sorrows and pains than to hear that this is the Command of God this is the voice of Christ the Bridegroom that they be surely perswaded that Remission of sins or Reconciliation is given not for our worthiness but freely through Mercy for Christ's sake that the benefit may be certain As for the word Justification in those passages of Paul it signifies the Remission of sins or Reconciliation or imputation of Righteousness that is the acceptation of the Person And in the same Article the paragraph concerning good works This new life then should be obedience towards God And the Gospel preaches Repentance nor can there be Faith but in those who repent because Faith comforts Mens hearts in contrition and fears of sin c. Moreover we also teach concerning this Obedience that they who commit mortal sins that is wilful presumptuous sins against Knowledge and Conscience are not just because God requires this obedience that we resist our corrupt lusts and affections But those who do not resist but obey them against the Command of God and do actions against their Conscience they are unjust and they neither retain the Holy Spirit nor Faith that is confidence of Mercy For in those who delight in sin and do not repent there cannot indeed be that Trust or Confidence which may seek for remission of sins This passage of the Augustan Confession we thus understand that habitual reigning wilful sin against Conscience and without Repentance is inconsistent with a state of Grace and Reconciliation And we think that all Protestants except Antinomians are agreed in this One passage more and we have done with this Confession of Faith It is in the same 20th Article of Faith a little before the passage last quoted There is no need here of disstations about predestination and the like For the promise is universal and it takes nothing from works yea it stirs up to Faith and to Works that are truely good For remission of sins is transferred or removed from our Works unto God's Mercy not that we may do nothing but much rather that we may know how our Obedience pleaseth God in our so great infirmity This was the first Protestant Confession of Faith written by Melancthon Received by the Protestant Churches subscribed by their Ministers and that not onely by Luther and those of his Party but even by Calvin also It was likewise subscribed by seven Princes and Dukes in Germany and by the Magistrates of Cities and presented unto the Emperour Charles V. in the Year 1530. We hope then it will not be denyed but that this Augustan Confession contains the true Doctrine of the Gospel in the points of Justification by Faith and of the necessity of Repentance unto the obtaining pardon of sin and of sincere Obedience unto the obtaining of Eternal Salvation And if so then our Doctrine in those points is likewise the true Doctrine of the Gospel for it is the same with that of the Augustan Confession as to those Matters of which we treat From the Augustan Confession and the Testimony of many Princes Pastours Cities and Churches who subscribed and received it we come to the Articles of the Church of England which we have all subscribed the 11th Article concerning Justification we most heartily embrace and acknowledge that it is a most wholsome Doctrine and full of comfort that we are justified by Faith onely in that sense which is more largely explained in the Homily of Justification to which the Article expresly refers us and which by consequence we have subscribed by subscribing the Article It is called a Sermon of the Salvation of Mankind by Christ onely and a very good Sermon it is worth a thousand of our Authour's Letter which deserves not to be mentioned the same Day with it For understanding then the true and full meaning of the Article of Justification we must have recourse to the Homily or Sermon of Salvation In which Excellent Sermon pag. 13. We read as followeth London Edit 1673. That though according to the Apostle we are justified by a true and lively Faith onely and that that Faith is the Gist of God Yet that Faith doth not shut out Repentance Hope Love Dread and the Fear of God to be joined with Faith in every Man that is Justified but it shutteth them out from the office of Justifying So that although they be all present together marke that they do not onely necessarily follow and flow from Faith in time but when we are first Justified they are present together with it in him that is Justified yet they Justifie not altogether nor the Faith also doth not shut out the Justice of our good Works as necessary to be done afterwards of Duty towards God for we are most bounden to serve God in doing good Deeds commanded by him in his Holy Scripture all the Days of our life but it excludeth them so that we may not do them to this intent to be made good by doing them For all the good works that we can do be imperfect and therefore not able to deserve our Justification c. Again in the second part of that Sermon pag. 15. Nevertheless this Sentence that we be Justified by Faith onely is not so meant of them that the said Justifying Faith is alone in Man without true Repentance Hope Charity Dread and Fear of God at any time and season Nor when they say that we be Justified freely they mean not that we should or might afterwards be idle and that nothing should be required on our parts afterwards Neither they mean not so to be justified without good Works that we should do no good Works at all But this saying that we be justified by Faith onely freely and without Works is spoken for to take away clearly all Merit of our Works as being unable to deserve our Justification at God's Hand and thereby most plainly to express the weakness of Man and the Goodness of God the great infirmity of our selves and the Might and Power of God the imperfectness of our own works and the most abundant Grace of our Saviour Christ and therefore wholly to ascribe the Merit and Deserving of our Justification unto Christ onely and his most precious Blood-shedding This Faith the Holy Scripture teacheth us this is the strong Rock and Foundation of Christian Religion this Doctrine all Old and Antient Authours of Christ's Church do approve this Doctrine advanceth and setteth forth the true Glory of Christ and beateth down the vain-glory of Man this whosoever denieth is not be accounted for a Christian Man nor for a setter forth of Christ's Glory but for an Adversary to Christ and his Gospel and for a setter forth of Mens vain-glory Again pag. 16. The true meaning and understanding of this Doctrine we be Justified freely by Faith without Works or we be Justified by Faith in Christ onely is not that this our own Act to believe in Christ or this our Faith in Christ which is within us
doth justify us and deserve our Justification unto us for that were to count our selves to be justified by some Act or Vertue that is within our selves but the true understanding and meaning thereof is that although we hear God's Word and believe it although we have Faith Hope Charity Repentance Dread and Fear of God within us and do never so many Works thereunto Yet we must renounce the Merit of all our said Vertues of Faith Hope Charity and all other Vertues and good Deeds which we either have done shall do or can do as things that be far too weak and insufficient and imperfect to deserve remission of our sins and our Justification and therefore we must trust onely in God's Mercy and that Sacrifice which our High Priest and Saviour Christ Jesus the Son of God once offered for us upon the Cross to obtain thereby God's Grace and Remission as well of our Original Sin in Baptism as of all Actual Sin committed by us after our Baptism if we truly repent and turn unfeignedly to him again And at the end of the same 16. and beginning of 17. Page You see that the very true meaning of this Proposition or Saying we be Justified by Faith in Christ onely according to the meaning of the Old Antient Authours I is this We put our Faith in Christ that we be justified by him only that we be Justified by God's free Mercy and the Merits of our Saviour Christ onely and by no Vertue or good Works of our own that is in us or that we can be able to have or to do for to deserve the same Christ himself only being the Cause meritorious thereof All this we most heartily approve of But we doubt whether our Authour will join with us in it because he says the Papists own this That Christ onely is the Meritorious Cause of our Justification And if it be so Lett. pag. 6. then according to his reckoning the Church of England and we may be both Papists in the point of Justification notwithstanding that the said Homily was written purposely against the Papists and we have all subscribed to it It may be our Authour has so accustomed himself to call Men Papists when ever he is angry with them that he cannot forbear it and therefore as he used to call the Church of England Men Papists so now being angry with us his Passion may have excited him to bring his Habit into Act and to rank us also among Papists in the point of Justification But we leave this and proceed to what is more material and that is that if we be not Justified by Works because they do not nor cannot merit Justification then it will follow that for the same reason we are not Justified by Faith because Faith can no more merit Justification than Works This Objection the Authour or Authours of the Homily foresaw and answered it by confessing that Faith doth not Justify us on the account of its meritorious Nature but on another account Their Words are these As great and as godly a Vertue as the lively Faith is yet it putteth us from it self and remitteth or appointeth us unto Christ for to have only by him remission of our sins or Justification So that our Faith in Christ as it were saith unto us thus It is not I that take away your sins but it is Christ only and to him only I send you for that purpose forsaking therein all your good vertues Words Thoughts and Works and only putting your trust in Christ And in the Third Part Pag. 17. Nevertheless because Faith doth directly send us to Christ for remission of our sins and that by Faith given us of God we embrace the Promise of God's Mercy and of the remission of our sins which thing none other of our vertues or works properly doth therefore Scripture useth to say that Faith without Works doth Justify Thus far that Excellent Sermon And this is the same thing which we maintain That God hath chosen Faith above all other Graces and Vertues to be the receptive applicative Condition or moral Instrument and Means of Justification because it hath a proper and peculiar aptitude and fitness for that use being both of an illuminative and receptive Nature and as it is of an illuminative Nature it assures us that we can be Justified by no Satisfaction and Merit but that of Christ and so it sends us to him alone for Justification Then as it is of a receptive Nature it embraceth the Promise and takes hold of him and his Righteousness as held forth to us in the Promise that thereby and for the Satisfaction and Merits thereof alone and for no other thing we may be Justified In this sense we hold that we are Justified by Faith onely and that Faith is the onely receptive applicative Condition of Justification Yet this hinders not but that Repentance is the dispositive Condition of Justification The Homily saith expresly that Faith doth not shut out Repentance but that they are present together and that by Faith we trust only in Gods mercy and Christs Sacrifice to obtain thereby Remission of all Sins Original and Actual if we truly repent and turn unfeignedly to him again Part 2. pag. 16. Which words manifestly shew that they held Repentance to be a Condition of Justification but it cannot be according to the Authours of the Homily either a meritorious Condition for there is none such at all possible nor a receptive applicative Condition for that is the office of Faith onely Therefore it must be a dispositive Condition And then after one is Justified it is evident that they held sincere Obedience to be indispensably necessary to his continuing in a Justified state and obtaining Eternal Salvation For they say in Part 3. pag. 17. that if after we are Justified and made Members of Christ we care not how we live whether we do good or avoid evil Works we make our selves Members of the Devil and surely that is inconsistent with a Justified state Therefore to prevent our becoming Members of the Devil again sincere Obedience from a Principle of Faith and Love is indispensably necessary And that this was their true meaning is further evident from the Sermon of Good Works Part I. pag. 29. Where they quote and approve the saying of Chrysostom concerning the penitent Thief The words are This I will surely affirm that Faith onely saved him If he had lived and not regarded Faith and the works thereof he should have lost his Salvation again Indeed this is but a Supposition and we have no reason to think that if he had lived longer he would not have been careful to lead a Life of Faith and Holy Obedience yet if the antecedent be supposed the consequent necessarily follows that he would have lost his Salvation again For as it is in the Sermon of Faith To them that have evil works Second Part p. 24. and lead their Life in disobedience and transgression or
Scripture and Reason and the Testimony of the Synod of Dort that there can be no just ground to doubt of it And if it were otherwise and we were justified before we were sanctified in any Kind or Degree that is before there were any Holy Change wrought in us before we did begin to Convert and turn to God before we had any Holy Inclination to believe or any Holy Act of Faith and Repentance and any Holy purpose to lead a new Life then might we continue to be actually justified and pardoned without being in any Kind or Degree sanctified because by the same Reason that Justification might be begun without any Kind or Degree of Sanctification without any saving Faith and Repentance it might be continued without them But all true Protestants except Antinomians even our Author himself confess that Justification cannot be continued without any Sanctification without any true Faith and Repentance therefore Justification cannot be begun before and without them If any should say that this Argument may be retorted upon our selves for we confess that Sanctification begun in the Seed Principle and Disposition with Vital Acts of Faith and Repentance flowing from it cannot be continued without Justification therefore it follows by our own way of Reasoning that they cannot be begun before Justification at first We Answer by denying the Consequence because God hath expresly promised Justification through Christ to all that from a new Heart believe and repent and such Faith and Repentance are the Condition on which Justification is promised But God hath no where promifed either Initial or Progressive Sanctification on Condition of Justification This shows that our Argument cannot be justly retorted upon us because there is a peculiar Reason to the contrary a Reason from the Promise of God that shews Sanctification and Faith and Repentance cannot possibly be continued without Justification whereas if Justification might be begun without any Degree of Sanctification or Faith and Repentance there can no sufficient Reason be given we think why it might not be long continued without any Degree of Sanctification or any Act of Faith and Repentance As for the promise of the Spirit to sanctifie them who are justified it is made to and got by Faith by our Authors own Confession Let. p. 12. and so it presupposes Faith and Faith presupposes Effectual Calling and a Heart Renovation and Sanctification begun Now this makes for us and shews that if Sanctification begun in the first change of the Heart and first Acts of Faith and Repentance did not go before there would be no place for the Promise of the Spirit after Justification to carry on and perfect the begun Sanctification because there would be no such Person in the World as that Promise is made to for the Promise of the Spirit to sanctifie us throughly after Justification is made to true Believers which none can be till they be first initially sanctified by the Spirit of Christ not yet inhabiting but fitting up a Spiritual House for himself to inhabit which when he hath done and God hath thereupon justified us through the Righteousness of Christ imputed to us then according to his Promise he gives us his sanctifying Spirit to dwell in us and to carry on the work begun unto Perfection Thus we have made good what we undertook and have proved that there is some Preparation some Holy Disposition and Qualification some Holy Principle wrought in the Soul and some Holy Acts of Faith and Repentance produced by the Soul in order to and before Justification and that thereupon Justification follows necessarily and infallibly according to the Promise of God who cannot possibly lye and deceive But as we said at the beginning we hold this Priority of Initial Sanctification and of the first vital Acts of Faith and Repentance no farther than is necessary to verifie the expressions and fence of Holy Scripture concerning them and so we conclude this part of our Answer with that of the Learned Turretine Licet Poenitentiae c. Although Remission of Sins be Promised to Repentance Instit Theol. Elenct part 2. p. 744. because it ought to accompany Faith and to be in him who is justified as a certain Condition required of him because God cannot pardon Sin unto one who is Impenitent it doth not follow that it can be said to justifie with Faith because it Contributes nothing either Meritoriously or Instrumentally unto the Act of Justification That is because as we say Repentance is only a qualifying but not a Receptive Applicative Condition of Justification An Appendix of the third Section concerning Dispositions previous to Regeneration and through Conversion WE Remember that in our Preliminaries to the foresaid Discourse concerning the Preparations and Dispositions that are Antecedent to Justification we said that as there are some which have a necessary infallible Connection with Justification of which we have spoken already so there are others which have not such a necessary infallible Connection with it As to this last sort we do not say that they are Dispositions and Preparations with which Men are always and without which they are never nor ever can possibly be justified yet we think that ordinarily they do precede Justification and Effectual Vocation too in all that are Effectually Called and Justified All such Dispositions and Preparations our Author denies in the 12th Page of his Letter and pretends that Calvin the Church of England and Westminster Assembly of Divines do all concur with him therein We do not at all wonder that he denies all Preparations and Dispositions before Effectual Calling and the first saving Conversion since as we have seen he denies that there is any good wrought in us or done by us before Justification And as for Preparations and Dispositions before Conversion if he would or could assure us that he denies them in no other sense than all his Authors Calvin the Church of England and Assembly of Divines do deny them we should have no controversie with him about that matter but we think that he is of a different Judgment and either doth not understand in what sense it is that they deny them or if he understand them aright he doth not believe them or if he believe some part that he likes yet he doth not believe all that they say concerning those Dispositions previous to Regeneration and Conversion That it may be clearly known what our Judgment is concerning those Preparations that are ordinarily previous to Regeneration and Conversion we shall 1. Name them and shew what they are 2. Declare what our Opinion is concerning them 3. Shew that our Opinion concerning them is neither new nor singular but what we believe in this matter we have learned and received from the most eminent Pastors of the Reformed Churches whereof many lived and died in the true Faith before many of us were born First then to Name them there is 1. An Illumination of the Mind by the Word and
not so with us at this day But when we look abroad into the World and into the present state of the Reformed Churches at home and abroad and see or hear what lives Men generally lead how they fight against God and against one another against God by transgressing all his holy just and good Laws and by turning his Grace into Lasciviousness And against one another by injustice and uncharitableness by malice and envy by lying and slandering c. We cannot but fear that God is against us and will fight against us as we are against him Levit. 26.23 24. and fight against him And it greatly encreases our fear to see that those who pretend to greatest seriousness in Religion have lately fallen out and have been quarrelling together about such a practical point of Religion as that is Whether true Repentance is necessary before we can obtain from God the pardon of our sins through the alone satisfaction and Merits of Christ When God is loudly calling us to Repentance for obtaining the pardon of our sins and we should all be found in the practice of Repentance in order to that end we are like Mad-men fallen to disputing Whether our Repentance be necessary before we are pardoned when we are pardoned or after we are pardoned And there are those amongst us who have raised a great clamour against such honest and faithful Ministers of Christ as dare tell and dare not but tell the People that they must truly repent of their sins before they can obtain the pardon of them although at the same time they assure the people from the Lord that God for Christs sake will most certainly pardon them immediately after they have repented This is cried out against as dangerous Doctrine by a sort of Religious People amongst us who will have it that Repentance is only necessary after God hath pardoned us but not before And though to please these People some Ministers have openly granted That Repentance and pardon of Sin are simultaneous in time that is they are not one before another for any space of time but are both together only Repentance is first in order of Nature by the grace thereof to dispose and prepare us for receiving our Pardon by Faith in Christs Blood Yet this will not give them content but they will have their Pardon before Repentance and the Ministers who preach or write otherwise shall be proclaimed to be Antichristian Arminian or any thing that Passion suggests This we say greatly encreaseth our fears for to us it seems evident that the hand of Joab is in this matter that is plainly that Satan has a wicked design by this means to keep the People from Repentance and so from obtaining the pardon of their sins that the desolating Judgments of God may come upon the Nation and that we may be all destroyed together And that Satan may not be discovered he hath artificially disguised himself and appears on the Stage transformed into an Angel of Light pleading for the exaltation of the glorious riches of free grace in the Justification of Sinners by the Blood of Christ without all works of any Law whatsoever and with great appearance of Zeal asserting That the freeness of Gods Grace in the Justification of Sinners by Faith in the Blood Merits and satisfaction of Christ cannot possibly be maintained unless it be denyed that true Repentance is antecedently necessary to our obtaining the pardon of our Sins It seems to us that this is Satans Plot against us and that he hath thus disguised himself the better to carry it on and the more effectually to compass his design upon us And this is the more probable because we find that at the beginning of the Reformation Satan plaid the same game when he perceived that by our first Reformers preaching up Justification by Faith only and not by Works many People were induced to separate from the Church of Rome and embrace the Reformation he endeavoured to make them believe that since Sinners are Justified and Pardoned by Faith only and not by Works then there was no necessity that they should repent of their Sins in order to their obtaining the Pardon of them And thus he thought that though they had got their feet loosed out of one of his Snares yet he should still keep them fast in another and lead them Captive at his will That this is so indeed and no Fiction of ours is manifest from the Testimony of Bishop Hooper that blessed faithful and valiant Martyr of Christ who in the Reign of Queen Mary was burnt alive for the Protestant Religion in a slow Fire about the space of three quarters of an hour and sealed the Truth of the Gospel with his blood This Man of God in a Book of his Intituled A Declaration of Christ and his Office Printed at Zurich in the Year 1547. Chap. VII th handling the point of Justification saith This is certain and too true Let the whole Gospel be preached unto the World as it ought to be Repentance and a vertuous Life with Faith as God preached the Gospel unto Adam in Paradise Noah Abraham Moses Isaiah saying Vae Genti Peccatrici c. Isa 1.4 c John the Baptist repent ye for the kingdom of heaven is at hand As Christ did Repent and believe the Gospel Mark 1. and then of an hundred that come to the Gospel there would not come one When they hear sole or only faith and the mercy of God to justify and that they may eat all ments at all times with thanksgiving they embrace that Gospel with all joy and willing heart And what is he that would not receive this Gospel the flesh it self were there no immortal soul in it would receive this Gospel because it promiseth aid help and consolation without Works But now speak of the other part of the Gospel as Paul teacheth Rom. 8.13 If ye live after the flesh ye shall dye And as he prescribeth the life of a Justified man in the same Epistle Chap. 12 13 14 15 16. And Christ Mat. 10. And Peter in the 2 Epistle and 1 Chap. This part of the Gospel is not so pleasant therefore Men take the first liberty c. Thus that blessed Saint who feared neither Man nor Devil but in the true faith and fear of God set himself with a Divine courage and holy boldness to oppose the Devil and all his Instruments to destroy his Kingdome in the World and on the contrary to exalt the Name and Glory of God and to set up Christs Spiritual Kingdom in the hearts and lives of Men. Would to God! that we had many Hoopers amongst us at this day who saith again in the same Chapter not far from the beginning Nothing maketh the cause wherefore this mercy to wit of Justification should be given saving only the death of Christ which is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the only sufficient Price and Gage for sin And although it be necessary and
Spirit together because according to the Principle aforesaid the Written Word is supposed to say nothing at all of that matter Therefore if ever it be Revealed to the Man and so if ever he be comforted in this World it must be by the Spirit without the Word And then all the poor disconsolate Mans ground of Comfort must be reduced to this That God will reveal it to him by his Spirit immediately without the Written Word But then we demand how our Authour will be able to assure the poor disconsolate dying Man that God will really do so that God will reveal it to him by his Spirit immediately without the Written Word For that immediate extraordinary Revelation being a thing that depends also upon Gods Arbitrary Free Will he may do it or not do it as he pleaseth and if God may freely not do it how can our Authour ever assure the Man that he will do it That is that he will by his Spirit immediately and extraordinarily reveal to him without the Written Word that he shall have Eternal Life and not Eternal Death for his Portion But now if our Authour should say that God hath given unto Man a Promise in his Written Word to ground his Faith upon though he hath not given a stated Rule and standing positive Law according to which he will proceed with Man at Death and Judgment We would readily reply thus Either the Promise in the Written Word made to the dying disconsolate Man is an absolute Promise that God for Christ's sake will give him Eternal Life however it be with him whether he be converted or unconverted penitent or impenitent believer or unbeliever And we are sure there is no such promise in the Bible and to tell him of such a Promise would be at once to belie God and to delude the poor Man Or 2. It is a conditional Promise That God for Christ's sake will give him Eternal Life If through Grace he unfeignedly repent of all his sins and believe on Christ with a lively effectual Faith a Faith working by Love which he is bound to do under the pain of Eternal Death If this be the Promise that the poor dying Man must ground his Faith upon that God for Christ's sake will give him Eternal Life then this is the very thing which Dr. Twisse and we after him call the Law according to which God proceeds in dispensing to his People the subsequent Blessings of the Covenant such as Justification and Glorification are And so our Authour comes over into our Camp which he must do at last and confess if not to us at least to God that he hath grosly misrepresented and falsly accused Christ's faithful Ministers and hath endeavoured to delude the People and to render the Ministers odious to the People and thereby to hinder the success of their Ministry And he must sincerely repent of having done so But if he will yet go on in the way of his own heart we shall be sorry for him and not cease to pray the Lord if it be his will to have Mercy on him and to give him repentance for the scandalous sin which he hath committed in publickly slandring Christs Ministers and in boldly asserting a notorious falsehood in matter of fact saying That the new Law of Grace is a new Word of an old but ill meaning And that he hath really done so we have not only said but proved by the plain testimonies of credible Witnesses whereof two Sealed the Truth of the Gospel with their Blood above fourteen hundred years ago SECT II. Of his second Error that the Covenant of Grace is Absolute and not Conditional SEcondly the Author of the Letter asserts that the Covenant of Grace is Absolute and not Conditional as appears from page 18. at the end and page 24. And particularly he denies that Faith in Christ is the Condition of Justification page 8. Some say that faith justifies as it is a fulfilling of the condition of the New Covenant if thou believest thou shalt be saved This he finds fault with and opposes to it the old Protestant Doctrine as he calls it That the place of Faith in Justification is only that of a Hand or Instrument c. Where we observe 1. That he makes faith its being a Condition and its being a hand or instrument to be two opposite things the one whereof is inconsistent with and destructive of the other and so in this he not only fights against us but likewise against the Assembly of Divines at Westminster who held Faith to be both an Instrument and a Condition in the matter of Justification as was shewed before 2. He makes it to be New Doctrine and contrary to the Old Protestant Doctrine to hold that Faith is a Condition of the Covenant of Grace and that we are Justified by Faith as a Condition of the Covenant wherein he makes the Assembly as well as us to be Preachers of a New Doctrine and Corrupters of the Gospel since they likewise held Faith to be a Condition of the Covenant as aforesaid And again in page 9. We say that Faith in Christ is neither Work nor Condition nor Qualification in Justification but is a meer instrument and he affirms that their saying so is that by which the fire is kindled So that saith he in page 10. It is come to that as Mr. Christopher Fowler said that he that will not be Antichristian must be called an Antinomian Here it is very remarkable that he not only denies Faith to be either Work Condition or Qualification in the matter of Justification but he also in effect affirms that it is Antichristian to assert that Faith is either Work Condition or Qualification and that he will therefore rather choose to be called an Antinomian for denying than to be an Antichristian for affirming it This is and must be his meaning or else he was dreaming and knew not what he did when he cited Mr. Fowler and brought in his Judicious saying with a so that it is come to that as Mr. Fowler said c. Finally in page 25 at the beginning he says that Faith in the Office of Justification is neither Condition nor Qualification but in its very act is a renouncing of all such pretences From all which it is plain that we do not wrest his Words nor charge him with an Opinion which he doth not hold for he so firmly holds the Covenant of Grace to be Absolute and not Conditional and particularly that Faith is neither the Condition of obtaining Justification nor a qualification of the Person then Justified when he believes that he glories to be accounted an Antinomian rather than renounce that Opinion page 24. And he holds it to be New and Antichristian Doctrine to maintain that Faith is either a Condition of obtaining Justification or a qualification of the Person justified or to be justified in that instant of time wherein he believes Before we refute this Opinion we will briefly
us by the Devil and the World or by our own mistaken Consciences And who dare deny the Truth of this May not the Devil and the World falsly accuse do not they too often falsly accuse us and say that we are Hypocrites and have neither true Faith nor Repentance When this Brother accuseth us so falsly as he doth in his Letter we need not think it strange that the Devil and the World do falsly accuse us Yea we have that within our own breasts that may sometimes through the temptations of Satan or the remainders of sinful Darkness and Unbelief falsly accuse us of predominant Hypocrisie Unbelief and Impenitency Now if at the same time we are really true Converts and through Grace sincerely believe and repent what Man that is endued with common Sense and reason can reasonably deny that our sincere Faith and Repentance is a sufficient Defence and Justification of us against all such false accusations Sure we are that our infinitely Gracious God and Saviour allows our plea and we most heartily bless his Name for it hath sometimes by his Spirit and Grace sensibly helped us to make our defence by clearing up to us the sincerity of our Faith and Repentance and by enabling us to take unto our selves the Comfort and to give him all the Glory of our being sincere penitent Believers notwithstanding all that the Devil World or Flesh say falsly to the contrary But as for those who are impenitent Unbelievers indeed all the World knows that the Faith and Repentance which they have not can never justifie them from the Unbelief and Impenitency which they really have deeply rooted in their hearts In short We maintain that Christ's meritorious and satisfactory Righteousness only justifies us at Gods Bar from all our sins against any Law of God whatsoever as soon as we through Grace performe the Gospel-Condition of sincere Faith and Repentance And then that sincere Faith and Repentance is our Defence and Justification before our most Gracious God and before all honest Men against all false accusations of our not having performed the Gospel-Condition of sincere Faith and Repentance But as for those who continue still in Unbelief and Impenitence they have nothing to defend and justifie them but if they live and dye in that stare their Unbelief and Impenitence will bind upon them to Eternity the Curse and Condemnation of the Law and moreover will bring upon them the sorer Vengeance of the despised Gospel John 3.18 19 20. and Heb. 2.2 3. and 12.25 Thus Achilles is on his Legs again without receiving the least hurt from the weak efforts of that assailant who hath nothing to say to him without misrepresenting him but that he doth not like his Language pretending that it is unscriptural let p. 41 42. dangerous and tends to the dishonouring of Christs Righteousness c. but that pretence is utterly false For 1. That our sincere Faith Repentance and Gospel-Obedience is a righteousness is evident from the Nature of the thing For 1. They are Duties which we owe unto the Lord our God and it is self-evident that it is a righteous thing to give unto God the things that are Gods 2. It is confessed by our Divines in their Disputes against the Papists that our Faith Repentance sincere Obedience and Holyness is a Righteousness For they generally grant that we have a two-fold Righteousness 1. The Righteousness of Christ imputed to us 2. A Righteousness inherent in us and adherent to us which we receive from Christ by his Spirit and Grace This is expresly confessed by that same Bishop Downham in his Book of Justification which our Author page 12. of his Letter commends as an Orthodox Book There that Reverend and Learned Divine affirms that we are Righteous both by the Righteousness of Christ imputed to us which is our Principal Righteousness and likewise by another Righteousness wrought in us and performed by us which is our secondary subordinate Righteousness If our Authour should have the Confidence to deny this it will be proved against him by Authority both Divine and Humane 2. This our subordinate Righteousness is rightly termed Evangelical because it is required by the Word of the Gospel wrought by the Spirit of the Gospel and is a complying with the terms and a performing of the Condition of the Gospel 3. That our sincere Faith Repentance and Obedience is a subordinate Righteousness by which we are defended and justified against the false charge of Hypocrisie Unbelief and Impenitence is so far from being unscriptural that it agrees exactly with the very Letter Scope and Sense of the Scripture in the second Chapter of James if that Epistle be Scripture as I hope we all believe that it is for there a Man is expresly in formal terms said to be justified by works James 2.21 24 25. which words can signifie no less than this That the good Works and sincere Obedience of a good Man do justifie him against the false accusation of being an Hypocrite or prophane Libertine As to what our Authour says in page 41. That works of Righteousness are only a Justification of Faith and not of the Person of the Believer it is a notorious falsehood and expresly contradicts the Spirit of God who faith that a man is justified by works and particularly that Abraham and Rahab were justified by works and not that their Faith only was justified by Works We do not deny but that good Works do justifie Faith but we also affirm with James that they do likewise justifie the person of the Believer But how is that Why they justifie his Person in tantum in so far as they are his Defence and Justification against the false charge of his being a Hypocrite or Libertine and not a true penitent obedient Believer In all this neither doth James nor we after him dishonour the Righteousness of Christ in the least for our inherent and adherent Righteousness is intirely subordinate to Christ's imputed Righteousness it hath also quite another Vse and Office than Christ's imputed Righteousness and it proceeds from it as the only meritorious cause thereof We abhor all Opinions and Practices that have the least real tendency to dishonour Christ or his Righteousness We ascribe this to Christ as his peculiar incommunicable Glory that as was said before his righteousness alone comes in the place of that personal perfect sinless Righteousness which was the Condition of the first Covenant of Innocency and Law of Works And as for that personal imperfect yet sincere Righteousness which through the Grace of Christ we attain unto by Believing Repenting and Obeying the Gospel it is nothing but the Condition of the new Covenant by performing whereof we get and keep an Interest in Christs imputed Righteousness by and for which alone we are justified from all our sins of what kind soever and have a right unto and at last get possession of Eternal Life and Glory in God's Heavenly Kingdom We have
between him and those who do not love to say that Faith is an Instrumental Cause is more verbal than real for he doth not say that Faith is the Instrumental cause of our Justification that indeed had been to ascribe too much unto Faith but the Instrumental cause receiving Christ and his Righteousness upon which follows Justification now we all acknowledge Faith to be of an apprehensive receptive nature and that it is the Instrumental means whereby we apprehend and receive Christ and his Righteousness that we may be Justified and our using that Instrumental means as the Lord hath appointed is the receptive condition to which the Promise of Justification is made Here then seems to be a meer difference in words when we mean the same thing Lastly for sincere Obedience he holds it to be in some sense a cause of obtaining Eternal Life which is more than we have ascribed to it in calling it a Condition for a Condition as such hath no causal Influence Ibid. lib. 2. cap. 1. pag. 199. His own Words in the said Book are these Our Obedience indeed is not the principal or meritorious cause of Eternal Life For we receive the right of this life and the life also it self from the Grace and Gift of God for the sake of Christ apprehended by faith Rom 6.23 The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. But yet it is a cause some way administring helping and moving forward towards the possession of this life whereof we had the right before for which reason it is called the way in which we walk to Heaven Eph. 2.10 And it promotes our life both of its own nature because it is some degree of life it self still tending to perfection and also by vertue of God's Promise who hath promised Eternal Life to those who walk in his Commandments Gal. 6.8 He that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting For though all our Obedience while we live here is imperfect and contaminated with some mixture of sin Gal. 5.17 The flesh lusts against the spirit yet through Christ it is so acceptable unto God that it is crowned with a most great reward The Promises therefore made to the Obedience of the Faithful are not Legal but Evangelical although by some they are said to be of a mixt nature In all this Ames ascribes as much to sincere Obedience and makes it as necessary to Salvation as we do If we say it is a Condition he sayes it is in some sort a Cause of obtaining the poffession of Eternal Salvation And sure to be so a Cause is as much at least as to be a Condition Next let us see what Dr. Twiss faith to these things Indeed he is so clearly on our side that if the Authour of the Letter had been acquainted with his Writings he would have been wiser than to have mentioned his Name in this Cause For thus he writes We say that pardon of sin and salvation of Souls are Benefits purchased by the death of Christ to be enjoyed by Men but how Answer to a Booke called The Synod of Dort and Arles reduced to practice pag. 16. not absolutely but conditionally to wit in case and onely in case they believe For like as God doth not confer these on any of ripe years unless they believe so Christ hath not merited that they should be conferred on any but such as believe and accordingly profess that Christ dyed for all that is to obtain pardon of sin and salvation of Soul for all but how not absolutely whether they believe or no but onely conditionally to wit provided they do believe in Christ Again Men are called upon to believe and promised Ibid. pag. 28. that upon their Faith they shall obtain the Grace of Remission of sins and Salvation and these Graces may be said to be offered unto all upon Condition of faith Again As touching the Benefits of pardon of sin Ibid. page 152. and Salvation procured by Christs death we say that Christ died to procure these for all and every one but how not absolutely for then all and every one should be saved but conditionally to wit upon Condition of faith so that if all and every one should believe in Christ all and every one should be saved Again It is untrue that we must have a sufficient assurance Ibid. pag. 154. that Christ died to procure pardon of sin and salvation of soul absolutely for him whom we go about to comfort it is enough that Christ died to procure these Benefits for him conditionally to wit in case he believe and repent and of this we have a most sufficient assurance Again We say not here that any thing becomes true Ibid. pag. 163. by the Faith of him that believes it but onely this that the benefit which is procured for all and every one upon a Condition becomes his and peculiarly his alone who performeth the Condition Again Now Eternal Life we know Ibid. pag. 171. is ordained by God to be the portion of Men not whether they believe or not whether they persevere in Faith Holiness and Repentance or no but onely of such as believe repent and are studious of good Works for it is ordained to be bestowed on Men by way of reward of their Faith Repentance and good Works Again The Promises assured by Baptism Ibid. pag. 189. according to the Rule of God's Word I find to be of two sorts Some are of Benefits procured unto us by Christ which are to be conferred on us conditionally they of this first sort are Justification and Salvation for Abraham received Circumcision as a Seal of the Righteousness of Faith Circumcision therefore was an assurance of Justification to be had by Faith if such were Circumcision to the Jews we have good reason to conceive that such is Baptism unto us Christians for as that was unto them so this is the Sacrament of Regeneration unto us And good reason the Sacraments which are Seals of the Covenant should assure that unto us which the word of the Covenant doth make Promise of Now the word of the Covenant of Grace doth promise unto us both Remission of sin and Salvation upon Faith in Christ This by our Doctrine we promise unto all and assure unto all as well as they do by theirs If all and every one should believe we nothing doubt but they should be justified and saved On the other side if not one of ripe years should believe I presume our Adversaries will confess that not one of them should be saved Again Justification and Salvation is promised in the Word Ibid. pag. 190. and assured in the Sacraments upon performance of a Condition on Mans part Now the Condition of Justification and Salvation we all acknowledge to be Faith Thus Dr. Twiss frequently in the foresaid Book And that this was his setled Judgment will appear by what he wrote afterwards in the Year
125. and Justified do sometimes through their own default fall into hainous sins and thereby they do incur the Fatherly Anger of God they draw upon themselves a damnable Guiltiness and lose their present â—tness to the Kingdome of Heaven Thon they prove their Position It is manifest say they by the Examples of David and Peter that the Regenerate can throw themselves headlong into most grievous sins God sometimes permitting it that they may learn with all humility to acknowledge that not by their own strength or deserts but by Gods Mercy alone they were freed from Eternal Death and had Life Eternal bestowed upon them Whilst they cleave to such sins and sleep securely therein God's Fatherly Anger ariseth against them Psal 89.31 Rom. 2.9 Besides they draw upon themselves damnable Guilt so that as long as they continue without Repentance in that state they neither ought nor can perswade themselves otherwise than that they are subject to Eternal Death Rom. 8.13 If ye live after the flesh ye shall die For they are bound in the Chain of a Capital Crime by the desert whereof according to God's Ordinance they are subject to Death although they are not as yet given over to Death nor about to be given over if we consider the Fatherly Love of God but are first to be rescued from this sin that they may also be rescued from the guilt of Death Lastly in respect of their present Condition they lose the fitness which they had of entâ—ing into the Kingdome of Heaven because into that Kingdome there shall in no wise enter any thing that is defiled Rev. 21.27 or that worketh Abomination For the Crown of Life is not set upon the Head of any but those who have fought a good fight and have finished their course in Faith and Holiness 2 Tim. 4.8 He is therefore unfit to obtain this Crown whosoever as yet cleaves to the Works of wickedness The Fourth Position is The unalterable Ordinance of God doth require that the Faithful so straying out of the right way must first return again into the way by a renewed performance of Faith and Repentance before he can be brought to the end of the way that is to the Kingdome of Heaven By the Decree of Election the Faithful are so predestinated to the End that they are as along the Kings High-way to be led to this appointed End no other ways than by the Means ordained by God Nor are these Decrees of God concerning the Means Manner and Order of such Events less fixed and sure than the Decrees of the End and of the Events themselves If any Man therefore walk in a way contrary to God's Ordinance namely that broad way of Vncleanness and Impenitence which leads directly down to Hell he can never come by this Means to the Kingdome of Heaven yea and if Death should overtake him wandring in this By-path he cannot but fall into Everlasting Death This is the constant and manifest Voice of the Holy Scripture Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Luke 13.3 Be not deceived neither fornicatours nor idolaters c. shall inherit the kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6.9 They are deceived therefore who think that the Elect wallowing in such Crimes and so dying must notwithstanding needs be saved through the force of Election For the Salvation of the Elect is sure indeed God so decreeing But withal by the Decree of the same our God it is not otherwise sure than by the way of Faith Repentance and Holiness Heb. 12.14 Without holiness no man shall see God The foundation of God standeth sure And Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity 2 Tim. 2.19 Again their Fifth Position is that In the mean time between the Guilt of a grievous sin and the Renewed Act of Faith and Repentance such an Offender stands by his own desert to be condemned by Christ's Merit Ibid. Art V. pag. 126 127. and God's Decree to be acquitted but actually absolved he is not until he hath obtained pardon by Renewed Faith and Repentance And for Proof of this Position they say in Page 128. The Father of Mercies hath set down this Order That the Act of Repentance must go before the Benefit of Forgiveness Psal 32.5 Ezek. 18.27 Thus those Excellent Divines and Judicious Faithful Ministers of Christ By all which it is clear as the Sun That the Synod of Dort taught the conditionality of the Covenant and held Faith Repentance sincere Obedience and Perseverance to the End to be the indispensably necessary Conditions of obtaining Eternal Salvation and therefore if there happen to be a partial Intermission of sincere Evangelical Obedience for a time by Christians falling into hainous wilful sins there must be a renewing of Faith and Repentance and a returning to their Obedience again before they can obtain the pardon of those Sins and the Eternal Salvation of their Souls which is all that we hold in this matter And it is alserted explained and solidly proved by the most Learned and Judicious Dâ—â—â—â—â—ant who was a Member of the Synod of Dâ—â— in another Book of his in these Words Bond Opera sunt necessaria ad Justificationis statum relinendum Praelect de Justitiâ Habit. Act. cap. 31. p. 404 405. conservandum non ut causae c. that is Good Workes are necessary to retain and preserve the state of Justification not as causes which of themselves effect produce or merit this Preservation but as Means or Conditions without which God will not preserve the Grace of Justification in Men. And here may be reckoned up the same Works which we mentioned in the foregoing Conclusion For as no Man receives that general Justification which froes from the Guilt of all former sins unless Repentance Faith a Purpose to lead a New Life and other Actions of that nature concurre So no Man retains a state free from Guilt with respect to following sins but by means of the same Actions of believing in God calling upon God mortifying the flesh continually repenting and grieving for the sins that are continually committed The Reason why all these things are necessarily required on our part is this because these things cannot be always absent but their contraries will begin to be present which are repugnant to the Nature of a justified Man For if you take away Faith in God and Prayer there succeeds unbelief and contempt of God's Name If you take away the endeavour of Mortification and the exercise of Repentance there breaks in upon the Man predominant Lusts and Sins wasting the Conscience Therefore because it is not God's will that Men who are Vnbelievers obstinate carnal should enjoy the benefit of Justification he requires continual Works of Faith Repentance and Mortification by whose presence are thrust as it were out of Doors and driven far away Vnbelief Obstinacy Security and other Poysons of Justifying Grace and also of particular sins there is a particular pardon
Condition of Justification SECT III. Of his Third Errour That there is no Real Change no Holy Disposition or Qualification no Good or Holy thing wrought in or done by Man in order to and before Justification That Faith is not so much as a Qualification of the Person to be justified and that Repentance is not in order before pardon of Sin HIS Third Errour against the Purity of our Christian Faith is That the Lord doth not by preventing Grace prepare dispose and fit his People for their Justification by and for the Righteousness of Christ imputed to them but that his first saving work towards them and upon them is their Justification by Christ's imputed Righteousness Error 3. That this is his Opinion is evident from his own words For in page 9 11 12 15 17 18 25 26 30 31 32. He denyes That there can be any qualification in us that any real change is wrought upon us that any condition is required of us in order to our Justification he will not so much as admit of Repentance as a dispositive Condition in order thereunto and often finds fault with us for holding Faith to be a Qualification or the Condition of Justification though he knew well enough that we hold it to be only the receptive applicative Condition of Christ and his Righteousness in order to our being justified thereby Now that this Opinion is Erroneous and against the purity of our Christian Faith we shall prove 1. By Scripture 2. By Reason agreeable to Scripture 3. By the Testimony of our most Famous Orthodox Protestant Divines But before we come to our Proofs we premise a few things to give light unto what shall follow As 1. That we hold the priority of any preparation disposition qualification or condition before Justification no farther than is necessary to verifie the Expressions of Holy Scripture concerning them 2. We hold that they proceed from the Grace of God 3. That that Grace is from Jesus Christ by the supernatural influences of his Holy Spirit 4. That some of those things whereby the Spirit of Christ prepares and disposes Souls before they be justified are such as by the Constitution and Ordination of God have a necessary infallible connexion with Justification they are dispositions or qualifications sine quibus nunquam cum quibus semper justificamur without which we are never and with which we are always justified of this sort is Effectual Calling and what is commonly called Regeneration or that seminal abiding Principle of Spiritual Life which is communicated unto us in Effectual Calling and the new Birth together with the first vital actings of that Principle in Faith and Repentance That Seminal Principle of Spiritual Life with its first Vital Acts of Faith and Repentance doth according to our Judgment so prepare and dispose and qualifie the Soul for Justification that it is always infallibly connected with them according to the Word and Promise of God and it is never in any case without them and let it be always remembred that in our Opinion Actual Faith qualifies us as a receptive Condition of Christ and his Righteousness But we think also that there are other dispositions antecedent to Justification which have not such a necessary Connexion with Justification and yet they are from God's Spirit too 5. That the said Seminal Principle of Spiritual Life with its first Vital Acts of Faith and Repentance which are in order before Justification and upon which Justification always follows is the first beginning of Holiness and may well be called Initial Sanctification for it is the Holy Thing first begotten in us by God's Word and Spirit it is the first forming of Christ in us and it is the Holy Root or Seed out of which grows our Progressive Sanctification through the Influences and Operations of the Holy Spirit given us after Justification to dwell in us and to abide with us for ever These Things premised we shall prove first by Scripture that it is an Errour to deny that there is any real change in us that there can be any Qualification or Disposition wrought in us by the Grace of Christ antecedently at least in order of Nature to our Justification by the imputed Righteousness of Christ For doth not the Scripture expresly put Effectual Calling before our Justification Rom. 8.30 Whom God called them he also justified Now it is confessed that it is an inward Effectual Calling that is there spoken of and that such a Calling makes a real change in the Persons so called But so it is that this Calling is by the Spirit of God put before Justification Again in Heb. 10.16 17. there we have the Order of God's bestowing on his Select People the Blessings of the New Covenant This is the Covenant that I will make with them after those days saith the Lord I will put my laws into their hearts and in their minds will I write them And their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more Here we see that the Lord according to his Covenant first writes his Laws in the Hearts of his People which cannot be without some real change wrought on them and some Holy Principle put into them Secondly Their Sins and Iniquities he remembers no more and that is he Justifies them for pardon of sin is an essential part of Justification and is put for the whole by a Form of Speech usual enough in the Scriptures of Truth Further our Saviour himself gives us plainly to understand that this is the order of his dispensing his Saving Grace Mark 4.12 Lest at any time they should be converted and their sins should be forgiven them In which Words our Lord plainly intimates that the sins of the unbelieving Jews were not forgiven them that is they were not justified because they were not converted and that whomsoever he pardons and justifies he first converts them And sure Conversion imports a real change and a Principle of Grace and Holiness implanted in the Souls of the Converted This is yet clearer from the Words of our Lord to Paul recorded by Luke Acts 26.17 18. I send thee unto the Gentiles to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness of sins c. By forgiveness of sins is meant Justification because forgiveness of sins is an essential part of Justification before the Gentiles could attain to this Justification consisting in the forgiveness of their sins their eyes were to be opened and they were to be turned from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God Is it not then self-evident that the Gentiles were to be really changed from what they had been in former times and that they must be renewed and become new Creatures before they could obtain the Blessing and Benefit of pardon of sin and Justification It is a wonder to us that any Man should doubt of this Matter who believes
Fruit of the Spirit of Bondage which prepares for the hearing of the Gospel and for the receiving of the Spirit of Adoption by the Gospel then in the Preaching the Gospel the tender Mercies of God displayed unto us and how ready be is to Pardon Sin in general and that of Free Grace may better our Repentance and when we are thus by Degrees brought to the Spirit of Adoption to cry Abba Father then our Repentance shall be most perfect as before I said And when we look upon him whom we have pierced and can in Assurance of Faith say with the Apostle I live by Faith in him who loved me and gave himself for me this is of Power to prick a Master vein and make us bleed out Repentance in the sight of our Gracious God whom we have offended and who yet in despite of our Sins hath loved us more Devoutly and Affectionately than ever before Yet is it true as he the Arminian saith That Repentance is nothing worth without Faith what thinks he of Ahabs Repentance when he put on Sackcloath and wallowed in Ashes upon the Word of Judgment against his House brought unto him by the Prophet Eliah Do we not know what the Lord said hereupon unto Eliah Seest thou how Ahab is humbled before me because he submitteth himself before me I will not bring that evil in his days The uttermost of the Ninivites Faith was but this that we read of who can tell if God will turn and Repent and turn from his fierce Wrath that we perish not Yet their Repentance was such that when God saw their works that they turned from their Evil Ways he repented of the Evil which he said that he would do unto them and he did it not Jon. 3.9 Thus Dr. Twiss whereby it is evident that he was far from thinking that all which a man can do before he have the Spirit of God dwelling in him and that he may get a Holy Heart and a saving Faith and so be fitted to lead a Holy Life is nothing but vain labour and an Acting of Sin Object 2. Secondly Our Author Objects the seventh Article of the 16. Chapter of the Westminster Confession of Faith And our Answer is That that Article of the Confession of Faith is the same in effect with the 13th Article of the Church of England and therefore is to be taken in the same Sence to wit That the Works of unregenerate men done before and without any Grace of Christs Spirit though they may be materially good yet they are formally so sinful that they do not make a Man meet to receive any Grace from God either the Grace of Regeneration or Justification and as for the Works of unregenerate Men which are done by the help of supernatural preventing common Grace though they be better than the former which are done by the alone Strength of Nature yet they are sinful too they are so defiled with Sin as they proceed from an unregenerate Man that they cannot please God so far as to make a Man meet to receive the Grace of Justification from God nor do they make a Man meet to receive the Grace of Regeneration from God by way of Reward due to them as Congruously Meritorious thereof Yet in another sound sence they may make a Man meet to receive the Grace of Regeneration and Conversion from God to wit as they are wrought in Men by the Spirit and according to the Word and are ordained by God to be means of removing such things as hinder Conversion and of the helping men forward in the way unto and of fitting and preparing them for Conversion as a Gracious Gift which ordinarily God freely gives to those who are so prepared by the Word and Spirit of Christ In this sound sence though not in the Popish or Semipelagian sense the foresaid works do indeed make men meet to receive Grace from God and the Article of the Confession of Faith saith nothing to the contrary Yea it is plainly against that absired opinion that all that an Unregenerate man can do by any means in order to the getting of his heart savingly changed and initially sanctified by the special effectual Grace of the Regenerating Spirit of Christ is vain labour and an acting of Sin we say that the foresaid Article of the Confession of Faith is plainly against that absurd opinion for it says expresly That works of Unregerate men are things which God Commands and are of good use both to themselves and others and one of the best uses they can possibly be of unto themselves is to dispose and prepare them for Regeneration and Conversion and to make them if not meet yet at least less unmeet to receive special saving Grace from God through Jesus Christ And thus according to the Confession of Faith and our principle agreeable thereunto we can give encouragement to unregenerate men to attend upon God in the diligent use of means for obtaining the free and effectual Grace of the Regenerating Spirit and so Conversion thereby but our Author seems to tell Unregenerate men that all they can do before they be Regenerated and have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them which is got only by Faith in Christ and therefore is in order of nature after Faith in Christ altho they do it with a desire that they may be Regenerated and may obtain a precious holy Faith in Christ and thereby the Holy Spirit of Christ it is all vain labour and an acting of sin Now is not this great encouragement for men to wait upon God in the use of his appointed means for the obtaining of converting Grace and a new holy heart to tell them that all they can do in order to that end is vain labour and acting of sin We hope such men will not believe our Author but if they do there is nothing can be expected from them but that â—hev should cast off all use of means and give over all reading hearing and praying for why should they trouble themselves with such Religious Exercises since all is an acting of sin and lost labour too Yet if our Author should intend to set up for a Quietist the foresaid Doctrine may be of good use to bring in Disciples to him for he can tell them holdly as his manner is that if they will become Quietists he will shew them an infallible way wherein they shall neither act sin nor yet lose their labour for if they will become right Quietists they shall neither act nor labour but wholly rest from action and labour and shall not act sin nor lose their labour because they shall not act nor labour at all but wholly rest from action and labour and whilest they are in a state of perfect rest without any kind of action or labour at all Then the Spirit of God shall fall upon them and Regenerate and Convert them 3d. Objection Thirdly He Objects the Testimony of Calvin who in his Institutions writes thus
unwilling to believe of so great and good a man But we cannot be so confident of the sincerity of our Author as we are of Calvins and therefore we commend to his serious Consideration a passage of the Reverend and Learned Pitcarne in his Evangelical Harmony of the Apostles Paul and James in the Doctrine of Justification Art 1. Pag. 10. Tantum addo quod c. I only add says he that in the Scriptures the word Faith is also used for the Conscience or perswasion of the will of God approving our Fact or that which we are to do Whatsoever is not of faith is sin That is It is sin whatsoever it be that is done with a Conscience that is doubting and uncertain of the will of God I was not a little grieved when I read Suarez accusing our Divines that they acted the part of Sophisters when to prove Justification by Faith alone they alledge without making a right choice or putting a difference between one and another any places of Scriprure where faith is mentioned although in them there is not the least tittle to be found of Faith related to Christ and the promises of the Gospel or that hath respect unto absolution from the guilt of sin This should teach us all to take great care how we quote and apply Scripture to prove our opinions least by misapplying Texts we wrest the Scripture grieve Gods Spirit and harden our Adversaries in their Erroneous opinions 4th Obj. Fourthly He Objects against us The Seventh Canon of the Sixth Session of the Council of Trent which Anathematizeth all those who say that all works done before Justification howsoever they be done are truly sins We answer that this objection is impertinent and makes against himself as well as against us Let. p. 16.32 For 1. He says that Faith is in order of nature before Justification as we have proved from several passages in his Letter 2. He saith Pag. 11. That Faith is a work that it is a great work that it is a work of God yea a work of God which we do and cannot do too soon Now we hope he will not say that this great work of God which through Grace we do before Justification and cannot do too soon is an evil work and is truly sin And if it be not an evil work and truly sin then it must be a good work and truly Gracious And thus we have himself holding with the Council of Trent as well as we do that before Justification there is a good work which is not truly sin but truly good and Gracious If he say that Faith doth not justifie as a work that is nothing to the purpose for the Question now is not whether Faith justifie as a work or as an instrument but whether Faith really be a work an internal work of the Soul which it may well be and yet not justifie as a work And he himself hath expresly confessed that it is a work and a great work too and likewise that it is a great work which not only God doth but which we do through the Grace of God enabling us But after all if he be so resolved that he will have nothing common with the Council of Trent but differ from them in all things true or false right or wrong and therefore because they hold that justifying Faith is a good work before Justification that is not truly sin he will hold the contrary that tho justifying Faith be before Justification yet it is not a good work but an evil work and is truly sin we can say nothing to it he hath his free choice for any thing that we can do to the contrary yet we should advise him to be wiser and not to reject any Truth of the Gospel because an adversary holds and believes it And that it is a Gospel-truth that justifying saving Faith is a good work tho it be in order before Justification we doubt not but his own Conscience knows it and is convinced of it Sure we are that our Conscience is fully perswaded of it And tho' we believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths that justifying Faith in the best of us is too too little and weak and that the gradual defect of it is truly sin and deserves the hatred of God yet are we infallibly sure that the Grace and gracious Act it self of justifying saving Faith so far as we have any of it is truly good and cannot be truly evil and sin This we are sure is a truth and we believe it and are resolved through Grace so to do and never to like it the worse because the Papists believe it and curse all those who disbelieve it We join with them in believing the truth so far as they do believe it but we utterly abhor their cursing of Dissenters If our Author think fit to Dissent from us in this matter we shall be so far from cursing him that we shall pray God to bless him with a better understanding of this and all other things wherein he may be mistaken As for the other passage which our Author quotes out of the 11th Canon and calls the bellowing of the Beast We might pass it over for it doth not at all concern us nor the Controversie that is between the Author of the Letter and us Yet this we will say that he seems not to understand the Language of that Beast of Trent for they confess with us That the Grace whereby we are justified is the favour of God as plainly appears from what they say before the Canons in the 7th Chapter but they curse all those who say that the Grace whereby we are justified is only the favour of God For they hold that we are justified by a two-fold Grace the one External without us and it is the mercy and favour of God which is that that principally moves him to justifie us the other Internal within us the effect of the first and it is the habit of Grace or Charity infused into us by the holy Spirit to make us formally just by something Inherent in our selves Now we do not say any more than they do that we are justified by the favour of God only and exclusively of all other things for we maintain that we are justified by the Grace and Favour of God and also by the Righteousness of Christ imputed to us according to Rom. 3.24 And this is the ground of the Quarrel this is it for which they Curse our Author and us both because we both believe that we are justified by Christs Righteousness imputed to us and not by Gods Grace infused into us and inherent in us And yet we believe this too to wit that Gods Grace is infused into us and inherent in us only we do not call this Justification but give it another name and call it Sanctification Those Trent Fathers therefore had no reason to be so angry with us and in their Beastly wrath to fall a cursing of us
But after all this anger on both sides there may be some hope that the Children of those Fathers and our Author may be reconciled in time if the old Axiom be true that Quae sunt eadem in tertio sunt eadem inter se They who agree in a Third agree between themselves or one with another But so it is that they agree in a third to wit in Bradwardin For certain Papists agree with Bradwardin in the matter of Justification and they will have good hope that our Author will do so too when they consider that in the 13th page of his Letter he saith That God gave Bradwardin for a Blessing to England For since he believes that Bradwardin was a Blessing to England the Papists cannot but hope that he will be of Bradwardins mind in the important point of Justification and if the World would know of what mind Bradwardin was in that matter they may see it in his Book pag. 406 Consiteor Deum meum sicut aeternaliter gratuitô me dilexit aeternaliter gratiam Justificatricem tempore placito coram eo mihi gratis conferre disposuit sic tempore placito veniente gratis insundere gratiam Justificatem mihi injusto justificare me gratis lavare injustitias meas gratis suscitare sanare me gratis debitum poenae aeternae dimittere mihi gratis atque in poenam temporalem vertere ipsam gratis c. I confess that my God as from eternity he freely loved me and likewise from eternity purposed freely to give me justifying Grace in such time as seemed good in his sight so when the time appointed comes doth freely infuse justifying Grace into me an unjust man that he doth justifie me freely wash away my unrighteousness freely raise up and heal me freely that he doth freely forgive me the debt of eternal punishment and freely change it into temporal punishment c. And Pag. 416. Nec etiam peccator peccato dimisso statim habet reformatione plenariam status sui sicut evidenter sequitur ex predictis adhuc enim remanet debitor poenae satisfactionis debitae pro peccato Nor when sin is forgiven hath the Sinner immediately a full reformation or change of the state of his Soul as it evidently follows from what hath been said before for he yet remains a debtor of punistment or bound to suffer punishment and to make the satisfaction which he ows for his sin Thus Bradwardin he speaks the true Language of the Beast and makes Justification to be by inherent Righteousness and the pardon of the eternal punishment of sin with a reservation of the temporal punishment to be yet suffered and of satisfaction to be made by our selves either in this life or in Purgatory after this life In all which there is a perfect agreement between him and the Council of Trent And let no man think that he must needs differ from the Council of Trent because he speaks so much of Gods freely justifying the unrighteous for it is the first Justification that he so speaks of and the Council of Trent speaks the self-same Language witness their own formal express words in the Eight Chapter of the Sixth Session Concil Trident Ses 6. Cap. 8. Perpetuus Ecclesiae Catholicae consensus tenuit ut c. The perpetual consent of the Catholick Church hath always held that we are therefore said to be justified freely because none of those things which go before Justification whether Faith or Works do merit the Grace of Justification for if it be of Grace then it is not of Works otherwise as the same Apostle saith Grace is no more Grace Rom. 11.6 Thus the Council of Trent Whereby it is evident that they and Bradwardin are agreed as to the freeness of Justification and it is as evident from the Canons that they are agreed about the formal nature of Justification wherein it consists And as the Papists that keep close to the Council of Trent are agreed with Bradwardin in the fundamental point of Justification against the Pelagians so they are not without ground of hope that our Author will agree also if he do not already agree with the profound Bradwardin in that fundamental point of Justification against the Pelagians because he hath publickly confessed it in the 13th Page of his Letter that God gave Bradwardin to be a Blessing unto England surely then will they say among themselves this Minister will not differ from Bradwardin in so important a point of Religion for fear he should prove a Curse unto England It is not impossible nor it may be improbable but Papists who consider of the matter may thus reason themselves into the hopes of a Proselyte to their Religion Therefore we will endeavour to frustrate their hopes and to prevent our Brothers being drawn over to them by means of his admired Bradwardin and this we shall do by giving him a further account of the Principles and Practices of that profound Doctor Thus then he writes in 61 page of his Book called The Cause of God Nos Imagines Christi Dei Trinitatis Angelorum Sanctorum hominum Adoramus We worship the Images of Christ of God of the Trinity of Angels and Holy Men. Again in the same page Nos Deum propter se Sanctos Angelos ejus Homines ipsorum Imagines adoramus finaliter propter Deum We worship God for his own sake and we worship his holy Angels and Men finally for Gods sake This Bradwardin confesseth to have been the Principle and Practice of himself and his Church And in the same page he very kindly makes an Apology for the Heathen and excuses them from the guilt of damnable Idolatry upon the same principle For says he it is probable they had some knowledge of the true God and him they worshipped for his own sake sub nomine tamen Idolo Dei Jovis yet under the name and Idol or Image of the God Jupiter Et nihilominus praeter ipsum c. And yet besides him they worshipped some other Idols dedicated unto Holy Angels unto Men and Demons and in them and by them they finally worshipped God That is the Pagans worshipped God for himself but they worshipped Idols and Devils for Gods sake just as the Papists worship Saints and Angels and that excused them from the guilt of damnable Idolatry as it doth the Church of Rome and they therein found acceptance with God For they knew no better and did as well as they could Therefore Deus ista piè discretè respiciens ignorantiae simplicitati eorum pepercit sinceram verô dilectionem sanctam intentionem benevolam voluntatem acceptavit Hoc autem consonum videtur rationi non enim videtur quod justissimus atque piissimus plus requirat ab homine quam accepit quam sit in hominis potestate imò quod illud acceptet si intentione debitâ offeratur God considering these things mercifully and discreetly spared their ignorance and simplicity but he accepted
external Amendment of their outward Conversation saving Grace being the special Gift of God to his own c. And pag. 95. The Lord makes use of this outward and common Covenanting with all Receivers of the offer as a mean to draw the Confederate in the Letter to be Confederate in the Spirit for the Faith which he requires as the Condition of the Covenant he worketh in the Elect if not before or with the external Covenanting yet undoubted after in a time acceptable and that by the ordinary means the use whereof is granted to all Confederate externally and so as common Illumination is a mean to that Special Spiritual and saving Illumination and Dogmatical and Historical Faith is a mean unto Saving Faith and external Calling is a mean to Effectual Calling so external Covenanting in the Letter is a mean most fit and accommodate to make a Man a Covenanter in the Spirit Here are Preparations and Dispositions before either Regeneration or Justification plainly asserted by Dickson then pag. 99. he enters upon a large Discourse concerning the Condition of the Covenant and he says That in receiving of grown Persons into Covenant There are three Conditions to be observed and distinguished one from another 1. The Condition of the Person desiring to be in Covenant with God for Reconciliation and Grace through Christ 2. The Condition upon which he is entered into Covenant 3. The Condition required of him for evidencing of his sincere Covenanting And Pag. 100. He says all these three are expressed by Christ in Matth. 11.28 29. First They that labour and are heavy laden are they whom Christ calleth unto a Covenant and fellowship of his Grace this that he calls the Condition of the Person is the same thing with that which we call the Disposition or Qualification of the Person Secondly He propounds the Condition of the Covenant to wit that they believe in Christ or come unto him that in him they may find full relief from Sin and Misery and in him full Righteousness and Felicity Thirdly He requires of them who do embrace him by Faith and so have accepted the Condition of the Covenant that they give evidence of their Faith in him by taking his Yoke upon them Take my Yoke upon you saith he Mr. Dickson calls this The third Condition and says a little before that it is the Covenanters up giving of himself to Christs Government and Obedience of his Commands This brings to our remembrance a Passage in the Catechism published by the Calvinists of Marpurgh in the Year 1606. Fidem sufficere ad apprehendendam salutem non autem ad cam conservandam sed amplius requiri vitae emendationem That Faith is sufficient for the first apprehending or receiving of Salvation but not for the conserving or continuing of it but there is moreover required Amendment of Life It reminds us also of what we read in the fourth Tome of Monsieur Claudes Posthumous Work in the very entrance of his Treatise of Justification Pag. 75. That there are Dispositions previous unto Justification and that there are Conditions which God necessarily supposes in Man and which ought to be found actually in him And then that there are Conditions which God imposes upon a Man when he justifies him to the end that he may observe them for the time to come In like manner he distinguishes in his Historical Defence of the Reformation Part 2. Chap. 6. pag. 218. of the English Translation Between the Condition supposed to Justification which is Faith and Repentance and the Condition imposed upon us by the Lord when he justifies us which is that for the time to come we live Holily according to the Laws which he has given us But this on the by from Dickson we pass to the Learned Charnock he saith That besides the Passive Capacity that is Charnock Vol. 2. p. 148. the Rational Faculties there are more immediate Preparations The Soul must be beaten down by Convictions before it be raised up by Regeneration there must be some apprehensions of the Necessity of it Yet sometimes the Work of Regeneration follows so close upon the heels of these Preparations that both must be acknowledged to be the work of one and the same hand The Preparation of the Subject is necessary but this Preparation may be at the same time with the conveyance of the Divine Nature And afterwards for several Pages he saith no more than what we have said That there is not any absolute causal Connection between such Preparations Ibid. p. 148.149 c. and Regeneration nor any Connection that is meritorious Yet all along he asserts Preparations From Charnock we pass to Flavel Flavels Method of Grace from pag. 347 to pag. 402. who spends two whole Sermons to prove That there is no coming ordinarily to Christ without the Application of the Law to our Consciences in a way of effectual Conviction This our Author will grant as we perceive by his Letter But Mr. Flavel spends two Sermons more to prove That this cannot be without the teachings of God in the way of Spiritual Illumination From Flavel we pass to Firmin Firm. Real Christ. p. 6 7 8 c. who shews at large That man naturally is not a subject fit or disposed to receive Christ immediately when offered to him but before he will receive him there must be some work of the Spirit upon him to prepare him make him willing and glad to receive him And if this were not so but as our Author would have it it would follow unavoidably that Mr. Hooker and Mr. Shepherd in their Books about the Souls Preparation for Christ and the several steps of it viz. Conviction Compunction Humiliation c. wrote very great impertinencies and which is worse did a great deal of hurt to the Souls of men For our parts since we are said to be Middle-way-men we think that to answer that Character that is given of us we ought to avoid all extremes as well in this as in other matters and therefore we say that no more of the foresaid Preparatory Dispositions is simply and absolutely necessary than what makes the Soul 1. See its absolute need of Christ and its being utterly lost and undone without him 2. What makes it see and believe that there is abundant help and relief for lost Sinners in Christ that he is an Alsufficient Saviour and the only Alsufficient Saviour able and willing to save to the uttermost all that come unto him and unto God by him in the way prescribed in the Gospel 3. What makes them thereupon desirous to have him and in some sort willing to receive him in all his Offices as he is offered desirous to have him and willing to receive him and his Benefits with him upon his own Terms the Terms held forth in the Gospel Of them who by the preventing Grace of the Holy Spirit are thus disposed there is no more required to be done by them in a
plain with you I think this your last answer is much like all the rest that went before there is hardly a good one amongst them and the difference is that this is the worst in the whole pack And to make this good I offer these things following to the consideration of all men of common sense and reason as well as of Christian Believers 1. The Objection saith That Faith is a difficult Act and proves it to be difficult because impossible without a Divine Power which the Unbeliever sinds not To which you answer That Believing is no work but a resting and so by changing the Terms and putting Work for Act you think to impose upon silly Women and such like Persons and to make them think that you have said much when you have said nothing or worse than nothing And that you have answered the Objection when you have rather confirmed it The Objection says and proves that Faith is a difficult Act because impossible without a Divine Power This you do not deny but only deny that it is a work and so that it is a difficult work If then there be an Act that is no Work as you seem to intimate tho Faith should not be a difficult work yet it may be a difficult Act so difficult that a man cannot believe aright without Divine Assistance and this was all the Objection was designed to prove for it makes no mention of the word work it neither affirms nor denies Faith to be a work 2. I demand why you change the Terms and deny Faith to be a work whereas the Objection did not affirm it to be a work but to be an act and a difficult act because impossible to Humane Nature without the Powerful Assistance of God I cannot easily imagine what reason you had to deny Faith to be a work instead of denying it to be an act and a difficult act if you intended to answer the Objection which only affirms Faith to be a difficult act But whatever reason might move you to deny Faith to be a work which I do not well understand yet this I know that your denying Faith to be a work falls out very unluckily for you and turns to your own shame Let. pag. 11. for you your self had said before and proved from Scripture to wit from John 6.28 29. That Faith is a work yea that it is the work of God the great work of God the great work which we do and which we cannot do too soon These are your own words And yet within the compass of six Pages after you absolutely deny that Faith is any work at all This brings to my mind the old saying Oportet mendacem esse memorem A lyar had need to have a good memory And by this sign and token I know that you are a weak deceived man your self or that you are a deceiver of others It will no wise relieve you to say that though Faith be a Work yet it doth not justifie as a work but as an Insirument For 1. here you absolutely deny it to be a work and that in answer to an Objection which did not relate to Justification Therefore 2. I say that here was no occasion to speak of Justification at all and consequently no occasion to affirm that Faith justifies as an Instrument and to deny that it justifies as a work for the Question here is not at all how we are justified by Faith whether by Faith as a work or by Faith as an instrument but all the Question is whether Faith be difficult to an Unbeliever or not The Objection affirms it to be difficult because it is impossible to Humane Nature without the Grace of God you in answer to the Objection deny it to be difficult because it is no work So that it is evident this your denying Faith to be a work relates not to the manner of Faiths justifying a Man but to the difficulty of a Mans getting and using of Faith 3. It is altogether impertinent here to deny Faith to be a work in the Office or Act of Justification for though it were granted that Faith is not considered as a work in the Act of justifying yet if it be a work in its own Act of Existence the Objection remains in its full Strength and unanswered for still it is true which the Objection asserts that its very difficult for an Unbeliever to produce the Act or do the Work of Faith This you saw and therefore to cut the Sinews and to take away the main force of the Argument you absolutely deny Faith to be a Work This was your Intention in saying that Faith is no work otherwise your Answer was wholly impertinent to the Objection And indeed it must be confessed that if your Answer were true if it were true that Faith is no Work at all in any sence the Objection hath lost all its Strength and falls dead to the ground But that your Answer is not true I have had it already from your self under your own hand affirming and proving that Faith is a great Work which we cannot do too soon And least you should endeavour to bring your self off by saying that Faith is no outward bodily Work and that that was your meaning in saying that Faith is no Work I give you a third Answer and therein Thirdly I demand what you mean by the Word Work when you say that Faith is no Work Whether you do mean an outward bodily Work or an inward Heart-work And 1. I appeal to your own Conscience that you did not mean an outward Bodily Work for no Body ever said or thought that Faith is an outward Bodily Work And why should you in Answer to an Argument deny that which no Body ever affirmed yea and lay the main stress too of your Answer upon that denial 2. You could not give that Answer to such an Objection unless you was in a Dream or out of your right Mind for to Answer so as to say that Faith is not an outward Bodily work but an inward Heart-work doth not in the least touch the Objection though that be most true that Faith is no outward bodily work yet if Faith be an inward heart-Heart-work the Objection stands in its full force and strength for inward Heart-work is the most hard and difficult work therefore if Faith be an inward heart-Heart-work it must needs be still hard and difficult to believe which is the very thing that the Objection was brought to prove therefore if you intended to Answer the Objection by denying Faith to be a Work you must also intend to deny that it is an inward Heart-work and so that it is any work at all either inward or outward and if that were true you had indeed effectually answered the Objection But that is not true for Fourthly It is notoriously false that Faith is no inward heart-Heart-work for to be an inward Work of the Heart is nothing but to be an inward Act of the Heart
the said Nethenus in the publishing of that Book of Rutherford And though he hath lately gone off from his Principles and we think from some Principles contained in that Book both as to Doctrine and Discipline yet we do not believe that he will even acknowledge that he hath changed his Godliness with his Principles and that as he hath got new Principles so he hath a new Godliness and that he never had any before If we should be mistaken in this our charitable opinion of him we should be sorry for him and could not but fear that he is in as bad a case as he fancies the middle-way Men to be in who usually have a greater kindness he says for that extream they go half way to Let. pag. 2. than for that they go half way from For if he should be found to have made such a Profession that his Godliness begun with the Faith of his new Principles he is not onely gone the half but we think the whole way to the extreme And that if it should be so will help us to account for his being so unmerciful in his censures and accusations of us who had rather stop in the mid-way than to run with him into such extremes This puts us in mind of a passage in Mr. Patrick Hamilton's little Treatise in the Book of Martyrs Vol. II. pag. 188. Col. 2. to which the Letter refers us Pag. 4. and which we have read upon our Authours recommendation The passage is this Evil Works make not a Man evil We hope our Authour would not have us to understand these words just as they sound without interpretation or distinction We honour the Memory of that blessed Martyr of Christ and are willing to understand his words just as he meant them and as they are consistent with the Truth of God and that is thus Evil works do not make a Man first evil because we are all evil by participation of the sin of our first Parents from our Conception and Birth Psal 51.5 John 3.6 Eph. 2.3 But for all that we know very well that in another sense evil works do really make a Man evil they make him gradually evil that is they make him worse than he was If our Authour do not see the Truth of this at a distance let him bring it home to himself and then we dare say he will see the Truth of what we affirm That evil works will make a Man evil that is worse than he was For if not then 1. it must be either because he is so very bad already that he cannot possibly be worse and this we hope our Authour will confess not to be true of himself or else 2 it must be because he is already so very good that let him do never so many evil works they cannot make him evil that is they cannot make him worse than he was before he did them Now we cannot think that he hath such an Opinion of himself If we knew that he had we should look upon him as a very dangerous Man to have any thing to do with for he might do us all the mischief he could by lying and slandering or otherwise and yet be perswaded in his own mind that he was never a whit the worse for so doing He and we both profess to believe that all Gods Regenerate Justified people are kept by the power of God through Faith unto Salvation so as that they do not fall from Grace either totally or finally But we must profess for our selves that it is none of our faith that the Saints on Earth are already so confirmed in Goodness that they cannot sin at all or if they do sin as alas too sadly they have done and frequently do that their sins do not make them evil in any degree nor in the least worse than they were before they sinned And we hope our Authour is not so far gone but that he will yet join with us in this profession For by this time we think he may see if he did not before the certain and evident truth of what we affirm that evil works will make a Man evil that is if he be evil already they will make him more evil and if he be good already they will make him less good and to be less good than he should be is to be in some degree evil See the XVIth Article of the Church of England which our Authour and we have all subscribed as also the IIth Article of the Ausburg Confession of Faith and by both it will manifestly appear that our first Reformers even the Lutherans by whom Mr. Hamilton through the Grace of God was fully converted from popery and from whom he had that passage that evil works do not make a Man evil never thought that a good Man cannot do any evil works or that if any Man good or evil do evil Works they will not make him evil that is worse than he was before he did them In all this we do not in the least contradict the true sense of the blessed Martyr Mr. Hamilton but explain his Words and give the true sense of them as will appear to any Man of Judgment that will be at the pains to read attentively what he says before and after the Words we are upon We should not have mentioned this but that we are afraid lest ignorant injudicious people unto whom our Authour recommends that little Treatise of Mr. Hamiltons should wrest the Words of a Holy Martyr to countenance and encourage Libertinism 2 Pet. 3.16 as they do wrest the sacred Words of the most Holy God himself unto their own destruction We do not by this reflect in the least upon the said Martyr of Blessed Memory but rather endeavour as we are bound to secure his good Name from any Reproach which the Enemies of our Religion might possibly cast upon it from a wrong and wrested sense of his Words as they are alwayes ready to do This we have here provided against by giving the true sense of his Words which being rightly understood have nothing harsh in them at all but otherwise taken just according to the sound of the Letter they carry a very scandalous meaning which we dare say the Holy Martyr never thought of We do not doubt therefore but our Authour will confess that we have done right to the Martyr and have rightly interpreted his saying which he learned of Luther But if we happen to be mistaken as to our Authour and he will not admit this sense we have given of the foresaid words then he cannot be justly offended if this be given as his Character the Authour of the Letter is one who holds that no Man can make himself evil by doing evil that is he holds that no Man by doing all the evil and mischief that he is able to do can make himself in the least degree worse than he was And then let the World Judge how well he hath cleared himself of the
the Doctor in that Book And that you may see that this Passage did not drop inconsiderately from his Pen we will shew from another Book which he wrote afterwards that this was his settled judgment and that he was firmly and fully perswaded of this great Gospel-truth It is Dr. Twiss his Answer to Mr. Hoard's Book called God's Love to Mankind Pag. 37.38 As touching the conferring of Glory God doth not bestow this on whom he will finding men equal without any moving cause thereunto even in man for though there be no moving cause thereunto in man of its own nature yet there is to be found a moving cause in man by constitution Divine whereby God is as it were moved to bestow Salvation on some and not on others For God hath made a gracious promise that whosoever believeth and repenteth and continueth in Faith and repentance unto death shall be saved and whosoever believeth not and repenteth not shall be damned So then though Men are equal in original sin and in natural corruption and God bestows faith and repentance on whom of them he will curing their corruption in whom he will yet when he comes to the conferring of Glory men are not found equal in moral condition and accordingly God cannot be said in like manner to bestow Glory and Salvation on whom he will For he hath tyed himself by his own constitution to bestow Salvation on none but such as dye in the state of Grace Yet I confess some say that God bestows Salvation on whom he will inasmuch as he is the Authour of their faith and repentance and bestows these graces on whom he will Yet certainly there is a different manner in the use of this Phrase of bestowing this or that on whom he will For when God bestows Faith and Repentance he finds them on whom he will bestow it no better than others but when he comes to the bestowing of Glory he finds them on whom he bestows that far better than others And a little after Albeit saith he God hardneth whom he will by denying unto them the grace of Faith and Repentance yet notwithstanding like as it is just with God to inflict damnasion upon them for that sin whether original or actual wherein he finds them when the ministry of the Word is offered them So likewise it cannot be denyed to be just with God to leave their infidelity and impenitence wherein he finds them uncured But yet because God hath not made any such constitution namely that whosoever is found in infidelity and impenitence shall be so left and abandoned by him Therefore he is properly said as to cure it in whom he will so to leave it unoured in whom he will finding them all equal in original Sin and consequently lying equally in this their natural infidelity and impenitence So we may justly say there is no cause at all in man of this difference to wit why God cures infidelity and impenitency in one and not in another but it is the meer pleasure of God that is the cause of this difference But 2. as touching the denyal of Glory and inflicting of damnation which is the second thing decreed in reprobation there is always found a cause motive yea and meritorious hereof to wit both of the denyal of the one and inflicting of the other And God doth not proceed herein according to the meer pleasure of his will and that by reason of his own constitution having ordained that whosoever continueth finally in infidelity in profane courses and impenitency shall be damned And albeit on the other side it may be said in some sense as I formerly shewed that God saves whom he will in as much as he is the Authour of Faith which he bestows on whom he will yet in no congruous sense can he be said to damn whom he will for as much as he is not the Authour of sin as he is the Authour of Faith For every good thing he works but sin and the evil thereof he only permits not causeth And lastly as God doth not damn whom he will but those onely whom he finds finally to have persevered in sin without repentance So neither did he decree to damn or reprobate to damnation whom he will but onely those who should be found finally to persevere in sin without repentance Again in the same Book pag. 106. But I saith Twiss shall tell you the chief Flourish whereupon this Authour and usually the Arminians doth insist in this his loose Argumentation I conceive it to be this they hope their credulous Readers unexpert in distinguishing between God's eternal decree and the temporal execution thereof will be apt hereupon to conceit that we maintain that God doth not onely of meer pleasure decree whatsoever he decreeth but also that he doth decree of meer pleasure to damn men Which yet is utterly contrary if I be not deceived to the Tenet of all our Divines All concurring in this that God in the execution of the decree of damnation proceeds according to a Law and not in the execution of reprobation onely but also in the execution of election and the Law is this Whosoever believes shall be saved whosoever believes not shall be damned and like as he inflicteth not damnation but by way of punishment so he confers not salvation but by way of Reward Again pag. 184. God hath not wished but ordained and made it a positive Law that whosoever believeth shall be saved and here hence it followeth that if all and every Man from the beginning of the World to the end shall believe in Christ all and every one of them shall be saved And Pag. 229. As for Salvation that is appointed to be bestowed only by way of Reward of foregoing Faith Repentance and good works And a little after in the same Page Indeed our profession is that Gods purpose is to bestow Salvation by way of Reward of Faith Repentance and good works And accordingly there is No other assurance of election than by Faith and Holiness â— Thess 1.3 4 Remembring the work of your Faith the labour of your love and the patience of your hope knowing beloved brethren that ye are elect of God And St. Peter exhorts Christians to make their election and vocation sure by joining vertue with their faith and with vertue knowledge and with knowledge temperance and with temperance patience and with patience Godliness and with Godliness brotherly kindness and with brotherly kindness love 2 Pâ—t 1.5 6 7 10. Thus Dr. Twiss speaks our sence according to our Hearts desire and maintains the Gospel to be a Law as much as we do But now it may be our Authour will object that in all this Dr. Twiss speaks only of a Law according to which God proceeds in bestowing or not bestowing eternal life and glory upon Men but not of a Law according to which he justifies and pardons men We Answer 1. The reason of that was because the Doctor 's Adversaries gave
foresaid Book called The Synod of Dort and Arles reduced to Practice page 195 196. As God did ordain us to everlasting Life by way of Reward of our Faith Repentance and good works so likewise he did â—rdain us to the obtaining of Faith Repentance and good Works to be wrought in us partly by the Ministry of his Word therein speaking unto us and partly by our Prayers seeking unto him to bless his word unto us and fulfil the good pleasure of his Goodness towards us and the work of Faith in Power For God doth expect that we should seek unto him by Prayer for this as we read Ezek. 36.37 Thus saith the Lord I will yet for this be sought of the House of Israel to perform it unto them Neither do we maintain that God doth ordain any Man of Ripe Years unto Eternal Lise in any moment of Nature before he ordains him to Faith Repentance and Good Works and that to be wrought in him by the Ministry of the Word with Gods Blessing thereupon according to the Prayers in common both of the Pastor and the People By this passage we see that though Dr. Twisse denies that Gods giving us Grace to Convert Believe and Repent doth depend upon any proper Condition to be antecedently performed by us before we can ever in any case receive that Grace yet he confesses and maintains that ordinarily Gods giving that first special Saving Grace depends upon the use of his appointed means and that it is Gods Will it should so depend And truly if it were not so Ministers should give over Preaching and Praying and People give over hearing them and joyning in Prayer with them in order to Conversion for it would all serve to no end or purpose but would be a taking of Gods Name in vain Thus it may appear to all that we do not believe nor teach that there is any Condition required to be necessarily performed by us antecedently to our partaking of the first Grace promised in the Covenant so that if we performe that Condition we shall infallibly have that first Grace and if we perform it not we shall infallibly not have it at all 2. From hence it follows that in consistence with our foresaid Principle we cannot hold and we solemnly declare that we do not hold that there is any Natural Condition of the Covenant of Grace for we know assuredly that there is no such Promise in the Covenant of Grace as this Facienti quod in se est viribus naturae dabit Deus primam gratiam God will give the first supernatural Grace to every Man who doth what he can by his Natural Powers It was the Opinion of the Semipelagians that we believe in Christ by our own Natural Strength without Supernatural Grace and upon Condition that we do so God promiseth to give and accordingly he gives us the first internal Supernatural Grace Augustin himself was once of this Opinion as he confesseth lib. de praedestin Sanctorum cap. 3. where he tells us that he was convinced of his Error by that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 4.7 What hast thou that thou hast not received and if thou hast received it why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it We bless God for that by his Grace he hath preserved us from that Semipelagian Errour and we declare our abhorrence of it And therefore it must needs be a great wickedness in the Authour of the Letter to bely us as he hath done in charging us not only with Semipelagianism but even with Pelagianism it self which are Errours that our Souls abhor as God who searcheth the Hearts of all Men knoweth and to whom we appeal yet praying him again not to enter into Judgment with that Brother for the wrong he hath done us but rather to give him Repentance and then to pardon him 3. From hence also it follows that we neither do hold nor can hold that there is any meritorious condition of the Covenant of Grace For we do firmly and unanimously believe that Christ by his Elood hath purchased for us and by his Spirit freely gives unto us the Grace whereby we performe the Condition of the Covenant the Grace whereby we sincerely believe repent and obey the Gospel Now we are perswaded that it is utterly impossible for any Man to merit of God the benefits of Justification and Glorification by performing the Condition of Faith Repentance and Evangelical Obedience because we are infinitely beholding to God in Christ for giving us freely the Grace whereby we performe the Condition and without which we could never performe it We know very well that the Papists argue the quite contrary way that our Faith Repentance and Obedience are properly meritorious because they are the effects of God's Grace in us but this we know also to be a very ridiculous way of arguing because the Argument really proves that they are not and that they cannot be properly meritorious because they are the Effects of God's Free Grace God by giving us the Grace whereby we Believe Repent and Obey the Gospel properly merits of us our most humble and hearty thanks for thereby causing us to Believe Repent and Obey and therefore our so believing repenting and obeying cannot properly merit any thing of God But we need not insist on this it being so evident in it self and confessed by all Protestants that it is impossible for a meer Creature and that a sinful Creature too properly to merit and deserve any thing from God but Death and Damnation And this being so we do assert as much as our Authour doth page 24. or can possibly do such an absolute freedom of the Grace of God as excludeth all merit But what our Authour means by excluding not only merit it self but every thing like merit we do not well understand As for the merit of a sinful Creature we know it to be a chimera that it neither hath nor can have a real being that it is impossible and implies a contradiction Now what it is that is like a chimera we leave to our profound Authour to determine But if by every thing that is like merit he means every false conceit of merit that is or may be in the foolish Imaginations of erroneous men we understand him and agree with him for we do as much as he exclude out of our own imaginations all false conceits of merit and if we could we would exclude them out of the imaginations of all other Men that so we and all other Men might ascribe unto God through Christ the Glory of all the good we do and of all the good we receive or hope to receive If our Authour by every thing that is like merit mean any other thing we are to seek what it may be and truly we cannot well imagine what it is he excludes under the notion of its being like merit unless it be Repentance in order to pardon of sin and Prayer for pardon of sin and if that
be really his meaning and he be of that mind that he will neither repent of his sins in order to obtain the pardon of them nor pray for the pardon of them for fear lest he should seem to merit the pardon of them we cannot but think him to be a very weak man and that he fears where no ground of fear is For assuredly if he do but exclude out of his own mind the proud Conceit and Opinion of meriting by his Repentance and Prayer he needs not forbear repenting and praying for the pardon of his sins for fear of thereby meriting pardon or for fear of doing that which looks like meriting pardon His own common Sense and Reason may teach him that by the very acts of repenting and praying for pardon he doth renounce all pretence to merit as well as by the Act of believing in Christ for pardon he doth renounce all pretence to the meriting of his pardon 4. We do not believe that Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience are the legal but evangelical Condition of the Covenant of Grace Which that our meaning may be understood by all we explain thus we do not believe that our Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience which are the Conditions of Justification and Glorification according to the tenour of the Covenant of Grace have the same Place and Office in this new Covenant and Law of Grace which most perfect sinless Obedience had and was to have had in the first old Covenant and Law of Works for in that first old Covenant personal perfect sinless Obedience was to have been Mans Righteousness by which alone he was to have been secured from Death and to have had still a Title and Right to Life but in the new Covenant and Law of Grace neither our Faith Repentance nor sincere Obedience are or can be that righteousness which secures us from Eternal Death and purchases for us a Right and Title to Eternal Life when God first made the new Covenant with us in Christ we had all lost our Right and Title to life and were become guilty of Death In which state we could never by any Act or Acts of ours by any Righteousness in us or done by us secure our selves from Death and recover our Right and Title to Life It was the satisfactory meritorious Righteousness of our Lord Redeemer Christ Jesus that could do and did do this for us It was Christs Righteousness alone that satisfied for our Sins and redeemed us from Death and that merited and purchased for us a Right and Title to Life Christ's Righteousness alone procures us the pardon of our sins and a Right and Title to Life so that it is Christ's satisfactory meritorious Righteousness alone that comes in the place of that perfect sinless Righteousness which was the Condition of the first Covenant and Law of works It is Christ's Righteousness that stands us in stead of that perfect sinless Righteousness which we should have had but have not It is Christ's righteousness alone that procureth to us the Restauration of all the good we had lost and more and better Our Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience have nothing to do at all in this matter This was Christ's work alone and we give him all the Glory of it with all our Hearts and Souls And as it was Christ's Righteousness alone that merited our pardon of sin and deliverance from Death and that purchased our acceptance with God as righteous in his sight and our Right and Title to Life so it is by his Promise and Law of Grace that the Lord gives us that which he had merited and purchased for us that he gives us the pardon of our sins and Right or Title to Life upon our repenting and believing so that our repenting of our sins and believing in Christ are but the immediate nearest means which God hath ordained to be used on our part that we may be fit to receive and accordingly may receive those blessings and benefits which Christ hath purchased and which by the promise are given unto us The use of this means the performance of those Duties of Faith and Repentance is that which our Orthodox Divines call the Condition of the Covenant of Grace For upon Condition that through Grace we do those Duties we shall have those blessings and benefits The Lord will graciously give us them according to his promise on condition that we by Grace do such and such Duties according to his Command Our Faith and Repentance are not our Legal Righteousness nor instead of it that is the Place and Office of Christ's Righteousness only but they are the Condition which the Lord in the Gospel hath required of us that according to his promise we may be blessed with the pardon of sin be accepted at Righteous in his sight and have a Right and Title to Eternal Life From the premisses it is manifest that according to our Principles Faith and Repentance are not a Legal but an Evangelical Condition of the Covenant of Grace and that they do not in the least detract from the Grace of it And we desire it may be remembred that though speaking of Faith and Repentance joyntly we call them sometimes the Condition of the Covenant or the Condition of Justification yet we make a difference between them and because Repentance includes an hearty sorrow for sin and purpose to for sake it and to return unto the Lord we call it the disposing Condition but finding by Holy Soripture and the Nature of the thing that Faith above other Graces hath a peculiar respect unto Christ and his Righteousness we call it the receiving Condition so doth our Reverend Brother Mr. Williams call it in Gospel truth stated c. page 114. and we approve the distinction He was not the first inventer of it for it was used by others before either he or we were born Now if this be true as the Lord who searcheth all hearts knows it to be then let the World judge how false and injurious that Authour is unto us when in page 6. he giveth the People an account of our Principles as to this matter in these following words They will not allow this personal Righteousness of Christ to be imputed to us any otherwise than in the merit of it as purchasing for us a far more easie Law of Grace in the observation whereof they place all our justifying Righteousness Vnderstanding hereby our own personal inherent holiness and nothing else They hold that Christ dyed to merit this of the Father viz. that we might be justified upon easier terms under the Gospel than those of the Law of Innocency in stead of Justification by perfect Obedience we are now to be justified by our own Evangelical Righteousness made up of Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience And Page 28. Many manage the Ministry as if they had taken up a contrary determination even to know any thing save Jesus Christ and him crucified We are amazed to see so many
uncere Obedience to be a Legal but an Evangelical Condition of the Covenant of Grace and consequently that in our Judgment they do not hold the same Place and Office in the New Covenant of Grace which personal perfect sinless Obedience had and were to have had in the first Covenant of Innocency and of Works Object But saith our Authour in his Appendix Pag. 39. It is the Achillaean Argument of the New Divinity that Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience is our Evangelical Righteousness and that Righteousness is our defence against the charge of Vnbelief Impenitence c. And what then Why in the following Pages he so shapes it as might best serve his Design which was to make the People believe that we set up our own Righteousness in the place of Christ's and maintain that Men must be Justified by their own Righteousness and not onely by Christ's And so he trips up Achilles Heels by the Fallacy of many Interrogations But it will be no very difficult Task to scatter this Mist which he hath cast before the Peoples Eyes In order thereunto let it be considered 1. That the Substance of this Argument was not invented by any amongst us dead or alive that we know of but some in this Nation having read it in some very eminently learned forreign Divines particularly Ludovicus de Dieu at large and the Holy Humble Learned and most Acute Placeus they received it and improved it as useful to clear some seeming Difficulties in Scripture obiected to us by our Adversaries the Papists 2. Consider that this way of reconciling James with Paul in the matter of Justification for the Substance of it was taken up also by the Learned Turretin 3. That it doth not appear that all of us ever expressed our selves in those Words for the clearing up of the seeming difference between James and Paul 4. That those who do take that way do not impose it upon others We know there have been many ways taken by Reformed Divines to expound James so as not to contradict Paul And some considerable difference there may seem to be among Divines in the methodizing and expressing of their Notious of those Matters But yet there appears to be very little difference amongst them as to the things themselves Indeed upon the Matter all seems to come almost to the same thing And particularly let it be considered 5. That this way of Interpreting James his Justification by Works and reconciling it with Paul's Justification by Faith seems to differ from the more common modern Opinion mostly in the manner of expression which some of us think most agreeable to the Scripture Phrase But we leave every Man to express his Notions as best pleaseth him provided that if he do not use Scripture Words yet he do not contradict Scripture sense And therefore 6. We desire it may be considered that this way of expounding James which we are now speaking of doth not in the least contradict the Holy Scripture but rather serves to explain it if it be understood as it ought to be in the true genuine sense of its Authours For 1. Though they say that our Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience is an Evangelical Righteousness as indeed it is yet at the same time they declare that this Evangelical Righteousness is no other thing but the Condition of the new Covenant on our part whereby we are interested first and still keep our interest in the satisfactory meritorious Righteousness of Christ by and for which alone we are justified from first to last They do not say that this Evangelical Righteousness which is the Condition of the Covenant doth satisfie God's Justice for the least sin either against Law or Gospel or that it doth properly merit to us the least good so much as a Cup of Cold Water They give unto Christ alone the whole Glory of having by his Righteousness satisfied Justice for all our Sins and merited to us all our Mercies So that our Authour was we think a little impertinent in putting his question page 41. What is that Righteousness which justifies a man from the sin of Vnbelief For he knows well enough that the Worthy Divines as he deservedly calls them with whom he has to do in that Argument have published it to all the World under their hands That assoon as a Man who was before an Unbeliever begins through Grace sincerely to believe in Christ and to repent of his Unbelief and of all his other sins immediately thereupon Christ's satisfactory meritorious Righteousness justifies him from his sin of Unbelief and from all his other former sins both Original and Actual that is God by and for Christ's Righteousness justifies him from them upon his believing and repenting And as our Authour knows this to be true so he hath honestly confessed it in the end of the same Paragraph Will any man says he dare to tell a person who is troubled in Conscience about his sin of Vnbelief that Christ's Righteousness is his legal Righteousness against the charge of sins against the Law but for Gospel-charges he must answer them in his own name I know our hottest opposers would abhor such an answer and would freely tell such a Man that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin and that his Justification from his Vnbelief must be only in that Righteousness which he so sinfully had rejected while in Vnbelief and now lays hold on by Faith Here the Truth comes out at last and in effect he gives the lye to his own false accusations of the Lord's Ministers and acquits the accused For if his hottest Opposers freely tell People that the Blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin and that their Justification from the sin of Unbelief must be only by the Righteousness of Christ then how can those things be true whereof as was observed before he had accused us in page 6 28 33 and page 39. That we bring our own pitiful Holiness into Justification and make it sit on the Throne of Judgment with the precious blood of the Lamb of God Ex ore tuo c. But 2. The Authors of the Argument we are upon never said wrote or so much as thought that can be known That our sincere Faith and Repentance is a Defence or Justification against a charge of Unbelief or Impenitence given in against us by God for they knew full well without being taught it by this Authour That the God of Truth cannot be the Authour of a Lye which he would certainly and evidently be if he should charge us with being Unbelievers and Impenitent at that very time when he knows that by his own Spirit and Grace we sincerely believe and repent But that which the aforesaid Excellent Divines said is yet to be seen in their Writings and it is this That our sincere Faith and Repentance is a Defence and Justification against any false charge of Unbelief and Impenitence that is or possibly may be given in against
then put it forth into Act in obedience to the single Command of believing is safe and runs no hazard of loosing Eternal Life and Glory although he live in the habitual constant omission of all other Duties and in the habitual constant commission of all other sins except the sin of formal unbelief that is he is safe and runs no hazard of loosing Eternal Life and Glory though he never love nor fear God and Christ nor exercise any other Grace or perform any other Duty though he never love his Neighbours nor deal justly and honestly by them yea upon this supposed Principle he is safe and runs no hazard of his Salvation though he habitually and constantly do the quite contrary and live in all other the most abominable sins against God and Man except the sin of formal unbelief For though these be sins great abominable sins of Omission and Commission against the Law of God yet to him who is supposed to be a sincere Believer and to keep his Faith under all these sins of Omission and Commission the said Duties are not commanded nor the sins forbidden under the penalty of loosing his Salvation or if the Law strictly considered as a Covenant of Works command those Duties and forbid those sins under that penalty Yet from him being a Believer the Gospel takes off the penalty as fast as the Law lays it on or rather according to the Principle we are now speaking of the Gospel binds the Laws hands so that though it would yet it cannot lay its penalty upon the man he being a Believer although he never so much deserves it by the foresaid abominations against God and Man And consequently he may omit all Duties except the Duty of believing and commit all sins imaginable except the sin of formal unbelief and yet remain safe and run no hazard of loosing the promised blessing of Eternal Life and Glory Far be it from us to charge our Authour or any of his way with such abominable practices We abhor to charge any Man with holding the absurd consequences of his opinion which he doth not own We design no such thing nor indeed any reflection at all by this Argument No but our real and whole design is to shew the natural necessary consequence and danger of holding the opinion that no sincere Obedience but Faith is required of Christians by the Covenant and Law of Christ as indispensably necessary to the obtaining of Eternal Life and Glory and thereby to evince that as was said It is false that no sincere Obedience but the Act of believing is required as indispensably necessary to obtain Eternal Life and Glory And this we think we have effectually done for if no sincere Obedience but the Act of believing be required of Christians by the Law of Christ as indispensably necessary to obtain Eternal Life and Glory then it is self-evident that they are safe and may obtain Eternal Life and Glory if they have the Act of Faith and the Obedience which by it they yield to the Command of believing Though they want all other sincere Obedience and that is though they live in the Love and Practice of all manner of sins except the sin of Unbelief Obj. 1. If our Authour object 1. That though sincere Obedience distinct from Faith be not required of Christians as indispensably necessary to obtain Eternal Life and Glory yet it is required as necessary to signifie and evidence to a Christian the sincerity of his Faith which he cannot be sure of unless it be evidenced to him by sincere Obedience distinct from it self Answ We answer 1. We suppose he knows well enough that there are some who hold the quite contrary to wit that it is Faith only which is indispensably necessary to evidence the sincerity of a mans Obedience and not sincere Obedience to evidence the sincerity of his Faith 2. Be it so that sincere Obedience is indispensably necessary to assure a Christian of the sincerity of his Faith yet if it be not likewise indispensably necessary to his obtaining Eternal Life and Glory he may be really safe and in no danger of loosing Eternal Life and Glory if he have a sincere Faith which is the only thing indispensably necessary though he want all sincere Obedience distinct from Faith which is pretended not to be indispensably necessary to the obtaining of Eternal Life and Glory It is true the man cannot know that he is safe he cannot be sure and full of Spiritual Comfort without the evidence of his Faith that is without sincere Obedience But for all that if he really have Faith he is safe with respect to another World though he want sincere Obedience as the evidence of his safety by Faith and that is though he live in the Love and Practice of all manner of sins both of Omission and Commission except the sin of formal Unbelief which we think is a very great absurdity following upon the foresaid Opinion Obj. 2. If our Authour object 2. That here we suppose an impossibility to wit That a sincere Faith may be without any other sincere Obedience whereas though sincere Obedience be not required as indispensably necessary to obtain Eternal Life and Glory yet there always is and will be sincere Obedience where there is a sincere Faith and can never be separated from it We Answer 1. That we do not argue from an impossibility as such but wholly abstracting from its being possible or impossible for a sincere Faith to be without sincere Obedience to the Lord in other things required of Christians we prove it to be false that no sincere Obedience but the Act of Faith is under the Gospel-Covenant required of Christians as indispensably necessary to obtain the promised blessing of Eternal Life and Glory because if that were not false then this would be necessarily true that though a Christian should live in the Love and Practice of all other abominations yet if per possibile vel impossibile he retain but the Act of Faith he is safe and secure with respect to his Eternal Salvation and runs no hazard of loosing Eternal Life and Glory It is only this consequence which we are concerned to make good and that we have done But though the consequence and inference be good yet the consequent or thing inferred we justly account to be a very great absurdity and from that absurdity we prove the falsehood of the antecedent and principle from whence it follows by necessary consequence that is the falsehood of the Principle which saith that no sincere Obedience but the act of Faith is indispensably necessary to Salvation 2. We Answer that though we suppose and grant it impossible for a sincere Faith to be without sincere Obedience yet we may very well say that it is a great falsehood that no other Obedience but that of the formal elicit Act of Faith is required of Christians as indispensably necessary to Salvation and may prove it by this Argument Suppose
through Grace we be sincerely obedient we shall be saved but if not we shall be damned Now this Faith acting upon the several parts of God's Word according to their respective Natures is of great force and efficacy to determine us unto the practice of sincere Obedience 1. the Faith of God's Word commanding sincere Obedience as indispensably necessary to Salvation makes our Consciences how down to God's Authority in the Command and makes us endeavour to yeild Obedience to it 2. The Faith of God's Word of threatning against the disobedient Rebel works upon our Fears 2 Cor. 5.10 11. Heb. 4.1 and Fear restrains us from disobedience lest thereby we should bring upon our selves the everlasting punishment threatned 3. The Faith of God's Word of Promise to obedient Believers works upon our hope and hope quickens us unto Obedience as the necessary means to obtain the Eternal Reward promised It makes us follow after Holiness in expectation of Happiness 1 John 3.2 3. It is essential to saving Faith to act thus differently on the several parts of the Word according to their respective Natures making us tremble at the Threatnings embrace the Promises and by that means obey the Commands of God As our Confession of Faith intimates in Chap. 14. Art 2. Now our Faith its being thus naturally fitted to make us sincerely obedient unto the Lord in all his Commands and Institutions ariseth partly from hence that the indispensable necessity of sincere Obedience in order to the obtaining of Eternal Salvation is one of the objects of a sound Faith which it firmly assents to and is strongly perswaded of For this firm assent and strong perswasion that sincere Obedience is so necessary to Salvation will not let us rest but will be still putting us on to yeild sincere Obedience unto the Law of Christ as that which must be done or we shall be undone for ever But if a Man be once firmly perswaded in his own Mind that no sincere Obedience but onely the Act of Faith in way of Obedience is indispensably necessary to Salvation his Faith will not have so much Power over him to make him sincerely obedient unto the Lord in order to Salvation Indeed it is much to be doubted whether that Man hath a sincere Faith at all who is under the Power of this erroneous Opinion that no sincere Obedience distinct from the Act of Faith is indispensably necessary to Salvation for a sincere sound Faith amongst other of its Objects it believes this for one that as first Faith so next sincere Obedience is indispensably necessary to Salvation Thus we have proved our Second Proposition to wit It is false that no sincere Obedience but the Act of Faith is required as indispensably necessary to the obtaining the promised Blessing of Eternal Life and Glory Now both the Premisses being certainly and evidently true the Conclusion follows unavoidably which is this That it is true that some Obedience besides the Act of Faith is required as indispensably necessary to the obtaining of the promised Blessing of Eternal Life and Glory For who is so stark blind as not to see that if it be false that no Obedience but Faith is indispensably necessary to Salvation as we have proved it to be false then its contradictory is true that some Obedience besides Faith is indispensably necessary to Salvation We proceed then and thus argue If some Obedience besides Faith be indispensably necessary to Salvation then that some Obedience besides Faith must be either a most perfect personal sinless Obedience or an imperfect personal sincere Obedience There can be no other personal Obedience but one of these two thought indispensably necessary to Salvation But it is not it cannot be a most perfect personal sinless Obedience for if such an Obedience were required as indispensably necessary to Salvation then no Man could be saved because no meer Man ever performed such Obedience to the Law of God in this life no Man ever lived so holily as never to sin in Thought Word or Deed after his Conversion and 〈…〉 And so if such sinless personal Obedience were required of all as indispensably â—â—â—â—â—sary to Salvation no Flesh could be saved but all would be damned notwithstanding all that Christ hath done and suffered to purchase Salvation for his People Christ's blood would have been so far shed in vain that not one Soul would be saved by it which were Blasphemy to affirm and therefore it cannot be that now under the Gospel-Covenant a most perfect personal sinless Obedience is required of us as indispensably necessary to Salvation Since therefore some personal Obedience besides Faith is indispensably necessary to Salvation and it is not a most perfect personal sinless Obedience that is so necessary we must of necessity conclude that it is an imperfect personal sincere Obedience which besides Faith is indispensably necessary to Salvation The other most perfect personal sinless Obedience is not attainable in this Life by the ordinary assistance of God's Grace but this personal imperfect yet sincere Obedience is attainable in this Life by the ordinary helps of God's Spirit and Grace For Christ's yoke is easie and his burden is light Mat. 11.30 And God's Commandments are not grievous 1 John 5.3 The Spirit helpeth our infirmities Rom. 8.26 Through the Spirit we mortifie the deeds of the body Rom. 8.13 We purify our souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit c. 1 Pet. 1.22 In short though without Christ we can do nothing John 15.5 Yet through Christ strengthening us we can do all things Phil. 4.13 that is we can do all things which Christ requires of us as indispensably necessary to our obtaining the promised Blessing of Eternal Life and Salvation If any should object against this and say that a Man may be saved although he do not perform that Obedience which is indispensably necessary to Salvation because though he fall into very great Sins yet he may repent of them and so be saved through Christ upon his repentance We Answer 1. That it is contradictious Non-sence to say a Man may be saved without that sincere Obedience which God hath made indispensably necessary to his Salvation 2. We answer with Rutherford and others as aforesaid that when a Regenerate Justified Man fulls into gross Sins against Knowledge and Conscience he cannot be saved whilst he continues in those Sins without Repentance for then he doth not walk after the Spirit but rather after the Flesh then he is going astray from the way that leads to Life and Salvation and is walking in the broad way that leads to destruction And therefore if he do not turn back and return again into the narrow way that leads to Life and Salvation he will certainly be undone he will perish everlastingly Rom. 8.13 If ye live after the flesh ye shall die But when a justified Man that had fallen as is said rises again by Repentance he returns to his Obedience And we desire it
sometimes two as in Acts 20.20 21 27. compared the Apostle comprehends the whole counsel of God under Repentance and Faith also in that of Solomon Fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole of Man Eccles 12.13 So that if you could suppose a Man to be a Believer and to be a Believer alone it would not save him as the Apostle James saith chap. 2.14 What doth it profit my Brethren though a man say he hath faith and have not works can faith save him No no more than saying be ye warmed will warm any or be ye filled will fill any for Faith without works is dead And what is said of this may be said of the rest so that when the Scripture speaks of Salvation as annexed to any one thing it supposeth that to contain the rest The reason is evident for the Graces of God as saving are not parted There is no believing to Salvation without Repentance nor no Repentance to Salvation without believing there is no calling upon the Name of the Lord will save without departing from iniquity nor can they savingly depart from iniquity that call not on the Name of the Lord. It is not any one thing but things that pertain to the Kingdom of God Acts 1.3 It is not thing but things that accompany or as it may be better read contain Salvation Heb. 6.9 And he that takes one for all without all as our wise Authour doth will find nothing at all A part is no portion The great fallacy with which Satan deludes many men is that which Logicians call à benè compositis ad malè divisa When he gets them to take Religion into pieces and then take one piece for Religion One cries up God another cries up Christ another Faith another Love another good Works but what is God without Christ or Christ without Faith or Faith without Love or Love without Works But now take God in Christ by Faith which worketh by Love to the keeping of the Commandments of God and this is pure Religion It is the whole that is the whole of Man Yet again though I have spoken thus much to it let me make it clearer than a demonstration That one is put for all and as containing all by comparing these places of Scripture In 1 Cor. 7.19 You read that circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing but keeping the Commandments of God What 's that Why that is all in all In Gal. 5.6 It is neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but Faith which worketh by Love That 's that which availeth or is all in all Yet in Gal. 6.15 he saith neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new Creature That 's all in all And yet for all this as if all this were nothing he tells us in Col. 3.11 That Christ is all and in all cashiering both circumcision and uncircumcision as formerly Now my beloved if you should take any one of these though each be said to be availing I say if you should take any one and lay the stress of your Salvation upon it you were undone Let our Authour and his Proselytes look to themselves It is not keeping the Commandments of God nor Faith working by Love nor the new Creature no nor Christ himself considered alone and apart that availeth any thing but these in conjunction He names one onely because where one is it is not only one there is more than one wherever one is savingly there are all in their respective places as far as they are to be in relation to Salvation Thus you see that Faith as well as Works and Works as well as Faith every one in their own order are to be taken in or we shall not be taken into the Kingdom of Heaven This Rule of interpreting Scripture is one of Vennings things that are well worth the thinking on and therefore we have set it down at large If it be duly attended to it will give light sufficient to discover the darkness of our Authours Ignorance or Hypocrisie But he objects further That no answer but this alone can rightly heal the wound of an awakened Conscience pag. 15. We reply That what he says is false and delusive in his sense taking Faith for one single act of one Grace and Duty exclusive of Repentance and all other Graces and Duties But take it according to God's usual way of speaking much in a little and in a complex comprehensive sense as taking in or not excluding but rather supposing Repentance and it is most true For the Vertue and Efficacy of Christ's Blood applyed by the Spirit and Faith to the Soul prepared by Repentance is indeed the only Remedy that can heal it But if our Authour will say that Faith in Christ alone and without Repentance will heal the wounds of awakened consciences in wicked Men at their first Conversion we cannot choose but rank him amongst those Covetous deceitful Prophets and Priests who heal the hurt of the People slightly saying Peace peace when there is no peace Jerem. 6.13 14. We are infallibly sure from the Scriptures of Truth That the Apostles Commission was to preach Repentance as well as Faith in order to Mens Justification and Salvation and that they were obedient to the Commands of their Great and Glorious Lord and preached according to their Commission For we read in God's Holy Word that when the Consciences of a multitude of unbelieving Jews who had been accessory to the most barbarous murder of Christ the Son of God and Saviour of Men were throughly awakened and their Spirits were deeply wounded by the Arrows of Conviction which Almighty God by his Word and Spirit had shot into their Souls they feeling themselves pricked in their hearts said unto Peter and to the rest of the Apostles Men and Brethren what shall we do Acts 2.37 then as follows vers 38. Peter said unto them Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins c. Here we have a Company of People in great distress of Conscience as the Goaler was and in this their Spiritual distress they do as the Goaler did As the Goaler sought advice of Paul and Silas and asked them what he should do to be saved Just so the awakened convinced Jews sought advice of Peter and the rest of the Apostles and asked them What they should do To whom Peter answered Repent and be baptized c. Whereupon we demand of our Authour was this answer of Peter a right answer or not 1. We hope he will not he dare not say it was not a right answer For Peter was an Apostle as well as Paul and at that very time he was full of the Holy Ghost and spake as he was inspired by the Holy Ghost If then he should be so bold as to say that Peter did not give them a right answer because he did not say to them as Paul said to the
be pardoned and saved for the sake of Christ who shed his most precious Blood for the remission of sins 3. The very same Words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are used in this same sense by Origen in his Third Book against Celsus Cambridge Edition pag. 154. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God grants the Grace of Repentance i. e. the Gracious Blessing and Priviledge which is obtained by Repentance to wit pardon of sin This is and must be the sense of Origen's Words there and they can have no other For Origen affirms there in opposition to the Calumny of Celsus as shall be shewed by and by that Men must first be truly penitent they must be inwardly changed and converted from Evil to Good before God be merciful to them so as to pardon their sins And when they are so wrought upon as to be really changed converted and become truly penitent then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God grants them the Grace of Repentance that is the pardon of their sins which is the gracious Benefit annexed to Repentance and promised to all upon Condition that they truly repent To put another sense on Origen's Words would be to make Non-sense of them and to make him say That if Men be first truly penitent God will afterwards give them Grace whereby they may be or are made truly penitent Origen was not such a filly Man as to write thus foolishly for the Christian Religion against a learned and malitious Heathen 4. Clement and Origen's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Grace of Repentance is the same thing with Tertullian's Fructus Paenitentiae Fruit of Repentance but Tertullian's Fruit of Repentance is pardon of sin for so he writes Lib. de Pudicitiâ Cap. 10. Ita cessatio delicti radiae est veniae ut venia sit paenitentiae fructus Ceasing from sin is so the root of pardon that pardon is the fruit of repentance 5. And Lastly the Words-which immediately follow in Clement shew this to be his meaning for he adds Let us take a diligent view of all Generations and learn that in every Generation the Lord hath given place of Repentance to such as were willing to turn unto him Noah preached Repentance and they that obeyed were saved Jonah preached Destruction to the Ninivites but they repenting them of their sins appeased God by their humble Supplications and were preserved These Words plainly shew that by saying that through the Blood of Christ shed for our Salvation God hath offered the Grace of Repentance to the whole World Clement meant that God hath admitted all Men to Repentance as the way and means to obtain Pardon and hath promised and according to his Promise doth give them Pardon for Christ's sake upon their Repentance But it may be some will Object that yet the same Clement in the same First Epistle to the Corinthians saith pag. 67. They the Holy Men before and under the Law were all Glorified and made Great not by themselves or by their own Works or by the just Actions which they did but by his Will So we Christians then being called in Christ Jesus by his Will are not justified by our selves nor by our own wisdome or knowledge or piety or by the works which we have done in holiness of heart but by Faith whereby the Almighty God hath Justified all Men from the beginning of the World to whom he Glory for ever and ever Amen We Answer that this makes nothing against us for we have believed we do and through Grace will always believe that God Justisies us by Faith and not by any Works distinct from Faith in the sense before explained that is that God of his own Gracious Will and Pleasure hath ordained Faith to be the only receptive applicative Condition Means or federal moral Instrument of Justification upon our performing of which Condition or using of which Means and Instrument God doth freely justifie us for the sake of Christ's satissactory meritorious Righteousness onely We do indeed with Clement and with the Holy Prophets and Apostles believe that sincere Repentance is pre-required as a dispositive Condition to our obtaining of Justification yet we do not say any more than they did that we are Justified by Repentance but together with them we say that we are Justified by Faith only because God hath appointed Faith onely to that Office of being the receptive Condition and inward applicative Means of Justifiaation through Christ's Blood Clemeut's saying that God Justifies us by Faith and not by Works must undoubtedly be understood in this sense as appears by what we have quoted and shall now further quote out of him Pag. 102. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Let us speedily remove this evil from among us and let us fall down before the Lord humbly beseeching him with Tears that being become favourable he would be reconciled unto us By this Passage we see that Clement held as we do that repenting of mourning for and turning from our known sins and humble earnest Prayer to God through Christ is a means indispensably necessary to be used by us before we can have ground to hope that God will have mercy on us in pardoning our sins And as he held Faith and Repentance together to be indispensably necessary to the obtaining of Justification and pardon of sin so he held sincere Obedience in a course of holy living to be indispensably necessary to the obtaining of Glorification and Eternal Salvation For thus he writes pag. 61 62. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Since therefore all things are both seen and heard by him let us fear him and forsake all foul desires of evil Actions that so we may be protected by his Mercy from those Judgments which are to come For whither can any one of us flee from his powerful Hand And what World will entertain any of them who fall off from him or turn Renegado's Let us come unto him therefore in the holiness of our Souls lifting up unto him pure and undefiled hands loving this our gentle and merciful Father who hath made us unto himself the portion of his election And pag. 73. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Let us therefore earnestly strive to be sound in the number of them that wait on him that so we may be made Partakers of those Gifts which are promised But Beloved how shall this be done If our Thoughts be stedfastly fixed upon God by Faith if we enquire after those things which are well-pleasing and acceptable unto him if we do those things which are agreeable to his pure and irreproveable will and follow the way of Truth Casting away from us all injustice and iniquity covetousness contentions malignities and deceits whisperings and backbitings hatred of God pride and boasting vain-glory and ambition for they that do these things are abominable unto God and not onely the Doers thereof but they also which consent thereunto For the Scripture saith c. As in Psalm 50. which Clement quotes from v. 16.
is bad counsel to tell an awakened Sinner that he must repent of his known sins mourn for them leave and loath them Cyprian was more loving and faithful to the Souls of Men than so to betray them to the Enemy of their Salvation he would have lost his Life before he would have done it And indeed he did at last lose his Life for his faithfulness to Christ and to the Souls of his People He laid down his life for the brethren he sealed the Truth of Christ's Gospel with his Blood about the Year of our Lord 250 and that is above fourteen hundred years ago These five Fathers flourished within the first Three Hundred years after Christ when the Church was in its greatest purity and Three of them to wit Clement Justin and Cyprian were Martyrs we need say no more to vindicate our Doctrine from the aspersion of Novelty which is fulsty cast upon it yet we think fit to add further two or three Testimonies of those Fathers who afterwards were great Asserters of the necessity and efficacy of God's Grace against the Peâ—ugians of which the chief was the famous Augustin who they say was born in Africa the faâ—he day that Pelagius was born in Britain the Lord intimating by that Providence that he had raised up Augustin to be an instrument in his hand to mantain and defend the necessity and efficacy of his Grace against Pelagius who deuyed it Now in his 105 Epistle to Sixtus This great Champion of the Church in his time saith That no Man is delivered and justified from any sin original or actual of omission or commission nisi gratiâ Dei per Jesuâ—â— Christâ—â—â— Dominum nostrum 〈◊〉 Solùm remissione peccatorum sed priùs ipsius inspiratione fidei timoris Dei impartiâ—o salubriter orationis affectu effectu But by the Grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord not only by forgiving him his sins but first by inspiring into him Faith and the fear of God the affection and effect of Prayer being savingly impairted unto him In this passuge of Augustins we observe That 1. He affirms that non liberatur justificatur quisquam nisi gratiâ Dei c. That no Man is freed and justified from any sin but by the Grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 2. That God's Grace in our Justificution appeals not only in his forgiving as our sins for the sake of Christ but also in this that prins fâ—st before he justifies us in forgiving our sins he inspires into us Faith in Christ and fear of God and in that he gives us an inclination and ability to pray and excites us to actual Prayer For that is the thing that he means by affectus effectus erationis salubriter impartiâ—us The Affection of Prayer is the fitness and disposition of the Mind for the Duty and we conceive that the effect of Prayer in this place signi 〈…〉 pâ—aying of the Soul its actual breathing after God for tho pardon of its sins These three things Faith Fear and Prayer in Augustins Judgment go before remission of sins and so before Justification of which according to our Confessions and Catechisms Remission of sin is an essential part at least And the consequence of this is that according to Austin there is some Spiritual good wrought in us and done by us before our sins be pardoned and we be justified And so we are qualified at least for pardon and that by the Grace of God in Christ The same Authour in another Book saith Homines non intolligentes quod ait ipse Apostolus lib. de grat lib. urb cap. 7. 〈…〉 hominem per â—idem sine operibus legis putarverunt eum dicere sufficere homini fidem etianise malè vivat bona opera non habeat quod absit ut sentiret vas electionis c. Men not understanding that which the Apostle bimself saith we judge that a man is justified by Faith without the works of the Law They have thought that he said Faith is sufficient to a man although he live a wicked life and have not good works Which God forbid that that chosen Vessel shâ—ild have thought or believed Who when he had said in a certain place In Christ cyesus neither Circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth any thing immediately he â—dâ—ea but â—aith which worketh by Love This is that Faith which distinguisheth â—â—d separateth God's faithful People from the unclean Devils for even they as the Aâ—oâ—tle James saith believe and tremble but they do no good works therefore they have noâ— that Faith by which the just doth live that is which works by love that God may render unto him Eternal Life according to his works But because we have even good works themselves from that God from whom we have Faith and Love therefore the same teacher of the Gentiles hath called Eternal Life it self Grace or Gist And in the next and 8th Chapter he saith That Paul in Ephes 2.8 9. Having written that we are saved by Grace through Faith and that not of our selves it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should hoast he saw that men might think that this was so spoken as if good works were not necessary to Believers but that Faith alone was sufficient to them And again that men may be proud of their good works as if they were able of themselves to do them therefore he immediately added for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which he hath prepared that we should walk in them Audi intellige non ex operibus dictum tanquam tuis ex teipso tibi existentibus Hear and understand saith Austin It is said not of works as if they were thine own which thou hadst of and from thy self for thou art created in Christ Jesus unto them We have also a large Confession of Faith of Fifteen Pastors of the Church of Christ in Africa Fulgent de Incarn Gra. J. Chr. concerning the Incarnation and Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ it was indeed written by one of them to wit the Famous Fulgentius but all their Naines are prefixed to it and it is by them directed to Petrus Diaconus In the 17th Chapter of that Book they write thus Ipse Salvator noster c. Our Saviour himself with the commanding power of his own voice speaks unto the will of man saying repent and believe the Gospel yet it is clear a man receives from God Repentance unto Life that he may begin to believe in God so that he cannot believe in God at all unless he receive Repentance by the gift of God who sheweth Mercy But what is a Mans Repentance but the change of his Will 〈◊〉 Theresore God who gives a Man Repentance doth himself change Mans Will Now observe here 1. That in the Judgment of the foresaid Fifteen Fathers the Lord both Commands and gives Repentance unto Life 2. That the Lord gives Repentance before
have everlasting Life And Art 6. he sayes that Faith embraces and appropriates to ones self Christ and all that is in him for since be is offered us to be possessed by us with this condition if we believe in him one of the two thâ—n must necessarily be to wit either that all is not in Christ which is necessary to our Salvation Or if all be in him then he possesseth all things who possesseth Christ by Faith And in his short Confession Art 10. Itaque meritò concludere possumus in uno Jesu Christo contra omnia mala quae conscièntias nostras terrere possunt praesentissima remedia reperiri Sed addenda est conditio si ista remedia nobis applicemus Therefore we may justly conclude that in one Jesus Christ there are found soveraign infallible remedies against all the evils that can terrifie our Consciences But this condition must be added if we apply those remedies to our selves We see Beza put it into his Confession of Faith as an Article of his Belief that the Gospel Covenant hath a Condition and is conditional The same Authour in his little Book of Questions and Answers the First Part to the Question You say then that Good Works are necessary to Salvation he Answers that if Faith be necessary to Salvation then Good Works are likewise necessary to it non tamen ut salatis causam yet not as the cause of Salvation for we are justified and therefore live onely by Faith in Christ but as something that is necessarily joined with Faith as Paul saith they are the Children of God who are led by the Spirit of God Rom. 8.14 And John that he is righteous who doth righteousness 1 John 4.7 So that it plainly appears they are contentious Men who condemn the necessity of Good Works as a false Doctrine Thus Beza And we do no more say that Good Works are necessary as the cause of Salvation than he doth nor do we any more than he say that Good Works without Faith are the necessary Condition of obtaining Salvation On the contrary we say that Faith is the Spring of all our good Motions and runs through them all and that it is Good Works done from a Principle of Faith and Love which are the necessary Condition of obtaining Salvation Lastly To the Question What then if Faith be first given to a Man at the point of Death For this seems to have been the case of the penitent Thief who was crucified with Christ What good Works can such a Man do Beza Answers Yea the Faith of that Thief in a most short time was unspeakably energetical or effectual and operative for he reproved the other Thief for his blasphemies and wickedness he abhorred his own Crimes with a firm and most wonderful Faith he acknowledged Christ to be an Eternal King and prayed unto him as a Saviour under the very ignominy and shame of the Cross when all his own Disciples were silent and spoke not one word for him he did also openly rebuke the Jews for their Cruelty and impious Expressions But so it is that Confession of sin Prayer to God the Father through Christ and thanksgiving are the most excellent Works of the First Table which in no Man can be wholly separated from Faith And although some may be so prevented by Death as not to have power to shew forth any works of the Second Table yet in such a Man Faith is not therefore to be esteemed idle and unfruitful because it hath Love conjoined though not in Energie and Act yet in Power and Principle Thus far Beza To which we agree as we said before In such extraordinary cases God requires no more of Men as absolutely necessary to their Salvation than they have time and strength to perform but accepts the will for the deed through Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 8.12 Our next Witness is Mr. Fox the Authour of the Book of Martyrs The World hath been told already in the defence of Gospel-Truth pag. 35. that holy Mr. Fox in his Latine Book of Christ freely Justifying maintains that Faith is the proper receptive applicative Condition of Justification and that Repentance is the dispositive Condition it is that which prepares us for receiving Justification But some who read that Discourse of his in the Book of Martyrs which our Authour directs them unto may possibly object that in the second Volume of the Book of Martyrs pag. 192. he saith The Promise of Life and Salvation is offered unto us freely without any Condition We Answer It is true he doth say so but he means that it is without any Meritorious Legal Condition and all such Conditions we reject as much as he did or any Man can do as appears by what we have said at large in giving account of our Judgment concerning the Conditionality of the Covenant That this was Mr. Fox's true meaning appears from his own Words in the same Page a few Lines after The Voice of the Gospel saith he differeth from the Voice of the Law in this that it hath no Condition adjoined of our meriting but only respecteth the Merits of Christ the Son of God If our Authour will not admit of this explication of Fox's Words that he only rejected all Meritorious and Legal Conditions but will needs have it that he absolutely rejects all Conditions of the Covenant of Grace both Legal and Evangelical then we must say that he hath little respect to the Memory and Credit of Mr. Fox since he makes him most shamefully to contradict himself And was he fit then to write a Book of Martyrs or to be himself a Witness for the Truth against the Papists Can he be justly admitted to bear witness against others who by self-contradiction is a false Witness against himself Truly we should be loath so to expose that good Man to the scorn of the Papists and therefore we positively affirm that he doth not contradict himself at all because the Conditions are of different kinds which he denies and affirms He denies that there are any properly meritorious legal Conditions of the new Covenant and so do we He affirms that there is a proper Evangelical Condition to wit Faith and constant Confession They are his own Words in his Latine Book aforesaid And we join with him in affirming the same And now we do further make it known to the People that Mr. Fox in the said Book concerning Christ freely Justifying doth grant that after we are freely justified by Faith in Christ sincere Obedience to Christ's Commandments is necessary to retain or not to lose our Justification These are his own Words Quod autem dici solet per obedientiam retineri justificationis gratiam Page 369 370. ut hoc concedatur aliquo modo non tamen hinc c. As for that which useth to be said that the Grace of Justification is retained by Obedience though that be granted in some sense yet it doth not follow from hence that Justification
conditions are freely given by God neither if they be sincere do they by their imperfection hinder our Salvation which proceeds from another cause Here we see those four Learned Doctors Polyander Rivet Waleus and Thysius held that not only Faith but new and sincere Obedience is the condition of obtaining Salvation so that both together make up the one intire condition of the Gospel Gomarus another Learned Professor of Divinity in the Netherlands a Member of the Synod of Dort saith That the Gospel is called God's Covenant Quia mutuam Dei hominum obligationem Oper. Gomari par 3. disp 14. Thes 29. page 52. de vitâ aeternâ ipsis certâ conditione dandâ promulgat because it promulgates the mutual obligation of God and Men concerning the giving them Eternal Life upon their performing a certain condition And it is called the Covenant of God de salute per Christum gratuitâ concerning free Salvation by Christ because God in the Gospel of meer Grace publisheth and offereth unto all men whatsoever on condition of true Faith not only Christ and perfect Righteousness in him for Reconciliation and Eternal Life but also he promiseth unto his Elect and perfecteth in them the prescribed Condition of Faith and Repentance Here we see Gomarus holds Repentance to be part of the intire Condition of the Gospel Covenant Whereunto agrees the Testimony of Pemble Pemble of Justifying Faith Sect. 2. Chap. 1. page 22. who saith The Condition of the Covenant of Grace required in them that shall be justified is Faith Believe this and live is a compact of the freest and purest Mercy wherein the Reward of Eternal Life is given us in favour to that which bears not the least proportion of worth with it So that he that performs the Condition cannot yet demand the wages as due unto him in severity of Justice but only by the Grace of a free promise the fulfilling of which he may humbly sue for Ibid. page 24. And again Although saith he the Act of Justification of a sinner be properly the only work of God for the only merit of Christ Yet is it rightly ascribed unto Faith and it alone forasmuch as Faith is the main Condition of the New Covenant which as we must performe if we will be justified so by the performance whereof we are said to obtain Justification and Life Here it is observable that Pemble saith That Faith is the main Condition of the Covenant of Grace which implies there is some Condition besides but subordinate to Faith And this we do firmly hold that Faith is the main Condition because it is the only receptive applicative Condition to which Repentance the dispositive Condition and all our after-Obedience is subordinate Perkins another of those Divines whom we are said to despise gives his Vote also for the conditionality of the Covenant of Grace Witness what he writes in his Reformed Catholick In the Covenant of Grace two things must be considered Reformed Catholâ— point 4. of Justif the manner differ 2. Reason 1. The Substance thereof and the Condition The substance of the Covenant is That Righteousness and Life Everlasting is given to God's 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 And in his little Latine Tract of Predestination and the Grace of God which Dr. Twiss defended against Arminius Perkins de Praedest gratiâ edit Cant. An. 1598. pag. 130. in his Book called Vindiciae Gratiae he says Gratia secunda est vel imputata vel inhaerens Imputata est in Justificatione cujus pars remissio peccatorum c. The second Grace is either imputed or inherent Imputed Grace is in Justification whereof a part is Remission of sins and this Justification and Remission with respect to sins past remains firm and will so remain for ever That saying of the Schoolmen is most true Sins once remitted never return But when any true Believer hath fallen into some grievous hainous sin the pardon of that defection or backsliding is indeed purposed and decreed by God yet it hath no actual existence at all on God's part nor is it received at all on mans part till he repent Yea if he should never repent which yet is impossible for that one sin he would be damned as guilty of Eternal Death For there is no new pardon of any new sin without a new Act of Faith and Repentance This passage of Mr. Perkins implies to the full all that we have said concerning the necessity of Repentance as the dispositive condition of obtaining the pardon of our sins and concerning the necessity of sincere Obedience continued from a Principle of Faith and Love or after any notable backsliding renewed by new Acts of Faith and Repentance as the Condition of getting possession of the Heavenly inheritance Of the same Judgment was Pareus for thus he writes in his Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans Fidem inserit ut doceat fidem esse conditionem sub quâ Christus nobis datus est propitiatorium Pareus in Rom. 3.25 The Apostle inserts Faith in the 25th verse to teach us that Faith is the Condition under which Christ is given us for a propitiation And again in the writing against the five Arminian Articles which he sent to the Synod of Dort not being able to go himself by reason of Age and which was read in highly approved by Act. Synod Dord part 1. p. 264. and recorded in the Acts of the Synod he says that Conditio certaminis precum vigilantiae omnino est necessaria ad perseverantiam The Condition of fighting and praying and watching is altogether necessary unto perseverance But then he adds in opposition to the Arminians That the said Condition is wrought in the faithful by the Spiâ—it of God which he proves from Deut. 30.6 Jer. 32.40 Ezek. 36.27 1 Pet. 1.5 c. And to what the Arminians said that the Condition is commanded and not promised he answers Promissiones de ipsa conditione fidei precum perseverantiae in fidelibus per spiritum Dei efficiendâ disertè loquuntur c. The promises plainly speak of the Condition of Faith Prayer Perseverance as that which is to be effected in Believers by the Spirit of God Nor doth it follow that the effecting of the Condition is not promised because it is commanded and required of the faithful For it is also commanded that they fear God and walk in his Commandments and yet God promiseth I will put my fear in their hearts c. I will cause them towalk in my Statutes c. But it is commanded not that they can of themselves but that they ought to perform it that so being sensible of their own weakness they may know what they ought to ask of God neither yet do these promises wholly exclude the great or small lapses and sins of the
fully expresses our sense and to which we heartily subscribe Agreeable to this is that which we find in Mr. Rutherford's Examination of Arminianism Chap. 13. Pag. 594. That a Promise that we shall persevere in Faith and obtain Eternal Salvation though we walk after the Flesh and lead a wicked life may be called a dissolute Promise but that we do not maintain an absolute Promise of perseverance in that dissolute sense for though the Promise of perseverance in Faith be absolute yet it is always joined with an absolute Promise of perseverance in Holiness and Obedience and as it is necessary to Salvation that Elect Believers continue in Faith so it is necessary that they continue in Holiness and Obedience And if for some time there happen to be an intermission of Faith and Obedience there must be a renewing of them again that we may obtain Salvation and this renovation of our Faith and Obedience is the effect of the absolute Promise but not the obtaining of Salvation without and before the renewing of our Faith and Repentance and returning to our Obedience This is plainly Rutherford's sense And indeed he goes further than we have done in that he ascribes an inferiour kind of Causality to Obedience and good Works in order to the obtaining of Eternal Salvation for which he quotes Calvin Bucer Examen Armin. cap. 12. Zanchy and Voetius yea he quotes the Apostle Paul 2 Cor. 4.17 saying that our light Afflictions which are but for a Moment work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory In the Pages 531 532 533. of that Book Again he says expresly That the hope of Eternal Life ex eo vana esse colligitur si non innitatur sincerae obedientiae tanquam fulcro secundario 1 Johan 3.3 is hence proved to be vain and groundless if it be not upheld by sincere obedience as a secondary slay or prop. Pag. 592. of the same Book And in another Book he saith that it is a new Heresy of Antinomians to deny a Conditional Gospel it is all one Survey of Antin Part II. p. 63. as to belye the Holy Ghost who saith He that believeth shall be saved and he that believeth not is condemned already Spanhemius likewise a very Learned Divine and zealous against the Arminians in his Disputation at Leyden concerning the five controverted Articles saith in the 34th Thesis or Position Omnibus equidem externè vocatis annunciatur promissio Evangelii non tamen absolutè sed conditionatè si resipiscant credant The Promise of the Gospel is indeed preached to all that are outwardly called yet not absolutely but conditionally if they believe and repent And Thes 36. For as it is in vain that a great Good is ready at hand to us unless we either take and receive or fulfil the Condition which is required in the Covenant and Promise of it so that infinite benefit of Redemption is in vain purchased for us by Christ except we embrace it with a sure confidence and performe Faith and Repentance unto God requiring them as the terms of the Covenant John 3.16 Acts 2.38 And to draw towards a close with the Testimonies of some of our own English Divines we find that Dr. Robert Abbot writing against Thompson saith Abbot contra Thomsoni Diatrib de Intercis Justif p. 212. Credi non debet remissio peccatorum ante poenitentiam poenitere aliquem de peccato non potest quod nondum est c. It ought not to be believed that Remission of sins is before Repentance and a Man cannot repent of a sin that is not yet committed c. Again Remission of sins is never decreed for any of ripe years without Repentance nor is it ever granted upon another Condition that is another dispositive Condition the Faith therefore of Remission should not anticipate Repentance c. Neither let us think that without Repentance we ought ever to say Forgive us our trespasses c. And because our Authour saith that God hath blessed England with an Ames and Twiss against the Arminians Let. p. 13. p. 27. and that we neglect and despise them we will alledge some Testimonies out of their Writings by which the World may judge whether those two great Divines be for him or for us in this cause And first for Dr. Ames in his Answer to Grevinchovius page 138. he sayes Quòd fides haec non sit volitionis ipsius divinae conditio sed salutis assequendae tantùm hanc ego sententiam meam esse fateor veramque cum Deo praestiturum me confido That this faith of ours is not the condition of Gods will it self but that it is only the condition of our obtaining Salvation I confess this to be my opinion and I trust with Gods help that I shall prove it to be true We observe here that Ames distinguisheth between Gods will of our Salvation and our Salvation it self which is the object of his will As for the first to wit God's Will Faith is not cannot be the Condition of God's Will because it is Eternal and Absolute and cannot possibly depend upon any Condition whatsoever But the second to wit our Salvation the object of God's Will it may have and hath a Condition and God hath absolutely willed that it should have and depend upon a Condition and that Faith should be the Condition on which our obtaining of it doth depend This is his meaning and we agree with him in it The same Authour in another Book his Marrow of Divinity saith That the Promises of the Gospel are without any discrimination proposed unto all together with a Command to believe Medul Theologiae Lib. 1. cap. 26. pag. 112. but they are not performed unto all because Men themselves fail in performing the Condition But unto the Elect the Condition is given that the Promises may be performed to them Which he proves by three Scriptures Eph. 2.8 Acts 5.31 and chap. 11. ver 18. whereof one proves Faith and the other two prove Repentance to be the Gift of God Whence it is most evident that he thought Repentance as well as Faith to be the condition of the Gospel-Promises Again in the same Book and next Chapter he says This Justification is for Christ considered not absolutely Ibid. cap. 27. pag. 118. in which sense Christ is also the cause of effectual vocation but for Christ apprehended by faith which faith follows effectual calling as its effect and goes before Justification as the Instrumental Cause apprehending that Righteousness of Christ upon which Righteousness so apprehended Justification follows In this Passage we highly approve the order in which he placeth things as putting effectual calling in order of nature before faith and Faith before Justification But where he saith that Faith is the Instrumental Cause apprehending the Righteousness of Christ for which we are Justified some possibly may think that he ascribes too much unto Faith yet we think that the difference
before Repentance in Calvin's Judgment is not the Faith that our sins are already pardoned but that they shall be pardoned upon our sincere Repentance which Faith puts us upon acting Repentance and having put forth an Act of sincere Repentance we immediately act Faith upon the promise and apply it to our selves and trust in the Lord according to his gracious promise If this be not Calvin's sense let them free him from self-contradiction that can for we cannot otherwise do it However it be we have him expresly affirming that Faith in some sense is before Repentance and that Repentance such Repentance as that in Ezek. 18.23 is before Remission of Sins and Justification From whence it follows necessarily that in his Judgment both sincere Faith and Repentance are in order before Justification and so that there is a real change and some holy principle and disposition wrought in the Soul before Justification The same he affirms again elsewhere for thus he writes on Mark 4.12 lest at any time they should be converted and their sins should be forgiven them Caeterùm ex eo minimè colligi debet poenitentiam esse veniae causam c. But from this it ought by no means to be inferred that Repentance is the cause of pardon as if God received into favour those who are converted because they have merited or deserved it For even Conversion it self is a sign of God's free Grace and Favour but only ordo consequentia notatur the order and consequence of things is marked out because God doth not forgive any sins but those for which Men are displeased with themselves From which Words of Calvin we observe that where there is an order and consequence of things there is a priority and posteriority and one of them is before another but so it is that in Calvin's opinion between Repentance and pardon of sin there is an order and the one is consequent upon the other pardon of sin is consequent upon Repentance therefore Repentance is before pardon of sin but Repentance can never be without some real holy change and disposition in the Penitent Therefore there is such a change and holy disposition before Pardon and Justification Again on Luke 3. v. 4. The voice of one crying in the wilderness prepare ye the way of the Lord. Eadem inquit vox auribus nostris quotidie insonat ut Domino paremus viam hoc est sublatis vitiis quae regno Christi viam praecludunt accessum demus ejus gratiae The same voice saith he dayly sounds in our ears that we should prepare the way for the Lord that is that we should give access unto his grace by putting away our sins which stop up the way against the reign of Christ in us These Words plainly give us to understand that according to Calvin Repentance and turning from sin goes in order before pardon and that it prepares us for the grace of Pardon and Justification There needs no more to shew that Calvin held true Repentance as to the beginning of it to be in order before pardon of sin and Justification Yet when Repentance is taken for a course of holy living in the actual performance of our first purpose to forsake our sins and return unto the Lord then in that sense it is confessed that Calvin and we with him hold Repentance to be after the several acts of Justifying Faith and after Justification it self and that it runs parallel with our Lives and must be continued unto Death This was that which our first Reformers called the best Repentance which so enraged the Papists that in the Council of Trent they Anathematized us for this Opinion Si quis dixerit optimam poenitentiam esse tantùm novam vitam Concil Trid. Sess 14. Can. 13. Anathema sit If any shall say that a new life is onely the best Repentance let him be accursed Thus they But we do not at all fear their Curse for notwithstanding it or any other thing to the contrary we firmly believe and say that a new life is the onely best Repentance And this best Repentance this Repentance in its perfection we grant to be not only after justifying faith but also to be after Justification it self and after the forgiveness of all the sins that we had been guilty of before our Regeneration and Conversion yet for all that we still maintain according to the Scriptures of Truth that the beginning of true Evangelical Repentance is in order before forgiveness of sins and justification and we think we have Calvin on our side if we may believe his own words To Calvin succeeds Beza giving in his Testimony plainly for us and saying in his large Confession of faith Sed necesse est imprimis ut idem spiritus sanctus nos ad Jesum Christum recipiendum aptos idoneos reddat cap. 4. art 3. c. But it is necessary saith he in the first place that the same holy Spirit make us apt or fit and meet to receive Jesus Christ And in his short Confession of faith Art 11th As it was not saith he in our power to invent or find out the Medicine of Salvation so neither is it possible for us to find out the way to use that Medicine rightly Because that falls out in this matter which useth to be in bodily Diseases for as when one desperately sick is ignorant of his Disease it is necessary that the Physician not only find out a Medicine for him but likewise that he so dispose the sick Person that he may be both willing and able to use the Medicine and that he may know the way to use it aright so in the Disease of the Soul which is the most dangerous of all and in which Men are not only ignorant of but also Adversaries to their Salvation It is necessary that we understand from the same Physician First What that Medicine is then which way it is to be used Finally That by the same Physician we be made fit and meet for this that we may be both willing and able to use the Remedies proposed Again Art 19. This Remedy of free Salvation through Christ is applyed by a double efficacy of the Holy Spirit For first The Holy Spirit disposes or fits our understanding to perceive the Doctrine of the Gospel which otherwise seems meer foolishness to the World Then he perswades our minds that that Doctrine of free Salvation through Christ is not only true but also that it pertains to us And that is it which we call Faith so much commended in Scripture to wit when one perswades himself assuredly that the promises of Salvation and Eternal Life particularly and properly belong to him By these passages of Beza we see that he held as we do that before a Man do or can actually believe with a justifying Faith he is disposed fitted and prepared by Christs Holy Spirit for the right performing of that great work of believing aright And in his little Book
of Christian Questions and Answers To the Question how we can be truly said to have all gifts from Christ received by Faith since if Christ be apprehended or received by Faith Bez. lib. quaest Resp p. 1. 149. 49. pag. edit 1587. then Faith it self must go before that apprehension or reception He Answers If thou consider the order of causes I confess that the principle or beginning of Faith and that also true Faith goes before the apprehension of Christ and therefore that it is not given to them who are already ingrafted but who are to be ingrafted By this passage we see likewise that Beza never thought that all saving Grace flows into us from Christ already united to us But that before Union he gives us saving Grace by his Spirit whereby we may be united to him Christ by his Spirit first apprehends and takes hold of us and sits us for and brings us into actual Union with himself and this Grace is in the order of causes before the Union on our part and so is before our Justification If our Author had understood and considered all this that we have quoted out of Beza he would never have thought it impossible that we can have any true Grace any Holy Disposition or Qualification before we be in Christ and justified by Faith in him For it is plain that we have the Grace from Christ whereby we come to be in Christ and Christ to be in us And if it were not so it would be impossible for us ever to be actually in Christ at all or to be justified by Faith in him Our Third Witness is Mr. Fox in his Book De Christo gratis justificante Although saith he it be an undoubted Truth That Faith in Christ the most high Son of God page 307. alone without works hath the Vertue and Power of justifying as appears from the most clear words of Paul and the Examples of Saints but yet it doth not put forth this its justifying Vertue and Power upon all praeterquà m in eos quos idoneos solùm invenit suscipiendae Divinae gratiae but only upon those whom it finds fitted or qualified for receiving the Divine Grace or Favour of Justification And that is the humble and Penitent as he shews in the following Section Where towards the end of it in page 310 he says Praeparat quiâ—tem poenitentia inateriam ad suscipiendam Justificationem c. Repentance indeed prepares the matter for the receiving the Grace of Justification That is it prepares the Soul for receiving Justification not as an inherent form in the Popish Sense but as a rich Priviledge and Favour bestowed upon those who are disposed and qualified for it by Repentance And that it is not only a Legal but an Evangelical Repentance which he speaks of is evident from what he saith at large in that Section and especially from the Testimonies of Scripture which he brings to prove it Such as Psal 34.18 Isa 57.15 Our Fourth Witness is Rollok whom we made use of before and to whom Bodius his Scholar in his Commentary on the Ephes p. 1081 gives this Testimony That he was a Man quo nemo nostra aetate Christum Jesum vel penitiùs imbiberat vel aliorum animis efficacius instillabat Then whom none in our Age either had drunk in Christ Jesus more deeply or thoroughly into his own heart or more Powerfully conveyed him into the hearts and Souls of others This Holy and Orthodox Minister of Christ in his Book of Effectual Calling saith page 3 4. That in effectual Calling considered as it is internal Duplex est Dei Gratia sive operatio in cordibus nostris c. There is a two-fold Grace of God or operation in our hearts The first Grace is whilst God by his Holy Spirit creates a new and heavenly light in the mind before involved in darkness which neither saw nor could see the things of the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 2.14 In the Will wholly perverted and turned away from God he creates a rectitude and lastly a new Sanctity in all the Affections Out of this Creation there exists or ariseth that which is called the new Creature that which is called the new Man which after God is created in Righteousness and true Holiness Ephes 4.24 The second Grace or the second Operation of the Spirit is the act of Faith it self or an action proceeding from the new Creature page 5. the action of the enlightned mind in knowing God in Christ the action of the sanctified Will in embracing or apprehending God in Christ Here the principal Agent is the Spirit of God himself the secondary Agent is the Humane Soul it self or rather the new Man and the new Creature it self in the Soul and its faculties In this second Grace which is the action or work of Faith we are not now meerly passive page 6. but being acted by the Holy Spirit we act being excited to believe we believe In one word with the Holy Spirit operating we cooperate and are workers together with the Holy Spirit Now he cap. 34. p. 258. tells us afterwards in the same Book that all this and more than this even the Holy Change that is wrought in the Soul by a true Evangelical Repentance is before Justification For saith he Repentance belongs to the place concerning Effectual Calling Repentance goes before Justification as Faith and Hope go before it From all which we observe that in the judgment of Rollock there is a real change made in the Soul before it be justified and that it is prepared for Justification by God's working in it an Holy Principle or disposition whereby it is inclined and enabled to produce the act of Faith whereby it receives Christ that for his sake and through his Righteousness it may be justified We might bring Dr. Ames and Dr. Twiss for our Fifth and Sixth Witnesses for they are of the same Opinion with Rollock as to this matter save that Rollock took the Word Regeneration to signifie the same thing with Sanctification which comes after Effectual Calling and Justification whereas they took Effectual Calling and Regeneration to be two words which signifie the same thing to wit the first saving change which is wrought in the Soul when a new Seminal Principle of Spiritual Life is put into it and it is brought off from Sin and the World unto Christ and unto God through Christ that it may be justified by Faith in his Blood This appears to have been their Judgment by what we have already quoted out of them upon the former head Let but any that can read in Ames his Marrow of Divinity the Twenty Sixth Chapter of the first Book concerning Vocation as likewise the Tenth Chapter of his Reply to Grevinchovius concerning the Nature of Faith where he proves That God by his Spirit puts a Seminal permanent Principle of Grace into the Soul at its first Conversion and that before any act of saving
both they and the Synod which approved their Suffrage and gave them great thanks for it did all of them believe that there is and must be a great and holy change wrought on us and holy Dispositions and Qualifications bestowed on us before we are immediately able and that we may be able to believe and repent and consequently before we are justified Yea our Divines expresly reject it as the first Arminian Error against that part of the third and fourth Articles which relates to Regeneration and Conversion unto God by Faith and Repentance That in Regeneration there are no spiritual Gifts infused into the Wills of Men. Pag. 91. This Arminian Errour they disprove and amongst other Arguments against it Pag. 92. they use this for one As the Will of a meer natural Man is said to be vicious from a certain inbred and inherent wickedness which in a wicked man even when he doth nothing is habitual so again we must acknowledge that in the Will of the regenerate there is a certain Righteousness or Goodness as it is in the Original given and infused by God which is presupposed unto their Religious Actions St. Austin in many places setteth forth this habitual Righteousness or Goodness And Prosper calls this goodness of the Will Prosper de vocat Gentium lib. 1. c. 6. superni agricolae primam plantationem the first planting of the Heavenly Husbandman Now a Plantation Notes something ingrafted in the Soul not an Act or Action flowing from the Soul Thus our Divines at Dort whereby we see that it is a branch of Arminianism to deny that there is any Holy Habit Seed Root or Permanent Principle of Grace or any Spiritual Qualification wrought in the Soul before Justification And we find that long ago Robinson one of the rigidest Seperatists from the Worship and Discipline of the Church of England yet Religiously adhered to her Doctrine in this Point we are upon for thus he writes in Defence of the Doctrine of the Synod at Dort Robinsons Defence of the Doct. of the Synod at Dort p. 109. Pag. 132.133 That a man may have his Sins pardoned who yet wants all brotherly Love and goodness the Scriptures every where deny Mat. 6.14 15. 1 Joh. 3.14 15. Mark 11 24 25. Rom. 8.1 Psal 32.1 2. And afterwards in the same Book By the Word and Spirit saith he God regenerates Men or gives them Faith and Repentance which they must have before they can believe or repent as the Child must have Life before it can live or do Acts of Life and must be generated or begotten before it have Life or Being Regeneration therefore goes before Faith and Repentance Here we see that old rigid zealous Nonconformist held that there must be a real great change made on a Man a Holy Principle must be put into him and Holy Qualifications bestowed upon him before he can believe and repent and consequently before he can be justified Pag. 56. Again before in the same Book he saith expresly that Rom. 8.29 30. Shews plainly that our Predestination or Election goes before our Calling and our Calling before our Justification And in the same Page Gods chusing a Man whether in Decree from Eternity or by Actual and Effectual Calling and calling of him out of the State of Sin by giving him the Spirit of Faith and Grace goes before his believing for he cannot believe before he have Faith nor have it before God give him it but his actual saving by Justification and Glorificaton follows after Faith The same Truth is witnessed unto by Mr. Ball in his Treatise of Faith Part 1. p. 1.36 Every one saith he is not fit to receive the Promise of Mercy the Enemies of the Gospel of Christ Worldlings Hypocrites and all in whom Sin reigneth can have no true Faith in Christ he is only sit to receive Mercy who knows that he is lost in himself and unsatiably desires to be eased of the heavy burden of his Sins Faith is a Work of Grace of the Essicacy of Gods Spirit whereby we answer to the Effectual Call of God and come unto him that we might be partakers of Life Eternal And if saving Effectual Calling be precedent to Faith the subject of living Faith is Man savingly called according to the purpose of Gods Will. We can teach no Faith to Salvation but according to the Rule of Christ Mark 1.15 Repent and Believe the Gospel no Remission but according to the like rule Luke 24.47 Acts 2.37 38. Our last Witness is Mr. Gataker who saith God doth not actually remit or release Sin until he give Grace to repent Gatakers shadows without substance p. 55. which in the Gospel Phrase and Method goes constantly before pardon c. We might easily bring many more of our Reformed Divines to witness unto this Truth but these are sufficient to shew that it is the old Protestant Doctrine generally received in the Reformed Churches that there is and must be a real Holy Change a seminal permanent Principle of Spiritual Life some Holy Dispositions and Qualifications wrought in us by the Spirit of Christ before we are justified by Faith in the Blood of Christ And here by the way we must tell our Author what it may be he doth not know First that if he will believe Bardwardin Let. p. 13. with whom he saith God blessed England against the Pelagians then he will find it to be a Branch of the Pelagian Heresie that there is no Gracious Principle no Holy Disposition or Qualification wrought in us before our Justification For Bradwardin saith so expresly Bradward de causâ dei lib. 1. Cap. 43. p. 397. Asserunt ambae partes residuae opinionis Pelagii remissionem peccati Justificationem injusti praecedere gratiam tempore vel naturâ That is Both the remaining parts of the Opinion of Pelagius assert that Remission of Sin and the Justification of the unjust go before Grace in Time or in Nature Thus Bradwardin and then he falls a Confuting of this Pelagian Opinion by such Arguments as most manifestly shew that by the Word Grace there he meant not the Good-Will Love and Favour of God but the Effect of it upon the Soul even a Gracious Gift communicated unto and a real Holy change wrought in the Soul whereby of ungracious it is made inherently Gracious and of unjust and unholy it is made inwardly Just and Holy This Grace this Gracious change he maintains to be in Order before Remission of Sin and the Denial of this Grace this Gracious change before Remission of Sin he declares to be a Branch of Pelagian Heresie We thought fit to let the World know that what by some is accounted pure Gospel Doctrine now was in former times accounted a part of Pelagius his Opinion and that even by Bradwardin whom our Authour so highly commends Yet at the same time we must declare that we do by no means approve Bradwardins way of Confuting
Church or Rome and is in it and held by some of its Bishops at this day And we know the Possibility or impossibility of the thing hath been matter of not disputes amongst their Schoolmen Witness Vasque◠in 1◠2dae Dispur 206 207. Suarez l. 2. degratiâ Cap. 22 23. Becan in Summâ Theolog. partis 2dae part 1. Tract 4. de justificat Cathol Cap. 3. q. 5. § 26. Bezant Duval Meratius if our Authour please to Consult those Popish Schoolmen he may find some Arguments that may be of some use to him and may help him to perswade the People to believe that God may forgive them their Sins before there be any saving change of their Hearts and any Holy Seed or Principle or Grace put into them or any Gracious Disposition or Qualification wrought in them by the Spirit of Christ And the People may if they please go on to drink in that Pelagian Popish and Arminian Doctrine taking it upon our Authors Word to be a part of the pure Christian Religion and of the Doctrine of Justification by free Grace without good Works and Holy Qualifications or any thing that looks like them But for our parts we declare that we are for the Doctrine of the Synod of Dort in the Point of a real Holy Change and Holy Qualifications before Justification and cannot but prefer it before that Pelagian Opinion which some People are so fond of and they must not expect that ever we will humour them in that matter unless our Authour will solidly answen our Arguments and give us better Arguments for his Opinion than we have here given for ours As for what he saith to that purpose in his Letter we can therein find nothing of any weight as r. in Page 9. We say not quoth he that there is an actual partaking of Christs fulness of Grace till we be in him by Faith though this Faith is also given us on Christs behalf Phil. 1.29 And we believe through Grace Acts 18.27 Thus he Argues to prove that all the Grace we receive from Christ comes from our being united to him by Faith and so that we cannot actually partake of the Grace of Christ before our Union with Christ by Faith Now if this be so we demand of him concerning this being in Christ by Faith or which is the same thing this union with Christ by Faith either it is effected by the Grace of Christ or without the Grace of Christ by the meer Power of Nature Not the Second to wit without the Grace of Christ by the meer Power of Nature For 1. That is rank Pelagianism or Semipelagianism at least 2. It is contrary to what he says in the same place that the Faith by which we come to be in Christ is given us on Christs behalf and that we believe through Grace The First then is that which he doth and must choose to say to wit that our Union with Christ by Faith is effected by the Grace of Christ And then it is self-evident that that Grace of Christ which Effects Faith in us and the Union with Christ by Faith is before Faith and the Union by Faith because the Cause always is and must be in Order of Nature before the Effect And further if the Grace of Christ by which we believe first in him and are united to him be before that Faith and Union by Faith then we receive that Grace from Christ before we be in Christ by Faith and we receive it to this end that our faculties may be fitted and prepared yea and powerfully helped actually to believe and by believing to be actually united unto Christ thus our Author is caught in a Net of his own making he blows hot and cold out of the same Mouth and contradicts himself most foully in saying that we do not actually partake of Christs fulness till we be in him by Faith and yet that we have that Faith and Union by Faith from the Grace of Christ as the cause thereof for certainly that Grace is a part of Christs fulness and if he give it us and we receive it from him for the producing of Faith and Union with him by Faith then we actually partake of his fulness before we be in him by Faith That People therefore may no more be puzzled with such self-confounding and contradictious Stuff we desire them to consider 1. That all our Supernatural Grace is from Christ by his Spirit this we are all agreed in 2. That yet all Supernatural Grace is not from Christ after the same Way and Manner for there is some Grace from Christ before Union and in Order to Union and some Grace is from Christ united from Christ now in actual Union with our Souls by Faith of the first sort is the first preventing Grace the Grace by which we are Effectually Called the Grace by which we are disposed and prepared to believe and by which we do actually believe and by so believing answer the Call receive Christ into our Hearts and come to be actually united unto him This Grace being the cause of Faith and of the Union by Faith is before Union with Christ and so cannot possibly be from Christ considered as united to us by Faith Though then all our Grace be from Christ yet it is notoriously false that it is all from him as ours already by Faith for preventing Grace which is before Faith is not drawn from Christ by Faith as also Faith it self we mean the first Principle and first Act of Faith is not drawn from Christ as already ours by Faith for then Faith would be both before and after it self which is contradictious non-sense and impossible Of the Second sort is all subsequent Grace the Grace of Justification of Progressive Sanctification and Perseverance yea all that Grace whereby Gods Select People being once called according to his Purpose are fitted for and brought unto Glory is from Christ united from Christ in actual Union with our Souls by Faith Augustin writing against the Pelagians above 12 hundred years ago Angust Epist 105. hath cleared up this matter in few Words writing thus to Sixtus Ita sine Spiritu sidei non est rectê quispiam crediturus nec sine spiritu orationis salubriter oraturus non quia tot sint spiritus sed omnia haec operatur unus atque idem spiritus dividens propria unicuique prout vult quia Spiritus ubi vult spirat sed quod fatendum est aliter adjuvat nondum inhabitans aliter inhabitans nam nondum inhabitans adjuvat ut sint fideles inhabitans adjuvat jam fideles That is So without the Spirit of Faith no man will ever believe aright nor without the Spirit of Prayer will any man ever pray in a saving manner not that there are so many Spirits but one and the same Spirit doth all these things dividing unto every man that which is proper to him as he will for the Spirit breaths where he will
Scripture We Answer by denying the Consequence of the first Proposition as false for it doth not follow that we should warn People not to believe on Christ too soon And we have nothing Offered to prove that such an absurdity follows from our Doctrine but this mans bare Word which we have found to be so often false in matter of Fact that we can give no credit to it in other things And he is so unhappy here and elsewhere throughout his Letter that he makes his own Tongue or Pen to fall upon himself for he confesses that it is no good Argument that if People cannot be truly Holy before the Tree be changed Matth. 12.33 34 35. and before they have a new Heart Ezek. 36.26 27. as he grants they cannot then Ministers should warn People not to be Holy too soon For to give them any such warning he grants to be absur'd Let him then consider Let. p. 11 12. whether the same or the like Answer he can give to this Argument which would prove that Ministers should warn People not to be Holy too soon may not be given to the other silly Argument whereby he would prove that upon our Principle Ministers should warn People not to believe on Christ too soon for it is as certainly true that People cannot actually believe on Christ with a saving justifying Faith before the Tree be changed and the Heart be in part renewed as it is that they cannot be truely Holy before the Tree be changed and the Heart be renewed When we are to deal with Unbelievers our Lord hath given us other Work to do than to warn them not to believe too soon and let our Author try when he pleases he will find enough to do to convince them that their present Indisposition and disability to believe doth not free them from the Obligation which the Lord by his Word hath laid upon them to believe and to direct them unto the right means in the use whereof they may obtain from the Lord both the necessary Disposition unto Faith and also the Principle and Act of Faith it self Our Author we perceive has been at this Work and before we have done with him we shall see what a rare Specimen of his skill this way he hath given the World Fourthly But he farther Objects We hold forth that God justifieth the Ungodly Pag. 25. Rom. 4.5 Neither by making him Godly before he justifie him nor leaving him Ungodly after be hath justified him but that the same Grace that justifies him doth immediately sanctifie him We Answer this is the Text that our Antinomians much insist upon and think it sufficient to make all Men Antinomians And we are glad to find that it hath not that full effect upon him for tho he be one with them with respect to any Holy change in Order before Justification and denies it as they do yet he separates himself from them with respect to what follows after Justification and saith that we are sanctified immediately after Justification and so he joins himself to us now there may be good worldly Policy in this to hold with both sides as much as he can But if he do not agree with himself what ground can others have to trust him that ever he will heartily agree with them and that he doth not agree with himself we think is apparent from what he writes Pag. 16. A Man saith he is to believe that he may be justified Gal. 2.16 Again Pag. 32. No Words or Warnings repeated nor plainest Instructions can beat into Mens Heads and Hearts that the first coming to Christ by Faith or Believing on him is not a Believing we shall be saved by him but a Believing on him that we may be saved by him And again Pag. 7. The direct Act is properly justifying saving Faith by which the lost Sinner comes to Christ and relies upon him for Salvation Yet when we do press Sinners to come to Christ by a direct Act of Faith consisting in an humble reliance on him for Mercy and Pardon they will understand us whether we will or not of a reflex Act of Faith by which a Man knows and believes that his Sins are pardoned and that Christ is his when they might easily know that we mean no such thing These three Passages show clearly that he holds saving Faith to be both before Justification and before Assurance of Justification We confess that we do very well understand this to be the meaning of these Words now quoted ouâ— of his Letter for we think they are not capable of any other sense but though we understand the Words of the Letter yet we do not understand the Author of them and we much doubt whether he understands himself and that because he immediately adds Page 7. that Mr. Marshal in his excellent Book lately Published hath largely opened this and the true Controversie of this Day And Pag. 35. Marshals Book saith he is a deep practical well jointed Discourse and if it be singly used I look upon it as one of the most useful Books the World hath seen for many Years I fear not but it will stand firm as a Rock against all Opposition and will prove good Seed and Food and Light and Life to many hereafter Who that reads this can doubt but that our Author has read Marshaâ—s Book and that he approves it and believes every thing at least that is material in it and yet there is one thing very material in it and it is one of the main joints in it That justifying Faith is a Believing that we are now justified and shall be Eternally saved and that the Assurance of this that we are now justified and shall be saved is essential to the direct Act of Faith This Marshal with all his might strives to prove and it seems he hath done it to the Conviction of our Author who believes that that Opinion can never be disproved again Yea he seems so Confident of the Truth of Marshals Opinion that he spares not to reflect on the Westminster Assembly of Divines for denying it as they do in their Confession of Faith Chap. 18. Art 3. In these Words This infallible Assurance doth not so belong to the Essence of Faith but that a true Believer may mait long and conflict with many difficulties before he be partaker of it Thus the Assombly But doth he reflect on them for this why if he doth not let him tell us what he means by these following Words Was not the Holiness of the first Protestants eminent and shining Let. p. 22. and yet they generally put Assurance in the Definition of their Faith We cannot say that Gospel Holiness has prospered much by the Correction or Mitigation of that harsh-like Definition If these Words of his whatever might be his Intention do not reflect upon the Assembly we do not understand plain English and moreover we cannot but think also that they imply his owning of Marshals
Definition of Faith as not being really harsh but only harsh-like though he puts Assurance into it as being essential to Faith in its direct Act. So that by comparing one Passage of his Letter with another we find that he believes with Marshal That true Faith in Christ is a Believing at first that we are justified And he believes with us that that is not true but that it is a believing only at first that we may be justified Again he believes with Marshal that justifying Faith in its first direct Act is a Believing that we shall be assuredly saved by Christ And he believes with us that justifying Faith in its first direct Act is no such thing it is not a believing that we shall be saved by Christ but it is a believing that we may be saved by Christ Further he believes with Marshal that Assurance that our Sins are forgiven and that our Souls shall be saved is essential to the first direct Act of justifying Faith And he believes with us that it is quite otherwise and that we do not get such Assurance by the first direct Act of Faith but by its reftex Acts which follow after the direct And then for the Antinomians he believes with them that before Justification there is no real change wrought in the Soul from Ungodliness to Godliness in any Kind or Degree because the Apostle Paul saith in Rom. 4.5 That God justifies the Ungodly And yet he believes with us that before Justification there is a real change wrought in the Soul from Unbelief to Faith in Christ because the same Apostle saith in Gal. 2.16 That we believe in Christ that we may be justified And he cannot deny but that a real change from unbelief to Faith in Christ is a change and a real change too from Ungodliness to Godliness in some kind or degree because he himself holds unbelief to be the chiefest part of Ungodliness and Faith in Christ to be the chiefest part of Godliness witness his own Words Pag. 15 16. That believing on the Lord Jesus for Salvation is more pleasing to God than all obedience to his Law and that unbelief is the most provoking to God and the most damning to Men of all Sins If our Author believe this then by necessary Consequence he believes that unbelief is the chiefest part of ungodliness and that Faith is the chiefest part of Godliness and that a real change from unbelief to Faith in Christ is a real change from Ungodliness to Godliness in some kind and degree The import and issue of this is that our Author believes both parts of a Contradiction With the Antinomians he believes that before Justification there is no real change from Ungodliness to Godliness in any kind or degree And with us he believes that before Justification there is a real change from the Ungodliness of unbelief to the Godliness of Faith because the Sinner through Grace comes off from his Ungodly unbelief that he may believe and he believes that he may be justified and so in order of Nature before he be justified Now since our Author is so strong a Believer that he can believe both parts of a Contradiction why may not we think that as he believes that we preach a new Pelagian Arminian Gospel so he may believe at the same time that we do not preach a new Pelagian Arminian Gospel but the old Everlasting Gospel of Christ He believes in his Letter that we do preach a new Gospel and for ought we know to the contrary he may at the same time believe in his Conscience that we do not preach a new Gospel for his Letter and his Conscience are two different things that may not have much Communion one with another yea in this matter they may be at Hostile Enmity the Letter may be against his Conscience and his Conscience against the Letter But will not the Apostle Paul justifie him in Believing Contradictions since he says in Gal. 2.16 That Men believe in Christ that they may be justified and consequently that Faith is before Justification But in Rom. 4.5 He says that God justifies the Ungodly and by that it seems that Faith is after Justification We Answer far be it from any that fear the Lord to charge the Apostle with contradicting himself or with giving any ground to believe Contradictions for thus he writes to the Corimbians 2 Cor. 1.18 As God is true our Word toward you was not Yea and Nay That is it did not contradict it self And as he did not contradict himself in Preaching and Writing to the Corinthians no more did he do it in Preaching and Writing to the Romans and Galatians We must therefore so understand Rom. 4.5 of which the Question now is as not to make it contradict Gal. 2.16 And that is no difficult matter to do For we may easily conceive that this form of Speech God justifieth the Ungodly is like that of our Saviour Mat. 11.5 The Deaf hear Now no Man is so foolish as to think that the Deaf remaining Deaf did first hear and then immeditely after were cured of their Deasness why then should we be so foolish as to understand the Apostle as if he had said that God justifies men whilest they remain ungodly without any real change wrought in them and that immeditely after he hath justified them he first begins to make them Godly and to sanctifie them We are perswaded it is much more rational to understand the Apostle the quite contrary way to wit that as the Deaf were first in Order of Nature and Causality cured of their Deafness and then they did actually hear so God first Works a Holy change in the Heart of a Sinner and of an ungodly unpenitent Unbeliever makes him a godly penitent Believer and then immediately justifies him by Faith in Christ So that the Sinner whom God justifies he is ungodly Antecedenter fed non Concomitanter that is he was ungodly in the time before he was justified but he is not ungodly either in the instant of Nature before or in the instant of Time when he is justified but on the contrary he is through Grace Godly both before and when he is justified 2dly We Answer that the Man whom God justifies by Faith in Christ is certainly Godly Evangelically both in Order of Nature before he be justified and at the time when be is justified and yet at the same time he may be said to be legally ungodly for understanding this we are to consider that the Man whom God justifies may be compared with and judged by the Law of Works or the Law of Faith if he be compared with and judged by the Law of Works he is found to be in himself an Ungodly Man because he hath not perfectly kept but hath frequently transgressed that Law and so can never be justified but is condemned by it But if he be compared with and judged by the Law of Faith the Evangelical Law the Law of the New
by the Power of the Word and Spirit of Christ they are Works done by a certain Inferior kind of supernatural Grace of Christ and Inspiration of the Spirit of Christ which is sufficient to elevate and raise the Faculties of a Sinner something above its natural Capacity to the producing of such Actions which though they be not savingly good and so not pleasing to God unto Justification and Salvation yet they are materially good and Relatively good too in Order to the use and end for which God has ordained them that is they are Dispositively good they have from God so much goodness as makes them fit to be a Material Disposition of the Sinner to receive from God that which is in a higher Order of goodness even that which is savingly good and in this respect being good they are so far pleasing to God as they are dispositive unto Regeneration and Conversion Hence it is written Mark 10.21 That Jesus beholding an unconverted man loved him the Man was certainly as yet in an unregenerated unconverted State as appears by the 22 verse and by the following Discourse of our Saviour yet he was something solicitous about his Salvation and had some small weak Disposition towards Conversion which our Saviour observed in him and was pleased with it and loved him under that Consideration as something inclined and disposed towards Conversion now our Saviour as Man and as Mediator was never pleased with any thing but as it was pleasing to God and never loved any Man further than God loved him 3. The Article doth not deny but that the foresaid Works or Actions of unregenerate Men done by the Grace of Christ and Inspiration of his Spirit are by the Ordination and free Constitution of God Preparatory and Dispositive unto the Reception of special saving Grace in Regeneration and Conversion But if it intends them at all it denies that of their own Nature they are meritoriously Dispositive either unto the Grace of Regeneration or Justification for the clearing of this it is to be well considered that before the Reformation there were several numerous Sects of Schoolmen in the Roman Church whereof one to wit the Scotists held that a Sinner by doing what he can as far as his natural Strength will go without any Supernatural Grace from Christ may Merit the first Supernatural Grace with a Merit of Congruity and this same Doctrine was taught at Rome even after the Reformation and Council of Trent and published by Nider in a Book intituled Consolatorium timoratae Conscientiae Printed at Rome in the Year 1604. as is to be seen in the 9. Chap. of the 2d part pag. 57. where he maintains that Facienti quod in se est solis naturae viribus Deus daâ— gratiam infallibiliter necessario That unto a Man who doth what he can by the alone Power of Nature God gives Grace infallibly and necessarily â—vâ—n as necessarily as the Sun gives Light to all that open their Eyes to receive it But others of the Schoolmen rejected this Opinion of the Scotists as a Semipelagian Error yet even they held that God having freely given to an unconverted Sinner the first supernatural preventing Grace he may thereby so Convert and Turn himself to God as to Merit of Congruity the Grace of the first Justification that is the Infusion of the Habit of justifying or sanctifying Grace Now the 13th Article of the Church of England was levelled against both these Opinions of the Papists especially and expresly against the 1st Works done by the alone Power of Nature cannot make Men meet to receive Grace or they cannot deserve Grace of Congruity because they are done before and without any Grace of Christ and Inspiration of his Spirit and so are not pleasing to God and what is not pleasing to him cannot possibly Merit the Grace of Regeneration or Justification at his Hand 2. Neither the Works done without any Grace of Christ nor the Works done by the help of Christs preventing common Grace before Regeneration make Men meet to receive or of Congruity deserve the Grace of Justification because they do not Spring out of Faith in Jesus Christ but are both of them before it and therefore are not pleasing to God unto Justification and Salvation yet that nothing hinders but the Works which are done by the preventing Grace of Christ before Conversion may by Gods free Ordination be Preparatory and Materially Dispositive unto Conversion and Faith in Christ 4. We willingly grant what the Article saith That Works done before Regeneration and Conversion have the Nature of Sin because they are not done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done that is they are not so circumstantiated as God requires good Works to be Yet it doth not follow that such of them as are done by the help of preventing Grace are Sin and nothing but Sin as our Author would make People believe for it is one thing for a Work to have the Nature of Sin cleaving to it and it is another thing to be Sin and nothing but Sin the Works of which we now speak certainly have the Nature of Sin cleaving to them as they proceed from an unregenerate Man whose Heart is not yet renewed and who is not endued with a saving Faith and as they are not directed by him to the Glory of God as the best and highest end and yet it is so far from being true that they are Sin in the abstrect and nothing but Sin that on the contrary they are Materially and Substantially good as they are commanded by God and as they proceed from the preventing exciting Grace of Christs Spirit causing a Man to do them in Obedience to Gods command and likewise they are Relatively and Dispositively good as they are ordered by God to be a means of preparing and disposing Man for the saving Grace of Regeneration and Conversion Hence Dr. Owen in the Book aforesaid Pag. 196. saith That they are good in themselves and Fruits of the kindness of God towards us And Pag. 198. He saith That in their own Nature they have a tendency unto sincere Conversion And Pag. 167. He saith that the Spirit of Grace ordinarily giveth not out his Aids and Assistances any where but where he preparen the Soul with Diligence in Duty Thus Dr. Owen whereby it manifestly appears that he was far from thinking that all a Man can do before he have the Spirit of God dwelling in him and in Order to a Holy change first in his Heart and then in his Life is both vain labour and an Acting of Sin And as far was Dr. Twiss from any such thought for thus he writes in the Book mentioned before Answer to the Doctrine of the Synod of Dort and Arles reduced to Practice p. 106. There is a legal Repentance and there is an Evangelical Repentance And that legal Repentance may be unto Desperation as Judas his Repentance was Again that legal Repentance may be a
against the Papists Institut lib. 3 cap. 15 § 6. They have found out I know not what moral good Works whereby men are made acceptable to God before they are ingrafted into Christ as if the Scripture lyed when it saith they are all in death who have not the Son 1 John 5.12 If they be in death how should they beget matter of Life As if it mere of no force whatsoever is without Faith is sin Rom. 14.23 As if an evil tree could have good Fruit But now what place have those most Pestilent Sophisters left unto Christ where he may put forth and display his Vertue Why they say that be hath merited for us the first Grace that is he hath given us occasion of meriting And that now it is our part not to be wanting in improving the occasion offered By this passage of Calvin quoted here more fully than it is in the letter we see more clearly what it is that Calvin is there disputing against to wit the Popish Doctrine of mans meriting his Justification and Acceptance with God as righteous unto eternal Life by moral good works done by him before he be justified and that is in their sense before he be initially sanctified in Regeneration and Conversion for they perpetually confound these two Justification and Initial Sanctification on the infusion of habitual Grace as signifying the same thing This is that which Calvin there denies and disproves Now this being premised to give light unto the whole matter We answer That this is nothing to our Authors purpose who brings this passage to prove that Calvin denyed all preparations and dispositions before Regeneration and Conversion and consequently before Justification whereas Calvin here denies no such thing the onely thing that he here denies against the Papists Is that a man by moral good works done before Justification can merit Justification which we deny as much as he doth and that for the same reason too because there neither are nor can be any moral works before Regeneration and Conversion that are so good as to merit Justification and render a man acceptable unto God But elsewhere he is so far from denying that he expresly affirms and maintains that there are some preparations and dispositions in man previous to his Justification as we have plainly shewed before And particularly in his answer to Pighius he only denies that a man by his meer natural power without any supernatural Grace can prepare and dispose himself for special saving Grace but at the same time he confesses and proves that by the gracious influences of Gods Spirit upon a man he may be and is prepared and disposed for Justification for though the man be Spiritually dead yet he hath a natural life and the use of his reason and the living and life-giving Spirit of God can use his naturally living and rational Faculties to produce such actions as by the Ordination of God shall prepare and dispose him to receive the first principle of Spiritual Life from the Lord of Life and upon the exercise of that first principle of Spiritual Life in acts of Faith and Evangelical Repentance God for Christs sake alone pardons his sins and gives him a right to eternal Life This is all that we with Ames Twiss and Owen after the Synod of Dort hold and maintain concerning dispositions previous to Regeneration and Justification and Calvin in this passage doth not contradict this opinion but in his other Books maintains it himself If our Author should yet object that at least one of the places of Scripture which Calvin alledges against the Papists to wit Rom. 14.23 Whatsoever is not of Faith is sin will be of force against us and against the previous dispositions which we with the Synod of Dort maintain We answer That he will find himself very much mistaken for it is of no force at all against us and our opinion And to speak our minds freely as it becomes all ingenuous men to do we do not see that in it self it was of any force against that opinion of the Papists which Calvin was there Confuting Yet to excuse Calvins arguing from it against them it may be said that he did not speak his own sense therein but the sense of Augustin who mistook the true sense of that place of Scripture as if the word Faith there did signifie a Justifying Faith and so urged it frequently against the Pelagians Now the Popish Schoolmen pretended to have a great Veneration for the Authority and Judgment of Angustin therefore Calvin knowing this might argue ad hominem against them from that place of Scripture taken in Augustins sence and the argument might be of some use to stop their mouths But otherwise the Argument in it self was of no force at all because it is grounded upon a false Interpretation of the word Faith in that place And this Calvin knew well enough therefore not only in his Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans but several times in his Institutions when he speaks his own fence of Rom. 14.23 Whatsoever is not of Faith is sin he says that by the Word Faith there is not meant a justifying Faith but a firm perswasion of Mind in opposition to doubting that a thing is lawful and that it may be done without sin so that according to Calvin the true and genuine sence of the place is That whatsoever a man doth without Faith that is without a firm perswasion of mind that he may lawfully do it whatsoever a man doth with a doubting Conscience it is sin to him who so doth it though the thing be never so lawful in it self Thus Calvin expounds it in the Third Book of his Institutions Chap. 5. § 10. Quum nihil operis debeant aggredi fideles nisi ceriâ Conscientiâ ut Paulus praecipit Rom. 14.23 in oratione potissimum requiritur haec certitudo Since Believers should undertake no work but with a sure Conscience as Paul Commands in Rom. 14.23 This assurance is chiefly required in Prayer to wit that we pray to no person See also Instit lib. 4. cap. 13. §. 17. but with a sure and well Grounded Perswasion in our Conscience that we may Lawfully pray to him Again in the Fourth Book Chap. 15. § 22. In rebus etiam minutissimis ut in cibo potu quicquid dubiâ conscientiâ aggredimur Paulus aparte clamat esse peccatum Rom. 14.23 Even in the most minute little things as in meat and drink whatsoever we do with a doubting Conscience Paul doth plainly declare it to be sin Rom. 14.23 For whatsoever is not of Faith is sin In these passages Calvin speaks both his own sence and the true sence of the Apostle and therefore in the other passage quoted by our Author he must either speak the sence of Augustin and from it argue ad hominem against the Papists or else he plays the Sophister and wrests the Scripture against his own knowledg and Conscience which we are
and it is most certain and evident that Faith is an inward Act of the Heart for Believers as you do confess find by Spiritual Sense and feeling that Faith is an inward Act of the Heart Let. p. 7. and the Scripture saith expresly that with the Heart Man believeth unto Righteousness Rom. 10.9 10. And therefore Faith is an inward Work of the Heart consequently it is manifestly false which you say that Faith is no Work 5. Whereas you say that Faith is no Work but a resting on Jesus Christ I reply 1. That if Faith be no Work either outward or inward because it is a resting then Faith is no inward Act for an inward Act is an inward Work and if Faith be an inward Act it is also an inward Work but you your self Page 7th of your Letter expresly say that Faith is an inward Act and I have proved it by Scripture to be an inward Act therefore it is utterly false which you say that Faith is no Work at all no not an inward Work because it is a resting on Christ. 2. Faith is both an inward Work and a resting on Christ Resting on Christ is a Figurative Expression and Faith is called by that Name it is said to be a resting on Christ because the effect or consequent of the Act of Faith in Christ is the rest of the Soul the satisfaction and quiet of the Mind the ease of the Heart and the Peace of the Conscience 3. If this sense of the form of Speech Resting on Christ by which the Act of Faith is expressed as it is a means of causing and as it connotes the foresaid effects if I say this do not please you but you will have resting on Christ to signifie a total Cessation from any inward Act Then I reply 1. That you seem to be shifting about from one Sect to another and for a time to have taken up your rest among the Quietists the Disciples of Molino's at Rome or of Madamoiselle de Bourignon in France For it is said to be their Principle that a man should cease from all Action outward and inward and when the Soul is in a State of Non-Action and perfect rest from all Labour whatsoever then a Man is most Religious and best disposed for converse with and enjoyment of God 2. If Faith be no inward Act but a resting on Christ in such a sense as that it is a Cessation from and a Negation of all Act and Action then you need no more to endeavour the Conversion of me or of any other Unbeliever for if that be true Faith then a meer nothing is true Faith and I will assure you I have that nothing as much as ever I can have it You your self in your Letter call me an Unbeliever and that signifies one that wants Faith now if I want the Act of Faith I must needs have the Negation of the Act of Faith in such a way as a Negation can be had and this Negation is a perfect Cessation and resting from any Act of Faith and further this Negation Cessation and Resting is Faith it self according to you Therefore it follows by clear and necessary Consequence that by wanting the Act of Faith I have Faith and by being an Unbeliever I am as good a Believer as your self Therefore you need no more labour to convert me than I need to convert you but let us both rest together among the new Quietists if you please 6. And now Sir I would be content to rest if you would let me alone but are not you like to disturb my rest by clamouring against me that I am unreasonable in pretending that it is hard and difficult for an Unbeliever to believe in Christ without the powerful Assistance of Gods Grace And to prove that I am unreasonable in this you boldly affirm it upon your Word as your manner is and with appearance of much Gravity you illustrate it by a similitude taken from a weary Traveller who is so tired with his journey that he can neither stand still nor yet go one step further but must of necessity lye down and rest Now say you if this Man in these circumstances should say Oh I find it difficult to lye down for I am so tired that I am not able to lie down though indeed I can neither stand nor go would it not be accounted very unreasonable And just so it is unreasonable for you an Unbeliever to pretend That it is so difficult for you to believe that you cannot do it without the powerful Grace of God for believing is resting it is ceasing from all Action and consequently it is so far from being difficult that it is one of the easiest things in the World it is of that Nature that you cannot avoid the doing of it no mâ—re than a weary Traveller can avoid lying down when he is so tired that indeed he can neither stand nor go This is the force of your Reasoning in the 17th Page of your Letter line 7 8 9 10 11. whereby you would prove me to be unreasonable in saying that it is difficult for an Unbeliever to believe on Christ without the Grace of God I have considered this your profound Reasoning for the Easiness of Believing on Christ without the Grace of God and now that I understand it my fear of being disturbed by it is over and gone yea I am beholding to you for it and I thank you Sir For this which I was afraid would have been a disturbance to me is like to be a means of bringing us both to rest I have told you before what I thought now according to my Promise I will tell you what I see Why in short by the Light of this your Illustration I see that I an Unbeliever am as good a Believer as you are and that it must be so and cannot be otherwise for as the weary Traveller that cannot possibly either stand or go must lie down and cannot but lie down unless he be hindred by force or Miracle So you and I cannot but believe unless we be hindered by Miracle But there is no fear of that God hath wrought many Miracles heretofore to perswade men to believe but he never did nor will work a Miracle to hinder us from believing I will never more Object the difficulty of Believing for want of the powerful Grace of God to enable me thereunto for if this Doctrine be true there needs no Grace to enable us to believe for believing is resting and doing nothing and that we can do as well without as with the help of Grace nay we cannot but do it unless we be hindred from resting and doing nothing and be irresistibly stirred up to Work and Act by Miracle But as I said there is no fear of that since Working and Acting would hinder us from Believing And to hinder us from Believing is contrary to the true use and end of Miracles And Sir as I will never complain more
of the difficulty of believing so in the Name of the whole Fraternity of Unbelievers I thank you for your great kindness to them and for this sweet and comfortable Doctrine if it be true which you have taught us all in your Letter which I hear is much cryed up by some Women in London who love rest and ease Now we might have all rested quietly together were it not for those you call the New and Young Divines whom you have charged with Pelagianism This was not wisely done of you for you have thereby awakened them from their rest and it is to be feared that by loud Recriminations they will disturb you and us both and proclaim the secret to the World that you your self are Confederate with Pelagians Semipelagians and Unbelievers For it is undeniable matter of Fact that it is a branch of Pelagianism and the very Root and Heart of Semipelagianism That Men can believe in Christ with a justifying Faith by the Power of Nature without the Supernatural Grace of God And if your similitude hold good men not only can believe but which is more they cannot possibly choose but they must of Necessity believe without the help of Grace unless they be hindered by a Miracle exciting them to Act and Work and to cease from rest Sir how you can come to Rest and Peace with those brisk Young Divines whose Age inclines them to Action more than to Rest I do not pretend to know but this I know that upon your foresaid Principle the Unbeliever and you are agreed and if you will be stedfast and stand to your Principle we shall live together in perfect quietness and never more differ about Believing Thus we have given an account of our Authors Way and Method of Converting an Unbeliever to Faith in Christ which is more than a resting on Christ for it is a Grace whereby we assent to Jesus his being the Christ the Son of God and only Saviour of Men and Consent to take him for our Prince and Saviour and as such receive him on his own Terms and then rest relie and trust on him for Justification c. We have shewed also what a weak and ridiculous way and Method it is and how easily an Unbeliever may Answer all that he hath said in the 16. and 17. Pages of his Letter mentioned before except a few at his first setting out he hath hardly made one right step in the whole course of that Advice which he takes upon him to give unto Ministers how they ought to deal with Unbelievers in labouring to Convert them unto Faith in Christ He hath plainly betray'd our Cause to the Unbeliever who hath brought him by his last Objection to take up with a Piece of Pelagianism and with the grossest Semipelagianism that hath been heard of in the Christian Church so weak is he not wicked we hope that he could think of no other way to Answer that Objection but by denying that Faith is any Work at all though therein he shamefully contradicts himself and the express Word of God and by affirming that it is a resting in such a sense as imports that it is neither Work nor Act but a meer Cessation from Working and Acting a doing nothing at all and from thence he labours to shew the Unbeliever that it is not difficult to believe and illustrates it by such a similitude as will make any considering man who reads it and understands the use he makes of it to think that he must be a Semipelagian who holds that a man can believe unto Justification without any Subjective Supernatural Grace of God at all Whereas he ought to have acknowledged the Truth of the Objection that it is indeed difficult and impossible too for a natural man by the power of nature ever to believe but that it is possible and easy too by the Grace of God And then he should have directed the Unbeliever unto the means whereby Grace to believe is ordinarily obtained from God through Christ and should have advised him to wait and continue waiting on God in the use of his appointed means and particularly to be much in praying as well as he can for Grace to help in time of need and desiring the prayers of Christs Ministers and People But not a word of this nay instead of advising the Unbeliever to use Gods means and seek the Grace of Faith from God through Christ he gives him to understand that Faith is nothing but a resting from all work and action and that it is no more difficult to believe than it is for a weary Traveller to lye down and rest when he is so tyred that he can neither stand nor go And after he hath told the Ministers that they ought thus to resolve the doubts and answer the arguments of Unbelievers he hath the confidence to conclude that by such reasonings with an Unbeliever from the Gospel the Lord will as he hath often done convey Faith to him and joy and peace by believing This is like all the rest the Conclusion and the Premises are at irreconcileable variance with one another The Conclusion saith that the Lord will convey Faith to the Unbeliever by the reasonings in the premises and yet one of those reasonings is that Faith is nothing but a resting and such a resting as signifies a Cessation from all actings and that an Unbeliever needs no more help to believe than a weary Travellour needs help to lye down and rest when he is so tyred that he can neither stand nor go We think it is a sort of Blasphemy to say wittingly and willingly that such reasonings as some of those we have noted in the 16 and 17 Pages of the Letter are either in and from the Gospel or that the Lord makes use of such self contradicting confounding fulshood as means of conveying Faith into the Hearts of his people And because in this part of his Letter he speaks to us that are Ministers and either bids us tell the Unbeliever so and so or else he affirms that we do tell him so and so we must declare to the World that we will follow his advice no further than we find it agreeable to Scripture and Reason which sometimes we do find and oftentimes the contrary as we have proved but as for what he affirms that Ministers tell the Unbeliever that Faith is not difficult that it is no more difficult to an Unbeliever than lying down is to a man when he is so tyred and weary that he can neither stand nor go we protest we are none of those Ministers we never did and through Grace never will tell any Unbeliver such an abominable falshood We know no other Ministers but our Author that Preaches such Doctrine and we have endeavoured to make him ashamed of it in hopes to bring him off from it We trust that after we have thus publickly declared against our Authors Way and Method of Converting Unbelievers to Faith in Christ and
as refuse and neglect to use the remedy provided in the Gospel and so doing live and dy in Unbelief and impenitence they are certainly to be executively condemned for breaking the Law and moreover having heard the Gospel preached to them and having had in the Gospel a Soveraign Remedy offered them against the Curse and Condemnation of the Law they shall be condemned likewise for refusing or neglecting to use the said Remedy Heb. 12.25 Heb. 2.3 John 3.18 19. Matth. 11.22.24 So that professed Christians who live and dy in impenitence and unbelief will be doubly condemned both by Law and Gospel Rom. 10.14 whereas Heathens who never heard nor could hear of the Gospel for want of an objective Revelation of it they living and dying without Repentance and Faith in the true God under the guilt of Sins against the Law and Light of Nature will be condemned by the Law but not by the Gospel which they could not know Rom. 2.12 3. Since we believe that all Unconverted Impenitent Unblievers who live and dye in that State are so under the sanction of the Moral Law as that they are to be condemned for breaking it we cannot believe that the same Persons are so under the sanction of the moral Law as that they are not to be condemned but to be saved by keeping it For that were to believe a contradiction which we have not faith enough to do Yet 4. If the case be put disjunctively as our Author expresly puts it in his Letter we maintain that what he charges upon us is notoriously false and its contradictory is true to wit the sanction of Gods moral Law is not repealed so that no man is now under it either to be condemned for breaking it or to be saved by keeping it We firmly believe that this disjunctive is true Some men are now under the sanction of the Law either to be condemned for breaking it or to be saved by keeping it But take the latter part of the said disjunctive by it self and understand it determinately then we cannot believe it to be true we cannot believe that some men are under the sanction of the Law to be saved by keeping it because it is notoriously false And that 1. Because no meer man since the fall of Adam hath kept doth keep or ever will keep the Law so perfectly as never to sin against it and never to fall under the condemnation of it 2. Because that Holy Scripture assures us that if Righteousness come by the Law then Christ is dead in vain Gal. 2.21 And that if there had been a Law given which could have given Life verily righteousness should have been by the Law But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin that the Promise by Faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe Gal. 3.21 22. And again that what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the Flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh by a Sacrifice for Sin condemned sin in the flesh c. Rom. 8.3 This is our Judgment concerning the Law and its Sanction with respect to Unconverted Impenitent Unbelievers that so live and dye they are under it to be condemned but not to be saved by it Then for Converted Penitent Believers who are in Christ Jesus by Faith and walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit we believe that they are under the Law and not under the Law in different respects 1. They are under Gods Moral Law as it is a rule of Life representing to them what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God and directing them what to do and what not to do that they may please God in doing his will 2. They are under it also as it is a Law obliging them to most perfect and sinless obedience 3. They are under it as a Law forbidding all their sins and likewise condemning all their sins but they are not under it as a Law by its Minatory Sanction condemning their Persons which are in Christ by Faith and walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit for there is no condemnation to such Rom. 8.1 Gal. 5.22 23. 4. They are not under the Law as a Covenant of Works to be justified and saved by it Because none can be justified and saved by the Law considered as it was a Covenant of Works given to man in the state of innocency but those who perfectly keep it and never once transgress it either by Original or Actual Sin But that is impossible for any meer man to do since the fall of Adam and it is not only Morally impossible but it is Physically impossible yea it is Metaphysically impossible that is it is so absolutely impossible that it implies a contradiction and can be done by no power Moral Natural or Supernatural by no power Human or Divine For all meer Men without exception have already broken Gods Law so as that they are guilty of death for the breach of it And that which hath already been cannot possibly by any power whatsoever be made not to have been as it implies a contradiction and is absolutely impossible that the same thing should be and not be at the same time so it implies a contradiction and is absolutely impossible that the same thing should have been and not have been or should be past and not be past at the same time But it is a thing already past and true that all Converted Penitent Believers have already broken Gods Law and fallen under the condemnation of it thefore it implies a contradiction and is absolutely impossible now that they have kept it so as never once to transgress it and consequently it implies a contradiction and is absolutely impossible that they should be now justified and saved by the Law which they have broken and which for that reason would certainly condemn them were it not that Christ hath Redeemed them from its condemnation and by the Law of Faith absolves and forgives them Thus we have shewed how true penitent Believers are under the Law and not under the Law and how it hath lost its Sanction with respect to their Persons It hath lost its Promissory Sanction by reason of their Sins and through their own fault But its Minatory Sanction whereby it bound them over to condemnation for their sins is taken away from it with respect to Penitent Believers who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit by the Rich Mercy and Free Grace of God through the Satisfaction and Merits Christs obedience unto death even the death of the Cross Now from the Premises it is as clear as the light at Noon-day that we do not say as is pretended that the Sanction of the Law is repealed so that no man is now under it either to be condemned for breaking it or to be saved by keeping it So much for wiping off the Calumny which respects matter of Opinion The next which respects matter