him occasion to speak there of God's Law according to which he glorifies or damns men eternally and not of the gospel-Gospel-law according to which he either justifies or not justifies Men. But 2. We say that the Doctor 's Judgment was the same as to both to wit as to Justification as well as to Glorification and that 1. Because in his Answer to the foresaid Arminian Book called The Synod of Dort and Arles reduced to Practice Pag. 16. these are his express Words We say that Pardon of Sin and Salvation of Souls are benefits purchased by the death of Christ to be enjoyed by men but how not absolutely but conditionally to wit in case and onely in case they believe And Pag. 28. Men are called upon to believe and promised that upon their Faith they shall obtain the grace of remission of sins and Salvation and these graces may be said to be offered unto all upon condition of Faith And Pag. 189. The Promises assured by Baptism according to the Rule of Gods word I find to be of two sorts Some are of benefits procured unto us by Christ which are to be conferred on us conditionally they of this first sort are Justification and Salvation And Pag. 190. Justification and Salvation is promised in the Word and assured in the Sacraments upon performance of a condition on mans part Now the condition of Justification and Salvation we all acknowledge to be Faith And in his other Book against Hoard Some Benefits saith the Doctor are bestowed upon man only conditionally though for Christs sake and they are the pardon of sin and salvation of the Soul Twiss against Hoard p. 154. and these God doth conferr onely upon the condition of Faith and Repentance All these are the Doctor 's own express Words by which it plainly appears that his Judgment was the same with respect both to Justification and Glorification and that he held that God dispenseth to us both these benefits for Christs sake according to a Law 2. We say that the Doctor 's Judgment was the same as to both because there is the like reason for both and the Doctor 's own Argument holds for the Law of Justification as strongly as for the Law of Glorification since God hath as much constituted and ordained that all penitent Believers and none of ripe years but penitent Believers shall be justified as that all penitent persevering Believers and no others shall be glorified As it is written John 3.18 He that believeth on Christ the Son of God is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already Acts 3.19 26.18 because he hath not believed in the name of the onely begotten Son of God Luke 13.3 5. Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Acts 2.38 Repent and be Baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins Acts 10.43 To him give all the Prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins Acts 13.39 By him all that believe are justified c. Rom. 3.25 God hath set him forth to be a propitation through faith in his Blood Rom. 4.24 It shall be imputed to us if we believe These Testimonies of Holy Writ do as certainly and evidently shew that God proceeds according to a stated Rule and standing Law of his own making in Justifying or not Justifying Men as any other Testimonies do shew that he proceeds according to a stated Rule and standing Law in Glorifying or not Glorifying Men. 3. We Answer that our wise Accuser in the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th Pages of his Letter seems plainly to be as much against God's proceeding according to a Law in Glorifying Men or not Glorifying them at death as he is against God's proceeding according to a Law in Justifying them or not Justifying them before death Otherwise we would fain know what he means by saying that the Doctrine of Conditions Qualifications and Rectoral Government and the distribution of Rewards and Punishments according to the new Law of Grace will make but an uneasie Bed to a dying Man's Conscience and will leave him in a very bad condition at present and in dread of worse when he is feeling in his last Agonies that the wages of sin is death if he cannot by faith add the Gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. We profess we cannot see what our Authour should design by this passage but to reflect upon us as Subverters of the true Grounds of Christian Comfort and as driving People to despair by our Doctrine of God's being a Governour and Judge who distributes eternal Rewards and Punishments unto Men See Rev. 11.18 who live in the visible Church according to the Rule of the Evangelical Law and as he finds them to be qualified through Grace or not qualified to have performed the Condition or not to have performed the Condition to have complyed with the terms of the Evangelical Law or not to have complyed with them We say we cannot see what other design he should have therein but thus to reflect upon us And if this was really his design then he denies that God proceeds according to a Law as well in Glorifying or not glorifying as in Justifying or not Justifying Men And therein he opposes Dr. Twiss and all our other Divines that he knevv of as well as us And further upon that Principle that there is no such stated Rule and known standing Law according to vvhich God hath assured us that he vvill either give eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord or inflict eternal death We chalenge our Authour to shevv us hovv in an ordinary vvay vvithout a Miracle the dying disconsolate Man can be assured by Faith that God for Christs sake will give eternal life to him in particular and not inflict upon him eternal death for his Sins For if God have not revealed in his vvritten Word to Men that through Christ he vvill give eternal life unto all penitent Believers and consequently to that dying Man in particular if he be really a true penitent Believer We say if God hath not revealed this in his vvritten Word but kept it secret vvithin himself as a thing vvhich he vvill give arbitrarily as he pleaseth without regard to any stated Rule or knovvn Lavv hovv is it possible for the poor dying Man vvithout an immediate extraordinary Revelation to knovv but that eternal death vvhich he knovvs he hath deserved and not eternal life vvhich he cannot possibly deserve shall be his everlasting portion What depends upon the meer arbitrary will and pleasure of God can never be knovvn by Man unless God reveal it either by his vvritten Word alone or by his Word and Spirit conjunct or by his Spirit immediately vvithout the Word But the poor disconsolate Man can have no hopes that God will reveal it to him by his Written Word alone or by his Written Word and
Spirit together because according to the Principle aforesaid the Written Word is supposed to say nothing at all of that matter Therefore if ever it be Revealed to the Man and so if ever he be comforted in this World it must be by the Spirit without the Word And then all the poor disconsolate Mans ground of Comfort must be reduced to this That God will reveal it to him by his Spirit immediately without the Written Word But then we demand how our Authour will be able to assure the poor disconsolate dying Man that God will really do so that God will reveal it to him by his Spirit immediately without the Written Word For that immediate extraordinary Revelation being a thing that depends also upon Gods Arbitrary Free Will he may do it or not do it as he pleaseth and if God may freely not do it how can our Authour ever assure the Man that he will do it That is that he will by his Spirit immediately and extraordinarily reveal to him without the Written Word that he shall have Eternal Life and not Eternal Death for his Portion But now if our Authour should say that God hath given unto Man a Promise in his Written Word to ground his Faith upon though he hath not given a stated Rule and standing positive Law according to which he will proceed with Man at Death and Judgment We would readily reply thus Either the Promise in the Written Word made to the dying disconsolate Man is an absolute Promise that God for Christ's sake will give him Eternal Life however it be with him whether he be converted or unconverted penitent or impenitent believer or unbeliever And we are sure there is no such promise in the Bible and to tell him of such a Promise would be at once to belie God and to delude the poor Man Or 2. It is a conditional Promise That God for Christ's sake will give him Eternal Life If through Grace he unfeignedly repent of all his sins and believe on Christ with a lively effectual Faith a Faith working by Love which he is bound to do under the pain of Eternal Death If this be the Promise that the poor dying Man must ground his Faith upon that God for Christ's sake will give him Eternal Life then this is the very thing which Dr. Twisse and we after him call the Law according to which God proceeds in dispensing to his People the subsequent Blessings of the Covenant such as Justification and Glorification are And so our Authour comes over into our Camp which he must do at last and confess if not to us at least to God that he hath grosly misrepresented and falsly accused Christ's faithful Ministers and hath endeavoured to delude the People and to render the Ministers odious to the People and thereby to hinder the success of their Ministry And he must sincerely repent of having done so But if he will yet go on in the way of his own heart we shall be sorry for him and not cease to pray the Lord if it be his will to have Mercy on him and to give him repentance for the scandalous sin which he hath committed in publickly slandring Christs Ministers and in boldly asserting a notorious falsehood in matter of fact saying That the new Law of Grace is a new Word of an old but ill meaning And that he hath really done so we have not only said but proved by the plain testimonies of credible Witnesses whereof two Sealed the Truth of the Gospel with their Blood above fourteen hundred years ago SECT II. Of his second Error that the Covenant of Grace is Absolute and not Conditional SEcondly the Author of the Letter asserts that the Covenant of Grace is Absolute and not Conditional as appears from page 18. at the end and page 24. And particularly he denies that Faith in Christ is the Condition of Justification page 8. Some say that faith justifies as it is a fulfilling of the condition of the New Covenant if thou believest thou shalt be saved This he finds fault with and opposes to it the old Protestant Doctrine as he calls it That the place of Faith in Justification is only that of a Hand or Instrument c. Where we observe 1. That he makes faith its being a Condition and its being a hand or instrument to be two opposite things the one whereof is inconsistent with and destructive of the other and so in this he not only fights against us but likewise against the Assembly of Divines at Westminster who held Faith to be both an Instrument and a Condition in the matter of Justification as was shewed before 2. He makes it to be New Doctrine and contrary to the Old Protestant Doctrine to hold that Faith is a Condition of the Covenant of Grace and that we are Justified by Faith as a Condition of the Covenant wherein he makes the Assembly as well as us to be Preachers of a New Doctrine and Corrupters of the Gospel since they likewise held Faith to be a Condition of the Covenant as aforesaid And again in page 9. We say that Faith in Christ is neither Work nor Condition nor Qualification in Justification but is a meer instrument and he affirms that their saying so is that by which the fire is kindled So that saith he in page 10. It is come to that as Mr. Christopher Fowler said that he that will not be Antichristian must be called an Antinomian Here it is very remarkable that he not only denies Faith to be either Work Condition or Qualification in the matter of Justification but he also in effect affirms that it is Antichristian to assert that Faith is either Work Condition or Qualification and that he will therefore rather choose to be called an Antinomian for denying than to be an Antichristian for affirming it This is and must be his meaning or else he was dreaming and knew not what he did when he cited Mr. Fowler and brought in his Judicious saying with a so that it is come to that as Mr. Fowler said c. Finally in page 25 at the beginning he says that Faith in the Office of Justification is neither Condition nor Qualification but in its very act is a renouncing of all such pretences From all which it is plain that we do not wrest his Words nor charge him with an Opinion which he doth not hold for he so firmly holds the Covenant of Grace to be Absolute and not Conditional and particularly that Faith is neither the Condition of obtaining Justification nor a qualification of the Person then Justified when he believes that he glories to be accounted an Antinomian rather than renounce that Opinion page 24. And he holds it to be New and Antichristian Doctrine to maintain that Faith is either a Condition of obtaining Justification or a qualification of the Person justified or to be justified in that instant of time wherein he believes Before we refute this Opinion we will briefly
we believe in God because he gives us Repentance that we may begin to believe in God 3. That we cannot believe in God at all unless God first give us Repentance which must be understood in this sense that we cannot believe at all with the Faith of fiducial consent and recumbency unless it be first given us to repent for it is self-evident that we can and do believe with the Faith of assent before we do repent and indeed we neither do nor can repent till we first believe with the Faith of assent as was shewed before And it is clear from their own words that they meant not that we cannot believe with the Faith of assent but that we cannot believe with the Faith of consent and fiducial recumbency unless it be first given us to repent Their words are A Man receives from God Repentance unto Life ut in Deum credere incipiat that he may begin to believe in God Now by believing in God undoubtedly they meant believing in him so as to consent to have him for our God and so as to trust him as our God And could not mean only believing so far as to assent that there is a God and that his word is true For they were the Disciples of Holy Austin and had learned of him to distinguish between credere Deum credere Deo credere in Deum believing a God and believing that all God saith is true and believing in God so as to love him and take him for our God and trust him as our God It is this believing in God which they say cannot be begun till we have first repented through Grace and this is a great Truth as we shewed before out of Calvin And since this believing with fiducial consent and recumbency is justifying Faith it follows evidently that those Fifteen Fathers held Repentance to be before Remission of Sins and before Justification as it consists in Remission of Sins because they held it to be before Justifying Faith whereby we receive Remission of sins Act. 10.43 4. We observe they say that Repentance is a change of our Will and God himself by giving us Repentance changes our Wills Therefore in the Judgment of those Fifteen Fathers there is and must be a real change in us before we be justified and pardoned And we must let our Authour know that these Fathers which are for us against him were burning and shining Lights in their day Most of them if not all suffered banishment for the true Faith of Christ under the persecution of the Arian Vandals in Africa For we have a Synodical Epistle of theirs concerning the Grace of God and the will of man which was written by them in their Exile in Sardinia to which Twelve of their Names are prefixed the self-same names which are prefixed to the foresaid confession of Faith concerning the Incarnation and Grace of our Lord Jesus directed to Petrus Diaconus and his Brethren who were come from the Eastern Churches to receive information concerning the Faith of the Westorn Churches We will here cite one short passage out of the Synodical Epistle of those Twelve banished Pastors of Christ's Church It is in the 10th Chapter Quod autem vos dicitis c. As to what ye who wrote to us say that man is saved by the alone Mercy of God but they say unless a man run and labour with his own will he cannot be saved We answer that both are fitly held if the right order be kept between the Mercy of God and will of man that Mercy go before and the Will follow that God's Mercy alone confer the beginning of Salvation with which afterwards the Will of Man may cooperate towards its own Salvation that God's Mercy preventing or going before may direct the course of mans will and that mans will obeying through the same Mercy or Grace following it may according to its intention run towards the heavenly prize Here we see that it was the Judgment of those Twelve Confessors That we are saved by the alone Mercy and Grace of God if through Grace preventing and assisting us we yield Obedience to the Lord and run and labour to obtain the prize of Eternal Life and Glory And that if we do not this we cannot be saved This is what we say that sincere Obedience is so indispensably necessary that without it we cannot be saved It shall suffice at present to have demonstrated by the Testimonies aforesaid that we are no Innovators no Preachers of a new Gospel and Divinity in this matter since we have Christ and his Apostles and the Fathers of the best and purest Ages on our side all giving in testimony for us and against our Authour It will not consist with our designed brevity to alledge more testimonies of the Doctors of the Primitive Church and therefore we pass from them to the Modern Divines the Doctors and Pastors of the Reformed Churches We begin with the Augustan Confession of Faith and the Edition we make use of is that which was printed at Wittenbergh in the year 1540. In the 20th Testimonies of Modern Divines Article concerning Faith these are its words Primum igitur de fide justificatione sic docent Christus apte complexus est summam Evangelii c. First therefore they the Protestant Ministers and Churches thus teach concerning Faith and Justification Christ hath fitly comprehended the Sum of the Gospel when in the last Chapter of Luke he commands Repentance and Remission of sins to be preached in his Name For the Gospel reproves sin and requires Repentance and at the same time offers Remission of sins freely for Christ's sake and not for our own worthiness And as the preaching of Repentance is universal so also the promise of Grace is universal and commands all to believe and receive the benefit of Christ as Christ says Come unto me all ye that are heavy laden And Paul says He is rich unto all that call upon him Therefore though some Contrition and Repentance is necessary yet we must believe that Remission of sins is given unto us and that of unjust we are made just that is reconciled or accepted and made the Children of God freely for Christ's sake and not for the worth or merit of contrition or of other works that go before or follow after But this benefit is to be received by faith c. Therefore when we say that we are justified by Faith we do not understand this that we are just for the Dignity Worth or Merit of the Vertue of Faith it self But this is the meaning that we obtain the remission of sins and the imputation of Righteousness through Mercy for Christ's sake but this Mercy cannot be received but by Faith And here Faith signifies not merely the knowledge of the History but it signifies to believe the promise of Mercy which we obtain for Christ the Mediator For what can be more acceptable to an afflicted trembling conscience in its true
believed but by the supernatural teaching and assistance of Gods Holy Spirit so it cannot be rightly learned known and believed without our own Reason For 1. Grace doth not destroy but refine and perfect Nature the Holy Spirit doth not put out the eye of our reasoning Faculty Luke 24.45 out opens it clears it elevates and raises it up above its natural ability and strengthens it to see Spiritual objects in such a Spiritual way as it could not see them by its own natural power alone 2. The Spirit of God teaches us by the Word of God and both the Word and Spirit suppose us to be rational for the Word and Spirit of God are given to none but rational Creatures and if we were not rational creatures we should not be subjects capable of being taught by the Word and Spirit or of teaching others We do not then make reason to be either the formal object or rule of Faith and Religion But we hold it to be a light which God himself hath set up in our Souls Whereby 1. We discern through Grace the Written Word to be indeed the Word of God and the Spirit that teaches us by the Word to be indeed the Spirit of God and whereby we discover that every Word and Spirit which are contrary thereunto are not the Word and Spirit of God 2. We hold Reason right Reason to be a light which God hath given us wherewith to search into the meaning of his Word and by studious inquisition and observation to discover and find out the true meaning of the Word and to make it known to others and by good reason out of the Text to convince others of â—he truth of it These things we can never do unless we be rational Divines and unless we use our reason in Studying Speaking or Writing of matters of Divinity and doth not our Author do the same If he say that he doth not because then he should be in danger of being a rational Divine but he is not nor will be a Rational Divine Doubting Conscience resolved p. 46. We demand in the words of Dr. Twiss Doth this Authors Reason go to Bed and Sleep when he comes to Read and Studiously to consider the word of God If it doth he will prove no better than a drowsie Student and we know no reason but such a one may be in Love with Dreams as well as Anabaptist saith Dr. Twiss But we rather say as wâ—ll as those Prophets of wâ—â—om we read in Jerem. 23.25 That they Prophesied Lyes in the Lords Name saying I have dreamed I have dreamed Thus we make an end of what we thought fit to say on the Fourth General Head We have laid before the Reader some of his Calumnies and Aspersâ—ons cast upon us and have wiped them off and we could do no less though it thereby appear that he hath been a false Accuser of Christs Ministers against the sincerity of Christian Love CHAP. V. VVhere People are advised to try before they trust and not suffer themselves to be imposed upon and led into Error by the bold unproved Assertions and Dictates of any Preachers or Writers whatsoever FOR our parts we neither have nor desire to have Dominion over Peoples Faith 2 Cor. 1.24 And therefore we do not desire that any man should believe us and be of our Judgment any further than what we say or write is agreeable to Holy Scripture and to right Reason grounded upon Scripture In those things wherein we affirm that our Author hath erred from the Truth we have endeavoured to prove by clear Scripture and plain Reason consonant to Scripture that he hath so erred And before People positively conclude that we are in the right we intreat them to weigh and consider well what we have written to prove the Truth of our Assertions and after due consideration to judge according to the evidence of our proofs as they will answer to God and their own Consciences If we have clearly and faithfully declared to people the Mind and Will of God as it is revealed by holy Scripture though we do not desire that they should submit their Judgments to us and believe what we believe meerly because we believe it yet we do expect that they should submit their Judgments unto God as we have done And that they should believe what we believe because God hath revealed the matter of our belief both to us and them And whosoever shall either neglect or refuse to submit their Judgments unto God and to believe what they know or may easily know he hath revealed will be found guilty before the Lord of unbelief and Spiritual pride for which he will one day call them to an account But on the other hand if any think and affirm that we are mistaken in our Judgment of the things in controversie and that therefore they are not bound with us to believe them To such we say that if in any of them we are mistaken it is more than we know and our mistake is altogether involuntary for the Lord knows that we have diligently searched for the Truth as to all the matters in controversie with an earnest desire to find it and with frequent and fervent Prayers to the God of Truth that he would teach us the Truth that by his Spirit of Truth according to his Word of Truth he would lead us into the Truth of those Matters And we are fully perswaded in our own Minds that God hath heard our Prayers blessed our Endeavours and caused us to find the Truth which we have diligently sought and searched for We have also given the World an account of the Grounds and Reasons of this our Perswasion which we submit to the impartial Examination of all that fear the Lord and are sincere Lovers of Truth not doubting but that Persons so well disposed will find upon impartial Examination of the matters in Controversie that our Grounds are solid and our Reasons Cogent and Conclusive Yet if in any one thing we should happen to be mistaken which we believe we are not we declare that we are so far from desiring any to follow us in that mistake and to believe any thing in matters of Doctrine which God hath not revealed that on the contrary we shall through Grace be really thankful first to God and next to such men as shall convince us of our mistake by Evidence of Scripture or by Right Reason without Railing and Scolding As for those who have accustomed themselves unto that way of Writing let them not think that ever they shall be able to move us from our Perswasion by Railing at us and calling us Hereticks If any attack us with such Carnal Weapons they will buâ— discover their own Weakness and Folly and we hope it shall have no other effect upon us but to move us to pity them and to pray the Lord to make them better Christians It is not any mans bare thinking or bold saying that we are mistaken
to him and upon the best Reasons and Motives that appeared to him from the consideration of things willingly to choose or refuse them and to act or not to act to act thus or otherwise as he saw cause Whence we may confidently conclude that the formal essential Nature of Man's Free-will consists in this Power of acting willingly according to the Judgment of Right Reason and not in the former undeterminedness or indifferency of the Will to do or not to do to do Good or Evil even when all things pre-requisite to its doing and acting do meet together and concur to cause it to do and act Upon this occasion we cannot but mention with approbation a Passage of a very Reverend and Dignified Divine of the Church of England in a Discourse of Christian Liberty Chap. 11. Sect. 3. pag. 139 140 141. As for those that contend that it is more praise-worthy to do Good and forbear evil having a power to do otherwise than to be under a necessity of so doing supposing they mean by necessity such as is not from without or from an inward blind instinct but from an understanding Principle and Perfection of Nature I must needs tell them there is no Proposition in the World more false or absurd I will not therefore stick to say that to have the Will necessarily determined to all Good and from all evil from an over-powering sense of the becomingness and excellency of the one and the vileness and odiousness of the other is the very perfection of Liberty And this is so far from being impossible to be obtained by Creatures or by our selves that by the help of God's Grace it is in a large measure even in this life attainable I mean such a sense of Good and Evil as shall certainly determine us to Good and against Evil in most of the Instances of each There are some Immoralities and wicked Actions that they who have attained to but very mean and ordinary Degrees of Goodness cannot perswade themselves so much as to endeavour to reconcile their Minds to Nay there are some that no Man can easily be supposed able to consent to but an extraordinarily depraved and wicked Wretch let the Motives that are used to perswade him be what they will Such as blaspheming of God contriving the murder of our Parents of a most obliging Friend Torturing of innocent Babes and the like horrid Villanies Surely then a Man is capable of such a vivid sense of the hatefulness of Sin in gneral as will whilst it lasts render it impossible for him to will deliberately to commit any known Sin whatsoever It is confessed that we cannot hope to get past all danger of sudden surprizals so long as we inhabit these Bodies and remain in our present unhappy Circumstances but I say so powerful a sense of the infinite unrighteousness disingenuity unreasonableness folly and madness of opposing the Holy Will of our Great Creator and Blessed Redeemer may by the Divine Assistance be acquired even on this side Heaven as shall determine us effectually against all deliberate and wilful Violations of the Divine Laws For this we have the Authority of a great Apostle St. John saith in his 1 Epist 3.9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him neither can he sin because he is born of God c. This excellent Passage of Bishop Fowler 's may help to clear up the foresaid difficulty and to shew us how the Act of believing may be a Duty and Condition of the Gospel and yet be produced by the effectual Grace of God assisting our Faculties in that production for the efficacy of Grace doth not hinder but rather further the free exercise of our liberty of Will in producing the Act of Faith So that our believing in Christ being an Act of Free Obedience notwithstanding that the Regenerating Principle of Spiritual Life and Seed of Faith inclines and byasses us to act and the actual Influence of the Spirit causeth us to reduce the Principle into Act we can see no reason at all why the actual believing in Christ may not be both our duty and likewise the condition upon the free performance of which God promiseth to justify us to pardon our sins and give us a Right and Title to Eternal Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Our Authour confesseth that the Covenant of Redemption was strictly conditional Lett. p. 24. Mat. 26.39 Joh. 10.18 and that Christ's offering up the Humane Nature in sacrifice to God was in part at least the strict Condition of it and yet Christ performed that Condition as necessarily and unavoidably as we perform the Condition of actual believing when we are influenced thereunto by the special and effectual Grace of God This we take to be a demonstration that the meer infallible certainty and necessity of the Elect's believing in Christ cannot hinder their Faith from being a proper Evangelical Condition of the new Covenant And having thus at large declared in what sense we hold the Covenant of Grace not to be conditional and in what sense to be conditional We shall next prove against our Authour that it really is conditional and that it is not without Ground that we believe it so to be In order hereunto we premise these two Things 1. That it is with respect to the subsequent Blessings and Benefits of the Covenant that we hold it to be Conditional that is it is with respect to Justification and Glorification For as the Professors of Leyden say in their Synopsis of purer Divinity Disp 22. pag. 259. Promissiones Evangelii sunt potissimum duae 1. De Justificatione coram Deo per fidem 2. De Haereditate vitae eternae Rom. 1.17 1 Johan 2.25 The Promises of the Gospel are principally two The first is the Promise of Justification in the sight of God by Faith And the second is The Promise of inheriting Eternal Life It is these Promises and the Covenant of Grace in respect of these Promises which we hold to be Conditional II. That by a Condition we understand a Duty which God requires of us for obtaining the Promised Benefit so as to suspend his giving us the promised Benefit upon our performing the Duty required Assuring us that if we perform the Duty required we shall have the promised Benefit but if we do not perform the Duty required we shall not have the Benefit promised These two things premised we come to prove that the Covenant of Grace is really Conditional as aforesaid with respect to its subsequent Blessings and Benefits And this we shall do 1. by Scripture 2. by Reason consonant to Scripture 3. by Testimonies of Orthodox Divines even of those very Divines whom our Authour affirms to be against us And 1. We prove by Scripture that the Covenant of Grace is Conditional in the sense before explained And we begin with Rom. 10. v. 9. where though the word Condition be not expressed yet we have the
were then any such foolish ignorant Christians in the World but in regard he was not acquainted with every individual Christian he did not absolutely deny it only he said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perhaps there might be some such Christians in the World And if there were as there might be or not be some for ought he knew they were none of the right breed of Christians they were but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 foolish ignorant Christians 3. Origen acknowledges that that senseless Opinion did impute unto the Holy God a thing that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most unjust 4. Therefore in the Name of the Christian Church he declares to Celsus That Christians believed that God pardons and receives into Favour no unconverted impenitent Man and that he rejects no good Man no penitent Believer 5. He declares that according to the Faith of Christians a Man must always repent before God pardon him and receive him into his Favour 6. That the Repentance which goes before Pardon and to which pardon is promised must be such as makes a real change in a Man's Heart and Soul and that the change is so great as that the Man greatly condemns himself on the account of his sins he mourns for them and turns from them unto the Lord in Heart and Affection yea it is so great as that the reigning power of sin is in a good measure broken and it is cast down from its Throne in the Heart 7. That upon this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God immediately grants unto the Man thus changed the graciâ—â— beneâ—t and Feuiâ— of his Repontance that is the pardon of his sins which in the very next Sentence Origen calls an Amnesty or an Act of Oblivion And here by the way those who are intelligent may see that we were in the right before when we said that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Grace of Repentance in Clement doth signifie pardon of sin as the Gracious Fruit of Repentance for here the self-same words are used by Origen where they are capable we think of no other meaning 7. Origen declares that if the Gracious Principle that comes to take possession of the penitent Believer's Soul be not at first a confirmed habit of Christian Vertue yet it is such as at that present time doth in a good measure purge out sin and for the time to come makes it well nigh impossible for sin ever to recover its power in and over the Soul again This Book of Origen against Celsus is acknowledged by all learned Men to be genuine and uncorrupted and so far as we know he was never yet taxed with errour by any Man for asserting â—â— here he doth that Repentance is antecedently necessary to Justification and pardon of sin If our Authour have the confidence to affirm that he ever was by any mortal Man taxed with errour for this let him prove his assertion if he would be believed The same Doctrine was taught by Justin the Martyr writing in defence of the Christian Religion against a learned Jew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Justin Mart. Dialog cum Trypho pag. 370. Edit Parisâ— Anno 1636. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. So then saith â—ustin if they repent all that are willing to receive mercy from God they may and the Word hath before declared them to be blessed saying blessed is he to whom the Lord imputeth not sin And that is thus that whoso repenteth of his sins shall receive from God remission of sins but not so as ye deceive your selves and some others also that are like you in this matter who say that though they are sinners yet if they know God i. e. believe the Lord will not impute sin unto them We have a Testimony and Evidence of this in one of David 's sins which he fell into by his pride and vain-glory which was then forgiven when he had so wept and lamented as is written of him And now if Pardon was not granted to so great a Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before he had repented but when that great King and anointed One and Prophet â—had wept and done such things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how cau filthy and foolish witless Men or Men quite out of their right mind unless they lament mourn and repent have hope that the Lord will not impute sin unto them Here it is observable that Justin Christ's blessed Martyr Fifteen Hundred Years agoe positively denies that God pardons Sinners before they repent and declares that they deceive themselves that they are desperate or witless Creatures quite out of their right mind who perswade themselves that if they know God he will pardon their sins before they repent mourn for and turn from their sins About the beginning of the Third Century Tertullian in his Book of Repentance Chap. 4. writes thus Omnibus delictis c. that is The same God who by his righteous Judgment hath ordained punishment for all sins that are committed either in the Flesh or Spirit either in the outward Deed or inward Will and Desire hath also promised pardon by Repentance saying to the People Repent and I will save thee And again As I live saith the Lord I had rather Repentance then Death Therefore Repentance is Life that is it is the way and means to Life since it is preferred before or more desired than death And a little after Poenitentia quae per Dei gratiam ostensa indicta nobis in gratiam nos Domino revocat Repentance saith he which by the grace of God is revealed to us and commanded brings us into Favour again with the Lord that is Repentance is a means and condition of God's own appointing upon the use and performance whereof we are received again into favour with the Lord. And after the middle of the same Book desertam dilectionem Ephesiis imputat c. The Lord imputes unto the Ephesians that they had left their first Love he upbraids them of Thyatira with Fornication and eating of things sacrificed to Idols He accuses them of Sardis that their works were not perfect before God he reproves them of Pergamus for teaching perverse Doctrine he rebukes the Laodiceans for trusting that they were rich and needed nothing And yet he admonishes them all to repent with threatnings indeed but he would not threaten to punish the impenitent if he were not willing to pardon the penitent and saith if any doubt of this for the removing of such doubts illum etiam mitissimum patrem non tacebo qui prodigum filium revocat c. I will not forbear to mention that most meek Father in the parable who calls back his Prodigal Son and after his poverty and distress gladly receives him upon his Repentance kills the fatted Calf adorns his Joy with a Feast and why not For he had found his Son whom he had lost and he had felt his love to be the greater towards him because he had regained him Now whom must we understand by
is bad counsel to tell an awakened Sinner that he must repent of his known sins mourn for them leave and loath them Cyprian was more loving and faithful to the Souls of Men than so to betray them to the Enemy of their Salvation he would have lost his Life before he would have done it And indeed he did at last lose his Life for his faithfulness to Christ and to the Souls of his People He laid down his life for the brethren he sealed the Truth of Christ's Gospel with his Blood about the Year of our Lord 250 and that is above fourteen hundred years ago These five Fathers flourished within the first Three Hundred years after Christ when the Church was in its greatest purity and Three of them to wit Clement Justin and Cyprian were Martyrs we need say no more to vindicate our Doctrine from the aspersion of Novelty which is fulsty cast upon it yet we think fit to add further two or three Testimonies of those Fathers who afterwards were great Asserters of the necessity and efficacy of God's Grace against the Peâ—ugians of which the chief was the famous Augustin who they say was born in Africa the faâ—he day that Pelagius was born in Britain the Lord intimating by that Providence that he had raised up Augustin to be an instrument in his hand to mantain and defend the necessity and efficacy of his Grace against Pelagius who deuyed it Now in his 105 Epistle to Sixtus This great Champion of the Church in his time saith That no Man is delivered and justified from any sin original or actual of omission or commission nisi gratiâ Dei per Jesuâ—â— Christâ—â—â— Dominum nostrum 〈◊〉 Solùm remissione peccatorum sed priùs ipsius inspiratione fidei timoris Dei impartiâ—o salubriter orationis affectu effectu But by the Grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord not only by forgiving him his sins but first by inspiring into him Faith and the fear of God the affection and effect of Prayer being savingly impairted unto him In this passuge of Augustins we observe That 1. He affirms that non liberatur justificatur quisquam nisi gratiâ Dei c. That no Man is freed and justified from any sin but by the Grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 2. That God's Grace in our Justificution appeals not only in his forgiving as our sins for the sake of Christ but also in this that prins fâ—st before he justifies us in forgiving our sins he inspires into us Faith in Christ and fear of God and in that he gives us an inclination and ability to pray and excites us to actual Prayer For that is the thing that he means by affectus effectus erationis salubriter impartiâ—us The Affection of Prayer is the fitness and disposition of the Mind for the Duty and we conceive that the effect of Prayer in this place signi 〈…〉 pâ—aying of the Soul its actual breathing after God for tho pardon of its sins These three things Faith Fear and Prayer in Augustins Judgment go before remission of sins and so before Justification of which according to our Confessions and Catechisms Remission of sin is an essential part at least And the consequence of this is that according to Austin there is some Spiritual good wrought in us and done by us before our sins be pardoned and we be justified And so we are qualified at least for pardon and that by the Grace of God in Christ The same Authour in another Book saith Homines non intolligentes quod ait ipse Apostolus lib. de grat lib. urb cap. 7. 〈…〉 hominem per â—idem sine operibus legis putarverunt eum dicere sufficere homini fidem etianise malè vivat bona opera non habeat quod absit ut sentiret vas electionis c. Men not understanding that which the Apostle bimself saith we judge that a man is justified by Faith without the works of the Law They have thought that he said Faith is sufficient to a man although he live a wicked life and have not good works Which God forbid that that chosen Vessel shâ—ild have thought or believed Who when he had said in a certain place In Christ cyesus neither Circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth any thing immediately he â—dâ—ea but â—aith which worketh by Love This is that Faith which distinguisheth â—â—d separateth God's faithful People from the unclean Devils for even they as the Aâ—oâ—tle James saith believe and tremble but they do no good works therefore they have noâ— that Faith by which the just doth live that is which works by love that God may render unto him Eternal Life according to his works But because we have even good works themselves from that God from whom we have Faith and Love therefore the same teacher of the Gentiles hath called Eternal Life it self Grace or Gist And in the next and 8th Chapter he saith That Paul in Ephes 2.8 9. Having written that we are saved by Grace through Faith and that not of our selves it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should hoast he saw that men might think that this was so spoken as if good works were not necessary to Believers but that Faith alone was sufficient to them And again that men may be proud of their good works as if they were able of themselves to do them therefore he immediately added for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which he hath prepared that we should walk in them Audi intellige non ex operibus dictum tanquam tuis ex teipso tibi existentibus Hear and understand saith Austin It is said not of works as if they were thine own which thou hadst of and from thy self for thou art created in Christ Jesus unto them We have also a large Confession of Faith of Fifteen Pastors of the Church of Christ in Africa Fulgent de Incarn Gra. J. Chr. concerning the Incarnation and Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ it was indeed written by one of them to wit the Famous Fulgentius but all their Naines are prefixed to it and it is by them directed to Petrus Diaconus In the 17th Chapter of that Book they write thus Ipse Salvator noster c. Our Saviour himself with the commanding power of his own voice speaks unto the will of man saying repent and believe the Gospel yet it is clear a man receives from God Repentance unto Life that he may begin to believe in God so that he cannot believe in God at all unless he receive Repentance by the gift of God who sheweth Mercy But what is a Mans Repentance but the change of his Will 〈◊〉 Theresore God who gives a Man Repentance doth himself change Mans Will Now observe here 1. That in the Judgment of the foresaid Fifteen Fathers the Lord both Commands and gives Repentance unto Life 2. That the Lord gives Repentance before
breaking of God's Commandements without Repentance pertaineth not everlasting Life but everlasting Death as Christ himself saith they that do evil shall go into everlasting fire Mat. 25. These Passages do manifestly show that in the Judgment of the Church of England as sincere Repentance is indispensably necessary to obtain forgiveness of sin so sincere Obedience from a principle of Faith and Love and bringing forth Fruits meet for Repentance is indispensably necessary to the escaping of eternal damnation and obtaining of eternal Salvation Let any Man read and consider the Sermon of Repentance in the same Book Tom. 2. pag. 324. and he will see this to be as clear as the Light at Noon-day We will quote one short Passage out of it in Page 339. they say The filihiness of sin is such that as long as we do abide in it God cannot but detest and abhorre us neither can there be any hope that we shall enter into the Heavenly Jerusalem except we be first made clean and purged from it But this will never be unless forsaking our former Life we do with our whole Heart return unto the Lord our God and with a full purpose of Amendment of Life flee unto his Mercy taking sure hold thereupon through Faith in the Blood of his Son Jesus Christ This excellent Passage shews clearly that as Faith is the receptive applicative Condition so true Repentance is the dispositive Condition of the Covenant of Pardon and Life and that the one is as necessary in its kind as the other is and that unless through Grace we do both we are undone for ever Thus we have shewed at large what was the old Gospel Doctrine of the Church of England at the Reformation and that our Doctrine is exactly the same Therefore it must needs be a most horrid we will not say lye but falsehood that we preach a new Gospel and that we are to be blamed for telling People that they must repent and mourn for their known sins leave and loath them and God will have Mercy upon them for Christ's sake From whole Societies of Protestants we pass to the Testimonies of Individual Pastours of the Reformed Churches And we begin with Calvin who in his Commentary on Ezek. 18.23 sayes Deus ergo non ita vult omnes salvos fieri ut discrimen omne tollat boni mali sed praecedit veniam poenitentia quemadmodum hîc dicitur Therefore God doth not so will all Men to be saved as to take away all difference between good and evil but Repentance goes before Pardon as it is here said And again on the same Text We hold therefore that God doth not will now the death of a Sinner because he calls all to Repentance without making a difference and promises that he shall be ready to receive them modo seriò resipiscant if they or on condition that they earnestly repent And in his Institutions he writes thus Lib. 3. cap. 3. Sect. 20. Quare ubi remissionem peccatorum offert Deus c. For which reason where God offers remission of sins he likewise useth to require on our part Repentance signifying thereby that his Mercy offered ought to cause Men to repent Doe saith he Judgment and Justice because Salvation is come near at band Isa 56.1 Likewise The Redeemer shall come to Sion and to them who turn from transgression in Jacob Isa 59.20 Again Seek the Lord while he may be found call upon him while he is near let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteousness of his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him Isa 55.6 7. Again Be converted and repent that your sins may be blotted out Acts 3.19 Where yet it is to be noted that this Condition to wit of Repentance is not so annexed to those Promises as if our Repentance were the ground of meriting our pardon but rather because the Lord hath determined to show mercy unto Men for this end that they might repent he shews them whither they are to go to wit unto God by Repentance if they will obtain Favour In these passages we observe 1. That Calvin says expresly That Repentance is a Condition annexed to the promise of pardon 2. That the performance of that Condition goes before pardon And 3. That therefore we are to repent and so perform the Condition that we may obtain the Grace of pardon 4. That in Calvin's Judgment Repentance is a Condition of Justification and that because Calvin believed Justification and pardon of sin to be the same thing as is most evident from what he writes against Osiander Instit 3d. Book cap. 11. Sect. 4.11 21 22. 5. That in Calvins Judgment Repentance is the dispositive Condition of Justification For it must be either the receptive or dispositive Condition but it cannot be the receptive Condition for in Calvin's judgment Faith is the only receptive Condition therefore it must be the dispositive Condition And indeed Calvin so held it to be for in his third Book of Institutions chap. 3. Sect. 18. He says Privatim Deo confiteri pars est verae poenitentiae quae omitti non potest Nihil enim minus consentaneum quam ut peccata ignoscat Deus in quibus nobis ipsi blandimur c. To confess our sins in secret to God is a part of true Repentance which cannot be omitted For nothing is less becoming or suitable than that God should forgive us those sins in which we flatter or please our selves On the contrary Calvin writing against Pighius says Contra Pigh de lib. arb lib. 5. Sect. Adducit tamen Sanè humiles Deus respicit sicut illi acceptum cordis contriti afflicti sacrificium David canit Indeed God hath regard unto the humble as David sings in his Psalm that the Sacrifice of a contrite and afflicted heart is acceptable and pleasing unto him These passages show That in Calvin's judgment an impenitent sinner is by reason of his impenitence unfit for pardon but that the true Penitent by his Humiliation and brokenness of Heart is disposed and fitted for pardon so that it is agreeable to the perfections of God's Nature to accept such a Person in Christ and to pardon his sins for Christ's sake And as Calvin held Faith and Repentance to be the Conditions of our Justification so did he hold sincere Obedience from a Principle of Faith and Love to be the Condition of our not falling from a justified state and of our obtaining the possession of Eternal Life and Glory For thus he writes in his Institutions Quoties ergo audimus c. Therefore as often as we hear lib. 3. cap. 17. Sect. 6. that God bestows his benefits on them who keep his Law we are to remember that God's Children are there designed or described by the Duty which they ought to be continually exercised in that we are for this reason adopted that we should reverence and honour him for
Condition of Justification SECT III. Of his Third Errour That there is no Real Change no Holy Disposition or Qualification no Good or Holy thing wrought in or done by Man in order to and before Justification That Faith is not so much as a Qualification of the Person to be justified and that Repentance is not in order before pardon of Sin HIS Third Errour against the Purity of our Christian Faith is That the Lord doth not by preventing Grace prepare dispose and fit his People for their Justification by and for the Righteousness of Christ imputed to them but that his first saving work towards them and upon them is their Justification by Christ's imputed Righteousness Error 3. That this is his Opinion is evident from his own words For in page 9 11 12 15 17 18 25 26 30 31 32. He denyes That there can be any qualification in us that any real change is wrought upon us that any condition is required of us in order to our Justification he will not so much as admit of Repentance as a dispositive Condition in order thereunto and often finds fault with us for holding Faith to be a Qualification or the Condition of Justification though he knew well enough that we hold it to be only the receptive applicative Condition of Christ and his Righteousness in order to our being justified thereby Now that this Opinion is Erroneous and against the purity of our Christian Faith we shall prove 1. By Scripture 2. By Reason agreeable to Scripture 3. By the Testimony of our most Famous Orthodox Protestant Divines But before we come to our Proofs we premise a few things to give light unto what shall follow As 1. That we hold the priority of any preparation disposition qualification or condition before Justification no farther than is necessary to verifie the Expressions of Holy Scripture concerning them 2. We hold that they proceed from the Grace of God 3. That that Grace is from Jesus Christ by the supernatural influences of his Holy Spirit 4. That some of those things whereby the Spirit of Christ prepares and disposes Souls before they be justified are such as by the Constitution and Ordination of God have a necessary infallible connexion with Justification they are dispositions or qualifications sine quibus nunquam cum quibus semper justificamur without which we are never and with which we are always justified of this sort is Effectual Calling and what is commonly called Regeneration or that seminal abiding Principle of Spiritual Life which is communicated unto us in Effectual Calling and the new Birth together with the first vital actings of that Principle in Faith and Repentance That Seminal Principle of Spiritual Life with its first Vital Acts of Faith and Repentance doth according to our Judgment so prepare and dispose and qualifie the Soul for Justification that it is always infallibly connected with them according to the Word and Promise of God and it is never in any case without them and let it be always remembred that in our Opinion Actual Faith qualifies us as a receptive Condition of Christ and his Righteousness But we think also that there are other dispositions antecedent to Justification which have not such a necessary Connexion with Justification and yet they are from God's Spirit too 5. That the said Seminal Principle of Spiritual Life with its first Vital Acts of Faith and Repentance which are in order before Justification and upon which Justification always follows is the first beginning of Holiness and may well be called Initial Sanctification for it is the Holy Thing first begotten in us by God's Word and Spirit it is the first forming of Christ in us and it is the Holy Root or Seed out of which grows our Progressive Sanctification through the Influences and Operations of the Holy Spirit given us after Justification to dwell in us and to abide with us for ever These Things premised we shall prove first by Scripture that it is an Errour to deny that there is any real change in us that there can be any Qualification or Disposition wrought in us by the Grace of Christ antecedently at least in order of Nature to our Justification by the imputed Righteousness of Christ For doth not the Scripture expresly put Effectual Calling before our Justification Rom. 8.30 Whom God called them he also justified Now it is confessed that it is an inward Effectual Calling that is there spoken of and that such a Calling makes a real change in the Persons so called But so it is that this Calling is by the Spirit of God put before Justification Again in Heb. 10.16 17. there we have the Order of God's bestowing on his Select People the Blessings of the New Covenant This is the Covenant that I will make with them after those days saith the Lord I will put my laws into their hearts and in their minds will I write them And their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more Here we see that the Lord according to his Covenant first writes his Laws in the Hearts of his People which cannot be without some real change wrought on them and some Holy Principle put into them Secondly Their Sins and Iniquities he remembers no more and that is he Justifies them for pardon of sin is an essential part of Justification and is put for the whole by a Form of Speech usual enough in the Scriptures of Truth Further our Saviour himself gives us plainly to understand that this is the order of his dispensing his Saving Grace Mark 4.12 Lest at any time they should be converted and their sins should be forgiven them In which Words our Lord plainly intimates that the sins of the unbelieving Jews were not forgiven them that is they were not justified because they were not converted and that whomsoever he pardons and justifies he first converts them And sure Conversion imports a real change and a Principle of Grace and Holiness implanted in the Souls of the Converted This is yet clearer from the Words of our Lord to Paul recorded by Luke Acts 26.17 18. I send thee unto the Gentiles to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness of sins c. By forgiveness of sins is meant Justification because forgiveness of sins is an essential part of Justification before the Gentiles could attain to this Justification consisting in the forgiveness of their sins their eyes were to be opened and they were to be turned from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God Is it not then self-evident that the Gentiles were to be really changed from what they had been in former times and that they must be renewed and become new Creatures before they could obtain the Blessing and Benefit of pardon of sin and Justification It is a wonder to us that any Man should doubt of this Matter who believes
Fruit of the Spirit of Bondage which prepares for the hearing of the Gospel and for the receiving of the Spirit of Adoption by the Gospel then in the Preaching the Gospel the tender Mercies of God displayed unto us and how ready be is to Pardon Sin in general and that of Free Grace may better our Repentance and when we are thus by Degrees brought to the Spirit of Adoption to cry Abba Father then our Repentance shall be most perfect as before I said And when we look upon him whom we have pierced and can in Assurance of Faith say with the Apostle I live by Faith in him who loved me and gave himself for me this is of Power to prick a Master vein and make us bleed out Repentance in the sight of our Gracious God whom we have offended and who yet in despite of our Sins hath loved us more Devoutly and Affectionately than ever before Yet is it true as he the Arminian saith That Repentance is nothing worth without Faith what thinks he of Ahabs Repentance when he put on Sackcloath and wallowed in Ashes upon the Word of Judgment against his House brought unto him by the Prophet Eliah Do we not know what the Lord said hereupon unto Eliah Seest thou how Ahab is humbled before me because he submitteth himself before me I will not bring that evil in his days The uttermost of the Ninivites Faith was but this that we read of who can tell if God will turn and Repent and turn from his fierce Wrath that we perish not Yet their Repentance was such that when God saw their works that they turned from their Evil Ways he repented of the Evil which he said that he would do unto them and he did it not Jon. 3.9 Thus Dr. Twiss whereby it is evident that he was far from thinking that all which a man can do before he have the Spirit of God dwelling in him and that he may get a Holy Heart and a saving Faith and so be fitted to lead a Holy Life is nothing but vain labour and an Acting of Sin Object 2. Secondly Our Author Objects the seventh Article of the 16. Chapter of the Westminster Confession of Faith And our Answer is That that Article of the Confession of Faith is the same in effect with the 13th Article of the Church of England and therefore is to be taken in the same Sence to wit That the Works of unregenerate men done before and without any Grace of Christs Spirit though they may be materially good yet they are formally so sinful that they do not make a Man meet to receive any Grace from God either the Grace of Regeneration or Justification and as for the Works of unregenerate Men which are done by the help of supernatural preventing common Grace though they be better than the former which are done by the alone Strength of Nature yet they are sinful too they are so defiled with Sin as they proceed from an unregenerate Man that they cannot please God so far as to make a Man meet to receive the Grace of Justification from God nor do they make a Man meet to receive the Grace of Regeneration from God by way of Reward due to them as Congruously Meritorious thereof Yet in another sound sence they may make a Man meet to receive the Grace of Regeneration and Conversion from God to wit as they are wrought in Men by the Spirit and according to the Word and are ordained by God to be means of removing such things as hinder Conversion and of the helping men forward in the way unto and of fitting and preparing them for Conversion as a Gracious Gift which ordinarily God freely gives to those who are so prepared by the Word and Spirit of Christ In this sound sence though not in the Popish or Semipelagian sense the foresaid works do indeed make men meet to receive Grace from God and the Article of the Confession of Faith saith nothing to the contrary Yea it is plainly against that absired opinion that all that an Unregenerate man can do by any means in order to the getting of his heart savingly changed and initially sanctified by the special effectual Grace of the Regenerating Spirit of Christ is vain labour and an acting of Sin we say that the foresaid Article of the Confession of Faith is plainly against that absurd opinion for it says expresly That works of Unregerate men are things which God Commands and are of good use both to themselves and others and one of the best uses they can possibly be of unto themselves is to dispose and prepare them for Regeneration and Conversion and to make them if not meet yet at least less unmeet to receive special saving Grace from God through Jesus Christ And thus according to the Confession of Faith and our principle agreeable thereunto we can give encouragement to unregenerate men to attend upon God in the diligent use of means for obtaining the free and effectual Grace of the Regenerating Spirit and so Conversion thereby but our Author seems to tell Unregenerate men that all they can do before they be Regenerated and have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them which is got only by Faith in Christ and therefore is in order of nature after Faith in Christ altho they do it with a desire that they may be Regenerated and may obtain a precious holy Faith in Christ and thereby the Holy Spirit of Christ it is all vain labour and an acting of sin Now is not this great encouragement for men to wait upon God in the use of his appointed means for the obtaining of converting Grace and a new holy heart to tell them that all they can do in order to that end is vain labour and acting of sin We hope such men will not believe our Author but if they do there is nothing can be expected from them but that â—hev should cast off all use of means and give over all reading hearing and praying for why should they trouble themselves with such Religious Exercises since all is an acting of sin and lost labour too Yet if our Author should intend to set up for a Quietist the foresaid Doctrine may be of good use to bring in Disciples to him for he can tell them holdly as his manner is that if they will become Quietists he will shew them an infallible way wherein they shall neither act sin nor yet lose their labour for if they will become right Quietists they shall neither act nor labour but wholly rest from action and labour and shall not act sin nor lose their labour because they shall not act nor labour at all but wholly rest from action and labour and whilest they are in a state of perfect rest without any kind of action or labour at all Then the Spirit of God shall fall upon them and Regenerate and Convert them 3d. Objection Thirdly He Objects the Testimony of Calvin who in his Institutions writes thus
the sincere love the holy intention and kind will of those worshippers of Demons And this seems agreeable to reason that it should be so for it is not likely that the most just and merciful God doth require more of a man than he hath received and more than is in a mans power yea it is rather probable that God accepts of what a man is able do if it be offered with a due Intention Thus the profound Doctor and by this let all Calvinists judge and let the Conscience of our Author judge how well that Doctor hath confuted the Pelagians and how greatly England is blessed with such a Confuter One touch more and we have done with him In the 26th Chapter of his first Book of the Cause of God against Pelagius he maintains with all his might that nothing is evil of it self but by Accident no not the wickedest thing that a Man doth or can do and therefore that the most horrid wickedness a Man can commit in other circumstances may cease to be Evil and be no Sin to him that commits it To prove this he makes several Suppositions As 1. in Pag. 256. He puts this Case which he says is possible That a simple Man without any foregoing fault of his is so deluded by the Devil whom he calls Behemoth the most cunning of all Sophisters that he is made to believe that unless he blaspheme or hate God he shall necessarily and unavoidably commit more Sin than that blasphemy or hatred of Gods amounts unto Now says our profound Doctor in this Case Iste simplex secundum judicium rectissmae rationis tenetur blasphemare Deum vel odire ne alias incidat in majus peccatum quoniam secundum communem animi conceptionem de duchus malis minus malum est eligendum cujus causa est quia in bonis est è contrario scilicet quod majus est magis eligendum That simple Man according to the Judgment of the most right Reason is bound to blaspheme God or to hate him lest otherwise as Satan tells him he fall into a greater Sin for according to the common Notion of Mans Mind of two Evils the least is to be chosen the Reason whereof is this that on the contrary of things that are good the greatest is to be chosen From these Premises he concludes that to blaspheme or hate God is not of it self necessarily and unalterably evil and sinful because there may happen a Case wherein a simple Man deluded by the Devil is bound to blaspheme or hate God and that according to the Judgment of Reason of Right Reason yea of the most Right Reason and that is of the best Reason in the World 2. In the same Page he puts another like Case which he saith Is possible also without any foregoing fault of the Person concerned Suppose a simple Man swears to be entirely obedient to his Prelate or Superior in all things then that Prelate or the Devil transformed into him commands the simple Man to hate or blaspheme God The Poor Man is certainly caught in a snare but how shall he get out why according to Bradwardin It is possible for him to get out safe by blaspheming or hating God in Obedience to his Superiour and out of Conscience of his Oath for that is the least Evil of the two and so comparatively is no Evil at all because to blaspheme or hate God is but one Sin and that against God only multumque excusatum per praeceptum Praelati and it is much excused by the command of his Superiour whereas he believes that in this Case not to obey is a greater Sin because 1. It is against his Superiour 2. It is also against God whose Vicegerent his Superiour is 3. It is a Violation and breach of his Oath and Vow This is another of his Demonstrations that blasphemy and hatred of God is not of it self and unalterably Evil because here is a possible Case wherein it ceases to be Evil and an Honest Man outwitted by a Knave may do it without Sin In the next Page he hath other Arguments of the like Nature to prove the same Position but we are unwilling to have any thing more to do with him for he next supposes Satan to be transformed into Christ himself and in that likeness to act his part so dexterously and effectually as to discharge a Man from his Duty to God and oblige him in Conscience to commit the foresaid Wickedness for a time for fear of being necessitated to do it for ever and to all Eternity Now upon the whole we refer it to all Men of common sense who have any true fear of God and love to Christ and pure Christianity to judge whether this be blest or cursed Doctrine and whether England be beholding to that Man who commends such Books to young Ministers But though we think the Nation and young Ministers in it are little beholding to him on that account yet we hope better things of him than that he will ever become a Prosylite to the Popish Religion or that for the sake of Bradwardin he will ever embrace the foresaid Doctrines which many Papists themselves abhor It may be he will say that this Bradwardin was an English Man that lived long since and he did not ken him well but if he had ken'd him or his Book either he would never have so commended him And if he be ingenuous to say so we readlly admit the excuse for we believe it to be very true and find that in more things than that one he writes of what he doth not understand and that too with an Air of Confidence that deserves a rebuke And withall we advise him for the future to forbear talking of old Authors and commending their Books to Ministers for he seems not to be much acquainted with that kind of Learning As he writes in his Letter Pag. 2. That a great many Young Students have contented themselves with studying English Authors so we think it had not been ill for him if he had contented himself with studying such Scots Authors and English too as never trod in the By-paths of Bradwardin Saltmarsh or Crisp We have mentioned some of that sort already to whom we will now adde a few more and first we commend to our Authors Consideration a Passage or two of a Reverend Learned and Modest Scots Divine whom he should Ken better than the old Englishman Bradwardin It is Mr. Dickson once Professour of Divinity in the Colledge of Edinburgh who in his Therapeutica Sacra writes thus Dicksons Therapeutica Sacra Book 1. Chap. 6. pag. 92. Together with these external Means mentioned before serving for drawing on the Covenant and going on in it the common Operations of God do concur common to all the called both Elect and Reprobate and Gifts common to both are bestowed such as Illumination Moral Perswasion Historical Dogmatical and Temporary Faith Moral Change of Affections and some sort of
wherewith this man either maliciously or ignorantly asperses us especially when they may clearly see that his Calumnies do not hang together but are inconsistent and contradict one another which is a sure mark whereby to know a Calumniator and false witness Mark 14.56 We do not positively say that he doth thus calumniate us out of meer malice but we are sure it is and must be either out of malice or ignorance and we willingly incline to the more charitable which is the safer side that he doth it rather out of pure ignorance and blind zeal than out of meer malice and Cain-like hatred of his Brethren But whatever moved him to it the thing it self is unwarrantable and injurious for which he must give an account to that God who is an infinitely more judicious Observer than he or any of his party and who as he observes all our opinions and practices so he judges always aright according to the true merits of every cause and in this cause we can with a good conscience lift up our face to the Lord our God and say Lord thou whose understanding is infinite and from whom nothing can be hid and who hast infinite power and right to punish us with everlasting destruction if we now lye to thee and dissemble with thee thou knowest that our cause is not Coincident with the cause of Pelagius and that this man doth Calumniate us in saying that judicious Observers cannot but perceive that they are coincident To thee O God we appeal from this false Accuser of the Brethren and unto thee we referr our cause to judge between us and this man whether it be coincident or the same with that of Pelagius But it may be our Author will object and say That if our cause be not coincident with that of Pelagius yet it is at least coincident with that of Arminius We answer that neither is that true For 1. Our Author and those of his way commonly say that the cause of Arminius and Pelagius is all one and therefore if they say true in that and do not calumniate Arminius our cause cannot possibly be coincident with the cause of Arminius unless it be also coincident with that of Pelagius they being both one and the same 2. Our Author saith That we are for the middle-way between the Arminians and the Orthodox as he calls them If that be true our cause must lye in the mid-way between the two extremes and then it is impossible to be Coincident with the cause of Arminius for that is one of the extremes and it is evident by ocular demonstration that the middle cannot be the same with either of the sides and so cannot be coincident with either of the extremes If our Author say that we are come off from the middle-way and are come over to Arminius and so are now on the other extreme and wrong side in opposition to the Orthodox who are on the extreme right side We Answer 1. If that be true and he know it then he is guilty of a gross lye in saying that our cause is coincident with that of Arminius and so that we are Arminians and yet that we are for a middle-way between the Arminians and the Orthodox If he will have us to be Arminians he must not if he be a true honest man say that we are for a middle-way between the Arminians and the Orthodox 2. If we be come over from the middle-way unto the Arminian extreme we desire our Author to tell us when it was and how long it is since and how he knows that we are come over to the Arminian extreme for we profess sincerely that we know none of these things We neither know when it was nor how long it is since nor do we know that we are yet come over or ever shall come over to the Arminian extreme Indeed we dare not pretend to any certain Knowledge of Future Contingents that are not revealed to us yet we trust in our God through Jesus Christ that by the Grace of his Spirit he will keep us so firm and fixed in the Truth of his Word that we shall never go over to the Arminian extream And since we know certainly what we are for the present as to this matter we can safely and with a good Conscience call Heaven and Earth to Record this day against this standerer that we are not Arminians and that he doth very sinfully reproach and calumniate us in saying that we corrupt Christs pure Gospel and obtrude on People a new Arminian Gospel to the certain Peril of their Souls and that our Cause is Coincident with that of Arminius But 3. Though according to the Light which God hath given us by his Word and Spirit we believe that the Arminians erre from the Truth in many things and we do from our Hearts dissent from their Errours yet we hold our selves bound in Conscience as we must answer to God at Death and Judgment not to calumniate them nor any other Erroneous Brethren and therefore we cannot in Conscience say that whilest the Arminians keep within the compass of the five Articles wherein they differed from our Divines at the Synod of Dort their cause is coincident with the cause of Pelagius We do indeed think that something and too much of Pelagianism or Semipelagianism is implied in and by consequence follows from their Principles but that doth not make their cause to be Coincident with the cause of Pelagius Therefore our most Judicious and Consciencious Divines do not scruple to declare Pelagianism to be a Heresie against the very Foundation of Christian Religion But as for Arminianism keeping within the Compass of the five Articles their Consciences will not suffer them to say that it is one or more Fundamental Errors or Heresies this might be sufficiently proved by many Testimonies of our Divines but instead of all that might be alledged we shall Content our selves at present with the Testimony of that famous General Assembly of the Church of Scotland which in the Year 1638. at Glasgow deposed all their Bishops though that Assembly had accused many of their Bishops of Arminianism yet did they not say that Arminianism was as bad as and Coincident with Pelagianism and that it was a Fundamental Heresie They were so far from saying so that in the seventh Session November 28. the Moderator Mr. Henderson in the Face and with the Approbation of the Assembly gave this Moderate Answer unto a Politick Objection of Dr. Balcanquel who appeared there for the Bishops Controversias omnes c. That all the Controversies especially if they exceed not the limits of the five controverted Articles between the Arminians and Anti-Arminians or Calvinists neither were nor are about Fundamental Doctrines that indeed the Arminians erred grievously but that he and the Synod were not yet perswaded that all Heterodoxies that is that all Erroneous Doctrines Hist motuum in regno Scotiae Dantisci An. 1641. p. 100 101. are
Divines But cui bono to what good end and purpose did it serve to tell simple injudicious people that there are so many differences amongst Protestant Divines about Justification Whatever our Author may think of it others cannot but judge that this course tends rather to confound distract and unsettle injudicious people than to edify and stablish them in the Faith For it is not probable that there are many so very injudicious as to believe that he can lay the Spirits again which he hath raised we mean that he can infalliblydecide the Controversies which he hath brought upon the Stage before the People and so quiet the minds of those whom he hath perplexed and discomposed To us he seems not altogether so well qualified for deciding of Controversies and quieting peoples minds as for throwing dirt on his Brethren and calumniating them to the People as if they differed not from the Papists in holding Christs Righteousness to be the meritorious cause of Justification which if it be not a lye we are sure it is a swinging falsehood and a very great mistake Third Calumny HIS Third Calumny is to be seen in the 8th and 9th Pages of the Letter and it is That we deny the Headship of Christ and not only deny his Suretiship his being the Second Adam and a publick Person but also treat these things with contempt All which is utterly false and on the contrary we declare that with all our hearts we own Christs Headship and Suretiship his being the Second Adam and a Publick Person For his Headship we believe according to the Seventh Canon of the Synod of Dort on the first head of Doctrine concerning Divine Predestination Tâ—at Deus Christum ab reterno Mediatorem omnium Electorum caput salutisque fundamentum constituit God from eternity ordained Christ to be the Mediator and Head of all the Elect and the foundation of Salvation We believe also according to the Suffrage of our Brittain Divines read in and approved by the same Synod That Christ is the head and foundation of the Elect so that all saving Graces prepared in the Decree of Election are bestowed upon the Elect only for Christ and through Christ English Translation of the Suffrage p. 5 6. This was their Position upon which they say That God in the eternal Election of particular Men by one and the self same Act doth both assign Christ to be a head to them and also doth appoint them according to his good pleasure to be the Members of Christ to wit in time when they believed For his Suretiship doth this man think that he can make the simple People believe that we are so impious as to deny it and treat it with contempt when as the Apostle saith expresly that Jesus was made a Surety of a better Testament Heb. 7.22 But it may be our Author means that some of us deny the Aminomian notion of a Surety and treat their notion with contempt and indeed that may be but what then Doth it follow that therefore we deny Christs real and true Suretiship which God hath revealed in his Word for our Faith and Comfort Before that consequence be admitted our Author must prove that the Antinomian notion is the real true Scripture-notion of Christs Suretiship which we do indeed deny and contemn as a very false unscriptural notion and challenge him to prove it by Scripture As for Christs being the Second Adam it is an abominable falshood that we deny it or treat it with contempt so far are we from so doing that on the contrary we do most firmly believe it and openly confess that as the First Adam was the cause of Sin and Death unto all who in the ordinary way of human Generation partake of the natural Bitth so Christ as the Second Adam is the cause of Righteousness and Life unto all who by Divine Regeneration partake of the Spiritual Birth But as no man suffers any actual prejudice by the first Adam before he be naturally begotten and generated so no man actually receives in himself any saving benefit from Christ as the Second Adam before he be Spiritually begotten and regenerated our meaning is that no man actually receives from Christ before the time of his Spiritual Regeneration any benefit that hath a necessary and infallible connexion with Salvation by the Constitution and Ordination of God Lastly That we deny and contemn Christs being a Publick Person is false So far are we from that That on the contrary we sincerely declare to all the World that we most firmly and stedfastly believe that Christ is a Publick Person that he is the publick Prophet Priest and King of the whole Catholick Church and that it is his proper incommunicable Glory to be such a publick Person Fourth Calumny HIS Fourth Calumny is that we teach such Doctrine in the point of Justification as neither we our selves nor any other sensible man dare stand to at Death This is to be seen in the 18th and 19th pages of his Letter If this were true we confess it might justly prejudice People against our Doctrine and give them and our selves too cause enough to suspect it to be false But this is like the rest utterly false and contrary to Experience For our Doctrine is as we have said often that Christs most perfect satisfactory Meritorious Righteousness is to us and all that are saved instead of that perfect sinless Righteousness which we ought to have had in our selves but since the fall neither have nor can have and that by and for the said Righteousness of Christ alone we are justified from the guilt of all our sins of Omission and Commission Original and Actual and are accepted as Righteous before God and receive a Right and Title to Eternal Life This is the only Righteousness which we crust to as the cause of our Justification this Righteousness we hold to be given unto us if through Grace we sincerely believe in Christ and repent of our sins and that on the account of this Righteousness we shall obtain eternal Life and Salvation if through Grace we persevere to the end in Faith and Repentance and in leading a holy Life as was before explained But on the contrary we maintain that the forsaid Righteousness of Christ is not given to any for their actual Justification before they first through Grace sincerely believe and repent and that none shall obtain eternal Life and Salvation on the account of Christs Righteousness but those who after they have first believed and repented do not Apostatize either totally or finally but in opposition to such Apostacy persevere in Faith repentance and holy Gospel-obedience unto Death This is the summ and substance of our whole Doctrine in the point of Justification Now why we or any sincere Christan should be afraid to stand to this Doctrine at the hour of death and in the day of Judgment it is above our Capacity to understand for this is the Doctrine which
the Lord himself hath taught us by his holy Spirit in the Canonical Scriptures And therefore if the Scriptures be true this Doctrine cannot be false but is and must be true and it is very strange and wonderful if all true Christians be afraid to dye in the Faith of the true Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures We rather think that if they be not delirious but have the use of their Reason they are not true Christians but meer Hypocrites that renounce the foresaid Doctrine of Justification and are afraid to stand to it at Death We are sure that good Hezekiah was not afraid to stand to this Doctrine when he justly apprehended himself to be under the Sentence of Death since we find it written in Isa 38.3 4. That he prayed thus unto the Lord Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in Truth and with a perfect Heart and have done that which is good in thy sight c. And God was so far from being displeased with this his Prayer that he most graciously accepted it and shewed himself so well pleased with Hezekiah that he gave him a further Lease of his Life for fifteen years and Sealed the Lease with a Miracle a thing we do not find that ever the Lord did for any other Man before or since We have also read of many in History and have heard of others and have our selves known some who have not been afraid to stand to our Doctrine aforesaid at Death but have died comfortably in the Faith of it As for our selves we live in the Faith of it and desire to die also in the Faith of it and as we account it our Duty to stand to it in Life and at Death so we trust and hope that if the Lord be pleased to preserve to us the use of our Reason and to continue to us the Presence of his Spirit and Assistance of his Grace we shall be enabled to perform our Duty in owning at Death and if he call us to it in Sealing with our Blood the said true Doctrine of Justification which we have preached to his People in the time of our Life As for our Author we hope he agrees with us that Christs Righteousness is never to be renounced but always to be trusted to and relied upon as the cause of our Justification and Salvation both in Life and at Death What then would he have us to renounce If it be our own Merits he knows very well that we admit not the very possibility of any proper Merits of our own and that we renounce all Confidence in such a Chimera as much as he or any Man can do If it be our own good Acts or Works as the Cause of our Justification He may know by what we have said before that we renounce as much as he doth and something more too all causal Influence of any good Acts or Works of ours upon Justistification If it be Faiths being the Condition of Justification that he would have us to renounce That we can never do either in Life or at Death for the Reasons we have given before Besides he himself ascribes as much and we think something more to Faith in the matter of Justification than we do for he maintains Faith to be the Instrument of Justification and if it be a proper Instrument it must have an Instrumental Causality upon Justification and so must be an Instrumental Cause and to be an Instrumental Cause is more than to be a Receptive Condition of Justification If we may be afraid then to stand to it at Death that Faith is the Condition of Justification he may have more Cause to be afraid to stand to it at Death that Faith is the Instrument of Justification But we suspect his meaning is that we will and must be afraid to stand to it at Death that Repentance is a Condition necessary to Justification and that perseverance in Faith and in the Practice of Repentance and Holiness is necessary to the obtaining Possession of Eternal Salvation and if this be it indeed which he thinks we and all sensible men must be afraid to stand to at Death and therefore must renounce we cannot but judge the Man to be under a strong Delusion for First The Scripture is as full and clear for the Truth of these things as it is for the Truth of any other Article of the Christian Faith Secondly We have the Concurrent Judgment of Divines both Ancient and Modern agreeing with us in the same Truth as we have proved at large Thirdly We have heard of many and have known some who upon their Death-bed have bitterly lamented and bewailed that they had not repented of their Sins in time that for and through the Meritorious Righteousness of Christ they might have obtained Pardon and Justification but we never heard of or knew any who upon their Death-bed lamented and bewailed that they had repented too soon in order to their obtaining Pardon and Justification through Christs Meritorious Righteousness The like we may say of the Necessity of a Holy Life in Order to the obtaining of Eternal Salvation through Christ many have most lamentably bewailed on their Death-bed their own Folly and Wickedness in not preparing themselves for Happiness by the Practice of Holiness without which no Man shall see the Lord. But we could never hear of any who on their Death-bed lamented and bewailed that they had held the Erroneous Opinion that the sincere Practice of Holiness is necessary to the obtaining of Salvation and Happiness through the Merits and Mediation of Jesus Christ On the contrary the Generality of People that are serious and sensible they then acknowledge the Necessity of sincere Repentance in Order to the obtaining Pardon of Sin and the Necessity of Holiness in Order to the obtaining of Salvation and Happiness through Jesus Christ our Lord. So abominably false is it that no sensible man dare stand to our Doctrine at his Death that the quite contrary is true and no knowing sensible Man but will gladly stand to it and own it with all his Heart except such Nominal Christians as are Conscious to themselves that they are Hypocrites and unconverted Sinners and fear that if the Gospel be true they shall certainly be damned And therefore they may possibly some of them at least flatter themselves with the Hopes that God for Christs sake will Pardon and Justifie them before and without Repentance and save them without Holiness But we dare not humour such People nor flatter them however they may flatter themselves and therefore we must in faithfulness to Peoples Souls tell them from God that except they repent they shall perish and that without Holiness they shall never see the Lord so as to be Happy in the sight of him And for the Hypocrites Hope of being pardoned without Repentance and of being Happy without being Holy it shall certainly perish with himself His Hope shall be cut off and