that Man's Soul is there by three forms for all are but one form But Man's narrow Mind cannot conceive of them but by three Conceptions which yet are not Fictions but as Scotus calis them FORMALITATES and as Campanella Primalities or Essentialities or as the Nominals extrinseck Denominations and Relative by connotation of the Objects and Effects He that hath a Wit subtile enough to conceive of Scotus his FORMALITIES as noting only a fundamentum objectivum distinguendi will not wonder that a Soul made in God's Image should be of difficult Conception § 13. II. The same Soul of Man hath three more general Faculties that is mental sensitive and vegetative or igneous These are distinct but not divided yet are not three Souls but one though the inferiour Operations at least may be alterable according to Organs and Objects and some uses of Senses and Vegetation cease § 14. III. The sensitive Soul in Brutes hatk the Faculties 1 Vitally active 2. Sensibly apprehensive 3. Sensibly appetitive one of these Faculties is not the other yet all are but one sensitive Soul § 15. IV. The igneous Nature in Plants called Vegetative hath three Faculties Motive Discretive differencing its proper Nutriment from other things and Attractive which is assimilative yet all are but one substance § 16. V. The Sun and all igneous substances have their formal Powers that is Motive Illuminative and Calefactive The motion in power or act is not formally the Light nor is the Light the Heat nor is the Heat the Light or Motion Nor are these three Suns or Substances but one Substance is in all three whose form we necessarily conceive of by this triple inadequate Conception And thus it is in all the Creatures of Active Nature which the Receptivity of the Passive also answer and as I have proved elsewhere through all Morality also Melancthon Loc. Com. per Maulium p. 3 4. mentioneth many such instances in the Sun in Astronomy in Musick in Geometry in Grammar in Arithmetick to which Logick and Politicks might be added All Effects have only three Causes which in the general of Causality are one that is the Cause efficient Constitutive and Final For Matter Receptive-disposition called Privation and Form are but the three parts of the Constitutive Cause My Mâ—th Theol. instanceth in many more § 17. It is certain that the three grand Attributes Principles Primalities Essentialities or Formalities as men diversly call them of which the three Faculties of the Soul are an Image are in God not univocally the same as in Man but eminently and transcendently And his other Attributes of Truth Mercy Justice c. are these variously exercised and related that is Vital-act Intellect and Will called as Perfect Omnipotent Activity Omniscience or Wisdom and Goodness or Love And I have proved ubi supra that these are not Accidents in God but his Essence in a threefold formal Conception truly distinguishable some say Ratione rationata some say formaliter and some ex connotatione relatione ad objecta and perhaps all little differ in Sence § 18. All Theologue agree That GOD must be said to be essential Life Self-knowledge and Self-love to be essentially sui-vita se-scire se-amare and that these are best exprest by Substantives abstractly and not only in the Concrete by Adjectives or Verbs sui-vita sui-scientia sui-amor Thus far â—â—ere is no doubtfulness § 19. As in man we must conceive inadequateâ—â— of the three prime Faculties distinctly not â—â—paratingly 1. As in virtute vel potentia 2. As 〈◊〉 actu immanente ad se. 3. In actu transâ—unte ad 〈…〉 ia so must we inadequately conceive of them as 〈…〉 inently in God § 20. It is undeniable that GOD is CREATOR REDEEMER and SANCTIFIER the God of Nature Grace and Glory Vitae Medicinae Salu 〈…〉 s. And though Father Son and Holy Ghost are all these yet usually in Scripture Creation is said to be the Work of the Father by the Son and Spiâ—it and Redemption the Work of the Son sent by the Father and Perfection or Sanctification the Work of the Holy Ghost as sent by the Father and the Son Therefore Baptism which is our Christening bindeth us in Covenant to God as in these three Relations which I hope may be easilier understood than all the Schoolmens Disputes of the Trinity And no doubt but our Baptism is a practical Covenant Thus the Trinity of Principles in Unity is considerable as is aforesaid 1. Radically in virtute Essentiae 2. In the immanent acts of self-living self-knowing and self-loving 3. And exeunter transiently in Creation Redemption and Sanctification considered not as Effects but ex parte agentis as acting them § 21. The word PERSON by the custom of the Church having been so commonly used is not to be disused while it is well expounded lest we seem by changing the word to change the Doctrine But the Church had the same Faith before that word was applied to the Trinity and it was long before the use of it was agreed on some being for Hypostasis and some for Persona and some excepting against both but not knowing what word to substitute And is it any Wonder that Humane Language wanteth proper words to signifie that of God which is so far above our comprehension So that it is not because they are wiser than he that some except against the judicious Dr. Wallis for being no more zealous for this Name nor peremptory for any substitute but because they understand not so well how unfit man is to make Names for God which he hath not made himself and taught us § 22. The bare use of the name Person by one that knoweth not what that word signifieth doth prove no man Orthodox but only that he useth Orthodox words it will save no man to use a word which he understands not And the dislike of that word or the word Hypostafis as Hierome did will condemn no man who believeth the thing whiâ—h those that understandingly use the word do believe The Scripture hath all necessary names of the Trinity § 23. Doubtless the word PERSON of the Trinity is of very different signification from the same word applied to Man And what constituteth a PERSON in the Trinity none have so curiously searched and disputed as the Schoolmen yet he that shall read but what I have recited out of them in Method Theol. will find it past the capacity of an ordinary Student to know what they mean and impossible to reconcile them with each other Certainly their sence of the word PERSON was never made necessary to the Christian Faith § 24. Many Protestant Doctors take up with the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whenas the usual sence both of that Word and of Persona is but a Relative Person not Aquinas and such others Relation which is a substance but properly the same Person Natural as related diversly And if this were all no man that owneth One God would question a Plurality of Persons
Whether it be a glorious igneous Substance endowed with the Power of Motion Light and Heats And yet what is less comprehended And no man hath an adequate knowledge of it or of the least part of it § 2. There are three things that must concurr to our Conceivings of God 1. Our General Conceptions 2. Our Metaphorical Conceptions by way of Similitude 3. Our Negative Conceptions what God is not § 3. I have opened this as distinctly as I am able in my Methodus Theologiae Cap. 4. in the Table called Ontologia the beginning to which I must referr the Reader that would be accurate and clear I. We must conceive of God as a Substance lest we think him to be nothing And as a spiritual transcendent Substance not univocally the same with created Substance nor such as Man can reach to any sensible or immediate or formal Conception of But by the Similitude of created Substance our Conceptions may get some help This we call the Fundamental Conception but it is but a Conception partial and inadequate yet necessary fetcht from the Similitude of the Creature whose Matter or Substance is the first constitutive Conception § 4. II. We must conceive of God as the prime Essential LIFE And though God be not compounded of Substance and Form yet from Similitude of Creatures we must as inadequate Conceptions think of his being LIFE as the form of his Substance not divisible or compounding but as a distinguishing Conception And formadat esse noment § 5. III. Though in God's Essence there be no Parts Degrees or Accidents yet to answer the Similitude of Parts Degrees or Accidents in Man we must put in general Transcendent Perfection And this includeth abundance of his Perfective Attributes as that He is One infinite eternal necessary independent uncompounded unchangeable and all the rest that are contained in Absolute Perfection § 6. IV. When we say That God is the prime essential LIFE we mean a Life of Eminency above all that is created But yet such as must be known by Creature-similitude And therefore from the Similitude of Man we must think of the Formal Divine LIFE by a threefold Conception 1. As Vital Power in Act 2. As Eminent Intellect and Will called Omnipotency in Act Wisdom and Goodness or Love Whether these be the FATHER SON and HOLY GHOST is after to be opened But as FATHER SON and HOLY GHOST the Scripture teacheth us to conceive of God As Three in One God and One God and Substance in these Three § 7. V. God is to be conceived of in relation to the Creation in general as OF HIM and THROUGH HIM and TO HIM are all things As He is the Divine Efficient the more than Constitutive and the final Cause of all § 8. VI. He is especially to be conceived of in his Relations to the Reasonable Creatures as their absolute Owner supreme Ruler and chief Benefactor and amiable attractive Good and End § 9. VII He is especially to be conceived of â—s related to Man As our Creator and Conserver as the God of Nature 2. As our Redeemer by Christ and the God of Grace 3. And as our Perfecter by his Spirit and the God of Glory And as related to his Kingdom of Nature Grace and Glory § 10. VIII He being without Passivity a pure Act must be conceived of as 1. In virtute seu potentia Activa 2. In his Acts objectively immanent 1. Self-living 2. Self-knowing 3. Self-loving 3. In his transient Acts or Works considered both ex parte agentis and as the Effects § 11. IX He is negatively to be known by the dâ—nial of all that noteth Imperfection § 12. X. When I say that God is to be known by Similitudes I mean that though nothing be fully like to God yet somewhat in which he may be partly known appeareth on the whole frame of Nature but especially on the Soul of Man which is his Image Therefore he that would know how to conceive of God must first know himself and what his own Soul is The true Conceptions of your Souls must be the prime Helps to conceive of God by similitude And here you first find Intellective Volitive and Executive Acts. 2. And by these you know that you have the Power so to act for no one doth that which he cannot do 3. And hereby you know that your Souls are Substance For all Power is the Power of some Substance Nothing can do nothing 4. And by this you know that an intellectual Spirit is a Substance so impowered And that others are such as well as you And knowing what a Spirit is you know what God the Father is transcendently and eminently And though all God's Works notifie him you have thus the most intelligible Similitude within you § 13. Therefore I know not how you can better conceive of God than as MORE THAN A SOUL TO ALL THE WORLD but especially to Saints I say More than a Soul For a Soul is but a Part and Câ—â—â—â—iâ—utive but God can be no Part and is more than Constitutive The World is finite but God is infinite therefore he is more than a Soul of the World â—assâ—ndus calleth the World Indefinite but seemeth to mean Infinite and so to make God but the Soul of the World But that cannot be proved Not but that there be created Souls under God But while God is more than a Soul to all those Souls he is more than a Soul to all the World § 14. It is lawful and useful to think of God by such similitudes as he hath used of himself in his Word how low soever Even by his particular Works Three Names he assumeth Life Light and Love He is the Living God He is Light and with Him is no Darkness God is Love saith the beloved Apostle GOD is said to cloath himself with LIGHT as with a Garment And a man will say I have seen the KING to day who saw him but in his Garments And if he saw the Skin of his Face how little of the King did he see In Scripture they that have seen Angels are said to have seen God and heard his Voice by them When we see the Glory of the Sun that diffuseth its Beams to all the surface of the Earth and uniteth it self with every Eye even of the smallest Worms and quickeneth every thing that liveth this giveth us by similitude some low resemblance of the Divine Life and Light and Glory When he is called Our FATHER and he is said to love us as a FATHER his Children this is some help to our Conceptions of him When we read of all those Visions which Iohn had in the Revelations of Christ's glorious Appearance as before on the Mount and of God on the Throne with the four Beasts and seven Spirits and the thousand thousands of glorious Attendants and of the metaphorical Description of the Heavenly Ierusalem It is not unlawful nor unuseful to us to make use of such Spectacles of
would not do all those must die for Obedience even to those commanded Tasks was then made necessary by God And as to temporal death it was not by that Law to be escaped but on the strict terms thereby required So that doing these things was necessary to life temporal and to eternal in sincerity And the driving on the People by temporal punishments to these externals was that Body of the Law which the mistaking Jews had separated from the Soul of it § 24. And he saith None could be justified by the Works of the Law because this written political Law and its externals were in this Dispute put in opposition to Christ and the Law taken for the meer Body of Moses's Law separated from the Law of Grace which was its Soul and no doubt 1. It is Faith in the Redeemer and Covenant of Grace which is the Condition of constituting Men Iust which they must have before any Obedience to their particular Laws could be sincere and acceptable and the faithful keeping of the Law of Grace which is made the Condition of salvation 2. And to dream that legal Strictness Ceremonies Sacrifices or other legal Works would justifie them without Christ and Faith in him or any otherwise than as Acts of Obedience to their Redeemer by which their fidelity to the Covenant of Grace was to be expressed while that Law was in force was contrary to the true meaning of their Law it self § 25. The rest of the World were not in the Covenant nor under the Law of Peculiarity or Jewish Policy And as such as is said it is now all abrogated even the Decalogue it self though its Matter be still in force as aforesaid SECT V. Of the Law or Covenant of Grace in the last Edition or the Gospel § 1. VVHether the Covenant of Grace in the first edition to Adam and this of the second edition by Christ shall be called One or Two the same or diveâ—s and the old Church and the Gospel-Church the same or not the same in specie are but needless questions about the bare Name of Oneness as long as we agree wherein they differ and wherein they differ not In some respects they may be called the same and in some not the same § 2. The Parties in the first Covenant of Grace were really but two GOD and Man unless you could prove that Christ had then such a superangelical Nature in which he mediated as some before mentioned hold But the Parties in the new Covenant of Grace are really Three viz. GOD as the absolutely Supreme who gave us a Mediator and Christ the Mediator as the supreme Subadministrator to whom all Power is given and Man the Subject to both § 3. The Benefits of the first Edition respected a future Saviour and his future Righteousness Sacrifice and Mâ—rits But the Benefits of the second Edition respect an existent Mediator and his merits and sacrifice already performed and accepted of God § 4. The revelation of life eternal and Man's spiritual felicity and duty is far clearer in the second Edition than in the first § 5. As there is more done for us so there are more full and excellent means provided for Man's information conversion sanctification and salvation in Apostles Scriptures Miracles spiritual Ordinances than under the first § 6. As the means excel so the Spirit is given in a greater measure answerable to the greater Revelation and means And is specially Christ's Witness and Agent in the World and the mark of his peculiar ones § 7. And as more is done for us so more is now to be believed by us Many necessary Articles are added to our Faith That this Iesus is the Messiah that he was conceived by the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary suffered under P. Pilate was crucified dead and buried descended to Hades rose again the third day ascended to Heaven is there glorified in our Nature Head of all c. are all new Articles of our Faith which before were not required because not revealed or the matter extant § 8. This second Edition is both the Covenant of Grace and a Covenant of Peculiarity far excelling the Iewish Covenant of Peculiarity Believers are a holy Nation a royal Priesthood a peculiar People c. § 9. This Covenant supposeth the antecedent gifts of a Saviour to be incarnate and do his meritorious and sacrificing part and all such Preparatories and of Life Gospel and Opportunities given to the Sinner § 10. The parts of the Covenant are 1. The Conditional Gifts or Benefits 2. The Condition or Terms of Right 3. The Rule of Duty 4. The Penalty for violation or neglect of the Covenant § 11. 1. The Gifts are God the Father Son and Holy Ghost in their Covâ—nâ—nâ—-Relation to us and the love of the Father the Grace of the Son and the Communion of the Holy spirit Or as it is briefly expressed in 1 Ioh. 5. 10 11. Christ and life in him that is Pardon Iustification the Spirit Adoption and Glory at first in right and after in possession and all means and mercies which God seeth meet to bring us to it § 12. 2. The Condition of our first Right is 1. That of natural necessity viz. Repentance and Return to God 2. Of natural and instituted necessity Belief and Confidence in Christ and Covenant-Consent § 13. The Condition of our continued and consummate Right and full Possession is the former Faith and Consent continued Repentance renewed when we knowingly sin and sincere Obedience and Perseverance § 14. 3. Seeing sincere Obedience supposeth a Law we must know that more is in the Precept than in the Condition Therefore we distinguish of necessitas praecepâ—i medii The Precept requireth perfect Obedience as due But Sincerity is the Condition and will save without Perfection § 14. The Precepts or Law of Christ now contain 1. The Law of Nature for all Things and Iudgment are given up to him 2. The new peculiar Laws of Grace containing our special Faith in Christ and his special Institutions of Church-Order Ministery Worship c. § 15. The Penaelty of the Law of Grace in this Edition is as in the first 1. A Privation of its Benefits to Nonconsenters or Insidels with a greater dâ—gree of punishment for Ingratitude 2. And withdrawings of the Spirits help for our quenching and resisting it and abusing Mercy 3. And temporal castigatory Punishments to Believers for their saults § 16. The Sum of all essential to this Covenant is in Baptism and the Lords Supper which are therefore Sacraments and Symbols of it and Baptism was appointed by Christ himself to be the solemn Initiation Badge and Character of his Disciples and Church-Members § 17. The History of Christ's Life and Sufferings and of his Apostles Life and Preaching and all the â—est of holy Scripture is God's Word and his Doctrine belonging to the Gospel-Covenant But it is the Covenant it self or Law of Grace which all that are under it must
Slave and also promiseth him great Possessions and Honours in a Kingdom in the East Indies or at the Antipodes if he will leave his Servitude and his Country and all that he hath there and go with him in his Ship and patiently endure the Sea-trials till he come thither Here he must 1. believe that the Prince hath paid his ransome 2. That he is a wise man and knoweth what he promised and skilful to conduct him safely through all the perils of the Seas 3. That he is an honest man and intendeth not to deceive him 4. That he is sufficient or able to perform his word 5. And if upon this belief he trust him he will let go all and venture in his Ship and follow him And here one tells him that the Ship is unsound another tells him that the Prince is a Deceiver unable to perform his Word or unskilful or dishonest and some way untrusty and another tells him that small matters in his own Country are better than greater with so much hazard and sets out the dangers and terribleness of the Seas Now if the man be ask'd Do you believe or will you trust me or will you not here every one by believing and trusting knoweth that a practical Trust is meant which lieth in such a confidence as forsaketh all and taketh the promised Kingdom for all his hope Such is our Saving Faith § 12. As many Acts and many Objects go to constitute Saving Faith so if you will logically anatomize it all these following must be taken in § 13. 1. The principal Efficient Cause is God the Father Son and Holy Ghost respectively according to their several operations § 14. 2. The Instrumental Cause is the Word of God and the Preaching and Preachers of it or Parents Friends or some that reveal the Word unto us § 15. 3. Subordinate auxiliary means are Providential Alterations by some awaking Judgments or inviting Mercies or convincing Examples c. § 16. 4. The Soul of Man in all its three Faculties Vital-active Intellective and Volitive is 1. the Recipient of the Divine Influx and then 2. the immediate Efficient or Agent of the Acts of Faith § 17. 5. Preparatory Grace and Duty is ordinarily Man's Disposition as he is the Recipient of God's Grace and the Agent of believing But God is free and can work on the unprepared but it is not to be taken for his ordinary way § 18. 6. The formal Object of the assenting Act of Faith is veracit as Dei revelantis the Veracity or Truth of God revealing his Will § 19. 7. The formal Object of the accepting and receiving Act is the Goodness of the Benefits offered us by the Covenant as offered § 20. 8. The formal Object of our Trust or Affiance is God's fides Fidelity because of his aforesaid Veracity in promising and his Power Wisdom and Benevolence as a Performer and this full Act comprehendeth all the rest It is God's Trustiness § 21. 9. The material Objects of the assenting Act in genere are all God's Assertions or Revelations More especially the Gospel or the Christian Faith objective according to the Edition of the Covenant which we are under § 22. The Essentials of our objective Christian Faith constitute the Essence of our active Saving Faith and the Integrals of it constitute the Integrity § 23. And it is of great importance to distinguish here as to the Word and Objects between 1. the signa or words 2. the signification or sence 3. the things matter or incomplex objects as distinct from words and sence viz. God Christ Grace Heaven Goodness Iustice Men c. And to hold 1. That the words are not necessary for themselves but for the sence and therefore Translations or any words which give us the same sence may serve to the being of Saving Faith 2. That the sence it self is not necessary for it self ultimately as if Holiness lay in notions but for the things which that sence revealeth viz. God to be loved and obeyed Christ to be received the Holy Ghost to be received and obeyed Holiness and all Grace to be received loved used encreased our Brethren to be loved Heaven to be desired c. All sence will not bring us to the reception of the things for all is not apt but any that doth this which must be divine and apt will constitute us true Believers § 24. 1. The material Objects of our acceptance and consent are the Word of God commanding offering and promising and the good of Duty and Benefit commanded offered and promised that is All that is given us in the baptismal Covenant God the Father and his Love the Son and his Grace and the Holy Ghost and his Communion The Father as reconciled and adopting us the Son as having redeemed us to teach rule justifie and save us the Holy Spirit to sanctifie comfort and perfect us § 25. 11. The material Object of our Trust or Affiance is God himself the prime Truth Power and Good and Christ as his Messenger and our Saviour and the Holy Ghost as the Author of the Word and the Word as being the Word of God You must pardon us as necessitated to call God a material Object analogically for want of words § 26. 12. The ultimate or final Objects of Saving Faith are 1. God himself the ultimate ultimum that is the perfect Complacency of his will in his Glory eternally shining forth in our Glory and the Glory of Christ with all the Church triumphant 2. Next to that This Glory it self which is a created thing and the Perfection of the Universe and of Christ's Church and our selves in which it consisteth And therein our own Perfection and our perfect sight love and praise of our glorious God and our Redeemer 3. And next under that the first fruits of all this in this World in the foresaid love of the Father and Grace of the Son and Communion of the Holy Spirit and the Church § 27. If therefore we were put to give a full description of Saving Faith we must be as large as this following or such-like in sence viz. The Faith which the Adult must profess in Baptism as having the Promise of Justification and Salvation is a sincere fiducial practical Assent to Divine Revelations and especially to the Gospel revealing and offering us God himself to be our God and reconciled Father Christ to be our Saviour viz. by his Incarnation meritorious Righteousness and Sacrifice Resurrection Doctrine Example Government Intercession and final Judgment and the Holy Ghost to quicken illuminate and sanctifie us that so we may live in the Love of the Father the Grace of the Son and the Communion of the Holy Spirit and of the Christian Church being saved from our Enemies Sin and Misery initially in this Life and perfectly in eternal perfect Glory With a fiducial acceptance of the Gifts of the Covenant according to their nature and a sincere federal Consent and with a sincere
devoting and giving up our selves to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and renouncing of all that is inconsistent with this Covenant Which Assent Consent and Trust are the effects of the Gospel and Spirit of Christ and are founded on God's Fidelity that is on the Veracity Love and Sufficiency of God Almighty most wise and good and on Christ the Father's great Apostle and on Christ's sub-Apostles and on the Gospel and especially the Covenant of Grace as on God's revealing and donative Instrument and on the manifold obsignant operations of the Holy Ghost miraculous and sanctifying as God's infallible Attestation to the Gospel-Verity § 28. Historical Tradition of the Words Books and Matters of Fact are subordinate necessary means of transmitting the Objects to our sense of Hearing who live at such a distance from the Time Place and Facts § 29. But though all these things aforesaid are in true Faith yet a distinct Perception or Description of them all is not necessary in him that hath them But a more general Conception of it which will but consist with the true Reception of the Things signified by the Words God Christ Grace c. may be certainly saving to a plain and simple-hearted Christian when one that can describe it accurately may be graceless For it is Believing and not Defining Faith which God hath made necessary to Salvation § 30. Therefore we do ordinarily well use shorter Descriptions to the People and sometime we say That Faith in Christ is our Christianity that is our Assent and Consent to the Baptismal Covenant and our Self-dedition to God therein For in Scripture it is all one to be a Believer a Disciple of Christ and a Christian. § 31. Sometimes we say That saving Faith is a fiducial-practical Assent to the Truth of the Gospel and Consent to the Covenant of Grace or an Accepting of all the Benefits of the Covenant as they are and on the terms offered or an Accepting of Christ and Life in and with him there offered us § 32. Sometimes we say It is a practical Affiance or trusting on Christ as our only Saviour for Salvation or to bring us to God and glory And in all these and the like we speak truly and mean the same thing some terms being used on occasion while the rest are implyed and to be understood § 33. Those that will needs call no act by the name of Faith but Assent and confine it to the Intellect do yet seem to differ with us but de nomine about a Word and not the Matter For they confess if there concur not a Consent of the Will it is not saving but as some call it â—ides informis and so that Assent and Consent make up our necessary Condition or means of our Union with Christ or Interest in the Covenant-Rights or Gifts And then seeing we are agreed so far of the matter it 's not worth much striving whether one only or both Acts shall be called Faith § 34. When the first Reformers had to do with men that commended uncertainty of our Sincerity and Salvation and kept People under a Spirit of Bondage and tempted them contrary to the Nature of Faith to love this World better than the next and to be afraid of dying by being doubtful whether they should be saved in the heat of opposition some of them called Faith Assurance or certain or full Persuasion of our own personal Election Pardon and Salvation But those that came after them and those that conversed practically with Men of troubled Consciences and observed the state of the greatest part of good Christians followed not this Example but spake more cautelously and soundly and described Faith as I before have told you For they found that not one of a multitude of godly Christians could say they were certain of their Election Sincerity or Salvation And some that were forwardest to say so were none of the best and had not what they said they had § 35. But whatever the transmarine Divines say I can witness that except ignorant Antinomians or such Sectaries rejected by the Orthodox I remember not that I have met these forty years with one Divine that taketh saving-Faith to be such Assurance of our personal Election Justification or Salvation especially the first act which is not to believe that we are justified but that we may be justified § 36. Indeed you would think those few must hold this who say That Justification is an immanent eternal Act of God But 1. this is but a difference about the word Iustification All confess that God's essential Volition of our Justification is eternal as being himself but some think that his Will may be denominated an Eternal Iustification and others better say Not But all confess that the Law of Grace doth justifie no man till he believe much less the Sentence of Christ as Judge And though some call our Perswasion that we are justified by the name of Faith yet they deny not another act of Faith antecedent to this that maketh us true Christians § 37 And indeed besides Mr. Pemble and Dr. Twisse both excellent Men it 's rare to meet with any English Divine that talks for Eternal Iustification And Mr. Pemble who let fall some such things in his Vindiciae Gratiae did set all right again in his Treatise of Iustification being very young when he wrote even the last And Dr. Twisse who in his Vindic. Gratiae hath some such words speaketh elsewhere soundly as Mr. Iessop his Scholar hath shewed in a Treatise purposely written to prove it when I had taken exceptions against his words § 38. It is therefore shameless Calumny of those who perswade their Followers That the Reformed Churches take Faith for such an Assurance or Belief that we are justified or elected and shall be saved only because they find some such word in some former disputing Doctors of ours when as all or near all have so long renounced that Opinion that he would be a Wonder among us in England Scotland or Ireland and I think abroad that should hold it § 39. Yet we still say That saving Faith is not only a believing that God's Word is true but a believing it with personal Application to my self § 40. But that Application is such as followeth 1. I believe that Christ hath died for my sins as well as for the rest of the World 2. I believe that the Gospel offereth Pardon and Salvation to me as well as to others 3. I believe that God will have mercy on me and Christ and Life shall â—e mine if I shall truly believe and repent and Glory if I persevere 4. Hereupon I accept the Offer and Consent to the Covenant of Grace which giveth me right to these Benefits if I consent 5. And so far as I can say that I am sincere in my repenting and believing so far my Faith helpeth me to conclude that I am justified § 41. But this last is a mixt act and a rational
How fain would some men differ if they could or seem to do it when they do not § 32. IV. As to the fourth Question I answer 1. We are all agreed That God will not pardon justifie or save any without both Faith and Repentance and Desire as necessary moral Qualifications of the Receiver And this shall serve turn if any like not the term Condition and be willing to be quiet § 33. 2. Faith in a narrow Sence as signifying meer Assent is distinct from Repentance but Faith in that sence as is meant in Baptism and hath the Promise of Justification and Life is more the same with Repentance than many perceive For Repentance is the change of the mind from evil to good And the Good necessary to our Salvation is a fiducial practical Consent to the Covenant of Grace or a practical Faith in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost And to turn to this is to repent and be converted even to turn from the contrary Acts and Objects to this fiducial consenting Belief in God the Father Son and Spirit and what else is repenting but this Change § 34. 3. It was never Paul's meaning under the name of Works to exclude Repentance and all Acts of Faith save one and Thankfulness and Desire and Hope and Prayer c. while they keep their place in subordination to Christ They do but confound sacred Doctrines and mens minds that so imagine § 35. And the same Spirit that saith He that believeth shall be saved saith also He that calleth on the Name of the Lord shall be saved Rom. 10. 13. And we are saved by Hope Rom. 8. 24. and we are saved by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost Tit. 3. 5 6. and by believing the Articles of the Creed 1 Cor. 15. 2. and blessed are they that kee◠his Commandments that they may have right to the Tree of Life that right is our righteousness and may enter in c. Rev. 22. 14. By taking heed to himself and to Doctrine Timothy was to save himself and his Hearers 1 Tim. 4. 16. Many such Texts I have elsewhere cited which are all true § 36. V. As to the fifth Question it is answered before in the Description of Faith As the Father Son and Holy Spirit are one God so Faith in them is one Faith and no man can truly believe in Christ that believeth not in the Father our belief in God as God and Love to him is that Salvation to which Christ is to bring us And the Consent to use the remedy includeth the consent to have Health or to be saved And our Belief in God as our Redeemer even Christ is the chief part of our mediate Faith In a word all that Belief which is necessary to the Baptized is necessary to our Iustification But that is our Belief in Father Son and Holy Ghost in the measure that they are revealed CHAP. XXIV Of Assurance of our Justification and of Hope § 1. ASsurance of Perseverance and Salvation is not here to be spoken of but only of our present Iustification And they are distinct Questions 1. What Assurance is desirable 2. What Assurance is attainable 3. What Assurance we actually have and who have it 4. What is the nature and grounds of this Assurance § 2. I. Some pleaded so much for the usefulness of Uncertainty and Doubting as if it were the safest condition to keep us humble and watchful as excited Luther and other Reformers to take them for utter Enemies to Christian Comfort And certainly Assurance is a most desirable thing it kindleth in us the love of God it maketh Duty sweet it maketh Sufferings easie and Death less terrible and Heaven more desired and consequently cureth an earthly Mind and leadeth man to a heavenly Conversation and putteth Life into all his Endeavours Whereas a man that is still utterly in doubt of his state of Salvation and right to Life will be loath to die and therefore love this present World and have less thankful and loving Thoughts of God and his Redeemer and so all sin will have advantage and Holiness a great impediment An Infidel will confess that such Assurance is exceeding desirable § 3. II. And no doubt but a comfortable degree of Assurance is attainable or else God would never have so fully differenced the Righteous and the Wicked and commanded all to examine and try themselves and to make sure But this I have often elsewhere proved § 4. III. But all true Believers have not Assurance of their Justification because they are not certain that their Faith is such as hath the promise of Justification He that believeth perceiveth that he believeth but yet may be uncertain that his Faith is so sincere as no unjustified man can have § 5. Their Justification is real or true or certain in it self but the Evidence of it may be dark and their perception of the Evidence defective from whence it is to them uncertain that is not known with that full satisfaction of mind which we call Assurance § 6. Yea Experience telleth us That it is but a small part of the most religious Christians who will say themselves That they are certain of their Iustification and of those few that are forwardest to say so all have it not § 7. Therefore justifying Faith is not Assurance that we are justified otherwise all should have assurance that have Faith and justifying Faith in order of Nature goeth before Iustification but Assurance that we are justified followeth it we cannot be assured that we are justified but by being assured that we believe But it 's absurd to say I am assured I am justified because I am assured that I am justified But this is only against the Antinomians § 8. No man hath perfect Assurance that is the highest degree in this Life For if all our Graces be imperfect our Assurance must needs be imperfect § 9. IV. This Assurance then is not properly Divine Faith or a Belief of God's Word but it is a clear and satisfying perception of our own Justification because we are clearly satisfied that God's Promises are true and that we are true Believers § 10. This Certainty is not by an immediate Word or Revelation of the Spirit in us but yet the Spirit is all these ways the cause of it in the Faithful 1. The Spirit working us to God's Image and Will is our assuring-Evidence or the Minor in that Argument whose Conclusion we are assured of as the Spirit in the Word is the Major 2. The Spirit in Believers helpeth them to perceive his own Works in them and know their Evidence 3. And also to rejoyce in that perception This is the Witness of the Spirit which we mean and not immediate Revelation § 11. Though Hope be sometimes about things certain yet it is often also about that which we are not certain of And more have true Hopes of Salvation than have Assurance of it or of their Title
so one man may have the relative Person of a King a Husband a Father a Captain General a Physician an Astronomer c. And though I hold not this Relative Personality is all that we are to acknowledge in the Trinity yet I see no reason but in the second place it is included that is 1. The Relations which the Divine Vitality Intellect and Will have to the substantiality and to each other 2. And the Relation which they have ad extra to Effects And whereas it may be objected that so God hath thousands of Relations to thousands of his Works I answer But he hath three grand Relations which comprehend all the rest as he is the God of Nature Grace and Clory Creator Redeemer and Perfecter As he hath the three grand Attributes which comprehend the rest But undoubtedly this Trinity of essential Attributes which are said to be related to the substantiality and to each other is here in the prime Conceptus § 25. He that placeth Personality in the Trinity in SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS leaveth us to enquire of him Q. 1. Whether it be by him presupposed or not that there are the three foresaid Attributes called Essentialities or Formalities in one Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we commonly call Substance or Spirit Q. 2. Whether Conscire being scire is not the proper Act of an Intellect and not of a Will or executive Power as such Q. 3. Self-perception indeed is a first and essential Act of every sensible Agent But doth not that among men only prove sensible Life which is in many Faculties and is as numerous as the Acts and not prove many persons seeing he must be first a Person who shall thus act By seeing I perceive that I see and by hearing that I hear and by tasting smelling touching that I taste smell and touch I know these by Intellection but I perceive them first by essential Sensation and so by understanding I immediately perceive that I understand and think And by willing I immediately not know but by a sort of eminent Sensation perceive that I will And by vital Action I perceive that I act Yet these are not distinct Persons but the acts of one Person Perception is essential to Vitality or Sense but not constitutive of Personality Q. 4. Is it knowing ones self or knowing another or another's knowing me that constituteth Personality I know not my self to be what I am in priâ—◠〈◊〉 I first perceive my acts and by the Acts I know that I have an active Power and by that I know that I am a Substance c. Which of these maketh me a Person 2. God knoweth the Acts of every Creature better than each knoweth his own yet that is not God's Personality as distinct from his Life And that the Creature doth not equally know God can be no privation of Personality to God whatever it be to the Creature And God's Personality was before there was any Creature Q. 5. To say That they are three Minds or Spirits or Substances that do invicem conscire is to say That they are three Gods And because every mental Substance hath its own active Power Intellect and Will it supposeth three Trinities instead of one Q. Though God be said to be purus Actus it is Actus entitâ—tivus including potentiam seâ— virtutem agendi and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Substantiality is a necessary prior fundamental Conception for it doth superare captum humanum to conceive of an Act that is not alicujus actus He that causeth all substantiality and existence is eminently existent Substance Many have made it a Dispute Whether the Creature have any Entity or be a Shadow but none whether God be so Obj. To be self-conscious proveth Personality and to be conscious of the act of another proveth one the same Person with the other Ans. To be self-perceptive is a good proof of a Vital Act and to be self-conscious is a proof of an Intellect Indeed in GOD the Substance and Act and so the Personality and Self-perception are not two things but the same But yet inadequate Conceptions must be orderly and so the act conceived as the act of a Power and of a Person And as is said every act or faculty that hath self-perception is not a Person 2. And God's consciousness of the acts of Iudas Herod Nero proveth him not to be the same person with each of them though he be infinitely more § 26. GOD being essential Life in â—ure Act without any passive Power meant by the word PERSON by the Orthodox may be better spoken of his Essential Acts the active Virtue included than of Mans. If it be the Essence why may not the proved Trinity of objective Conceptions as formal be called Persons or Hypostases Though many wise Men wish that a Name less liable to mistake had been used § 27. But though I am past doubt that in God is this Trinity of essential formal inadequate Conceptions or Primalities and that the impress of them is on the Soul of Man which is his image and on the whole frame of Nature and Grace yet far be it from me to say That nothing else is meant by the Trinity of Persons thus much we are sure of There may be more to constitute that personality than is to us comprehensible and I doubt not but there is more because thus much is so intelligible seeing the Divine Nature is so infinitely far above the Comprehension of us poor Worms But what we know not we cannot describe or notifie to others § 28. There are of late some of great Wit and Learning who have adventured upon another sort of Description of the Trinity Men whose parts I greatly value Peter Sterry Dr. H. More Mr. John Turner of St. Thomas Hospital and before them some in Germany went some such way They say that from the prime Being emaneth say some or is created say others the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the second Hypostasis or person and Matter which is the third and this caused Life and Matter the Son and Holy Ghost are one indivisible though distinguishable Being there being no Spirit saith Dr. M. save God that is not a Soul to some Body Some of them tell us not whether this first produced LIFE and MATTER be the Universal Matter of the World animated by an universal Soul or whether they mean only some prime Soul and Matter that was made or caused before the rest But others let us know that it is the universal that they mean And if so they must needs hold the World as to all its Spirit and Matter to be eternal though in Particles alterable and to be God himself The prime Entity the Life and the Matter being the Father Son and Spirit But they that hold not this universal Life and Matter do think that God by a most eminent Life and Spirit that was eternal did create all the rest as inferiour to them Dr. More 's Book of
be ruled and judged by and constituteth the Essentials of Christianity § 18. This Covenant did constitute Christianity many years supposâ—d eight before any part of the New Testament was written as now extant and near seventy years before it was all written § 19. As Man hath an Intellect a Will and an Executive power and the Gospel is to work on all so the Creed is the Summary of our Belief the Lords Prayer of our Desire and the Christian Decalogue and Institutions of our practice as expounding what Baptism generally expresseth § 20. Though to the Iews that were bred up under the use of the Old Testament and that expected the Messiah the Apostles staid not long instructing them before they baptized them when they professed Repentance and Faith in Christ yet it cannot be conceived but that with the ignorant Gentile Christians all Teachers took pains to make them understand first what they were to profess and promise for ignorant doing they know not what pleaseth not God And therefore that the Faith contained in the three Baptismal Articles was certainly explained in more words and accordingly professed which must be in substance that called the Apostles Creed which the Churches preservation and use with the Custom of long instructing Catecumens giveth us notice of as well as the reason of the thing § 21. When we find Christ commanding his Apostles to disciple the Nations and baptize them in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost and teach them all his Commandments and when we daily see after people have learned to say They believe in the Father Son and Holy Ghost how long it is ere they understand the meaning of those three Articles and when we know that it is not bare words without the sence that constituteth the Christian Faith no sober Man will doubt whether the persons to be baptized were taught the sence as well as the words which must be done by more words And it is certain that those Words were not to alter Christ's Baptismal Covenant nor the Nature and Terms of Christianity but to expound them And it is certain that multitudes were so weak that had those Words been very long and many they would rather have burdened them than become their own profession as understood and remembred And it is certain that the changing of words doth easily turn to a change of the sense and that even then Heresies quickly multiplied which made it necessary to the Church to be careful to preserve sound Doctrine From all which it clearly followeth that a Creed that is a Summary Profession of Belief explaining the Baptismal Articles was in common use in all the Churches many years before the writing of the New Testament And it is not likely that in the Apostles days the Churches did receive it from any but themselves § 22. Yet it is not probable that they composed exactly such a Form of Words as might not at all be altered and used still the very same terms for the Creeds recited by Irenaeus Tertullian Marcellus in Epiphanius and others do all differ in some words from one another and some Articles have been added since the rest of which see Usher and Vossius de Symbolis But except those few Additions they all agree in Sence which may perswade us that the ancient Churches kept still to Words which signified the same matter of the Articles of our common Creed and admitted no variation of the Words but such as was small and endangered not the Doctrine § 23. Though Baptism explained by the Symbol of Faith Lords Prayer and Decalogue contain at least the Constitutive Essentials of Christianity yet the Integrals are much larger and all that Christ commanded was to be taught the Church And though this was done by Voice many years by the Apostles before they wrote any part of the New Testament yet the Memory of men from Generation to Generation would have been a very unsafe and treacherous Preserver of so many things had they been committed to Memory alone Therefore it pleased the Wisdom and Love of God to inspire the Apostles prophetically and infallibly to commit the Sum of the History of Christ's Life Sufferings and Death c. with all the Integrals of his Word to those durable and sacred Records which we call the Holy Scriptures for the easier and fuller Propagation and Preservation of the Christian Faith and all its Integrals especially his Example and sacred Precepts yea and the necessary Accidentals or Appurtenances § 24. Because the Scriptures contain both in Words and Sence much more than the Essentials of Christianity and so more than is of absolute necessity to Salvation many a million may be saved that understand not all that is in the Scriptures nay no man on Earth understandeth it perfectly And he that understandeth and receiveth the Essentials shall be saved though he were ignorant of a thousand particular Texts § 25. Therefore it is that the Church hath ever selected the great and most necessary Truths and taught Children and Catechised Persons these before the rest by way of Catechism of which the foresaid Creed Lords Prayer and Decalogue are the Sum and the Sacramental Covenant is that Sum yet more contracted And it hath not been the Churches way to teach Children or Converts the Bible over in order indifferently without selecting first the Marrow out of the whole which the Ignorant cannot do for themselves § 26. Besides the Method or Order of the Scripture books there is specially to be studied by those that will be more perfect than the rudeâ— for t the true Method of the Body of Doctrine contained in all the Scriptures For all the parts of that Doctrine have that Place Order and Respect each to other as maketh up the Beauty and Harmony which is in the whole And even in the Covenants the Creed Lords Prayer and Decalogue there is a most excellent Order and Method above all that is found in Aristotle or any humane Writers though alas too few perceive it § 27. Therefore they that gather true Systems of Theology do not add to the Scripture nor feign it to have a Method which it hath not no more than Catechisms do but only gather out that Doctrine which is there and deliver it in the true Scripture-method not as it lieth in the order of Words but in the order of Relation that one Truth hath to another And to despise this real Method because every dull and slothful Wit doth not see it in the Scriptures is indeed to despise the Matter and Design of the Scripture and to despise all true and clear Knowledge of things Divine For to see Truths placed in their proper Order doth differ from a knowing of some confused parcels as knowing the parts of a Man a Picture a Clock a House a Ship c. duly compaginated and seeing all the parts cast confusedly on a heap But to draw up a true Method is the Work of a skilful hand and
of Grace and Pardon which he committed to his Ministers to proclaim 2 Cor. 5. 19. But 2. on mans part it is not the knowledge and belief of this Iesus incarnate personally that was made necessary to all before his coming and therefore not to all after No man ever came to the Father but by the Son's Merit and Spirit nor without a consenting Belief and Affiance in God's redeeming or recovering pardoning saving Mercy and true Repentance and a sanctified Soul which is in love with God and goodness And whatever was absolutely necessary in the terms of the first Edition of the Covenant of Grace even to all the World before Christ's Incarnation But Christ never meant that no man before his Incarnation or since that heard not of him did come to the Father without believing that which the Apostles themselves long believed not after they followed Christ. § 27. The rest of the World were not bound to know so much of the Messiah as the Iews as having not the same Revelation § 28. 1. Having proved that it is a Law of Grace that all the World is to be ruled and judged by it remaineth to be enquired Whether any of them that have not the Gospel do keep the Conditions of this Law and so are justified by it and saved To which I answer 1. That being a matter of fact it is not of so great Importance for us to be certain of it as some imagine And who can be certain of the Affirmative unless the Scripture affirm it when if we knew all the World one man cannot be certain of anothers Sincerity And much less can any be certain of the Negative without Scripture Negation seeing no man can know every man in the World and every Heart § 29. 2. But it is exceeding probable at least That God would never govern many hundred parts of the World compared to the Iews before Christ's Incarnation and five sixth parts since his Incarnation by a Law of Grace which yet no person should ever have effectual Grace to keep as far as was necessary to his Salvation Every Law of God is a Means and appointeth the Subjects the use of much Means for their own Salvation These means they are bound to use and shall be condemned if they use them not and that none should ever use them savingly is an Assertion so unlikely that he that hath the boldness to affirm it should bring certain Proof of it which the Scripture I think doth not afford him § 30. But what numbers do perform the Condition and are saved no mortal man can tell But in general we know that God usually worketh in Congruity to his appointed means and consequently that far fewer are saved where less means is vouchsafed than among Christians who have herein the unvaluable pre-eminence above others § 31. For as the Jews had both the common Covenant of Grace and also the Covenant of Peculiarity setting them above all others so the Christian Church hath both the common Covenant of Grace and by the second edition of it a Covenant of Peculiarity both sealed by Baptism and the Lord's Supper as the Jews Covenant was by Circumcision and the Passover Yea our Covenant Privileges set us above the World incomparably higher than the Jâ—ws were § 32. Yet should we take warning by the example of the Jews Pride who were so confident that none were saved or beloved but themselves that they despised the rest of the World and provoked God to cut them off and call the Gentiles into higher privileges So some Christians so trust to their Gospel-Peculiarities as the Jews did to their Law that they despise all the World besides themselves and can easilier believe that God will damn a thousand millions that never heard the Gospel than one of them who have no more real Holiness than many of those whom they despise But it is our Duty to be thankful both for our excellent Peculiarities and also for the commoner Mercies unto others And I wish the impartial Reader to study Mal. 1. 10 11. whether even this be not the sence Nor will I accept an Offering at your hand for from the rising of the Sun to the going down of the same my name is great among the Gentiles and in every place Incense offered to my name and a pure Offering For my name is great among the Heathen saith the Lord of hosts but ye have polluted it Our Translators have as Expositors thrice at the least added the future Tense shall be But all the old Translations Syriack Caldeâ— Paraph. Greek Latin c. put it in the present Tense is great is offered I do but desire the Reader to study it It 's strange that all the ancient Churches should misunderstand it It seems more probable by the Context that the Hebrew Text understood the present Tense none being expressed § 33. If we might imitate our Father Abraham who yet saw Christ's day and rejoiced we should suppose the number of the saved through the world to be very considerable For as I said elsewhere though God had told him that Sodom was so much worse than the rest of the World that God would destroy it yet Abraham thought there might be fifty righteous persons there It 's like he thought not worse of the rest of the World § 34. Obj. You seem to make the rest of the World happier than the Iews for they had a Law that would justifie them and so had not the Iews Ans. The second assertion is false The Jews were under the Law of Grace which Paul calleth the Promise and might be justified by it and had greater helps to know and keep it than the rest of the World had But when they foolishly separated their Mosaical Law from the Promise or common Law of Grace Paul tells them by the Deeds of that Law no flesh could be justified § 35. Obj. Do you not thus confound the World and the Church Ans. No I ask you Did he confound them before Christ's Incarnation who thought that more than the Jews were saved Certainly no No more do I now § 36. The word Church is sometime taken so properly and strictly as to signifie only those that are under the Covenant of Peculiarity And so the Jews before Christ's Birth and Christians since make up the Church and some few perhaps before the Iews Covenant But sometimes it is taken more largely for the Kingdom of God For all that are in a state of Salvation under the several editions of the Law of Grace And so Iob and his Friends and Melchizedeck and many others before and all now that love God and Holiness sincerely are of the Church Accordingly by the World is meant either 1. All Men as under the Redeemer's Law of Grace antecedently to their Consent and so all the World belong to God's Kingdom as subditi obligati 2. Rebels that refuse Consent And so they are of the Kingdom by obligation but condemnable for Rebellion And
Faith as to the Objects extensively which was required of Jewish Believers before Christ's Incarnation as is now of us nor the same degree that was required of all the rest of the World as of the Jews 2. But such a Faith in God our Redeemer as that Law which men are under maketh necessary to Salvation is necessary to Holiness And to ask what God will do with a man that is holy without Faith is to talk of a non-existent Subject There is no such man for without Faith it is impossible to please God for he that cometh to God must believe that God is and that he is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek him notwithstanding original and actual Sin and the Law of Innocency condemning us and therefore that he is under a pardoning and rewarding Law of Grace Heb. 11. 6. No man can be sanctified without the Merit Doctrine and Spirit of Christ nor without that degree of Faith which the Covenant which he is under requireth § 20. Quest. What if a man that was sanctified by believing should retain his Holiness or Love and Obedience and lose his Faith in Christ Answ. It is a thing that never was nor will be and not to be disputed of § 21. Moral Virtue in the proper sence of the word is the same thing as Holiness taken comprehensively as containing our Love and Duty to God and to man for God's sake But as Holiness is taken narrowly for our Love and Duty to God as distinct from our Love and Duty to Man so Moral Virtue is the genus and Holiness the chief species of it And thus we take Moral Virtue and Moral Action and so all Morality as contradistinct from Physicks or things meerly natural not falling under the genus moris And so Virtue and Vice or Sin are all that is Moral that is Moral Good and Moral Evil And this is the first and most notable sence of the word But some of late have used Moral as contradistinct from Holiness or Grace or from infused Habits or from Faith and Christianity and some tell us confidently but falsly That this is the most fit and famous sence and the word so to be taken when not otherwise explained It 's the sad case of Mankind that we have no words but what are liable to ambiguity And it 's the unhappiness of the Church that hath so many Teachers that will dispute write and wrangle about words unexplained and in the end shew that under divers terms they mean the same matter in which they are agreed and know not their Agreement § 22. As Holiness is sometimes taken so largely as to comprehend all that God commandeth and sometimes for the natural part of our Duty Love and Obedience as distinct from Faith in Christ which is the mediate Grace and of supernatural revelation so is Morality or moral Virtue distinguished § 23. They that take moral Virtue so narrowly and improperly as to mean no other moral Virtue than Heathens had or than is taught in Aristotle's Ethicks should first tell us That this is their sence and then they may boldly declaim against those Preachers that take this for sufficient or that preach no other For Scripture and Christianity were to little purpose if they taught us no more than the Writings of Philosophers do § 24. And no doubt but it is a pitiful sign and an odious Crime in a Minister of Christ to say little to the People of the Mysteries of Man's Redemption the Person and Offices and Works of Christ the Covenant of Grace and the special Blessings given by it our Union with Christ Justification Adoption and the special Works of the Spirit on Mens Souls and all the Duties and Pleasures of a Heavenly Conversation in the love of the Father the Grace of the Son and the Communion of the Holy Spirit and all this under pretence of magnitying and preaching up the Love of our Brethren and Charity to the Poor and Iustice and Temperance as if Man were our God and to wrong man were the only Sin and to wrong God were none or God could be no otherwaies wronged § 25. But Covetousness and Pride contradicteth their own Doctrine For among their good works those of Piety are first extolled and those are the enriching of the Church and that is themselves and why them more than the poorer People about us Because they are sacred persons and belong to God and serve at his Altars Very good And is Piety to a sacred person and such as they so great a Duty and yet our Piety as immediately to God himself an indifferent thing in comparison of our Duty to Man Yea some usually make that part of their Piety which consisteth in the observance of their own Traditions and unnecessary Injunctions to seem of great weight while the holy observance of God's own Laws is perhaps accused as too much preciseness or hypocrisâ—s when indeed the Hypocrite is he that instead of the life and serious practice of true Christian-Holiness sets up and resteth in the Image of Holiness and certain formalities that are lifeless to deceive himself and others § 26. Where there is no Faith and Love to God nor Duty done in obedience to God there is no true moral Virtue but somewhat equivocally so called whatever good such may do to the Common-wealth or to their Neighbors for it wanteth the principle end and object that should inform it § 27. An Hypocrite may be said to have moral Virtue as he may be said to have Holiness that is only secundum quid yea but analogically yea but equivocally in that he hath no other sort of Faith and Love and Obedience § 28. An Infidel's moral Virtue and all unsanctified Heathens or other persons is of the same sort only with this described of the Hypocrite And they err not that say They have no true moral Virtue but analogical § 29. Yet Nature and common Grace do give men that which is truly good and not only minus malum and may do much good to others and some to themselves and is truly laudable and amiable considered without the mixture simply in it self But because the contrary evil is still the predominant part in all the unsanctified it will not properly denominate them good men nor the whole action a good action save equivocally analogically or secundum quid because the form denominateth which is here wanting § 30. But if any one think otherwise that the name of moral Virtue yea or Holiness is due to the best actions or habits of Heathens Hypocrites or any unsanctified men it is but a Controversie de nomine and no otherwise to be regarded while we agree of the things signified by that name § 31. It is certain that now there is no moral good in any man on Earth that is not the effect of some Grace of God common or special for even Nature now as reprieved and maintained is an effect of common Grace much more further
Conclusion helped by Grace whereof the major only is de fide He that believeth is justified but not the Minor I believe Therefore we usually call it a fruit of Faith § 42. Some incautelous Divines in the heat of Dispute do indeed say That it is de fide divina or a Divine Word that I am a true Believer And Chamier too unhappily goeth about to prove it by saying That it is the Word of the Spirit in us which is the Word of God As if the Spirit spake in us new Articles of Faith or a new Word to be believed whose work in those that are not inspired Prophets is but 1. to cause us to believe that Word already given 2. To be a witnessing Evidence that we are God's Children by making us holy as he is holy as similitude witnesseth a Child to be his Fathers 3. And to help us to discern that Holiness or Evidence and to exercise it and to gather Comfort from such discerning it and exercise § 43. We now commonly disown all such Assertions I meet with no sober Divine that owneth them because we grant that Conclusio semper sequitur partem debiliorem But yet we find that those few that call it de fide do most of them mean no more but that it 's partly de fide because the Major Proposition is so and so they differ but about a Logical Notion § 44. Some have said indeed beyond-Sea That a man cannot believe and not know it but we know thousands may believe and yet doubt whether it be a sincere and saving sort of Faith But I have written so many Books of these matters that I here add no more CHAP. XXI Of the nature of Righteousness Iustification and Pardon § 1. THE Controversies about Justification have made a great noise but I think that those de re are few in comparison of those de nomine even among all sorts of Christians and the confounding them by unskilful Heads who have made the ignorant believe that those which are but de nomine are de re hath kindled foolish Wrath and quenched Christian Love and taken up poor Souls with a deceitful Zeal who have thought that they were contending for great and necessary Truths when it was but for Logical Notions Names and Modes of Expression over-commended to them by their several Teachers § 2. The Words Iustice Righteousness and Iustification are very ambiguous used in many sences in the Scriptures and in the Writings of Divines and in the common use of men which I have opened in so many Books and so largely as shall here excuse my breviâ—y The Sences which we are now most concerned to take notice of are these following § 3. Righteousness is considered materially or formally Materially it is 1. immediately 1. A righteous Action 2. A righteous Disposition or Habit 2. And thence a righteous Person § 4. Righteousness materially is 1. in some or other particular Action 2. Or in the main bent of Heart and Life 3. Or in Perfection The first denominateth the Person Righteous in hoc or secundum quid The second denominateth him a sincerely Righteous Man The third a perfectly Righteous Man § 5. In the notion of the material Cause is included also the Comparative or Relative State and Proportion of Actions When the Action is duly qualified and modified in its physical Nature and Circumstances it is materially just § 6. The form enquired of is Quid morale And it is the Relation of the Action and Habit and Person as congruous to the justitia mensurans or the Rule of Righteousness The Rule or Law first maketh jus vel debitum and saith This shall be your Duty and your Neighbour's Due and declareth God's Due And the jus being constituted by the Law natural or positive that which agreeth to it is jâ—stum So that Righteousness formally is a moral Relation resulting from the physical mode and relation of Actions and Habits as compared with the Law or Rule A moral Relation founded in a physical Congruity § 7. Righteousness is both materially and formally distinguishable as towards God or Man Materially as it is God or Man that we deal â—ustly or injuriously by Formally as it is God himself or Men ruling under him who give us Laws and make the debitum vel jus or dispose of Propriety § 8. Righteousness towards God being Relative to his Laws is to be distinguished according to the several Laws that men are under and according to the several parts of the Law which give the word divers Sences § 9. 1. Righteousness as related to the Precept as such is nothing but Obedience whether partial sincere or perfect He that doth righteousness is righteous § 10. 2. Righteousness related to a meer Condition of Pardon or Salvation c. is the performance of that Condition which may be the Causa judicanda § 11. 3. Righteousness as related to the premiant or donative part of the Law or Promise is our jus ad praemium our Right to that Reward or Gift § 12. 4. Righteousness as relative to the penal part is our jus ad impunitatem or when punishment is not due to us according to that Law § 13. 1. Righteousness as related to the Precept of the Law of Innocency is materially perfect personal continued Obedience to our Creator § 14. 2. Righteousness as related to the Condition of that Law is the same because nothing but the said perfect Obedience is there made the Condition of Life § 15. 3. Righteousness related to the rewarding part of that Law is right to that Life which is there promised that is to God's Love and Felicity § 16. 4. Righteousness related to the Penalty of that Law is a Right to Impunity as to the Death which it threatneth to Sinners § 17. 1. Righteousness as related to the meer preceptive part of the Law of Grace is also perfect Obedience for the future not Innocency as to the time past for even Christ maketh perfect Obedience our Duty though he pardon sin § 18. 2. Righteousness as related to the Condition of the Law of Grace is sincere Faith and Repentance as the Condition of our first Right to the present Gifts of the Covenant and also sincere Love and Obedience to the end as the Condition of our final Iustification and Glory § 19. 3. Righteousness as related to the Reward of the Law of Grace is our Right to our Relation to the Father Son and Holy Ghost and all the Gifts of the Covenant Christ Grace and Glory § 20. 4. Righteousness as related to the penal part of the Law of Grace is our Right to Impunity as to the Punishment threatned specially by that Law § 21. The meritorious Cause of both these last our Right to Impunity and to Life is the Righteousness of Christ for the sake of which the Condonation and Donations of the Covenant of Grace are given us § 22. This Righteousness of Christ is his fulfilling the Conditions
as the Iudge will justifie by Sentence and Execution then our Conversion is part of that Justification 10. That Scripture sometimes taketh Justification in that sence and most frequently by Righteousness meaneth that which consisteth in our Acts and Habits In all this there is no place for Controversie or Disagreement § 51. They that say That we must have inherent and performed Righteousness but that no man is at all justified by it must take justifying in some particular limitted sence which therefore they should explain by distinction or else they speak gross contradiction For it is no Righteousness if it constitute not the owner righteous so far or in that point nor yet if the owner may not be justified by it in Iudgment against the accusation of being in that point or so far unrighteous If he that doth Righteousness is righteous that Righteousness will materially justifie him against the false accusation of the contrary § 52. Yea while they make Faith Repentance and Holiness but Signs and Evidences of our right to Life-eternal they thereby allow it some place in Justification For Evidence hath its place in Judgment And they are moral Evidences and not physical only § 53. If men understood how atheological and perilous it is to conceit that either Faith or any thing of ours no though we were innocent is any proper efficient Cause of God's own internal acts in our Justification and would understand that all can be no more than dispositio receptiva which Dr. Twisse calls causa dispositiva a meer receptive Aptitude which is but the Qualification causae materialis that is of the Subject to be justified it would presently lead them out of their vain Contention about Faith and Gospel-Obedience herein and shew them how each in several respects and instances qualifie Man for the beginning or continuance of Justification or for Right to Glory § 54. It seemeth strange to some to find the whole Old Testament and all Christ's Sermons and all the other Apostles inculcating inherent and performed Righteousness as that which Men must be judged about to Life or Death and yet to find Paul so oft pleading against Justification by Works But if we will take the Scripture together and not by incoherent scraps the reconciliation is evident Man is now sinful and condemned by the first Law and is now under a Law of Grace that freely giveth Pardon and Life through a Redeemer to those that believingly accept the Gift according to its nature and consent by Repentance to turn to God and live a holy life in sincerity Now God doth through all the Scripture tell us That no one shall pass with God for a just man or be saved that will not do this but shall be condemned further for refusing it And thus he that doth Righteousness is righteous and all shall be judged according to their works thus required by the Law of Grace To deny this is to deny the scope of the whole Scripture and the Government of God But Paul disputed against those that taught that the Gentiles must be proselyted and keep the Law of Moses or else they could not be accounted just men nor be saved And he proveth that the Gentiles being under the Law of Grace may pass with God for just men and be saved if they Believingly accept the Gift of Grace according to its nature and consent by Repentance to turn to God and live a holy life in sincerity though they keep not the Jewish Law Yea further that though the Jewish Fathers were obliged to keep that Law it was as it belonged to the Covenant of Grace and of Faith and that before that Law was given Abraham and others were just and saved by Faith according to the universal Law of Grace and that the Task of Works according to the Mosaical Law will of it self make no man just or savable and consequently no other Task of Works which would make the Reward to be not of Grace but of Debt and is opposed to or separated from Redemption and the free condonation and donation of the Covenant of Grace This is the plain drift of Paul § 55. Works of Evangelical gratitude love and obedience according to the Law of Grace subordinate to and supposing Redemption and the free gift of Pardon and Life to penitent believing Accepters are those that Christ and Iames and all the Scripture make necessary to Salvation and our Consent and Covenant so to obey is necessary to our first or initial Iustification and our actual Obedience to the Continuance and Confirmation of it But a Task of Works either of Moses's Law or any other set against Redemption and free Grace or not as aforesaid duly subordinate to them is disclaimed by Paul and all Christians as that which can constitute no man just in God's account nor such a one as hath right to Salvation § 56. I verily think that were their verbal and notional differences discussed and men understood themselves and one another it will prove that this aforesaid is the true meaning of almost all Christians and that they agree in this sence while they mischievously contend about ill or unexplained words § 57. What I have said of Justification is mostly true of Pardon of Sin Pardon is threefold 1. Constitutive which is God's giving us a Right to Impunity This is God's act by the pardoning Covenant or Law of Grace 2. By Sentence judging us so pardoned 3. Executive taking off or not inflicting Punishment deserved § 58. God's non punire and nolle punire not-punishing and his will not to punish are true pardon when the Sinner and Sin and Guilt are pre-existent But they are no pardon before because not capable of such a relation and denomination for want of a real terminus Therefore God's eternal will to pardon or his not punishing man from Eternity before Man was Man or sinful must have no such name which afterward it may have without any change in God but in man only § 59. Some worthy men say that Pardon is not Justification nor to be pardoned is to be righteous and that Righteousness is never taken in Scripture for Pardon but many score or hundred times for our performance of our Duty according to the Law of Grace Therefore they would have Righteousness and Pardon still distinguished § 60. But I have plainly before proved that Righteousness hath many parts and the word many sences and though Pardon be not that Righteousness which consisteth in a Conformity to the Precept and so is not our universal Righteousness yet Pardon is passive that Righteousness which consisteth in our right to Impunity both as to the punishment of Loss and Sence And Pardon with Adoption or the Gift of Life is that Righteousness which consisteth in our right to Life eternal § 61. 1. All mens sins are pardoned potentially and conditionally in the Law of Grace 2. No mens sins are pardoned actually as to a right of Impunity till they are penitent