the shew of a rationall answer though some have endeavoured it with all wilinesse 3. That whereas by this doctrine they would clear up the way to a full and setled evidence and Christian assurance they do hereby utterly subvert the principall foundation of all setlednesse and assurance of faith which is this viz. that if Jesus Christ be given to death for me then he will certainly give all other things to me if we were reconciled to God by the death of his son much more shal we be saved by his life if Christ hath died and risen for us who then shall condemn who shall then seperate us from Gods love Rom. 8.32 Rom. 6.9 10. But if they hold no such principles I would then know how any man can have evidence of this viz. that God loves him and that Christ hath died for him while he is a sinner and as he is a sinner or how any Minister of the New Testament can say to any man under the power of his sins and the devil that he is not condemned for his sins but that God loves him and that Christ hath died for him without preaching falsehoods and lies and dreams of their own heart for 1. God hath not loved nor elected all sinners nor hath Christ died for all sinners 2. If every man be in a state of condemnation before he beleeve the Gospel then no man can be said to be in a state of reconciliation and that God hath loved him untill he refuse the Gospel but every man is in a state of condemnation before he beleeve because our Saviour expresly tel us that by faith we passe from death to life Ioh. 5.24 and he that hath not the son hath not life 1 Ioh. 5.12 and therefore if those be Ministers of the new Testament who first preach to all the drunkards and whoremongers and villaines in a parish that God loves them and that they are reconciled by Christ death and that they may know it because they are sinners then let the heavens hear and the earth know that all such Ministers are false Prophets and cry Peace Peace where God proclaims wrath and that they acquit them whom God condemns and if they be Ministers of the Old Testament spirit who first shew men their condemned estate and then present God as wroth against them while they be in their sin that so they may prize and fly to favour and free grace then such are Ministers of the old Testament and not of the new because they preach the truth and if preaching the truth be an old Testament Ministry no wise man then I hope will desire the new wine for the old is better while the Lion sleeps and God is silent and conscience slumbers all the beasts and wilde sinners of the world and many preachers too may think that there is no terrour in God no curse or wrath upon themselves in the midst of the rage increase and power of all their sins but when this lion roars and God awakens and conscience looks above head they shall then see how miserably they have been deceived they may slight sin abolish condemnation talk of and wonder at free-grace now and beleeve easily because they are sinners but certainly they shall be otherwise minded then Some men may have good ends in preaching Gods free-grace after this manner in the Gospel and make the Gospel a revelation of Gods actuall love to sinners as sinners and make a Christians evidence of it nothing else but the sight of his sin and of his being under the power of it but little do they think what Satan the father of this false doctrine aims at which are these four things chiefly 1. That sanctification faith c. might be no evidence at all to a Christian of a good estate for this they say is a doubtfull evidence and an unsettling way of assurance because they will hereby be as bones out of joynt in and out humbled to day and then comforted but hard-hearted to morrow and then at a losse whereas to see ones self a sinner that is a constant evidence for we are alway sinners and the Gospel proclaims peace to sinners as sinners 2. That so men may keep their lusts and sins and yet keep their peace too for if peace be the portion of a man under the power of sin and Satan look then as he may have it why may he not keep it upon the same terms And therefore W. C. saith That if conscience object thou art an hypocrite perhaps truly yet a hypocrite is but a sinner and Gods love belongs to sinners as sinners And if this be thus what doth this doctrine aim at but to reconcile God and Belial Christ and Mammon not onely to open the door to all manner of wickednesse but to comfort men therein 3. That so he may bring men in time purposely to sin the more freely that so they may have the clearer evidence of the love of God for if Gods love be revealed to sinners as sinners then the more sinfull the more clear evidence he hath of Gods love and therefore one once intangled with these delusions was inticed to commit a grosse wickednesse that more full assurance might be attained 4. That so the true preaching and Ministry of the Gospel of Gods free-grace might be abolished at least despised which is this viz. Thou poor condemned sinner here is Christ Jesus and with him eternall remission of sins and reconciliation if thou believe and receive this grace offered humbly and thankfully for this is Gospel Mat. 28.19 Mark 16.16 Rom. 10.5 6 7 8. Rom. 3.14 25. Act. 8.37 And hence Mr. W.C. hath these words That if the Gospel hold forth Christ and salvation upon beleeving as many saith he preach it were then little better tidings then the law Ah wretched unworthy speech that when Jesus Christ himselfe would shew the great love of God unto the world Ioh. 3.16 he makes it out by two expressions of it 1. That the father sent his only Son 2. That whosoever did beleeve in him or if they did beleeve in him they should have eternall life The Lord shews wonderfull love that whoever beleeve may have Christ and eternall life by beleeving but this doctrine breathing ouâ— Gods dearest love by this mans account is little better then law which breaths out nothing but wrath But why doth he speak thus Because saith he it is as easie to keep the ten Commandements as to beleeve of ones self Very true as to beleeve of ones self but what is this against the preaching and holding forth Christ and salvation upon condition of beleeving For is not this preaching of the Gospel the instrument and means of working that faith in us which the Lord requires of us in the Gospel And must not Jesus Christ use the means for the end Were not those three thousand brought into Christ by faith by Peters promise of remission of sins upon their repentance Were not many filled
his time till Christs Ascension if since that time they bring it a peg lower and make it to be a humane Constitution of the Church rather then any Divine Institution of Christ Iesus and herein those that oppose the Morality of it by dint of argument and out of candor and conscience propose their grounds on which they remaine unsatisfied I do from my heart both highly and heartily honour and especially the labours of Master Primrose and Master Ironside many of whose Arguments and Answers to what is usually said in defence of the Morality of the day who ever ponders them shall finde them heavie the foundations and sinewes of whose discourses I have therefore had a speciall eye to in the ensuing Theses with a most free submission of what is here returned in answer thereto to the censure of better minds and riper thoughts being verily perswaded that whoever finds no Knots or Difficulties to humble his spirit herein either knows not himselfe or not the Controversie but as for those whose chiefe arguments are reproaches and revilings of embittered and corrupt hearts rather then solid reasons of modest minds I wholly decline the pursuit of such creatures whose weapons is their swell and not any strength and do leave them to his tribunall who judgeth righteously for blearing the eyes of the world and endeavouring to exasperate Princes and make wise men beleeve that this Doctrine of the Sabbath is but a late Novelty a Doctrine tending to a high degree of Schisme a phanatick Iudaizing like his at Tewksbury Sabbata sancta colo i. e. a peece of Disciplinary Policy to advance Presbytery a superstitious seething over of the hot or whining simplicity of an over-rigid crabbed precise crack-brain'd Puritanicall party the righteous God hath his little dayes of judgment in this life to clear up and vindicate the righteous cause of his innocent servants against all gainsayers and who sees not but those that will be blinde that the Lord hath begun to do something this way by these late broyles the controversie God hath with a Land is many times in defence of the controversies of his faithfull Witnesses the sword maintaines argument and makes way for that which the Word could not those plants which not many yeers since most men would not beleeve not to be of Gods planting hath the Lord puld up the three innocent Fire-brands so fast tyed to some Foxes tayles are now prety well quencht and the tayles almost cut off this cause of the Sabbath also the Lord Iesus is now handling God hath cast down the Crownes of Princes stained the Robes of Nobles with dirt and blood broken the Croziers and torne the Miters in peeces for the controversie of his Sabbath Jer. 17.27 he hath already made way for his Discipline also which they feared the precise Sabbath would introduce again by such a way as hath made all hearts to ake just according to the words never to be forgotten of Mr. Udal in his Preface to the Demonstration of Discipline The Councel of Matiscon imputed the irruption of the Goths into the Empire to the prophanation of the Sabbath Germany may now see or else one day they shall see that one great cause of their troubles is that the Sabbath wanted its Rest in the dayes of their quietnesse England was at rest till they troubled Gods Sabbath The Lord Iesus must reign the Government of his House the Laws of his Kingdom the Solemn days of his worship must be established the cause of his suffering and afflicted servants not of our late religious scorners at Ordinances Lawes and Sabbaths who are now at rest from their labours but in former times wept and prayed and petitioned and preacht and writ and suffered and dyed for these things and are now crying under the Altar must and shall certainly be cleared before men and Angels Heaven and earth shall passe away before one tittle of the Law much lesse a whole Sabbath shall perish But while I am thus musing me thinks no measure of tears are sufficient to lament the present state of times that when the Lord Iesus was come forth to vindicate the cause and controversie of Sion there should rise up other Instruments of spiritual wickednesses in high places to blot out the name and sweet remembrance of this Day from off the face of the earth the enemies of the Sabbath are now not so much malignant time-servers and aspiring brambles whom preferment principally byassed to knock at the Sabbath but those who have eaten bread with Christ a generation of professing people do lift up their heel against his Sabbath so that what could not formerly be done against it by Angels of darknes the old Serpent takes another course to effect it by seeming Angels of light who by a new device are raised up to build the sepulchres of those who persecuted the Prophets in former times to justifie all the books of sports the reading of them yea all the former present profanations yea scoffs scorns against the Sabbath day For as in former times they have Ceremonialized it out of the Decalogue yet by humane constitutiō have retained it in the Church so these of later times have spritualized it out of the Decalogue ye out of of all the Churches in the world For by making the Christian Sabbath to be only a spirituall Sabbath in the bosome of God out of Heb. 4. they hereby abolish a seventh dayes Sabbath and make every day equally a Sabbath to a Christian man This I hope will be the last but it is the most specious and fairest colour and banner that ever was erected to fight under against the Christian Sabbath and is most fit to deceive not only some sudden men of loose and wanton wits but especially men of spirituall but too shallow minds In times of Light as these are reputed to be Satan comes not abroad usually to deceive with fleshly and grosse forgeries and his cloven foot for every one almost would then discerne his haltings but with more mystical yet strong delusions and invisible chaines of darknesse whereby he bindes his captives the faster to the judgment of the great day And therefore the watchword given in the bright and shining times of the Apostle was to Try the Spirits and Believe not every Spirit And take heed of Spirits who indeed were only fleshly and corrupt men yet called Spirits because they pretended to have much of the Spirit and their doctrines seemed only to advance the Spirit the fittest and fairest cobwebs to deceive and intangle the world in those discerning times that possible could be spun out of the poysonfull bowels of corrupt and ambitious wit The times are now come wherein by the refined mysticall divinity of the old Monks not only the Sabbath but also all the Ordinances of Christ in the New-Testament are allegorized and spirituallized out of the world And therefore 't is no marvel when they abolish the outward Sabbath because of
here that looke as man standing in innocency had cause thus to returne â—rom the pleasant labours of his weekly paradise imployments as shall be shewn in due place so man fallen much more from his toilsome and wearisome labours to this his rest again And therefore as because all creatures were made for man man was therefore made in the last place after them so man being made for God and his worship thence it is that the Sabbath wherein man was to draw most neare unto God was appointed after the creation of man as Peter Martyr observes For although man is not made for the Sabbath meerly in respect of the outward rest of it as the Pharisees dreamed yet hee is made for the Sabbath in respect of God in it and the holinesse of it to both which then the soule is to have its weekly revolution back againe as into that Rest which is the end of all our lives labour and in speciall of all our weekly labour and work Thesis 8. As therefore our blessed rest in the fruition of God at the end and period of our lives is no ceremony but a glorious privilege and a morall duty it being our closing with our utmost end to which we are called so it cannot be that such a Law which cals and commands man in this life to returne to the same rest for substance every Sabbath day should bee a ceremoniall but rather a Morall and perpetuall Law unlesse it should appeare that this weekly Sabbath like the other annuall Sabbath hath been ordained and instituted principally for some ceremonious ends rather than to be a part and indeed the beginning of our rest to come there being little difference between this and that to come but onely this that here our rest is but begun there it is perfected here it is interrupted by our weekly labours there it is continued here we are led into our rest by meanes and ordinances but there we shall bee possessed with it without our need of any helpe from them our God who is our rest being then become unto us immediately All in All. Thesis 9. Were it not for mans worke and labour ordained and appointed for him in this life he should enjoy a continuall Sabbath a perpetuall Rest. And therefore wee see that when mans life is ended his sunne set and his worke done upon earth nothing else remaines for him but only to enter into his perpetuall and eternall Rest All our time should be solemne and sacred to the Lord of time if there were no common worke and labour hâ—re which necessarily occasions common time why then should any think that a weekly Sabbath is ceremoniall when were it not for this lifes labour a perpetuall and continuall Sabbath would then be undoubtedly accounted morall It s hard for any to thinke a servants awfull attendance on his Lord and Master at certaine speciall times not to bee morally due from him who but for some more private and personall occassions allowed him to attend unto should at all times continually be serving of him Thesis 10. The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and no Scripture phrase and therfore not proper fitly and fully to expresse the question in controversie to wit whether the fourth Commandment bee a morall precept The best friends of this word finde it slippery and can hardly tell what it is and what they would have to be understood by it and hence it is become a bone of much Contention a fit mist and swampe for such to fight in who desire so to contend with their Adversaries as that themselves may not bee known either where they are or on what ground they stand Yet it being a word generally taken up and commonly used it may not therefore be amisse to follow the market measure and to retaine the word with just and meet explications thereof Thesis 11. They who describe a morall law to bee such a law as is not typically ceremoniall and therefore not durable doe well and truely expresse what it is not but they doe not positively expresse what it is Thesis 12. Some describe and draw out the proportions of the morall law by the law of nature and so make it to bee that law which every man is taught by the light of nature That which is morally and universally just say some which reason when it is not mis-led and the inward law of nature dictateth by common principles of honesty or ought to dictate unto all men without any outward usher It is that say others which may be proved not only just but necessary by principles drawne from the light of nature which all reasonable men even in nature corrupted have still in their hearts which either they doe acknowledge or may at least bee convinced of without the Scriptures by principles still left in the hearts of all men But this description seems too narrow For 1. Although it be true that the law naturall is part of the law morall yet if the law morall be resolved into the law of nature only and the law of nature bee shrunke up and drawne into so narrow a compasse as what the principles left in corrupt man onely suggest and dictate then it will necessarily follow that many of those holy rules and principles are not the law of nature which were the most perfect impressions of the law of nature in mans first creation and perfection but now by mans apostacy are obliterated and blotted out unlesse any shall thinke worse than the blinde Papists either that mans minde is not now corrupted by the fall in losing any of the first impressions of innocent nature or shall maintaine with them that the Image of God of which those first impressions were a part was not naturall to man in that estate 2. It will then follow that there is no morale discipline as they call it that is nothing morall by discipline informing or positively morall but onely by nature dictating which is crosse not onely to the judgements but solid Arguments of men judicious and most indifferent 3. If that onely is to be accounted morall which is so easily knowne of all men by the light of nature corrupted then the imperfect light of mans corrupt minde must bee the principall judge of that which is morall rather than the perfect rule of morality contained in the Scripture which Assertion would not a little advance corrupt and blinde Nature and dethrone the perfection of the holy Scripture Thesis 13. They who define a morall law to be such a law as is perpetuall and universall binding all persons in all ages and times doe come somewhat nearer to the marke and are not far off from the truth and such a description is most plaine and obvious to such as are not curious and in this sense our adversaries in this cause affirme the Sabbath not to be morall meaning that it is not a Law perpetuall and universall Others on the contrary affirming that it is morall intend
respect of mighty and effectuall operation there being a power in it as of a strong law effectually and sweetly compelling to the obedience of the law For as the law of sinne within us which the Apostle calls the law of our members and is contrary to the law of our mindes or the law of the spirit of life within us is not the rule of knowing and judging what sinne is but the law of God without Romans 7.7 and yet it is called a law because it hath a compulsive power to act and encline to sin like a mighty and forcible law so the law of the spirit of life the law of our mindes is called a law not that it is the rule of a Christians life but that it compels the heart and forceth it like a living law to the obedience of that directing rule when it â—s made known to it from without It is therefore a great mistake to thinke that because God translates the law without into a Beleevers heart that therefore this heart-law is his only or principall rule of life or to imagine that the spirit without the externall law is the rule of life the spirit is the principle indeed of our obedience whereby we conforme unto the rule but it is not therefore the rule it selfe It is true indeed 1. That the spirit inclines the heart to the obedience of the rule 2. It illuminates the minde also many times to see it by secret shinings of preventing light as well as brings things to their remembrance which they knew before 3. It acts them also sometime so as that when they know not what to pray it prompts them Romans 8.26 When they know not what to speake before their Adversaries in that day it 's given to them Matth. 10.19 When they know not whither to goe nor how to goe it 's then a voice behinde them and leads them to fountaines of living waters Isaiah 30.21 Revel 7.17 But all these and such like quickning acts of the spirit doe not argue it to be our rule according to which wee ought to walke but only by which or by meanes of which we come to walke and are enclined directed and inabled to walke according to the rule which is the law of God without For the Pilot of the ship is not the compasse of the ship because that by the Pilot the ship is guided nor doth it argue that the Spirit is our rule because he guides us according to the rule It is not essentiall to the rule to give power to conforme unto it but to be that according to which we are to be conformed And therefore it 's a crazy argument to prove the law of the Spirit to be the rule of our life because it chiefly gives us power to conforme unto the rule for if the law be that according to which are to bee guided although it should give us no power yet this is sufficient to make it to be our rule Thesis 87. The Spirit of God which writ the Scriptures and in them this rule of the holy law is in the Scriptures and in that law as well as in a Beleevers heart and therefore to forsake and reject the Scriptures or this written rule is to forsake and reject the holy Spirit speaking in it as their rule nay 't is to forsake that Spirit which is the supreme Judge according to which all private spirits nay all the actings dictates movings speakings of Gods owne Spirit in us are to be tried examined and judged To the law and the testimony was the voice of the Prophets in their dayes Isa. 8.20 The Lord Christ himselfe referres the Jewes to the searching of Scriptures concerning himself Iohn 5.39 The men of Bereah are commended for examining the holy and infallible dictates of Gods Spirit in Pauls Ministery according to what was written in the Scriptures of old It is therefore but a cracking noise of windy words for any to say that they open no gap to licentiousnesse by renouncing the written and externall law as their rule considering that they cleave to a more inward and better rule viz. The law of the spirit within for as hath beene shewne they doe indeed renounce the holy Spirit speaking in the rule viz. the law without which though it be no rule of the Spirit as some object yet it is that rule according to which the Spirit guides us to walke and by which we are to judge whether the guidance bee the spirits guidance or no. Thesis 88. Some say That the difference between the old Testament dispensation and the new or pure Gospel and new Covenant is this to wit That the one or that of Moses was a Ministery from without and that of Christ from within and hence they say that the meer Commandments or letter of Scripture is not a law to a Christian why he should walke in holy duties but the law written on our hearts the law of life But if this bee the difference between the old and new Testament dispensation the ministery of the old and the ministery of the new then let all Beleevers burn their Bibles and cast all the sacred writings of the new Testament old unto spiders and cobwebs in old holes and corners and never be read spoken or meditated on for these externall things are none of Christs Ministery on which now Beleevers are to attend and then I marvaile why the Apostles preached or why they writ the Gospel for after times for that was the chiefe end of their writing as it was of the Prophets in their times Isaiah 30.8 that men might beleeve and beleeving have eternall life and know hereby that they have eternall life Iohn 20.31 1 Iohn 5.13 For either their writing and preaching the Gospell was not an externall and outward Ministry which is crosse to common sense or it was not Christs Ministery which is blasphemous to imagine and it is a vain shift for any to say That although it was Christs Ministery yet it was his Ministery as under the Law and in the flesh and not in meere glory and spirit for its evident that the Apostles preachings and writings were the effect of Christs ascension and glory Ephes. 4.8.11 when hee was most in the spirit and had received the spirit that hee might poure it out by this outward Ministery Acts 2.33 and it is a meer New-nothing and dream of Master Saltmarsh and and others to distinguish between Christ in the flesh and Christ in the Spirit as if the one Christ had a divers Ministery from the other For when the Comforter is come which is Christ in the Spirit what will he doe he will lead it s said unto all truth Iohn 16.13 But what truth will he guide us into Verily no other for substance but what Christ in the flesh had spoken and therefore it 's said that he shall bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you John 14.26 and therefore if I may use their
They that see how justly they deserve to bee forsaken of God and given over to their owne hearts lusts and to be for ever sinning and blaspheming God in hell where God will never command them to think of him speak of him doe for him pray to him more cannot but account it a high and speciall favour of Jesus Christ to command them any thing or bid them doe any thing for him a poore humbled prodigall will account it great love to bee made a hired servant Iohn Baptist will count it a high favour if he may but untie Christs shoe-latchet and bee commanded by him to doe the meanest worke for him David wondred at Gods grace toward him that God should command him and in some measure enable him to offer willingly Lord saith he what are wee I doe therefore marvaile how any can pretend that they are acted by the love of Christ and not by the law of commands considering that there is so much love in this for Christ to command and how they can professe their relish of preaching Gods free grace and love and yet cannot away with sweet and gracious exhortations pressing to holinesse and holy duties in the revealing and urging of which there is so much free-grace and heart-love of Christ Jesus surely if the love of Christ is to lead us then the commands of Christ wherein hee discovers one chiefe part of his love are to guide us and be a rule of life unto us The man who in his cool and deliberate thoughts imagines that a Christian under the rule of the law is a Christian under bondage may be justly feared that himself is still under the bondage of sin and Satan and never yet knew what the true love of Christ Iesus is to this day Thesis 93. The fundamentall errour of Antinomians ariseth from this in imagining the great difference between the law and Gospell to be this viz. That the law requires doing but the Gospel no doing and that all beleevers being under the Gospell are therefore under no law of doing but wee must know that as the Gospell exacts no doing that thereby we may be just so it requires doing also when by Christ Iesus we are made just For if the Gospell command us to be holy as God is holy 1 Pet. 1.15 and perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect Matth. 5.48 then the Gospel doth not onely require doing but also as much perfection of doing as the Law doth the Law and the Gospell require the same perfection of holinesse onely here is the difference which many have not observed the Gospel doth not urge this perfection nor require it of us as the Law doth for the law calling and urging of it that so hereby we may be made just it therefore accepts of nothing but perfection but the Gospell requiring it because wee are perfectly just already in Christ hence though it commands as much as the Law yet it accepts of lesse even the least measure of sincerity and perfection mixed with the greatest measure of imperfection Thesis 94. The Law say some of the Antinomians is to bee kept as an eternall rule of righteousnesse but their meaning then is That beleevers are thus to keep it in Christ who hath kept it for them and if they meant no more but that Christ hath kept it for righteousnesse to their justification they speak truely but their meaning herein is not only in respect of their justification but also in respect of their sanctification for they make Christs righteousnesse to bee materially and formally their sanctification hence they say A beleever hath repented in Christ and mortified sinne in Christ and that mortification and vivification is nothing but a beleeving that Christ hath mortified sinne for them and beene quickned for them and that That sanctification which is inherent in Christ and not that which is inherent in us is an evidence of our justification But this principle which confounds a Christians justification and sanctification as it casts the seed of denying all inherent graces in a Beleever so it layes the basis of refusing to doe any duty or conforme to any law in our owne persons for if this principle bee true which no Orthodox writer doubts of viz. That we are to seek for no righteousnesse in our selves to our justification because wee are perfectly just and made righteous for that end in Christ then it will undenyably follow that wee are not to seek for any holinesse and sanctification in our selves because we are perfectly sanctified also in Christ Iesus who hath repented and beleeved and mortified sinne perfectly for us in his owne person Look therefore as the perfection of Christs righteousnesse to our justification should make a Christian abhorre any personall righteousnesse of his owne to his justification so if wee bee perfectly sanctified in Christ then perfection of Christs holinesse to our sanctification should make a beleever not onely renounce the Law but to abhor all personall holines through the Spirit to our sanctification and then a Beleever must abhor to seek any love or feare of God in his heart which is not painted but professed prophanesse and the inlet not per accidens but per se to all manner of loosenesse and wickednesse in the world Thesis 95. Wee deny not but that Christ is our sanctification as well as our righteousnesse 1 Cor. 1.30 but how not materially and formally but virtually and meritoriously and with meet explications exemplarily our righteousnesse to our justification is inherent in him but our sanctification is inherent in our selves yet it is derived from him and therefore it is virtually and meritoriously onely in him and hence it is that wee are never commanded to justifie our selves unlesse it be instrumentally and sacramentally when as we are commanded by faith to wash our selves Isa. 1.16 and as Paul at his baptisme was commanded to wash away his sinnes Acts 22.16 but wee are frequently and abundantly exhorted to repent beleeve mortifie our affectiions upon earth to walke in newnesse of life to be holy in all manner of conversation c. because these things are wrought by Christ in us to our sanctification and not wrought in Christ for us as our righteousnesse to our justification Thesis 96. They that are in Christ are said to be compleat in Christ Col. 2.10 and that they receive all grace from his fulnesse Iob. 1.16 so that is seemes that there is no grace in themselves but it is first in him and consequently that their sanctification is perfected in him but wee must know that though the perfection and fulnesse of all grace is first in Christ yet that beleevers have not all in him after one and the same manner nor for the same end for our righteousnesse to our justification is so in him as never to be inherent in us in this or in the world to come but our righteousnesse to our sanctification is so farre in him as that it is to be derived
therefore so under the law i. the feare and terrour of the law as they were the summe of all this is that although we are not so under the law 1. so accompanied and 2. so dispensed as they were under the Old Testament yet this hinders not but that we are under the directive power of the Law as well as they Thesis 109. The Apostle speakes of a law written and engraven on stones and therefore of the morall Law which is now abolished by Christ in the Gospel 2 Cor. 3.6 7 11 13. Is the morall law therefore abolished as a rule of life now no verily but the meaning of this place is as the former Gal. 3.25 for the Apostle speaking of the morall Law by a Synecdoche comprehends the ceremoniall law also both which the false Teachers in those times urged as necessary to salvation and justification at least together with Christ against whom the Apostle here disputes the morall Law therefore is abolished first as thus accompanied with a yoke of Ceremonies secondly as it was formerly dispensed the glorious and greater light of the Gospel now obscuring that lesser light under the Law and therefore the Apostle vers 10. doth not say that there was no glory shining in the Law but it had no comparative glory in this respect by reason of the glory which excelleth and lastly the Apostle may speak of the morall Law considered as a Covenant of life which the false teachers urged in which respect he cals it the Ministry of death and the letter which killeth and the ministers of it who were called Nazarei and Minei as Bullinger thinks the Ministers of the letter which although it was virtually abolished to the beleeving Jews before Gospell times the vertue of Christs death extending to all times yet it was not then abolished actually untill Christ came in the flesh and actually undertooke to fullfill this Covenant for us to the utmost farthing of doing and suffering which is exacted and now it is abolished both virtually and actually that now we may with open face behold the glory of the Lord as the end of the law for righteousnesse to every one that doth beleeve Thesis 110. The Gospell under which Beleevers now are requires no doing say some for doing is proper to the Law the Law promiseth life and requires conditions but the Gospell say they promiseth to work the condition but requires none and therefore a beleever is now wholly free from all Law but the Gospell and Law are taken two waies 1. Largely the Law for the whole doctrine contained in the Old Testament and the Gospell for the whole doctrine of Christ and the Apostles in the New Testament 2. Strictly the Law pro lege operum as Chamier distinguisheth and the Gospell pro lege fidei i. for the Law of faith the Law of works strictly taken is that Law which reveals the favour of God and eternall life upon condition of doing or of perfect obedience the Law of faith strictly taken is that doctrine which reveals remission of sins reconciliation with God by Christs righteousnesse onely apprehended by faith now the Gospell in this latter sence excludes all works and requires no doing in point of justification and remission of sins before God but only beleeving but take the Gospel largely for the whole doctrine of Gods love and free grace and so the Gospel requires doing for as 't is an act oâ— Gods free grace to justifie a man without calling for any works thereunto so 't is an act of the same free grace to require works of a person justified and that such poor sinners should stand before the Son of God on his throne to minister unto him and serve him in righteousnesse and holinesse all the daies of our lives Tit. 2.14 and for any to think that the Gospell requires no conditions is a sudden dream against hundreds of Scriptures which contain conditionall yet evangelicall promises and against the judgement of the most judicious of our Divines who in dispute against Popish writers cannot but acknowledge them only thus viz. conditions and promises annexed to obedience are one thing saith learned Perable and conditions annexed to perfect obedience are another the first are in the Gospel the other not works are necessary to salvation saith Chamier necessitate praesentiae not efficientiae and hence he makes two sorts of conditions some antecedentes which work or merit salvation and these are abandoned in the Gospel otherâ— he saith are consequentes which follow the state of a man justified and these are required of one already justified in the Gospell there are indeed no conditions required of us in the Gospel but those onely which the Lord himselfe shall or hath wrought in us and which by requiring of us he doth worke will it therefore follow that no condition is required in us but because every condition is promised no verily for requiring the condition is the meanes to worke it as might be plentifully demonstrated and meanes and end should not be separated Faith it selfe is no antecedent condition to our justification or salvation take antecedent in the usuall sence of some Divines for affecting or meriting condition which Iunius cals essentialis conditio but take antecedent for a means or instrument of justification and receiving Christs righteousnesse in this sence it is the only antecedent condition which the Gospel requires therein because it doâ—h only antecedere or go before our justification at least in order of nature not to merit it but to receive it not to make it but to make it our own not as the matter of our righâ—eousness or any part of it but as the only means of apprehending Christs righteousnesse which is the only cause why God the Father justifieth and therefore as Christs righteousnesse must go before as the matter and moving cause of our justification or that for which we are justified so faith must go before this righteousnesse as an instrument or applying cause of it by which we are justified that is by meanes of which we apply that righteousnesse which makes us just 'T is true God justifies the ungodly but how not immediately without faith but mediately by faith as is most evident from that abused text Rom. 4.5 When works and faith are opposed by the Apostle in point of justification affirming that we are justified by faith not by works he doth hereby plainly affirm and give that to faith which he denies to works look therefore as he denies works to be antecedent conditions of our justification he affirms the contrary of faith which goes before our justification as hath been explained and therefore as doe and live hath been accounted good Law or the Covenant of works so beleeve and live hath been in former times accounted good Gospel or the Covenant of grace untill now of late this wilde age hath found out new Gospels that Paul and the Apostles did never dream of Thesis 111. A servant and a son may
Minister of the Gospel of Christ to plead for such popish ignorance in a Christian as can see no further then his own buttons and that cannot discern by the Spirit of God the great and wonderfull change from darknesse to light from death to life from Satan to God the visible work of God and graces of the Spirit of God the things which the Apostle cals love are frâ—ely given to them of God 1 Cor. 2.12 Peters was imperfect blotted and mixed and yet he could say Lord thou knowest I love thee Ioh. 21.17 the poor doubting mourning man in the Gospel had some faith and was able to see it and say certainly Lord I beleeve help my unbeleef Could Paul discern without extraordinary revelation because he speaks as an ordinary Christian an inner man and a Law in his minde delighting in the Law of God yet mixed with a Law in his members leading him captive into the Law of sin and cannot we and yet the Doctor doth cast such stains upon sincerity universall obedience love to the brethren c. and heaps up the same cavils against the truth of them in the souls of the Saints as the Devil himself usually doth by sinfull suspitions and suggestions when God lets him loose for a season to buffet his people that so they may never know if it were possible what great things the Lord hath done for their souls and whoever reades his book shall finde that he makes a Beleever such a creature as cannot tell certainly whether he be a sincere-hearted man or an arrand hypocrite wheâ—her he be under the power of sin and Satan or not whether one man can be discerned from another to be a Saint or a devill or whether he hath any charity and goes love to them that are Saints from them that are not and so abouâ— to befool and non-plus and puzzle the people of God as the story relates of the German woman desirous to rid the house of her husband who first making him drunk and casting him into a sleep did so shave him and dresse him and cut and clip him that when he awakened he knew not what to thinke of himselfe or to say who he was for by looking upon and in himself he thought he was the womans husband and yet by his new cut and habit he almost beleeved that he was a Fryar as his wife affirmed Sanctification is an evidence alway in it selfe of a justified estate although it be not alway evident unto us and therefore what though a Christian sees his sanctification and graces to day and cannot see them but is doubâ—full about them suppose to morrow shall he therefore reject it as a doubtfull evidence which is ever clear enough in it self though not alway to our discerning for I would know what evidence can there be of a justified estate but partly through dimnesse and weaknesse of faith which is but imperfect and therefore mixt with some doubtings all a mans life sometime or other and partly through the wise and adored providences of God to exercise our faith but that some time or other it cannot be discerned is the immediate testimony of Gods Spirit which some would make the only evidence alway evident and the shinings sheddings and actings of it never suspended but that by some means or other they will be at a losse why then should sanctification be excluded as a doubtfull evidence because sometime it is and at other times not discerned I know there are some who perceiving the conceived uncertainty of all such evidences have therefore found out a strange catholicon for these sick times a sure way of evidencing and leding all mens consciences in a way of peace and unshaken assurance of the love of Christ and therefore they make which I name with horrour the sight of corruption and sinfull pollution through the promise of the Gospel the certain and setled evidence of life and salvation which opinion the least I can say of it is that which Calvin said in the like case to be exundantis in mundum suroris Dei slagellum Wo to the dark mountains of Wales and the fat valleys towns and cities in England and sea coasts and Ilands in America if ever this delusion take place and yet this flame begins to catch and this infection to spread and therefore I finde M. Saltmarsh and W. C. to speak out and openly to own that which the Familists in former times have either been ashamed or afraid to acknowledge and that is this viz That the promise of the Gospâ—l do belong to a sinner quâ sinner or as a sinner and that the Law speaks good news to a righteous man quatenus a righteous man but the Gospel quite contrary it is to a man quatenus a sinner not as a regenerate man or as an humble man or as a Saint or as a beleever but as a sinner and hence they infer That a Christian will never have any setled peace but be off and on as a bone out of joint in and out in and out a reed tossed with the winde never knit to Christ if they lay hold on Christ and Gods love under any other consideration then as to sinners â— and therefore though they see no good in themselves though they be not humbled broken-hearted sinners as one Preacher tels them nor beleeving sinners as another Preacher tels them yet if they see themselves sinners they must know a sinner is the proper object of the Gospel and therefore this is ground enough to beleeve so that if the devil tell a man that he is no Saint if the soul can say I am a sinner if the devil say thou art an hypocrite I but an hypocrite is but a sinner still though I be not a broken-hearted sinner this will be they say a refuge of peace to retreat unto in all temptations and when men have learnt this lesson their souls will not be in and out any more but have constant peace for though they have no interest in Christ as Saints yet they have reall interest in the promises of Christ as sinners hence also they say that no Minister is to threaten or declare the curse and wrath of God against drunkards and sinners as such untill first Christ be offered in the Gospel and they refuse him and that if any do this they are Ministers of the Old Testament not of the new Sic deâ—init in piscem mulier formosa let us therefore see what chaff and what corn what truth and what falsehood there is in this nâ—w divinity It is true 1. That the Gospel reveals the free grace and love of God the death of Christ and salvation by him for sinners and that all those that are or shall be saved are to acknowledge and aggravaâ—e Gods love toward them in casting his eye upon them when they were sinners notwithstanding all their siâ—s this the Scripture everywhere holds forth Rom. 5.6 7. 1 Tim. 1.15.2 'T is true also that the