taken somtime largely and somtime strictly Answ By what is said It is apparent that repentance may be taken as it is often for the whole turning to God because after the soul apprehending its danger and seeing no hope of safety any way else yet hearing what is reported of Gods Grace in Christ to poor wretched and lost sinners It is moved drawn perswaded through the hand and mean of Faith taking hold hereon to repent and cry unto God for mercy and pardon so that sorrow and tears arising from the sight of his forlorn condition is but the pining away in their iniquities doth hasten death and to tend utter despair 2. Your second position as it may be construed shall pass now somwhat being before to like effect and the subserviency of the Law as preparatory being now granted by you 3. Your third conceit is ambiguously and confusedly set down but enough hath been said about it viz. That neither repentance nor the Faith of the Elect can be said to be wrought by the Law As for that legall Faith you mention it may be in a Reprobate and of it self it is the mother and breeder of despair If you or others will have a legal repentance meaning thereby that conviction fear or trouble wrought by the Law when it reviveth sin or at most such as is ascribed to Judas from whom by inward force and violence was squeezed out that confession I have sinned c. by a heavy hand upon his conscience as to clear the innocency of Christ so partly may be in hope by that venting to find some ease and mitigation of anguish within which yet is not that in question I shall not much contend about words so we accord in the thing but then you are to know this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Also besides that Faith or perswasion of mercy in God according to his promise there is also another speciall Faith after the soul is come in to God which is an effectuall that the parties sins are done away God reconciled and he accepted and so this being the end of his coming his desire is satisfied and now followeth as it is called another Repentance upon this for now the love of God entreth and is shed out into the soul by the Holy Ghost which doth marvellously refresh and stablish the heart and renew and inflame it with love reciprocal unto God who hath appeared in such mercy and kindness and thus is the soul in love gained and given up to be the Lords and to serve him in holiness and righteousness without fear all the days of his life thus Luke 7. she loved much in affection and expression who had received forgiveness of many sins and this renovation and change of mind doth farre exceed your legall reformation which you so much press and stand for Mr. B. 4. Vnbeliefe is a sin against the Law as well as against the Gospel The Gospel declareth the object of justifying Faith but law condemns for not believing in him c. Answ I question whether the Law condemn for positive infidelity or for not believing in Christ Under favour I am of that mind that the Law onely condemneth for the not believing or obeying of those things which the Law propoundeth Now the Law propounds not Christ to be believed on besides your doctrine is that Christ is to be propounded to none but the broken in spirit the penitent and I know not how otherwise qualified And I see not then but the Law should condemne for not being broken and penitent first and for not believing after I confess the same God requireth Faith to whatsoever he shall speak by Law or Gospel but by the Law I can be bound onely to believe those things the Law declareth unto me Legall doctrine requireth a Legall but not an Evangelicall Faith Whatever the Law saith it saith it to them that are under the Law But you present us with much strange divinity so this is most uncouth to me and untrue That the Law should be enlightned by the Gospel and so fasten a new Command upon us how differeth this opinion from that of theirs who say Christ added to the Law which you say yet is infected with Socinian poyson page 243. LECT XXVIII Rom. 10.4 Christ is the end of the Law c. Mr. B. TAke notice of a foul errour of an Antinomian who denying assurance and comfort by signes of grace laboureth to prove that an unregenerate man may have universal obedience and sincere obedience bringing in this instance of the Jews Rom. 10.3 Your answer is that the Jews zeal was not Hypocriticall because they did not go against conscience but it was not sincere in that it was not a true gracious zeal Answ The Authour you mean would have you leave the streames and those waters which are questionable and impure and to seek to the first rise and Spring-head where the water floweth out freely purely and in an undoubted truth What foul errour is this if prejudice be not 2. He speaketh of Legall obedience such as was this their zeal in seeking to establish their own righteousness and you tell of sincerity taken for the truth of grace whereby the soul is freely subjected to the Gospel and submitteth to the righteousness thereof for so I would fain understand you which is passive and not active thus farre then you are wide Mr. B. pag. 257. I shall explain that place 2 Cor. 3.7 because it may be wrested by the Antinomian as if the law were to be abrogated Answ I wish the Scriptures were not more perverted by your self you pretending to fear others are too confident in your self you may see if ye will the men you fear are better establishers of the Law then who opposeth them How is it that still you so mistake both them and your self 2. You give an undue exposition but explain not but rather do involve the place in greater obscurity for say you Mr. B. The intent of the Apostle is to shew the excellency of the Ministery of the Gospel above that of the Law and that in three respects 1. In regard one is the Ministery of death and condemnation the other of life and righteousness therefore one called Letter the other Spirit which you must understand warily taking the Law nakedly without the Spirit of God and the Gospel with the Spirit for as Beza observeth Gospel without Gods Spirit is also the Ministration of death c. and what good is wrought by the Law it cometh from the Spirit of Christ 2. In regard of continuance The Ministery of Moses understanding it of the Jewish pedagogy was to be abolished not the Morall part which still obligeth Christians but Gospel abideth for ever 3. In regard of glory God caused some material glory to shine upon Moses c. but what cometh by the Gospel is spiritual Answ Both Beza Piscator and Augustin Collatioâ—st cb ipsa substantia
and trust in any goodness of his owne and to make him to seek out and to hearken after Christ the true and onely right door set open in the Gospel that by him the soul may have entrance being found in him not having its owne righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through faith in Christ The righteousness which is of God by faith Phil. 3.9 It is a vain and a strange conceit that the soul should convert to God by the preaching of the Law sith it can onely turne and come unto him by faith which nothing doth so much cross and hinder as the Law and it putteth the soul upon a contrary way 3. But if by conversion you mean as happily you do the change of the disposition and frame of the soul It is as certain also and clear that God doth not this by the law but by Gospel thus Act. 15.9 God purifieth the heart by faith and Acts 26.18 they sanctified by faith This is the special commendation that Paul giveth of the Gospel that therein we all with open face behold the glory of the Lord as in a glass and are changed into the same image from glory to glory even by the Spirit of the Lord. Againe can mans nature be changed till he be united and ingrafted into Christ the true vine and doth not vertue come by that insition or union And was it ever taught or read that the law should be that ministery by which this is wrought If the law do not set this object Christ before the soul nor is no mean to bring and joyn it to him how can it be an instrument to give and communicate the Spirit of Christ Indeed a legal spirit or power it hath which hath been effectual to work a great deal of reformation and legal strictness having a specious and deceitful shew and lustre as we see in the Pharisees who therefore were admired in their age O Sir if you would set before your own and the eyes of your people duely and daily that exceeding kindness of God and sweetness of his so surpassing love in Christ in so infinite expressions of it and seek to affect both your own and their hearts with it you would finde what an incredible force and vertue is in it far beyond any power in a legal Ministery to melt gaine and leaven the soul transforming it into its own nature and image which is love and mercy and so disposing you to do all things of the law freely and willingly which are but the offices and duties of love And the law was given not to beget this love but that by requiring it of us either love or enmity as it is in us might be bewrayed and made manifest In a word no sounder further nor better conversion can be wrought by the law then was in Paul before he received the Faith who in that his zeal of God was a blood-sucker and butcher of Christians Christs silly and harmless sheep for he was inwardly in the gall of bitterness c. and so are too many this day as we see finde and feel who might be metamorphozed by the Gospel and of wolves become lambs like Priest like People according to their pasture they feed in viz. as the nature of the doctrine is they receive so they are where much law is there hardness of heart cruelty self-love c. but want of meekness humbleness and mercy And it will ever be true that a legal zeal is persecuting 4. If lastly you hold this last sort of conversion to be by the law viz. to make a loose and profane man strict and religious in his course of life which is properly no souls conversion for both he may be in statu quo prius no changling in his state and his nature was principled for this way this may be granted you but alas who seeth not that this is hypocritical feigned unsound Luther saith The law can but make hypocrites if there be no further work but what is by it This I ingenuously profess what ever you may think of it that my desire is not to know or think of God out of Christ but to confine all the powers and workings of my soul unto that so pleasant and amiable object God reconciled in his Son And so to set him before me gracious propitious loving c. in all the events occurences and conditions of this life And this is the true and onely office and exercise of faith And thus I deal with God even as he also dealeth with me according to Luthers expression without the Law in his Covenant of meer grace the more I can do so the greater confidence I have towards him the better every thing he doeth pleaseth me the more welcome is the Cross and the more apt and able I am to bear and digest it the more is my heart and affections lively and sweetly stirred up and enlarged to love God and to delight my self in him by this mean the soul is made merry and kept joyful in the Lord and like an Instrument in good tune it is ready for use upon any occasion And the inward appearing and manifestation of God unto the soul in love and tender mercy doth melt it and effectually change and overcome the enmity and maliciousness of my naughty heart and nature And this light I endeavour to hold out to all and to walk in this way of loving kindness long-suffering and compassion towards every one in doctrine and life holding it the wisest most direct effectual and Gospel-like course and way thus to overcome the frowardness and evil that is in man with lenity and goodness even as God in this way prevented and overcame me The more I can look into that gentleness aimableness and those fatherly affections in God through Christ Jesus towards me and that secreet bosome of divine love is so laid open the more are all fears banished discontentments swallowed up and I am heartned to go on chearfully in a Christian course as best becometh that holy and heavenly calling And the more abundantly Gods thoughts of peace are discovered unto me the more peace and rest I thereby finde bred and preserved in my thoughts You may account it a licentious doctrine or otherwise asperse it with indignities because you have little skill of it and may bridle your self and disciples by another mean and kinde of woful doctrine but when you have done I wish you might feel how your owne pulses do beat But I proceed You deny the Law to work onely preparatorily in conversion And I thinke he never had experience of convesion that is of your mind you would make men believe you sit downe with a legal reformation as is the case of too many instead of a Gospels-conversion or that the law had never as yet its due and perfect work upon you for then you would sing another song When the commandment came sin revived and I dyed Rom. 7. Did ever any come
A RE-ASSERTION OF GRACE OR VINDICIAE EVANGELII A Vindication of the Gospell-truths from the unjust censure and undue aspersions of Antinomians In a modest Reply to Mr. Anth Burgesses Vindiciae Legis Mr. Rutherfords Triall and Tryumph of Faith from which also Mr. Geerie and M. Bedford may receive a satisfactory answer By ROBERT TOVVNE AMBR Quia Conscientiae suae luce clarescunt alienis rumoribus sordidentur JOHN 16.2 They will put you out of their Synagogues yea the time cometh that whosoever killeth you will thinke that he doth God service JOHN 4.4 Ye are of God little children and have overcome them because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world LONDON Printed for the Author and are to be sold at the Angell in Cornhill 1654. The PREFACE THe written Papers of this Booke originally under the Authors owne hand did accidentally fall under my view by meanes of a faithfull friend and brother who first gave me intelligence that there was such a work in hand but not as yet perfected afterward obtaining a sight of it in its primary engrossings he borrowed the same for a time in which he might peruse and reade them over and so in the interim before they were returned to the owner they came to me the which when I had considered I found therein a composure of very excellent matter the Doctrine of the Law of God truly published in its lightening lustre and native purity drawne forth from under the vailing glosses with which it lay covered the meere Inventions of Sathan transformed into an Angell of light and restored to its former integritie and proper use Psal 12. as Silver tryed in a furnace of earth purified seaven times So that Sinah's Thunderclapps or the bolts of Horeb doe here appeare Shot out the cloudes and Pharisaicall expositions darkening the counsell of God by words without knowledge being dissolved and broken thorow Job 38. And moreover that the fainting sinner might not utterly be excluded I found comprized therein the bringing to light of life and immortality through the Gospell the opening of the kingdome of heaven the doores being largely expanded in Christs owne way 2 Tim. 1. and method of preaching which reason and the seede of the Serpent sowen therein the enemie to the simple truth of God hath endeavoured by all subtile workings and secret insinuations either wholly to shut or else to open and but to the halfe by the key of such qualifications that there is no possibility for any heart sensibly discovered by the doore so opened to enter in Onely the hypocrite who lives in a fooles paradise fraighted with a vaine imagination of his owne conditionall goodnesse doth conceitedly seeme to himselfe to enter into the kingdome of heaven Josh 6. by that way which Sathan hath prepared and cast up but the issues thereof are the issues of death leading to Jericho the accursed City so that this he shall have in the end He shall lye down in sorrow Isa 50. John 9. and because he thinks that he seeth therefore his sin remaineth For the end cannot be enjoyed but only in God own way appointed by himselfe which way thou shalt finde most clearely held out John 14. and convincingly proved in these ensuing treatises to be Christ himself by whom the believing heart hath accesse to God and comes with boldnesse to the throne of grace no man comming to the Father but by him John 10. And also that he is the doore ready to entertaine and receive into peaceable habitations and sure dwellings all such as are wounded with the invenomed arrowes of their hidden abhominations and stand trembling under the hand of God fearefull of his fiery wrath and justly deserved indignation which none may abide nor otherwise can avoid John 3. And that he is the truth of the brazen Serpent which is lifted up upon the pole in the wildernesse not for the whole but for the mortally wounded to look unto And the water of life to coole and refresh the withered heart Psal 23. parched with the heat of sin at the which as still waters the weake sheepe may drinke which otherwise were not able to stand in or withstand the boysterous streames and hold its footing in the clashing waves so that out of his belly flows the Rivers of Living Water John 10. And the good Shepheard who fully manageth that relation for the good of his tender ones he feeds his Flock Isa 40. like a Shepheard he gathers the Lambes with his arme John 15. and carries them in his Bosome and gently leads those that are with young The Vine in which the Branches live and in whom his people enjoy their life by faith Gal. 2. being dead in themselves through the Law John 1. Colos 1. Isaiah 6.1 Rev. 1. Eph. 5. Eph. 1. Acts 15. Rom. 8. so that what they have or enjoy doth proceed and issue from that Root so full of moysture of which fulnesse they receive and grace for grace They live but it is in him who is their life They are righteous and that compleatly but it s through his Robes They are cleansed and washed but it is by his Bloud They are accepted but it is in the Beloved They are adopted but it is in the first begotten among many Brethren Their Hearts are purified but it is by the faith of the Son of God They are free from Condemnation but it is because they are in Christ Jesus for to such there is no condemnation Nay reckon up all their participations and we shall finde that they are in and proceed from him who is the head Coloss 1. that in all things he might have the preheminence So that What have they but they have received it And a believing man may say most truely In Christ I have and am all things but out of him I am meerly nothing nay less than nothing and vanity And why should this Doctrine be so impugned but that the strong man armed and keeping his house will not be quiet for feare he should be dispossessed but by all means possible both as Fox and Lyon bestirres himself that he may keep and retain his ancient hold when as it ought rather to be highly extolled and magnified in Heart Press and Pulpit Mic. 4. seeing it lifts up and establisheth the mountaine of the house of the Lord in the top of the mountaines and exalts it above the hills and doth but fulfill that saying of Isaiah where the Prophet speakes in the person of God himselfe Isa 52. Behold my Servant meaning Christ shall deale prudently he shall be exalted extolled and shall be very high though many should be astonished at him because his visage not appearing comely to the eye of fl sh and blood was so marred more than any man and his forme more than the Sons of men But what God in Himselfe or his Word hath most highly exalted that Sathan alwayes an enemy to the truth of God and the seed of the
grant the Law to be a perpetual and inviolable Rule of Righteousness but that it is a Rule to a Believer quatenus talis he will not grant 2. It is true it hath vim praecepti as well as doctrinae and so it hath vim damnandi a power to curse as he there affirmeth and you neither have nor can refute M. B. What will he say to the Law given to Adam who yet was righteous and innocent and therefore could not be cursing or condemning of him Ans You mean not that the Law had no power to curse and condemn because Adam was innocent for you grant it had that potentially though not actually If then it did not actually curse it was not because the Law wanted that power but in that state of innocency there was no place nor reason actually to curse Henceforth wonder not at the Author for saying the Law hath power to curse which is denyed by Dr Taylor and your self but wonder at your own oversight who while you would oppose and confute your Adversary do grant and affirm all he requireth And yet in your Lect. 6. you deny this power to curse to be any essential part of the Law When Adam had sinned whether did the Law actually condemn or no If yes I demand then whether it were by that authority and power it had before or some new and further power was given it upon the fall Did not the Law say to him yet in innocency What day thou eatest of that tree thou shalt dye Gen. 2. How was it that it threatened death and forbad the eating under such a fearful penalty if it had yet no power to execute and inflict the same You must now yield and cease or fight on with your own shadow M. B. In respect of the Vse of the Law to Believers It hath this Vse 1. To excite and quicken them against all sin and corruption c. because none of the godly are perfectly righteous and there is none but may complain of his dull love and his faint delight in holy things therefore the Law of God by commanding doth quicken him c. Have not Believers Crookedness Hypocrisie Luke-warmness Ans The love of God in Christ revealed and shed abroad in the heart doth quicken but the simple Command of the Moral Law can never effect what you say He that loveth the Lord hateth sin but we love the Lord not by reason of the Law requiring it but because he hath loved us first 1 Ioh. 4.19 and that we be born of God and know God in his Son It 's strange Divinity that the flesh and wickedness of our nature should be cured or weakened by the Law It may discover the malady or disease but not remedy it Put the Law to the old man it will revive and quicken it indeed but not to goodness if we may believe either Scripture or our own experience The strength of sin is the Law 1 Cor. 15.56 And Rom. 7.9 When the Commandment came sin revived and I dyed Such is the poysonful enmity in us by the first Adam that it maketh head against the plaister of the Law being applyed unto it The old man or flesh is enmity to God and all goodness Rom. 8.7 and the more it is stirred and quickened by the Law the more it is enraged But contrarily the Head of the Body that is the Church is Christ from whom it hath nourishment ministred and so increaseth with the encrease of God and by this means the body of sin is weakened and abolished Colos 2.19 Our Sanctification is not begun nor perfected by legal precepts and pressings but by our true and effectual union with Christ Ioh. 15.4 As the branch cannot bear fruit of it self except it abide in the Vine no more can ye except ye abide in me Verse 5. He that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit for without me ye can do nothing M. B. In the third Use of the Law pag. 9. How absurd then are they that say the preaching of the Law is to make men trust in themselves and to adhere to their own righteousness Ans It may be truly said that too many so preach the Law that they establish mans righteousness for this is in the mouth of divers The Minister saith Do well and have well and we are taught That the way to come to glory in Heaven is to glorifie God on Earth by good works Christ saveth none but holy ones c. If the Law were used to discover sin not to cover it to weaken and destroy not to strengthen and build up to binde and cast out not to loose release and admit if the Vail were taken off Moses face and the glory of God in his fiery and terrible Law did break forth so that all found it to be a Ministration of death and condemnation this would be a mean to kill and overthrow all self-confidence and boasting But who doth make that use of it Not one of twenty and your self cannot receive the Law and digest it under such a terrifying and damning notion M. B. pag. 11. The Antinomian before he speaks any thing against or about the Law must shew in what sence the Apostle useth it Ans Your Antinomian is as good a friend to the Law as your self neither do you nor yet can you make it appear that he speaks one word against the Law You are too bold in saying that the Apostle argueth against the Law in any sence but if you so charge him your Conscience may give way to slander us M. B. 5 Caution pag. 13. To distinguish between a Believer and his personal acts Believers sins are condemned they are guilty of Gods wrath though not their persons Ans This your nice and groundless distinction was Dr Taylors shift as it is yours You might have seen the vanity of it in the Assertion of Grace or at least have considered how to satisfie the Objections against it before you present the world with it afresh 1. The Scripture maketh the guilt and curse to redound upon the person as Gal. 3.10 Cursed is every man that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them 2. In your dayly repentance or confession you make in your prayers do you not judg and condemn your self for your sins whereof Conscience doth accuse you What a strange expression is it that sins are guilty of Gods wrath 3. If no guilt redound upon the person there is no more need of Christs blood to cleanse acquit and justifie and to be a continual propitiation for sin The Promise is vain and Faith of no effect unless you will say that you believe dayly to secure not your person but your sins from wrath 4. And the true reason why the sin guilt and curse redound upon any person is because he is put and placed under the Law which revealeth wrath and why all is kept off the Believer it
just also to forgive they are arguments to porswade a man to take that course without fear or doubt for man naturally hath that opinion of God that where he sheweth favor unto any it is for some goodness and therefore he dare not come as a naked and meer sinner into Gods sight and presence as is plain in Adam Gen. 3. But if he can bring nothing else he will make promise of amendment in some hope of mercy to be the rather shewed him hence to correct and satisfie our thoughts and to encourage us to take this course to come as we are in our sins making our selves nor our case or matter better then it is he requireth a free and simple confession of sins adding that God is faithful in his promise in which he hath declared a gracious minde to pardon such in his Son and also that his justice the thought whereof in that case chiefly terrifieth is so fully satisfied that now non obstante imò salva justitiae God may in order of his justice forgive and save To that other place 2 Tim. 4.8 I have before shewed how you misinterpret it for that righteousness unto which the crown belongeth is the righteousness of God and not ours Rom. 1.17 Rom. 10.3 of faith and not of works that we have done Tit. 3.5 Rom. 3.22 M. B. Hence some Divines say that though godliness be not meritorious nor causal of salvation yet it may be a motive as they instance if a King should give great preferment to one that should salute him in a morning this salutation were neither meritorious nor causal of that preferment but a meer motion arising from the good pleasure of the King and so much they think that particle for I was an hungry doth imply Answ O how welcome and pleasing is this teaching to mans nature It tendeth to withdraw our eyes and considerations from off Christ unto our selves and from free-grace unto our works whereunto all are most prone by nature If our goodness be a motive moving God 1. Then God seeth something out of himself exciting and moving him to do good and if you hold this foresight of goodness which thus moved him was from eternity you are not far from Arminianisme or Popery and if he was moved at the time of doing good which many of them also hold as the King you instance in then this new and present motion in God to do good is a child of time begot in his minde or occasioned of late and God showeth more kindness then from the beginning he intended Lastly a motive must needs have some influence if not into the act of salvation yet into the minde of God for the salutation worketh upon the kinde nature and heart of the King stirring him up to be so bountiful and the man may thank his salutation in great part for his preferment O happy man I and happy was that time that I met and so saluted the King but the Gospel calleth from all such fleshly rejoycing in our selves that he that rejoyceth may onely so do in the Lord Christ in whom and for whose sake onely God sheweth all favour exalteth and blesseth with all spiritual blessings And why do you bring in and propound this to your hearers and the whole world as now but both because you like and approve of it and would put all upon the like course and practise in hope so to speed But before they had done good or evil it was said Jacob have I loved c. The true God loveth accepteth and saveth freely in Christ without any thing considered in the party M. B. So that God having appointed holiness the way and salvation the end hence there ariseth a relation between one and the other Answ Keep the Law and Works as you told us Luther said here below on the earth and by faith mount up live and converse above in heaven then the way in which the soul walketh to salvation is Christ and his righteousness a way sanctified by his blood Heb. 10.19 20. Believe and be saved and so the relation will be between salvation and Christs righteousness and not our righteousness of works distinguish between believing Abraham and working Abraham as Luther wisely c. Secondly For that place I was an hungry it makes nothing for your purpose For. 1. The kindome was prepared from the foundation of the world therefore God was not moved by works Mat. 25.34 2. It is an argument from the effect of true faith working by love by which faith they being accepted to life eternal did declare and witness the truth of it by such seasonable proper and kindely fruits as is there mentioned all relating to Christ and being expressions of ardent love to him and this is that God may appear to be just therefore he proceedeth to give sentence according to what is manifest to all for faith is hid in the heart and not seen nor known M. B. 3. There is a promise made to them 1. Tim. 4.8 Godliness hath the promises Answ Some by Godliness in that place understand the righteousness of faith by which we become Saints towards God and indeed all true piety is vertually included in it 2. Actual holiness is produced by it and if the promises were to this active righteousness yet not primarily nor yet causally but by reason of justification the sole root and foundation of it There is a secret faith in all that we do saith Luther and unto this God in his promises of any good hath respect and for it or more truely to Christ apprehended by faith is the promise made so that in having Christ we have all the promises else we have none Yet it 's more plaine and direct to take Godliness in that sense it is in 1 Tim. 3.16 Great is the mystery of godliness that is of Christian religion in general but all tendeth to one though this seemeth to me to be the meaning of it Secondly You say That the promises lye scattered up and downe in the word of God so that to every godly action thou doest there is a promise of eternal life Answ If every Godly action have a promise of eternal life then either so many actions so many eternal lives be due as where promise is of twelve pence a day to a labourer and so many dayes work so many twelve pences become due or at least there be so many rights and interests in it as be holy actions But eternal life can but be due to all holy actions joyntly and to no one singly if it should be due to works 2. It is true that promises be so made in the Law wherein there is a concatenation or linking of all in one yet they are upon such hard conditions that it is poor comfort and small or no hope of having any performed it being impossible The Law is weak through the flesh Rom. 8.3 but the New Testament is upon better promises which are sure to faith because they
in that you say that this made the great commotion at first between the Orthodox and the Antinomians Before I entermeddle with this dispute let me deliver my opion Which is That Repentance cannot be said properly to be the doctrine of the Law and yet the Law is not by this wholly excluded as you say it is by the old Antinomians whom you mean or what their Tenets were I know not neither think it much material I shall love the truth in any and maintain them no further Now my inducement hereunto is because the Law never mentioneth Repentance nor hath any word to exhort and call thereunto It worketh indeed preparatorily in the soul by revealing sin and misery so as a man findeth himself undone without help or hope in great distress but this is not Repentance for here Man is a Patient being convinced subdued and brought in his spirit under the work of the Law And this may well be called the former Mortification which is not of sin in Man but in the Man for sin as Rom. 7.11 But to repent is an act a thing to be done put upon man being plunged into this great depth of woe and horrour as a hopeful and initial mean to obtain mercy pardon and salvation this is clear to me from Act. 2.37 38. Where those Jews being beaten down and exceedingly terrified in the conscience of that horrid fact the killing of the Lord of Life and crying out as sinking in despair for advice and councell presently Peter said unto them Repent c. whence I collect with Ambrose that all that former sight and sence of sin and legall terrour was no part of Repentance It was yet to begin yea and secondly It was prescribed as the first course to be taken with hope of recovery Not that Repentance was in their or any mans power for it is God that giveth it 2 Tim. 2.25 26.3 None are bid to Repent without a promise of mercy annexed withall to move him to it which promise holding forth the grace of the Gospel is doubtless first hearkened unto received and credited and so the burthened conscience conceiving now a good hope through Faith in this promise begins to repent and seek unto the Lord. Hence Isaiah saith chap. 55.7 Let the wicked man return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon and Joel 2.13 Rent your hearts and not your garments and turne to the Lord your God for he is gracious and mercifull c. So that to me it is clear that in order of nature the doctrine that holdeth forth the graciousness of the Name and nature of God in Christ in whom he is propitious ought first to be published both because our conceits naturally are that God will not favour and receive sinners but the just and good are they onely unto whom the promises of acceptance and blessing do belong And also in that God in that Ministry of the Law hath already appeared unto the dejected soul in another forme and under a contrary notion revealing wrath threatning a casting off and shutting up all mercies in displeasure against it because of sin for how else possibly can these naturall and inbred conceits and imaginations of God be raised out of the mind and the soul be perswaded that notwithstanding and beyond all that it apprehends of God in his Law and is become sensible of yet there is hope of mercy forgiveness and redemption with the Lord So that the effectuall and immediate incentive and introduction to repentance and turning to God is the promise of Grace by Jesus Christ When Benhadad King of Syria and his servants being in great strait and danger of losing their lives considered what they had heard of the Kings of Israel how that they were mercifull see their humble resolution Let us put ackcloth on our loynes and ropes upon our heads and go out to the King of Israel 1 King 20.31 But on the other side Adam not so conceiving of God out of the inward privity of his disobedience and being then altogether ignorant of any mercy to be shewed by God in that way that afterward God acquainted him with he in stead of repenting and falling down in a sorrowfull confession of what he had done and crying peccavi In his inward horrour and fear ranne away hid himself and then would fain have excused the matter Now if the way be thus freely set open for all he that comes not in is inexcusable and he that desireth may come but this is not that any soul should rest contented with hearing that it may be freely welcome but that it come indeed and so it find an effectuall entrance into that state and kingdom of Grace for too many do hover and dally with these weighty things and the inward terrours ceasing to pursue the soul to the utmost the bare knowledge and having of the letter of this word of Grace sufficeth them being never truly converted healed and comforted And this is the main reason of their hankering after the legall way for a supply of what they want or of turning this Grace into wantonness So that I cannot but marvell that you or any experienced Christian should so oppose D. Crisp whom the Lord raised up and used as a choice instrument to open this free way to poor sinners that if God had given them a heart to come whatever their sins were they might come and welcome and nor be rejected nor denied what they defired as if his doctrine were against repentance whereas it tendeth to breed and bring forth true Repentance not to be repented of I had thought to have writ a Treatise onely upon this Subject seeing how opposite mens minds are to that so acceptable truth of God Who will seek unto him that smiteth him humbling and casting down himself at the foot of the Lord willingly if he do not first hear and know that God pardoneth iniquity and delighteth in shewing mercy God draweth the froward heart of man with the Cords of his love and overcometh his evill and rebellious nature by shewing and commending his kindness even as afterward he frameth their heart and putteth his own into the same way to follow him in labouring to overcome evill with good Rom. 12.21 Ephes 5.1 2. And lastly who will not be contented to be numbered amongst transgressors yea and willingly sit down with the greatest and chiefe of sinners when he heareth that God is mercifull to sinners justifieth the ungodly and where sinne aboundeth maketh his Grace to abound the more thereby taking occasion to manifest and magnifie his graciousness in the eyes of all the World as Rom. 5.20 Ephes 2.7 Ephes 1.6 By this you may see still that the Law excludes and keeps out the sinful soul and that it may convert and turne unto God the word of his Grace onely is to be preached Now I come to consider what you write Mr. B. The word repentance is
hath no Sovereignty by right ascribed to him 2. That God maketh and imposeth his law with such a command to be obeyed in it doth argue his Sovereignty in his law and mans subjection to him in it as his Sovereign But. 3. In the Scripture-language and use I finde no difference between them Psal 103.19 It is said The Lord hath prepared his throne in heaven and his kingdome ruleth over all Is not this all one with Reigneth Psal 110.2 God saith to Christ Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies As did he not rule and reigne as Lord and King see Luke 19.14 We will not have this man reign over us and verse 27. Those mine enemies that would not have me reign over them bring hither and slay them before me which is meant of Christ whom the Father appointed to be ruler over all to that in ruling he reigneth and they be indifferently used still Ezek. 20 33. As I live saith the Lord surely with a mighty hand with a stretched-out arm and with fury poured out will I rule over you Here is the word Rule and yet dominion and sovereignty in ruling unto the utmost extent Also Rev. 2.27 19. 15. He shall rule them with a rod of iron doth God rule where he reigneth not It s a strange conceit and a bold assertion of you and Doctor T. let it vanish as the smoke The law hath a kingdom and so hath Grace another if we can discerne and distinguish the one from the other we need not to lessen the power of either Lastly And in what sense it is said the law doth not reign over a believer in the same and no other may it be said the law doth not rule him but this is not because either reigning or ruling power be taken from the law but that in a true and proper sense the Scripture affirmeth the believer not to be under the law but under Grace Rom. 6.14 He that knoweth not this mystery cannot stand fast in that liberty wherewith Christ hath made him free nor endure in temptation You onely and vainly repeat what you read but consute nothing there is reason why As you do not like so you cannot oppose the clear truth your spirits fail you yet add to that you bring in out of D. T. That a Christian by Christ is freed from the law and also freed to it to love it live and walk in it In regard of that righteousness and salvation he standeth in with God which is the object of his faith he is freed from it but in regard of his holy and unblamable conversation and life here below Christ by his Spirit doth set free and enlarge the heart actively to run the way of Gods commandments so that yet in walking according to this rule he is not ruled by the law but by the Spirit within proceeding from Christ unto whom he stands in subjection as unto his Soveraign Lord and King I hope you will now be satisfied and the world too at least so far as to account of us no more for Antinomians If any thing yet be darke we must consider the Gospel is a great mystery You might well have kept in those reviling and hateful words or have been better advised ere you had shot so reproachful speeches though they be Arrowes taken from the quivers of other men yet is it that you might vent some spite by them and when they return you will finde the point of them towards your self Then you give Antidotes where there is no danger of infection If any need them he may use them in stead of better M. B. He sets up free grace and Christ not who names it often his book or in pulpit but whose heart is inwardly and deeply affected with it Answ A private Christian not gifted to preach or print may be more affected with it then the Minister and yet not so set it up in the hearts of others for want of those means of communication 2. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh If you were inwardly more affected with this doctrine you would preach and commend it more then any other as Paul who desired to know nothing but Christ Crucisied 1 Cor. 2.2 Phil. 1.20 and sought that he might be magnified whether by his life or death the main subject of his ministery was the unsearchable riches in Christ Eph. 3. 8. Consider these words of Luther in his preface to the Galations In my heart this one Article reigneth even the faith of Christ from whom by whom and unto whom all my divine studies day and night have recourse to and fro continually And I perceive that I could not reach any thing neer c. But it is a sure Argument of small reigning or power it hath in that soul whose mouth and pen is so busied to cavil and write against it Also may not another as truly say That he sets up the law not who names it often but whose heart is most sensibly and deeply affected with the power and inward work of it some would be Doctors of the law not knowing what they say nor whereof they affirm 1 Tim. 1.8 And now also who will most heartily and experimentally set up and endear Christ and free-grace he who teacheth the law to be onely a rule of life yet to have no reigning power but disableth it from cursing and condemning so that a man may bless himself and finde peace and rest in the righteousness of his owne works or he that teacheth that the law is ever revealing wrath threatning and pursuing with the dreadful curse and vengeance all that are of the works of the law in that when they have done their utmost they are come short of what it requireth and therefore it will suffer them to have no rest nor confidence save in the righteousness of God by faith Certainly this mans doctrine will much more make Christ and Free-grace desired and prized by all that have any discerning spirit and a broken and believing heart FINIS SIRS AS I have in part vindicated and cleared the lovely Truth so unworthily aspersed and used by your hands so in recompence of my great pains occasioned by you I desire that in patience you would suffer both your selves and others to see your own face and pourtracturei in your nature lineaments and colour without the least painting or mixture at all Truth rejoyceth in the light I have onely contracted and placed together some few of your assertions that were dispersed 〈◊〉 doubting but time may produce a fuller and more perâ—â—â—â—â—â—â—psâ—s and Inventory A Model of new Divinity or certain Miscellaneous Anti-evangelical inconsistent or ambiguous Positions and Tenents which the Adversaries having Decryed depressed and defaced the doctrine of Free-Grace do assert substitute and publish in Pulpit and Press Mr. Burgess 1. THe Law includeth Christ secondarily and occasionally 2. The Law given to Adam was not cursing and condemning 3. The Law hath no power to
distinguished as Mark 1.15 Repent and believe the Gospel 2. I do not make repentance and to mortifie sin all one as I there speak of repentance 3. Neither say I that to repent and to mortifie sinne is by faith to flye to grace embrace Christ c. The Law is against you as a false witness in all these And you cannot but perceive that I speak of that legal repentance and mortification which you with others so much stand for as requisite before faith Which is when a man is so laid open to himself so effectually convinced and wrought upon by the Law that he seeth acknowledgeth and renounceth all things in him and done by him as sinne and abomination before the Lord whatever esteem he hath had of them formerly or whatever shew they may make Yea and as sinne the sting of death appears and reviveth in all which is the very mortification the wounding and killing of the soul Rom. 7.10 so all these seeming excellencies and good things become mortified within him and his heart that lived and rejoyced in them now dyeth unto them finding nothing but vanity sin and death in all things out of Christ Thus he repenteth and changeth his mind with shame and sorrow that ever he so exalted and established his own righteousness of works as did Paul and those zealous Jews being converted to the faith And because we are necessitated to carry this body of death to the grave and therefore sin and death will ever and unavoidably be in us and all our works and we can by faith in Christ alone finde true righteousness life peace confidence joy and salvation hence Christ is our onely treasure who hath our hearts delight and all else are renounced and accounted as dung and dross Phil. 3.9 You neither may nor can rightly understand my words as spoken of that Evangelical repentance or mortifying of sin in life and conversation by the Spirit of which we read Rom. 8.13 Colos 3.5 Also you know that both in the Scriptures and Authors repentance is somtimes taken largely as comprehending faith also with the effects and fruits of it and so it is divided into mortification and vivification But fince all fulness is in Christ who is made unto us wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption that all our rejoycing should be in him he that liveth by faith in him is the onely mortified man Psal 73.25 Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth desired besides him Mr. Rutherf pag. 273. There be two things in the Law 1. The authority and power to command 2. To punish pag. 275. It s most false that Mr. T. saith To justifie and condemn are as proper and essential to the Law as to command 3. It s false that we are freed from active obedience to the moral Law because Christ came under the active obedience for law requires obedience out of love Reply These two authorities of the Law are repeated and inculcated by you and Mr. Burg. usque ad nanseam Dictator-like you still say It 's false it 's most false c. but where is there any truth or weight in what you say against me I can contemn your vain and reproachfull words and do account your self-coined distinctions as windy without warrant and weight You have a satisfactory answer in my former Reply I may challenge you to produce one syllable for a Law commanding without its condemning power Remember Matth. 5.17 18. 2. That the Law requires obedience out of love its true but we worke from self-love and for self-ends viz. that we may live thereby and not dye The first Adam by his obedience might have preserved himself in that life and state of holiness and happiness he had by creation but now in Christ our life and and felicity is attained and kept by faith we believe that we may live And we love and obey freely for no such ends as not standing and falling by our obedience or disobedience moral Also if our love be changed from legal into evangelical void of selfness Yet that altereth not the cords of the law nor the chaines we were in but Christ hath happily freed us from them The change is in the true Christian and in his estate but you can shew no change in the Law Neither do we destroy the Law as you slander us again but do establish it by faith Rom. 3.31 Where I see that Paul preached the same way that we do in that he was so put to clear and vindicate his Ministery as you do us This also will serve for that exception in pag. 275. where you set the same Coleworts before your Reader It is your constant doctrine that works have reward here and eternall life hereafter and that they be conditions and the way to life and glory how this will consist with faith and Christ let all judge Mr. Rutherf pag. 332. Town in Assertion pag. 56 58. A believer is as well saved already as justified by Christ and in him Divines say Our life and salvation is inchoate but they speak of life as it is in us subjectâ—è Quantum ad nos spectat or in respect of our sense and apprehension here in grace our faith knowledge sanctification is imperfect but in regard of imputation and douation our righteousness is perfect and he that believeth hath life not he shall have it or hath it in hope onely Answ If we have glory really actually perfectly but want it onely in sense we have the resurrection from the dead also actually we want nothing of the reality of heavrn but sense but we are not yet before the throne Therefore holy walking can be no way nor condition nor means of salvation c. therefore no wonder they reject all sanctification as not necessary and teach men to loose the reynes to all fleshly walking Reply Justification puts the soul into a present state of salvation The Scriptures are plain He hath saved us 2 Tim. 1.9 Tit. 3.5 Eph. 2.8 and These things have I written unto you that believe c. that ye may know that ye have eternal life 1 Joh. 5.13 This is the record that God hath given to us eternal life and this life is in his Son ver 11. and Ephes 2.5 God hath quickned us together with Christ and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus I muse you stumble in so clear light Hence saith Musculus Before God we are all that which he willed and also hath caused us to be Christ is not alone in his eyes but we also are conjoyned to him The Assertion doth present you with testimonyes sufficient you believe so farre as you see and feel If you deny our perfection in Christ our head In whom we are compleat Col. 2.10 deny also our union with him that we have received him have him are now the Sons of God 1 Joh. 3.2 Yea then deny that God hath given us as yet