already about this Point as that I shall not much need to say any thing more For my own part I am singularly glad that Mr. Baxter hath admonished Christians to beware of the Book stiled The Marrow of Modern Divinity that doth harp so much upon that string not for but from The said Book was about six or seven yeers ago commended unto me by a very honest and well meaning Christian which having sought after and throughly read I could not but wonder and not without some little but just indignation that three such most excellent and famous Divines as Mr. C. Mr B. and Mr. S. should by their several Epistles commend such an Interimystical and Cassandrian piece as that Book may in its kind I think deservedly be called and I did thereupon make some Animadversions upon it long since and in special concerning this particular Point From and not For For well I wot that albeit we are to endeavour as much as may be the peace of Gods Churches and I doubt not but goodnesse and sweetnesse of nature and zeal for peace did so far prevail with those three forementioned Worthies as to procure such Testimonials from them neverthelesse we are not to assert grosse Errours however we may and its fit we should sometimes conceal some Truths for peace sake I shall here therefore insert what I have long since written and upon occasion also preached about this Point as followeth There is much ignorance and errour in opposing these two From and For salvation as things incompatible and inconsistent whereas like brethren they may very well dwel together in unity Know then That Believers may and ought to do good duties both from and for salvation e.g. 1. From Salvation as purposed and appointed by God for them 2. From salvation as purchased and procured by Christ in their behalf 3. From salvation as promised to them in the Word and in the wayes of well doing Thence is it frequent with the Holy Ghost in Scripture to urge Believers unto constancy in obedience with Arguments taken from the consideration of the said Purpose Purchase and Promises for which see Heb. 12 28.2 Cor. 7.1 and 1.6 20. 1 Thes 5 8 9. 2. As a Believer is to work from salvation purposed procured promised I add also As a wicked man is to repent from salvation by God in Christ appointed for him and promised to him upon termes of believing repenting converting and upon those terms made over to him in the Gospel grant so are we all one with another to work to begin and to hold on in the wayes of Righteousnesse for salvation actually and fully in Gods due time to be enjoyed And that every man may and ought in this sort or sense work for his salvation may bee proved by the following Arguments 1. We are expresly commanded To work out our salvation Phil. 2.12 So to run that we may obtain 1 Cor. 9.24 To do that which is right and good in the sight of the Lord that it may be well with us Deut. 6.18 To wash our hearts from wickedness that we may be saved Jer. 4 14. 2. God promiseth to give eternal life to those and those only who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for it Rom. 2.7 So that unlesse we work for our salvation we can never be saved as having no promise of salvation made of God unto us so truly hath Mr. Baxter said That should the Asserters of the said Doctrine so commended in the Marrow of Modern Divinity put in practise their own Doctrine they could not be saved 3. What reason had Saint Paul to assert that a Christians patient suffering of the Crosse doth work glory for him if a Christian may not therein and in all his wayes of well doing work for it 2 Cor. 4.17 18. 4. Consider the examples of the Saints who did the will of God for the obtaining of this end We run strive are temperate in all things saith Saint Paul 1 Cor. 9.25 to obtain an incorruptible Crown Heb. 11.35 Not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better Resurrection Phil. 3.14 I presse towards the mark saith Saint Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the price of the high Calling of God in Christ Jesus and what himself did in this he calls upon all the most perfect not excepted to imitate saying ver 15. Let as many as be perfect be thus minded and v. 17. Brethren be followers together of me 5. Salvation is one great end as of our believing 1 Pet. 1.9 so also of our working i. e. of all the acts of new obedience Rom. 6. 22. Being made free from sin and become servants to God ye have your fruit unto holinesse and the end everlasting life Thence is salvation stiled the Fruit of our doings Isai 3.10 and the reward or recompence of our labors 2 John 8. Luke 14.14 Yea as glory is stiled Grace 1. Pet. 1.13 so is salvation the reward of our works stiled by the name of Works Rev. 14.13 Their works shall follow them i. e. Merces operum the reward of their works shall follow them How absurd and irrational then is it for any one to say That a Christian is not to repent for pardon or to work for salvation it is as if a man should say We must not use means for the end Yea why may I not say That salvation I mean our own and the salvation of others is the maine and utmost end of a Christians working for as much as the glory of God doth therein consist to the height or uttermost and therefore it seems vain for any one to except saying Gods glory is the utmost end for the utmost of Gods glory quoad hoc is in our salvation Yea so inseparable is Gods glory from our glory as that God is not glorified to the uttermost by our glorifying him on earth but by his glorifying us in heaven 2 Thess 1.10 When he shall come to be glorified in his Saints and to be admired in all them that believe When our blessed Saviour did pray to his Father saying Father glorifie thy Son that thy Son also may glorifie thee making his Fathers glory the end of his owne what is the meaning of Christ in that prayer but that God would strengthen and enable him to go through his approaching sufferings for the efectual accomplishing of that great end for which they were designed viz. the bringing of many sons unto glory according to the expression of the Apostle Heb. 2.11 and according to the supplication of our Saviour saying viz Father I will that those whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory and according to his assertion ver 19. For their sakes I sanctifie my self I add it seems to me to be a thing impossible for any one truly and in a Scripture sense to aim at his own salvation and not to aim at Gods glory I say truly and in a Scripture sense for in a
us Ministers neverthelesse I shall not go about at this time to enumerate all the differences betwixt them but shall content my self to name only this one as being sufficient for my present purpose viz The conditions which God requires of man in both these Covenants are very different the condition of the Covenant of Works being perfection of obedience or the perfect fulfilling of the whole Law but the condition of the Covenant of Grace is Faith in Christ Repentance and Sincerity of Obedience Now as Adam was to do or perform the former condition or the condition of the former Covenant for life so are we to perform the latter condition or the condition of the latter Covenant for life also Should we go about to set up the perfect fulfilling of the whole Law as the condition of salvation and in such sort work for salvation this indeed were legal working and to work as Legalists or should we expect salvation as merited wages for our work this were to work legally but to labour by his strength to perform the conditions of the Covenant of Grace to believe repent to return unto and to keep with God in the duties of New Obedience that so we may live and to expect from Gods free grace and mercy that in so doing we shall live this is to work as a Christian and as becomes the Gospel of Christ Object But is it not the ready way to make people trust unto or to rest in their own good works or duties to tell them that they may do them for salvation Answ 1. I shall in the next place answer this Question with two or three other Questions 1 Is it not the ready way to make people to cast off the doing of all good duties and good works to tell them that they may not ought not need not to do them for salvation 2 Is not the danger as common and great this way as that Or is it not as dangerous to think to go to heaven without the doing of good as by resting on the good we do Is it not as ordinary for people to perish for barrenness as for bringing forth fruit to themselves 3 Whether is it not fitter for a Minister to instruct people how far forth they may and how far forth they may not trust in and rest upon their own Duties Graces works or holinesse for salvation then to tell them that they ought not to do any good duty for salvation As this latter is a thing unlawful so the former is a thing I am well assured not only lawful but also expedient and necessary in order therefore thereunto bee it knowne 1. In general That we are not to trust unto or rest upon our own good Works Duties or Graces for salvation in any such sort as Christ alone and his Righteousnesse is to be trusted unto or rested upon 2. More particularly bee it known 1. That we may not trust unto or rest in them as our legal Righteousnesse i. e. such as for which the Law of Works will pronounce us righteous or as any part of our legal Righteousnesse in conjunction with Christs 2. Consequently hereupon we may not rest in them as things that are absolutely perfect and exactly commensurate or answerable to the rigour of the Law 3. Not as things by which Gods Justice is satisfied his wrath pacified or by which we make him an amends for breach of the first Covenant 4. Consequently hereupon not as things whereby in any strict or proper sense we do merit salvation we having indeed no works formally ours which do make the reward to be of debt and not of Grace In these respects we are to disclaim all our own Works Duties Graces Holiness and to trust unto or rest upon Christ and his Righteousnesse wholely and solely 2 But in the second place be it knowne 1 In general That because Christ alone is to be rested upon for salvation in the foresaid respects we have no more reason to conclude from thence that we may can or ought in no sense to rest in our own good works or duties for salvation then we can conclude that because Christ alone doth save us therefore it may not can not ought not to be said in any sense that we do save our selves which notwithstanding is the frequent language of Scripture 2 More particularly be it known 1. That we may rest in or trust unto our own good Works Duties and Holinesse for salvation in subordination to the free grace and mercy of God in Christ Jesus accepting them and pardoning the sinfulness of them 2 We may rest on them as things which do assure us of our title unto or actual interest in the satisfaction and Righteousness of Jesus Christ there being a personal or evangelical righteousnesse necessary to salvation as well as a legal righteousness i. e. it being not sufficient for our actual enjoyment of salvation that Christ was righteous or did fulfil all righteousnesse of the Law unless we in our own persons do labour to bee righteous as he was righteous 1 Cor. 6.9 10. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom â—f God be not deceived neither Fornicators nor 3 We may rest in them as the wayes wherein or which is to the same purpose as was said in the particular foregoing as the conditions without which Christ Jesus will not save us for without holinesse no man shall see the Lord Heb. 12 14. neither is Christ the Authour of salvation actually enjoyed unto any other then such as do obey him Heb. 5.9 1 Tim. 4.16 Neither is the resting upon our own holinesse in these senses any whit against the glory of Christ this being in effect and in deed neither more nor lesse but this viz. To rest upon Christ and Christ alone for salvation in Christs own way i e. the way of holinesse and righteousness I do not mean perfect holinesse and righteousnesse according to the Covenant of Works but such as is expected and required from us as necessary to salvation according to the tenour of the Covenant of Grace I doubt not but the most self denying servants of Christ did in this sort rest upon their own holinesse for salvation in special Hezekiah praying to the Lord That he would remember how he had walked before him with a perfect heart 2 King 20. beg and Nehemiah praying to the like purpose with subordination to the mercy of God pardoning his defects chap. 13.22 and David praying and saying Lord save me for I am holy Psal 86.2 and Saint Paul saying I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith hence forward is laid up for me a Crawn of Righteousness 2 Tim. 4.7 8. To rest upon our own holinesse for salvation in the sense immediately aforesaid is no more then for a man who doth use the creatures moderately as meat drink sleep recreation in or upon the use of them to depend on God the only Authour
to define or state the differences betwixt punishments properly and improperly so called which latter they stile chastisements they tell us that chastisements are inflicted à Deo Patre not Judice by God not as a Judge but as a Father Whereas I think that the sufferings of the godly are inflicted by God both as a Father and as a Judge also for why otherwise are such sufferings stiled judgments or why else should the Saints in so suffering be said as indeed they are to be judged of the Lord. 1 Cor. 11. ult Isa 26.8 In stead therefore of saying that the sufferings of the Saints are inflicted by God Tanquam patre non judice I should choose to say rather Tanquam judice patrizante they being paternall judgments or fatherly punishments 2. Whereas some say that the punishments of the wicked are for sin but the chastisements of the godly are from sin I find no such difference warranted in the word the contrary thereunto being plainly therein asserted viz. that God doth punish the godly for or because of their sins 2 King 24.3 Surely at the command of the Lord came this upon Judah for the sins of Manasseh and also for the innocent blood which he shed 2 Sam. 12.14 Howbeit because by this thy deede thou hast given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme the child also that is borne unto thee shall surely die 1 Cor. 11.30 For this cause many are sickly among you and many sleep Rev. 2.4 I have somewhat to say unto thee because thou hast left thy first love Yea I adde that the temporal punishments of the wicked are not only for but also in some sense from sin in that the use which they ought to make of them is their repentance and amendment unto which God doth as by lively voice cal them for otherwise we cannot well conceive how the obstinacy and impenitency of men should be aggravated by Gods judgments Thence that expression Mic 7.9 Hear the red yea one special intent or end of Gods inflicting judgment on some wicked men is that all the wicked may take warning or that they may heare and feare and do no more so wickedly Deut 17 23. thence did the heathen resemble Gods judgments to thunder and lightning the end thereof being thus viz. Vt poena ad paucos terror ad amnes perveniat 3. Whereas some distinguish betwixt chastisements and punishments saying that these do proceed from the wrath and justice of God but thosê only from his love I see no warrant for such a difference seeing Scripture doth plainly tell us that the sufferings of the Saints are inflicted by an angry God and by vertue of the justword and threatning of God For what reason else were there for the Saints under sufferings to acknowledge the displeasure and justice of God as frequently we find they did and according as it was no doubt their duty to doe See Ezra 9.13 14. Dan. 9.12 13. Neh. 9.33 And why else is the wrath of God said to be kindled against his owne people and in special against Aaron the Saint of the Lord Deut. 9.26 in stead therfore of saying that the sufferings of the wicked are inflicted by Gods wrath and justice but of the godly by his love I should choose to say that the sufferings of the wicked comparatively with the suffrings of the godly do proceed from pure wrath justice but the sufferings of the godly from wrath and justice mixed with fatherly love and mercy I say comparatively with the sufferings of the godly the sufferings of the wicked doe proceede from pure wrath and justice for if wee compare the sufferings of the wicked here with their sufferings in hel I suppose that we cannot say that their sufferings here doe so purely proceed from Gods justice or from his pure justice in such sort as doe their sufferings in hell and that for the reason aforesaid viz. because their repentance and amendment is one gracious and direct end of their sufferings of many of their sufferings at least in this life And because what I have here delivered is objected against by the Antinomians I shall endeavour to cleere and vindicate the same from their exceptions and objections as followeth Ob. Christ hath fully satisfied Gods justice and how then can the sufferings of the Saints proceed from his justice or for sin Ans The sufferings of the Saints and Christs perfect satisfaction for sin are not incompossible but may very wel stand together the coexistance whereof that it may the better appeare the following answers are to me considerable and as I hope wil prove as to my self so to others satisfactory 1. Notwithstanding the sufferings of the Saints are from Gods justice yet are they not for the satisfaction of his justice in any such sense as Christs sufferings were Had the sufferings of the Saints been inflicted by God and endured by them for the satisfaction of divine justice in such a sense the objection had been of considerable force not otherwise Now I say the sufferings of the Saints are not either inflicted by God or endured by the Saints to satisfie Gods justice in any such sense as wherein Scripture affirmes Christs sufferings to be alone satisfactory i. e. the sufferings of the Saints are no part of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or price whereby a propitiation and attonement is made for sin and sinners And let it be noted that herein we differ from the Papists who do make the sufferings of the Saints in such a sense satisfactory to Gods justice as whereby they derogate from the all-sufficient satisfaction of Jesus Christ 2. The procurement of this priviledge viz. that the Saints should not at all suffer for their sins in this world was not a thing intended in or by the satisfaction of Christ so that in calling into question how farre forth or unto what intents and present effects the satisfaction of Christ was intended by God and actually to availe I say in calling this into question we cannot reasonably be thought to impeach the perfection of Christs satisfaction And let it be observed that I speake concerning the effects and fruits of Christs satisfaction according to the intention of himself and of his Father For albeit there be never so much intrinsecal worth or value imaginable in the sufferings of Christ I exclude not his active obedience from all ingrediency into his merits I conceive notwithstanding that his sufferings did not satisfie by a natural necessity but by reason of the voluntary compact and agreement betwixt God and him and consequently that he satisfied for no other intents and purposes then were agreed upon betwixt them Q. What did Christ by his satisfaction according to compact betwixt him and his father procure and purchase for or in behalf of the Saints Answ 1. Negatively not an actual present immunity from all manner of suffering for their sins or that they should be so farre priviledged as not
Apostasie by the example of Hymeneus and Alexander 1 Tim. 1.18 19. Holding faith and a good conscience which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwrack of whom is Hymeneus and Alexander Thus likewise doth he warne every one that professeth Christ by the example of the Apostasie of Hymeneus and Philetus saying Let him that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity 2 Tim. 2.18 19. Thus are the Corinthians admonished by the Apostasie and infidelity of the Israelites in the wilderness whose example as he tells them were written for their admonition 1 Cor. 10.11 12. By the like example he doth also admonish the believing Hebrewes ch 4. beg And by the fall of the whole nation of the Jews Saint Paul doth admonish the believing Romans concluding the relation with this admonition Well because of unbelief they were broken off and thou standest by Faith Be not high minded but fear Rom 11.20 Yea the example of the Apostate Angels is set before the faithful as a warning and admonition whereby to avoid their sinne and to escape their punishment Jude begin 7 In order to the perseverance of the Saints God doth inflict sometimes very grievous judgements 1. Upon the wicked commanding the Saints to take warning thereby that they may hear and fear and learne not to sin presumptuously Deut. 17.13 1 Cor. 10.11 12. This use did Nehemiah perswade the Jewes to make of Gods judgments upon their predecessors chap. 13.18 Did not our fathers thus and did not our God bring all this evil upon us and upon this City yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profaneing the Sabbath The contrary sin is laid to the charge of Judah who would not take warning by the sore hand of God upon her Sister Israel Jer. 3.8 And I saw when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed Adultery I had put her away and given her a bill of divorce yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not but went and plaid the harlot also 2 Upon themselves This means viz. the rod of correction God doth use sometimes whereby to keep the Saints from running the same excesse of ryot with the wicked by this means as it were by thornes hedging up the way of sin as is the Prophets phrase Hos 2 6 but more especially to reduce them from their wandrings when they have gone astray 1 Cor 11.32 I have some where read or heard of a similitude very apt for this purpose of one resembling us to Tops that by meanes of whipping are got up when they are down and being up are kept going 8. One maine end of Church Discipline of Ecclesiastical censure as of publick Authoritative admonition and excommunication is that Believers may stand in aw and persevere in holinesse 1 Tim. 5.20 Them that sin rebuke openly that others also may fear The Premises considered it appears evidently that Believers are and are to be constrained not only by love but also by fear and by the rod of God if by any means 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as is the Apostles word Phil. 3.11 they may attain the Resurrection of the dead and the salvation of their souls And surely did not some men in these times go about to make themselves wiser then God Almighty they would rather blesse and magnifie yea admire and adore both the wisdome and goodnesse of God becoming all things to all men and to every part of man both the old man and the new in that variety of meanes which he useth for the preservation of believers in the state of grace I say they would rather so do then cry out upon Gods Ministers as legal Teachers for mixing Threatnings with Promises and thereby endeavouring to preserve the Saints as wel in the fear of the wrath of God and the curse as in the love of God and his goodness Obj. 5. Believers are preserved through their faith unto salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 Answ Though Saint Paul saies That they are preserved through faith unto salvation yet he saith not through faith only and to interpret him exclusively there is no ground and here I say once again as before viz Those graces and vertues which God hath joyned together wee must not make opposite one to another or sever one from another Though faith and fear are diverse yet are they not adverse and repugnant More distinctly then I answer 1 That as the Saints are preserved to salvation through their faith so likewise through their feare Jerem. 32.40 I will put my Feare into their hearts that they shall never depart from me 2. He that rightly understands himself in saying That Believers are preserved through faith wil understand how that he doth by necessary consequence in so saying imply That they are preserved through their fear for what is the object of faith is not the whole Word of God Though I should grant That in some peculiar sense the Promise is the object of Faith in which respect Saint Paul calls the Promise the Word of faith Rom. 10.8 yet who can deny that the whole Word of God is Fides objectiva or the object of Faith and consequently who can deny that Believers are to exercise faith as well in the threatnings as in the promises of the Word and the scope of God in his threatnings being to beget faith and fear as well as in his Promises to beget faith and hope in his people who can deny That Believers are kept to Salvation as well through faith and fear of the Threatnings of God in his holy Word as through faith and hope in his promises 3. Consider that as the wicked have been reclaimed to their duty by faith and fear of Gods threatnings for which see the example of the Ninevites of whom it is said That they believed God and proclaimed a Fast Jonah 3.5 So the godly have been by the like meanes contained or retained in their duty as was made appear by several instances before recited unto which I shall add the example of Noah of whom it is said That he by faith moved with fear prepared an Ark for the preserving of himselfe and his houshold Heb. 11.7 Observe thence as to the purpose in hand these two things 1. The conjunction 2. The cooperation of faith and fear 1. Observe That faith in God as touching his Promises and the fear of God as touching his threanings may very well stand together 2. As Saint James said concerning faith and works Chap. 2.22 Seest thou how faith wrought with his works so I may here say concerning faith and fear Seest thou how faith and fear did cooperate to Noahs obedience and preservation 4. Be it considered that as every Threatning doth imply a Promise so every Promise doth imply a Threatning as is manifest by that remarkable Scripture Heb. 4. beg where the Apostle in the forgoing Chapter having spoken of an expresse threatning of not entering into Gods Rest he admonisheth them by way of Inference saying Let us therefore fear lest a Promise
for any sinner I mean that any sinner should enjoy the full and final pardon of his sins otherwise then upon the condition of his perseverance as was afore said This Confectary is of necessity I suppose unavoidable In Isai 30.1 The Prophet denounceth a woe to those Who take counsel but not of him and that cover with a covering but not of his Spirit I may truly say of the Antinomian Preachers that they do minister consolation but not of God and they do comfort their Disciples with comforts but not of Gods Spirit the Comforter Such is this comfort whereby they do seek to comfort their heareâ—s in telling them That their sins are as absolutely forgiven as if they were in heaven I do lesse wonder that the Antinomian Preachers are accounted by the ignorant and profane multitude the only comfortable Preachers for well I wot their error here is twofold 1. They comfort those to whom comfort doth not belong our commission being limited in the application of comfort only to the broken hearted which they not observing do speak peace to the wicked oft times 2 That they tender to Believers their own dreames and the fulsom luscious conceptions of their own fancies in steed of the savoury wholsome consolations of Scripture But as Elijah said to the Messengers of Ahaziah 2 Kin. 1.3 Is it not because there is not a God in Israel that ye go to enquire of Baal-zebub the God of Ekron So may I say unto this sort of Comforters Is it not because ye think that the comforts of Scripture are not sufficient that ye frame and feigne comforts of your own devising Or is it not because your mouthes and the mouthes of your Disciples being out of taste the comforts of Scripture do not relish but are so unsavoury that they will not down with you For my own part I know no more warrant for a Minister to create Comforts then he hath to create Commands it being as much against the sufficiency and perfection of Scripture to attempt the one as the other and as our blessed Saviour did therefore admonish his Disciples to beware of the leaven of the Scribes and Pharisees they teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of men so have I reason to admonish Christians to take heed of the leaven in special of this leaven of Antinomian Preachers they preaching for Gospel consolations of their own framing This admonition is the rather needful 1. Because albeit it be very toothsom yet it is not therefore the more wholsome There bee sweet poysons as well as bitter 2 By how much it is more sweet by so much it is like with the more eagernesse to be swallowed The mouthes of people do water after such delicacies their ears do itch to hear such Gospel they loving to hear rather what is smooth then what is right what will please rather then what will profit what is sweet rather then what is sound according the humour of the people of old as is recorded by the Prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah Isal 30.9.10 This is a rebellious people lying children children that will not hear the Law of the Lord which say to the Seers See not and to the Prophets Prophesie not unto us right things speak unto us smooth things prophecy deceits So wee preach comforts to people though they be deceitful comforts they regard not though we cozen people yet so we comfort them they care not Jer. 5. lat The Prophets prophecy falsely and the Priests bear rule by their means and my people love to have it so and what will ye do in the end thereof This Question What will ye do in the end thereof is in this case not to be omitted for consider in the next place the danger of comforting Believers by telling them That their sins are as absolutely pardoned as if they were in heaven The danger hereof will appear by what I shall next offer unto consideration as a reason of the foresaid Admonition 3 Consider the tendency of this comfort For my own part as I look upon the whole body of Antinomianisme as a Doctrine of security so I look upon this particular branch as that which tends directly to make a Christian to neglect his watch to lay downe his weapons and to cast off his Armour It is such Musick as tends to lull a Christian asleep in the Divels lap and it is Gods great mercy if he awake out of that his dream of being in heaven before he sees himself absolutely to bee in Hell I would have said more to this particular but that Mr. Baxter in his Book stiled Directions for getting and keeping Spiritual Peace and Comfort hath spoken directly and amply thereunto in his eighteenth and twentieth Direction which I shall here transcribe Know that God hath not commanded you to believe that you do believe nor that you are justified or shall be saved but only conditionally and therefore your Assurance is not a certainty properly of Divine faith Pag. 189. Direction 18. Never expect so much Assurance on earth as shall set you above all * If there be no possible danger what need of such admonitions caveats cautions as in Eph. 6.11 2 Joh. 8. 2 Pet. 3.17 Caveats need not but where danger is in some respects at least possible possibility of the losse of heaven and above all apprehensions of real danger Pag. 211. Direction 20. I shall conclude this Consectary with that Item which Ahab gave to Benhadad when swelling in his confidence 1 King 20.11 Let not him that girdeth on his harnesse boast himself as he that putteth it off Let not any Saint militant here on earth that girdeth on his harnesse for the spiritual warfare boast himself as if he were as absolutely sure of heaven as the Saints now triumphant who have put it off CHAP. XXVIII That the repentance which the Gospel requires is not only repentance from the pardon of our sins as the Antinomians affirm but for the pardon of them proved and evinced by several Arguments Several Objections of the Antinomians answered wherein it is punctually declared In what sense Evangelical Repentance may be said to be from pardon of sin and in what sense for the pardon of it It is disputable whether Gods glory and our own salvation are to be looked at as two ends or only as one the former being a necessary result of the latter An Objection answered That it is a singular favour of God and a favour in some sense peculiar to the times of the New Testament that God hath so cleerly revealed unto us our eternal salvation as the great end not excluding but including his glory of mans working or of all Christian duty That good works may be stiled the way to salvation That the difference betwixt the Covenant of Work and of Grace lyes not in this that Adam was to work for life and we not for but only from life Our own good works duties graces or holinesse how far forth or
the light of Nature that some end was to be proposed unto man in all vertuous actions they did therefore much beat their brains and busie themselvs to find out what that end must be in the determination whereof it fell out with them as in most of their other great inquests some thought one thing and some another scarce any among them being constant to themselves or so fixing in ought as not to fluctuate Some of them did conceive that the maine end of their acting should be the hope of another life after this This indeed was asserted by many of their Poets and Philosophers yet not without some hesitancy even in the chiefest viz. with a Fortasse and a Non nimium affirmaverim I have seen Tully * Epist 64. Et fortasse quem putamus perisse praemissus est Seneca and Socrates quoted as hesitating herein Plato himselfe bringing in his Master Socrates saying thus before his death Hoc scio spem mihi esse venturum me ad viros bonos quod tamen non nimium affirmaverim And when the heathen sought Arguments for the confirmation of their hopes herein they found little to fix them in a certitude and assurance of such a life to come much of what they alledged holding no better for men then for beasts Whence it was that some of them devised a transmigration of souls from men into beasts and from beasts into men And this opinion of theirs being built upon no certain evidences others were inclined to assert That vertue is reward to it self and that we must labour to be vertuous and to do vertuously only for Vertues sake a wise man being sufficiently happy as they said when he is tormented in the Bull of Phalaris But others were much unsatisfied in this Opinion as irrational and absurd they taking it for granted That where dangers torments and death are there felicity especially in the highest cannot consist unlesse men should content themselves with a sound of empty words without any reality Some of them did therefore place their supreme good and utmost end in the enjoyment of sensual pleasures after this life which divers of their Poets meant by their fansie of the Elisian fields and this is the opinion of the Mahometans at this day But this opinion was rejected by many of the wisest and most vertuous among the Heathens they thinking that this opinion did degrade men into the rank of bruit Creatures and concluding rather that man was born and fitted of the Gods for higher things Thuswe may perceive at what an uncertainty the Heathen were in this point Now for the Writings of Moses there were some among the Jewes professors of the Moisaick Law viz. the Sadduces who held That there was no such thing as eternal life or everlasting salvation promised or held forth by Moses in his Writings which alone the Sadduces do receive for Scripture nor in any of the Writings of the Old Testament as the Socinians at this day do assert though I think that if there were no other Scripture to confute them in this that one place in Joh. 5.39 were sufficient where Christ bids the Jewes search the Scriptures saying For in them ye think to have life eternal However I say the Sadduces did not expect any such thing as eternal life in the Writings of Moses being therein veiled under Types and Shadowes rather then cleerly revealed renouncing therefore all hope of good things to come as the end of doing good they did cum gentibus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 jump with some of the Heathen in their foresaid Opinion viz. That Vertue it self is the end of Vertue and that we must do vertuously for no other end then for Vertues sake To this purpose I am assured that I have somewhere read in the Writings of Josephus concerning the Sect of the Sadduces though I cannot presently direct to the particular place These things being considered should me thinks move us Christians unto thankfulnesse that God hath not left us in the dark about this matter as he did the Jewes especially the Heathen but hath given us as with open face to behold our eternal salvation as the great end of faith and a good life so that wee may say thereupon with the blessed Apostle 1 Cor. 9.26 We therefore run not as uncertainly as did the Sadduces and as did the Heathen So fight we not as one that beateth the air but we run to obtain a Crown incorruptible And the consideration hereof should also cause us to stop our ears against the insinuation of those amongst us who have suggested to us That to love Jesus Christ for the benefits e. g. freedome from hell and eternal life which we expect by from and through him is but a whorish love like that of a dishonest woman who loves her harlot for the Rings Bracelets and Jewels that he bestows upon her which is in effect to suggest That to love Jesus Christ as our Saviour and Redeemer is not conjugal but adulterous love How far such suggestions are from Scripture warrant whither they tend and where they are like to end I leave to the consideration of the wise Object Are good works the way of or to salvation Answ Whatsoever the Marrow of Moderne Divinity sayes to the contrary Scripture will warrant us to say That albeit good works are not the way to salvation in such a sense as Christ is the way yet they are the way thither they being stiled the way of peace and the path of life Isai 5.9 8. Prov. 3.17 and 5.6 and we being commanded to walk in them Ephes 2.10 A man cannot walk but where there is a way either of his making or finding And if good works bee not the way to salvation then are they the way to damnation seeing all wayes do lead either to God or the Divel to heaven or hel◠Because Christ Jesus is in some sense our only Saviour did Saint Paul therefore blaspheme or wrong Christ by saying to Timothy that in looking to himself and his Doctrine he should both save himselfe and those that heard him And why then because Christ is in some sense the only way to salvation should we be accused as blaspheming or wronging Christ in saying yet with the Scriptures That good Works or good Duties are the way to salvation Obj. Is not this the difference betwixt the Covenant of Works and of Grace that Adam under the former was to work for life and Believers under the latter are to work from life Answ As the Covenant of Works and of Grace do differ in many things so they do accord in some and particularly in this thing viz. That as Adam was to act for life so are we also as hath been already proved Quest Where then is the difference betwixt the Covenant of Works and of Grace Ans The differences betwixt them is a point as I think of very great concernment well worthy much to be studied and frequantly to be preached by
and Preserver of life for health and strength May not we depend on bread as bread and upon the Physician as the Physician for health and strength i. e. as the means appointed of God for the restoring and continuing of health strength so as with a dependance subordinate to God Or do we make an Idol of Gods Creatures as of bread and the Physician by making them such as God hath made them viz. Means under him to accomplish their end and in such sort making use of them and depending upon them What colour of reason then is there to say That by depending upon our own works and holiness for salvation in such a sense as aforesaid we do idolize and make a Christ of them Caution Only let not the former similitudes be wrested beyond their scope and my intent which is not to assert or evince that our good works are physical causes of eternal life as meat drink are of our natural life but only to intimate that they are meanes of their kind in the use whereof or that they are wayes of Gods ordaining wherein we walking God will save us and not otherwise or in other wayes I say no otherwise for we have no more warrant to trust unto Christ as our Mediator and Advocate for the life of our soules without the use of all spiritual means of his appointment in order thereunto then we have to trust unto God as Creator and Preserver for the life of our bodies without using the means appointed for that end Be it therefore knowne and well considered That there is no trusting to Christ for salvation but in Christs own way which is not the way of profanenesse Ephes 5.3 4.5 6. Gal. 5.19 20. but the way of holinesse i.e. of a godly righteous and sober life Tit. 2.11 12 13. To rest upon Christ for salvation otherwise then in Christs owne way is to presume not to believe it is I say to presume and that in such sort as if a man should resolve never to eat and drink or as if a man should resolve to take poison a knife or halter to stâ—b or strangle himself and yet should trust unto God and rest upon the power providence and mercy of God for the preserving and prolonging of his life There is a double kind of presumption which as rocks upon which we shall undoubtedly split our selvs we are carefully to avoid in the steering of our course towards the haven of eternal happinesse 1. Presuming upon trusting unto and resting in our own good works duties graces and holiness without Christ This was that rock upon which the Pharisaical Jewes did dash themselves and perish Rom. 10.3 They being ignorant of Gods righteousnesse and going about to establish their own righteousnesse have not submitted themselves to the Righteousnesse of God Such kinde of zeal for good works is not according to the knowledge of the Gospel 2. Presuming upon trusting unto and resting on Christ and his Righteousnesse for salvation without any personal righteousnesse and holiness in our selves which latter is the common and most damning presumption of the ignorant and profane multitude who though they allow themselves in known wickednesses yet will rest upon Christ for salvation as is evident to be seen in sad experience this being no new thing but a common thing of old for wicked men in their wickedness to leane and to stay themselves upon the Lord as appears by Isai 48.2 They did call themselves of the holy City and stay themselves upon the God of Israel albeit they did persist in their obstinacy their neck being as an iron sinew and their brow as brasse ver 4. See also Micah 3.11 The Heads thereof judg for reward and the Priests thereof teach for hire and the Prophets thereof divine for money yet will they lean upon the Lord and say Is not the Lord among us none evil shall come unto us And that it shall be thus with very many in the Church to the worlds end doth seem to be a thing as it were foretold by our Saviour saying Matth. 7.22 23. Many will say to me in that day Lord Lord have not we prophesied in thy name and in thy name cast out divels Have not we eat and drunk in thy presence And then I will professe unto you I never knew you depart from me all ye that work iniquity The sin of those Professors was not as some suppose alledging that Scripture as a warning whereby to drive people from resting in their duties that they did make a Christ of their duties and did rest upon them for salvation but their sin as is evident by the answer which Christ gives to them was this viz. That they trusted to Christ and expected that Christ should save them they making an external profession of his name in their profane course of life for could those formal Professors have said to Christ as Saint Paul did I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith or could they say with that faithful servant Lord thy pound hath gained ten pounds or with Hezekiah I have walked before thee with a perfect heart Christ would not have said to them Depart from me ye Scribes and Pharisees ye Merit-mongers that expect salvation from your own righteousness and not from mine but he would have said to them Euge hone serve Well done good and faithful servants enter ye into the joy of your Lord. But as David did trust God for his bodily safety in such sort should we trust in God for our souls safety and salvation Psalm 44.6 I will not trust to my bow neither shall my own sword save me sayes he And yet for all that David did not trust in God that God would save him without his bow or without his sword for if so he would never have blessed God for teaching his hands to war and his fingers to fight and for girding him with strength in so much aâ— that a bow of steel was broken by his armes Even so let a Christian say I will not trust to my own Duties Works Graces Holinesse neither shall my owne inherent righteousnesse save me and yet I will not trust to be saved without them If what I have so largely spoken in this place be thought by any to be insufficient whereby to prevent or wipe off from me the said imputation of making good works to be physical causes of salvation I shal wish such a one to consider That as the Prophet Isaiah doth stile a Saints eternal reward the fruit of his doings and his enjoyment of that reward his eating the fruit of those his doings chap. 3.10 So the blessed Apostle Saint Paul that great Preacher of free grace and Exalter of Christs righteousness doth resemble good works to seed sown and salvation to the crop or harvest Gal 6.8 He that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting by sowing to the Spirit meaning as he interprets
be imputed and not imputed to a sinner 123 Chap. 18. The necessity for believers themselves to pray daily for pardon according to the tenour of the fifth Petition in the Lords Prayer asserted and evinced as well by Argument as answer to an Objection it being withal more at large and distinctly declared what are the particular things which a Believer according to the tenor of that Petition is to pray for 125 Chap. 19. An answer to the three following Questions 1. Doth God alwayes pardon a sinner instantly upon the confession of his sins 2. In what sense or how far forth doth a sinner receive a present pardon immediately upon the confession of his sins 3. Whether a truly penitent and believing sinner having once confessed a sinne is at any time thereafter to confesse it in order to forgiveness The Affirmative to which last Question is asserted and proved Certain particulars added as Cautions for the preventing of mistakes and for the better understanding of the Authors true sense and meaning p. 137 Chap. 20. That all sins past present and to come are not at once actually pardoned That no sin is from eternity actually pardoned An Objection answered That no sin is actually pardoned till the sinner be in a capacity of receiving or enjoying it What those things are which do put a sinner into a capacity of actual pardon declared in their particulars together with Reasons for the remarkablenesse of the same An Obiection answered With a vindicating of that Assertion in Rom. 4.17 wherein God is said to call the things that are not as though they were from Antinomian purposes p. 163 Chap. 21. Caution given as touching a right understanding of the two following Propositions laid down by that very learned pious Divine Mr. Anthony Burges in his Sermons concerning Justification viz. 1. No wicked man ever hath any sin forgiven him 2. It is onething for God to forgive and another thing for God not to demand and exact punishments p. 187 Chap. 22. That forgivenesse of sin is a Transient not Immanent act in God proved and cleared Several descriptions of actions Immanent and Transient set down Mr. Baxter vindicated in a passage about this distinction wherein Mr. Kendal hath as the Author thinks causelesly excepted against him Transient Actions are of two sorts and unto what sort of transient Actions forgiveness of sin is to be referred p. 192 Chap. 23. That remission of sin Quoad terminum remotum or as in execution is a real yea physical change and not a change purely relative as is commonly supposed p 204 Chap. 24. The description of forgivenesse of sin given by that very learned and godly Divine Dr. Twisse which is by some highly commended as most accurate examined and refuted and the evil consequences of the same detected together with the Authors Apology for his taking upon him in ought to expresse his dissent from men of such prime worth Stars of the first Magnitude as confessedly that Doctor was p. 209 Chap. 25. That a Believer his pardon notwithstanding is in his confession of sin to put himself under the curse of the Law why and how declared That a sinner after pardon is a sinner and that God doth look upon him as a sinner albeit he doth not deal with him or punish him as such p. 223 Chap. 26. That a Believer during his warfare on earth is to fear hell and damnation why and how proved and manifested as also cleared in the way of answer to several Objections notwithstanding the Doctrine of Perseverance of the Saints be acknowledged in answer to which Objections the consistency and co-operation of the love of God and the fear of God is proved What manner of fear it is that love doth expel and what manner of fear it is that love doth retain declared Notwithstanding that Believers are restrained by the love of God yet that God doth use several other means whereby to constraine i. e. effectually to induce them proved and what those several means are specified more at large The consistency and co-operation of faith and fear maintained and proved That filial and slavish fear do not differ in their object matter or in the thing feared but in the manner of fearing asserted and how proved and cleered by a due interpretation of that Scripture in Luke 1.74 The difference betwixt fear as it is the fruit of the spirit of bondage and as a fruit of the Spirit of Adoption opened and asserted p. 235 Chap. 27 That a Minister of the Gospel hath no warrant so to absolve a Believer as in the name of God to tell him That his sins are as absolutely pardoned and that he is as absolutely sure of heaven as if he were already in heaven p. 289 Chap. 28. That the repentance which the Gospel requires is not only repentance from the pardon of our sins as the Antinomians affirm but for the pardon of them proved and evinced by several Arguments Several Objections of the Antinomians answered wherein it is punctually declared In what sense Evangelical Repentance may be said to be from pardon of sin and in what sense for the pardon of it It is disputable whether Gods glory and our own salvation are to be looked at as two ends or only as one the former being a necessary result of the latter An Objection answered That it is a singular favour of God and a favour in some sense peculiar to the times of the New Testament that God hath so cleerly revealed unto us our eternal salvation as the great end not excluding but including his glory of mans working or of all Christian duty That good works may be stiled the way to salvation That the difference betwixt the Covenant of Works and of Grace lyes not in this that Adam was to work for life and we not for but only from life Our own good works duties graces or holinesse how far forth or in what sense to be disclaimed and not trusted unto for salvation as also in what sense or how farre forth they may be trusted unto or rested in for salvation declared more at large A Caution annexed to prevent mistake That there are two kinds of presumption both which are distinctly to be made knowne unto people by the Ministers of the Gospel and carefully to be avoided by all as dangerous rocks in the steering of our course towards the haven of eternal happinesse p. 297 Chap. 29 The Conclusion p. 350 FINIS In the Epistle 〈…〉 above p. 23 l. 19. r. direct Book Pag 1. line 18. r. God p. 9. l. 3 r. mercy l 29. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p 11 r Gods p 17 r Gods p 17 r sort allusive p 19 l 12 r. translatitious p 35 l 16 r intuitive l 24 for same r sin p 38 l 21 for second r. double p 58 l 18 r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p 73 l 13 for are r is and for be r by l 16 r the. p 77 l 14 r this p 79 l 17 r or be for sin p 88 marg l 9 r morally p 95 l 20 r judicial p 101 l 24 for as r or l 25 r great p 103 l 19 for the other r this p 108 l 1 for cherish r there is l 3 for he r the. p 117 l 15 blot out in p i 42 l 11 for and r but. p 144 l 4 r bold p 151 l 22 r Epidemica p 157 l 23 blot out threatning p 203 l 3 r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l 12 for esse r se p 205 l 28 r contradistinction p 216 l 4 r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p 229 l 4 blot out that p 233 l 24 for or r and and marg l 2 r substrata p 248 l 19 for with r in p 250 r will execute p 257 l 2 r unfaithfulness p 272 l 22 r into p 278 l 24 r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p 279 l 6 r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p 285 l 29 r doth p 294 l 8 r according to p 336 l 10 for next r first