3.36 If the word spoken by Angels was stedfast and every Trangression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord c Heb. 2.7 To which we may adde such like as Heb. 10.28 29. Heb 12.25 Acts 3.22 23. The third Scil. whether good works are to be preached to the called I affirm and say they are and that in a special manner For first these things I will that thou affirm constantly that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works Tit. 3.8 Nam ii soli c. as Beza in loc. Secondly Christ having charged his Apostles {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to discipulate all nations which was done as Mark explaines it by preaching the Gospel addes {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and so {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Scilicet teaching not all the nations but such as should be discipled or called by preaching of the Gospel out of the nations to observe c. Mat. 28.20 Thirdly the called are his workmanship created in Christ Iesus unto good works Eph. 2.10 They are redeemed from the hands of their enemies That they might serve him without fear in holinesse and righteousnesse before him all the dayes of their lives Luke 1.74.75 God hath called us not to uncleannesse but unto holinesse 1. Thes. 4.7 Walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called Eph. 4.1 Indeed i◠any be so critical as to make the word preach of no larger extent than praedicare amongst the Latins when taken strictly and properly then is the Gospel or the triumph of Christ over the Law Sin Death and the Devil c. The proper object of preaching and Ministers more fitly said to teach then to preach good works to the called But if this Quere or part of the passage though indefinite be intended to run in equipage with the former and that to preach good works to the called shall amount to as much as to preach good works only to the called Then consider that good works may be taken first largely as including all good works whatsoever though the immediate products of the Gospel As repentance and faith or secondly strictly as including only such works as are mediate effect supposing the precedency of faith in which sense good works are commonly said to flow from or follow after faith If we take good works in the former sense It s true that good works Scilicet faith and repentance though not expressely all good works are to be preached to and required from those that are yet passively uncalled For 1. Christ himself having preached the Gospel of the Kingdom or proposed the object which instrumentally begets immediately injoynes the duties or calls for the Acts to be exercised thereabout Repent and believe the Gospel Scilicet which I have preached Mar. 1.15 Secondly In the name of Iesus held out as the Saviour of sinners repentance and remission of sins or as the Syriaok conversion into the remission of sins is to be preached unto all nations Luke 24.47 Thirdly Peter bids the Iewes repent and be converted Acts 3.19 And Paul exhorts the Jaylor to believe on the Lord Iesu Acts 16.31 Take good works in the better sense and though it be true that Sensu diviso the uncalled should do these subsequent works as love the Brethren 1 Pet. 1.22 Call upon the name of the Lord Rom. 10.14 c. as being now immediately called to obey the truth and believe the Gospel by which they may be enabled and privileged thereunto yet not Sensu composito or while uncalled For 1. People under command should hoc agere not only do the things commanded but in that order as they are commanded to do them when servants are bidden come they should not then say they 'l go and when they are bidden go they should not then come or do this though both due in their season but when the Master saith come they are to come when he saith go they are to go and when he saith do this then are they to do it Mat. 8 9. People therefore being immediately and firstly called to repent and believe the Gospel should Hoc agere not set about doing other works of God though right and due in their season But do this work of God now required to be done Scilicet Believe on him whom he hath sent Obey the call which is First to renounce our own righteousnesse next to embrace the righteousnesse of Christ which God freely offereth in the Gospel English Annotat. in Rom. 10.3 Secondly All works which are required and as required by Christ should be done in faith Heb. 11.6 For otherwise though they may be good Ethicé and both taught and done in Genere moralium yet are they not good Theologicé as we now speak nor to be taught or done in Genere spiritualium And if they must be done in faith then not before faith But first should men believe and then through believing do all other works Qui vult bene operari non ab operando sed à credendo incipiat Thirdly the Apostles do constantly direct their practical exhortations to such as are visibly called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} teaching them and onely them to observe all things c. according to Mat. 28.20 Fourthly Believers only are in a condition for acting in an Evangelical way and upon Evangelical grounds and that an Active obedience is not now to be pressed from or to the Law hath and shall be fuller cleared For as Mr Shepheard no friend to Antinomians in that very tract where he so learnedly opposeth them saith This caution is ever to be remembred that such acting be not to make our selves just but because we are already just in Christ not that hereby we might get life but because we have life given us already not to pacify Gods justice but to please his mercy being pacified towards us by Christ already And if so be that Believers are onely in a condition of thus acting and obedience active is not to be urged from the Law I see not but the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or Appendants to the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or Gospel should presuppose the preaching of that as Instrumental to bring persons into this condition and especially if not solely be preached to Believers The end or summe of the commandment is love and that out of a pure heart c. 1 Tim. 1.5 The sixth Passage But is it not good for a man to do all that he can viz. in way of obedience to Gods commandments Answ. The summe of all the commandments is that of the Sabbath Now to a Christian the Sabbath is to cease from his own works or working according to
and increased with goods and have need of nothing And knew not that she was wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked Rev. 3.17 Fourthly Christians are sensible of and often humbled for many proud risings and secret boastings in their hearts occasioned by the sight and sence but of some outside fleshly performance whereby they think they have gained praise of men and seem to themselves to differ from others Ye are puffed up your glorying is not good 1 Cor. 5.2.6 3. Spiritual Christians when they that is the formal professors glory in their own righteousnes or when they that is they themselves glory really in the Lord do then most commonly in that imagined kind of glorying glory in their sins that is do publish or publickly declare though with detestation of and hearty compunction for their sins First what great sinners they were before their conversion and how God prevented them with his mercy calling to them before they ever looked after him I was a blasphemer a persecuter and injurious {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Sed misericordia sum donatus as Beza but I was had mercie on because I did it ignorantly in unbelief 1 Tim. 1.13 which last words though some conceive added by way of extenuation yet doth Chamier out of Salmero interpret as added by way of aggravation of his sin Qausi diceret Deus vidit me per incredulitatem coecatum ut maia mea non agnoscerem ideò merâ suâ misericordiâ praevenit me peccatum enim causam esse summae bonitati ut subveniat As if he should have said God hath seen me blinded through unbeleef so that I could not acknowledg my misdeeds therefore he hath prevented me with his meer mercie for sin is a cause to infinite goodness that it may come and help and compares it with that parallel Gen. 8.21 Secondly what great sinners they yet are though converted according to that 1 Tim. 1.15 Christ came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief Thirdly that the Law {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Subintravit or obiter subiit as Erasmus came in unexpectedly as to the Iewes Scilicet Not that righteousness as they imagined but that the offence might abound Rom. 5.20 {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} was added as an appendant to the promise {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} for transgressions sake Gal 3.19 Scilicet To side with sin against the person or to be the strength of sin 1 Cor. 15.56 And not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as Christ was delivered Scilicet for the taking away of sin from the person or siding with the person against sin by conferring either justifying or sanctifying grace Iohn 1.17 Rom. 4.15 And that yet for all this Where sin abounded {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Grace did much more abound Rom. 5 20. Fourthly that Christians are divinely ordered though never compelled permitted though never commanded to sin against God that hence God may prove true and every man a lyer That as it is written He may be justified in his sayings and clear when he is judged Rom. 3.4 Or that the most sanctified man may come sensibly to know that there is weakness and wickedness remaining in his heart which as yet he never saw as it is evident in the case of Hezekiah and Peter the one being left to himself for this very end after a most solemn profession made to God of the uprightnesse of his life Isa. 38.3.39.1 2. 2 Chron. 32.31 The other after a most zealous confession of the strength of his faith Mat. 26.33 34. Fifthly That as the Devil through his subtilty and malice doth often bring the greatest evil to them out of their good works Scilicet pride against God and Ignorance of self-nakednesse Rev. 3.17 So doth God through his infinite wisdome and goodness often bring great good out of their sins Scilicet the advancement of his free mercy in pardoning them at their worst condition when they have least to say for themselves and against the Devil and his severe justice in condemning the Devil at his best condition when he hath most to say for himself and against them witness his dealings with Adam Gen. 3.14 15. with David 2 Sam. 12 13. with Hezekiah 2 Chron. 32.26 and with Peter Luke 23.61 62. And now though this publication and penitential confession of sins be to a single eye and a spiritual man instrumental for the glorifying of Gods grace shining clearly in the glass of the Gospel above that cloudy appearance in the Law the casting down of man in himself and the rendering of sinne most odious and abominable yet looked upon with a double eye and to a carnal man it is all one with a real glorying in or a publick narration of our sins accompanied with a conceit of an excellency in and a delight arising from them For first Let christians confesse with Paul I was a blasphemer a persecuter and injurious and yet I was had mercy on or God who is rich in mercy for the great love wherewith he loved us quikened us when we were dead in trespasses and sins Eph. 2.4 and these men presently conceit that they teach people to commit those sinnes to prepare them for mercy or converting grace and that they not only deny good works to be the way to get salvation But assert bad works to be the way to obtain justification at the hands of God Secondly If christians confess after the receiving of grace and mercy that they are the chiefest of sinners or count all things but losse for the excellencie of the knowledge of Christ Iesus their Lord for whom they have suffered the losse of all things and do count all things but dung that they might winne Christ Phil. 3.8 And these men conclude peremptorily that they delight in committing the chiefest of sins and are professed enemies to all good works Thirdly if christians recite that of Paul the law entered that sin might abound but where sin abounded grace did much more abound These men proclaime them Antinomians against all Law and unlesse they will recant and use it not only {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as becometh the nature of a Law 1 Tim. 1.8 but {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in the very place and steed of the Gospel they will not let to swear that they are Libertines and teach men to continue in sin that Grace may abound Rom. 6.10 Fourthly If christians confesse with David Against thee thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight that thou mightest be justified in thy sayings and over come when thou art judged These men not understanding how the unrighteousnesse of men serveth to commend the righteousnesse of God censure them either to judge God unrighteous who taketh vengeance or that it is mans duty to lye that the truth of God may thereby more
the contrary hath been cleared in the explanation of the sixth Passage Secondly it is evident 2 Tim. 1.9 That God hath saved us and called us with a holy calling not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Iesus before the world began Thirdly Christ himself professeth That he came not to call the righteous that is men that can act and do and think themselves able to perform such works or offer such sacrifices as can De congruo at least if not De condigno plead for the acceptance of their persons But sinners that are such as can neither act nor do but find themselves both unfit for and unworthy of any other recompence save the wages of sin which is death He called indeed all of all sorts outwardly {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to repent but these alone effectually {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to the thing repentance Mat. 9.13 That is unto an immediate and actual renunciation of all the works that they ever could and now fain would plead for themselves that loosing all they have of their own they may win the Kingdom of heaven not as their right in law according as the Pharisees laid claim unto it but violently at least in the account of all such men videlicet as sinners c. souldiers through the meer gift and absolute conquest of their Captain Iesus Mat. 11.12 13. Rom. 6.23 Nor thirdly as procuring causes of justification For as our own works are not the matter of that legal righteousnesse required in the old covenant So are they not the means of procuring that Evangelical righteousnesse which is held forth in the new Because first there is no Scripture that requireth them for that end but calleth mens labouring with that intent a seeking for righteousnesse as it were by the works of the Law and not by faith Rom 9.32.2 To him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of Grace but of Debt Rom. 4.4 So that if works were means to procure the new Covenant Justification we were not justified freely by grace but of due and debt It should not be said to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly His faith is counted for righteousnesse but to him that doth work and meriteth from him that justifieth the godly his work is imputed for it is righteousnesse 3. Those that assert works to be means or procuring causes say not that they are such Ratione valoris meriti propriè sic dicti By reason of any proportionable inherent worth But only Ratione pacti as they are conditions to some promise or other freely made by God and if that be true neither righteousness nor good works can be means or procuring causes of the the new Covenant Iustification because there is no promise thereof made to him that worketh or doth righteousness It is no where said in Scripture either ex pressely or implicitely that he that will work or perform such and such duties shall be justified by the blood of Jesus Nay though we read Acts 13.39 Whosoever believeth is justified yet it is no where said He that will believe shall be justified Fourthly and lastly Righteousnesse or good works are not profitable to me or other Christians either as the way through which we come as the means by which we shall get or as the condition upon which we may ground our hope of eternal Glory Not as the way For first not works but Christ alone is in Scriptures called the way Thomas saith unto him Lord we know not whether thou goest and how can we know the way Iesus saith unto him I am the way the truth and the life no man cometh unto the Father but by me John 14.5 6. He hath consecrated for us a new and living way in opposition to the old dead legal way through the vaile that is to say his flesh Heb 10.20.2 Works cannot be the way because they are neither the truth that is the substance of the Law and ceremonies nor the life which was held forth in the promises for they being not the truth we who are unworthy must not pass that way and they not being the life we who are sold under sinne cannot passe So that though works were granted to be a way in themselves yet it is impossible that they should be a way unto us The Gulf is so great Luke 16.26 that there is no descending or ascending but by Iacobs Ladder which was put down by God and not put up by men and is of that length that the top reacheth as high as God in heaven and the foot as low as Iacob laid upon the stone Gen. 28.13 14.3 A way is a steady and immoveable thing mounted so high that the waters cannot overflow it and thence called a high-way but works are sandy and slippery soon overflowed and not able to bear us up in the time of Temptation Though we know nothing by our selves yet who dare stand upon this ground and plead not guilty before God 4. Faith might more probably be called the way to heaven than works Sith as the Apostle saith by faith we stand 2 Cor. 1.24 and have accesse by faith into the grace wherein we stand Rom. 5 2. And yet is faith only said to be a coming into the way as Ioh 6.35 and never called the way it self Let therefore works be called as they truly are viae Regni the wayes of the Kingdome or motions of those that are in the way not upwards to God for the good of themselves but downwards to men for the good of others or the going forth of Christians from God like the Angel Heb. 1.14 to do service for Christ in the world and not their coming to God by Christ as in faith and prayer to wait upon and converse with him in heaven Not as a meanes For first The Scriptures hold them forth as such 2. If the works of Christians be the means or instumental cause then are Christians themselves constituted the principal cause and consequently the Authours of their own salvation And then it shall not only be true that Christ is the Authour of eternal salvation to those that obey him Heb. 5.9 But that Christians are the Authors of their own salvation by their obedience unto Christ 3. Promises under the Gospel that seem most legal do not run like those of the Law of Moses He that doth these things shall live by them that is by them as means of life But simply thus He that doth such or such things shall live and be saved Scilicet by the mediation of Jesus Christ Nor as conditions upon which we may ground our hope of glory For first It is not works but Christ in us that is the hope of glory Col. 1.27 In all other grounds there is yea and nay a doubtfulnesse and uncertainty which occcasioned Bellarmines Tutissimum est c. and therefore no sure and stedfast
Burgesse it was Adams Abrahams c. then though Christians may heare read speake of and hearken to the letter which saith labour and it may be but useful in divers respects as is hereafter shewne yet are not Christians bound to an {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or obedientiall hearkening thereunto as when it saith unto them labour upon that accompt but they are to hearken to the word which is nigh them even in their mouthes and in their hearts That is the word of faith which we preach and to looke for the Spirit in faith to worke in them through the ministrie of the Spirit all such effects as Christ hath purchased and the Father hath promised in that new covenant of which the Man Christ Iesus is the everlasting Mediatour The Antecedent of this position which is Negative is evident for first the Apostle opposes the Letter or law as dispensed by Moses unto the word of Faith or doctrine of the Gospel which we preach and dehorts from an obedientiall hearkening unto that and exhorts to a hearing and Cordiall beleeving of this as holding forth Christ the end thereof for righteousnesse and salvation to every one that beleeves Rom. 10.4.5.6 8.9 Secondly We are not under the law but under grace Rom. 6.14 I through the Law am dead to the Law that I might live unto God Gal 2.19 Wee are become dead to the Law by the Body of Christ that we should be married to another even to him who is raised from the dead we are delivered from the Law that being dead wherein we were held Rom. 7.46 Thirdly The binding of Christians to obey this Law renders Christ unprofitable to them for circumcision did it not simply for if so doubtless Timothy should not have been circumcised by any consent of Paul but because it was looked upon as making them debtors to doe the whole law Gal. 5.2 3 4 and necessarily putting them under the curse for not doing of it Gal. 3.10.12 If it be granted that Christians are freed from the Damnatorie but not from the Mandatory power of the Law and that the promissory being accidental to a Law this and the Directory essential Then note 1. that the question is not about a Law but this Law nor what is essentiall to or will make up the definition of a Law Politique but what is essential to and wil make up the Definition of the Mosaicall Law which was dispensed at Sinai subratione foederis and so not after the usual manner of other Lawes And now if wee beleeve Paul and will not be so very Logicall as to deny Moses description to be a Definition He describeth the righteousnesse which is of the Law That the man which doth these things shall live by them Rom 10.5 And Paul proves that as many as are of the works of the Law are under the curse Because it is written Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the Law to doe them Gal 3.10 He proposeth these texts as containing the Sum essentials of Moses Law And can no more be denyed so to doe for ought I See then that of Gen. 12.3 cited Gal. 3.8 to containe the Summe and essentials of the Gospel Secondly The Law is said to be dead Rom. 7.2.6 But how dead if both essentiall parts be vnited and in their vigour Can a man be said to be dead because he wants some Integrall part as a leg or Arme So Long as the body and Soule which are the essentials remain in vnion Thirdly Beleevers under the Old Testament were freed from the Damnatory power of the Law for they were blessed with faithful Abraham as well as beleevers now Gal. 3 9. But beleevers under the New Testament are freed from this Law or covenant as beleevers under the Old Testament were not and therefore cannot their freedome be Interpreted of a freedome from the curse or Damnatory power thereof as is fully cleared by Mr Shephard Thes Sab. part 1. pag. 73. they must therefore of necessity be said to be freed from the obligatorie power of the Law at least quá foedus and if so quá dispensed by Moses which is the point to be confirmed Secondly Christians are to serve God not in the oldnesse of the letter but in the newnesse of the Spirit Rom. 7.6 whereas the Law or letter demands the service to be done in the power of the old man menaces death for the least failing therein and is disenabled either from accepting or rewarding any obedience unlesse so done Rom. 8.4 For though it be not against the service done in the newnesse of the spirit Gal 5.23 any more than the satisfaction made by Christ in the flesh yet as this so that is not exactly Idem the same there required at least not done per eundem by the same though being spirituall and proceeding from the spirit of Christ it be really the tantidem the tantamounts nay the Supramounts and farr more acceptable to the Father who is both the Soveraigne over and was the giver of the Law The consequence of this position which is affirmative is as plaine For first Christ hath promised to send the Spirit Iohn 16.8 And the Scriptures plentifully declare both that and what he shall worke when hee is come Ezek. 36.27 nay what he hath already wrought Gal. 5.22 And sure then Christians should looke for the spirit to work and to work those very works in upon them in measure which are promised and have been wrought in others Secondly Christians are encouraged to pray for the holy Spirit Luke 11.13 and sure not to be idle but to worke either by in or upon them and shall they not looke for an answer to their prayers Thirdly Christians are exhorted {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Phil. 2.12 to work their own salvation That is as Chamier Interprets it from the like phrase Gen. 2 Rev. 18 to be employed and worke in those things which concern their own salvation with feare as in the presence of God and with trembling at the sense of their own weakenesse and unworthinesse and that upon this ground because it is God that worketh in them c. And if though wee be called upon and said to work It is indeed not so much wee that worke as God that worketh in us shall we presume to set our selves to worke in conformitie to the letter and not firstly nay continually in much weakenesse fear and trembling looke to and for God to worke both the will and dead by his own Spirit And fourthly Seeing we received not the spirit by the workes of the Law but by the hearing of faith Gal. 3.2 wee are to looke for the spirit to worke not by the ministrie of the Law which saith labour but by the word of faith or doctrine of the Gospell For as Reynolds The Law can onely shew what is good gives no power at all
to doe it for that is the work of the Spirit by the Gospell use of the law page 388. If any thinke that Christians are hereby set at liberty from all liberal commands shal never work but when as and what the Spirit moves them let him consider first That there is a difference betwixt the commands of the Law or letter strictly so called which requires obedience though Spiritual to be done in the power of the Old man which is carnall And the cōmands of Christ or given by the Apostles in the Name of Christ which calls for an obedience Spiritual but to be done in the power of the New man which daily fights against and mortifies the old Christians may be set at liberty from these Act 15.20 And yet not set at libertie from but in a liberty to walk accordingly as is required by these 2 Cor. 3.17.1 Ioh. 5 3 Mat. 11.30 Secondly It were well if Christians did but alas they doe not work either so often or in that manner and measure nor alwaies what the Spirit moves them to for first The Spirit or inward man where the Spirit dwels is willing {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as some read Rom. 12.11 to doe or suffer upon all occasions It s the flesh that 's weake Mat. 26.41 Paul found the Law of his mind warring against the law of his members Rom. 7.23 25. And the Spirit against the flesh as wel as the flesh against the Spirit Gal. 5.17 To wil was present with him though how to doe that which was good he found not Rom. 7 18. Secondly One of our great sins reproved complained against is quenching of the Spirit 1. Thes. 5.19 Grieving and resisting the Spirit Ephes 4.30 Acts. 7.51 Gen. 7.3 Nay Christians as they live in the Spirit are exhorted to walke in the Spirit and assured thereupon that they shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh Gal. 5.16 Thirdly The most liberall legall men confesse that they often resist the good motions of the Holy Spirit that Acti agunt they act when acted That by the power of their Habituall grace they cannot stirre without the Antevening of some new exciting grace that they attempt often to work in their owne time which is the night having neglected Gods time which is the day Fourthly Did Christians deny as alwaies they should and the Grace of God teacheth them Tit 2.12 to walk after the flesh they needed not labour or worke before the spirit it were sufficient for them to walke after it Rom 8.1 with the rest of the Sonnes of God to be bid by the Spirit of God Rom. 8.14 to deny themselves take up their present crosses and at his call follow him not heeding the voice of strangers Iohn 10.4 5 Thirdly I doe not hold that the Spirit of Christ doth worke in Christians or carry them out to worke any thing but what is agreable to the directory Mandatorie part of the Scriptures nor that it doth teach them to beleeve any thing but what is agreable to the doctrine of the Gospel as recorded by the Prophets and Apostles and doe therefore for the discoverie and prevention of false delusive spirits often inculcate those sayings If any man think himselfe to be a Prophet or spirituall let him acknowledge that the things that I write are the commandments of the Lord 1 Cor. 14.37 To the Law and to the Testimonie if they speake not according to this word it is because there is no light in them Isa. 8.20 Fourthly Though I dare not limit the Spirit that blowes where it listeth unto means as if it could not or often did not worke without them yet doe I not despise prophecying praying reading conference c. but looke for the Spirit to worke in and by all such meanes as Christ hath appointed and the Apostles who received immediately from him have delivered unto us For albeit Fifthly The Anointing which the Saints have received of him abideth in them and they need not that any man teach them other things than what that Spirit by which they were at first begotten through the Gospel dayly teacheth them yet is there need of speaking and writing to and Harkening and adhering unto what is written and spoken both by fathers young men and little children 1 Iohn 2.13 2 Thes. 2 15. Iude. 3. First That Christians may be put in remembrance of these things though they know them and are already established in the present truth 2 Pet. 1.12 or once knew them Iude. 5. Secondly That they may be stirred up by being put in remembrance 2 Pet 1 13 Thirdly To diswade them from the love of the world by representing the vanity thereof 1 Iohn 2 15 16.17 Fourthly For the mutuall comforting and confirming one another in the saith by manifestation of the same truth Rom 1 22 1 Iohn 2 21 Fifthly ly For the discovery and prevention of the Spirit of Ante-christ which under a pretence of glorifying immediately communicating with the Father denies Iesus Christ to have come in the flesh to take away sinnes and our fellowship with the Father and his Son Iesus Christ contrarie to 1 Iohn 1.2.3 and 2 23 4 3 Sixthly That Christians may not be shaken in mind or troubled either by Spirit by word by letter or by signes and wonders telling or foretelling such things as are not recorded by the Apostles for our learning upon whom the ends of the world are come 2 Thes 2 2 3 15. The second passage The Law was not given to an unconverted people but to a converted 1. BY the Law may be understood either that covenant of works as made with Adam in Paradise or that Legal Subservient Covenant added to the promise because of transgressions and ordained by Angells in the hand of a Mediatour Gal. 3.19 Secondly By a converted people may be understood either only those that are such Judicio certitudinis in a judgement of certaintie which only can be passed by the Lord himselfe He alone knowes who are his 2 Tim. 2.19 Or all those that are such Judicio charitatis in a Iudgement of charitie soe farr as is meet for us to judge Phi. 2.7 The Law taken in the first sense in its primative Institution cannot properly be said to have been given either to a people converted or unconverted those very termes presupposing the fall of man but to Adam in the state of Innocencie as the head root and representative of all mankind as is evident from the event Death having passed upon all men for that or in whom all have sinned Rom. 5.12 The Law taken in the latter sence was not given to the Gentiles but to the Iewes a circumcised people a people that renounced the gods of the Heathens visibly worshipped and called upon the God of Abraham Isaac and Iacob and by consequence so farr as it is meet for us to judge a converted people And the truth of this appeares
as a description much lesse a definition of repentance but only an occasionall expression holding forth some single Act thereof Secondly I desire that they would be pleased Severally to enter into their closets and there for a while commune with their owne hearts and be still Selah And having compared their notes with what is written in their consciences tell of a truth ethice for Logicee I thinke they cannot First Whether or no they ever heard this passage delivered by mee in these very words Secondly Whether or no by the rules of Orthographie it should be closed with a period or space left for some thing Exegeticall to extend or explaine it Thirdly whether or no this Repentance or not saying in the heart doe this i. e. this or that commandment had expresse reference to any other commandment than this and that of ascending or descending mentioned in the text which being proposed at first by way of Querie by a desttessed distrustful soule came afterwards oftentimes to be imposed upon the soule it self as commandments from God though really they be the dictates of its owne tormented conscience For 1 the soul enquires who shall c. and if not stopt there by the word of grace the next Querie is shall I And then Thirdly neglecting the word of faith is too apt in the time of Temptation to turn back to the Covenant of works and look upon it self as bound by the law of God or legal Covenant either to ascend that is as Diodate to undertake by its own works to obtain a right to eternal life or to descend that is to take upon its self the pains of death and hell for satisfaction for its own sins And doubtlesse Evangelical repentance includes in it a not saying in the heart do this that is this or that commandement whether of ascending or descending which are accounted by a distressed distrustful soul to be the commandments of God or of Gods law yet in force Of the first for the attempting to do that is to bring down Christ from above And of the second for the attempting to do that is to bring up Christ again from the dead Rom. 10 6 7. And if ever such a passage as this fell from me in a publick Assembly Nisi mentis memoriae inops I am verily perswaded and speak it as in the presence of the Lord that first it was grounded upon and occasioned from that Text Rom. 10.6 7. Secondly that it was intended per dicentem by me that spake it in that sense or to that effect as is before explained Though thirdly I dare not aver but that the Dicta or the words spoken simply considered might sound harshly in such mens ears that first are accustomed to press an active obedience from the law of works secondly came filled with prejudice and thirdly never heard me preach nor expresse my thoughts upon any such a subject either before or since these passages were collected I have answered thus farre to this passage in Hypothesi though not to any of the rest because I have some special hints from the Text which containes part of it 1. To what purpose I might possibly speak 2. What might be the ground of these Informers misapprehensions and mistakes 3. That the unprejudiced reader from this to which De facto I can say a little may be directed in some measure how to judge of their dealings with me in the rest I shall now declare as if this had not been said what I conceive of the passage it self in Thesi 1 Repentance is either legal which consists chiefly in a sense of and sorrow for the transgressions of the law and a restlesse fear of the judgements threatned and deserved and this I grant is often followed nay commonly accompanied with a saying in the heart do this or that or what shall I do this commandment or that commandment to free my self thereby from fear and bondage Thus the Jaylour cries Sirs What must I do to be saved Or Evangelical which includes a Renunciation of a mans own Righteousnesse or the works The Ismaels begotten of his own flesh by the law and a turning unto Christ who is the Lord our Righteousnesse Sanctification and Redemption and this is that hereafter spoken of 2. By this or that commandment of God may here be meant either first those Vtopian fancied commands Deut. 30.12 to which the Apostle seems to allude Rom. 10.5 6. Or secondly some of the ten commandments which are and as they are the condition of the Covenant and Law dispensed by Moses or thirdly such scriptural commands which are and as they are given by Christ himself who hath all authority for a Directory and Rule to the lives and conversations of christians 1. If by this or that commandment be meant those Vtopian fancied commands which the deceitful heart of man not being able to hear or do the word that is nigh enquires to have fetched from heaven or beyond the Sea that it may hear and do them Then doth Repentance include not only a not saying in thy heart Do this but what is not a not saying in the heart So much as who shall ascend or who shall descend to inform thee of this or that commandment For 1. This is a sinful evading of the just sentence of the Law already given by God instead of submitting to judgement and acknowledging the sin and guilt And an hypocritical arrogance enquiring for some new Law as if God knew not how farre short all men come of keeping the old Rom. 3.23.2 It s a neglecting to look up to the Brazen Serpent now when stung with the fiery and a seeking for devised remedies run for a covering but not of Gods Spirit and so an adding sinne to sinne like as Adam did when he sewed Fig-leaves Isa. 30.1 2. If by this or that commandment be meant this or that of the ten as dispensed by Moses and have their bent by him described Rom. 10.4 He that doth them shall live in them then doth repentance include a not saying in thy heart Do this that is this or that commandment of God that by doing of them thou maist live in them For thereby 1. Thou shewest thy self ignorant of Gods righteousnesse 2. Thou vainly goest about to establish thy own righteousnesse And 3. Thou rebellest against instead of submitting to the righteousnesse of God Rom. 10 3. 3. If by this or that commandment be meant the scriptural commands which are and as they are given by Christ himself according to that If ye love me keep my Commandements John 14.15 Then doth repentance include a saying in the heart Do this that is this or that commandement of God nay all the commandements of God together with a deniall of all ungodliness and worldly lusts which war against the spirit and are contrary thereunto Tit 2.12 Acts 3.36 1 Cor. 7.10 11. The fifth Passage There be two sorts of people first the uncalled to them only
work of God c. Actively and Passively The work now commanded to be done by you and yet the work which onely is must and can be done by God John 6.28 29. Men and brethren what shall we do say those Acts 2.37 Repent answereth Peter or abandon the present thoughts and actings of your minds whereby you are alienated from God and yield your selves up as dead lost men to be baptised or buried under water with Christ in Baptisme thence to be raised up by his mighty power alone to newnesse of life It is therefore good for a man instead of doing what he can in his own formal Hypocritical way of obedience to the outward commands First to learn experimentally from the lusting and rebelling of his own heart against Gods commandments that he can do nothing but sin That when the commandment comes Sin reviveth that sin taketh occasion by the commandment and worketh in him all manner of concupiscence Rom. 7.8 9. Secondly to acknowledge himself a sinner and guilty of death Rom. 3.19 20. Thirdly To digest judgement or admit without pleading for himself the letter or law to condemn and kill him Rom. 7.10 11. Fourthly Not to stick to save himselfe actively by doing and conforming to the letter But passively to suffer God to work in him upon him and concerning him the whole power of his will by the power of his word for if dead he may perhaps hear that which he never did nor could while he was alive even not the letter nor Epistle only sent by messengers but the voice of the Son of God and in hearing Believe and live Joh. 5.25 And here we conclude that it is hurtful for a man in the state of nature to be active or do all that he can or any thing he is able to imagine he either can or should do in reference to the procuring the spiritual goods or blessings purchased by Christ and firstly conferred upon his Elect as Regeneration conversion faith and Repentance and that we may the more particularly prove and clear this consider that here and in order to the collation of these it is true that the summe of all the commandments is that of the Sabbath or a ceasing of man from his own works or working according to a form or letter Nos praedicantes fidem omnino dehortamur ab operibus homines ut praedicemus Sabbatum non operando sed patiendo boni sumus cum patimur divinas actiones quieti ipsis Your strength is to sit still Isa. 30.7 For if man must act or be active in reference to his Regeneration and conversion which is the first special blessing that is conferred by Christ I ask first whether as an efficient principal or instrumental Not as principal for if so he might be said to Regenerate or beget himself the old man to be the father of the new man nay the new man the workmanship of the old made in himself by works Antecedent and not created in Christ unto works subsequent That which is born of the flesh be spirit contrary to John 3.6 Not as instrumental under God for first We are not begotten by corruptible but incorruptible seed by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever 1 Pet. 1.23 Of water and the Spirit not water and the flesh John 3.5 Secondly If a man were actively instrumental in his Regeneration he might of necessitie be actuallie alive before regenerated for how should man act before he have life But man is not actuallie alive before Regenerated But dead in sin and trespasses Ephes. 2.1 And therefore not activelie instrumental in his regeneration nay he is so far from being an instrument that he is not so much as the matter out of which life is educed but only into which it is induced by the Spirit of life in materiâ privativâ non positivâ operatur Deus Thirdly Quid insanius fingi potest as Luther Doth not the flesh fight against the Spirit at actu and how then should it act for and with the Spirit before or in Regeneration Fourthly he should not for the Law doth not command any man to be born from above or of the Spirit of Christ And Christ doth not require any man to regenerate himself from below or in the power of his flesh All in this Kingdome of heaven is to be done in the power of his own Spirit the commands presupposing the giving of it in the Gospel And hence is that as the Ministerie of the Spirit to be preached antecedentlie unto those even to every creature And then doth this new husband Christ call for the bringing forth of those children to God which he hath already begotten by that immortal seed of the Word Secondly If man be or should be active herein he must needs antecedently know and will his conversion and the means of it for otherwise he acts sensuallie as a beast not as a man but he neither knowes nor wills either of these antecedentlie or till he be regenerated but opposes and accounts them foolishnesse That he knows them not is plain first from 1 Cor. 2.14 and Nicodemus cast Iohn 3.4 who could neither apprehend the thing nor tell any means or way to it though Christ had already told him But entering the second time into his mothers womb The new man in this resembling Melchisedech Heb. 7.3 being to a natural man for oughr he can find in Scriptures without Father without Mother and without Descent neither having beginning of daies nor end of life and that because he is made not after the manner of the sonnes of men but like unto the Sonne of God Secondly Christ saith The wind bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof but canst not tell whence it commeth and whether it goeth So is every one that is born of the Spirit John 3.8 Thirdly We must be known of God before we can know God 1 Cor. 8 2 3 Gal. 4.9 Quia cogniti sunt ideo cognoscunt I know my sheep and am known of mine John 10.14 Man must be born again or from above before he can so much as see the Kingdom of heaven John 3.5 Nor can he antecedently will either of these First because he cannot know them and it is a general maxime Ignoti nulla cupido If there be none that understandeth there is sure for being any that seeketh after God Rom. 3.11 He knowes doing the old way and naturally can will as the old end so the old way to do to be saved but not suffering which is the new He can as little think of dying in and to his own flesh with which he so sweetly now converseth as the Disciples of Christs suffering those things and so entring into his Glory Luke 24.26 Oh what living man can think that either we must or that the Captain of our salvation was made perfect through sufferings Heb. 2.10 Secondly the Text is plain Iohn 1.13 Which were born not of blood nor of the will
of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God If any say that a man may antecedently will regeneration or conversion by antecedaneous works of grace though not of nature I answer first It is said that God worketh in us to will Phil. 2.13 And to will is present with us who are born of God Rom 7.18 but never that he worketh it in them that are unborn So that secondly To will conversion is not a work of grace antecedent but subsequent thereunto and argues the Infant born and alive though yet it cannot tell so much but only cries thirsts and hungers for in this very willing there is a turning towards God and then undoubtedly a believing on the Lord Iesus And he that believeth is born of God 1 Iohn 5.1 Thirdly Christ puts not the except of entring into the Kingdom upon mans doings but upon Gods he sayes not except a man beget bear or convert himself but except a man be begotten born again or as some read it from above and be converted He cannot enter into the Kingdom of heaven Mat 18.3 Vbi manebit liberum arbitrium ubi facere quod in se est cum hic fieri nos doceamur non facere non nos operemar sed Deus operetur facturae non factores sumus funditus scilicet ruit omnis Theologia superborum Thirdly Man neither is nor should be active in reference to the effecting either Faith or Repentance for if so either as an agent in the producing of them or as an agent in the using of means to procure the producing of them from and by God not in the former sense for first faith is not of our selves it is the gift of God Eph. 2.8 It is given to you on the behalfe of Christ to believe Phil. 1.19 This is the work of God Iohn 6.29 Him hath God exalted to give Repentance unto Israel and Remission of sins Acts 5.30 Secondly Mr. Shepherd Mr. Baxter and before them Camero and Ferrius maintain that God doth not infuse a habit of Faith and Repentance whereby men are enabled antecedently by an inherent habitual grace to produce the acts of believing and repentance but doth himself say they first produce the first acts and then infuseth habits whereby men are enabled to act afterwards And if we should say with Mr. Kendal that faith is in us as the adjunct and hath to God only the relation of an effect that it denominates him alone the Authour of our believing though us the Believers because the subjects As the Boul only is said to runne and yet it is the man that is the cause of the motion I see little that Mr. Baxter is pleased or that others can say against it and not in the latter For first God hath appointed means to be used by the living through which he hath promised to beget faith in all the elect though for the present dead Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel Mar. 16.15 but of means appointed of God for the dead to use thereby to get faith or to procure the raising of themselves from and by God we read not If any say that prayer is a means then first If by prayer be meant the intercession of Christ it is granted for it is his intercession alone that procureth the actual collation of all those blessings purchased by himself in the flesh promised in the new Covenant by the Father and conveyed to us by the Spirit But if by prayer be meant any petitioning of ours then is prayer not a means to but a consequent of faith for first How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed Rom. 10.14 The interrogation is equivalent to a strong negation viz. they cannot Secondly Christ taught his Disciples to pray in faith not before nor for faith Mat. 21.22 unlesse by faith be meant the increase thereof and then we pray Lord increase our faith Luke 17.5 I believe Lord help my unbeliefe Mar. 9.24 Thirdly he called them to leave all and follow him before they asked him any such a thing You have not chosen me but I have chosen you John 15.16 and after he had called them he prescribeth them a form of prayer or teacheth them to pray after this manner saying Our Father which art in heaven c. Mat. 6.9 Luke 11.1 2. And is it now agreeable to that form or letter to teach men to preferre the petitions before they can say the Preface or to enjoyn them to pray thy Kingdome come before they can cry Abba or Our Father These men I fear would teach their Scholars all the Alphabet of Christianity before Christs Crosse all the petitions before the Preface and it is doubtful then that as some coppies do they will leave out the conclusion also and the observation of all the Commandments before that which stands in the front Scilicet I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt Secondly God hath made no promise to an impenitent unbelieving man while such that upon condition of using such and such means or performing such and such duties he will bestow upon him either of those where it is said either implicitly or expressely if thou wilt do thus and thus I will give thee faith or I will give thee repentance And how any doing or dutying of man should be called means of getting any thing from God unlesse in a moral consideration and way of causation as conditions to some promise I have not yet learned from those Masters that stile one another the Orthodox Divines Thirdly though many enquired of the Apostles What they should do to be saved yet did never any ask what they should do to get Faith Repentance Conversion Regeneration or to get Christ into Christ nor did the Apostles leave any Directions or Rules to be observed by such Querists in future times but brought the word nigh unto them into their mouthes and into their hearts even the word of faith which we preach and tells them that faith comes by hearing and that hearing is not an Antecedent act of their own but that that also cometh by the word of God Rom. 10.8.17 The legal resolving of these Queries and the teaching of Nicodemus Disciples how to beget themselves the second time by entring into their own fleshly wombes is left to the Grand Casuists of these our dayes who can direct their followers how to beget that which is spirit of that which is flesh and how to get the fruits of the Spirit by doing the works of the Law can either ascend to heaven or go beyond the Sea to fetch such commandments as were neither given by Moses nor Christ that their Disciples may hear and do them and have their reward Fourthly Luther and other sensible believing men assert that Non nobis cogitantibus sapientibus volentibus oritur in nobis fides Christi sed incomprehensibili occulto opere spiritus
praevenitur quisquis fide danatur in Christo ad solum verbi auditum caetera omnem nostram aliam operam and witnesse to the truth of Rom. 10.20 I was found of them that sought me not I was made manifest to them that asked not after me Priùs oportet nos à Deo inveniri quà m ipsum quaeramus Beza in Heb. 11.6 Antevertens venit ad vos regnum Dei {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} propriae significat antevertere seu praevenire sane regnum Dei ita ad nos pervenit ut praeveniat hoc est veniat antequà m nos ipsum quaeramus Piscat. in Mat. 12.28 Abraham the father of the faithful was called when he served other gods and Paul a patttern to them that come after when he breathed out threatnings against the Church and Matthew when he sate at the receit of custom See Ball covent pag. 324. Fourthly It is Bonum in se bonum sibi Good in it self and good for a man in the state of Grace to do all that he can in Gods own way of obedience to the commandments which are given and as they are given by Christ for such reasons and in such respects as are shewen in the explanation of the eighth passage The second Querie 2. Whether that of the Sabbath be the summe of all the Commandements The Commandement of the Sabbath may be taken either literally or mystically when taken literally if we attend only to the outward form and draught thereof forbidding for divers reasons all servile works on the 7th day enjoyning it to be kept holy It is true that then it is no more than one amongst the ten But if we attend to the consequents that depend upon the due keeping and neglecting thereof It is frequently in Scriptures put for all the rest and the keeping of it calls for as if it implied vertually and consequentially all other duties and the polluting of it declares against as containing or making way for all other sins Isa. 56.2 Ier. 17.22 when taken mystically as relating to the spiritual internal Sabbath figured thereby which Calvin conceives Primarium in Sabbato locum tennisse that of the Sabbath is the summe of all the Commandments For first All the commandements except the fifth though implicitly they may be called affirmative and said to require those duties the contrary whereof they forbid Yet explicitly and according to the letter of them they are Negative enjoyning a cessation from our own works or forbidding man to sin which is in effect a bidding man be quiet for he can do nothing but sin And the commandment of the Sabbath requires this very thing Scilicet Feriationem â propriis operibus ut Deum in nobis operari sinamus A ceasing from our own works that we may suffer God to work in us Secondly the Apostle Paul reduceth all the commandements to two Rom. 8.4 Walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit and this of the Sabbath compriseth both these for though it be not lawful to do evil or walk after the flesh any day yet are Christians required to do good or walk after the Spirit even on the Sabbath day and as the Priests prophaned the Sabbath by killing Sacrifices and were blamelesse So may Christians crucifie the flesh with its affections and lusts and do nothing but what is acceptable to God and their reasonable service Thirdly In the state of glory when faith and hope shall cease 1 Cor. 13.13 what other things shall the Saints do but keep this everlasting Sabbath and thereby be compleatly conformable to the will of God which could not be unlesse the Sabbath were the summe of that eternal rule of Righteousnesse and law of love The third Querie 3. Whether to a Christian the Sabbath is to cease from his own works The Spiritual Sabbath or rather the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} signified by the Iewes though it be not simply a ceasing from works yet it is a ceasing from our own works that is works done by our own strength according to the counsel of our own wills and for our own ends as is evident because the Apostle expressely so describeth it Heb. 4.10 He that is entred into his rest he also hath ceased from his own works as God from his There remaineth another Sabbatisme another I say besides that Sabbath of Canaan which Sabbatisme he defineth in the following verse Pareus in loc. Secondly the Prophets call for this cessation or abnegation of self as the main thing intended in the commandment Is 58.13 Upon which saith Calvin the Prophet reckons the several kinds by which he might make it evident that the true observation of the Sabbath doth consist in a denial of self and entire conversion Hence do we clearly see wherefore God doth so highly commend in Scriptures the observation of the Sabbath for he looked higher than the external ceremony that is the rest and quiet in which the Iewes did think their holinesse to be But rather would have the Iewes bid adieu to the affections and lusts of the flesh and yield up themselves in obedience to him Because no man can live the life of the heavenly Kingdome unlesse he be dead to the world and to himself Now when that ceremony is abrogated neverthelesse the truth doth remain because Christ is dead and is risen again that we may have a perpetual Sabbath that is may keep holy-day or cease from our own works that the Spirit of God may act powerfully in us Thirdly the example of Gods resting from his works proposed for our imitation both in the commandement it self and Heb. 4. as likewise the injunction to the Iewes for a total cessation from all servile works teach and confirm the same thing Whosoever doth work therein shall be put to death ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations Exod. 35.2 3. quod nisi eximiuâ—n aliquid c. But unlesse there had been some excellent and singular thing in the Sabbath it might seem more cruel than was meet to command a man to be slain only because he had cut down a piece of wood Tantum quoniam ligna exciderat Calvin Fourthly though this Sabbath doth not imply a ceasing from but a spiritual acting of good works yet it implies a ceasing to account the good works acted to be ours or our own according to that Not I but the Grace of God that is within me 1 Cor. 15.10 I am crucified with Christ nevrthelesse I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me Gal. 2.20 And hence love joy peace faith long-suffering c. are called by the Apostle Not our works but the fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5.22 Vsque eo patet haec hominis exinanitio ut in bonis quoque operibus violetur Sabbatum quamdiu ea deducimus nostra esse rectè enim Augustinus ultimo capite libri vigesimi secundi de civitate Dei Nam ipsa bona opera nostra
abound to his glory Rom. 3.5.7 Or if fifthly and lastly we say that out of the evil we do God many times bringeth good they will not stick to affirm that we say Let us do evil that good may come thereof whose damnation is just Rom. 3.8 The Eighth Passage Righteousnesse or good workes are to be done by me but are not profitable unto me but unto others THis Passage seemeth to contain three Positions the first Assertive Righteousness or good works are to be done by me The second exceptive But righteousness or good works are not profitable unto me The third Restrictive But righteousness or good works are profitable unto others For the first of these that it is true in Thesi is unquestionable and however it is already proved in the explanation of the fifth Passage If any take occasion from the Pronoun me and question it in Hipothesi 1. Whether righteousness or good works are to be done by Ministers 2. Whether by such as me whom those that style themselves able godly and Orthodox represent as Libertines and enemies to all good works Then first not only good works of piety such as preaching praying and the like are to be done by Ministers and sins of another nature Acted Cum privilegio Mat. 23.14 But works of righteousness and charity For first the Apostle saith Let ours also that is Homines nostri ordinis as Beza learn to maintain good works for necessary uses that they be not unfruitfull Tit. 3.14 And expressely requires these as well as those 1 Tim. 3 2 3. Secondly Paul enjoyneth Timothy to be an example to the Believers in word in conversation in charitie 1 Tim. 4.12 And Peter chargeth the Pastors in general to be examples to their flocks 1 Pet. 5.3 not to stand like posts only pointing out the way unto others but to walk in it themselves Thirdly Peter dehorteth them from false lucre from Lordlinesse and Domineering 1 Pet. 5.1 2 3. And Iohn wrot against Diotrophes who loved to have the preheminence and challenged him for prating against poor christians with malicious words and that not content therewith neither did he himself receive the brethren but forbad them that would and cast them out of the Church Ioh Epist. 3. vers. 9 10. Fourthly Melancthon who continued forty years at Whittemberg and yet was alwayes expecting a removal before the end of fourteen dayes found special need during his time both of exhorting and reproving the men of his own order and thence often cried Ab odio rabie Theologorum libera nos Domine and it is to be feared that in these dayes of ours there is not only need of reproving and censuring the Antinomian Ministers for neglecting works of piety But likewise of exhorting and admonishing the Ministers counted Orthodox to perform works of righteousness and charity to deal tenderly with religion And beware of offending the little ones Mat. 18.6 For first what Mr. Baxter saith of the humane nature in Magistrates without blemish to Magistracy I think may as truly be said of the humane nature in Ministers without blemish to the Ministrie That for the most part it can as ill bear a high estate as a mans brains can endure to stand on the pinacle of a Steeple never more subject to mis-judge of things than when advanced by the Magistrate to sit in Cathedrâ Secondly Saul I meane the blind zealot beginneth already to breath out threatenings as if he had letters in his pocket and were in hopes to mount to Damascus Thirdly if any enquire Quid rerum nunc geritur in Angliâ The answer is Consulitur de religione And I learned in a Sermon preached by the right worthy Vice-Chancellor at Oxford in my way betwixt Lancashire and London that Nunquam pejus de Religione consulitur quà m cùm incidit inter Reverendissimos 2. Righteousnes or good works are to be done in a special manner by such as me First That with well doing we may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men 1 Pet. 2.15 Secondly That we adorne the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things Tit. 2.10 And make it evident to all that we are not redeemed to sin but from sin Nor that we turn the grace of God into wantonnesse but are turned from wantonnesse by the grace of God which hath not onely brought Salvation but Sanctification freely and effectually teaching us what the law can onely tell to and in appearance force from them Scilicet That denying ungodlinesse and worldly lust we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Titus 2.12 Thirdly To heap coals of fire upon the adversaries heads coales I mean Amoris to destroy the sinne if possible for the persons sake which is the Gospel-way Not Furoris to destroy the person if God will permit for the sins sake which is the legal way knowing that it is written Vengeance is mine I will repay saith the Lord Rom. 12.19 20. For fourthly we are not only accounted by others but really know and acknowledge our selves to be of the number of those Bankerupts to whom much is forgiven and that therefore there is much reason of our loving much Luke 7.39 43. The debt-book is frankly crossed without our paying of one farthing and therefore it is not meet that we of all men should take our fellow-servants by the throats saying to any Pay what thou owest but be tender-hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christs sake hath forgiven us Eph. 4.32 And hence fifthly I cannot but admire the furious blindnesse of some zealots in these dayes that will maintain good works to be the cause if not of acquiring yet at least of continuing and not loosing Iustification and yet dare pull their fellow-servants by the throats that owe them I am confident under the value of an hundred pence Mat. 18.28 contrary to that very Scripture upon which they seem mainly to ground this their assertion RIghteousnesse or good works are not profitable unto me or other Christians First as procuring causes of election for which opinion soever be embraced whether that which presenteth man as the object thereof qua condendum qua conditum qua lapsum or qua credentem as to be created as created as fallen or as believing it matters not as to this all implying the works we now speak of to be subsequent as fruits and not antecedent as causes or conditions of election And however the Apostle saith That it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy Rom. 9.16 The children being yet unborn neither having done any good or evill that the purpose of God according to election might stand not of works but of him that calleth it was said unto her The elder shall serve the younger as it is written Iacob have I loved but Esau have I hated Rom. 9.11 12 13. Nor secondly as the procuring cause of conversion or vocation For first
Anchorage for the soul Heb. 6.16 But all the promises of God in him are yea and in him Amen unto the Glory of God 2 Cor. 1.20 And thence as there needeth not so there is not any other sure and stedfast ground of our future enjoying the things promised but the present indwelling of Christ in the heart by faith 2. As other foundation or ground of hope can no man lay than that is laid which is Iesus Christ 1 Cor. 3.11 So the very attempting to lay another ground is both an overturning of the Faith and a turning back unto the Law of Moses It being not the title and interest to the Kingdom or the Ius ad rem But the possession of the Kingdom or the Ius in Re that was promised in the law and to be hoped for by the Iewes in case they could observe it 3. Let works be made the condition upon which as some assert Christians must necessarily ground their hope of Glory and there will be no ground of hope left for such as walk in darkness and have no light Isa. 50.10 or that cannot by a reflexe Act discern themselves actually performing such and such conditions The conditional promises as a learned writer observeth being made rather to the Acts than Habits And least we as well as they should leave such poor souls comfortless consider First The admonition of the seven brethren in the forecited Epistle Scilicet there is a sturdy stoutness and unyieldingness of spirit in men against the blessed truths of the Gospel made known unto them they must have peace comfort and assurance their own way or else they reject all They would find a principle of life and power within themselves and not go to Christ for it they would bring something to Christ and not fetch all from Christ not knowing that the way which all believers have gone after much wearying of themselves to find some thing in themselves hath been at last to rowle themselves wholly upon the free grace of God through Jesus Christ seeing nothing in themselves yet giving glory to God by believing And if they could bring their hearts so disposed and qualified yet they see the danger of resting in what they are have and do And if want of such and such conditions and qualifications had ground enough to keep them from Christ it might have hindred any that ever did cast themselves upon the free grace of God because they would still have been at a losse finding a defect in them 2. That he that is born of God may have the seed remaining in him that he cannot sin and yet not always be able to bring forth the fruits of righteousnesse at least not always see himself so bringing forth for that the being of grace in doth not necessarily infer the seeing of grace by a christian That which we look upon as Luz may be Bethel the Lord in that place and yet Iacob knew it not Gen 28.16 The promise made good and applied to the soule and yet the soul not make good the condition nor apply it self unto the promise God be with us according to his word Heb. 6.13 and yet we as to our apprehensions at a distance from God Psal. 77.3 10.2 The Scriptures hold it forth as a firme qualication for a believer to see himselfe unqualified {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Poor or beggerly in spirit Mat. 5.3 and that then a man is in the fittest condition for the Kingdom of heaven to come to him when he sees himself able to perform no conditions whereupon he may ground his coming into the heavenly Kingdom {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The poor are Gospellized Luke 7.22 the rich need not they can Gospellize unto themselves both fetch down a promise suitable to that condition they have performed and form a faith ad libitum out of that condition sutable to the promise 4. Though they be promises made to such and such conditions and such Christians as have them while they can certainly say and see they have them may ground their hopes though neither infallibly nor ultimately thereupon yet are there absolute promises or rather declarations of everlasting love through Iesus Christ to poor wretched creatures that can say nothing for but all against themselves Scilicet that they are ungodly and the chief of sinners 2 Tim. 2.25 And God by these without those is able both to beget and increase faith in the heart of a sinner and keep him by his mighty power alone through faith in that word unto salvation He through the Spirit waiting continually for the hope of righteousnesse by faith Gal. 5.5 For 5. Though saith receive much refreshment and encouragement from sence yet it receiveth life and nourishment only from the word Rom 10.17 2 Pet. 2.2 Abraham the Father of the faithful may part with Isaac the only sensible ground he had of the accomplishment of the promise and yet his faith not be thereby destroyed but proved to be a true working faith indeed And Christians may loose the light of all their works and yet not loose the life of faith nor ground of hope but come experimentally to know the true difference betwixt faith and works what it is to believe on him who justifieth the ungodly Rom. 4.5 and to be justified by faith without the works of the Law Rom. 3.28 O woman great is thy faith saith Christ to her that believed and yet saw and confessed her self to be a dog Mat. 13.27 28. And as that saith Mr. Burges is the best manifestation of love when it is carried out to an enemy So is that faith when relying upon God though feeling terrors and hell within us See Burgesse justificat Lect. 14. Sect. 8. pag. 117. Citing and approving of Luthers two-fold pardon the first of meer faith and obtaineth much of God the latter of experience and takes off from the excellency of faith RIghteousnesse or good works are profitable to me and other Christians 1. As subservient subsequent Testimonies of our adoption in Iesus Christ For there is assurance in a believing soule successively or conjunctly as pleaseth God to order either primary which is the result of a direct act of the holy Spirit or secundary which is the result of a reflexe act of an inlightened understanding The first cometh like faith not by seeing but by hearing and the active instrument if we may call it an instrument by which the holy Ghost gives conveyes or begets it is by his own voyce testimony or word And the Passive instrument through which as the Conduit it is conveyed into the heart or inwards of a Christian is believing the Gospel or word of reconciliation as it is evident from Rom. 8.16 Eph 1.13 1 Iohn 5.10 Heb. 10.22 The second is collected from sence or a visible discerning the effects and fruits of the Spirit of Christ in and flowing from a believing heart and is more properly called Scientia
{non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} knowledge from the effects or an assurance of knowledge than of Faith 1 Iohn 2.3 1 Iohn 3.14 19. because drawn by reason enlightened from fore-granted premises the one whereof at least is evident to sence The former of these is independant as to works infallible hath its evidence in and from its self is fully satisfactory to the Spirit of a Christian and is most lively manifest and vigorous in the evil day The latter is dependant upon works will not amount to a {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or full assurance hath its evidence in and from the Ergo or manner of inference is very convincing and silencing to reason because grounded upon sence and is ordinarily had in the good Sun-shine dayes of a Christian Secondly they are profitable c. to prevent Satans bringing believers into despaire or shaking us on though he cannot shake us from of the foundation of our faith And hence doth Peter exhort Christians to adde to their faith through which they were already established in the present truth 1 Pet. 1.12 Vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance c. and assureth them that if they do these things they shall never faile 1 Pet. 1 10. Because by the constant going on in these the advantage is taken from Satan of casting stumbling-blocks in our way which the committing of gross or discernably poysonous sins doth afford unto him they being as it were Darts put into the devils hands which he sets on fire in hell and shoots with terrour through the Canon of the Law to batter down that spiritual Kingdom of righteousnesse peace and joy which Christ hath erected in us 3. Though the Testimony of my conscience or my own integrity and innocency in such a particular cause or fact be not able to bear me up to plead at the judgement seat of God for I know nothing by my self saith Paul c. yet is the Testimony of a good conscience or my own righteous dealing in such or such a cause namely instrumental to encourage and embolden me under and against the false accusations aspersions and extra-judicial censures and sentences of all sorts of men and creatures whatsoever Hic murus aheneus esto nil conscire sibi c. could the Poet say And here Paul accounted it a very small thing to be judged of them or of mans judgement 1 Cor. 4.3 And Peter adviseth Christians to have a good conscience and telleth them that it is better if the will of God be so that they suffer for well-doing than for evil doing 1 Pet. 3.16 17. Fourthly and lastly good works are profitable c. To manifest to others the reality of our faith and the purity and undefilednesse of our Religon and undefiled before God and the Father is this To visit the fatherless and widowes in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted of the world Iam. 1.27 RIghteousness or good works are profitable unto others For first The Apostle expressely asserteth That they are good and profitable unto men Tit. 3.8 2. Calvin maketh the very essence of works as good to consist in their being profitable unto others and saith that in tota lege syllaba una non legitur c. In the whole Law there is not one syllable read which prescribeth a rule to man concerning those things which he should either do or omit for the profit of his flesh Insomuch that thirdly It is Antinomianisme with him or contrary to the bent of the Law for a man to love and doe for himselfe first and then secondly To love and do for his neighbour as for himself making love to self the rule and so superiour to the love of his neighbour This saith he was not the intent of the Lord in that Law Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy selfe Sedubi naturali pravitate solebat But whereas by a natural depravity the affection of love was wont to reside within our selves He sheweth that it ought now to be diffused another way it being the property of true love not to seek her own things 1 Cor. 13.5 And hence 4. it was in my thoughts to have discussed the point a little with these Informers and enquired how this work of theirs deemed so righteous can be called good fith it will be hard to make it appear that it is profitable to any save themselves and me To them carnally and Per se feeding though not filling that which in them lusteth unto envy To me spiritually and Per accidens as the messenger of Satan was by his buffeting unto Paul But because I am perswaded it will be harder for them to kick against the prick they have made in their own spirits then it is for me to grapple with that they have made in my flesh I shall be silent as to that and willingly if my God see it good suffer here with Abel as a man of vanity and nothing and leave them Cain-like men of great possession though smally bettered if in the land of Nod And yet I must needs say to give even Cain his due the pattern of all such as sin against the law of love 1 Iohn 3.12 That he dealt farre more candidly with Abel then they have done with me for he first talked with his brother and then afterwards slew him Gen. 4.8 These men have bent their bowes and shot their Arrowes poysoned well nigh four years in the Quiver and are yet to talk and make it out that their sacrifice is of so much worth as to entitle them to the birth-right and impower them cum privilegio to trample upon the necks of their poor younger brethren But notwithstanding this my brethren in your patience do you possess your soules Mat. 21.19 give place unto wrath Rom. 12.19 Let the Lord of the Vineyard do what pleaseth him unto these husbandmen Luke 20.15 FINIS A vindication of the answer to the Queries lieth by me in scattered sheets the publishing called for and at hand Reply to Crand pag. 43. Reply to Mr. Blake page 49. The word is an Instrument of Gods Spirit not cooperative but passive working only per modum objecti as it containes a Declaration of the divine will and it proposeth to the understanding will the things to be known beleeved and practized Blake of covenants Sec. 20. out of Mr. Pemble Grace and faith vbi vid. et Kend answer to Goodwin cap. 4 pag 163. The power of the spirit doth not work upon the word to put life into it but it works upon our soules to put life into them Pemb. Vind. p. 122. vind. leg. pag 142. The doctrine I wil insist upon is this that the Law was delivered by God on mount Sinai in a covenant way page 220 Voluit dicere legem nobis esse mortuam et sic nos ejus jure selutos Sicut mulier mortuo marito ejuslege liberatur sed videtur rationem habere Iudaeorum ne tali
the Spirits guidance or no Shepherds Thesis 87.47 It is not essential to the rule to give power to conform unto it nor to command conformity but to be that according to which we are to be conformed Shep. Sab. Thes. 86. As the Spirit leads us to the word so the word leads us to the Spirit c. Thes. 89. Spiritus sanctus nunquam otiosus est in piis semper aliquid agit quod pertinet ad regnum Dei Luth. Clas. 1. cap. 11. Christians may expect {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to be led by the Spirit Rom. 8.14 but not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to forcibly moved or born anew as the Prophets Though men may thus depute and appoint dayes to worship God yet they cannot state any such dayes but only as Gods providence calls them to it according to the present occasion Therefore it were certainly a sin if a State should appoint once every year to be a fasting-day in a religious way God did so but men have no power to do so the reason is this because they do not know but God may call them to rejoycing upon that day they have nor the liberty of the time c. Burroughs in Hos. Lect. 8. pag 409. Eph. 6.18 He doth not say say Zancby and others {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in every particular time but {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in every season every fit time when just occasion and opportunity is offered Leigh crit sacr. Fatemur bona opera fidem sequi debore imò non debere sed sponte sequi sicut arbor bona non debet fructum facere sed sponte facit Luth. Cl. 3. loc. 9 Oratio est ardua magni laberis longe difficilem quam praedicatio verbi Orare est difficilimum opus idea etiam carissimum a id Luth. Cl. 3. loc. 17. In an Epistle prefixed to Mr. Burroughs Gospel-conversation Cham. Tom. 3. lib. 8. cap. 3. Sect. 24. David understood this reasoning to be indeed the true reasoning of the covenant of Grace and he pleaded thus with God Psal. 25.11 Pardon my iniquity for it is great Lord my iniquity is great therfore pardon it Ser. Burroughs in Hos. cap. 2. v 14. Lect. 12. This Therefore hath a strange and wonderful Wherefore c. Vide Zanch. fid. obs. in cap. cap. 13 Aph 7. Appositissimè igitur citatum hoc testimonium ab Apostolo rectè est explicatum â—er {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} cum si finis etiam declaretur non quidem ipsis peccatoribus se Deo propositus fuos ad tempus tentationibus exponenti Beza in Ro. 3 4 If Gregory said truly of Adams sin faelâ—â— culpa it was a happy fault c. no question but God cat over-rule the sins of his people for their own advantage As a godly man said he go more good by his sins than by his Graces Audeo dicere c. Augustin I dare be bold to say that it is profitable for proud men to fall into manifest and open sins whereby they may be ashamed and made loathsom in their own eyes this therefore God doth to his people to prevent sin he letteth them fall into sin Burges Instit. Lect. 27. pag. 237. God suffered David to fall to cure his pride of heart make him know himself and magnifie the riches of his grace in his recovery Ball cove pag. 155. The first Position prooved Aphor. Epist. Dedica The second Position how true in the Negative Vocation according to the purpose of God is free not depending upon any precedent condition on our part required or whereby we are fitted or prepared to receive grace offered nor upon the good use of any natural gift vouchsafed Ball Covent pag. 324 See Crandons example of Bap. Aphor. pag. 242 It is onely Christ that opens heaven it is onely Christ that is the way to heaven besides him there is no way no truth no life Mr. Ambrose's second birth pag. 6. Ep. before Mr. Burrought Gospel-conversation We say that a christian in time of darkness and temptation is not to go by signes and marks but obedientially to trust God as David calls upon his soul often Burg. vind. Leg. pag. 34. Abraham after he had done many great works in the manner of Justification he presented himself before the throne of grace not only Sub forma pauperis but what it more of an ungodly man c. Ball Covenant pag. 72. The second Position how true in the affirmative The third position proved Calv. Instit. lib. 2. cap. 8. Sect. 54.