These Libellers by an unadvised blabbing out of what they have done concerning Silencing do declare what they expect will be hatched at last amongst the united Brethren at London viz. an old imperious Classis revived again But it would be Prudence in them to tarry first for the generating warmth of Royal Authority which I hope will never be The Story of Mr. Holcraft is a Fiction as divers in Cambridge-shire do attest I shall not mention what his Judgment was of a contrary Nature concerning me not long before his death but he is now in Glory And it is an easy matter to fix Stories on People when they are dead when the Reporters know they are secured from having their Fictions contradicted The Story of the two grave Ministers I shall consider in its place They speak wickedly to say that I make Disturbances in the Country but it is their Wickedness Lying Slandering and a bloody Spirit of Persecution they manifest every where that creates the Disturbance Could they or the Magistrates either have found any thing against me save in the matters of my God it would have been done afore now for the exactest Scrutiny has been made in order to Indictments Now I come to consider the formidable Charge relating to my Principles and Doctrines I have observed they have laid down four places especially where they pretend these Doctrines have been delivered viz. Rothwell and thereabouts Kimbolton and thereabouts Wellingborough Cambridge and thereabouts The Members and Hearers that usually attend my Ministry in these four places may make but one work of it to confront their Testimony in each place respectively Accordingly I shall methodically digest their Charge with my Answers suited to these four Scenes and the rather because my Principles and Doctrines as they alledge were delivered at Rowell or thereabouts are these following And first I begin with Rowell 1. Our Lord Jesus preached not Terror Answ I remember no such thing nor does the Church but I believe it false and so do they 2. A sense of Sin enrages persons against Christ Answ A sense of Sin purely legal in a state of Nature has a tendency to Despair and pure Despair always enrages Souls against Christ and his Grace 3. The Devil of lying has filled the tongues of many Professors Answ I do not believe I said so from their malicious charging of me tho' this cannot be said of all blessed be God yet 't is too notorious there is a lying Spirit gone forth in the mouths of very many Professors especially their Mouths and Pens concerned in the Libel 4. Actually justified from Eternity Answ It was thus I preached or asserted it If by being justified from Eternity be meant our being justified in the Decree and Compact I judge that to be Truth and God's Decrees and Covenanting are his Acts. This I know I have been chiefly on my Guard in this Matter And when it was first charged upon me I was in London and heard of it only on my return home Yet I do not deny but at first I spoke of Eternal Justification in Foro Dei as Dr. Twisse Mr. Pemble and many of the transmarine Divines have asserted as Mr. Baxter himself does acknowledg yet always restrained it to the fore-knowledg of God his Decree and the eternal Compact 'T is true finding the Decree of Election no where expressed by the name of Justification I waved at last that term and kept rather to that of eternal electing Love and Grace because I would not keep on foot a vain strife about words to no profit only to the subverting of the Hearers 2 Tim. 2. 14. When I seriously weigh'd Isa 50. 8 9. compared with Rom. 8. 33 34. and divers other Scriptures I cannot yet but maintain and assert A virtual Justification of the whole Elect of God tho' not yet called in Christ their common Head ever since his Resurrection Especially when I was so confirmed therein by the excellent discourse of Dr. Goodwyn on that Subject in his Triumph of Faith And they that take away the Representativeship of Christ the Foundation of our Gospel introduce a new Scheme of Religion that I cannot find in the Bible I do not see what need there is of all this noise about words as long as I have constantly preach'd and affirm'd That elect Sinners are dead in Trespasses and Sins and under the declar'd Condemnation of Law and Gospel till they believe and that then and only then they are freed from that Condemnation which I take to be actual Justification by Faith As to Justification by Faith I need not put my self to the trouble to define it as long as I am well satisfy'd with the definition given thereof by the Assembly and Savoy Confession by which I shall stand and let this suffice for an Answer to the following malicious Charges 5. That Charge tacked to this viz. That God loved us from Eternity does very much confirm the Suspicions I long entertained that under the Notion of eternal Justification they fought against eternal electing Love and Grace Mutato nomine pro te Narratur These Jealousies were first fomented in my mind by observing that not only well-meaning People violently with great Ignorance disputed the Point but Men of corrupt minds were the fiercest in the Contest And I further observed the Arguments they brought were the very same alledged by the Arminian Party to decry eternal Election and that made me the more willing oftentimes so to frame my method of Argumentation as made many honest People think I held an elect Person actually and declaratively free from the condemnation of the Law before Faith which was a mistake My saying and unsaying the same thing is but a Falshood charged upon me of the same piece with the rest The Country Divine the Libeller mentions was Mr. Chandler for with him I had discourse upon this Point and when he objected my timing of Justification I only replied I never told him yet when I timed it and continued on my Guard all the while 'T is true I asserted everlasting electing Love which he told me afterwards was one of my Blasphemies But I think he may as well charge it on the Book of God particularly two places Jer. 31. 3. Ephes 2. 4. which affirm it in plain terms 6. There must be no Works because God rested in Christ c. Answ What always was contended for which these Arminians and Amyraldists cannot bear was this that no Works must come into our Justification but Holiness as flowing from Faith I have always preached and pressed constantly affirming That they that have believed do maintain good works Tit. 3. 8. as hundreds can witness But perhaps these Prevaricators judge nothing to be preaching up of good Works unless they be urged as Terms and Conditions of our Pardon and Justification and Perseverance therein as the Terms of our eternal Blessedness 7. Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal life but ye
only think so Answ The Adversaries themselves make nothing of this and it needeth no Answer Our Lord there speaketh to the Pharisees who themselves judged the Scriptures to shew the way to eternal life but yet they did not see he was the Person the Scriptures testified of No doubt People may set up a bare knowledge of the Letter of the Scripture in the room of the Mediator as it was the Case of the Pharisees 8. Make me as one of thy hired Servants Luke 15. 9. Lo here is his unbelief when God would have him be a Son he would be a Servant Answ Questionless 't is Unbelief not to accept of what is offered and what we are commanded to receive That is the only true modesty that glorieth not in the Flesh but in Christ and his Righteousness And that 's Gospel-humility where the Soul is emptied of itself most receiving from the fulness of Christ There may be a legal humility and unbelieving modesty What think ye of their modesty mentioned Acts 13. 46. whom the Apostles Paul and Barnabas charge with high wickedness for judging themselves unworthy of eternal life 9. There shall go forth such from Rowell as shall sound the Gospel over these three Kingdoms Answ I cannot tell whether ever it was said so by any yet I can say it is my hopes the Lord Jesus e're long will send forth out of other Churches of Christ as well as that at Rothwell such as shall be made very instrumental for the conversion of Souls WE the Members of the Church of Christ over whom Mr. R. Davis is Pastor and his constant Hearers having seriously considered the aforesaid Principles laid to his Charge do declare and testify they are utterly false and that the current of his Doctrine has been as he himself has laid it down And further the design of his preaching amongst us has been to offer pardoning Grace through the blood of Christ freely to Sinners to press them to accept thereof on the pain of damnation To press us to Holiness from the principle of saving Faith To advance the Person and Offices of the Lord Jesus likewise the Person Offices Graces and Gifts of the Spirit And lastly to advance electing Grace reigning through the Righteousness of Christ Jesus We also attest that all those evil Practices laid to his Charge and especially the ridiculous-Falshoods about Admissions are abominable Vntruths Where unto we have subscribed our Names at the general Church-meeting it being a solemn Day of Fasting and Prayer Robert Tebatt John Taylor Jonathan Wells John Arnall William Watts Edward Coales Francis Cave Thomas Chambers Robert Hills John Mansfield Thomas Servell Thomas Rowlatt Nathaniel Chamber Samuel Lades John Bridges Thomas Kilingworth William Whittwell James Taylor Richard Tebatt Christopher Brett Jacob Harle Joseph Person Thomas Ladson James Bodymore Richard Gaurn John Wood Stephen Smith Jonathan Palmore Robert Hoeman John Tebatt Robert King Thomas Whittwell Thomas Hall Samuel Knight John Wills William King William Arch Thomas Paine Thomas Remington Samuel Rogers These following were pretended to be delivered about Kimbolton 10. There are five times wherein Christ intercedes c. Answ However the two Ministers represented it that which was said was this That there are five times of Christ's especial Intercession Not that his Intercession is changeable in itself but in respect of us as to the effects thereof As for Instance Christ intercedes for his Elect before called yet then only it takes effect when they are effectually called So again for his Children under Backslidings yet then made effectual when they are recovered And as for the time of greater sinning it was thus alledged That then he intercedes that their Faith may not totally fail It was illustrated by the Example of Peter Satan's design in his Tryal was not only to cause him to deny his Master but also to take occasion from thence to urge him to cast away all his hopes But says our Lord I have prayed for thee that thy Faith fail not I never held nor preached That his Intercession was Oral that was the Construction Prejudice put upon it This is my Judgment That he presents his Satisfaction to his Father in a way consistent with his glorify'd state The preverting the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and making it to signify a Comforter in 1 John 2. 1. is indeed according to the Grotian Divinity I judge the Libellers would do well to consider that Christ there is represented as transacting above with his Father and not with us It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Advocate with the Father And whether that be good Sense to render it thus That he transacts as a Comforter towards his Father I leave it to the Judgment of judicious and indifferent Persons E're I part with this I must fix a Falshood upon the Libellers who affirm That two Ministers discoursed me about it at that time whereas it was Mr. Chandler then only spoke to me and it was about the Sense of that Scripture Mat. 10. 32 33. 11. Justification by Faith is only a manifestation of it in our Conscience Answ That I said Only a manifestation of it in our Consciences is false like all the rest But that justifying Faith in the infused Principle thereof is a divine supernatural Manifestation or Revelation to the Conscience is undeniably grounded upon the holy Scripture of Truth Thus saith the Lord Hebr. 11. 1. Faith is the evidence or demonstration of things not seen but yet the demonstration of the Spirit and of power 1 Cor. 2. 4. Christ as working this Faith is said to manifest himself John 14 21 22. The Spirit as the efficient thereof is said to testify of Jesus John 15. 26. To take of the things of Christ and shew them to the Soul John 16. 14. God the Father also as the great Author of Faith is asserted to reveal his Son in the Soul Gal. 1. 16. And he that believeth hath the witness or manifestation in himself 1 John 5. 10. with divers other Scriptures Whence 't is evident That Faith is a Divine Manifestation in the Principle thereof and the Act flowing from it is the Soul's acceptance of manifested Grace and Principle and Act are of the essence of saving Faith Therefore it follows First They that contend for their word Illumination in opposition to Scriptural terms plainly prefer their own Phrases before the Words which the wisdom of the Holy Ghost teacheth Secondly But more especially they that exclude Divine-Illumination or Manifestation from the Essence of saving Faith either set up 1. An implicit Popish Blindfold Faith or 2 dly Set up Faith to act without a Principle which is monstrous and absurd or 3 dly Since in this Divine Principle of living Light Christ comes into the Soul by his Spirit and therein supernatural Power is communicated to the Soul to act as a living Soul in Christ they consequently set up a power in Man's Soul to believe antecedent to Christ's coming to
the Sword that goeth out of my Lord's Mouth will finish the Work in his own time and then shall be fulfilled many Scriptures on them that go on in their Scorning 3. They say I said They that die doubting and Fearing are Damned And they charge me with Barbarity Ans I never was so barbarous as the Writers would make me but I had and have Bowels for poordoubting dejected Souls as many can Witness neither did I say these words alone but this I said They that live and die Doubting and never believe on the Lord Jesus are Damned s And so saith the Scripture Without are the Fearful and Unbelieving and he that Believeth not shall be Damned 4. They say I said Christ tore himself Ans When I broke the Bread according to Christ's Institution tho they Revile on that account also I did in setting forth the love of Christ in laying down his own Life for us say thus Christ gave himself but presently added That tho there was a Sovereign Act of Christ in laying down his own Life according to that Scripture John 10. 15. 17 18. yet it was the wicked hands of the Jews that Murthered him 5. When we find our Hearts most wicked then to Believe in Christ is Pure Faith Ans I remember not that I said so but if I had I know not what cause any have to be Offended unless it be those that think to make themselves good before they Believe David would trust in God when the Iniquity of his Heels compassed him about And whether should a poor filthy Sinner go but to the Blood of Christ for Cleansing but I find the Accusers would be acting like Naaman the Syrian that thought the Waters of his own Country better than the Waters of Jordan But Paul saith this is a faithful Saying and worthy of all acceptation That Christ Jesus came into the World to save Sinners of whom I am chief 1 Tim 1 15. And if Christ Jesus came to save the chiefest of Sinners then certainly when I see my self the chief of Sinners and yet Believe in Christ this must be pure Faith that looketh through all to Christ and I am sure was there more of this Faith there would be more Holiness in Heart and Life 6. That there is no use of the Law This they say I said at Oundle but when I said it or on what account I know not neither do the Accusers tell me But this I do declare as my Judgment of the Law First That it is Holy Just and Good Secondly That those that Believe not are under the Condemnation of it Thirdly That it is a Rule of Life to Believers But yet this I must say it cannot give Life to dead Souls and therefore not of use on that account Gal. 3. 21. Again there cannot be Righteousness attained by it on which account a Sinner may be Justified Gal. 2. 21. For if Righteousness came by the Law then Christ is dead in vain 7. That the 42 of Isaiah 19 ver is meant of Christ That Christ was Blind and Deaf and did not know what he should suffer when he came into the World Ans I did say That that place spake of Christ and I judge still that it doth but I did not say That he was Blind and Deaf and did not know what he should suffer when he came into this World And pray Reader consider that Verse and the 20. 27. with the first Verse Behold my Servant And in this 19 Verse the Lord's Servant Again he is said to be Perfect And again there is difference between the 18 Verse and the 19. The 18 Verse speaketh of the People of Israel that were Deaf and Blind and calleth upon them in the Plural Number saying Hear ye Deaf and look ye Blind But this 19 Verse speaketh in the Singular Number My Servant and he that is Perfect Again it is said Seeing many things but thou observest not opening the Ears but he heareth not Now how can this be meant of wilfully Blind Israel or their Priests for tho it be granted they were Deaf and Blind themselves yet they could not open the Ears of others therefore I take the Words to be meant of Christ that tho he did foresee all his Sufferings that he was to pass through yet he did not so observe them as to hinder him in his carrying on our Redemption tho he did hear the contradiction of Sinners against himself yet he suffered patiently for them according to the 38 Psalm 12 13 14 ver They all seek after my Life c. But I as a deaf Man hear'd not and I was as a dumb Man that opened not his Mouth thus I was as a Man that heareth not and in whose mouth are no Reproofs Compare this with Acts 8. 32. and 1 Pet. 2. 2. 8. That we are Adopted from Eternity Ans I did Preach our being Predestinated unto the Adoption of Children by Jesus Christ according to the Good pleasure of his Will And if any will contend against it let them know they contend against that plain Scripture Eph. 1. 5. For my part I am well satisfied that there are a number Chosen in Christ their Head and fore-appointed by the Father to this Relation of Son-ship in Jesus Christ and because they are Sons he sendeth forth the Spirit of his Son crying Abba Father Gal. 4. 6. And pray let it be considered it is one thing for us to be took into favour by the Father in Christ our Head and another thing for us to have this kindness of God manifested and help given to us to receive it Gal. 4. 5. that we might receive the Adoption of Sons 9. That People must not rest on Promises and think to renew their Comfort by them Ans I did not say these words separate from others and if prejudiced People will run away with half Sentences and be offended I cannot help it I have been as wary as I could notwithstanding the Unchristian Reflections that the Accusers cast upon me This I have said That People must not rest on Promises separate from Christ for tho God hath given to us exceeding great and precious Promises yet those Promises are Yea and Amen in Christ 2 Cor. 1. 20. So I have said They must not renew their comfort by the promise separate from Christ and that fullness of Grace in him that the Promise speaks of I do say the Word is as it were the Breasts but the Sincere Milk of the Breast is Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 2. 2. As new born Babes desire the sincere Milk of the Word What this Milk of the Word is you may see Verse 6. wherefore it is contained in the Scripture Behold I lay in Sion a chief Corne-stone Elect Precious and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded Therefore you must renew your Comforts in Christ by the Promise And whereas they say Head the 25. Doth not this make void the Promise I say no for it bringeth you to the Promise in it's right Place but I will return the 〈◊〉 Doth not their way in Arguing for Comfort by the Promise separate from Christ make Christ of none Effect But if any ask who argueth so I Answer many that I have known which hath been the cause of our thus Preaching there are many that have great Notions of the Word and take their Comfort from their Notions which notwithstanding reject Christ and count it Presumption to Believe and it plainly appeareth by their wicked Carriages and ungodly Reasonings and hard Speeches against the Saints I say it appeareth that they have not Faith neither know what it is to Believe notwithstanding all their Notions Thus the Pharisees they took Comfort from the Promise made to Abraham and they boasted they were his Seed and thought to have Eternal Life in the Scriptures But Christ telleth them That they would not come to him that they might have Life And here I intreat all that are high in their Notions to look to it that their Faith in Christ be according to their Notions concerning him And here also I beseech poor drooping doubting Souls to learn to take hold of Christ in the Promise and rest on him that speaketh yea and renew your Comforts in him learn what that meaneth Matt. 11. 28. Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will give you Rest Lastly They speak of many such Doctrins that I have delivered but when I know what they are I shall Answer them as the Lord shall help me But I hope those that are concerned in writing the Pamphlet will learn more Wisdom in their next and as in this they concealed their Names as being ashamed to be known like Thieves that Disguise themselves when they have a mind to Rob their near Neighbours so in their next they conceal their Wickedness lest that they thought to do to others be done to themselves by the Lord 's leaving them to fall under Reproaches and Shame according to that Word Isa 41. 11. Behold all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded they shall be as nothing and they that strive with thee shall Perish Read the next Verse But I shall leave the Pamphlet with the Writers and Abetters of it and earnestly desire the Reader to Pray for and endeavour to understand the Truth and comply with it tho Men and Devils strive against it and I earnestly desire thee wherein thou thinkest I am out thou wilt Pray for me and take the first opportunity to deal with me according to the rule of Christ Matt. 18. 15. that if I am out I may be informed or if I be not out thy Thoughts may be governed because wrong informed I shall add no more because I would not make our Answers too Bulky but earnestly desire the Prayers of the Godly for me under all my Reproaches for Christ who do and shall Pray for thee and my Enemies FINIS
degree but my Life and all that 's dear to me besides They have left no stone unturned to persue their malice to my destruction My good Name of which I have been always very tender they have rent and torn with manifold Calumnies Various Artifices they have used to blacken me as the worst of Monsters to the People They have ill affected the Gentry of these neighbouring Counties with their false Suggestions and malicious Accusations It is notoriously evident that from this Quarter arose all my Troubles at the Assizes Witness the Cambridge Libel the Letter to the Preacher at St. Ives filled with more Raillery than Sense which was industriously handed among some Gentry there Having failed in this Attempt they in this Libel make their Appeals to the Rabble suggesting and asserting to them the most horrid Calumniations to inflame them into Tumults and Riots with a palpable design to disturb the Peace of the Government and to incite them to knock an innocent Subject in the head But this quieteth me and makes me pass along with great security to consider That my Lord sitteth on the Floods and turns the hearts of all as he pleases What they basely insinuate of my ill Affection to the Government is alike malicious and false It is not convenient for me to relate how much I testified my Affection to the Government before ever I saw Northamptonshire And I have made Conscience ever since to pray for Their Majesties the King and Queen in publick and private by which King and Queen I mean no other than King WILLIAM and Queen MARY The first Story they put down in their Enquiry is the Vomit of some prophane Drunkards licked up by them and spued out again in this Pamphlet The Arguments suggested to prove me a Conjurer and a Jesuite are so poor and slender stuft with such contradictory malice as they answer themselves Any impartial Man of Reason that considers matters without prejudice may see the evident Folly of fixing that of Conjuration upon me from the Fits If he had no other Argument to weigh but this that they are my Friends and not my Foes that are generally afflicted with them Conjurers and Witches do not use to act Revenge upon their Friends but them they hate How comes it to pass then that if I were such a Conjurer I should only mischief my Friends that neither hate me nor hurt me and not mine Enemies that do both If my own Protestation may be of any Significancy I can and do in the awful presence of the Searcher of hearts protest and declare That I never read a line in any Magick-Book or Books of Conjuration whatsoever I never had the least to do with the Black Art or any thing tending thereunto but always dreaded and abhorred such an impious Curiosity my Acquaintance being the soberest of Men from my youth upwards can in a Cloud of Testimonies give in their Suffrage to defeat this Calumny if there were any need thereof Again the Charge of Jesuitism is also as irrational if no more be considered than what follows My Education and living with Mr. Langston who is well known in the City from 18 to my 23 d year My residing ever since till I came to Northamptonshire in one Ward and Neighborhood excepting one quarter of a year where I was well-beloved of all sorts even of the highest Churchmen tho' they knew that I was a strict Dissenter that cleaved close to my Principles in the most perilous times The favor and kindness of my Neighbors to me then when they had the power in their hands to act otherwise I do most thankfully acknowledge Again my being married to a virtuous Wife most part of this time with whom I have lived to this day My being a Member of a Congregational Church of great Note in London all this while amongst whom I had love and esteem who also gave me their Letters Testimonial to the Church at Rothwel when I came to the Country which I shall hereafter insert Now I submit this to impartial Judgments whether there be the least ground to suspect me for a Priest or Jesuite Add to all this that I have some time since taken the Oaths of Fidelity to the King and Queen and lately renewed them with a Declaration against Transubstantiation and the Approbation of the Articles of the Church of England excepting those by Law excepted and I do now profess I did all candidly and sincerely One should think this should satisfy the Libellers what is a satisfaction to King and Parliament But now my hand is in I shall do what lies in me to satisfy People that there may be no colour of Excuse left them for their After-Calumnies and Reproaches therefore I shall conclude this Head with certain Testimonies of my Life and Conversation I might if I thought it necessary have procured Letters Testimonial from divers Gentry in Wales that knew my Education but I think it not worth the while to trouble them However some that Friends have offered I here subjoin And first I begin with Mr. Langston who knew me from 18 years of age and it is as followeth I Am amazed to hear what horrid Evils and Wickednesses Mr. Richard Davis now of Rothwel in Northamptonshire is charged with by his Enemies And looking upon those Charges of Jesuitism Conjuration c. to be utterly groundless and notoriously false I think my self obliged in justice to do what in me lies to vindicate his Name from such foul Aspersions I do therefore hereby freely testify That I have known the said Mr. Davis about 17 years even from the time that he was about 18 years of age that at the time of my first Acquaintance with him he lived with me some years in London and that since his removal out of my Family I have known and observed his course and manner of Life in London But I never saw the least cause to suspect him nor ever knew him to be suspected by others as guilty of or addicted to those Crimes that as I understand he is now by some accused of nor yet any other Wickedness whatsoever But contrarywise I did and do still judge him to be a godly Man even a conscientious Fearer of God and a Lover of our Lord Jesus Christ in Sincerity To the Truth of this Attestation concerning him I do with all readiness set my Hand this 6th day of October 1692. John Langston Minister of the Gospel at Ipswich in Suffolk When my Reputation was first attainted by a certain malicious Letter my Neighbours among whom I lived in London hearing of it sent down these following Testimonies London January 14 th 1692. WE whose Names are under-written hearing that there hath been several scandalous and malicious Reports raised against Mr. Richard Davis late Schoolmaster in London of whose good Conversation and honest Behaviour for many years we have been satisfy'd in do assure any whom it may concern That to all our own Knowledges these
to the whole revealed Mind and Will of God in his Word and upon his own Authority but as it is a saving Grace it is a work of the Spirit whereby a Sinner doth see and behold Christ in all his Excellencies and is persuaded and enabled to look to him to go forth from Sin and Self to lay hold of Christ and to rest and relie on Christ and his Righteousness for Acceptance with God and Eternal Salvation XVI Of Effectual Calling Effectual Calling is the powerful Voice of the Son of God by his Spirit accompanying his Word whereby a Sinner is enabled to accept of Christ upon his own Terms according to the Promise of the Gospel therefore it relates to Faith XVII Of Assurance Assurance is not a bare conjectural and probable Persuasion but the infallible certainty of Faith founded upon the Testimony of the Spirit of Adoption witnessing with our Spirits that we are the Children of God altho many Believers have not attained to this Assurance yet it is the Duty of all to seek after it and those that have attained to it may have it divers ways shaken and diminish'd through Sin and Temptations XVIII Of Perseverance The Perseverance of the Saints depends not upon their own Free Will or inherent Grace already received but upon the Immutability of the Love of God in the Decree of Election the Efsicay and Merit of the Intercession of Christ The Nature of the Covenant of Grace and the abiding of the Spirit of God Altho true Believers cannot fall finally and totally yet they may fall into grievous Sins and may continue in them for a while whereby they grieve the Spirit lessen their Comforts wound their Consciences scandalise others and do come under the Rebuke of God's fatherly Corrections for their Recovery and Amendment XIX Of Adoption Adoption is an act of the free Grace of God in and for his only Son Jesus Christ whereby all those that are justified are received into the number of his Children have his Name put upon them the Spirit of his Son given unto them are under his fatherly Care and Correction admitted to all the Liberties and Privileges of the Sons of God made Heirs of all the Promises and Fellow-heirs with Christ in Glory XX. Of Sanctification Sanctification is the Work of God's Grace whereby they whom God has before the Foundation of the World chosen to be Holy are in time through the powerful Operation of the Spirit applying the Death and Resurrection of Christ unto them renew'd in their whole Man after the Image of God having the Seeds of Repentance and of all other saving Graces put into their Hearts and those Graces so stirred up increased and strengthned as that they more and more dye unto Sin and rise up unto Newness of Life in the lively Actings and Exercises of Faith XXI Of Repentance True Gospel Repentance is a saving Grace wrought by the Spirit of God whereby we are enabled thorough believing on the Lord Jesus Christ for Life and Salvation to turn from Sin unto God XXII Preparatory Works Works done before Faith however good in themselves yet are vain fruitless sinful and not pleasing to God and therefore can't make us any ways meet for the receiving of Grace XXIII Of Good Works Good Works are then only Good when they are the Fruits of Faith and they ought to be carefully maintain'd by Believers not that they may thereby be justified or continued in a justified State but that they may glorifie God and answer the Ends of their Redemption by Jesus Christ XXIV Of the Moral Law The Moral Law holds the Elect during their Unregeneracy under its condemning Force 'till they believe and is unto all Believers a Rule for Obedience which they are enabled to conform unto by the Power of God's Grace XXV Of the State of Believers after Death and their Resurrection The Souls of Believers immediately after Death are made perfect in Holiness are received up to Heaven and behold the Face of God in Light and Glory Their Bodies in the mean time resting in the Grave till the Resurrection are then Re-united to their Souls in Perfect Blessedness and full Enjoyment of God forever XXVI Of the Last Iudgment God has appointed a Day wherein he will Judge the Quick and the Dead in Righteousness by Jesus Christ to whom all Power and Judgment is given of the Father for the Glorifying his Divine Mercy in the Salvation of the Elect and of his Divine Justice in the Eternal Damnation of the Wicked and Disobedient FINIS An Answer to some part of that Pamphlet Called A Plain and Just Account of a Plague being at Rothwell c. Wherein it will be manifest that they that gave the Account gave a very unjust Account in some Matters as in others they Charge as Errors the great Truths of the Gospel of our Lord. By Rob Betson Pastor of the Church of Christ in Wellingborough OH that my Head was a Fountain of Tears that I could Weep Day and Night for a Generation of Men professing love to Christ and Souls and yet their Mouths are full of Revilings and their Pens dipt in Gall as the first Page testifieth and several other places in the Book wherein they act like that Orator Tertullus in Acts 24. 5. We have found this Man a pestilent fellow and a mover of Sedition among all the Jews throughout the World and a Ring-leader of the Sect of the Nazarens c. Thus he accused and the Jews assented saying That these things were so vers 9. And thus do the Writers of this Pamphlet accuse God's Servant Mr. Davis with many others which I question not but they are dear to our Lord Jesus But yet the People are ready to say all is true that can be spoken yea this I observe these Men will believe the Reports of the worst of Men against him when they will not believe their nearest Friends that speak for him tho what they speak they have seriously weigh'd which sheweth them to be of their minds Jeremy complaineth of Chap. 20. 10. Report say they and we will Report it But I believe the Lord in his own time will vindicate the Faith and Order of that Gospel which is now opposed by a Generation of Men that have not the Power of Godliness However I earnestly intreat all that fear the Lord to cease Reviling and take Paul's Counsel Ephesians 4. 31 32. Let all Bitterness and Wrath and Anger and Clamor and evil speaking be put away and be ye kind one to another And if you yet be in doubt take Gamaliel's Counsel Acts 5. 38 39. For we are very willing that whatever there is that is not of God should fall and we are also sure that whatever is of God you cannot overturn it therefore pray have a Care you be not found fighters against God And pray weigh very seriously what Mr. Davis hath written in answer to what is charged against him for I do trust that in