as is said were in a state of Salvation when under Christ's own teaching they believed not many great Articles now essential to the Christian Faith So that all set together will tell us that the conclusion of the certain damnation of all without the Jewish and the Christian Church seemeth not very desirable either as to the Glory of the good and gracious God nor as to the good of Mankind And therefore we should not propend that way in a case of doubtful arguing And I desire the Reader impartially to consider though Abraham knew not till God told him how bad Sodom was yet when he asketh of God to spare it if there were but fifty Righteous in it whether he do not imply that he thought most other Cities of that bigness had at least fifty righteous if not more For when God told him that he would destroy it for the cry of their sins he must needs judge it worse than ordinary And was Abraham more ignorant than we the Father of the Faithful a Prophet that saw Christ's day and rejoyâ—ed 93. It is a certain truth that as God the Creator so Christ the Redeemer doth extend his mercy farther than he himself is known And as the Sâ—â— sendeth some light to the world before it riseth and is seen it self so doth Christ send many excellent Gifts of his Grace to those that know him not as Incarnate And when all the world is delivered into his hand we have reason to believe that the mercies which Philosophers and all others in the world had were communicated by him as the second Person or Wisdom and Word undertaking mans Redemption first and as the Word Incarnate after 94. Those ancient Fathers of the Church who lived near the Apostles times as Clem Alex. c. who believed that some without the Church were saved were never condemned for it as Hereticks no not by the busie condemning Ages SECT VI. Of Universal Redemption 95. By what hath been said it appeareth how far Christ may be said to have died for all Certainly de re all that Christ giveth to all which is the fruits of his Death he procured for all by his death whatever we say of conditional Intentions he certainly intended to give all that he giveth But all these following particulars are given by Christ either to all or to more than the Elect. 1. The Humane Nature common to all is advanced and brought nigh to God in Christ's Incarnation 2. Christ's Sacrifice for Sin and his perfect Holiness are so far satisfactory and meritorious for all men as that they render Christ a meet Object for that Faith in him which is commanded men and no man shall be damned for want of the satisfactoriness of Christ's Sacrifice or for want of a Saviour to die for him and fulfil all Righteousness but only for the abusing or refusing of his Mercy 3. Christ's conquest of the Devil and the World hath made man's conquests of them the more easie or possible And his Victory over Death and his Resurrection hath procured a Resurrection to all the World 4. All men are his Subjects by Obligation as he is the Redeemer and so are under his healing saving kind of Government 5. A clearer revelation of Life and Immortality is made by him even to those that perish And they have far greater helps than else they would have had to set their hearts on a better World 6. Especially a Law of Grace is made by Christ for all the world In the last Edition to all Joh. 1. 11 12. 3. 16 17 18 19. 1 Joh. 5. 10 11. that hear the Gospel and in the first to all the rest By the Promise of which as by an Act of Oblivion or Instrument of Donation God hath Enacted and Given a full Pardon of all Sin to all Mankind with Reconciliation Adoption and Right to Christ and Heaven on condition of their acceptance of it as offered them So that men are pardoned and justified by that Instrument or Gift if they will believe and will not unthankfully reject their Mercies 7. Apostles and ordinary Ministers were appointed to preach this Gospel to all the World and make the Offer of Christ and Life to all men without exception 8. The Matth. 28. 19. Mark 16. 16. execution of the violated Law of Innocency is forborn to all men in the greatest part Judgments kept off and they kept out of Hell while they have time and means to prepare for their Salvation 9. Many and great Mercies which signifie Gods goodness and lead towards Repentance are given to all the world even mercies forfeited by sins against the Law of Innocency and given by the Grace of our Redeemer 10. It is made all mens duty to believe the Revelation made to theâ— to repent to accept more mercy and to seek their own Salvation And such duty is not the smallest mercy 11. He hath recorded his Word and Grace in the holy Scriptures which all are allowed to use for their good He hath filled his Doctrine or Gospel with such powerful convincing Reasons and Perswasions which have a tendency to convince men and convert them 12. He secondeth his Word by many such Providences in his Works his Mercies his Afflictions as greatly Act. 14. 17. 17. 27 28. Rom. 1. 19 21. Rom. 2. tend to win mens Souls 13. He hath left his excellent Example to the world which greatly tendeth to mens Conviction and Salvation 14. He hath appointed several Church-Ordinances which are mercies to more than the Elect as is the visible communion also which they have with the Upright and their examples prayers c. 15. To all these he addeth an obligation on all Christians to do their best to convert and save all others 16. And the Office of Magistrates under Christ is appointed for these saving uses to promote the Salvation of the people 17. Death it self is now turned into a medicinal means by the prospect of it to convert and save men 18. Usually Gods patitience alloweth men time of Repentance and taketh them not at the first denial that they may consider and correct their former error 19. Remedies are offered men fetcht from Satan and Sin it self The Tempter by the malice of his temptations oft detecteth his owâ— fraud and mens danger A natural enmity against Devils and all that is known to be of them is put into all Mankind And Sin hath a sting to the Flesh it self and is madâ— such a misery to Sinners even in this life as may much tend to alienate and deter them from it And the world it self is made such a palpable vanity and smart vexation as tendeth to drive men to look out for a better and not to love it above God 20. Lastly To all these means there are certain internal motions and strivings of the Spirit of Christ which he commonly vouchsafeth mâ—â— in some degree and which irritate Conscience to do its office and which if men will
received but by degrees and upon certain terms And with pardon a free gift of Life Spiritual and Eternal and so of the Spirit and Communion with God on the said conditions 15. The Promise Gen. 3. 15. is plain as to Mercy and Salvation and darker as to the promised seed and his mediation and dark as to the Condition on man's part But by Sacrifices c. it is like that Adam had it more explained to him than those short words make it to us But this is clear that by this new Covenant God becometh man's Merciful Redeemer and Pardoner and Ruler on terms of Grace in order to recovery and Salvation And that man was to Believe in God as such and accorâ—ingly to devote himself in Covenant to him 16. This Law or Covenant was made with all Mankind in Adam For all were in his loins and God hath given us no more proof that the first Covenant was made with Adam as the Father of Mankind than that the second was so made 17. Gods dealings with Mankind are a certain confirmation of this truth and an exposition and promulgation of this Law and Covenant of Grace as extended to all Mankind For God doth not use them according to the rigor of the violated Law of Innocency but giveth them abundant merâ—ies and means which tend to their Repentance and recovery and obligeth them all to Believe that he is merciful and their case is not desperate and to Repent and use his means and mercies in order to their return to God and their Salvation There are no Nations in the world that even to this day are not under such mercies means and obâ—â—gations and therefore none that are left as the Devils in Despair under the unremedyed Covenant of Innocency alone 18. But though the Law of Grace made to Adam be it which the world was then put under and to be Ruled by and the tenor of it extended to all Mankind yet those that would partake of the Blessingâ— of it were to consent to it as Covenanters with God and to Belieâ—â— in and obey God their Redeemer pardoner and restorer in the thankful sence of all this mercy which because the ungodly did not they and their posterity fell under a double guilt and curse both as violateâ—â—s of the Law of Innocency and of Grace and therefore incurred a specâ—â—â— penalty Cain and his off-spring being first thrust out further from the believing obedient people of God and at last the whole world except eight persons perishing in the deluge 19. Noah with his house being saved to be the Root of all Mankind that should succeed him God renewed with him and Mankind in him the same Law or Covenant of Grace which he had made with us in Adam with some additionals To shew us that though the wicked and their seed had forfeited the benefits yet the Covenant was not altered but stood in its first sence in force to all and would pardon and save all true Consenters 20. C ham for his transgression brought a new Curse on himself and his posterity besides the meer fruit of Adam's Sin So that thougâ— God altered not his Law of Grace yet they became a cursed Generation 21. By multiplyed transgressions the Sons of men did still more degenerate and revolt from God till Nimrod and others by wickedneâ—â— and presumptions brought down the new and grievous penalty of confounded tongues the great hinderance of the propagation of the truth to thâ—â— day And at last the most fell to odious Idolatry not knowing the true God but given up to sensuality and wickedness 22. Abraham being faithful and escaping the Idolatry and wickednest of the world was eminently favoured and beloved of God and beâ—â—â—ving Abraham's Promise and trusting God in his promises and in the great tryal of his Sâ—â— is honoured with the name of the Father of the Faithful And God renewed with him the Covenant of Grace which he had made to all men in Adam and Noah with special application to his comfort and addedâ— special peculiar Promise to him that his Seed should be a holy Nation chosen out of all the world to God and that of him the Messiah should come of both which Promises the common and the special Circumcision was a Seal 23. Yet this was no repealing of the Law of Grace which had been made to all the world nor was it an excommunicating or rejecting of all others or a confining of Gods Grace and Church to him and his posterity alone but only an exalting them above all others in these peculiar dignities and priviledges For at that time holy Sem was living and long after who in all likelyhood was a King and its like that the Posterity of him and Japhet were not all faln away from God and Melcâ—â—zedek was such a King of Righteousness and Peace and Priest of the most high God as was a great type of Christ's own Heavenly Priesthood and therefore it 's like had some Subjects that feared and worshipped God The Scripture giving us the History of the Jewish Nation and affairs â—â— the principal and of the rest of the world but a little on the by we cannot know by it the full state of all other Nations nor what Religion and Worshippers of God were there But the History of Job and his Friends the probability that all the Children of Ismael of Keturah of Esau forsook not God for they were circumcised and therefore were Covenanters with the Case of Nineve after and Abraham's thoughts that even a Sodom had at least had fifty righteous persons in it c. assureth us that the Jews were not God's only Church but a peculiar people and a Nation holy above the rest And as the Covenant of Grace was still the Governing Law to the rest of the world though most rejected it by rebellion so it is not to be thought that none consonted to it and were faithful 24. The special promise to Abraham of the Messiah to be his seed which was more than was made to Adam and Noah as it belonged not to Mankind in general so was it not promulgate or known to them but only to the Jews and the few that conversed with them Therefore the rest of the world were not obliged to know and believe it who never heard of it 25. What Conditions of pardon and life were necessary to all Mankind The terms of the Universal Covenant then in general is most probably gathered out of these Texts of Scripture Exod. 34. 6 7. And the Lord-proclaimed the Name of the Lord The Lord the Lord God Merciful and Gracious long suffering and abundant in Goodness and Truth keeping Mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity transgression and sin and that will by no means clear the guilty visiting the iniquity of the Fathers upon the Children and to the Childrens Children unto the third and to the fourth Generation This is the description of God given by his own mouth as he is to
to sin against 5. You will make Conscience justifie the Wicked and condemn Gods Judgments in Hell instead of justifying God and accusing themselves 6. You must accordingly conclude that you never shewed mercy to Child Neighbour or any but the Elect your self because it was all to end in misery or else that you were to them more merciful than God 7. When man is made in Gods Image and we must be holy and merciful as our heavenly Father is you set all men such a pattern of mercy and justice as you would be loth your Prince or Parent should imitate 8. You expose Christ's most compassionate tears to reproach when Luke 19. he lookt on Jerusalem and wept over it as having had a day of mercy and when Matth. 23. he saith How oft would I have gathered thee as a Hen gathereth her Chickâ—ns under her wings and ye would not 9. You teach all Gods Children in the World to acknowledge no mercy nor be thankful for any till they are sure that they are Elect. And how few have that assurance 10. You injure the Lord Jesus and his Covenant of Grace while you say that a conditional Gift of Christ and Life Pardon and Salvation even if they will but accept it is no mercy to any that refuse it nor yet the blood that purchased it as such 11. You measure and denominate Gods great Mercies according to mans vile abuse As if it were no mercy what tendency soever in it self it had to their Salvation unless they accept it and use it well or if they reject it 12. You are singular from almost all the Churches of Christ in the World Contrary to the judgment of the ancient Churches and of all present Chuâ—ches of Greeks Abassines Arminians Papists or Protestants expresly contrary to the Synod of Dort and the particular suffrages of our British Divines there except a very few men that by the heat of perverse Disputings against Amyraldus the Arminians c. have been carried into such extreams C. What mercy is it to a man to have Pleasure here a while and Torment in Hell for ever yea to have Christ and Life offered him to make him more unexcusable and miserable B. In all this Discourse it is not the nature of the mercy in it self that you deny but Gods merciful Intents It is your mis-apprehensions about Predestination which you are vending all this while and there is the Core of your mistake which we have sufficiently spoken to already You talk as if God decreed men to Sin to reject Christ to abuse Mercies to Impenitency and consequently to Hell for so doing which is all false God decreed no man to these or any other sin nor to any punishment but as for sin by them committed against his holy Law which he foresaw but willed not Yea God decreed to set open the door of Grace to Sinners and to tender them mercy when they deserved misery and to bring Life to the acceptance or refusal of their own Wills and to intreat and importune them to accept it His end in giving them mercy is not to make them miserable though consequently he will their misery for their sin Now you feign in your own erronious Imagination that God first decreeth mens sin and damnation and then giveth them all which we call Mercies as a means thereto and then denominate them as bad as you have feigned them to be by such aâ— imagination And you conceive of Gods Decree as that which doth transire in praeteritum is past and gone when to God all time is nothing but eternity is one everlasting instant C. When you have talkt all that you can for such kind of Mercy it will not satisfie a mans understanding who believeth that most of the world shall be damned and that God fore-knew this from eternity and would not prevent it when he easily could Mercy that ends in Hell is sad mercy He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy B. Even under the terrible Law at Mount Sinai God proclaimeth his Name and Nature As gracious and abundant in Mercy This Glory of his which he shewed to Moses is more gloriously shewed to the World in Christ And this you study perversly to obscure And when you have contracted Salvation it self out of our own brain into a narrower compass than God in Scripture doth who in every Nation accepteth them that fear him and work Righteousness then you devise false Decrees and Intents and father them on God to obscure the rest And what do you by this but seek to render God as little comely to his Creatures as you can And if the love of God be Holiness and Happiness If his Amiableness be his Goodness even Himself If it be Christ's great Work to reveal God in his Goodness and by Faith to kindle holy Love And if it be the Devils malignity and work in the World to counterwork Christ and represent God as unlovely judge whether you serve Christ or Satan and whether it be not his chief work of enmity against God that you carry on But that you may have the true prospect of Gods goodness in all this you must remember that Gods Work as Creator goeth before his Work of Government and his Work of Government in general before his Work of our Redemption and his Work of Redemption and the Law of Grace before mens sin and Judgment And 1. If God that hath diversified all lower Creatures as we see did please in the Creation to make a rank of free-intellectual Creatures here on Earth with power and help sufficient to attain to an Angelical Glory if they would not wilfully prefer the way of misery is there any want of goodness in making such a World Are they not nobler than Bruits that have no such hope though not than Angels that are confirmed 2. And if he take pleasure having made such an Intellectual free Agent to rule him morally by Laws according to his nature and to take it for his own great work to be his King or Rector in this sapiential way That which much deludeth men in this and wrongeth God is that these foundations in Nature are not well considered The issue of all the Atheists and discontented Unbelievers Accusations of God is but this That he made man but man and nothing higher A man is a mutable Intellectual free Agent whose duty and happiness is left much to his own choosing or refusing And being so made he is accordingly to be governed And as God sheweth his greatness of Power as Creator and Actor of the universal frame of Nature so he hath chosen eminently to shew his Regent Wisdom in his * Cusp Peucer Hist Carcerum against the Luthâ—rans pag. 719. An in homine ocioso nihil agente habenteque se pure passive aut sicut truncus ad coactionem necessiâ—atis stoicae afflatusve an abaptistici sicut Flaciani somniarunt aut velut brutum mutatione conversione hominis physica aut
B. Great is this mystery of Godliness there is more in Christ than you take notice of even the Spirit which must work Grace in mens souls is two ways given first to Christ 1. In that as Administrator general the power of giving out the Spirit to mankind is now given to Him even in his humane Nature And he giveth it out in manner and measure suitable That Grace habitual is participatio naturae divinae and how and in what sense Vide Caceres sum Theol. 2. 2. cap. 1. And abundance of Jesuites and other School-men go as far in asserting its supernaturality and some in ascribing it to Christ as Protestants do But Vasquez and many go farther than many Protestants in supposing Christ the cause not only of Grace but of our Election to Grace And yet even there the difference is most if not only in words The Thomists maintain even that Christs humanity is the Instrument of the Deity in operating Grace in us which the cause of the Eucharist leadeth them to 1. To himself 2. To us 3. To his established means and Ordinances by which he worketh So that now the Spirit with its aid common or special is not given to any sinner immediately from God as Creator and as it was given to Adam before his fall but by the Mediation of Christ the Redeemer I mean not only the moritorious and procuring mediation but also the powerful conveying mediation Though God the Holy Ghost be still proximately the cause of Grace yet Christ as Mediator is made by office the Mediator and authorized giver of that Spirit and all its Grace and so the measurer and orderer of his helps and appointer of the conditions 2. And Christ is first filled with this Spirit personally himself that he may be a fit Head of vital Influence to all his Members who by the previous operations of his Spirit are drawn and united to him C. How prove you all this universal power in Christ B. You have heard the express proof And study further 1 John 5. 11 12. And this is the record that God hath given us eternal life and this life it in his Son He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life Rom. 8 9. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ the same is none of his Mark that it is The Spirit of Christ John 15. 26. The Comforter or Advocate whom I will send to you from the Father John 16. 7. If I depart I will send him to you John 14. 26. The Comforter whom the Father will send in my name Gal. 4. 6. And because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father Gal. 2. 20. I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the Faith of the Son of God who loved me John 5. 21 22. The Son quickneth whom he will for the Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment to the Son 26. For as the Father hath life in himself so hath he given the Son to have life in himself And that you may see that he giveth the Spirit with and by means he saith Verse 24. Verily verily I say unto you He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life John 6. 27 32 33. Labour for that meat which endureth to everlasting life which the Son of man will give you For him hath God the Father seated that is openly owned as appointed to this Office He giveth life unto the world Whoso eateth my Flesh and drinketh my Blood hath eternal Life Dwelleth in me and I in him My Flesh is meat indeed As the living Father hath sent me and I live by the Father so he that eateth me even he shall live by me Verse 63. It is the Spirit that quickneth the Flesh profiteth nothing John 3. 34. God giveth not the Spirit to him by measure John 7. 39. This he spake of the Spirit which they that believe in him should receive John 1. 5. 4 5. Abide in me and I in you As the branch cannot bear fruit of it self except it abide in the vine no more can ye except ye abide in me I am the vine ye are the branches He that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit for without me or out of me ye can do nothing Matth. 28. 20. I am with you always to the end 1 Cor. 6. 17. He that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit 2 Cor. 3. 17. The Lord is that Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty Phil. 1. 19. Through the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Col. 3. 3 4. For ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God when Christ who is our life shall appear then shall ye also appear with him in glory Ephes 1. 22 23. And gave him to be head over all things to the Church which is his body the fulness of him that filleth all in all Do you need more to prove this great Office of Christ C. Here is more than I have well thought on But I find more to prove Christ the vital Head to his Church than to prove him the universal dispenser of all Grace whatever is given to the world B. Read them over again what would you have more than all Power all things all Judgment given or committed to him And to be by Office the Redeemer Saviour and light of the world coming as such even to them that neither comprehend him know him or receive him I add another Text Prov. 1. 20. to the end Wisdom crieth without she uttereth her voice How long ye simple ones will you love simplicity and the scorners delight in their scorning and fools hate knowledge Turn you at my reproof behold I will pour out my spirit unto you I will make known my words unto you Because I have called and ye refused see the rest Ver. 32. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them And two things more I offer for your conviction 1. That to shew both his Power and that he will exercise it orderly by means Christ impowred his Apostles and Ministers under him to give the Spirit And if the extraordinary Gifts were given by the laying on of their hands no wonder if the ordinary were given by their Doctrine 2. That on this ground Christ shall be the universal Judge of all the world as he was the universal Law-giver and light to all But what need I more when it is his very Office as Christ as Prophet to be the universal Teacher by Spirit and Word and as Priest to sanctifie by Spirit and Word and as King to rule by Spirit and Word C. I am amazed to think how little we well understand of our very Fundamentals and Catechism which we teach the ignorant Methinks in this universal Light
22. 2. For Name and Thing note the terms of Equivalence and Connotation 1. All the Texts where Christ is called a King and his Kingdom named why should I needlesly recite them 2. All the Texts that mention his Commanding and Commandments the same which we mean by a Law Matth. 28. 20. Teaching them to observe all things whatever I have commanded you Acts 10. 42. 13. 47. Acts 10. 33. 1 Cor. 7. 10. John 15. 14. If ye do whatsoever I command you 17. These things I command you So John 15. 12. 14. 21 31. 1 Tim. 1. 1. Titus 1. 3. 1 John 3. 23. 4. 6. John 13. 34. 1 John 5. 3. 2. 4. 3. 24. 1 Cor. 14. 37. Acts 1. 2. Acts 17. 30. Blessed are they that do his Commandments c. Rev. 22. 14. 3. All the Texts that mention his Covenant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being a Legal institution Heb. 8. 6. He is the Mediator of a better Covenant 8. 13. 8. 10. 10. 16. 12. 24. Gal. 4. 24. 4. All those Texts that not only call him Lord of all but say that All power in Heaven and Earth is given to him therefore Legislative power Matth. 28. 18. and all Judgement committed to him John 5. 22. The Government is laid upon his shoulders and of the increase of his Government there shall be no end Isa 9. 6 7. 5. De re how can that man be a Christian that denyeth that Christ hath made us any Law and so denyeth his Kingdom and our obedience I argue from the definition That which hath the essential parts of a Law is a Law But Christ hath made that which hath the essential parts of a Law Therefore he hath made a Law The Major is past dispute The Minor I prove That which hath a Precept making Duty and a Promise and Threatning instituting the Retribution by Rewards and Punishments as an Instrument of Government hath all the Essentials of a Law But such is made by Christ Ergo The Minor which only needs proof I prove by parts and instances 1. There is a Command to believe in God as our Reconciled Father by Christ 2. To believe in Christ as Incarnate and the Mediator conceived by the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary fulfilling all righteousness dying buried for us justifying us by his blood rising ascending glorified interceding that will raise the dead and judge the world c. We are commanded to believe all the Gospel And to give up our selves to Christ in the Covenant of Baptism to trust in him to pray in his name c. We are commanded to believe in the Holy Ghost as the Spirit of Christ and to live in Communion with the Christian Church to observe the Lords day the first of the Week to preach and hear the Gospel to receive the Lords Supper to imitate Christ to receive his Apostles and Ministers to relieve his members as such to take Moses Law as abrogated or ceased And do you that are so strict in condemning all humane impositions as bold additions believe that Christ himself hath made no Laws for Ordination Sacraments Preaching Worship and why fear you adding then can one add to Nothing And what a lawless sort of persons are you if you will neither have Christ nor Man to make Laws for you 2. And as to Promises and Threats or Penalties of a far sorer punishment Heb. 10. I am ashamed to stand to prove them to you He that believeth shall be saved and he that believeth not shall be damned is sure a Law How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation See that ye reject not him that speaketh Heb. 4. 10. These mine enemies that would not that I should reign over them bring them hither and slay them before me Luke 19. 27. with abundance such Pardon here that my indignation suffereth me not to be longer or colder but shortly to tell you further that to deny Christs Law is 1. To deny him to be a King and to be Christ 2. To deny his Kingdom 3. And his Government 4. And his Gospel 5. And his Officers power both Kings and Pastors 6. And your own subjection 7. And all duty and obedience to him 8. And the being of all sin as against his Laws 9. And all Judgement according to his Laws 10. And all reward for keeping his Laws 11. And all punishment for breaking them 12. And all duty to preach learn or meditate on them 13. And all blame on such as silence such preaching 14. And indeed the very being of all Law and Government in the world For since the Promise Gen. 3. or at least now there is no Law of God in the world but what is the Redeemers Law Even the Law of Nature now is in his hand and is the Law of the Redeemer to lapsed Nature And all the world had a new Law of Grace made to Adam in the first Edition and the Church hath it now in the second Edition And now what part of Christianity do you not destroy Choose you now whether you will come off by confessing that you erred and differed from us but in a word not understood or whether you will allow us to take you for downright Hereticks And bethink you whether those rash and self-conceited Divines that have reviled Papists and Arminians for saying that Christs Gospel was a Law or that he made a new Law have done good service to the Christian or the Protestant Cause or have rather done much to harden the Rapists into a more confident conceit that Protestants are Hereticks CHAP. V. Whether Christ be the only Party in Covenant with God and not Believers or lapsed man Lib. IV. Mr next Charge it that you feign the Covenant to be made with us which is made only with Christ Do you not remember that even the Westminster Assembly say in their larger Catechism that The Covenant of Grace was made with Christ as the second Adam and in him with all the Elect as his seed But you feign it to be made with the Elect nay to others immediately and not only as Christs seed in him nor to Christ at all P. I will not waste time in expounding or censuring other mens words but as to the matter is it not a most shameful thing that a man of your profession and pretensions to knowledge should confound those two Covenants which children should be taught in their Catechism to distinguish By a Covenant here we mean 1. A Covenant offered and imposed which is also a Law 2. A Covenant consented to and mutual And now tell me Quest 1. Was it not a distinct Law that was made to us from that which Christ was obliged by I mean the Law of Grace and Faith Was Christ commanded to Repent of his sin or accept a Saviour or pray for pardon or mortifie his lusts or trust another to reconcile him to God or be Thankful for such mercies or any such like
better than themselves Look not every man on his own things but every man also on the things of others Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus Who made himself of no reputation 1 Cor. 1. 10 11 12 13 14. Now I beseech you brethren by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you but that ye be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgement For it hath been declared to me of you brethren that there are contentions among you that every one of you saith I am of Paul and I of Apollos and I of Cephas and I of Christ Is Christ divided Was Paul crucified for you or were you baptized into the name of Paul I thank God that I baptized none of you c. 1 Cor. 3. 1 2 3 4. I could not speak to you as unto spiritual but as unto carnal as to babes in Christ For whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions are ye not carnal and walk as men See Eph. 4. 1 c. after John 17. 20 21 22 23. I pray for them which shall believe on me that they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in Thee that they also may be One in us that the world may believe that thou hast sent me And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me Matth. 5. 9. Blessed are the Peace-makers for they shall be called the children of God Rom. 12. 18. If it be possible as much as in you lyeth live peaceably with all men 2 Cor. 12. 20 21. I fear lest when I come I shall not find you such as I would lest there be debates envyings wraths strifes backbitings whisperings swellings tumults Lest God will humble me among you and I shall bewail many c. Gal. 5. 19 20. The works of the flesh are manifest hatred variance emulations wrath strife seditions heresies envyings 1 Cor. 14. 33. God is not the Author of Confusion but of Peace as in all Churches of the Saints Acts 20. 30. Of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them Phil. 1. 15 16. Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife and some also of good will The one preach Christ of contention not sincerely Rom. 16. 17 18. Now I beseech you brethren Mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which you have learned and avoid them For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own bellies and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple Luke 9. 55. Ye know not what manner of Spirit ye are of The Angelical Gospel of the Ends of Christs Incarnation Luke 2. 19. GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST ON EARTH PEACE GOOD WILL TO MEN or WELL-PLEASEDNESS IN MEN. John 20. 26. Peace be unto you Grace Mercy and Peace with all that are in Christ and Love Gal. 6. 16. Eph. 6. 23. 1 Pet. 1. 2. 5. 14. 2 Pet. 1. 2. 1 Thess 5. 13. 2 Cor. 13. 11. Finally brethren farewell be perfect be of good comfort be of one mind Live in Peace and the God of Love and Peace shall be with you Amen 1. Assert THe BAPTISMAL COVENANT expounded in the antient CREED is the summ and Symbol of Christianity by which Believers were to be distinguished from unbelievers and the outward Profession of it was mens Title to Church-communion and the Heart-consent was their Title-condition of Pardon and Salvation And to these ends it was made by Christ himself Matth. 28. 19 20. Mark 16. 16. 2. All that were baptized did profess to Believe in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and devoted themselves to him with profession of Repentance for former sins and renouncing the Lusts of the Flesh the World and the Devil professing to begin a new and holy life in hope of everlasting glory 3. This form of Baptismal Covenanting and Profession begun with Christianity and called our Christening or making us Christians hath been propagated and delivered down to us to this day by a full and certain tradition and testimony and less alterations than the holy Scriptures 4. The Apostles were never such formalists and friends to ignorance and hypocrisie as to encourage the baptized to take up with the saying I believe in the Father Son and Holy Ghost without teaching them to understand what they said Therefore undoubtedly they expounded those three Articles And that exposition could be no other in sense than the Creed is And when Paul reciteth the Articles of Christ 1 Cor. 15. and mentioneth the Form of sound words we may be sure that they all gave the people one unchanged exposition as to the sense Christianity was one unchanged thing 5. Though I am not of their mind that think the twelve Apostles each one made an Article of the Creed or that they formed and tyed men to just the very same syllables and every word that is now in the Creed yet that they still kept to the same sense and words so expressing it as by their variation might not endanger the corrupting of the faith by a new sense is certain from the nature of the case and from the Agreement of all the antient Creeds which were ever professed at baptism from their dayes that cited by me Append. to the Reformed Pastor out of Irenaeus two out of Tertullian that of Marcellus in Epiphanius that expounded by Cyril that in Ruffinus the Nicene and all mentioned by Usher and Vossius agreeing thus far in sense And no one was baptized without the Creed professed 6. As Christ himself was the Author of the Baptismal Creed and Covenant so the Apostles were the Authors of that Exposition which they then used and taught the Church to use And they did that by the Holy Ghost as much as their inditing of the Scripture 7. Therefore the Church had a Summary and Symbol of Christianity as I said before about twelve years before any Book of the New Testament was written and about sixty six years before the whole was written And this of Gods own making which was ever agreed on when many Books of the New Testament were not yet agreed on 8. Therefore men were then to prove the truth of the Christian Religion by its proper Evidences and Miracles long before they were to prove that every word or any Book of the New Testament was the infallible perfect Word of God 9. Therefore we must still follow the same Method and take Christs Miracles to be primarily the proof of the Christian Religion long before the New Testament Books were written 10. Therefore if a man should be
Ministers and serious Christians not only for Ceremonies but for holy practices of life Being under these apprehensions when the Wars began though the Cause it self lay in Civil Controversies between King and Parliament yet the thoughts that the Church and Godliness it self was deeply in danger by Persecution and Arminianism did much more to byass me to the Parliaments side than the Civil interest which at the heart I little regarded At last after two years abode in a quiet Garrison upon the Invitation of some Orthodox Commanders in Fairfax's Army and by the Mission of an Assembly of Divines I went after Naseby Fight into that Army as the profest Antagonist of the Sectaries and Innovators who we all then too late saw designed those changes in the Church and State which they after made I there met with some Arminians and more Antinomians These printed and preached as the Doctrine of Free Grace that all men must presently believe that they are Elect and Justified and that Christ Repented and Believed for them as Saltmarsh writeth I had a little before engaged my self as a Disputer against Universal Redemption against two antient Ministers in Coventry Mr. Cradock and Mr. Diamond that were for it But these new notions called me to new thoughts which clearly shewed me the difference between Christs part and Mans the Covenant of Innocency with its required Righteousness and the Covenant of Grace with its required and imputed righteousness I had never read one Socinian nor much of any Arminians but I laid by prejudice and I went to the Scripture where its whole current but especially Matth. 25. did quickly satisfie me in the Doctrine of Justification and I remembred two or three things in Dr. Twisse whom I most esteemed which inclined me to moderation in the five Articles 1. That he every where professeth that Christ so far dyed for all as to purchase them Justification and Salvation conditionally to be given them if they believe 2. That he reduceth all the Decrees to two de fine de mediis as the healing way 3. That he professeth that Arminius and we and all the Schoolmen are agreed that there is no necessity consequentis laid on us by God in Predestination but only necessity consequentiae or Logical but in Election I shall here suspend 4. That the Ratio Reatus in our Original Sin is first founded in our Natural propagation from Adam and but secondarily from the positive Covenant of God 5. That Faith is but Causa dispositiva Justificationis and so is Repentance These and such things more I easilier received from him than I could have done from another But his Doctrine of Permission and Predetermination and Causa Mali quickly frightned me from assent And though Camero's moderation and great clearness took much with me I soon perceived that his Resolving the cause of sin into necessitating objects and temptations laid it as much on God in another way as the Predeterminants do And I found all godly mens Prayers and Sermons run quite in another strain when they chose not the Controversie as pre-engaged In this case I wrote my first Book called Aphorisms of Justification and the Covenants c. And being young and unexercised in writing and my thoughts yet undigested I put into it many uncautelous words as young Writers use to do though I think the main doctrine of it sound I intended it only against the Antinomians But it sounded as new and strange to many Upon whose dissent or doubtings I printed my desire of my friends Animadversions and my suspension of the Book as not owned by me nor any more to be printed till further considered and corrected Hereupon I had the great benefit of Animadversions from many whom I accounted the most judicious and worthy persons that I had heard of First my friend Mr. John Warren began next came Mr. G. Lawson's the most judicious Divine that ever I was acquainted with in my judgement yet living and from whom I learned more than from any man next came Mr. Christopher Cartwright's then of York the Author of the Rabbinical Comment on Gen. chap. 1 2 3. and of the Defence of King Charles against the Marquess of Worcester Answers and Rejoinders to these took me up much time next came a most judicious and friendly MS. from Dr. John Wallis and another from Mr. Tombes and somewhat I extorted from Mr. Burges the answers to which two last are published To all these Learned men I owe very great thanks and I never more owned or published my Aphorisms but the Cambridge Printer stole an Impression without my knowledge And though most of these differed as much from one another at least as from me yet the great Learning of their various Writings and the long Study which I was thereby engaged in in answering and rejoyning to the most was a greater advantage to me to receive accurate and digested conceptions on these subjects than private Students can expect My mind being thus many years immerst in studies of this nature and I having also long wearied my self in searching what Fathers and Schoolmen have said of such things before us and my Genius abhorring Confusion and Equivocals I came by many years longer study to perceive that most of the Doctrinal Controversies among Protestants that I say not in the Christian World are far more about equivocal words than matter and it wounded my soul to perceive what work both Tyrannical and unskilful Disputing Clergie-men had made these thirteen hundred years in the world And experience since the year 1643. till this year 1675. hath loudly called to me to Repent of my own prejudices sidings and censurings of causes and persons not understood and of all the miscarriages of my Ministry and life which have been thereby caused and to make it my chief work to call men that are within my hearing to more peaceable thoughts affections and practices And my endeavours have not been in vain in that the Ministers of the Countrey where I lived were very many of such a peaceable temper though since cast out and a great number more through the Land by Gods Grace rather than any endeavours of mine are so minded But the Sons of the Coal were exasperated the more against me and accounted him to be against every man that called all men to Love and Peace and was for no man as in a contrary way And now looking daily in this posture when God calleth me hence summoned by an incurable Disease to hasten all that ever I will do in this World being uncapable of prevailing with the present Church disturbers I do apply my self to posterity leaving them the sad warning of their Ancestors distractions as a Pillar of Salt and acquainting them what I have found to be the cause of our Calamities and therein they will find the Cure themselves II. I Have oft taken the boldness constrainedly to say that I doubt not but the Contentions of the Clergie have done far more
more of the world to Quietness and Concord had not Satan the great enemy of Love and Peace seduced them to that Instrumental Means and way which will never consist with Concord It is that which Christ and his Apostles have done very much to prevent but the Devil even with all the sorts fore-mentioned hath much prevailed against their precepts The Grand case of the Christian World is WHAT IS THE TRUE CENTER and RULE OF CONCORD Could they find out this it would hold men of various tempers to it I. Christ first laid down the Description and Measure of Christianity in the Baptismal Covenant and ordained that all should be accounted Christians in foro Ecclesiae who by Baptism were solemnly devoted to him in a professed Belief and Covenant Dedication and Vow to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost These he would have called Christians or his Disciples and this is their Christening and so ever called in the Church 2. And next he made it his new that is Last and Great Command that All his Disciples should Love each other and live in eminent Unity and Peace which he accordingly wrought them to by the first pouring out of his Spirit Act. 2. 3. 4. II. The Apostles founding the Church in this Baptismal Vow or Covenant and mutual Love exhorted accordingly all the Baptized to Love each other and to Receive even the weak in faith but not to doubtful disputations Rom. 14. 15. Oft vehemently charging them to be of one mind and live in Love and peace and to beware of them as not serving Christ but their own bellies who were for Divisions 1 Cor. 1. 10 11. Rom. 16. 17. And though they came with pretences of ORDER WISDOM or PIETY such Good words and fair speeches were noted to be engines to deceive the hearts of the simple Rom. 16. 17. And whereas the objection seemed unanswerable How can they so agree who are of several judgements about Good and Evil Paul often warneth them to hold fast the form of sound words and summeth up as 1 Cor. 15. 1 2 3 4. the Articles of their faith and chargeth them that so far as they had attained they should walk by the same rule and mind the same things and if in any thing they were otherwise minded stay till God revealed the matter to them Phil. 3. He oft chargeth them to be of one mind and judgement thus far and to live in Love and Peace and to do nothing by strife and vain glory but in honour to preferr others to themselves and not to strive about words that profit not nor about unnecessary Questions seeing such disputings and strivings gender to ungodliness and fret like a Canker and pervert the hearers minds Yea he directeth the Pastors to edifie souls rather by a Teaching than a disputing way and to convince gainsayers by meek instructing opposers to see if thus God will give them repentance to the acknowledgement of the truth for the Minister or servant of the Lord must not strive Love is their work to be effected in others and Love must be their Principle and Love must be their mode and means even Loving others as themselves Oft are they called by Christ and his Apostles from masterly opinions aspirings and endeavours and to be as little Children and the servants of all and as stewards of Gods mysteries and helpers not Lords of the Churches faith and not to domineer over the flock of Christ but to oversee them not by constraint but voluntarily And what cannot be done by Light and Love is not to be done by them at all The Magistrate and not they must use the Sword but not to make men believers for he cannot And though Vossius and others have rendred Reasons enough to perswade us that the story of the twelve Apostles making each one an Article of the Creed is not credible nor that they shaped it in every word to the present form yet it is to me a certainty that the Apostles made and used the Creed for sense and substance as the very summary and test of Christianity long before any Book of the New Testament was written about twelve years and almost sixty six before the whole For 1. It is certain that all Christians were Baptized 2. It is certain that they then professed to Believe in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and to Covenant accordingly renouncing the flesh the world and the Devil 3. It is certain that the Apostles and Pastors laboured to make men understand what they did and would not delude them by taking the bare saying of these three words 4. And it is certain that the Pastors altered not the Christian faith but taught the same for substance to all that were baptized 5. And it is certain that should men have taken much liberty to use new words or forms at Baptism in opening the faith it might easily have corrupted the faith and introduced a new doctrine 6. And it is certain by Church History that though some variety of little words was used yet this same Creed for substance except the two or three clauses mentioned by Usher and Vossius was commonly used at Baptism from the dayes of the Apostles 7. And we find yet that this Creed is nothing else but the explication of the three Baptismal Articles of which see Sandford and Parker two Learned Non-conformists in their very Learned Treat de Descensu Christi at large 8. And it is certain that if the Apostles did take this course so many years before they wrote any of the New Testament they did this as well as that by the Holy Ghost and so that the Holy Ghost seconding Christs own Baptismal Law or Instituted test did make the Creed to be the summary of the Christian Belief twelve years before we had any Book of the New Testament and about sixty six as is said before we had them all And then it will appear what is Gods appointed test of Christianity Communion and special Love All which considered though I think it is the truth which I long ago wrote against a Treatise of a Learned man Mr. Ashwell in the Append. to the second Edition of my Reformed Pastor yet I publish my Repentance that ever I wrote it as fearing lest it occasioned the turning of mens minds from this great truth which he and I agreed in and which I find few consider as it deserveth But the Gnosticks began the corrupting game and by pretences of higher knowledge spoiled men by vain Philosophy which engaged the Apostles to cry them down and to warn all Christians to take heed of being so spoiled and to vilifie arbitrary Philosophical notions tricks and vain janglings as likely to draw them from the simplicity of Christianity And the certain truth is that he knoweth neither the Interest nor the Ignorance and weakness of man nor the nature of Knowledge who doth not know that the frailty and employments of mankind are such as that there never
after him and find him though he be not far from every one of us For in him we live and move and have our being For we are also his off-spring Act. 17. 25 26 27 28 29. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek For the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him For whoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved But have they not heard Yes verily their sound went into all the earth and their words unto the ends of the world Rom. 10. 12 13 18. Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long suffering not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to Repentance Who will render to every man according to his deeds To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality Eternal life Glory honour and peace and to every man that worketh Good to the Jew first and also to the Greek For there is no respect of persons with God For not the hearers of the Law are just before God but the doers of the Law shall be justified For when the Gentiles which have not the Law do by Nature the things contained in the Law these having not the Law are a Law unto themselves which shew the work of the Law written in their hearts their Consciences also bearing witness and their thoughts in the mean while accusing or else excusing one another In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel If the uncircumcision keeps the righteousness of the Law shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision He is a Jew which is one inwardly and circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit and not in the letter whose praise is not of men but of God Rom. 2. SECT III. Of Christ's Incarnation and our Redemption 36. In the fulness of time God sent his Son made of a Woman made under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law Rom. 4. 4. But not them only for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Joh. 3. 16. He was made sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him He redeemed us from the Curse of the Law being made a Curse for us For he is the Saviour of the world and the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world He is the Propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole world 1 Joh. 2. 2. For he tasted Death for every man Heb. 2. being the Saviour of all men but especially of those that believe 1 Tim. 4. 10. For if one dyed for all then were all dead And he dyed for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him that dyed for them and rose again 2 Cor. 5. 14 15. 37. As the eternal Word and Wisdom of the Father in his Divine nature only was the interposing Redeemer by undertaking before his Incarnation and governed the faln world by the fore-described Law of Grace so upon his Incarnation initially and upon his performance plenarily all things are delivered into his hands even all the world so far as it was defiled and cursed by Man's sin Man as the Redeemed the Creatures as his utensils and goods and Devils as his and our Enemies All Power in Heaven and Earth was given him Matth. 26. 19. Joh. 13. 1 3. and 17. 2 3. All judgment was committed to him and the Father judgeth no man but by him But hath given him to have life in himself and to raise the dead Joh. 5. 22 23 24 25. For he hath made him Head over all things to his Church Eph. 1. 22 23. And for this end he dyed rose and revived that he might be the Lord of the dead and the living Rom. 14. 9 10. For God hath exalted him and given him a name above every name that in the name of Jesus every knee should â—ow Phil. 2. 7 8. And as in Adam all die even so in Christ shall all be made alive 1 Cor. 15. 22. 38. Christ upon his Incarnation performed but what God had Decreed before the foundations of the world and had obscurely and generally promised after the fall at the first making of the Covenant of Grace Which Decree of God is after the manner of men called by some a Covenant between the Father and the Son especially because the Prophets have sometimes as Isa 53. described it by way of prediction as a Covenant between the Father and Christ incarnate If we conceive of it properly under the notion of a Decree first and a Promise after unto the world so the Will and Mercy of God the Father and Son with the Holy Spirit are the cause of mans Redemption Pardon and Salvation even the fundamental Principal total Cause And the Promise was man's security and Christ as promised was the primary great meanâ— which was to procure us the rest by doing that upon the fore-sight and fore-decree whereof God did before-hand pardon and save Sinners But if you had rather mention it as in the form of a Covenant which before the Incarnation must be improperly taken being only of God to himself or a promise of and to Christ as to be incarnate then the undertaking of the Father and the Son herein must be carefully distinguished and described The Father giveth up to Christ as Redeemer the whole lapsed cursed reparable world the several parts to several uses and especially his chosen to be eventually and infallibly saved and promiseth to accept his Sacrifice and performance and to make him Head over all things to his Church and by him to establish the Law of Grace in its perfect Edition and to give him the Government respectively of the Church and world and to Glorifie him for this work with himself for ever And the second person undertaketh to assume man's Nature to do and suffer all that he did in perfect obedience to his Fathers Will and Law of Redemption to fulfill all Righteousness conquer Satan and the world to suffer in the flesh and be a Sacrifice for sin and to conquer Death and teach and rule and purifie and raise and justifie and glorifie all true believers 39. Before the Incarnation Christ's future death and obedience being * * * Eadem suit sides in antiquis patribus modernis qui alio modo credebant in specialia alia credibilia quam nos Immo aliquid eredebant quod nunc est salsum Alliaco in 3. q. 1. not existent were no real existent Causes in themselves of men's Justification But that Wisdom which foresaw them and that Will of God which Decreed them as such and not they without that fore-sight and Decree as existent were the cause 40. Nor were they either before
si in Ecclesia Christi ut talis est aliquae leges judiciales siâ—t necessariae ad politicum regimen Ecclesiasticum quod suo modo spirituale est nihilominus noluit Christus dominus per se ipsum illas leges ferre sed id Vicariis suis commisit potestatem ad illas ferendas eis tribuendo Et ideo illae Leges non sub Lege Divina sed sub canonica computantur Prâ—prie igitur loquendo de Lege divina nova in illa non inveniuntur praecepta judicialia So that Christ never made the Papacy nor any of its Laws But indeed he appointed Baptism as our Church-entrance and more than a Ceremony and the state of Câ—uâ—ch Officers and their work and discipline Mat. 18. And what his Spirit did in the Apostles he did in another sort than he doth by any ordinary Ministers that have but the Spirits ordinary help b b b Aquinas and many other Papists â—oyn with some late Secâ—aâ—ies and say that it 's the Spirits Operation on the Heart that is the Lex nova and that it is not written But he could not deny but that yet the Gospel is Lex nova Scripta But falsly de nomine taketh this but for the secondary sense of the lâ—x which is the first and that the obliging Law and the other the effects of it as various as persons are that have it and not the Rule of Obligation And else-where I have shewed also de Lege natura As to the question Whether Christ's Law be exterior insignis vocal and written or in the Heart by the Spirit Suarez truly saith That lex imperans is in signis in Scripture words but lex impellens is the Spirit which though here the chief yet is not properly but metaphorically called a Law pag. 819. li. 1. in principio Though he add that it was eight years before the Gospel was written by Matthew and longer by the rest and that all that time and since it is written in the Heart But memory may retain a vocal Law before the Heart by love and subjection do receive it 61. In this Law or Covenant is made a free universal Deed of Gift of Christ first and of Pardon Spirit and Glory in and by him to all Mankind without exception who will believingly accept it in its true nature as it is offered therein Or If they will so accept it as Believers 62. This Covenant is to be preached by Christ's Ministers and men invited to believe and consent And all that so do are to profess that consent by a solemn Covenant in their Baptism and so to give up themselves devotedly to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost renouncing the Devil Flesh and World 63. For Faith in God the Father is as essential a part of that Faith which we must profess in Baptism and is called commonly justifying as Faith in Christ is And so is Faith in the Holy Ghost in its place For it is not possible to believe in Christ without believing first in God to whom he is the way and with whom he is our Mediator nor to believe in him fully as Christ unless we believe in him as giving us the sanctifying Spirit 64. This Covenant is nevertheless free as to the donation of the Gifts for being conditional For the Condition is not the purchase procurement by efficient causality or any way a proper cause of the Gift as given but only a dispositive cause of our reception of it and of the Gift as received It is a removens prohibens The Condition as imposed and as the mode of the Promise is only a suspension of the Donation and Right till it be performed The Condition as performed is a removing the suspension And so it is a receiving cause which is but dispositio materiae receptivae of which more in due place 65. And the Gift is nevertheless free because the Condition is but such as is morally-antecedently necessary to the reception of free Gifts For though physical Donation oft make its own way and pre-require not such Conditions as these at least yet moral Donation by Deed of Gift supposeth that the person will receive it and despising or unthankful refusal or turning it against the Donor nullifieth such a Donation in the Civil Laws of men 66. And the Benefits are nevertheless conditionally given though the Spirit of Christ cause us to perform the Condition For they are called conditional from the mode or form of the Covenant which giveth men Right to Christ and Life expresly on condition of believing 67. Though this believing be sometimes described as the assent of the Intellect and sometimes as the consent of the Will and sometime as a practical affiance trusting Christ as a Saviour to save us with Soul and Body to the renouncing and letting go all other trust Yet when ever Justification and Life is promised to Faith all these three are the essential parts of it 68. The clearest discovery of the true nature of Gods Covenant with man and of that Faith by which we partake of the benefits of it is in Baptism it self which hath ever been the entrance of men into Gods Covenant as consented to and mutual and so into a visible state of Christianity and membership of Christ and the Catholick Church And therefore it is happy for us that Christ so expresly delivered the form of the Baptismal Covenant and the Universal Church hath so safely in her practice kept it 69. This Baptismal Covenant which is conditional and the consent to which doth make us Christians must be still distinguished from the Covenant between the Father and Christ or his Law of Redemption And God promiseth not to us all that he promiseth to Christ for us nor giveth all to us which he giveth to him 70. And it must be distinguished from Gods meer Predictions concerning his Elect that he will call them renew them and save them or if those Predictions run in the form of a Promise either as they are promises to Christ concerning the Elect or as promises to the Church in general how God will perfect it still they give no man a Law-Title or Right to any of the Benefits till he is a Believer They justifie and pardon no man And so they must not be confounded with the Baptismal Covenant which is Gods stated Instrument of Justification and of Government and the Law by which he will Judge us at the last 71. This Baptismal Covenant is the character and test by which we must judge who are Christians and members of the Catholick Church of Christ and not by their Subjection to a pretended vicarious universal Monarch And this is the character with consent to his relation there by which every mans fitness for membership in a particular Church must be judged of And not by other Covenants besides that consent and proofs of Conversion not here included And this containeth the true Characters by which every man may know himself
habitually more hated than loved there sin is habitually repented of And for my part I do not think that person is unjustified or should be damned if he so dyed 288. And I believe that this was the case of David and Peter And it s very improbable that they lost the very habits of love to God and hatred of Sin 289. The other degree of Mortality the said Divines take to be some heinous Act of Sin like David's or Peter's which destroyeth not the habit but is so great that the person though he lose not his fundamental Right yet is put into an immediate ineptitude and incapacity of Heaven and his Right so suspended as that he cannot have possession That Grace and Mortal Sin opponâ—ntar privative sicâ—t lâ—x tâ—nâ—brae c. â—id Careres Sum. Theol. 2. â— pag 23 c. till that obex be removed by true repentance 290. If you ask them whether that man shall go to Heaven or Hell if he so die they tell you that it is not to be supposed for God hath decreed that he shall not so die but shall repent which Austin will say of all the Elect and sometime he half dreamed of Purgatory for some such 291. The true reason why such a heinous sin must be actually Repented of before full pardon and capacity for Heaven and the true note to know what sins must have such actual Repentance and so are thus fâ—â— Mortal is this there are some Sins so easily known to be Sins and so notoriously calling the Conscience to Repent that to lye in them unrepented of long when the sudden violent temptation and passion 's over and a man hath opportunity to act according to his setled habits will not consist with the truth of such a Habit of love and holiness and of hatred of Siâ— So that though necessitate praecepti the Act of Repentance be as necessary as the Habit yet necessitate medii ad salutem it is the Habit that is absolutely necessary in se and the act so far as the absence of it cannot stand with such a habit This is my judgment of this difficult case He that can open it better deserveth all our thanks But here the difficulty is exceeding great what love to God that is which mortal Sin or ungodliness is inconsistent with or by which a man may know that he hath saving Grace I have contented my self hither-to with saying that It is a loving God above all But that is still dark and short of satisfaction Adrian after Pope 6. Quolib 7. q. 3. 4. fol. 45 46. hath called me to distincter thoughts He concludeth 1. A man that loveth a friend less than himself may yet Sin mortally for that friend But that is no wonder because 1. He loveth his friend and self more thaâ— God 2. And thinketh that he hurteth not himself so much as he profiteth his friend by Sin 2. He inferreth that a Mortal Sinner doth not always love the Creature more than God because he that loveth himself more may Sin mortally in love to his friend For as a man may love himself more than the sole end for which he sinneth So he may love God more Ans I suppose it is mis-printed for the sence should be He may love God more But 1. I doubt of the antecedent That Sinner loveth himself as the End of his sinning for his friend For it is to gratifie that proud or selfish humour by which he loveth his friend for the Likeness Love or Usefulness of that friend to himself and so his love is finally for or to himself 2. When he sinneth he doth not practically think that the hurt to himself or the wrong to God is so great an evil as the pleasure of Sin is good But his instance more poseth me viz. that a mortal Sinner or ungodly man may choose rather to be annihilated and his friend too than Christ should be blasphemed by all the world or than God per impossibile should perish or lose his Omnipotency c. for some Romans dyed for their Countrys Therefore he concludeth that Thus to love God above our selves or all is not enough to Salvation but we must also love God above all ut sinem ultimum qui sit ratio mensura diligendi caetera Ita viz. quod omnia refer at homo in Deum nolitque am are nisi quantum Deo placuerit eadem velit abdicare perdere ut satisfaciat divino beneplacito Sanctae ejus voluntati ut sit ei quantum ad amorem liberum attinet Deus omnis in omnibus dicat vivo jam non ego sed Christus vivet in me against it He must not only so love God as that he would die rather than God should die or suffer were it possible but so as to love him as the end of all our lives and to love the pleasing of his blessed Will in the glorifying of him better than all things that can stand in any competition And I think this to be a necessary truth I dare not say that every man is Godly that had rather die than God or the Sun or the Earth or his Country should perish God's Being is not as such our End But his Will or his Essence as it is his Will is the Beginning Governour and End of all And it is the Pleasing of this Will of God in the Glory of our holiness and obedience in which his holiness and other perfections are resplendent which must be loved above all As a man may choose to die or at least lose all that he hath rather than his Father should die or be for ever tormented and yet will not forbear fornication and drunkenness to please his Father's will because he practically thinketh that the bare displeasing of his Father doth not so much hurt him as his sinful pleasure doth himself good so is it in the present case And I may add that God is not loved as God that is as perfectly holy and just in governing the world and him by any bad man But as he is the God and Preserver of Nature Nature may love him but not as he is a most holy Governour which is essential to the Relative notion of our God He concludeth therefore truly That this true sort of Love to God doth put us in a state of Salvation and Mortal Sin consisteth not with it But I agree not with him of the Impossibility of being certain that we have this Love though I think his words worth the reciting to prove the difficulty of it fol. 47. N. O. P. Dico quod licet possit probabilem conjecturam habere quod act us ille dilectionis insit non tamen potest evidenter cognoscere pro certo Quomodo enim scire poterit quod it a Deo se totum infundit propter se i. e. bonitatem Sanctitatem ejus â—t nec Vitam aeternam nisi in Deo propter Deum diligat animo paratus
I mean not only Whether some other acts as Intellectual perception and belief be not in order of nature before it and in time with it and real parts of the same new creature but also Whether aâ— Alvarez and others say there be not such a divine motion or Impulse on the soul tending to this love and antecedent to love it self in nature love being an effect of Gods will and mâ—â—s which Jâ—â—sâ—nius denyeth But 4. If it be not so but really love be the first effect of God on the soul then the controversies are all at an end about the difference of sufficiâ—â—t and effectual equal and unequal grace For then it would be as Jaâ—senius saith and there is no grace but the effect it self and so there would be no question but Whether all men love God and all alike But I yet believe that there is soe preparatory grace of Christ which tendeth to the love of God XVI I believe that the will is the prime seat of Morality and that love or complacency is as the spirit of all saving special grace But yet it is ill said that Christs grace is necessary only to love or delight For the soul of man hath three faculties which must be conjunctly sanctified viz. Vital active power Intellect and Will and sin is in all And the Spirit reneweth them by a threefold effect Vivification Illumination and Conversion or love And hatred of sin and fear of sinning and of God are graces of Christ also as are obedience patience c. though below love 2. There is an Analogical good that is done by self-love and fear which hath a tendency to mans recovery though not such good as is true holiness and hath a promise of salvation XVII I. Here we come to a difficult case 1. Whether indeed any ungodly man or Infidel do love God sincerely amore amicitiae propter se The doubt is because to love him less than sinful pleasures and the creature seemeth to be a loving him as less amiable or good And to love him as such is not to love him as God nor indeed to love God but an Idol of the imagination I think we must say 1. That no man loveth God adequately for no man hath an adequate conception of him 2. But yet that there are some essentials of such true love as is necessary and suitable to our dark and weak condition which all must have that will be saved either distinctly or confusedly As to know and love him as the Infinite Spirit the first cause and last end of all most powerful wise and good our Owner our Ruler and our Benefactor and chief good Father Word and Spirit the Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier the Author of Nature Grace Glory 3. That no wicked or unholy person truly loveth God thus viz. As his own Governour to make him holy and save him from the Flesh and World and as the Author of those holy Laws by which he governeth and a righteous Judge according to those Laws 4. Therefore Jansenius's little sincere Love in sensual men is but a love of aliquid Dei somewhat of God and not properly of God as God speaking of God as the object of love it self 5. Yet the same person may have all the â—orâ—said Notions of a Deity and may notionally call them all good and laudable but his Practical Judgement is not such of God as his holy Governour Judge and End as to bring him truly as such to love him 6. Yet this may be called a Love of God analogically as he is said to love the King who loveth him as great and good to the Common-wealth though not as a governing restrainer of his lusts By this I would have that explained which I have said of this subject in my Saints Rest II. But here I am at â— further loss Did he mean that this love called sincere is in none but those that are saved oâ— not As I said before If he did then a common Drunkard Adulterer c. may have this love and be saved But I suppose he meant Negatively And if so methinks hence all his opposition to sufficient Grace turneth back upon himself And to him it may better be said Why do you feign Christ and the Holy Ghost to give men such a Grace such a Love to God as no man ever was or will be saved by without more Is it any more dishonour to Christ to give men some such Power to do some more good â—han actually they do as Adâ—m had to have continued innocent than effectually to give so many persons sincere love which shall never save theâ— Whether these be they that he will adjudge to Purgatory I know â—â— If so he will stretch the rank of Venial sins to those that other men call Mortal III. But yet my greatest difficulty remaineth I am in doubt Whether he that denyeth common sufficient grace and extendeth the grace of Christ seemingly but to few do not really either make it the same thing with Nature or extend it to all For I suspect that all or almost all men on earth till they have sinned themselves into diabolical desperate malignity have this which he calleth Amor amicitiae and sincere imperfect love to God and Justice For Intellectus est Entis veri intellectus Voluntas est Boni Good apprehended such is the Wills necessary natural object And a simple complacency in apprehended good is the wills first necessary act Nature telleth man that there is created goodness and that the Creator who giveth it must needs have more than all his creatures And nature tells men that the World or millions are better than one person and their good to be preferred And how can it be then that he that taketh the World to be so much better than himself and God to be better that is more amiable than all the World should not have the least simple complacency in thinking of him All men take Wisdom and Goodness and Beneficence for amiable And they that believe that God hath most of these must needs have some Love to him not only as good to them but as most excellent in himself Insomuch that as Adrian the sixth before cited saith in some sort a bad man may love God better than himself and he is scarce worthy the name of a man that would not rather be annihilated or wish that he had never been born than that there were no World or no God if per impossibile he supposed he could live without them And if you tell every man that he hath that sincere love to God which is Gratia Christi who hath the least love to God and Justice propter se though he have more love to his fleshly interest and sinful pleasures I doubt you will not much differ from Pelagius and will have no way left but to say that it is not of Grace by Christ that Nature is reprieved and supported Or at least that this is of a common
sort of grace We may presume of many things as received from our Teachers but it is hard to prove that Adam the next moment after his sin was totally deprived of all degrees of love to God and goodness and so was privatively as bad as Devils or that all mankind are naturally so Though I believe that it was of grace even Gods first pardoning act as our Redeemer not so totally to execute the Law nor take away his grace and leave man to the utmost penalty of his sin but to keep nature from being as bad as else it would have been But sure Man is Man still and not a Devil And I speak with few or none that seem not to have some liking of God and goodness or Justice as such though they love not God or goodness as contrary to their fleshly lusts nor love God as their Sanctifier and Ultimate End And thus the Carnal Mind is Enmity to God being not subject to his Law though this be consistent with loving him secundum quid IV. I believe him that there is a faith such as the Devils which may be without Justification both in habit and act But that the same Faith which after justifieth can be many years Habitually before Justification that is Sanctification as he meaneth it I believe not Seeing God hath promised that all that believe thus shall be justified and have his Spirit V. Jansenius seems to me to set too light by Habitual Grace as if it were some common thing in comparison of the Act Whereas I take a Habit of love to God to differ from an act either as a Spring or Rivolet from a drop or as Honesty from an honest act or Learning from a learned exercise or as a fixed friendly Inclination which is like to Nature differeth from a friendly action and to be more excellent than a particular act XVIII His judgement of the Matter of the Reward that it is but God himself seen and perfectly loved for himself is of great use But yet it is both lawful and ex individuationis principiis ex natura humana necessary that we take and desire this as our own felicity and so under God intend our selves And quoad rationem praemii it is the Reward of a Rewardable state or work and therefore of the free act of a creature not meerly necessitated It may be a gift without Respect to our Liberty and Obedience but not a reward But it is both a gift and a Reward XIX That Fear and its effects are good and yet not of Christs grace that they are of Gods Spirit but not the Spirit given by Christ but the grace of some other Providence All this I take for unsound and injurious to Christ and grace Where doth the Scripture tell us since the fall of any grace given to the World but by the Redeemer who is Head over all things to his Church If you say that God can give men the grace to fear him and depart from evil without a Saviour or Mediator how can you prove that he may not do so by the rest Either he giveth this grace as Rector according to his Laws or not If not then on the same reason you may feign that most men are not his subject nor under any Law of God and so sin not nor are punishable If yea then it is according to the Law of Innocency or of Grace For if Moses Law as Jewish be called a third it is nothing to our case If it be by a Law of grace it is Christs Law either of the first Edition called the Promise or of the second called the Gospel The Spirit and grace in various measures given by both are of Christ It 's a dangerous assertion that there is any yea so much grace which is not Christs It prejudiceth me against Jansenius's Opinion that it should cast him on such absurdities as to deny so much of the grace of Christ while he pretendeth to honour it and to set up such a feigned way and sort of grace without a Saviour and yet speak so hardly of the Pelagians as he doth for wronging grace 2. As Fear is one of mans natural passions though but subservient to love so the sanctifying of it is one part of the Work of Christs Spirit 3. I am sure Christ himself commandeth Fear Luke 12. 4 5. Heb. 4. 1. 12. 28 29. passim And is it our own Legal Righteousness to obey the commands of Christ Indeed if Fear were all or had no conjunct hope and love it would be Legal and shew the Spirit of bondage from which Christ delivereth us by the Spirit of Power and Love and a sound mind which are the fruits of the Spirit of Adoption For Moses Law separated by the Infidel Jews from the Law of Grace or Promise of a Justifying Mediator could have no better effects than Fear But Abraham that believed and foresaw Christs day rejoyced in that Faith and yet had a Law of obedience which had its penalty and so hath the Law of Grace which we obey XX. Of Free-will I have said enough before Natural Liberty as distinct from the Moral freedom from sin and ill disposition is sure more than meer Voluntariness And I think if God gave Satan or man power to take away from a Saint all his Habitual and Actual love of God and goodness whilest antecedently the person did hate such a change and pray against it by making him willing of evil and making a Devil of him remedilesly he would take away or cross the Natural as well as the Moral Liberty of his will though it were Willingness that were caused If any think otherwise remember that it is but de nomine for de re we are agreed that such a change would be our great misery XXI I take it to be the commendation of Jansenius that he renounceth the Dominicans Physical Efficient Predetermining Premotion as naturally necessary to all actions natural and free But his habitation converse and worldly interest tempted him factiously to calumniate Calvin lest he himself should become odious with his own party and so miss of his expected success which hath prevailed also with Gibieuf Arnoldus and most other Papists to do the like when they differ from their Brethren XXII He well saith that Permission of the first sin is no effect of Reprobation But his ordination of Gods acts into this Before and that After and so his differencing the Election of Angels and men I fear hath somewhat in it presumptuous and unproved In conclusion I much mislike in Jansenius 1. His contempt of the Sacred Scriptures as being not properly Christs Laws but some odd occasional Writings his Laws being only in the heart and tradition 2. His slighting of Habitual Grace comparatively which yet is indeed Christs Law and Gods Image in the heart 3. His â—eigning a new or odd sort of grace fear which is none of the grace of Christ no not preparatory to his higher
much as that the form exist C. Dr. Twisse saith No. B. And if it were but the Act that existed doth not Gods Law make it sin by forbidding it and so cause the Essence C. Yes B. And if you say that God willeth the existence of the form of Sin why say you that he doth not cause it Is not his Will effective or is it any more contrary to his Holiness to cause it than to will or love it C. He causeth the existence but not the form or existence B. What jugling is this in such tremendous matters 1. What is it to cause the form but to cause that it exist To cause it to be is all the causing that it can have 2. And you confess that Gods Law by forbidding it maketh it sin in specie when it existeth Remember that you say that it is not only the matter but the form of sin which God willeth and causeth to exist And is it not a contradiction to call it evil and yet say that God willeth it when his Will is the Rule of Goodness C. It is not evil to God but to us B. So Dr. Twisse saith And to be evil to us even mans sin or damnaâ—â—â—n is not evil to God And so God is the great Lover of Sin and Damnation But why then is he said to hate it And is it not an Enemy to God and contrary to his Holiness Why did Christ die for that which God so loved C. Sin is nothing and therefore God causeth it not B. 1. Relations and Privations have their Causes and so hath Sin 2. Else man cannot be condemned for causing it The Synod of Dort and Reformed Churches teach no such Doctrine But it â—â— such as you that tempt the Arminians to revile them and say that you describe God in the shape of the Devil and much worse as loving and causing sin and misery more than he that so the love of God may be extinguished C. I think we must leave these Mysteries to God B. But good Brother though I have stopt your mouth and censures of your Brethren in this and such matters do you expect that every â—onest Christian must be able to discuss all your Logical Fallacies or else go with you for unsound and heterodox And have you dealt fairly by the Church of God to borrow from the School-men such snares for mens Consciences And must every man be perswaded that God is the greatest lover and willer from eternity of every wicked Act that is not able to answer your smoaky Sophisms about futurition and its eternal cause with such like I tell you the Serpent hath beguiled us as Eve and turned men from the simplicity that is in Christ C. I pray briefly give me the sum of what you drive at B. The sum is That though every Party and almost every person of each Party have odd notions of his own and peculiar weapons to wound his Brothers Reputation with and militate against Love and Concord and manifest the Pride of his self-conceited Understanding yet all sober Christians I think are agreed in all this Controversie of Gods Decrees in all that is truly necessary to our brotherly love and peace That is All grant that God decreed to do all that he doth and to give all the Grace and Mercy which at any time he giveth whether to all or some And that he absolutely and properly decreed no more But improperly he may be said to will an event in tantum when he willeth only to do so much or so much which naturally conduceth towards it though he know that it will never come to pass But what it is that God actually doth or giveth in time is all the controversie which is to be spoken of in the third Chapter And were it not for your tenaciousness of contentious notions I needed to have said no more than these few words here of Gods Decrees THE Third Days Conference With an ARMINIAN of Universal and Special REDEMPTION A. The second Article of our Difference is so fundamental and â—omen tous and our distance so great that I cannot believe that you can say any thing sufficient to reconcile us B. They that study Controversie as such are apt every where to finâ— matter of Quarrel and weapons of Contention but they that seeâ— peace do find out the terms and means of peace as sure and easie in them selves which Contenders cannot see Tell me in a word Are not all Parties agreed that Christ by his Merits and Sufferings procured for men all mercies which he giveth them â—â—â—â— and no more but as he may be said to procure them that which he offereth and bringeth to their choice which is properly to procâ—re them that offer or the benefit as offered A. Yes I think both sides will grant this that he purchased all that he giveth and absolutely or fully no more B. Why then all the Controversie is what he giveth men and that belongeth to the third and fourth Articles And so I might dismiss this at the beginning but for your expectations But what is it that maketh you think the difference so great The first Crimination A. 1. The Calvinists and Synodists deny Christ's very Office as he is the Saviour of the World and the second Adam the Redeemer of Mankind and the Mediator between God and Man And all this they confine to a small part of the World * Malderus in 1. 2. q. 111. a. 3. d. 5. m. 1. p. 487. Non existimo opinionem illam Calvinisticam quae negat pro omnibus singulis Christâ—m mortuum esse tolerandam esse nec inter studiosos varitaris debere obtinere locum opinionem qui non perinde admittunt quod omnibus in Adamo lapsis iterum sit via salutis facta possibilis per Christum quod habeant per Christum in actu primo paratum vel in actu secundo datum sufficiens auxilium gratiae quo saltem media'e salvari possint c. B. Have you never read what Musculus hath written in Loc. Commun and Bullinger in his Decades for universal Redemption Have you not read the plain words of Calvin cited by Amyraldus in Defens Doct. Calvin though Petavius rail at him for it most furiously Have you not read the writings of Joh. Bergius Conrad Bergius Lud. Crocius Calixtus of Camero and his Followers at Saumers of Testardus Dallaeus Blondel's Preface c. for Universal Redemption Have you not read in the writings of Bishop Rob. Abbots Bishop Carelton Arch-bishop Usher Bishop Hall Dr. Sam. Ward c. their judgments for it Have you not read Bishop Davenant's excellent Dissertation for it de morte Christi Know you not that it was the judgment of Dr. Preston Mr. W. Whateley Mr. W. Fenner and many excellent Divines among us Know you not that Dr. Twisse himself I believe twenty if not forty times over in his Works saith That Christ so far died for all as to procure and give them
this to their own sense And do they not use such violence with Gods Word and their Consciences as that on these terms they may make their own Religion and believe what they list Do they not plainly shew that they take not their Faith from God but from their Teachers and believe as the Church believeth which they joyn with Had it been but one or two Texts or had they been obscurely uttered a good man might have thought that he must reduce their sense to the many and more plain But to oppugn the plain Gospel it self hath no exâ—use B. You are sharp against other mens Errors and other men against yours But I have proved to you that the Synod and the generality of the Protestant Churches in their Confessions deny not any thing which these Texts say They hold a common Redemption as well as you our very Children are taught in their Catechism distinctly to believe 1. In God the Father who made them and all the World 2. In God the Son who redeemed them and all Mankind 3. And in God the Holy Ghost who sanctifieth them and all the Elect People of God This is the good old Doctrine plain and true and that which Austin taught A. I am sure many of their Writers expresly oppugn common Redemption and even Jasenius the Papist who joyneth with them denieth it and saith that Augustine denied it Therefore we stand not to his authority B. 1. As for Augustine and some Protestants they oft deny that Christ redeemeth any but the Faithful because the word Redemption is ambiguous and sometimes taken for the price or ransome paid and often for the very liberation of the captive Sinner And when ever Austin denieth common Redemption he taketh Redemption in this last sense for actual deliverance But he asserteth it in the first sense that Christ died for all Yea he thought his death is actually applied to the true Justification and Sanctification of some Reprobates that fall away and perish though the Elect only are so redeemed as to be saved Read your self Augustine Prosper and Fulgentius and you will see this with your own eyes 2. I have oft told you it is our Protestant Confessions and not some singular or private Writers that you must know their Doctrine by 3. Even those few Writers differ more from you in terms than in sense For 1. Many of them will confess all the same benefits by Christ to men in common which you assert Few of them will deny that Salvation is tendered to all mens acceptance and brought to the choosing or refusing of their own Wills And you seem to them to say no greater matters as for the Elect. But they say that Christ purchased Faith it self for the Elect only of which in due place 2. And so with them the Controversie is 1. About Gods Decree or Intent of saving men by Christ 2. And of giving them Faith Tell me one word that you except against in the Synod in this Article A. I except against sect 8. where they say that Fuit hoc Dei patris liberrimum consilium gratiosissima voluntas atque intentio ut mortis pretiosissimae filii sui vivifica salvifica efficacia sese exereret in omnibus electis ad eos solos fide justificante donandos per eam ad salutem infallibiliter perducendos hoc est voluit Deus ut Christus per sanguinem crucis quo novum foedus confirmavit ex omni populo gente tribu lingua eos omnes solos qui ab aeterno ad salutem electi a patre ipsi dati sunt efficaciter redimeret fide donaret ab omnibus peccatis sanguine suo mundaret ad finem usque fideliter custodiret tandem absque omni labe macula gloriosos coram se sisteret B. Very good This is all in the Canons that you can except against And 1. You see that this is only about Gods Intention or Decree And so you differ not at all by your own confession in the Article of Redemption as distinct from that of the Decrees 2. Is it the inclusion of the Elect in this Intention that you except against So will no sober Jesuite Do you think that Christ was resolved certainly to justifie and glorifie no man at all The Semipelagians will not say so You say not so your selves Only some of you say it is but upon fore-sight of Faith and by the consequent will of which I have said enough before But do you think that Christ when he was on the Cross had no full purpose to save those infallibly * Episcopius in Institut Theol. li. 4. cap. 5. pag. 410. confesseth that the opinion of Election may consist with that of universal Grace which he propugned who he fore-knew would believe yea and to cause some men to believe Those that come to him are drawn by the Father and Faith is the Gift of God Ephes 2. 8. Who giveth us all things pertaining to life and godliness 2 Pet. 1. 3. Even to will and to do of his good pleasure Phil. 2. 13. To some it is given to believe Phil. 1. 29. But of this enough before 3. But I suppose it is only the word Solos in all the Canons that you except against And dare or will you say that God did absolutely intend and decree to sanctifie and glorifie all men by Christ or any one that is not glorified A. But their meaning is that all the rest which are most of the World are left out of Gods Election even unto sin and damnation meerly because God would so have it and not from any ill desert of theirs any more than was in the Elect which appeareth in that as Episcopius noteth †Instit Theol. l. 4. cap. 5. sect 5. p. 410. They that say the Fall or Sin is quid praevisum fore-seen in Reprobation yet deny that it is any * The Jesuites themselves as Vasquâ—z and many others ordinarily say that nothing in man can be any cause of Gods Decrees cause of Reprobation And then all cometh to one whether God reprobate a Sinner or an innocent person as to the cause B. You have nothing about Redemption I perceive still to controvert but about Gods Decrees If we must go back to them review your words and see how you cheat your selves into distast of you know not what by meer confusion for want of accurate Scholastick Heads I except not Episcopius himself notwithstanding men of his own measure think otherwise 1. Whereas you talk of leaving out either you mean non-Election or positive exclusion If the last it 's false not only the Scotists but some Protestants as Ferrius in Scholast Orthodox and others assert but a negation here And Davenant and the Synod assert but a negative Decree quoad objectum which is but as much as Arminius propugneth who while he maintaineth that God decreeth not sin but only his own permission of sin which is the Synods sense
in his first act of Faith is bound to believe that he is Elect or that Christ died for him any more than for lost Mankind But that he must first believe that Christ by his Death hath so far satisfied and merited for Mankind in general as to procure the universal conditional Gift of Christ Pardon and Life And that they must believe that this is procured for and offered to themselves as well as other Sinners And hereupon they are to accept this free Gift and so it is theirs What lye or unrevealed matter is in this or what difference about it among the Churches The sixth Crimination A. They disable Ministers rationally to preach the Gospel For if Christ died for none but the Elect and no Minister know the Elect they know not whom to offer and preach Christ to For the objective Gift must go before the offer And that which is to be offered to every Sinner is A Christ that hath already died and satisfied for him and not one that is to die and satisfie for him yet if he will believe Therefore the very offer is as much as to say Accept Christ as one that hath satisfied for thee And so they make the very preaching of the Gospel a lye to most B. I will not answer you as some that say they tell not men that they are Elect and that Christ died for them but that if they will believe then it is a sign that they are Elect and Christ died for them And they may offer him to all that some may accept him For I say as you do that it is a Christ that hath already made satisfaction and thereby is become a sufficient Saviour who is to be offered to men And the being of the Gift is before the offer of it in nature But I say again that you fight against straglers in a Cause which the Churches are not concerned in They say that it is a Christ who died for all as to sufficiency who is to be offered to men that he may efficiently save them The seventh Crimination A. They leave most men in the World as remediless as the Devils who had no Redeemer whereas God judgeth the wicked at last as Rejecters of his remedying Grace If Christ died not for them what differ they from the Devils in point of hope B. I will not answer you as some that though Christ died not for them yet they know it not and the offer differenceth their Case For still I confess that none is to be offered to men but a Christ that was already offered to God for them and hath made satisfaction But again I tell you that you fight with a shadow and feign the Churches to differ from you because some singular persons do so The eighth Crimination A. They harden men in impenitency for the most damning sin even denying the Lord that bought them For they tell all the Reprobates that they never sinned against a Christ that died for them B. All this is the old fiction and concerneth only some singular men The ninth Crimination A. They would exempt the Infidel World from much of the torments of Hell For he that in Hell knoweth that Christ never died for him especially adding that God unresistibly predetermined him to sin and unbelief cannot rationally have an accusing Conscience for his not accepting a Gift that never had a Being B. I will not repeat the same answer as oft as you call for it by the same false supposition Let them answer it that are concerned The tenth Crimination A. They teach the World abominable Ingratitude and reproachfully deny a great deal of the Grace and Mercy of Christ and the fruits of his Death and Sacrifice For they teach men that all the Mercies given to any besides the Elect were no fruits of the death of Christ for them nor were at all by him purchased for them yea that they are no Mercies to them at all because God eternally decreed that they should turn them into sin and suffer the more for the abuse of them for ever And so all the rest of the World may say that they are not at all beholden to the death of Christ for their Lives Liberties offers of Grace and all other Mercies B. Let them answer you that are concerned in the Charge The Reformed Churches hold That Mercy is to be judged of by its nature and tendency in it self and not by mans abuse and that God decreed no mans abuse of it and that all the Mercies given to Mankind since the forfeiture of all by Adam's sin are procured and given by Christ as the Intercessor and Redeemer of the World and that wicked men justly are deprived of life for rejecting it and suffer Hell for abusing Mercy and refusing Heaven The eleventh Crimination A. They are Anti-christian half-Infidels For they deny Christs Kingdom as to its far greatest part For when the Scripture telleth us That to this end he both died rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and living Rom. 14. 9. And that the Father hath committed all Judgment that is Government to the Son Joh. 5. 22. And given him all power in Heaven and Earth Matth. 28. 18. And that his dying for all obligeth all men not to live to themselves but to him that died for them 2 Cor. 5. And so that he hath by his death acquired a jus Dominii Imperii over all Mankind they deny him his Crown and Dignity even this Right of Dominion and Empire as Redeemer and deny the World to be obliged to subjection to him as their Redeemer And so make that Rebellion for which they shall perish Luke 19. 27. to be no sin B. The Protestant Churches hold all that you charge them with denying It 's a pitiful work to caluminate that you may divide Tell those singular men of all this that are guilty of it The twelfth Crimination A. They make Christ to come on so narrow a design into the World as if they would tempt Unbelievers to despise him Even to die for none in all the World for 4000 years save a very few of the little Country of Judaea which was mostly wicked and even since the Church was Catholick but for a few called the Elect. B. 1. If you and they differ about the conditions of Salvation say so and tell the World the difference If you do not but are agreed that it is Faith Repentance and Holiness what are all these Objections but fighting by fictions against Concord and Peace They never held that none out of Judaea were saved And how many in the World are holy Believers they pretend not to judge They believe that all that are holy are saved by Christ in all Ages and Nations of the World And that all the Order and Government and common Mercies of the World with the offers of Grace and Salvation to them that wilfully refuse it are all to be ascribed to the death and procurement
scope of the Gospel must not be reduced to your feigned sense of one obscurer Text. 2. But doth the Text tell us that he died not for the world as it tells us that he prayed not for them Or doth it tell us that he died for no more than he then prayed for Or rather are not these your own Inventions 3. But where doth the Text say that Christ never prayed for any but the Elect yea or that he prayed not at all for the world though he put not up that particular prayer for the world Look on the Text and you will see that he speaketh there only of the Disciples that followed him on Earth And that he prayed not in that Petition for all his Elect only And therefore he after addeth vers 20. Neither pray 1 for these alone but for them also which shall believe in me through their word And what was the prayer That they may be one and kept from the evil of the world which is a blessing peculiar to his Disciples But it is manifest that Christ had other prayers for the world even for many ungodly men yea for Reprobates For 1. On the Cross he prayeth for his Persecutors Father forgive them And it is mens own invention to say that he meaneth none but the Elect We must not unnecessarily limit where the Word limiteth not And Stephen made Christ his Pattern And it is gross fiction to say that Stephen prayed for none but the Elect. C. Doth not Christ say That his Father heard him always and can you imagine that he prayed for that which God denied him B. 2. My next Answer should have prevented that Objection which is that what God giveth to the World for Christ's sake that Christ may well be said to pray for For it is the fruit of his Mediation But God giveth much Pardon and many Mercies to the World for Christ's sake 1. He giveth them an Act of Oblivion of conditional pardon of the eternal punishment which Christ purchased and therefore prayed for * Ambros de Paradis c. 8. Venerat Dominus Jesus omnes salvos sacere peccatores etiam circa impios ostendere suam debuit voluntatem ideo nec proditurum debuit praeterire ut adverterent omnes quod in electione etiam proditoris suâ— servandorum omnium insigne praetendit Quod in Deo fuit ostendit omnibus quod omnes voluit liberare Nec tamen dico quia praevaricationem nesciebat futuram immo quia sciebat assero Sed non ideo pertuntis proditoris invidiam in se debuit derivare ut ascriberetur Deo quod uterque sit lapsus Chrysost Tom. 3. hom 9. de land Pauli Ipse quidem vult omnes salves sieri at non omnium voluntas ejus voluntati obsequitur neque ab to aliquis cogitur unde ad Jerusalem c. Deus paratus est ad salvandum hominem non involuntarium neque non volentem 2. He giveth them much Actual pardon of temporal punishments for Christ's sake All the Life Health Time Gospel Means and Mercies which ever he giveth them are such as deserved full punishment would have deprived them of And therefore they are all acts of executive pardon of that punishment 3. And this very Chapter containeth a prayer for the World viz. vers 21 23. That the World may believe and know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them If you say that by the World here is meant only the Elect I answer 1. Your word is no Proof 2. That they are prayed for to believe and know c. is no proof For many did believe that God sent Christ that yet were not saved This soundeth but as a common Act of Faith 3. And note that here the world is contradistinguished not only from Apostles but those after-mentioned that should believe by their word and it is prayed That the world may know that God loveth those that believe in him which may extend both to the Conversion of such as then are unconverted and to the conviction of others such as are the common members of the visible Church at least As the Spirit is sent to convince the world of Sin and Righteousness and Judgment 4. And it is not to be granted you without proof that by the World is meant all Reprobates as such For Judas is before distinguished from the World as one given to Christ when yet he was a Reprobate But either it may be the World of present Unbelievers whom Christ prayeth for else-where though not there Or the World of final professed Infidels and Enemies of the Church as distinct from both Elect and Reprobate in the Church And several expressions of Christ's before of the Worlds hating and persecuting his Apostles seem not applicable to every Hypocrite who prophesieth and casteth out Devils in his Name and perhaps suffereth for his Truth and excellently defendeth it and hath some love to Believers The fifth Crimination C. They make Christ to merit only Pardon and Salvation to Believers but not to have purchased Faith it self for any man And by that way no one that he died for would be saved For Faith is the necessary Gift of God And if Christ purchased not that all the rest would be in vain B. 1. Let us not here confound the Controversie de nomine de re That Christ died to purchase the Act of Faith for us is no Scripture-phrase so far as I know If therefore it be only the phrase which they refuse you may well bear with them But as to the matter they do not deny any of these things 1. That Christ is the Author and Perfecter of our Faith as Faith signifieth the Christian Religion or the Objects and Doctrine of Faith 2. That our own actual and habitual Faith is the Gift of God Though the controversies about the manner of giving it are to be afterward decided 3. That all that Christ giveth his Sacrifice procured and therefore it procured Faith All this is commonly granted by most School-men Papists Lutherans and moderate Arminians But 2. It must be considered that Christ did not die to purchase Faith as immediately and on the same account as to satisfie for Sin and purchase us impunity or Redemption The proper direct reason of his Sufferings was to demonstrate the Justice of God against Sin instead of mans own suffering for it and thereby to procure Pardon We may well conceive Christ promising to the Father as it were I will suffer for Sinners that they may not suffer But you will hardly describe his Undertaking thus I will die if thou will give men Faith or I will give thee so much of my Blood for so much Faith But because he knew that without Grace no man would believe and accept his Gift therefore he whose Sufferings were primarily satisfaction for Sin were secondarily meritorious of the means to bring men to the intended â—nd that is of the Word and Spirit by which Christ causeth Sinners to
hyperphysica qualem fieri fingit Chimera that is the Liber Concordiae non sine sensu quidem sed sine motu ut subjectum patiens convertibile eousque donec tantas accepit facultatis virium quibus agere possit moral Government of Men and Angels And his wondrous Love as the special Benefactor to the Vessels of Mercy Power Wisdom and Love or Goodness are never separated But each hath its eminent demonstration And the Omnipotent Father is most eminently glorified in his Power in the Creation and sustentation and motion of the Universe so the Son who is the Wisdom and Word of the Father and the Father in him is eminently glorified in his Wisdom in the Regency of the Intellectual World by a sapiential way of Government by Laws and Judgment And then steps up the physical Disputer and prophanely blasphemeth this honourable Work of God and calleth it moral Operation in contempt and thinks that unless God move man to every Volition as he doth the appetite of a Beast if not as we move a stone or shoot an Arrow he doth nothing and it is his reproach And to say that he can or did make a Creature that can freely will or not comparatively even by the Power and general Concurse of God they say is to feign him to make a God And so both the Honour of God as Creator is denied him and his Honour of sapiential Government is vilified It is an excellent Work of the Creator to make a free Agent in his own Image And it is a suitable and excellent Work as his King to appoint him his end and means and work and rule him by perfect Laws and Judgments In all which also he acteth as a Benefactor while he freely offereth him so glorious a Reward to which as Rector he would lead him And in that Relation will not be wanting unto him in any thing which perfect Regiment requireth * Of all this if the Reader please to peruse a very small book which I have written called A Vindication of Gods Love he may see more than I must here say But contrarily saith Bradwardine li. 2. c. 3. p. 614. Quam facile posset Deus si veilet tollere obicem sive actum Hujusmodi quoque obex ponitur a Deo antecedenter Quommodo ergo vult Deus conferre buic gratiam in quo parat obicem gratiam repellentem Vel si Deus non dat gratiam propter obicem resistentem ipse Deus scienter praecedenter causat hunc obicem quomodo ipse Deus non est causa non acceptionis gratiae salutaris I can hardly believe that they that thus take Sin and Hell to be nothing but the fruits of Gods good will do believe that either of them are so bad as Scripture doth describe them or so much to be hated or feared 3. Consider also that Divine Love the third Principle as it hath its common demonstration and glory in the Works of the Omnipotent Creation and in the Works of sapiential Regiment so hath it also its peculiar eminent demonstration on the Elect in their Grace and Glory or in their Holiness and Glory begun and perfected And it doth not follow that because this Love is eminently glorified on a peculiar treasure therefore there is no Glory in Gods other Works or no reason for them O that men had the wit to be humble and confess that God is wiser and better than they till they can come to more Wisdom to understand the Methods and Reason of his Works As God hath his Honour in making Stars as well as the Sun and Earth as well as Stars and Beasts as well as Men and Serpents and Toads as well as Birds and Clay as well as Gold so hath he his Honour in making a World of mutable defectible Intellectual free Agents Men as well as in making the confirmed Angels and in gracious sapiential Government of them all as well as in his extraordinary Beneficence and Love to his Elect. 4. And you must not feign the damnation of the Wicked themselves to be any such state as is inconsistent with the goodness of God to cast a Sinner into We know not perfectly what Hell is But as we know that it is the extreamest humane misery so we know that it is not at all worse than mens sins deserve And that when we come to Heaven we shall be perfectly satisfied of the Justice of God in mens damnation And though I say not melius est peccatori miserum esse quam non esse yet I will so far accord with worthy Dr. Twisse as to say that melius est peccatores miseros esse quam non esse Because else God would rather have annihilated them For God doth that which is best And his Wisdom and Will and Glory are fitter Rules of Meliority than the Will or Interest of Sinners And it seemeth by the Devils Kingdom and Conversation in the Air and on the Earth while yet they are in Hell and reserved in Chains of Darkness that their Hell is a state consistent with all that voluntary mischievous negotiation which they do And it 's like that though they have no Joy yet their Wills have some pleasedness in the mischief which they do as an angry and malicious man hath in revenge And we have no reason to believe that the Hell of the damned is any worse or more violent or irrational than the Hell of the Devils when they must go to that which was prepared for the Devils Matth. 25. But if I should but open to you the plain evidence of this truth how much of Hell consisteth in their sin it self in which undoubtedly they are voluntary though necessarily so by their own doing and desert it might tend yet more to the abatement of all disparaging and unbelieving thoughts of the Glory of Gods gracious sapiential Regiment of the World And to say that God could have made man better and given him more Grace is but as to say that he could have made Toads to be Larks and Beasts to be Men and Men to be Angels And what if he did not 5. And I again repeat what I have oft said that all this Earth is but a point next inconsiderable in the vast Universe And immeasurable spaces of those superior parts of the Creation are like to have proportionable Inhabitants for glory and number And we know that we are come to an innumerable Company of Angels Heb. 12. 23 24. And for ought we know God may have millions of blessed Spirits for one miserable wicked Soul Therefore we must not talk against that which we do not understand And if the Saints shall judge wicked Angels and the World judging being usually put for ruling and punishing we know not what hand we shall have our selves in the execution of Gods Wrath upon them and how far they shall be as Slaves to Saints C. You have said that I confess that tendeth to reconcile us all
so doing it was not a Will but bruitish Appetite B. The Understanding said truly It is pleasant and Appetible and so the Will in its initial desire sinned not But that it looked no further and excited not the Intellect to remember and it self to desire more to please God was by an abuse of its power and liberty of self-determining and so the sensible good prevailed because the superior good was forgotten and neglected And the Will may thus suspend its act after an intellectual perception without being bruitish though it so â—ar disobey Reason its guide C. These things are exceeding intricate and difficult for all that you say B. They are so * The same I say of objective and intellectual necessitation of the Will saith H. Kipping truly Inst Philos Nat. li. 9. c. 10. pag. 416. Errant Scholae reformatâ— doctores qui asserunt voluntatem ad actum suum determinari a judicio intellectus ita ut voluntatic libertas nulla sit constricta vero sit ad intellectus ductum a quo semper determinatur Joh. Camero Mart. Schogkius Hornbeck Maccovius Heerbord Hos prolixe bene refellit Episcopius But forget not that the great difficulty is between us and the Hobbists or Infidels and Fatists and not between the true Christians among themselves as to our present Controversies I confess that the confuting of their Opinion that all Volitions are necessitated unavoidably by Gods Operation is a far harder work than the reconciling of the Lutherans and Calvinists who go upon no such Principles Tell me Is this it that you would come to or not If you once perswade me that God causeth all sinful Volitions as necessarily as he causeth a Tree to grow and that man can no more avoid them and that liberty of Will signifieth no more than velle or not nolens velle and so that God is the prime irresistible cause of all Sin as much as of all Good so far as it is capable of a Cause I must needs next believe 1. That God hateth not his own Work yea that he loveth it 2. That he hateth no man for it 3. That moral Good and Evil is nothing in man but such as obeying or disobeying proportionably in a Horse or Dog 4. Yea far less because man doth â—ut as my pen which writeth as I move it in respect to God But so is not my Horse or Dog to me 5. And how then to judge of all the Scripture the Ministry of the Incarnation and Death of Christ of the Duties of a Christian life of Hell c. it 's easie to perceive viz. That as God differenceth Men and Toads meerly because he will do so even so doth he the good and the bad in the World and that Sin is no evil any way but to our selves and that God is as much the cause of it as of Sickness and is as well pleased with the Worlds Infidelity and Impiety as with the Churches Sanctity And that he will no otherwise damn men for Sin than erbitarily to make such baser than others as Dogs are than men Benedictus Spinosa hath given you the Consectaries more at large O how heartlesly should I preach and pray how carelesly should I live if once you brought me to this Opinion that all sin is the unresistible Work of God so far as it is a work as much as holiness is C. If there be no middle between Free-will and this Impiety as I confess I cannot disprove your Consectaries it's time for us to turn our studies against the common Enemies of all Religion and Morality instead of contending with one another specially when they have so much to say B. And do you think they do well and friendly by the Church who take these mens part and own their Cause in the foundation and entangle poor Souls in such intricate difficulties when we that know not the least of Gods Creatures or the mysteries of any of his Works do little know all the quick and intricate actions of our own Souls In a word man hath more power to good than he useth and that power is called sufficient or necessary Grace to the act though there be many difficulties which no one of either side can resolve The second Crimination C. But I fear many of them with Pelagius by GRACE do mean nothing So Dr. Twisse frequently repeateth that meeâ— posse credere is but Nature and not Grace because it is equally a posse non credere But 1. A natural power reprieved by Grace and preserved and given for gracious ends 2. And many and great helps of Grace to excite and rectifie it may be called an effect of Grace but Nature it self at least when they speak of the Heathens who they say have some kind of Grace B. Turn your eyes a little from the name of Pelagius and every thing else that useth to blind Disputers with prejudice and partiality and then answer me these following questions Quest. 1. Do you think that Mercy contrary to sinful Commerit is not properly Grace C. I confess it is B. Quest. 2. Is not the whole frame of Humane Nature and our Utensils put into the hand and power of Christ the Redeemer to be managed by him to his Mediatory ends Joh. 17. 2. Math. 28. 19 20. Joh. 13. 3. Ephes 1. 22 23. Phil. 2. 7 8 9 10 11 12. For this end he died rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the Dead and Living Rom. 14. 9. Joh. 5. 22 23 24. The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all Judgment to the Son c. And is not the very reprieval of the World from deserved ruine and misery so many thousand years an Act of Grace and Nature now continued used and improved by Grace and so far may be said to be of Grace C. This is plain truth and must not be denied B. Quest 3. Is it not undeserved Mercy to all Mankind that ever since Adam's Sentence Gen. 3. 15. they are all ruled by a Law of Grace and not the Law of Innocency alone and by that Law of Grace must all be judged C. If you before evinced that any thing is truly mercy to the Reprobate I must confess it But I have not before so much thought of this what Law the World is under as the case deserveth But I remember Camero in the fragments of his dispute with Courcellaeus taken by Testardus though he deny not that the Covenant of Grace was made with all mankind in Adam and Noah yet saith That by or for their nearer Parents sins the Infants of Infidels are out of that Covenant B. 1. It 's well you note that it is not only Augustine Enchir. ad Laâ—rent and I that are for the Imputation of nearer Parents sin in some Vid. Pet. Martyr in Rom. 5. confessing Augustine's judgment sort as well as Adam's 2. He speaketh there of the Covenant as mutual and not as a Law or an offered Covenant or Divine
What keepeth them from ever tasting of such sorrows at all C. Such reasons as I before named to you They know that I am a Husband and father and have natural affections not mad nor wicked but abhor such a thing and they know that my love daily causeth me to do them all the good I can and they see nothing to make them fear the contrary and such a Villany is not heard of in many Kingdoms in an Age. B. But they are as uncertain that they shall not by some heinous crime even the seeking of your death provoke you C. Men fear not that which their Judgments and Wills are so averse to and resolved against as that there is no probability of a Change B. You see then upon what terms the ancient Fathers even Augustine himself that denyed certainly of Salvation and the Martyrs and other Christians of their times and the most of the Christians now in the world do hold their comforts And that uncertainty of Perseverance overthroweth not all solid peace Q. 11. But doth not the exclusion of Certainty of present sincerity and Justification much more exclude Comfort than doth the exclusion of Perseverance alone C. Yes no doubt For to be sure that I am at present in a state of Leg. Jo. Gerhards To. 2. Tract 13. de Peccat act c. 19. n. 92 93 94 c. De differentia peccat Mort. Ven. life and to have very strong probabilities that I shall so live and dye must be much more comfortable than to be uncertain whether I now am or ever was in a state of life B. If therefore not one of many score or hundreds have a certain knowledge of their sincerity and Justification who are of your own opinions are you fit to cry out of others as the destroyers of Christian comfort on the foresaid account C. They destroy it by their Doctrine and so do not we It is with us but mens own sin and infirmity that hindereth it B. Q. 12. What say you to your Doctrines before objected against you 1. That no man can be certain of Salvation who is not certain that if he had the strongest Temptations in the world he should not be overcome by them to fall away Do not these put the comforts of the weak as hard to it as their Doctrine doth C. These are True Doctrines but Theirs are false B. That is the controversie which I am not determining I only answer your aggravation of uncomfortableness of their Doctrine The second Crimination C. Their Doctrine maketh God to be Mutable and his gifts and calling Pet Alliac Camer n. 1. q. 12. C. Quaelibet rationalis Creatura a Deo praedestinata potest damnari quaelibet Reprobata potest Salvari Quia cuicunque Deus dabit gratiam gloriam libere dabit per Consequens posset non dare ergo c. Sed licet haec conclusio de virtute Sermonis sit vera tamen in sensu Composito intellecta est falsa Thus all the quarrel is about words to be liable to repentance and that one day he loveth a man and the next day hateth him one day Justifieth and another condemneth him B. This charge is injurious upon gross mistake and on the like grounds may be laid against your selves For Q. 1. Do you not hold that God hateth all the workers of iniquity C. Yes as such B. Q. 2. And that he that believeth not is condemned already and that all Infidels and Heathens are unjustified C. Yes though God may decree to justifie them hereafter B. Q. 3. But doth not God after Love and Justifie such as are converted C. Yes none doth deny it B. Q. 4. If then this prove not God to be mutable to Justifie and Love such as he condemned and hated why should it prove him mutable to condemn and hate such as he Justified and Loved I do not say that he doth so but if he did or do it will not prove any change in God For as he that is One causeth all Diversity and Multiplicity of Beings so he that is Immutable causeth innumerable Mutations The change is in the Creature and not in God C. Is it not a change to Hate where he Loved These are immanent acts B. No more than to Love where he Hated In Man such words signifie a change but not in God For it is not Gods Immanent acts as Immanent that are changed viz. His Activity understanding or Will in it self But only that Immanent Act as Objectively Transient if not effectively so that it is only 1. The termination of the essential eternal Act on this or that Object 2. The Relation of it to that object 3. The Extrinsick Denomination of it from that Relation by Connotation which are changed and diversifyed and this inferreth no change in God The third Crimination C. At least they make his Covenant changeable as condemning a man one day whom it justified the day before B. Not at all The Covenants Action is physically none but only such as some call a Reputative Act that is per modum signi and as the Fundamentum causeth the Relation Gods Legislation was a real Action But the Law made doth not Act at all But improperly morally or metaphorically is said to Act when it doth not what Action doth the sign post perform or the post and hand at a cross way or all the Letters in all your Library which teach you the greatest mysteries none at all It is you that are Active on them What Action do millions of Eggs at the Indies perform every time your Hen layeth And yet they then have a new Relation of Similitude So Gods Law nor Man 's neither is not at all changed while ut instrumentum morale per modum signi fundamenti it condemneth the Infidel and justifieth the Believer no more than when it justifieth him at conversion whom it condemned before The change is only really in the person The fourth Crimination C. They make Gods Covenant to be but Conditional and deny that absolute promise I will put my fear in their hearts and they shall not depart from me B. I find this Controversie whether this promise and that of taking away the hard heart c. was Conditional or Absolute to be harder than sometime I thought it had been And the determining which of you doth rightliest expound the Scripture is not my business But 1. The Jesuites and Lutherans and many Arminians confess that God hath foretold that certain Individual persons shall persevere and be infallibly saved 2. That this prediction may well be called a Promise in several respects 1. In that it is de bono futuro 2. As it is made to Christ that he shall see of the travail of his Soul and that none shall take those that are given him by the Father out of his hands 3. As it is made to Mankind in general that there shall be certain innominate persons of them infallibly saved 4. As it
Remedying means and duties for himself Lib. No that must not be imagined P. Quest 2. Is not all this commanded by the Law of Grace Lib. Yes If it be a Law P. Quest 3. Was not Christ under a Law which bound him 1. To obey all the precepts of nature perfectly without sin 2. To obey all the Mosaical Law as far as he was capable 3. To do all this a sa Mediator to reconcile God and man And to dye for sinners to work Miracles to send out Apostles to gather a Chruch to intercede for us and to present us Justified and perfect to his father And are we obliged to do so too Lib. No one so imagineth P. Quest 4. Did not Christ as a Covenanter undertake all this And do we do so too And do not we in Baptism our selves consent and promise to take God the Father Son and Holy Ghost for our Father Saviour and Sanctifier and to forsake the flesh the world and the devil Is it Christ only that is Baptized Nay did Christ ever receive such a Baptism as this to wash away his sins and deliver him a pardon Is it Christ or we that at Baptism make these promises to God Is it to Christ or us that Christ himself saith If thou believe and repent thou shalt be saved Doth Christ as King make Laws and Covenants to bind himself only Who seeth not that hath any sense of Scripture matters that The Mediators case office and work is one and ours another that It is one Law that was given him and another to us yea that which seemeth the same was another being not formally but materially only the same and forma denominat For he was to fulfil the Law of Moses and of Innocency to such ends as a Redeemer and with such difference from our case that it was not formally but materially and that but in part the same Law and so his Baptism was formally another thing from any ones Baptism else in the World It was one thing that Christ promised and undertook in his Covenant with the Father and it 's another thing that we undertake and promise It 's one thing that God promiseth to Christ upon his Merits that he shall see of the â—ravail of his soul and be satisfied and another thing that he promiseth us that our persons shall be Justified sanctified and saved In a word by the Law given to Christ Christ himself is Governed as a Subject and Justified and Rewarded by God as his Judge for fulfilling it By the Law given to us we are the subjects and Christ is the Governour Lawgiver and our Judge who will Justifie reward or condemn and punish us I know not how that man can preach the Gospel that knoweth not the difference between the Law and Covenant made to and with Christ as Mediatour and the Law and Covenant made to and with us and in Baptism solemnly prosessed Children should not be ignorant of it Lib. But it is the same thing which is promised to Christ and us viz. that we shall be justified and saved and this is promised first to Christ and therefore the words cited may be justified Christ is the seed of the woman who is first to break the Serpents head Gen. 3. 15. P. 1. The same thing may be promised to different persons in different Covenants To promise to Christ that his elect shall be saved and to promise Believers that they shall be saved are two promises 2. What one word do you find in Gen. 3. of a Covenant or promise made to Christ It 's true that he is the principal Seed there meant though not the only But he is the Promised Seed It 's one thing for a promise to be made to Christ and another thing that Christ as the viâ—torious seed â— be promised to man There is no promise in Gen. 3. to Christ mentioned â—â— and what can be meant by a Promise of God to God himself but a prophecy and promise of a Saviour to man But if there had that would not have proved these two to be one Understand the tenour and difference of these several Laws and Covenants of God or pretend not to understand the Scripture viz. 1. The Law and Covenant of Innocency made to Adam â— The Law and Covenant made to and with the Mediatour for our Redemption 3. The promise Law or Covenant of Grace of the first Edition made to Adam and all in him and renewed with Noe and mankind in him 4. The Law and Covenant both of Common Grace and of Peculiarity at once given to Abraham and perfected in the Law and Covenant of Works made by Moses with the Jews 5. The Law and Covenant of Grace made by the Incarnate Mediatour and the Father by him in the second perfect Edition with eminent peculiarity CHAP. VI. Whether the New Covenant of Grace have any Conditions Lib. V. BY feigning the Covenant of Grace to have Conditions you make it to be a Covenant of works P. Either by works you mean any humane acts And so all Gods Covenants with man and his Laws are of works that is It is some act of man that they require For what else can be commanded Or you mean as Paul doth when he calls the Jews Law a Law of works And if so you falsifie his doctrine or ours Prove if you can that by works he meaneth every humane Act and that Faith it self is either no Act of man or the works meant by him Lib. Faith is a work but it is not put in the Covenant as a work required of us but as a gift to be given to us freely P. Judge whether it be required of us and that formally as a condition by such texts as these yea whether obedience be not required as a Condition of our salvation which is promised thereupon 1 Tim. 4. 8. Godliness hath the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come Mark 16. 16. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved and he that believeth not shall be damned Rom. 10. 8 9 10 13. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead N. B. this is an act distinct from accepting his Righteousness thou shalt be saved For with the heart man believeth unto Righteousness and with the mouth Confession is made unto salvation For whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved Matth. 6. 14 15. For if ye forgive men their trespasses your Heavenly Father will also forgive you But if c. Rev. 22. 14. Blessed are they that do his commandments that they may have Right to the tree of life c. See Isa 1. 16 17 18. 55. 6 7. Luk. 13. 3 5. 1 Joh. 1. 9. Act. 3. 19. Heb. 5. 9 c. Lib. God promiseth a Reward to our Actions not as ours but as hâ— own gifts P. 1. Enough is said of Rewards before We shall
imputed to us for righteousness If it be only the object and not faith why is it so often called faith believing being perswaded c. Will you say that It is not faith as an act of ours only Whoever dreamt it was For à quatenus ad omne If as an act then every act even plowing and walking and sinning would justifie us Will you say that It is not Faith as a Moral Virtue or Good act only Who saith it is For then every moral good act would justifie men Do you say that It is not by faith as faith in genere It is granted you For else à quatenus ad omne any act of faith would justifie even believing that there is a Hell Will you say that it is not any other species of faith besides our baptismal faith We grant it you But if you will also say that It is not this species even the Christian faith neither that is meant but only the object of it then 1. Why say you that it is Faith as connoting the object contradicting your self for if be not faith at all it is not faith as connoting that which is not doth not connote 2. And why say you that it is not faith it self essentially Is not the object essential as an object to the act in specie Is it not essential to our Christian faith to be a Believing in Christ 3. But what sober unprejudiced Christian that readeth the Text throughout and hath not been instructed to pervert it can choose but see that it is Faith it self that the Apostle speaketh of and that it is our personal Relation of Righteousness that it is said to be imputed for And who can believe that this is the sense Abrahams faith was imputed to him for Christs Righteousness or this either His faith that is Christs Righteousness and not his faith was imputed to him for Christs Righteousness Undoubtedly by faith is meant faith and by Righteousness is meant our own Relation But it is most easie to discern that the plain sense is Christ being presupposed the Meriter of our Justification and Salvation which he hath given the world conditionally by a Law of Grace or Covenant Donation by which now he ruleth and judgeth us all that this Covenant Gift or Law requireth on our part to make us Righteous and entitle us to the Spirit and everlasting life is that as Pâ—nitent Believers we accept Christ and life according to the nature ends and uses of the gift and this also by his grace Reader hold close to this plain Doctrine which most of the lower sort of Christians know who have not faln into perverters hands and youâ— will have more solid and practical and peaceable truth about this point than either Dr. Thomas Tullie or Maccovius or Mr. Crandâ—â— or Dr. Crispe or the Marrow of Modern Divinity * Written by an honest Barber Mr. Fisher as is said and applauded by divers Independent Divines or Paul Hobson or Mr. Saltmarsh or any such Writers do teach you in their learned Net-work Treatises by which being Wise or Orthodox overmuch being themselves entangled and confounded by incongruous notions of mans invention they are liker to entangle and confound you than to shew you the best method and grounds for the peace of an understanding dying man Christs Righteousness is Imputed or Reckoned to be as it is the total sole Meritorious Cause of all that Grace and Glory given us in and by the Conditional Law or Covenant of Grace and of our Grace for performance of the Conditions and it needeth nothing at all of ours to make it perfect to this use nor hath our faith any such supplemental Office But this condition of our part in Christ and of our Right to his Covenant-gifts must be performed and the sentence of Absolution or Condemnation life or death must be passed on us accordingly it being not Christ but we by this very Law that are to be Judged Justified or Condemned And this is the Condemnation that light is come into the World and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil But to as many as Received him he gave Right to become the Sons of God even to them that believe in his name And there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit For being perfected he is become the Author of eternal Salvation to all them that obey him And it is not they that cry Lord Lord that shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the will of our heavenly Father For Godliness hath the promise of the life that now is and of that to come CHAP. X. Whether Gods justifying those to day that were yesterday unjustified signifie any change in God P. IX OF this also I have said so much in my Apologie to Dr. Kendall and in the two first parts of this Book before that I shall now put you off with this short notice 1. There is nothing changed or new in God That which on his part is in God the Cause of our Justification is his eternal simple essence 2. But Gods Essence Understanding or Will considered simply in it self is not to be called Mans Justification But the effect produced by it And partly the extrinsick object as terminating Gods act and so by extrinsick denomination or connotation Gods Essential Intellect and Will is said de novo to justifie But it is only man that is really changed 3. The New effect in man from which God is said de novo to justifie him is 1. A new Right or Relation to Christ pardon and life and to the Father and the Holy Ghost 2. A new objective termination of Gods estimation acceptance and complacency And 3. A new heart hereupon at the same instant given us I think none of this is from eternity And that as God did de novo make the world and judge it existent and love and order it as existent without any change in him as also millions of creatures proceed from his simple Unity so is it here And this needeth no more words with knowing or teachable men And to others there is no end CHAP. XI Whether a Justified man should be afraid of becoming unjustified Lâ—b THis fear of losing our justification which you teach men is most injurious to Gods free grace and immutability and a rack for Conscience to destroy mens peace P. I have said so much of this before about Perseverance and Assurance as forbiddeth me tedious repetitions Here needeth no more but this explication of the matter which you confound 1. Fear is either Causeful or Causeless 2. Fear is either such as hindereth comfort or such as helpeth it 3. Fear is either a Duty or an unavoidable natural passion or a sin of unavoidable infirmity or a more deadly or heinous sin 4. It 's one thing to cause and cherish Fear and another thing to teach men that cannot avoid
against those things which their ignorance misrepresenteth to themselves And so Gods ordinances are made a snare to souls which are appointed for their salvation and the man that can kindle in his hearers a transporting passion against this or that opinion or form as Popish is cryed up for an excellent preacher and seemeth to edifie the people while he destroveth them 11. And by this means you seem to justifie the Papists lyes and calumnies against the Protestants by doing as they do They belye Luther Zuinglius Calvin Beza c. with just such intentions and such a kind of zeal as some over doing Sectaries belye them And is it bad in them and good in you 12. You teach the people a dangerous and perverse way of reasoning à minùs notis which will let in almost any errours From a dark text in the Revelations or Daniel or from the supposition that the Pope is the Antichrist and all Papists have received the mark of the beast you gather conclusions against the notorious duties of Love and peace which the light of nature doth commend to all Not that I am perswading you that the Pope is not Antichrist but that all things be received but according to their proper degree of evidence S. Now you open your self indeed All that revolt to Popery begin there with questioning whether the Pope be the Antichrist and telling men of the darkness of the Book of Revelations P. I tell you I will abate no certainty that you have but increase my own and yours if I could but I would not have any falsly to pretend that they are certainer of any thing than they are And no certainty can go beyond the ascertaining evidence And if all Scriptures be equally plain St. Peter was deceived that tells us of many things hard to be understood which the unlearned wrest as other Scriptures to their own destruction And if the Revelations be not one of the hardest I crave your answer to these questions 1. Why are five Expositors usually of four opinions in the expounding of it when it is those that have spent much of their lives in studying it as Napier Brightman c. who are the Expositors 2. Why will none of you that find it so easie at last write one certain Commentary which may assure which of all the former if any one of them was in the right 3. Why did Calvin take it to be too hard for him and durst not venture to expound it 4. And if you take it to be so necessary as you pretend tell me whether it was so necessary and so taken by all those Churches that for a long time received it not as Canonical Scripture Surely they were saved without believing it Though no doubt but the book of Revelation is a great mercy to the Church and all men should understand as much of it as they can But all that I blame you for here is the perverting of the order of proof in arguing à minùs notis 13. And these over-doers that run things into the contrary extreams do most injuriously weaken the Protestant cause by disabling themselves and all men of their principles to defend it and arming the Papists against it by their errors When it cometh to an open dispute by Word or Writing one of these mens errors is like a wound that lets out blood and spirits and puts words of triumph into the adversaries mouth A cunning Papist will presently drive the ignorant disputant to resolve his cause into his mistake and then will open the falshood of that and thence inferr the falshood of all the rest And what an injury is that to the souls of the auditors who may be betrayed by it and to the cause it self For instance If one of our over-doers hold that we are reputed to have kept all the Law of Innocency and merited salvation our selves by Christ or that no act of faith is Justifying but the accepting of his righteousness or that faith Justifieth only as the efficient instrumental cause or that we have no righteousness which hath any thing to do in our Justification but only Christs imputed Merits or that mans faith Love or obedience are not rewardable c. how easily will a Papist open the falshood of such an opinion to the hearers and then tell them that they may see by this who is in the right And alas what work would one Learned Papist make in London by publick disputing if we had no wiser men to deal with him than these over-doers They may call Truth and Sobriety Antichristian and talk nonsence as against Popery successfully to their own party but I hope never to see the cause managed by their publick disputes lest half the Congregation turn Papists on it at once If Chillingworth had not been abler to confute a Papist than those that used to calumniate him as Popish or Socinian he had done less service of that kind than he did 14. And it is an odious injury that these Over-doers do to the ancient and the universal Church while in many cases they ignorantly or wilfully reproach and condemn them as if they were all the favourers of Popery and call their ancient doctrine and practice Antichristian Some of them ignorantly falsifie the Fathers doctrine and upon trust from their Leaders aver◠that they held that which they plainly contradict and that which they held indeed they cry out against as Popery Such an instance we have newly in a Souldier Major Danvers an Anabaptist which I have detected And will Christ take it well to have almost all his Church condemned as Antichristian 15. And hereby what an honour is done to Popery and what a dishonour to the Reformed Churches when it shall be concluded that all the Churches heretofore even next after the age of the Apostles and almost all the present Churches were and are against the doctrine of the Protestants and on the Papists side And yet how many do us this injury and the Roman Church this honour About the nature of Justifying faith and its office to Justification and about the nature of Justification it self and Imputation of Righteousness and free-will and mans Works and Merits and about assurance of salvation and perseverance how many do call that Popery which the whole current of Greek and Latine Fathers do assert and all the ancient Churches owned and most of all the present Churches in the world And those that call all forms of prayer Popery or the English Liturgie at least when almost all the Christian world have forms and most such as are much worse do but tell men that the Christian world is on the side that they oppose and against their way 16. And it is a crime of infamy to be taken for Separatists from the universal Church And in doctrines and forms of Worship not only to avoid what we take to have been a common weakness but also to condemn them as Antichristian or as holding pernicious errours is but