or cease it by his own will Sent. 13. He that saith that some men are not made by God to this end that they might obtain eternal life but that they might be the ornaments of their times and for the good of others would speak better if he said that God who is the Creator of all men maketh not them in vain who he foreseeth will not be partakers of life eternal Because even in bad men nature is Gods good work and Justice in their damnation is laudable But he cannot well be blamed that saith that even by the condition of such the World is adorned * * * But not by their sin i◠self and that those that hurt themselves by their own iniquity are born for the good of others For the multitude of the ungodly though innumerable is not disgraceful or a deformity to the World or unprofitable to the Kingdom of God seeing that by their propagation cometh the generation that is to be regenerate and by tolerating and loving them Gods people become the more illustrious Sent. 14. He that saith that they that believe not the preaching of the Gospel are unbelievers by Gods predestination and that God so decreed that they that believe not be unbelievers by his appointment or decree is not a Catholick For as Faith which worketh by Love is Gods gift so unbelief is none of Gods constitution Because God knoweth how to ordain Punishment for sin but not sin it self And it followeth not that what he remitteth not he committeth The predestinate therefore liveth by the faith which is given him The non-predestinate perish by Voluntary and not constrained infidelity Sent. 15. He that saith that Foreknowledge is the same with predestination doubtless in our good works conjoyneth or mixeth those two For what we have of Gods gift and is said to be foreknown must needs be predestinate And what is said to be predestinate must needs be foreknown But in our evil works only the foreknowledge of God must be understood Because as he foreknew and predestinated the things which he doth himself and giveth us to do so he FOREKNEW ONLY and DID NOT PREDESTINATE the things which he neither doth himself nor requireth us to do SECT XXI Prosper 's answers ad Object Vincent 662. I Will crave the Readers patience while I add the summ of hi◠Answers also to some of the Objections of Vincentius Obj. 1. That Christ died not for all Resp His death is a remedy in it self sufficient to profit all but if it be not taken it will not heal Obj. 2. That God would not have all saved though they would Resp We must sincerely believe and profess that God would have all saved That many perish is by the merit of them that perish That many are saved is the gift of him that saved them For that the guilty are damned is Gods inculpable justice that the guilty are justified is Gods unspeakable grace Obj. 3. That God made most of mankind that they might perish for ever Resp God is the Creator of all men but No man is made by him that he might perish For the cause of being born is one and the cause of perishing is another That men are born is Gods gift that they perish is the sinners desert He maketh men that they may be men Obj. 4. That the most of men are made of God not to do Gods will but the Devils Resp It is madness and against reason to say that it is by Gods will that Gods will is not done and that the damner of the Devil and his servants would have the Devil served Obj. 5. That God is the author of our sin in that he maketh mens wills evil and maketh a substance which by natural motion cannot but sin Resp This objection they make because we hold original sin and misery But we hold that whatever is of Nature is of God and none of that which is contrary to Nature But sin is contrary to nature from whence cometh death and all that is of death God is the author of no mans sin but the Creator of his Nature which voluntarily sinned when it had Power not to sin and by his own will man subjected himself to the deceiver And it is not by Natural but by Captive Motion that he liveth in sin till he die to sin and live to God which without grace he cannot do Obj. 6. That God maketh in men such a will as is in Devils that of its own motion can and will do nothing but evil Resp The whole world lyeth in wickedness But even very bad men may be reconciled and Devils cannot And God put not evil affections in men Obj. 7. That it is Gods will that a great part of Christians neither will nor can be saved Resp If you speak of them who forsaking the Godliness of a Christian conversation and faith do irrevocably pass over into prophane errours and damnable manners it 's doubtless that having such a will they will not be saved and as long as they will not be saved they cannot be saved But it is by no means to be believed that such men fell into this desperate case by the will of God when rather God lifteth up all that fall For no man is raised or established but by his Grace It is therefore Gods will that they continue in a good will And he forsaketh no man before that man forsake him and converteth many that do forsake him Obj. 8. That God will not have all Catholicks to persevere in the Catholick faith but will have a great part of them to apostatize from it Resp The same answer serveth to this blasphemy as to the former Obj. 9. That God would have a great part of the Saints to fall from the purpose of holiness * * * The Reader must note that their common opinion then was that some true Saints do fall away and perish Resp This madness also needeth no other answer Obj. 10. That Adulteries and corrupting consecrate Virgins do come to pass because God predestinated them to fall Resp It is a detestable and abominable opinion which believeth God to be the author of any mans evil will or evil action whose predestination or decree is never without Goodness and Justice †††That is of nothing but good and just For all the wayes of God are mercy and truth Adulteries and Corruptions of Virgins God knoweth not how to institute but to damn not to dispose * * * That is ut sint but to punish Which evils when men commit they serve their own lusts Gods predestination neither exciteth perswadeth or impelleth the fall malignity or lusts of sinners but plainly predestinateth his own Judgement by which he will reward every one according to what he hath done whether good or evil which Judgement would never be if men sinned by the will of God But be it will And every man whom the discerning of Gods knowledge shall set
10. And 1. It is evident that the Reatus culpae is either the sin it self or its inseparable effect He that hath once sinned is Related to God as a sinner And an infamous Relation such as of a Rebel a Rogue a Murderer c. is no small evil in all sound mens esteem § 11. 2. Sin is the Deformity disorder and disease of the soul and its Habits are a kind of Vicious Nature It is the Nature of Devils to be exceeding malignant rebellious and at enmity with God and spiritual Goodness To have a Nature or Disposition which is averse to that which should be its own end delight and happiness And a wise man would rather be annihilated than turned into a Toad a Snake or Adder though their nature be not offensive to themselves How much more would he rather be annihilated than become a Devil Wicked men are liker to Devils than they are aware of They Love not God and Holiness nay they have a malignant enmity to him which maketh them so averse to all that is Holy in their lives and to be such persecutors and haters of good men So that the Scripture calleth their wisdom Devilish yea and themselves flat Devils in plain words and the Children of the Devil Jam. 3. 15. Joh. 8. 44. Joh. 6. 70. One of you is a Devil And 13. 2. Act. 13. 10. Thou Child of the Devil and enemy of all righteousness 1 Joh. 3. 8 10. He that commits sin is of the Devil Therefore they are adjudged to suffer with the Devil and his Angels as the Saints shall be equal with the Angels of God For the truth is a Saint and an Angel and a wicked man and a Devil do differ less than is commonly thought on Now what sober man would not rather be Nothing than be a Devil To have a venemous malignant malicious restless rebellious nature at enmity to Good and in love with evil And who is it that maketh men to be such Not God but themselves 1. Is it not a great calamity to be mad Wicked men are far worse and they made themselves such 2. Were it not a great misery to have a nature that had no Love to or delight in health cleanliness dwelling food friends c. but hated all of them and set against them How much more to have such an enmity to God and holiness and our own salvation 3. Were it not a misery to have a nature distrustful of all our truest I eg Bradwardine l. 1. c. 1. cor 31. contra effraenes dlcentes omnia bonis malis aequaliter evâ—nire malum aliquod impunitum vel bonum aliquod irremuneratum manere fingentes quoque divinae pietati misericordiae infinitae nusquam congruere punire quodcunque delictum sed totum semper dimittere misericorditer impunitum Nonne inquit omnis peccans to ipso fit malus culpabilis vel pejor c. amittitque pristinam libertatem innocentiam fit Dâ—o dissimilior remotior ab â—o nonne hoc est poena poena quam magna unde hoc nisi à prima justitia à primo retributore omnium qui est Deâ—s See also his Corol. 38 39. Lege Jansen August de stat pur nat l. 3. c. 2. p. 358. Quod peccatum non potest non puniri à Deo c. 3. Quaenam sint illae poenae quae tam arctè cum peccato cohaerent Et c. 4. Quod peccator in peccato manens non potest beatus fieri Ubi itiam Augustini sensum de hisce videre est friends afraid of poison in all that we eat and drink and still thinking that our own parents seek our death How much more to have a distrustfulness of God 4. Were it not a misery to be deceived with a thousand errours and to take evil for good and good for evil and to spend ones dayes in bewildring perplexities or falâ—e conceits How much more to be mistaken about God and things of greatest excellency and consequence 5. Were it not a misery to have a Will that is perversely set against the wills of all our Governours and dearest friends That must needs have and do whatsoever is forbidden us by the greatest wisest and best of men How much more to have a Will that is thus set against the will of God 6. It is a misery to have a violent Appetite after that which cannot be had or cannot satisfie To have vehement hunger and thirst without meat or drink c. Wicked men have such a diseased appetite after things that God told them would neither be satisfactory nor continuing All this and more is in sin it self in the Habits or Nature which God never made § 12. The exercise of this diseased vitiated Inclination is an actual torment As it is more Joyful to use Grace than meerly to Have it so is it as to sin more calamitous And 1. Mens wilful blindness and neglect of God depriveth them of all the excellency and delights of holy knowledge 2. Their Disaffection and malignity depriveth them of all that holy Joy and unvaluable sweetness which cometh in by the exercise of the Love of God And of all the pleasures of a holy life As a sick stomach doth loath a feast and a malicious man hath not the pleasures of friendship so how can that soul delight in God that Loveth him not 3. Unbelief and distrust deprive the soul of all that quietness and content which followeth faith and confidence in God 4. A Rebellious will doth lose all that Rest which the obedient find in pleasing God and in his blessed will 5. Luxury and carnality and all sin deprive the soul of the pleasures of temperance chastity innocency and a good and quiet conscience 6. Wickedness and sloth deprive the soul of the pleasure of doing good to others by works of charity which is very great Abundance such privations are in sin § 13. And sin it self brings the contrary torments 1. Sinful malignity against God and Good men maketh the wicked eat their flesh as it were with envy and vex themselves with persecution and revenge 2. Sinful anger is a sinners rage and pain And though he have pleasure in revenge it is a painful pleasure like a troublesome itch 3. Self-willedness maketh a man continual vexation and disappointment while he must needs have that which he cannot have or which will torment him when he hath it 4. Carnal Love is the root of misery while it Tantalizeth the soul or longeth for its own vexation 5. Sinful fear is a tormenting distraction 6. Sinful grief is a continual sickness and self-vexation 7. Sinful Desires engage men in self-afflicting labours 8. Sinful cares are as thorns in a mans heart 9. Sinful Impatience and discontent is torment it self 10. Sinful confused unruly thoughts are the annoyance and the shame of the soul And all these are mens own sins not Caused by God but by themselves § 14. Next Sin it self there
regenerate men have free-will to do good and forbear evil even when Grace effecteth not the event B. This is an English Objection What men that write in Greek or Latin deny Free-will Did not all the ancient Fathers and Churches hold it till Augustine's time of whom we have any notice And are you coming to turn Christ's Body into a Heresie or the members of an Harlot by your charge Did not Augustine Prosper and Fulgentius hold it VVho denied it for above a thousand or thirteen hundred years after Christ And do you deny all free-will your self C. No but it is free-will to spiritual good B. What need I tire you with the same things again 1. Read but what I said to A. of Free-will 2. And see the Table of it in the Second Book 3. And peruse what I have just now said of the power of the Will and you will see that here is no more necessary Make not new words to seem a new Controversie Put but Liberty for Power and and the answer to the last Crimination serveth to this C. The tenth Article of the Church of England saith The condition of man after the Fall of Adam is such that he cannot turn and prepare himself by his own natural strength and good works to Faith and calling upon God wherefore we have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God without the Grace of God by Christ preventing us that we may have a good Will and working with us when we have that good Will B. I had rather you dealt plainly and kept close to the word of God and evidence of Truth than seek shelter from the words of those in power But what Jesuite or Arminian will not subscribe to this Who doubteth of it How oft do they all maintain the necessity of this preventing and co-operating Grace But by the words no Power you must not understand no natural power or faculty but no moral power For 1. Else man is no man 2. It is a moral Subject which they speak of and must accordingly be understood But what Free-will is it that you deny Tell me what you mean by Free-will C. If you know what Will is and what Free is you need no exposition the words are plain enough of themselâ—â—s B. Thus do men strive about words that profit not to subvert the hearers and increase to more ungodliness Answer me these Questions Quest 1. Hath not the Will more than a Liberty Political or by Gods Law to forbear sin and to do all good Doth God forbid it C. No he commandeth it which is more than leave or licence B. Quest 2. Do you think that the Will is forced Is it not a contradiction to Will unwillingly eodem respectu C. Yes we all hold freedom from compulsion B. Quest. 3. Is not mans Will a self-determining faculty or principle naturally so as to be Domina suorum actuum under God C. Yes under God the understanding directing it B. Quest. 4. Hath not the Will power and liberty to choose evil or to sin without Gods predetermining premotion C. I dare not deny it though many do B. Quest 5. Hath not the Will a certain command over the inferior faculties respectively and can move or not move them C. Yes supposing it moved accordingly it self B. Quest 6. Can Angels or Devils necessitate the Will by any efficient predetermining premotion C. No I think not for its commonly thought so B. Quest 7. Can any man by force or flattery necessitate another man to will any thing evil or good efficiently C. No They may strongly tempt but not necessitate B. Quest 8. Can meer Objects as such necessitate the VVill to a comparative The Opinion of Aegidiuâ— Roman how the Will is actuated determined I will set down though not wholly approving it Quodlib 3. qu. 15. p. 177 178 A fine ab â—o quod apprehenditur sub omni ratione boni voluntas Activatur Necessitatur Ab his autem quae sunt ad finem ab his quae non apprebenduntur sub ratione omni boni potest Actuari sed non necessitari A â—ullo autem potestviolentari Ad finem nec activando nec determinando semovet Ad ea autem quae sunt ad finem facta in actu per finem potest se determinare sed non activare Quantum ergo ad actuationem nihil seiplum secundum seipsum movere potest aliter idem secundum idem esset actus potentia Nunquam voluntas per sâ— directe actuat seipsum sed bonum apprehensum est quod causat Volitionem in voluntate quod actuat eam Sed super hujusmodi Volitione voluntas habet dominium quia in potestate voluntatis est sistere vel non sistere in tali Volitione Libâ—ra est quia cum intellectus â—ffert ei e. g fornicationem sub utraque ratione sub mala sub bona oportet quod utraque consideratio sit Volita Quamdiu enim stat in utraque tamdiu vult de utraque considerare determinat autem se hoc modo Quia est domina sui actus potest totaliter desistere a consideratione unius totaliter insistere in consideratione alterius Vel potest non totaliter desistere ab uno nec totaliter intendere aliâ—d sed magis esse intenta ad unum quam ad aliud Si autem totaliter desistat velle considerare de inordinatione vel notabiliter sit attenta ad considerandum de delectatioâ—e modicum autem attendat ad inordinationem tunc fornicatio sic apprehensa activabit cam causabit in â—a volitionem So that he thinketh that the free omission of the Wills command of necessary thoughts is the beginning of Sin But what he saith of the Wills being actuated per finem non per seipsam needeth better explication Objects actuate but morally that is are occasions and quosi materia disposita ad actuâ— terminationem but it is the faculty or form that actuateth by proper vital agency Et postea Qu. 16. pag. 183. Etsi entitas effectus reducatur in entitatem causae non tamen defectus reducitur in defectum â—â—â—sdem causae Non deficit causa sed effectus ille deficit a causa Etsi non sit voluntas in actu nisi prius sit in actu intellectuâ— non sequitur quod non possit voluntas deficere nisi prius deficiat intellectus Absque enim eo quod intellectus male proponat voluntati potest se voluntas determinare male viz. si sit intenta circa delectationem non circa inordinationeâ— act that is to choose this rather than that de mediis C. To good they cannot but I doubt of it as to evil whether Objects do not necessitate some men so that they cannot forbear B. Who made these Objects and causeth their nature and existence C. God made all things Meat Drink Pulchritude Money c. B. Doth God then necessitate men efficiently to Sin by
as in many other Points and therefore not the same consent and concord among the learnedest Divines and the godliest Christians And in my Observations most on each side are more moved to their Opinion in this from the congruity that they think it hath with other Verities or the Analogy of Faith than from the proper plain sense of the Texts which they themselves alledge So that though no doubt the Truth is to be found in the Scriptures yet not with such ease and certainty as will allow us to make the decision of this Point any part of the terms of our necessary Concord THE Tenth Days Conference Between B. and C. OF PERSEVERANCE B. You have now some advantage for your censure of Dissenters See Ruiz de Praedes d. b. Sect. 4 5 6. Proving that Faith and certain Perseverance of all the Elect proceed from Gods decrees or predefinition and that all things work for their good c. This the Jesuites acknowledge where the difference is real But I am loth you should make it greater than it is or make as hot and contentious work about it as Marbachius and Zanohy did How odious soever Thompson and Bertius have been made by our side and Jovinian Calvin and his followers by the other though I wish there were no difference at all I undertake to prove that the difference is not of so great moment as is commonly on both sides pretended And no greater than should consist with true Love and Communion even between the Members yea the Pastors of the same Church who are therein of differing opinions But first let me hear what you have to aggravate it The first Crimination C. Their Crime is that they overthrow the comfort of Believers by denying them any certainty of Salvation * Paraeus himself maketh such an Intercision of Justification in Believers as I cannot own in Bellarm. de Amiss Grat. l. 1. c. 7. Fides tunc dicitur Justificare quum actum proprium accipiendi remissionem peccatorum exercet Hinc vero actum non exercet neque exercere potest fides aegra saucia sordibus carnis oppressa peccatorum compedibus quasi ligata Justificatiâ— laâ—â—iâ— Dâ—â—â— non imputat peccata nempe resipiscentibus Ante resipiscentiam certe imputat infligendo poenas temporales imputarit â—tiam â—â—fligendo poenas aeternas nisi resipiscerent Tunc igitur fides in lapsis habitualiter tantum â—aneâ—s proprie Justificans dici aut cos Justificare non potest But his reason is bad For faith is not called Justifying for the Reason which he giveth The like say the Polonian Protestants in Colloq Thorun de Grat. Sect. 2. n. 11. Falso accusamur quasi statuamus semel justificatos Dei Gratiam â—jusque certitudinem ipsum Spiritum Sanctum non posse amittere quamvis in peccatis pro lubitu volutentur Cum contra potius doceamus ipsos etiam renatâ—s quoties in peccata contra conscientiam recidunt in iisque aliquandum perseverent nec fidem veram nec Dei gratiam justificantem nedum ejus certitudinem aut Spiritum Sanctum pro tempore retinere sed novum irae ac mortis aeternae reatum incurrere Ac propterea nisi Speciali Dei gratia excitante quod in electis fieri non dubitamus ad resipiscentiam iterâ—m renoventur reipsa etiam damnandos esse This is the same with the Doctrine of Augustine and Musculus or near it Yea both Ursine and Pareus seem to come as far Catech. de Peccat actuali Peccatum regnans est cui peccans non repugnat ideoque fit obnoxius aeternae morti nisi c. Propter quod non tantum ex ordine justiâ—iae Dei sed ex reipsa aeternarum poenarum reus est qui illud habet Talia sunt omnia peccata in non renatis quaedam etiam in renatis ut error in fundâ—mento fidei lapsus contra conscientiam cum quibus fiducia remissionis peccatorum consolatio vera non consistit donec resipiscant Quod enim etiam renati possâ—t cadere in peccatum regnans satis ostendunt tristissimi lapsus Sanctissiomrum hominum ut Aaronâ—s Davidis c. Rob. Baronim in his excellent little Treat de Pec. Mort. veniali saith that by Mortal Sins the regenerate may 1. Be excluded from that Grace and favour of God by which he before loved them yeâ— he incurreth Gods hatred and displeasure so far c. 2. Their Prayers Thanks Obedience yea nothing that proceedeth from them is then acceptable to God 3. In that state God cannot forgive them and give them peace of Conscience and joy B. To be absolutely certain of Salvation no doubt would be a very great comfort But let us enquire I. What number will be by this Doctrine hindered from this certainty II. In what degree this tendeth to their discomfort 1. And by the first enquiry I doubt we shall find that you also hold Doctrines that hinder most men from concluding themselves certain of Salvation and yet perhaps be very true These Questions therefore I crave your answer to Q. 1. Do not you grant that we must take no comfort but what God giveth us and on his terms and that the false comforts of presumption are worse than none or not desirable And that all Doctrine is not true that were it true were comfortable C. Yes none will deny it you B. Q. 2. Do you not find by experience being a Pastor who hath discoursed with your Flock man by man about their state that of those that you account truly Godly persons there is not one of fifty yea of an hundred yea of many hundreds that will say that they are certain of their Salvation properly and fully certain C. I suppose your question implyeth your own observation which I contradict not B. Q. 3. And as for the multitude of more careless and loose Christians do not you think that whatever they say their certainty is less than these Godly persons C. Yes no doubt for their evidence is less or none B. Q. 4. Do you not think that it must needs be so that certainty of Salvation must be exceeding rare considering that all these things must go to it 1. There must be a certainty that Gods promises are true whereas the faith of most is weak 2. There must be a certain understanding both of the meaning of the promise and what are the true Conditions of it and the difference between true saving Grace and all that is but counterfeit or common Whereas most are uncertain and dark herein if not mistaken 3. There must be these Evidences in the person himself not only in reality but in ascertaining-discernableness which cannot be unless it be 1. Much and strong for that which is small is so like to the common and counterfeit that it is seldom certainly discerned 2. It must be in Activity For Grace out of Act is not discernable 3. It must be powerfully operative without and in the
and not have spoken evil of what you understand not But it 's better now than not at all Our judgement is as followeth I. That God hath three Essential Attributes which he expresseth and glorifieth in his works His Vital Power or Activity his Wisdom and his Will or Love That all these are and operate conunctly but yet each appeareth in eminency in its special effects That Gods Power eminently appeareth in the Being and Motion of things and his Wisdom eminently in the ORDER of things and his LOVE in the Goodness and Perfection of things That accordingly he is 1. The first Efficient 2. The chief Dirigent 3. The ultimate Final Cause of all II. That as to man he is Related to us 1. As our Creator the Cause of our Being Nature and natural Motion as the Fountain of Nature where Power is most Eminent 2. As our Governour and the God of ORDER and the Dirigent Cause where all Attributes concurr but Wisdom is most Eminent 3. As our most Bounteous Benefactor and most Amiable Good and End where Goodness or Love is most eminent III. That accordingly God is the Author of Nature Grace and Glory and since the fall of Natura Medela Sanitas of our Nature our ORDER and Gracious Government and of our Holiness and Happiness and so is our Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier IV. That neither Man Angel or any Creature can possibly have any good but by Gods gift any more than they can make themselves or a World And this Gift must needs be free seeing the Creature hath nothing that is good but what it hath of God and nothing to give him that can add to him or but what is absolutely his own V. God is to us 1. Our OWNER 2. Our RULER 3. Our BENEFACTOR antecedently And no man can Merit of God as he is an Owner or a meer Benefactor for so he freely disposeth as he pleaseth of his own But only of God as a Ruler as is after opened VI. Therefore it is blasphemy to hold that man or Angel can Merit of God in point of proper Commutative Justice which giveth in exchange one thing for another to the benefit of the receiver For as is said God cannot Receive any addition to his perfection nor have we any thing but his own to give him Luke 17. 10. we are thus unprofitable servants as to a Proprietor in point of Commutation though the unprofitable servant be daâ—â—ned Matâ—h 25. 30. in another sense that is who improveth not his Masters stock to the benefit of himself and others and the pleasing of his Ruler VII Mans Duty therefore meriteth only in point of Governing distributive Justice And not every way neither in respect of that For Governing Justice is distinguished according to the Law that governeth us which is either 1. The Law of Innocency or 2. The Law of Grace And no man since the fall can Merit of God according to the Justice of the Law of Innocency which exacteth personal perfection VIII The Law of Grace is in its first notion a free gift of Christ Pardon and Right to Life Eternal by Adoption to all that will Accept it believingly as it is offered that is according to the nature of the Gift And this Gift or Conditional promise and pardon no man can merit For Christs perfect Righteousness and Sacrifice hath already merited it for us and so hath left us no such work to do Nor is there the least place for any humane Merit or Rewardableness from God but on supposition of 1. Christs Merits and Meritorious Righteousness 2. And of this free gift or Act of Oblivion and Life already made to us without our desert IX But yet this is not a meer Gift but also a true Law God is still our God and Governour and Christ is Lord of all Rom. 14. 9. He that is a King and Ruler hath his Laws and Judgement That which is a Gift in the first respect hath 1. It s condition 2. Many commanded duties and so is a Law of Grace in other respects And it is only in respect to this Law of Grace that man is Rewardable or can Merit X. The Gift is from God as Benefactor considered as Good and in it self But it is from God as Sapiential Rector quoad ordinâ—m conferendi as to the Order and Reason why one man rather than another receiveth it So that we Merit not of God as Benefactor nor as Rector by the Law of Innocency or Works nor yet as to the Value or Goodness of the Benefit which is a free Gift But only of God as Rector by the Law of Grace which regulateth the Reception of his free gifts merited by the perfect Righteousness of Christ and so only as to the Order and Reason why one more than another receiveth that free gift As if a Father hath many Sons One living obediently Others playing the prodigals and upon his freely-offered pardon and grace one receiveth it thankfully and the other refuseth it scornfully Here both the obedient and the penitent son have all upon free gift as to Commutative Justice but on various terms And yet both merit in point of paternal Governing Justice but very differently One meriteth of strict Fatherly Justice The other only of a forgiving Father quite on other terms And it is a Comparative Merit by which he is fitter for pardon than the Sons that despise it and spit in the Fathers face XI God as a Benefactor and a Governour giveth some benefits Antecedently to any duty of man And these are never a Reward to us but of Christ perhaps in some instances As Legislation so the benefits of it and that attend it are before Reward and Judgement But other benefits are given by God both as Benefactor and Legislator upon condition of some duty of ours in the Antecedent gift and so in the Judicial sentence and execution that duty is rendered as the reason of our actual Right to them And these are a Reward XII Our first Grace is no Reward nor merited because it antecedeth all conditional duty of ours XIII Our first Reception of Right to Christ Pardon and Life being given on the condition of penitent Acceptance in faith may be called a Reward because they are consequent gifts on condition But because the condition is so slender a thing as the thankful Acceptance of a free gift Divines agree not of the fitness of the name Reward and Merit while they wholly agree about the thing But our after-mercies and final Glory being promised on the condition of such a faith as worketh by Love obedience and improvement of Gods mercies in good works and patience perseverance and conquest of the Flesh the World and the Devil therefore they have more unanimously agreed not only de re but that the names of Reward and Rewardableness or Merit and Worthiness are here fit but used only in the fore explained sense XIV And though the Scripture oftest use the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
believe and accept the gift So that it is only Meriting under a Law made by a Governing Owner and Benefactor for the sapiential orderly disposal of a free Gift As a Father will teach a Child Obedience by telling him that he will give him Gold or Meat if he will thankfully accept it 9. It is not true therefore that it is only a free Gift For as it is a free Gift in regard of the Value and quoad rem so that Gift is a Reward in regard of the Order of Conveyance and tenour of the Donation and the moral capacity of the Receiver which men call Merit 10. That we cannot per impotentiam voluntariam moralem perform the Condition without Divine Grace is nothing against the Tenour of the Donation nor the nature of the Relation of a Reward 11. But Reward and Merit in this case are furthest from that of Commutation and leaveth least to man to boast of 12. Yet may he truly glory in the effects of Grace with thankfulness to God as Paul did 2 Cor. 1. 11 12. that in simplicity and godly sincerity c. and 2 Tim. 4. 8. that he had fought a good fight c. And he may justifie his sincerity with Job chap. 13. 15 16. And Christ will say Well done good and faithful servant c. Let him that glorieth glory in this that he knoweth me saith the Lord c. And Paul would rather dye than any should make his glorying void as to his free preaching the Gospel 13. And it is very false that in this sense a Christian is not bound to trust to his Faith Repentance Love Obedience only in their own place and office assigned them by God but no further As we may trust to the Bible Preacher Parents so to hearing reading praying c. for their proper part else we shall take them all to be in vain Are they Means or no Means If Means they must be judged and trusted as they are and no further And people are not to be frightned from necessary truth by putting an ill sense upon words 14. And though here be nothing of Commutative Justice yet there is that which Justifieth the name of Wages used analogically in the Scriptures Because Love in a Father maketh a Childs interest to be partly his own and the Pleasure of his Will is that to God who is Love it self and delighteth in his Childrens good which Profit is to a humane proprietor And now I will proceed with you in my Questions Quest 9. Do you think that Papists or Arminians do believe that either Man or Angel or Christ can merit of God by Profiting him in Commutative Justice Or that it is possible for any creature to have any Good which is not the free gift of God supposing man a free agent in his duty L. I have hitherto thought that they so judge Why else talk they of Merit of Congruity and Condignity and that say some ex dignitate yea and ex proportione operum R. It seemeth you think not that you hold all this your self Let us try 1. By Merit they still mean a subordinate Merit which supposeth the Benefit 1. To be Gods Gift 2. Merited by Christ L. How prove you that R. It is the express words of the Trent Council de Justif Can. 8 We are said to be Justified gratis because nothing that goeth before Justification whether it be Faith or Works doth merit the Grace it self of Justification For if it be Grace it is no more of Works else Grace is not Grace Can. 16. Though so much be given in Scripture to Good Works that Christ promiseth him that giveth but a Cup of cold Water to one of the least that he shall not lose his reward yet far be it from a Christian to trust or glory in himself and not in the Lord whose Goodness is so great to all men that he wills those things to be Their Merits which are His Gifts And Anath C. 26. they thus open their Doctrine of Merit If any say that the Righteous ought not to expect eternal retribution from God by his Mercy and Christs Merits for the good works done in God if by well doing and keeping God Commandments they persevere to the end let him be Anathema C. 31 32. If any say that a Justified mans good works are so Gods Gifts that they be not also the Justified mans good merits or that the Justified do not truly merit increase of grace and life eternal by the good works which are done by Gods Grace and Christs Merit of whom he is a living member c. Anath sit C. 16. To them therefore that do well to the end and hope in God Life eternal is to be proposed both as Grace mercifully promised to the Sons of God through Jesus Christ and as a Reward faithfully to be given by Gods own promise to their Works and Merits L. Yes this ridiculous Doctrine of our Meriting by Gods Grace and Christs Merits I have often read and heard of in them R. It is somewhat bold to deride that which Scripture Reason and all the antient Churches do accord in That Christ merited that we should subordinately merit that is be Rewardable as before explained hath no less consent And Contra Rationem nemo fobrius Contra Scripturam nemo Christianus Contra Ecclesiam nemo Catholicus L. But if the Council of Trent deny that Justification is at all merited what is meant by the Papists Merit of Congruity R. II. I think you hold not only as much of that as they but do you think it somewhat more 1. As much For 1. De nomine some of them deny that this is any merit at all as well as you And their Council asserteth it not that I see 2. De re They mean the same thing by Merit of Congruity which Mr. Rogers Bolton Hooker and the rest call Preparation for Christ or for Conversion And so the Council of Trent calls it Which maketh a man a more Congruous Receiver of Grace than the unprepared but doth not prove God obliged to give it him as a Reward And do not you hold all this de re 2. Yea and more For the Council of Trent taketh Justification for Remission of sin and sanctification together as after Faith And so hold that Faith it self doth not merit Justification But do not you hold more de re that Faith hath a flat promise of Justification which is true And so God hath as it were obliged his fidelity to give it which is it they mean by Merit L. But what is their Merit of Condignity then Is not that abominable R. III. 1. You know that the words Worthy and Worthiness are used in the Scripture Bear therefore with Scripture words 2. And de re they mean not all one thing or use not the same expressions at least Some and many with Scotâ—â— say that it is ex pacto from Gods Promise that the Merit and dueness do result or from Gods
being superstitious by a great deal of self-made Duty and Sin only theirs and yours are not in the same things They say Touch not taste not handle not some things and you other things while you say that God hath forbidden forms of prayer and many lawful circumstances of Worship and other such like And I now intreat you and all the servants of Christ soberly to consider whether a wild injudicious calling sound Doctrine and Practices Antichristian and using that name as a bugbear for want of solid argument and an injudicious running from Papists into the contrary errors and extreams hath not brought on many the guilt and misery which in all the following particulars I shall open to you 1. Such men have corrupted the Gospel of Christ by bringing in many doctrinal errors and opening a door to the heretical to bring in more Almost all the Libertine Antinomian errors have come in by an injudicious opposition to Popery as if they were the Vindication of Election Free Grace Christs Righteousness Justification by faith Perseverance against mans Works and Merits And it is not to be denyed that the said Libertine Doctrines do more contradict the Doctrine of the Gospel even Christianity it self than the Doctrine of the Papists about the same subjects do I know this to be true who ever is offended at it Aquinas Scotus Gabriel Bellarmine Pererids Tolet yea Vasquez Suarez and Molina are not near so erroneous about Justification Grace Faith and good works as Richardson Randal Sympson Towne Crispe Saltmarsh and many such others are Yet how many Religious people have I known that have gloried in these errors as the sweet discoveries of free grace 2. Such erroneous extreams in opposition to Popery have greatly dishonoured the Reformers and Reformation When it cannot be denyed but such and such errors are found among them it maketh all the Reformation suspected as Illyricus his Doctrine of the substantiality of sin and the non-necessity of Good works to salvation and as Andr. Osianders Doctrine of Justification by Gods essential righteousness did and as many harsh passages in Piscator and Maccovins do to name no more besides those before named What a stir have our later Divines still with the Papists in defending some few harsh sayings of Luther Calvin and Beza about the Cause of sin and some such subjects But downright errors cannot be defended 3. Your injudicious opposition greatly hardneth the Papists and hindereth their conviction When they find some errours in your writings as that all are bound to believe that they are elected and Justified that this is the sense of the Article I believe the forgiveness of sin that this is sides divina that we are Reputed of God to have fulfilled all the Law of Innocency habitually and actually in and by Christ c. and then when they read that such men lay the great stress of the Reformation upon these as the very cause of our rejecting Rome and the artiouli stantisaut cadentis Ecclesiae what can more harden them to a confidence that we are hereticks and that they are in the right As I have known the persons that had been in danger of turning Papists if the errour of Transubstantiation and some few more had not been so palpable as to resolve them These men cannot be in the right even so many Papists were like to have turned Protestants had they not met with some notorious errours in such injudicious adversaries 4. Yea we too very well know that your extremities have occasioned divers Protestants to turn Papists Yea some Learned men and such as have zealously run through many Sects in opposition to Popery themselves And some of my acquaintance that went as far in the profession of Godliness as most that I have known They have been so confounded to find partly palpable errours taken for sound doctrine and sound doctrine railed at as Popery and partly to see the shameful diversity and contentions of all the Sects among themselves that it hath drawn them to think that there is no prosperity of the Church and Godliness to be expected but where there is unity and Concord and no Unity and Concord to be hoped for among Protestants And therefore they must return for it to Rome And Grotius professeth that it was this that moved him to go so far towards them as he did And I must needs say that I believe from my very heart that the shameful divisions contentions backbitings revilings censurings persecutions errours and scandals of Protestants among themselves is a far stronger temptation to turn men to Popery than any thing that is to be found among the Papists to turn men to it and that many are thus driven to it that would not have been drawn 5. And by calling good and lawful if not necessary things Antichristian and Popish you have made Religious people ridiculous and a scorn to many that have more wit than Conscience as if we were all such humorous Novices as would run mad by being frightned with the name of Antichrist And as they deride you for it as Fanatical so they the less fear Popery it self 6. And by these extremities you corrupt the peoples minds with a wrathful and contentious kind of Religion which â—s easily taken up in comparison of a holy and heavenly mind When you should kindle in them a zeal for Love and Good Works the mark of Gods peculiar people you are killing Love and kindling wrath Gunpowder may be set on fire without so much blowing of the coal Long experience assureth us that a siding angry contentious zeal is easily kindled but a lively faith a confirmed hope of Glory a Love to God and man needs more ado S. Stay a little in the midst of your reproofs Would you perswade us to a Union with Antichrist and to live in Love and Concord with the members of the Devil Are not the Papists such Have you no way to reconcile us to Rome but by pleading for Love and peace Must we not contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the Saints and not be Lukewarm to the doctrines of Jezabel that seduceth the people of God to Idolatry P. 1. Were you perswadable I would perswade you not ignorantly to contradict the truth of God and call it Popery nor to set up certain false or incongruous notions and pretend them great and necessary verities nor to make a stir for some odd unsound opinions received upon trust from those that you thought best of and to buzz abroad suspicious of Popery against those that have more understanding and conscience than to imitate you nor to fly in the faces of Gods faithfullest servants much less to use your tongues to backbite them as if they were Antichristian because they are not as shamefully ignorant and deceived as you are And I would perswade you to study and digest well what you take the boldness to speak against and not to talk confidently and furiously against that which you never
God do intendere finem and what is his End The Order and Objects opened p. 57. Sect. 16. What Election and Reprobation are The order of the Decrees called Reprobation and of the Objects Of Negations of Decree p. 66. An Additional Explication of Divine Nolitions p. 76. Sect. 17. Whether God Will Decree or Cause Sin Five Acts of God in and about Sin What Sin is Many wayes God can cause the same thing that the sinner causeth and so fulfil his Decrees without Willing or Causing the Sin Objections answered God freely not idlely or impotently restraineth his own possible operations sometimes that he do not such or such an act at all and sometime that he do but so much towards it and no more Whether God be ever Causa partialis p. 84. Sect. 18. A Confutation of Dr. Twisses Digress 5. li. 2. sect 1. Vindic. Gratiae where he asserteth that God Willeth the existence of Sin and that sins are a medium sua natura summe unice conducibile to the Glorification of his Mercy and Justice p. 92. Sect. 19. The same Doctrine in Rutherford de Providentia confuted Whether things be good because God willeth them or willed by him because good resolved Whether there were eternal rationes boni mali Dr. Field vindicated p. 106. Sect. 20. The old Doctrine of Augustine Prosper and Fulgentius thought by some Jesuits too rigid but indeed Conciliatory for absolute Election to Faith and so to Salvation and for no reprobating Decree but only of Punishment for Sin foreseen but not decreed Prosper ad Cap. Gall. Sentent translated p. 115. Sect. 21. The summ of Prospers Answer to Vincent 16. Object p. 118. Sect. 22. Fulgentius words to the same sense p. 121. Sect. 23. The healing Doctrine and Concessions of many called Calvinists of the Synod of Dort Pet. Molinaeus c. p. 124. Sect. 24. And of Petr. á Sancto Joseph Suarez Ruiz c. on the other side especially Bellarmines at large and others p. 127. ERRATA PART 1. pag. 10. l. 38. in marg for Reason Being r. Relation being p. 24. l. 25. r. those Causes l. 26. r. first Case p. 27. l. 2. r. Of predetermination Reader Pain and Greater business forbad me to gather the Errata some are gathered by a Friend out of the first Book many more I must leave to your ingenuity I see in the Premonition p. 4. l. 22. for Mr. W. Mr. D. l. 47. for Armatus Annatus Also Dial. 11. p. 231. l. 30. r. refuse Dial. 13. p. 291. l. 13. for not r. done Catholick Theologie The First BOOK PACIFYING PRINCIPLES Collected from the common Notices of Nature the certain Oracles of GOD in the Holy Scriptures and the common Consent of Christians For the RECONCILING OF THE CHURCH-DIVIDING and DESTROYING CONTROVERSIES especially about PREDESTINATION PROVIDENCE GRACE and FREE-WILL REDEMPTION JUSTIFICATION FAITH MERIT WORKS CERTAINTY OF SALVATION PERSEVERANCE and many others In Three Parts I. Of Gods Nature Knowledge Decrees and Providence about Sin with Mans Free-will as the Objects of the former II. Of Gods GOVERNMENT and MORAL Works III. Of Gods Operations on Mans Soul By RICHARD BAXTER An earnest Desirer of the UNITY LOVE and PEACE of Christians For endeavouring of which he expecteth with resolved Patience still to undergo the Censures Slanders and Cruelties of IGNORANCE PRIDE and MALICE from all that are possessed by the Wisdom and Zeal which are from beneath Earthly Sensual and Devilish the Causes of Confusion and every evil work James 3. 14 15 16. LONDON Printed by Robert White for Nevill Simmons at the Princes Arms in S t. Pauls Church-yard MDCLXXV The First Part OF THE NATURE KNOWLEDGE WILL AND DECREES of GOD As far as is needful to the intended CONCILIATION and CONCORD SECT I. Of our Knowledge of God as here attainable THough it be about the Knowledge Will and Decrees of God that our Controversies are agitated yet because the consequent Verities are scarce ever well understood without the understanding of the Antecedents out of which the Consequents arise and without the just order place and respect which the later have unto the former and unless things be understood in their true Method I will therefore expose my self to the obloquy of those who will call it Over-doing so far as to premise somewhat of the Deity it self But not what is necessary to the full explication of the Divine Attributes as we are capable as must be in a Method of Theologie which I have attempted elsewhere but only so much as lyeth under our Controverted Subject And when I have done that I shall leave the rest Thes 1. To Know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent is Life Eternal * * * John 17. 3. Bradward l. 1. c. 11. p. 198. The first necessary incomplex Principle is God and the first complex simply is of God Deus est c. But yet it is not to us the primum cognitum 2. To †††Exodus 20. know GOD is to know his Being Nature and Relations For though those Relations that are to Man be not essential to his Divine Nature yet are they essentially contained in the signification of the name GOD as he is the object of our Faith and Religion For to be OUR GOD doth speak his Relations to us as well as his Nature As the name KING and FATHER doth among men 3. We neither have nor can have here in flesh any one proper formal Conception of the Divine Nature that is formally suited to the truth in the object But only Metaphorical or Analogical Conceptions borrowed from things better known 4. Yet nothing beyond sense at least is so certainly known as GOD so far as we can reach though nothing be less perfectly or more defectively known or less comprehended Even as we know nothing Visible more certainly than the Sun and yet comprehend nothing Visible less 5. It is not true which many great Metaphysicians assert that the Quiddity of God is totally unknown to us For then it could not be life eternal to know him nor would a meer Negative knowledge cause in us a sufficient Positive Love or Joy or Trust c. But to know that we cannot know him would but inferr that we cannot Love him For we Love not an unknown Good 6. Nor is it true that Pet. Hurtado de Mendoza in fine Disput and some others say that the Notions of Life and Intellect are all that we have of the Quiddity of God and that the Divine Will is not a Quidditative notion 7. God is here seen in the Glass of his Works with the Revelation of his Word and Spirit And from these works we must borrow our conceptions * * * The doubt is How Imperfect works can notifie the perfect God And the Schoolmen manage it as an insuperable difficulty Whether God could have made the World or any thing better than it is If you will pardon me for making
si tamen Deus solus illâ—â— causaret sicut potest illum causare solus non esset actus neque odiâ—m Deâ— vel mendacium But whatever he thought I have before answered this difficulty of the Entity of the acts of sin I mention Ariminensis judgement the rather because the Learned Calvinists commend him And I remember when I once askt Arch-Bishop Usher which of the Schoolmen he most valued as the soundest he said Greg. Ariminensis 714. Is not all this doctrine from these men cited conformable to the doctrine of the Synod of Dort Who in the conclusion name many positions which they and all the Reformed Churches with them do toto pectâ—re detestari abhorr with all their hearts Among which one is Deum nâ—â—â— puroque Voluntatis arbitrio absque omni peccati ullius respectu vel intuitâ— maximam mundi partem ad aeternam damnationem praedestinasse creasse And another is Eodem modo quo electio fons est causá fidei ac bâ—norum operum reprobationem esse causam infidelitatis impietatu Another is Multos fidelium infantes ab uberibus matrum innoxios abriâ—â— tyrannice in Gehennam praecipitari adeo ut iis nec Baptismus nec Ecclesiae in corum baptismo preces prodesse queant And it is much to be noted that in conclusion they desire all men to judge of the Doctrine of the Reformed Churches not by Calumnies nor by the Private sayings of some Dâ—ctors antâ—ent or later but by the publick Confessions of the Churches â—â—â— and by the Declaration of this Synod Therefore not by the extreams of Beza Piscator Spanhâ—mâ—â—s Twisse and Rutherford but by what the Articles of the Churches subscribed by the Pastors do contain Otherwise we shall be far more foolish than the Papists who will not expose their Church to obioquy or division by standing to the sayings of Alvarez or Molina or any private Doctor whosoever 715. And it is notorious to any impartial-peâ—user that the whole foâ—â— of the Doctrine of the Church of England in the Articles Catechism Liturgie Homilies and all their publick Writings was drawn up by men of Augustines judgement who were for absolute Election and Universal sufficient Redemption and Grace ad posse but for no Reprobation but on foresight of sin 716. And it is greatly to be noted with grief of heart that among Good men it is partly General prejudice but chiefly the Interest of their Reputation with those among whom they live which is the great impediment of the Churches Concord The name of a Calvinist is so hateful among the Papists that even the Predeterminant Dominicans who go higher than ever Calvin did and the Jansenists who go as high in the main cause and higher than the Synod of Dort do yet find it a matter of necessity to rail at Luther Zuinglius Calvin c. lest their party should think that they are turned Hereticks And the Protestants that agree in some points with the Papists are fain to rack the Papists words to a worse sense than is meant lest their fierce opposers should make men believe that they are half Papists or err with them And the moderate Calvinists are fain to stretch hard that they may seem to differ more from the Arminians than they do lest a self-conceited reviler should blot their names with the suspicion of Arminianism O doleful case of all the Churches But where Protestants are few and made odious by the Papists as differing from them further than they do there Reputation is not so great a temptation And there they freely confess their concord where they do not differ And so in Colloquia Torunensi c. 4. de grat depuls Calum sect 5 6. all the Reformed Churches of Poland with Joh. Bergius the Duke of Brandenburgs Chaplain and others did profess Falso accusamur quasi Mortis Meriti Christi prâ— omnibus sufficientiam negemus aut virtutem imminuamus cum potius idem hic quod ipsa Synodus Tridentina ses 6. cap. 3. doceamus viz. Etsi Christus pro omnibus mortuns sit non omnes tamen mortis ejus beneficium recipere sed eos duntaxat quibus meritum passionis ejus communicatur Causam etiam seu culpam cur non omnibus communicetur nequaquam in merito morte Christi sed in ipsis hominibus esse fatemur Here was no partial interest to make them afraid of being suspected to comply with Papists 717. I end with this request to all my Brethren who by their averseness to the Doctrine of Common or Universal Grace do keep open the Churches dangerous wounds 1. That they will give Scripture leave to rule their judgements and try whether it be possible to build special Grace on any other foundation than presupposed common Grace and whether to deny this be not to deny the very tenor of the Gospel and pull up the foundations of our Religion 2. That they will but read over Davenants two dissertations and the second Tome at least of the Learned Dallaeus his Apology against Spaâ—hemius that is The words of an hundred and twenty antient Writers and Councils beginning at Clemens Romanus and ending with Theophylact and sixty three Protestant Divines and Synods to which I think I could add as many more that speak more plainly to the point or near it And if after all this they have so great a zeal to contract the Glory of Gods Mercy and deny his Grace as that they will cast off the judgement of all the antient Churches of Christ and so many later rather than acknowledge it I shall cease disputing with them and seek to quench the fire which they kindle in the Churches of Christ by Prayers and Tears The End of the First Part. THE Second Part OF GODS GOVERNMENT AND MORAL WORKS WHEREIN Of his Laws or Covenants of Redemption of sufficient and effectual Grace of Faith Justification Works Merits Perseverance certainty of Salvation c. so far as the Church-troubling-Controversies do require LONDON Printed for Nevil Simmons at the Princes Arms in St. Pauls Church-Yard 1675. The CONTENTS of these THESES cannot be well given you without reciting too great a part of them But rather than none take this imperfect summary following Sect. I. OF mans first State and the first Law and its penalty Whether Adam had a promise of Life and whether that Promise or Covenant be now ceased as to all men Page 27. Sect. II. Of the first Edition of the Law or Covenant of Grace that it was made with all Mankind in Adam and Noah Of the Promise to Abraham Of the Terms of the first Edition of the Universal Covenant of Grace How far it is a Law of Nature How far those without the Israelitish Church were under it Of the Israelites Covenant pag. 31. Sect. III. Of Christ's Incarnation and our Redemption The Law of Mediation What Christ undertook for us How far he represented usâ— The true nature of his Satisfaction Of his Righteousness and Merits pag.
a Liberty and not Gibieufs Amplitude It is not possible for a Creature to have any thing that 's good but of God nor any good from God but by meer free Gift as to the Good or Value though it be by rewarding Justice quoad ordinem conferendi and comparatively why this man hath it rather than that § 24. M. S. There is no stinting or determining unless you stop here at the first act An. I deny it There are three Opinions more that are all more probable The first which supposeth the Reward of life eternal due upon the over coming of the Devils first temptation which would have drawn from the Love of God And so Love and Conquer once was the Condition The second which supposeth that the Condition was the Conquest of this particular Temptation to eat of the forbidden Fruit and the after eating of the Tree of Life The third which supposeth the only Condition of life eternal to the personal perfect perpetual Obedience or perseverance till God of his own pleasure should translate Adam and end his life of trial I take this last to have far most probability for all the Reasons before given I am sure that the tenor of the Law of Nature made it Adam's Duty still to love God and obey him and resist all that was against it And I find no Promise that his Nature or the Law of Nature should be changed for this or that act or for conquering some one temptation I find that Christ's own Covenant-Condition was more than one act And the Condition of our Glory is overcoming and being faithful to the death and continuing in Christ And I will not add to the Covenant of God § 25. M. S. Arg. 4. From the nature of an obediental act which includeth the approving of the whole Law An. 1. Approving the things that are excellent is made consistent with wickedness Rom. 2. But I will suppose you to mean a full consent to the Covenant of Innocency But 2. How prove you that such consent was the whole condition of life and that it might not be fallen from and that Adam never did consent before his Fall and yet not sin 3. All the godly approve of Gods Law and consent to it and love it and yet merit not as keepers of it for they break it Rom. 7. 4. Yea Covenant-keeping to the last as well as Covenant-consent the first moment is now to us the condition of immutable Glory § 26. M. S. Adam would not obey at first but suspend while he looked about the World to see if there were any good sufficient for him below God Therefore he sinned not then An. This is before confuted He could not in that Integrity and after such divine Revelation be unresolved one hour whether he must first love and obey his Maker without sin § 27. God cannot freely give eternal life to a Creature without Reward for doing because the reasonable Creature was made for the Glory of Justice An. 1. You may say that God will not to man but not that he cannot nor that he doth not to any Angel For man was not made only for the Glory of Justice but of Power and Love or Goodness also 2. It 's certain that God as a free Benefactor giveth many good things freely and â—â— as a Reward for doing As 1. He so freely made all things good in the Creation and gave man all his antecedent good He so gave Adâ—â— his primitive Holiness and Helps and Paradise and all the Creatureâ— 2. He so gave Christ to the World without desert and so far pardoned the first sin as that cometh to 3. He so far gave man the Covenant of Grace 4. He so gave all Christ's Miracles Resurrection Doctrine the Scripture c. 5. He so gave Apostles and Ministry to the World 6. He so sendeth the Gospel to some Nations and Persons above others 7. He so giveth to many the first special Grace as he did to Paul 8. He so giveth to many Kingdoms and Persons Wealth and Health and Strength and such other mercies above others 9. He so giveth greater measures of Grace to some than to others 10. And it seemeth that he so in part giveth the same Glory to some that came in but at the last hour of the day It is certain that all in quantum tale is from God only as a free Benefactor or as the Amor primus And the order of distributing it is two-fold Some antecedent to mans merit or acts and independent on it And this is no Reward though sometime it is an antecedent act of Justice such as is the making of a good Law or Promise And some consequent juxta morman legis And these are Rewards And though God hath assured us now that no man shall have Heaven but by rewarding Justice yet that may be because he thought meet to place man first on Earth in a life of trial and undetermined Liberty But that he hath no Angel that was made Immutable or that Christ was not made immutably holy let them say that can prove it for I cannot § 28. M. S. It 's like that the Angels that stood and they that fell had unequal help for unequal Effects are of an unequal Cause But Adam and the Devils had sufficient Grace and God forsook them not till they forsook him An. 1. This last I accept as true and more than some will grant 2. The first is above our reach only we can say both that God giveth more Grace to some than to others freely 3. And yet he himself is simple and immutable in causing of various and mutable Effects § 29. M. S. By Christs passive Obedience imputed we are pardoned and â—ustified and by his active imputed we deserve the Reward and are under Gods approving Will. An. 1. By the merit of his habitual active and passive that is of his performing all his mediatorial Covenant with the Father we are pardoned and justified and adopted to eternal life principally as a Reward to Christ not to us as meriting by him and subordinately according to Gospel-Justice or Order as a Reward to Believers for their Faith and Obedience by him who will Reward every man according to his Works and will be glorified in his Saints and admired in Believers because they believed 2 Thess 1. 6 to 12. We are under Gods approving Will principally as united to Christ reconciled justified adopted and subordinately as sanctified and obedient For the Father loveth us because we have loved Christ and believed Joh. 16. 27. And it is life eternal to know the Father and the Son Joh. 17. 3. And because we do those things that are pleasing in his sight what-ever we ask we receive 1 Joh. 3. 22. § 30. M. S. By Christs imputed suffering we are but where we were For the Law to have nothing against us will not justifie us unless it have something for us An. This great question needeth distincter handling Adam's Law doth not
sinned by Omission 3. But that Law giving life eternal only to Obedience to the end of his time of trial he merited not that life by initial Obedience This was initial imperfect Righteousness wanting perseverance but not a medium between Just and Unjust except as Just signifieth the merit of Life by persevering Righteousness to the last And so I never denied but in a disobliged Subject there is a medium Adam was not bound to do a years work the first hour and so was neither just nor privatively unjust as to the future years work but as to what he was presently obliged to he was either Righteous or a Sinner Here you come short of necessary accurateness Perseverance is a part of our Condition of Glorification Yet he that is not dead is just if he be a Believer and obedient And if God now call him by death he shall be glorified But he hath not now done all that is to be done till his death if he live longer So that his Right to the present possession of Glory before death is not justifiable but his Right in case he now die is § 41. M. S. Faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere cannot be put in exchange for fac hoc and therefore justified only as it relateth to him who hath suffered and done for all that will receive him An. 1. Exchange is an ambiguous word Here is no proper exchange Faith is not a fulfilling of the Law of Innocency nor so reputed by God Christ did both satisfie for our not-fulfilling it and also by that and by fulfilling it himself not in our persons but his own did merit the free Gift of Life to us to be ours upon new Covenant terms and Faith and Repentance are the Conditions of that New Covenant and so are that Duty which is laid on our selves to do instead of perfect Obedience supposing Christ's Satisfaction and Merits which are instead of it quoad precium or principally as our said acts are instead of it as to what is necessary in our selves And the Apostle who so oft saith Faith is imputed to us for Righteousness doth neither by Faith mean Christ nor mean that Faith is imputed as a fulfilling the Law of Works But that having no such merit of our own or Righteousness our believing in him that hath satisfied and merited for us is reckoned to us instead of a Righteousness or Merit as being all that now is necessary to our Justification in our selves our persevering Obedience being afterward necessary to our Glory 2. No doubt Faith relateth to Christ and here connoteth him as its Object It were not Christian Faith else But it is also related to the New Covenant as its Condition and in that form hath its place to our Justification which cannot be denied Therefore you untruly say Only as relating to Christ and your words confute your self You say Who hath suffered and done for all that will receive him You speak either of secret Decree and that giveth no Right or of Covenant Donation And to say He and his benefits are given in Covenant to all that will receive him is all one as to say The Covenant giveth them on condition that we receive him which is true § 42. M. S. 5. It is impossible that the terms of the Covenant of Grace can be any other than they are because nothing but receiving him can make him mine An. 1. That proveth not that Faith is not the Condition but that it needs must be so 2. It is impossible now the Covenant is so made viz. ex necessitate existentiae But that God could have made it no otherwise is not a thing for man to say 3. Confound not passive Reception with active moral Reception Justificari is passively to receive Justification and to be first related to Christ as mine or to be one that he is given to is passively to receive Christ Active moral receiving is the Wills consenting thus to have him on all his terms and is the means of the other It is this and not the other that is Faith And could not God possibly have made Christ ours by any alteration of the terms sure they that confine Faith to the receiving of Christs imputable Righteousness will grant that God could possibly have put one act more of Faith into the Condition or onâ— act of Gratitude Desire Love or Repentance And Dr. Twisse thinks he could have given a man a Right to Life without Christ's Satisfaction and to Christ without Faith and that so he doth to Infants § 43. M. S. There is no Righteousness in point of Justification but only in conformity to the Rule Do this that only brings a man under the approving Will of God An. 1. But what is the Do this that you mean Adam's Law said Do this and live Moses Law said Do this and live The Law given to Christ said Do and suffer this and I will give thee Power over all Flesh to give eternal life to as many as I give thee and believe The Law of Christ to Sinners saith Do this and live This is the work of God that ye believe c. But all these Doings are different for all that It 's an unknown Faith or Repentance which is no Act or Duty 2. There is no Righteousness but the conformity to the Rule of Righteousness if you speak only of that Righteousness which is of that species But there is another sort He that is justifiable is just so far If Satan say Thou art condeâ—nandus to be damned to Hell and shut out of Heaven for breaking the Law of Works I must deny it not by saying I did not break it but keep it by another or I did not deserve damnation but by alledging He that is pardoned is not to suffer any pain of sense or loss I am pardoned by the New covenant through the Merit of the Satisfaction and perfect Righteousness of Christ Adam's Law will not justifie you nor Moses's Law neither The Law requireth personal perfect Obedience It never said Thou or another for thee shalt obey It knoweth no Surety To give a Surety and to accept his suretiship is the act of the Law Giver as above his Law not fulfilling that Law but securing the ends of Government and of it by another way To pardon a Sin and Penalty is not to fulfil the Law that threatened it but to dispense with it which Justice can do upon a valuable consideration securing the ends of Government And Veracity is not impeached by it For 1. The sense of silius mortis is Death shall be thy due and so it was 2. And death was actually inflicted on man himself though not all that which he deserved If the Law of Innocency justifie you you need no Redeemer you need no Pardon you need no New Covenant to justifie you nor can it do it 3. We are justified by Doing though not by our fulfilling the Law of Works by our selves or another We are justified
by two sort◠of Doing Principally by the Merit of Christ's perfect Righteousness and subordinately by our fulfilling the Conditions of the Covenant of Grace which Baptism celebrateth 4. Gods Will approveth of all that is good so far as it is good It approveth of habitual Holiness in Adam and would have done in his Infants had he stood and doth so in all Christians now And I will believe that Christ before he actually obeyed was under Gods approving Will. But not as one that had merited by Obedience For God doth not suppose any to do that which they do not nor oblige them to do to-morrows work to-day § 44. M. S. The issue in a word is 1. Suffering for Sin is not doing nor equivalent in point of Justification 2. Nor can God having satisfaction for what was done cross to his Law lay aside that in order to the conveying of Life and substitute believing instead of it Therefore Faith justifieth ratione objecti only Now we Do in another Christ instead of doing in our own persons An. I doubt this is another Gospel than the Apostles delivered us though I hope that practically we meet in one 1. To the first I answer It 's true but you do ill to intimate that we think otherwise Suffering by the Sinner never satisfieth because it must be everlasting Suffering by Christ satisfieth not meerly as suffering but as the voluntary suffering of God-Man aptly glorifying Justice and Love and securing the ends of Government This Satisfaction is not equivalent to doing in Justification For Doing all required would have justified us against this Charge Thou art a Sinner by Omission and Commission and thou hast deserved Death and hast not deserved Life according to the Law of Works Against this Charge I look for no Justification but confess it is all true But Christ's Satisfaction justifieth us against this Charge God must damn thee by paine of loss and sense or else he is not just because thou hast deserved it And Christ's perfect Righteousness also justifieth us against this Charge God must damn thee and deny thee life because thou didst not merit it by perfect Obedience The Justifier says No because Christ's Merit in Doing and Suffering hath glorified the Law and Justice of God instead of my Merit and hath procured us Pardon and Life given by the New Covenant 2. To the second I answer 1. God did not lay aside his first Covenant but man by sin did lay it aside by making the Condition impossible 2. You overturn the Gospel too much by thinking that the Law is not laid aside as a Covenant or Promise though I grant that the Precept as a Rule of Life continues To say that the sense of Adam's Law was Thou or another Christ for thee shalt obey And that we are justified by that Law is to confound Law and Gospel and make a Gospel of that Law and make the Covenant of Works not to condemn us or both to condemn and justifie and to feign man to live and be judged by the Covenant that is ceased God saith now to no man living Be innocent and so merit life that thou maist live And God doth not repute us innocent at all 3. To the third I answer It is notoriously untrue that Faith justifieth only ratione objecti unless you mean that efficiently it justifieth not at all which is true For we are justified by it also ratione foederis because that which is materially Faith in Christ a justifying Saviour and so connoteth its Object as the meritorious Cause of the free Gift and Pardon is by reason of this aptitude made the Condition of that New Covenant or Gift which is its nearest interest or reason of our being justified by it And it is the Law of Grace by which we must be judged and justified And at that Bar the question which Life or Death dependeth on will be supposing Christ's Merits whether we are penitent Believers or impenitent Unbelievers and so have part in Christ or not And if Satan accuse us as being impenitent Unbelievers and the question be whether we have true Faith or not my Opinion is that we cannot be herein justified by pleading the Object when the Act is questioned and saying That Christ fulfilled that Law unless you could prove that he justifieth impenitent Infidels and as Saltmarsh said repented and believed for us But the grand Case remaineth Whether we are justified by the Law of Innocency by fulfilling it and meriting in another without any sort of doing of our own by our selves Mr. Wotton Mr. Gataker and abundance more have long ago said much to confute your Error besides Mr. Bradshaw whom you name But I add I. I have before proved that by the deeds or sentence of the Law of Adam or Moses no man can be justified 1. He that hath sinned against it cannot be justified as not having sinned For factum infectum fieri is impossible to God himself 2. The Law that condemneth us doth not justifie us 3. What Paul Rom. 3. 4. frequently saith against Justification by the Law of Moses will hold here a fortiori And Christ keeping Moses Law as far as he was capable of Obligation that also would else have been imputed and so we should have been justified by that Law also which the Scripture copiously denieth He that saith He hath no sin deceiveth himself and is a lyar and the truth is not in him And the Law of Adam justifieth no man that hath sin II. We did not fulfil it and merit in Christ But Christ did in the Person of a Mediator voluntarily undertaking it on his Fathers terms and not as our Instrument or in our Persons I have else-where given abundance of Arguments against that which I must not here repeat This Author took notice of my Objection that he that is reputed perfectly Innocent and Obedient is uncapable of Pardon and needeth no satisfaction or remitting or rewarding Covenant besides that which he kept but answereth it not This subverteth the Gospel and Religion Quer. If there be no Reward nor Life but of Justice and no Reward but for Christ's Merits and all Believers equally merited in Christ as fulfilling all the Law 1. Whence cometh the inequality of Grace and Glory 2. How come any Believers to be left long under sins and weakness of Grace and temporal punishments III. The Merits of Christ have procured us the New Covenant sealed in Baptism by which we have a new Rule offiicii judicii for such is every Law Christ is not the only Subject of God He made us not lawless or Rebels God still ruleth the Church by a Law or Covenant This is the Law or Covenant of Grace Deny this Covenant and you deny the Gospel This Covenant or Law obligeth us to Duty And it promiseth and giveth Pardon and Life in and with Christ This Covenant hath Conditions various conditions of various Benefits Our first true consent which Baptism celebrateth that is
our first believing and repenting is the condition of our first Union with Christ and our Pardon and Adoption and the Spirit Our sincere Love and Obedience to the end and over-coming is the further condition of our final Justification at Judgment and our Glory This Covenant we are now under and by this we must be finally judged justified or condemned No man shall be saved unless if at age he personally perform the conditions of this Covenant And every one shall be saved that doth Faith Repentance Love to our Redeemer Gratitude Prayer sincere Obedience are all such Doing as by this Covenant are made the necessary means of Glory But not such Doing as Paul opposeth to the Jews as maketh the Reward not of Grace but of Debt The Author of this Law is just His Justice will give to the performers of the Condition all that he hath promised The Scripture oft useth all these Titles 1. That of Reward as being the state of the benefits retributed 2. That of Justice as being the principle of Reward 3. That of Works as being the matter rewarded even our personal Works wrought by Grace and not only those which Christ did 4. That of worthiness or merit as being the relation of the Work and Person to the Reward 5. That of Righteousness as being the state of the Person performing these Works as pronounced by the New Covenant If I prove not all these by express Scripture believe your new Gospel I. It is Reward Heb. 11. 6. He that cometh to God must believe that God is and that he is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek him It 's he second Article of Faith Prov. 13. 13. Mat. 6. 4. Himself shall Reward thee openly and vers 6. 18. Prov. 25. 22. Mat. 16. 27. Then shall â—e reward every man according to his Works even Christ when he cometh â—n Glory with his Angels If you say He meaneth his Works done by Christ read Mat. 25. and believe it if you can So Rev. 22. 12. 2 Joh. 8. Heb. 11. 26. Col. 3. 24. Ye shall receive the Reward of the Inheâ—itance Col. 2. 18. 1 Cor. 9. 17 18. 1 Cor. 3. 8 14. Luke 6. 35. Mat. â— 12 46. 10. 41 42. Prov. 11. 18. Psal 19. 11. 58. 11. Heb. 10. â—5 II. Gospel paternal Justice rewardeth men supposing Christ's Merits â— Tim. 4. 8. A Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me and not to me only but to all them that love his appearing Rom. 2. 5. The righteous Judgment of God who shall give to every man according to his Works To them that by patient continuance in well-doing c. 2 Thess 1. 5 6 7 8 9 10 11. Psal 67. 4. 46. 10. Psal 11. 7. Gen. 18. 23 24 c. And multitudes of other places Heb. 6. 10. God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love 1 Joh. 1. 9. If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive our sins c. Isa 45. 22. III. The thing rewarded is called Works done by man not legally â—ustifiable but evangelically Mat. 16. 27. Rev. 2. 26. Rev. 14. 13. 20. 12 13. Jam. 2. 21 24 25 26. Rev. 2. 2 9 13 19. 3. 1 2 8 15. Heb. 6. 10. Rev. 22. 12. 1 Cor. 15. last And it 's called Doing 2 Thess 3. 13. and Gal. 6. 9. Rom. 2. 7. 2 Cor. 5. 10. Heb. 10. 36. Mat. 25. 21 â—3 12. 50. 7. 22 23. 6. 1 2. Luke 8. 21. Joh. 13. 17. Col. 3. 23 24. Heb. 13. 21. Rev. 22. 14. And keeping his Word or Commandments 1 Joh. 3. 22. and 1 Joh. 2. 3. and Joh. 15. 10. 14 15 16. Dan. 9. 4. Eccles 12. 13. Prov. 4. 4. Exod. 20. 6. Deut. 5. 29. Ezez 18. 21 c. And Obeying Heb. 5. 9. He is the Author of eternal Salvation to all them that obey him Acts 5. 22. Rom. 6. 16. Obedience unto Righteousness c. IV. The Relative aptitude of the Work for the Reward is called Worâ—hiness or Merit and the performer Worthy evangelically not legally And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 primarily signifieth that which preponderateth in the ballance but cannot note here any worth or merit by commutation but that aptitude which resulteth from the goodness of the action as related to the Promise Rev. 3. 4. A few which have not defiled their Garments and they shall walk with me in white for they are worthy 2 Thess 1. 5 6. The righteous Judgment of God that ye may be counted worthy of the Kingdom of God for which you suffer Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense to you that are troubled rest with us 11. That God would count you worthy of this calling Luke 20. 35. They which be counted worthy to obtain that World 21 36. That ye may be accounted worthy to escape and stand before the Son of Man So Eph. 4. 1. Col. 1. 10. 1 Thess 2. 12. Mat. 10. 37 38. V. The title of Relation given to the Works and Persons evangelically is Righteousness or Justice 1 Joh. 3. 7. He that doth Righteousness is righteous Matth. 25. 46. The righteous into life eternal 21. Well done good and faithful Servant v. 35. For I was hungred and ye c. Mat. 13. 43. Mat. 10. 41. Ezek. 18. 20 24. 33. 12 13 18. Rom. 6. 16. 8. 10. 1 Cor. 15. 21. Eph. 5. 9. 6. 14. 2 Tim. 4. 8. Heb. 11. 33. 2 Cor. 9. 9. And the godly are called Righteous in relation to their Hearts and Doings near an hundred times if not much more in Scripture though but in subordination to Christ's meritorious Righteousness and but secundâ—â— quid and not simpliciter See the Texts further recited in my Confession of Faith And now he that considering all this believes 1. That Christ is no King 2. Or we no Subjects 3. Or that he hath no Law of Grace or Covenant which we are under 4. Or that this Law or Covenant will not justifie them that perform that Condition from legal-executive damnation by giving them Pardon and Right to Life for the Merits of Christ 5. And that Faith Repentance and persevering holy Obedience will not materially justifie any man that hath theâ— from the charge of having no part in Christ because of Infidelity Impenitency Unholiness or Apostacy 6. Or that he that performeth the Gospel-Conditions shall not be judged rewardable or evangelically worthy of the promised Reward 7. Or that the same thing which as Good and a Benefit is a Gift absolutely free against commutative Merit is not yet quoad ordinem conferendi recipiâ—ndi a true Reward 8. And so that we have no Reward for any Works but what Christ did in his own Person 9. And that the Judgment-Day will be to try whether Christ did his part or not and so to judge him and not to try whether we have part in him and did our parts or not by repenting believing
in his Gospel to have a Law The case is sad that any in opposition to others should run into such an Antinomian extream They are unlike to be good Preachers of Christ's Law who maintain that he hath no Law And there can be no sin against it nor expectation of being judged by it if he have none And he is no King and Ruler if he have no Law But yet let the Papists forbear iâ—â—â—ing and remember that the true meaning of most of them is no more than to assert what Suarez himself propugneth viz. that besides Revelations and the Duties thence naturally resulting by natural Law and the Sacraments Christ hath no other Laws And both Suarez and they are here to blame for the Papists that are by some accused for calling the Gospel a Law do also give too little honour to Christ's Laws It beseemeth none of them to use such ill Language what-ever they mean If they should say that the King is no Law-Giver and hath no Laws they would wrong him by that Language as denying his Royalty how well soever they should interpret it For the Legislative-Power is the principal essential part of Soveraignty But if any really deny Christ to be a Law-Giver and when he hath done reproacheth the Papists and Arminians for contradicting it it is but as the blind reproaching the purblind for seeing when they that give most to the Laws of Christ among these Contenders do give too little The Baptismal-Covenant is a Law as imposed and as imposing the Covenant-Duties and as determining the conditions of Life and Death according to which men must live and shall be judged yea it is the most famous Law which Conscience hath to do with Though it be a Covenant as consented to in the contract That Sinners have terms of Life and Death and offered Remedies against all their Guilt and greatest Punishments and Means prescribed and Duties commanded in order to their recovery when the Law of Innocency condemneth them especially the obeying of the Ministry and Word and Holy Spirit of Christ prescribing them his way of cure as their Physician all this is a Law of Grace even the Law of Liberty and the Law of the Spirit of Life which freeth us from the Law of Sin and Death Christ's Law consisteth of two parts as is said 1. The Law of Nature called by many moral as commanding the love of God and its attendent Duties not now to an innocent man but to a condemned-recovering Sinner as the health to which his Physician doth restore him 2. And the remedying Law which is more proper to the Redeemer called the Law of Faith which appointeth us the terms and means of our recovery which is 1. Supernatural as to the Revelation of the matter and reasons of it and the foundation of all in Christ's Work of Redemption and his Legislation 2. But as to the obligation or efficiency of mans duty it is both natural and supernatural at once that is when it is presupposed that Christ hath done suffered and offered to our acceptance all that is so asserted of him in the Gospel 1. Nature obligeth us to believe it upon evidence of credibility and to accept it and thankfully improve it 2. Christ as the Fathers Administrator and our King hath positively commanded us the same Were it not for wearying the Reader and my self I would here answer all that Suarez saith de Legib. li. 10. c. 2. to prove that no praeceptum positivum morale is added by Christ And I would easily prove that as some parts of Nature are unalterable and accordingly natural Duty so some things of Nature are mutable and so is that natural Duty which is founded on them And Christ hath by supernatural Performances and Revelations made such changes in the nature of things as inferreth new natural Obligations Were the Devils redeemed and Grace now offered them nature would make it their duty to accept it In sum it is a sufficient confutation of all Suarez's Reasons to say that they run upon this false supposition that Nature and supernatural Precept may not both oblige man to the same duty and that God cannot lay two Obligations on us to the same action For all that he laboureth is to prove that supposing the Revelation Nature bindeth us to believe all the Christian Articles to preach and hear and pray to God by Christ to love our Redeemer and be thankful c. and that the Gospel is thus fitted to lapsed Nature as the first Law was to innocent Nature All which I like very well and take it for a great honour to Christ and the Gospel that it is so suited to the natural necessity and state of fallen and miserable man and may be called the Law of sinful Nature But Suarez himself had before proved that Moses's Decalogue was both a Declaration of what Nature bound men to and yet also the matter of a new Precept of God And why could he not see the same of the Gospel it being so evident that it containeth Christ's Commands And the very sum of our Ministry is 1. To disciple and baptize all Nations c. 2. And then to teach them to observe all that Christ commanded And indeed Suarez confesseth p. 816. That Christ did by new commanding add new Obligations to the duties of Nature though he deny that Christ added any positive Precept as to the moral matter commanded by the Law of Nature And by this instance you may see how near some men agree that seem much to differ But as to them that insist on it that the Gospel and New Covenant are no Laws and that we have none from Christ but the Decalogue and Old Testament were I to write against them to purpose I would plentifully prove them Subverters of Christianity it self and give full evidence against them to any that believe the holy Scriptures And contrarily I would prove that there are no Divine Laws but what are truly the Laws of our Redeemer now in the world and that all Infidels are ruled and shall be judged by a Law of Grace though not of the last evangelical Edition and that he that feareth not breaking the Laws of Christ shall hear at last Those mine Enemies that would not that I should Reign over them bring them hither and slay them before me Luk. 19. 27. a a a That Christ is truly a King and so a Law-Giver and hath proper Laws and not only Doctrine and how great an injury some Protestants have doâ—e the Church by denying besides the Antinomians See Suarâ—z de Leg. l. 10. c. 1. whose proofs of the thing are unanswerable And I have long ago proved it in other Writings But Suarâ—z asserting that Christ's Law is only Moral and Ceremonial in the Sacraments and not judicial doth plainly confess that God never instituted the Papacy and their Discipline Yea he saith c. 2. p. 812. Christus in sua lâ—ge nihil de praecâ—ptis judicialibus statuit etiam
whether he be a true Christian and must judge of his sincerity and right to Christ Justification and Salvation as he is or is not a sincere consenter to it truly understood in the essential parts SECT V. Of the Gift and Works of the Holy Ghost 72. There are three sorts of Operations of the Holy Ghost one common and two proper to them that shall have or already have Justification 1. The first is preparing common Grace which maketh men fitter for special Grace which yet they may have that perish 2. The second is that Grace of the Spirit by which we perform the The Thomists make the act of contrition and chariâ—y to be the ultiâ—ate disposition to Justification which is with them the habit And yet they say that it floweth from that habit And if the distinction of Alvaâ—ez Disp de Aux 59. p. 264. possim be not contradiction I understand it not Eadem contritio quae est ultima dispositio ad gratiam in genere causae materialis antecedit illam in genere tamen causae formalis efficientis est effectus ejusdem gratiae Though that which is the effect of one act of Gods Love be the Object of another act first Act of special Faith and Repentance called commonly by Divineâ— Vocation which goeth before any special habit but not before any holy seed Because the very influx of the Spirit on the Soul is as a seed which exciteth the first act before a habit though not ordinarily before some preparations This Faith is commanded us as our duty first and made necessary to us as the Condition of the Covenant And when we know it to be thus required of us and hear in the Gospel the Reasons which should perfwade us then the Holy Spirit moveth us by his Influx to believe and consent where God and man are conjunct Agents but man subordinate to God 3. The third sort is the Spirits Operation of the habit of Divine Love and all other Graces in the Soul which is called his In-dwelling and Sanctification This is that Gift of the Spirit besides Miracles of old which is promised to Believers To this Faith is the Condition To this upon believing it is that we have Right given us by Gods Covenant and thus it is that by Baptism our right to the Spirit as an in-dwelling Sanctifier and Comforter is given us 73. This third Gift or Work of the Spirit eminently so called is in the same instant of time given us as the second but not of nature or at least immediately thereupon when we believe But yet they are not to be confounded on many accounts 74. But yet though some degree of the Spirit be presently given to every Believer it is usually but a spark at first And there are further means and conditions appointed us for the increase and actual helps from day to day And he that will not wait on the Spirit in the use of those means doth forfeit his help according to his neglect 75. Hence it is that most if not all Christians have lower measures of the Spirit than otherwise they might have and that judicially as a punishment for Sin However God is free herein and if he please may give more even to them that forfeit it 76. This Covenant of Grace being a conditional pardon of all the world The extent of the New Covenant is universal in the tenor or sense of it It is of all Mankind without exception that Christ saith If thou confess with thy mouth and believe iâ— thy heart thou shalt be saved No person antecedently is excluded in the world 77. And as to the promulgation of it Christ hath commissioned his Ministers to preach this Gospel to all the world and to every Creature So Matth. 28. 19 20. Mark 16. 15 16. that to the utmost of their power they are to offer and publish it to the whole world And Princes and people are all bound in their several places to assist them and to help to propagate the Gospel throughout all the Earth So that the restraint of it is not by the tenor of the Law 78. Those Nations which despise and refuse the Gospel are justly deprived of it penally for that rejection 79. Those Nations that live inhumaâ—ely and wickedly against the means and mercies which they have do forfeit their hopes of more 80. As God in all Ages hath visited the sins of the Fathers on the Children as the instances of Cain Cham Nimrod and others commonly shew and hath proclaimed it as his Name Exod. 34. and put it in Tables of Stone in the Second Commandment and not only of Adam's sin so may he justly deal by the Posterity of the Despisers of the Gosâ—el in denying it them Though he may freely give it the unworthy when he pleaseth 81. All the rest of the world who have not the Gospel and the Covenant The state of those that have not the Gospel of Grace in the last Edition are left by Christ in as good a state â—at least if not better than he found them at his Incarnation He took â—way no mercy from them which they had 82. Therefore as it is before proved that before Christ's time none Of Zuingliu's Opinion of the Salvation of Heathens by name Hercules Theseus Socrates Aristides Antigonus Numa Camilli Catonâ—s Scipiones c. Vid. Montaâ—ut exercit Eccles 1. Sect. 4. Twissum contra Corvinum pag. 371. col 1. Omnium temporum una est fides Deum esse eundemque Justum Bonum Remuneratorem sperantium in se omnium plene meritis respondentem ante legem sub lege sub gratia Nemini rectum sapienti venit istud in dubium sine ista nemo unquam ingressus est ad salutem Rob. Sarisberiens Polycrat de nugis curial Pol. Peucer Hist Carcerum against the Lutherans Concord saith p. 715. Etsi nec ad Ethnicos ante natum Christum nec ad Judaeos post natum Christum misit singulares ministros sonuit tamen vâ—x doctrinae de Deo patefactae utroque tempore Hoc modo adhuc sonat ut exaudiatur nunc etiam a Turcis Judaeis Nec fuerunt unquam exclusi prorsus a gratia miserecordia Dei ante Christum Ethnici E quibus innumeri ex omnibus gentibus fuerunt ad Deum conversi Post Christum natum Judaei Panciores ex his tamen of the world were left desperate under the meer violated Covenant of â—nnocency but that the tenor of that New Covenant as made to Adam â—nd Noah extended to them all so are they still under all the Grace of â—hat Edition of the Covenant further than they are penally deprived of â—â— for violating it The Law of Grace in that first Edition is still in force â—nd the Law by which the world shall be governed and judged They â—re all Possessors of Mercy which leadeth to Repentance and bound to use â—he means afforded them in order
believe in him as the purchaser of pardon and to believe in him as the Teacher and Ruler of the Church as to believe in him as the justifyer of believers The inseparableness of these acts is commonly confessed 110. Indeed it is essential to this faith 1. To be the act of the three essential faculties of man's Soul the Vital Power the Intellect and the Will 2. And to have for its object God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and that in Christ all that is essential to him as a Saviour be its object And therefore 1. That it be an Assent Consent and practical Affiance 2. That it be a believing in Christ as God and Man and as the Teacher Priest and King of the Church revealing the Gospel reconciling us to God and Ruling us in order to Salvation 111. To say that some one only of these parts of Christ's office as they are Concept us inadaequati of a Saviour is the only object of justifying faith and to say that justifying faith is only one Act of the Soul or many acts of one only faculty or to say that we are justified only by such a one and that to expect to be justified by Assent Consent and Affiance or by believing in Christ as our Teacher and Ruler as well as Priest and as a justifying Judg as well as a Justifying Sacrifice and as a fulfiller of the Law is to expect justification by Works as Paul denyeth it This is a vain distinguishing a falsifying the Doctrine of faith and justification a departing from the Scripture simplicity by corrupting seeming subtility and one of those humane inventions which have wronged the Church And it is no wiser than to say that when we speak of taking or receiving a Man to be a Husband a Physician a King it is but one physical aâ— of the Soul that is meant or about one only physical conception in the object which is inadequate Whereas all such Moral or Civil acts coâ—tain many physical acts and are suited to all things in the object which are essential to it in its moral or civil nature or relation 112. And it is but the same deluding subtility and vain curiosity â—â— a playing with deceitful words to say that we are justified by faith Quatenus recipit Christi Justitiam As it believeth in Christ's Sacrifice and perfect obedience only and not As it believeth in him as Teacher Ruler Sanctifier Judg or as he intercedeth for us in Heaven c. when the Scripture saith no such thing at all but simply maketh faith in Christ supposing Faith in God the Father to be that by which we must be justified 113. This distinction is founded in another falshood supposed which is that the effects of all Christ's saving works are as distinctly to be ascribed to several Receiving Acts of faith as they are to the several procuriâ— acts of Christ the object of faith which is another corrupting additioâ— to God's Word One part of the work of our Salvation was done by Christ's humiliation and another by him in his exaltation one by his overcoming the Devil and another by his overcoming the World one by his Cross another by his Grave another by his Resurrection another by his ascension another by his making the new Covenant another by his sending the Spirit another by his sending the Apostles another by his intercession in Heaven another will be done by our Resurrection and another by his last Judgment and our Glorification one by hiâ— as an obeying-subject another as a Sacrifice for sin many by him as a Prâ—phet many as a Priest and many as a King and Judge But to say therefore that our acts of faith as Receptive have as various respects to the effects or benefits and that we are justified by him only as we believe iâ— him as Righteous or a Justifyer and that we are adopted as we believe in him in another respect and sanctifyed as we believe in hiâ— in another respect c. these are the dreams of corrupting curiosity For that Christ who by all these several works hath done all the office of a Redeemer to procure these several effects is preached and offered to us to be entirely as such a Redeemer believed in and received and upon the condition of such an entire faith only Christ and all these benefits conjunctly are by one Covenant given us and no otherwise And believing in Christ as Christ who by all those acts hath himself procured us this Covenant and these gifts is that by which we are justified as it is one undivided faith And the quatenus here as to Christ's own procurement of the effects hath its place but as to the Act of our faith and Christ as the object constituting that faith there is no such diversity or order to be feigned as if the several effects were accordingly to be ascribed to our several Believings or Receiving acts 114. The ambiguity of the very word Receiving hath drawn many into this error Receiving signifyeth sometimes a Physical reception which is meerly Passive or the Relation of the Patient as such to the Act and Agent And this is twofold 1. The Reception of a real being and so to be sanctified is to Receive Sanctification 2. The Reception of a Relation such as all Jus Right to a thing is and so to be pardoned justified and adopted and to Receive pardon justification and adoption is all one 2. Sometimes it signifyeth Moral or Civil receiving which is nothing but 1. The consent of the mind called Acceptance 2. And as to corporeal objects sometime the voluntary act of the body as the Hand taking that which is offered Now if the Receiving in question were physical either rei vel juris ad rem then indeed it would be so neerly related to the thing received which as received is no object because Receiving so is no act as that this quatenus in question might be applyed to it For it may well be said I receive Justification quatenus Justificatus sum as I By this you see the answer to what Mr. Lawson in his excellent Theopolitica hath said against me on this point Of which see fullyer my answer to Mr. Warner in my Disputes of Justification am justified and I receive Sanctification as I am sanctified and vice versa for they are but various words signifying the same thing But of Moral Receiving the case is otherwise For this is not physical Reception but only a Moral Act which is made a necessary medium or Condition to Physical Reception and thence is called Receiving so Accepting or Consenting is a moral means or condition of that Having or Possessing which is consequential And this Acceptance hath relation immediately to the thing as Given only to be made ours according to the Will of the Giver and not made ours according to the order of the things given That is 1. The Ratio proprietatis the Reason that they are ours is the will of the Donor
committed And the obligation to duty goeth before the obligation to punishment for that same action because the action cometh between and the first is an act of Gods antecedent Will and the second of his consequent Will that is of the Retributive and not the Preceptive part of the Law And they note not that the question is not what obedience a man is bound to but what he performeth or must be reputed to have performed If they will speak so unaptly as to say that the Law commandeth Lapsed man not to have sin or imperfect man to have been perfect that is that the Command to day bindeth Adam ad praeteritum not to have sinned yesterday or bindeth to Impossibility in nature that existent sin should not be existent in all which I leave them to their â—iberty of words yet it is certain that no man hath perfectly obeyed for one year or day And therefore if Christ's perfect obedience and â—oliness be imputed to them from their first being then they are reâ—uted not-lapsed nor-sinners from the beginning and so not pardonaâ—le But if it be only for the time after sin that Christ's perfection is â—theirs after what sin must it be If after Adam's then we need no pardon of any but Adam's sin If after conversion then we need no pardon for sins after Conversion If after our last sin then Christ's perâ—ection is not imputed to us till after death 126. Others would come nearer the matter and say that we are â—eputed Righteous as fulfillers of the Law and yet reputed Sinners as Breakers of the Law and that though there be no medium in naturals between light and darkness life and death yet there is between a â—reaker of the Law and a fulfiller of it viz. a non-fulfiller and beâ—ween just and unjust that is not-just But this is a meer darkness There â—s a medium negative in a person as not obliged but none between Posiâ—ive and Privative in one obliged as such A stone is neither just nor â—rivatively unjust Nor a man about a thing never commanded or forâ—idden him But what 's this to the matter God's Law is pre-supposed we talk of nothing but Moral acts The Law forbiddeth Omissions and Commissions both are sin Do these men think that he is not reputed Positively just and not only not-unjust who is reputed never to have committed a sin nor left undone a duty in his life Can â—he Law be fulfilled more than so What is Righteousness if that be not Obj. Adam was neither just nor unjust in his first moment no nor till he sinned say some because till then he was not obliged to obey or at least to any meritorious act that is to love God Ans 1. Adam was in his first instant but Habitually just and not by Act because not obliged to impossibilities any more than an Infant or a stone But we speak only of obliged persons 2. It is not true that Adam was not obliged to obey and Love God before he sinned or that he never Loved God as God Obj. At least Adam merited not the Reward though he sinned not till then Ans 1. He merited what Reward he had viz. the continuance o his blessings first freely given but not an immutable state 2. It is yet unresolved what that was by which Adam must merit Immutability and Glory whether 1. Once obeying or consent to his full Covenant 2. Or once loving God 3. Or conquering once 4. Or eating of the tree of Life 5. Or presevering in perfect obedience to the end that is till God should translate him which is most likely His not Meriting Immutability before the time was no sin we confess 3. And we maintain as well as you that Christ hath not only satisfied for sin and merited pardon but also Merited Immâ—table Glory But consider 1. That Adam's not doing that which was to merit Glory was his sin of omission and to pardon that omission is to take him as a meriter of Glory 2. Therefore it must be somewhat more than he forfeited by that omission and his commission which cometh in by Christ's merit above forgiveness 3. That Christ merited all this both by his active passive and habitual Righteousness by which he merited pardon 4. That it was not we that merited it in him but he to give it us only on the terms of a Law of Grace 127. Yet some come nearer and say that To punish and not-Reward are not all one And so the respect that Sin hath to the deserved punishment needed pardon and satisfaction But our deserving the Reward needed Christ's perfect Obedience to be imputed In this there is somewhat of truth But you must avoid the errors that lie in the way and aâ—â— by most supposed truths 1. Remember that man can have nothing from God but what is a meer Gift as to the matter though it be a Reward as to the order and ends of collation And in this case punishment is damni as well as sensus And so the loss of the Reward is the principal part of Hell or Punishment So that if Christ's death hath pardonâ— our sins of Omission we are reputed to have done all our duty And if so we are reputed to have merited the Reward And if he pardon our â—â—â—â— as to all punishment of sense and loss he pardoneth them as to thâ—â— forfeiture of Heaven as a Gift if not as a Reward 128. But say they remission of sin is but part of Justification because a man may be forgiven and yet not reputed never to have broken the Law To put away guilt and to make one righteous are two thing Ans Still confusion Guilt is either of the fault as such or of the punishment and of the fault only as the cause of punishment If all gâ—â— both culpae poenae were done away that person were reputed poâ—â— righteous that is never to have omitted a Duty or committed a â—â— But indeed when only the Reatus poenae culpae quoad poenam is doâ— away the Reatus culpae in se remaineth And this Christ himself never taketh away no not in Heaven where for ever we shall be judged once to have sinned and not to be such as never sinned 129. And this seemeth the very core of their error that they thâ—â— Of this see wotton de Reconcil at large we must be justified in Christ by the Law of Innocency which justified Christ himself and that we are quit or washed simply from all guilt of fault as well as obligation to punishment which is a great untruth contrary to all the scope of the Gospel which assureth us that we are justified by the Law of Grace or Faith and not by the Law of Works That Christ freeth us from the curse and penalty of the Law which he could not do if we were reputed never to have deserved it as never being Sinners If we are reputed such as fulfilled the Law of Innocency by another in our civil
to God And so Faith is below Repentance as a means of it 204. By this the question whether Faith or Repentance be first may partly be resolved and partly cast out as founded in confusion As they are both one thing neither can be first any otherwise than the same Motus ut a termino a quo ut ad terminum ad quem But as they signifie divers things they have each of them divâ—râ— acts and in respect of each are before each other The Assenting act of Faith in general must needs be always before Repentance as it is an Act of the Will But the consenting Act of faith is also part of Repentance and must folow that part of Repentance which is a change of the understanding But whether the Repentance as towards God or Faith in Christ be first or Love to God and Faith in Christ I have discussed as accurately as I can in my Christian Directory Par 1. cap. 3. pag. 182. and therefore thither refer the Reader 205. And how Faith and Love differ I have there also opened and therefore shall now only say that Faith as it signifieth meet How Faith and Love differ Assent differeth from Love as the act of the Intellect from Volition And Love formally taken presupposeth the Assent and doth not contain it But Faith taken largely in the sence of the Baptismal Covenant containeth in it Consent which is the Wills Volition and therefore must needs have some initial Love in it as it acteth iâ— Desire This Faith in God hath some Desire and Volition of God and Faith in Christ which is the Souls Practical Affiance in him hath some Love to Christ in it But the denomination is not from the same ratio formalis in each It is eminently called Faith when giving up our Souls to Christ to be saved in practical Affiance is the great work of the Soul though it have something of Love essential to it And it is eminently called Love morally when the Complacency of the Soul in Christ thus trusted and in God our end is the great work or business of the Soul 206. This Holy Love as a fixed habit and employment of the Soul and our Relation to the Holy Ghost to work it in us is it that is promised and Given quoad jus in the Baptismal Covenant of which Faith though it have somewhat of actual Love or Volition in it is the antecedent condition which also I have so fully opened as afore cited that I refer the Reader to it for this also And somewhat was said of it before SECT XIII Of the degrees of Pardon or Justification 207. Some men lest they should yield that Justification is not one perfect finished act done but once do feign that it is only the first act of Faith by which a man is justified Indeed it is only the first act by which he â—s changed from an unrighteous to a righteous state But to think that therefore we are never after justified by Faith and so have no actually justifying Faith all our lives but for one instant only is fitter for a Dreamer than a theological Discourser 208. Our first constitutive Justification being in its nature a right to â—mpunity and to Life or Glory * * * â—â—â—â— tells us that 〈…〉 which 〈…〉 by Regeâ—â—ra â—â— and Just â—â—â—â— on â—uâ— what they mean by Râ—â—nission they cannot tell themselves as a â—oresaid Pardon of the guâ—â— they mean not or else they mean several things in one word is a Relation which must be continued to the end and therefore must have the true causes and condition continued and would cease if any of them ceased 209. As to the question therefore whether Justification be lossable and â—ardon reversible I answer that the grant of them in the Covenant is unalterable But mans will in it self is mutable and if he should cease believing by Apostacy and the condition fail he would lose his Right and be unjustified and unpardoned without any change in God But that a man doth not so de facto is to be ascribed to Election and special Grace of which afterward 210. Though all our past sins are pardoned at our first Faith or Conversion or as the Ancients speak in Baptism yet it is most certain that Pardon or Justification is not perfect at first no nor on this side death And the saying of many that Justification is perfect at first and Sanctification only by degrees is a palpable error as I have else-where oft shewed For that is not perfect 1. Which is not continued and brought on to its end but upon continued conditions and diligent use of means to the â—ast * * * Neque enim peccati sui veniam impetravit Adam ut a morte temporali immunis esset Twiss contr Corvin pag. 343. col 2. 2. Which leaveth many penalties unremoved which have further means to be used for their removal and further Right to it to be obtained To have more and more Grace and less and less Sin and to have â—earer communion with God are blessings as to the degrees which we must by degrees attain a further Right to and the privation of them are â—ore penalties to be removed 3. We have new sins to be pardoned every day 4. Our remaining Corruption is such as needeth a continued Pardon till it be perfectly done away 5. The Day of Judgment is not come for which the most perfect Justification is reserved SECT XIV Of Justification by Sentence of the Judge 211. The second sort of Justification which is by Sentence is done by Christ as Judge and so is an act of his Kingly Office 212. Therefore were it true as it is not that justifying Faith were only the receiving or believing in Christ as a Justifier of us it would not be a believing in him in his Priestly Office only but in act For he merited our Justification as a humbled Servant and a Sacrifice He giveth it us in Right by his Covenant or Law of Grace as King and Benefactor He promulgateth it as Prophet He passeth the Sentences as King and Judge He executively taketh off the penalty and glorifieth us as King and Benefactor There is no Justification by a partial Faith 213. Though the estimation of a man as just called the Sententiâ— judicis concepta as distinct from the sententia prolata be said to be â—â— immanet act of God and therefore from eternity yet it is a mistake For though it be not transient effectivè and do nihil efficere ad extra yeâ— it is transient objectivè and doth presuppose the existence of the qualified Object For though Gods Knowledge and Will in genere or as such are his eternal Essence yet Gods Knowledge and Love of John or Peter â—â— Believers are terms which signifie not his Essence as such but as transâ—â— and terminated on those existent persons relatively So that the extrinâ—â—cal denomination from the existent Object is temporary as it is 214.
to be damned to Hell but to be glorified in Heaven or to be sentenced to endless life and acquit from this Accusation that we are damnandi or to be punished in Hell And in order to this to be sentenced such as have the true causes and conditions of Right to Impunity and Life which are 1. Immediately the gift of this Right by God himself in his Covenant with Christ the Fountain of it 2. A true Right and Relation to Christ as our Head and Saviour and the only Meriter of this Covenant-Gift and Justification and Adoption by his habitual active and passive Righteousness and Sacrifice advanced in dignity by Union with his Divine perfection 3. True Faith and Repentance with Love Obedience and Perseverance as the title-conditions required by the donative and condonative Covenant 358. As I have before said that a man must be justified at that Day from the charge of Infidelity by his Faith it self and not by Christ's Merits and from the charge of Impenitence by his Repentance it self So I add that he must be justified from the charge of Hypocrisie by his sincerity and from the charge of Rebellion by his subjection and from the charge of wickedness by final godliness and obedience and from the charge of Apostacy by perseverance But from the charge of his wickedness before Conversion and his pardoned sins and weakness since only by Christ's Sacrifice and meritorious Righteousness and the Pardon purchased thereby and given in the New Covenant And from the accusation that we are Sinners in general we have no Justification at all 359. Judgment is the Genus and Justification and Condemnation are the Species Therefore to be judged according to our Works is to be justified or condemned according to our Works 360. As I said that it is God's Justice and Mercy and Christ's Redemption of us which are chiefly to be glorified at that Day but it is our personal Gospel-Righteousness or performance of the Conditions of the New Covenant which is then to be tried and we and not Christ that are to be judged So I add that the New Testament referring to this fore-seen doth usually speak accordingly of justifying us by Faith by our words or by our works that he that doth righteousness is righteous c. And it speaketh of that same Righteousness as constituting us just first by which we must be judged just at last 361. It is very easie therefore where prejudice blindeth not men to see the concord of Christ's saying We are justified by our words and Paul's by Faith and not by Works and James by Works and not by Faith only Christ speaketh of a particular Justification from a common great Crime a wicked Tongue as the sign or product of a wicked Heart And this must be part of the personal material Righteousness by which we must be justified as true Christians * * * Tolet in Rom. 3. Annot 17. Estius in Rom. 3. 28. Vega de justiâ— qu 3. p. 899. say of Justification by Faith as the Protestants do Vid. Stapleton de Justifi li. 8. c. ult Bellarm. de Justif l. 2. c. 7 10 11. Suarez de Grat. l. 7. c. 7. n. 29. Topper art 8. de Justif p. 25 26 27. Vasqu in 1. 2. disput 202. c. 6. n. 45. Coster Enchir. p. 292. Paul speaketh of our being justified by being Christians and not by keeping Mose's Law or doing any Works which will be to us instead of a Christ or a free-given Pardon and Righteousness by him And James speaketh of the full condition of Justification as continued final and compleat as it consisteth of its essential parts 362. The Key of Understanding Paul's Discourses of Justification is to know 1. That the grand question which he first manageth is Whether the Gentiles may not be saved without keeping the Jewish Law as well as the Jews with it 2. To prove the Affirmative he proveth that the Jews themselves cannot be saved or justified meerly or primarily by the Law notwithstanding the divinity and great excellency of it but must be justified by a Saviour and free-given Pardon and Right to Life and to which the sincere keeping of Mose's Law was intended to be but subservient 3. That therefore it appeareth that the Jews did so fondly admire the Law and their national priviledges under it that they thought that the exact keeping of it was necessary and sufficient to Justification and Salvation And they thought the Messiah was not to be their Righteousness as a Sacrifice for Sin and Meriter of free Pardon and the Gift of Life but only a great King and Deliverer to redeem them by Power from all their Enemies and Bondage 4. That it was not Adam's Covenant of Innocency or Perfection which the Jews thus trusted to or Paul doth speak against as to Justification though a minore ad majus that also is excluded For the Jews knew that they were Sinners and that God pardoned Sin as a merciful God and that their Petavius de Leg Grat. li. 1. c. 7. Well openeth the various senses in which the Law doth or doth not promise life eternal And through his two Books is much worth the reading of the difference of the Law and Gospel See Mr. Allen's Treat of the Two Covenants with my Preface And Mr. Truman's Great Propitiat with the Append. Law had Sacrifices for Pardon and Expiation with Confessions c. But they thought that so far as God had made that Law sufficient to political ends and to temporal Rewards and Punishments it had been sufficient to eternal Rewards and Punishments and that of it self and not in meer subordination to the typified Messiah Therefore they thought that he that kept the Law so far as to comit no sin which the Law punished with death or abscission and that for all his other pardonable sins performed the required Penances and Sacrifices was by this which is called The Works of the Law that is the keeping of the Law a righteous justifiable person 5. That the thing therefore which Paul disproveth them by is 1. That the Law was never made for such an end 2. That even then it stood in subordination to Redemption and free-given life 3. That the free Gift or Covenant of Grace containing the Promise of the Messiah and Pardon and Life by him was before the Law and justified Abraham and others even without it 4. That their Law was so strict that no man could perfectly keep it all 5. That every Sin deserveth death indeed though their Law punished not every sin with death by the Magistrate 6. That their Law was never Obligatory to the Gentile world who had a Law written in their Hearts and therefore not the common way of Justification * * * Jansenius Aug. To. 2. c. 4. asserteth That the chief difference between the old Law and the new is that the old was written in Stone and Tables and the new only in memory and
in the heart and so maketh the Creed to be more properly this Law than the Scriptures as being written only on particular occasions But though we thankfully confess that the essentials of Christianity are so plain and few as may be remembred yet the Creed is contained and explained in the Scripture and without written Records our Faith would have been but ill preserved as experience and reason prove 7. That their Law as such discovered sin but gave not the Spirit of Grace to overcome it Insomuch as though he himself desired perfectly to fulfil it without sin yet he could not but was under a captivity that is a moral necessity of imperfection or sins of infirmity from which only the Grace of Christ could as to guilt and power deliver him 8. That no man ever came to Heaven by that way of merit which they dreamed of but all by the way of Redemption Grace free Gift and pardoning Mercy Therefore their conceit that they were just in the main and forgiven their sins and so justifiable by the meer dignity of Mose's Law which they kept and by the Works of the Law and not by the free Gift Pardon and Grace of a Redeemer and by the Faith and practical belief of that Gift and acceptance of it with thankful penitent obedient hearts was a pernicious errour But the true way of Righteousness was to become true Christians that is with such a penitent thankful accepting practical belief or affiance to believe in God as the Giver of Salvation in Christ as the Redeemer and his Spirit as our Life and Sanctifier and to accept Christ and all his procured Benefits Justification and Life as purchased by his Sacrifice and meritorious Righteousness and given in the New Covenant on this condition and so to give up our selves to his whole saving-work as to the Physician of our Souls and only Mediator with God This is the sum of Paul's Doctrine on this point 363. I say again therefore for any man to say that some one physical act either assent or consent or affiance upon one particular Object Christ's Righteousness as offered us is the instrumental cause of our Justification and that to look to be justified by any other act of Faith on Christ or on the Father or Holy Ghost or on Heaven the final Object God in Glory or secondarily as subsequent parts of the condition of Salvation by Repentance by praying for Pardon by forgiving others by Obedience to Christ c. is to look to be justified by Works in the sense that Paul excludeth them this is but to abuse the Gospel and the Church by a scandalous misinterpretation of a great part of the New Testament 364. St. James therefore having to do with some who thought that Leg. Placeum in Thes Salvin de hâ—sce Vol. 1. Conrad Bergium in Prax. Cathol â— e Blank Thes de Just and our Mr. Gibbon's Serm. Of Justif in the Morning-Exercises at Giles in the Fields Paraeus de Justif Cont. Bellarm. l. 2. c. 7. p. 469. Nos imputari nobis Christi justitiam ut per â—am formaliter justi nominâ—mâ—r simus neque diximus unquam neque sentimus ut aliquoties jam ostendimus Id enim pugnaret non minus cum recta ratione quam si reus in judicio absolutus diceret se clementia judicis donantis sibi vitam formaliter justum esse c. the bare profession of Christianity was Christianity and that Faith was a meer assent to the Truth and that to believe that the Gospel is true and trust to be justified by Christ was enough to Justification without Holiness and fruitful Lives and that their sin and barrenness hindered not their Justification so that they thus believed perhaps misunderstanding Paul's Epistles doth convince them that they were mistaken and that when God spake of Justification by Faith without the Works of the Law he never meant a Faith that containeth not a resolution to obey him in whom we believe nor that is separated from actual Obedience in the prosecution But that as we must be justified by our Faith against the charge of being Infidels so must we be justified by our Gospel personal holiness and sincere Obedience against the charge that we are unholy and wicked or impenitent or Hypocrites or else we shall never be adjudged to Salvation that is justified by God 365. All this then is past controversie among considerate understanding men 1. That Works justifie us not as perfect according to the Covenant of Innocence because we have them not 2. That the Works or keeping of Mose's Law as conceited sufficient or as set in opposition against or competition with a Saviour or free Gift or any otherwise than as the exercises of meer Obedience under Christ as Mary â—â—chary Elizabeth Simeon John Baptist David c. used them could justifie no man 3. That consequently no other Works set up either in the said opposition or competition or as any thing of Merit or worth is ascribed to them which is proper to Christ or any part of the honour of Gods free Gift can justifie no man nor any other way than as meer conditions and exercises of thankful obedience or acceptance in pure subordination to God's Mercy and Christ's Merits and the free Gift But that Works are not excluded from being conditions of our justification or the matter of it in any of these following respects 1. That Faith it self which is our act and an act of Obedience to God and is the â—iducial accepting belief in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost for the benefits of the Covenant is the condition of our first Covenant-right to these Benefits 2. That this Faith is not actual Obedience to Christ as Christ at first but only to God as God But it is the Souls subjection to Christ as Christ which is our Covenant-consent to our future Obedience and virtually though not actually containeth our future Obedience in it 3. That there is somewhat of love consent or willingness of Desire of Hope of Repentance which goeth to make up this moral work of Faith as it is the condition even our first Christianity it self 4. That as the making of a Covenant is for the performing of it and subjection is for Obedience and Marriage for conjugal Duties so our said first Covenanting-Faith is for our future Faith Hope Comfort and grateful Obedience and Holiness And these are the secondary parts of the condition of Salvation And so are the secondary parts of our Justifications condition as continued or not-lost and consummate For to justifie us is as is said to justifie our Right to Impunity and Glory â— That as is said our own performance of the condition of the free Gift of Impunity and Glory by the New Covenant purchased by Christ's Righteousness is the thing to be tried and judged in Gods judgment And therefore we must so far be then justified from the charge of â—ot performing that condition of
being Infidels unsanctified impeniâ—ent Hypocrites Apostates and so of having no part in Christ and the free Gift even by our personal Evangelical Faith Holiness Repentance â—incerity and Perseverance And all this justification by Works St. James â—s for and it is undeniable by any thing but prejudice ignorance and â—ding pievishness Let the Reader of quick understanding pardon my â—epeating the same thing which others will not yet understand 366. Christ's Sermons Matth. 5. 6. 7. 10. 13. 18. 21. â—nd Luk. 6. 11. 12. 16. 18. 19. and Joh. 1. 3. 5. 6 c. with all the Sermons in the Acts and all the Catholick Epistles of Peter James Jude and John and Paul's Epist to the Rom. Chap. 1. 2. 4. 6. 7. 8. â—2 c. Gal. 5. 6. and a great part of the rest of his Epistles are â—ade up of this Doctrine of * * * Me-thinks Jansenius greatly wrongeth his Cause when he saith To. 2. c. 13. that Primus Augustinus intelligentiam divinâ— gratiâ— novi Testamenti fide crediti a peruit fidelibus ecclesiae If we should say that Primus Lutherus they would take it for a note of novelty and errour was the Church for 400 years ignorant of Grace and fundamental Verities Contrarily I think that Christ's plain Doctrine in his Sermons and the old Churches for 300 years in their plainer uncurious Writings plainly delivered all the necessary Doctrine of Grace yea even the Creed it self containeth it Grace which I have asserted And the â—eading of them will better instruct you in the true sense of Remission and â—ustification than most Treatises written on that Subject which I have seen 367. The perfection of Justification and Pardon will be by the final executive act the taking the justified into Glory SECT XXVII Of the fewness of the glorified and the many that perish 368. Though it be comparatively but a little Flock and part of this world to whom God will give the heavenly Kingdom yet the number will in it self be exceeding great And it 's very probable that this Earth being a very little punctum of the Creation that taking all God's rational Creatures together the number of the damned will be found a very small number in comparison of the blessed even as the Malefactors in the Jailes are to the Subjects of the Kingdom For the worlds above us are incomprehensibly vast and glorious And the Text telleth us Heb. 22. 22. That we are come to an innumerable company of Angels Though the proportions be unknown to us I speak this again that mistakes tempt not men to unworthy thoughts of the infinite amiable goodness of God or of the Christian Faith 369. And what the Saints do want in number they shall have in excellency to glorifie the goodness of God The little Flock which shall have the Kingdom shall be all Kings and Priests and shall judge the world Judgment in Scripture is much put for Government They shall be equal with Angels and shining Stars in our Fathers Firmament and shall sit with Christ upon his Throne And shall in a word in the perfection of their Natures perfectly know love and praise obey and delight in God in a perfect society in the sight of Christ's Glory and be assured of this to all eternity Amen And we see in Gods Works of Nature high Excellencies are rare There are not so many Suns as Stars nor Stars as Stones or Leaves or Trees nor so much Gold as Earth nor so many Men as Flies Fishes and other Animals nor so many Kings as Subjects nor so many Teachers as Learners nor so many men of learning and wisdom as ignorance And we see there are not so many godly as ungodly 370. And as I told you before that as Israel was not all Gods people in the world before Christ's Incarnation and that the Chatholick Church now succeedeth them in their high and rare Peculiarities and Priviledges above the rest of the world and far exceedeth them in the greatness of our Mercies and that Christ's Incarnation hath put the rest of the world into no worse a condition than they were before and that all the world is under a Law of Grace and none under the Law and Covenant of Innocency only So I now add that all shall be judged by that Law which they were under They that have sinned without a written Law shall be judged without that Law And what state each particular Rom. 2. Soul is in the Judge only knoweth and not we who are insolently arrogant if we will step up into his Throne and judge his Subjects without his Commission But this we know that God hath various degrees of Rewards and Punishments as to Infants and Adult so to the Adult among themselves And that he that gained but two Talents shall be Ruler of two Cities And he that had but one might have improved one though he could not have improved more than he had And that they that have done good shall go into everlasting life and those that have done evil to everlasting punishment And the kinds and degrees of their different Matth. 25. last punishments hereafter how great and how far involuntary they are beyond the very miserable case of their sinfulness it self are things that are unknown to us But certain we are that the Judge of all the world will do righteously and that all wise and righteous mens judgments when they shall see what the number of Sufferers and the sorts and degrees of their punishment are shall be fully satisfied of the Goodness Clemency Wisdom and Justice of God and never once wish it had been otherwise And that the Servant that knew his Lords Will and prepared not himself nor did according to his Will shall be beateâ— with many stripes But he that knew not and did commit things worthy Luk. 12. 47 48. of stripes shall be beaten with few stripes For unto whomsoever much is given of him shall he much required and to whom men have committed much of him will they ask the more 371. It is little understood by most how much man by sin it self is effectively his own Tormenter which tempteth man to doubt of Hell as if it were Gods too much severity so to punish How Sin is a punishment it self and how God antecedently made mans nature such that if he would sin it should torment him and undo him of it self like poyson to the Body I have opened in the first Chapter See Gabr. Biel in 2. d. 36. that Omne peccatum est poena and the four Reasons of Bonavent recited by him 372. The Stoicks and Platonists Revolution and the Pythagorean Re-incorporation are so like the Christian Doctrine of the Resurrection that though we must not with Origin seek to make them liker than they are yet those Infidels are unexcusable who take this for incredible and yet take the other for the most rational conjecture
that have a mind to contend about names § 20. Though a meer Indifferent faculty be as Dr. Twisse saith rather to be called Nature than Grace yet it is Grace 1. Which giveth a gracious object to that faculty though thereby it be still but an undetermined Power 2. And it is more Grace which taketh off some vicious Ill-dispositions of the soul and giveth it some more Disposition to believe though but so much as common grace doth give § 21. It is not a meer Power that God giveth men to Repent and believe But a Power accompanied with many Gracious helpâ— and means to determine it aright of which before § 22. He that will not use such Power and means doth thereby forfeit further grace * * * Brianson in 4. q. 8. Cor. 3. fol. 152. maintaineth i. Quod ad obtinendam eratiam necessario ex parte homâ—nis praecedit aliqua dispositio 2. Quod talem dispositioâ—em homo per selpsum potest si vult in se inducere praesuppositâ influentiâ gâ—nâ—ali Dâ—i 3. Quo l talis dispositio ex parte hominis nullam inducit necessitatem introductionis gratiae ex parte Dei sed totum fit merâ gratuitâ Dei voluntate But the second must be done by common preparing Grace However God doth not alwayes take the forfeiture and will not of his elect to their destruction but doth pardon them § 23. By all this it appeareth 1. That all men have a natural power or faculties enabled to all that is necessary to salvation so far that it is not the want of a proper natural power that shall necessitate them to sin and perish 2. That this Power is by vice undisposed to believe c. 3. That it hath some Indisposition to all that virtue or moral good which tendeth to salvation 4. That it is not equally undisposed to all such Good 5. That it's Indisposition to some means of Recovery is no greater than what may be overcome by Gods commoner sort of Grace 6. That this commoner Grace is not herein ever so effectual as that all that receive it do all the good that they can do by it even in a moral sence nor all that some others do that have no more help But the wilful negligence of the receiver or his diversion or resistance frequently frustrateth it though not alwayes 7. That the right use of this commoner grace in the use of the foresaid means is a way appointed by God himself and not in vain by and in which men may be made fit to receive that special Grace which will call them savingly to believe 8. That no man is denyed that special grace that deserveth it not by the abuse of Common grace How the caâ—e of Infants dependeth on the Parents I must not instance as oft as the exceptions of wranglers require it 9. And therefore no man is condemned for want of natural Power as such but only for want of stirring up his natural power by those helps of grace by which he might have done it and for want of that further Good faith love obedience which by the helps rejected he might have been brought up to had he not wilfully neglected the power and helps which he had 10. Yea usually God long waiteth patiently on sinners with the tenders of mercy while they reject it before he utterly forsake them SECT XIV Whether the giving of faith be an Act of Omnipotency and a proper Creation and a Miracle § 1. THe Reader must pardon me for troubling him with such frivolous questions about names seeing unhappy Theologues have made it necessary An Act of Omnipotency hath several senses Creation is an ambiguous word Pet. de Alliaeo in 4. q. 1. G. telleth us of four Ordinary senses of the word 1. Facere aliquod esse post non esse 2. Facere aliquid esse post non esse ab illo agente quod potest hoc sine causali influxu materiae vel subjecti 3. Facere aliquid esse post non esse sire concursu causali seu influru materiae vel subjecti sine subjecto praesupposito ex quo illud fiat 4. Facere aliquid esse post noâ— esse absque agente se solo causante sine concursu alterius causae efficientâ— Malderus 1. 2. qu. 113. a. 9. p. 578. ex Tho. August Justificatio impii est maximum opus Dei. Secundum quantitatem tam magnum est Angelos justos câ—eare sed secundum quantitatem proportionis majus est impios justificare quia major est diâ—properti impii ad gratiam quam justi ad gloriam sicut ex plebeio creare ducem quam ex duce regem Aug. Tr. 72. in Joh. Justis create impios justificare aequalis potentiae hoc autem major is misericordiae est 1. If the meaning be Whether Omnipotency be the Agent Principle it is past dispute For it 's all one as to ask Whether it be an Act of God God hath no Power but Omnipotency that is perfect power 2. If the meaning be Whether the Giving of faith be an Adequate effect of Omnipotency it is also negatively past doubt Though those that take God to be but Anima Mundi say that Either the World is Infinite or that God is not Infinite as thinking the World to be his adequate effect yet Christians are commonly agreed that God hath no adequate effect Even the making of the universe the Giving of Christ and the Glorifying of the Church which are the highest effects of his Power Wisdom and Love are not adequate effects For nothing but another God can be an adequate effect of God And another God is a contradiction § 2. 3. But if the sense of the question be only comparative As 1. Whether Omnipotency be more eminent in the giving of faith than Wisdom and Love or Goodness 2. Or whether Omnipotency be more eminent in giving faith than other works of God they are both needless questions And to the first I say No To the second those other works of God must be named and compared by the presumptuous that have no safer work to do § 3. 4. If the question be Whether the giving of faith be so great a work that no Power below Omnipotency could suffice to do it I answer it is a presumptuous paltry question of rash men But yet if it must be answered it must be negatively Because as Omnipotence is more illustrious in the making of the world than in causing a man to believe so Christians agree that the world it self as I said is not an adequate effect of Omnipotency Which maketh so many of the subtilest Schoolmen conclude that God could not be proved to be Omnipotent by the whole Creation â—as such were it not further to be gathered from the notices of his perfection Which were false if by Omnipotence they meant only a Power that can do all that is done But they mean An Infinite Power which they say must be so seen in
Some of you will grant that as motion causeth motion by contact of bodies so the first effect on the soul can cause the second And others of you will deny it and say that Gods Actions being diversified only by the diversity of effects and objects that which causeth the second effect is to be denominated a second Action and not the same numerically which caused the first no nor specifically if the effects specifically differ And so as scholastick wits here exercise their curiosity without respect to Arminianism or Calvinism you will here fall into notional Controversies in the way § 20. 2. But granting that the first effect is that efficacious Grace which must cause the second how shall we know what the first effect is and what the second Gods Grace like the Sun is still shining though we are not still receiving it When it worketh but the commoner sort of effects these tend to more and more The first Gracious effect may be forty years before Conversion But this is not your meaning But I suppose you will say that it is the first special effect or gratia operata that is proper to the saved which you mean But to pass by that Augustine Prosper Fulgentius much more their predecessors held that sincere faith Love holiness Justification present right to Life if they so dyed are not proper to the saved but that some lose all these If you say but proper to the Justified or Sanctified or Converted or it be the first effect which is proprium Justificandis which you mean Are we agreed what that is § 21. Either the first effect on the soul or the first Gratia operata is the Act of faith it self or somewhat antecedent If the Act as many subtilly maintain then it were a foolish question to ask Whether the Act of faith be Effectual to cause it self and How Therefore it must be somewhat antecedent or we can find no matter for our Controversie de efficacia Gratiae ad credendum § 22. If somewhat antecedent to the Act it is either a Disposition or Infused Habit or an Impression Impulse or Influx which is neither Disposition nor Habit. * * * Dico 1. Non certo constare ex divinis literis esse hujusmodi Habitus supernaturales 2. At baptizatis infunditur Gratia â—o sensu quod efficiuntur Dâ—o grati consortes divinae naturae renati 3. Conceditur Dei adjutorium ut credamus velimuâ— diligamus per inspirationem infusionem spiritus sancti 4. Dei adjutorium desuper infusum est omnino necessarium ut credamus diligamus c. non tantum ut facilius credamus Medina in 12. q. 51. p. 282. See many definitions of a Habit confuted in Medina 1. 2. p. 271. and that which he resteth in is Aristotles Qualitas quâ rectè vel malè afficimur § 23. 1. A proper Habit of faith it is not Though Mr. Pemble singularly seem so to think yet he meaneth but a seminal disposition And it 's commonly held that the Habit is given by sanctification after the Act given in Vocation 2. But if it were otherwise the Habit is not alwayes sufficient to ascertain the Act. For holy men oft sin against a Habit and believers do not alwayes exercise it Habits Incline per modum naturae but do not certainly determine to the act 3. And of a Disposition it must be so said much more § 24. 2. And if it be an Impulse or Influxus Receptus as I think we must affirm this is but a general notion of which our understanding is very crude or small A meer Motus it is not For as was said in the beginning the Divine Influx is threefold viz. From Vital-Activity or Power Wisdom and Love to Life Light and Love in man Now as I said if there be no such Impulse besides the Life Light and Love produced our Controversie is at an end For these are not efficacious or efficient of themselves But if such a different Impulse there be it 's hard to know what it is in man I conceive it best expressed by all these inadequate notions conjunct 1. An inward urgency to this threefold act which is called in the Schools both auxilium concurse and Influx 2. By which Urgency the soul is more Disposed to the Act in hoc ordine than it was before 3. Which Disposition containeth in it a Moral Power to that Act so ordered and somewhat more even some Inclination to perform it If any man can tell me better what that Divine Impulse is which is antecedent to mans Act I am willing to learn § 25. Now if this be the question Whether this Divine Impulse which is the first effect of Gods spirit be of its own nature efficacious to produce According to Jansenius the first Grace is Necessary Delectation or Love in act before that which is free and full And if so then there is no grace causing this grace and so none to be the subject of this question Whether it be more or less sufficient or effectual operating or co-operating grace which maketh one man love God initially rather than another For it is no Grace bâ— Gods essential will this Love be the first Grace and no received Impulse antecedent to it our Faith Love c. as the second effect I answer 1. Sometimes Gods Impulse is so Great as propriâ vi doth change mind and will and overcome resistance and procure our act 2. Sometimes it is so strong as that it prevaileth against the contrary ill-disposition so far as to give man a Moral Power to the Act with some Inclination which yet contrary habits and temptations do overcome and the Act doth not follow which yet was not for want of Power to have done it And this is called sufficient Grace 3. We have great reason to believe that as in some Instances Gods greater Impress is the chief differencing Cause so in other Instances an equal Impulse of God on unequally disposed subjects doth produce the Act of faith c. in one of them which it produceth not in the other through the incapacity of the recipient 4. Therefore there is a double degree of efficacy or Vis One which only so far moveth and helpeth the will as that it can do the act and sometime doth it without more Another which is so strong as that the second effect alwayes followeth it 5. But whenever the Act of faith is produced by force or Impulse more or less God is the first and principal cause of it and man but the second and the praise of it is accordingly due And I think this decision accommodateth both sides of our contenders § 26. The foresaid Impulse or first effect is only the work of God and the means and not ours But the Act of Faith Love c. is Gods work and ours and ours as Free-agents Therefore that Impulse of God which is Aptitudinally efficacious on supposition of mans due reception and self-excitation
the difference seemeth to be founded 1. See what the Brittish Divines say in the Synod of Dort de art 3. 4. suffrag p. 124. Th. 1. There are certain outward works ordinarily required of men before they are brought to the state of Regeneration Rom. 10. 14. Mat. 6. â—â— Act. 13. 46. Psa 58. 5. or Conversion which use to be sometime freely done by them and sometime freely omitted as to go to Church to hear the Preaching of the Word and such like Th. 2. There are certain inward effects which are excited in the hearts of those that are not yet justified previous to Conversion and Regeneration Act. 2. 37. by the virtue of the word and spirit such as are the knowledge of Gods will the sense of sin the fear of punishment the thoughts of deliverance some hope of pardon To the state of Justification Gods grace useth not to bring men by sudden Enthusiasm but prepared and fitted or disposed by many previous actings by the Ministry of the word As in natural Generation there are many previous dispositions 1 Cor. 4. 15. before the reception of the form so in the spiritual we come to the spiritual birth by many foregoing actings of Grace If God would immediately Regenerate and Justifie a wicked man not prepared by any knowledge any sorrow any desire any hope of pardon there were no need of the Ministry of man and the Word Preached to do it Th. 3. Those that God thus affecteth by his spirit by means of the Word them he truly and seriously calleth and inviteth to faith and conversion We must judge of the helps of Grace by the nature of the offered benefit and by Gods plain word and not by the abuse and event Seâ—ing the Gospel of its own nature calleth men to Repentance and Salvation seeing the excitements of grace tend to it we must not think that 2 Cor. 5. 20. 2 Cor. 6. â—â— Gal. 1. 6. Rev. 3. 2. God here doth any thing dissemblingly Nor can it be imagined that that calling by the word and spirit can make men unexcuseable which is given only to that end to make them unexcuseable Th. 4. Those whom he thus affecteth God forsaketh not nor ceaseth to promote them in the true way to conversion before he is forsaken by them by voluntary neglect or the repulse of this initial grace The talent of grace once given men of God is not taken away from any man till he bury it by his own fault Therefore we are oft warned in Mat. 2â— 2â— Scripture not to resist or quench the spirit nor to receive the grace Heb. 3. 7. Prov. 1. 24. 2 Chron. 24. 20. of God in vain nor to fall from God Yea it is plainly given as the reason of Gods forsaking men that they first forsake him Th. 5. Many lose these beginnings Mat. 13. 19. Heb. 6. 4. 2 Pet. 2. 21. Th. 6. The Elect do not so behave themselves under these preparatory workings but that for their negligence and resistance they might justly be forsaken of God But such is Gods special mercy to them that though Joh. 6. 37. â—er 14. 7. 32. 39. Phil. 1. 6. for a time they may repel or suffocate this exciting and illuminating grace yet God doth urge them again and again and ceaseth not to promove them till he fully subjugate them to his grace and place them in the state of regenerate sons Th. 7. All men resist Gods grace and God might justly forsake all Rom. 9. 18. 11. 35. Act. 28. 27. but doth not By all this it is evident that they took not man to be forsaken of God in the state of meer original sin or the corrupt mass but as a wilful resister and refuser of offered Grace and oft after the receiving of much preparing grace and that God forsaketh none till they forsake his grace 2. To the same sence our English Divines commonly tell us how ordinarily God prepareth men for conversion before he convert them and how far persons unconverted may go in common grace He that readeth Mr. Hooker of New England Mr. John Rogers his doctrine of faith Mr. Boltons instructions for comfort Mr. Meads Almost a Christian and abundance such will see that they were of the same mind 3. Hence it is plain that those persons that resisted this further work of grace and forsook God first had true Power to have done otherwise and could have gone further than they did without any other grace than they had Though quoad necessitatem sequentem vel consequentiae it might be inferred even from Gods prescience that it could not be 4. They here describe Gods effectual grace by moral titles of Gods urging them till they yield though as after they open it Gods renewing active influx maketh new creatures and is not a meer moral indetermining suasion leaving the will indifferent 5. The truth is as is aforesaid no mortal man can tell of any difference on Gods part between his common and special agency on souls but only on the part of the work done Nay it is against the doctrine of all â—orts of Divines both Papists and Protestants as to the generality that there is any difference at all For they all say that all Gods actions ad extra are noâ—hing but his essence viz. his essential knowledge will and power which is undividedly one as terminated effecting related and denominated variously E. g. by one Volition he willeth divers products but not by divers volitions See the Conclusion of the first Chapter ex parte sui either considered specifically or numerically but the specification and individuation is only in the effects and in Gods will as relatively denominated And if this be all mens doctrine what an unhappy case is the Church faln into that the very same men that say this should yet intolerably quarrel Whether this one Divine attingency or operation shall be called Creation infusion urgency excitation perswasion physical hyperphysical moral or what else when all are agreed that all are one and the same ex parte Dei And as to the effects I do my self think that a certain Impulse received on the soul is the first effect and the Act of man as faith is but a second and that of both Causes But we cannot tell well what that Impulse is And therefore must dispute in the dark about the differences of it And this is nothing to them that own nothing but Gods essence as the cause of our act as the first effect If their opinion hold true that as in Creation there was no mediate Impulse between the Creator and the Creature for there was no recipient so here there is no effect on the soul before the Act and habit of faith it self then what is that Grace whose Ratio efficaciae we can make a Controversie of Ad hominem at least I may say that it is common acts and habits overtopt by fleshly interest and concupiscence which
Holiness in all that have sin and not holiness and in the Godly so far as they sin because that it shall be so is more yea only willed by God and caused by his predetermination XXXVII Q. Whether this doctrine tend not to utter Infidelity as to the Christian faith by making it seem to men incredible Is it credible that God sent his Son so wonderfully to expiate those sins which he so loved and caused as aforesaid and to save his people from their sins which God thus unavoiâ—ably moved them to commit and to destroy the works of God under the name of destroying the works of the Devil Must Christ suffer bleed die and bear Gods wrath for that which God unavoidably made man do by his principal determination And is it easie for him that believeth one of these to believe the other XXXVIII Q. How will men preach and hear the Gospel if they do it in congruity with this doctrine Will they say God sent us to beseech and charge you not to do that sinful act which you cannot do unless he make you do it by predetermination and which you cannot avoid if he so make you do it He beseecheth and importuneth you to do all those commanded acts which you can no more do than make a world unless he predetermine you to do them nor can forbear them if he do XXXIX Q. How will men Repent confess resist temptations pray and use the means of Grace if they believe that all sinful acts in the world are thus unavoidably Caused and Willed and Loved of God as good for his Glory XL. Q. Whether they that teach as Dr. Twisse often that sin is not malum Dei sed nostri do not take it to be no injury to God nor displeasing to his will Or is not injury and displeasing evil in respect to God as the terminus though it be no hâ—rt to him nor his evil as the subject or agent And doth not the opinion that it 's Evil only to us and Good to God as conducible to his glory teach men to hate it only out of self-love and not out of love to the glory of God yea to Love it as conducible to Gods Glory more than to hate it as evil to our selves seeing Gods Glory must be preferred above our selves XLI Q. Is not sin thus made a coequal with Christ who is but a means to the glorifying of God to which faith Dr. Twisse sin is summè conductbile XLII Q. Doth not this doctrine make the sanctification of the Holy Ghost to be unnecessary when all that is to be done to save us from sin is for God not to make us sin by his premotion Or doth it not make sanctification to be nothing but this predetermination of God which is made as necessary to sin as to duty and so natural and gracious operations made the same and God to do as much to produce evil efficiently as good XLIII Q. Is it not much worse to man if God by predetermination make him first a sinner and wicked by sinful Habits and then damn him for it than if he should damn an innocent man for nothing For sin and pain is far worse than pain without sin And to compel the will unwillingly to sin were it possible is less than to make it willing XLIV Doth not he that affirmeth that the Devil doth but sin as efficiently predetermined by God and doth not force nor determine any mans will to any sinful act but that God predetermineth all men and Devils to every sinful act committed I say doth he not describe God as worse than Satan horresco quaerens if sin be the denominating evil and the causing of sin be more than tempting to it Had I not rather my will were resistibly tempted to sin than unresistibly made to sin by predetermining efficient premotion XLV Is not the objective Reason in Devils of mans implanted Enmity against them Gen. 3. 15. because they are Enemies to God and us as being themselves Lovers of sin and Tempters of us to sin and misery XLVI Doth not he take the directest course to root out the Love of God and all Religion from the World and to tempt men to hate God and so to begin a Hell on Earth who describeth God in Satans likeness and much worse as much as being the principal cause of all sin in men and Devils is worse than sinning when predetermined and tempting others to it XLVII I think that the Dominican Predetermination directly and necessarily overthroweth all certainty of Divine Revelation by man or Angel and consequently all certainty of the Christian faith even by overthrowing the very formal object the Divine Veracity For if God efficiently premove and predetermine all wills and tongues and pens to all the lies that ever are made in the world then 1. To do so is not inconsistent with his perfections or his will 2. And then we can never know when he doth not so unless by the event This is grounded on these suppositions 1. That Gods revelations to us are not Immediate only by himself but by some Creature Angel or Man or a created voice or sign 2. That the Ratio certitudinis of such Revelations by a Creature is because it is God that is the chief author of them 3. That it is not conceiveable how God can by any way of Revelation be more the author of it than by physical efficient immediate adequate predetermining both will and tongue to the act with all its circumstances Call it by what name you please Inspiration Vision Illumination Impulse c. it can speak nothing more of Gods Agent efficient Interest than this predetermination doth 4. If it did do more yet it would overthrow all certainty of our faith Because if God can efficiently cause and that as the total principal cause by predetermination all the lies that ever were told in the world we can never be sure that the other mode of his operation so far differeth from this as that he cannot be the chief cause of a lie in this way as well as of all lies by predetermination I have driven many to say their utmost and could never yet hear any such difference assigned as could prove any Inspiration whatsoever to have more of Divine Causality in it than physical predetermination doth signifie and import nor how this principle leaveth us any certainty that the tongues of all the Prophets and Apostles were not predetermined to speak falsly ab antecedente and so their pens XLVIII To say that God is not able to make a Creature with power to determine any one Volition of its own even as modified comparate or circumstantiate without his efficient physical predetermination aforesaid sayeth more against Gods Omnipotency though on pretence of a contradiction than I dare say or think XLIX Yet after all this I grant that if all proper free will and contingency be denyed and every act in the world as comparate and circumstantiate made
his overlooking and undervaluing Gods Design in Making and Governing free Intellectual agents by his Sapiential Moral Directive way He supposeth this way to be so much below that of Physical Motion and Determination as that it is not to be considered but as an instrument thereof As if it were unworthy of God to give any creature a Meer Power Liberty Law and Moral Means alone and not to Necessitate him Positively or Negatively to Obey or Disobey And this looking only at Physical Good Being and Motion and thereby thinking lightly of Sapiential Regency is the summ as of his so of Hobbes Spinosa's Alvarez Bradwardines Twisses Rutherfords and the rest of the Predeterminants errors herein And had not I other thoughts of this one thing I should come over to their Opinion For I confess the case to be of very great difficulty § 28. I think that as the Divine Life and Power glorifieth it self eminently in the Causation of the Being Motion and Life of the creatures so the Divine Wisdom eminently glorifieth it self in the Order of all things and in the Moral Directive Sapiential Regiment of Intellectual free agents And that Gods Laws and Doctrine are the Image of his Wisdom and an admirable harmonious and beautiful frame And that all would think so and be wonderfully delighted in them were they compleatly printed on our Minds and Hearts § 29. II. And accordingly I think that the glory of his governing Wisdom and Punishing and Rewarding Justice is a great and notable part of that glory which man must give him now and for ever And that this Justice is not his physical using all things according to their physical aptitude only But his Judging and Executing according to that moral aptitude commonly called Merit by Punishments and Rewards And that to deny God the glory of all this is no small error in a Philosopher or Divine § 30. III. Accordingly I think that God made man a free self-determining agent that he might be capable of such Sapiential Rule And that it is a great Honour to God to make so noble a Nature as hath a Power to determine its own elections And though such are not of the highest rank of Creatures they are far above the lowest And that God who we see delighteth to make up beauty and harmony of diversities doth delight in the Sapiential Moral Government of this free sort of Creatures And though man be not Independent yet to be so far like God himself as to be a kind of first-determiner of many of his own Volitions and Nolitions is part of Gods Natural Image on Man § 31. IV. Accordingly I take Duty to be Rewardable and Laudable and sin to be odious as it is the Act of a free agent And that the Nature of Moral Good and Evil consisteth not in its being the meer effect of physical premotion but in being a Voluntary Conformity or Disconformity to the Sapiential Rule of duty by a free agent that had Power to do otherwise § 32. V. Free-will then is not only the same with willing it self or a meer agency according to Nature by the premotion of the first determining necessitating Mover It is not only such a freedom as Fire Water Beasts and every moved thing hath to be moved according to the first Moyers action which is in the will of man But it is a Power to be a first determining Specifier of its own acts as Moral Not that it is never predetermined but that it can do this § 33. VI. Accordingly I judge of Guilt and Shame and the Accusation of Conscience which will not be a bare discerning what God made us do or be but what we voluntarily did or were when we could do otherwise § 34. VII And I am past all doubt that he grosly mistaketh the nature and distinction of Law and Gospel 1. To think that Gods Law when it is not accompained with physical predetermination is but to shew us that we are creatures that cannot but sin 2. Yea hereby he wrongeth the glory of the Creator that made no creature with a power to do any thing but evil unless predetermined physically thereto 3. It 's gross to say that all the Doctrine of Redemption and Faith and Justification by Christ as a meer signum Letter or Law is the Law or Covenant of Works and so that every Command is the Covenant of Works and Physical Efficiency of Good in us is the Gospel or Covenant of Grace For that which we call the Gospel is not true if this be true For this Gospel is a preached word spoken by mans mouth which some believe and some believe not but reject and disobey and therefore perish Matth. 4. 23. 11. 5. 24. 14. 26. 13. Mark 16. 15. Luke 4. 18. 1 Cor. 9. 14 16 18. Heh 4. 2. 1 Pet. 1. 25. 1 Pet. 4. 6. 2. Thess 1. 8 10 11. Matth. 13. 10. Acts. 13. 7. It is a Law by which men shall be judged to life or death Rom. 2. 16. Mar. 16. 15 16. 2 Thes 1. 8. Rom. 10. 16. John 3. 19 20 21. 2 Cor. 4. 3 4. It is a word which some pervert Gal. 1. 7. and many sin against Gal. 2. 14. 1 Pet. 4. 17. The rejecters of it are to speed worse than Sodom and Gomorrah and they cannot escape that neglect so great salvation Whereas by his description 1. No man ever yet sinned against the Gospel or Covenant of Grace For it is not that Covenant or Gospel further than it is a physical effect on the soul 2. And every Heathen that hath any good effect on his soul by Common Grace hath so much Gospel 3. Yea why is not then all Gods Creation being a physical effect the Covenant of Grace if that he doth be it and all that he commandeth as such be the Law of Works 4. And how then can the Law of Works and Grace be two if every proper Law be the Law of Works For a Law is sub genere signi and a produced event is another thing 5. And what sense will be found throughout the Scripture if we must hold that It is the Covenant or Law of Works which telleth us that the Law of Works is abolished and calleth us to believe in Christ for free Justification and not to expect Justification by the Works of the Law and offereth us pardon and life in Christ c. But I will add no more seeing the plainness of the matter makes it needless § 35. The truth is he distinguisheth between the Law and the effect of the Law and Spirit of God and calleth one the Law of Works and the other the Gospel whereas the Scripture only maketh it the excellency of the Gospel that by it the Spirit effectually worketh on the soul more usually and more excellently and no meer Law of Works or Grace will renew us without the Spirit § 36. VIII And if Redemption be nothing but Physical efficiency by Christ who as a creating Mediator
What man can do further opened p. 114. Crim. 3. Holding free will to good p. 121. A manifold Liberty evinced by many Questions p. 122. Whether any that use it not have liberty to believe p. 124 125. Crim. 4. That men are not dead in sin p. 125. Crim. 5. That man is not meerly passive in his first conversion p. 126. Crim 6. None damned for Adam's sin only p. 128. The seventh days Conference Of Sufficient and Effectual Grace Crim. 1. Of the Armin. Denying sufficient Grace they damn men for meer Impossibilities p. 130. Had Adam sufficient Grace p. 132. Of the 13th Artic. of the Church of England p. 133. How God willeth mens Salvation p. 134. Crim. 2. Making Grace unresistible p. 136. How far they do so The eighth days Conference Crim. 1. Of the Calv. They assert universal sufficient Grace p. 139. Queries evincing Common Grace p. 139. The greatness of their error that deny it p. 141. Doth this satisfie while God that can save men will not p. 143. What Grace and what sufficient Grace is p. 145. Whether the same measure of Grace called meerly sufficient be ever effectual p. 148. What the Grace in that question is Whether a vis impressa Of determination by God and by the Intellect p. 151 152 153. Crim. 2. By Grace they mean Nature as Pelagius p. 156. What Nature is Grace how far supernatural p. 158. Crim. 3. Making Grace but a Moral swasion p. 160. Physical operation what p. 162. Crim. 4. They hold faith to be acquired and not infused p. 162. What acquired and infused means p. 163. Dr. Twisse about this noted p. 167 c. Crim. 5. They hold Grace given according to works or preparation p. 169. Crim. 6. They make the Will to have no sin or Grace p. 171. Crim. 7. They make Grace resistible p. 172. The case further opened p. 173 174 c. Is there any universal second cause of Grace under God as the Sun in Nature which worketh resistibly and God by it ad modum recipientis p. 177. Christ how far such ib. Crim. 8. They make mans Will to make himself to differ c. p. 180. What differing is what the causes as to believing ib. How far God worketh by universal Grace p. 185. Who made thee to differ opened p. 186. Crim. 9. Man's will maketh Gods Grace effectual and not Gods p. 186. Whence Grace is effectual p. 189. Differencing Grace what p. 192. It not all the question of the Divine Impress p. 193 194. The case summarily opened p. 196. The ninth days Conference Of Perseverance The Arm. Crim. 1. They make fear and care to be folly p. 198. Crim. 2. They cherish all sin p. 200. Crim. 3. Their Doctrine is uncomfortable on pretence of confuting p. 200 201. Both sides charge each other thus A middle way about Perseverance avoiding both p. 204. Crim. 4. They dishonour Gods Image making heinous sin consistent with it p. 204. Crim. 5. Immodesty and singularity contradicting all the ancient Church p. 206. Crim. 6. Contradicting express Scripture p. 207. The tenth days Conference The Calv. Criminations about Perseverance Crim. 1. They overthrow the comfort of believers that deny Perseverance p. 208. What comfort may be had by such p. 211. Crim. 2. and 3. They make God or his Covenant mutable p. 212. Crim. 4. They deny the Promise of Perseverance p. 213. Crim. 5. They infer a second Regeneration p. 214. Crim. 6. They go against the Doctrine of Augustine c. p. 215. The just extenuation of this last controversie p. 215. The eleventh days Conference with a Libertine called Antinomian vindicating sound Doctrine against divers accusations Chap. 1. Whether we must call men to come to Christ without Preparation p. 220. Chap. 2. Of denying our own Righteousness p. 223. Personal Righteousness necessary p. 224. Of Reward and worthiness or Merit p. 225. The truth largely opened about merit and reward p. 230. Reasons for it p. 232 c. Ch. 3. Whether our own Righteousness conduce to our Justification Or we are any way justified by it p. 238. Ch. 4. Whether the Gospel be a Law of Christ p. 243. Ch. 5. Whether Christ and not we be the only party in Covenant with God p. 245. Ch. 6. Whether the new Covenant have conditions p. 247. Ch. 7. Whether justifying faith be a believing in Christ as Teacher Ruler c. or only a receiving his Righteousness p. 251. Ch. 8. Of Faiths Justifying Instrumentally p. 251. Ch. 9. Whether Faith it self be Imputed for Righteousness p. 252. Ch. 10. Whether it be a change in God to justifie the before unjustified p. 256. Ch. 11. Whether a justified man should fear becoming unjustified ibid. Ch. 12. Of mans power to believe and our calling the unregenerate to Duty p. 258. Ch. 13. Of the witness of the Spirit and of Evidences of Justification p. 261. The Conclusion The twelfth days Conference with a learned Lutherane Whether the difference among Christians about Merit be as great as some think it p. 263. Some Protestants and the late Lecturers Reasons against Merit proposed p. 265. and the case opened Of the Doctrine of the Council of Trent p. 266 c. Of condignity p. 267. The Doctrine of Vega Scotus Waldensis Eckius Marsilius Bellarmine Greg. Armin. Durand Brugens Cusanus Stapleton Bradwardine Soto Bonaventure st Clara and all the Schoolmen as he judgeth Carthus Cassander p. 270. Holiness and Glory a greater gift than Glory without holiness p. 271. Aquinas judgment His confusion occasioned by his opinion that the new Law is that which is in the heart and not written viz. the Spirit as the Quakers hold ib. Vasquez denyeth Commutative Justice in God with all the School Doctors 17 of them cited He confuteth it even as to Christ He denyeth proper Distributive Justice also in God citing Bonavent Scotus Durand Palud Gabriel Alexand. Aquin. c. p. 272 c. Aquinas sense in Carbo's words p. 275. Many Schoolmen deny as much as Legal or Governing Justice in God Ruiz citeth for this Argent Bassol Suarez Pesant Suarez saith God's promises are but naked Assertions declaring his Will Durand that promises signifie not obligation Greg. Armin. That the Crown is no Debt but of free Ordination Marsil That God is no Debtor but free Giver Scotus Major Ricard deny God to be a Debtor by his promise but hold that Merits are such by Promise Ruiz saith against Suarez That Promises are more than Assertions but that God's obligation is to himself p. 276. Medina against Meriting Remission p. 277. Against Preparation p. 277. Contarenus judgment Fisher's of Rochester p. 278. The words of Tolet p. 280. The thirteenth days Conference with a Sectary Of the great errors sin and danger which many Ignorant Professors fall into on the pretence of abhorring and avoiding Popery p. 283. The sins of such as Calumniate sound Teachers as favouring Popery p. 285. Errors vended by some Protestants through an injudicious opposition to
that all mankind are now from under the meer Covenant of Innocency and that none perish but for the abuse of mercy which had a tendency to their recovery The case of Infants must be spoke to in its place once for all But all this belongeth to the Case of Grace and Free-will * How Augustine distinguished Election to Justification and to Glory See him lib. 1. ad simplic q. 2. Et quae de â—o habet Vasquez in 1. Thom. disp 89. cap. 6. And 2. As for Election we say that 1. The Object of Gods Will to glorifie men is man sanctifying and persevering in an immediate capacity for Glory in esse cognito 2. The Object of Gods Will to give the Grace of perseverance is a fore-seen sanctified person in the next capacity 3. The Object of Gods Will to justifie sanctifie and adopt is a fore-seen Believer 4. The Object of Gods Will to give special Grace which shall effectually cause men to repent and believe is ordinarily a fore-seen disposed Sinner prepared by his common Grace but sometimes an unprepared Sinner whom of his free will he will suddenly convert as it pleaseth him freely to distribute his benefits all being unworthy 5. The Object of Gods Will to give the highest degrees of common Grace external in the purest preaching of the Gospel and other mercies and internal in greater helps of the Spirit is sometimes a Sinner in esse cognito who hath not grosly rejected lower helps and sometimes freely the worser sort of Sinners who have abused former mercies 6. The Object of Gods Will to give the first common mercy which hath a tendency in its use to mens recovery and Salvation is all mankind fallen in Adam For all are under the New Covenant of Grace made with Adam Gen. 3. 15. in some degree and with Noah and all have much mercy tending to Repentance and none are left as the Devils in dispair without any offered remedy or help 7. The Object of Gods Will to give man the Covenant of Innocency was Adam fore-seen as meer man 8. The Object of Gods Will to create man was nothing in the sense that we now take an Object in that is for the materia circa quam But if you will call the intended effect the Object then the Object of Gods Will here and in the rest is the thing willed But if you will needs presume to seek one higher in the Mind of God * Man knoweth by Reception and so hath Ideas But God can be no Recipient you must say that it was man as conceived fit to be as well as possible For we can think no otherwise of the Divine Conceptions and Volitions but as we are led by the analogy of humane acts And so we must say that 1. Gods Power maketh it possible for all things to be 2. Next God knoweth them possible 3. He knoweth what is convenient or fit to be made to his unsearchable ends 4. He willeth that they shall be and man among the rest and so on If you will needs have the order of Decrees this is all that we can say of them A. All this pleaseth us well but it will not please your own Party or the Calvinists that you make so many acts of Election which they tell you is but one entire thing as mentioned in Scripture Nor yet that you lay every Decree or Will upon fore-sight B. You are mistaken No moderate considerate man of them will deny any thing that I have said For 1. As to the Scripture use of the word Election it is not the meer name that we are now opening but the matter in question Nor is it the expounding of particular Texts that I am upon And if I were no man will deny but that the word Election is variously used in the Scripture Sometime for Gods eternal Will to make us Christians of Infidels and to save us by Christ and sometime for actual choosing us by converting Grace in time and sometime for actual choosing men in time by Vocation to some office or special work c. 2. And as to the distinguishing of all these Volitions of God no man will deny the effects to be distinct undoubtedly these are various effects of God 1. To make man 2. To give him the Covenant of Innocency 3. To give him the Covenant of Grace with all the common mercies of it 4. To give some Persons and Nations the Gospel and other mercies above the greatest part of the World with answerable helps of the Spirit 5. To give men special Grace effectual for Faith and Repentance 6. To give men Pardon Adoption and Sanctification 7. To give men Perseverance 8. To give them Glory And if these are various works either you will distinguish of Gods Will by his various works or not * Sive secundum nostram rationem distinguamus illud decretum in plura five dicamus esse unicum non est multum curandum Certum enim est apud omnes Deum omnia singula volutsse unico simplicissimo acta suae voluntatis Est enim ipsius voluntas voluntatis operatio idem quod sua essentia simplex individua si aliquis contenderet esse etiam nostro modo intelligendi esse unicum actum simplicissimum voluntatis ego non cur abo Vasquez in 1. Tho q. 14. a. 13. disp 65. And is not this à short end of many Controversies If you do not our whole Controversie about the Order of the Decrees is quickly at an end and I am content with the abreviation For where there is no Distinction there is no Order And when I distinguish them never so much I say as well as any that they are all one in regard of the one Will or Essence of God that willeth them In God there is no real diversity but his Will is thus variously denominated extrinsecally from its respect to the various objects to which it doth transire and of the various effects which it produceth And thus do all men talk of God Else they could not distinguish his saving Will from his damning Will nor Election from Rejection in his Decree So that no man can tell how to differ here 3. And as to fore-sight you as much mistake For 1. I say not that God fore-seeth any good in any man but what he giveth him and willeth to give him But we speak of the Order of those Volitions in the way of execution * Alex. Ales is noted by Vasquez and others as singular for holding that Predestination to the first Grace was upon fore-sight of the future good use of that Grace as the cause But he denieth that the first Grace is actually given on the same Cause Therefore Vasquez thinks he changed his mind 2. And all men that ascribe Intentions Volitions or Purposes to God do and must make the Object of them as such to be Quid cognitum or something which some call an Idea in the Mind of God It
to sin against 5. You will make Conscience justifie the Wicked and condemn Gods Judgments in Hell instead of justifying God and accusing themselves 6. You must accordingly conclude that you never shewed mercy to Child Neighbour or any but the Elect your self because it was all to end in misery or else that you were to them more merciful than God 7. When man is made in Gods Image and we must be holy and merciful as our heavenly Father is you set all men such a pattern of mercy and justice as you would be loth your Prince or Parent should imitate 8. You expose Christ's most compassionate tears to reproach when Luke 19. he lookt on Jerusalem and wept over it as having had a day of mercy and when Matth. 23. he saith How oft would I have gathered thee as a Hen gathereth her Chickâ—ns under her wings and ye would not 9. You teach all Gods Children in the World to acknowledge no mercy nor be thankful for any till they are sure that they are Elect. And how few have that assurance 10. You injure the Lord Jesus and his Covenant of Grace while you say that a conditional Gift of Christ and Life Pardon and Salvation even if they will but accept it is no mercy to any that refuse it nor yet the blood that purchased it as such 11. You measure and denominate Gods great Mercies according to mans vile abuse As if it were no mercy what tendency soever in it self it had to their Salvation unless they accept it and use it well or if they reject it 12. You are singular from almost all the Churches of Christ in the World Contrary to the judgment of the ancient Churches and of all present Chuâ—ches of Greeks Abassines Arminians Papists or Protestants expresly contrary to the Synod of Dort and the particular suffrages of our British Divines there except a very few men that by the heat of perverse Disputings against Amyraldus the Arminians c. have been carried into such extreams C. What mercy is it to a man to have Pleasure here a while and Torment in Hell for ever yea to have Christ and Life offered him to make him more unexcusable and miserable B. In all this Discourse it is not the nature of the mercy in it self that you deny but Gods merciful Intents It is your mis-apprehensions about Predestination which you are vending all this while and there is the Core of your mistake which we have sufficiently spoken to already You talk as if God decreed men to Sin to reject Christ to abuse Mercies to Impenitency and consequently to Hell for so doing which is all false God decreed no man to these or any other sin nor to any punishment but as for sin by them committed against his holy Law which he foresaw but willed not Yea God decreed to set open the door of Grace to Sinners and to tender them mercy when they deserved misery and to bring Life to the acceptance or refusal of their own Wills and to intreat and importune them to accept it His end in giving them mercy is not to make them miserable though consequently he will their misery for their sin Now you feign in your own erronious Imagination that God first decreeth mens sin and damnation and then giveth them all which we call Mercies as a means thereto and then denominate them as bad as you have feigned them to be by such aâ— imagination And you conceive of Gods Decree as that which doth transire in praeteritum is past and gone when to God all time is nothing but eternity is one everlasting instant C. When you have talkt all that you can for such kind of Mercy it will not satisfie a mans understanding who believeth that most of the world shall be damned and that God fore-knew this from eternity and would not prevent it when he easily could Mercy that ends in Hell is sad mercy He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy B. Even under the terrible Law at Mount Sinai God proclaimeth his Name and Nature As gracious and abundant in Mercy This Glory of his which he shewed to Moses is more gloriously shewed to the World in Christ And this you study perversly to obscure And when you have contracted Salvation it self out of our own brain into a narrower compass than God in Scripture doth who in every Nation accepteth them that fear him and work Righteousness then you devise false Decrees and Intents and father them on God to obscure the rest And what do you by this but seek to render God as little comely to his Creatures as you can And if the love of God be Holiness and Happiness If his Amiableness be his Goodness even Himself If it be Christ's great Work to reveal God in his Goodness and by Faith to kindle holy Love And if it be the Devils malignity and work in the World to counterwork Christ and represent God as unlovely judge whether you serve Christ or Satan and whether it be not his chief work of enmity against God that you carry on But that you may have the true prospect of Gods goodness in all this you must remember that Gods Work as Creator goeth before his Work of Government and his Work of Government in general before his Work of our Redemption and his Work of Redemption and the Law of Grace before mens sin and Judgment And 1. If God that hath diversified all lower Creatures as we see did please in the Creation to make a rank of free-intellectual Creatures here on Earth with power and help sufficient to attain to an Angelical Glory if they would not wilfully prefer the way of misery is there any want of goodness in making such a World Are they not nobler than Bruits that have no such hope though not than Angels that are confirmed 2. And if he take pleasure having made such an Intellectual free Agent to rule him morally by Laws according to his nature and to take it for his own great work to be his King or Rector in this sapiential way That which much deludeth men in this and wrongeth God is that these foundations in Nature are not well considered The issue of all the Atheists and discontented Unbelievers Accusations of God is but this That he made man but man and nothing higher A man is a mutable Intellectual free Agent whose duty and happiness is left much to his own choosing or refusing And being so made he is accordingly to be governed And as God sheweth his greatness of Power as Creator and Actor of the universal frame of Nature so he hath chosen eminently to shew his Regent Wisdom in his * Cusp Peucer Hist Carcerum against the Luthâ—rans pag. 719. An in homine ocioso nihil agente habenteque se pure passive aut sicut truncus ad coactionem necessiâ—atis stoicae afflatusve an abaptistici sicut Flaciani somniarunt aut velut brutum mutatione conversione hominis physica aut
never read that any mans damnation was any whit the more increased for not performing these acts And again page 170. It is true there is a Faith infused by the Spirit of God in regeneration But who ever said that any man was damned because he doth not believe with such a Faith As much as to say that non-regeneration is the meritorious cause of damnation C. I am amazed at this especially his supposing that no man ever said that which I thought no man of us had denied B. I would think that his meaning is that men are not condemned for want of Gods infusing act but their own believing act or for the privation of Infusion but for the privation of Faith or of Faith not quatenus infused but as they ought to have believed without infusion But he was not so wanting in accurateness but that he knew how to have exprest himself had that been his meaning And then I know not how his words will consist with this sense I never read that any mans damnation was the more increased for not performing these acts where changing their own hearts is one And whoever said that any man was damned because he did not believe with such a Faith Here it is the Faith as such which is supposed spoken of the privation whereof is not the meritorious cause of damnation And indeed though the power of this Faith would have been in us had there been no Sin or Saviour yet there would have been no obligation to believe in Christ as Mediator And therefore if the Law of Innocency had stood alone even the want of an acquired Faith in Christ would have been no sin But this is the unhappiness of such as must read Controversial Writings There is no end of searching after the Writers meaning But the thing it self I think is plain c. that only an effectual special Faith will save us and it is such a Faith of which Christ speaketh Mat. 16. 16. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved and he that believeth not shall be damned though he believe with any other Faith whatsoever which he calleth acquired Perhaps this his opinion hath some dependance on what he saith before ibid. He punisheth the disobedient with eternal death True but according to what Covenant Not according to the Covenant of Grace that is only a Covenant for Salvation but according to the Covenant of the Law the Covenant of Works Woful error and confusion The Covenant of the Law is almost as bad a phrase as the Covenant of the Covenant 1. Gods Law of Innocency was a Law and Covenant in several respects 2. So was the Jewish Law which Paul meaneth by the Law of Works 3. So is the Christian Law of Christ and of Grace No man is now condemned by the Jewish Law of Works as such it being ceased and never did it bind the Gentile world The Law of Nature and of Innocency indeed condemneth the disobedient but the Law or Covenant of Christ or of Grace doth condemn them to much sorer punishment Luke 19. 27. Those mine enemies that would not I should reign c. Mark 16. 16. He that believeth not shall be damned Heb. 10. 29. Mat. 25. throughout But this confounding of the Covenants I must not here rectifie But yet I hope he meant only that men suffer not for want of Gods Regenerating Infusing Act but for want of their own act of Faith The fifth Crimination C. I find Dr. Twisse ibid. alibi saepe charging it on them as holding that Grace is given according to Works which is Pelagianism For they think that God looketh at some preparation in the Receiver and giveth it to some because they are prepared for it and denieth it to others because they are unprepared whereas it is not in him that willeth nor in him that runneth but in him that of his meer good pleasure sheweth mercy B. There is enough said of this after about differencing and effectual Grace But if we must say more I ask you Quest. 1. Do you by this phrase according to Works mean to urge the Scripture that speaketh in that phrase in its proper sense or do you Vulgatum illud facientâ— quod in se est Deus non denegat Gratiam intelligitur de faciente â—â— gratia auxilie Pet. â— S. Joseph Thes Univers de auxil pag. 83. Idem pag. 90. Nequidem ipsius Christi opera fuerunt actu meretoria citra promissiâ—nem Dei usi ex se essent valoris inâ—â—â—iti which needeth explication only use the phrase in some other sense of your own C. I use Scripture phrase in Scripture sense because I rest on its Authority B. Quest 2. Are we not also saved without Works in Scripture sense And would it be contrary to Paul to say we that we are saved by Works yea or according to them in that sense that he speaketh of them See James 2. 14 c. Tit. 3. 5. Ephes 2. 5 8 9. Gal. 3. 2. 5. 10. Acts 15. 11. c. and 16. 31. Rom. 5. 10 And yet saved according to Works in another sense James 2. 14 c. Phil. 2. 12. Gal. 6. 4. Rom. 20. 12 13. 2 Cor. 5. 10. C. In several senses of Works we deny it not B. Quest 3. At least you will grant that we are not justified by Works and yet that we are justified by Faith yea in another sense by Works Quest 4. Is not believing and repenting in order to Justification and all holy obedience in order to Salvation as truly opâ—â— a work and in a far nobler sense than preparation for Faith is C. That cannot be denied B. Then you cannot affirm that the phrase not according to Workâ— which excludeth not Faith Repentance holy Obedience to justification and salvation doth intend the exclusion of all preparation in order to Conversion or Faith in Christ when by Works excluded it meaneth the same thing or sort in all C. But saith Dr. Twisse ibid. page 154. Pardon and Salvation God doth confirm only on condition of Faith and Repentance But â—â— for Faith and Repentance doth God confer them conditionally also If so whatsoever be the condition let them look to it how they can avoid the making of Grace to wit the Grace of Faith and Repentance to be given according to Works B. I know he frequently saith the same But 1. I speak now only of the sense of that Scripture and say that this goeth upon a most false and dangerous supposition that Justification and Salvation are given according to Works though Faith and Repentance be not whereas in the sense of Works there meant by Paul no man can be justified by Works And though Christ saith This is the work of God that ye believe in him whom the Father hath sent yet it is not that which Paul meaneth Let not therefore Scripture words be abused to mislead mens understandings 2. But as to the matter of the Controversie I spoke to it enough
reason to vex himself with any such fears as consist not with a life of greater hope and peace and comfort And that living by faith on Christ and his Spirit and General promise they should comfortably Trust him with their souls 5. It 's granted that the more Faith Love Holiness and obedience any hath the nearer they may come to full assurance of persevering and may live the more confident and joyful lives 6. Many with Austin hold an Antecedent absolute special Election to faith and perseverance and that no such elect ones fall away 7. Many hold that besides Election a degree of Grace called Confirmation doth settle some in a certainty of perseverance and neither the Elect nor Confirmed fall away And that the confirmed may be certain of their own election perseverance and salvation And this seemeth to be the opinion of Origen Macarius and divers Antients Even that God doth with Believers as he did with the Angels and Adam to whom he would have given confirming Grace had he at first overcome And where faith hath kindled so much LOVE to God and Heaven and Holiness as that it is become a Divine nature in the soul and operateth as the Love of Children to Parents above meer Reason as a fixed Habit like a nature then Grace seemeth to some Confirmed and not loseable All these Concessions laid together and more which I could fetch from the most learned Schoolmen do shew that though here the difference be real it is in a point and a degree where humane frailty and the difficulty and the non-necessity of a fuller understanding it do fully prove to all sober self-knowing loving believers that it is their duty to bear with one another without the quenching of brotherly Love or denying Christian-communion to each other But the wicked will do wickedly and none of the wicked will understand but the wise shall understand Dan. 12. 10. The Eleventh Dayes CONFERENCE Of Christs Righteousness imputed of Faith Justification and mans duty their several parts to a Christians Comfort Speakers Saul Paul a Libertine Teacher CHAP. I. S. SIR I am now come to you in a greater straight than I was in before I have met with a Teacher that tells me you are a deceiver and have all this while misled me and have taught me to build upon the sand of my own Righteousness and set me on doing to my own undoing and that I have not built on the Righteousness of Christ and therefore all will end in my overthrow and ruine I was not able to answer him And I have prevailed with him to come to you that I may hear you speak together P. Did not I tell you before-hand of such temptations and give you instructions for your preservation against them S. I confess you did But I find my self insufficient to use them without help when it comes to tryal P. The truth is Infant Christians will still need the help of their Elders and of Christs Ministers when they have been never so well fore-armed as you need a Physicion in your sickness after all the preventing directions which he can give you And you have done well to bring him and to hear both sides together Had you trusted to your own understanding and only disputed it out privately with himself you might have been enfnared to your danger I shall willingly conferr with him on these two conditions 1. That you remember that it is You and not Him that I am to satisfie and therefore when I have satified you I have done For to follow him as long as he will talk will waste more time than we have to spare 2. That when you are delivered from this snare you will remember that you must meet with many more such in the world The Anabaptist will say as much to you for his way and the Papist much more for his way And most of them will affright you with the danger of damnation if you turn not to them Therefore when ever you are assaulted by any of them bring them to me and hear us together as you now do Lib. I am sorry to see how you abuse poor souls and build them not on Christ but on themselves What a deal have you said to this man of Doing and of Working and how little of Believing You have set him on tasks of Duty and he thinketh now to Do this and Live and to be saved in his own doings his repenting his praying his keeping the Lords day c. while the poor man knoweth not Jesus Christ and submitteth not to the Righteousness of God You will needs be a Teacher of the Law and bring back poor souls to bondage that Christ may profit them nothing but trusting to their own works and righteousness for life they may fall from grace and be found in their nakedness and sin P. Sir these General exclamations do but tell us that there is something that you differ from us in but tell us not what If you are a lover of truth and will speak to edification tell us distinctly what are the points of our doctrine which you dislike and let us debate them one by one Lib. Among many others the chief are these I. That you must not have men come to Christ till they are prepared II. That you set men on Repenting and Doing and Working for salvation and so teach them to trust in a Righteousness of their own and do not tell them that All Christs Righteousness is ours being imputed to us and that Believing is our Conversion to which you are to call men If they Believe they have a perfect Righteousness in Christ III. That you overthrow the Gospel in making it a Law IV. And you make the new Covenant to be made with us when Christ is the only party in Covenant with God V. And you make the new Covenant to have Conditions and so to be the same with the old VI. You make Justifying faith to be a believing in Christ as a Teacher and Law-giver that you may lead in works and not a meer Believing in him for Righteousness VII You make Faith to justifie as a condition of our performance and not meerly an Instrument of our Justification or apprehending Christ VIII You make faith in it self to be imputed to us for Righteousness and not Christ only the object of faith IX That God is made Mutable by you and forgiveth and justifieth them when they believe whom he did not justifie from eternity X. That a justified man must be afraid lest his sin should unjustifie him again XI You make men think that they are able to believe of themselves XII You call men to Duttes and to Mortification before they believe and are regenerate XIII Instead of the Witness of the Spirit you comfort men by the Evidence of their own holiness and righteousness These with abundance more are the errors by which you corrupt and deceive poor souls P. Because Christ would have his Servants as Teachable as
faith mentioned so oft in Scripture that is Upon and by believing we are first made just by free-given pardon and right to life and true sanctification with it and we are sentenced just because so first made just But this is not without our Faith and Repentance 2. And that Faith and Repentance are a Righteousness Evangelical that is a performance of the conditions on which the Covenant of Grace doth freely give us right to Christ pardon and life and so are the Constitutive causes of that subordinate Justification Lib. But your subordinate Righteousness hath no hand in our Justification P. This is but singing over the old Song by one that will not consider what is answered Have you thought on all the Texts even now cited Hath faith no hand in our Justification Hath the performance of a Condition and the Moral Disposition of the Receiver no hand in the Reception of a Gift What think you is the meaning of Christs words Matth. 12. By thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned What meaneth St. James that a man is justified by works and not by faith only Are men justified by that which hath no hand in their Justification Lib. Christ meaneth before men and so doth James and not before God P. This is notoriously false as contrary to the plain Text Christ speaketh of the Account to be given of our words in the day of Judgement vers 36. And James speaketh of that which men are saved by vers 14. and that Justification which Abraham had and that in an instance where Man did not justifie him and of that which was faiths life and perfection vers 17 22. and of Gods imputing faith for righteousness as to a friend of God vers 23. And is this nothing but Justification before men Lib. This is not the justifying of the man but of his faith P. 1. You contradict the Text which saith Abraham Rahab A man is justified by Works 2. You contradict your self For if the faith be justified the man is justified to be a true believer For how could a man that fulfilled the Law as Christ and Angels did be justified but by justifying his actions And how can he that fulfilleth the Gospel conditions be justified in that point but by justifying that he fulfilled them Lib. At least I may say that this is not the great and notable Justification which is only by Christs Righteousness P. We are not contending for its preheminence but its truth and necessity in a subordinate place Indeed we have one Justification by our Judges sentence which hath many parts and causes God as Donor is one cause and God as Judge another And Christ as meriting is the only meritorious cause of the Justifying Gift and Covenant and Christ as Intercessor another cause and Christ as Judge another And our Righteousness as it is our Right to Impunity and life another and our faith and Repentance are conditions All this is sure Lib. But the Justification by faith is our Universal Justification and that can be only by Christs Righteousness And we are not to trust to a Righteousness mixt of Christs and ours nor doth Christs Righteousness need to be patcht up with our menstruous rags P. 1. No question but Christs Righteousness is perfect and ours imperfect and ours is no patch or supplement to Christs He is not made righteous by our righteousness but we by his 2. But that which is perfect in him is not made perfectly ours nor formally ours in it self as distinct from its merited effects It is not ours as it is Christs Christ that is our Righteousness is also made of God to us wisdom and sanctification And will you say therefore that we are not to be Wise or Holy by any Wisdom or Holiness of our own for fear of adding our patch to Christs 3. You use to say that Christs Righteousness is ours as Adams sin is ours and say some as Adams Righteousness would have been had he persevered But 1. Adams Righteousness would have indeed made an Infant initially just by propagation that is the innocent Child of an innocent Parent But as soon as that Infant had the use of Reason and Choice he must also have a Righteousness of his own or perish And this is no patch to Adams righteousness And indeed in his Infancy he must have a seminal Holiness of his own to justifie him as well as the relation of a Son of Adam 2. So also though we are guilty of Adams sin by propagation yet we have with that guilt 1. An inherent pravity of our own 2. And at age our actual sin And both these are our unrighteousness as well as Adams sin imputed to us Even so Christ the second Adam is a Root of a righteous seed Our Contract by faith is as to him what our Natural propagation is as to Adam that is the Condition of our Interest in his merits We have as believers an initial righteousness in our relation to Christ But we have also from him 1. Inherent habitual righteousness 2. The actual righteousness of faith and true obedience and love And these have their proper use and office without which we must perish 4. And I must tell you that the word Universal is too big to be properly given to any mans justification or righteousness but Christs Properly he only is Universally justified or righteous who hath no unrighteousness at all imputable to him and is justifyable in all things But the best believer 1. Was once a sinner originally 2. Did oft sin actually 3. Hath still sin in him 4. And for some sin may be punished by the Magistrate 5. And for sin is judged and punished by chastisements and death by God 6. And the earth still cursed for our sake 7. Yea which is worst of all we are still under the penaâ—ty of some privations alas how great of Gods Spirit and its Grace and our Communion with God And all this must be confessed And such a one is not Universally justified or just Lib. But still our own Righteousness doth but make us such as thankful persons must be for their Justification by Christ and is no part of that Justification by faith For if faith it self be that Righteousness we have not faith by faith and faith is not imputed to faith but Christs Righteousness is it that is imputed P. Of Imputation in due place 1. What need you talk against that which none of us assert Do we not all hold that our personal Gospel-Righteousness is subordinate to Christs and is by his Gift as ouâ— Wisdom and Sanctisication is Who dreameth that our faith is any part of Christs Righteousness But why do you waste time in vain cavilling against plain certain truth Is there any thing in Name or Thing asserted by us that you can deny or question Quest 1. Do you deny that Scripture commandeth us to Believe that we may be justified Lib. No. P. Quest 2. Or
Remedying means and duties for himself Lib. No that must not be imagined P. Quest 2. Is not all this commanded by the Law of Grace Lib. Yes If it be a Law P. Quest 3. Was not Christ under a Law which bound him 1. To obey all the precepts of nature perfectly without sin 2. To obey all the Mosaical Law as far as he was capable 3. To do all this a sa Mediator to reconcile God and man And to dye for sinners to work Miracles to send out Apostles to gather a Chruch to intercede for us and to present us Justified and perfect to his father And are we obliged to do so too Lib. No one so imagineth P. Quest 4. Did not Christ as a Covenanter undertake all this And do we do so too And do not we in Baptism our selves consent and promise to take God the Father Son and Holy Ghost for our Father Saviour and Sanctifier and to forsake the flesh the world and the devil Is it Christ only that is Baptized Nay did Christ ever receive such a Baptism as this to wash away his sins and deliver him a pardon Is it Christ or we that at Baptism make these promises to God Is it to Christ or us that Christ himself saith If thou believe and repent thou shalt be saved Doth Christ as King make Laws and Covenants to bind himself only Who seeth not that hath any sense of Scripture matters that The Mediators case office and work is one and ours another that It is one Law that was given him and another to us yea that which seemeth the same was another being not formally but materially only the same and forma denominat For he was to fulfil the Law of Moses and of Innocency to such ends as a Redeemer and with such difference from our case that it was not formally but materially and that but in part the same Law and so his Baptism was formally another thing from any ones Baptism else in the World It was one thing that Christ promised and undertook in his Covenant with the Father and it 's another thing that we undertake and promise It 's one thing that God promiseth to Christ upon his Merits that he shall see of the â—ravail of his soul and be satisfied and another thing that he promiseth us that our persons shall be Justified sanctified and saved In a word by the Law given to Christ Christ himself is Governed as a Subject and Justified and Rewarded by God as his Judge for fulfilling it By the Law given to us we are the subjects and Christ is the Governour Lawgiver and our Judge who will Justifie reward or condemn and punish us I know not how that man can preach the Gospel that knoweth not the difference between the Law and Covenant made to and with Christ as Mediatour and the Law and Covenant made to and with us and in Baptism solemnly prosessed Children should not be ignorant of it Lib. But it is the same thing which is promised to Christ and us viz. that we shall be justified and saved and this is promised first to Christ and therefore the words cited may be justified Christ is the seed of the woman who is first to break the Serpents head Gen. 3. 15. P. 1. The same thing may be promised to different persons in different Covenants To promise to Christ that his elect shall be saved and to promise Believers that they shall be saved are two promises 2. What one word do you find in Gen. 3. of a Covenant or promise made to Christ It 's true that he is the principal Seed there meant though not the only But he is the Promised Seed It 's one thing for a promise to be made to Christ and another thing that Christ as the viâ—torious seed â— be promised to man There is no promise in Gen. 3. to Christ mentioned â—â— and what can be meant by a Promise of God to God himself but a prophecy and promise of a Saviour to man But if there had that would not have proved these two to be one Understand the tenour and difference of these several Laws and Covenants of God or pretend not to understand the Scripture viz. 1. The Law and Covenant of Innocency made to Adam â— The Law and Covenant made to and with the Mediatour for our Redemption 3. The promise Law or Covenant of Grace of the first Edition made to Adam and all in him and renewed with Noe and mankind in him 4. The Law and Covenant both of Common Grace and of Peculiarity at once given to Abraham and perfected in the Law and Covenant of Works made by Moses with the Jews 5. The Law and Covenant of Grace made by the Incarnate Mediatour and the Father by him in the second perfect Edition with eminent peculiarity CHAP. VI. Whether the New Covenant of Grace have any Conditions Lib. V. BY feigning the Covenant of Grace to have Conditions you make it to be a Covenant of works P. Either by works you mean any humane acts And so all Gods Covenants with man and his Laws are of works that is It is some act of man that they require For what else can be commanded Or you mean as Paul doth when he calls the Jews Law a Law of works And if so you falsifie his doctrine or ours Prove if you can that by works he meaneth every humane Act and that Faith it self is either no Act of man or the works meant by him Lib. Faith is a work but it is not put in the Covenant as a work required of us but as a gift to be given to us freely P. Judge whether it be required of us and that formally as a condition by such texts as these yea whether obedience be not required as a Condition of our salvation which is promised thereupon 1 Tim. 4. 8. Godliness hath the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come Mark 16. 16. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved and he that believeth not shall be damned Rom. 10. 8 9 10 13. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead N. B. this is an act distinct from accepting his Righteousness thou shalt be saved For with the heart man believeth unto Righteousness and with the mouth Confession is made unto salvation For whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved Matth. 6. 14 15. For if ye forgive men their trespasses your Heavenly Father will also forgive you But if c. Rev. 22. 14. Blessed are they that do his commandments that they may have Right to the tree of life c. See Isa 1. 16 17 18. 55. 6 7. Luk. 13. 3 5. 1 Joh. 1. 9. Act. 3. 19. Heb. 5. 9 c. Lib. God promiseth a Reward to our Actions not as ours but as hâ— own gifts P. 1. Enough is said of Rewards before We shall
but the Baptismal Covenant where sure the condition is notorious and every Baptizing Minister prerequireth the profession of it CHAP. VII Whether Justifying Faith be a Believing in Christ as a Teacher Lord c. or only a Receiving of his Righteousness P. VI. AS to this your sixth Charge I have said so much elsewhere in my Disputations of Justification and in other Books that I cannot justifie the tiring of Readers by repeating it And will say now but this little following 1. That Paul doth not distinguish between justifying faith and saving faith but excludeth the Works excluded by him from being the causes either of Justification or Salvation 2. That if Receiving Christs Righteousness be meant by them properly and physically it is no sort of faith at all but only the effect of the donation which they call Justificari or passive Justification But if it mean a moral metonymical Reception that is nothing but Consent to have the offered gift And if only Consent to have Christs Righteousness be Justifying faith then all the Assenting part is excluded in which Scripture much placeth it and most Divines in part and many in whole besides Camâ—ro and his followers And so also all the Affiance or Fiducial â—cts are excluded which almost all include even that which they call Recumbency being distinct from Consent 3. All these acts following are essential to Justifying faith as well as this Consent to be Justified 1. An Assenting belief in God in the baptismal sense 2. An Assent to the truth of Christs Person Office and Doctrine 3. A belief in the Holy Ghost 4. A belief of Pardon Sanctification and Glory as possible purchased and offered by Christ 5. A Consent that God be our God in Christ 6. And a Consent that Christ be our Teacher 7. And our King and Ruler 8. And our Intercessor 9. And our Judge and Justifier by sentence and as our Advocate 10. A belief of his Resurrection Power and Glory 11. A Trusting to the Father and the Son according to these forementioned Offices 12. A Consent to be Sanctified by the Holy Ghost 4. Plainly our Justifying and Saving Faith in Pauls sense is the same thing with our Christianity or becoming Christians And the same thing with our Baptismal faith and consent 5. To believe in Christ as Christ is in Scripture Justifying faith But to accept his righteousness only and not to believe in him as our Lord and our Teacher and Intercessor c. as aforesaid is not to believe in him as Christ 6. In my Answer ubi sup to Mr. Warner and elsewhere I have detected the fraud of their quibling distinction who say that All this is in faith quae justificat but not quà justificat as supposing a falshood that any act of faith quà talis justifieth 7. They that say that only our Acceptance of Christs Imputed Righteousness is the Justifying act of faith and that to expect to be Justified by any other viz. by Believing in God the Father and the Holy Ghost and believing a Heaven hereafter and believing the Truth of the Gospel and of Christs Resurrection Ascension Glory c. and by taking him for our Teacher Ruler Intercessor c. is to expect Justification by Works in Pauls disclaimed sense and so to fall from Grace I say they that thus teach do go so far towards the subverting of the Gospel and making a Gospel or Religion of their own as that I must tell them to move them to repentance not only the adding of Ceremonies is a small corruption in comparison of this but many that in Epiphanius are numbred with Hereticks had far lesser errors than this is CHAP. VIII Of Faiths Justifying as an Instrument P. VII ANd I have said so much in the foresaid Disputations of Justification and other Books of Faiths Instrumentality and the reason of its Justifying interest that I cannot perswade my self now to talk it out with you all over again but only to say 1. That I have fully oft proved from many plain Scriptures that pardon and salvation are given with Christ in the Covenant of Grace on Condition of a penitent believing fiducial acceptance And therefore that it is most certain that faith is a Condition of our Justification and so to be profest in Baptism 2. The name of An Instrument given to faith and its Justifying as an Instrument are of mens devising and not in Gods Word 3. But as to the sense It is certain that faith is no Instrument of our Justification Gods or Mans if it be meant properly of an Instrumental efficient cause 4. But if it be taken Metaphorically for an Act whose Nature or essence is An Acceptance of a free Gift and so by Instrumentality be meant the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere that is Faith 's very Essence in specie then no doubt it is what it is 5. Or if by an Instrument be meant A Moral aptitude or Disposition of the person to be justified answerable to the Dispositio Recipientis vel materiae in Physicks then it is such an Instrument But how well this is worded and what cause there is to contend for a word both of humane invention and metaphorical and this as if it were a weighty Doctrine I leave to sober judgements 6. But it is certain that the Accepting Act of faith is but its Aptitude to be the condition of the Gift and therefore that its being made by Christ the Condition is its Moral nearest interest in our Justification CHAP. IX Whether Faith it self be imputed for Righteousness Lib. VIII WHat do you but subvert the Gospel when you put faith instead of Christ or of his Righteousness When the Scripture saith that we are justified by Christs Righteousness Imputed to us you say it is by faith imputed P. Do you think any sober Christians here really differ or is it only about the Names and Notions Which ever it be 1. Of the name Is it not oft said that Faith is and shall be imputed for Righteousness Rom. 4. 22 23 24. James 2. 23. Lib. Yes I must grant the words but not your meaning P. Where doth the Scripture say that Christs Righteousness is Imputed to us Remember that it is only the Name that I ask you of Lib. It saith that Righteousness is Imputed and what Righteousness â—an it be but Christs P. I tell you still it is only the phrase or words that we are first trying Are these the same words Righteousness is Imputed and Christs Righteousness is Imputed If not where are these latter words in Scripture Lib. Grant that the words are not and your words are P. Then the question is Whether Scripture phrase or mans invented phrase be the better and safer in a controvertible case And next Whether you should deny or quarrel at the Scripture saying that faith is imputed to us for righteousness and not rather confute our misexpounding it if we do so Lib. Well Let us examine the sense then What
against those things which their ignorance misrepresenteth to themselves And so Gods ordinances are made a snare to souls which are appointed for their salvation and the man that can kindle in his hearers a transporting passion against this or that opinion or form as Popish is cryed up for an excellent preacher and seemeth to edifie the people while he destroveth them 11. And by this means you seem to justifie the Papists lyes and calumnies against the Protestants by doing as they do They belye Luther Zuinglius Calvin Beza c. with just such intentions and such a kind of zeal as some over doing Sectaries belye them And is it bad in them and good in you 12. You teach the people a dangerous and perverse way of reasoning à minùs notis which will let in almost any errours From a dark text in the Revelations or Daniel or from the supposition that the Pope is the Antichrist and all Papists have received the mark of the beast you gather conclusions against the notorious duties of Love and peace which the light of nature doth commend to all Not that I am perswading you that the Pope is not Antichrist but that all things be received but according to their proper degree of evidence S. Now you open your self indeed All that revolt to Popery begin there with questioning whether the Pope be the Antichrist and telling men of the darkness of the Book of Revelations P. I tell you I will abate no certainty that you have but increase my own and yours if I could but I would not have any falsly to pretend that they are certainer of any thing than they are And no certainty can go beyond the ascertaining evidence And if all Scriptures be equally plain St. Peter was deceived that tells us of many things hard to be understood which the unlearned wrest as other Scriptures to their own destruction And if the Revelations be not one of the hardest I crave your answer to these questions 1. Why are five Expositors usually of four opinions in the expounding of it when it is those that have spent much of their lives in studying it as Napier Brightman c. who are the Expositors 2. Why will none of you that find it so easie at last write one certain Commentary which may assure which of all the former if any one of them was in the right 3. Why did Calvin take it to be too hard for him and durst not venture to expound it 4. And if you take it to be so necessary as you pretend tell me whether it was so necessary and so taken by all those Churches that for a long time received it not as Canonical Scripture Surely they were saved without believing it Though no doubt but the book of Revelation is a great mercy to the Church and all men should understand as much of it as they can But all that I blame you for here is the perverting of the order of proof in arguing à minùs notis 13. And these over-doers that run things into the contrary extreams do most injuriously weaken the Protestant cause by disabling themselves and all men of their principles to defend it and arming the Papists against it by their errors When it cometh to an open dispute by Word or Writing one of these mens errors is like a wound that lets out blood and spirits and puts words of triumph into the adversaries mouth A cunning Papist will presently drive the ignorant disputant to resolve his cause into his mistake and then will open the falshood of that and thence inferr the falshood of all the rest And what an injury is that to the souls of the auditors who may be betrayed by it and to the cause it self For instance If one of our over-doers hold that we are reputed to have kept all the Law of Innocency and merited salvation our selves by Christ or that no act of faith is Justifying but the accepting of his righteousness or that faith Justifieth only as the efficient instrumental cause or that we have no righteousness which hath any thing to do in our Justification but only Christs imputed Merits or that mans faith Love or obedience are not rewardable c. how easily will a Papist open the falshood of such an opinion to the hearers and then tell them that they may see by this who is in the right And alas what work would one Learned Papist make in London by publick disputing if we had no wiser men to deal with him than these over-doers They may call Truth and Sobriety Antichristian and talk nonsence as against Popery successfully to their own party but I hope never to see the cause managed by their publick disputes lest half the Congregation turn Papists on it at once If Chillingworth had not been abler to confute a Papist than those that used to calumniate him as Popish or Socinian he had done less service of that kind than he did 14. And it is an odious injury that these Over-doers do to the ancient and the universal Church while in many cases they ignorantly or wilfully reproach and condemn them as if they were all the favourers of Popery and call their ancient doctrine and practice Antichristian Some of them ignorantly falsifie the Fathers doctrine and upon trust from their Leaders aver◠that they held that which they plainly contradict and that which they held indeed they cry out against as Popery Such an instance we have newly in a Souldier Major Danvers an Anabaptist which I have detected And will Christ take it well to have almost all his Church condemned as Antichristian 15. And hereby what an honour is done to Popery and what a dishonour to the Reformed Churches when it shall be concluded that all the Churches heretofore even next after the age of the Apostles and almost all the present Churches were and are against the doctrine of the Protestants and on the Papists side And yet how many do us this injury and the Roman Church this honour About the nature of Justifying faith and its office to Justification and about the nature of Justification it self and Imputation of Righteousness and free-will and mans Works and Merits and about assurance of salvation and perseverance how many do call that Popery which the whole current of Greek and Latine Fathers do assert and all the ancient Churches owned and most of all the present Churches in the world And those that call all forms of prayer Popery or the English Liturgie at least when almost all the Christian world have forms and most such as are much worse do but tell men that the Christian world is on the side that they oppose and against their way 16. And it is a crime of infamy to be taken for Separatists from the universal Church And in doctrines and forms of Worship not only to avoid what we take to have been a common weakness but also to condemn them as Antichristian or as holding pernicious errours is but