Controversie doth turn 2. That your saying That Papist ascribe not any meritoriousnesse to conditions c. is most false if there be any truth in these Protestants collections yea that it doth asperse these reverend Protestant Authours fore-named who oppose the Papist in the very particular 3. That those of our Divines who maintain conditional promises in the Covenant whilst withal they exclude all claim of dignity worth merit or any such causality from these conditions do not joyne with Papists as you would make the people believe but with Protestants against Papists and differ not one hairs breadth from those who aver the Covenant to be absolute not conditional for by the Conditions which they deny they understand meritorious Conditions 4. That in rejecting this distinction between a Condition and a meritorious Cause and asserting the Covenant to be without not only meritorious conditions but all other also you oppose all Orthodox Divines that ever I met with not only those that hold the Covenant to be conditional but those also who in terminis aver the absoluteness of it for by the conditions they reject they understand meritorious ones as hath been shewed and joyn with Mr. Saltmarsh Dr. Crisp and such other whom the Othodox not out of malice but for distinction sake and for the due desert of some of their Tenents do call Antinomians But let us see what further strength you bring to the battering of this distinction for your charge of Popery will not hold You add therefore farther Did Adams doing merit life None will say it Yet the Grace of God is more shewed in the latter then in the first Covenant Therefore in it no conditions at all Sir The Apostle saith To him that worketh the reward is reckoned not of grace but of debt Rom. 4. 4. I know some hold the Covenant with Adam wherein works were injoyned to be a Covenant of Grace I have heard Mr. Symonds of Holland deliver that in a Sermon at Rederith and thereupon divide the Covenant of Grace into the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Faith Certainly had Adam kept the condition of the first Covenant he had done no more then his Duty nor had he profited God at all besides there would have been small or no proportion between that his Work and the reward all which are required to merit proper So that in some sense that may be called a Covenant of Grace Neverthelesse in the latter Covenant of Faith the grace of God is so far more fully richly and gloriously manifested then in that of Works as that it obtaineth the title of the Covenant of Grace The Apostle saith it was by Faith that it might be by Grace Rom. 4. 16. And the Scripture being so plain for it I ought to believe it though I could not make it out to others wherein it was freer nor yet apprehend it my self But my good friend the businesse is not so difficult but that it may be and hath been already dispatch'd by some of our side and the freenesse of the latter above the former notwithstanding the conditionality of both at large discovered And that not by excluding faith or the condition of faith from the latter as you would have it for that would interfere with that of the Apostle now cited By Faith that it might be of Grace where Faith is taken in not left out to make out the freenesse Nor yet only because faith is given of God and so ability to keep the latter Covenant is given which is something For though that strength Adam had to keep the first Covenant was freely bestowed on him by God in his Creation yet when God was pleased to enter into a Covenant with him he had it in him and was to work in his own strength and power Whereas in the New Covenant God finds man in an impotent weak and dead condition and graciously promiseth to work in him ability to do what he requireth This I say is something that serves to shew the freenesse of Divine Grace in the new Covenant for the Apostle saith expresly Ephes 2. 8. We are saved by Grace through faith and that not of our selves it is the gift of God where the giving of the thing required to wit Faith is introduced by the Apostle to shew the freeness of Grace But the superabundancy of Grace in the latter Covenant appears mostly in this that in the former the matter of mans Justification had been something of his own his own exact and perfect obedience to the Law of God but in the latter the matter of it is an others the perfect Righteousness of Christ In the one man runs into himselfe for the price of his life and happiness But in the other faith carries him out of himself unto another the Lord Jesus Christ for all In the one the condition it self and the keeping of it was to have been the matter of mans Righteousness the ground of his Justification In the other it is only the Instrument and Mean In the one the condition it self Works procured life in and of themselves without any reference to any other but in the other Faith is looked on not as a Work but as an Instrument nor doth it save for any excellency worth or vertue that is in it but only because it layes hold on Christ I cannot better expresse my self then in Mr. Gatakers words Rejoynder p. 46 47. In the one Works are considered as in themselves performed by the Parties to be justified and live In the other Faith is considered and required not as a work barely done by us but us an Instrument whereby Christ is apprehended in whom is found and by whom that is done whereby Gods Justice is satisfied and life eternal meritoriously procured for us so that they differ as much as these two Propositions 1. Pay your debt of a thousand pounds and be free 2. Rely on such a friends satisfaction made for it and be as free as if you had made full payment and satisfaction your self All this and more you may find in that reverend Divine your contempt of whom and all other not of your way sads the hearts of your friends and makes them fear that which they are loath to suspect concerning you You proceed and tell us that though it be not meritorious yet if it be Antecedent it must be Effective For an Antecedent condition is effective Sir By your own maintaining faith to be an instrument in the work of our salvation which I think is more then a condition though no more I believe then truth you must of necessity grant it both a precedency and efficiency therein for instruments are alwayes reckoned to the efficient cause and in order of nature precede the effect And thus I conceive that faith is effective in the work of our salvation as an instrument receiving Christ not as a condition Conditions are not effective but instruments are As for that of Chamier that a
their hyperbolical commendations of them stiling them meritorious and the like as both Mr. Gataker in his Rejoynder to Mr. Saltmarsh p. 53. and Bishop Davenant de Justit Actual cap. 53. Men better vers'd in the Fathers then you or I will tell you That you bring out of Augustin makes not at all against conditions in the Covenant but against the power of free will asserted by Pelagius The same Authour will tell you He that made thee without thee will not save thee without thee as I have often heard out of Pulpits when I was a Scholer And Whomsoever he draweth he draweth him being willing Our faith distinguisheth the just from the unjust not by the Law of Works but of Faith it self Christ is not awake in him in whom faith doth sleep The Justification by the Faith of Jesus Christ hath been given is given and shall be given to Believers before under and after the Law By faith we find that which the Jewes have lost And elsewhere answering the Objection of the Pelagians from the command of faith and repentance whereby they would prove that we had power to do them else the command of them would be to no purpose he saith By commanding he God doth admonish us to do what we can and to beg for that which we are not able to do Know O man saith he in another place by the precept what thou oughtest to have in the reproof that 't is through thy owne fault that thou hast it not in the prayer learne from whence thou maist recieve that which thou wouldest have He shews in another place in what respect the Apostle saith The Justification of life came upon all men Not because all men do believe in Jesus Christ but because no man is justified except he do believe in him It is therefore said all men that it might not be thought that any one might be saved by any other meanes whatsoever but by him Yea this Champion of free grace hath so many high yea haply over high commendations of faith that out of him Bellarmine produceth not one or two but many Citations to prove a meritorious caue sality of faith in the work of Justification as you may sein his first Book de Justific c. 17. 2. Prosper I have not yet by the allegations I have read cited out of him I cannot conceive that Author to be against Conditions but rather for them I shall name a sentence or two Faith is the foundation of Righteousness which no good works go before but from which all do proceed from thence i.e. from the Doctrine of the Apostles every one doth receive life which faith alone doth bring forth 3. Add to Prosper Jerome in Psalm 5. Therefore thou shalt besprinckle me with this hysop when thou shalt poure upon me the vertue of his blood when Christ shall dwell in me by faith And Moses distinguished in Leviticus between the Righteousnesse of Faith and Deeds that the one is by works the other only by the credulity of faith 4. So Ambrose According to the purpose of Grace it is so decreed by God that the Law ceasing the Grace of God should require faith alone to Salvation And this Law to wit of the Spirit doth give liberty requiring Faith alone 5 Chrysostom as I find him cited by Bishop Downham Thou obtainest Righteousnesse not by sweat and labour but receivest it by gift from above bringing one thing only from within viz. to believe Nothing therefore in us doth concur to the Act of Justification but only faith in Rom. 1. 17. and again in Rom. 3. 27. What is the Law of Faith to save by Grace Here he sheweth the power of God that he hath not only saved but justified and brought to glory and that not requiring works but seeking faith only 6. Theodoret cited by the same Author Our Lord Christ hath by his bloud procured our salvation Solam à nobis fidem exigens requiring of us faith alone in Rom. 3. 25. 7. Theophylact in Rom. 4. 5. Doth he that is to be justified bring any thing Faith only By these I hope it doth sufficiently appear That the Fathers held not Redemption to be absolute as if nothing were required from us in regard of Application but on the contrary that faith was required of us if we would be partakers of the Salvation purchased that it was required of us before our actual Justification and did concur thereto Passe we from these to later Writers among whom let Martin Luther be the first Now it is true that in the place you cited he saith The Promises of the Law are conditional but the Promises of the New Testament have no such conditions nor require any thing of us nor depend upon on any Conditions of our worthinesse But here I conceive he excludes meritorious Conditions partly because he expresseth himself very cautelously saying No such conditions and no conditions of our worthinesse And also because he doth elsewhere often aver that something is required of us I might here mind you of what Chemnicius saith in the place before cited who being a Lutheran could not but be better acquainted with Luthers Tenents then you or I namely that Luther was not against Preparations of order but only Preparations of merit and for proof of it cites him on the third Chapter to the Galatians where we find vers 30. this passage The use of the Law is to terrifie and fright to Christ who is the end of the Law for Righteousnesse And vers 2. Christs coming profits neither the carelesse nor the desperate but only such who have been tormented and terrified with the Law for a time and now with sure trust come to Christ Which passages do clearly shew that he held there ought to be a work of the Law upon the heart before its close with Christ not to make it worthy of Christ but to make it long and gasp after Christ I might tell you also How in a Letter written to Mr. Gasper Guttil and translated by Mr. Rutherford the same Martin Luther vehemently inveighs against those who would have the Doctrine of Grace to be preached in the first place and afterwards the revelation of wrath calling it a new method a curious crotchet and the broachers of it jugling Gypsies and averreth expresly that the Apostles method Rom. 1. 2 3. was directly opposite thereto which was first to denounce the wrath of God from heaven and make all the world sinners and guilty before God then when they see this to teach them farther how they may obtain grace and be justified As also that notable place on Gal. 2. 16. The true way to Christianity is this that a man do first acknowledge himself by the Law to be a sinner A little after When a man is thus taught and instructed by the Law then he is terrified and humbled then he seeth indeed the greatness of his sin and cannot find in himself
for application say they is the end of impetration and impetration the foundation of application So that the Arminian doctrine of conditions to be performed by mans owne power which make the issue of Christs death to be uncertaine and pendulous on mans free will is wholly razed thereby but our doctrine of conditions purchased for us by the death of Christ and to be wrought in us by the Spirit of Christ are no way shaken The purchases of Christs death may be surely applied to them for whom they are purchased though they be applyed conditionally Nor is that other maxime of any more strength positâ causâ totali sequitur effectus the totall cause being put the effect followeth for if you speak of mans actual salvation or the application of salvation unto man you cannot say that Christs death is the total cause of it The whole and sole meritorious cause it is But I hope Gods grace is the impulsive cause Christs spirit the efficient cause and faith the instrumental cause And bonum est ex integris causis Good doth arise from all causes entire Now though an instrument be the meanest of causes yet is it necessary in the way of an instrument nor can the effect be in act before it be used Your third head contained such Scriptures as speake of Christ and salvation as of a gift a free gift In pursuance of which you delivered Christ is given freely given of God And if by grace then not of works And what can be laid on the creature that is not a worke If but a Rose not free To be freely and by condition is an absolute and flat contradiction For answer the Covenant with Adam in a passage before you aver to be conditional And in a passage following you seeme to intimate that it is free by saying that he could not have merited had he kept the condition It seems then that to be free and yet to be conditional as flat a contradiction as it is you your selfe have admitted in the Covenant with Adam Did you seriously consider what you spake when you said if but to pay a rose the tenure is not free Certainly my Country men in Glocester-shire account that a very free tenure nor think I them therein mistaken And if some Gentlemen should bestow on you an hundred pound a year on condition you should be more liberal to the poor to the expence not of a rose or two or a penny or two but it may be ten or twenty pound a yeare which unlesse you constantly exhibite you were to lose the principal If for all this condition you should not say that this were a free gift I should account you fowly unthankful If my memory faile not our ancient godly Divines use those similitudes of a Rose or pepper corne to set out the condition not of faith but of good works which they maintaine to be required under the Gospel as a consequent condition By which expression of theirs they do as you say destroy the freenesse of grace But your bare saying so doth not prove it The truth is the Arminians and Papists were more beholding to you for some passages in your Sermons then our ancient godly Protestant Divines But come wee to your Argument which if not taken out of Doctor Crispe is yet certainly the same with his vol. 1. p. 64. p. 179. By gift and on condition is a flat contradiction But take heed that you and the Doctor make not the Scriptures to speake absolute and flat contradiction which say wee are saved by grace through faith Eph. 2. 8. And therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace Rom. 4. 16. And being justified freely by his grace through faith in his blood Rom. 3. 23 24. And in the very place cited by you and the Doctor Rom 11. 6. If by grace then it is no more of works otherwise grace is no more grace But if it be by works it is no more of grace otherwise works are no more works where it followes what then Israel hath not obtained what he seeketh for And if you ask wherefore the Apostle will tell you Rom. 9 32. Because they sought it not by faith but as it were by the works of the law So likewise Where is boasting then it is excluded By what Law of works Nay but by the law of faith Rom 3. 27. And to him that worketh not but believeth Rom. 4. 5. The Scriptures joyn faith and free grace yea they tell us that freenesse of grace is upheld by that requisite or condition of faith But you call it a flat contradiction The Scriptures oppose faith and works But you say What can be laid upon the creature that is not a work You would beare men in hand that we teach contradictions But I am sure these passages of yours contradict the Scripture Again did not Christ lay repentance and faith upon the creature when he said repent and believe the Gospel Matth 4. 17. Mark 1. 15. yea doth he not lay it on them upon paine of damnation when he doubles it Luke 13. 35. except ye repent ye shall perish Did not the Apostles lay something on the creature when they thus answered their troubled converts who in anguish of spirit came with these queries to them men and brethren what shal we doe Acts ◠37. And Sirs what shall I do to be saved ch 16. 20. I say when they thus answered them repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be converted Did they not require something of them and lay something on them And did Christ or his Apostles think you preach any thing contradictory to free grace or free gift I hope whatever contradictions you pinne on our Sermons you will take heed what you fasten on the sayings of Christ and his Apostles whose doctrine we must take leave to believe and follow how contradictory soever it be deemed in the world Do not say here that Christ did not require them nor his Disciples presse them as conditions or as a worke which is the Doctors evasion for you your selfe know that we disclaime faith as a worke as much as you Wee maintaine not any worthinesse excellency or merit in faith I desire you to shew me if you can in any of ours that faith doth justifie as a work done by us or for any worthinesse or excellency that is in it I am sure that I can shew you the contrary and you may also see it if you be pleased to peruse Mr. Gatakers rejoynder to Saltmarsh p. 51. 53. This is that we maintaine that faith is so required of God that if we have it we shall have salvation and if we have it not we cannot have salvation and that not only in knowledge but in the being of it not only the evidence declaration and manifestation of that which is the Doctors opinion p. 168. and I feare is also yours but not the receipt benefit or being of it and that because it
repaired by Christ Or with Bellarmine That Adam conveyed inherent sin to his posterity whereby they perish and therefore the Righteousnesse of Christ conveyed for our recovery must be inherent We should many wayes clip the truth of God if we should every way make these lines run parallel Hear Peter Martyr to the very point This Analogy holds true only in the general but in respect of the particular and the kinds there is great difference Adam conveyes sin by Propagation to his Posterity But Christ conveyed Righteousness by faith After this you had a passage concerning actual Righteousnesse and actual Reconciliation to this purpose Vnlesse men will grant that Christ purchased a salvability the salvation purchased must be actual for Inter actum potentiam non datur medium Sir I know none of ours that deny that Christ purchased actual salvation for those for whom he dyed i.e. That in time they should be actually saved in that way and method agreed on between the Father and the Son The thing we deny is That the salvation purchased is actually theirs for whom its purchased before they come actually to believe You must give us leave to distinguish between the Purchase and the Possession the Grant or Donation of a Benefit and the actual exhibition and reception of it The child may have an Inheritance purchased for him and bequeathed to him before he is born but he must be born before he can enjoy it Abraham had the grant and Donation of Canaan long before his had the actual possession of it Hear we Dr. Ames in this particular All and each have grace and salvation given though they have not the possession of the thing given before faith Now unto these Arguments let us add one or two more out of your former Sermons about the absoluteness of the Covenant many of which having fallen in with those already discussed and not above one or two remaining The first If any thing were required on our part then beasting could not be excluded This also Dr. Crisp vol. 10. p. 71. If any thing were done on our parts to partake of Christ we might have wherein to boast Rom. 4. 2. But I pray consider seriously how crosse this your Argument is to the very Text For did not Abraham the party spoken of there do something for his part to partake of Christ when he believed yet was he excluded from boasting And doth not the Law of Fath the Gospel require faith on mans part that Righteousnesse may be imputed why else is it called a Law Yet the Apostle saith expresly that by this Law boasting is excluded Rom. 3. 27. If indeed we could do any thing in a meritorious way we might boast not otherwise The begger I hope hath little to boast of and yet doth he both crave and receive his Almes The sinner hath lesse for as that he doth can no way merit no more then the beggers craving and receiving so nor can he do that untill the Lord inable him God must give him both a mouth and a hand before he can speak for Christ to take him Yet both he must have before he can receive the Lord having set down to himself as you your self acknowledg such a method and way of giving The other which seems to be of more strength and I think the strongest you bring is this If the Promise of Salvation were upon condition of believing then men should believe before they be justified contrary to Rom. 4. 5. where it is said God justifies the ungodly Now no where in Scripture Believers are called ungodly The same almost totidem verbis you may read in the Doctor vol. 1. p. 170 171. Now for answer unto ths I desire you to consider what the Papists say concerning this Justification of the wicked That wheresoever in Scripture God is said to justifie the ungodly it must be understood that he also makes the ungodly just and righteous for otherwise the judgment of God would not be according to truth and the Lord should do that himself which he forbids his creature to do and abhors in his creature when ever he doth it Exod. 23. 7. Isaiah 5. 23. Deuter. 25. 1. Prov. 17. 15. And lest you should think light of it because it comes from them though it is right to learn even from an enemy hear what the learned Pemble saith of this very rule cited by him We embrace this rule saith he and the reason of it acknowledging that where ever there is Justification there must be Justice some way or other in the party Justified The God of truth should otherwise call darknesse light and evil good And therefore both that Author as also Paraeus and Chamier tells us that the Righteousnesse of Christ imputed to this ungodly person is the ground of this gracious sentence of God whereby he doth absolve acquit and justifie him So that the person though he be ungodly and unrighteous in himself and so unjustifiable yet is he godly just and righteous in Christ and through the Righteousnesse of Christ imputed to him justifiable Let this then be agreed on i.e. 1. That the ground of this gracious sentence of God whereby he justifies the ungodly must be some kind of Righteousnesse And 2. That it is the righteousnesse of Christ imputed to the sinner The Quaerie then will be Whether this Righteousnesse of Christ be imputed to the sinner before he doth believe or not till he believeth Now I think the Scriptures are very clear for the latter that Righteousnesse is not imputed to the sinner til he doth believe that very Text it self confirmes it To him that believeth on him that justifies the ungodly his faith is counted for Righteousnesse It is to him that believeth that Righteousnesse is imputed and again His faith is counted c. Take faith how you will it must come into the imputation the imputation is not without it So again Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for Righteousnesse ver 3. When was it so accounted Certainly when he believed It was whilest he was in uncircumcision indeed but not whilest he was in unbelief He received Circumcision saith the Apostle the Seal of the Righteousness of faith which yet he had being uncircumcised As he had Righteousnesse then so had he faith too for it was a Righteousnesse of faith And as it was imputed unto him upon believing so shall it be imputed unto us if we believe on him who raised up Jesus vers 24. Hence it is called the Righteousness of faith for that it comes to be ours through faith Faith takes it receives it puts it on The Righteousnesse of God by Faith Phil. 3. 9. We answer then that place in the Romans thus 1. An ungodly person may be taken either for one who is wicked and goes impenitently on in his wickedness never once looking after Christ a sinner continuing in his impenitency and unbelief Now such an ungodly person God
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
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
both there and in this eleventh Argument he excludes both from the Covenant with Abraham and the work of Justification 2. Let but Martyr expound himself and then it will appear what conditions he denies and in what manner nor shall I lead you any further for discovery of this then this his Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans Look then Chap. 10 on those words For righteousnesse to every one that believeth and you shall find the difference betweene the Law and the Gospel thus set down by him The Law is received by doing and most exact performing that which is commanded But the Gospel by a lively and efficacious assent of faith Moses also Deut. 30. writeth concerning the Law that hee had set before the people life and death manifestly teaching that if the Law be received and fulfilled it will bring eternal life with it But seeing we are shut out from this benefit the merciful God hath provided another word to wit of faith which if by assenting to it it be received bringeth life along with it From this place it appeareth that the promises of the Law were given from the supposition or condition of Works going before But in the Gospel if works are annexed to the Promises they are not so to be understood as either the merit or causes of those Promises But we must thus conclude That these gifts of God which are promised follow after the works though they be not perfect and absolute as they are commanded in the Law This place I hope will shew that Peter Martyr was only against the condition of Works and there too against their merit or efficiency for as for their presence he allowes that they are required in the Gospel But as as for the condition of faith he is not at all against it Turne to one place more Rom. 8. If we suffer with him c. Where setting down the differences between the Promises of the Law and of the Gospel he saith They do not differ in this as some think that the Promises Evangelical have no conditions annexed but the Legal Promises are never offered without conditions for as it s said Honour thy Father and thy mother that thou maist live long upon the earth And if ye be willing and obedient ye shall eat the good of the Land So we read also in the Gospel Forgive and it shall be forgiven give and it shall be given c. Wherefore seeing this is not the difference we must seek out some other It appeareth therefore to him that diligently considereth that the conditions of the Law might bee causes of the obtainment of the rewards promised for if they had been perfect and absolute as the Law required them they might be compared with the rewards themselves and had also had esteem of merit but seeing these cannot be performed by men God of his mercy gave in their stead Evangelical Promises which although they have conditions added yet are offered freely Wherefore if thou joyne these three things together that the Evangelical rewards are promised freely that the conditions cannot be compared unto or equalized with them that the Promises must be most firme and take away the account of merit you may see wherein these differ from those of the Law And thus I hope it is manifest that they were conditions of Works which Peter Martyr did deny that he did not deny them simply neither but only as meritorious and causal of the benefits promised that he held faith to be the Requisite or the Condition of the Gospel So that you must give me leave to take Martyr from you too and put him down with the forenamed Authors for a patron of our Cause 3. Next unto Peter Martyr you cite Olevian but whether with any more advantage to your Cause then the former or disadvantage to us is the businesse of our present enquiry If you please with second thoughts which are most commonly the best to look into him you shall find that when he denies conditions in the Covenant they are only such as first are performed by and proceeding from our own strength which we with him do acknowledg to be none and therefore also deny the same 2. Which arise from or carry along with them a consideration of dignity or worthinesse in our selves 3. Are of a meritorious nature Such conditions as these we together with him disclaim That these are the conditions which he doth deny is so clear and plain that he which runs may read If you begin with his definition of the Covenant of Grace you shall find him in the close thereof expressing himself thus Without the condition or stipulation of any good thoughts from their own strength Having spoken concerning God who makes the Covenant he comes afterward to consider the persons with whom this Covenant is made and shewes that the very Elect themselves to whom it doth especially belong are by nature children of wrath dead in sins such whose hearts are hearts of stone unable to think a good thought of themselves meer darknesse enemies to God slaves to sinne and Satan Now forasmuch as they are such God saith he promiseth he will not make any such Covenant with them which in the least part thereof should be founded on their own strength to perform it Wherefore lest the Covenant should fail and be of none effect men being miserable dead in sins having hearts of stone such as are not subject to the Law of God neither in deed can be Rom. 8. Who are not able of themselves to think any thought that is good but that it may remain firm and everlasting he promiseth such a Covenant the whole essence whereof doth depend on himself alone and is founded in his Son Jesus Christ He promiseth also such a manner of executing in us this his decree and purpose the strength and efficacy whereof doth not proceed from corrupt man but from himself alone A little after he sums up all that he had said concerning the nature and substance of the Covenant thus Wherefore if you look upon God the efficient cause and those to whom he promiseth the Covenant or if you consider the matter and form thereof you shall still find it is a Covenant of free grace and that it doth not Depend on any condition of our worthinesse merits or our proper strength The most merciful God did see the promise would be vain in respect of our vanity which should depend on the condition of our own strength What here he doth deliver so plainly and in such expresse termes you may if you please to look into him find him afterwards repeating againe and again Sir By these passages you may see you have not gained any thing by Olevian nor your Adversaries lost by what he speaks against conditions in the Covenant Now that you may further see that he speaks rather on their side whom you oppose then for you I shall intreat you to consider some
other passages in him 1. He tells us that in this Covenant there is and must be a mutual consent between God and us yea a consent testified by both parties for immediately after his definition of the Covenant in the substance of it which wee mentioned before he comes to consider the administration of it which he saith is dispersed by the Lord by voice and visible signes In testimonium mutui consensus inter Deum nos In testimony of this mutual consent which is between God and us The same he doth elsewhere more largely repeat as I shall shew you by and by How both parties do give their consent in making the Covenant he doth afterwards declare and withal the freenesse of the Grace of God in both The whole substance of the Covenant saith he is free In respect of God he properly makes the Covenant with us when he doth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit seal the Promise of free reconciliation offered in the Gospel and beginneth our renovation to eternal life doth daily carry it on and at last doth perfect it In respect of us who were dead in sins and trespasses the Covenant is received when the Holy Ghost is freely given to us whereby being raised from death to life it comes to passe that we not only have a will and power to believe the Promise of free grace concerning reconciliation by Christ and the renewing of us that we may enter into the inheritaace of the heavenly Kingdome but also do believe or receive faith it self So that the freenesse and absolutenesse of the Covenant doth not consist in this that there is no condition or duty required on our parts but none that is to be performed by our own strength as he some few lines after doth expresse himself Thus saith he it is certain that this whole Covenant is meerly of free Grace and doth not depend on any condition of our owne strength but on the free mercy of God in Christ apprehended by faith which himself doth bestow The offer or tender of a double Promise in Christ to wit of the remission of sins and sanctification and so the donation of Christ himself is in respect of God most free The acceptation on our part is also free because it is the action of God in us whereby he doth seal the Promise to our hearts so that being acted by him we do act being by him made Believers we do believe and being quickned or created by Christ unto good works we do walk in them Thus far Olevian in that place and who is there Sir of these whom you oppose that doth not say the same with him So that your quoting of him is at least to little purpose for your opinion I might farther shew you that he in another place repeating the same thing adds once and again that God in giving faith to his Elect and chosen ones doth thereby give with it to them also universam substantiam foederis the whole substance of the Covenant So that the remission of sin promised in the Covenant is not Antecedent but Consequent to faith which in effect is as much for the conditionality of faith in reference to the pardon of sin the salvation of souls as is contended for by those whom you oppose but I will not insist on that I shal for your and the Readers better information and satisfaction touching the judgment of this learned Divine in this point entreat you to observe 2. That as he doth plead for a mutual consent of both parties in the Covenant So he doth withal maintaine that when God for his part performes the federatory action as his phrase is Prius assensum à nobis stipulatur he doth first require our assent to the Promises and Duties or Conditions of the Covenant Thus hee expresseth himself more then once shewing withal that this Position is most agreeable to the Scripture of the Old and New Testament alledging to this purpose that voluntary and federal Contract betweene God and the people expressed by Moses Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God and to walk in his wayes and to keep his Statutes and his Commandments and his Judgments and to hearken unto his voyce And the Lord hath this day avouched thee to be his peculiar people as he hath promised thee Deu. 26. 17 18. Setting down at large several Reasons why the Lord is pleased thus to proceed in the administration of his Covenant and that in reference to both the Elect and Reprobate those which are sincere and those which are but hypocritical professors of and parties in the Covenant So that if you lay all the passages of Olevian together you may at least wise the indifferent Reader may see that you have gained nothing by him nor have your Adversaries lost him 4. Having dispatch'd Olevian in the next place I turn to Zanchy whom you alledg as being fully for you And I confesse at the first sight looking on him with a bare superficial glance he doth seem wholly to be yours especially if you pitch on one passage and do not compare it with others in the same place 'T is true he doth affirm that God saith Most absolutely without any condition of Faith and Repentance inserted I will betroth thee to me for ever But if you please seriously to weigh what he delivereth in his Commentary on the same Chapter and compare one thing with another you shall find that 1. The absolutenesse which he speaks of lyeth in this not that faith and repentance are not required on the Churches part to make up the match but that the making or dissolving of the Matrimonial federal Contract between the Lord and the Church shall not depend on any condition to be performed by the Church of her owne power and strength for the Lord doth undertake even for the Church to work in her Faith Repentance and â—ll other Graces requisite to the making and perpetuating of the match that it bee not broken so he speaks and doth declare himself in the end of that very Paragraph the beginning whereof you take hold of as serving our turne God promiseth both a new Marriage and also all things which even on the 〈…〉 are necessary for the making and confirming ofâ— the Match And more fully afterwards He promiseth That he will cause that we shall be joyned to him in a perpetual mariage But the mariage cannot be perpetual unlesse as in God so also there be in us Faith and the Spirit of Christ continuing to the end by which this marriage is both contracted and preserved Therefore he doth promise that faith and the Spirit of Christ shall continue in us You may there at large see him assert That there are connubiâ— leges as he calls them Lawes of the marriage or conditions thereof which are to be observed by the Church for her part which God doth undertake to write in her heart that
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