gifts of prayer does but offer a stinted form which is said commonly as to the hearers particular state and the stinting of the Object does not yet stint the Spirit however in his operation on the affections Praying alwaies with all manner of prayer and supplications in the Spirit Praying with the Spirit or by it in the last place is that we find in the dayes of the Apostles when they had extraordinary administrations of the Spirit in gifts that were miraculous insomuch that they spake with tongues and so preached and prayed Those that spake I apprehend understood not themselves what they delivered but every one in whose tongue they spake were edified and therefore we read of some that did interpret Those were such it is like as had skill in more tongues than their own or else in case there were none such the fame miraculous power might enable some for the interpretation as others to speak Thus praying with the Spirit is opposed to praying with the understanding and the Apostle prefers praying with the understanding before it There is no person had cause therefore to brag of this if he had it and there is none of any sect among us that pretend to it And so I think having said what I intended otherwise that neither the Gentleman nor I need to be put to any more words about it I will pray with the Spirit and I will pray with the understanding also CHAP. IV. Of the closer judgement of the Author in his sixth Chapter which is Arminian and of Election Free-will and Grace upon account of his opinion Of the salvability of Heathen and other incidental matters I Descend to his sixth Chapter which is to shew us who those are to whom the Spirit is promised and given These persons are Believers who yet are not holy persous This is his Notion They cannot be holy till they have the Spirit to sanctifie them and yet they must believe and pray because that is the condition upon which the Spirit is given The holy Spirit consequently and his special grace is necessary to Good works or sanctification but Believing is antecedent to it or must be in a mans power before it I must confess I am made sensible of the sagacity of this Author upon my reading this Chapter which I did not heed so much before and I perceive which way his mind is hankering It was this very light which carried St. Augustine so much in his first writings The doctrine of Pelagius at the first broaching consisted mainly in this point that God did give his grace according to mens merits This doctrine seemed to the Father too arrogant for man and derogatory to God That the grace of God and eternal life is given to some and not to others is manifest That the reason must be in regard of something that one man does and not another seemed to him undeniable That good works should be it appears against the Scripture not by works lest any man should boast Besides if a man should be allowed to be able to do any good works to merit Gods grace by the strength of nature what need were there of prayer for aid from God or the help of his Spirit Man should have need of industry here not prayer If not works then what must it be but that which is so often contradistinguished to works and that is Faith For the Scripture that saies not of Works but of Grace does say likewise It is of faith that it may be of Grace Here then is that which must be in mans power That a man could not do good works without grace St. Austine always asserted for this was his meaning when he saies that good works do not preceed but follow justification understanding by justifying the making a man just by inherent grace as the Schools do after him But that a man can believe if he will by the use of his natural faculties only is what he did maintain readily thinking no body could deny it According to this clear apprehension prehension as he then took it up he did proceed to his doctrine of Election which being defined by the Ancients before his time always ex praescientia he now determines to be of this Faith foreseen It must not be ex operibus praevisis because that will oppose grace but ex praevifa fide and that will salve all objections We are to conceive of other things to follow agreeably as Arminius that acute and I think pious Divine hath since taken up the notion when Augustine himself retracted it and upon his own stock improved it It is me now I must say something notable to see the seeds of the same light springing up in this Gentleman as formerly actuared two such searching Divines as Austin and Arminius were and I cannot therefore without guilt of disingenuity pass over any thing which he hath offered for the farther cultivation of it For doing this I observe he enters first upon an adventure to make some change of our terms in Divinity The state of nature and a state of Grace are terms that signifie Regeneration and Unregeneration with all men even in our practical Books and he will have us by a state of Nature to understand the state of a Heathen and by a state of Grace the state of every one under the Gospel The Gospel now bringing a man into this state a state of Grace he distinguishes of this Grace the Gospel brings And it is either that which goes before our Faith or follows it That which goes before he accounts it all Common Grace that which is given after it special Grace Ordinarily by the way that grace which is given to the Reprobate as well as to the Elect we call Common Grace and that which is peculiar to the Elect we call special grace whether before or after Faith But he offers his reason The Grace which the Gospel brings is either says he that which is given upon condition or that which is given upon none That which is conditional must be given only to some because it is some only perform that condition and that which is given but to some is special Grace That which is given upon no condition must be therefore or rather may be appropriated to all and so is Common Grace Thus he Theologizes when we ordinarily do not account it common grace because every one has it but because the Reprobate as well as the Elect have it and we do not call it special Grace only because some have it but because the Elect only have it so that that Grace which is given but to some if it be given to any Reprobate as well as the Elect we call not special but common Grace Well but these terms being premised that Grace now which he calls special the grace of the Gospel is promised on the condition of Faith It is Faith is the first thing upon which all depends If this be not in the power of every one the
groans or desires which are unutterable both in regard to our selves in that we know not the things of Heaven and cannot utter them and in regard to the nature of the things which are expresly called by the Apostle when he was ravished in his Spirit up thither to see them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things not possible to be uttered And yet are they prepared for us though above our comprehension and God who does above what we are able to ask or think and knows what is the mind of his own Spirit will grant them because this Intercession is by his appointment and we are to support our hearts that this time is coming when not only all these miseries shall have an end but we shall see Gods end in them all in making them work for us a far more exceeding weight of Glory Here are two interpretations then which I leave to the Reader and he perhaps may choose neither of them but in both of them that objection which is obvious from the Lord's Prayer is prevented Christ hath taught us what we are to pray for and yet does the Text tell us that we know not what we should pray for as we ought There are things in the Lord's Prayer which we are to pray for and know that we ought to pray for them and do pray for them yet do we know them but in part and we are more short in our knowing how to pray for them as best for us When we pray for deliverance from evil and temptation that includes our present troubles and these are the things we know not according to the first Interpretation When we pray that God's Kingdom may come that includes the things of heaven and these are the things we know not according to the second Interpretation That which cannot be denied in regard to these two Petitions must be acknowledged in all others under a like condition There is little reason for this Author then to pick a quarrel with Doctor Owen for attributing too much to the assistance of God's Spirit in the making our Prayers who is so very cautious to allow any thing but in regard to the matter of them when there is so much more included here in the Spirits praying for us and that for the things we know not as it may make any man at a stand who goes about to limit the Holy One almost at all for fear of presuming on the Ark of his imperceptible operations Having said this I have but three or four notes more upon this Text which must not be waved It is to be considered first we have the Spirit put here into the Office of Intercessor and there is a practical case requires satisfaction Christ hath promised again and again that whatsoever we ask by Faith in his name according to his will we shall have it There is many a good man now troubled at this that he hath prayed often and not been heard It must be answered therefore upon this account that whatsoever request we make or any one makes with the qualifications exprest it is and must be put up to God by the Holy Spirit and though it be not answered according to our mind it is according to his who maketh intercession for us A second note is this that though the Apostle be supposed to bring in these words We know not what we should pray for as we ought with regard to the Context it will not follow from the instance of one or other of these particular matters to be intended that all others must be excluded but rather that the universal matters of Prayer so far as they are subject to the like condition must be certainly also concluded Note in the third place that though there does appear some reason from the objection mentioned for limiting these words We know not what to pray for there is no reason for limitation of the first part of the Text The Spirit helpeth our infirmities For when it is affirmed that it is by reason of our infirmity that we know not what to pray for it does not follow that therefore that is all our infirmity We have many more infirmities to be helpt than this in making our Prayers Note in the last place that though the groans unutterable in the Text be expounded in both these interpretations with regard to the matter prayed for they may very likely be better expounded with regard to these infirmities to be helped that is though we are such many of us as are so weak that we cannot utter our requests or frame our desires into petitions yet by the Spirit we are assisted some way to put these small unutterable groans with his good motions together so as they are accepted in Heaven It is not by reason of the intensiveness or greatness but because of their smallness said Master Perkins that these groans are unutterable I do not think therefore that it is in this Authors power to divert that favour which this Text does cast upon those Prayers which he calls ex tempore the Ancients ex pectore feeing such Prayers do follow or slow most genuinely from the motions that are upon the soul and which so long as they are good we are to ascribe to the Holy Spirit And when this is granted on all hands that he does excite our affections who is there can say what influence or how much that work alone hath or must have on our expressions The Holy Spirit being intimate to our souls can affect us when we are not sensible of it and produce effects upon our minds in that manner as if they were meerly the effects of our own reasoning says this very Author And why then do such able and good men for such I hope they indeed are and that they do not speak what they do as Scoffers let such Discourses and Debates as these come from them which carry a tendency in them to repress that devotion that has in it or pretends at least the most of warmth and enlargement of affection in this duty as if a coldness or beadishness in the performance was to be preferred as more safe and wise when Christ that hath taught us to pray does also exhort us to fervency and importunity I cannot tell what they would have by it unless it be that all should come in to the Liturgy or else they should have no other Prayers But this is more than can be expected in conscience The circumstances of praying in a Book or without is not so material as that they should be so earnest I am a profest Neuter against extremes and will apply that saying of the Apostle If we be besides our selves it is to Godward and if we be sober it is for your cause And so having got over this one Text I will now present you my poor thoughts more closely on this subject with reference to Liturgical and Extempore Devotion There are four things here therefore to be distinguished and presented The Spirit of
Prayer The Gift of Prayer Praying in the Spirit Praying by it or with it The Spirit of Prayer I apprehend to be no other than the Spirit of Grace or Regeneration with the connotation of its operation on the soul in regard to this duty There is no Christian born of God without this whereby he cries Abba Father as no man born after the flesh without his breathing There is no holy thought meditation desire after God or request that is acceptable to him in Christ but it is from this Spirit of Adoption or Prayer It follows then that forasmuch as any gracious and regenerate man may use a Form if he pleases and some such have used a Form sometimes as well as Conceived Prayer that it is a conceit exceedingly extravagant and in no wise to be approved to think that a Liturgy or use of a Form is inconsistent with the Spirit of Prayer Suppose we saw those holy men Bradford Rogers Philpot Saunders saying their Prayers out of the Psalter and blessing God for the Book of King Edward I will pour upon the house of Judah and Jerusalem the Spirit of Prayer and Supplication The Gift of Prayer I account to be a natural or acquired not infused ability or faculty of expressing the thoughts and affections with fluency or readiness in Prayer It does depend chiefly I think upon an aptness of memory retaining the sentences and very words of Scripture when others can retain the sense only together with a warm fancy and a tongue that is voluble In short it is a ready utterance which must be always distinguished from the former I remember a person who was otherwise of large parts filled with all present matter for administring a word in season to the weary who in praying sometimes alone with me I have observed to hum and hack so in his Prayer that I never heard any so unable to express himself in my life who yet would use only conceived Prayer and in the mean while I have been so assured of the Grace of God and eminency of that Grace in the person of that sincerity in his duty such an humbling under sin fervency in his petitions melting under the sence of God's mercy and pardon and in a word a heart it self no less broken than those words that I cannot but be satisfied beyond doubt for ever since that the Gift of Prayer is one thing and the Spirit of Prayer is another Now forasmuch as the gifts which are administred to men by God's Spirit are bestowed for use and the edification of the Church if a Liturgy or form of Prayer were imposed on the Clergy in opposition to that provision which God hath made and appointed for the good of his Church that is Gifts unto men for the work of the Ministry or if the Bishops would not suffer them to be employed to the end they are given I do not know any argument of so much weight and like to be prevailing with Religious people against Common-Prayer as this allegation As every one hath received the gift even so minister the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold Grace of God But we must not judge so of our Superiors The Churches imposing a Liturgy and set forms on the Minister is to be lookt on as cumulative to his gifts and not as destructive to them There is the gift of Prayer as of Prudence and Knowledge to Ministers as they are single and as they are in conjunction These forms of Prayer are the exercise of the mutual gifts of the Churches Pastors in conjunction and when this Common Service of theirs is performed in the Pew the Minister is lest to the use of his single gifts in the Pulpit without any prejudicing the one by the other Indeed if the Common-Prayer be made a Napkin to wrap up the Talents of any I will not justifie the abuse of that which hath its use and commendation upon other reasons And yet by the way I do not know moreover whether all those Texts which speak of gifts for the Church and which argue power thereupon to profit with them are not to be understood of the Spirit in those times so that when it was manifestly injurious to the Holy Ghost himself then to forbid the use of those Gifts to any which he had ministred to them to that end it may not be so altogether as to those natural gifts and talents that men have now which notwithstanding they are not to be denied to be also from the Spirit seeing even Bezaleel and his fellows skill in working in curious works is attributed to him and every good gift is said to be of God I question whether the person himself be either so engaged to put them to that particular use having them from nature to general service or that there does appear the like injury to God and the Church in some restraint on them as there would be in the other There are diversity of Gifts but the same Spirit Praying in the Spirit I apprehend to be praying with those qualifications which are wrought in us by the Spirit and prescribed by him in the word to make our Prayers acceptable to God Praying in the Spirit say Practical Divines consists not in a copiousness of words but extent of affections The actuating of all does lie in the operation of the Spirit on our hearts in this duty We must pray also according to God's will which is another qualification in Prayer and when a man does pray according to what the Spirit hath directed in the Word he may be said very appositely to pray in the Spirit Two things there are then more particularly wherein I will place this operation The one is the Spirit doth many times pitch the heart upon those objects or things which are most fit for us to ask The other is and then doth excite our desires and enlarge our affections about the same The Spirit also helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit it self maketh intercession for the Saints according to the will of God I will not doubt to quote this Text again for thus much It is said that Satan entred into Judas when he went to betray his Lord. And Satan moved David to number the people It appears from hence that Satan puts evil thoughts in the heart and pitches them on objects he tempts them withal The Spirit of God doubtless does no less in the good actions which he stirs up in Gods Saints He puts good thoughts in the mind and represents things to us says the Author of the Friendly Debate himself more clearly than we could make them by all our reasoning I might perhaps cite something from this Gentleman to sute with this but I think the subject here too grave to make him my Authority When the Spirit is said to help us in the Text before exagitated to make our Prayers even about things our selves know not and
or Moon in the Heavens For God hath not left himself without witness in that he does good and gives us fruitful seasons These are effects of his mercy which he could not shew to the world as he does if he dealt with it according to the Law of Works When Abraham pleads with God for Sodom that he would spare it if there were ten righteous persons in it it is manifest that he must account of Gods Government over the earth to be a Government of Grace That the righteous be as the wicked that be far from thee saies he shall not the judge of all the earth do right If God should do but right to the best of men according to the righteousness of the Law of Works there could be no such pleading as this Neither is there any righteous no not one saies the Scripture nor could God have accepted of Abraham himself for one had there been nine besides but upon the account of the Law of Grace It is a righteousness consisting in a condecency of his Goodness and Mercy and not in the Rule of his district Holiness that Abraham intends When the Prophets call upon Israel to repent and to do righteousness that they may live it is a perpetual discovery that God dealt not with them according to the Covenant of Works The Law admits no repentance and there is no righteousness that a man can live by according to the Law It is such a righteousness then they must mean still which is the same with the just mans faith whereby it is said he shall live and that is the righteousness of faith in the Gospel or righteousness of God which lies in a conformity to the law of Grace See Mediocria about the beginning of my Paper of the Covenants We are righteous according to this Law when we perform the condition God is righteous according to it when he accepts us thereupon unto Pardon and Life We have a most signal instance in the Ninevites of these two things I do here stand upon If Gods government over the Heathen was not by the Law of Grace how could the Ninevites by their repentance have diverted his judgments And if this Law had not been connatural with faln man so as to be written in their hearts how could they trust in God that upon their forsaking sin and their turning to him they should find mercy and be saved from destruction Both these things I say have in this one instance their full evidence And what think we of Cornelius the Centurion and Roman how could his Prayers and Almes be accepted with God if Cornelius as well as Paul a Roman as well as Jew were not under the same Government of Grace when there is nothing we do but is imperfect and lyable to a curse by the Law of Works And what shall we conclude then from both instances but that which Peter upon conviction himself concludes Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons but in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted of him There are three things go to a Law That it be for the publick good That it be the will of the Lawgiver That it be promulgated to the subject That the Law of Grace is good for the world there can be no question That it is Gods will the world should be governed by it appears by what is spoken and that this Law hath been promulgated to mankind appears both in the general notice of it in mens hearts I will write my Law in their hearts saies God in the New Covenant as distinguished from that of the Jews and in the express declaration of God to our first Parents that the seed of the Woman should break the Serpents head and in his Covenanting with Noah which must be understood without dispute in regard to them and their posterity Now when such a Law hath been promulgated to Adam and Noah as belonging to all the world being to come of them it must be proved that this Law is or hath been somewhere or at some time again repealed by God or else must every man and woman in the world be under this government of God according to it and consequently be in a capacity of Salvation I will to these Reasonings add one syllogism It is not the hearers of the Law but doers shall be justified This is express in one Verse of the second to the Romons But same Heathen are doers of the Law though not hearers of it This is affirmed in the next Verse For when the Gentiles which have not the Law do by nature the things contained in the Law with the rest following Ergo some Heathen are justified and saved If any cavil and say that no man is a doer of the Law he must be answered that the Apostle here speaks of such a doing only as is supposed to be among the Jews that were godly or Jews inwardly in the Verses after And I renew my argument They that are doers of the Law according to the sense of such Texts as make the keeping the Commandments of God necessary to Salvation such as when Christ saies If thou wilt enter into life keep the Commandments and such as when the Apostle saies They that by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory shall have eternal life that is They who are doers of it as all that are Jews inwardly and in the Spirit do keep it and no otherwise to wit not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not according to the rigour of the Law but according to acceptation by the equity of the Gospel They I say shall be justified and saved But some Heathen are doers of the Law in this sense which is the sense of the Apostle Ergo some Heathen are justified and saved I confirm the Minor by the words ensuing that we may be sure we have the mind of the Apostle Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the Law shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature if it fulfil the Law judge thee who by the letter and circumcision doest break the Law It follows that such as these therefore are Jews inwardly and in the Spirit though they were not outward Jews or in the flesh or of the Circumcision as is apparent in the words already and the last Verses They that are Jews inwardly and in the Spirit then I follow my argument though not outwardly so and in the flesh do fulfill the Law in the sense of this place and are justified But such are some of the Heathen here according to the Apostle Ergo some Heathen are justified and saved And what could be desired more full and convincing if it were not for the first Verse which follows in the next Chapter which does yet add such abounding confirmation to it as I must profess my self perfectly striken with the evidence as with a Beam of light
the one does ever savingly believe and repent or is truly converted till he have the other also there is no hurt in it but I see no need of it What need is there of Grace only to bring us power which we have already There is no man shall be condemned for his cannot but his will not Every man then must have power A man hath his faculties his Understanding his Will and his Executive power the object is proposed His duty known There is nothing to hinder He may act if he will The Scripture indeed speaks of a Cannot that we can do nothing that we are dead in trespasses and the like but all these expressions put together comes to this to wit such an indisposition on the soul as that a man certainly never will of himself This is the Scriptures cannot truly defined See Mediocria in the Paper of Election which otherwhere therefore is ordinarily called a will not You will not come to me that you may have life There is Natural power still where yet there is Moral impotency as others have it And it is no absurd thing I hope to say a man can do what he can that is he can do what he hath natural power to do Here then I will stick Power is of Nature I said it before but to exert that power into act is of Grace Power is of Nature but to Will and to Do is of God There is no people but have the Object I count and some light of it in their measure so that every body may live according to what he hath and be accepted if he will I grant this to the Pelagian to the Schools to the Arminian that every one may if they will The Spirit saies come and the Bride saies come and whosoever will let him come What 〈◊〉 I say more Whosoever will believe and repent may believe and repent whosoever will be saved may be saved This I say with them but I must then say again with the Orthodox that if any will it is of the grace of God If he will it is of Gods grace against Pelagius No man cometh to me unless the Father draw him If he will it is of Gods special grace against the Arminian But ye believe not because ye are not of my sheep As many as were ordained to salvation believed In short then whosoever will may or can but no man will though he can without grace and this grace Here is the decision of this great controversie And as for the Arminian grace what good of that which if one had it not he should have pleaded a Cannot and been excused but by having it he must be condemned In the last place seeing I perceive this Gentleman is listed for Arminianism I care not if I tell him yet some more of my heart about it I am pretty sensible how things hang together If God intend to give grace and salvation to a few particular persons it is suitable that such only should be redeemed and if this grace be free as decreed absolutely to these it is suitable the will be not free so as to be able to choose or refuse it It is then agreeable that those be kept by the same almighty power to salvation Here are the five points on one side On the other hand If a man that hath grace is to take heed lest he fall it is suitable that grace be such as might be refused at first as well as it may after be lost That the will consequently is free so as to co-operate with it or not That Christ therefore hath purchased but the same grace for one as well as another That Election then be of such persons as use their own liberty and Gods grace as they ought when those that do not are justly rejected and condemned I must declare now I find here no aversion in my mind against the last set of opinions but rather some disinclination to the former I feel my genius more afraid of a captivity by that we call Orthodoxism than by any thing else which makes me come with less prejudice to read Vorstius than Rutherford or Twisse I have no preocupation therefore I am sure on my affections whatsoever I have on my judgement in these points Nevertheless there is a chain laid on my soul from the holy Scriptures which holds it fast The chain consists of these links Personal Election Regeneration and that Few shall be saved These three Doctrines I must say are so concatenated in my mind one with another that so long as any one of them will hold it is in vain to make any attempt to get loose from either of the other I cannot but confess many times they are grievous to my mind and I could wish they were otherwise but if they are the dictates of holy writ I must pray to God to forgive my reluctancy and submit to them I have had indeed sometimes in my soul some other notion of Election than is expressed ordinarily by others I have lookt methinks on the deliberations of the Almighty with his Son from eternity to speak after the manner of men to be how they should be glorified most in the Salvation of man and there are two waies to that end the way of Works and the way of Grace If man being made after Gods image does live according to the law of his Creation and stand in that estate he must be happy and glorifie his Maker in a method of works but if he be left to himself and fall and be recovered by the rdemption of the Son and then have a new Law for his faln condition and continued help to live according to it then shall God glorifie himself in mans salvation by the methods of his most wonderful grace Now what if Gods election from eternity be nothing else but this design that mans salvation shall be in a way of Grace and not of Works He hath chosen us in him saies the Text that we should be holy I put the Emphasis on the words in him It is Christ hath procured the new Law according to which we may be holy and accepted when else we could not be holy by the Law of our Nature and so it is not by the works of righteousness which we have done or works by that Law but by the renewing of the Holy Ghost or his assistance to perform the Law of Grace so that when it is said other-where Not of works lest any should boast it is added For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus to good works We were created at first to a law of righteousness but this being once broken unless we had had a new Law purchased by Christ and a new Creation through him we could not have been righteous any more so that it is not of works which are properly mans own according to the Law of his Nature but of those which we are created to in Christ Jesus to wit those which are called the righteousness of
is our head but he governs us by his Spirit which is infused though I think no habit be and when we are lead by this Spirit as there is Rule there is Influence and this Union must be Real and Mystical and not that which is Political only Suppose a man whâ—se head was high as the Heavens yet so long as the same soul animates all the members the feet as in the head it is one man Christ our head is in Heaven and we on earth yet as the same Spirit is in us which is in him the head and members make one dy nay in the words of the Scripture one Christ O Agrippa believest thou the Prophets O thou Author of this Book against Dr. Owen Believest thou these mysteries of the Christian Religion I know that thou believest For the later sort There is one place in his Book where we have two of his pernicious errors together The Doctor belike hath said that though a man should reform his life and be changed from vice to vertue and that by hearing the word preached This is the most I count he saies and which may be exemplified in Herod who heard John and did many things yet if there be not an habitual righteousness infufed it signifies nothing to regeneration To this purpose is it only and altogether the Doctor speaks Hereupon this Gentleman breaks out and challenges him before his own party as he speaks and before the world for contradicting the Scripture He that doeth Righteousness is born of God and then charges him with Pelagianism He professes he is in earnest and that this is rank Pelagianism that the Doctor allows so much to be done without saving grace I have the more reason to be moved at this because a certain person of quality and of a ready judgement having this Author by him turned me to this place as if the Doctor was much to be blamed when I must needs say that this Gentleman hath no where exposed himself so much in his Book as here where he endeavours to expose the Doctor There is no man that reads practical Divines that lay down characters of the truly godly man the sound Believer and how far the Hypocrite may go but does know they speak commonly as the Doctor does and there are few one would think so inconsiderate or raw but should also know here how to distinguish so easily as between the matter of what is done and the manner of the performance Good works may be considered quoad operis substamtiam or quoad modum quo ordinaniur id vuam aevernam There is no good act no not the least that can be done is performed in that manner as it ought or as it is required to be accepted in order to salvation but a man must be born of God according to his text and have the assistance of the Spirit But for the matter of the work or of our duty this Author must consider better that the Regenerate and Unrepenerate are alike as to that One can hear and pray and give alms and abstain from evil as well as the Other and many times the veryest Hippocrite pretends most Nay what saies this Gentleman to Socrates Aristides Epimomdas Plato Plutark Cato What saies he to Almanzor that Mahomet in Einperor whose life is set out by Sir Walter Rayleigh in a little Book for such singular vertues especially as to his goodness and righteousness that I find him not paralleld by any Christian Will this Author censure Sir Walter for a Pelagian for such a narration or will he make me one if I believe it Or will he come over here and when he hath placed such in a state of Nature and so out of a state of Grace will he allow an Heathen or Mahometan to be a regeherate person Hath the Gentleman read Ruiz or one such a kind of Schoolman as he all over Let him see when they have denied against pelagius all ability in man to do any thing even but to give an occasion which is active and not passive only to infuse in us their justifying grace whether they are also ignorant of some such distinction It is no Pelagianism in the Schools to say a man can do many things civily morally good through the power of nature education custome for company sake for glory but it is so to say he can do any thing without preventing grace in order to his justification There is no need therefore of such vehemence nor of any such expressions he uses otherwhere I will desire the Doctor to consider whether the Father of lies be not the representative of such shameful Writers as he is the example of These kind of words are not well There is a great deal of acrimony I see with a little truth mixt methinks like the fire and hail that ran together in one of the Egyptian Plagues in the Books of many late rising adversaries to this learned pious and reverend person It were happy if the opprobrious words of the prejudicate would make thewise mend their faults It were well also if such an inconsiderate confident piece of elation of mind as here indeed is be but repressed with the shame and blushes of another Let the righteous smite me it shall be a kindness and let him reprove me it shall be an oyle and not break my head CHAP. VII Of Dr. Owen's Book of Justification and of the reconciliation of St. Paul and St. James and the Imputation of Christ's righteousness upon his account HAving said this for the Doctor I have a little now also to say to him I was reading his later Book of Justification when this Author came to my hands and I had thought of making some remarks upon it I am not satisfied with what he hath offered for the reconciliation of St. James and Paul on that subject This is the reason I suppose that is the most solid why so many do choose here of late to go with the mediocrian or steer the middle way in that point I perceive that Dr. Tully with our first Reformed Divines and this excellent Doctor are for distinguishing of Faith and Justification but will not let us by no means distinguish of Works for the reconciliation of the Apostles I do wonder at this The Apostle James and the Apostle Paul do both agree that we are justified by Faith The one saies we conclude that a man is justified by Faith and the other saies also it is by Faith Their seeming difference is only about works when one saies by Faith without Works and the other by Faith and Works also And how then comes it to pass that we must not distinguish of Works but of Justification and Faith to compose the difficulty I will offer the Doctor therefore here one Argument under his favour which shall be but one and that not as others have so far as I know for then it were like he had already weighed it It is this That Justification which St. Paul