just also to forgive they are arguments to porswade a man to take that course without fear or doubt for man naturally hath that opinion of God that where he sheweth favor unto any it is for some goodness and therefore he dare not come as a naked and meer sinner into Gods sight and presence as is plain in Adam Gen. 3. But if he can bring nothing else he will make promise of amendment in some hope of mercy to be the rather shewed him hence to correct and satisfie our thoughts and to encourage us to take this course to come as we are in our sins making our selves nor our case or matter better then it is he requireth a free and simple confession of sins adding that God is faithful in his promise in which he hath declared a gracious minde to pardon such in his Son and also that his justice the thought whereof in that case chiefly terrifieth is so fully satisfied that now non obstante imò salva justitiae God may in order of his justice forgive and save To that other place 2 Tim. 4.8 I have before shewed how you misinterpret it for that righteousness unto which the crown belongeth is the righteousness of God and not ours Rom. 1.17 Rom. 10.3 of faith and not of works that we have done Tit. 3.5 Rom. 3.22 M. B. Hence some Divines say that though godliness be not meritorious nor causal of salvation yet it may be a motive as they instance if a King should give great preferment to one that should salute him in a morning this salutation were neither meritorious nor causal of that preferment but a meer motion arising from the good pleasure of the King and so much they think that particle for I was an hungry doth imply Answ O how welcome and pleasing is this teaching to mans nature It tendeth to withdraw our eyes and considerations from off Christ unto our selves and from free-grace unto our works whereunto all are most prone by nature If our goodness be a motive moving God 1. Then God seeth something out of himself exciting and moving him to do good and if you hold this foresight of goodness which thus moved him was from eternity you are not far from Arminianisme or Popery and if he was moved at the time of doing good which many of them also hold as the King you instance in then this new and present motion in God to do good is a child of time begot in his minde or occasioned of late and God showeth more kindness then from the beginning he intended Lastly a motive must needs have some influence if not into the act of salvation yet into the minde of God for the salutation worketh upon the kinde nature and heart of the King stirring him up to be so bountiful and the man may thank his salutation in great part for his preferment O happy man I and happy was that time that I met and so saluted the King but the Gospel calleth from all such fleshly rejoycing in our selves that he that rejoyceth may onely so do in the Lord Christ in whom and for whose sake onely God sheweth all favour exalteth and blesseth with all spiritual blessings And why do you bring in and propound this to your hearers and the whole world as now but both because you like and approve of it and would put all upon the like course and practise in hope so to speed But before they had done good or evil it was said Jacob have I loved c. The true God loveth accepteth and saveth freely in Christ without any thing considered in the party M. B. So that God having appointed holiness the way and salvation the end hence there ariseth a relation between one and the other Answ Keep the Law and Works as you told us Luther said here below on the earth and by faith mount up live and converse above in heaven then the way in which the soul walketh to salvation is Christ and his righteousness a way sanctified by his blood Heb. 10.19 20. Believe and be saved and so the relation will be between salvation and Christs righteousness and not our righteousness of works distinguish between believing Abraham and working Abraham as Luther wisely c. Secondly For that place I was an hungry it makes nothing for your purpose For. 1. The kindome was prepared from the foundation of the world therefore God was not moved by works Mat. 25.34 2. It is an argument from the effect of true faith working by love by which faith they being accepted to life eternal did declare and witness the truth of it by such seasonable proper and kindely fruits as is there mentioned all relating to Christ and being expressions of ardent love to him and this is that God may appear to be just therefore he proceedeth to give sentence according to what is manifest to all for faith is hid in the heart and not seen nor known M. B. 3. There is a promise made to them 1. Tim. 4.8 Godliness hath the promises Answ Some by Godliness in that place understand the righteousness of faith by which we become Saints towards God and indeed all true piety is vertually included in it 2. Actual holiness is produced by it and if the promises were to this active righteousness yet not primarily nor yet causally but by reason of justification the sole root and foundation of it There is a secret faith in all that we do saith Luther and unto this God in his promises of any good hath respect and for it or more truely to Christ apprehended by faith is the promise made so that in having Christ we have all the promises else we have none Yet it 's more plaine and direct to take Godliness in that sense it is in 1 Tim. 3.16 Great is the mystery of godliness that is of Christian religion in general but all tendeth to one though this seemeth to me to be the meaning of it Secondly You say That the promises lye scattered up and downe in the word of God so that to every godly action thou doest there is a promise of eternal life Answ If every Godly action have a promise of eternal life then either so many actions so many eternal lives be due as where promise is of twelve pence a day to a labourer and so many dayes work so many twelve pences become due or at least there be so many rights and interests in it as be holy actions But eternal life can but be due to all holy actions joyntly and to no one singly if it should be due to works 2. It is true that promises be so made in the Law wherein there is a concatenation or linking of all in one yet they are upon such hard conditions that it is poor comfort and small or no hope of having any performed it being impossible The Law is weak through the flesh Rom. 8.3 but the New Testament is upon better promises which are sure to faith because they
is that the Hebrew word doth signifie largely any doctrine and so may comprehend the whole word of God Answ You say that others as well as they Antinomian take the law so largely so that you see your Adversarie is not single in his opinion as you are who can produce no Author but onely say It seemeth good to expound that phrase in such a manner And otherwise it seemeth it would cross your designe else I see nor you do shew no reason But Luther and some others upon that place Psal 19.7 do take the law for the moral law but I dare say you will not stand to their exposition of it Luther saith This is no absolute commendation of the law but it is to be understood legem talem factans esse per fidem non talia facit lex The law worketh not these it self but they are effected by the influence of the Sun of righteousness inwardly quickning reviving and comforting the soul through the faith of the Gospel The law giveth nor hath no such heat or vertue of it self but produceth contrary effects It may indeed saith he convert the eye mouth hand ears omnes vires sed magis avertit cor odio paenarum indignatione prohibitae concupiscentiae sed cor non est rectum spiritus non est fidelis In brief his judgement is that after the soul is justified and converted by the Gospel then it loveth the law which it hated before and now it doeth not avert or as being afraid she from God in his law but with confidence and delight draweth nigh unto him and observeth the things of the law because the Spirit of Christ in the Gospel maketh them sweeter to the soul then all the riches and pleasures of this life Thus it s the doctrine of reconciliation by Christ believed on that marvelously altereth the Christians heart causing it to convert and turn to God as being thereby able to abide his sight and presence and to love his saw Et Amans legem non potest eam satis landare adeo placet quae prius adeo displicuit You say nothing that hath any strength in it against the truth held out and maintained by us And by this you may see whence it was that David so commended the law strictly taken because his heart was so altered by the faith of the operation of God It is remarkable saith Luther that the way to love and keep the law is to believe and receive the Gospel from this belief issueth love and all true obedience and it is not bred and effected by the law commanding and requiring it By faith we establish the law Rom. 3. ult M. B. That opinion which would make Christ not take an instrumental way for conversion of men in his first Sermon wherein he was very large that must not be asserted but to hold that the preaching of the law is not a Medium to conversion must needs be to say Christ did not take the nearest way c. Answ You answer your self page 169. where your words are That our Saviours intent was only to explicate the law better then did the Scribes and Pharisees that so they might be sensible of sin and discover themselves to be fouler and more abominable then ever they judged themselves unto which let me add And that by requiring and so letting the hearers see a necessity of a more absolute righteousness then was held forth even in the doctrine of the Scribes and Pharisees he might so destroy all confidence in their own works prevent the establishing of mans righteousness and prepare and dispose them to hearken after his righteousness for he is the end of the law for righteousness to al that believe Rom. 10.4 And by this it may appear that he used the law preparatorily to justification and conversion as you in part are forced to grant it to be the opinion and doctrine of all Orthodox Divines and yet it is thwarted by you who love to have a way by your self M. B. If the law of God have that objectively in it that may work exceedingly upon the heart when set home by Gods Spirit then it may be used instrumentally as well as the Gospel but it hath c. Answ Here is nothing but the vain reason of man If God be otherwise pleased what is it how glorious fit and worthy soever it may seem for this in our eyes The Sun in the firmament is a glorious object to look upon when we have eyes but God useth it not therefore to give and restore the use of sight to those that be blind the seeing man findeth variety of delightful objects to look at among the creatures but they finde him not eyes therefore M.B. 5. If the law of God may be blessed after a man is converted to the increase of his grace and holiness why not then to the first beginning of it That it is for the increase of of Godliness appeareth by experience Answ Every Christians experience teacheth him that the more he inwardly seeth and feeleth that divine love that pardoneth reconcileth and preserveth the soul in that everlasting covenant of sure mercies and peace the more it loveth againe and in love hateth evil escheweth it doth good is every way cheerfully obedient I love the Lord saith David because he heard me when I called upon him in the time of trouble and delivered my soul from death my eyes from tears and my feet from falling What bred and caused love and gained the heart to God at the first that same is of continual force still to enlive and enlarge the affections towards him But because sins are forgiven it is said she loved much Luke 7. and if this Candle be put under a bushel if this Sun the light of Gods countenance do not shine forth upon the Solissequium the soul of a believer it will be dark dull and indisposed to whatever good you can propound to it therefore is it requisite that faith be nourished and ever operative and lively in apprehending and feeding upon that exceeding kindness of God in Christ that so it may be more quick and free in all holy expressions Faith works by love if faith dye or wax cold by which the soul liveth the law can but little work upon or affect the heart Besides as the Christians beginning so his building up and increasing is in another way and by other means then are meerly legal he lives and grows in the Vine Christ and thereby fructifieth M. B. It is hard to think that a Minister having opened any moral duty of the law may not pray to God to cloath that word with power to change the heart of the hearers Answ Why should man thinke it hard or be offended at any thing where he findeth it Gods will that it be so and no otherwise 2. If God reveal not his minde and willingness to put forth any renewing power in the law how can you then pray in faith to be
not kill and Whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgement But I say unto you That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shalt be in danger of the judgement and whosoever shall say to his brother Racha shall be in danger of the counsel but whosoever shall say Thou fool shall be in danger of hell-fire I Wonder at an Antinomian who is so apt to oppose the doing of things in love M. B. p. 173. and doing them by the law together for doth not the law command every duty to be in love Answ Did not Christ taxe and reprove the Pharisees for their alms prayers sacrifices c. which were things commanded in the law because they wanted pureness of love and did them in hypocrisie for praise and self-ends 2. It is the chief point of wisdom in the teacher to discover want of truth of affection and love to things done according to the outward precept of the law 3. Whoso doth a thing simply being moved thereunto by the authority of the law doth it not in love 4. Though the law require love in every duty yet it both findes us in enmity and yet it cannot breed nor work love in the heart though it be often pressed to be done where no such affection is found nor once spoken of thus most are suffered to bless themselves in that kinde of doing M. B. Yea we are to love God by the law because he hath given Christ for us for the law commandeth to love God for whatever benefit he bestoweth upon us Answ If God command love by the law because he hath given Christ then you must presuppose that Christ was given before promise to give him in future it had been more probable for the promise of the Messiah was before the giving of the Law 2. But neither you nor I if we understand what love in truth is can love God because the law requireth it though that be a reason alledged and used for it for it is his love shed abroad into the heart that causeth love in us We love him because he loved us first Natural enmity whatever we profess otherwise cannot be destroyed and abolished but by faith which purifieth the heart and worketh by love M. B. God doth work grace in us by this the law as well as by the Gospel God doth use the law instrumentally for to quicken up grace and increase it in us as Psal 1 19. sheweth Answ Paul rendereth that as the onely reason why righteousness cannot come by the law because it cannot vivifie quicken or give life Gal. 3.21 the quickening spirit is not adjoyned to it The proper office and end of the law is to convince us of sin and death that we may seek righteousness and life in Christ by faith the branch liveth and groweth in the vine and so fructifieth John 15. But this controversie you do professedly and with all your forces of Scripture and Arguments enter upon and largely handle in your 20 Lecture therefore let us pass on unto it for the whole 19 nothing concerneth us LECT XX. Mat. 5.21 22. Ye have heard it hath been said by them of old c. THE Antinomian doth directly derogate from the profitable effect and benefit of the law M. B. Pa. 187. Answ Your accusation and charge will prove too directly peremptory bold and unjust he that acknowledgeth all the effects and benefits of the Law that the Orthodox or God himself in his word do mention cannot derogate any jot from it M.B. This therefore is the assertion which an Antinomian Author maintaineth viz. that the law is not an instrument of true sanctification and that the promise of the Gospel is the seed or doctrine of the new birth and it may not be denied but that many speeches might fall from some men which might seem to comply with that opinion Answ Here is strange insolency and loftiness of spirit All mens eyes must be put out but yours or theirs who see as you see you pretend learning and reading but how is the judgement of the learned slighted and contemned by you you stand up as a zealous advocate pleading for the Law but what illegality and injustice is this with what scorn and lordliness do you insult over your Adversary and would bear and beat down him the truth and his innocency under the foot of pride and disdain Your single opinion must be preferred before all and received by all in your conceit it carrieth in it the light of the Sun here is the Popes spirit all erre but he all is Gospel that comes from him his word is a law onely his Chair is wanting But what mean the Presisident and Fellows of Sion-Colledge to do in the end who so approve and applaud this man and his Book Intend they hereby to bring in and establish a piece of new and strange divinity and to reject and overthrow what is old and true 1. It may not be denyed say you Answ But if it might then perhaps it would be denyed but there is that convincing power in the light of simple truth that will force even the most impudent somewhat to yeeld 2. Yet see what mincing he useth and how loth he is to grant the whole truth and that the world should know that his Adversary hath any of the learned Orthodox truly and really for him or that he himself opposeth any in this but a vilified and despised Antinomian Many speeches might fall saith he from some men as if they were half a sleep or not so considerate as he is when they let such speeches fall or at least intended no such thing or not in our sense as he often saith for it is in him to put what sense or gloss he pleaseth upon their words that so they may not be for us whenas the same truth yea totidem ipsissimis verbis is asserted by both 3. From some men And are they not men of least worth and account too in the Church I dare say you do think no better of them for it They are but some then perhaps you mean few and yet I think you can hardly name one learned and sound Author from whose pen the same assertion hath not fallen 4. Might seem to comply with that opinion Multa videntur quae non sunt What do they seemingly accord with us but in truth and reality are all for you or as you will have them who have learned to make quidlibet ex quolibet yet why do you not produce one for you because you scarce can do it Reader If thou hast the Assertion of grace and wouldst turn to page 166. and 170. thou maist find there Augustine Luther Calvin Bullinger Cornerus Perkins Cudworth Brentius Piscator Fox Tindal and Rollock unto which it is easie to add as many more Orthodox all punctual and full to the point affirming what I say and their words are direct full and exclusive denying this power and work to the
distinguished as Mark 1.15 Repent and believe the Gospel 2. I do not make repentance and to mortifie sin all one as I there speak of repentance 3. Neither say I that to repent and to mortifie sinne is by faith to flye to grace embrace Christ c. The Law is against you as a false witness in all these And you cannot but perceive that I speak of that legal repentance and mortification which you with others so much stand for as requisite before faith Which is when a man is so laid open to himself so effectually convinced and wrought upon by the Law that he seeth acknowledgeth and renounceth all things in him and done by him as sinne and abomination before the Lord whatever esteem he hath had of them formerly or whatever shew they may make Yea and as sinne the sting of death appears and reviveth in all which is the very mortification the wounding and killing of the soul Rom. 7.10 so all these seeming excellencies and good things become mortified within him and his heart that lived and rejoyced in them now dyeth unto them finding nothing but vanity sin and death in all things out of Christ Thus he repenteth and changeth his mind with shame and sorrow that ever he so exalted and established his own righteousness of works as did Paul and those zealous Jews being converted to the faith And because we are necessitated to carry this body of death to the grave and therefore sin and death will ever and unavoidably be in us and all our works and we can by faith in Christ alone finde true righteousness life peace confidence joy and salvation hence Christ is our onely treasure who hath our hearts delight and all else are renounced and accounted as dung and dross Phil. 3.9 You neither may nor can rightly understand my words as spoken of that Evangelical repentance or mortifying of sin in life and conversation by the Spirit of which we read Rom. 8.13 Colos 3.5 Also you know that both in the Scriptures and Authors repentance is somtimes taken largely as comprehending faith also with the effects and fruits of it and so it is divided into mortification and vivification But fince all fulness is in Christ who is made unto us wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption that all our rejoycing should be in him he that liveth by faith in him is the onely mortified man Psal 73.25 Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth desired besides him Mr. Rutherf pag. 273. There be two things in the Law 1. The authority and power to command 2. To punish pag. 275. It s most false that Mr. T. saith To justifie and condemn are as proper and essential to the Law as to command 3. It s false that we are freed from active obedience to the moral Law because Christ came under the active obedience for law requires obedience out of love Reply These two authorities of the Law are repeated and inculcated by you and Mr. Burg. usque ad nanseam Dictator-like you still say It 's false it 's most false c. but where is there any truth or weight in what you say against me I can contemn your vain and reproachfull words and do account your self-coined distinctions as windy without warrant and weight You have a satisfactory answer in my former Reply I may challenge you to produce one syllable for a Law commanding without its condemning power Remember Matth. 5.17 18. 2. That the Law requires obedience out of love its true but we worke from self-love and for self-ends viz. that we may live thereby and not dye The first Adam by his obedience might have preserved himself in that life and state of holiness and happiness he had by creation but now in Christ our life and and felicity is attained and kept by faith we believe that we may live And we love and obey freely for no such ends as not standing and falling by our obedience or disobedience moral Also if our love be changed from legal into evangelical void of selfness Yet that altereth not the cords of the law nor the chaines we were in but Christ hath happily freed us from them The change is in the true Christian and in his estate but you can shew no change in the Law Neither do we destroy the Law as you slander us again but do establish it by faith Rom. 3.31 Where I see that Paul preached the same way that we do in that he was so put to clear and vindicate his Ministery as you do us This also will serve for that exception in pag. 275. where you set the same Coleworts before your Reader It is your constant doctrine that works have reward here and eternall life hereafter and that they be conditions and the way to life and glory how this will consist with faith and Christ let all judge Mr. Rutherf pag. 332. Town in Assertion pag. 56 58. A believer is as well saved already as justified by Christ and in him Divines say Our life and salvation is inchoate but they speak of life as it is in us subjectâ—è Quantum ad nos spectat or in respect of our sense and apprehension here in grace our faith knowledge sanctification is imperfect but in regard of imputation and douation our righteousness is perfect and he that believeth hath life not he shall have it or hath it in hope onely Answ If we have glory really actually perfectly but want it onely in sense we have the resurrection from the dead also actually we want nothing of the reality of heavrn but sense but we are not yet before the throne Therefore holy walking can be no way nor condition nor means of salvation c. therefore no wonder they reject all sanctification as not necessary and teach men to loose the reynes to all fleshly walking Reply Justification puts the soul into a present state of salvation The Scriptures are plain He hath saved us 2 Tim. 1.9 Tit. 3.5 Eph. 2.8 and These things have I written unto you that believe c. that ye may know that ye have eternal life 1 Joh. 5.13 This is the record that God hath given to us eternal life and this life is in his Son ver 11. and Ephes 2.5 God hath quickned us together with Christ and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus I muse you stumble in so clear light Hence saith Musculus Before God we are all that which he willed and also hath caused us to be Christ is not alone in his eyes but we also are conjoyned to him The Assertion doth present you with testimonyes sufficient you believe so farre as you see and feel If you deny our perfection in Christ our head In whom we are compleat Col. 2.10 deny also our union with him that we have received him have him are now the Sons of God 1 Joh. 3.2 Yea then deny that God hath given us as yet
grant you repentance Amen Mr. Rutherf pag. 575. There is a twofold keeping in of sinners one meerly legal they care not for Mr. T. Gaole Reply The law is not my Gaole but Gods and both they and you may be made to minde it more then either yet doth you speak too contemptibly Mr. Rutherf Mr. T. will have the believer so free so perfect as the law needs not to teach nor direct him in one stop he doth all without a keeper by the free compulsion of a Spirit separated from Scriptures which is right down A believer is neither under law nor Gospel but a Spirit separated from both guides him Reply When I say the Spirit of the Lord is his keeper do I teach then he hath no keeper 2. He receiveth the Spirit that leads him by the Gospel how false then is your charge who speak or dream of a spirit separated from Gospel and not I. And yet the Spirit breatheth and bloweth in the heart and the voice or sound of it is there heard when there is no sillable of outward Law or Gospel but you have sufficient answer before As for your instances of Joseph and David I ask of you whether it was the Spirit within that kept them from offending or the law T. pag. 5 6. I muse you omit to shew what it is to be under Grace Mr. Rutherf Dr. Taylor did not omit to shew what it is if you did not omit to read his words he is clear to any Reply Before you complained you could not see what was plain before you but now you can see what is not extant this is the fruit of partiality Mr. Rutherf But let your exposition stand you are not under the law as teaching directing regulating believers in the way of righteousness but the Gospel giveth power to subdue sin without any teaching or regulating power of the law But what is the power of subduing sin to the Antinomians not sanctification but justification that is a power to believe that Christ hath obeyed law for me we are obliged to no personal sanctification c. then to be inherently holy is unlawful to Antinomians Reply The exposition is not mine verbatim yet even in your owne expression the light of truth is so clear and convincing on our part that you turn your back on it as afraid to meddle And being disposed to take occasion to wrangle you demand what it is to subdue sin whereas it is set before you even the weakening of the power of sin within us that it domineer not over us Indeed the Prophet Micah 7.19 useth the phrase of subduing by justification and that is a true subduing it in the conscience that it there raign not to death condemnation And yet by your confession this must precede and is the proper cause of subduing it in conversation and then that will necessarily follow issuing out of this faith So that in fine this is but a Papistical cavil That to teach justification is the overthrow of holiness and good works Lastly whereas you tell of obliging to sanctification I answer we are to believe that God will sanctifie us and that throughout and put his Spirit into us to lead us in his wayes and so in that faith desiring and hungering after it to seek to him as a sick man longing for health unto his Physitian and to wait in the use of his ordinances that he may so perform The new Covenant properly requireth nothing of man but God knowing his spiritual poverty and utter disability calleth upon him to seek to him who worketh both the will and the deed of his owne pleasure Open thy mouth and I will fill it Psal 81. Your slanderous conclusion is both against the rule of Gods law and of all humane arts But such extravagancy becometh or still pleaseth Mr. Rutherford T. Assert pag. 6. I deny not the law to be an eternal and inviolable rule of righteousness yet the Grace of the Gospel doth truly and effectually conform us unto it Mr. Rutherf pag. 578. I ask to whom the law is a rule if to Believers then they must be under it 2. That rule the grace conformeth unto we must be under 3. An inviolable rule of justice cannot be violated without sin Then the Believer cannot violate the law and murder but they must sin and violate the rule c. Reply It s true the law is an inviolable rule but not to him as a Believer or in the things of his Faith but here he departs from it for he doth not the Law to be saved but believeth after the rule of the Gospel 2. If you consider him morally I see not but he may be conformed to the rule of the law and yet not under it but under grace and the rule of the spirit which conformeth him 3. In this your moral or civil conception of him you take him quite out of Christs kingdom where grace reigneth And now grant he doth murder and sin It is death and condemnation by the same rule and law so that he must be totally removed out of the limits of the law before he can be freed and secured from either sin or death You leave faith and fall from grace in all your arguments And they are as forcible to maintain the condemning power of the law to believers as the regulating for where the law regulates it may condemn and so it doth the best Saint here if you bring him and his life under it T. Assert pag. 7. Through faith is bred assured confidence lively hope c. M. Rutherf pag. 579. This is a close perverting of the word of truth the Antinomians faith may here be smelt then whoever once wavereth or doubteth are yet under the law of works A doctrine of despair to broken reeds who cry I believe help my unbelief Reply I must commend to you Jam. 1.6 7. But observe good Reader what is here excepted against viz. Through Faith in Christ is bred assured confidence lively hope pure love towards God invocation of his name without wavering fear or doubting not questioning his good will audience acceptance which would never be effected by all the zeal and conscience towards God according to the law of works And now judge impartially what truth can be current with Mr. Rutherf I aske 1. can assured confidence lively hope c. come or be effected any way else then by faith in Christ If there want light at Noon-day Read Heb. 3.9 where your Bible-Note saith That he calleth that excellent effect of faith whereby we cry Abba Father confidence and to confidence he joyneth hope which is termed a lively hope that God begets unto 1 Pet. 1.3 see also Heb. 10.22 23. Rom. 15.13 and 10.14 How shall they call on him on whom they have not believed But it is like this moveth M. Rutherf that it is said that these cannot be attained by all the zeal according to the law of works yet Paul clears it Eph. 2.18 That
through Christ we have entrance unto the Father and Eph. 3.12 By him we have boldness and entrance with confidence by faith in him If Mr. Rutherf object But these are not in full and absolute perfection where yet true faith may be Who saith so or who but Mr. Rutherf would so closely pervert the truth that I may retort his owne words Being justified by faith we have peace c. In whom believing ye rejoyce c. God hath begotten us againe to a lively hope c. Rom. 5.1 1 Pet. 1.3 8. Nay saith Mr. Rutherf This is a close perverting of the truth for he doubts not but that there are many weak believers of a trembling timerous and troubled spirit whose faith is not yet able to over-master their fears which cause torment and disquietness but I cease And Mr. Rutherf hereby smels our faith Reply Naribus utilis yet no unsavory errour And know it that it is the effect of the law of works upon the natural conscience and the unbelief of the Gospel that keep the soul in bondage through that slavish fear Mr. Rutherf ibid. The covenant of grace commands faith and also good works as witnesses of faith but Mr. T. will have good works in any Notion of an Evangelick command to stand at defiance with the covenant of grace Repl. What contend you for if you grant grace to be the fountain-cause of all holy walking then not the law 2. If it be a lively and free fountain then doth holiness issue out of it as a pleasant stream and how now do good works stand at defiance with the covenant of grace Besides it is said Catachrestiâ—â—s abusively and not properly that the covenant of grace commands faith and good works for it promiseth to give both to them who have power to neither Lastly these works are not done as conditions to obtain eternal life for that is said passim to be by faith without works faith for salvation good works for conversation Mr. Rutherf ibid. The man under the law cannot give himself to be ruled by the law after the minde and will of God as Mr. T. saith except Antinomians be Pelagians Reply It s a palpable wrong I have no such words as that a man under the law can give himself to be ruled by it after the mind and will of God you have a strange conscience that no better bridleth you though your affections be void of love to your Adversary I might more truely reply by your doctrine That a man under the law can do it for you free none from under it or else you are not ruled by it after the mind and will of God And that is most propable who now is the Pelagian But to deal plainly what say you of Paul and many zealous Jews who in earnest applied themselves to do the things of the Law so that Paul saith touching it he was blameless and that before his conversion to the faith To do it after the mind and will of God is your addition Mr. Rutherf Paul speaks of a man under the Law in the flesh and in opposition to that under Grace married to Christ he that is dead to the Law married to Christ and serves God spiritually And it 's clear the Apostle counts it a part of deliverance from the Law and a fruit of our marriage to Christ that we bring forth fruit to God walk holily and serve in newness of spirit Reply Jam convenimus What contend you for all is granted that I desire or said for 1. then Christ and not the Law as a husband makes fruitfull 2. Then there was a serving of God under the Law in the oldness of the letter 3. Where or how then find you me to be against holy walking and according to the rule of righteousness Is not this your false slander Assert How can Christ redeem us from the Law except in the same sense and extent that Christ was under it Mr. Rutherf 1. Christ was under the Law of Ceremonies I hope Gentiles were not under that Reply The question is of the moral and you talk vainly of ceremonial Mr. Rutherf If Christ was under the Law as a rule to free us from it why commands he to imitate him Reply Christ was under the Law for life even to obtaine favour and salvation for us so he is in the end of the Law for righteousness to all that believe 2. It is by his spirit and power any imitate him walking as he did and so do keep the Law as he did freely in love not for self-life or self-ends for so did Christ who sought not himself Assert pag. Mr. T. hath a strange evasion The spirit is free why will you controle and rule it by the Law whereas the nature of it is freely to conforme heart and life to the outward rule of the law without the help of the law as a crooked thing is made straight c. Mr. Rutherf To do the will of God meerly as commanded from the power of an outward commandment is legal saith Saltmatsh and Mr. T. saith it is to controul the free spirit Three means saith T. are passive to hear read receive Sacraments are so many restraints laid on the free spirit Reply I say again If the spirit rule you according to the Law then neither Law nor you do rule it but the Law is onely the rule or pattern according to which the Spirit formeth you What can be more plain to him that will see and grant any truth And this makes no contrariety but a sweet harmony between the word and the spirit yea and establisheth the Law by the faith and Spirit of the Gospel And here you would range us among the old Anabaptists Enthusiasts c. and love to expatiate having burst the banks and bounds of charity and truth I am not more strange to you then this is to me That you are of such a spirit 2. Where say I that meanes are passive The Spirit is pleased to blow sweetly by all Evangelical meanes as Preaching Prayer Sacraments c. and we rightly using them do carry our selves passively that the Spirit may thereby breath and give life to our Spirits and that we may have it more abundantly Mr. Rutherf What T. meaneth in saying The spirit freely conformeth the heart to it Reply The sense is easie and plain if your mind were not finister Mr. Rutherf If the meaning be that the Law of it self cannot convert a man to God Antinomians father most falsly such dreames on us but if the Spirit conform us to the outward rule of the Law then must the Law be yet a rule to our obedience Reply When you please you can spell out my meaning But 1. Whether it be your dream or no I leave it Yet you know that your Brethren so hold and teach and may be forced to own this brat or novell-assertion of theirs 2. As if Mr. Rutherf were in a dream he in his other book would seem
grant the Law to be a perpetual and inviolable Rule of Righteousness but that it is a Rule to a Believer quatenus talis he will not grant 2. It is true it hath vim praecepti as well as doctrinae and so it hath vim damnandi a power to curse as he there affirmeth and you neither have nor can refute M. B. What will he say to the Law given to Adam who yet was righteous and innocent and therefore could not be cursing or condemning of him Ans You mean not that the Law had no power to curse and condemn because Adam was innocent for you grant it had that potentially though not actually If then it did not actually curse it was not because the Law wanted that power but in that state of innocency there was no place nor reason actually to curse Henceforth wonder not at the Author for saying the Law hath power to curse which is denyed by Dr Taylor and your self but wonder at your own oversight who while you would oppose and confute your Adversary do grant and affirm all he requireth And yet in your Lect. 6. you deny this power to curse to be any essential part of the Law When Adam had sinned whether did the Law actually condemn or no If yes I demand then whether it were by that authority and power it had before or some new and further power was given it upon the fall Did not the Law say to him yet in innocency What day thou eatest of that tree thou shalt dye Gen. 2. How was it that it threatened death and forbad the eating under such a fearful penalty if it had yet no power to execute and inflict the same You must now yield and cease or fight on with your own shadow M. B. In respect of the Vse of the Law to Believers It hath this Vse 1. To excite and quicken them against all sin and corruption c. because none of the godly are perfectly righteous and there is none but may complain of his dull love and his faint delight in holy things therefore the Law of God by commanding doth quicken him c. Have not Believers Crookedness Hypocrisie Luke-warmness Ans The love of God in Christ revealed and shed abroad in the heart doth quicken but the simple Command of the Moral Law can never effect what you say He that loveth the Lord hateth sin but we love the Lord not by reason of the Law requiring it but because he hath loved us first 1 Ioh. 4.19 and that we be born of God and know God in his Son It 's strange Divinity that the flesh and wickedness of our nature should be cured or weakened by the Law It may discover the malady or disease but not remedy it Put the Law to the old man it will revive and quicken it indeed but not to goodness if we may believe either Scripture or our own experience The strength of sin is the Law 1 Cor. 15.56 And Rom. 7.9 When the Commandment came sin revived and I dyed Such is the poysonful enmity in us by the first Adam that it maketh head against the plaister of the Law being applyed unto it The old man or flesh is enmity to God and all goodness Rom. 8.7 and the more it is stirred and quickened by the Law the more it is enraged But contrarily the Head of the Body that is the Church is Christ from whom it hath nourishment ministred and so increaseth with the encrease of God and by this means the body of sin is weakened and abolished Colos 2.19 Our Sanctification is not begun nor perfected by legal precepts and pressings but by our true and effectual union with Christ Ioh. 15.4 As the branch cannot bear fruit of it self except it abide in the Vine no more can ye except ye abide in me Verse 5. He that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit for without me ye can do nothing M. B. In the third Use of the Law pag. 9. How absurd then are they that say the preaching of the Law is to make men trust in themselves and to adhere to their own righteousness Ans It may be truly said that too many so preach the Law that they establish mans righteousness for this is in the mouth of divers The Minister saith Do well and have well and we are taught That the way to come to glory in Heaven is to glorifie God on Earth by good works Christ saveth none but holy ones c. If the Law were used to discover sin not to cover it to weaken and destroy not to strengthen and build up to binde and cast out not to loose release and admit if the Vail were taken off Moses face and the glory of God in his fiery and terrible Law did break forth so that all found it to be a Ministration of death and condemnation this would be a mean to kill and overthrow all self-confidence and boasting But who doth make that use of it Not one of twenty and your self cannot receive the Law and digest it under such a terrifying and damning notion M. B. pag. 11. The Antinomian before he speaks any thing against or about the Law must shew in what sence the Apostle useth it Ans Your Antinomian is as good a friend to the Law as your self neither do you nor yet can you make it appear that he speaks one word against the Law You are too bold in saying that the Apostle argueth against the Law in any sence but if you so charge him your Conscience may give way to slander us M. B. 5 Caution pag. 13. To distinguish between a Believer and his personal acts Believers sins are condemned they are guilty of Gods wrath though not their persons Ans This your nice and groundless distinction was Dr Taylors shift as it is yours You might have seen the vanity of it in the Assertion of Grace or at least have considered how to satisfie the Objections against it before you present the world with it afresh 1. The Scripture maketh the guilt and curse to redound upon the person as Gal. 3.10 Cursed is every man that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them 2. In your dayly repentance or confession you make in your prayers do you not judg and condemn your self for your sins whereof Conscience doth accuse you What a strange expression is it that sins are guilty of Gods wrath 3. If no guilt redound upon the person there is no more need of Christs blood to cleanse acquit and justifie and to be a continual propitiation for sin The Promise is vain and Faith of no effect unless you will say that you believe dayly to secure not your person but your sins from wrath 4. And the true reason why the sin guilt and curse redound upon any person is because he is put and placed under the Law which revealeth wrath and why all is kept off the Believer it
condition the free gift of God is eternal life Rom. 6.23 All the Orthodox deny the promise of the Gospel to be conditional for if good works be conditions of life in the Covenant of Grace what then are the conditions of the Covenant of works Or wherein do they differ As this is to confound Law and Gospel Nata est in scholis Pseudo Apostolorum thus to distinguish between justification and salvation so it is remarkable that this distinction and question did first come out of the school of the false Prophets who thereby occasioned great disturbance in the Church as Act. 15.1 5. So Gerard c. M. B. Now by the Antinomian Argument as a man may be justified while he is wicked and doth abide so so also he may be glorified and saved for this is their principle that Christ hath purchased justification glory and salvation for us even though sinners and enemies Answ Methinks your face should blush for shame at the framing of this so appareatly unjust charge and accusation doth any say that Justification leaveth a man wicked Nay do not all and every write otherwise let others judge I say no more But that their principle is undenyably true yet your Logick can finde no ground in it for this corrupt and absurd inference If Christ ever purchased glory justification and salvation for us it was when and while we were sinners and enemies or not at all for he purchased nothing since ye became holy and a friend to God or him neither needed to purchase righteousness and life for any but sinners How are you permitted to err and mislead M. B. 6. They are in their own nature a defence against sin and corruption if we consider the nature of these graces Eph. 6.14 16. there you have some graces a shield some a breast-plate c. Answ 1. Graces as you call them or gifts of Grace are improperly put in and reckoned among good works 2. The defence and power they have against sin is especially in regard of their object Christ his righteousness and promises For thence it is that all they are so good and useful armour If you have Faith and hope and ever was in any great conflict you have found that all your defence help stay and victory was onely from and by Christ the object he is the onely refuge plea and sure Rock when all works will fail M. B. 8. They are necessary by debt and obligation Answ The works of the Law are debts required to be payed first that we may have life and favour but the love and works of the Gospel are for life peace and favour first had and obtained M. B. 9. And the Law of God still remaineth as a rule and directory Answ As it ruleth so it reigneth reproveth and condemneth and when you have walked most precisely according to it it will subdue you and your obedience under the Curse Gal. 3.10 for all you can do is too light when it is put into this balance You say The Antinomian teacheth the abolition of all the Commandments He is an Antinomian indeed that doth so but I must you still thus wrong and slander us M.B. 10. They are necessary by way of comfort to our selves And this opposeth many Antinomian passages who forbid us to take any peace by our holiness Answ There be divers kindes of comfort arising from different grounds and considerations The Doctor speaks of that peace and comfort which ariseth from the true and certain knowledge of remission of sins and reconciliation with God the true proper and pure fountain whereof is Christ crucified as for your works they are like puddle-water a blundered and polluted stream or a deceitful brook yea as a broken Cistern that holdeth little or none You say in temptation they fail and are not to be regarded or looked at See this answered also in the third prejudicial inference Lect. 3. M. B. These good works though imperfect may be a great comfort to us as the testimony of Gods eternal love towards us Thus did Hezekiah 2 King 20.3 he is there a thankful acknowledger of what was in him c. Answ The best and most satisfactory testimony and assurance of Gods love is his giving of that dear Son of his love to die that we might live through him Joh. 3.16 1 Joh. 4.9 10. In this he commends sets forth and confirms his love Rom. 5.8 to put it out of all doubt 2 The next testimony is the giving of his Spirit for to reveal the things of Christ the unsearchable riches in him Joh. 16.14 Eph. 3.8 To shed abroad that love in our hearts that so the soul may know it feel the consolation of it c. 3 A third is the delivering and freeing of our hearts and natures from that bondage and pollution of sin by sanctifying us in body soul and spirit yet these are no causes but effects and expressions of his free and eternal love because he loved his own he doth all for them Our works are no causes or motives to him nor yet sure testimonies of Gods eternal love for many a Papist heathen and reprobate for the matter and shew of works exceed divers of them who believe Therefore if you will have them such testimonies and so have comfort from them you must look on them in all their causes especially in 1 The Efficient and the impulsive and moving cause which be neither the light judgement or dictamen of reason and natures principles nor the command coaction and commination of the Law by its rule and authority extorting them from us as being unwilling but they come from a free and voluntary spirit so made by the spirit of regeneration and Adoption moving to do good in love and delight Rom. 8.14 therefore be they called the fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5.22 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Secondly in the subject that the person be reconciled accepted and in favour through Faith in Christ Jesus Heb. 11.6 Lastly to say nothing of the form or object the end they are to be referred unto is not self-praise or profit to procure nor preserve by them our own peace favour or salvation with God which be the effects of Faith in Christ but simply Gods honour his Churches and our neighbours good even as our love is due also Mat. 22.37.39 And if these circumstances required necessarily to every good work Displicet deo dubitatio quare neque cols neque invocari cum dubitatione â—otest Melanct. be considered the soul will finde little need of works as testimonies and arguments of Gods love For that must be out of doubt first for a doubtful Conscience cannot please God by any work or obedience And your example of Hezekiah cometh nothing neer to make good your Assertion For as Gods works for us are testimonies of his love so our works at the most are but witnesses of our love unto him and therefore cannot be testimonies as you affirm of Gods
and trust in any goodness of his owne and to make him to seek out and to hearken after Christ the true and onely right door set open in the Gospel that by him the soul may have entrance being found in him not having its owne righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through faith in Christ The righteousness which is of God by faith Phil. 3.9 It is a vain and a strange conceit that the soul should convert to God by the preaching of the Law sith it can onely turne and come unto him by faith which nothing doth so much cross and hinder as the Law and it putteth the soul upon a contrary way 3. But if by conversion you mean as happily you do the change of the disposition and frame of the soul It is as certain also and clear that God doth not this by the law but by Gospel thus Act. 15.9 God purifieth the heart by faith and Acts 26.18 they sanctified by faith This is the special commendation that Paul giveth of the Gospel that therein we all with open face behold the glory of the Lord as in a glass and are changed into the same image from glory to glory even by the Spirit of the Lord. Againe can mans nature be changed till he be united and ingrafted into Christ the true vine and doth not vertue come by that insition or union And was it ever taught or read that the law should be that ministery by which this is wrought If the law do not set this object Christ before the soul nor is no mean to bring and joyn it to him how can it be an instrument to give and communicate the Spirit of Christ Indeed a legal spirit or power it hath which hath been effectual to work a great deal of reformation and legal strictness having a specious and deceitful shew and lustre as we see in the Pharisees who therefore were admired in their age O Sir if you would set before your own and the eyes of your people duely and daily that exceeding kindness of God and sweetness of his so surpassing love in Christ in so infinite expressions of it and seek to affect both your own and their hearts with it you would finde what an incredible force and vertue is in it far beyond any power in a legal Ministery to melt gaine and leaven the soul transforming it into its own nature and image which is love and mercy and so disposing you to do all things of the law freely and willingly which are but the offices and duties of love And the law was given not to beget this love but that by requiring it of us either love or enmity as it is in us might be bewrayed and made manifest In a word no sounder further nor better conversion can be wrought by the law then was in Paul before he received the Faith who in that his zeal of God was a blood-sucker and butcher of Christians Christs silly and harmless sheep for he was inwardly in the gall of bitterness c. and so are too many this day as we see finde and feel who might be metamorphozed by the Gospel and of wolves become lambs like Priest like People according to their pasture they feed in viz. as the nature of the doctrine is they receive so they are where much law is there hardness of heart cruelty self-love c. but want of meekness humbleness and mercy And it will ever be true that a legal zeal is persecuting 4. If lastly you hold this last sort of conversion to be by the law viz. to make a loose and profane man strict and religious in his course of life which is properly no souls conversion for both he may be in statu quo prius no changling in his state and his nature was principled for this way this may be granted you but alas who seeth not that this is hypocritical feigned unsound Luther saith The law can but make hypocrites if there be no further work but what is by it This I ingenuously profess what ever you may think of it that my desire is not to know or think of God out of Christ but to confine all the powers and workings of my soul unto that so pleasant and amiable object God reconciled in his Son And so to set him before me gracious propitious loving c. in all the events occurences and conditions of this life And this is the true and onely office and exercise of faith And thus I deal with God even as he also dealeth with me according to Luthers expression without the Law in his Covenant of meer grace the more I can do so the greater confidence I have towards him the better every thing he doeth pleaseth me the more welcome is the Cross and the more apt and able I am to bear and digest it the more is my heart and affections lively and sweetly stirred up and enlarged to love God and to delight my self in him by this mean the soul is made merry and kept joyful in the Lord and like an Instrument in good tune it is ready for use upon any occasion And the inward appearing and manifestation of God unto the soul in love and tender mercy doth melt it and effectually change and overcome the enmity and maliciousness of my naughty heart and nature And this light I endeavour to hold out to all and to walk in this way of loving kindness long-suffering and compassion towards every one in doctrine and life holding it the wisest most direct effectual and Gospel-like course and way thus to overcome the frowardness and evil that is in man with lenity and goodness even as God in this way prevented and overcame me The more I can look into that gentleness aimableness and those fatherly affections in God through Christ Jesus towards me and that secreet bosome of divine love is so laid open the more are all fears banished discontentments swallowed up and I am heartned to go on chearfully in a Christian course as best becometh that holy and heavenly calling And the more abundantly Gods thoughts of peace are discovered unto me the more peace and rest I thereby finde bred and preserved in my thoughts You may account it a licentious doctrine or otherwise asperse it with indignities because you have little skill of it and may bridle your self and disciples by another mean and kinde of woful doctrine but when you have done I wish you might feel how your owne pulses do beat But I proceed You deny the Law to work onely preparatorily in conversion And I thinke he never had experience of convesion that is of your mind you would make men believe you sit downe with a legal reformation as is the case of too many instead of a Gospels-conversion or that the law had never as yet its due and perfect work upon you for then you would sing another song When the commandment came sin revived and I dyed Rom. 7. Did ever any come
yet the man is but one and his state but one not two and put the Law with its terrour and compelling power to the flesh what availeth this Can this draw the flesh to the waies of piety as your words are you imagine either that the flesh being and remaining flesh can move in the waies of piety or that the terrour of the Law can change the corrupt heart but can clear or justifie neither It is simple and free believing that leadeth and carrieth the soul into the right way and all the forcing and terrifying of the Law can provoke onely unto an externall and hypocriticall obedience such as is in the Children of the Bondwoman If the spirit in the godly be not alway so willing the Law cannot give aide and quickening to it but rather dampeth and deadeth the spirit of faith and love and doth vivifie the corruption in nature for so saith Paul when the Commandment came sin revived and I died Rom. 7.9 and againe the strength of sin is the Law 1 Cor. 15.56 It 's onely faith in the Gospel of Christ that exciteth to all goodness cheerfully and joyfully so Heb. 11. Noah Abraham Moses are said to do all by faith Sine qua multa faciendo nihil facimus impleudo Legem non implemus What caused life at first must preserve and quicken it being dead or dull 5. And your fifth Assertion is false for the Law doth as is said and proved increase sin even in the faithfull this being the bitter effect of it through the vitiousness of our nature Rom. 7.5 The motions of sin which were by the Law do work in our members to bring forth fruit to death and all along the chapter Paul saith It wrought no otherwise in him in his regenerate estate but that all the power to resist weaken and overcome sin and the flesh was from Christ the head and his spirit Therefore thankes be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ This take notice of that if infidelity be accidentally nourished and faith hindered and opposed by the Law as is most true then sin cannot decrease but doth increase by it Besides is not flesh and corruption in the regenerate of the same kinde with that in the unregenerate If the Law then be the occasion of the reviving of sin in the one why not in the other the nature of the flesh nor the operative vertue of the Law is not altered by grace though they both be overmastered and subdued In the sixth you slander your Antinomian again for disparaging the Law in that it was written in stones What good can it do say you Answ It doth good many waies else God would not have writ it there but that cannot make man good God therefore hath promised to write his Law in the Tables of the heart by his spirit whereby the Gospel also is made effectuall as he pleaseth but this inward writing of the Law is a promise and branch of the new Covenant Jer. 31.33 Mr. B. But the Law continueth to them as a rule which may appear first from the different phrases used concerning the ceremonial law nowhere applied to the moral as which Chemuitius doth reckon up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. which are not used of the Morall but when he speaketh of it he saith We are dead unto it We are redeemed from the curse of it which Phrases do imply the change to be wade in us and not in the Law Answ Your supposition is still false for we hold no abrogation mitigation or mutation in the Law as is already cleared 2. This maketh wholly for us for if there be no change in the Law then it continueth in all other offices and regards as well as to be a rule and so hath power to promise and to condemn also Hunc suo jugulo gladio 3. You reason nihil ad Rhombum viz. If the Antinomian could bring such places that would prove it were as unlawfull to love the Lord because the morall Law commands it as we could prove it unlawfull to circumcise c. Answ The rule of comparison requireth that it should be unlawfull to circumcise because the ceremoniall Law commands it And if that Law were of force still and not repealed it were as lawfull to circumcise so that the unlawfulness to do it is not from the nature of the thing but in that the ceremoniall requiring circumcision is abrogated but so is not the moral for then to love were not required But though the morall Law command love yet your heart wanting it it giveth it no power to do it Thus you have gained here nothing to your purpose but lost both labour and credit Mr. B. 2. From the sanctification and holiness that it requireth of the believer which is nothing but conformity to the Law Answ Though the Law require yet it proveth not it to be a rule regulating disposing and framing the soul to holiness for the Law doth not sanctifie but Christ is of God made to be sanctification whereby cometh true conformity to the Law The Law requireth to be just but doth not justifie so it willeth us to be Saints but sanctifieth not There is a mutuall relation between Christ and faith as a quality or vertue faith purifieth not but as it fetcheth and deriveth vertue from Christ Purity is not in us naturally the Law requiring it doth convince us both of the want of it and of the necessity to have it but it supplieth us not with it for then Christ need not be our root of holiness nor we by faith to have it from him but driveth us to Christ in whom all fulness dwelleth You have your Answer to the rest of the Section in what precedeth Mr. B. 3. In that Disobedience to it is still a sin to a believer Answ As Disobedience is a sin against the Law so it is condemned by the Law as was Davids adultery Peters deniall c. else what need they of faith to be justified from them so still by this the Law hath power to condemn as well as to rule As for the evasion you mention I know it not you have not as yet brought us into any such strait or danger as that we need seek evasion The residue of this Lecture maketh nothing for your purpose nor at all against us LECT XXIII Rom. 3.31 Do we then make void the Law yea we establish it HEre you do not invalidate the Authors assertion nor Arguments If the Law and Prophets lasted but till John And as John was greater then any before him so the least in the kingdom of Heaven is greater then he You will then find it hard to put John either under the old or new Testament or to evince your Adversary Inter Legem Evangelium interpositus fuit Johannes qui medium obtinuit munus utrique affine Calv. It 's true the Law or Moses and the Prophets write of Christ and agreed in that and did not onely typifie him
in that you say that this made the great commotion at first between the Orthodox and the Antinomians Before I entermeddle with this dispute let me deliver my opion Which is That Repentance cannot be said properly to be the doctrine of the Law and yet the Law is not by this wholly excluded as you say it is by the old Antinomians whom you mean or what their Tenets were I know not neither think it much material I shall love the truth in any and maintain them no further Now my inducement hereunto is because the Law never mentioneth Repentance nor hath any word to exhort and call thereunto It worketh indeed preparatorily in the soul by revealing sin and misery so as a man findeth himself undone without help or hope in great distress but this is not Repentance for here Man is a Patient being convinced subdued and brought in his spirit under the work of the Law And this may well be called the former Mortification which is not of sin in Man but in the Man for sin as Rom. 7.11 But to repent is an act a thing to be done put upon man being plunged into this great depth of woe and horrour as a hopeful and initial mean to obtain mercy pardon and salvation this is clear to me from Act. 2.37 38. Where those Jews being beaten down and exceedingly terrified in the conscience of that horrid fact the killing of the Lord of Life and crying out as sinking in despair for advice and councell presently Peter said unto them Repent c. whence I collect with Ambrose that all that former sight and sence of sin and legall terrour was no part of Repentance It was yet to begin yea and secondly It was prescribed as the first course to be taken with hope of recovery Not that Repentance was in their or any mans power for it is God that giveth it 2 Tim. 2.25 26.3 None are bid to Repent without a promise of mercy annexed withall to move him to it which promise holding forth the grace of the Gospel is doubtless first hearkened unto received and credited and so the burthened conscience conceiving now a good hope through Faith in this promise begins to repent and seek unto the Lord. Hence Isaiah saith chap. 55.7 Let the wicked man return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon and Joel 2.13 Rent your hearts and not your garments and turne to the Lord your God for he is gracious and mercifull c. So that to me it is clear that in order of nature the doctrine that holdeth forth the graciousness of the Name and nature of God in Christ in whom he is propitious ought first to be published both because our conceits naturally are that God will not favour and receive sinners but the just and good are they onely unto whom the promises of acceptance and blessing do belong And also in that God in that Ministry of the Law hath already appeared unto the dejected soul in another forme and under a contrary notion revealing wrath threatning a casting off and shutting up all mercies in displeasure against it because of sin for how else possibly can these naturall and inbred conceits and imaginations of God be raised out of the mind and the soul be perswaded that notwithstanding and beyond all that it apprehends of God in his Law and is become sensible of yet there is hope of mercy forgiveness and redemption with the Lord So that the effectuall and immediate incentive and introduction to repentance and turning to God is the promise of Grace by Jesus Christ When Benhadad King of Syria and his servants being in great strait and danger of losing their lives considered what they had heard of the Kings of Israel how that they were mercifull see their humble resolution Let us put ackcloth on our loynes and ropes upon our heads and go out to the King of Israel 1 King 20.31 But on the other side Adam not so conceiving of God out of the inward privity of his disobedience and being then altogether ignorant of any mercy to be shewed by God in that way that afterward God acquainted him with he in stead of repenting and falling down in a sorrowfull confession of what he had done and crying peccavi In his inward horrour and fear ranne away hid himself and then would fain have excused the matter Now if the way be thus freely set open for all he that comes not in is inexcusable and he that desireth may come but this is not that any soul should rest contented with hearing that it may be freely welcome but that it come indeed and so it find an effectuall entrance into that state and kingdom of Grace for too many do hover and dally with these weighty things and the inward terrours ceasing to pursue the soul to the utmost the bare knowledge and having of the letter of this word of Grace sufficeth them being never truly converted healed and comforted And this is the main reason of their hankering after the legall way for a supply of what they want or of turning this Grace into wantonness So that I cannot but marvell that you or any experienced Christian should so oppose D. Crisp whom the Lord raised up and used as a choice instrument to open this free way to poor sinners that if God had given them a heart to come whatever their sins were they might come and welcome and nor be rejected nor denied what they defired as if his doctrine were against repentance whereas it tendeth to breed and bring forth true Repentance not to be repented of I had thought to have writ a Treatise onely upon this Subject seeing how opposite mens minds are to that so acceptable truth of God Who will seek unto him that smiteth him humbling and casting down himself at the foot of the Lord willingly if he do not first hear and know that God pardoneth iniquity and delighteth in shewing mercy God draweth the froward heart of man with the Cords of his love and overcometh his evill and rebellious nature by shewing and commending his kindness even as afterward he frameth their heart and putteth his own into the same way to follow him in labouring to overcome evill with good Rom. 12.21 Ephes 5.1 2. And lastly who will not be contented to be numbered amongst transgressors yea and willingly sit down with the greatest and chiefe of sinners when he heareth that God is mercifull to sinners justifieth the ungodly and where sinne aboundeth maketh his Grace to abound the more thereby taking occasion to manifest and magnifie his graciousness in the eyes of all the World as Rom. 5.20 Ephes 2.7 Ephes 1.6 By this you may see still that the Law excludes and keeps out the sinful soul and that it may convert and turne unto God the word of his Grace onely is to be preached Now I come to consider what you write Mr. B. The word repentance is
taken somtime largely and somtime strictly Answ By what is said It is apparent that repentance may be taken as it is often for the whole turning to God because after the soul apprehending its danger and seeing no hope of safety any way else yet hearing what is reported of Gods Grace in Christ to poor wretched and lost sinners It is moved drawn perswaded through the hand and mean of Faith taking hold hereon to repent and cry unto God for mercy and pardon so that sorrow and tears arising from the sight of his forlorn condition is but the pining away in their iniquities doth hasten death and to tend utter despair 2. Your second position as it may be construed shall pass now somwhat being before to like effect and the subserviency of the Law as preparatory being now granted by you 3. Your third conceit is ambiguously and confusedly set down but enough hath been said about it viz. That neither repentance nor the Faith of the Elect can be said to be wrought by the Law As for that legall Faith you mention it may be in a Reprobate and of it self it is the mother and breeder of despair If you or others will have a legal repentance meaning thereby that conviction fear or trouble wrought by the Law when it reviveth sin or at most such as is ascribed to Judas from whom by inward force and violence was squeezed out that confession I have sinned c. by a heavy hand upon his conscience as to clear the innocency of Christ so partly may be in hope by that venting to find some ease and mitigation of anguish within which yet is not that in question I shall not much contend about words so we accord in the thing but then you are to know this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Also besides that Faith or perswasion of mercy in God according to his promise there is also another speciall Faith after the soul is come in to God which is an effectuall that the parties sins are done away God reconciled and he accepted and so this being the end of his coming his desire is satisfied and now followeth as it is called another Repentance upon this for now the love of God entreth and is shed out into the soul by the Holy Ghost which doth marvellously refresh and stablish the heart and renew and inflame it with love reciprocal unto God who hath appeared in such mercy and kindness and thus is the soul in love gained and given up to be the Lords and to serve him in holiness and righteousness without fear all the days of his life thus Luke 7. she loved much in affection and expression who had received forgiveness of many sins and this renovation and change of mind doth farre exceed your legall reformation which you so much press and stand for Mr. B. 4. Vnbeliefe is a sin against the Law as well as against the Gospel The Gospel declareth the object of justifying Faith but law condemns for not believing in him c. Answ I question whether the Law condemn for positive infidelity or for not believing in Christ Under favour I am of that mind that the Law onely condemneth for the not believing or obeying of those things which the Law propoundeth Now the Law propounds not Christ to be believed on besides your doctrine is that Christ is to be propounded to none but the broken in spirit the penitent and I know not how otherwise qualified And I see not then but the Law should condemne for not being broken and penitent first and for not believing after I confess the same God requireth Faith to whatsoever he shall speak by Law or Gospel but by the Law I can be bound onely to believe those things the Law declareth unto me Legall doctrine requireth a Legall but not an Evangelicall Faith Whatever the Law saith it saith it to them that are under the Law But you present us with much strange divinity so this is most uncouth to me and untrue That the Law should be enlightned by the Gospel and so fasten a new Command upon us how differeth this opinion from that of theirs who say Christ added to the Law which you say yet is infected with Socinian poyson page 243. LECT XXVIII Rom. 10.4 Christ is the end of the Law c. Mr. B. TAke notice of a foul errour of an Antinomian who denying assurance and comfort by signes of grace laboureth to prove that an unregenerate man may have universal obedience and sincere obedience bringing in this instance of the Jews Rom. 10.3 Your answer is that the Jews zeal was not Hypocriticall because they did not go against conscience but it was not sincere in that it was not a true gracious zeal Answ The Authour you mean would have you leave the streames and those waters which are questionable and impure and to seek to the first rise and Spring-head where the water floweth out freely purely and in an undoubted truth What foul errour is this if prejudice be not 2. He speaketh of Legall obedience such as was this their zeal in seeking to establish their own righteousness and you tell of sincerity taken for the truth of grace whereby the soul is freely subjected to the Gospel and submitteth to the righteousness thereof for so I would fain understand you which is passive and not active thus farre then you are wide Mr. B. pag. 257. I shall explain that place 2 Cor. 3.7 because it may be wrested by the Antinomian as if the law were to be abrogated Answ I wish the Scriptures were not more perverted by your self you pretending to fear others are too confident in your self you may see if ye will the men you fear are better establishers of the Law then who opposeth them How is it that still you so mistake both them and your self 2. You give an undue exposition but explain not but rather do involve the place in greater obscurity for say you Mr. B. The intent of the Apostle is to shew the excellency of the Ministery of the Gospel above that of the Law and that in three respects 1. In regard one is the Ministery of death and condemnation the other of life and righteousness therefore one called Letter the other Spirit which you must understand warily taking the Law nakedly without the Spirit of God and the Gospel with the Spirit for as Beza observeth Gospel without Gods Spirit is also the Ministration of death c. and what good is wrought by the Law it cometh from the Spirit of Christ 2. In regard of continuance The Ministery of Moses understanding it of the Jewish pedagogy was to be abolished not the Morall part which still obligeth Christians but Gospel abideth for ever 3. In regard of glory God caused some material glory to shine upon Moses c. but what cometh by the Gospel is spiritual Answ Both Beza Piscator and Augustin Collatioâ—st cb ipsa substantia
convertant Calv. London Printed by J. C. for Nath. Brook at the Angel in Cornhil 1654. Christian Reader AFter about fifteen years expectation and the frequent threatnings of my many Adversaries Mr. Rutherf Mr. Burgess a reply unto and a pretended confutation of my Answer to D. Tailors REGULA VITAE is come forth and that from men of such eminency for learning and gifts that if these cannot effect what they intended and aymed at others not comparable for art and qualifications are not much to be feared And yet to say the truth whatever contrary thoughts may be in others through a different seeming light or partiality of affection I see nothing they write having any power and evidence to prevail or to convince me as guilty of the least Antinomy or errour but where they make any appearance of such in me it is there where they pervert and palpably mistake my words and meaning There is a great interval or space of time between our comings into publick view their printing and mine but the reasons are 1. It was long ere I knew or heard of their books 2. I dwel in an obscure and remote place amongst such who little meddle with any thing controversal 3. My bodily infirmities and little leisure do much retard me 4. And lastly my owne thoughts will not easily nor hastily give way but there have been divers months ere I could obtain and get free and full leave of them to do any thing in this way of contention although the bent of my minde and weapons be onely defensive and in no wise to render my Adversaries weaker or worse then they have manifested themselves without one syllable of mine Otherwise I finde it as easie to refute as it is to read their Objections In this my latter rejoydner or reply to M. Rutherf Book called Christ Dying and Drawing of sinners I have singled out and spoken onely unto such places or passages as he excepted against in my Assertion of Grace not intermedling with any thing written against M. Salmarsh M. Denne or others because 1. I have not their Books and so cannot know how candidly be dealeth with them 2. That may be clear truth to them in their owne Notions and conceptions which I may misapprehend or darken 3. They are better able to vindicate and clear themselves if they see occasion and may have done so for any thing I know If my Adversarie think himself wronged or discredited hereby I answer I should be sorry to stand guilty of doing that wrong to him as he hath done against me and the truth it self 2. As for discredit he knoweth that the truth when it cometh forth will shame all that oppose or contend against it his chief wisdome had been not to have medled Otherwise I have been cautelous in aspersing him only sometime returning his owne words I aske Who now is the Antinomian Libertine c. but have tendered his credit as my owne Their owne doings have procured all unto them It had been much better I am sure more easily effected and more love had been in it and the peace of the Church had not been so disturbed if they had cast the mantle of a favourable construction upon what seeming errours or failings appeared in D. Crisp and others and given some cantion to the people not to mistake and abuse such words of Free-Grace and precious consolations And if they will still proceed in this way after such conviction and evidence they may The Philistine having found their Dagon fallen before the Ark of God yet would set it up again a base Competitor till it lost both hands and head and nothing but a filthy stump was left Let them presume of parts place and repute in the Church as a Knight of the Parliament said once to me in the same case It makes no matter what such a mans doctrine or opinion be his worth and esteem will win him the field yet let them consider withall that the righteous God dwelleth with the humble and seeth every one that is proud in heart to abase him And none exalting himself against him can prosper Indeed as the Pharisaical and Antichristian spirit will live and breath in some unto the end so the more any are found to walk in the pure steps of Christs Stephens or Pauls Ministery or Doctrine the more will that Spirit be disposed and ready to cavil and except against them as Antinomians Libertines Seducers Hereticks c. Oh how reproachful odious and bitter are their words how do they defame and declaim against us and breath out threatnings still if ever the sword come into their hands And alas what have we done what error or fault do they make to appear in us Thou maist see good Reader what cause and colour they have Yet some Object If we be not Antinomians why do we not make it appear so and why do we not speak against them that are as do others My answer is 1. I hope now it is most apparent we are not Antinomians and that charge to be most undue and unjust 2. I have preached over the whole Decalogue and the Lords-Prayer And yet they say I cast out the law prayor and all duties out of the Church how can their mouths be stopped 3. And in truth I know not one Antinomian And to rail or to speak so bitterly and constantly against such and the overspreading of that sect as do many is to confirm that false opinion in the hearers mindes which I wish much rather might dye and perish I hear of Sects in our Land and Kingdom incredible for number and nature And I bless God that I am acquainted with none that adhere to any as I know for I have determined to know nothing among my people but Christ and him Crucified And I both wish and strive that they and I may live onely by the faith of him for therein is all spiritual peace rest and consolation and thence freely and continually floweth humility meekness patience confidence self-denial obedience love goodness Many endeavour in vain to hammer and beat out an unwilling service and ungrateful performances by a legal Ministery and do sometime change and reform the outward life but the heart is still the same unmortified not purified nor pacified God doth draw his with cords of love unto him And the word of the Kingdome which is the Gospel of salvation is like leaven hid in the Meal which effectually altereth and turneth all into its owne nature Thus the wisdome from above is pure then peaceable gentle easie to be entreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality whithout hypocrisie Jam. 3.17 hence also They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain saith the Lord Isa 11.9 But alas for we the fruit of doctrine now a dayes is That the Wolf shall not dwell with the Lamb c. It is time for the Lord to put to his hand Reader Thou art now to judge and determine
contrary Yet that both Tree and the Fruit the believer and his work are acceptable in Christ is no new divinity but according to Scripture and all the Orthodox Tit. 1.15 To the pure all things are pure Your Scriptures 1 Joh. 1.8 Jam. 3.2 do speak of works as proceeding from us not as presented in Christ who justifieth and freeth us from all the evil and filth cleaving to them I retort If God can accept of us or our performances out of Christ what need we then continually to deal with God in Christ 1 Pet. 1.6 Heb. 13.15 By him let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually Whatsoever you do in word or deed Do all things in the name of our Lord Jesus giving thankes to God even the Father by him Colos 3.17 But this is open wrong which you do us in saying that we hold works perfect simply in themselves or to be accepted for any worth or inherent dignity in them which is your doctrine rather we teach That Abels sacrifice was accepted by faith that is by Christ believed on and not for any merit in it Heb. 11.4 The Scriptures and Testimonies of the Orthodox which you read in the Assertion might have prevented all this labour if you had been so advised Consider that of Calvin in that l. 3. cap. 17. sect 8.9 Qua jam sequuntur bona opera Sepulto etiam imperfectionis vitio quod bona opera fedare folet quae fiunt a fidelinus b. opera justa confentur c. c. Those good works which follow after justification are esteemed and valued otherwise then by their own desert or dignity for whatever imperfection is in them it is covered with Christs perfection whatever blemish or filthiness in them it is cleansed by his purity lest it should be questioned or examined before Gods judgement seat Therefore saith he the fault of all our transgressions being blotted out whereby men are hindered from bringing forth any thing acceptable to God and the imperfection and defect which is wont to defile all good works being buried all the good works of the faithfull are acknowledged to be just c. Thus may all see how palpably you have mistaken me in this as in the other passages And how indirectly and falsly you do inferre That we may be justified by works or we make them meritorious c. whereas we say plainly that the person is first justified without and before all works and that then they become accepted and pleasing by the same way and reason that the person came into favour For as God stands and appears propitious to us in Christ and so his works and dealings with us and disposals of us be pleasing and welcome to us even so we being received and accepted in Christ what we do through him is pleasant to God but not because of any formal and intrinsecal dignity in the work So that we study to deal with God onely in Christ and are now incouraged unto all good works for who can have a heart to do any good work till he by faith know that he pleaseth God by Jesus Christ So Christ alone is exalted and magnified Salus semel donatur ut oporibus acquirenda non sit To seek Heaven by works and deservings is to wrong yea to shame Christs blood and unto such it is shed in vain When the Gospel is preached unto us we believe the mercy of God and in believing receive the Spirit the earnest of eternal life and be in eternal life already and feel in our hearts already the sweetness thereof and are overcome with the kindness of God and of Christ and therefore love the will of God and of love are ready to worke freely and not to obtain that which is given already and whereof we be heirs by Grace freely Tindall Martyr A brief REPLY to the Exceptions taken by Mr. Rutherford in his Tryal and Triumph of Faith against the supposed Antinomian Errours 1 Exception THe first Exception is against the Assert of Grace pag 112 113. Where it is said That Christ onely did bear our sinnes and the punishment of them so that the justified are not punished for sinne Mr. Rutherf answereth with a twofold distinction 1. Of justice legal and sinne revenging 2. Of a mixt justice which is in a Father and so saith That the sinnes of the Saints are not onely against the legal but also a wrong done against his mixt justice Where God doth punish their sinnes though not satisfactorily to his Law Reply 1. To assert a mixt justice is to temper and mingle Law and Gospel without warrant and to hold forth God in a Covenant made up both of free-grace and works which yet be inconsistent Rom. 11.6 2. Our Divines distinguish indeed between punishment and chastisement and so call these corrections of Children and not punishment properly for that every punishment is in some sort satisfactory And so will that be inferred which by them is objected against the Papists viz. If the Saints be punished for their sinnes temporally then Christ satisfied for pounds and left us to satisfie for pence 3. The true and intrinsecal nature and property of all justice offended requireth satisfaction so that our punishments must be satisfactory also so far as the sinne deserveth else who or what satisfieth doth this mixt justice take its pennyworth and full due out of the flesh and bones of Gods Children so as God neither can cease beating till he hath given all the stripes the fault deserveth and when correction is past then the Fathers justice is quieted 4. And if you put them under the Government of justice tempered with mildness and mercy which is Law Evangelized a new crotchet and dream then the Law of strict justice which is the decalogue is no longer a rule our sinnes must be no longer examined and measured by it but judged as they are offences of this mixt and fatherly justice So now Christ may be set aside we shall no more need him for Advocate neither is there use of faith when we sinne but our sufferings must in this condition pacifie not Christs passion that onely was of use and efficacy to bring us into this state and under this Government Who now are become the total abrogators of the Moral and pure Law yea and as it is a rule to live and walk by Can you tell us how much of justice and what a measure of mercy is in this new rule and Government But the result is That our sins after justification have a double relation and had but one before one to the strict Law and that Christ contented the other is to a milder justice against which our stripes must be opposed that by them we may be healed It s granted during the Mosaical-pedagogie there was some shew yea ground for somewhat but not for all that here you assert for God did in that dispensation veil his Paternity which now in Christ is done away And your Scriptures
all his so that I see not how you can make his Elect singly and simply to be any partys in undertaking and promising any thing You say Dr. Cr. giveth this reason why it is not on condition of our believing because man may fail in believing and so the condition failing Covenant faileth Reply His reason is good and sound for of it selfe faith is failing else Christ needed not to have prayed that Peters faith might not fail Luke 22.32 But all the whole Covenant being grounded on Christ as the foundation it is established on a firm Rock and so is everlasting Mr. Rutherf They object that God promiseth all as to give faith to put Law in the inward parts to cause to walk in his waies as Jer. 31. Ezek. 36.26 27. To circumcise our hearts Deut. 30.6 which the Arminians deny yet is the clear day-light of Scripture so that all lyeth on God Reply But you return not one syllable of a direct and satisfactory answer unto it you cannot deny but what God promiseth he is faithful to perform and do it You inferre some indirect and undue consequences as if you would rather wrangle against the truth which you cannot resist or were offended that it shineth forth so gloriously and convincingly in your face What if Dogs abuse it and Pharisaical Spirits otherwise principled spurne against it or mis-construe it as occasioning Libertinisme the sin be theirs yet this is the onely right ground and reason of prayer and using all Gods Ordinances in which the soul carrying it self passively waiteth that God may communicate and pour out his blessings according to his word Because God had promised first and that freely the building of Davids house and the King saw thereby that God had a gracious mind and purpose to do it and that it should be his act therefore David prayed that the Lord would bless his house that it might continue for ever before God For thou O Lord hast spoken it 2 Sam. 7.27 28 29. If all fulness be in the fountain and free access may be had it standing open to all It is an effectual invitation to come As for those opinions bred and breathed in New-England I know nothing of them neither am I so credulous or uncharitable towards any as to receive whatever an Adversary reporteth for if the liquor be never so pretious and pure yet if it come out of a fusty and tainted vessel it will taste of the Caske I see none of you so candid but in some things you wrong the Author in perverting his words or meaning even when it is printed and obvious to every eye But here you let all see that you cannot outwrangle the truth for at last you chide your self to agree and yeeld to it for 1 you say I grant God worketh the condition Then how is it mans condition or how can it be said to lye on him 2 Truth is say you It 's an unproper condition for the whole bargain is pure Grace Thus you are brought to grant all and no thanke to you for you would fain have it a condition still An unproper one must serve rather then none God indeed worketh orderly one thing after another the former as is said we may call a State-condition but not otherwise properly and without danger But ere you cease you tell us again of Libertinisme c. Reply Well receive the love of the truth and here shake hands and cast your stones against abusers of Free-grace if your side be not guilty of the like or worse You have a watchfull eye to look into our waies if in love to us we thanke you It might occasion us at least if we had any unfeigned desire that the good and fair way of the Lord might not be evil spoken of to walk more circumspectly but if the word of Grace leaven not the heart it will abide graceless And I rest perswaded that if it had not been either the licentious or loose life of some who are noted or because such as had been formerly wicked and prophane did flock after Dr. Crisp and attend to his Ministery as they did in Luke 15.1 2. and that it was more glorious and effectual then others else that you and your fellows would never have used tongue or pen against this way My reason is because it is so clear and undenyable that having searched and sifted it with all diligence there is found no solid and material cause of exception against it but all is resolved into envy and prejudice As for that question of justification before faith or after I have spoken to it in answer to Mr. Burgess It 's true God in his Gospels-dispensation onely pronounceth the sentence of absolution to the believer for he dealeth in it with men of actual understanding and the main end is to quiet and comfort the conscience for which purpose faith is mainly useful as to give glory unto God But you grant that the Covenant is with Christ and all his Heirs and kindred in him he being a publique person in whom all were acquitted and that is sufficient 4 Exception in pag. 102. Mr. Rutherf Can we saith Mr. Towne separate the directing or commanding power of the Law from the condemning power Is it a Law and hath no power to condemn Answ Actual condemnation may be separated as a Lyon is a Lyon though chained that he cannot actually devour it could not condemn Adam before sinne c. Christ hath removed the curse Reply The question is whether the Lyon be a devouring beast and you answer He cannot actually devour because he is chained but doth chaining change his devouring nature and so hath not the Law a condemning power still though it condemn not actually alway you see power to do it is not taken from it That it did not condemn Adam in innocency hath no more sinew of Argument in it then that the Law of the Land hath no power to condemn murther because there is no actual murtherer It hath power to do it but it is to exercise and put forth its power in a way of justice that is when the sinne is actually committed You say but they are vain words without light or weight that to condemn is accidental to a Law I reply as truely and in the like sense That to command and direct be as accidental so the whole of the Law in all its parts and offices shall be accidental for the Law doth not actually rule and govern Lawless rebels may not I then as solidly inferre It hath no authority nor power to do it yea in Hell among the damned as in our prisons there is Law onely actually condemning and tormenting but not ruling and directing in its way of holiness Lastly You should prove that Christ hath removed the curse from the Law he hath redeemed his from under it but left the Law with all the power it had But you speak what Mr. Burgess objected also If need be see more in Answer to