extend to the Justification must extend to if perfect § 41. But no man is perfectly and absolutely just or justifiable For instance 1. If we be accused to have sinned we cannot be justified directly against this Accusation but must plead guilty by Confession For factum non potest fieri infectum and that Fact will for ever be culpable Adam did sin will for ever be a true assertion The Guilt of fact or fault is never done away in it self that it was really a fault and that we really did it will be an everlasting Truth Of which more afterward § 41. 2. If the Accusation be That in Adam we deserved Death it must be confessed Yea temporal Death and correcting Punishments are not only deserved but inflicted and not pardoned nor we justifiable herein § 42. 3. If the Accusation be that we deserved to have Abatements of Grace With-holdings of the Spirit and abatement of what Glory we might else have had all this must be confessed § 43. 4. Yea if it be said That our Sin primo instanti deserved Hell it must be confessed and against all this there is no direct Justification § 44. But against these Accusations we must be justified 1. If it be said that we are of Right to be damned or have no Right to Heaven but to Hell this must be denied And we must be justified by these several Causes 1. Because God's Iustice and the Ends of the violated Law are satisfied by Christ and by his Righteousness a free Gift of Pardon and Life are merited for us 2. And this free donation is the Law that we are to be judged by which giveth us Christ to be our Head and Pardon and Life with him § 45. 2. If it be said That we are Unbelievers impenitent or unholy and did not fulfill the Conditions of the Covenant of Grace we must deny it and be justified against this by our Faith Repentance and Holiness it self or else we must be condemned and perish for nothing else will do it § 46. And seeing it will be the work of the day to judge men as performers or non-performers of the said Conditions of the Law of Grace therefore it is that the Scripture speaketh so much of inherent or performed Righteousness and of Christ's judging men according to their works that is their works which are the performance of that Condition § 47. To be judged according to our Works is to be justified or condemned according to our Works For to be judged is the genus and to be justified or condemned are the species Iudging is justifying or condemning § 48. While all are agreed that all men shall be justified or condemned according to their Works it is unreasonable to quarrel at that height that many do about the syllable BY whether men be justified and condemned by their works as if according to them and by them had a different sence when as to judicial justification the sence is the very same though as to the making of men just the sence may differ § 49. We are commonly agreed that no man is justified by Works in any of these following sences 1. No man is justified either constitutively or judiciarily by his Works done according to the Law of Innocency that is by perfect personal Obedience and Love because we have it not 2. No man is justified constitutively or judiciarily by his Works done according to the Mosaical Iewish Law as such 3. Much less by any Works of his own or other mens invention which he accounteth good and are not so 4. No man is justified by any Works set in opposition to or competition or co-ordination with Christ but only in subordination to him and his Righteousness by which we are redeemed and for which we are all first conditionally pardoned and justified by the Law of Grace 5. No man could be justified by his Gospel-Obedience or his Faith if he were to be judged by the Law of Innocency as not redeemed 6. No man's Faith or Obedience will justifie him in Judgment against this accusation Thou art a Sinner or this Thy sin deserved Death Nor as one that hath fulfilled all the preceptive part of the law of Christ. 7. No Works do justifie us as meriting Life of God in proper commutative Justice 8. No man is justified by Tasks of working as contradistinct from believing and trusting on Free Grace or by external works without Christ's Spirit and spiritual Evangelical Duties 9. No good Work or Act of Man was a Condition of God's giving us a Redeemer or giving us a conditional justifying Law of Grace 10. Man's true Faith and Repentance is not before the Grace which worketh it and therefore is no Condition of that Grace 11. Man's antecedent common Works while he is impenitent merit not properly the special Grace which causeth Faith and Repentance 12. We have no Works that are acceptable to God but what are the fruits of his Spirit and Grace § 50. And on the other side we are agreed 1. That we are justified by the Works of Christ as the Meritorious Cause of our Justification 2. That the Justification purchased and given us by Christ is given us by a Law or Covenant of Grace which giveth as God's Instrument Right to Impunity and to Life to all true penitent Believers And therefore he that is justified according to this Law of Grace from the charge of Impenitence and Unbelief must be justified by his Repentance and Faith materially as being the Righteousness in question as is aforesaid 3. That without Holiness none shall see God And if any be accused as unholy and on that account no Member of Christ or Child of God or Heir of Heaven his Holiness must be the matter of his Justification 4. That though our Faith Repentance and Holiness be no universal absolute Righteousness yet they are that on which the judiciary Scrutiny must pass and which will be the question of the great day on which our Life or Death will depend as on the Condition or moral Qualification of the Receiver 5. That in this sence all men shall be judged by Justification or Condemnation according to their Works or what they have done that is as they have performed or not performed the Conditions of that Law of Grace which they were under as aforesaid 6. That therefore they that will be justified at last must trust in Christ that redeemed them and be careful to perform the Conditions of his Law of Grace and both must concurr 7. That that which is the Righteousness which must justifie us in Judgment is the same that must now constitute us just 8. That when our Right to Salvation is the thing in question to be judged that which justifieth our Right to Salvation justifieth the Person as to that Right and so far the same thing is the Condition of our Right to Salvation and to our Justification 9. And if any with Augustine will mean by Iustification God 's making us such
§ 15. 5. No external acts of sincere Obedience distinct from internal Faith and Repentance and Consent are necessary before to our first Justification that is to our right to Impunity and life in Christ. § 16. 6. Even internal Obedience to Christ as Christ distinct from our Obedience to God as God and our Subjection to Christ or Consent to be his Subjects and obey him is not before necessary to our part in Christ or our Union or Justification as in its first state or beginning § 17. 7. Therefore if we should suppose that a Man should die immediately upon his first internal Faith and Consent to the Covenant before he had time to do one Act internal or external of formal Obedience to Christ as Christ that Man would be saved But the Supposition is so utterly improbable that it is not to be put as a matter of Dispute The Thief on the Cross performed some Obedience § 18. 8. No Works of Man's are necessary to profit God or can add to his Perfection or Felicity He needeth not us nor any of our doings § 19. 9. No Works of ours are necessary to make up any defects in the Merits of Christ or to any use which is proper to Christ or his Merits or efficacious Grace § 20. 10. No preparatory Works of Man's I think are absolutely before necessary to God's effectual converting of him unless you will call the Acts of Nature by which he is fit to hear and think preparatory Works unfitly For God can give his Grace to unprepared Souls § 21. On the affirmative also we are agreed 1. That all Mankind are under God's Government by some Law and owe Him Obedience to that Law § 22. 2. That it is only Disobedience that God punisheth according to the Penal part of that Law which men live under § 23. 3. That it is only Obedience which God rewardeth according to the rewarding or promissory part of the Law that men are under § 24. 4. That the Law of Grace and not only that of Innocency hath its Commands of Obedience and Promises of Reward § 25. 5. That men must believe that there is a God before they can believe that Christ is the Anointed of God and the Mediator between God and man and therefore must first believe God's Soveraign Government § 26. 6. God commandeth men to believe in Christ and so maketh it their Duty and to take him for their Lord and Saviour by Faith § 27. 7. Men ought thus to believe in Christ and accept him in obedience to this Command of God believing that it is his Will § 28. 8. Therefore there is some sort of Relief in God and Obedience to God which is in order before our Faith in Christ And Faith in Christ as it is voluntary and free is an Act of such Obedience to God § 29. 9. Yet is it the antecedent Teaching of Christ by Nature by the Word or Spirit or all by which we now come to know God to be God and that he is to be believed and obeyed Therefore Christ is mens Teacher and thereby bringeth them to believe first in God before he is known to be their Teacher and believed on himself As the Sun-beams before its rising give some Light to the Earth § 30. 10. God hath commanded men that hear not of Christ the use of some means which Mercy hath through Christ afforded them which have a tendency to their Salvation and should be used to that end And his bare Command to use such means much more as seconded with abundance of Mercies tell us that he bids not men use them in vain or without any hope of good success of which before § 31. 11. He that heareth of Christ and believeth not or believeth uneffectually and is not a converted sound Believer is under God's Command to use certain means allowed him to procure Faith and true Conversion and that not without all hope of good success § 32. 12. It is God's ordinary way to give his first special converting Grace to predisposed Subjects prepared by his commoner Grace in which Preparation some Acts of Man have their part And the unprepared and undisposed cannot equally expect it § 33. 13. Faith and Repentance are Acts of Man and pre-requisite to Justification Therefore as Acts and Works are words of the same sence so Works even Works of Special Grace are pre-requisite to Justification Obj. But not as Acts but for the Object Answ. That 's a contradiction Christ is Christ whether we believe in him or not and it 's one thing to say Christ is necessary and another thing to say Believing in him is necessary It is not necessary meerly as an Act in genere but as this Act in specie and it is specified as is aforesaid by its Object Not only Christ believed in but Believing in Christ is pre-requisite as a moral disposition to Justification And in that sence a Work or Act of Man § 34. 14. It is before shewed that this Faith is a moral Work containing not one only but many physical acts He that believeth in Christ believeth in him as sent of God to reconcile us to God to bring us to Glory to save us from Iustice Sin and Enemies to sanctifie us by his Word and Spirit with many such acts that make up the Essence of Saving-Faith This is the Work of God that ye believe on him whom the Father hath sent Joh. 6. 28 29. § 35. 15. The Faith that hath the Promise of Justification is essentially a subjecting our selves to Christ that is a taking him for our Lord and Saviour by Consent Which is a Consent to obey him for the future § 36. 16. Though this actual Obedience to Christ besides Subjection be not pre-requisite to our first being justified it is requisite to the Continuance of our Justification For we consented to obey that we might indeed obey and are perâ—idious if we do not § 37. 17. The World and Conscience will judge us much according to our Works § 38. 18. The same Law of Grace being the Rule of Duty and of Iudgment God will judge all men according to their Works required by that Law by justifying or condemning them § 39. 19. Final justification and glorification are the Rewards of Evangelical Obedience and the reason rendered of Christ's justifying Sentence Matth. 25. passim is from such acts of Man as qualifying them for the free Gift of God § 40. 20. There is a moral goodness in these Works of Man by which through Christ they are pleasing to God which is their aptitude to this acceptance and reward In all this I think all sober Christians must needs confess that they agree § 41. III. And as to the Case of Merit a few words with understanding men may dispatch it We are agreed on the negative 1. That no Man or Angel can merit of God in proper Commutative Justice giving him somewhat for his Benefits that shall profit him or to which
out of their Churches which should be the Porch of Heaven is the way to be shut out themselves of the heavenly Jerusalem If those that have long reproached me as unfit to be in their Church and said ex uno disce omnes with their Leader find any unsound or unprofitable Doctrine here I shall take it for a great favour to be confuted even for the good of others excluded with me when I am dead Jan. 21. 1691. Richard Baxter THE CONTENTS Chap. 1. HOW to conceive of GOD. Pag. i. Chap. 2. How to conceive of the Trinity in Unity p. vii Chap. 3. How to conceive of the Hypostatical Union and Incarnation p. xxiii Chap. 4. How to conceive of the Diversity of God's Transient Operations p. xxx Chap. 5. Whether any point of Faith be above 〈◊〉 contrary to Reason p. xxxii Chap. I. Prefatory Who must be the Iudge of Controversies The true Causes of the Divisions of Christians about Religion p. 1◠Chap. 2. The Doctrines enumerated about which they chiefly disagree p. 22 Chap. III. Of God's Will and Decrees in general Th. Terms and several Cases opened p. 2◠Chap. IV. Of God's Knowledge and the Differenc◠about it p. 4◠Chap. V. Of Election and the Order of Intentio◠and Execution p. 3◠Chap. VI. Of Reprobation or the Decree of Damnation the Objects and their Order p. 4◠An Answer to Mr. Polhill of Futurition p. 4◠Chap. VII Of God's Providence and predetermining Premotion Of Durandus's way p. 7◠Chap. VIII Of the Cause of Sin What God doth and doth not about it p. 82 Chap. IX Of Natural Power and Free-will p. 89 Chap. X. Of Original Sin as from Adam and nearer Parents p. 94 Chap. XI Of our Redemption by Christ what it doth how necessary p. 89 Chap. XII Of the several Laws and Covenants of God p. 99 Sect. 1. Of the Law or Covenant of Innocency made to Adam Divers Cases p. 113 Sect. 2. Of the Law of Mediation or Covenant with Christ When and what it was p. 121 Sect. 3. Of the Law or Covenant of Grace in the first edition What it was p. 126 Sect. 4. Of the same Law with Abraham's Covenant of Peculiarity and the Mosaical Iewish Law of Works p. 132 Sect. 5. Of the Law or Covenant of Grace in the last edition the Gospel Divers Cases about it opened p. 138 Chap. XIII Of the universality and sufficiency of Grace What Grace is How far universal and sufficient p. 154 Chap. XIV Of Man's Power and Free-will since the Fall Adrian's Saying That an unjustified man may love or chuse God's Being before his own What to ascribe to Grace and what to Free-will in good p. 173 Chap. XV. Of Effectual Grace and how God giveth it Doubts resolved p. 181 Chap. XVI Of the state of Heathens and such others as have not the Gospel What Law the Heathen World is under and to be judged by Whether any of them are justified or saved The Heathens were the Corrupters of the old Religion and the Jews of the Reformed Church Mal. 1. 14 15. and Sodom's Case c. considered p. 188 Chap. XVII Of the necessity of Holiness and of Moral Virtue p. 203 Chap. XVIII Of the necessity of Faith in Christ where the Gospel is made known p. 212 Chap. XIX Of the state of Infants as to Salvation and Church-membership p. 216 Chap. XX. Of the nature of Saving-Faith its Description and Causes p. 226 Chap. XXI Of justifying Righteousness Iustification and Pardon The several sences of the words and several sorts of them Our common Agreement about them p. 238 Chap. XXII Of the Imputation of Righteousness Christ's righteousness in what sence ours and imputed and in what sence not p. 256 Chap. XXIII How Faith justifieth and how it is imputed for Righteousness Several questions about it Repentance c. resolved p. 267 Chap. XXIV Of Assurance of our Iustification and of Hope What Assurance is desirable What attainable What Assurance we actually have Who have it The nature and grounds of it Whether it be Divine Faith p. 279 Chap. XXV Of Good works and Merit And whether we may trust to any thing of our own 1. What are Good Works 2. Whether they are necessary to our Iustification or Salvation 3. Whether they are rewardable or meritorious 4. What is their place use and necessity 5. Whether to be trusted to p. 282 Chap. XXVI Of Confirmation Perseverance and danger of falling away 1. Whether all Grace given by Christ be such as is never lost 2. Whether that degree be ever lost which to Infants or Adult giveth but the posse credere 3. Whether any lose actual justifying Faith 4. Or the Habit of Divine Love and Holiness 5. Whether some degree of this may be lost 6. If Holiness be not actually lost is the loss possible 7. Whether there be a state of Confirmation above the lowest Holiness which secureth Perseverance 8. Or doth Perseverance depend only on Election and God's Will 9. Whether all most or many Christians are themselves certain of their Perseverance 10. I◠such Certainty fit for all the justified 11. Is it unfit for all and doubting a more safe condition 12. Doth the Comfort of most Christians rest upon the Doctrine of Certainty to persevere 13. Doth the Doctrine of eventual Apostasie inferr Mutability in God 14. Why God hath left the point so dark 15. What was the Iudgment of the ancient Churches herein 16. Is it of such weight as to be necessary to our Church-Communion Love and Concord p. 300 Chap. XXVII Of Repentance late Repentance the time of Grace and the unpardonable sin p. 314 BOOKS Printed for and Sold by Iohn Salusbury at the Rising Sun in Cornhil A Rational Defence of Nonconformity wherein the Practice of Nonconformists is vindicated from promoting Popery and ruining the Church imputed to them by Dr. Stillingfleet Bishop of Worcester in his Unreasonableness of Separation Also his Arguments from the Principles and Way of the Reformers and first Dissenters are answered And the case of the present Separation truly stated and the blame of it laid where it ought to be and the way to Union among Protestants is pointed at By Gilbert Rule D. D. The Christian Laver Being two Sermons on John 13. 8. opening the nature of Participation with and demonstrating the necessity of Purification by Christ. By T. Cruso Six Sermons on various occasions By T. Cruso in 4◠The Conformists Sayings or the Opinion and Arguments of Kings Bishops and several Divines assembled in Convocation A new Survey of the Book of Common-Prayer An END of Doctrinal Controversies c. CHAP. 1. How we may and must conceive of GOD. § 1. A True Knowledge of God is necessary to the Being of Religion and to Holiness and Glory No man can love obey trust or hope beyond his knowledge Nothing is so certainly known as God and yet nothing so defectively known Like our Knowledge of the Sun of which no man doubteth
Conceptions and rectifie my Judgment and give me that practical Faith and Knowledge of Him which constituteth Christianity according to the Baptismal Covenant and which is it that He calleth Eternal Life Amen CHAP. 4. How to conceive of the Diversity of God's Operations seeing he is immutable and intimately near to every Patient § 1. IT is certain That no Change wrought by God signifieth any Change in God and that no diversity of Effects signifieth any real Multiplicity or Diversity in God But all Diversity â—loweth from Unity and Change from Immutâ—bilâ—ty § 2. It is certain That God is intimately present in Essence with every Creature and every Effect and so all his Effects are immediatione proximâ—tatis immediately from God he being as near the Effect when he useth second Causes and having as much Causality in producing what is done as when he useth none § 3. Yet it is certain That God useth second Causes and therefore that all Effects are not so â—mmediately from him as to be sine medâ—is and the highest usually work on the lower § 4. Therefore it seemeth plain that Energy â—r utmost transient Operations go not as far as his Essential Presence nor are equal to his Omnipotency He doth not all that in primo instanâ—â— he can do but suspendeth freely such Acts. § 5. Therefore God may so far suspend some Operations on inferior Patients as to confine them to the Capacity or Aptitude of the superior created Causes as he doth in the ordinary Course of Nature He shineth not by the Moon so much as by the Sun nor in a cloudy day so much as in a clear nor in the night as in the day and nourisheth us not by every sort of Food alike nor cureth alike by all Medicines § 6. As God doth thus in Naturals so may he do in Morals or spiritual Changes As he is the God of Kingdoms and People he may use its Mercies and Judgments by Kings and Magistrates and according to their good or bad Dispositions as he did in the Death of Christ. He doth not use to govern Nations as happily by wicked tyrannical inâ—iâ—el Rulers as by the good and faithful Pagan Rome was more unhappy under Nero Domitian Commodus Heâ—iogabulus c. than under Nâ—rva Trajan Adrian Antonine Alexander Severus And the Empire was delivered by the fall of seven Tyrants by a Constantine § 7. So God usually prospereth or afflicteth Churches and particular Souls working his Grace according to the qualifications of the Pastors and Teachers and fitting them to be meet Instruments of the intended Good though he do not always so confine his Operations This is evide 〈…〉 in the different successes of Ministers that are skilful or unskilful wise or ignorant good or bad concordant or schismatical And it is notoriouâ— in the success of the Education of Youth in Schools Universities and Families § 8. According to this Method we may judge also of God's working according to variety of Company-helps Temptations and Hinderances and how much of God's Work of Grace is thus sapientially and mediately exercised though as to the internal manner of the Agency of his Spirit we are told by Christ That every one that is born of the Spirit is as the Wind bloweth where it listeth and we hear the sound but know not whence it cometh and whither it goeth It is much herein to know a little § 9. It greatly darkeneth us in judging of God's Providences on Earth as to the Welfare or Misery of Nations and Souls Believers and Insidels Peace and War c. that we know not how much God doth here by Spirits good and bad and how far such Spirits are left to their Free-will as Adam was in their Ministration and Executions here below God gave Satan power over Iob and power on the Sabeans that robbed him and power on the Fire that fell from Heaven on his Estate Christ said This is their Day and of the Power of Darkness What Laws the superiour Worlds are under as to us and one another is much unknown to us yea what power for our sins Satan may have against not only the wicked but even those that fear God both on their Bodies by Diseases and on their minds by troubling and seducing Temptations Sad experience â—elleth us that yielding to former Temptations giveth him advantage for easier access to our imaginations and to more dangerous fresh Assaults § 10. But yet we may be sure that all God's Promises shall be fulfilled and that he will never give Satan power to break them nor suspend his Operations so much on any second Causes as to violate any word of safety and hope that he hath given us to trust to which Assurance may serve to keep us in Faith and Hope and Comfort CHAP. 5. Is any point of Faith above Reason or contrary to it § 1. I Have answered this at large in Method Theol. It is a confused and ill-worded Question Distinguish 1. between Faith taken objectively and Faith subjectively as an Act or Quality 2. Between that which is required of all men to be believed and that which is required but of some 3. Between Reason in Faculty and Reason in Act and Habit. 4. Between Reason advanced by improvement and Reason unimproved and buried in Ignorance 5. Between Reason that hath only the Revelation of common Nature and Reason that hath supernatural Revelation § 2. I. It being only objective Faith that is meant in the Question that is no Object of Faith which for want of Revelation a man is not bound to believe There are Millions of Things above our Reason which are no Objects of our Faith And more may be the Object of one Man's Faith than of anothers that had it no way revealed to him § 3. II. Almost all the matter of Faith is above the Reason of ignorant Sots that never improved their Reason or studied the Evidences of Truth It is above their Reason as dispositive and active though not above the possibility of their Faculties being better cultivated and disposed hereafter § 4. III. The Doctrine of Faith is not only above but centrary to the false reasoning of ignorant deceived Fools for so is the very Being of God and such are many that boast of Reason § 5. IV. The Gospel of Christ and many points of Faith are above his Reason that hath only such natural Light as the Creation can give him without any Gospel supernatural Revelation Who can know in India that never heard of Christ that he was incarnate and rose from the dead and ascended c. § 6. V. Nothing that God commandeth us to believe is either contrary to or above Reason that is the reasoning Intellect informed by Evangelical Revelation or Notice and honestly and soundly qualified to judge otherwise as Law Physick Astronomy so Divinity is above the Reason of the unqualified § 7. This is apparent 1. Because we have â—o Faith in us but what is an act of Reason and
of Rome that have managed them against each other And so are some of the Church of England and of foreign Protestants But I must testifie that the most that I hear or read inveighing reproachfully against others about them are men that tell me they talk after their Leaders of things that they never understood I am ashamed to hear of 't in the Pulpits one Party rendring the Doctrine of Predestination as odious Blasphemy and another Party crying down Universal Redemption and Free-will and Arminianism as an Enemy to God's Grace and neither of them know what they speak against One Davenant or Camero or Le Blank sheweth more insight into the Controversies which they reconcile than forty of these zealous Railers do § 10. I meddle not in this Book with the Controversies about Church-Government or Worship A settled worldly Interest and the various mental dispositions of the Contenders convince me that I can there do little for reconciliation God must do it if he have not forsaken this world But meer Doctrinal Controversies though of great moment methinks should not be so linked to a worldly Interest but that men should be willing to know the Truth or to endure others to know it That which I have attempted is by meer and clear explication without much argumentation to end such Controversies And to make men understand one another and the things which they dispute about and by abbreviating my Catholick Theology to make the Conciliation fitter for all Students And the Success of that Book giveth me great encouragement which hath been unanswered to this day when I looked that it should have brought the Contentious of both sides about my ears And I rejoice in the Success of Le Blank 's Theses which I publish'd he sent them to me to publish and I gave them to my Bookseller to print and he sold his Copy to another For all the dismal effects that the History of the low Countries and Dr. Heylin in Archbishop Laud's Life mention of these Controversies I rejoice that these many years last past they have made in England less noise than ever and are talked of with more peace and moderation And that I have a special share in the Comfort of this effect And what Names soever Peace-haters and Man-haters and Saint-haters call men by Christ saith Blessed are the Peace-makers for they shall be called the Children of God CHAP. II. The Doctrines about which they chiefly disagree enumerated § 1. THE forementioned causes of Divisions in general do operate among Christians 1. About Church-Government 2. About God's Worship and 3. About Christian Doctrine in particular All which are turned into the matters of our Discord The two first I intend not to meddle with in this Discourse And as to the third the Controversies about Doctrine which most trouble the Churches are 1. About God's Decrees and His Will in general 2. About his Foreknowledge 3. About Election in particular 4. About Reprobation 5. About his Providence and Predetermination of all actions in general 6. About his causing or not causing Sin 7. About Natural Power and Freewill 8. About original Sin 9. About Redemption by Christ. 10. About the Laws and Covenants of Innocency Works and Grace 11. About Universality and Sufficiency of Grace 12. About Man's Power and Free-will since the Fall to obey the Gospel 13. About effectual Grace and how God giveth it 14. About the state of Heathens that have not the Gospel 15. About the necessity of Holiness and the state of moral Virtue 16. About the necessity of Faith in Christ where the Gospel is made known 17. About the state of Infants as to Salvation 18. About the nature of Saving Faith 19. About the nature of Pardon and Justification 20. About the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness to Believers 21. About the manner how Faith justifieth us and how Faith is imputed to us for Righteousness 22. Of Assurance of Justification and Salvation and of Hope 23. Of Good works and Merits and how far we may trust to any thing in our selves 24. Of Confirmation Perseverance and of danger and falling away 25. Of Repentance late Repentance and the Day of Grace and the unpardonable Sin 26. Of our Communion with Christ's Glorified Humanity and with Angels and glorified Souls 27. Of the state of separated Souls 28. Of the Resurrection and Everlasting Life Of each of these I shall shew the pacifick Truth which must unite us and shew how far all the Reformed Churches are therein agreed and whether the Papists are or will be agreed with us I shall referr to their own consideration CHAP. III. Of God's Will and Decrees in general § 1. THE Will of God signifieth either I. His own Essence and that 1. under the notion of a Power or Virtue analogically to the Faculty in Man or 2. under the notion of an Act as it is considered only ex parte agentis without the effect II. Or the said Essence as related to the Effects or Objects and thence denominated III. Or the Extrinsick Objects and Effects themselves called his Will because willed by him § 2. These later are I. His Works of eminent Power with Wisdom and Goodness viz. Creation Preservation and Natural Motion by God as sons naturae II. His Works of Eminent Wisdom with Power and Goodness viz. ORDER and specially Moral Government the parts of which are 1. Legislation Antecedent to man's actions 2. Retribution by Judgment and Execution consequent to them especially by the Redeemer in the way of Grace III. His Works of Eminent Love or Goodness with Power and Wisdom especially Glory begun and perfected § 3. By God 's Decrees is meant his Volitions of what shall be which are but his Will considered as in such acts Now concerning all these sences of God's Will § 4. I. God's Will in it self considered is his Essence and not any Accident in God § 5. II. Yet esse Velle are not Conceptions of the same sence or importance but are distinct inadequate Conceptions of the same God And so is also Intelligere § 6. III. As Posse Agere are not really two things in God so his Will as a Power Faculty or Virtue and his Will as an Act or Volition in himself are not two things but two inadequate Conceptions of that which is simple Unity in God for Man's narrow mind can no otherwise know him § 7. IV. God doth operate or effect immediately by his Essence and not by any Action of his which is between his Essence and the Effect Whether you call it his Agere Intelligere or Velle or all conjunct by which he effecteth it is nothing besides his Essence which is so called For there is nothing in rerum natura but God and the Creature and the Creature 's Actions And Aâ—râ—olâ—s that stiffly argueth that God's Creating Action is neither God nor the Creature but a middle thing doth satisfie no mans Understanding and is commonly rejected and he can mean with sence
Infinite Power moreover to the act and none to the cessation And by this Rule it would follow that all Motion in the World is supernatural For if God cause it ut sons naturae he causeth it in the natural course if he do not it 's all supernatural and miraculous Moreover if all this satisfie not Disputes if it be worth the Cost they may try the Case thus Supposing that God hath told no man his Secrets when he will immediately move any thing without second Causes and that no second Causes nor his own Operation by them can move any thing without another immediate Motion Let them cut down the Pillars or undermine their Houses and say that by meer natural Causes the House cannot fall Let them set fire on their Houses and say that by meer natural Causes they cannot be burnt Let them drink Poison and say By meer natural Causes it cannot hurt us Or let them cut their Flesh c. For God never told them that he will immediately concurr and then there is no danger Perhaps they will say That Experience telleth us that God doth usually concurr with them I answer And is not that because he worketh by them What Experience or Reason have you that God should still work immediately with them and yet not by them We can prove that He worketh as the first Cause But if you will prove that He doth it not as the first Cause moving the second Causes but by immediate concomitancy let us hear your proofs Lastly let it be noted that when they that affirm all Motion to be by immediate concomitant Concourse or Predetermination do pretend that they do it lest God's Causality should be denied or extenuated it is a meer deceit For all are agreed that there is no less of God in the Operations done by second Causes or Nature than in immediate Operations without second Causes such as God exerciseth on the first created Motor and how else he please God is as much in one as in the other § 14. For the understanding of the nature and use of miraculous acts of Providence it must be considered 1. That God that made the World of Natural Agents and things Passive moved by the Active is not to be feigned without good proofs to alter any of the Works which he hath made which we see he continueth in the course that he made them without any mutation of their Natures § 15. God can change and cross and use as he pleaseth the Actions of Natural Agents without changing their natures and inclinations One Natural Agent or moved Passive may be resiâ—ed and turned back or overcome by another â—nd yet there may be nothing but natural motiâ—n in them all A stronger Stream may drive â—ack a weaker A Canon may cross the ordiâ—ary motion of the Air As a great Dog may â—aster a little one or a Woolf devour a Lamb â—nd a Bird a Worm or Fly and yet there be â—one but natural and sensitive motion So God â—an dry up or stop the Red Sea or Iordan and â—y Winds carry Caterpillars to and from Aegypt and such like and by one natural â—otion overcoming another It 's hard for us â—n most Miracles to say that God doth more than this § 16. But it is certain that God hath a rank of free Agents that act arbitrarily and that these have a great measure of power over natural and necessary Motions As man is a free Agent and driveth his Sheep to what Pasture he pleaseth and guideth his Horses and Oxen in their way and furrow to do his will by their natural and sensitive necessitated motion and as a Miller can make the natural course of the Wood and Water and Mill-stones and Horse all to serve his intention without changing the nature of any one of them so much more can God and free Agents under God attain their freely chosen ends by Ordering and not Changing Natural and Sensitive Movers § 17. We so little know what Arbitrary Free Agents that are invisible Spirits God hath set over this Passive World and what power he hath given them to use Natural Agents as they themselves freely will that it greatly disableth us to resolve all the Difficulties of the Cause of Sin and Misery and about the nature of Miracles But it is a clear truth that it is by such Free Arbitrary Agents primarily that natural Agency is crost and overcome in Miracles the one Natural Agent be employed to resist another as to quench the heat of Fire to stop the course of Winds and Water c. Yet it is some voluntary free Agent that thus useth natural Agents against each other Scripture tells us that God useth Angels as Rulers and Protectors of lower Agents And that there is a kind of a war between these and Devils And how far the prevalent Wills of good and bad Angels or voluntary Agents may be the Cause of Evil or be the Actors of Miracles by setting one moved Agent against another and yet all but Natural motion that is caused by these free Agents Mortals do not know and therefore should not be peremptory in judging § 18. But though we know not that in Miracles God useth not second Causes some natural and some free in waies unsearchable to us yet may we be assured by Miracles of his will and attestation when we find that things are done quite out of the way of his ordinary Providence in the uncontrouled confirmation of some prophetical Revelation For God is the Governour of the rational World and his moral Government must be by the intelligible signification of his will de debito what shall be due from us and to us And if Miracles be used to deceive us they cannot be done without him whatever second Cause there be And if he should use them tho' by second Causes to deceive us we are utterly remediless and therefore guiltless And God that 〈…〉 at h neither impotency ignorance nor badness cannot need a Lye to govern Man when he hath 〈…〉 de it part of his Image on Man and needful to Mens Justice to each other to hate Lying § 19. A Miracle controuled by contrary Evidence is no notification of God's Attestation It may be permitted for several good ends For God by controuling it giveth us sufficient remedy against Deceit And there are two waies by which a Miracle may be controuled First by greater conquering Miracles used for some contrary Doctrine or Cause so the Aegyptian Magician's Miracles were controuled by Moses Secondly when it is some unquestionable Truth or Duty or Word that is already better proved which that Miracle pretendeth to contradict As if a Miracle were done by a Deceiver to prove that there is no God no Life-to-come or against Mercy or Justice or to disprove Christianity the greater Miracles which have confirmed the Gospel and the evident Light of Nature which proveth the Deity and Life-to-come and the Duty of Love and Justice do controul such deceiving
to this day § 8. God doth not impute Adam's Sin to us because he will do it without any real participation of ours no nor beyond our true natural participation but according to it Otherwise God should have made us sinners meerly because he â—ould do so and not Adam § 9. We receive our Original Guilt and Pravity immediately from our next Parents and but remotely from Adam It could never have come to us but through them from whom we receive our Nature from them we receive the guilt and pravity of our Nature § 10. Therefore thus far at least our next Parents communicate Guilt and Pravity to us and not Adam only In which we see that God's Imputation goeth along with real Natural Participation § 11. It seemeth to me a strange oversight in too many Divines who deny or observe not our Guilt of all the rest of our Parents Sins while we were in their Loins as well as of Adam's seeing 1. there is that same reason of both save what the change of the Covenant maketh of which after And 2. Scripture is so full and express about it § 12. 1st If I have a guilty and deprayed Soul from my Parents it is because I was once in them Virtually or Seminally as truly and naturally as I was in Adam And had not the Guilt been theirs it had never been miâ—e And if it be mine because it was theirs why not one part of theirs as well as another § 13. It will be said Because God so Covenanted with Adam that he should stand or fall for himself and his Posterity I Answer That there was any such Covenant that if he stood his Posterity should all stand or be Confirmed and Saved is more than ever I found in Scripture or can prove or do believe But that it would have been to the benefit of his Posterity I doubt not And that his fall was to the Guilt and Corruption of his Posterity I doubt not but as I said not without and beyond their natural Interest in him and Derivation from him as the reason of it And we were as much naturally in our next Parents And the Covenant of Innocency and the Covenant of Grace do not so far differ as to exempt us from the Guilt of our next Parents sins For the difference lieth not in this That the first only made Death the due reward of all Sin nor that the first did interest Children in the Guilt of their Parents sin But in this that the first made us Guilty without a Remedy But the second giveth us a Remedy presently for Pardon and Recovery and so our Guilt is not so full because it is but a half Obligation having the Pardon annexed The first Law said If thou sin thou shalt be filius mortis and so shall those that are Propagated of thee The second Covenant saith For thy Original and Actual Sin death is thy due but I give thee a Pardon and Remedying Grace procured by the Righteousness of Christ. But note That this Covenant pardoneth our Original Sin as from Adam And yet it followeth not that we had none because it is pardoned Even so it pardoneth our guilt of our next Parents sins and therefore we had it to be pardoned Both are pardonable to us therefore we had both § 14. 2. And the Scripture is more copious and as plain in making punishment due to Children for their next Parents sins as for Adam's though Adam's only was the Original of all Sin and Misery I have elsewhere proved it at large The Case of Cain's Posterity and Cham's and Ishmael's and Esau's and Achan's Family and Ahab's and many more do fully prove it And more fully the Second Commandment and God's declaration of his Name to Moses Exod. 34. and many a Threatning to the Seed of the Wicked and Christ's express Words in Matth. 23. 36. so that Scripture puts us out of doubt § 15. The common Objection is that their Guilt would be greater on us towards the End of the World than on them at the Beginning because all our Ancestours Guilt would be ours But I answer 1. If it were so it would be but many Obligations to the same Punishment when it amounteth to that which God seeth our Nature capable of For a Finite Worm is not capable of more Suffering than is proportioned to his Nature 2. And this Objection vainly supposeth that none of our Ancestours Sins were pardoned Whereas all are pardoned to the Faithful and their Seed and much Temporal Punishment is pardoned to many of the Unsanctified And God himself by limiting it to the third and fourth Generation seemeth to set bounds to his own Justice 3. And the Guilt of our Parents Sins being of a more Diminute Nature than that of our own Actual Sin Coeteris paribus it falleth not so fully on us as it did on the Committers themselves nor as our own do 4. And God offereth us the full pardon of our own and all together And as long as the Law which tells us of our desert of punishment doth also give us a free pardon we have no Cause to complain § 16. That we have all Original Sin is proved in that else Infants should be saved without a pardoning Saviour or a cleansing Sanctifier which cannot be § 17. He that seeth the universal inclination of Mankind to Evil even in their Childhood and their backwardness to Good even that Evil and that Good which Nature it self assureth us are such must needs believe Original Pravity or else think hardly of God's Work § 18. He that seeth still that Drunkenness Gluttony Lust c. do vitiate both the Soul and Bodily Temperament of the Sinner and how frequently a diseased distempered Body inclining Men to particular Vices and an extraordinarily vitiated Soul is in their Children the plain fruit of the Parents Sin may the easilier believe that we drew down Pravity from Adam also when we derive so much from nearest Parents § 19. And they that consider that Mans Soul being made Holy for God this unholiness is not only a Negation but a Privation not of Sensitive and Natural only but of Moral Rectitude will not deny but that the name of Sin or Moral Pravity belongeth to it § 20. And they that consider that Parents Cause not Children as an Artificer maketh an Engine but by Generation which is a Communication of their own Essence and what Natural Interest Parents and Children have in each other and that it is real Sin that is in both and that the Moral Privation in its Nature containeth much of Mans misery will easily grant that it is both a Sin and Punishment and a Moral Cause of further punishment properly enough so called § 21. They that lay that Reason of their denying Original Sin upon the difficulty of understanding whether Souls are new Created or Derived from Parents do too little suspect their frail understandings and their own â—deductions and too easily suspect the
mistaken ones so seduce that one Error in the Order leads to many § 28. Yet even Catechumens and young Christians should learn what they learn in method And that is first the said Baptismal Covenant and our Relation to the Trinity thereby and all that is added to their Knowledge daily be it never so little should be methodically added For a weak head may perceive the true method of the few Essentials being great and plain though the strongest cannot follow the due Distribution of innumerable Integrals and Consequent Truths As the first partitions of the Tree into its greater Boughs are easily perceived though not the innumerable sprigs thence arising § 29. Accordingly a wise Teacher will proceed with Infidels in proving the Christian Religion yea and with himself and will first prove the Truth of the Essentials which are delivered us both in Scripture and other infallible Tradition before he undertake to prove all the Scriptures to be the Word of God For he that will begin here 1. Must shew the Book which he will so prove and when he cannot vindicate it from variety of Lections and the Errors of Scribes and Printers to say nothing of the greater of Translators it will stop him in his Designs 2. And when he hath so many thousand Words to prove to be Divine and so many Integrals and Accidentals to make good he maketh his Work difficult by allowing his Scholar to doubt as much of the Essentials of Religion as he shall doubt of the Truth of any particular Book or Text History Genealogy c. in the whole Scripture A blind Zeal for Scripture hath led some to this dangerous way but the ancient Churches did otherwise and so will all that well understand what they do And really on supposition it could be proved as it cannot that any Penman of the Scripture erred in a Ciâ—ation a Genealogy the Circumstance of a bye-History c. it would not follow that we must be therefore uncertain of all our Religion even the Essentials and they ignorantly betray their Faith that say It would so follow § 30. So far is it from being true that the Scripture is too narrow as to the matter of Divine Faith and Duty without the additional matter of Tradition that indeed as the compleat Body of a Man hath more than his Essentials yea or Inteâ—rals even Hair and Nails as Accidents so hath the Holy Scripture as to the matter of Divine Faith and Duty There is more than is absolutely necessary to Salvation but not less § 31. They that in peevish opposition to others tell us That Christ made no Law and that the Gospel is not a Law if they strive not about equivocal Words but mean that Christ is not a Legislator nor hath a Law and Covenant by which he will govern and judge the World do deny all our Christianity at once For Christ is not Christ if he be not the King of the Church nor is he King if he be not a Lawgiver nor doth he Rule and Iudge if he have no Law which is so far from Truth that there is now no Law of God that we are under but what is truly the Law of Christ For he is Lord of all and Head over all things to his Church and all power in Heaven and Earth is given to him and the Father alone or meerly as Creator by the Law of Innocency judgeth no man but hath committed all Iudgment to the Son as Redeemer and Universal Administrator The lapsed World and the Law which they are under as rational Creatures are now delivered up to the Redeemer whose Law as is aforesaid hath two parts 1. The Law of lapsed Nature commonly called the Moral Law 2. The Remedying Law of Faith of which before § 32. But it is not to be supposed that the very preceptive part of the Law of Innocency is now in force to us as it was to Adam For it bound him to be perfectly innocent in Act and Dispositions But to a Man that hath lost his Innocency and is already in Act and Habit sinful it is not to be supposed that the Law saith Thou shalt be innocent For that were to command not only a Moral but a Physical absolute impossibility as saying Thou shalt not have sinned § 33. Obj. God changeth not his Law when man changeth his capacity Therefore the Law may be the same as in Innocency both as to the Precept Threatning and Promise God may still say 1. Sin not or be innocent 2. And if thou be perfect thou shalt live 3. Else thou shalt die And if man will make himself uncapable it 's his own change § 34. Answ. I spake to this before and now further add God's Law is not to be taken for a meer script of Words considered as standing in a Book not obliterated or as written on stone and not broken or cast away The signum materially may stand and the Law be changed and the signification cease As a repealed Statute may be still in the Books and Records God's Law is signum voluntatis divinae debitum constituentis Therefore if it signifie not God's Will as constituting what shall be due from us and to us it is no Law And that it may so signifie his Will and constitute Dueness Debitum or Ius or as they use to say oblige and give the Subject must be in a natural capacity For where there is no Subject to be obliged there is no Law And where natural capacity ceaseth as in a dead corps there is no Subject to be governed And the Law is Instrumentum regiminis So that if you do not only say This was God's Law but This is God's Law you must mean Thus he nâ—w obligeth man and This he threatneth now and This he conditionally giveth him So that if it be an unchanged Law to us just as it was in Innocency you must make this the sence of precept threat and promise 1. Preserve thine Innocency and sin not in act or habit but be thou a peâ—fect Obeyer of my Laws and this to one that hath sinned already and is habitually inclined to more q. d. Let not that be which is or quod factum est infectum fiat 2. If thou sin thou shalt be an Heir of Death When we are Sinners and Heirs of Death already 3. If thou be and continue sinless and perfect thou shalt not die but live When we are Sinners and dead before In which Case all Law and Reason saith That the Law doth transire in sententiam vel rem judicatam § 35. So that as was before-said the Covenant of Works is ceased yea the Law or Precept bindeth not now as it is a Law of Innocency made to innocent Nature for its preservation for Nature is not innocent But the Law of Nature is now the Law of lapsed redeemed Nature and not of innocent Nature And it obligeth us for the future to as much perfection of Duty as we are naturally
Faith as to the Objects extensively which was required of Jewish Believers before Christ's Incarnation as is now of us nor the same degree that was required of all the rest of the World as of the Jews 2. But such a Faith in God our Redeemer as that Law which men are under maketh necessary to Salvation is necessary to Holiness And to ask what God will do with a man that is holy without Faith is to talk of a non-existent Subject There is no such man for without Faith it is impossible to please God for he that cometh to God must believe that God is and that he is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek him notwithstanding original and actual Sin and the Law of Innocency condemning us and therefore that he is under a pardoning and rewarding Law of Grace Heb. 11. 6. No man can be sanctified without the Merit Doctrine and Spirit of Christ nor without that degree of Faith which the Covenant which he is under requireth § 20. Quest. What if a man that was sanctified by believing should retain his Holiness or Love and Obedience and lose his Faith in Christ Answ. It is a thing that never was nor will be and not to be disputed of § 21. Moral Virtue in the proper sence of the word is the same thing as Holiness taken comprehensively as containing our Love and Duty to God and to man for God's sake But as Holiness is taken narrowly for our Love and Duty to God as distinct from our Love and Duty to Man so Moral Virtue is the genus and Holiness the chief species of it And thus we take Moral Virtue and Moral Action and so all Morality as contradistinct from Physicks or things meerly natural not falling under the genus moris And so Virtue and Vice or Sin are all that is Moral that is Moral Good and Moral Evil And this is the first and most notable sence of the word But some of late have used Moral as contradistinct from Holiness or Grace or from infused Habits or from Faith and Christianity and some tell us confidently but falsly That this is the most fit and famous sence and the word so to be taken when not otherwise explained It 's the sad case of Mankind that we have no words but what are liable to ambiguity And it 's the unhappiness of the Church that hath so many Teachers that will dispute write and wrangle about words unexplained and in the end shew that under divers terms they mean the same matter in which they are agreed and know not their Agreement § 22. As Holiness is sometimes taken so largely as to comprehend all that God commandeth and sometimes for the natural part of our Duty Love and Obedience as distinct from Faith in Christ which is the mediate Grace and of supernatural revelation so is Morality or moral Virtue distinguished § 23. They that take moral Virtue so narrowly and improperly as to mean no other moral Virtue than Heathens had or than is taught in Aristotle's Ethicks should first tell us That this is their sence and then they may boldly declaim against those Preachers that take this for sufficient or that preach no other For Scripture and Christianity were to little purpose if they taught us no more than the Writings of Philosophers do § 24. And no doubt but it is a pitiful sign and an odious Crime in a Minister of Christ to say little to the People of the Mysteries of Man's Redemption the Person and Offices and Works of Christ the Covenant of Grace and the special Blessings given by it our Union with Christ Justification Adoption and the special Works of the Spirit on Mens Souls and all the Duties and Pleasures of a Heavenly Conversation in the love of the Father the Grace of the Son and the Communion of the Holy Spirit and all this under pretence of magnitying and preaching up the Love of our Brethren and Charity to the Poor and Iustice and Temperance as if Man were our God and to wrong man were the only Sin and to wrong God were none or God could be no otherwaies wronged § 25. But Covetousness and Pride contradicteth their own Doctrine For among their good works those of Piety are first extolled and those are the enriching of the Church and that is themselves and why them more than the poorer People about us Because they are sacred persons and belong to God and serve at his Altars Very good And is Piety to a sacred person and such as they so great a Duty and yet our Piety as immediately to God himself an indifferent thing in comparison of our Duty to Man Yea some usually make that part of their Piety which consisteth in the observance of their own Traditions and unnecessary Injunctions to seem of great weight while the holy observance of God's own Laws is perhaps accused as too much preciseness or hypocrisâ—s when indeed the Hypocrite is he that instead of the life and serious practice of true Christian-Holiness sets up and resteth in the Image of Holiness and certain formalities that are lifeless to deceive himself and others § 26. Where there is no Faith and Love to God nor Duty done in obedience to God there is no true moral Virtue but somewhat equivocally so called whatever good such may do to the Common-wealth or to their Neighbors for it wanteth the principle end and object that should inform it § 27. An Hypocrite may be said to have moral Virtue as he may be said to have Holiness that is only secundum quid yea but analogically yea but equivocally in that he hath no other sort of Faith and Love and Obedience § 28. An Infidel's moral Virtue and all unsanctified Heathens or other persons is of the same sort only with this described of the Hypocrite And they err not that say They have no true moral Virtue but analogical § 29. Yet Nature and common Grace do give men that which is truly good and not only minus malum and may do much good to others and some to themselves and is truly laudable and amiable considered without the mixture simply in it self But because the contrary evil is still the predominant part in all the unsanctified it will not properly denominate them good men nor the whole action a good action save equivocally analogically or secundum quid because the form denominateth which is here wanting § 30. But if any one think otherwise that the name of moral Virtue yea or Holiness is due to the best actions or habits of Heathens Hypocrites or any unsanctified men it is but a Controversie de nomine and no otherwise to be regarded while we agree of the things signified by that name § 31. It is certain that now there is no moral good in any man on Earth that is not the effect of some Grace of God common or special for even Nature now as reprieved and maintained is an effect of common Grace much more further
to it For Hope may be exercised upon probabilities and most usually it is so § 12. Strong Probability with little reason of doubting may cause such strong Hopes as may cause us to live and die with comfort If doubting be small and Hope be great the Peace and Ioy will be greater than the fear and trouble § 13. Bellarmin's Moral Certainty is more than most Christians attain to and his and other mens Concession thereof tell us That in this Point our difference is less than those have thought who have said it was sufficient Cause of our Separation from Rome § 14. While we are certain that this World is fading Vanity and that there is no hope of Felicity on Earth and that therefore Godliness can cost us the loss of nothing but Vanity a Faith short of Certainty and mixt with doubting about the very Truth of the Promise it self and Life Eternal may engage a man savingly in a holy Life and the forsaking of all for the hopes of Glory And such doubting even of the Life to come or of the Gospel as keepeth not men from trusting to it for their Felicity and seeking it above all and forsaking all for it will keep no man from Salvation though it be his sin and the cause of other sins Much more may this be done when men doubt not of God's Word or the State of Glory but only of their own Sincerity Justification and Salvation CHAP. XXV Of good Works and Merit and trusting to any thing of our own § 1. HEre are several Controversies that trouble our Peace but few of them that are so great as they are commonly imagined As 1. What are good Works which indeed is of great weight and the chief in which we really differ about Works 2. Whether they are necessary to Justification or Salvation 3. Whether they are meritorious or rewardable 4. What place they have and what is their use and necessity 5. Whether we may trust to them § 2. I. It is one of the Devil 's chief Policies in the World to cast out Christ's Interest by its Counterfeits To expugn true Wisdom by counterfeit Wisdom and true Faith by counterfeit Faith and true Zeal and Piety by counterfeit Zeal and Piety and true Unity and Concord and Peace by their Counterfeits and true Worship Ministry Discipline by their Counterfeits and true Comfort by counterfeit Comfort and so also it is by counterfeit good Works that good Works are oft cast off § 3. The measure of all created Goodness is the Will of the Creator who is the prime essential Good and no Work of Man is morally good but what is made so by the Will of God that is 1. Efficiently by his operative Will 2. Directively by his commanding Will And 3. Finally and Objectively by his pleased or fulfilled Will. Man's Wit Will or Interest cannot serve to make any action morally good § 4. He that intendeth God's Honour and the pleasing of his Will and the good of his own or others Souls or the safety of Religion or the Church or State and useth means hereto not commanded or any way appointed him of God much more if directly forbidden doth not a Work that is truly good but only secundum quid § 5. Could we be sure that such a Work would save Souls or save Church or State or our Neighbours lives it would not make it morally a good Work but only make the Effect to be physically good to others that are benefited by it § 6. Therefore to build Churches or Hospitals to feed and cloath the Poor to save Mens Lives to preach the Gospel are all such as finally do a physical good and they are the matter of moral good but forma denominat Those Actions are not morally good unless 1. done in obedience to God's commanding or ruling Will 2. And finally to please his Will § 7. Those Priests therefore that set carnal ungodly Sinners Fornicators Murderers Gluttons Drunkards Lyers Perjured c. on expiating their Sins by good Works without teaching and perswading them to that internal repentance and Conversion of their Wills and holy devotedness to God by which their Works must have a right Principle End and Form do but delude men and cheat them by flattery into perdition § 8. Much more pernicious is it to take Sin Folly and Superstition for good Works and look to be saved by that which deserveth Damnation and to expiate sin by sin such are the Works of Persecuters that think they serve God by unjust killing or imprisoning his Servants or causeless silencing his faithful Ministers such were the Wars of the Croâ—sadâ—'s against the Waldenses and Albigenses and such are the Works of the Inquisition and their persecuting Executioners such are Rebellions that have fair Pretences as were those against the German Emperors Fredericks Henry c. and of many of such Agents oft against the Kings of England such hath been the zealous killing of Kings and burning of honest desirable Dissenters and such is the alienating Mens Estates from better Uses to maintain a supernumerous sinful vicious idle Monastery or their prelatical needless Pomp and Pride or to buy Pardons or Masses for departed Souls or to build useless Structures to the Honour of some Saint or Angel or to set up useless Formalities and Shadows as Candles by day-light and abundance such And such are long Pilgrimages to the Shrines of such as the Pope hath Canonized and to visit Relicks and the carrying about of Relicks with an ungrounded carnal considence in them with many such like § 9. So wosully hath the Papal Party and not they only but in too great a measure the Greeks Moscovites Armenians Syrians Coptics Abassines and most of the Churches corrupted the Christian Religion by their useless or seducing Fopperies called good Works that they have among them defiled its Purity rejected its Primitive Simplicity obscured and dishonoured its Glory and made it seem contemptible to Mahometans and Heathens and made it less fit to destroy sin and frustrate Satan and to please God and to sanctifie and save mens Souls § 10. II. Were all Sects and Parties of Christians well agreed what Works are truly good it would be a shame to us should we not agree in the main how far they are necessary when the Case is so plain throughout the Scripture I think we are commonly agreed as followeth § 11. 1. Perfect Obedience is not of absolute necessity to Salvation because we are under a Covenant that hath easier terms § 12. 2. The Works of the Mosaical Jewish Law are neither necessary necessitate praecepti vel medii that Law not binding us as such § 13. 3. Obedience to Man's Laws is not necessary when the matter is forbidden us by God's Laws or when they are Laws without power that is such as men have no Authority to make § 14. 4. No Works of special Grace are antecedently necessary to our reception of that Grace oâ— of its necessary means
whether he should take a Potion or a Draught a bit or a morsel or take Ambar or Electrum or Succinum or Carâ—be § 54. And the partial Teachers are the Cause of all this while instead of opening the Doctrine truly to the People in what sence we have or have not any Worthiness or Merit they without distinction cry down Merit and reproach those that do otherwise And if they do but say Such a Man or such a Book speaketh for Merit and Free-will they have sufficiently rendered him odious or much suspected with their followers when yet all sober Christians in all Ages have been for Merit and Free-will in a sound sence And is not this to be Incendiaries and Adversaries to Truth and Love and Peace § 55. I have formerly thought that though we agree in the thing it is best omit the name because the Papists have abused it And I think so still as in such Companies and Cases where the use of it not understood will scandalize men and do more harm than good For why should I use words against mens edification But in other cases I now think it better to keep the word 1. lest we seem to the ignorant to be of another Religion than all the ancient Churches were 2. Lest we harden Papists Greeks and others by denying sound Doctrine in terms which they will think we deny in sence 3. Because our â—enury of Words is such as for my part I remember no other word so fit to substitute instead of Merit or Desert or Worthiness The word Rewardable is long and oft harsh And what other have we And it is nothing else that we mean § 56. Some Papists are against the very word Merit also Some own the word but differ not from the Protestants about the Doctrine some of them ignorantly drive the poor People by ill preaching into carnal Conceits of their own Works and to trust an hundred Fopperies for Salvation But he that readeth most of their School-Doctors must either confess that they differ from us about the meritoriousness of true Gospel-obedience rather in words than in deed and that we really mean the same thing or else he must see with better or worser Eyes than I do I speak not this of them all § 57. And Romaeus who prateth of Merit in point of commutative Iustice disclaimed by the rest and some such other ignorant Scriblers are not to be taken for the Index of their Doctrine nor yet their superstitious abusive Application no more than our Deniers of all Merit are the Index of ours nor the prophane ones abuse of it who are ready when we perswade them to a holy Life to tell us That God saveth not Men for their Holiness or Works and that ours deserve no more than theirs but he will have mercy on whom he will have mercy and it is not of him that willeth or runneth § 58. Not only Waldensis Contarenus Ariminensis and many others expresly say as much against Merits as we But Medina and many of the Thâ—mists say the same in Sence and the Scotists and many others say That Merit â—riseth but ex pacto from God's Promise and to be meritorious is no more than to be a Work which God hath promised a Reward to And do any of us deny this § 59. Object But others say That Merit is ex dignitate operum from the worthiness of our Works Ans. Is it the Name Worthiness or the meaning that displeaseth you If the Name read Luke 20. 35. and 21. 36. Acts 5. 41. 2 Thess. 1. 5 11. Râ—v 3. 4. Matth. 8. 10 11 13 37 38. and 22. 8. 1 Cor. 11. 27 29. Eph. 4. 1. Col. 1. 10. 1 Thess. 2. 12. and see whether God use not the same Phrase And as to the Sence one Writer understands what he saith better and another worse and several men may have several Sences but they mostly seem to mean That holy Obedience is in the very nature of it so pleasing to the most holy God as rendereth it apt to be the matter of that Condition on which his Covenant promiseth to reward us the Imperfection being pardoned and we and our Works accepted upon the Redemption wrought by the Merits of Christ and upon his Intercession and presenting them to God And is this to be denied by any Christian Doubtless there is something in the very Nature of Divine Faith Love and Obedience which maketh it fitter to be accepted and rewarded than Infidelity Hatred of God and Sin or Rebellion Speak Christians is it not so And yet it is from God's Promise and meer Bounty only that our Right to the Reward resulteth though the material Aptitude be in the qualification to which that promise is made All this is plain and sure § 60. Obj. But some talk of a Proportion between the Work and the Reward Ans. We commonly hold degrees of Glory according to the degrees of Holiness and if any abusive Doctor mean any more that 's nothing to the rest And it 's pity that Men that are agreed should hate or revile each other as differing § 61. Vasquez the Jesuit is one that is supposed to say most for Merit who saith so much against it as I dare not say For he tells us That God doth not reward us at all as an Act of Justice either Commutative or Distributive Commutative Iustice he easily disapproveth and in that we all agree But the generality of Christians Papists Protestants Greeks c. hold That God rewardeth us in governing-paternal-distributive Iustice as a Father giveth Benefits to a thankful Child that humbly taketh them and not to the contemptuous or rebellious that spit in his Face But Vasquez saith That God hath not so much as Distributive Justice in our Rewards And yet I think he differeth but in words and really meaneth as we all do And he that dare for Words revile Consenters is bolder than I would have any good Man be And yet I doubt not but I and this Writing shall be so reviled by many that differ not from me when they think they do through Faction and Prejudice when I am dead even for these words § 62. IV. The fourth Point is so far dispatched in the second that I need here but to say 1. That our Obedience to God is a Duty resulting from our very natural Being and cannot but be so while we are Men 1. As it is God's due 2. As it is part of the right Order of the Universe and coâ—ducible to common Good 3. As it is our own Order Rectitude and Health 2. That Christ is the Saviour and Physician to give us this Health which is the end of his medicinal Grace 3. That the Soul cannot be complacentially amiable to God nor fit for Communion with him here or in Heaven without it Resignation to God our Owner Obedience to God our Ruler and Love and Praise to God our Father and the infinite Good make up that Holiness which is our
Salvation it self and the Image and Glory of God upon us § 63. V. About the next Question I may yet be shorter How far any Works of ours may be trusted in I think all agree 1. That nothing of ours or any Creature should be trusted to for any thing proper to God or proper to Christ or any thing that belongeth not truly to it self He that ascribeth any thing to our Faith Love or Obedience which is proper to Christ's Merits or God's Mercy and so trusteth them doth greatly sin and he that trusteth them for more than God hath assigned to them to do § 64. 2. That we must take heed of scandaous Language and therefore must not talk of trusting on any act of our own when it is like to be understood as put in Competition with God or with Christ's Merits as if the Question were Whether we must trust God or our selves Christ's Righteousness or our own For our own is not in the least measure to be trusted for that which belongeth only to Christ's Righteousness to be or do § 65. 3. That yet it is a great Duty to trust every means of Salvation appointed by God in its own place and for its own part alone even to preaching Sacraments Afflictions c. And accordingly to trust our own Faith Love Prayer Obedience so far as they are Means and have God's Promise and no further which is no more than to trust in God that he will bless such means He that trusteth his Sword doth not trust it to fight of it self without his Hand When God hath promised Mercy upon Prayer and to the Obedient or Penitent for a man to think that God will yet do no more for us if we repent pray and obey than if we do not is to be Unbelievers and say rebelliously It is in vain to serve the Lord. He is so far to trust to Faith Repentance praying hearing meditating diligence as to trust that God will bless them and reward them and look for more from him when we use means than when we do not CHAP. XXVI Of Confirmation Perseverance and Danger of falling away § 1. I Shall reduce all that needs to be said on this point to these following controverted Questions 1. Whether all Grace procured and given by Christ be such as is never lost 2. Whether that degree of Grace be ever lost which giveth the posse credere without the act of Faith commonly called sufficient Grace in Adult or Infants 3. Whether any lose actual true justifying Faith 4. Whether any lose true Holiness or love of God in the Habit 5. Whether any degree of this be ever lost or all special Grace have such Confirmation as the Angels have 6. Whether if Holiness be never lost it be possible to lose it and be in danger 7. Whether there be a state of confirmed Persons besides the meerly sanctified that from the degree or kind of their grace never fall away 8. Or whether Perseverance depend on meer Election and God's Will which secureth only some of the justified 9. Whether all or most or many Christians are themselves sure to persevere 10. Whether Certainty of perseverance be fit for all the justified 11. Whether it be unfit for all and a more unsafe Condition than doubting 12. Whether the Comfort of most Christians lie upon the Doctrine of such Certainty 13. Whether the Doctrine of Eventual Apostacy infer any mutability in God 14. Why God hath left this point so dark 15. What was the Judgment of the ancient Churches after the Apostles 16. Whether it be an Article of such evidence and weight as to be put into our Church-Confessions and we should force men to subscribe to it or make it necessary to Ministration Communion or Christian Love and Concord § 2. Q. I. Whether all Christ's Grace given us be such as is never lost Ans. No except Iansenius and his Followers I know of no Christians that ever affirm it and he doth it on this false supposition That the common Grace which worketh only preparatorily by fear is not the Grace of Christ but a grace of other Providence and only Love is the grace of Christ. But it is injurious to Christ who is the Lord and Light and Saviour of the World and God's Administrator-general into whose Hands all Things and Power is given to say That since the Fall there is any Grace in the World that is not his Grace and that our preparatory grace and all that 's common is aliunde some other way He that readeth Ioh. 15. Matth. 13. Heb. 6 and 10. may see the contrary § 3. Q II. Whether sufficient grace to believe which giveth the meer power of believing to Infants or Adult be ever lost Ans. These Questions suppose that there are these several sorts of Graces disputed of by Divines 1. Common grace 2. Power to believe and repent 3. Actual Faith and Repentance given by that called special Vocation 4. The Habit of love and all grace called Sanctification to pass by Relative grace as Justification c. 5. Confirmation of these Habits And we now speak only of the second And the very Being of that Grace is controverted Whether God ever give besides the natural Power a moral Power to believe to any that never do believe And 1. it is certain by Adam's instance that he gave him a power to have perfectly obeyed when he did not 2. And therefore no man can prove that now he giveth no man a moral Power to believe that doth not 3. But it seemeth most probable that he doth because his Government and Man's Nature are not tota specie changed 4. And it is certain that still all men have power to do more good than they do 5. And even the Dominicans grant this Sufficiency of grace 6. But yet for my part I am not certain of it § 4. But if there be such a power given which never acteth Faith which I think most probable it is either in the Adult or Infants if in the Adult no doubt it 's lost for they that will not believe to the last retain not still the moral power in their Rebellion § 5. But in the Case of Infants I think those of them that die before the use of reason lose it not nor any of the Elect that live to full Age But as to others after long doubt How far Infant-Grace is loseable this seemeth now the most probable solution to me § 6. Viz. There is a Grace that reacheth but to a moral Power to repent and believe before men have the Act or proper Habit Such Grace to persevere did put Adam in a present state of Life or acceptation with God this Grace Adam lost Accordingly such grace that containeth but this mâ—â—al power in an Infant 's Disposition with relative grace of Pardon is sufficient to provâ— his right to Salvation if he so die because he is not bound to the Act nor capable of it and even the Adult