Anti. Why then Sir it seemes that those who were saved amongst the Jewes were not saved by the workes of the Law Evan. No indeed they were neither justified nor saved either by the workes of the Morall Law or the Ceremoniall Law for as you heard before the Morall Law being delivered unto them with great terrour and under most dreadfull penalties they did finde in themselves an impossibilitie of keeping it and so were driven to seeke helpe of a Mediatour even Iesus Christ of whom Moses was to them a Typicall Mediatour so that the Morall Law did drive them to the Cerimoniall Law which was their Gospel and their Christ in a figure for that the Cerimonies did prefigure Christ direct unto him and require faith in him is a thing acknowledged and confessed by all men Nom. But Sir I suppose though believers amongst the Iewes were not justified and saved by the works of the Law yet was it a rule for their obedience Evan. It is very true indeed the law of the tenne Commandements was a rule for their obedience yet not as it was the Law of workes or Covenant of workes but as it was the Law of Christ as it will appeare if you consider that after the Lord had the second time written them in tables of stone with his owne finger he delivered them to Moses commanding him to provide an Arke to put them into which was not onely for the safe keâ—ping of them but also to cover the forme of the Covenant of works that was formerly upon them that beleevers might not perceive it for the Arke was a notable type of Christ and therefore the pâ—tting of them therein did shew that they were perfectly fulfilled in him Christ being the end of the Law for righteousnes to every one that beleeveth the which was yet more clearly manifest in that the booke of the Law was placed betweene the Cherubims and upon the Mercy-seat to assure beleevers that the Law now came to them from the Mercy-seat for there the Lord promised to meet Moses and to commune with him of all things which he would give him in commandment to them Ant. But Sir was the forme quite taken away so as the ten Commadements were no more the Covenant of works Evan. Oh no you are not so to understand it for the forme of the Covenant of works as well as the matter on Gods part came immediatly from God himself and so consequently is eternall like himselfe whence it is that our Saviour saith Mat. 5.18 Till heaven and earth passe one jot or one title shall in no wise passe from the law till all be fulfilled so that either man himselfe or some other for him must performe or fulfill the condition of the Law as it is the Covenant of works or els he remaines still under it in a damnable condition but now Christ hath fulfilled it for all believers and therefore I said the forme of the Covenant of works was covered or taken away as touching the believing Jewes but yet was it neither taken away in it selfe nor yet as touching the unbelieving Jewes Nom. Was the Law then still of use to them as it was the Covenant of works Evan. Yea indeed Ant. I pray you Sir shew of what use it was to them Evan. I remember Luther saith there be two sorts of unrighteous persons or unbeleevers the one to be justified and the other not to be justified even so was there amongst the Jews Now to them that were to bee justified as you have heard it was still of use to bring them to Christ as the Apostle saith Gal. 3.24 The Law was our Schoolmaster untill Christ that we might be made righteous by faith that is to say the Morall Law did teach and shew them what they should doe and so what they did not and this made them go to the Ceremonial Law and by that they were taught that Christ had done it for them the which they beleeving were made righteous by faith in him And to the second sort it was of use to shew them what was good and what was evill and to be as a bridle to them to restraine them from evill and as a motive to move them to good for fear of punishment or hope of reward in this life which though it was but a forced and constrained obedience yet was it necessarie for the publike common-wealth the quiet thereof being thereby the better maintained and though thereby they could neither escape death nor yet obtaine eternall life for want of perfect obedience yet the more obedience they yeelded thereunto the more they were freed from temporall calamities and possessed with temporall blessings according as the Lord promised and threatned Deut. 28. Ant. But Sir in that place the Lord seemeth to speak to his own people and yet to speak according to the tenor of the covenant of works which hath made me thinke that believers in the Old Testament were partly under the covenant of works Evan. Do you not remember how I told you before that the Lord did manifest so much love to the body of that nation that the whole posterity of Abraham were brought under a State-Covenant or Nationall Church so that for the believers sakes he infolded the unbelievers in the compact whereupon the Lord was pleased to call them all by the name of his people as well unbelievers as believers and to be called their God And though the Lord did there speak according to the tenor of the covenant of works yet I see no reason why he might not direct and intend his speech to believers also and yet they remain only under the covenant of grace Ant. Why Sir you said that the Lord did speak to them out of the tabernacle and from the mercy-seat and that doubtlesse was according to the tenor of the covenant of grace and not according to the tenor of the covenant of works Evan. I pray you take notice that after the Lord had pronounced all those blessings and curses Deut. 28. in the beginning of thâ— 29. chap. it is said These are the words of thâ— covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab beside the covenant which he made with them in Horeb. Whereby it doth appeare to me that this was not the covenant of works which was delivered to them on mount Sinai for the form of that Covenant was eternall blessings and curses but the form of this Covenant was temporall blessings and curses so that this rather seems to be the pedagogie of the Law than the Covenant of works for at that time these people seemed to be carried by temporall promises in the wayes of obedience and deterred by temporall threatnings from the wayes of disobedience God dealing with them as in their infancie and under-age and so leads them on and allures them and feares them by such respects as these because they had but a
and therefore whereas they should first have considered what a straight rule the Law of God is and then have brought mans heart and have laid it to it they contrariwise first considered what a crooked rule mans heart is and then sought to make the Law like unto it and so indeed they expounded the Law literally teaching and holding that the righteousnesse which the Law required was but an externall righteousnesse consisting in the outward observation of the Law as you may see by the testimony of our Saviour Matth. 5. So that according to their exposition it was possible for a man to fulfill the Law perfectly and so to be justified and saved by his obedience to it Ant. But sir doe you think the Scribes and Pharisees and their seed did yield perfect obedience to the Law according to their own exposition Evan. No indeed I think very few of them if any at all Ant. Why what hopes could they then have to be justified and saved when they transgressed any of the Commandements Evan. Peter Martyr tels us that when they chanced to transgresse any of the Ten Commandements they had their sacrifices to make satisfaction as they conceived for they looked upon their sacrifices without their significations and so had a false faith in them thinking that the bare work was a sacrifice acceptable to God in a word they conceived that the blood of Buls and Goates would take away sinne And so what they wanted of fulfilling the Morall law they thought to make make up in the Ceremoniall law And thus they separated Christ from their sacrifices thinking they had discharged their duty very well when they had sacrificed and offered their offerings not considering that the imperfection of the Typicall law which as the Apostle saith made nothing perfect should have led them to find perfection in Christ but they generally rested in the work done in the Ceremoniall law even as they had done in the Morall law though they themselves were unable to do the one and the other was as unsufficient to help them And thus Israel which followed the law of righteousnesse did not attain to the law of righteousnesse because they sought it not by faith but as it were by the works of the Law for they being ignorant of the righteousnesse of God and going about to stablish their own righteousnesse did not submit themselves to the righteousnesse of God Ant. Then Sir it seemeth that their ignorance was the cause of their error Evan. Yea indeed was it for this vaile of ignorance that was over their hearts or this vaile of blindnesse which was over their minds made their sight so weak and dim that they were no more able to behold the glorious beauty of the Lords holy and pure nature manifested in the Law as it was the covenant of works than the weak eye of man is able to behold the bright sun when it shineth in full strength And therefore we read that when Moses came down from the mount with the two tables wherein were wriâ—ten the words of the covenant of works the Ten Commandements his face did shâ—ne so bright that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold it for the glory of his countenance and therefore Moses was glad to put the cloudy vaile of shadowing Ceremonies over it that so they might bee the better able to behold it Ant. But yet Siâ— it seemeth that the vaile of Ceremonies did not help their vaile of Ignorance Evan. No indeed for the generality of them were so addicted to the letter of the Law that they used it not as a pedagogie to Christ but 〈◊〉 justification by it and opposed Christ they terminated their eye-sight in thâ— shadow and did not see through it to thâ— substâ—nce to wit to the end of the Law which is Christ. Some indeed there were which did otherwise but alas the number of them were very few especially in the future ages after Moses for their blind guides had so levened the people with their corrupt doctrine that at the time of our Saviours comming in the flesh we reâ—dâ— but of two to wit Simeon and Anna that desired him or looked for him for although all of them had in their mouths the Messiah and the blessed estate of the kingdome of David yet they dreamed that this Messiah should be some great Monarch that should come in outward pompe and power and save and deliver them from the Romans of whose bondage they were very sensible and weary but as for their spirituall bondage under the law and sinne they were not sensible of it and so indeed saw no need of deliverance from it and all because their false teachers had turned the whole Law into a Covenant of Works to be done for Justification and Salvation yea such a Covenant as they were able to keep and fulfill if noâ— by doing yet by making satisfaction with their sacrifices And though Jesus Christ himself for the removing of this vaile did in the fifth of Matthew take occasion truly to expound the Law as it is the Covenant of Works shewing that it did not only require externall righteousnesse but internall also of them that would bee justified by the works thereof and so removing that false glosse which the Scribes and Pharisees had put upon it Yea and though both he himselfe and his Apostles by their preaching and teaching did endeavour to let them understand that all the Sacrifices and Ceremonies did but point at him and so were of no further use Yea and though at the death of Christ the vaile of the Temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottome to shew that the shadowes of Moses Law should vanish away at the flourishing light of the Gospel and that the mysteries of Christ which were formerly hid were now laid open Yet notwithstanding after that when the Apostle wrote to the Corinthians he saith concerning the Jewes Even to this day when Moses is read the vaile is over their hearts And though for the removing of this vaile the same Apostle as it is probobably thought did write to them that Divine and Spirituall Epistle called the Epistle to the Hebrewes wherein he plainly and fully declareth that all the Sacrifices Ceremonies and Tabernacle ordinances in the old Testament were but types of Christ and given to them that they might see Christ through them who being now exhibited and come in the flâ—sh all types and shadows were to vaâ—â—sh away and give place yet notwithstanding we may say of them at this day as the Apostle did to the Corinthians untill this â—ay remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old Testament the Lord be mercifull unto them and remove it in his due time Nom. Sir as I conceive you have now spoken sufficiently both of Gods purpose and promise concerning the helping and delivering fallen mankind wherefore I beseech you let us
satisfied or else I will take hold on thee â—hen answer you and say O Law bee it known unto thee that I am now marryed unto Christ and so I am under coverâ— and therefore if thou charge me with any debt thou must enter thine action against my husband Christ for the wife is not suable at the Law but the husband But the truth is I through him am dead to thee ô Law and thou art dead to me and therefore justice hath nothing to doe with me for it judgeth according to the Law And if it yet reply and say I but good works must be done and the commandements must bee kept if thou wilt obtain salvation Then answer you and say I am already saved before thou camest therefore I have no need of thy presence for in Christ I have all things at once neither need I any thing more that is necessary to salvation hee is my righteousnesse my treasure and my work I confesse O Law that I am neither godly nor righteous but yet this am I sure of that he is godly and righteous for me and to tell thee the truth O Law I am now with him in the bride-chamber where it maketh no matter what I am or what I have done but what Christ my sweet husband is hath done and doth for me and therefore leave off Law to dispute with me for by faith I apprehend him who hath apprehended me and put me into his bosome wherefore I will be bold to bid Moses with his Tables and all Lawyers with their books and all men with their works hold their peace and give place so that I say unto thee O Law be gon and if it will not be gon then thrust it out by force And if sin offer to take hold of you as David said his did on him Psal. 40.14 then say you unto it thy strength O sin is the Law 1 Cor. 15.56 and the Law is dead to me and therefore O sin thy strength is gon and therefore be sure thou shalt never be able to prevail against me nor doe me any hurt at all And if Satan take you by the throat and by violence draw you before Gods judgement seat then call to your husband Christ and say Lord I suffer violence make answer for me and help me and by his help you shall be enabled to plead for your selfe after this manner O God the Father I am thy Sonne Christs thou gavest me unto him and thou hast given unto him all power both in heaven and in earth and hast committed all judgement to him and therefore I will-stand to his judgement who saith He came not to judge the World but to save it and therefore hee will save me according to his office and if the jury should bring in their verdict that they have found you guilty then speak to the Iudge and say in case any must be condemned for my transgressions it must needs be Christ and not I for albeit I have committed them yet hee hath undertaken and bound himselfe to answer for them and that by his consent and good will and indeed hee hath fully satisfied for them and if all this will not serve the turne to acquit you then Adde moreover and say As a woman that is conceived with childe must not suffer death because of the childe that is within her no more must I because I have conceived Christ in mine heart though I had committed all the sins in the world And if death creep upon you and attempt to devoure you then say thy sting ô death is sin and Christ my husband hath fully vanquished sin and so deprived thee of thy sting and therefore doe I not feare any hurt that thou ô death canst do unto mee And thus you may triumph with the Apostle saying Thanks be to God who hath given mee victory through my Lord Iesus Christ. And thus have I also declared unto you how Christ in the fulnesse of time performed that which God before all time purposed and in time promised touching the helping and delivering of falne mankind and so have I also done with the law of faith Nom. Then Sir I pray you proceed to speake of the law of Christ and first let us heare what the law of Christ is The law of Christ in regard of substance and matter is all one with the law of workes or covenant of workes which matter is scattered through the whole Bible and summed up in the Decalogue or ten commandements commonly called the Morall Law containing such things as are agreeable to the minde and will of God to wit piety towards God charity towards our Neighbour and sobriety towards our selves therefore was it given of God to be a true and eternall rule of righteousnes for all men of all Nations and at all times so that Evangelicall grace directs a man to no other obedience then that wherof the law of the ten commandements is to be the rule Nom. But yet Sir I conceive that though as you say the law of Christ in regard of substance and matter be all one with the law of works yet their forms do differ Evan. True indeed for as you have heard the law of works speaketh on this wise doe this and thou shalt live and if thou doe it not thou shalt die the death but the law of Christ speaketh on this wise And when I passed by thee and saw thee polluted in thine owne bloud I said unto thee when thou wast in thy bloud live And whosoever liveth and believeth in mee shall never die Be ye therefore followers of God as deare children and walke in love as Christ hath loved us And if ye love me keep my commandements And if they breake my statutes and keep not my commandements then will I visit their transgressions with the rod and their iniquity with stripes Neverthelesse my loving kindnesse will I not utterly take away from him nor suffer my faithfulnesse to fail Thus you see that both these laws agree in saying doe this but here is the difference The one saith doe this and live and the other saith live and doe this the one saith doe this for life the other saith do this from life the one saith If thou do it not thou shalt die the other saith If thou doe it not I will chastise thee with the rod the one is to be delivered by God as hee is a creatour out of Christ onely to such as are out of Christ the other is to be delivered by God as he is a Redeemer in Christ onely to such as are in Christ Wherefore Neighbour Neophytus seeth that you are now in Christ beware you receive not the ten commandements at the hands of God out of Christ nor yet at the hands of Moses but onely at the hands of Christ and so shall you be sure to receive them as the law of Christ. Nom. But Sir may not
he first loved us the Lord doth pay them or at least giveth them a sure earnest of their wages before hee bid them work and therefore the contest of a believer according to the measure of his faith is not what will God give mee but what shall I give God What shall I render unto the Lord for all his goodnesse for thy loving kindnesse is before mine eyes and I have walked in thy truth Nom. Then Sir it seems that holinesse of life and good workes are not the cause of eternall happines but onely the way thether Evan. Doe you not remember that our Lord Jesus himself sayth I am the way the truth and the life And doth not the Apostle say to the believing Colossians As ye have received Jesus Christ the Lord so walk in him that is As you have received him by faith so goe on in your faith and by his power walk in his Commandements so that good works as I conceive may rather be called a believers walking in the way to eternal happinesse then the way it self but however this wee may assuredly conclude that the summe and substance both of the way and walking in the way consist in the receiving of Jesus Christ by faith and in yielding obedience to his law according to the measure of that receiving Neo. Sir I am perswaded that through my neighbour Nomistas asking you these questions you have been interrupted in your discourse in shewing how faith doth enable a man to exercise his christian graces and performe his christian duties aright And therefore I pray you go on Evan. What should I say more for the time would fail me to tell how that according to the measure of any mans faith is his true peace of conscience for sayth the Apostle being justified by faith wee have peace with God yea sayth the Prophet Isaiah Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusteth in thee here there is a sure and true grounded peace therfore it is of faith sayth the Apostle that it might be by grace and that the promise might be sure to all the seed and answerably to a mans believing that hee is justified fully by Gods grace through that redemption that is in Jesus Christ is his true humility of spirit so that although he be endued with excellent gifts and graces and though he performe never so many duties he denyes himselfe in all hee doth not make them as ladders for him to ascend up into Heaven by But desires to be found in Christ not having his own righteousnesse which is of the law but that which is through the faith of Christ he doth not think himselfe to be one step neerer to Heaven for all his works and performances and if hee heare any man prayse him for his gifts and graces hee will not conceit that he hath obteined the same by his own industry and pains taking as some men have proudly thought neyther will hee speak it out as some have done saying these gifts and graces have cost mee something I have taken much pains to obtain them but he sayth Not I but by the grace of God I am that I am and not I but the grace of God that was with me And if he behold an ignorant man or a wicked liver he will not call him carnall wretch or prophane fellow nor say stand by thy selfe come not neere to mee for I am holier then thou as some have said but he pitieth such a man and prays for him and in his heart he sayth concerning himself who maketh thee to differ And what hast thou that thou hast not received And thus I might goe on and shew you how according to any mans faith is his true joy in God and his true thankfulnesse to God and his patience in all troubles and afflictions and his contentednesse in any condition and his willingnesse to suffer and his cheerfulnesse in suffering and his contentednesse to part with any earthly thing yea according to any mans faith is his ability to pray aright to heare or read the Word of God aright to receive the Sacrament with profit and comfort and to do any duty either to God or man after a right manner and to a right end yea according to the measure of any mans faith is his love to Christ and so to man for Christs sake and so consequently his readinesse and willingnesse to forgive an injury yea to forgive an enemy and to doe good to them that hate him and the more faith any man hath the lesse love he hath to the world or the things that are in the world to conclude the greater any mans faith is the more fitter he is to die and the more willing he is to die Neo. Well Sir now I doe perceive that faith is a most excellent grace and happie is that man that hath a great measure of it Evan. The truth is faith is the chief grace that Christians are to be exhorted to get and exercise and therefore when the people asked our Lord Christ what they should doe to worke the worke of God he answered and said this is the work of God That ye believe on him whom he hath sent speaking as if there were no other duty at all required but onely believing for indeed to say as the thing is believing includeth all other duties in it and they spring all from it and therefore sayth one Preach Faith and preach all Whilst I bid man believe sayth learned Rollock I bid him doe all good things for sayth Doctor Preston truth of belief will bring forth truth of holinesse if a man believe works of sanctification will follow for faith draws after it inherent righteousnesse and sanctification wherefore sayth he if a man will goe about this great worke to change his life to get victory over any sin that it may not have dominion over him to have his conscience purged from dead works and to bee made partaker of the divine nature let him not goe about it as a morall man that is let him not consider what Commandements there are what the rectitude is which the Law requires and how to bring his heart to it but let him goe about it as a Christian that is let him believe the promise of pardon in the bloud of Christ and the very believing the promise will be able to cleanse his heart from dead works Neo. But I pray you Sir whence hath faith its power and vertue to doe all this Evan. Even from our Lord Jesus Christ for faith doth ingraft a man who is by nature a wild olive branch into Christ as into the naturall olive and fetcheth sap from the root Christ and thereby makes the tree bring forth fruit in its kind yea faith fetcheth a supernaturall efficacie from the death and life of Christ by vertue whereof it metamorphoseth the heart of a
M. Gray junior H Bishop Hall M. Thomas Hooker L Doctor Luther M. Lightfoot M Wolfangius Musculus Peter Martyr Doctor Mayor M. Marshall O Barnardine Ochine P M. Perkins Doctor Preston R M. Rollock M. Reynolds M. Rouse S Doctor Smith Doctor Sibbs M. Slater T M. Tyndall M. Robert Towne V Doctor Vrban Regius Doctor Vrsinus M. Vaughan W Doctor Willet Doctor Williams M. Wilson M. Ward THE MARROVV OF Modern Divinity Interlocutors EVANGELISTA a Minister of the Gospel NOMISTA a Legalist ANTINOMISTA an Antinomian NEOPHYTUS a young Christian. Nomista SIR My neighbour Neophytus and I having lately had some conference with this our friend and acquaintance Antinomista about some points of Religiâ—n wherein he differing from us both at last â—id he would be contented to be judged by â—ou our Minister therefore have we made bold to come unto you all three of us to pray you to heare us and judge of our differences Evan. You are all of you very welcome to me and if you please to let me heare what your differences are I will tell you what I think Nom. The truth is Sir he and I differ in very many things but more especially about the Law for I say the Law ought to be a rule of life to a believer and he saith it ought not Neo. And surely Sir the greatest difference betwixt him and I is this He would perswade me to believe in Christ and bids me rejoyce in the Lord and live merrily though I feel never so many corruptions in my heart yea though I be never so sinfull in my life the which I cannot do nor I think ought not to do but rather to feare and sorrow and lament for my sins Anti. The truth is Sir the greatest difference is betwixt my feiend Nomista and I about the Law and therefore that is the greatest matter we come unto you about Evan. I remember the Apostle Paul willeth Titus to avoyd contentions and strivings about the Law because they are unprofitable and vain and so I feare me yours have been Nom. Sir for mine own part I hold it very meet that every true Christian should be very zealous for the holy Law of God especially now when a company of these Antinomians do set themselves against it and do what they can quite to abolish it and utterly to root it out of the Church surely Sir I think it not meet they should â—ive in a Christian Common-wealth Evan. I pray you neighbour Nomista be not so hot neither let us have such unchristianlike expressions amongst us and let us reason together in love and with the spirit of meeknesse as Christians ought to do I confesse with the Apostle it is good to be zealously affected alwayes in a good thing But yet as the same Apostle said of the Jews so I feare me I may say of some Christians that they are zealous of the Law yea some would be Doctors of the Law and yet neither understand what they say nor whereof they affirm Nom. Sir I make no doubt but that I both know what I say and whereof I affirm when I say and affirm that the holy Law of God ought to be a rule of life to a believer For I dare pawn my soule of the â—ruth of it Evan. But what Law do you mean Nom. Why Sir what Law do you think I mean Is there any more Lawes then one Evan. Yea in the New Testament theâ— is mention made of a three-fold Law 〈◊〉 wit the law of works the law of faith anâ— the law of Christ and therefore I pray yoâ— tell me when you say the Law ought to bâ— a rule of life to a believer which of their three Lawes you mean Nom. Sir I know not the difference betwixt them but this I know that the Law of the Ten Commandements commonly called the Morall Law ought to be a rule of life to a believer Evan. But the Law of the Ten Commandements or Morall Law may be either said to be the matter of the law of works or the matter of the law of Christ and therefore I pray you tell me in whether oâ— these senses you conceive it ought to be â— rule of life to a believer Nom. Sir I must confesse I do not know what you mean by this distinction but thiâ— I know that God requires that every Christian should frame and lead his life according to the rule of the Ten Commandements the which if he do then may he expect the blessing of God both upon his soule and body and if he do not then can he expect nothing else but his wrath and curse upon them both Evan. The truth is neighbour Nomista â—he Law of the Ten Commandements as it 〈◊〉 the matter of the Law of Works ought not to be a rule of life to a believer but in thus saying you have affirmed that it ought and therefore therein you have erred from the truth And now friend Antinomista that I may also know your judgement when you say the Law ought not to be a rule of life to a believer I pray you tell me what Law you mean Ant. Why I mean the Law of the Ten Commandements Evan. But whether do you mean that Law as it is the matter of the law of works or as it is the matter of the Law of Christ Ant. Surely Sir I do conceive that the Ten Commandements are no way to be a rule of life to a believer for Christ hath delivered him from them Evan. But the truth is the law of the Ten Commandements as it is the matter of the law of Christ ought to be a rule of life to a believer and therefore you having affirmed the contrary have therein also erâ—ed from the truth Nom. The truth is Sir I must confesse 〈◊〉 never took any notice of this three-fold â—aw which it seems is mentioned in the New Testament Ant. And I must confesse if I took any notice of them I never understood them Evan. Well give me leave to tell you that so far forth as any man comes short of the true knowledge of this threefold Law so far forth he comes short both of the true knowledge of God and of himself And therefore I wish you both to consider of it Nom. Sir if it be so you may do well to be a means to inform us and help us to the true knowledge of this threefold Law and therefore I pray you first tell us what is meant by the law of works Evan. The law of works opposed to the law of faith Rom. 3.27 holds forth as much as the covenant of works for it is manifest saith Musculus that the word which signifieth covenant or bargain is put for law so that you see the Law of works is as much to say as the Covenant of works the which Covenant the Lord made with all mankinde in Adam before his fall the summe whereof was Do this and thou shalt live And If
thou do it not thou shalt die the death In which Covenant there was first contained 〈◊〉 precept Do this Secondly a promise joyned unto it If thou do it thou shalt live Thirdly a like threatning If thou do it not thou shalt die the death Imagine saith Musculus that God had said to Adam Lo to the intent that thou maist live I have given thee liberty to eat and have given thee abundantly to eat let all the fruits of Paradise be in thy power one tree except which see thou touch not for that I keep it to mine own authority the same is the tree of knowledge of good and evill If thou touch it the meat thereof shall not be life but death Nom. But Sir you said that the Law of the Ten Commandements or Morall Law may be said to be the matter of the Law of works and you have also said that the Law of works is as much to say as the Covenant of works whereby it seems to me you hold that the Law of the Ten Commandements was the matter of the Covenant of works which God made with all mankind in Adam before his fall Evan. That 's a truth agreed upon by all Authors and Interpreters that I know And indeed the Law of works as a learned Author saith signifies the Morall law and the Morall law strictly and properly taken signifies the Covenant of works Nom. But Sir what is the reason you call it but the matter of the covenant of works Evan. The reason why I rather chuse to call the Law of the Ten Commandements the matter of the Covenant of works then the Covenant it self is because I conceive that the matter of it cannot properly be called the covenant of works except the form be put upon it that is to say except the Lord require and man undertake to yield perfect obedience thereunto upon condition of eternall life and death And therefore till then it was not a covenant of works betwixt God and all mankinde in Adam As for example you know that although a servant have an ability to do a masters work and though a master have wages to bestow upon him for it yet is there not a covenant betwixt them till they have thereupon agreed Even so though man at the first had power to yield perfect and perpetuall obedience to all the Ten Commandements and God had an eternall life to bestow upon him yet was there not a covenant betwixt them till they were thereupon agreed Nom. But Sir you know there is no mention made in the book of Genesis of this covenant of works which you say was made with man at first Evan. Though we read not the word Covenant betwixt God and man yet have we there recorded what may amount to as much for God provided and promised to Adam eternall happinesse and called for perfect obedience which appears from Gods threatning Gen. 2.17 For if man must die if he disobeyed it implies strongly that Gods covenant was with him for life if he obeyed Nom. But Sir you know the word Covenant signifies a mutuall promise bargain and obligation betwixt two parties Now though it is implied that God promised man to give him life if he obeyed yet we read not that man promised to be obedient Evan. I pray take notice that God doth not alwayes tie man to verball expressions but doth often contract the Covenant in reall impressions in the heart and frame of the creature And this was the manner of covenanting with man at the first for God had furnished his soule with an understanding mind whereby he might discern good from evill and right from wrong and not only so but also in his will was most great uprightnesse and his instrumentall parts were orderly framed to obedience the truth is God did ingrave in mans soule wisdom and knowledge of his will and works and integrity in the whole soule and such a fitnesse in all the powers thereof that neither the mind did conceive nor the heart desire nor the body put in execution any thing but that which was acceptable to God so that man endowed with these qualities was able to serve God perfectly Nom. But Sir how could the Law of the Ten Commandements be the matter of this Covenant of works when they were not written as you know till the time of Moses Evan. Though they were not written in tables of stone untill the time of Moses yet were they written in the tables of mans heart in the time of Adam for we read that man was created in the image or likenesse of God Gen. 1.27 And the ten Commandements are a doctrine agreeing with the eternall wisdome and justice that is in God wherein he hath so painted out his own nature that it doth in a manner expresse the very image of God And doth not the Apostle say that the image of God consists in knowledge righteousnesse and true holinesse and is not knowledge righteousnes true holines the perfections of both the tables of the law And indeed saith M. Rollock it could not wel stand with the justice of God to make a Covenant with man under the condition of holy good works perfect obedience to his Law except he had first created man holy pure and ingraven his law in his hart whence those good works should proceed Nom. But yet I cannot but marvell that God in making the covenant with man did make mention of no other commandement then that of the forbidden fruit Evan. Do not marvell at it for by that one species of sin the whole genus or kind is shewn as the same Law being more clearly unfolded Deut. 27.26 Gal. 3.10 doth expresse And indeed in that one Commandement the whole worship of God did consist as obedience honour love confidence and religious feare together with the outward abstinence from sin and reverent respect to the voice of God Yea herein also consisted his love and so his whole duty to his neighbour so that as a learned writer saith Adam heard as much in the garden as Israel did at Sinai but only in fewer words and without thunder Nom. But sir ought not man to have yielded perfect obedience to God though this Covenant had not been made betwixt them Evan. Yea indeed perfect and perpetuall obedience was due from man unto God though God had made no promise to man for when God created man at first he put forth an excellencie from himself into him and therefore it was the bond and tie that lay upon man to return that again unto God so that man being Gods creature by the law of creation he owed all obedience and subjection to God his creator Nom. Why then was it needfull that the Lord should make a covenant with him by promising him life and threatning him with death Evan. For answer hereunto in the first place I pray you understand that man was a reasonable creature
Church and under the externall Covenant are called the chosen of God and the people of God But though they had been all of them believers yet as the Lord delivered it to them it would have done them no more hurt than it did them that were Nom. But Sir was the same covenant of works made with them that was made with Adam Evan. For the generall substance of the duty the Law delivered on mount Sinai and formerly engraven in mans heart was one and the same so that at mount Sinai the Lord delivered no new thing only it came more gently to Adam before his fall but after his fall came thunder with it Nom. I but Sir as your self said the ten Commandements as they were written in Adams heart were but the matter of the covenant of works and not the covenant it self till the form was annexed to them that is to say till God and man were thereupon agreed now we do not find that God and these people did agree upon any such terms at mount Sinai Evan. No say you so do you not remember that the people consented Exod. 19.8 saying All that the Lord hath spoken we will do And do you not remember that the Lord consented Levit. 18.5 saying Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgements which if a man do he shall live in them And in Deut. 27.26 saying Cursed is he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them And doth not the Apostle Paul give evidenee than these words were the form of the covenant of works when he saith Rom. 10.5 Moses describeth the righteousnesse which is of the law that the man that doth these things shall live in them when he saith Gal. 3.10 For it is writen Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them And in Deut. 4.13 Moses doth in expresse tearmes call it a Covenant saying And he declared unto you his Covenant which he commanded you to perform even ten Commandamennts and hee wrote them upon tables of stone Now this was not the Covenant of grace for Moses afterwards Deut. 5.3 speaking of this Covenant saith God made not this Covenant with your Fathers but with you And by Fathers all the Patriarkes unto Adam may be meant saith Mr. Aynsworth who had the promise of the Covenant of Christ therefore if it had been the Covenant of grace he would have said God did make this covenant with them rather then that he did not Nom. And do any of our godly and moderne witers agree with you in this point Evan. Yea indeed Polanus saith the Covenant of workes is that in which God promiseth everlasting life unto a man that in all respects performeth perfect obedience to the Law of workes adding thereunto threatnings of eternall death if hee shall not performe perfect obedience thereunto God made this Covenant in the beginning with the first man Adam whilst hee was in the first estate of integrity the same Covenant God did repeat and make againe by Moses with the people of Israel And Dr. Preston saith the Covenant of workes runs in these termes Do this and thou shalt live and I will be thy God This was the Covenant which was made with Adam and the Covenant that is expressed by Mâ—ses in the Morall law And Mr. Walker saith that the first part of the covenant which God made with Israel at Horeb was nothing else but a renewing of the old covenant of works which God made with Adam in paradise And it is generally laid down by our Divines that we are by Christ delivered from the Law as it is a Covenant Nom. But Sir were the children of Israel at this time better able to perform the condition of the covenant of works than either Adam or any of the old Patriarks that God renewed it now with them rather then before Evan. No indeed God did not renew it with them now and not before because they were better able to keep it but because they had more need to be made acquainted what the covenant of works is then those before for though 't is true the Ten Commandements which were at first perfectly written in Adams heart were much obliterated by his fall yet some impressions and reliques thereof still remained and Adam himself was very sensible of his fall and the rest of the fathers were holpen by traditions And saith Cameron God did speak to the Patriarchs from heaven yea and he spake unto them by his Angels But now by this time sin had almost obliterated and defaced the impressions of the Law written in their hearts and by their being so long in Egypt they were so corrupted that the instructions and ordinances of their fathers were almost all worne out of mind and their fall in Adam was almost forgotten as the Apostle testifieth saying Before the time of the Law sin was in the world yet did they not impute it to themselves because there was no Law Nay in that long course of time betwixt Adam and Moses men had forgotten what was sin so that although God had made a promise of blessing to Abraham and to all his seed that would plead interest in it yet these people at this time were proud and secure and heedlesse of their estate and though sin was in them and death raigned over them yet they being without a law to evidence this sin and death unto their consciences they did not impute it unto themselves they would not own it nor charge themselves with it and so by consequence found no need of pleading the promise made to Abraham Therefore the Law entred that Adams offence and their own actuall transgression might abound So that now the Lord saw it needfull that there should be a new edition and publication of the covenant of works the sooner to compell the elect unbeleevers to come to Christ the promised seed that the grace of God in Christ to the elect beleevers might appeare the more exceeding gracious so that you see the Lords intention therein was that they by looking upon this Covenant might be put in mind what was their dutie of old when they were in Adams loines yea and what was their dutie still if they would stand to that covenant and so go the old and naturall way to work yea and hereby they were also to see what was their present infirmitie in not doing their duty that so they seeing an impossibilitie of obtaining life by that way of workes first appointed in Paradise they might be humbled and more heedfully minde the promise made to their father Abraham and hasten to lay hold on the Messiah or promised seed Nom. Then Sir it seemeth that the Lord did not renew the Covenant of workes with them to the intent that they should obtaine eternall life by their yeelding obedience to it Evan. No indeed God never made the
known unto them the doctrine of the Covenant of grace yet after his departure through the seducement of false teachers they were soon turned to the Covenant of works and sought to be justified either in whole or in part by it as you may see if you doe seriously consider that Epistle nay what sayth Luther it is sayth he the generall opinion of mans reason throughout the whole world That righteousnesse is gotten by the works of the Law and the reason is because the Covenant of works was ingendred in the mindes of men in the very creation so that man naturally can judge no otherwise of the law then as of a Covenant of works which was given to make righteous and to give life and salvation this pernitious opinion of the Law that it justifieth and maketh righteous before God sayth Luther again is so deeply rooted in mans reason and all mankinde are so wrapped in it that they can hardly get out yea I my selfe sayth hee have now preached the Gospell almost twenty years and have been exercised in the same daily by reading and writing so that I may well seeme to bee rid of this wicked opinion yet notwithstanding I now and then feele this old filth cleave to my heart whereby it commeth to passe that I would willingly so have to doe with God that I would bring somthing with my selfe because of which hee should give me his grace nay it is to bee feared that as you sayd many amongst us who have more means of light ordinarily then ever Luther or any before him had who yet notwithstanding doe either wholy or partly expect justification and acceptation by the works of the Law Ant. Sir I am verily perswaded that there be very many in this City of London that are carryed with a blinde preposterous zeale after their own good works and well doings secretly seeking to become holy just and righteous before God by their diligent keeping and carefull walking in all Gods Commandements and yet no man can perswade them that they doe so and truly Sir I am verily perswaded that this our neighbour and friend Nomista is one of them Evan. Alas there is a thousand in the world that make a Christ of their works and here is their undoing c. They looke for righteousnesse and acceptation more in the precept then in the promise in the law then in the Gospel in working then in believing and miscarry many poor ignorant souls amongst us when we bid them obey and doe duties they can thinke of nothing but working themselves to life when they are troubled they must lick theÌ„selves whole when wounded they must run to the salve of duties and stream of performances and neglect Christ. Nay it is to be feared that there bee divers who in words are able to distinguish between the Law and the Gospel and in their judgements hold and maintain that man is justified by faith without the works of the Law and yet in effect and practise that is to say in heart and conscience doe otherwise rhere is some touch of this in us all otherwise we should not be so up and down in our comforts and believing as we are still and cast down with every weaknesse as we are But what say you neighbour Nomista are you guilty of these things thinke you Nom. Truly Sir I must needs confesse I begin to be somwhat jealous of my selfe that I am so and because I desire your judgement touching my condition I would intreat you to give me leave to relate it unto you Evan. With a very good will Nom. Sir I having bin born brought up in a Countrey where there was very little preaching the Lord he knoweth I lived a great while in ignorance and blindnesse and yet because I did often repeat the Lords Prayer the Apostles Creed and the ten Commandements and in that I came sometimes to Divine Service as they call it and at Easter receive the Communion I thought my condition to bee good but at last by means of hearing a zealous and godly Minister in this City not long after my comming hither I was convinced that my present condition was not good and therefore I went to the same Minister and told him what I thought of my selfe So hee told mee that I must frequent the hearing of Sermons and keepe the Sabbath very strictly and leave off swearing by my faith and troth and such like oaths and beware of lying and all idle words and communication yea and sayd hee you must get good books to read on as Master Dod on the Commandements M. Boultons directions for comfortable walking with God Mastâ—â— Brinsleys true Watch and such like and many such like exhortations and directions he gave me the which I liked very well of and therefore endeavoured my selfe to follow them so I fell to the hearing of the most godly zealous and powerfull Preachers that were in this City and wrote their Sermons after them and when God gave mee a Family I did pray with them and instructed them and repeated Sermons to them and spent the Lords day in publique and private exercises and left off my swearing and lying and idle talking according to his exhortation in few wordes I did so reforme my selfe and my life that whereas before I had been onely carefull to performe the duties of the second Table of the Law and that to the end I might gain favour and respect from civill honest men and to avoid the penalty of mans law or temporall punishment now I was also carefull to performe the duties required in the first Table of the Law and that to gaine favour and respect from religious honest men and to avoid the penalty of Gods Law even eternall torments in hell Now when professors of Religion observe this change in me they caâ—â— to my house and gave unto mee the right hand of fellowship counted me one of that number And then I invited godly Ministers to my table and made much of them then with that same Mica mentioned in the book of Judges I was perswaded the Lord would be mercifull unto me because I had gotten a Levite to be my Priest in a word I did now yield such an outward obedience and conformity to both Tables of the Law that all godly Ministers and religious honest men that knew me did thinke very well of mee counting me to be a very honest man and a good Christian and indeed I thought so of my selfe especially because I had their approbation and thus I went on bravely a great while even untill I read in Master Boultons works that the outward righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees was famous in those times for besides their forbearing and protesting against grosse sins as murther theft adultery idolatry and the like they were frequent and constant in prayer fasting and almes deeds so that without question many of them were perswaded that their doings would purchase
from putting any confidence in our own works and doings and exhorted us by faith to lay hold upon the righteousnesse of Jesus Christ onely at the hearing whereof it pleased the Lord so to work upon mee that I plainly perceived that there was no need at all of my works and doings nor nothing else but only to believe in Jesus Christ indeed my heart did assent unto it immediately so that I went home with abundance of peace and joy in believing and gave thanks to the Lord for that he had set my soule at liberty from such a sore bondage as I had been under and I told all my acquaintance what a slavish life I had lived in being under the Law for if I did commit any sin I was presently troubled disquieted in my coÌ„science could have no peace til I had made humble confession thereof unto God craved pardon and forgivenes promised amendment but now I told them that whatsoever sins I did commit I was no whit troubled at them nor indeed am not to this day for I do verily believe that God for Christs sake hath freely and fully pardoned all my sins both past present and to come so that I am confident that what sin or sins soever I commit they shall never be layd to my charge being very well assured that I am so perfectly clothed with the robes of Christs righteousnesse that God can see no sin in me at all And therefore now I can rejoyce evermore in Christ as the Apostle exhorts mee and live merrily though I be never so vile or sinfull a creature and indeed I pitty them that are in the same slavish condition that I was in and would have them to believe as I have done that so they may rejoyce with mee in Christ And thus Sir you see I have declared unto you my condition and therefore I would intreat you to tell me what you think of me Evan. There is in this City at this day much talk about Antinomiaus and though I hope there be but few that doe justly deserve that title yet I pray give me leave to tell you that I feare mee I may say unto you in this case as it was once said unto Peter in another case Surely thou art one of them for thy speech bewrayeth thee And therefore to tell you truly I make some question whether you have truly believed in Christ for all your confidence And indeed I am the rather moved to question it by calling to minde that as I have heard your conversation is not such as becommeth the Gospell of Christ Ant. Why Sir do you think it is possible for a man to have such peace and joy in Christ as I have had and I thanke the Lord have still and not to have truly believed in Christ Evan. Yea indeed I think it is possible for doth not our Saviour tell us that those hearers whom hee resembles to the stony ground immediatly received the word with joy and yet had no root in themselves and so indeed were not true believers And doth not the Apostle give us to understand that as there is a forme of godlines without the power of godlinesse so there is a forme of faith without the power of faith And therefore he prayes that God would grant unto the Thessalonians the worke of faith with power And as the same Apostle gives us to understand there is a faith that is not fained so doubtlesse there is a faith that is fained And surely when our Saviour sayth Marke 4.26 27 28. The kingdome of God is as if a man should cast seed into the ground and sheuld sleepe and rise night and day and the seed should spring up and grow hee knoweth not how first the blade then the eare after that the full corn in the eare he giveth us to understand that true faith is produced by the secret power of God by little and little so that somtimes a true believer himselfe neither knows the time when nor the manner how it was wrought so that we may perceive that true faith is not ordinarily begun increased and finished all in a moment as it seems yours was but groweth by degrees according to that of the Apostle Rom. 1.17 The righteousnesse of God is revealed from faith to faith that is from one degree of faith to another from a weake faith to a stroâ—g faith from faith beginning to faith increasing towards perfection or from faith of adherence to faith of assurance but so was not yours and again true faith according to the measure of it produceth holinesse of life but it seems yours doth not so and therefore though you have had and have still much peace and joy yet that is no infallible signe that your faith is true for a man may have great raptures yea he may have great joy as if he were lift up into the third heaven and have a great and strong perswasion that his estate is good and yet be but an hypocrite for all that and therefore I beseech you in the words of the Apostle Examine your selfe whether you be in the faith prove your own selfe know you not your own selfe how that Jesus Christ is in you except you be a reprobate And if Christ bee in you the body is dead because of sin but the Spirit is life because of righteousnesse Ant. But Sir if my friend Nomista went wrong in seeking to be justified by the works of the Law then me thinks I should have gone right in seeking to be justified by faith and yet you speake as if wee had both gone wrong Evan. I remember Luther sayth that in his time if they taught in a Sermon that salvation consisted not in our works or life but in the gift of God some men took occasion thence to be slow to good works and to live a dishonest life and if they preached of a godly and honest life others did by and by furiously attempt to build ladders to heaven And moreover hee sayth that in the year 1525 there were some fantasticall spirits that stirred up the rusticall people to sedition saying that the freedome of the Gospel giveth liberty to all men from all manner of Laws and there were others that did attribute the force of justification to the Law Now sayth he both these sorts offend against the Law the one on the right hand who would be justified by the Law and the other on the left hand who would be clean delivered from the Law Now I suppose this saying of Luthers may bee fitly applyed to you two for it appears to me friend Antinomista that you have offended on the left hand in not walking according to the matter of the Law and it is evident to mee neighbour Nomista that you have offended on the right hand in seeking to be justified by your obedience to it Nom. But Sir if seeking of justification by the works
the Citie and wee shall die there and if we sit still here we die also nâ—w therefore come and let us fall into the hands of the Assyrians if they save us we shall live and if they kill us we shall but die even so say I in mine heart if I goe back to the covenant of works to seek justification thereby I shall die there and if I sit still and seek it no way I shall die also now therefore though I be somewhat fearfull yet am I resolved to go unto Christ and if I perish I perish Evan. Why now I tell you truly the match is made Christ is yours and you are his this day is salvation come to your house your soul I mean for what though you have not that power to come so fast unto Christ and to lay such firme hold on him as you desire yet comming with such a resolution to Christ to take him you need take no care for doing it you may be sure that Christ will enable you to do it for is it not said John 1.12 But as many as received him to them hee gave power to become the sonnes of God even to them that believe on his name O then I beseech you stand no longer disputing but be peremptory and resolute in your faith and in casting your selfe upon God in Christ for mercy and let the issue be what it will yet let me tell you to your comfort that such a resolution shall never go to hell nay I will say more if any soule have a roome in Heaven such a soul shall for God cannot finde in his heart to damne such a one I might then with as much true confidence say unto you as John Careless said unto John Bradford Hearken ô ye Heavens and thou ô earth give eare and beare me witnesse at the great day that I do here faithfully and truly the Lords message unto his deare servant and singularly beloved John Bradford saying John Bradford thou man so specially beloved of God I doe pronounce and testifie unto thee in the word and name of the Lord Jehovah that all thy sins whatsoever they be though never so many grievous or great be fully and freely pardoned released and forgiven thee by the mercy of God in Jesus Christ thy onely Lord and sweet Saviour in whom thou dost undoubtedly believe as truly as the Lord liveth he will not have thee die the death but hath verily purposed determined and decreed that thou shalt live with him for ever Neo. O Sir If I have as good warrant to apply this saying to my self as Mr. Bradford had to apply it to himself I am a happy man Evan. I tell you from Christ and under the hand of his spirit that your person is accepted your sins are done away and you shall be saved and if an Angell from Heaven should tell you otherwise let him be accursed therefore you may without doubt conclude that you are a happy man For by means of this your matching with Christ you are become one with him and one in him you dwell in him and he in you Hee is your welbeloved and you are his so that the mariage union betwixt Christ and you is more then a bare notion or apprehension of your mind for it is a spirituall reall union it is an union betwixt the nature of Christ God and man and you it is a knitting and closing not onely of your apprehension with a Saviour but also of your soule with a Saviour whence it must needs follow that you cannot be damned except Christ be damned with you neyther can Christ be saved except you be saved with him And as by means of corporall marriage all things become common betwixt man and wife even so by means of this spirituall marriage all things become common betwixt Christ and you for when Christ hath married his spouse unto himselfe hee passeth over all his estate unto her so that whatsoever Christ is or hath you may boldly challenge as your own He is made unto you of God wisdome righteousnesse sanctification and redemption and surely by vertue of this neer union it is that as Christ is called the Lord our righteousnesse Jer. 23.6 so is the Church called the Lord our righteousnesse Jer. 35.16 You may by vertue of this union confidently take unto your selfe as your own Christ watching abstinence travails prayers persecution slanders his tears his sweat his bloud and all that ever he did and suffered in three and thirty years with his Passion Death Resurrection and Ascention for they are all yours and as Christ passeth over all his estate unto his spouse so doth he require that shee should passe over all unto him wherefore you being now married unto Christ you must give all that you have of your own unto him and truly you have nothing of your own but sin and therefore you must give him that say thou unto Christ without fear I give to thee my dear husband my unbelief my mistrust my pride my arrogancie my ambition my wrath my anger my envie my covetousnesse my evill thoughts affections and desires I make a bundle of these and all my other offences and give them unto thee thus was Christ made sin for us which knew no sin that wee might be made the righteousnesse of God in him now then saith Luther let us compare these things together and we shall finde inestimable treasure Christ is full of all grace life and saving health and the soule is fraught full of all sin death and damnation but let faith come betwixt these two and it shall come to passe that Christ shall bee loaden with sin death and hell and unto the soule shall be imputed grace life and salvation who then saith he is able to value the royalty of this marriage accordingly who is able to comprehend the glorious riches of this grace where this rich and righteous husband Christ doth take unto wife this poore and wicked harlot redeeming her from all evils and garnishing her with all his own jewels so that you as the same Luther saith through the assurednesse of your faith in Christ your husband are delivered from all sins made safe from death guarded from hell and endowed with the everlasting righteousnesse life and saving health of your husband Christ and therefore you are now under the covenant of grace and freed from the Law as it is the covenant of works for as M. ball truly saith at one and the same time a man cannot be under the covenant of works and the covenant of grace Neo. Sir I doe not yet well know how to conceive of this freedome from the Law as it is the covenant of works and therefore I pray you make it as plain to me as you can Evan. For the true and cleer understanding of this point you are to consider that when Jesus Christ the second Adam had in the
justified by faith it is a very needless thing for him to endevour to keep the law and to do good works Evan. I remember Luther sayth that in his time there were some that did reason after the like manner if faith say they do accomplish all things and if faith be onely and alone sufficient unto righteousnesse to what end then are wee commanded to doe good deeds we may go play us then and work no working at all to whom hee makes an answer saying not so ye ungodly not so And there were others that said If the law do not justifie then is it in vaine and of none effect yet is it not therefore true saith he for like as this consequence is nothing worth money doth not justifie or make a man righteous therefore it is unprofitable the eyes doe not justifie therefore they must be plucked out the hands make not a man righteous therefore they must be cut off so is this nought also the law doth not justifie therefore it is unprofitable we do not therefore destroy and condemne the law because wee say it doth not justifie but we say with Paul the law is good if a man do rightly use it and that this is a faithfull saying That they which have believed in God might be carefull to mayntaine good works these things are good and profitable unto men Neo. Truly Sir for mine own part I do much marvell that this my friend Antinomista should be so confident of his faith in Christ and yet so little regard holinesse of life and keeping of Christs commandements as it seemes hee doth for I give the Lord thanks I doe now in some small measure believe that I am by Christ freely and fully justified and acquitted from all my sins and therefore have no need eyther to eschew evill or do good for feare of punishment or hope of reward and yet me thinks I finde my heart more willing and desirous to doe what the Lord commands and to avoid what hee forbids then ever it was before I did thus believe surely Sir I doe perceive that faith in Christ is no hinderance to holinesse of life as I once thought it was Evan. Neighbour Neophytus if our friend Antinomista do content himself with a meere Gospell knowledge in a notionary way and have run out to fetch in notions from Christ and yet is not fetcht in by the power of Christ let us pitty him pray for him and in the mean time I pray you know that true faith in Christ is so far from being a hinderance from holinesse of life and good works that it is the onely furtherance for onely by faith in Christ a man is enabled to exercise all Christian graces a-right and to performe all Christian duties a-right which before he could not As for example before a man believe Gods love to him in Christ though he may have a kind of love to God as he is his creatour and preserver and gives him many good things for this present life yet if God do but open his eyes to see what condition his soul is in that is if he do but let him see that relation that is betwixt God and him according to the tenour of the conant of works then he conceives of him as an angry Judge armed with justice against him and must be pacified by the works of the law whereunto he finds his nature opposite and contrary and therefore hee hates both God and his law and doth secretly wish and desire there were neyther God nor law and though God should now give unto him never so many temporall blessings yet could hee not love him for what malefactour could love that Judge or his law from whom he expects the sentence of condemnation though he should feast him at his table with never so many dainties But after that the kindnesse and love of God his Saviour hath appeared not by works of righteousnesse that he hath done but according to his mercy hee saved him that is when as by the eye of faith he sees himselfe to stand in relation to God according to the tenour of the covenant of grace then he conceives of God as a most mercifull and loving Father to him in Christ that hath freely pardoned â—nd forgiven him all his sins and quite released him from the covenant of works and by this means the love of God is shed abroad in his hart through the Holy Ghost which is given to him and then he loves God because he first loved him for as a man seeth and feeleth by faith the love and favour of God towards him in Christ his Son so doth he love again both God and his law and indeed it is impossible for any man to love God till by faith hee know himself loved of God Secondly though a man before he believe Gods love to him in Christ may have a great measure of legall humiliation compunction sorrow and griefe and be brought down as it were to the very gate of hell and feele the very flashings of hell fire in his conscience for his sins yet is it not because hee hath thereby offended God but rather because he hath thereby offended himself that is because hee hath thereby brought himselfe into the danger of eternal death and condemnation but when once he believes the love of God to him in Christ in pardoning his iniquity and passing by his transgression then he sorrows grieves for the offence of God by the sin reasoning thus with himselfe and is it so indeed hath the Lord given his own Sonne to death for me who hath been such a vile sinfull wretch and hath Christ borne all my sins and was hee wounded for my transgressions ô then the working of his bowels the stirring of his affections the melting and relenting of his repenting heart then he remembers his own evill ways and his doings that were not good and loaths himselfe in his own eyes for all his abominations and looking upon Christ whom he hath pierced he mournes bitterly for him as one mourneth for his onely sonne thus when faith hath bathed a mans heart in the bloud of Christ it is so mollified that it quickly dissolues into the teares of godly sorrow so that if Christ doe but turn and look upon him ô then with Peter hee goes out and weeps bitterly and this is true gospel mourning and this is right evangelicall repenting Thirdly Though before a man doe truly believe in Christ he may so reforme his life and amend his ways that as touching the righteousnesse which is of the Law he may be with the Apostle blamelesse yet being under the covenant of works all the obedience that he yields to the Law all his leaving of sin and performance of duties all his avoyding of what the law forbids and all his doing of what the law commands is begotten by the law of works of Hagar the bond-woman by the force of self-love
comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished that her iniquity is pardoned for indeed Christ paid God till hee sayd hee had enough hee was fully satisfied fully contented and therefore in Jer. 50.20 it is sayd that in those dayes and at that time the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for and there shall be none and the sinnes of Judah and they shall not be found for by Christs death Satan sinne and Death were conquered and taken captive and whatsoever might bee brought against us was taken away as the least bill or scroule and yet it is sayd concerning the seed and children of Jesus Christ Psal. 89.30 If they forsake my Law and walke not in my judgements then will I visit your transgressions with the rod and their iniquities with stripes and in like manner 1 Cor. 11.30 it is sayd concerning believers For this cause many are weak and sickly amongst you and many sleepe Now though all these Scriptures speake contrary one to another yet they all speake truth for they bee all of them the words of truth and that it may appeare to you that they doe so I pray you take notice that where believers are sayd not to bee under the Law and freed from the Law it is to be understood of the Law as it is the covenant of works and where it is sayd that believers are under the Law and that faith establisheth the Law it is to bee understood of the Law as it is the law of Christ now if believers be not under but are freed from the law of works or covenant of works then though they doe transgresse the law yet they doe not transgresse the Covenant of works and if they transgresse not the covenant of works then cannot God see any transgression of theirs as a transgression against that Covenant And if he see it not then can ye neither be angry with them nor yet chastise them for it But if believers be under the Law and faith doe establish the Law as it is the Law of Christ then if they transgresse any of the ten Commandements they transgresse the Law of Christ and if they transgresse the Law of Christ then doth Christ see it and if Christ see it he will be both angry with them and chastise them for it Now then neighbour Neophytus to apply these things to you and so to give you a particular answer to your question you are to know that you are not now under the Law but are by Christ freed from it as it is the Law of works and therefore whensoever you shall hereafter through frailty transgresse any of the ten Commandements you are not to thinke you have thereby transgressed the Covenant of works neither are you to conceive that God either sees your transgressions or is angry with you or doth chastise you for them as they are any way a transgression of that Covenant for you being freed from that Covenant and so consequently from sinning against it must needs likewise be freed from all wrath anger miseries calamities and afflictions as fruits and effects of any transgression against that Covenant But yet whilst you live you are to conceive that you are under the Law of Christ and therefore whensoever you doe swerve or goe away from the rule of any of the ten Commandements you must perswade your selfe that you have thereby transgressed the Law of Christ and that hee sees it and is displeased with you for it and if you be not grieved for it and doe not reforme it Christ will chastise you for it either by hiding his face and withdrawing the light of his countenance from you and so by depriving you of peace and comfort in him for a time or else by some outward losse or crosse in this World for that is the penalty of the Law of Christ so that if you or any believer else doe transgresse the Law of Christ if need be you shall bee as sure of temporall corrections as an unbeliever that transgresseth the covenant of works shall be of eternall damnation in hell wherefore I beseech you according to my exhortation and your resolution first be carefull to exercise your faith and use all meanes to increase it that so it may become effectuall working by love for according to the measure of your faith will be your true love to Christ and to his will and commandements and according to the measure of your love to them will be your delight in them and your aptnesse and readinesse to doe them and hence it is that Christ sayth If ye love me keep my commandements and hence it is that the believing soule according to the measure of its faith sayth with the Psalmist I delight to doe thy will ô my God yea thy law is within my heart for this is the love of God sayth that loving Disciple that we keep his commandements and his commandements are not grievous nay the very truth is nothing will be more grievous to your soule then that you cannot keep them as you would ô this love of God being truly rooted in your heart will make you say with godly Joseph in case you be tempted as he was How can I doe this great wickednesse and so sinne against God how can I doe that which I know will displease so gracious a Father and so mercifull a Saviour no I will not doe it no I cannot doe it Secondly If in case you be at any time by reason of the weaknesse of your faith strength of your tentation drawn aside and prevailed with to transgresse any of Christs Comandements then beware that you do not thereupon take occasion to call Christs love to you into question but believe as firmly that he loves you as dearly as he did before you thus transgressed for this is a certain truth as no good in you or done by you did move or can move Christ to love you the more so no evill in you or done by you can move him to love you the lesse no assure your selfe that as he first loved you freely so will he hereafter heal your backsliding and still love you freely Hosea 14.4 yee hee will love you unto the end John 13.1 And therefore as you must be nothing in your selfe in case of your most exact obedience so must you be all in Christ in case of your most imperfect and defective obedience the which if you be why then the love of Christ will constrain you to mourn with an evangelicall or Gospell mourning reasoning with your self after this manner and is it so indeed though I have thus sinned yet will the Lord love me never the lesse for all that and am I as much in his favour now and as sure of erernall happinesse with Christ as I was before I thus sinned ô what a loving Father is this ô what a gracious Saviour is this ô what a wretched man am I to sin against such
by faith without the works of the law Rom. 3.28 No man is justified by the works of the law but by the faith of Jesus Christ And we believe in Jesus Christ that wee may be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the deeds of the law for if righteousnesse come by the law then Christ dyed in vain Gal. 2. No works make us unrighteous If any evill works make us unrighteous then the contrary workes should make us righteous but it is proved that no good works can make us righteous therefore no evill works can make us unrighteous if we be believers Works then make us neyther good nor evill It is proved that works make us neither righteous nor unrighteous therefore no works make us either good or evill for righteous and good are one thing and unrighteous and evill another Good works make not a good man nor evill works an evill man but a good man bringeth forth good works and an evill man evill works Good fruit maketh not the tree good nor evill fruit the tree evill but a good tree beareth good fruit and an evill tree evill fruit A good man cannot doe evill works nor an evill man good works for a good tree cannot beare evill fruit nor an evill tree good fruit A man is good before he doe good works and evill before he doe evill works A good man is known by his good works and an evill man by his evill works yee shall know them by their fruits for a good tree beareth good fruit and an evill tree evill fruit a man is likened to a tree and his works to the fruit of the tree If works make us neither righteous nor unrighteous then it maketh no matter what we doe I answer If thou doe evill it is a sure argument that thou art evill and wantest faith if thou doe good it is an argument that thou art good and hast faith for a good tree beareth good fruit and an evill tree evill fruit yet good fruit maketh not the tree good nor evill fruit the tree evill so that man is good before he doe good works and evill before he doe evill works Faith maketh the good tree and incredulity the evill tree such a tree such fruit such a man such works for all things which are done in faith please God and are good works and all that are done without faith displease God and are evill works Whosoever believeth or thinketh to bee saved by his works denyeth that Christ is his Saviour for how is he thy Saviour if thou mightest save thy selfe by thy works or wherefore should he have died for thee if any works might have saved thee Now seeing that he hath paid the debt thou needest not pay it neither indeed couldst thou pay it but shouldest be damned if his bloud were not but sith hee was punished for that thou shalt not bee punished Finally hee hath delivered thee from thy condemnation and all evill and desireth naught of thee but that thou wilt acknowledge what hee hath done for thee and beare it in minde and that thou wouldest helpe others for his sake both in word and deed even as hee hath holpen thee for naught and without reward O how ready would men bee to help others if wee knew his goodnesse and gentlenesse towards us hee is a good and a gentle Lord and doth all for naught therefore let us follow his steps So that I doe not say that believers should doe no good works but I say men should not doe good works to the intent to get the inheritance of heaven through good works for if we believe we shall get remission of sins or the inheritance of heaven through works wee believe not to get the same for Christs sake neither doe we believe the promise of God that they are given us freely and so we make God a lyar for God sayth thou shalt have the inheritance of heaven for my Sons sake thy sins are forgiven thee for my Sons sake but thou sayst it is not so if thou think to win them by thy works Thus you see that I condemne not good works but the false trust in them for all the works wherein man putteth any confidence are therewith poysoned and become evill Wherefore thou must doe good works but beware thou doe them not to deserve any good through them for if thou doe thou receivest thy good not as the gift of God but as a debt to thee and makest thy seâ—fe fellow with God because thou wilt taâ—e nothing of him for naught Presse not thâ—rfore to the inheritance of heaven through â—he presumption of thy good works for if thou doe thou shalt fall as Lucifer fell for his pride FINIS Gen. 3.24 Gal. 5.1 2 Pet. 2.19 Burton Meâ—aâ— pag. 8. Portis apertis paradisum intrasse Tom. 1. Tit. 3.9 1 Cor. 4.21 Gal. 4.18 Act. 21.20 1 Tim. 1.17 Rom. 3.27 Gal. 6.2 Bal on the Cov. of grace p. 9. Com. pla eng p. 118. Lev. 18.5 Gen. 2.17 Ames med Eng. p. 48. Com. pla p. 31. Downham on Just. p. 443.465 Bal on the Covenant p. 6. Walker on the Covenant p. 39. Bal on the Covenant p. 5. Calv instit fol. eng p. 8. Eccl. 7.27 Basting cat p. 9. Vrsin cat p. 517. Calv inst p. 190. Col. 3.10 Eph. 4.34 Treat of effectuall Cal. p. 20. or thereabouts Hugo Grâ—â— defens fid p. 71. Lightfoot miscela p. 282. Reynolds on Ps. â—â— p. 403. Reynolds on Psal. 110. p. 405 â—ibbens on Gen. p. 77. Bal on the Cov. p. 11. Reyn. on Psal. 110. â— 406. Ps. 16.11 Walker on the Covenant p. 89. M. Slat on the 2â— Cov. Deut Pathw p. 304. Reynolds on Psal. 110. pag. 406. Câ—l Instit. p. 81. Reynolds on Ps. 110 p. 406. Rom. 5.12 Cal. Iustit p. 106 107 Goodwin Trium Faith p. 85 Pemble vind fid p. 99. Seven gold cand p. 3. Basting Cat. p. 10. Vrban Reg. in ch ser. to Emaâ—s p. 12. Chos Ser. p. 9. Com. pla p. 14. Reynolds on Ps. 110 p. 407. Lightfoot miscela p. 183. Ibid. Com. pla p. 13. Hos. 13.9 Bolton true boun p. 135. Vrsin cat p. 112. Vrsin cat p. 112. Cal. Instit. p. 117. Bolton true boun p. 133. Rom. 5.6 Rom. 8.2 Lightfoot miscela p. 282. Tindal path to holy scrip p. 378. 2 Tim. 1.9 Eph. 3 11. Rom. 1.2 Gal. 4.4 Reynolds on Ps. 110. p. 407 408 Williams 7 gold can p. 319. Hooker â—ouls just p. 177. Cal. Instit. p. 117. Reynolds Psal. 110. p. 408. Ibid. Ames med p. 74. Th. Goodw. Christ set forth p. 75 Ainsworth on the text Goodw. Christ set forth p. 75 Ps. 40.7 8 Cal. Instit. p. 117. Hookers souls just p. 174 Goodwin Christ set forth p. 83 84. 1 Cor. 15 47. 1 Cor. 15.58 Bal of the cov p. 289 Ibid. p. 287 208. Gen. 3 1â— vers 15. Vrban Reg. on Christs sermon to Emaâ—â— Ainsworth Lightfoot miscela p. 186. Vâ—ug meth on Bib p. 15 Walker on Cov. p. 59. Gibbenâ—
of it or being at all affected with it so far are wee from comming out of it And if the Lord be pleased by any means to open our eyes to see our misery and we doe thereupon begin to step out of it yet alas wee are prone rather to goe backwards towards the first Adams pure estate in striving and strugling to leave sinne and performe duties and doe good works hoping thereby to make our selves so righteous and holy that God will let us into Paradise againe to eat of the tree of life and live for ever and this we do untill we see the flaming sword at Edens gate turning every way to keepe the way of the tree of life Is it not ordinary when the Lord convinceth a man of his sin eyther by means of his Word or his Rod to cry after this manner O I am a sinfull man for I have lived a very wicked life and therefore surely the Lord is angry with mee and will damne me in hell ô what shall I do to save my soule And is there not at hand some ignorant miserable comforter ready to say yet doe not despayre man but repent of your sins and aske God forgivenesse and reforme your life and doubt not but he will be mercifull unto you for hee hath promised you know that at what time soever a sinner repenteth of his sins hee will forgive him And doth hee not hereupon comfort himself and say in his heart at least ô if the Lord will but spare my life and lengthen out my days I will become a new man I am very sorry that I have lived such a sinfull life but I will never doe as I have done for all the world ô you shall see a great change in me believe it And hereupon he betakes himself to a new course of life and it may be becomes a zealous professour of Religion performing all Christian exercises both publike and private and leaves off his old companions and keeps company with religious men and so it may be goes on till his dying day and thinks himselfe sure of Heaven and eternall happines yet it maybe all this while is ignorant of Christ and his Righteousnes and therefore establisheth his own Where is the man or where is the woman that is truly come to Christ that hath not had some experience in themselves of such a disposition as this if there be any that have reformed their lives and are become Professours of Religion and have not taken notice of this in themselves more or lesse I wish they have gone beyond a legall Professour or one still under the covenant of works Nay where is the man or woman that is truly in Christ that findeth not in themselves an aptnes to withdraw their hearts from Christ and to put some confidence in their owne works and doings if there be any that do not find it I wish their hearts deceive them not Let me confesse ingeniously I was a professour of Religion at least a dozen yeeres before I knew any other way to eternall life then to be sorry for my sins and aske forgivenesse and strive and endeavour to fulfill the Law and keepe the Commandements according as Master Dod and other godly men had expounded them and truly I remember I was in hope I should at last attain to the perfect fulfilling of them and in the mean-time I conceived that God would accept the will for the deed or what I could not doe Christ had done for me And though at last by meanes of conferring with Master Thomas Hooker in private the Lord was pleased to convince me that I was yet but a proud Pharisee and to shew mee the way of faith and salvation by Christ alone and to give mee as I hope a heart in some measure to embrace it yet alas through the weaknesse of my faith I have been and am still apt to turne aside to the covenant of works and therefore have not attained to that joy and peace in believing nor that measure of love to Christ and man for Christs sake as I am confident many of Gods Saints do attain unto in the time of this life the Lord be mercifull unto mee and increase my faith And are there not other though I hope but few who being enlightned to see their misery by reason of the guilt of sin though not by reason of the filth of sinne And hearing of justification freely by grace through the redemption which is in Jesus Christ do applaud and magnifie that doctrine following them that doe most preach and presse the same seeming to be as it were ravished with the hearing thereof out of a conceit that they are by Christ freely justified from the guilt of sin though still they retain the filth of sin these are they that content themselves with a Gospel knowledge with meere notions in the head but not in the heart glorying and rejoycing in free grace and justification by faith alone professing faith in Christ and yet are not possessed of Christ these are they that can talke like believers and yet do not walke like believers these are they that have language like Saints and yet have conversations like Devils these are they that are not obedient to the Law of Christ and therefore are justly called Antinomians Now both these paths leading from Christ have been justly judged as erronious and to my knowledge not onely a matter of 18 or 20 years agoe but also within these three or foure years there hath been much a doe both by preaching writing and disputing both to reduce men out of them and to keep them from them and hot contentious have been on both sides and all I fear me to little purpose for hath not the strict professour according to the Law whilst he hath striven to reduce the loose professour according to the Gospel out of the Antinomian path intangled both himselfe and others the faster in the yoke of bondage and hath not the loose professour according to the Gospel whilst he hath striven to reduce the strict professour according to the Law out of the legall path by promising liberty from the Law taught others and been himselfe the servant of corruption For this cause I though I be nothing have by the grace of God endeavoured in this Dialogue to walk as a middle-man betwixt them both in shewing to each of them his erronious path with the middle path which is Jesus Christ received truly and walked in answerably as a means to bring them both unto him and make them both one in him And oh that the Lord would be pleased so to blesse it to them that it might be a means to produce that effect I have as you may see gathered much of it out of known and approved Authours and yet have therein wronged no man for I have restored it to the right owner again in the margent some part of it my manuscripts have afforded me and of the rest I hope
unto you both how it hath been wieh mee formerly and how it is with me for the present wherefore I would intreat you to tell me plainly and truly what you think of my condition Evan. Why truly I must tell you it appears to me by your relation that you have gone as far in the way of the Covenant of works as the Apostle Paul did before his conversion but yet for ought I see you have not gone the right way to the truth of the Gospell and therefore I question whether you be as yet come truly to Christ. Neo. Good Sir give me leave to speak a few words By the hearing of your discourse concerning the Covenant of works and the Covenant of grace I was moved to feare that I was out of the right way but now having heard my neighbour Nomista make such an excellent relation and yet you to question whether hee bee come truly to CHRIST or no makes me to conclude absolutely that I am far from Christ surely if he upon whom the Lord hath bestowed such excellent gifts and graces and who hath lived such a godly life as I am sure he hath done be not right then woe be unto me Evan. Truly for ought I know you may be in Christ before him Nom. But I pray you Sir consider that though I am now throughly convinced that till of late I went on in the way of the Covenant of works yet seeing that at last I came to see my need of Christ and have verily believed that in what I come short of fulfilling the Law hee will help mee out me thinks I should be come truly to Christ. Evan. Verily I doe conceive that this gives you no sure evidence of your being come truly to Christ then some of your strict Papists have for it is the doctrine of the Church of Rome that if a man exercise all his power and doe his best to fulfill the Law then God for Christs sake will pardon all his infirmities and save his soule and therefore you shall see many of your Papists very strict and zealous in the performance of duties morning and evening so many Avie-Maries and so many Pater-nosters yea and many of them doe great deeds of charity and great works of hospitality and all upon such grounds and to such ends as these the Papists sayth Calvin cannot abide this saying by faith alone for they think that their own works are in part a cause of their salvation and so they make a hotch potch and mingle mangle that is neither fish nor flesh as men use to say Nom. But stay Sir I pray you are mistaken in me for though I hold that God doth accept of my doing my best to fulfill the Law yet doe I not hold with the Papists that my doings are meritorious for I believe that God accepts not of what I doe either for the work or workers sake but onely for Christs sake Evan. Yet doe you but still goe hand in hand with the Papists for though they doe hold that their works are meritorious yet they say it is by the merit of Christ that they become meritorious or as some of the moderate sort of them say our works sprinkled with the bloud of Christ become meritorious but this you are to know that as the justice of GOD requires a perfect obedience so doth it require that this perfect obedience be a personall obedience viz. it must bee the obedience of one person onely the obedience of two must not bee put together to make up a perfect obedience So that if you desire to be justified before God you must either bring to him a perfect righteousnesse of your own and wholy renounce Christ or else you must bring the perfect righteousnesse of Christ and wholy renounce your own Ant. But believe me Sir I would advise him to bring Christs and wholy renounce his own as I thank the Lord I have done Evan. You say very well for indeed the Covenant of Grace terminates it selfe onely on Christ and his righteousnesse God will have none to have a hand in the justification and salvation of a sinner but Christ onely and to say as the thing is neighbour Nomista Christ Jesus will either be a whole Saviour or no Saviour hee will either save you alone or not save you at all for among men there is given no other name under heaven whereby we must be saved sayth the Apostle Peter and Jesus Christ himselfe sayth I am the way the truth and the life and no man commeth to the father but by mee so that as Luther truly sayth besides this way Christ there is no way but wandering no verity but hypocrisie no life but eternall death and verily sayth another godly writer We can neither come to God the Father bee reconciled unto him nor have any thing to doe with him by any other way or means but onely by Jesus Christ for we shall not any where finde the favour of God true innocency righteousnesse satisfaction for sin help comfort life or salvation any where but onely in Jesus Christ he is the summe and centre of all divine and evangelicall truths and therefore as there is no knowledge or wisdome so excellent necessary or heavenly as the knowledge of Christ which made the Apostle tell the Corinthians that he determined to know nothing amongst them but onely Jesus Christ and him crucified so is there nothing to be preached unto men as an object of their faith or necessary element of their salvation which doth not some way or other either meet in Christ or refer unto Christ. Ant. O Sir you doe please me wonderous well in thus attributing all to Christ and surely Sir though of late you have not been so evangelical in your teaching as some others in this City which hath caused me to leave off hearing you to hear them yet have I formerly perceived and do now also perceive that you have more knowledge of the doctrine of free grace then many other Ministers in this City have and to tell you the truth Sir it was by your means that I was first brought to renounce mine owne righteousnesse and to cleave onely to the righteoasnesse of JESUS CHRIST and thus it was After that I had been a good while a legall professour just like my friend Nomista and heard none but your legall Preachers who built me up in works and doings as they did him and as their manner is At last a familiar acquaintance of mine who had some knowledge of the doctrine of free grace did commend you for an excellent Preacher at last prevailed with me to goe with him to hear you and your text that day I wel remember was Tit. 3.5 Not by the works of righteousnesse that we had done but according to his own mercie he saved us whence you observed and plainly proved that mans own righteousnesse had no hand in his justification and salvation whereupon you dehorted us
of the Law be an error yet it seemeth that by Luthers own confession it is but an error on the right hand Evan. But yet I tell you it is such an error that by the Apostle Pauls own confession so far forth as any man is guilty of it He makes his services his Saviours and rejects the grace of God and makes the death of Christ of none effect ond perverteth the Lords intention both in giving the Law and in giving the Gospel and keeps himselfe under the curse of the Law and maketh himself the sonne of a bond-woman a servant yea and a slave and hinders himselfe in the course of well doing and in short he goeth about an impossible thing and so loseth all his labour Nom. Why then Sir it should seeme that all my seeking to please God by my good works all my strict walking according to the Law and all my honest course of life hath rather done mee hurt then good Evan. The Apostle sayth that without faith it is impossible to please God that is sayth Calvin Whatsoever a man thinketh purposeth or doeth before hee be reconciled to God by faith in Christ is accursed and not onely of no value to righteousnesse but of certain deserving to damnation so that sayth Luther Whosoever goeth about to please God with works going before faith goeth about to please God with sin which is nothing else but to heap sin upon sin to mock God and to provoke him to wrath nay sayth the same Luther in another place If thou beest without Christ thy wisdome is double foolishnesse thy righteousnesse is double sin and iniquity and therefore though you have walked very strictly according to the Law and led an honest life yet if you have rested and put confidence therein and so come short of Christ then hath it indeed rather done you hurt then good For sayth a godly writer vertuous life according to the light of nature turneth a man farther off from God if he add not thereto the effectuall working of his Spirit and sayth Luther they which have respect onely to an honest life it were better for them to be adulterers and adulteresses and to wallow in the mire And surely for this cause it is that our Saviour tels the strict Scribes and Pharisees who sought justification by works and rejected Christ that Publicans and harlots should enter into the Kingdome of God before them And for this cause it was that I sayd for ought I know my neighbour Neophytus might bee in Christ before you Nom. But how can that be when as you know he hath confessed that he is ignorant and full of corruption and comes far short of me in gifts and graces Evan. Because as the Pharisee had more to doe before he could come at Christ then the Publican had so I conceive you have more to doe then he hath Nom. Why Sir I pray you what have I to doe or what would you advise me to doe for truly I would be contented to bee ruled by you Evan. Why that which you have to doe before you can come at Christ is to undoe all that ever you have done already that is to say whereas you have endeavoured to travail towards heaven by the way of the Covenant of works and so have gone a wrong way you must goe quite back again all the way you have gone before you can tread one step in the right way And whereas you have attempted to build up the ruines of old Adam and that upon your selfe and so like a foolish builder to build a tottering house upon the sands you must throw down and utterly demolish all that building and not leave a stone upon a stone before you can begin to build anew and whereas you have conceived that there is a sufficiencie in your selfe to justifie and save your selfe you must conclude that in that case there is not onely in you an insufficiencie but also a non-sufficiencie yea and that sufficiencie that seemed to be in you to bee your losse in plain termes you must deny your selfe as our Saviour sayth Matthew 16.24 That is You must utterly renounce all that ever you are and all that ever you have done All your knowledge and gifts all your hearing reading praying fasting weeping and mourning all your wandring in the way of works and strict walking must fall to the ground in a moment briefly whatsoever you have counted gain to you in the case of Justification you must now with the Apostle Paul count losse for CHRIST and judge it to be dung that you may win CHRIST and bee found in Him not having your own righteousnesse which is of the Law but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousnesse which is of God by faith Neo. O but Sir What would you advise me to doe Evan. Why man what ayleth you Neo. Why Sir as you have been pleased to heare them two to declare their condition unto you so I beseech you to give me leave to doe the same and then you will perceive how it is with me Sir not long since it pleased the Lord to visit mee with a great fit of sicknesse so that indeed both in mine own judgement and in the judgement of all that came to visite mee I was sick unto death whereupon I began to consider whither my soule was to goe after its departure out of my body and I thought with my selfe that there was but two places heaven and hell and therefore it must needs goe to one of them then my wicked and sinfull life which indeed I had lived came into my minde which caused me to conclude that hell was the place provided for it which caused me to bee very fearfull and to bee very sorry that I had so lived and desired of the Lord to let me live a little longer and I would not faile to reforme my life and amend my ways and the Lord was pleased to grant mee my desire since which time though indeed t is true I have not lived so wickedly as formerly I had done yet alas I have come far short of that godly and religious life which I see other men live and especially this my neighbour Nomista and yet you seem to conceive that he is not in a good condition and therefore surely I must needs be in a miserable condition alas Sir what doe you thinke will become of me Evan. I doe perceive that although wee have by the Lords assistance our comming together opened and cleered the new and living way to eternall life yet the Lord hath not been pleased to open your eyes to see it so that you would still be going thither the old and naturall way and therefore as a further means to discover it to you I pray you consider that although in the making of the covenant of works at the first God was one party and man another yet in making it the second time God was on both sides
man and hath a new nature and is endued with new dispositions and loveth liveth speaketh and doth far otherwise then he was wont or could do before For sayth godly Tindall God worketh with his word and in his word and bringeth faith into the hearts of his elect and looseth the heart from sin and knitteth it to God and giveth him power to do that which was before impossible for him to do and turneth him into a new nature And therfore sayth Luther in another place here in works are to be extolled and commended in that they are fruits and signes of faith and therefore he that hath not regard how he leadeth his life that he may stop the mouthes of all blamers â—nd accusers and cleere himselfe before all and testifie that he hath lived spoken and done well is not yet a Christian how then sayth Tindall again dare any man thinke that Gods favour is on him and Gods Spirit within him when he feeleth not the working of his spirit nor himselfe disposed to any good thing Ant. But by your favour Sir I am perswaded that many a man deceives his own soule by these markes and signes Evan. Indeed I must confesse with Master Boulton and Master Dyke that in these times of Christianity a reprobate may make a glorious profession of the Gospell and performe all duties and exercises of Religion and that in outward appearance with as great spirit and zeale as a true believer yea hee may bee made partaker of some measure of inward illumination and have a shadow of true regeneration there being no grace effectually wrought in the faithfull a resemblance whereof may not be found in the unregenerate and therefore I say if any man pitch upon the signe without the thing signified by the signe that is if he pitch upon his graces or gifts rather and duties and conclude assurance from them as they are in him and come from him without having reference to Jesus Christ as the root and fountain of them then are they deceitfull markes and signes but if he looke upon them with reference to Jesus Christ then are they not deceitfull but true evidences and demonstrations of faith in Christ and this a man doth when hee looks upon his outward actions as flowing from the inward actions of his minde and upon the inward actions of his minde as flowing from the habits of grace within him and upon the habits of grace within him as flowing from his justification and upon his justification as flowing from his faith and upon his faith as given by and imbracing Jesus Christ thus I say if hee rests not till he come to Christ his markes and signes are not deceitfull but true Ant. But Sir if an unbeliever may have a resemblance of every grace that is wrought in a believer then it must needs be a hard matter to finde out the difference and therefore I conceive it is best for a man not to trouble himselfe at all about markes and signes Evan. Give me leave to deale plainly with you in telling you that although we cannot say every one that hath a forme of godlinesse hath also the power of godlinesse yet we may truly say that he who hath not the forme of godlinesse hath not the power of godlinesse for though all be not gold that glistereth yet all gold doth glister and therefore I tell you truly if you have no regard to make the Law of Christ your rule by endeavouring to doe what is required in the ten Commandements and to avoyd what is there forbidden it is a very evill signe and therefore I pray you consider of it Ant. But Sir You know the Lord hath promised to write his Law in a believers heart and to give him his Spirit to leade him into all truth and therefore he hath no need of the Law written with paper and inke to be a rule of life to him neither hath hee any need to endeavour to be obedient thereunto as you say Evan. Indeed saith Luther the matter would even so fare as you say if wee were perfectly and altogether the inward and spirituall men which cannot be in any wise before the last day at the rising again of the dead so long as we be cloathed with this mortall flesh we doe but begin and proceed onwards in our course towards perfection which will be consummated in the life to come and for this cause the Apostle Rom. 8. dorh call this the first fruits of the spirit which we doe enjoy in this life the truth and fulnesse of which we shall receive in the life to come and therefore saith hee in another place it is necessary so to preach to them that have received the doctrine of faith that they might be stirred up to go on in good life which they have embraced and that they suffer not themselves to be overcome by the assaults of the raging flesh for we will not so presume of the doctrine of faith as if that being had every man might doe what he listed no we must earnestly endeavour our selves that we may be without blame and when we cannot attain thereunto we must flye to prayer and say before God and man forgive us our trespasses And sayth Calvin one proper use and end of the Law concerning the faithfull in whose hearts liveth and reigneth the Spirit of God for although they have the Law written and engraven in their hearts by the finger of God yet is the Law to them a very good means whereby they may daily better and more assuredly learne what is the will of the Lord and let none of us exempt himselfe from rhis need for no man hath hitherto atteined to so great wisdom but that he hath need to be daily instructed by the Law and herein Christ differeth from us that the Father hath poured out upon him the infinite aboundance of his Spirit but whatsoever we doe receive it is so by measure that wee have need one of another now minde it I pray you if believers have the Spirit but in measure and know but in part then have they the Law written in theit hearts but in measure and in part and if they have the law written in their hearts but in measure and in part then have they not a perfect rule within them and if they have not a perfect rule within them then have they need to have a rule without them and therefore doubtlesse the strongest believer of us all had need to harken to the aduice of godly Tindall who saith seek the Word of God in all things and without the Word of God doe nothing and saith another godly and Evangelicall Writer my brethren let us doe our whole endeavour to doe the will of God as it becommeth good children and beware that we sin not as neer as we can Ant. Well Sir I cannot tell what to say but me thinks when a man is perfectly
believer and creates and infuseth into him new principles of actions so that what a treasure of all graces Christ hath stored up in him faith dreyneth and draweth them out to the use of a believer being as a conduite cocke that watereth all the herbs in the garden yea faith doth apply the bloud of Christ to a believers heart and the bloud of Christ hath in it not onely a power to wash from the guilt of sin but to clense and purge likewise from the power and stain of sin and therefore sayth godly Hooker if you would have grace you must first of all get faith and that will bring all the rest let faith goe to Christ and there is meeknesse patience humility and wisdome and faith will fetch all them to the soule therefore sayth he you must not look for sanctification till you come to Christ in vocation Nom. Truly Sir I doe now plainly see that I have been deceived and have gone a wrong way to worke for I verily thought that holinesse of life must goe before faith and so be the ground of it and produce and bring it forth whereas I doe now plainly see that faith must goe before and so produce and bring forth holinesse of life Evan. I remember a man who was much enlightened in the knowledge of the Gospell sayth there be many that thinke that as a man chooseth to serve a Prince so men choose to serve God so likewise they think that as those who doe best service do obtain most favour of their Lord and as those that have lost it the more they humble themselves the sooner they recover it even so they think the case stands betwixt God and them whereas sayth hee it is not so but clean contrary for hee himselfe sayth Yee have not chosen me but I have chosen you and not for that we repent and humble our selves and doe good works hee giveth us his grace therefore wee repent humble our selves doe good works and become holy the good thief on rhe crosse was not illuminated because hee did confesse Christ but he did confesse Christ because hee was illuminated for sayth Luther the tree must first be and then the fruit for the apples make not the tree but the tree maketh the apples so faith first maketh the person which afterwards bringeth forth works therefore to doe the Law without faith is to make the apples of wood and earth without the tree which is not to make apples but meer fantacies wherfore neighbour Nomista let me intreat you that whereas before you have reformed your life that you might believe why now believe that you may reform your life and doe not any longer worke to get an interest in Christ but believe your interest in Christ that so you may work and then you will not make the change of your life the ground of your faith as you have done and as Master Culverwell sayth many doe who being asked what caused them to believe they answer because they have truly repented and changed their course of life Ant Sir What thinke you of a Preacher that in my hearing said he durst not exhort nor perswade sinners to believe their sinnes were pardoned before he saw their lives reformed for feare they should take more liberty to sin Evan. Why what should I say but that I think that Preacher was ignorant of the mystery of faith for it is of the nature of soveraign waters which so wash off the corruption of the ulcer that they coole the heat and stay the spreading of the infection and so by degrees heale the same neither did he know that it is of the nature of cordials which so comfort the heart and ease it that they also expell the noxious humours and strengthen nature against them Ant. And I am acquainted with a professor though God knows a very weak one that sayth if he should believe before his life be reformed then he might believe and yet walk on in his sins I pray you Sir what would you say to such a man Evan. Why I would say with Doctor Preston let him if he can believe truly and doe this but it is impossible let him believe and the other will follow truth of beliefe will bring forth truth of holinesse for who if he ponder it well can feare a fleshly licentiousnesse where the believing soule is united and maryed to Christ the law as it is the covenant of works and Christ are set in opposition as two husbands to one wife successively whilst the Law was alive in the conscience all the fruits were deadly Rom. 7 5. but Christ taking the same spouse to himselfe the law being dead by his quickning spirit doth make her fruitfull to God and so raiseth up seed to the former husband for materially these are the works of the Law though produced by the Spirit of Christ in the Gospell Ant. And yet Sir I am verily perswaded that there be many both Preachers and professors in this City of the very same opinion that these two are of Evan. The truth is many Preachers stand upon the prayse of some morall vertue and doe invaigh against some vice of the times more then upon pressing men to believe but sayth a learned writer it will bee our condemnation if we love darknesse rather then light and desire still to be groping in the twy-light of morality the precepts of morall men then to walke in the true light of divinity which is the doctrine of Jesus Christ and I pitie the prepostrous care and unhappy travail of many well affected who study the practice of this and that vertue neglecting this cardinall and radicall vertue as if a man should water all the tree and not the root faine would they shine in patience meeknesse and zeal and yet are not carefull to stablish root themselves in faith which should maintain all the rest and therefore all their labour hath been in vain and to no purpose Nom. Indeed Sir this which you have now sayd I have found true by mine own experience for I have laboured and endevoured to get victory over some corruptions as to overcome my dulnesse and to performe duties with cheerfulnesse and all in vain Evan. And no marvell for to pray to meditate to keep a Sabbath cheerfully to have your conversation in Heaven is as possible for you your selfe to doe as for Iron to swim or for stones to ascend upwards but yet nothing is impossible to faith it can naturalize these things unto you it can make a mole of the earth a soule of Heaven wherefore though you have tryed all morall conclusions of proposing promising resolving vowing fasting watching and self-revenge yet get you to Christ and with the finger of faith touch but the hem of his garment and you shall feele vertue come from him for the curing of all your diseases Wherefore I beseech you come out of your self unto Jesus Christ
be perswaded to it before this day nor indeed should not have been perswaded to it now had not you so plainly and fully handled this threefold law and truly Sir I doe now unfainedly desire to renounce my self and all that ever I have done and by faith to adhere onely to Jesus Christ for now I see that hee is all in all ô that the Lord would enable me so to do and I beseech you Sir pray for me Ant. And truly Sir I must needs confesse that I have erred as much on the other hand for I have been so far from seeking to be justified by the works of the law that I have neyther regarded law nor works but now I see mine errour I purpose God willing to reform it Evan. The Lord grant that you may but how do you neighbour Neophytus for me thinks you look very heavily Neo. Truly Sir I was thinking of that place of Scripture where the Apostle exhorts us to examine our selves whether we be in the faith or no whereby it seems to mee that a man may think he is in the faith when he is not therefore Sir I would gladly heare how I may be sure that I am in the faith Evan I would not have you to make any question of it since you have grounded your faith upon such a firme foundation as will never fail you for the promise of God in Christ is of a tried truth and never yet failed any man nor never will therefore I would have you to close with Christ in the promise without making any question whether you are in the faith or no for there is an assurance which ariseth from the exercise of faith by a direct act and that is when a man by faith directly layes hold upon Christ and concludes assurance from thence Neo. Sir I know that the foundation whereon I am to ground my faith remayneth sure and I think I have already built thereon but yet because I conceive a man may thinke hee hath done so when hee hath not therefore would I fain know how I may be assured that I have done so Eva. Wel now I understand you what you mean it seems you do not want a ground for your believing but for your believing that you have believed Neo. Yea indeed that is the thing I want Evan. Why the next way to finde out and know this is to looke backe and reflect upon your own heart consider what actions have passed through there for indeed this is the benefit that a reasonable soul hath that it is able to returne upon it selfe to see what it hath done which the soul of a beast cannot do Consider then I pray you whether the free and full promise of God in Christ hath not beene so cleered unto you that you had nothing to object why it did not belong particularly to you and whether you have not seen a readinesse and willingnesse in Christ to receive and embrace you as his beloved Spouse And whether you have not thereupon consented and resolved to take Christ and to give up yourselfe to him and whether you have not since that found in your heart a love to Christ and his law and a readinesse and willingnes to doe your duty to God as a childe to his father freely without feare of hell or hope of Heaven now tell me I pray you truly whether you have not found these things in you Neo. Yea indeed I hope I have in some measure Evan. Why then I may say with the Apostle John You are of the truth and may assure or perswade your heart before God Wherefore sayth Christ to you I say unto thee that thy many sins are forgiven thee for thou lovest much Ant. But Sir shall he not in so doing turne back from the Covenant of grace to the covenant of works and from Christ to himselfe Evan. Indeed if he should looke upon these things in himselfe and thereupon conclude that because he hath done thus God hath accepted of him and justified him and will save him and so make them the ground of his believing this were to turn back from the Covenant of grace to the Covenant of works and from Christ to himselfe But if he look upon these things in himselfe and thereupon conclude that because these things are in his heart Christ dwels there by faith and therefore he is accepted of God and justified and shall certainly be saved and so make them an evidence of his believing or the ground of his believing that he hath believed this is neither to turn back from the Covenant of grace to the Covenant of works nor from Christ to himselfe so that these things in his heart being the daughters of faith and the of-spring of Christ though they cannot at first produce or bring forth their mother yet may they in time of need nourish her Nom. But I pray you Sir are there not other things besides these that he sayth hee finds in himselfe that a man may looke upon as evidences of his believing or as you call them as grounds of his believing that hee hath believed Evan. Yea indeed besides these inward qualifications that are in the heart there are outward qualifications in the life as having respect unto all Christs Commandements which a man may look upon as an evidence provided that hee be sure it flow from those within Nom. But Sir how should a man know that Evan. The sure and best way to know this is for a man to examine himselfe whether he did first believe in Christ and then reforme his life and so made his faith the cause of the change of his life or whether he did first reforme his life and then believe and so made his reformation of life the cause of his faith if he be sure he did the former then may he be sure that his outward qualifications proceeded from his inward and so are right and true but if hee did the latter then may he be sure that they are wrong and false evidences Nom. Then truly Sir I have not as yet any right and true evidences of faith Evan. If you have not then as I tell you it is time to believe that so you may have them that are right and true Neo. But Sir I pray you let me ask you one question more touching this point and that is suppose that hereafter I should see no outward evidences and question whether I had ever any true inward evidences and so whether I did ever truly believe or no What must I do then Evan. Indeed it is possible you may come to such a condition and therefore you doe well to provide aforehand for it Now then if ever it shall please the Lord to give you over to such a condition first let mee warn you to take heed of forcing and constraining your selfe to yield obedience to Gods Commandements to the end you may so get an evidence of faith again or a ground to lay
your believing that you have believed upon and so forcibly to hasten your assurance before the time for though this be not to turn quite back to the covenant of works for that you shall never do yet is it to turn aside towards that covenant as Abraham did who after that he had long wayted for the promised seed though he was before justified by believing the free promise yet for the more speedy satisfying of his faith hee turned aside to go in unto Hagar who was as you have heard a type of the covenant of works so that you see this is not the right way but the right way for you in this case to get your assurance again is when all other things fail to look to Christ That is go to the word and promise and leave off and cease a while to reason about the truth of your faith and set your heart on work to believe as if you had never yet done it saying in your heart well Satan suppose my faith hath not been true hitherto yet now will I begin to endevour after true faith and therefore ô Lord here I cast my self upon thy mercy afresh For in thee the fatherlesse finde mercy thus I say hold to the word goe not away but keep you here and you shall bring forth fruit with patience Neo. Well Sir you have fully satisfied the concerning that point but as I remember it followeth in the same Verse Know yee not your owne selves how that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be repoobates wherefore I desire to heare how a man may know that Jesus Christ is in him Evan. Why if Christ be in a man hee lives in him as sayth the Apostle I live not but Christ liveth in me Neo. But how then shall a man know that Christ lives in him Evan. Why in what man soever Christ lives according to the measure of his faith he executes his threefold office in him viz. his Propheticall Priestly and Kingly Office Neo. I desire to hear more of this threefold office of Christ and therefore I pray you Sir tell me first how a man may know that Christ executes his Propheticall office in him Evan. Why so far forth as any man heares and knows that there was a covenant made betwixt God and all mankinde in Adam and that it was an equall covenant and that Gods justice must needs enter upon the breach of it and that all mankind for that cause were lyable to eternall death and damnation so that if God had condemned all mankinde yet had it beene but the sentence of an equall and just Judge seeking rather the execution of his justice then mans ruine and destruction and thereupon takes it home and applyes it particularly to himself and so is convinced that hee is a miserable lost and helplesse man I say so far forth as a man doth this CHRIST executes his Propheticall office in him in teaching him and revealing unto him the covenant of works And so far forth as any man hears and knowes that God made a covenant with Abraham and all his believing seed in Jesus Christ offering him freely to all to whom the sound of the Gospell comes and giving him freely to all that receive him by faith and so justifies them and saves them eternally and thereupon hath his heart opened to receive this truth not as a man taketh an object or a theologicall point into his head whereby hee is onely made able to discourse but as an habituall and practicall point receiving it into his heart by the faith of the Gospell and applying it to himselfe and laying his eternall state upon it and so setting to his seal that God is true I say so far forth as a man doth this CHRIST executes his propheticall office in him in teaching him and revealing to him the Covenant of grace and so far forth as any man hears and knows that This is the will of GOD even his sanctification c. And thereupon concludes that it is his dutie to endeavour after it I say so far forth as a man doth this Christ executes his propheticall office in him in teaching and revealing his law to him and this I hope is sufficient for answer to your first question Neo. I pray you Sir in the second place tell mee how a man may know that Christ executes his priestly office in him Evan. Why so far forth as any man hears and knows that Christ hath given himselfe as that onely absolute and perfect sacrifice for the sins of believers and joyned them unto himselfe by faith and himself unto them by his spirit and so made them one with him and is now entred into Heaven it self to appear in the presence of God for them and hereupon is emboldned to go immediatly to God in prayer as to a father and meet him in Christ and present him with Christ himselfe as with a Sacrifice without spot or blemish I say so far forth as any man doth this Christ executes his priestly office in him Neo. But Sir would you have a believer to goe immediately unto God how then doth Christ make intercession for us at Gods right hand as the Apostle sayth hee doth Rom. 8.34 Evan. It is true indeed Christ as a publike person representing all believers appeares before God his Father and willeth according to both his natures and desireth as he is man that God would for his satisfaction sake grant unto them whatsoever they aske according to his will But yet you must goe immediately to God in prayer for all that you must not pitch your prayers upon Christ and terminate them there as if he were to take them and present them to his Father but the very presenting place of your prayers must be God himselfe in Christ neither must you conceive as though Christ the Sonne were more willing to grant your request then God the Father for whatsoever Christ willeth the same also the Father being well pleased with him willeth in Christ then I say and nowhere else must you expect to have your petitions granted and as in Christ and no place else so for Christs sake and nothing else and therefore I beseech you to beware you forget not Christ when you go unto the Father to beg any thing which you desire either for your selfe or others especially when you desire co have any pardon for sin you are not to thinke that when you joyn with your prayers fasting weeping and afflicting of your selfe that for so doing you shall prevail with God to heare you and grant your petitions no no you must meete God in Christ and present him with his sufferings your eye your minde and all your confidence must be therein and in that be as confident as possibly you can yea expostulate the matter as it were with God the Father and say lo here is the person that hath well deserved it here 〈◊〉 the person that
lost in losing God yea and mans soul is a spirit and therefore cannot communicate with any corporall thing so that all creatures not being that infinite and spirituall fulnesse which our hearts have lost and towards the which they do still re-aspire they cannot give it full contentment Nay let mee say more howsoever a man may in the midst of his sensuall fulnesse be convinced in his conscience that he is at enmity with God and therefore in danger of his wrath and eternall damnation and be thereupon moved to reforme his life and amend his ways and endevour to seek peace and rest to his soul yet this being in the way of works it is impossible that he should finde it for his conscience wil ever be accusing him that this good duty hee ought to have done and hath not done it and this evill he ought to have forborne and yet hee hath done it and in the performance of this duty he was remisse and in that duty very defective and many such wayes will his soul be disquieted But when a man once comes to believe that all his sins both past present and to come are freely and fully pardoned and God in Christ graciously reconciled unto him the Lord doth hereupon so reveale his fatherly face unto him in Christ and so make known that incredible union betwixt him and the believing soul that his heart becomes quietly contented in God who is the proper element of its being for hereupon there come◠into the soule such peace flowing from the God of peace that it fils the emptinesse of the soule with true fulnesse in the fulnesse of God so that now the heart ceaseth to molest the understanding and reason in seeking eyther variety of objects or augmentation of degrees in any comprehensible thing And that because the restlesse longing of the minde which did before cause unquietnesse and disorder both in the variety of mentall projects and also in the sensuall and beastly exercises of the corporall and externall members is satisfied and truly quieted for when a mans heart is at peace in God and is become truly full in that peace and joy passing understanding then the Devill hath not that hope to prevaile against our souls as hee had before hee knows right well that it is in vaine to beat his hooke with profits pleasures honour or any other such like seeming good to catch such a soule that is thus at quiet in God for he hath all fulnesse in God and what can be added to fulnesse but it runneth over indeed empty hearts like empty hogsheads are fit to receive any matter which shall be put into them but the heart of the believer being filled with joy and peace in believing doth abhorre all such base allurements for that it hath no roome in it selfe to receive any such seeming contentments so that to speak as the truth is there is nothing that doth truly and unfainedly root wickednesse out of the heart of man but only the true tranquility of the minde or the rest of the soul in God and to say as the thing is this is such a peace and such a rest to the creature in the Creatour that according to the measure of its establishment by faith no created comprehensible thing can eyther adde to it or detract from it the increase of a Kingdome cannot augment it the greatest losses and crosses in worldly things cannot diminish it a believers good works doe all flow from it and ought not to return to it neyther ought humane frailties to molest it howver this is most certain neyther sin nor Satan law nor conscience hell nor grave can quite extinguish it for it is the Lord alone that gives and mayntains it Whom have I in heaven but thee sayth David and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee it is the pleasant face of God in Christ that puts gladnesse into his heart Psal. 4.7 and when that face is hid then he is troubled Psal. 30.7 But to speake more plainly though the peace and joy of true believers may be extenuated or diminished yet doth the testimony of their being in nature remayne so strong that they could skill to say yea even when they have felt God to be withdrawing himselfe from them My God my God why hast thou forsaken me yea and in the night of GODS absence to remayne confident that though sorrow be over night yet joy will come in the morning Nay though the Lord should seeme to kill them with wickednesse yet will they put their trust in him knowing that for all this their Redeemer liveth so strong is the joy of their Lord these are the people that are kept in perfect peace because their minds are stayed in the Lord. Wherfore my deare friends and loving neighbours I beseech you take heed of deeming any estate happy until you come to find this true peace and rest to your souls in God ô beware lest any of you doe content your selves with a peace rather of speculation then of power ô be not satisfied with such a peace as consisteth eyther in the act of oblivion or neglect of examination nor yet in any brain-sick supposition of knowledge theologicall and divine so frame rationall conclusions to protract time and stil the cryes of an accusing conscience but let your hearts take their last farewell of all false felicities wherewith they have been all of them more or lesse detained and kept from their true rest ô be strong in resolution and bid them all farewell and neyther stay in Egypt by the flesh-pots of Sensuality nor yet in the wildernesse of religious and rationall formality but strip your selfe of all putten on contentments eyther in sensuall honours profits or pleasures or religious exercises and become truly poore miserable and naked Nom. But stay Sir I pray you would you have our senses to be no longer exercised about any of their objects would you have us no longer to take comfort in the good things of this life Evan. I pray you doe not mistake mee I would not have you Stoically to refuse the lawfull use of any the Lords good creatures which he shall be pleased to afford you for I right well know that the minde of man hath a naturall motion towards its own delight and recreation in these things and that this motion still remains in the minde of him that is the most mortified and hath taken his truest farewell of them but yet in such a man that motion which before was violent from the cry of the heart is now restrained so that his appetite is not so forcible nor so unruly as it was before the unrulinesse thereof being subdued in the peace of the heart and and brought into a very comely decorum and order so that now the sensuall appetite can with much more easiness and contentednesse be denyed the object of its desire yea the sensuall appetite can in a good measure be
though I have out-stript him in knowledge and it may be also in strict walking yet doe I now see that my actions were neither from a right principle nor to a right end and therefore have I been in no better a condition then he and truly Sir I must needs confesse I never heard so much of Christ and the Covenant of grace as I have done this day the Lord make it profitable to me and I beseech you Sir pray for me Ant. And truly Sir I am now fully convinced that I have gone out of the right way in that I have not had regard to the Law and the works thereof as I should But God willing I shall hereafter if the Lord prolong my dayes be more carefull how I lead my life seeing the ten Commandements are the law of Christ. And I beseech you Sir remember me in your prayers and so with many thanks to you for your pains I take my leave of you beseeching the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ to bee with your spirit Amen Evan. Now the very God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus that great sheepherd of the sheep through the bloud of the everlasting Covenant make you perfect in every good worke to doe his will working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory for ever and ever Amen John 8.36 If the Sonne make you free you shall be free indeed Gal. 5.1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free Ver. 13. Onely use not your liberty for an occasion of the flesh but by love serve one another Chap. 6. ver 16. And as many as walke according to this rule peace bee upon them and mercie and upon the Israel of God Mat. 11.25 I thanke thee ô Father Lord of heaven and earth because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them to babes 1 Cor. 15.10 I laboured more abundantly then they all yet not I but the grace of God that was with mee Psal. 36.11 Let not the foot of pride come against me LOving Reader the Printer drawing towards a conclusion and wanting matter to compleat so many sheets as was desired I have thought good by reason of the sutablenesse of this with the former to adde these Propositions following which are proved by Scripture and gathered long since by Patrick Hambleton Scottishman and martyred who was burned in Scotland the first day of March Anno 1527. The first Proposition He that loveth God loveth his neighbour This Proposition is proved 1 John 4.20 If a man say I love God and yet hateth his brother he is a lyer for how can hee that loveth not his brother whom he hath seene love God whom he hath not seen The second Proposition Hee that loveth his neighbour as himselfe keepeth all the Commandements of God This Proposition is proved Matth. 7.12 Whatsoever he would that men should do unto you even so do ye unto them for this is the Law and the Prophets and in Rom. 13.8 9. Hee that loveth his neighbour fulfilleth the Law For this thou shalt not commit adultery thou shalt not kill thou shalt not steale thou shalt not bear false witnesse thou shalt not covet and if there be any other Commandement it is briefly comprehended in this saying Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy selfe and in Gal. 5.14 All the law is fulfilled in this one word Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self The third Proposition He that hath faith loveth God My Father loveth you because ye love me and believe that I came out from God John 16.27 Argument He that keepeth the Commandements of God hath the love of God He that hath faith keepeth the Commandements of God Ergo He that hath faith loveth God The fourth Proposition Hee that keepeth one Commandement of God keepeth them all This Proposition is confirmed Heb. 11.6 It is impossible for a man without faith to please God that is to keep any one of Gods Commandements as he should do then whosoever keepeth any one Commandement hath faith Argument Hee that hath faith keepeth all the Commandements of God He that keepeth any one Commandement of God hath faith Ergo He that keepeth any one Commandement keepeth them all The fifth Proposition Hee that keepeth not all the Commandements keepeth none of them Argument He that keepeth one Commandement of God keepeth all Ergo he that keeps not all the Commanments of God keepeth not one of them The sixth Proposition Faith is the gift of God Argument Every good thing is the gift of God Faith is a good thing Ergo Faith is the gift of God The seventh Proposition Faith is not in our power Argument The gift of God is not in our power Faith is the gift of God Ergo Faith is not in our power The eighth Proposition He that hath faith is just and good Argument He that is a good tree bringeth forth good fruit and is just and good Hee that hath faith is a good tree and bringeth forth good fruit Ergo he that hath faith is just and good The ninth Proposition Hee that believeth the Gospel believeth God Argument Hee that believeth Gods Word believeth God The Gospel is the Word of God Ergo Hee that believeth the Gospel believeth God To believe the Gospel is this that Christ is the Saviour of the world that Christ is our Saviour Christ bought us with his bloud Christ washed us with his bloud Christ offered himselfe a sacrifice for us Christ bare our sins upon his own back The tenth Proposition He that believeth the Gospel shall be safe Go yee unto all the World and preach the Gospel unto every creature hee that believeth and is baptised shall be saved Mark 16.16 A comparison between Faith and Incredulity Faith is the root of all good Incredulity is the root of all evill Faith maketh God and man good friends Incredulity maketh them foes Faith bringeth God and man together Incredulity separateth them All that Faith doth pleaseth God all that Incredulity doth displeaseth him Faith maketh a man good and righteous Incredulity maketh him evill Faith maketh a member of Christ Incredulity a member of the Devill Faith bringeth a man to Heaven Infidelity bringeth him to Hell A dispute between the Law and the Gospell The Law said pay the debt the Gospel said Christ hath payd it The Law said thou art a sinner the Gospel said thy sins are forgiven thee The Law said the Father of Heaven is angry the Gospel said Christ hath pacified it The Law said where is thy righteousnesse the Gospel said Christ is a believers righteousnesse The Law said thou art bound over to me the Devill and Hell The Gospel said Christ hath delivered a believer from you all No manner of works make us righteous We believe that a man is justified