused Circumcision The same Covenant which gave a Commandment or Word of Restipulation for that Circumcision of Abraham and his Seed giveth the same commandment or Word of Justification for Baptism of Believers and our seed saith Mr. Câ—tton of New England The next places of Scripture to prove a stipulation were Heb. 8. 10. Heb. 2. 23. To which you reply by Interrogation Is there any condition on mans part intimated here Doth not God promise to do all Doth he say If you will be my people 1. Sir what you me an by that expression Doth not God promise to do all I wist not Mr. Saltmarsh saith It is enough for us to believe that Christ hath repented for us believed for us But I hope you are not so far gone If you by it understand Gods gracious inabling of his creature to perform the conditions he himselfe requireth I readily joyne with you It is he gives us to repent and to believe as hath been said already But then I hope you will distinguish between Gods gift and mans duty though the Ability be given of God the Exercise of it or work is mans It is man himself that believeth and repenteth though he receive ability from the Lord for both 2. We answer your Demand Is there any condition on mans part Yes that there is namely this They shall be my people Can they be his people without dutiful subjection and obedience to him Here is this then that God requires of them that if they would have him to be a God to them to pardon them defend them save them c. then they should take him for their God depend on him submit to him obey worship and serve him and carry themselves towards him as become his people They shall say Thou art my God Upon which Paraeus glosseth God saith we are his people making us to be his people Our faith and our obedience is our saying The Lord is our God Nor is it material that God doth not formally condition with them saying If you will be my people c. The restipulation required is no whit the lesse firm when in the next Chapter the Prophet saith Only thou shalt abide for me many dayes and not if thou wilt abide for me it was neverthelesse a conjugal Compact The cause of this kinde of expression may be either 1. for brevities sake or secondly as Mr. Ball notes God enters into Covenant with man not as his equall but as his Superiour or Soveraign appointing man his conditions in form of commands which it's mans duty to accept of and obey Or 3. Which I should rather chuse to intimate thereby his gracious purpose
of giving ability to perfom the Conditions I will put my Lawes in their hearts They shall be my people i e. I will not only require of them that they know my Lawes and obey me as becomes my people but by my Grace I wil cause it to be wrought within them Whether way you take it either for Gods command injoyning them to be his people or for his promise to make them his people it is not much material this still remaines either way that they were to be his people And this we have even from the most absolute Promises those of taking the stony heart away giving a heart of flesh a new heart circumcising the heart writing the Law on the heart which admit not as I conceive any antecedent condition yet do they clearly shew that these things are required This new heart is required the writing the Law on the heart is required and so of the rest God doth require them in his people and without men have them they cannot be the people of God nor expect salvation from God These things Sir perswade me notwithstanding all that you have hitherto replied to adhere still to what I have formerly conceived and delivered concerning these Texts viz. That they do hold out a stipulation in the Covenant and then it will be conditional Now because this work is swollen bigger by the one half already then when I set pen to paper I intended it should have been I shall briefly add some more Arguments and draw toward a close And because we are upon stipulations in the Covenant add we an Argument or two of that nature 1. That Covenant which is mandatory as well as promissory and contains a Law as well as a promise that Covenant hath a stipulation which they must subscribe to who will be federates and Covenanters therein for whenever the Lord annexeth a command unto a Promise the Promise is not absolute but conditional there is something required in the command of him who will enjoy the benefit of the Promise Now the New Covenant is of this nature it is not a meer Promise as some would have it but a Law as well as a Promise and therefore called by the Apostle The Law of faith Rom. 3. 27. The Law of faith is that Doctrine which doth require faith to the obtaining of that Righteousnesse which is freely imputed saith Paraeus That is the Law of Works which teacheth that Righteousnesse is to be obtained by Works but the Law of faith teacheth it is to be hoped for from the mercy of God alone saith Martyr The Doctrine teaching Righteousness by faith is that which the Word of the Gospel doth bind us to if we will be saved saith Bernard in his Thesaur The Condition which offereth and promiseth Salvation is this Condition If wee believe Wilson in his Dictionary on the words 2. That Covenant which man is forbidden to break commanded to keep and wherein man is tyed and bound unto God that Covenant must needs have conditions and restipulations on mans part for it is in regard of the things required from man that man is said to break or keep or be bound by the Covenant But such is the New Covenant Abrahams was such My Covenant shalt thou keep Gen. 17. 9. Davids was such though you averred the contrary in your Sermon Psal 132. 12. If thy children will keep my Covenant Such was Israels Ezek. 20. 37. I will make you to passe under the rod and bring you into the bond of the Covenant and what Covenant doth he mean but that mentioned Ezek. 36. 26. and Hos 2. The places considered seem to me to hold out one and the same Such is also that administration of it under which we are The Romans were free from righteousness before they believed on Christ and entred into Covenant with him but after they were baptized into Christ they were Servants unto Righteousnesse The stile of Gods people formerly was they were Covenant keepers Psal 25. 10. Psal 103. 17. And is it not as proper to them now as it was then May not the people of God under the Gospel be guilty of breach of Covenant and that not only in regard of their Covenants with men nor yet in regard of those necessary engagements which occasionally they make unto the Lord but in regard of their Baptism and that solemne Covenant between God and them which Baptism doth seal I have not quite forgotten Mr. Perkins Catechism which I learned when I was a child where I was taught in the fift Principle expounded to answer this Question How comes it to passe that many after their Baptism for a long time feel not the effect and fruit of it and some never Thus answered The fault is not in God who keeps his Covenant but the fault is in themselves in that they do not keep the condition of the Covenant to receive Christ by faith and repent of all their sins And a little after How if a man never keep the Condition to which he bound himself in Baptism Answer His damnation shall be greater because he breaks his Vow made unto God Mr. Perkins you see teacheth Conditions in the New Covenant in regard of which it may be kept or broken by us Christians 3 This brings to my mind another Argument That Covenant wherein a Promise is required of the federates which Promise they do also seal to God in receiving of the Covenant Seal that Covenant hath a restipulation But such is the new Covenant For the confirmation of the Minor I desire you to consider how in the Primitive times growne persons were required to professe their repentance and faith in Christ before they were admitted unto Baptism Repent saith Peter Acts 2 and be baptized Whence also it is called the Baptism of Repentance Mark 1. 4. Acts 19. 4. And John is said to Baptise men unto repentance Mat. 3. 11. So when the Eunuch desired Baptism of Philip. Acts 8. 36 37. saying What doth hinder me to be baptized Philip replyes That if he believed with all his heart he might whereupon followed both his confession of Faith and Baptism The Baptist also requires those whom he baptized to bring forth fruits worthy amendment of life From which places Zanchy and Piscator collect that faith and Repentance and new obedience were required of all those grownpersons who were baptized they were to make profession of their repentance and faith and to make Promise of new Obedience Take Piscators note upon Matth. 3. Baptism is to be administred to no person that is of years unlesse he shall first of all make a confession of sins and of faith in Christ and withal a Promise of leading a holy life These Professions were afterward for the ease of the party to be baptized turned into Interrogations and Answers The Minister demanding of the party to be baptized Dost thou believe in God the party was wont to answer I do believe The Minister again
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
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
both there and in this eleventh Argument he excludes both from the Covenant with Abraham and the work of Justification 2. Let but Martyr expound himself and then it will appear what conditions he denies and in what manner nor shall I lead you any further for discovery of this then this his Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans Look then Chap. 10 on those words For righteousnesse to every one that believeth and you shall find the difference betweene the Law and the Gospel thus set down by him The Law is received by doing and most exact performing that which is commanded But the Gospel by a lively and efficacious assent of faith Moses also Deut. 30. writeth concerning the Law that hee had set before the people life and death manifestly teaching that if the Law be received and fulfilled it will bring eternal life with it But seeing we are shut out from this benefit the merciful God hath provided another word to wit of faith which if by assenting to it it be received bringeth life along with it From this place it appeareth that the promises of the Law were given from the supposition or condition of Works going before But in the Gospel if works are annexed to the Promises they are not so to be understood as either the merit or causes of those Promises But we must thus conclude That these gifts of God which are promised follow after the works though they be not perfect and absolute as they are commanded in the Law This place I hope will shew that Peter Martyr was only against the condition of Works and there too against their merit or efficiency for as for their presence he allowes that they are required in the Gospel But as as for the condition of faith he is not at all against it Turne to one place more Rom. 8. If we suffer with him c. Where setting down the differences between the Promises of the Law and of the Gospel he saith They do not differ in this as some think that the Promises Evangelical have no conditions annexed but the Legal Promises are never offered without conditions for as it s said Honour thy Father and thy mother that thou maist live long upon the earth And if ye be willing and obedient ye shall eat the good of the Land So we read also in the Gospel Forgive and it shall be forgiven give and it shall be given c. Wherefore seeing this is not the difference we must seek out some other It appeareth therefore to him that diligently considereth that the conditions of the Law might bee causes of the obtainment of the rewards promised for if they had been perfect and absolute as the Law required them they might be compared with the rewards themselves and had also had esteem of merit but seeing these cannot be performed by men God of his mercy gave in their stead Evangelical Promises which although they have conditions added yet are offered freely Wherefore if thou joyne these three things together that the Evangelical rewards are promised freely that the conditions cannot be compared unto or equalized with them that the Promises must be most firme and take away the account of merit you may see wherein these differ from those of the Law And thus I hope it is manifest that they were conditions of Works which Peter Martyr did deny that he did not deny them simply neither but only as meritorious and causal of the benefits promised that he held faith to be the Requisite or the Condition of the Gospel So that you must give me leave to take Martyr from you too and put him down with the forenamed Authors for a patron of our Cause 3. Next unto Peter Martyr you cite Olevian but whether with any more advantage to your Cause then the former or disadvantage to us is the businesse of our present enquiry If you please with second thoughts which are most commonly the best to look into him you shall find that when he denies conditions in the Covenant they are only such as first are performed by and proceeding from our own strength which we with him do acknowledg to be none and therefore also deny the same 2. Which arise from or carry along with them a consideration of dignity or worthinesse in our selves 3. Are of a meritorious nature Such conditions as these we together with him disclaim That these are the conditions which he doth deny is so clear and plain that he which runs may read If you begin with his definition of the Covenant of Grace you shall find him in the close thereof expressing himself thus Without the condition or stipulation of any good thoughts from their own strength Having spoken concerning God who makes the Covenant he comes afterward to consider the persons with whom this Covenant is made and shewes that the very Elect themselves to whom it doth especially belong are by nature children of wrath dead in sins such whose hearts are hearts of stone unable to think a good thought of themselves meer darknesse enemies to God slaves to sinne and Satan Now forasmuch as they are such God saith he promiseth he will not make any such Covenant with them which in the least part thereof should be founded on their own strength to perform it Wherefore lest the Covenant should fail and be of none effect men being miserable dead in sins having hearts of stone such as are not subject to the Law of God neither in deed can be Rom. 8. Who are not able of themselves to think any thought that is good but that it may remain firm and everlasting he promiseth such a Covenant the whole essence whereof doth depend on himself alone and is founded in his Son Jesus Christ He promiseth also such a manner of executing in us this his decree and purpose the strength and efficacy whereof doth not proceed from corrupt man but from himself alone A little after he sums up all that he had said concerning the nature and substance of the Covenant thus Wherefore if you look upon God the efficient cause and those to whom he promiseth the Covenant or if you consider the matter and form thereof you shall still find it is a Covenant of free grace and that it doth not Depend on any condition of our worthinesse merits or our proper strength The most merciful God did see the promise would be vain in respect of our vanity which should depend on the condition of our own strength What here he doth deliver so plainly and in such expresse termes you may if you please to look into him find him afterwards repeating againe and again Sir By these passages you may see you have not gained any thing by Olevian nor your Adversaries lost by what he speaks against conditions in the Covenant Now that you may further see that he speaks rather on their side whom you oppose then for you I shall intreat you to consider some
6. Doctor Davenant doth also fully expresse himselfe several times to the like purpose and may in the sixth place be added to the former His words are these In the Covenant of the Gospel it is otherwise for in this Covenant to the obtainment of reconciliation Justification and life eternal there is no other condition required then of true and lively faith God so loved the world John 3. 16. Therefore Justification and the right to eternal life doth depend on the condition of faith alone Where he doth afterward thus briefly shew the difference betweene the Law and the Gospel considered as two distinct Covenants The Law saith he hath the very strength and form of a Covenant made in the condition of Works But the Gospel placeth the very strength and form of a Covenant made in the blood of the Mediator apprehended by faith What can be said more expresly then this I will not trouble you with repeating what hath been already delivered out of him in his next Chapter but only mention one passage or two out of him The Promise of eternal life according to the Covenant of the Gospel and of Grace doth depend on the condition of faith A little before explicating in what sense we deny good works to be required as conditions of Salvation he thus speaks If by conditions of salvation we understand the conditions of the Covenant whereby we are received into the favor of God and to the right of eternal life for these depend on the only condition of faith apprehending Christ the Mediator 7. With the fore mentioned Divines doth the learned Cameron fully agree who handling the agreement and differences of the Covenant of Nature and of Grace observes they both agree in the extrinsecal form that to each there is annexed a restipulation though in the thing it self required in each by way of stipulation they differ for that in the Covenant of Nature natural Righteousnesse is required but in the Covenant of Grace faith alone is required Whereupon in the conclusion of his whole Discourse concerning that Subject he gives this definition of the Covenant of Grace It is that wherein God on the Condition of faith in Christ proposed doth promise the remission of sins in his blood and life everlasting in heaven and that for this end that he might shew the riches of his mercy 8. Unto these I may add Paraeus who observes that the Apostle doth make mention of faith that he may teach us fidem esse conditionem that faith is the condition under which Christ is given unto us as the propitiation for sins and that it is the Instrumental cause by which alone we obtain the propitiation in Christ And elsewhere setting down the difference between the righteousness of the Law and of faith or of the Gospel He saith By that no man doth obtaine life because the condition of doing all things required by the Law is not possible to any besides Christ It is easie to obtaine the fruit and reape life by this because the condition of confessing the Lord Jesus and believing his Resurrection is nigh in the mouth and in the heart 9 The learned Chamier that great Assertor of the truth of God against the Romish corrupters of it is the next He disputing with Bellarmine concerning the difference between the Law and the Gospel speaks as fully and plainly as any of the rest forenamed Protestant Divines That the Law of Works doth propose salvation upon condition of fulfilling the Law But the Law of Faith doth propose it upon condition only of believing in Christ the word condition being taken in the same sense in both sides And having distinguished conditions that are in Contracts and Covenants that some are precedent others are consequent the former being such as are essential to the Contract or Covenant yea constituting the very essence and foundation of it The other being such the defect or want whereof doth make the Contract or Covenant to be void and of none effect though they do not make the Covenant and Contract it self He doth apply it to his present Subject The Law of Works requireth the fulfilling of the Law as a condition antecedent without which any man hath not either the actual possession of nor so much as a right to eternal life The Law of faith doth not admit works as such a condition antecedent but only consequent so that they are necessary ex vi donatae jam propter fidem vitae by vertue of that right to eternal life which is already conferred on them through faith Where you see Chamier doth clearly assert Faith to be the condition by which we doe receive the right to life given us by grace Works the condition consequent in the Covenant of Grace 10. Mr. Bayn on the Ephesians Remission of sin is communicated from Christ in manner following 1 Christ sendeth his Ministers as Legats with the word of reconciliation or pardon inviting them to believe on him that they may receive forgivenesse of sins 2. He doth work together by his Spirit making those who are his children believe on him if they may find forgivenesse in him 3 He doth communicate to them the forgivenesse which himselfe had procured and obtained for them And on that fourth verse God doth not bind any directly and immediately to believe salvation but in a certain order for he binds them first to believe on Christ to Salvation and then brings them in Christ to believe that hee loved them and gave himselfe for them 11. Mr. Burroughes upon Hosea upon those words I will betroth them unto me how frequently hath he those words It must be mutual it must be mutual in every particular branch of it He shewes it must be mutual on the Churches part as well as on Gods part and how can it be so without stipulation In Moses his self-denial p. 188. Faith hath the greatest honour above all other Graces to be the condition of the Covenant 12. Last of all it is the general Tenent of our brethren in New England as appears by Mr. Bulkly of the Covenant pag. 280 281. where he handles that very Question And also by the Catalogue of Errors that did arise there and were condemned by an Assembly at the Church of New Town August 31. 1637. attested by Mr. Weldes Err. 27. It is incompatible to the Covenant of Grace to joyne Faith thereunto Err. 28. To affirm there must be faith on mans part to receive the Covenant is to undermine Christ Er. 37. We are completely united to Christ before or without any faith wrought in us by the Spirit Err. 38. There can be no true closing with Christ in a Promise that hath a Qualification or a condition expressed Err. 82. Where faith is held forth by the Ministers as the condition of the Covenant of Grace on mans part as Justification by Sanctification and the acting of faith in that Church there is not
religiously maintained No Sir our doctrine concerning conditions doth no way destroy the certainty of election But on the contrary the doctrine of election doth confirme this our Tenent of Conditional Redemption For so as God from all eternity purposed salvation unto us and elected us thereto So did Christ purchase it and so is it actually to be applied But God hath from the beginning chosen us to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and beliefe of the truth And heretofore Christ did purchase it to be obtained that way and that way it is actually to be enjoyed So that till we be brought over to the beliefe of the truth and some degree of Sanctification we cannot be said actually to partake of any part of the salvation purposed or purchased That God elects for faith foreseene we uterly deny but that he electeth through or by it i.e. salvation to be obtained through or by it we religiously maintain Your fourth Argument runnes thus If the purchases of Christs death have any condition annexed to them in regard of application then these conditions share with Christ in the businesse of salvation It is the same with another of your Arguments used in your former lectures and neere of kinne to that of Doctor Crispe vol. 1. p. 168. Then Christ justifieth not alone Is faith Christ himselfe if not then Christ must have a partner to justifie But the sequel both in yours and the Doctors Argument is notoriously false and that because conditions are not required in the same way of causality that Christs righteousness is For that is required as a meritorious cause purchasing and procuring mans peace faith is an instrument apprehending it and Christ the cause of it repentance as a way leading to it or qualification fitting a person for it Now when an effect depends on divers causes of a different kind the necessity of the one argues not the insufficiency of the other but the one may be sufficient in its kind though the other be required The wounded person must apply the plaister to the wound if he wil have it heale him The diseased person must drink the potion must travel to the bath and bathe himselfe therein if he will have either the potion to purge him or the bath to cure him Yet would it be great weaknesse in either of these to say that the plaister the potion the bath were not sufficient because they were required to goe unto the one to take and apply the other for their taking going drinking applying are not required in the same sanatory and medicinal way as the bath the plaister or the portion are but only in an instrumental way to bring these home to him that so they might worke upon him So nor is my repentance and faith required in any satisfactory or meritorious way to satisfie Gods justice together with Christ or merit remission for me no Christ doth that alone they are only required to fit me for Christ and bring me to Christ Did we ascribe any merit or worthinesse to our conditions then you might say indeed that we made them partners with Christ but we abhorre this as much as you Faith saith Mr. Gataker affords not the least mite towards the making up of that price wherewith our debt is to be discharged That this answer would be made unto your Argument you your selfe foresaw and therefore to Anticipate it You say But some distinguish betweene Conditions and meritorious Conditions c. Unto which you reply That this is a most weake evasion for Papists themselves ascribe no merit to the preparations they plead for and cite for it Conc. Trid. Sess 6. c. 8. And here Sir is a second calumnie For as before you ranked us with Arminians so here you would insinuate that we joyne hands with Papists in maintaining of this conditional redemption But as I hope I have vindicated it from the charge of Arminianisme so I doubt not also to cleare it from this of Papisme Is it enough my good friend to make a thing evil to say that Papists hold so Why did you cite Aestius and Lessius both Papists among the Champions of your opinion Papists agree with us and wee with them in many things Nor call we that Popish where they are sound and agree with us but that only wherein they being erroneous we dissent from them and protest against them Now whether or no Papists maintaine any meritoriousnesse in the preparations they defend sure I am that Protestant Authors chiefly oppose this meritoriousnesse of them as I shall prove unto you First then consider that what Chemnitius replie to that very place and passage of the Counsel that you cite If I have not mist your quotation His words are these If therefore this were the minde and judgment of the Synod that it would simply shew that manner and order which God doth use according to the Doctrine of the Scripture when he intends to bring men to justification and if they would not attribute those things which the Scripture teacheth do go before it to the strength of free will but to the grace of God and operation of his Holy Spirit nor place any merit or worth in those preparations for which wee may be justified we might easily be agreed concerning the word preparation rightly understood according to the Scripture Out of which of Chemnitius I observe three things 1 That however in that Session they did daube over the matter yet they did hold a dignity worth and merit of congruity to be in these preparations which the same Chemnitius doth afterwards prove at large spending three or foure leaves therein 2 That Chemnitius held something some worke wrought by the Spirit in man to precede his justification or his reception of justification for in the following paragraph thus he speaks It is therefore false which in the ninth Canon they attribute to us as if we taught that not any motion of the will given by God and excited by him doth goe before our receiving of justification for we doe altogether teach that repentance and contrition doe goe before Wee doe not say that they goe before as a merit which by its worth doth cooperate to the obtaining of justification but as the sense of sicknesse or griefe of a wound is not any merit of the cure but doth raise and stirre up to desire seeke out and welcome the Physician For the whole hath no neede of the Phsitian but they that are sick as Christ saith And in this sense those things as the Scripture saith do go before 3. That he could easily have agreed with those Tridentine Fathers about preparations the word preparation being rightly understood and according to Scripture expressions if they would not have ascribed them to the strength of free wil nor have put the worth and merit of justification upon them By this I think it is plaine that they were meritorious preparations that Chemnitius did oppose in his writings
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
have benefit by Christ before they had right to Christ as in the instant of their Conversion when the Spirit of Christ did work faith and repentance in them That first Benefit they had I conceive in order of nature though not in time before they had right it being the very conveyance of right over to them and stating them therein must precede their having of right or otherwise they should have right before they had it This you told me then was grosse nonsense and since you have averred in Pulpit that to say men have benefit and not right is palpable nonsense But 1. Sir Whether nonsense or no what is it you say to the places cited These Texts tell me plainly that unlesse I have faith I have not Christ and that unlesse I have Christ I cannot have life no nor right to or interest in it unlesse a man may have right to and interest in life through Christ and yet for all not live but perish everlastingly which I think will be worse then nonsense to aver So that the Argument remains firm and unanswered 2 For your Crimination though you might have dealt more fairly and produced the manner of our asserting it as well as the assertion it self yet we must be content to take what you give and as you give it and shall cast it up into the sachel to the other Legacies you have bestowed on us as Arminianism Papism Judaisme absolute contradictions and weak evasions c. 3 For the grosse and palpable nonsense it self Benefit and not right I must professe unto you that as grosse and palpable as it is my dull pate doth not yet apprehend it All the while the father lives the child hath benefit by his fathers means but what right he hath thereto I know not the coats he wears the food he eats are not his own by right I think but his Fathers yea when the father dies and gives a Legacy to his child to be paid at such an age until the child come to that age it cannot challenge the Legacy or portion given him by his father nor dispose of it if he dye before yet hath he benefit thereby if he hath jus ad rem a right to the thing he hath not jus in re a right in the thing until that period of time notwithstanding the Donation of his father But to come yet nearer to the matter in hand Suppose that some poor woman cast in prison for debt where she is like to perish should haply meet with a rich friend who pitying her sad condition and taking an affection to her should procure her inlargement out of prison intending to wed and marry her I hope here it would be no non-sense to say that this woman had benefit by this intended husband before she had right to him and inteterest in him for till the match or contract she cannot have any right in him at all The case is ours we are indebted to God and in prison too the Lord by his Spirit delivering us doth make us his heavenly Bride This first benefit our delivering out of bonds we must have in some measure from Christ in order of Nature before we can give our consent to the Match and by faith take the Lord Jesus for our husband May we not say in this case that we have benefit viz. the grand benefit of Regeneration by him before we have right to him Is it nonsense to say so I am sure Mr. Thomas Goodwin writes something after this manner The promises of forgivenesse are not as the pardon of a Prince which meerly contein an expression of his royal word for pardoning so as we in seeking of it do rest upon and have to do only with his word and Seal which we have to shew for it but Gods promises of pardon are made in his Son and are as if a Prince should offer to pardon a Traitor upon mariage with his child whom in and with that pardon he offers in such a relation so as all that would have pardon must first seek out for his child And thus it is in the matter of believing the reason of which is because Christ is the grand promise in whom all the Promises are Yea and Amen 2 Cor. 1. 20. The Interest in a heiresse Lands goes with her person and with the relation of mariage to her so all the Promises hang on Christ and without him there is no interest to be had in them So Mr. Reynolds Life of Christ p. 466. tells me That till there be this consent on our side it is but a wooing there is no marriage no Covenant made Pag. 478. That our union and communion with Christ is on our part the work of Faith whose office it is to unite to Christ and gaine possession of him Yea Luther also on Gal. 2 20. Faith therefore must be purely taught namely that thou art so entirely joyned to Christ as that thou maist say I am one with Christ his righteonsnesse and Victory are mine c. For by faith we are joyned so together that wee are become one flesh and one bone So that this faith doth couple Christ and me more neer together then the husband is coupled to his wife And Dr. Preston New Coven p. 458. avers the same Sir these men know how to write sense now they tel us that our right comes through our marriage with Christ and that spiritual match is not made up untill we believe which be the two main pieces of that you call grosse non-sense For as for the third that we cannot believe till God for Christs sake vouchsafe us that benefit that they all maintain it I need not tell you In fine your nonsense bespeaks you in this Argument which perhaps may puzzle both your senses and intellectuals solidly to answer All that be united unto Christ and quickned by him before they have right to him do receive special benefits from him before they have right to him But all the Elect are united unto Christ and quickned by him before they have right to him or to salvation through him Ergo All the Elect do receive special benefits by Christ before they have right to him or to salvation through him Or All that have union before they have right have benefit before they have right But all the Elect have union before they have right Ergo All the Elect have benefit before they have right But we have right to those benefits say you by vertue of Gods Largess and Donation The same I also find in Dr. Ames But this I conceive to hold true onely in absolute Grants for if the Gift or Grant be conditional then is there a right unto the benefit granted when that condition is wrought in the Legatee and not before Swynborn in his Treatise of Testaments p. 150. tels us That if the Testator give his daughter an hundred pounds if she marry with advice and approbation of her Uncle in case the party
this is saith he to be noted that even the very conditions which God requireth of us are given to us by God Therefore the remission of sins is not to be ascribed in any sort to our Merits but to the grace of God alone You have here Zanchy speaking as fully and as plainly for Conditions as any of those whose Doctrine you oppose in which regard I must intreat you either to quit your claim to this Author and leave him to stand on our side against you or else to change your mind and judgment come over to us and then Zanchy is yours when you are ours 5 The Testimony of learned Junius is next produced by you as that which seemes to be most for you of all the Authors and yet not so much as is pretended The oration of his which you mention I have not In his Parallels he doth indeed make mention of it as that wherein he had proved that the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 oft time in the Scriptures of the old Testament and the Latine word Foedus both according to the Etymology and use thereof in classical Authors are not restrained to those federal promises wherein there is a mutual stipulation between divers parties expressed but for such declarations and dispositions as proceed from one alone so that the Hebrew word might well be rendred by the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now this is a thing which is not denied but acknowledged and granted by those which yet neverthelesse do assert a mutual stipulation and conditions in that regard in the Covenant of Grace So that if this be the scope and drift of that Oration as it seems to be by his mentioning of it for this end and purpose it is alledged by you to little purpose seeing it doth neither make for you nor against us In prosecution of this which is the main drift of that Parallel and as I conceive by his own citing of it of the Oration also he adds That the grace of God is manifested much more clear to men in that he doth not give a Covenant but a Testament to those that are his For the Covenant would have Conditions which if either part do not perform the Covenant is made void But a Testament is an instrument of liberality and grace without any condition by which men are called and appointed heirs without respect to any duty which might proceed from them By this passage of Junius you may take notice who that Vir maximus is whom Dr. Ames cites in that place of his Coronis which is quoted by you Now as for this place of Junius we must either expound it of meritorious Conditions which those words without respect to any duty seem to intimate or of Conditions Legal to be performed by our own strength such as were in the Covenant of works for Conditions Evangelical and not Meritorious he doth in expresse termes aver in the new Covenant or Testament The substance saith he of either Testament is one and the same common in Jesus Christ and that consists of two parts as it was first manifested to Abraham Gen. 17. and afterwards to his posterity the one containing the Promise when God saith I will be their God the other the condition added wherein God requireth that we should in like manner obey him when he saith And they shall be my people And if you please to peruse the Chapter out which the next Quotation in the Margent is cited at large or the passage it selfe that is alledged you shall finde him acknowledging that the Covenant of the Gospel hath its conditions annexed as well as the Covenant of Works and withal such a condition as to man in himselfe is impossible though in regard of the Lords gracious promise who doth undertake to work in his own Federates the very condition it selfe 't is to them through power of his grace and efficacy of his Spirit made profitable and easie where when he had fitly shewed the agreement between Moses setting down the tenor and condition of the Covenant which God did make with Israel besides the Covenant which he made with them at Horeb and S. Paul expressing the tenor of the Gospel which is a declaration of the same Covenant of Grace which Moses mentioneth he doth thus paraphrase those words of the Covenant which both do expresse The word is nigh thee in thy mouth and in thine heart i.e. This Commandment of faith which I declare is neither hidden nor far off from thee seeing God doth graciously put it into thy mouth and into thy heart if thou by faith wilt lay hold of it Thus you have Junius against Junius or rather Junius expounding himself telling you in plain termes that he holds conditions in the New Covenant which God of his free grace gives his Creature to perform So that the former place where he excludes conditions from the Covenant must as I said before be understood of legal and meritorious conditions which sort of conditions we shut out of the Covenant as well as he 6. Leave we Junius as much if not more on our side then on yours and come we to the next Dr. Ames for as for Estius and Lessius though I value one the former of them yet I shall not look after them at present not for that I doubt they are against me but for that I care not much to have them for me being by you upbraided already with joyning with Papists though it seems you can your self accept of the patronage of Papists when you can get it Come we I say to Dr. Ames and I could willingly chide you for open fowle play in citing an Author expresly against his own words in the very place you cite out of him Immediately before your very citation Ames hath these words We grant that mans duty is required maintaining this withal that God by vertue of this promise will cause those that are his that they shall perform the duty as far forth as it is necessary to be done And immediately after your Quotation which is verbatim the same with that Junius delivereth in his Parallel where he mentions his Oration that you alledge he doth thus expresse himself The whole disposition is after the manner of a Will and Testament as it is considered simply either in whole or according to the part of it but if the benefits that are bequeathed be compared within themselves then one is to the other as it were a condition And in this respect it is sometimes propounded after the manner of a Covenant which manner of propounding is not so to be taken as that it should in any part change the nature of a Testament Our Divines are wont excellently to joyn both together when they teach that righteousnesse and life are promised upon condition of faith and that faith it self is given to the Elect or that the condition of the Covenant is also promised in the Covenant How plainly