common sense and reason may understand it But our Brethren do not like the thing it self And why we pray do not they like it 1. Is it because it is called a Law Why the Scriptures of Truth call it so expresly Rom. 3.27 the law of faith Gal. 6.2 the law of Christ The Messiah's Law The Isles shall wait for his Law Isa 42.4 Or 2. Is it because it obligeth to duty with a promise of blessing to the Performers and with a threatening of misery and punishment to the Neglecters Refusers and Despisers If this be the reason wherefore they like it not then let them receive an Answer from the Lords own Mouth Luke 19.27 Those mine enemies which would not that I should reign over them bring them hither and slay them before me But we have better hopes of our Brethren Or 3. Is it because we call it a Law of Grace Why we call it a Law of Grace because it really is so it is a gracious Law For it is a Federal or Covenant-Law that makes rich Offers of Grace of Justifying and Glorifying Grace and it is a means also whereby the Lord conveys unto his People regenerating and sanctifying Grace it is a means which the Lord hath ordained to bring his People to Faith Repentance and Gospel-obedience Therefore it may well be called a Law of Grace And we think none should and especially our Angry Brethren should not like it the worse because we call it and it really is a Law of Grace They do not like the Covenant of the Gospel the worse because it is called the Covenant of Grace and why then should they like this Law of Christ the worse because we call it the Law of Grace especially when we tell them that this Law of Grace is the conditional part of the Covenant of Grace it is that part of the Covenant of Grace which respects the way of God's dispensing to us the subsequent Blessings and Benefits of the Covenant such as pardon of sin and eternal Salvation And doth not the Apostle Rom. 4.16 say expresly that it is of faith that it might be by grace Or 4. And Lastly Is it because we call it a new Law If that be it that displeaseth why should our Brethren be displeased on that account since they know if it be not their own fault that we call it the new Law in no other sense than as we call the Covenant of Grace the new Covenant This Law of Grace we speak of is both new and old in different respects It is new in respect of the Covenant of Works made with Man in his state of innocency For that Covenant of Works was before this Law of Grace which came after and therefore is comparatively new Again as we Christians have it it is called new because we have the newest and clearest and last edition of it And as in these respects it is new so in other respects it is old It is old as the substance of it hath had an existence in the Church of God ever since the first promise of Grace made to our first Parents after the fall It is the everlasting Gospel Rev. 14.7 Heb. 12.26 27 28 29. which hath been in the Church under various forms of administration and will continue in us newest and excellentest form unto the end of the World We hear it is said by some that the Command to believe and repent with the promise of pardon to the penitent Believer and the threatening of punishment to the impenitent Unbeliever cannot be an Evangelical Law because God doth not give unto all special grace to enable them to believe and repent in obedience to that Command We answer 1. If that be it that hinders it from being a Law then notwithstanding that reason it is a Law to all Gods Elect for to them he gives through Christ the said special Grace 2. We deny the Consequence God gives not special Grace to the Non-elect therefore the Command to believe and repent with the annexed conditional promise of pardon and threatening of punishment cannot be a Law to them It may be and is a Law to them though the said special Grace is not given them And whereas it is objected that without such special Grace the Non-elect cannot obey that Law We Answer 1. That their cannot their Impotence is not physical but moral they cannot be cause they will not 2. The Non-elect to whom the Evangelical Law is promulgated together with it receive more Common-Grace more light and power from the Lord in order to their obeying his revealed Will than they make a good use of Hence the Professors of Leyden in their Synopsis of purer Divinity write thus concerning this matter Diligenter notandum est c. Disp 24. Thes 54 55. p. 290 291. It is diligently to be noted that this Non-election doth not take away or deny all Grace in the Non-elect but only that Grace which is peculiar to the Elect. But that Grace which in various measures is dispensed unto â—on by the administration of common Providence whether under the Law of Nature or under the Evangelical Grace is not taken away by this act of Preterition or Non-election but is rather presupposed because the Non elect are left under that common government of Divine Providence and the exercise of their own free-will But this administration of common providence always hath conjoined with it that communication of Benefits external and internal which in perfect of innocent nature was indeed sufficient to Salvation as it is manifest in the reprobate Angels and in all mankind considered in our first Parents before the Fall But in corrupt Nature so much remains or is superadded to nature under the Gospel that they are bereft and deprived of all pretence of excuse before the Divine Judgment as the Apostle testifies Acts 14.17 Rom. 1.20 2.1 John 15.22 and else-where Thus the Professors of Leyden And Dr. Owen in his Discourse concerning the Holy Spirit Page 198. sayes That where special Grace and real Conversion is not attained to wit by means of common Grace of which he is there writing it is always from the interposition of an act of wilfulness and stubbornness in those enlightened and convicted They do not sincerely improve what they have received and faint not mierly for want of strength to proceed but by a free act of their own Wills they refuse the Grace which is further tendered unto them in the Gospel So much briefly in answer to the foresaid Objection which was cast into our way and it being removed we go on with our Author who in Pag. 30. saith That New Law of Grace is a new Word but of an old and ill meaning Very well Here is a pretty Jingle of Words and it may be he or some that he knows are much pleased with such Trifles and if so here they are fitted For our parts we cannot see what should move him to say that the new Law of
him occasion to speak there of God's Law according to which he glorifies or damns men eternally and not of the 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
be really his meaning and he be of that mind that he will neither repent of his sins in order to obtain the pardon of them nor pray for the pardon of them for fear lest he should seem to merit the pardon of them we cannot but think him to be a very weak man and that he fears where no ground of fear is For assuredly if he do but exclude out of his own mind the proud Conceit and Opinion of meriting by his Repentance and Prayer he needs not forbear repenting and praying for the pardon of his sins for fear of thereby meriting pardon or for fear of doing that which looks like meriting pardon His own common Sense and Reason may teach him that by the very acts of repenting and praying for pardon he doth renounce all pretence to merit as well as by the Act of believing in Christ for pardon he doth renounce all pretence to the meriting of his pardon 4. We do not believe that Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience are the legal but evangelical Condition of the Covenant of Grace Which that our meaning may be understood by all we explain thus we do not believe that our Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience which are the Conditions of Justification and Glorification according to the tenour of the Covenant of Grace have the same Place and Office in this new Covenant and Law of Grace which most perfect sinless Obedience had and was to have had in the first old Covenant and Law of Works for in that first old Covenant personal perfect sinless Obedience was to have been Mans Righteousness by which alone he was to have been secured from Death and to have had still a Title and Right to Life but in the new Covenant and Law of Grace neither our Faith Repentance nor sincere Obedience are or can be that righteousness which secures us from Eternal Death and purchases for us a Right and Title to Eternal Life when God first made the new Covenant with us in Christ we had all lost our Right and Title to life and were become guilty of Death In which state we could never by any Act or Acts of ours by any Righteousness in us or done by us secure our selves from Death and recover our Right and Title to Life It was the satisfactory meritorious Righteousness of our Lord Redeemer Christ Jesus that could do and did do this for us It was Christs Righteousness alone that satisfied for our Sins and redeemed us from Death and that merited and purchased for us a Right and Title to Life Christ's Righteousness alone procures us the pardon of our sins and a Right and Title to Life so that it is Christ's satisfactory meritorious Righteousness alone that comes in the place of that perfect sinless Righteousness which was the Condition of the first Covenant and Law of works It is Christ's Righteousness that stands us in stead of that perfect sinless Righteousness which we should have had but have not It is Christ's righteousness alone that procureth to us the Restauration of all the good we had lost and more and better Our Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience have nothing to do at all in this matter This was Christ's work alone and we give him all the Glory of it with all our Hearts and Souls And as it was Christ's Righteousness alone that merited our pardon of sin and deliverance from Death and that purchased our acceptance with God as righteous in his sight and our Right and Title to Life so it is by his Promise and Law of Grace that the Lord gives us that which he had merited and purchased for us that he gives us the pardon of our sins and Right or Title to Life upon our repenting and believing so that our repenting of our sins and believing in Christ are but the immediate nearest means which God hath ordained to be used on our part that we may be fit to receive and accordingly may receive those blessings and benefits which Christ hath purchased and which by the promise are given unto us The use of this means the performance of those Duties of Faith and Repentance is that which our Orthodox Divines call the Condition of the Covenant of Grace For upon Condition that through Grace we do those Duties we shall have those blessings and benefits The Lord will graciously give us them according to his promise on condition that we by Grace do such and such Duties according to his Command Our Faith and Repentance are not our Legal Righteousness nor instead of it that is the Place and Office of Christ's Righteousness only but they are the Condition which the Lord in the Gospel hath required of us that according to his promise we may be blessed with the pardon of sin be accepted at Righteous in his sight and have a Right and Title to Eternal Life From the premisses it is manifest that according to our Principles Faith and Repentance are not a Legal but an Evangelical Condition of the Covenant of Grace and that they do not in the least detract from the Grace of it And we desire it may be remembred that though speaking of Faith and Repentance joyntly we call them sometimes the Condition of the Covenant or the Condition of Justification yet we make a difference between them and because Repentance includes an hearty sorrow for sin and purpose to for sake it and to return unto the Lord we call it the disposing Condition but finding by Holy Soripture and the Nature of the thing that Faith above other Graces hath a peculiar respect unto Christ and his Righteousness we call it the receiving Condition so doth our Reverend Brother Mr. Williams call it in Gospel truth stated c. page 114. and we approve the distinction He was not the first inventer of it for it was used by others before either he or we were born Now if this be true as the Lord who searcheth all hearts knows it to be then let the World judge how false and injurious that Authour is unto us when in page 6. he giveth the People an account of our Principles as to this matter in these following words They will not allow this personal Righteousness of Christ to be imputed to us any otherwise than in the merit of it as purchasing for us a far more easie Law of Grace in the observation whereof they place all our justifying Righteousness Vnderstanding hereby our own personal inherent holiness and nothing else They hold that Christ dyed to merit this of the Father viz. that we might be justified upon easier terms under the Gospel than those of the Law of Innocency in stead of Justification by perfect Obedience we are now to be justified by our own Evangelical Righteousness made up of Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience And Page 28. Many manage the Ministry as if they had taken up a contrary determination even to know any thing save Jesus Christ and him crucified We are amazed to see so many
us by the Devil and the World or by our own mistaken Consciences And who dare deny the Truth of this May not the Devil and the World falsly accuse do not they too often falsly accuse us and say that we are Hypocrites and have neither true Faith nor Repentance When this Brother accuseth us so falsly as he doth in his Letter we need not think it strange that the Devil and the World do falsly accuse us Yea we have that within our own breasts that may sometimes through the temptations of Satan or the remainders of sinful Darkness and Unbelief falsly accuse us of predominant Hypocrisie Unbelief and Impenitency Now if at the same time we are really true Converts and through Grace sincerely believe and repent what Man that is endued with common Sense and reason can reasonably deny that our sincere Faith and Repentance is a sufficient Defence and Justification of us against all such false accusations Sure we are that our infinitely Gracious God and Saviour allows our plea and we most heartily bless his Name for it hath sometimes by his Spirit and Grace sensibly helped us to make our defence by clearing up to us the sincerity of our Faith and Repentance and by enabling us to take unto our selves the Comfort and to give him all the Glory of our being sincere penitent Believers notwithstanding all that the Devil World or Flesh say falsly to the contrary But as for those who are impenitent Unbelievers indeed all the World knows that the Faith and Repentance which they have not can never justifie them from the Unbelief and Impenitency which they really have deeply rooted in their hearts In short We maintain that Christ's meritorious and satisfactory Righteousness only justifies us at Gods Bar from all our sins against any Law of God whatsoever as soon as we through Grace performe the Gospel-Condition of sincere Faith and Repentance And then that sincere Faith and Repentance is our Defence and Justification before our most Gracious God and before all honest Men against all false accusations of our not having performed the Gospel-Condition of sincere Faith and Repentance But as for those who continue still in Unbelief and Impenitence they have nothing to defend and justifie them but if they live and dye in that stare their Unbelief and Impenitence will bind upon them to Eternity the Curse and Condemnation of the Law and moreover will bring upon them the sorer Vengeance of the despised Gospel John 3.18 19 20. and Heb. 2.2 3. and 12.25 Thus Achilles is on his Legs again without receiving the least hurt from the weak efforts of that assailant who hath nothing to say to him without misrepresenting him but that he doth not like his Language pretending that it is unscriptural let p. 41 42. dangerous and tends to the dishonouring of Christs Righteousness c. but that pretence is utterly false For 1. That our sincere Faith Repentance and Gospel-Obedience is a righteousness is evident from the Nature of the thing For 1. They are Duties which we owe unto the Lord our God and it is self-evident that it is a righteous thing to give unto God the things that are Gods 2. It is confessed by our Divines in their Disputes against the Papists that our Faith Repentance sincere Obedience and Holyness is a Righteousness For they generally grant that we have a two-fold Righteousness 1. The Righteousness of Christ imputed to us 2. A Righteousness inherent in us and adherent to us which we receive from Christ by his Spirit and Grace This is expresly confessed by that same Bishop Downham in his Book of Justification which our Author page 12. of his Letter commends as an Orthodox Book There that Reverend and Learned Divine affirms that we are Righteous both by the Righteousness of Christ imputed to us which is our Principal Righteousness and likewise by another Righteousness wrought in us and performed by us which is our secondary subordinate Righteousness If our Authour should have the Confidence to deny this it will be proved against him by Authority both Divine and Humane 2. This our subordinate Righteousness is rightly termed Evangelical because it is required by the Word of the Gospel wrought by the Spirit of the Gospel and is a complying with the terms and a performing of the Condition of the Gospel 3. That our sincere Faith Repentance and Obedience is a subordinate Righteousness by which we are defended and justified against the false charge of Hypocrisie Unbelief and Impenitence is so far from being unscriptural that it agrees exactly with the very Letter Scope and Sense of the Scripture in the second Chapter of James if that Epistle be Scripture as I hope we all believe that it is for there a Man is expresly in formal terms said to be justified by works James 2.21 24 25. which words can signifie no less than this That the good Works and sincere Obedience of a good Man do justifie him against the false accusation of being an Hypocrite or prophane Libertine As to what our Authour says in page 41. That works of Righteousness are only a Justification of Faith and not of the Person of the Believer it is a notorious falsehood and expresly contradicts the Spirit of God who faith that a man is justified by works and particularly that Abraham and Rahab were justified by works and not that their Faith only was justified by Works We do not deny but that good Works do justifie Faith but we also affirm with James that they do likewise justifie the person of the Believer But how is that Why they justifie his Person in tantum in so far as they are his Defence and Justification against the false charge of his being a Hypocrite or Libertine and not a true penitent obedient Believer In all this neither doth James nor we after him dishonour the Righteousness of Christ in the least for our inherent and adherent Righteousness is intirely subordinate to Christ's imputed Righteousness it hath also quite another Vse and Office than Christ's imputed Righteousness and it proceeds from it as the only meritorious cause thereof We abhor all Opinions and Practices that have the least real tendency to dishonour Christ or his Righteousness We ascribe this to Christ as his peculiar incommunicable Glory that as was said before his righteousness alone comes in the place of that personal perfect sinless Righteousness which was the Condition of the first Covenant of Innocency and Law of Works And as for that personal imperfect yet sincere Righteousness which through the Grace of Christ we attain unto by Believing Repenting and Obeying the Gospel it is nothing but the Condition of the new Covenant by performing whereof we get and keep an Interest in Christs imputed Righteousness by and for which alone we are justified from all our sins of what kind soever and have a right unto and at last get possession of Eternal Life and Glory in God's Heavenly Kingdom We have
as refuse and neglect to use the remedy provided in the Gospel and so doing live and dy in Unbelief and impenitence they are certainly to be executively condemned for breaking the Law and moreover having heard the Gospel preached to them and having had in the Gospel a Soveraign Remedy offered them against the Curse and Condemnation of the Law they shall be condemned likewise for refusing or neglecting to use the said Remedy Heb. 12.25 Heb. 2.3 John 3.18 19. Matth. 11.22.24 So that professed Christians who live and dy in impenitence and unbelief will be doubly condemned both by Law and Gospel Rom. 10.14 whereas Heathens who never heard nor could hear of the Gospel for want of an objective Revelation of it they living and dying without Repentance and Faith in the true God under the guilt of Sins against the Law and Light of Nature will be condemned by the Law but not by the Gospel which they could not know Rom. 2.12 3. Since we believe that all Unconverted Impenitent Unblievers who live and dye in that State are so under the sanction of the Moral Law as that they are to be condemned for breaking it we cannot believe that the same Persons are so under the sanction of the moral Law as that they are not to be condemned but to be saved by keeping it For that were to believe a contradiction which we have not faith enough to do Yet 4. If the case be put disjunctively as our Author expresly puts it in his Letter we maintain that what he charges upon us is notoriously false and its contradictory is true to wit the sanction of Gods moral Law is not repealed so that no man is now under it either to be condemned for breaking it or to be saved by keeping it We firmly believe that this disjunctive is true Some men are now under the sanction of the Law either to be condemned for breaking it or to be saved by keeping it But take the latter part of the said disjunctive by it self and understand it determinately then we cannot believe it to be true we cannot believe that some men are under the sanction of the Law to be saved by keeping it because it is notoriously false And that 1. Because no meer man since the fall of Adam hath kept doth keep or ever will keep the Law so perfectly as never to sin against it and never to fall under the condemnation of it 2. Because that Holy Scripture assures us that if Righteousness come by the Law then Christ is dead in vain Gal. 2.21 And that if there had been a Law given which could have given Life verily righteousness should have been by the Law But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin that the Promise by Faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe Gal. 3.21 22. And again that what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the Flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh by a Sacrifice for Sin condemned sin in the flesh c. Rom. 8.3 This is our Judgment concerning the Law and its Sanction with respect to Unconverted Impenitent Unbelievers that so live and dye they are under it to be condemned but not to be saved by it Then for Converted Penitent Believers who are in Christ Jesus by Faith and walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit we believe that they are under the Law and not under the Law in different respects 1. They are under Gods Moral Law as it is a rule of Life representing to them what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God and directing them what to do and what not to do that they may please God in doing his will 2. They are under it also as it is a Law obliging them to most perfect and sinless obedience 3. They are under it as a Law forbidding all their sins and likewise condemning all their sins but they are not under it as a Law by its Minatory Sanction condemning their Persons which are in Christ by Faith and walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit for there is no condemnation to such Rom. 8.1 Gal. 5.22 23. 4. They are not under the Law as a Covenant of Works to be justified and saved by it Because none can be justified and saved by the Law considered as it was a Covenant of Works given to man in the state of innocency but those who perfectly keep it and never once transgress it either by Original or Actual Sin But that is impossible for any meer man to do since the fall of Adam and it is not only Morally impossible but it is Physically impossible yea it is Metaphysically impossible that is it is so absolutely impossible that it implies a contradiction and can be done by no power Moral Natural or Supernatural by no power Human or Divine For all meer Men without exception have already broken Gods Law so as that they are guilty of death for the breach of it And that which hath already been cannot possibly by any power whatsoever be made not to have been as it implies a contradiction and is absolutely impossible that the same thing should be and not be at the same time so it implies a contradiction and is absolutely impossible that the same thing should have been and not have been or should be past and not be past at the same time But it is a thing already past and true that all Converted Penitent Believers have already broken Gods Law and fallen under the condemnation of it thefore it implies a contradiction and is absolutely impossible now that they have kept it so as never once to transgress it and consequently it implies a contradiction and is absolutely impossible that they should be now justified and saved by the Law which they have broken and which for that reason would certainly condemn them were it not that Christ hath Redeemed them from its condemnation and by the Law of Faith absolves and forgives them Thus we have shewed how true penitent Believers are under the Law and not under the Law and how it hath lost its Sanction with respect to their Persons It hath lost its Promissory Sanction by reason of their Sins and through their own fault But its Minatory Sanction whereby it bound them over to condemnation for their sins is taken away from it with respect to Penitent Believers who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit by the Rich Mercy and Free Grace of God through the Satisfaction and Merits Christs obedience unto death even the death of the Cross Now from the Premises it is as clear as the light at Noon-day that we do not say as is pretended that the Sanction of the Law is repealed so that no man is now under it either to be condemned for breaking it or to be saved by keeping it So much for wiping off the Calumny which respects matter of Opinion The next which respects matter
unchristian a thing he hath done in accusing the Brethren as aforesaid We 1. Here declare in general before we come to examine the several particulars in his Letter which relate to this matter That we never were and that we now are not and that we trust in God we never shall be Arminians or Pelagians This we freely and unfeignedly declare as in the presence of the Lord to whom we must give an account of all our Actions 2. And yet further to remove all ground of suspicion if it be possible of our corrupting the Gospel in the point of Justification we accept of the Test proposed to us by the Authour of the Letter Pag. 29. and declare That we will subscribe all those Articles of the Confession of Faith which he hath there transcribed together with the Passage out of the larger Catechism We say We will subscribe them in the Assemblies own sense We add this limitation because the Authour of the Letter hath not taken into his Test that part of the larger Catechism * Question How is the grace of God manifested in theâ— second Covenant which declares that God in the second Covenant requires Faith as the condition to interest Sinners in Christ Nay he denies Faith to be either condition or qualification and will have it to be only the Instrument of Justification But by Comparing the confession of Faith with the Catechism we find that the Assembly held Faith to be both an Instrument and a Condition And therefore every honest Man that will subscribe in the Assemblies own sense must so hold Faith to be an Instrument as to be a Condition also Now the Question is How Faith can be both an Instrument and a Condition To which we answer That in our Judgement it is thus Distinguish between a meer Physical Instrument and a moral federal Instrument Faith is not a meer physical Instrument but it is a moral federal Instrument Now a moral federal Instrument is the same thing with a federal Condition Instrument and Condition in this sense are but two words to signifie the same thing If this do not satisfie our Brother but he will still say That the notion of an Instrument and the notion of a Condition are two distinct notions and cannot both agree to the same thing to the same faith We answer 1. If he will say so we desire the World to take notice that it is he himself who opposes the Assembly and not we 2. In behalf of the Assembly we answer That the notion of a moral federal Instrument and the notion of a federal Condition are not two distinct but one and the same notion 3. Suppose they were two distinct notions yet the same thing the same faith in different respects is capable of two distinct notions But so it is that Faith may be considered under two different respects 1. Faith is considered with respect to Christ himself and his Righteousness and so it hath the notion of an Instrument whereby we receive Him and His Righteousness and apply them to our own Souls 2. Faith is considered with respect to Justification it self or the Act whereby God Justifies us for the sake of Christ and his Righteousness and so it hath the notion of a Condition upon which God Justifies us for the sake of Christ and his Righteousness In this respect Faith cannot have the notion of a Phisical Instrument for a Physical Instrument as such hath a Physical Causality but our Faith cannot have a Physical Causality upon Gods Act whereby he Justifies Let it be considered that both our Catechisms larger and lesser affirm Justification to be an Act of God Now how an Act of ours such as Justifying Faith is can have a Phisical Causality and Influence upon the producing of an Act of God is above our comprehension Sure we are that if any Man will maintain such an Opinion he ascribes more to Faith in the point of Justification than we dare do We should rather think that the Instrument which God uses in producing his own Justifying Act is his own Gospel-promise of Pardon and Justification to the penitent Believer for the sake of Christ in whom he believes Acts 10.43 Object But doth not the second Article of the II Chap. of the Confession of Faith say expresly that Faith is the alone Instrument of Justification Answ 1. And so say we too It is the alone Instrument the alone moral federal Instrument or the alone receptive applicative Condition 2. Distinguish between an Instrument immediate and mediate Now Faith is not said to be the alone immediate Instrument of Justification nor do we conceive how it can so be in a physical sense because it hath no immediate physical influence upon the producing of Gods Justifying Act. But Faith may be said to be the mediate Instrument of Justification because it is the immediate Instrument whereby we receive Christ and his Righteousness hoc posito this being done this Instrumental Means being used and this Condition being performed Christ and his Righteousness being received by Faith as the Instrumental Means of that reception God himself for Christs sake justifies us by his Law of Faith This seems plainly to be the sense of the Assembly as appears by their saying in the passage of the larger Catechism quoted by the Letter That Faith Justifies a Sinner onely as it is an Instrument by which the Sinner receiveth and applieth Christ and his Righteousness Mark the Expression They do not say that Faith Justifies only as an Instrument whereby God Justifies the Sinner but onely as an Instrument whereby the Sinner receives and applies Christ and his Righteousness If the Authour of the Letter have any other Notions of Faith's being a Physical Instrument much good may they do him but let him not think to impose them upon us or upon the Words of the Assembly We take their Words in the sense they are capable of without self contradiction For we have more respect for that Reverend and learned Synod than to put a sense upon their Words they are not fairly capable of or that shall make them speak Contradictions Therefore as they hold Faith to be both an Instrument and a Condition so do we We hold it so to be an Instrument as that its being an Instrument shall not hinder it from being a Condition And so to be a Condition as that its being a Condition shall not hinder it from being an Instrument This we take to be the plain and native sense of the Assembly and in this sense we heartily assent to their Words But so doth not our Authour for in the 9th and 25th Pages of his Letter he saith that Faith is neither Condition nor Qualification but a meer Instrument Whereas the Assembly saith expresly both that Faith is a Condition and also that it is an Instrument Therefore he contradicts the Assembly and doth not take their Words in their plain and native sense For had he so taken them as
suspicion of Antinomianism which he had brought upon himself But we are really perswaded better things of our Authour though we thus write upon a supposition which we hope he will never admit but rather than admit such a supposition with its necessary consequence he will join with us and say that Luther and Mr. Hamilton meant no more but that evil works do not first make a Man evil because ever since the first Sin of Adam and Eve all meer Men besides them two are evil by Original sin before they commit any Actual Sin Thus much shall suffice to have said of the Occasion and Design of the Letter CHAP. II. Of the Authours Errours in Doctrine against the Purity of our Christian Faith SECTION I. Of his First Errour That there is no New Law of Grace THE First Error against our Christian Faith which we find in the Letter is that there is no new Law of Grace according to which the Lord dispenseth unto his People the Benefits and Blessings of Justification and Eternal Savlation That we do not wrong him in charging him with this erroneous Opinion is evident from his Letter pag. 9 18 29. and pag. 30 31. Where he saith that Justification upon the terms of the new Law of Grace doth not agree with the sound Words of the Reverend Assembly of Divines at Westminster and that the new Law of Grace is a new word but of an old and ill meaning Thus he And this the people must believe upon his bare word without any proof Now to refute this we need do no more but refer them that desire to know who is in the right as to this matter unto Mr. Williams defence of Gospel truth from pag. 18 to 34. where it is sufficiently proved by Scripture by reason grounded on Scripture and by the Testimony of Divines of the Reformed Churches That there is a new Law of Grace that the Gospel is that Law of Grace and that it is a new Law of Grace in the same sense that the Covenant of the Gospel is a new Covenant of Grace This Error then that there is no new Law of Grace being refuted to our hand we might well pass it and proceed to another Yet because the Authour discovers so much ignorance and boldness in what he says to the People upon this point we judge it expedient to insisâ— a little upon it both to instruct and also to rebuke him And because he would make the people believe whether he believe it of us himself God and his own Conscience know that we consider God only as a Rector ruling by a prescribed Law in all his Purposes concerning and Dealings with the Children of Men That he may not go on deceiving and being deceived We declare to the World that we never thought spoke or wrote any such thing as he would fasten upon us that he may the better misrepresent us to the people pag. 9. at the beginning to wit that God is only to be considered under the notion of a Rector and Judge as aforesaid Where by the way we cannot but take notice how honestly he deals by our Reverend Brother Mr. Williams in drawing this inference from a pretended Scheme of his Doctrine Thus saith our Authour they antedate the Last Day and hold forth Christ as a Judge rather than a Saviour Here the World sees what Doctrine he fixes upon Mr. Williams Next Let them turn to pag. 56. of Gospel Truth stated c. and there they will find these express words of Mr. Williams He Christ treats with men as his Subjects whom he will now Rule and hereafter Judge Now cannot Christ be our Saviour but by ceasing to be our Ruler and cannot we be saved by him but by ceasing to be subject to him Where is that Man's Brains who cannot see if he will that these two things do very well consist that Christ is both our Saviour and Ruler at the same time But this only on the by We declare therefore again that we never thought spoke or wrote that God is to be considered only under the notion of a Rector or Judge in all his Purposes concerning and Dealings with the Race of Man-kind On the contrary we believe that First God as an absolute Soveraign Lord of his own most Free and Gracious Will and Pleasure purposed to give and accordingly gave his only begotten Son to be the Redeemer and Saviour of sinful Men but not of fallen Angels Secondly That God as an absolute Soveraign Lord of his own good pleasure and according to the Counsel of his own will did before the foundation of the World choose some and not others of the lapsed and lost Race of Man-kind unto the participation of Special Effectual Victorious Grace and Eternal Glory through Christ Jesus Thirdly That in the first making of the Covenant and enacting of the Law of Grace with us through Christ Jesus God did not act as a Governour Ruling us according to an external Law which he had before made for us but as a Soveraign and gracious Lord who had freely purposed to save us in such a way by Jesus Christ Fourthly That in giving the foresaid Special Effectual Victorious Grace to the Elect rather than to others God doth not act as a Rector or Governour according to a stated Law prescribed to us and known by us but according to the counsel of his own Will and his hidden Purposes and Transactions with Christ concerning us Fifthly But yet in good consistency with what we have said we do firmly believe that God hath enacted and constituted a Law of Grace for bestowing upon us the subsequent Blessings and Benefits of the Covenant such as Justification and Glorification This Law God hath revealed to us in the Scriptures of Truth by this Law he both obliges and encourages us to certain Duties and also by the promises of it obliges himself to Justifie and glorifie us for Christs sake if we perform the Duties prescribed and comply with the Terms injoined It is with respect to those subsequent Blessings and Benefits of the Covenant that we say the Lord deals with us as a Rector and Governour Ruling us by a Law of Grace This Law is expressed in Holy Scripture in several Forms of Words as that See also Ps 103.17 18. Pr. 28.13 Isa 1.16 17 18. 55.7 Jer. 36.3 Acts 2.38 â— 19 16.31 26.18 Heb. 5.9 12.14 Revel 2.10 3.21 22.14 John 8.51 Ho who believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned Mark 16.16 And If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the Dead thou shalt be saved Rom. 10.9 Whosoever believeth in Christ shall receive Remission of Sins Acts 10.43 Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Luke 13.5 This is that which we mean by the Law of Grace and our meaning is so plain that any Man endued with
Grace is a new Word of an old and ill meaning but that either he himself was much pleased with the Jingle or else which we rather think he intended to please some of his Consorts and to make them remember the thing for the sake of the little wit he had shewed in expressing it And if that was his intended end it is pity he should fail of obtaining it and that People should not remember it for ever for that reason which will for ever hold true that there was little wit in it But you will say How doth that appear Why very plainly thus There is little Wit and less Grace in boldly asserting a notorious Falsehood in matter of Fact in the Face of a learned Age. But this the Author of the Letter hath done in asserting that new Law of Grace is a new Word of an old but ill meaning To prove this it being matter of Fact there needs no more but to shew from the Testimony of credible Witnesses who lived many Hundred Years agoe that the Words are not new but were used in the Christian Church in a good sense and meaning long before we were born Without doubt we might bring Multitudes of Witnesses from among the Antient Writers of the Church to prove this matter of Fact if it were needful but we shall content our selves with a few whereof some are such as our Authour cannot in reason except against because he himself hath suborned them to bear witness and that false witness too for him against us We have shewed already that the Apostle Paul expresly calls it the law of faith Rom. 3.27 And says that it is of faith that it might be by grace Rom. 4.16 And that is as much as if he had said both together in one place that it is the Law of Grace We will pass the Testimony of Ignatius though in his Epistle to the Magnesians he expresly mentions the Law of Christ because it is disputed that his Epistles even those of best credit have been much interpolated and corrupted And our cause needs not the Testimony of suspected Witnesses Therefore after Blessed Paul Paris Edit An. 1636. p. 228. we begin with Justin the Martyr as our first Witness That blessed Martyr in his Dialogue with Trypho the Jew writes thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. But now for I have read O Trypho that there shall be a latter or after-law and a Testament or Govenant of the greatest or most excellent Authority of all which Testament or Covenant now all men must keep whosoever they be that would obtain possession of the inheritance of God For the Law that was given in Horeb is now old and concerns you Jews only but this after law concerns all men absolutely and universally And when one Law is set against another Law the latter disanuls the former Again in the same Page Justin saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. by the workes or gracious effects and the power which follows or accompanies it All may understand Pag. 231. Pag. 251. that this is the New Law Afterwards he calls Christ the New Law giver And he sayes Ye Jews deceive your selves by equivocal Words or Speeches for where the Law of the Lord is said to be faultless ye expound it not of that Law which was to come after but of the Law given by Moses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God lowdly saying that he would make a new Law and a new Covenant Thus did Justin assert a new Law above fifteen hundred Years agoe for he wrote his Apology for the Christians and Christian Religion to Antoninus Pâ—â— the Emperour in the Year 150 and about the Year 163 he sealed the Truth of the Gospel with his Blood Our next Witness is Cyprian Operum Cypriani Tomo 1. Eâ—ist 11 ma. Edit Pamel Anno 1617. who also sealed the Truth with his Blood about the middle of the Third Century that is above Fourteen Hundred Years agoe This Holy Martyr in his 11th Epistle to the Martyrs and Confessors several times calls it Evangelii Lex The Law of the Gospel Again In the first of his Three Books of Testimonies against the Jews to Quirinus His 10th Chapter is Quod Lex nova dari haberet that a new Law was to be given Ibid. Tom. 2. pag. 201.202 which he proves by these Testimonies of Holy Scripture Mic. 4.2 Isa 2.3 Matth. 17.5 His 11th Chapter is Quod dispositio alia Testamentum novum dari haberet that another administration and a new Testament or Covenant was to be given which he proves from Jer. 31.31 32 33 34. His 13th Chapter is Quod jugum vetus evacuaretur jugum novum daretur that the old yoke should be made null and void and that a new yoke should be given which he proves from Psal 2.1 2 3. Matth. 11.28 29 30 c. These Passages cited out of Cyprian's Works manifestly shew that as he expresly called the Gospel a Law and a new Law so he held it to be a Law of Grace For he says that though it be a new yoke laid upon us yet it is a light yoke and an easie burden After Cyprian his Countrey-man Augustin that famous Light of the Christian Church in Africa shall appear to give in his Testimony to the foresaid matter of Fact Thus then he writes in the 18th Chapter of his Book concerning Grace and Free-will Haec praecepta charitatis inaniter darentur hominibus Lib. de Grat. Lib. Arbit cap. 18. non habentibus liberum arbitrium Sed quia per legem dantur veterem novam c. These Commandements of Love saith Augustin would be given in vain to Men if they had not free will But because they are given both by the old and new Law although the Grace is come in the new which was promised in the old but the Law without Grace is a killing Letter whereas in or with Grace it is a quickening spirit whence is in men the love of God and our Neighbour but from God himself This passage out of Augustin we have faithfully transcribed and truly translated Now it is well known that Augustin lived and dyed above Twelve Hundred Years agoe and he saith expresly that the Law of Christ which we are under is the New Law and he proves this new Law to be a Law of Grace So that New Law of Grace is so far from being a new Word of an old but ill meaning that it is a considerable time above 1200 hundred Years agoe since the Learned and Holy Augustin used the Word in a very good sence and meaning Again the same Father in his Book to Marcellinus de Spiritu Litera Cap. 14. saith De Spiritu Lit. cap. 14. The Letter of the Law forbidding Sin doth not justifie any Man but rather kills him by increasing Concupiscence and accumulating Iniquity through prevarication Nisi liberet Gratia per legem fidei quae est in Christo Jesu
Vnlest Grace deliver him or set him free by the Law of Faith which is in Christ Jesus Here again Augustin saith that we are freed from death by a Law that that Law is the Law of Faith that that Law of Faith is a Law of Grace for by that Law Grace frees us from death And he likewise gives us plainly to understand that that gracious Law is a new Law for he says it is the Law of Faith which is in Christ Jesus Now it is clear that the Law of Faith in Christ already exhibited in the Flesh crucified dead and buried raised from the Dead Glorified and appointed to be Lord of all and Judge of Quick and Dead made perfect and become the Authour of Eternal Salvation to all them that obey him must needs be a New Law if we compare it with any Law that went before it For before the coming of Christ no Man was or could be obliged to believe in him as already Incarnate Crucified and Glorified otherwise Men had been obliged to believe a falsehood In the same Fifth Century Salvian of Marseilles wrote his Eight Books of the Government of God where he calls the Gospel the Christian Law Book 4th pag. 140. Edit Ox. 1633. In nobis Christus pâ—â—itur opprobrium in â—nobis patitur lex Christiana maledictum Saith he Christ suffers reproach by reason of us wicked Christians the Christian Law is evil spoken of by reason of us We might bring others of the Fathers for Witnesses in this cause but for the present we will content our selves with these especially the first three Justin the Martyr Cyprian end Augustin who all call the Gospel a New Law Our next Witness is Bradwardin who though he be none of the Fathers yet he lived above three hundred years agoe and our Authour cannot in reason except against him because he says in the 13th Page of the Letter that he was a blessing to England and he would make the World believe that he is for him against us Let us hear what he saies in this cause Deus dedit hominibus talem legem De causâ Dei contra Pelagiam cap. 1. Pag. 29. quam legem si non legem sanctissimam Christianam God gave unto men such a Law and what Law but the most Holy Christian Law Again He thus argues Si sola Lex Naturae sufficeret Homini c. If the Law of Nature alone were sufficient for a Man unto all things whatsoever Ibid p. 63 64. wherefore hath God who doth nothing in vain even by your own confession given another Law yea other Laws the old and the new as what wâ—â— said before doth testify especially since both these Laws to wit old and new of Moses and of Christ are more difficult to know and hard to keep than the Law of Nature For who that is wise doth any thing by more means which may be sufficiently done by fewer as natural reason and all Philosophers unanimously testifie Vnless perhaps it may be done more decently or neatly more profitably and better by many means than by few which if it be true of positive Laws and especially of the Christian Law why do you not receive it and hold it Here Bradwardin expresly calls our Christian Law a positive New Law as distinct both from the Law of Nature and Moses And in the same Page 64. he maintains that it is a Law with a Sanction of the greatest Reward and Punishment imaginable Sic Deus Summus Oeconomus in maxima domo sua c. So also God is the highest Ruler in his most great House the highest Prince in his most great Principality and the highest King of Kings in his most great Kingdome wherefore then cannot he enact or ordain that whosoever shall keep the Christian Law shall receive Eternal Glory and that they who shall not keep but contemn it shall be deprived of Glory and shall inour eternal damnation Surely he could do it and he hath done it as is manifest by what hath been said before By this Passage it is as clear as the light that Bradwardin held that the Gospel of Christ is a Law with a Sanction of Reward and Punishment and yet notwithstanding its Sanction of Punishment as well as Reward he held it to be a Law of Grace as Augustin did before him and as manifestly appears from the main scope of his Book Of the Cause of God against the Pelagians and therefore we forbear to quote any more out of it at present From the premisses it is clear that above 300 Years agoe the profound Doctor Bradwardin expresly affirmed the Law of Christ to be a positive new Law with a Sanction of Reward and Punishment and the Scope of his Book is to prove it to be a Law of Grace And by all this we think the World may now see that the Authour of the Letter told a great untruth when he affirmed that The new Law of Grace is a new Word but of an old and ill meaning and hence also People may learn what credit to give unto the Word of that Man From Fathers and Antient Writers we will come lower down and see what some of our Modern Divines since the Reformation have said in this cause and first when we look abroad we find that the Professors of Leyden in their Synopsis of purer Divinity say expresly Disp 22. Thesi 32. That Evangelium aliquando legis titulo insignitur c. The Gospel is sometimes called a Law because it also hath its own Commandments and its own Promises and Threatenings We find also that the learned Gomarus not only allows the Gospel to be called the Law of Grace but likewise gives the reason why it is so called in these Words Beneficii ratione Evangelium Gomari Operum par 3. Disp 14. Thesi 30. c. with respect unto and because of the benefit promised in it the Gospel in Holy Scripture is called The Word of the Lords Grace Acts. 14.3 the Gospel of the Grace of God Acts 20.24 the Gospel of Peace Eph. 6.15 Isa 52.7 Rom. 10.15 and the Testament or Covenant 2 Cor. 3.6 And from the prescription Evang. est lex Dei 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or appointment of the condition and duty contained in it it is called the Law of Faith Rom. 3.27 and the Law of God by way of eminency or excellency Isa 2.3 And truly this was excellently said by Gomatus No Man we think can give a better account why the Gospel is called the Law of Grace And next when we look homewards again and cast our eyes upon our own Brittish Divines we find the greatest of them clearly of the same mind that the Gospel is a Law in the sense before explained it is the New Law of Grace We will instance in two only at present The first is Bishop Andrews no Popish Bishop such as Bradwardin was whom our Authour quotes with such an Elogium against us
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
necessary in order to a true participation of the Righteousness of Christ and therefore to communion with Christ Mark 1.4 15. Lake 13.3 5. whereby being turned from sin and the World through the change of our Mind and Will we may be converted unto Christ and close united unto him and to the end we may obtain Remission of sins in him and from him and may be cloathed with his Righteousness and Holiness 1. Here we see that Zanchy held Repentance to be antecedently necessary in order of Nature to the obtaining of Remission of sins through the Righteousness of Christ 2. That by Repentance we are turned from sin and the world and changed in our Mind and Will From which Premisses this Conclusion necessarily follows that before we be Justified and our sins forgiven there must be a real change in us and our Minds and Wills must be turned from sin and the World This is a hard saying to those who would have their Justification and pardon and likewise their sin and the World altogether But though it be hard it is true and good and that not meerly because Zanchy saies so but because he proves it by the plain Word of God who can neither deceive nor be deceived Mark 1.4 15. Luke 13.3 5. And if we may believe the same Zanchy this is not only true and good Law but it is likewise true and good Gospel For says he de Evangelio juxta significationem in Ecclesiâ receptam usitatamque credimus nihil aliud esse quà m c. Concerning the Gospel according to the signification received and commonly used in the Church Zanch. de Relig. Christ Vol. 3. p. 509. we believe that it is nothing but an Heavenly Doctrine concerning Christ c. to wit that Mankind is redeemed by the Death of Christ so that free Remission of all sins is prepared for or is ready for all Men modo resipiscant c. so that or on condition that they repent and believe in Jesus Christ These words of Zanchy are so plain they need no Commentary to make them plainer We wish our Authour do not himself despise Zanchy for their sake since in those few words he hath comprehended the whole Summ of the new Gospel so called which is a good deal above Sixteen Hundred years old Zanchy in the same place says Tria sunt Evangelii capita quae a nobis exiguntur ut praestemus poenitentia in deum c. There are three heads or principal parts of the Gospel which we are required to do Repentance towards God Faith in Jesus Christ and a studious care to observe whatsoever Christ hath commanded And again The Gospel saith he requires only these three things That being touched with a serious grief for all the sins of our whole Life we desire from the heart that our mind and all our affections may be changed and renewed by God unto an obedient complyance with his Divine Will And that this may be done that we ask it of God by Prayer and use our own endeavours in order to the effecting of it Then that embracing Christ with a true Faith c. In all this it is evident that Zanchy requires something else besides Faith to be done by us in order to our obtaining Justification and pardon of Sin as also declares that after we are justified we must endeavour to do all things whatsoever Christ hath commanded Yea he saith that not only the Law of God but the Gospel of Christ requireth all these things And elsewhere in his Miscellanies he says That if after Justification the Saints fall into wilful sins against Knowledge and Conscience they must renew their Faith and Repentance and return unto the Lord and to their Obedience or else they cannot be saved but are undone for ever To Zanchy we may add the Testimony of Musculus that Holy and Learned Divine in whom God's special care of his faithful Servants appeared in an extraordinary manner but because it is so notorious that Musculus is for us that we cannot think our Authour is so ignorant of matters of fact as not to know it we shall quote but one short passage out of him Musc Loc. Commun de Remiss peccat Sect. 6. Discernendum est inter eam gratiam Dei quae nullas habet adjectas conditiones eam quae conditionaliter confertur ad quem modum peccatorum nobis remissio contingit We must distinguish between that Grace of God which hath no conditions annexed to it and that which is given conditionally after which manner we obtain the remission of sins Sharpius also gives in his Testimony for us in the matter we are treating of See his Book of Justification written in the Year 1609. Where page 98 he says in foedere gratiae duo sunt 1. Substantia c. Sharpii Tract de Justif edit Genev. 1618. There are two things in the Covenant of Grace 1. The substance of the Covenant which is that Righteousness and Salvation is given unto the Church through Christ The 2d Is the Condition annexed to the Covenant if the Members of the Church believe And 172 The promise of Eternal Life is otherwise conditional than by the perfect fulfilling of the Law For it is said he that believeth shall be saved Acts 16.31 Mark 16.16 and page 174. Licet ista sint conditio sine qua non non tamen salutem efficiunt Although these things to wit Love and Holyness and Continuance therein are a condition without which we are not saved yet they are not the efficient cause of Salvation And page 177 178 We grant it follows from Rom. 10.10 That Confession of Christ with the mouth is necessary to Salvation because by this way and means we must go to Salvation or to Heaven page 207. Good Works are necessary that we may escape Temporal and Eternal punishments which God threatens to inflict upon the Transgressors of his Law Rom. 8.13 1 Thess 4.5 6. page 69. The conditions of the promises are Faith Repentance Patience c. Finally page iii. God doth not forgive sins but to the penitent though not for their Repentance but for the merit of Christ And a little after spiritualis vita c. As Spiritual Life is given us freely in Christ by Faith only so it is preserved and cherished by Prayer Repentance and other Spiritual Exercises The professors of Leyden in their Synopsis of purer Divinity first published in the Year 1624 taught the same Doctrine Witness what they write in the said Book Synops purior Theol. edit 3. Lugduni Batav 1642. p. 271. Thes 29. Non omnem conditionem negamus in Evangelto N. Test requiri ad salutem Requiritur enim conditio fidei novae obedientiae quae ubique urgetur c. We do not deny that any condition is required unto Salvation in the Gospel and New Testament For there is required the condition of Faith and new Obedience which is every where urged But these
Definition of Faith as not being really harsh but only harsh-like though he puts Assurance into it as being essential to Faith in its direct Act. So that by comparing one Passage of his Letter with another we find that he believes with Marshal That true Faith in Christ is a Believing at first that we are justified And he believes with us that that is not true but that it is a believing only at first that we may be justified Again he believes with Marshal that justifying Faith in its first direct Act is a Believing that we shall be assuredly saved by Christ And he believes with us that justifying Faith in its first direct Act is no such thing it is not a believing that we shall be saved by Christ but it is a believing that we may be saved by Christ Further he believes with Marshal that Assurance that our Sins are forgiven and that our Souls shall be saved is essential to the first direct Act of justifying Faith And he believes with us that it is quite otherwise and that we do not get such Assurance by the first direct Act of Faith but by its reftex Acts which follow after the direct And then for the Antinomians he believes with them that before Justification there is no real change wrought in the Soul from Ungodliness to Godliness in any Kind or Degree because the Apostle Paul saith in Rom. 4.5 That God justifies the Ungodly And yet he believes with us that before Justification there is a real change wrought in the Soul from Unbelief to Faith in Christ because the same Apostle saith in Gal. 2.16 That we believe in Christ that we may be justified And he cannot deny but that a real change from unbelief to Faith in Christ is a change and a real change too from Ungodliness to Godliness in some kind or degree because he himself holds unbelief to be the chiefest part of Ungodliness and Faith in Christ to be the chiefest part of Godliness witness his own Words Pag. 15 16. That believing on the Lord Jesus for Salvation is more pleasing to God than all obedience to his Law and that unbelief is the most provoking to God and the most damning to Men of all Sins If our Author believe this then by necessary Consequence he believes that unbelief is the chiefest part of ungodliness and that Faith is the chiefest part of Godliness and that a real change from unbelief to Faith in Christ is a real change from Ungodliness to Godliness in some kind and degree The import and issue of this is that our Author believes both parts of a Contradiction With the Antinomians he believes that before Justification there is no real change from Ungodliness to Godliness in any kind or degree And with us he believes that before Justification there is a real change from the Ungodliness of unbelief to the Godliness of Faith because the Sinner through Grace comes off from his Ungodly unbelief that he may believe and he believes that he may be justified and so in order of Nature before he be justified Now since our Author is so strong a Believer that he can believe both parts of a Contradiction why may not we think that as he believes that we preach a new Pelagian Arminian Gospel so he may believe at the same time that we do not preach a new Pelagian Arminian Gospel but the old Everlasting Gospel of Christ He believes in his Letter that we do preach a new Gospel and for ought we know to the contrary he may at the same time believe in his Conscience that we do not preach a new Gospel for his Letter and his Conscience are two different things that may not have much Communion one with another yea in this matter they may be at Hostile Enmity the Letter may be against his Conscience and his Conscience against the Letter But will not the Apostle Paul justifie him in Believing Contradictions since he says in Gal. 2.16 That Men believe in Christ that they may be justified and consequently that Faith is before Justification But in Rom. 4.5 He says that God justifies the Ungodly and by that it seems that Faith is after Justification We Answer far be it from any that fear the Lord to charge the Apostle with contradicting himself or with giving any ground to believe Contradictions for thus he writes to the Corimbians 2 Cor. 1.18 As God is true our Word toward you was not Yea and Nay That is it did not contradict it self And as he did not contradict himself in Preaching and Writing to the Corinthians no more did he do it in Preaching and Writing to the Romans and Galatians We must therefore so understand Rom. 4.5 of which the Question now is as not to make it contradict Gal. 2.16 And that is no difficult matter to do For we may easily conceive that this form of Speech God justifieth the Ungodly is like that of our Saviour Mat. 11.5 The Deaf hear Now no Man is so foolish as to think that the Deaf remaining Deaf did first hear and then immeditely after were cured of their Deasness why then should we be so foolish as to understand the Apostle as if he had said that God justifies men whilest they remain ungodly without any real change wrought in them and that immeditely after he hath justified them he first begins to make them Godly and to sanctifie them We are perswaded it is much more rational to understand the Apostle the quite contrary way to wit that as the Deaf were first in Order of Nature and Causality cured of their Deafness and then they did actually hear so God first Works a Holy change in the Heart of a Sinner and of an ungodly unpenitent Unbeliever makes him a godly penitent Believer and then immediately justifies him by Faith in Christ So that the Sinner whom God justifies he is ungodly Antecedenter fed non Concomitanter that is he was ungodly in the time before he was justified but he is not ungodly either in the instant of Nature before or in the instant of Time when he is justified but on the contrary he is through Grace Godly both before and when he is justified 2dly We Answer that the Man whom God justifies by Faith in Christ is certainly Godly Evangelically both in Order of Nature before he be justified and at the time when be is justified and yet at the same time he may be said to be legally ungodly for understanding this we are to consider that the Man whom God justifies may be compared with and judged by the Law of Works or the Law of Faith if he be compared with and judged by the Law of Works he is found to be in himself an Ungodly Man because he hath not perfectly kept but hath frequently transgressed that Law and so can never be justified but is condemned by it But if he be compared with and judged by the Law of Faith the Evangelical Law the Law of the New
external Amendment of their outward Conversation saving Grace being the special Gift of God to his own c. And pag. 95. The Lord makes use of this outward and common Covenanting with all Receivers of the offer as a mean to draw the Confederate in the Letter to be Confederate in the Spirit for the Faith which he requires as the Condition of the Covenant he worketh in the Elect if not before or with the external Covenanting yet undoubted after in a time acceptable and that by the ordinary means the use whereof is granted to all Confederate externally and so as common Illumination is a mean to that Special Spiritual and saving Illumination and Dogmatical and Historical Faith is a mean unto Saving Faith and external Calling is a mean to Effectual Calling so external Covenanting in the Letter is a mean most fit and accommodate to make a Man a Covenanter in the Spirit Here are Preparations and Dispositions before either Regeneration or Justification plainly asserted by Dickson then pag. 99. he enters upon a large Discourse concerning the Condition of the Covenant and he says That in receiving of grown Persons into Covenant There are three Conditions to be observed and distinguished one from another 1. The Condition of the Person desiring to be in Covenant with God for Reconciliation and Grace through Christ 2. The Condition upon which he is entered into Covenant 3. The Condition required of him for evidencing of his sincere Covenanting And Pag. 100. He says all these three are expressed by Christ in Matth. 11.28 29. First They that labour and are heavy laden are they whom Christ calleth unto a Covenant and fellowship of his Grace this that he calls the Condition of the Person is the same thing with that which we call the Disposition or Qualification of the Person Secondly He propounds the Condition of the Covenant to wit that they believe in Christ or come unto him that in him they may find full relief from Sin and Misery and in him full Righteousness and Felicity Thirdly He requires of them who do embrace him by Faith and so have accepted the Condition of the Covenant that they give evidence of their Faith in him by taking his Yoke upon them Take my Yoke upon you saith he Mr. Dickson calls this The third Condition and says a little before that it is the Covenanters up giving of himself to Christs Government and Obedience of his Commands This brings to our remembrance a Passage in the Catechism published by the Calvinists of Marpurgh in the Year 1606. Fidem sufficere ad apprehendendam salutem non autem ad cam conservandam sed amplius requiri vitae emendationem That Faith is sufficient for the first apprehending or receiving of Salvation but not for the conserving or continuing of it but there is moreover required Amendment of Life It reminds us also of what we read in the fourth Tome of Monsieur Claudes Posthumous Work in the very entrance of his Treatise of Justification Pag. 75. That there are Dispositions previous unto Justification and that there are Conditions which God necessarily supposes in Man and which ought to be found actually in him And then that there are Conditions which God imposes upon a Man when he justifies him to the end that he may observe them for the time to come In like manner he distinguishes in his Historical Defence of the Reformation Part 2. Chap. 6. pag. 218. of the English Translation Between the Condition supposed to Justification which is Faith and Repentance and the Condition imposed upon us by the Lord when he justifies us which is that for the time to come we live Holily according to the Laws which he has given us But this on the by from Dickson we pass to the Learned Charnock he saith That besides the Passive Capacity that is Charnock Vol. 2. p. 148. the Rational Faculties there are more immediate Preparations The Soul must be beaten down by Convictions before it be raised up by Regeneration there must be some apprehensions of the Necessity of it Yet sometimes the Work of Regeneration follows so close upon the heels of these Preparations that both must be acknowledged to be the work of one and the same hand The Preparation of the Subject is necessary but this Preparation may be at the same time with the conveyance of the Divine Nature And afterwards for several Pages he saith no more than what we have said That there is not any absolute causal Connection between such Preparations Ibid. p. 148.149 c. and Regeneration nor any Connection that is meritorious Yet all along he asserts Preparations From Charnock we pass to Flavel Flavels Method of Grace from pag. 347 to pag. 402. who spends two whole Sermons to prove That there is no coming ordinarily to Christ without the Application of the Law to our Consciences in a way of effectual Conviction This our Author will grant as we perceive by his Letter But Mr. Flavel spends two Sermons more to prove That this cannot be without the teachings of God in the way of Spiritual Illumination From Flavel we pass to Firmin Firm. Real Christ. p. 6 7 8 c. who shews at large That man naturally is not a subject fit or disposed to receive Christ immediately when offered to him but before he will receive him there must be some work of the Spirit upon him to prepare him make him willing and glad to receive him And if this were not so but as our Author would have it it would follow unavoidably that Mr. Hooker and Mr. Shepherd in their Books about the Souls Preparation for Christ and the several steps of it viz. Conviction Compunction Humiliation c. wrote very great impertinencies and which is worse did a great deal of hurt to the Souls of men For our parts since we are said to be Middle-way-men we think that to answer that Character that is given of us we ought to avoid all extremes as well in this as in other matters and therefore we say that no more of the foresaid Preparatory Dispositions is simply and absolutely necessary than what makes the Soul 1. See its absolute need of Christ and its being utterly lost and undone without him 2. What makes it see and believe that there is abundant help and relief for lost Sinners in Christ that he is an Alsufficient Saviour and the only Alsufficient Saviour able and willing to save to the uttermost all that come unto him and unto God by him in the way prescribed in the Gospel 3. What makes them thereupon desirous to have him and in some sort willing to receive him in all his Offices as he is offered desirous to have him and willing to receive him and his Benefits with him upon his own Terms the Terms held forth in the Gospel Of them who by the preventing Grace of the Holy Spirit are thus disposed there is no more required to be done by them in a
Souls is and through Grace shall be our fervent and frequent Prayer unto him that is able to do for us exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think Ephes 3.20 21. unto whom be Glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all Ages World without end Amen The INDEX THE INTRODUCTION No just cause appears for raising such a clamour against the Subscribers The Test proposed by our Accuser out of the Assemblies Confession of Faith and Catechisme accepted by us who are ready to subscribe to it in the Assemblies own sense page 1. to 8. CHAP. I. Concerning the Occasion and Design of the Letter Some remarks on it page 8. to 18. CHAP. II. Of the Authours Errors in Doctrine against the Purity of our Christian Faith SECT I. Of his first Errour That there is no new Law of Grace The Controversie stated p. 20 21. The Affirmative proved by Scripture and by Testimonies of Ancient Fathers and Modern Divines p. 22 to 33. SECT II. Of his second Errour That the Covenant of Grace is Absolute and not Conditional 1. It is shewed in what sense we hold it not to be and in what sense to be Conditional p. 34 to 49. 2. With respect to Justification and Glorification it is proved to be conditional That Faith and Repentance with respect to Justification and sincere Obedience with respect to Glorification are conditions in the sense there declared proved 1. By Scripture 2. by Reason agreeable to Scripture 3. By Testimonies of Ancient Fathers and many Modern Divines p. 49 to 120. 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 c. The question stated p. 120. The contrary Truth proved by Scripture and Reason agreeable to Scripture and by the Testimony of Protestant Divines especially of the Synod of Dort and objections an swered p. 120 to 145. An Appendix of the Third Section concerning Dispositions previous to Regeneration and Conversion Shewed what they ordinarily are p. 146. What our Opinion is concerning them p. 146 147. That our Opinion is neither new nor singular proved by Testimonies of Famous Protestant Divines p. 148 to 156. Objections answered p. 156 to 162. Bradwardin for Justification by inherent Righteousness and Humane Satisfaction some further account of his Principles and Practices p. 163 to 165. More Testimonies of Mr. Dickson Claude Charnock Turretin c. for previous Dispositions p. 165 to 168. CHAP. III. Of his Ridiculous way of Converting an Vnbeliever p. 168 to 183. CHAP. IV. Of the Calumnies wherewith he asperses Christ's Ministers and particularly of the middle way Shewed that we are neither Pelagians nor Arminians in whole or in part p. 184 to 190. That called the middle way stated and shewed not to be a new Gospel but the Opinion of Calvin and others of our Reformers p. 191 192. The Calumny relating to Justification refuted p. 193 to 195. As also p. 37 to 40 and 42 to 45. Other Calumnies refuted p. 195 to 204. CHAP. V. People are advised to try before they trust and not suffer themselves to be imposed upon and led into Errour by the bold unproved Assertions and Dictates of any Preachers or Writers whatsoever p. 204 to the end The Errata of the Press thus to be Corrected TItle Page for nostraas read nostras Preface page 3 line 2 read Rule Book p. 1. l. 2. f. flesh r. flesh p. 1. l. 10. after battle add p. 14. l. 1. for the that r. that the. p. 23 l. 36 f. perfect of r. perfect or l. 8. r. virtual p. 25 l. 2 r. pius p. 51 l. 31 r. it is a condition p. 52 l. 47 r. goeth on p. 55 l. 33 f. of them r. on them p. 63 l. 43 f. or r. of p. 67 l. 10. f. atr r. act p. 80. l. 24 f. inward applicative r. inward applicative without a Comma p. 85. lin 40. f. he an r. he is an l. 41. blot out is p. 88 at the end blot out the last word this p. 105. l. 34. r. Receive it p. 110. l. 3. after emendationem for a point put a Comma In the same line after life put a p. 115. l. 48. r. prove that no man without a p. 128. l. 32 f. he r. it and l. 33 r. penitent p. 138 l. 6 f. make r. made p. 147 l. 30. f. discourse r. discourse p. 149. l. 17 f. Ecclesiastical r. Scholastical p. 162 l. 54 f. they who r. those which p. 163 l. 20 r. Reformationem and f. predictis r. praedictis l. 23 r. punishment p. 183. l. 40 f. oar r. our p. 186. l. 30. f. in all Ages might r. in all Ages might without a Comma p. 186 l. 18 19 f. chap. 28 r. chap. 30. and l. 24. f. infer for what r. infer what p. 189 l. 46 f. and efficaciously r. But efficaciously p. 194. l. 40 and 41 r. Justification p. 198 l. 38 f. doath r. death p. 201 l. 42. r. merits of p. 202. l. 50 f. Relation r. Revelation What other Faults the Reader may find he is desired to Correct or Excuse them Advertisement A Brief Review of Mr. Davis's Vindication By Giles Firmin one of the United Brethren Printed by John Lawrence at the Angel in the Poultrey 1693. The Introduction HOly David the man after Gods own heart said of old My flesh trembleth for fear of thee Ps 119.120 and I am afraid of thy judgments We would it were thus with all that pretend to any seriousness in the Profession of the Protestant Religion at this day But alas where are such to be found where are they that are affected with the fear of God as David was and that are duly apprehensive of the Judgments of God which are actually upon and seem to be yet further coming upon the Reformed Churches Is it not visible that all sorts of men turn to their several courses of sin as the Horse rusheth into the battle They run on in the ways of their own hearts blindly and boldly without considering or fearing the issue And who can wonder that those who have hardned their hearts from Gods fear should boldly venture upon sin especially if they have got a strong but false perswasion that they are The Temple of the Lord the true the best and purest Church upon Earth most highly in favour with God and that their sins are the spots of Gods children which do not hurt them and are well consistent with his highest Love and Favour The Scriptures of truth assure us that when once Professors of Religion have brought themselves to this then they can securely lean upon the Lord and say is not the Lord amongst us none evil can come upon us Though at the same time the Lord saith that Sion for your sakes shall be plowed as a field and Jerusalem shall become heaps Mic. 3.11 12. We wish it be
but a Protestant Bishop and a zealous Protestant who held Rome to be Mystical Babylon and the Pope to be Antichrist as appears from what he wrote in Tortura Torti pag. 183 184 185 186 187. Now this zealous Protestant in his 17th Sermon of the Nativity on Psal 2.7 writes thus We had well hoped Christ would have preached no Law all Gospel he Bp. Andrews Volume of Sermons pag. 161. That he would have preached down the old Law but not have preached up any new We see it is otherwise A Law he hath to preach and preach it he will He saith himself Praedicabo Legem So if we will be his Auditors he tells us plainly we must receive a Law from his mouth If we love not to hear of a Law we must go to some other Church For in Christs Church there a Law is preached Christ began we must follow and say every one of us as he saith Praedicabo Legem Christ will preach a Law and they that are not for the Law are not for Christ It was their quarrel above at the 3d. verse they would none of Christ for this very cause that Christ comes preaching a Law and they would live lawless They would endure no Yoke that were the Sons of Belial Belial that is No Yoke But what agreement hath Christ with Belial 2 Cor. 6.15 The very Gospel hath her Law A Law Evangelical there is which Christ preached And as he did we to do the like look but into the grand Commission by which we all preach which Christ gave at his going out of the World Goe saith he Mar. 28.19 preach the Gospel to all Nations teaching them what to observe the things that I have commanded you Lo here is commanding and here is observing Page 162. So the Gospel consists not only of certain Articles to be believed but of certain Commandments and they to be observed Now I know not how but we are fallen clean from the term Law nay we are even fallen out with it Nothing but Gospel now The name of Law we look strangely at we shun it in our common talk To this it is come while men seek to live as they list Preach them Gospel as much as ye will but hear ye no Law to be preached to hold or keep them in And we have Gospelled it so long that the Christian Law is clean gone with us I speak it to this end to have the one term retained as well as the other to have neither term abolished but with equal regard both kept on foot They are not so well advised that seek to suppress either name If the name once be lost the thing it self will not long stay but go after it and be lost too The Christian Religion in the very best times of it was called Christiana Lex the Christian Law And all the Antient Fathers liked the term well and took it upon them To conclude Gospel it how you will if the Gospel have not the Legalia of it acknowledged allowed and preserved to it if once it lose the force and vigour of a Law it is a sign it declines it grows weak and unprofitable and that is a sign it will not long last And Page 165. he saith 1. There is the benefit of this Law what he doth for us 2. And then what we are to do for him our duty out of this Law The benefit is the Gospel of this Law the duty is the Law of this Gospel And Page 166 They speak of Laws of Grace this is indeed a Law of Grace nay it is the Law of Grace not only as it is opposite to the Law of Nature but even because it offereth Grace the greatest Grace that ever was This was Printed and Published in the Year 1624. and that vvas before most of us vvere born And yet even then the Gospel vvas expresly called the Nevv Lavv of Grace by Bishop Andrews and therefore it is no nevv Word vvhich we have lately invented And not onely Bishop Andrews vvho vvas every vvhit as expert as our Authour can be in making a jingling noise vvith Words vvhich vvas more in fashion then than it is novv but the famous Dr. Twiss vvho vvas used to a Scholastick close way of reasoning both says and proves that the Gospel is a Lavv. Therefore he shall be our last Witness in this Cause Novv in his Ansvver to an Arminian Book called The Synod of Dort and Arles reduced to practice he plainly asserts as we do that God deals with Men not meerly as an absolute Soveraign arbitrary Lord but as a Ruler and Governour according to a known Law in giving unto them or with-holding from them the subsequent blessings and benefits of the new Covenant His Words are these Now like as the act of God's decree Pag. 40.41 42. is of the meer pleasure of God no temporal thing being fit to be the cause of the eternal decree of God in like sort the giving of Faith and Repentance proceeds meerly of the good pleasure of God According to that God hath mercy on whom he will Rom. 9.18 And to obtain mercy at the hand of God is to obtain faith Rom. 11.30 But as for Glory and Salvation we do not say that God in conferring it proceeds according to the meer pleasure of his will but according to a Law which is this whosoever believeth shall be saved which Law we willingly profess he made according to the meer pleasure of his will but having made such a Law he proceeds according to it No such Law hath he made according whereunto to proceed in the dispensation of the grace of Faith and Repentance In like manner the Dr. there distinguishes between the denyal of Special Grace of Faith and Repentance and the denyal of Glory As for the first the denyal of Special Grace to some when God gives it to others the Doctor says that God proceeds therein according to the meer pleasure of his Will but as to the second his own Words are these As touching the denyal of Glory and inflicting damnation God doth not proceed according to the meer pleasure of his will but according to a Law which is this Whosoever believeth not shall be damned And albeit God made that Law according to the meer pleasure of his will yet no wise man will say that he denies glory and inflicts damnation on men according to the meer pleasure of his will The case being clear that God denies the one and inflicts the other meerly for their sins who are thus dealt withal And in the next Page Like as God inflicts not damnation but by way of punishment so he doth not bestow Salvation on any of ripe Years but by way of reward Yet here also is a difference for damnation is inflicted by way of punishment for the evil works sake which are committed but Salvation is not conferred by way of Reward for the good works sake which are performed but meerly for Christs sake Thus
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
declare to the World what our Faith is in this matter And First We do not hold that there is any Antecedent Condition of the Covenant of Grace Our meaning is plainly this That there is nothing required to be necessarily performed by us as a Condition before the Lord will make us Partakers of any Grace even of the first Grace of the Covenant For we believe that the first Grace is given Absolutely and the Lords giving of it is not suspended on our performing of some antecedent Condition by our meer natural Strength This indeed would be Pelagianism or rather Semi-Pelagianism condemned by the Ancient Church and we condemn it as much as the Ancients did We hold that there are Absolute Promises Promises of Regenerating Grace of the New Heart the Heart of Flesh of special Grace through which the Elect believe and repent This is the Grace whereby we performe the Conditions required of us in the Covenant and therefore it must be promised and given Antecedently to our performing those Conditions forasmuch as it is the cause of the performance of those Conditions and the cause must always be in order of nature and causality before the Effect There hath been and is some difference of Opinion amongst Orthodox Ministers about the Person or Persons to whom God hath made those absolute Promises Some think they are made only to Christ for the Church according to these Scriptures Isai 49.6 compared with Acts 13.47 48. and Isai 53.11 Psal 22.30 and 110.3 Others think they are made through Christ only to the Catholick Church that God for Christ's sake would shew special Mercy unto his Select People in all Ages and add them to the Church Mystical by saving Illumination Regeneration and Conversion And so that God through Christ hath promised unto the Catholick Church that she should be a fruitful Mother that should still bring forth Children unto God which should continue the Succession unto the end of the World as in Isa 54.1 Sing O barren c. ver 5. For thy maker is thy husband c. See also ver 8 10. and then consider the Promise ver 13. That all her children should be taught of the Lord. And compare that place with Gal. 4.26 27 28 29. We humbly conceive that the Absolute Promises of the first saving Grace are not made immediately to Individual Persons but to the Body of the Church to the Mother in behalf of her Children Such are the Promises recorded Isa 44.3 4 5. Isa 59.21 Ezek. 36.22 compared with ver 26 27. and with Heb. 8.10 These and all absolute Promises of the first saving Grace seem not to be made immediately unto nor to be immediately pleadable in Faith by any Individual Persons before their first Conversion but to be made unto the house of Israel as the Text expresseth it that is unto the true Church which is the Mystical Living Body of Christ in behalf of all the Children which she as a Spiritual Mother is to bring forth unto God Or 3ly To Reconcile these two Opinions and to reduce them into one it may be some judge it best to say that the aforesaid absolute Promises are made both to Christ and his Church as one Mystical Body consisting of Head and Members which is to be filled up from time to time by adding New Members to it and that continual addition of new Members is made by the fulfilling of the foresaid absolute Promises and for this may be alledged Gal. 3.16 and this way we oppose not Thus it is confessed that there is some difference of Opinion about the Persons to whom the Absolute Promises of the first Saving Grace are made and we cannot help it for it is not in our power to make all good Men to be of one mind in lesser matters and we think we are bound in Conscience to bear with one another in love notwithstanding such little differences But we thank God that we are all agreed that the Promises of the first Grace are Absolute so as to exclude the necessity of our performing any Antecedent Condition to make us capable of that first Grace And we desire it may be well remembred That we say those Promises are absolute so as to exclude any antecedent Condition but not so as to exclude the use of Gods appointed means for the obtaining of that promised Grace We plainly distinguish between an Antecedent Condition which is always and in all cases necessary to obtain the promised Grace and the use of God's means appointed for the obtaining of the promised Grace which use of means is indeed ordinarily necessary unto Men so that they have no ground to expect that ever God should give them the aforesaid Grace without their attending upon him in the use of those means yet is not the use of them so absolutely necessary as that Grace at no time and in no case can be had without them For though God hath tyed us to the means he hath not tyed himself to them by any Law or Constitution so that he can never give the first Saving Grace to any without the use of them We know God hath been found of them that sought him not so he was found of Paul and others and so he may be again in these latter days if he please God may give Faith and Repentance to a man absolutely in what way he pleaseth he may do it in the use of means or out of the use of means which is his ordinary way because he hath not made the use of means the Condition upon the performance of which he hath declared that he will always give it and never in any case without the performance of it Thus indeed it is in the matter of Justification and Glorification It is not consistent with the Truth of God's Word and Perfection of his Nature to justifie or glorifie an Impenitent Unbeliever remaining such because he hath declared that he will not and it is not consistent with his own Honour that he should do it but upon the performance of the Duty and Condition of Faith and Repentance But in the matter of Regeneration and giving Faith and Repentance in the use of means God hath not so tyed up himself by any Declaration of his Will that we know of but that he hath left himself at free Liberty as a Gracious Lord and Merciful Benefactor to give the Grace of Regeneration Faith and Repentance when and how he pleaseth ordinarily in the use of means and extraordinarily without the Antecedent use of Means This we learn of Doctor Twisse who as he affirms frequently that the first Grace and particularly the new Heart Faith and Repentance are promised and given absolutely and not upon the performance of any Antecedent Condition so he positively asserts that the said new Heart Faith and Repentance are usually given in the use of Means and not otherwise ordinarily You shall have it in his own words Thus then he writes in his Answer to the
uncere Obedience to be a Legal but an Evangelical Condition of the Covenant of Grace and consequently that in our Judgment they do not hold the same Place and Office in the New Covenant of Grace which personal perfect sinless Obedience had and were to have had in the first Covenant of Innocency and of Works Object But saith our Authour in his Appendix Pag. 39. It is the Achillaean Argument of the New Divinity that Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience is our Evangelical Righteousness and that Righteousness is our defence against the charge of Vnbelief Impenitence c. And what then Why in the following Pages he so shapes it as might best serve his Design which was to make the People believe that we set up our own Righteousness in the place of Christ's and maintain that Men must be Justified by their own Righteousness and not onely by Christ's And so he trips up Achilles Heels by the Fallacy of many Interrogations But it will be no very difficult Task to scatter this Mist which he hath cast before the Peoples Eyes In order thereunto let it be considered 1. That the Substance of this Argument was not invented by any amongst us dead or alive that we know of but some in this Nation having read it in some very eminently learned forreign Divines particularly Ludovicus de Dieu at large and the Holy Humble Learned and most Acute Placeus they received it and improved it as useful to clear some seeming Difficulties in Scripture obiected to us by our Adversaries the Papists 2. Consider that this way of reconciling James with Paul in the matter of Justification for the Substance of it was taken up also by the Learned Turretin 3. That it doth not appear that all of us ever expressed our selves in those Words for the clearing up of the seeming difference between James and Paul 4. That those who do take that way do not impose it upon others We know there have been many ways taken by Reformed Divines to expound James so as not to contradict Paul And some considerable difference there may seem to be among Divines in the methodizing and expressing of their Notious of those Matters But yet there appears to be very little difference amongst them as to the things themselves Indeed upon the Matter all seems to come almost to the same thing And particularly let it be considered 5. That this way of Interpreting James his Justification by Works and reconciling it with Paul's Justification by Faith seems to differ from the more common modern Opinion mostly in the manner of expression which some of us think most agreeable to the Scripture Phrase But we leave every Man to express his Notions as best pleaseth him provided that if he do not use Scripture Words yet he do not contradict Scripture sense And therefore 6. We desire it may be considered that this way of expounding James which we are now speaking of doth not in the least contradict the Holy Scripture but rather serves to explain it if it be understood as it ought to be in the true genuine sense of its Authours For 1. Though they say that our Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience is an Evangelical Righteousness as indeed it is yet at the same time they declare that this Evangelical Righteousness is no other thing but the Condition of the new Covenant on our part whereby we are interested first and still keep our interest in the satisfactory meritorious Righteousness of Christ by and for which alone we are justified from first to last They do not say that this Evangelical Righteousness which is the Condition of the Covenant doth satisfie God's Justice for the least sin either against Law or Gospel or that it doth properly merit to us the least good so much as a Cup of Cold Water They give unto Christ alone the whole Glory of having by his Righteousness satisfied Justice for all our Sins and merited to us all our Mercies So that our Authour was we think a little impertinent in putting his question page 41. What is that Righteousness which justifies a man from the sin of Vnbelief For he knows well enough that the Worthy Divines as he deservedly calls them with whom he has to do in that Argument have published it to all the World under their hands That assoon as a Man who was before an Unbeliever begins through Grace sincerely to believe in Christ and to repent of his Unbelief and of all his other sins immediately thereupon Christ's satisfactory meritorious Righteousness justifies him from his sin of Unbelief and from all his other former sins both Original and Actual that is God by and for Christ's Righteousness justifies him from them upon his believing and repenting And as our Authour knows this to be true so he hath honestly confessed it in the end of the same Paragraph Will any man says he dare to tell a person who is troubled in Conscience about his sin of Vnbelief that Christ's Righteousness is his legal Righteousness against the charge of sins against the Law but for Gospel-charges he must answer them in his own name I know our hottest opposers would abhor such an answer and would freely tell such a Man that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin and that his Justification from his Vnbelief must be only in that Righteousness which he so sinfully had rejected while in Vnbelief and now lays hold on by Faith Here the Truth comes out at last and in effect he gives the lye to his own false accusations of the Lord's Ministers and acquits the accused For if his hottest Opposers freely tell People that the Blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin and that their Justification from the sin of Unbelief must be only by the Righteousness of Christ then how can those things be true whereof as was observed before he had accused us in page 6 28 33 and page 39. That we bring our own pitiful Holiness into Justification and make it sit on the Throne of Judgment with the precious blood of the Lamb of God Ex ore tuo c. But 2. The Authors of the Argument we are upon never said wrote or so much as thought that can be known That our sincere Faith and Repentance is a Defence or Justification against a charge of Unbelief or Impenitence given in against us by God for they knew full well without being taught it by this Authour That the God of Truth cannot be the Authour of a Lye which he would certainly and evidently be if he should charge us with being Unbelievers and Impenitent at that very time when he knows that by his own Spirit and Grace we sincerely believe and repent But that which the aforesaid Excellent Divines said is yet to be seen in their Writings and it is this That our sincere Faith and Repentance is a Defence and Justification against any false charge of Unbelief and Impenitence that is or possibly may be given in against
life And therefore as he saith again John 13.17 Rom. 6.23 If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them And his Apostle Paul saith that God gives eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. But to whom doth he give it Why that is visible from the 22. Verse immediately before It is to them who being made free from sin and become servants to God have their fruit unto holiness It is we say to them that God through Christ gives Eternal Life as a Reward of their Holy Obedience and well-doing God in Christ is most certainly a Rector or Ruler who according to his Law of Grace will distribute at last glorious Rewards to all that fear his Name Revel 11.18 2 Cor. 5.10 James 1.25 Rom. 2.6 7. small and great And as St. James saith Then shall the Obedient Believer the doer of the Lord's Work be blessed in his deed Then as Holy Paul says To them who by patient continuance in well-doing have sought for glory and honour and immortality God will render eternal life This God will do at the Last Day to all that have so continued in well-doing to the end For so the Spirit of Truth hath plainly said by Paul and it is infallibly true and will continue to be for ever true 1 Cor. 7.19 with Gal. 5.6 Let who will contradict it and say it is false Blessed Paul assures again that Circumcision is nothing and Vncircumeision is nothing but the keeping of the Commandments of God Heb. 5.9 And that Christ is become the Authour of eternal salvation to all them that obey him Yea our Lord Christ himself saith Be thou faithful unto death Rev. 2.10 and 3.21 Rev. 22.14 and I will give thee a Crown of life and that he who overcomes shall sit with him on his Throne To all which agrees that we read in the Last of the Revelations Blessed are they that do his Christ's commandments that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates into the city Here we see the Lord himself hath declared them blessed that sincerely keep his Commandments because thereby 1. They have a Right to the Tree of Life whilst they live And 2. When they dye they enter upon the full possession of that which before they had a Right unto They enter in through the gates into the city But you will say how have we right unto and entrance upon full possession of Eternal Life and Glory by keeping Christ's Commandments We Answer the keeping Christ's Commandments doth not merit or give us either one or the other of them but it is the way and means which we use and the Condition which through Grace we perform for the having our right to the Tree of Life continued to us or not taken from us whilst we live And for our having full possession of Life and Happiness given us when we die So that 't is God who first for Christ's sake gave that still continues our right to us and at last will for the same cause that is for Christ's sake give us full possession But he will do all this for us in the way of continued Faith and Obedience and on Condition that we sincerely believe in Christ and keep his Commandments unto the end Thus we have proved from Scripture That sincere Obedience to the Law of Christ is a Condition of Glorification as our first believing and repenting is the Condition on our part of our Justification and of the pardon of our Sins For as the definition of a Gospel-Condition agrees to Faith and Repentance with respect to our Justification and Pardon of Sin so it agrees to sincere Obedience with respect to our Glorification and Eternal Salvation And to whatsoever the definition of a Gospel-Condition agrees to that the Nature and Essence of a Gospel-Condition must agree also From all which we conclude that the Covenant of Grace is Conditional with respect to the subsequent blessings and benefits of it The two principal promises to wit of Justification and Glorification are certainly conditional which was the thing to be proved And having first demonstrated it by Scripture Second Head of Arguments We Secondly prove it by reason agreeable to Scripture And Reason 1. First If the Covenant of Grace be not Conditional with respect to its subsequent Blessings and Benefits particularly if the Promise of Justification and Pardon of sin be not conditional we do not see how it is possible for a Minister to be faithful to God to his own Conscience and to the Souls of the People in preaching the Gospel to them It is true it is easily conceivable how a Minister may be faithful in laying before People the Commandments of the Lord and in telling them that those Commandments oblige them to believe and repent And that if they do not believe and repent they will grievously sin against the Lord and draw down his wrath upon their own Souls But now whâ—n he proceeds to encourage them to believe and repent by setting forth to them God's Promise of Justification and Pardon of Sin we do not conceive how he can do it honestly and faithfully if the Promise of Justification and pardon of Sin be not conditional For when a Minister is preaching to a promiscuous mixed Multitude of People and for their encouragement to believe and repent is declaring to them Gods Gospel-promise of Justification and pardon of Sin either he must declare and preach this Promise to them conditionally or absolutely If conditionally assuring them from the Lord that they shall be justified and pardoned through Christ's Righteousness imputed to them if they sincerely believe and repent then the Promise it self is conditional and the Covenant also is in that respect conditional For if there be no Condition in the Gospel-promise and Covenant how can the Minister preach it conditionally to the People Doth he not take God's Name in vain and abuse the People also by telling them from the Lord that all they who perform the Condition of the Gospel-promise by believing and repenting shall have the promised Benefit to wit Justification and pardon of Sin if there be no Condition in the Promise necessary to be performed by them for obtaining the promised Benefit Either then a Minister must not preach the Promise conditionally to the People or there is and must be a Condition in the Promise and if there be a Condition in the Promise then we have what we aim at for we desire no more to prove the Covenant of Grace to be conditional But 2. If our Authour will say that the Minister must preach the Promise of Justification and pardon absolutely to all the People assuring them from the Lord that they are or shall be justified and pardoned through Christ absolutely whether they perform any Condition or not whether they do any duty or not whether they believe and repent or not Then we Answer That the Minister who shall preach
then put it forth into Act in obedience to the single Command of believing is safe and runs no hazard of loosing Eternal Life and Glory although he live in the habitual constant omission of all other Duties and in the habitual constant commission of all other sins except the sin of formal unbelief that is he is safe and runs no hazard of loosing Eternal Life and Glory though he never love nor fear God and Christ nor exercise any other Grace or perform any other Duty though he never love his Neighbours nor deal justly and honestly by them yea upon this supposed Principle he is safe and runs no hazard of his Salvation though he habitually and constantly do the quite contrary and live in all other the most abominable sins against God and Man except the sin of formal unbelief For though these be sins great abominable sins of Omission and Commission against the Law of God yet to him who is supposed to be a sincere Believer and to keep his Faith under all these sins of Omission and Commission the said Duties are not commanded nor the sins forbidden under the penalty of loosing his Salvation or if the Law strictly considered as a Covenant of Works command those Duties and forbid those sins under that penalty Yet from him being a Believer the Gospel takes off the penalty as fast as the Law lays it on or rather according to the Principle we are now speaking of the Gospel binds the Laws hands so that though it would yet it cannot lay its penalty upon the man he being a Believer although he never so much deserves it by the foresaid abominations against God and Man And consequently he may omit all Duties except the Duty of believing and commit all sins imaginable except the sin of formal unbelief and yet remain safe and run no hazard of loosing the promised blessing of Eternal Life and Glory Far be it from us to charge our Authour or any of his way with such abominable practices We abhor to charge any Man with holding the absurd consequences of his opinion which he doth not own We design no such thing nor indeed any reflection at all by this Argument No but our real and whole design is to shew the natural necessary consequence and danger of holding the opinion that no sincere Obedience but Faith is required of Christians by the Covenant and Law of Christ as indispensably necessary to the obtaining of Eternal Life and Glory and thereby to evince that as was said It is false that no sincere Obedience but the Act of believing is required as indispensably necessary to obtain Eternal Life and Glory And this we think we have effectually done for if no sincere Obedience but the Act of believing be required of Christians by the Law of Christ as indispensably necessary to obtain Eternal Life and Glory then it is self-evident that they are safe and may obtain Eternal Life and Glory if they have the Act of Faith and the Obedience which by it they yield to the Command of believing Though they want all other sincere Obedience and that is though they live in the Love and Practice of all manner of sins except the sin of Unbelief Obj. 1. If our Authour object 1. That though sincere Obedience distinct from Faith be not required of Christians as indispensably necessary to obtain Eternal Life and Glory yet it is required as necessary to signifie and evidence to a Christian the sincerity of his Faith which he cannot be sure of unless it be evidenced to him by sincere Obedience distinct from it self Answ We answer 1. We suppose he knows well enough that there are some who hold the quite contrary to wit that it is Faith only which is indispensably necessary to evidence the sincerity of a mans Obedience and not sincere Obedience to evidence the sincerity of his Faith 2. Be it so that sincere Obedience is indispensably necessary to assure a Christian of the sincerity of his Faith yet if it be not likewise indispensably necessary to his obtaining Eternal Life and Glory he may be really safe and in no danger of loosing Eternal Life and Glory if he have a sincere Faith which is the only thing indispensably necessary though he want all sincere Obedience distinct from Faith which is pretended not to be indispensably necessary to the obtaining of Eternal Life and Glory It is true the man cannot know that he is safe he cannot be sure and full of Spiritual Comfort without the evidence of his Faith that is without sincere Obedience But for all that if he really have Faith he is safe with respect to another World though he want sincere Obedience as the evidence of his safety by Faith and that is though he live in the Love and Practice of all manner of sins both of Omission and Commission except the sin of formal Unbelief which we think is a very great absurdity following upon the foresaid Opinion Obj. 2. If our Authour object 2. That here we suppose an impossibility to wit That a sincere Faith may be without any other sincere Obedience whereas though sincere Obedience be not required as indispensably necessary to obtain Eternal Life and Glory yet there always is and will be sincere Obedience where there is a sincere Faith and can never be separated from it We Answer 1. That we do not argue from an impossibility as such but wholly abstracting from its being possible or impossible for a sincere Faith to be without sincere Obedience to the Lord in other things required of Christians we prove it to be false that no sincere Obedience but the Act of Faith is under the Gospel-Covenant required of Christians as indispensably necessary to obtain the promised blessing of Eternal Life and Glory because if that were not false then this would be necessarily true that though a Christian should live in the Love and Practice of all other abominations yet if per possibile vel impossibile he retain but the Act of Faith he is safe and secure with respect to his Eternal Salvation and runs no hazard of loosing Eternal Life and Glory It is only this consequence which we are concerned to make good and that we have done But though the consequence and inference be good yet the consequent or thing inferred we justly account to be a very great absurdity and from that absurdity we prove the falsehood of the antecedent and principle from whence it follows by necessary consequence that is the falsehood of the Principle which saith that no sincere Obedience but the act of Faith is indispensably necessary to Salvation 2. We Answer that though we suppose and grant it impossible for a sincere Faith to be without sincere Obedience yet we may very well say that it is a great falsehood that no other Obedience but that of the formal elicit Act of Faith is required of Christians as indispensably necessary to Salvation and may prove it by this Argument Suppose
through Grace we be sincerely obedient we shall be saved but if not we shall be damned Now this Faith acting upon the several parts of God's Word according to their respective Natures is of great force and efficacy to determine us unto the practice of sincere Obedience 1. the Faith of God's Word commanding sincere Obedience as indispensably necessary to Salvation makes our Consciences how down to God's Authority in the Command and makes us endeavour to yeild Obedience to it 2. The Faith of God's Word of threatning against the disobedient Rebel works upon our Fears 2 Cor. 5.10 11. Heb. 4.1 and Fear restrains us from disobedience lest thereby we should bring upon our selves the everlasting punishment threatned 3. The Faith of God's Word of Promise to obedient Believers works upon our hope and hope quickens us unto Obedience as the necessary means to obtain the Eternal Reward promised It makes us follow after Holiness in expectation of Happiness 1 John 3.2 3. It is essential to saving Faith to act thus differently on the several parts of the Word according to their respective Natures making us tremble at the Threatnings embrace the Promises and by that means obey the Commands of God As our Confession of Faith intimates in Chap. 14. Art 2. Now our Faith its being thus naturally fitted to make us sincerely obedient unto the Lord in all his Commands and Institutions ariseth partly from hence that the indispensable necessity of sincere Obedience in order to the obtaining of Eternal Salvation is one of the objects of a sound Faith which it firmly assents to and is strongly perswaded of For this firm assent and strong perswasion that sincere Obedience is so necessary to Salvation will not let us rest but will be still putting us on to yeild sincere Obedience unto the Law of Christ as that which must be done or we shall be undone for ever But if a Man be once firmly perswaded in his own Mind that no sincere Obedience but onely the Act of Faith in way of Obedience is indispensably necessary to Salvation his Faith will not have so much Power over him to make him sincerely obedient unto the Lord in order to Salvation Indeed it is much to be doubted whether that Man hath a sincere Faith at all who is under the Power of this erroneous Opinion that no sincere Obedience distinct from the Act of Faith is indispensably necessary to Salvation for a sincere sound Faith amongst other of its Objects it believes this for one that as first Faith so next sincere Obedience is indispensably necessary to Salvation Thus we have proved our Second Proposition to wit It is false that no sincere Obedience but the Act of Faith is required as indispensably necessary to the obtaining the promised Blessing of Eternal Life and Glory Now both the Premisses being certainly and evidently true the Conclusion follows unavoidably which is this That it is true that some Obedience besides the Act of Faith is required as indispensably necessary to the obtaining of the promised Blessing of Eternal Life and Glory For who is so stark blind as not to see that if it be false that no Obedience but Faith is indispensably necessary to Salvation as we have proved it to be false then its contradictory is true that some Obedience besides Faith is indispensably necessary to Salvation We proceed then and thus argue If some Obedience besides Faith be indispensably necessary to Salvation then that some Obedience besides Faith must be either a most perfect personal sinless Obedience or an imperfect personal sincere Obedience There can be no other personal Obedience but one of these two thought indispensably necessary to Salvation But it is not it cannot be a most perfect personal sinless Obedience for if such an Obedience were required as indispensably necessary to Salvation then no Man could be saved because no meer Man ever performed such Obedience to the Law of God in this life no Man ever lived so holily as never to sin in Thought Word or Deed after his Conversion and 〈…〉 And so if such sinless personal Obedience were required of all as indispensably â—â—â—â—â—sary to Salvation no Flesh could be saved but all would be damned notwithstanding all that Christ hath done and suffered to purchase Salvation for his People Christ's blood would have been so far shed in vain that not one Soul would be saved by it which were Blasphemy to affirm and therefore it cannot be that now under the Gospel-Covenant a most perfect personal sinless Obedience is required of us as indispensably necessary to Salvation Since therefore some personal Obedience besides Faith is indispensably necessary to Salvation and it is not a most perfect personal sinless Obedience that is so necessary we must of necessity conclude that it is an imperfect personal sincere Obedience which besides Faith is indispensably necessary to Salvation The other most perfect personal sinless Obedience is not attainable in this Life by the ordinary assistance of God's Grace but this personal imperfect yet sincere Obedience is attainable in this Life by the ordinary helps of God's Spirit and Grace For Christ's yoke is easie and his burden is light Mat. 11.30 And God's Commandments are not grievous 1 John 5.3 The Spirit helpeth our infirmities Rom. 8.26 Through the Spirit we mortifie the deeds of the body Rom. 8.13 We purify our souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit c. 1 Pet. 1.22 In short though without Christ we can do nothing John 15.5 Yet through Christ strengthening us we can do all things Phil. 4.13 that is we can do all things which Christ requires of us as indispensably necessary to our obtaining the promised Blessing of Eternal Life and Salvation If any should object against this and say that a Man may be saved although he do not perform that Obedience which is indispensably necessary to Salvation because though he fall into very great Sins yet he may repent of them and so be saved through Christ upon his repentance We Answer 1. That it is contradictious Non-sence to say a Man may be saved without that sincere Obedience which God hath made indispensably necessary to his Salvation 2. We answer with Rutherford and others as aforesaid that when a Regenerate Justified Man fulls into gross Sins against Knowledge and Conscience he cannot be saved whilst he continues in those Sins without Repentance for then he doth not walk after the Spirit but rather after the Flesh then he is going astray from the way that leads to Life and Salvation and is walking in the broad way that leads to destruction And therefore if he do not turn back and return again into the narrow way that leads to Life and Salvation he will certainly be undone he will perish everlastingly Rom. 8.13 If ye live after the flesh ye shall die But when a justified Man that had fallen as is said rises again by Repentance he returns to his Obedience And we desire it
we believe and obey is so far from hindring our actual Faith and Obedience from being the Condition that on the contrary it conduceth very much to make them the Condition the Gracious Evangelical Condition of the Covenant and without it they could not be such a Condition As to what they say that special Grace necessarily causeth our Faith and Obedience we answered before that special Grace doth not cause our actual Faith and Obedience with any such kind of necessity as is inconsistent with or destructive of the true liberty of our Souls in believing and obeying Augustin the great asserter of the necessity and efficacy of Supernatural Grace against the Pelagians and Semipelagians says in his 46 Epist. to Valentinus Obedientiam nostram Deus requirit quae nulla potest esse sine libero arbitrio God requires our Obedience which without the liberty of our minds can be no obedience And our own Westminster Confession of Faith in chap 19. atr 7. says that the Spirit of Christ subdues and enables the will of man to do that freely and chearfully which the will of God revealed in the Law requireth to be done Dr. Twisse also saith frequently that the effectual will and grace of God doth not destroy but establisheth the freedom of our actions particularly in his Answer to Hoard his God's Love to Mankind Book 2. page 103. He writes thus against Mr. Mason when once God hath planted in us a principle of new Life of the Life of Grace by the Spirit of Regeneration See 127 page of his Desence of the Synod of Dort c. though all the powers thereof do incline only to that which is good like as the powers of natural corruption incline only unto evil yet the particular use and exercise of those is always free Like as the particular use and exercise of the powers of our Corruption is always free to the committing of this or that sin according unto the emergent occasions standing in congruity to every mans particular disposition And pag. 104. Should he Mr. Mason have laid to our charge that we maintain that God necessitates the will to any good act and to over-rule the will therein we should utterly deny it without distinction It is true he over-rules the will of the flesh but not the will of the spirit the Regenerate part but moves it agreeably to its nature and to work not only voluntarily but freely whatsoever it worketh For albeit the Regenerate part is like a moral vertue though as much transcendent to it as a thing supernatural transcends a thing natural inclining only to that which is good yet is it always moved to this particular good rather than to another most freely Like as a mans natural Corruption inclines a man only to evil yet to this kind of evil or to this particular evil rather than to that Man is moved most freely So that if we maintain not that God works a Man to every good act otherwise than freely let the very conscience of our Enemies judge whether we can maintain that God necessitates the will either of Men or Devils unto sin And in the next page 105 he brings for confirmation of what he had said the 11th Article of the Church in Ireland where this position is first laid down that God from all Eternity did by his Unchangeable Counsel ordain whatsoever in time should come to pass and then it is forthwith added That hereby no violence is offered to the Wills of the reasonable Creatures and neither the liberty nor the contingency of second Causes is taken away but established rather Then again in page 108. This is clearly our Doctrine to wit that when God never so effectually works any Creature to the producing of an act connatural to it yet he works the Creature thereunto agreeably to its Nature that is if it be a necessary agent moves it to work necessarily if it be a contingent agent moves it to work contingently and if it be a free agent moves it to work freely and in effect it is the Doctrine of all them who say that God determines the Will as the Dominicans or that God necessitates the Will as Bradwardin For they acknowledge hereby that God moves the Creatures to work freely in such sort That in the very act of working they might do otherwise if they would They confess this providence of God is a great mystery and not sufficiently comprehensible by humane reason Cajetan professeth thus much as before alledged and Alvarez maintaineth it in a set disputation Thus far Twiss whereby we see that he held all the good we do to be acts of free Obedience notwithstanding that we produce them by the assistance of Gods effectual Grace yea that they are so free that though secundum quid in some respect it is necessary for them to be produced yet simpliciter absolutè See page 116 117 118 119 120. simply and absolutely it is possible for them not to be produced And if our Actual Faith and Obedience be free acts of ours notwithstanding that they are also effects of God's Grace then they may be our Duties also And indeed they are Duties so necessarily required of us as that the obtaining of Justification and Glorification is suspended by the promises till the performance of them as was proved before And then it follows by necessary consequence that they are Evangelical Conditions of the promises because they have the Essential Nature of an Evangelical Condition Here we take notice by the way that there are some who distinguish between the Covenant of Grace and the administration of it and they say themselves and would make all others say with them that the Covenant it self is absolute to the Elect but that the administration of it is conditional in the preaching of the Gospel * A brief Account of the State of the differences now depending and agitated about Justification page 4. Now we must declare that we cannot say without distinction as some would have us to do that the Covenant of Grace is absolute to the Elect. We have already said and proved that the Covenant of Grace made with the Church through Christ is a complex of many promises whereof some are indeed absolute yet not so absolute neither as to exclude all use of means such are the promises of the first Grace of saving Faith and Repentance c. but others of them are conditional even to the Elect such are the promises of the subsequent blessings of the Covenant as of Justification pardon of sin and Eternal Life We do not find that those subsequent blessings of the Covenant are ever promised to any of Adams Posterity but upon some Condition expressed or implyed and most frequently the Conditions are expressed with a plain Declaration that as many as perform the conditions shall have the promised Blessings but they who never perform the conditions shall never have the promised blessings This shows plainly that the Covenant
pleased him This Proposition is self-evident for it is of the very Essence of Free-will in God the First and Freest Agent that in all external temporal things which fall under his Free-will he might have done them or not have done them he might have done them thus as he doth them or he might have done them otherwise than he hath done if he had pleased But antecedently to his free Purpose and Decree the whole ordering of the Covenant of Grace and of its terms and receptive Condition depended upon God's Free-will and Soveraign Pleasure Hence the Gospel is called the Mystery of God's Will and the Revelation of the Gospel unto us is said to be the making known unto us the Mystery of his Will according to his Good Pleasure which he hath purposed in himself Eph. 1.9 Now if the whole Mystery of the Covenant of Grace depended on God's Free-will then the ordaining of this or that to be the receptive Condition of the Covenant depended on his Will also and so antecedently to the free Purpose of his Will there was no natural necessity that Faith alone and no other thing should be the receptive Condition of the Covenant 2. It is not yet past Dispute amongst Divines Whether antecedently to God's free Purpose and Decree to save us by the Satisfaction and Merits of Christ alone he might not have freely purposed and decreed to have pardoned and saved us some other way Amongst our Reformed Divines Calvin Twiss and Rutherford and others were of this Opinion yea even Dr. Owen himself was once of this Opinion though afterwards he changed his mind in that as he did in other things witness what he wrote in his Book called The Death of Death in the Death of Christ Or A Treatise of Redemption c. Book II. Chap. II. Page 57. The Foundation of this whole Assertion seems to me to be false and erroneous viz that God could not have Mercy on Mankind unless satisfaction were made by his Son It is true indeed supposing the Decree Purpose and Constitution of God that so it should be that so he would manifest his Glory by the way of vindicative Justice it was impossible that it should otherwise be for with the Lord there is neither change nor shadow of turning Lam. 1.18 1 Sam. 15.29 But to assert positively that absolutely and antecedently to his Constitution he could not have done it is to me an unwritten Tradition the Scripture affirming no such thing neither can it be gathered from thence in any good consequence if any one shall deny this we will try what the Lord will enable us to say unto it and in the mean time rest contented in that of Augustin though other ways of saving us were not wanting to his Infinite Wisdome yet certainly the way which he did proceed in was the most convenient because we find he proceeded therein Thus Dr. Owen in that Book and though he unsaid this again and embraced that Opinion which he then called an unwritten Tradition yet there are other Learned Divines of that same Opinion at this Day Mistake us not for we do not say that we are of it but that some are and that the matter is not yet past dispute And the Consequence which we infer is undeniable that if God antecedently to his Constitution and Degree could have pardoned and saved us some other way without the Satisfaction and Merits of Christ then surely he could have offered and promised us Pardon and Salwation without the Condition of Faith in Christ and upon what other Condition he pleafed 3. Though we grant that upon supposition that God would pardon our Sins and save our Souls it did not consist with the Glory of his Justice and Honour of his Law and Government to do it without Satisfaction for the Offence we had given and the Dishonour we had done him by our Sins and therefore it was necessary not onely from the free purpose of God's Will but also from the nature of his vindictive governing Justice that Christ by suffering in our stead should satisfie his Justice for our Sins yet doth it not follow at all by any natural necessity arising immediately from the essential nature of Faith without any appointment and constitution of God's Will that Faith because it is of a receptive nature and nothing else shall be the Condition upon the performance whereof Christ with his Satisfaction and Merits shall be not only offered but given unto us For as Dr. Owen saith very well in his little Book of the Trinity and Satisfaction of Christ pag. 208. The satisfaction made for Sin being not made by the Sinner himself there must of necessity be a Rule Order and Law-constitution how the Sinner may come to be interested in it and made Partaker of it for the consequent of the freedome of one by the suffering of another is not matural or necessary but must proceed and arise from a Law-constitution Compact and Agreement Now the way constituted and appointed is that of Faith or believing as explained in the Scripture Thus Dr. Owen To which we add that the Scripture explains it thus Gal. 5.6 That in Christ Jesus neither Circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth any thing but Faith which worketh by Love From this Passage of Dr. Owen and the Argument contained in it it is most evident that it doth not arise immediately and necessarily from the receptive nature of Faith that it is the Condition of the Offer and Promise but from the Will of God constituting and appointing it to be the Condition Faith's receptive apprehensive nature is but a remote Reason of its Conditionality and doth but make it fit to be the Condition if God please to make it so And it is God's Will and Law-constitution onely which is the nearest and formal Reason of its Conditionality and which doth immediately and formally make it to be the Condition of the Covenant Joh. 6.40 This is no new notion of ours we find it long agoe before many of us were born Walaeus Doctor and Professor of Divinity in Leyden in his Enchiridion Religionis Reformatae pag. 112. said that Fides nos Justificat sed relativè considerata quia haec est Voluntas Dei ut qui credit in Christum ejus meriti fiat Particeps Faith Justifies us but relatively considered because this is the Will of God that he who believes in Christ shall be made Partaker of his Merit And not onely Mr. Baxter but Cartwright also pag. 179. of his Book against Baxter agrees with him in acknowledging this Truth his Words are these The Reason why Christs Righteousness cannot Justifie except it be apprehended by Faith is this That God doth require Faith of us Faith I say apprehending Christ and his Righteousness believe in the Lord Jesus Christ that so we may be Justified Gods Will is properly the cause yet there is a congruity in the thing it self an aptitude you grant in the nature of Faith It is of an
Saints but they raise up the fallen again that they be not ruined For the promises also are expresly extended unto the Righteous sometimes fallen into sin Psal 37.24 and 89.30 31 32 33 34. The same Authour writing against the Papist upon the same subject saith Fides tune dicitur justificare cum actum proprium c. Faith is then said to justifie when it can exercise Pareus lib. 1. de amissione gratiae cap. 7. prope finem and doth exercise its proper act of Receiving Remission of sins but a Faith that is sick wounded oppressed with the filth of the flesh and as it were bound with the fetters of sin doth not exercise nor can it exercise this act and a little after But God doth not impute sin to the just that are fallen to wit when they repent but before they repent he doth indeed impute sin to them by inflicting temporal punishments and unless they repented he would impute sin to them by inflicting also eternal punishments And he thus concludes Tune igitur fides in lapsis habitualiter tantion manens propriè justificans dici aut eos justificare non potest Therefore Faith then remaining habitually only in the lapsed it cannot properly be said to be justifying or to justifie them Thus far Pareus Whereby we plainly see that he held the Covenant of Grace to be conditional as we do that Faith and Repentance are conditions of it especially Faith is the main condition by the acts whereof we are justified and receive Remission of sin not by the habit because it is the Act and not the Habit that receives Christ and Remission of sins through him 2. He held that after Justification sincere Obedience to the Lord in the avoiding of wilful presumptuous sins of Omission and Commission is a Condition so necessary to the obtaining of Eternal Salvation that without such Obedience either continued without intermission or after some notable intermission of its acts and weakning of its habit renewed again by new acts of Faith and Repentance Salvation cannot be obtained nor Damnation avoided 3. That though there be such conditions required of the Elect in order to Justification and of the justified in order to Salvation yet they are not uncertain as to the event but shall through special effectual Grace be infallibly performed and the Elect and Justified shall be eternally saved This was the Gospel that Pareus preached and the Synod of Dort approved And it is that and no other which we preach also Therefore it must needs be a great falsehood and slander that we preach a new Arminian Gospel We find likewise that the Divines of Geneva Deodat and Tronchin in the Synod of Doâ—t were for the conditionality of the Covenant of Grace in the sense before explained for thus they write in their suffrage concerning the second Article Fides est revera conditio novi foederis respectu ordinis inviolabilis a Deo instituti Act. Synod Dondrect part 2. page 132. c. Faith is indeed the Condition of the new Covenant in respect of the inviolable order instituted by God but it is also a promised gift of the new Covenant and an effect of our ingrafting into Christ In these words 1. We observe That in the Judgment of those Divines approved by the Synod of Dort God by his absolute Will hath instituted a conditional order between the antecedent and subsequent blessings of the new Covenant 2. That Faith is the Condition ordained by God for obtaining the subsequent blessings of the Covenant such as Justification Pardon of sin c. 3. That it is not habitual Faith or the first habitual seminal permanent principle of Faith but it is actual Faith because they say that it is the effect of our ingrafting into Christ but the first seminal permanent principle of Faith is not the effect of our ingrafting into Christ otherwise we should be ingrafted into Christ before we have so much as the least seminal principle of Faith since the cause must be before the effect Therefore to avoid that absurdity we think they meant that our ingrafting into Christ begins in the Spirits working in us the seminal principle of Faith which concurs to the producing of the Act of Faith which being our formal vital Act though produced by the Vertue of the Seminal Principle and the effectual influence of the Spirit is the Condition of the Covenant performed by us and withal is the effect of our initial ingrafting into Christ The same Doctrine is believed and professed at Geneva at this day Witness what was lately Taught and Published by Turretin Professor of Divinity there In Page 196. of that Book he saith that Christ requires Faith in God's Promises and Obedience to his Commandments Turrotin Institut Theologiae Eleâ—ct Part. 2. Edit Genev. 1688. as the Duties and Conditions of the Covenant And in the same Page he saith that The form of Words wherein the new Covenant is expressed I will be your God and you shall be my People comprehends both the Benefits promised on God's part and the Duties required on our part And first he explains at large what promised Benefits on God's part are implied in the Words I will be your God Secondly he shews what Duties required on our parts are implied in the Words you shall be my People After he had in general opened the meaning of the foresaid Form of the Covenant he comes to particulars and in the 29. Paragraph he sayes The Principal Duties required of us are Faith and Repentance Faith which embraces the Promises and Repentance which fulfils the Commandments Faith answers to the Promise of Grace believe and thou shalt be saved Repentance is commanded Lege Evangelicâ by the Evangelical Law walk before me and be thou perfect Gon. 17.1 For as on God's part there are two principal Benefits of the Covenant Remission of sins and the writing of the Law in the Heart so on Man's part two Duties ought to answer unto them to wit Faith which applies unto us the Remission of sins and Repentance or the study and endeavour of Sanctification which reduces into practice the Law written in the Heart by walking in God's Statutes which Christ meant when he said Mark 1.25 Repent and believe the Gospel In Page 202. he puts the Question Whether the Covenant of Grace be conditional and what are the Conditions of it And in Answer to it he distinguishes between several sorts of Conditions and as we have done shews that in some sense it is not Conditional and then he concludes that in another sense it it Conditional and Page 203. he proves it by three Arguments 1. Because it is proposed with a Condition expressed John 3.16 36. Bom. 10.9 Acts 8.37 Mark 16.16 And frequently in other places 2. Because if it were not conditional there would be no place for Threatnings in the Gospel which cannot be denounced but against those who neglect to performe the Condition prescribed For the
1634. in Answer to Mr. Hoards Book called Gods Love to Mankind which Answer was Printed after his Death by Mr. Jeanes a very Learned and Zealous Calvinist in the Year 1653. at Oxford The Ministers of the New Testament Twiss against Hoard pag. 194 195. are called Ministers not of the Letter but of the Spirit that is not of the Law the Ministry whereof is not the Ministry of the Spirit but yet this is rightly to be understood to wit of the Spirit of Adoption for undoubtedly even the Ministry of the Law is the Ministry of the Spirit also but of the Spirit of Bondage to hold Men under fear It is called the Ministry of Condemnation and the Reason hereof I conceive to be because God doth not concur with the Ministry of the Law by the Holy Spirit to work any Man to the performance of the Condition of the Law which is exact and perfect Obedience But thus he doth concur with the Ministry of the Gospel namely by his Spirit to work Men to the performance of the Condition thereof which is Faith in Christ and true Repentance therefore the Letter to wit of the Law is called a killing Letter but the Gospel is joined with a quickening Spirit and therefore Piscator conceives that the Gospel in this place is called by the Name of the Spirit So then the Gospel giveth Life by the Spirit which accompanieth the Ministry thereof c. And in the same Book he saith Some Benefits are bestowed upon Man only conditionally though for Christs sake and they are the pardon of sin and salvation of the Soul Page 154. and these God doth confer only upon the Condition of Faith and Repentance Now I am ready to profess and that I suppose as out of the Mouth of all our Divines that every one who hears the Gospel without distinction between Elect and Reprobate is bound to believe that Christ died for him so far as to procure both the pardon of his sins and the Salvation of his Soul in case he believe and repent But there are other Benefits which Christ by his Obedience hath merited for us namely the Benefit of Faith and Repentance for it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell Col. 1.19 And he hath blessed us with all Spiritual Blessings in Christ that is for Christs sake Eph. 1.3 And God works in us that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ Heb. 13.21 And therefore seeing nothing is more pleasing in Gods sight on our part then Faith and Repentance even these also I should think God works in us through Jesus Christ And the Apostle prays in the behalf of the Ephesians Eph. 6.23 for Peace and Faith and Love from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ that is us â—â—interpret it from God the Father Son and Holy Ghost as an efficient Cause and from the Lord Jesus Christ God and Man as a meritorious Cause thereof Now I demand whether this Authour can say truely that it is the constant Opinion of our Divines that all who hear the Gospel whether Elect or Reprobate are bound to believe that Christ died to procure them Faith and Repentance Nay doth any Arminian at this Day believe this or can he name 〈◊〉 Aâ—minian that doth avouch this Again Glory and Salvation God doth not will that it shall be the Portion of any one of ripe Years absolutely but conditionally to wit if he repent and believe And in case all 〈◊〉 page 174. and every one of the World should believe and repent all and every one how notorious Sinners soever they be found shall be saved such is the sufficiency of Christ's Merits I say this is true not of them onely who are invited to the Wedding Mat 22. Nor of them onely to whom St. Peter speaketh Acts 3.26 Or of them onely of whom our Saviour speaketh Mat. 23.37 But of all and every â—ne throughout the World And it is as true that none of them shall be saved if they dye in Inâ—idelity and Impenitency This God himself signifieth to be his will by his Promise Acts 2.38 39. on the one part and on both parts Mark 16.16 And as God signifieth this to be his will so indeed it is his will according to our Doctrine and there is no colour of Imposture or Simulation in all this In like sort as touching the Grace of pardon of sin this also God offers unto all that hear the Gospel but how not absolutely but conditionally in case they believe and Repent and it is God's will that every one who believeth shall have his sin pardoned none that I know either thinketh or teacheth otherwise whether he falleth out either to be Elect or Reprobate though how to distinguish Men according unto this difference 〈◊〉 know not I leave that unto God Now like as we say God doth signifie his meaning to 〈◊〉 that as many as believe and repent shall have their sins pardoned and their Souls saved So if it can be proved that there is no such meaning in God then in my poor Judgment it cannot be avoided but that God must be found halting in his Offers But for my part I acknowledge such a meaning in God neither have I to this Hour found any one of our Divines either by Word or Writing to have denyed this to be the meaning of God Again Whereas he Hoard fashioneth our Doctrine so as if we said that God hath decreed at no hand to save them to whom he promiseth Salvation upon Condition of Faith this is a notorious untruth Ibid. pag. 177. and such as implieth manifest contradiction For to say he hath resolved at no hand to save them is as much as to say that he hath resolved to save them on no Condition But if he hath promised to save them in case they believe undoubtedly he hath resolved to save them upon Condition of Faith Onely God's Resolution to save them is not held in suspence considering that from Everlasting he well knew who would believe and who would not c. Again It is true Baptism is ordained that those which do receive it may have the Remission of their sins but not absolutely but conditionally to wit in case they Believe and Repent as appears both in that place Acts 2.38 Ibid. pag. 201. and Rom. 4.11 and Baptism as a Seal doth assure hereof onely in case they Believe and Repent and therefore none of Ripe Years were admitted unto Baptism until they made Profession of their Faith and as for Infants they were also antiently said to be Baptized in Fide Parentum By all these Passages quoted Word for Word out of Dr. Twiss it is as clear as the Light at Noon-day that he held the Covenant of Grace to be Conditional and particularly that the Promise of Justification and Pardon of Sin is Conditional and that Faith and Repentance not Faith alone nor Repentance alone but Faith and Repentance together are
good man that is a good man initially or make him begin to be a good Man But now this makes against our Author himself and clearly proves that no Man can believe with a saving justifying Faith till Gospel Grace renew him and make him first a good Man this Consequence from his own Words he can never avoid unless he will say that a saving justifying Faith is no good thing for if it be not an evil but a good thing no Man can do it till Gospel Grace have renewed him and make him first a good Man So then we have found by his own Confession that a Man is first good through Grace and then he believes in Christ to Justification And if a Man be thus good initially good before he actually believe with a saving justifying Faith then is he Holy also initially Holy before he do so believe for that Initial Goodness and this Initial Holiness is one and the same thing And further if a man may be and must be thus initially Good and Holy before he actually believe then he may be qualified before he actually believe for he cannot be Good and Holy as aforesaid without Gods putting some good qualities into him This the Synod of Dort hath determined in their 11. Canon on the 3d and 4th Articles as was shewed before and it is hoped our Author will not oppose the Determination of that Synod Now whenever God by his Spirit puts good qualities into a Man he thereby qualifies him for the very formal effect of good qualities is to qualifie the Man to whom God gives them Pag. 11. But saith our Author Whence should a Man have any good Qualification before he be in Christ by Faith since a Sinner out of Christ hath no Qualification for Christ but Sin and Misery We Answer that before a Man be in Christ by Faith he hath some good Qualification from Christ by his Spirit preparing him for and bringing him unto Union with himself by actual Faith As to what he saith that a Sinner out of Christ hath no Qualification for Christ but Sin and Misery We Answer by distinguishing thus he hath no Qualification but Sin and Misery of and from himself It is true But that he hath no Qualification of and from Christ by his Holy Spirit but Sin and Misery it is utterly false and the contrary is true to wit that a Man who hath no Qualification of and from himself but the evil Qualification of Sin and Misery yet of and from Christ by his Spirit and Word he hath the good Qualification of a Heart in part changed and renewed and of a Holy Seed and Prineiple of Grace put into his Heart Though a Man cannot qualifie himself for Christ yet nothing hinders but that Christ by his Spirit and Word can qualifie a man for Union with himself and for Justification by his Meritorious Righteousness Yes saith our Author something doth hinder for I boldly assert that such a man who were so qualified would not Let. p. 11. nor could ever believe on Christ We are not willing here to apply the Proverb That none is so bold as blind Bayard But this we must say that we cannot see that this Man hath any probable ground for such Confidence Sure we are it will be a very difficult task to prove that a man cannot possibly believe in Christ because Christ by his Word and Spirit hath fitted and qualified him for Believing But it seems nothing is difficult to this bold man and therefore he will prove it by an Argument taken from the Nature of Faith thus Faith saith he is a lost helpless condemned Sinners casting himself on Christ for Salvation But the qualified Man is no such Person And then the Conclusion if rightly inferred from the Premisses is this ergo The qualified Man is not Faith c. A goodly Argument indeed and a Foundation fit for this Man to ground his Confidence upon If he say that his Argument doth not so conclude but rather thus Faith is a Gracious Act whereby a lost helpless condemned Sinner casts himself on Christ for Salvation but the qualified Man is not a lost helpless condemned Sinner casting himself on Christ for Salvation therefore the qualified man is not what is he not why he is not a lost helpless condemned Sinner casting himself on Christ for Salvation Is this now his Argument And doth it thus conclude then his Argument is as Ridiculous as his Confidence Let him keep to his Premisses laid down in his Letter and if he can let him regularly inferr from them another Conclusion than one of these But let what will become of the form of his Argument We answer by distinguishing both Propositions And 1. For the first we say that a Person who by true Faith casts himself on Christ for Salvation is indeed a Sinnor lost and helpless in and of himself and he is condemned by the Law but tho that be true yet in Order of Nature before he believes and in the very Act of Believing he is found and helped by the Lord and hath a Pardon offered him by the Gospel and by Faith he receives it Acts 10.43 Then for the second Proposition we distinguish it also thus The qualified Man is not such a Person is not a lost helpless condemned Sinner that is the Man that is 1. Qualified with a Satisfactory Meritorious Qualification 2. That is so qualified by himself he is not such a Person It is true and we grant it But with all we say that indeed it is impossible for any Man so to qualifie himself Yet we maintain that a Man who is qualified by the Holy Spirit and free Effectual Grace of Christ is such a Person and doth by Faith â—ast himself on Christ for Salvation our being qualified by the Holy Spirit and free Effectual Grace of Christ is so far from hindring our believing as our Author boldly but ignorantly affirms that in Truth it doth very much further our believing it lets us see and causes us to feel that we are lost and helpless in and of our selves and condemned by the Law and that we are found and helped by the Lord and can be pardoned only by the Gospel Whereupon it inclines and moves us to flee unto Christ for refuge and to cast our selves on him for Justification and Salvation Thirdly In the same Page Let. p. 11. we have another of his Objections against the Truth we have been proving by Scripture Reason and Testimony of Protestant Divines Shall we saith he warn People that they should not believe on Christ too soon Either this Interrogation is altogether impertinent or there is this Argument implied in it if there be a real change and a holy gracious Principle wrought in Peoples Hearts before they do or can believe with a saving justifying Faith then it will follow that Ministers should warn people not to believe on Christ too soon but so to do is absurd and contrary to
Spirit of God by means whereof Sinners come to know more of God and of his Word particularly of his Law than ever they did before 2. There is a Conviction of their Conscience that they have frequently and hainously transgressed Gods Law in habit and Act in Heart and Life And by their Sins Original and Actual are fallen under the curse of the broken Law and the Wrath of the offended Law-giver 3. There thence ariseth in them a fear of the Wrath and Vengeanceof an offended God 4. Thereupon they begin to be sorry that by their Sin and Folly they have brought themselves into such a dangerous Condition and to humble themselves before God if so be that his Wrath may be turned away from them 5. The Light whereby the Word and Spirit had given them a clearer Knowledge of God and of themselves than ever they had before and of their obnoxiousness to Gods Everlasting Wrath and Vengeance is increased by the Gospel and thereby is given them some Discovery and Knowledge of Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of God as one whom God hath ordained to be the Saviour of lost Sinners of Mankind and to reconcile them unto God by satisfying his offended Justice and by Meriting for them his Grace and Favour 6. Upon this Knowledge of Christ there follows some kind of common Faith and Hope that it is possible for them in particular to get their Sins pardoned and their Souls saved through the Mediation of Jesus Christ Mark 10.27 7. Then there ariseth some Joy in them from the foresaid Faith and Hope of the possibility of their obtaining so great Salvation from the Curse of the Law and Wrath of the Law-giver Mark 6.20 Luke 8.13 8. This Joy and Gladness of Heart arising from the Hope of the Possibility of their obtaining so great Salvation makes them desire that that possibility may be reduced into Act and that they may actually obtain the possible Salvation 9. The desire of actually obtaining it makes them in some sort willing to use the means appointed by God for obtaining so desirable an end whereupon they give themselves to consider What those means are and how to use them and from that they proceed to read and hear the Word of God more than formerly to pray unto God themselves and to desire the Prayers of others for the pardon of their Sins and the Salvation of their Souls 10. And lastly They endeavour to reform their Lives by abstaining from the outward Commission of those Sins which they have been most grosly guilty of and which do most burden their Consciences These are the Dispositions which are previous to Regeneration and a through Conversion for we humbly conceive it possible for Sinners to go thus far towards before they attain unto a saving Conversion Secondly To declare what our Opinion is concerning these Dispositions previous to Conversion 1. We do not think that they are all absolutely necessary on Gods part as if he could not possibly Convert a Sinner immediately without such foregoing Dispositions We know nothing to the contrary but that God can come unto a Sinner by the powerful Operation of his Spirit and Grace if he please in the midst of his greatest and deepest unpreparedness and turn him from his Sin and bring him to Christ by saving Conversion immediately But yet 2. We do not think that this is Gods usual way of drawing Sinners to Christ for though such previous Dispositions to Conversion be not absolutely necessary on Gods part yet they are ordinarily necessary on mens part especially in Countreys where God hath planted Churches hath sent Ministers to preach the Gospel publickly and hath established a course of outward visible means we think that in such places though God hath not tied himself to means yet he hath tied men to the use of them and that they have never so much Reason to expect Gods special help and Effectual Assistance for their faving Conversion as when they are using their best endeavours in the use of the means which God himself has ordained for the communicating of his saving Grace to lost Sinners of Mankind 3. The foresaid Preparations which we believe to be ordinarily necessary on mans part we do not judge to be the product of meer natural Light and Power in Man but to be the effect of common Grace which Grace we call common because not only the Elect but the Non elect also are made partakers of it in the Visible Church and we hold it to be of a supernatural Order of Beings whereby those who are made partakers of it are enabled to do things that are above their meer natural Capacity and which they could not possibly do of themselves without that supernatural Help and Assistance 4. We do not believe that any thing or all that man doth by the help of the said supernatural common Grace is Meritorious either ex condigno or ex congruo of Condignity or of Congruity of special saving Grace so as God should be obliged and could not with Honour but give special saving Grace to those unto whom he hath first given the foresaid common Grace 5. Yet we think that God doth not take away the said common Grace from any to whom he hath given it till they have first forfeited it and provoked God to take it from them by their neglecting to improve it as they ought and might have done For we are of Dr. Owens Opinion in this matter as he expresseth it in his Discourfe concerning the Holy Spirit Pag. 198. Where special Grace and real Conversion is not attained to wit by means of common Grace and its effects on the Soul it is always from the Interposition of an Act of Wilfulness and Stubbornness in those Englightned and Convicted they do not sincerely improve what they have received and faint not meerly for want of Strength to proceed but by a free Act of their own Wills they refuse the Grace which is further tendred unto them in the Gospel From this Passage of Dr. Owens we see that according to him the only culpable Reason why those who have the foresaid common Grace and thereby go so far in the way to Conversion but yet do not attain the end do not arrive at special Grace and saving Conversion thereby is because they were grosly wanting in their Duty to God and themselves of improving common Grace as far as it would go 6. Though we thus shew that men themselves are the only culpable Cause of their not obtaining special Grace and saving Conversion thereby yet we do not say on the other hand that the Elect are the laudable Cause of their infallibly obtaining special Grace and saving Conversion thereby No no we are no such Persons we hold no such Opinions but are of Prospers Mind and say with him Quantumlibet impiorum malignitas accusetur Prosper de vocat Gentium lib. 1. Cap. 25. resistens gratiae dei nurquid probabuntur eam quibus est collata
of Practice is that we have much kindness for true Antinomians in practice This being matter of Fact and insinuating into the People that we do not walk according to the Rules of the Gospel it should have been proved by sufficient evidence before it had been thus charged publickly on Ministers or People But that is not our Authors way to bring evidence for the proof of his accusations but boldly to accuse without proof Whether the matter be true or false it seems is all one to him for he is well acquainted with that Calumniare audacter aliquid adhaerebit throw abundance of dirt and in all probability some of it will stick Well but what is become of Conscience in the mean time It seems little of that is to be expected from some men As for our having much kindness for true Antinomians in practice if he mean that we have much unlawful kindness for them it is more than we know of our selves and how he should know that of us which we do not know of our selves we cannot understand But there being many of us who are thus accused we freely acknowledge that it may be some of us have some Acquaintance and Hearers who are in some respect Antinomians in practice and that for such sinful Persons we have much civil kindness and Christian Compassion and by a kind and compassionate behaviour towards them we desire and endeavour to gain them to Christ and to Convert them from their sinful practices where is the evil of this what rule of the Gospel do we transgress by this We think we are obliged both by the Law of Nature and by the Law of God thus to be kind to them so long as there is any hope of gaining them But if our Author mean that we have much kindness for their Antinomian and Sinfull practices or that we encourage them in such practices and do not endeavour to turn them from them it is utterly false And the Lord knows that the contrary is true and that it is to some of us matter of much grief and sorrow of heart that they take such courses as are both dispeasing and dishonourable to God and destructive to their own Souls that we use means to reclaim them that we most frequently and earnestly seek God for them and as it were travel in Birth untill Christ be formed in them This is the greatest kindness that we shew unto any who are true Antinomians in practice And now let all who fear God Judge and even let our Authors own Conscience Judge whether for this we deserve to be thus reflected upon and Calumniated Seventh Calumny HIS Seventh Calumny is to be seen in page 27th of the Letter where he chages the younger Ministers with being for the new Rational Method of Divinity and with being despisers or neglecters of Luther Calvin Zanchy Twiss Ames and Perkins And to make the simple People believe that by this means they subvert the very ground and foundation of the Christian Religion he saith two things 1. That to be Rational is no fit commendation of a Minister but rather it is the commendation of a Philosopher 2. That to be Rational is yet more unfitly applyed to Divinity because first Divinity hath a higher and nobler Original than reason to wit Divine Revelation Secondly Because Divinity cannot be rightly learned without an higher principle than Reason to wit the Teaching of the Holy Ghost In which our Author manifestly insinuates That 1. We are for a new sort of Divinity and despise or neglect the old 2. That our new Divinity is not grounded upon Divine Revelation but upon our own reason or the invention of our own brains 3. That we pretend Divinity may be rightly learned by our own reason or natural understanding without the supernatural Teaching and assistance of the Holy Ghost Of which things not one is true but they are all abominably false 1. It is not true but false that the Brethren are for a new sort of Divinity and despise or neglect the Old The falshood of this hath been already fully and clearly demonstrated 2. As it is utterly false that our Divinity is new so it is as false that it is not grounded upon Divine Relation but upan our own reason or the invention of our own Brains On the contrary we believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths that the whole of our Divinity or Religion is grounded upon Divine Revelation And as Divinity or Religion is either natural or supernatural so Divine Revelation is either natural or supernatural and then as natural Religion is grounded upon Divine Revelation natural so supernatural Religion is grounded upon Divine Revelation supernatural That there is such a thing as Natural Religion and that it is grounded upon that Divine Revelation which God hath made of it by the Law and Light of nature within us and by his works of Creation and Common Providence without us we hope our Author is not so ignorant as not to know nor so perverse as to deny what in his Conscience he knows to be true and then for supernatural Divinity and Religion our Christian Religion considered as Christian and as Contradistinguished from all other Religion is of that kind it is properly supernatural and could never have been known unless it had been supernaturally revealed Therefore our Christian Religion as such hath its Original from supernatural Revelation and is grounded upon the same supernatural Revelation from which it had its Original We do not learn it per viam humanae inventionis sed duntaxat per viam coelest is disciplinae by the way of human invention but only by the way of heavenly discipline and instruction for saith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God Rom. 10.14 17. The Word of God is the means by which God hath supernaturally revealed to us our Christian Divinity and Religion And that Word of God is fully and clearly contained in the Holy Scriptures of truth So that we own no Christian Divinity and Religion but what is revealed by and grounded upon the written Word of the Old and New Testament which is to us the entire compleat Rule of faith and holiness Therefore it is false that our Divinity or Religion is new and not grounded upon Divine Revelation 3dly It is false that we pretend Divinity may be rightly learned by our own reason or natural understanding without the supernatural teaching and assistance of the Holy Spirit We say the quite contrary to wit that Divinity can never be rightly learned that is it can never be learned in a Spiritual and saving manner without the Supernatural teaching and assistance of the Holy Spirit For the Holy Spirit is the Efficient cause of all right Knowledge that is of all Spirituaâ— saving knowledge of God and Christ and of the Spiritual things of God and Christ Yet we must add that as our Christian Religion cannot be rightly that is Spiritually and savingly learned known and
Scripture and Reason and the Testimony of the Synod of Dort that there can be no just ground to doubt of it And if it were otherwise and we were justified before we were sanctified in any Kind or Degree that is before there were any Holy Change wrought in us before we did begin to Convert and turn to God before we had any Holy Inclination to believe or any Holy Act of Faith and Repentance and any Holy purpose to lead a new Life then might we continue to be actually justified and pardoned without being in any Kind or Degree sanctified because by the same Reason that Justification might be begun without any Kind or Degree of Sanctification without any saving Faith and Repentance it might be continued without them But all true Protestants except Antinomians even our Author himself confess that Justification cannot be continued without any Sanctification without any true Faith and Repentance therefore Justification cannot be begun before and without them If any should say that this Argument may be retorted upon our selves for we confess that Sanctification begun in the Seed Principle and Disposition with Vital Acts of Faith and Repentance flowing from it cannot be continued without Justification therefore it follows by our own way of Reasoning that they cannot be begun before Justification at first We Answer by denying the Consequence because God hath expresly promised Justification through Christ to all that from a new Heart believe and repent and such Faith and Repentance are the Condition on which Justification is promised But God hath no where promifed either Initial or Progressive Sanctification on Condition of Justification This shows that our Argument cannot be justly retorted upon us because there is a peculiar Reason to the contrary a Reason from the Promise of God that shews Sanctification and Faith and Repentance cannot possibly be continued without Justification whereas if Justification might be begun without any Degree of Sanctification or Faith and Repentance there can no sufficient Reason be given we think why it might not be long continued without any Degree of Sanctification or any Act of Faith and Repentance As for the promise of the Spirit to sanctifie them who are justified it is made to and got by Faith by our Authors own Confession Let. p. 12. and so it presupposes Faith and Faith presupposes Effectual Calling and a Heart Renovation and Sanctification begun Now this makes for us and shews that if Sanctification begun in the first change of the Heart and first Acts of Faith and Repentance did not go before there would be no place for the Promise of the Spirit after Justification to carry on and perfect the begun Sanctification because there would be no such Person in the World as that Promise is made to for the Promise of the Spirit to sanctifie us throughly after Justification is made to true Believers which none can be till they be first initially sanctified by the Spirit of Christ not yet inhabiting but fitting up a Spiritual House for himself to inhabit which when he hath done and God hath thereupon justified us through the Righteousness of Christ imputed to us then according to his Promise he gives us his sanctifying Spirit to dwell in us and to carry on the work begun unto Perfection Thus we have made good what we undertook and have proved that there is some Preparation some Holy Disposition and Qualification some Holy Principle wrought in the Soul and some Holy Acts of Faith and Repentance produced by the Soul in order to and before Justification and that thereupon Justification follows necessarily and infallibly according to the Promise of God who cannot possibly lye and deceive But as we said at the beginning we hold this Priority of Initial Sanctification and of the first vital Acts of Faith and Repentance no farther than is necessary to verifie the expressions and fence of Holy Scripture concerning them and so we conclude this part of our Answer with that of the Learned Turretine Licet Poenitentiae c. Although Remission of Sins be Promised to Repentance Instit Theol. Elenct part 2. p. 744. because it ought to accompany Faith and to be in him who is justified as a certain Condition required of him because God cannot pardon Sin unto one who is Impenitent it doth not follow that it can be said to justifie with Faith because it Contributes nothing either Meritoriously or Instrumentally unto the Act of Justification That is because as we say Repentance is only a qualifying but not a Receptive Applicative Condition of Justification An Appendix of the third Section concerning Dispositions previous to Regeneration and through Conversion WE Remember that in our Preliminaries to the foresaid Discourse concerning the Preparations and Dispositions that are Antecedent to Justification we said that as there are some which have a necessary infallible Connection with Justification of which we have spoken already so there are others which have not such a necessary infallible Connection with it As to this last sort we do not say that they are Dispositions and Preparations with which Men are always and without which they are never nor ever can possibly be justified yet we think that ordinarily they do precede Justification and Effectual Vocation too in all that are Effectually Called and Justified All such Dispositions and Preparations our Author denies in the 12th Page of his Letter and pretends that Calvin the Church of England and Westminster Assembly of Divines do all concur with him therein We do not at all wonder that he denies all Preparations and Dispositions before Effectual Calling and the first saving Conversion since as we have seen he denies that there is any good wrought in us or done by us before Justification And as for Preparations and Dispositions before Conversion if he would or could assure us that he denies them in no other sense than all his Authors Calvin the Church of England and Assembly of Divines do deny them we should have no controversie with him about that matter but we think that he is of a different Judgment and either doth not understand in what sense it is that they deny them or if he understand them aright he doth not believe them or if he believe some part that he likes yet he doth not believe all that they say concerning those Dispositions previous to Regeneration and Conversion That it may be clearly known what our Judgment is concerning those Preparations that are ordinarily previous to Regeneration and Conversion we shall 1. Name them and shew what they are 2. Declare what our Opinion is concerning them 3. Shew that our Opinion concerning them is neither new nor singular but what we believe in this matter we have learned and received from the most eminent Pastors of the Reformed Churches whereof many lived and died in the true Faith before many of us were born First then to Name them there is 1. An Illumination of the Mind by the Word and