man can do any more good than he doth and so That he hath no meerlysufficient Grace to any one act in all his life § 28. The Controversie about sufficient Grace is the same in the true meaning of it with that of the Power of Mans Free-will For when by sufficient Grace we mean nothing but the enabling a Man to the act or giving him Power to do it the stress of the Question is Whether Man hath truly any Power to do more than he doth For if he have such a Power Grace hath given it him if it be for a Work that Grace is needful to So that indeed were it not for Custom and Expectation this Question should be handled under that of the Power and Liberty of Man's Will § 29. No man hath at the present Grace sufficient for his Salvation if he have longer time to live Because the Grace or help of the present hour is not sufficient for the next but there must be continual Supplies from God supposing that we distinguish of Grace by the distinct numerical acts and hours for and in which we need it But if you distinguish of Grace by the species of Acts for which it is needful and not by the numerical acts then it may be truly said that the same Grace in specie which a Believer hath to day may be sufficient to his Salvation or to his life's end § 30. But if you speak de gradu that Grace may be sufficient to one thing which is not sufficient to another And so 1. An Infidel may have Grace sufficient to forbear some Sin or avoid some Temptation or use some means that tendeth to Faith and Repentance who hath not Grace sufficient to believe and repent unto Salvation 2. A man may have Grace sufficient to enable him to believe and repent unto Justification and yet not have at that instant Grace sufficient to enable him to love God above all as God with a fixed habitual Love and to live an holy life for the Spirit and Sanctification are promised on condition of Faith and Repentance 3. A sanctified man that is yet but weak may have Grace sufficient to live to God a holy life at present and yet not have Grace sufficient for greater trials of Duty and Temptation And therefore Augustine and all his Followers still say That the Grace of Perseverance is a Gift over and above the Grace of meer Sanctification in the weakest degree § 31. By all this it is evident that he that disputeth of the sufficiency of Grace must first distinctly tell us 1. Whether he mean extrinseck Grace or intrinseck 2. If extrinseck Whether he mean it comprehensively of all extrinseck Grace together or only of some particular part of sort 3. If the latter Whether he speak of the sufficiency of Christ's Death and Righteousness Sacrifice Merit Intercession c. or of the sufficiency of the Gospel-Covenant or Promise or of the sufficiency of Preaching Praying and other means or of the Scripture-Records c. 4. If he speak of intrinseck Grace Whether the Question be of Sufficiency ex parte Dei agentis which none must question or ex parte effecti 5. If the latter What is the effect whose sufficiency he questioneth 1. Is it a Grace or Power to do some more common good use some means forbear some evil as the Unregenerate may do 2. Or is it a Power truly to repent and believe 3. Or to love God habitually and live holily 4. Or to overcome greater Temptations and persevere 6. And he must tell you whether he speak 1. De specie whether the Grace or Power sufficient to this sort of Acts or Duty be sufficient to another or to all 2. Or de gradu Whether this degree be sufficient against a greater degree or sort of Temptation 3. Or as men use to distinguish Grace and Help by numerical Acts and Hours Whether the Grace of this Hour and Act be sufficient for the next or for all The sence of all these Questions is distinct 7. But his last and greatest difficulty will be to tell you truly and plainly what is that Grace which is the subject of his Question of its sufficiency in the general nature of it and as related to the thing which it is called sufficient to § 32. For by Grace he meaneth 1. Either somewhat ex parte Dei agentis 2. Or ex parte effecti or 3. Quid medium 1. Grace as it is in God the Agent 2. Or as it is in Man the Recipient 3. Or as it is somewhat between both § 33. I. Grace as it is in God is nothing but his Essence not as Essence but as an essential Power Intellect and Will denominated by Connotation from the effect This is commonly agreed on God doth operate per essentiam and not by Accidents § 34. II. If they mean any mediate thing between God and the Effect either they speak of the first effect or a second and so on If they speak but of secondary effects and the meaning be only whether one effect be a sufficient Cause for another they mean either an outward or an inward Grace or Effect If an outward then the sence of the Question is Whether some other Work of God be sufficient to move the Will of Man And then it must be told what other Work you mean Whether an Angel or the Planets or the Word or Preacher or an outward Mercy or Affliction or what it is But if you speak of the very first effect then the fancy is almost proper to Aureolus among the Schoolmen to think that there is something from God antecedent to the Creature and Motion which may be called Action or Energy or Efflux which is neither the Creator nor a Creature neither Cause substantial nor Effect but Causation As if some Beam of Virtue or Force went from God to produce every Creature and Motion which is neither God nor the Creature or Motion But this is commonly and justly rejected as feigning a third sort of Entity between God and the Creature which it passeth the wit of Man to conceive of what it should be ☞ And if God do immediately per essentiam cause that middle Entity or Action or Force which he saith is no Creature why may he not as well immediately per essentiam cause the Creature and motion it self This therefore cannot be the thing meant by Grace in this Question To question the sufficiency of God's Essence is intolerable To question the sufficiency of a mediate divine Efflux or Action which is between God and the Creature and Effect is to dispute in your Dream of a Chimera an unproved and a disproved and commonly-denied Entity To dispute of the sufficiency of Angels Scripture Sermons c. to work Grace is not the thing commonly intended in this Controversie of Grace Each several sort of means may be sufficient in its own kind and to its own use but no one of them is sufficient to the
Faith as to the Objects extensively which was required of Jewish Believers before Christ's Incarnation as is now of us nor the same degree that was required of all the rest of the World as of the Jews 2. But such a Faith in God our Redeemer as that Law which men are under maketh necessary to Salvation is necessary to Holiness And to ask what God will do with a man that is holy without Faith is to talk of a non-existent Subject There is no such man for without Faith it is impossible to please God for he that cometh to God must believe that God is and that he is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek him notwithstanding original and actual Sin and the Law of Innocency condemning us and therefore that he is under a pardoning and rewarding Law of Grace Heb. 11. 6. No man can be sanctified without the Merit Doctrine and Spirit of Christ nor without that degree of Faith which the Covenant which he is under requireth § 20. Quest. What if a man that was sanctified by believing should retain his Holiness or Love and Obedience and lose his Faith in Christ Answ. It is a thing that never was nor will be and not to be disputed of § 21. Moral Virtue in the proper sence of the word is the same thing as Holiness taken comprehensively as containing our Love and Duty to God and to man for God's sake But as Holiness is taken narrowly for our Love and Duty to God as distinct from our Love and Duty to Man so Moral Virtue is the genus and Holiness the chief species of it And thus we take Moral Virtue and Moral Action and so all Morality as contradistinct from Physicks or things meerly natural not falling under the genus moris And so Virtue and Vice or Sin are all that is Moral that is Moral Good and Moral Evil And this is the first and most notable sence of the word But some of late have used Moral as contradistinct from Holiness or Grace or from infused Habits or from Faith and Christianity and some tell us confidently but falsly That this is the most fit and famous sence and the word so to be taken when not otherwise explained It 's the sad case of Mankind that we have no words but what are liable to ambiguity And it 's the unhappiness of the Church that hath so many Teachers that will dispute write and wrangle about words unexplained and in the end shew that under divers terms they mean the same matter in which they are agreed and know not their Agreement § 22. As Holiness is sometimes taken so largely as to comprehend all that God commandeth and sometimes for the natural part of our Duty Love and Obedience as distinct from Faith in Christ which is the mediate Grace and of supernatural revelation so is Morality or moral Virtue distinguished § 23. They that take moral Virtue so narrowly and improperly as to mean no other moral Virtue than Heathens had or than is taught in Aristotle's Ethicks should first tell us That this is their sence and then they may boldly declaim against those Preachers that take this for sufficient or that preach no other For Scripture and Christianity were to little purpose if they taught us no more than the Writings of Philosophers do § 24. And no doubt but it is a pitiful sign and an odious Crime in a Minister of Christ to say little to the People of the Mysteries of Man's Redemption the Person and Offices and Works of Christ the Covenant of Grace and the special Blessings given by it our Union with Christ Justification Adoption and the special Works of the Spirit on Mens Souls and all the Duties and Pleasures of a Heavenly Conversation in the love of the Father the Grace of the Son and the Communion of the Holy Spirit and all this under pretence of magnitying and preaching up the Love of our Brethren and Charity to the Poor and Iustice and Temperance as if Man were our God and to wrong man were the only Sin and to wrong God were none or God could be no otherwaies wronged § 25. But Covetousness and Pride contradicteth their own Doctrine For among their good works those of Piety are first extolled and those are the enriching of the Church and that is themselves and why them more than the poorer People about us Because they are sacred persons and belong to God and serve at his Altars Very good And is Piety to a sacred person and such as they so great a Duty and yet our Piety as immediately to God himself an indifferent thing in comparison of our Duty to Man Yea some usually make that part of their Piety which consisteth in the observance of their own Traditions and unnecessary Injunctions to seem of great weight while the holy observance of God's own Laws is perhaps accused as too much preciseness or hypocrisâ—s when indeed the Hypocrite is he that instead of the life and serious practice of true Christian-Holiness sets up and resteth in the Image of Holiness and certain formalities that are lifeless to deceive himself and others § 26. Where there is no Faith and Love to God nor Duty done in obedience to God there is no true moral Virtue but somewhat equivocally so called whatever good such may do to the Common-wealth or to their Neighbors for it wanteth the principle end and object that should inform it § 27. An Hypocrite may be said to have moral Virtue as he may be said to have Holiness that is only secundum quid yea but analogically yea but equivocally in that he hath no other sort of Faith and Love and Obedience § 28. An Infidel's moral Virtue and all unsanctified Heathens or other persons is of the same sort only with this described of the Hypocrite And they err not that say They have no true moral Virtue but analogical § 29. Yet Nature and common Grace do give men that which is truly good and not only minus malum and may do much good to others and some to themselves and is truly laudable and amiable considered without the mixture simply in it self But because the contrary evil is still the predominant part in all the unsanctified it will not properly denominate them good men nor the whole action a good action save equivocally analogically or secundum quid because the form denominateth which is here wanting § 30. But if any one think otherwise that the name of moral Virtue yea or Holiness is due to the best actions or habits of Heathens Hypocrites or any unsanctified men it is but a Controversie de nomine and no otherwise to be regarded while we agree of the things signified by that name § 31. It is certain that now there is no moral good in any man on Earth that is not the effect of some Grace of God common or special for even Nature now as reprieved and maintained is an effect of common Grace much more further
gifts But it is perverseness in some School-men who make common Grace and special at least as to Faith to be differenced only in the Causation one being not infused and the other infused but the same in act and so that no man can know whether he have infused or acquired Faith which some call but a Moral Virtue CHAP. XVIII Of the necessity of Faith in Christ where the Gospel is made known § 1. INfidels take scandal from Christ's making Faith in himself to be so necessary to our Salvation as if it tended only to his Honour and were in its own Nature of no necessity to our happiness but arbitrarily made so § 2. And their reason also against this necessity is because believing is an act of the Intellect and Intellection is not free and in its self is no moral Act. A man cannot know or believe what he would no though he most earnestly desired it And will God condemn men for that which they fain would do and cannot Especially when mens intellectual Capacities do so greatly differ that some seem to differ but little from the Brutes § 3. This Scandal ariseth from their not well understanding the Nature and Reasons of our Faith in Christ. 1. They falsely suppose it to be only an Act of the Intellect where many Divines have given them the Scandal 2. They falsely suppose That the Intellect herein is necessitated to unbelief 3. And they consider not the Ends and Uses of our Faith § 4. 1. The true nature of our Faith is our Trusting in Christ as our Saviour who hath reconciled us to God by his Sacrifice and Merit that he may bring us to God by Iustification Adoption Sanctification and Glory It containeth Assent Consent and Affiance though through penury of Words we are fain to call it by some one of these names oft-times as the occasion requireth But indeed the very sence of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fides and Trust includeth all And when the Act of the Intellect only is named it is as including or informing both the other § 5. 2. Though the Intellect be not free of it self it is free by participation being quoad exercitum under the Empire of the Will that is free And the Will by commanding it to act search think of the Evidences of Verity may do so much towards the specifying of the Act as that the meer weakness of Understanding without the fault of a vicious Will shall keep no man in damnable Unbelief § 6. For Christ hath many ways provided against meer Weakness of our Understanding 1. By the fewness and plainness of necessary Articles of Faith 2. By the fulness of Evidence of Credibility 3. By great Means and Helps for our Faith which he appointeth 4. And by the powerful Helps of his Spirit which is ready to illuminate us by these means § 7. No man was ever yet known that could say I have done my best to have obtained Faith and did not obtain it Though many can say I earnestly desired to believe and could not Because those may desire it that yet use not the means aright and faithfully and that indulge their own Prejudices or carnal Lusts which hinder it § 8. 3 In the saving of Sinners there is considerable 1. The great Benefits already given in the Purchase Merits and Covenant 2. The greater Benefits offered and to be received hereafter 3. The Means to be used on our part for obtaining them 4. The danger and loss if we miss of them 5. The ultimate End of him that giveth them § 9. And 1. will not any reasonable Infidel confess That Thankfulness is naturally due for great and inestimable Benefits And how can a man be thankful for that which he believeth not was ever done for him or given him Or can he be thankful to he knoweth not whom § 10. 2. Do not great Benefits freely offered require Acceptance And how can a man accept of that which he believeth not was ever purchased procured or offered him Will you accept a shadow § 11. 3. Christ never meant to carry Sluggards asleep to Heaven but to save them in the use of his appointed means 1. They must learn and obey his Doctrine and can they obey it that believe it not 2. They must take Heaven procured by a Redeemer for their Hope and Portion and love desire and seek it above all And who will do this that believeth it not and the Word that promiseth it 3. They must take Christ for their Guide and Mediator and Intercessor to bring them thither and they must forsake all here that stands in competition that they may obtain it And can you do this and not believe and trust him that must save you Will you venture your life in the Hands of a Physician and take his Medicines if you believe not that he hath Skill and Will to cure you Will you leave your Country and follow one over Seas that promiseth you a Kingdom if you trust him not § 12. 4. And who will avoid Sin Temptations and Hell that believeth not him that tells them of the evil and of the danger that is before him § 13. 5. And God can have no lower End ultimately than Himself and the Glory of our Redeemer is more excellent than mine or yours And therefore if We have the Salvation it is meet and necessary that God and our Redeemer have the Love and Thanks the Praise and Glory of it § 14. Yet hath not God arbitrarily made Faith more necessary than it is in the true Reason and Aptitude of it to its Ends. He hath not made to all a Faith so necessary of Christ and his Intercession and therefore though Infants and Ideots cannot actually believe they may be saved by Christ And though those before Christ believed not all that we must now believe nor the Gentiles before so much as the Iews yet neither of them were thereby excluded from Salvation § 15. Quest. Hath not Christ made the Case of Christians harder than it was before his Incarnation to Believers by making so many more Articles of our Faith and those of necessity to our Salvation Ans. No no more than it is our Misery to accept of more Mercies and Benefits than were offered to others Our Belief is not of numerous unnecessary difficulties but it is of such things as we must receive and be Partakers of it is the means of our use and fruition Who would take it for a Misery to believe that the King will give him a Lordship or that a rich Man will give him so much Money if he will come and thankfully accept it Every act of belief is but a means to some Benefit to be received § 16. As Christ is the way to the Father and the Mediator is to bring us unto God so Faith in Christ is the Mediate or healing Grace to help us to Holiness or the Love of God which being its End is as much more noble than Faith in
rather calleth it than a Habit at first even in the Adult And Calvin saith That some men semen fidei qualecunque perdunt Adam had such a Holiness as might be lost And why may we not say that Infants first Grace is of such a sort or degree 2. And yet that none are saved without more but that upon this first degree they have a right to Salvation and that their further Holiness shall be given them whom God will as part of their Salvation to which they have right At furthest at death in the same time and manner as perfect Holiness and Mortification of Sin is given to Believers that are till death imperfect A loseable degree of Holiness like Adam's may be the way to more in all that so die § 23. Divines use to mention three degrees of Grace in order to Faith it self 1. So much Grace as maketh a man able to believe which they call Sufficient Grace 2. So much more as efficiently determineth him to the Act of Believing This they call effectual special Grace and Protestants call it our Vocation effectual 3. So much more as giveth him a fixed habit of Faith Love and all Holiness together This Papists call Iustification and Protestants Sanctification Vid. Amesii Medull de voc sanct Rolloc de vocat Bishop Downame against Pemble Append. to his Treatise of Perseverance c. § 24. Now some hold all these loseable some hold only the last not loseable and almost all hold the first loseable Now 1. What if we think that Infant 's first Holiness besides relative Pardon and jus ad impunitatem regnum is but of the first degree Though a meer moral Power to believe be not enough to the Adult because the Act is necessary to them yet say Protestants The Habit is not necessary to their first Covenant-Right but is given by the Spirit in sanctification as a Covenant-Benefit And why may not Infants be in a pardoned state that at first have but that Grace which giveth a moral Power to believe when they come to age Consider of the matter § 25. I have so fully elsewhere proved That Infants Church-membership was instituted both in the Covenant of Innocency in the first edition of the Covenant of Grace in the Covenant of Peculiarity with Abraham and in the last edition of the Covenant of Grace by Christ and also that God never had a Church on Earth of which Infants were not Members if the adult Members had Infants that I will now supersede that Work CHAP. XX. Of the Nature of Saving-Faith § 1. SO much of this came in before on the by as will excuse my brevity here I have before shewed That the Faith now in question is not meerly our general Belief and Trust in God as a part of our Holiness but the mediate Belief and Trust in God our Redeemer and our Saviour which is made the Condition of the Covenant the means of our sanctification And also that as the editions of the Covenant vary and promulgation of it so it is not the same degree or acts of Faith as to the particular credenda or Articles to be believed that was and is necessary to all persons in all times § 2. Though the word Belief in English and Assent in Latin signifie strictly only the act of the Understanding and Saving Faith is oft named from one act yet really that Faith which in Scripture is made the Condition of Pardon and Salvation doth essentially contain the Acts of every Faculty even Assent Consent and Affiance and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and fides do properly signifie Trust even a consenting or voluntary Trust upon believing as is afore said § 3. We do very aptly call both the Act and Object by the same name fides in Latin and Faith in English oft-times For Faith is a trusting on another's Faith Fidelity or Trustiness and so the fides asserentis seu promittentis fides credentis are related § 4. The Faith that hath the promise of our Justification is not to be called one only Physical act in specie much less in numero That were but prophanely to jest with holy things but it is a moral act or work of the Soul containing many physical acts Otherwise we should be all confounded not knowing how to distinguish of all our physical acts of Faith secundum speciem and then to know which of them is the right And it would be but some very little of the true Objects of Faith that justifying Faith must be constituted by In a word the Absurdities are so numerous that would follow that I will not be so tedious as to name them § 5. Saving Faith is such a moral work as we use to express by the names Believing Trusting Consenting Taking Accepting Receiving in Contracts personal with men If we say You shall Trust such a Physician or take such a man for your Physician all men understand us and none is so logically mad as to think that by Taking or Trusting we mean only some one physical act of the smallest distribution If we say I take this man for my King my Master my Commander or Captain or this woman to be my Wife c. every one knoweth here what Taking meaneth viz. our Consent to that Relation according to the nature and ends of it § 6. Therefore though we use divers names for this Faith and also on several occasions give several half-descriptions of it we mean still the same thing and suppose what we omit to make the description entire § 7. When we call Faith a Believing or Assent we mean such an Assent as prevaileth with the Will to accept Christ with his Grace as offered in the Gospel and consent to the Baptismal Covenant and this indeed as a fruit of the assenting act but as essential to justifying Faith § 8. When we call it Consent or Acceptance or Receiving Christ we mean that as Man's Soul hath an Intellect and Will and a true actus humanus vel moralis is the act of both but of the Intellect as directive and of the Will as more perfective or as the Faculty primarily moral so the same Faith which is initially in the intellect's Assent is perfectlier in the will's Consent And it is the Receiving of a Saviour believed or the Consent to a believed Covenant We suppose Assent when we name it Consent § 9. And when we name it Affiance or Trust we include both the former and mean a resolved practical Trust and dedition of our selves accordingly to one that covenanteth to bring us from Sin and Misery to GOD and Glory where Belief and Consent to that Covenant are supposed § 10. And the Terminus a quo and the renunciation of Competitors and Opposites is connoted if not essentially included in Saving Faith And therefore Christ doth so often tell us of forsaking all if we will be his Disciples § 11. I use to express it by this similitude A Prince redeemeth a
How fain would some men differ if they could or seem to do it when they do not § 32. IV. As to the fourth Question I answer 1. We are all agreed That God will not pardon justifie or save any without both Faith and Repentance and Desire as necessary moral Qualifications of the Receiver And this shall serve turn if any like not the term Condition and be willing to be quiet § 33. 2. Faith in a narrow Sence as signifying meer Assent is distinct from Repentance but Faith in that sence as is meant in Baptism and hath the Promise of Justification and Life is more the same with Repentance than many perceive For Repentance is the change of the mind from evil to good And the Good necessary to our Salvation is a fiducial practical Consent to the Covenant of Grace or a practical Faith in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost And to turn to this is to repent and be converted even to turn from the contrary Acts and Objects to this fiducial consenting Belief in God the Father Son and Spirit and what else is repenting but this Change § 34. 3. It was never Paul's meaning under the name of Works to exclude Repentance and all Acts of Faith save one and Thankfulness and Desire and Hope and Prayer c. while they keep their place in subordination to Christ They do but confound sacred Doctrines and mens minds that so imagine § 35. And the same Spirit that saith He that believeth shall be saved saith also He that calleth on the Name of the Lord shall be saved Rom. 10. 13. And we are saved by Hope Rom. 8. 24. and we are saved by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost Tit. 3. 5 6. and by believing the Articles of the Creed 1 Cor. 15. 2. and blessed are they that kee◠his Commandments that they may have right to the Tree of Life that right is our righteousness and may enter in c. Rev. 22. 14. By taking heed to himself and to Doctrine Timothy was to save himself and his Hearers 1 Tim. 4. 16. Many such Texts I have elsewhere cited which are all true § 36. V. As to the fifth Question it is answered before in the Description of Faith As the Father Son and Holy Spirit are one God so Faith in them is one Faith and no man can truly believe in Christ that believeth not in the Father our belief in God as God and Love to him is that Salvation to which Christ is to bring us And the Consent to use the remedy includeth the consent to have Health or to be saved And our Belief in God as our Redeemer even Christ is the chief part of our mediate Faith In a word all that Belief which is necessary to the Baptized is necessary to our Iustification But that is our Belief in Father Son and Holy Ghost in the measure that they are revealed CHAP. XXIV Of Assurance of our Justification and of Hope § 1. ASsurance of Perseverance and Salvation is not here to be spoken of but only of our present Iustification And they are distinct Questions 1. What Assurance is desirable 2. What Assurance is attainable 3. What Assurance we actually have and who have it 4. What is the nature and grounds of this Assurance § 2. I. Some pleaded so much for the usefulness of Uncertainty and Doubting as if it were the safest condition to keep us humble and watchful as excited Luther and other Reformers to take them for utter Enemies to Christian Comfort And certainly Assurance is a most desirable thing it kindleth in us the love of God it maketh Duty sweet it maketh Sufferings easie and Death less terrible and Heaven more desired and consequently cureth an earthly Mind and leadeth man to a heavenly Conversation and putteth Life into all his Endeavours Whereas a man that is still utterly in doubt of his state of Salvation and right to Life will be loath to die and therefore love this present World and have less thankful and loving Thoughts of God and his Redeemer and so all sin will have advantage and Holiness a great impediment An Infidel will confess that such Assurance is exceeding desirable § 3. II. And no doubt but a comfortable degree of Assurance is attainable or else God would never have so fully differenced the Righteous and the Wicked and commanded all to examine and try themselves and to make sure But this I have often elsewhere proved § 4. III. But all true Believers have not Assurance of their Justification because they are not certain that their Faith is such as hath the promise of Justification He that believeth perceiveth that he believeth but yet may be uncertain that his Faith is so sincere as no unjustified man can have § 5. Their Justification is real or true or certain in it self but the Evidence of it may be dark and their perception of the Evidence defective from whence it is to them uncertain that is not known with that full satisfaction of mind which we call Assurance § 6. Yea Experience telleth us That it is but a small part of the most religious Christians who will say themselves That they are certain of their Iustification and of those few that are forwardest to say so all have it not § 7. Therefore justifying Faith is not Assurance that we are justified otherwise all should have assurance that have Faith and justifying Faith in order of Nature goeth before Iustification but Assurance that we are justified followeth it we cannot be assured that we are justified but by being assured that we believe But it 's absurd to say I am assured I am justified because I am assured that I am justified But this is only against the Antinomians § 8. No man hath perfect Assurance that is the highest degree in this Life For if all our Graces be imperfect our Assurance must needs be imperfect § 9. IV. This Assurance then is not properly Divine Faith or a Belief of God's Word but it is a clear and satisfying perception of our own Justification because we are clearly satisfied that God's Promises are true and that we are true Believers § 10. This Certainty is not by an immediate Word or Revelation of the Spirit in us but yet the Spirit is all these ways the cause of it in the Faithful 1. The Spirit working us to God's Image and Will is our assuring-Evidence or the Minor in that Argument whose Conclusion we are assured of as the Spirit in the Word is the Major 2. The Spirit in Believers helpeth them to perceive his own Works in them and know their Evidence 3. And also to rejoyce in that perception This is the Witness of the Spirit which we mean and not immediate Revelation § 11. Though Hope be sometimes about things certain yet it is often also about that which we are not certain of And more have true Hopes of Salvation than have Assurance of it or of their Title
Salvation it self and the Image and Glory of God upon us § 63. V. About the next Question I may yet be shorter How far any Works of ours may be trusted in I think all agree 1. That nothing of ours or any Creature should be trusted to for any thing proper to God or proper to Christ or any thing that belongeth not truly to it self He that ascribeth any thing to our Faith Love or Obedience which is proper to Christ's Merits or God's Mercy and so trusteth them doth greatly sin and he that trusteth them for more than God hath assigned to them to do § 64. 2. That we must take heed of scandaous Language and therefore must not talk of trusting on any act of our own when it is like to be understood as put in Competition with God or with Christ's Merits as if the Question were Whether we must trust God or our selves Christ's Righteousness or our own For our own is not in the least measure to be trusted for that which belongeth only to Christ's Righteousness to be or do § 65. 3. That yet it is a great Duty to trust every means of Salvation appointed by God in its own place and for its own part alone even to preaching Sacraments Afflictions c. And accordingly to trust our own Faith Love Prayer Obedience so far as they are Means and have God's Promise and no further which is no more than to trust in God that he will bless such means He that trusteth his Sword doth not trust it to fight of it self without his Hand When God hath promised Mercy upon Prayer and to the Obedient or Penitent for a man to think that God will yet do no more for us if we repent pray and obey than if we do not is to be Unbelievers and say rebelliously It is in vain to serve the Lord. He is so far to trust to Faith Repentance praying hearing meditating diligence as to trust that God will bless them and reward them and look for more from him when we use means than when we do not CHAP. XXVI Of Confirmation Perseverance and Danger of falling away § 1. I Shall reduce all that needs to be said on this point to these following controverted Questions 1. Whether all Grace procured and given by Christ be such as is never lost 2. Whether that degree of Grace be ever lost which giveth the posse credere without the act of Faith commonly called sufficient Grace in Adult or Infants 3. Whether any lose actual true justifying Faith 4. Whether any lose true Holiness or love of God in the Habit 5. Whether any degree of this be ever lost or all special Grace have such Confirmation as the Angels have 6. Whether if Holiness be never lost it be possible to lose it and be in danger 7. Whether there be a state of confirmed Persons besides the meerly sanctified that from the degree or kind of their grace never fall away 8. Or whether Perseverance depend on meer Election and God's Will which secureth only some of the justified 9. Whether all or most or many Christians are themselves sure to persevere 10. Whether Certainty of perseverance be fit for all the justified 11. Whether it be unfit for all and a more unsafe Condition than doubting 12. Whether the Comfort of most Christians lie upon the Doctrine of such Certainty 13. Whether the Doctrine of Eventual Apostacy infer any mutability in God 14. Why God hath left this point so dark 15. What was the Judgment of the ancient Churches after the Apostles 16. Whether it be an Article of such evidence and weight as to be put into our Church-Confessions and we should force men to subscribe to it or make it necessary to Ministration Communion or Christian Love and Concord § 2. Q. I. Whether all Christ's Grace given us be such as is never lost Ans. No except Iansenius and his Followers I know of no Christians that ever affirm it and he doth it on this false supposition That the common Grace which worketh only preparatorily by fear is not the Grace of Christ but a grace of other Providence and only Love is the grace of Christ. But it is injurious to Christ who is the Lord and Light and Saviour of the World and God's Administrator-general into whose Hands all Things and Power is given to say That since the Fall there is any Grace in the World that is not his Grace and that our preparatory grace and all that 's common is aliunde some other way He that readeth Ioh. 15. Matth. 13. Heb. 6 and 10. may see the contrary § 3. Q II. Whether sufficient grace to believe which giveth the meer power of believing to Infants or Adult be ever lost Ans. These Questions suppose that there are these several sorts of Graces disputed of by Divines 1. Common grace 2. Power to believe and repent 3. Actual Faith and Repentance given by that called special Vocation 4. The Habit of love and all grace called Sanctification to pass by Relative grace as Justification c. 5. Confirmation of these Habits And we now speak only of the second And the very Being of that Grace is controverted Whether God ever give besides the natural Power a moral Power to believe to any that never do believe And 1. it is certain by Adam's instance that he gave him a power to have perfectly obeyed when he did not 2. And therefore no man can prove that now he giveth no man a moral Power to believe that doth not 3. But it seemeth most probable that he doth because his Government and Man's Nature are not tota specie changed 4. And it is certain that still all men have power to do more good than they do 5. And even the Dominicans grant this Sufficiency of grace 6. But yet for my part I am not certain of it § 4. But if there be such a power given which never acteth Faith which I think most probable it is either in the Adult or Infants if in the Adult no doubt it 's lost for they that will not believe to the last retain not still the moral power in their Rebellion § 5. But in the Case of Infants I think those of them that die before the use of reason lose it not nor any of the Elect that live to full Age But as to others after long doubt How far Infant-Grace is loseable this seemeth now the most probable solution to me § 6. Viz. There is a Grace that reacheth but to a moral Power to repent and believe before men have the Act or proper Habit Such Grace to persevere did put Adam in a present state of Life or acceptation with God this Grace Adam lost Accordingly such grace that containeth but this mâ—â—al power in an Infant 's Disposition with relative grace of Pardon is sufficient to provâ— his right to Salvation if he so die because he is not bound to the Act nor capable of it and even the Adult
Similitudes in our Thoughts of God while we exclude all the Imperfections of such Similitudes § 15. But after all till the Love of God be shed abroad on our Hearts by the Holy Ghost and God as LOVE look on us with his attracting and exhilarating Aspect or Communication all these notions will be dull and barren and will leave the Soul under fears and despondency It is Love by vital Influence warming the Affections that must give us a sweet taste of what we know and overcome the fear of Death and Wrath and give us comfortable Boldness and Courage in all the Dangers that we must go through And seeing Christ telleth Philip If thou hast seen or known me thou hast known the Father we must by Faith see the Father in the Son incarnate who came into our Nature to be a Mediator of our Thoughts and Conceptions of God and especially as he is LIFE and LIGHT and LOVE and I think in his GLORY will in Heaven be the Mediator of our LIFE INTUITION and FRUITION Come Lord Jesus Amen CHAP. 2. Of Trinity in Unity § 1. WHen I wrote the foregoing Treatise I found the generality of Christians Protestants and Papists agreed about the Trinity but Heresie and Debauchery encreasing together the Case seemeth partly altered And the ambitious rich and worldly sort being from their Childhood bred up in fleshly pleasure and in ignorance and contempt of serious Christianity having really no true Religion but a Name and Image of it at last by their Tongues declare what is in their Hearts and living in a Land where Atheists and Sadducees are in splendid Dwellings whilst fear of sinning maketh Confiscations Jails and Ruine the Lot of multitudes who are zealous Protestants they take the advantage decrying what they never had But before they disown all true Religion and declare themselves Sadducees or Brutes they begin as Disputers at the points where they think Difficulty will excuse them and especially at the Trinity and the Godhead of Christ and Socinian Errors § 2. I have perhaps over-tediously and prolixly handled the Doctrine of the sacred Trinity in my Latin Methodus Theologiae opening the various Opinions about it reciting the words of the Fathers School-Doctors and Protestants who handle it And through the whole Book I have shewed That the Image of Trinity in Unity is imprinted by God on the whole known frame of Nature and Government or Morality and that Doctrine of the Trinity which to the ignorant is a Stumbling-block greatly helpeth to confirm my Belief of the truth of the Gospel and Christianity while I find it so congruous to the foresaid Impress and attested so much by all God's Works especially on Man § 3. It is a truth unquestionable that without some knowledge of God there can be no true Religion no Love to God no Trust no Hope no Obedience no true Worship of him Prayer or Praise § 4. And it is as certain that no man can have an adequate knowledge of God that is adequate which comprehendeth the whole Object knowing it perfectly and leaving nothing of it unknown And with such an adequate Knowledge we know nothing not a pile of Grass nor a Worm or a Hair Much less God With such a proper Knowledge nihil scitur is true and yet aliquid rerum is known of all § 5. Yea it is certain that of God who is incomprehensible we have here no partial Conception that reacheth so high as to be strictly FORMAL but only such as are called analogical aequivocal metaphorical or by similitude Neither Substantia Vita Perfectio Potentia Actus Intellectus Voluntas Love Truth Goodness Mercy c. are formally and univocally the same in God and in the Creature Scotus excepteth only ENS Which is true as ENS is only a Logical term signifying no more than EST or Quoddity and not QUID est or Quiddity § 6. Yet this Knowledge by similitude is not â—ull or vain but the greatest advancement of Man's Understanding All that which is formally excellent in the Creature is EMINENTLY and transcendently in God Though he have not that which we call Knowledge Will Love c. he hath that which is infinitely more excellent which these in Man have some likeness to whereby we know him § 7. Man's Knowledge beginneth at our selves and not at God We do not first know God But first we perceive our own Souls Acts and thereby we know our Power and our Substance and thereby we know what all is that is such as we and so what a Spirit is and so what GOD is As by seeing hearing feeling we perceive that we see hear feel c. every Sense having essentially a self-perception So by thinking knowing willing â—illing loving joying we perceive that we do it essentially yet though the famosius significatum be our own Act as to formality and priority it is God's as to Eminency and Perfection § 8. It is certain that as all God's Works bear some notifying Impress of his own Perfection so Man is especially made in his Image and therefore our Knowledge of God must there begin seeing we have no immediate and formal knowledge of him § 9. As God is the God of Nature Grace and Glory so he hath made on Man the Image of these three 1. The natural Faculties of his Soul are his natural Image on Man as Man For which it is said Gen. 9. that blood shall be punished with blood because Man is made in the Image of God 2. His moral gracious Image is Holiness of Intellect Will and executive Power 3. The Image of his Majesty Glory and Greatness is 1. in all men the Dominion over the lower Creatures 2. And in Governours a Power over Subjects or Inferiours § 10. To begin where our Perception beginneth 1. It is certain that the mental Nature in Man hath three distinct Faculties in one undivided Substance That is 1. Vital Active Power Intellect and Will The Vital Power being considerable first as exciting Intellection and Will and after as Executive The same Essence or Substance is this vital Activity Intellect and Will But the Active Power is not the Intellect nor the Intellect the Will nor the Will the Intellect c. And as Melanchton told his Hearers to the admiration of George Prince of Anhalt and the Duke of Saxony That the Concrete and Abstract were here differently to be used we may say that the Intellect may be said to be willing but not to be the Will the Will to be Intellectual but not to be the Intellect c. § 11. I have fully proved in Methodo Theol. parte 1. in a peculiar Disputation that these three Faculties are not Accidents of the Soul but its essential form in a triple inadequate Conception and fully confuted all that Zubarel saith to the contrary who epitomizeth all the Thomists Arguments and vindicated Scotus and added many Arguments of my own and therefore must thither referr the doubtful § 12. Not
Power to unchristen cut off or damn the guiltless § 10. It 's one thing to be cut off from the Church or Christ 2. and another to be under tryal and suspense oâ— actual Communion till Repentance prove mens Right 3. And it 's another to be at present only denyed Communion not with the Church wholly but in some comfortable Ordinances till the removing of a Scandal have made the person capable by satisfying the scandalized 4. And it s another thing to be cast down from a higher to a lower station and denyed Dignities Preferments and special Honour Confound not these § 11. And by this time you may see how to answer the ill-stated question Who is the Iudge of Controversies in Religion and of the Sence of the Scripture and whether every ignorant Man or Woman or Child must be Iudges of it for themselves And first you must understand the foresaid Distinctions necessary to the Solution Ambiguities and Generalities are the instruments of Deceit And secondly I shall apply them to the case § 12. 1. We must distinguish Controverted Essentials of Christianity from controverted Integrals and Accidents 2. Distinguish Controversies between Christians and no-Christians from Controversies among Christians 3. Distinguish material Objective Christianity Faith and Duty from internal Subjective 4. Distinguish external valid Profession of Actual Faith not disproved from internal Sincerity 5. Distinguish between what is necessary to God's accepting a man to Justification and Salvation and what 's necessary to the Church's accepting a man to Communion 6. Distinguish what is necessary to that stated Union and Communion which is our real Church-Membership and Christianity from that which is necessary to the present actual exercise of such Right in some local Priviledges and Acts and from that which only sitteth men for Dignity or Office 7. Distinguish between the Case de esse or real Truth and the Case de scire or judging of it 8. Distinguish between Judging what others shall Believe about things controverted and governing their Practice how they shall behave themselves 9. Distinguish a private Judgment discerning what is or is not our own Duty and a publick Iudgment in Government of others 10. Distinguish the Judgment of several Governours according to their divers Offices and Ends. 11. Distinguish a limitted Power to Judge only one way from a power of judging obligatively in partem utram libet this way or that 12. Distinguish the real incomplexe Matter or Objects of Faith from the literal complexe words which signifie them And so these conclusions will be clear past doubt Concl. 1. All Christians are agreed in the Essentials of Christianity Therefore these are no Church-controversies for any to be the Judges of It's only Insidels and Men without our Church that differ from us in these And Insidels are not to be converted by the Authority of a humane Judge nor ever were but by Teachers shewing the Evidences of Truth C. II. All Christians as such being bound by Christ to love one another and live in Communion as Members of one Body notwithstanding lesser differences it followeth that Christian Unity Love and Communion depend not on the question Who shall be Iudge of Controversies as being presupposed to it C. III. But the Baptizing Pastors of the Churches are by office the Judges whether it be indeed the Essentials of Christianity which are profest by the Baptized C. IV. And therein it is the Real incomplexe Objects that are propterse essential God Christ Grace c. And the â—â—gnal words are only necessary to notifie to the Church what men believe And no singular words only are necessary Else only men of One Language could be Christians But any words will serve which signifie the same Matter few will serve for some and others must use more The words of Baptism suffice where they are understood But the Creed Lord's Prayer and Decalogue as the sum of the Credenda Petenda Agenda have by the Church been judged a sufficient explication for the Baptized And in these we all agree C. V. Though real sincerity of active Faith and Consent be necessary to Salvation God judging the Heart yet Profession not disproved must satisfie the Church Who therefore are not put to judge whether mens Knowledg reach the degree of their Helps C. VI. The Baptizing one into the Union of the Church-Universal obligeth him to exercise Christ's instituted Worship in particular Churches and therefore to know what that is which is The Pastor's Teaching the Flock Christ's Gospel officiating in the administration of the Lord's Supper Prayer and Praise and Disciplinary Government by the use of the Church-Keys Of Mens fitness for these the Pastors are the Judges and the Flock must obey C. VII Christ hath in Scripture instituted all that is of necessity to this Communion C. VIII Every Governour hath a governing Judgment called Publick suitable to his Office The Pastours are Judges who is capable of Baptism and Church-Communion as far as must be executed by the Keys The Magistrate is Judge who is by him to be countenanced tolerated or punished by force The Parents are Judges in cases about their Wives and Children proper to Family-Government But every reasonable Creature being a Governour of himself is necessarily the Discerner of his own Duty And God being the Highest Ruler and there being no Power but of Him and none against Him no Man must obey any against him and all must use their Reason to judge whether Mens Laws be against God or not If this were not so 1. Men were governed as meer Bruites 2. And must curse God or Christ or murder or do any Evil that Rulers bid them 3. And then God should for this punish none but Soveraigns 4. And then all Nations must be of the King's Religion 5. And then men must not judge whether it be the Just Prince or the Usurper that they must obey In short this overthroweth all Religion and Humanity C. IX No men have Power to Judge in partem utramlibet or against any Article of Faith or Divine Obedience the Thing is True or False before they judge of it and if they judge against Truth their Judgment is void God binds as not to believe their Lie They have no Power to judge that there is no God no Christ no Holy Ghost that the Gospel is false that Men may commit Idolatry Perjury Murder Adultery c. The contrary all may and must judge but some as Rulers and some as Subjects But in cases before indifferent where Man's Authority may make Duty or not there they may judge it Duty or not accordingly C. X. In doubtful cases no mens bare judgment can bind or make others to Believe things Divine with a Divine Faith man is not God But 1. Teachers that are credible must be believed with a human Faith according to the degree of their credibility which is preparatory to Divine Faith 2. And Rulers may Govern Subjects in the manner of expressing and using their
controverted Opinions and restrain them from doing hurt C. XI While true Union and Love are secured by common concord in things essential and necessary a Judge of other Controversies is not needful to these ends before secured Christians must live in Love that understand not many hundred Texts or Controversies C. XII It is worse than Madness to think that all Controversies will on Earth be ended or that any Men can do it But they that say it do most deeply damn such pretended Judges that so many Volumes being written of Controversies and contrary textual Expositions among themselves will not decide them to this day Who shall decide all the Controversies between General Councils and all the present Patriarchs and Churches in the World Thus much to answer the question Who shall be Iudge of Controversies and Scripture Sence § 5. If Men did but difference points necessary to Salvation and Christianity from those that are only needful to a higher Stature in the Church and from those that are utterly uncertain and unnecessary and 2. If they did but know their own ignorance and liableness to Error and 3. If they considered how utterly impossible it is to make the multitude of ignorant People yea or Ministers to be all of a mind in the numerous hard Controversies Opinions and dubious or indifferent things that are striven about in the World certainly instead of damning or despising or destroying or hateing each other for such things they would magniâ—ie the Wisdom and Mercy of Christ who hath laid the Love Unity and Peace of his Church on a few plain sure and needful things Even the Covenant of Christianity with the Creed Lord's Prayer and Decalogue and so much of Christ's own Precepts as the universal Church hath ever bin agreed in And they would rather honour and obey St. Paul Rom. 14. 1 Cor. 12. Ephes. 4. 1 to 16. than count his Dictrin to be unpracticable or loose § 6. If God will take all into Heaven that practically believe the Creed and obey what is plainly written in the Scripture why may not such live in Love and Peace on Earth and the Key-bearers of the Church which is the Seminary of Heaven receive such as Christ receiveth us to the Glory of God the Father Rom. 15. 16. What if Men confess that they know no more when millions called Christians know not so much will they destroy them for not knowing more than they can know Or is it any Virtue or Duty to lye and say that they know or believe what they are utterly ignorant of What if those that with Ierome misliked the word Hypostasis and those that preferred it before Persona had forborn censuring one another What if the questions Whether Mary should be called the Mother of God or rather of Him who is God Or whether Christ's Will and Operations should be said to be One or Two had been managed with mutual forbearance without Zeno's Henoticon or Anastasius's forcible Amursty What if such forbearance had spared all the rage and bloodshed at Antioch Alexandria and other parts What if Chrysostom and others had bin permitted to silence their Thoughts of Origine What if men had not bin put to declare whether the tria capitula of Theodoret Iâ—as and Theodore Mopsuest were sound or unsound and said What is it to us Might not the Church have lived with such in Peace What if when the World was in a flame about Images they had left them only to those that desired them Might not they yet have lived in Love that agreed in all the Essentials of Christianity What if yet one man say that Christ's Body is locally present in the Eucharist and another say that Because he knoweth not how far his spiritual Glorified Body is invisible therefore he no more knoweth whether it be there than whether an Angel be there but believeth that the Sacrament is truly his crucified Body representative why might not both these live in peace What if one think that Venial Sin must be punished with Purgatory Fire or as an English Dr. that some men must pass a new Life of Trial in their Aireal Vehicle before they are capable of an Aethereâ—l Vehicle why may not such bear with one that saith he knoweth no such thing What â—f one man think that he may pray to his Angel Guardian and another saith only that he oweth Angels Love Reverence and Gratitude and would pray to them if he knew when they heard him and knew it were God's will what hurt will it do to the other man to bear with this If we agree of all points that put men into that state in which Christ commanded to Love one another as his Disciples if others differ from me about the meaning of five hundred Texts of Scripture why may notlbe contented with my Knowledg and Opinion and leave them to theirs Why might not Nazianzene and the Council of Constantinople Hierome and Russinus Chrysostom and Theophilus and Epiphanius Prosper and Cassianus and Vincentius to pass by Augustine and Celestine and Iulianus and Hierome and Vigilantius and Iovinian have composed their differences with less noise and strife and lived in love and peace together To pass by also the doleful Contentions about the Councils of Ephesus and Calcedon and Const. 5 6. and Nice 2. and between Ignatius and Photius and many more worse striâ—es since then Why might not the Jesuites and Jansenists have differed without troubling the Popes and the Church by mutual forbearance and gentle disputes as many of the Schoolmen did before them I quarrel not with Erasmus Faber and abundance such for chiding the Schoolmen as Causers of Contention by raising so many frivolous questions for Dispute But verily as they were in my opinion the best Philosophers that ever the World had and no wonder when they studied little else so they managed their Disputes with more Scholar-like candour and peaceable moderation than most that went before them or that have followed them How many huge Volumes of subtile Disputes do they write with very few railing words patiently bearing each others copious Confutations and Contradictions as a thing to be expected and no whit wondring at the Differences of Judgment among the worthiest men How many Volumes or loads of Volumes are there written of the different Opinions of the Thomists Scotists Nominals Durandists and yet till the late times put Virulency into the Writings of Iesuites Dominicans and Iansenists c. there was little reviling to be found in all these long Disputes And why might not Luther and Caerolostadius Zuinglius and Oecolampadius and many Lutherans and Calvinists have lived in as much Love and Peace as Melanâ—thon and Erasmus and such others if they had but had their forbearing Charity and Candour How sweet are the Pacificatory Writings yea and how judicious of Iunius Ludov. Crotius Matth. Martinius Georg. Calixtus Conrad Bergius Iohannes Bergius Paraeus Amyraeedus Hottonus Testardus Camero Lud. Capellus Placâ—us and
Conclusion helped by Grace whereof the major only is de fide He that believeth is justified but not the Minor I believe Therefore we usually call it a fruit of Faith § 42. Some incautelous Divines in the heat of Dispute do indeed say That it is de fide divina or a Divine Word that I am a true Believer And Chamier too unhappily goeth about to prove it by saying That it is the Word of the Spirit in us which is the Word of God As if the Spirit spake in us new Articles of Faith or a new Word to be believed whose work in those that are not inspired Prophets is but 1. to cause us to believe that Word already given 2. To be a witnessing Evidence that we are God's Children by making us holy as he is holy as similitude witnesseth a Child to be his Fathers 3. And to help us to discern that Holiness or Evidence and to exercise it and to gather Comfort from such discerning it and exercise § 43. We now commonly disown all such Assertions I meet with no sober Divine that owneth them because we grant that Conclusio semper sequitur partem debiliorem But yet we find that those few that call it de fide do most of them mean no more but that it 's partly de fide because the Major Proposition is so and so they differ but about a Logical Notion § 44. Some have said indeed beyond-Sea That a man cannot believe and not know it but we know thousands may believe and yet doubt whether it be a sincere and saving sort of Faith But I have written so many Books of these matters that I here add no more CHAP. XXI Of the nature of Righteousness Iustification and Pardon § 1. THE Controversies about Justification have made a great noise but I think that those de re are few in comparison of those de nomine even among all sorts of Christians and the confounding them by unskilful Heads who have made the ignorant believe that those which are but de nomine are de re hath kindled foolish Wrath and quenched Christian Love and taken up poor Souls with a deceitful Zeal who have thought that they were contending for great and necessary Truths when it was but for Logical Notions Names and Modes of Expression over-commended to them by their several Teachers § 2. The Words Iustice Righteousness and Iustification are very ambiguous used in many sences in the Scriptures and in the Writings of Divines and in the common use of men which I have opened in so many Books and so largely as shall here excuse my breviâ—y The Sences which we are now most concerned to take notice of are these following § 3. Righteousness is considered materially or formally Materially it is 1. immediately 1. A righteous Action 2. A righteous Disposition or Habit 2. And thence a righteous Person § 4. Righteousness materially is 1. in some or other particular Action 2. Or in the main bent of Heart and Life 3. Or in Perfection The first denominateth the Person Righteous in hoc or secundum quid The second denominateth him a sincerely Righteous Man The third a perfectly Righteous Man § 5. In the notion of the material Cause is included also the Comparative or Relative State and Proportion of Actions When the Action is duly qualified and modified in its physical Nature and Circumstances it is materially just § 6. The form enquired of is Quid morale And it is the Relation of the Action and Habit and Person as congruous to the justitia mensurans or the Rule of Righteousness The Rule or Law first maketh jus vel debitum and saith This shall be your Duty and your Neighbour's Due and declareth God's Due And the jus being constituted by the Law natural or positive that which agreeth to it is jâ—stum So that Righteousness formally is a moral Relation resulting from the physical mode and relation of Actions and Habits as compared with the Law or Rule A moral Relation founded in a physical Congruity § 7. Righteousness is both materially and formally distinguishable as towards God or Man Materially as it is God or Man that we deal â—ustly or injuriously by Formally as it is God himself or Men ruling under him who give us Laws and make the debitum vel jus or dispose of Propriety § 8. Righteousness towards God being Relative to his Laws is to be distinguished according to the several Laws that men are under and according to the several parts of the Law which give the word divers Sences § 9. 1. Righteousness as related to the Precept as such is nothing but Obedience whether partial sincere or perfect He that doth righteousness is righteous § 10. 2. Righteousness related to a meer Condition of Pardon or Salvation c. is the performance of that Condition which may be the Causa judicanda § 11. 3. Righteousness as related to the premiant or donative part of the Law or Promise is our jus ad praemium our Right to that Reward or Gift § 12. 4. Righteousness as relative to the penal part is our jus ad impunitatem or when punishment is not due to us according to that Law § 13. 1. Righteousness as related to the Precept of the Law of Innocency is materially perfect personal continued Obedience to our Creator § 14. 2. Righteousness as related to the Condition of that Law is the same because nothing but the said perfect Obedience is there made the Condition of Life § 15. 3. Righteousness related to the rewarding part of that Law is right to that Life which is there promised that is to God's Love and Felicity § 16. 4. Righteousness related to the Penalty of that Law is a Right to Impunity as to the Death which it threatneth to Sinners § 17. 1. Righteousness as related to the meer preceptive part of the Law of Grace is also perfect Obedience for the future not Innocency as to the time past for even Christ maketh perfect Obedience our Duty though he pardon sin § 18. 2. Righteousness as related to the Condition of the Law of Grace is sincere Faith and Repentance as the Condition of our first Right to the present Gifts of the Covenant and also sincere Love and Obedience to the end as the Condition of our final Iustification and Glory § 19. 3. Righteousness as related to the Reward of the Law of Grace is our Right to our Relation to the Father Son and Holy Ghost and all the Gifts of the Covenant Christ Grace and Glory § 20. 4. Righteousness as related to the penal part of the Law of Grace is our Right to Impunity as to the Punishment threatned specially by that Law § 21. The meritorious Cause of both these last our Right to Impunity and to Life is the Righteousness of Christ for the sake of which the Condonation and Donations of the Covenant of Grace are given us § 22. This Righteousness of Christ is his fulfilling the Conditions