first make our selves by some preparing grace his married Spouse For sure this is a Marriage-covenant we must first make our selves his people and then for shame he must be our God as if Marriage-love bred first in our breast and stood upon this poore legge the grace of man to God not the grace of God to lost man 2. We teach that faith in Christ is both a condition of grace on our part but not Antecedent and preparatory to the Covenant and also a grace promised when the new heart is articled to us so that Christ bringeth into the covenant himselfe his righteousnesse his free grace and the condition of Faith that receives him just as if the heire of a King should offer to marry a Maid of low birth upon condition she weare about her necke on the Marriage day a gold chaine having in it a rich Diamond of the Crowne and withall should oblige himselfe under his hand and seale in the Marriage-contract both to bestow this chaine on her freely and to infuse a Spirit of grace and love to close in her heart with such a lover and to yeeld consent to the match and to adorne her selfe with this chaine Just so doth the Prince of life here and its a vaine thing to parallel this covenant of grace with other covenants 3. Nor did ever any man before Saltmarsh dreame that Law-obedience was an Antecedent condition of the Covenant of works with Adam nor were Adam and Eve in their state of sinlesse innocencie The people of God before God was first their God for then never man Adam nor any other were under the Law or Covenant of works till first they absolved and kept to the end a course of perfect obedience Yea so there was never on earth such a thing as a covenant of works except made with Christ nor can we say that God made a Covenant of works with Adam for his perfect obedience yet sure perfect obedience was a condition of the Covenant of works Antinomians have a second great mistake of the covenant of grace while they make it as old as election to glory and the Lambe slaine from the foundation of the world it s an everlasting covenant indeed but that is not because it is not made in time Christ is an eternall Mediator and an eternall Priest and the Lambe slaine from eternity but that was onely in Gods decree and eternall purpose as touching the beginning of his Mediatorship and Priesthood and so the creation of the World is eternall but sure Christ in the fulnesse of time was made of a woman entred by a calling of God in time to bee Mediator and Priest and dyed not for sinners till the raigne of Tyberius Cesar as he was borne in the raigne of Augustus nor were we justified pardoned and redeemed from eternity more then we were effectually called sanctified and gloryfied from eternity But Antinomians will have our sinnes pardoned from eternity before we beleeve And when were we then borne in sinne and the heires of wrath by nature and under condemnation by the second Adam Never really When were we sometimes dead in sinnes and trespasses and in time past walking according to the course of this world according to the Prince of the power of the aire And sometimes foolish disobedient serving divers lusts and pleasures lyving in malice and envie hatefull hating one another Not when we were justified if we were justified from eternity and when wee were chosen to glory before the World was But so must all our sinnes before conversion be but sinnes in conversation not in conscience and our Murthers cousening stealing persecuting whoredomes if we be chosen and so justified and washed when wee are chosen are seeming and fancied not reall sinnes nor such in themselves nor to the light of faith or in Gods sight by this Antinomian dreame Their third great mistake in the covenant of grace is in the parties Saltmarsh tells us that the new covenant is no covenant properly with us but with Christ for us It s true Christ standeth for us as principall undertaker who articles as the second Adam for us yea for all his seed to worke the conditions in us he is the Mediator surety witnesse Messenger or Angel of the Covenant for us But Antinomians will have him so for us as the Covenant shall oblige us to no dutie or condition of beleeving to bee performed by us and the Gospel shall tye us to no holy walking Why Wee are saith Saltmarsh to beleeve that our beleeving repenting new obedience mortification are all true in Christ who beleeved repented obeyed for us It is true wee are to beleeve our repenting obeying beleeving are true in Christ. 1. As in the meritorious cause who hath satisfied justice for all our sinnes and for the sinfull defects in our believing repenting obeying 2. We are to beleeve they are true in Christ as the author and principall cause who works in us to will and to doe by his effectuall grace But Antinomians will not have us to beleeve they are true in us as personally and in our selves though by Christs strength acting them or doing or performing the duties of beleeving repenting mortifying our lusts by any obligation of the Law or Gospel commandement CHAP. LXVII Of Legall and Evangelicall conversion WEe deny not but there is a Legall conversion and Gospel terrours and Gospel-hell fire and condemnation and the worme that never dyes and that nature may propose ends to it selfe in turning to God outwardly and that as incident to Antinomians as to any generation of people For it is knowne that many Antinomians are deluded not converted by a worke of the Law storming and quelling the conscience with the smoake and fire-slaughts of everlasting burning especially where the conscience neighbours wich a Melancholike complexion and when the party comes to such a Physitian as M. Saltmarsh though there be no inward change in the heart no evidences either to him or the deluded soule of a new and inward worke but the party still in the gall of bitternesse no sense of sinne but a dumbe beastly feeling of the flashes of hell fire a Pharaoh-like disposition the counterfeit white Angel saith to the perplexed soule Beleeve everlasting love and read Pharaoh and Simon Magus and your own names in the Lambes Booke of life beleeve and apply immediately without care conscience or sense of sinne or humiliation all these are reprobate money to buy grace away with them to come to the bloud of attonement come though yee be neither wearie nor laden nor pricked in heart with sinne and be yee assuredly perswaded that that bloud was shed for you that yee are as cleane from sin 160. agoe as Christ himselfe Honey combe cap. 3. pag. 25. Mourne no more be not humbled doe nothing at all but rest upon what Christ hath done for you rejoyce evermore sorrowing for sinne is Legall unbeliefe severe and
the King as lawfull Magistrates I answer its true so would they pray for Nero Dominitian and heathen Justices of peace sent by them as lawfull Magistrates but not as Christian Magistrates nor such as they would chuse to reigne over them because in their apprehension of them they are no lesse without the Church then heathens then let the world be judge of their candor in contending for a power of Premunires and in voting that heathen Justices of peace and unchristian Parliaments should be above a free Generall Assembly of England but they could not endure either Magistrates or Parliaments of the gang they are now in England to be above one of their Congregations though consisting of seven 3. They are jealous of any supremacy of Generall Assemblies But say the Congregations of England were all Independent they would not baptise the children of the twentieth Parliament man Judge and Justice of peace nor of the King or most professors in England as they are now in England nor admit them or their wives or children to the Ordinances because they are no Church-members and no better then Ethiopians or Indians to them and if Parliament or Justices of peace should take on them to judge or punish them for this I beleeve M. Burton and our brethren would tell them these that are without the Church as you are have no power to judge the Church of Christ are to judge of Church administrations or to whom Ordinances should be dispensed or not dispensed Judge if this be not a supremacy given to seven above the Parliament and Judges of the Kingdome which M. Burton so much condemned in a Nationall Assembly of all the godly Ministers and Elders in England But it s a fault that the Generall Assembly hath power to make rules according to the word of God appertaining to the good behaviour of all the members of the Kirke and abrogate Statutes and Ordinances about Ecclesiasticall matters that are found noysome and unprofitable without the Magistrate So did the Assembly at Jerusalem appoint such rules as should binde Caesar so he had been a good Constantine and though they cannot abrogate Ordinances and Acts of Parliament by making or unmaking Acts of Parliament our booke of discipline never meaned that as M. Burton ignorant of the discipline of our Church saith yet as the Ministers of Christ they may juridically declare yea and preach authoritively that Acts of Parliament establishing the Masse are unlawfull and godlesse lawes commanding Idolatry and denounce a woe against unjust decrees and lawes as Esay 10.1 else when M. Burton preacheth against such lawes he then must incurre a premunire before God and set himselfe in a Papall throne above the Parliament and enslave the English Subjects for he preaches that Statutes of Parliament that establisheth Masse and the burning of heretickes that is Protestants are to be abrogated as well as the Generall Assembly of Scotland doth and so M. Burton must set himselfe above Kings and Kesars And when a Synod or Church conveened in the name of Christ bindes on earth according to the word of God Matth 18. there is no lawfull appeal from them to any Civill judicature not because they are not men but because they are a Court acting in the name of Christ according to his word and Christ with them bindes or looses in heaven yea there is no reclamation to be made nor any appeale from one faithfull Pastor speaking in the name and authority of Christ according to that He that heareth you heareth me he that despiseth you despiseth me and there is no danger to be feared either of Papall tyranny or Parliamentary breach or premunire But M. Rutherfurd saith The decisive voyces of a Generalâ— Assembly bindes the absent as well as present Answ. So saith the Holy Ghost the Churches of Antioch Syria and Silicia were bound to receive and obey the decrees of the Synod so soon as they heare them Act. 15.22 23 26 27 28. Act. 16.4 Act. 21.25 as they that despise the doctrine of faithfull Pastors dead and buried despise Christ so saith that learned and godly man M. Cotton and all the Churches of N. England who to M. Burton must set up a Papall throne as well as the Church of Scotland if this be Popery for what need Churches absent saith Cotton Keyes of the Kingdome p. 26. send to a Synod for light and direction in wayes of truth and peace if they be resolved aforehand how farre they will goe and if they be not obliged to submit thereunto in the Lord. M. Burton saith further p. 21. that M. Rutherfurd saith ch 20.312 Gov. Chur. Scot. The acts of the Assembly oblige all the absents not present in all their members and that because whatsoever is by these Commissioners determined and concluded is matter necessary and agreeable to Gods word as being no lesse infallible then those decisions of the Apostles Act. 15. Answ. I dare appeale to the conscience of M. Burton well informed and to all the godly if they conceive any such thing to be my judgement to assert with Bellarmine Papists the infallibility of any Councells now on earth yea if he had read what I have said ch 14. p. 209.212 I prove that the Apostles acted not in that Synod as Apostles but as ordinary Elders and Doct. Whittaker and M. Cotton say the same though M. Tho. Goodwin and M. Nye contradict both M. Cotton and Whittaker and Calvin and all both Papists and Protestants yea and Independents who acknowledge Act. 15. to be a paterne for Synods to the end of the world But the Independents now in England and Anabaptists side with Bridgesius Grotius Socinians and Arminians the enemies of Synods and say that Synod Act. 15. was an extraordinary Apostolicke meeting that obligeth not the Churches now The Seekers say there shall never be Synods till Apostles arise againe which they say without all word of Scripture 2. I speake not one word pag. 312. of that purpose but pag. 322. I speake and M. Burton both detracteth from and addeth to and perverteth my words which I impute not to malice as others doe but to his ignorance of the Discipline of the Church of Scotland my words ch 20. pag. 322. are these The acts of the Assembly oblige all the absents not present in all their members as Act. 23 24.28 Act. 15.16.4 ch 21.25 not because of the authority of the Church but because of the matter which is necessary and agreeable to Gods word Beside that M. Burton leaves out all the Scriptures I cite because he could not answer them he leaves out these words not because of the authority of the Church which cleareteh my sense and directly excludeth all infallible authority of Church or Assembly For I hold they oblige the consciences not for men or the Authority of the Church or because so saith the Church as Papists make the testimony of the Church the formall obâ—ect of our faith and the Church to bee
of God to our selves that is the free favour and love of God that is onely grace objectively in God not in us or yet grace inherent We professe before the Lord and his Angels that that is an other Gospel and though an Angel and Paul teach it let him be accursed 2. Let him answer us if any Protestant Divine or if hee himselfe beleeveth his owne penne doth any other but lye when it scribles that the Law-straine and Divinity of the Jewes vnder the Law did worke God down to such an old way as for fasting and praying and other acts of obedience they got some love from God which Christ himselfe had not gotten for them Fasting and praying was never since God had a Church on earth a hire a bribe to free grace nâ—ither Jew nor Gentile could by doing nay not Adam before his fall nor the Elect Angels could ever buy prize or morgage the free love of God 3. Wee conceive the love of God to bee the sole cause fountaine well-head and adaequate reason why the Lord chuseth some to glory rather then others why the Lord sent his Sonne Christ to die even because God extremely and freely loved the lost world and therefore fasting and praying was never the cause of Gods chusing and electing love either to Jew or Gentile either under the Old or New Testament except they say there was another way of election to glory in the Old Testament and another way in the New and that the love of God was at a dearer rate under the Old nor New it was then for hire and for works but wee had not in Esaiahs daies wine and milke without money and price the Market was dearer then it is at a lower rate now But I perceive Antinomians miserably mistaken in confounding the error of the Jewes and the state of the Jewish Church Paul Rom. 4. saith right down Abraham and David payed not a farthing more for justification and freely imputed righteousnesse then we doe and it was the error and sin of men not the state of the Church in its non-age under Tutors nor the dispensation of God that The Jews followed after the law of righteousnesse but obtained not the Law of righteousnsse Wherefore Because they sought it not by faith but as it were by the works of the Law for they stumbled at the stumbling stone Yea being ignorant then it was their pride and error not their state of non-age of Gods righteousnesse and going about to establish their owne righteousnesse have not submitted themselves to the righteousnesse of God It was never lawfull for the Jewes to dreame they could get or earne Gods free love and undeserved grace by fasting and praying and other acts of obedience no more then it was lawfull for them to stumble at and breake their necke upon Christ the stone laid on Sion it was never lawfull for them to goe about to establish their owne righteousnesse and not to submit to the righteousnesse of God this was their sinne But sure it was not their sinne to bee under Tutors and the Pedagogie of the Law for that was Gods holy and innocent dispensation as the Scripture saith And it was not any Legall justification by works But it was 1 in that they were kept 1. under shaddowes elements of the world Ceremonies representing forth Christ to come and 2 God kept them under a greater terror because of Law-transgressions and 3 a sparer measure and dyet of grace then wee have But 1. it was never lawfull for them or us to seeke justification by works and by fasting and prayer 2. The Lord cryed out against Merit and placing all godlinesse in their new Moones and in saying We have fasted and thou seest it not So there was no Legall straine in getting the love of God by fasting praying c. To the Jewes more then to us 3. It was never a Legall straine nor a way approved of God under the Old Testament that they should serve God for hire which the Devill acknowledgeth to be hypocrisie and that they should pray or rather howle like hungry dogs for corne and wine or follow Christ for loaves 4. Nor was the obeying of God for feare of the curses of the Law and plagues rather then out of love to God as a Father a way of the Old Testament-worship approved of God as Towne imagineth it being a sinne for their duty it was to feare him as a Father no lesse then ours to rejoyce in trembling to feare his goodnesse his mercy to esteeme God rather then his gifts their reward their portion their soules love so were they to love and worship him as a Husband to admire and praise him as God and for his essentiall perfection beauty lovelinesse and all mercenary love and service for feare of punishment not out of love and for hire and rewards was damnable then as now Now what was Gods active dispensation in severe punishing of them for an irreverent looke into the Arke and his hiring them with a good and fertile land and many temporall blessings to serve him was another thing and can never prove it was lawfull for them to serve God for hire and in a mercenary way and that it is a Legall and Old Testament way of serving God now under the New Testament to beleeve that godlinesse hath the promises of this life and of that which is to come and that now under the new Testament yea we may looke to the reward of life eternall as a motive to blow wind in our sayles in our journey to heaven though not as the formall object of our desires in serving God for we are onely and ever now and then to serve God for himselfe not for hire 2. If wee speake comparatively a created Crowne of incorruptible glory is to be laboured for rather then trifles and feathers of corruptible clay and that both to us and to these under the Old Testament 4. How Prayer revealeth the love of God I know not Saltmarsh by the next may expound it Christ saith his Father giver the Holy Ghost to those that pray and seek him and he avengeth the bloud of his Saints and he giveth whatever we aske the Father in his name We pray Lord increase our faith is this nothing but Lord reveale the Holy Ghost to us which wee had before And are these prayers that God should give us no new thing but reveale what we had before So then we desire God would reveale the glory of his justice on the enemies of the Church which he had wrought before and reveale the gift of illumination growth of Faith victory against temptations dayly bread destruction of Satans kingdome the propagating of the Gospel deliverance from warre the pestilence insight in the mystery of the Gospel the Spirit of revelation c. All which things we had before