to gâ—ve warning of such pernicious Errors and Practices as he seeth breaking in upon such as are committed to his oversight such a one however he speed in his own judgment and the judgment of others shall not fail before the Judgment Seat of God to stand in the rank and passe in the account of the faithful servants and Ministers of Jesus Christ Having thus shewed when a man may be said to bee a faithful Minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ I come in the next place to consider who are they who truly believe the Gospel to whom such faithful Ministers are precious who enjoy them in love and part from them in sorrow There is hardly any thing as I conceive in our unsettled times more pernicious then the mistake which many are subject to about the nature of believing Much talk there is of faith and the Gospel whilst few consider what is indeed the faith of the Gospel I shal therefore indeavour in few and plain words to clear unto you from the Scriptures who are the truly faithful the true Believers of the Gospel 1. First They truly believe the Gospel who glorifie the Word of the Lord as it is testifyed of the believing Gentiles to whom Paul preached the Gospel at Antioch When the Gentiles heard this they were glad and glorified the Word of the Lord and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed Every true Believer glorifieth the Word of the Gospel by yeilding a firme assent unto it as a word of Truth setting a high price upon it as the only saving Truth holding it fast as a stable everlasting Truth and still desiring of it and delighting in it as an edifying and perfecting Truth which is able to build men up and give them an inheritance amongst those that are sanctified If men boast never so much of believing because they are confident that Christ is theirs and that all the benefits which flow from the Lord Christ are theirs yet if they do not glorifie the Word of the Lord the Word of the Gospel making an high account of it as a Word of Truth a saving everlasting edifying perfecting Word they shall never make it out before the presence of God that they have the true faith of the Gospel in them 2. Secondly True Believers of the Gospel are such as receive the Word of the Gospel with spiritual gladnesse as we read of that flock of faithful Converts brought in at one Sermon Then they that gladly received the word were baptized The Word of the Gospel cannot by faith enter into the soul but it bringeth in spiritual gladness with it Temporal believing hath a sleight and suddain joy accompanying it as our Saviour testified in the interpretation of the Parable of the Sower as to the stony ground He that received the seed in stony places the same is he that heareth the word and anon with joy receiveth it yet hath he not root in himself but dureth for a while An unrooted faith yeildeth an unsettled joy but when the Word is with a stedfast sound and saving faith received it usually out of the state of strong temptation and spiritual disertion filleth the soul with joy and peace in believing Now this receiving the Word by faith importeth a taking of it into all the faculties of the soul to new mould and transform them according to the holiness of the Gospel The Apostle James calleth it the receiving of the engrafted word because the word of the Gospel thus received as the graft set into the stock causeth all the sap of the inward faculties of the soul to bring forth such fruit as is sutable to the holy Word of the Gospel It is a very unworthy and ungrounded Opinion that a man can believingly receive the word of the Gospel and not be new moulded by it unto holines If any think that the Word of the Gospel shall be mighty to save them when it is not effectual to sanctifie them they deceive themselves and should attend to the Apostle James his Doctrine for right information in this point who sheweth that the Word of the Gospel is received as an ingrafted new moulding word in all those towards whom it is effectual to save their souls 3 Thirdly They that believingly receive the Word of the Gospel are brought off from trusting upon their own works and righteousnesse to trust and rest their souls upon the Lord Jesus Christ as the one which in Scripture dialect imports the only Mediatour between God and man for forgivenesse of sins peace with God righteousnesse and eternal life The Apostle Paul called believing in Christ hoping or trusting in Christ Ephes 1. 12 13 because all that truly believe cast away the thought of acceptance with God unto life in the merit of their own Righteousnesse and as worthlesse sinners build their hope of righteousness to life fully and wholly upon the Lord Jesus as the Mediator of the New Testament through whom they finally bottom their faith and hope on God 1 Pet. 1. 21. 4 Fourthly They truly believe the Gospel who trusting on Christ for Righteousnesse and life have their hearts brought on by believing to the love and high prizing of the Lord Jesus as most precious and desirable 1 Pet. 2. 7. Faith looking and resting upon Christs love inflameth the heart with the love of Christ according to the Apostles words In Christ neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but faith which worketh by love And this true love of Christ the necessary and inseparable product of Gospel faith in all true Believers is obediential causing the faithful heart to stoop to the yoak and work of the Lord Christ as we learne from our Saviours own mouth If ye love me keep my Commandments And again He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me And yet further If any man love me he wil keep my words By all this it is manifest That they who truly believe the Gospel are such as glorifie the Gospel by embracing it as a saving everlasting edifying and perfecting Word of Truth who with gladnesse receive this word into all the faculties of the soul to mould them into a frame of Gospel holinesse who rest themselves upon the Lord Christ for Righteousnesse and life according to the Gospel and in the strength of that faith have their hearts knit to the Lord Christ in high prizing obediential love of him These two Points being dispatched viz. Who is a faithful Minister and Who are the true Believers of the Gospel I proceed in the next place to shew that such a Minister is enjoyed with much love by such a people This we have fully ascertained by the Apostles testimony which hee bare unto the Galatians when the faith of the Gospel at first prevailed amongst them My temptation saith he which was in my flesh ye despised not nor rejected but received me even as an Angel of God
THE COVENANT OF GRACE Not ABSOLUTE but CONDITIONAL Modestly asserted WHether the Covenant of grace be conditional or absolute is saith Mr. Burges a very troublesome question So indeede it proves in places where it is vented It troubles the faith of some the lives of others and the peace of very many New England hath felt the troubles it occasioned And many places in old England are now suffering I could therefore from my heart have wished that either none at all had broached it in these parts or if it must have beene published some other rather then you my dearest Friend and Reverend Brother might have beene the Author of that meerly out of the great respect and entire affection I beare unto you But seeing you have not only set it on foote but when a modest defence was made of the contrary Doctrine without any either bitter invective against your tenent or so much as reply unto your Arguments you in divers Sermons renewed the quarrel replied unto the Arguments of the contrary side not sparing to asperse them in too open a manner I thought it my duty I owe to truth oppugned by notwithstanding my love unto you to let you know both wherein your Reply appears unsatisfactory unto me and wherein offensive Of the latter in the first place which is as followes First in the whole series of your discourse you seemed to me to rank those of our Divines who hold the covenant of grace to have conditions in the same file with Arminians as if both had maintained the same conditionate redemption or salvability wherein whether you dealt fairly I refer it to your conscience to consider Now though I do not doubt but that you know full well already how farre we differ from them yet shall I set downe the difference in some particulars and then endeavour to satisfie your Arguments so farre as they seeme to reflect upon our Tenents The Salvability or potentiall and conditionate redemption maintained by the Arminians may I conceive be reduced to these four particulars 1. That Christ in dying intended not the salvation of any particular persons 2. That the end of his death was not to bring some actually to salvation but only that God thereby might have power his justice being satisfied to give remission of sins to sinful man on what conditions he pleased So that Christ might have had his end though never a man had been actually saved 3. That this is the will of God that none should enjoy remission of sins but on condition of faith 4. That Christ hath purchased faith and regeneration for none but remission and reconciliation for all which they shall actually partake of who do believe Nor is there neede of infusing any spiritual vitall principle into the hearts of men to enable them to believe they may doe it of themselves The third excepted which of these positions is maintained by any of those our Divines that hold conditions to be in the new Covenant Nay they all maintaine that Christ in dying intended the actual salvation of particular persons viz. of all those whom God from all eternity had chosen That for all those Christ hath obtained the actuall application of salvation to them as well as the purchase of it for them which actual enjoyment of salvation being according to Gods appointment to be obtained in a way of faith or upon condition of faith by or through faith as the Scripture speaks They further averre that the Lord Jesus Christ by his death hath also obtaind at God the Fathers hands that the blessed Spirit should in time work this faith in the hearts of his chosen that so through faith they might come actually to partake of all the benefits which he hath purchased for them So then Arminians maintain conditions to be performed by us of our own power Such ours disclaim maintaining that it is God that worketh in us both to wil and to do Arminians maintain conditions so as if the efficacie of Christs death were pendulous thereon This also ours disavow maintaining that Christ hath purchased both salvation to be given upon condition and ability also to be given to perform that condition Arminians maintaine conditions preceding Gods very electing us to salvation But ours maintaine conditions antecedent of actual salvation indeed but consequent in regard of Election The difference between our Divines and the Arminians about conditions being thus great as hath beene shewed I think it would have been fair dealing in you to have severed them not have crowded them together into one and the same refutation as if they had mantained one and the same thing Do you not think the friends of Pemble Preston Ames Perkins Ball c. would take it ill to have them refuted under the title of Arminians and for maintaining Arminian Salvability a notion more abhorring to their spirits then to your owne and which some of them have expresly written against yet do they all hold conditions in the Covenant And you refute all such who hold so under that head and title I challenge you to shew me any one of ours that in pleading for conditions in the Covenant doth in the least degree assert that conditionate Redemption or Arminian Salvability Before you come to our Arguments you tell us that though you are against conditions yet you hold that God hath his order and method in conferring of his benefits And that in regard of this order one benefit may depend upon an other c. And that none are saved but such as do repent and believe I was heartily glad to heare so much from you for this is the maine I contend for That God gives faith and then salvation And that salvation depends on faith and therfore in order of nature followes faith And here I would argue ex concessis Those benefits which according to that method and order of conferring that the Lord hath set down to himselfe must goe before other and on which others do depend Those I say are required in us before the other which do depend on them and follow them can be obtained by us But faith and repentance are benefits which according to this method of God are given before Salvation and on which salvation doth depend And therefore faith and repentance are actually required in us before we can actually partake of Remission Reconciliation Justification and other benefits and branches of Salvation purchased by Christ It this were granted that they are required and that to the obtaining of Salvation which must needs be granted the benefit of Salvation not only following them but also depending on them as you confesse let them be required as conditions or as something else in Gods method and order I would not strive about termes But I feate that you had here your reserve and that you understand this priority of one benefit before an other and this dependance of one benefit upon an other either in reference to the manifestation of
proportion is there betweene the debt and the acknowledgment Thus God seemes to speak to us in the matter of repentance Only acknowledg thine iniquities The summe of all is That a man gives freely which he gives on condition when withal he gives ability to perform the condition else salvation given for and through Christ would not be free But such are the conditions we pleade for as our duties so Gods gifts and graces and therefore the gift of salvation notwithstanding them is free Againe That we give on condition the condition being the parties duty to whom we give is free else the portions that parents give dutiful children would not be free gift But such are the conditions maintained by us such as we owe of duty to God whether he give or no he giveth therefore freely though he require them 3. That we give on conditions the conditions being no way beneficial to us who give no way equivalent to the thing we give nor any way causal of our giving we give most freely But such also are the conditions defended by us as hath beene made apparent they no way benefit the Lord at all they are infinitely disproportionable to the gift of salvation he bestowes nor do they any way move him to bestow salvation but rather his will and purpose to bestow salvation moves him to bestow them that by receipt of them his people might be fitted for the salvation he intends them And therefore notwithstanding that they are required the gift of salvation is most free Thus have we done with your Argument from the freenesse of grace which that it may well stand with our conditions I hope is well cleared as also with your Arguments taken from scripture We come now to those you fetch from Reason The first of which was taken from the intent of Christ in dying which the Scriptures hold out to be the salvation of those for whom he died Now say you if he died conditionally it will follow that he willed not their salvation at all but their damnation as much or more then their salvation for he wills their salvation if they believe otherwise their damnation and it is natural to them not to believe This and all that followes in the Argument may make against the Arminians who hold that Christ hath purchased salvation for us but not faith and that he died for us conditionally i. e. that we should be saved if we did believe but did no way procure for us that we should believe and accordingly it is used by our Authors though in other terms to destroy the Arminians conditionality as you may see in Owen But conditional redemption in which the conditions are purchased as wel as the salvation which is that we maintain it no way oppugneth Put case an outlandish man should procure for his Sonne some inheritance in our Country to be enjoyed by him upon his infranchisement you cannot say he intended his Sons non-enjoyment of it as much as enjoyment because of the condition of his Infranchisement if that the Infranchisement be procured by the father as wel as the inheritance The purchasers intent I hope is ful and firme Notwithstanding the conditionality of the purchase when the condition is purchased as well as the thing So when we maintaine that Christ hath procured salvation for us to be enjoyed conditionally if wee doe believe You cannot inferre thence that he intended our damnation as much as salvation because we have no power to believe for wee maintaine also that Christ hath purchased for us that wee shall believe Sir Arminians say That Christ died for us that we might be saved if wee doe believe we that Christ died for us that we should believe and believing have life through his name Dare you say that Christ died for any so absolutely as that they should be saved whether they did believe or no I hope you will not though your parallelling the new Covenant with that with Noah doth naturally yeild such an inference as hath already beene shewed Your second Argument was the same with one you used in your former sermons where you asserted the absolutenesse of the new Covenant viz. That this conditionality infers a liberty of will But Sir that those who plead for conditions are no way maintainers or abettors of free will their writings sufficiently declare You make men believe that we preach not repentance as the grace of God by his Spirit wrought in our hearts in and for Christ which is most untrue and who of us denies faith to be the gift of God or that God out of his love to us in Christ freely worketh it in us that therby we may be enabled to receive Christ That we are not only halfe dead but quite dead and can do nothing that is good until the spirit quicken us cannot goe to Christ til God the Father draweth us cannot believe on Christ nor repent of sin until the Lord give it unto us and enable us thereto is a doctrine I have long agoe learned from their Sermons and often meete with in their writings And as for the inference he which chargeth the Patronage of free will on that kind of preaching that holds out life and salvation upon condition of faith and repentance let him looke to it how he will quit Christ and his Apostles from that charge whose Sermons are full of counsels commands and calls that require men to repent and believe if ever they would be saved Sir conditions to be performed by us of our owne strength and power which the Arminians maintaine argue a power in mans will indeede But conditions purchased by Christ for us and to be wrought by his Spirit in us which we maintain Inferre no power of free wil at all Your third Argument was taken from election That from this conditional redemption would follow that men are elected but conditionally so that Gods election should be undetermined and uneffectual and the will of God should be made subordinate to the will of the creature Sir God may be said to elect conditionally two wayes 1. So as that the condition be considered as anteceding his election moving him to will salvation to such a person This conditionality indeed subordinates the will of the Creator to the creature and causeth election to be undetermined and ineffectual But such kind of conditions we oppugne as Arminian Or 2. so as that the condition preceede indeed the actual enjoyment of the benefits to which men are elected but followes election it self And this consideration of conditions of election we propugne as no way evacuating either the efficacy or determinatenesse of Gods election nor yet in any wise subjecting the wil of God to the will of man therein Hear what Dr. Ames saith to this very thing It never was denied by our Divines that faith was maintained as a condition antecedent indeed to salvation but consequent unto or following election it self i. e. but hath been constantly
doth not justifie for it is against both his truth and justice 2. It may be taken for one that is ungodly and unjustifiable in himself but yet believing on Christ is through him and his satisfaction Just and so justifiable Such an ungodly person God doth Justifie and thus Ames Paraeus Bishop Downam and those other Divines I have in their descriptions of Justification make not a sinner simply but a believing sinner to be the subject of Justification or the person to be justified Now whereas you say That no where in Scripture a Believer is called ungodly I conceive it false He is called so there For who is the ungodly person spoken of there but Abraham and he was justified as hath been shewed when he did believe Besides God the object of faith Justifying who is described there to be the Justifier of the ungodly is said in ver 26. of the foregoing Chapter to be the Justifier of him that believeth in Jesus I beseech you tell me doth not the Apostle speak of one and the same Justification in both places Doth he not in both places describe one and the same person the person that is justified Him then whom he calls a Believer on Christ in one place the same he calls an ungodly person in the other and whom he cals an ungodly person in this in that he stiles the same a believing person Certainly seeing as it is Chap. 3. vers 30 that it is one God that justifies both the Circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision through faith i.e. All that are justified both Jew and Gentile circumcised or uncircumcised by or through one and the same mean of faith It must needs be that the ungodly person spoken of in the next Chapter is such an ungodly person as hath faith and doth believe or else God should justifie some without faith to which the former place doth aver the contrary That place in the Romanes then concerning Gods justifying the ungodly will not bear the Position you ground upon it viz. That sinners are justified before they do believe or that we do not believe that we may be justified as the Doctor expresseth it an assertion as rotten as the foundation on which it is built and expresly contrary to the Apostle who tells us Galat. 2. 16. that hee had believed on Christ that so he might be justified by the Faith of Christ Thus have I given you an account of some and those of the main of your Arguments both wherein they have not satisfied me concerning the Tenent you endeavoured to maintain and wherein also they have offended me whilst they wounded that I hold for truth through the sides of Popery and Arminianism I shall now shew you some grounds of my belief on the contrary first taking leave in a word to state the Question and to set downe how and what I hold concerning it First then I distinguish between both a condition and a meritorious cause as also between it and an impulsive cause By condition I understand neither any thing meriting Justification at Gods hands in the least degree nor yet any thing moving the Lord to Justifie or bestow Salvation on us Secondly By Conditions I understand the restipulation or repromission in a Covenant the termes and Articles of Agreement in a Covenant betweene equals and the thing commanded or required in a Covenant betweene Superiors and Inferiors such as is the Covenant between God and man Thirdly Whereas there are conditions yet I assert them not in any rigid and legal but in an Evangelical way Not so as if they were not strictly and in a rigid exactnesse perfectly kept there were no hope of Salvation but so as if that they be not in some measure sincerely observed there is sure damnation Mr. Ball will tell you that whereas in the Covenant of Nature perfect obedience is exacted so that if there be the least failing in any jot or tittle and that but once a man can never be justied thereby nor can the breach be made up by any repentance In the Covenant of Grace perfect obedience is indeed required yet so as Repentance is admitted and sincerity accepted Conditions in this Evangelical way I plead for and conceive That God in the New Covenant doth not promise life and salvation absolutely unto his chosen whether they believe and repent or no but doth require from and command them to repent and believe if they will be partakers of the benefits purchased by his Son and promised by himself in that his Covenant which that they may do he himself of his own grace and for his own Sons sake bestowes faith and repentance on them Nor have they a right to any actual enjoyment of these benefits untill they do actually repent and believe The Grounds of my perswasion in this particular follow 1. That Covenant wherein is a mutual stipulation is conditional But such is the new Covenant therefore that is conditional As on Gods part life and salvation are promised so on mans repentance and faith and perseverance therein are required and to be promised Mar 1. 15. Chap. 6. 12. Acts 2 38. chap. 3. 19. chap. 20. 21. John 6. 28 29. chap. 3. 15 16. John 8. 24. Rom. 10 6 7 8 9 John 8. 31. Chap. 15 5 6 7 10. Heb. 3. 6. Chap. 10 38. He cannot see wood for trees that doth not take notice of these Evangelical commands wherein performance of Gospel conditions and perseverance in that performance are required they every where so abundantly occur Choose we out one of the places named and a little insist on it that Rom. 10 9. the rather for that in your answer to Mr. S. you make some reply thereto How say you do you prove that Rom. 10 9. is set down the forme and tenure of the New Covenant I deny it The Apostles intent is c. Sir It is clear as Calvin notes that the Apostle here opposeth the Righteousnesse of faith to the Righteousnesse of Works It is also clear that in describing the Righteousnesse of Works he setteth downe the very tenor and form of that Covenant The man that doth them shall live by them ver 5. And in opposition thereunto delivers this to be the speech of the Righteousnesse of Faith If thou confessest with thy mouth and believest with thine heart c. If then it be granted which cannot be denyed that in these words The man that doth them shal live by them the tenor of the Covenant of Works is contained it must needs follow by the rule of opposition that in these words If thou confessest and believest c. the tenor of the Covenant of Grace is also contained Besides when the Apostle saith The Word is nigh thee c. That is the Word of faith which we preach That if thou confesse c. What I pray you doth he mean by the Word of Faith but the Gospel or what else did the Apostle preach but the Gospel The sum of which he
of giving ability to perfom the Conditions I will put my Lawes in their hearts They shall be my people i e. I will not only require of them that they know my Lawes and obey me as becomes my people but by my Grace I wil cause it to be wrought within them Whether way you take it either for Gods command injoyning them to be his people or for his promise to make them his people it is not much material this still remaines either way that they were to be his people And this we have even from the most absolute Promises those of taking the stony heart away giving a heart of flesh a new heart circumcising the heart writing the Law on the heart which admit not as I conceive any antecedent condition yet do they clearly shew that these things are required This new heart is required the writing the Law on the heart is required and so of the rest God doth require them in his people and without men have them they cannot be the people of God nor expect salvation from God These things Sir perswade me notwithstanding all that you have hitherto replied to adhere still to what I have formerly conceived and delivered concerning these Texts viz. That they do hold out a stipulation in the Covenant and then it will be conditional Now because this work is swollen bigger by the one half already then when I set pen to paper I intended it should have been I shall briefly add some more Arguments and draw toward a close And because we are upon stipulations in the Covenant add we an Argument or two of that nature 1. That Covenant which is mandatory as well as promissory and contains a Law as well as a promise that Covenant hath a stipulation which they must subscribe to who will be federates and Covenanters therein for whenever the Lord annexeth a command unto a Promise the Promise is not absolute but conditional there is something required in the command of him who will enjoy the benefit of the Promise Now the New Covenant is of this nature it is not a meer Promise as some would have it but a Law as well as a Promise and therefore called by the Apostle The Law of faith Rom. 3. 27. The Law of faith is that Doctrine which doth require faith to the obtaining of that Righteousnesse which is freely imputed saith Paraeus That is the Law of Works which teacheth that Righteousnesse is to be obtained by Works but the Law of faith teacheth it is to be hoped for from the mercy of God alone saith Martyr The Doctrine teaching Righteousness by faith is that which the Word of the Gospel doth bind us to if we will be saved saith Bernard in his Thesaur The Condition which offereth and promiseth Salvation is this Condition If wee believe Wilson in his Dictionary on the words 2. That Covenant which man is forbidden to break commanded to keep and wherein man is tyed and bound unto God that Covenant must needs have conditions and restipulations on mans part for it is in regard of the things required from man that man is said to break or keep or be bound by the Covenant But such is the New Covenant Abrahams was such My Covenant shalt thou keep Gen. 17. 9. Davids was such though you averred the contrary in your Sermon Psal 132. 12. If thy children will keep my Covenant Such was Israels Ezek. 20. 37. I will make you to passe under the rod and bring you into the bond of the Covenant and what Covenant doth he mean but that mentioned Ezek. 36. 26. and Hos 2. The places considered seem to me to hold out one and the same Such is also that administration of it under which we are The Romans were free from righteousness before they believed on Christ and entred into Covenant with him but after they were baptized into Christ they were Servants unto Righteousnesse The stile of Gods people formerly was they were Covenant keepers Psal 25. 10. Psal 103. 17. And is it not as proper to them now as it was then May not the people of God under the Gospel be guilty of breach of Covenant and that not only in regard of their Covenants with men nor yet in regard of those necessary engagements which occasionally they make unto the Lord but in regard of their Baptism and that solemne Covenant between God and them which Baptism doth seal I have not quite forgotten Mr. Perkins Catechism which I learned when I was a child where I was taught in the fift Principle expounded to answer this Question How comes it to passe that many after their Baptism for a long time feel not the effect and fruit of it and some never Thus answered The fault is not in God who keeps his Covenant but the fault is in themselves in that they do not keep the condition of the Covenant to receive Christ by faith and repent of all their sins And a little after How if a man never keep the Condition to which he bound himself in Baptism Answer His damnation shall be greater because he breaks his Vow made unto God Mr. Perkins you see teacheth Conditions in the New Covenant in regard of which it may be kept or broken by us Christians 3 This brings to my mind another Argument That Covenant wherein a Promise is required of the federates which Promise they do also seal to God in receiving of the Covenant Seal that Covenant hath a restipulation But such is the new Covenant For the confirmation of the Minor I desire you to consider how in the Primitive times growne persons were required to professe their repentance and faith in Christ before they were admitted unto Baptism Repent saith Peter Acts 2 and be baptized Whence also it is called the Baptism of Repentance Mark 1. 4. Acts 19. 4. And John is said to Baptise men unto repentance Mat. 3. 11. So when the Eunuch desired Baptism of Philip. Acts 8. 36 37. saying What doth hinder me to be baptized Philip replyes That if he believed with all his heart he might whereupon followed both his confession of Faith and Baptism The Baptist also requires those whom he baptized to bring forth fruits worthy amendment of life From which places Zanchy and Piscator collect that faith and Repentance and new obedience were required of all those grownpersons who were baptized they were to make profession of their repentance and faith and to make Promise of new Obedience Take Piscators note upon Matth. 3. Baptism is to be administred to no person that is of years unlesse he shall first of all make a confession of sins and of faith in Christ and withal a Promise of leading a holy life These Professions were afterward for the ease of the party to be baptized turned into Interrogations and Answers The Minister demanding of the party to be baptized Dost thou believe in God the party was wont to answer I do believe The Minister again
this is saith he to be noted that even the very conditions which God requireth of us are given to us by God Therefore the remission of sins is not to be ascribed in any sort to our Merits but to the grace of God alone You have here Zanchy speaking as fully and as plainly for Conditions as any of those whose Doctrine you oppose in which regard I must intreat you either to quit your claim to this Author and leave him to stand on our side against you or else to change your mind and judgment come over to us and then Zanchy is yours when you are ours 5 The Testimony of learned Junius is next produced by you as that which seemes to be most for you of all the Authors and yet not so much as is pretended The oration of his which you mention I have not In his Parallels he doth indeed make mention of it as that wherein he had proved that the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 oft time in the Scriptures of the old Testament and the Latine word Foedus both according to the Etymology and use thereof in classical Authors are not restrained to those federal promises wherein there is a mutual stipulation between divers parties expressed but for such declarations and dispositions as proceed from one alone so that the Hebrew word might well be rendred by the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now this is a thing which is not denied but acknowledged and granted by those which yet neverthelesse do assert a mutual stipulation and conditions in that regard in the Covenant of Grace So that if this be the scope and drift of that Oration as it seems to be by his mentioning of it for this end and purpose it is alledged by you to little purpose seeing it doth neither make for you nor against us In prosecution of this which is the main drift of that Parallel and as I conceive by his own citing of it of the Oration also he adds That the grace of God is manifested much more clear to men in that he doth not give a Covenant but a Testament to those that are his For the Covenant would have Conditions which if either part do not perform the Covenant is made void But a Testament is an instrument of liberality and grace without any condition by which men are called and appointed heirs without respect to any duty which might proceed from them By this passage of Junius you may take notice who that Vir maximus is whom Dr. Ames cites in that place of his Coronis which is quoted by you Now as for this place of Junius we must either expound it of meritorious Conditions which those words without respect to any duty seem to intimate or of Conditions Legal to be performed by our own strength such as were in the Covenant of works for Conditions Evangelical and not Meritorious he doth in expresse termes aver in the new Covenant or Testament The substance saith he of either Testament is one and the same common in Jesus Christ and that consists of two parts as it was first manifested to Abraham Gen. 17. and afterwards to his posterity the one containing the Promise when God saith I will be their God the other the condition added wherein God requireth that we should in like manner obey him when he saith And they shall be my people And if you please to peruse the Chapter out which the next Quotation in the Margent is cited at large or the passage it selfe that is alledged you shall finde him acknowledging that the Covenant of the Gospel hath its conditions annexed as well as the Covenant of Works and withal such a condition as to man in himselfe is impossible though in regard of the Lords gracious promise who doth undertake to work in his own Federates the very condition it selfe 't is to them through power of his grace and efficacy of his Spirit made profitable and easie where when he had fitly shewed the agreement between Moses setting down the tenor and condition of the Covenant which God did make with Israel besides the Covenant which he made with them at Horeb and S. Paul expressing the tenor of the Gospel which is a declaration of the same Covenant of Grace which Moses mentioneth he doth thus paraphrase those words of the Covenant which both do expresse The word is nigh thee in thy mouth and in thine heart i.e. This Commandment of faith which I declare is neither hidden nor far off from thee seeing God doth graciously put it into thy mouth and into thy heart if thou by faith wilt lay hold of it Thus you have Junius against Junius or rather Junius expounding himself telling you in plain termes that he holds conditions in the New Covenant which God of his free grace gives his Creature to perform So that the former place where he excludes conditions from the Covenant must as I said before be understood of legal and meritorious conditions which sort of conditions we shut out of the Covenant as well as he 6. Leave we Junius as much if not more on our side then on yours and come we to the next Dr. Ames for as for Estius and Lessius though I value one the former of them yet I shall not look after them at present not for that I doubt they are against me but for that I care not much to have them for me being by you upbraided already with joyning with Papists though it seems you can your self accept of the patronage of Papists when you can get it Come we I say to Dr. Ames and I could willingly chide you for open fowle play in citing an Author expresly against his own words in the very place you cite out of him Immediately before your very citation Ames hath these words We grant that mans duty is required maintaining this withal that God by vertue of this promise will cause those that are his that they shall perform the duty as far forth as it is necessary to be done And immediately after your Quotation which is verbatim the same with that Junius delivereth in his Parallel where he mentions his Oration that you alledge he doth thus expresse himself The whole disposition is after the manner of a Will and Testament as it is considered simply either in whole or according to the part of it but if the benefits that are bequeathed be compared within themselves then one is to the other as it were a condition And in this respect it is sometimes propounded after the manner of a Covenant which manner of propounding is not so to be taken as that it should in any part change the nature of a Testament Our Divines are wont excellently to joyn both together when they teach that righteousnesse and life are promised upon condition of faith and that faith it self is given to the Elect or that the condition of the Covenant is also promised in the Covenant How plainly
on both these places doth Dr. Ames expresse himselfe for that conditionality in the Covenant which we maintain and that in the same place whence you fetch your proof against us Was it for this my good friend that you took the paynes to write so much out of the Doctor and that you shewed me your written copy and not the book when I was with you lest if you had brought the book the place it self should have spoken answered for it selfe Whether this were the cause or no I leave it to your conscience but assuredly your carriage in this and that other passage about Chamien whom you would not take notice of to hold conditions proper though it followed immediately your allegation out of him until I read it to you and then would not look upon it nor hardly hear it but put it off with saying that he did eat his owne words I say these carriages make me and mine and your dear friend who was with me fear that your Opinion sticks more in your will then in your mind Your eies and ears are open and ready to entertaine any Author though a Popish one that makes for your opinion but if he be against your Tenent though he be never so godly hardly have you patience to look upon him Well Sir what hath now been as also what was formerly alledged out of Dr. Ames do abundantly prove him to have been for that conditionality of the Covenant we defend 7. Passe we on to Doctor Preston where againe you may be blamed for when the Doctor laid down a distinction betweene the Covenants or rather between the Promises of the same Covenant viz. the promise of Grace which he calleth an absolute Covenant made with the Elect Jer. 31. Ezek. 36. and the Promise of life which he cals a conditional Covenant made with all If thou believe thou shalt be saved You run away with a piece and put downe Dr. Preston for a defender of the absolutenesse of the Covenant though both there and in his Treatise of the Covenant of which I believe you were not ignorant he writes many leaves to the contrary But I hope you will wipe this Author also out of your list after I have rehearsed some passages unto you out of him Look then either in that or the Sermon foregoing for I have not the Book now by me and you shall find Dr. Preston asserting faith to be required and that precedently to our being in Covenant For thus he writes That which is required of them is only that they take it And there is nothing precedently required or looked for on our parts but taking and applying of it So page 18 The taking of Christ makes Christ ours Faith is that whereby the right of Christ is made ours unto salvation Pag 62 63 he tels us of the reconciling and justifying act of faith which he saith is direct and is that whereby we take Christ as well as of its pacifying act which he calls reflex and saith it is that whereby we know we take him yea he tells us that Humiliation is required not as a qualification but as our sense of sicknesse is required to our seeking of cure so this to our seeking of Christ without which wee will never come to Christ And would you know what this taking of Christ is which he saith is precedently required He tells you toward the latter end of the first Sermon that it is to know Christ rightly as Prophet Priest and King To obey him To forsake all other for him To pitch on him with our whole deliberate and sincere will Moreover after this our receipt of him We are saith he required to obey him to be holy as he is holy to forsake all which he calls after-clap conditions and hard conditions And pag. 25. Those that be humble and see Gods wrath what it is that have their consciences awakened to see sin will come in and be glad to have Christ though on these conditions but the other will not If you will have Christ on these conditions you may But we preach in vain all the world refuseth Christ because they will not leave their Covetousnesse Pride c. And all because they be not humbled Now whereas he excludes conditions in some passages he tells you in what sense he excludes them Pag. 15. When we exclude all conditions we exclude such a frame and habit of mind which we think is necessarily required to make us worthy to take him By which it appears clearly they were meritorious conditions he excluded To these I may add how in his Treatise of the New Covenant page 217. he gives this for his fourth Reason why uprightnesse is required viz. That there might be an integrity on both sides A Covenant as on Gods part so on ours That as he promiseth he will be all-sufficient so he requireth this again on our parts That we be altogether his And pag 357. That the Condition God required of Abraham was that he should believe where he spends many leaves in shewing that and why faith is the condition of the New Covenant Page 389. That Repentance the condition required of us is part of the Covenant both on Gods part and on ours The condition that is required of us as part of the Covenant is the doing of this the action But the ability whereby we are able to perform these is a part of the Covenant on the Lords part Pag. 398. That when we do believe at that very hour we enter into Covenant and are translated from death to life And pag. 458. When the heart gives her full consent and takes the Lord for her God and Governour then is the Contract made up between them These passages Sir abundantly satisfie me concerning that holy and reverend Author that he held faith to be the grand condition of the Gospel precedently required to not only our knowing our selves in state of Grace but our very being therein and right thereto If he say that the Covenant that is one part of it viz. the Promise of Grace is absolute he saith no more then others for I know none of our side that hold that part to be antecedently conditional Some call it a Free others an Absolute promise others a Covenant with Christ for us c. Yea in regard of the freenesse and absolutenesse of it they grant the Covenant in respect of the Elect to be equivalent to an absolute Promise and the purchase equivalent to an absolute purchase as you may see Owen Vniv Redempt lib. 3. c. 2. the conditions on which salvation is promised being purchased and promised as well as the salvation Notable are the expressions of Mr. Rutherford in this particular We teach faith a condition on our part and also a grace promised Christ brings himselfe his righteousnesse and the condition of faith too which doth receive him As if some Prince should freely promise to marry some maid of low estate on condition she wear
a gold chain with a rich Jewel of the Crown in it and withal should bind himself to give her both the chain and a will to wear it Again He is both without doors knocking and within doors opening yet he never cometh in but upon condition we open which condition is also his own work He offers Righteousness so the sinner believe and he works belief that the sinner may have Righteousnesse pag. 109. Thus you see others as well as Dr. Preston assert the absolutenesse of the Covenant in that part who yet still maintain the other part viz. the promise of life and salvation to be conditional which as hath been already shewed Dr. Preston doth maintain 8. As for Mr. Walker he denies not all kinds of conditions in the place cited but only Conditions Legal and conditions for which meritorious ones but conditions which are as a means by which the free gift is received and as a qualification whereby one is made capable and fit to receive and enjoy the free gift such he granteth and calleth them Conditions in the place cited by you saying There is no condition of the Covenant propounded but only the way and means to receive the blessing or the quality and condition by which men are made capable and fit to enjoy the blessing which is as much as I plead for under that Title As for Mr. Strong though both what I have heard from him my self and also what I have heard from others who have seen his Sermon induce me to believe that he is not against our conditions yet having not his Sermon I must be altogether silent at this time concerning him By this Sir you may see that I have looked into the most of the Authors which you cited and amongst them all I must professe unto you that I find not one that speaketh fully for you but more against then for your Tenent and for that sort of conditions whose cause I plead I must intreat you therefore to shake hands with them and leave them to stand on my side To them I shall add some few more 1 Mr. Perkins shall be the first who puts down conditions in the very description of the Covenant saying The Covenant of Grace is that whereby God freely promising Christ and his benefits exacteth again of man that he would receive Christ by faith and repent of his sins In the Covenant of Grace two things saith he elsewhere must be considered the substance thereof and the condition The Substance of the Covenant is that Righteousnesse and life everlasting is given to Gods Church and people by Christ The Condition is that we for our parts are by faith to receive the foresaid benefits and this condition is by grace as well as the substance 2. Mr. Reynolds shall be the next in his Treatise of the Life of Christ p. 399. he calls Faith the conveyance and p. 403. We expect Justification by faith in Christ Faith unites us to Christ and makes his death merit life kingdom sonship victory benefits to become ours You may see p. 451 452 453. That to marriage between Christ and his Church whereby the Church hath a right and propriety created to the Body Name Goods Table Possession and Purchases of Christ is essentially required consent which consent must be mutual for though Christ declare his good will when he knocketh at our doors yet if we keep at distance stop our ears at his invitations there is then no Covenant made It is but a wooing and no marriage c. Pag. 465 466 467. That the office of Faith is to unite to Christ and give possession of him till which union by Faith be made we remain poor and miserable notwithstanding the fulness that is in Christ Pag. 478 479. and to name no more pag. 512. setting down the difference between the two Covenants he saith They differ in the Conditions for in the old Covenant legal obedience but in the new Faith only is required and the certain consequent thereof Repentance 3. Mr. Ball shall be the third who saith The Covenant of Grace doth not exclude all conditions but such as will not stand with grace and pag. 18. The stipulation required is that we take God to be our God that is that wee repent of our sins believe the Promises of mercy and embrace them with the whole heart and yeild love fear reverence worship and obedience to him according to the prescript rule of his Word and p. 20. If then we speak of Conditions by conditions we understand whatsoever is required on our part as precedent concomitant or subsequent to Justification Repentance Faith and Obedience are all conditions But if by conditions we understand what is required on our part as the cause of that God promised though only instrumental Faith or belief in the Promises of free mercy is the only condition 4. Let learned Pemble be the fourth who speaking of the difference between the Law and the Gospel saith The diversity is this The Law offers life unto man upon condition of perfect obedience cursing the transgressors thereof in the least kind with eternal death The Gospel offers life unto man upon another condition viz. Repentance and Faith in Christ promising remission of sin to such as repent and believe That this is the main essential difference between the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace we shall endeavor to make good against the Romish Apostacy And about a leaf after Hence we conclude firmly that the difference between the Law and the Gospel assigned by our Divines is most certain and agreeable to the Scriptures viz. That the Law gives life unto the Just upon condition of perfect obedience in all things The Gospel gives life unto sinners upon condition they repent and believe in Christ Jesus Where you may take notice that he layes it down not as his own private opinion but as the general Tenent of all the Orthodox Divines in his time and that in opposition to our Popish Adversaries It was then no Popery to hold conditions in the Covenant and as he of the Divines of his time so may I of the Divines of this present age See their consent and harmony herein Larg cat p. 9. 5. Doctor Downam shall be the fifth That which is the only condition of the Covenant of Grace by that alone we are justified But Faith is the only condition of the Covenant of Grace which is therefore called Lex fidei And l. 7. c. 2. Sect. 6. Our Writers distinguishing the two Covenants of God that is the Law and the Gospel whereof the one is the Covenant of Works the other is the Covenant of Grace do teach that the Law of Works is that which to Justification requireth Works as the condition thereof The Law of Faith that which to Justification requireth faith as the condition thereof The former saith Do this and thou shalt live the latter Believe in Christ and thou shalt be saved
6. Doctor Davenant doth also fully expresse himselfe several times to the like purpose and may in the sixth place be added to the former His words are these In the Covenant of the Gospel it is otherwise for in this Covenant to the obtainment of reconciliation Justification and life eternal there is no other condition required then of true and lively faith God so loved the world John 3. 16. Therefore Justification and the right to eternal life doth depend on the condition of faith alone Where he doth afterward thus briefly shew the difference betweene the Law and the Gospel considered as two distinct Covenants The Law saith he hath the very strength and form of a Covenant made in the condition of Works But the Gospel placeth the very strength and form of a Covenant made in the blood of the Mediator apprehended by faith What can be said more expresly then this I will not trouble you with repeating what hath been already delivered out of him in his next Chapter but only mention one passage or two out of him The Promise of eternal life according to the Covenant of the Gospel and of Grace doth depend on the condition of faith A little before explicating in what sense we deny good works to be required as conditions of Salvation he thus speaks If by conditions of salvation we understand the conditions of the Covenant whereby we are received into the favor of God and to the right of eternal life for these depend on the only condition of faith apprehending Christ the Mediator 7. With the fore mentioned Divines doth the learned Cameron fully agree who handling the agreement and differences of the Covenant of Nature and of Grace observes they both agree in the extrinsecal form that to each there is annexed a restipulation though in the thing it self required in each by way of stipulation they differ for that in the Covenant of Nature natural Righteousnesse is required but in the Covenant of Grace faith alone is required Whereupon in the conclusion of his whole Discourse concerning that Subject he gives this definition of the Covenant of Grace It is that wherein God on the Condition of faith in Christ proposed doth promise the remission of sins in his blood and life everlasting in heaven and that for this end that he might shew the riches of his mercy 8. Unto these I may add Paraeus who observes that the Apostle doth make mention of faith that he may teach us fidem esse conditionem that faith is the condition under which Christ is given unto us as the propitiation for sins and that it is the Instrumental cause by which alone we obtain the propitiation in Christ And elsewhere setting down the difference between the righteousness of the Law and of faith or of the Gospel He saith By that no man doth obtaine life because the condition of doing all things required by the Law is not possible to any besides Christ It is easie to obtaine the fruit and reape life by this because the condition of confessing the Lord Jesus and believing his Resurrection is nigh in the mouth and in the heart 9 The learned Chamier that great Assertor of the truth of God against the Romish corrupters of it is the next He disputing with Bellarmine concerning the difference between the Law and the Gospel speaks as fully and plainly as any of the rest forenamed Protestant Divines That the Law of Works doth propose salvation upon condition of fulfilling the Law But the Law of Faith doth propose it upon condition only of believing in Christ the word condition being taken in the same sense in both sides And having distinguished conditions that are in Contracts and Covenants that some are precedent others are consequent the former being such as are essential to the Contract or Covenant yea constituting the very essence and foundation of it The other being such the defect or want whereof doth make the Contract or Covenant to be void and of none effect though they do not make the Covenant and Contract it self He doth apply it to his present Subject The Law of Works requireth the fulfilling of the Law as a condition antecedent without which any man hath not either the actual possession of nor so much as a right to eternal life The Law of faith doth not admit works as such a condition antecedent but only consequent so that they are necessary ex vi donatae jam propter fidem vitae by vertue of that right to eternal life which is already conferred on them through faith Where you see Chamier doth clearly assert Faith to be the condition by which we doe receive the right to life given us by grace Works the condition consequent in the Covenant of Grace 10. Mr. Bayn on the Ephesians Remission of sin is communicated from Christ in manner following 1 Christ sendeth his Ministers as Legats with the word of reconciliation or pardon inviting them to believe on him that they may receive forgivenesse of sins 2. He doth work together by his Spirit making those who are his children believe on him if they may find forgivenesse in him 3 He doth communicate to them the forgivenesse which himselfe had procured and obtained for them And on that fourth verse God doth not bind any directly and immediately to believe salvation but in a certain order for he binds them first to believe on Christ to Salvation and then brings them in Christ to believe that hee loved them and gave himselfe for them 11. Mr. Burroughes upon Hosea upon those words I will betroth them unto me how frequently hath he those words It must be mutual it must be mutual in every particular branch of it He shewes it must be mutual on the Churches part as well as on Gods part and how can it be so without stipulation In Moses his self-denial p. 188. Faith hath the greatest honour above all other Graces to be the condition of the Covenant 12. Last of all it is the general Tenent of our brethren in New England as appears by Mr. Bulkly of the Covenant pag. 280 281. where he handles that very Question And also by the Catalogue of Errors that did arise there and were condemned by an Assembly at the Church of New Town August 31. 1637. attested by Mr. Weldes Err. 27. It is incompatible to the Covenant of Grace to joyne Faith thereunto Err. 28. To affirm there must be faith on mans part to receive the Covenant is to undermine Christ Er. 37. We are completely united to Christ before or without any faith wrought in us by the Spirit Err. 38. There can be no true closing with Christ in a Promise that hath a Qualification or a condition expressed Err. 82. Where faith is held forth by the Ministers as the condition of the Covenant of Grace on mans part as Justification by Sanctification and the acting of faith in that Church there is not