deeds but only of his own pleasure and if he hath also decreed long before they were in being or in any capacity to do good or evil that they should walk in those wicked waies by which as by a secondary means they are led to that end who I pray is the first author and cause thereof but God who so willed and decreed This is as natural a consequence as any can be And therefore although many of the Preachers of this doctrine have sought out various strange strained and intricate distinctions to defend their opinion and evite this horrid consequence yet some and that of the most eminent of them have been so plain in the matter as they have put it beyond all doubt Of which I shall instance a few among many passages I say that by the ordination and will of God Adam fell God would have man to fall Man is blinded by the will and commandment of God We refer the causes of hardening us to God The highest or remote cause of hardening is the will of God It followeth that the hidden counsel of God is the cause of hardning These are Calvin's expressions God saith Beza hath predestinated not only unto damnation but also unto the causes of it whomsoever he saw meet The degree of God cannot be excluded from the causes of corruption It is certain saith Zanchius that God is the First cause of obduration Reprobates are held so fast under Gods Almighty decree that they cannot but sin and perish It is the opinion saith Paraeus of our Doctors that God did inevitably decree the temptation and fall of Man The creature sinneth indeed necessarily by the most just Judgment of God Our men do most rightly affirm that the fall of man was necessary and inevitable by accident because of Gods decree God saith Martyr doth incline and force the wills of wicked men into great sins God saith Zwinglius moveth the robber to kill He killeth God forcing him thereunto But thou wilt say he is forced to sin I permit truly that he is forced Reprobate Persons saith Piscator are absolutly ordained to this twofold end to undergo everlasting punishment and necessarily to sin and therefore to sin that they may be justly punished If these sayings do not plainly and evidently import that God is the Author of Sin we must not then seek these Mens opinions from their words but some way else it seems as if they had assumed to themselves that monstrous and twofold will they feign of God one by which they declare their minds openly and another more secret and hidden which is quite contrary to the other Nor doth it at all help them to say that man sins willingly since that willingness proclivity and propensity to evil is according to their judgment so necessarily imposed upon him that he cannot but be willing because God hath willed and decreed him so Which shift is just as if I should take a Child uncapable to resist me and throw it down from a great precipice the weight of the Childs body indeed makes it go readily down and the violence of the fall upon some rock or stone beats out its Brains and kills it Now then I pray though the body of the Child goes willingly down for I suppose it as to its mind is uncapable of any will and the weight of its body and not any immediate stroak of my hand who perhaps am at a great distance makes it die whether is the Child or I the proper cause of its death Let any man of reason judg if Gods's part be with them as great yea more immediate in the sins of men as by the testimonies above brought doth appear whether doth not this make him not only the Author of sins but more unjust than the unjustest of men § III. Secondly This Doctrine is injurious to God because it makes him delight in the death of sinners yea and to will many to die in their sins contrary to these Scriptures Ezek. 33.11 1 Tim. 2.3 2 Pet. 3.9 For if he hath created men only for this very end that he might show forth his Justice and Power in them as these men affirm and for effecting thereof hath not only with-held from them the means of doing good but also predestinated the evil that they might fall into it and that he inclines and forces them into great sins certainly he must necessarily delight in their death and will them to die seeing against his own will he neither doth nor can do any thing § IV. Thirdly It is highly injurious to Christ our Mediator and to the efficacy and excellency of his Gospel for it renders his mediation ineffectual as if he had not by his sufferings throughly broken down the middle wall nor yet removed the wrath of God or purchased the love of God towards all mankind if it was afore-decreed that it should be of no service to the far greater part of mankind It is to no purpose to alledg that the death of Christ was of efficacy enough to have saved all mankind if in effect its vertue be not so far exended as to put all mankind into a capacity of Salvation Fourthly It makes the preaching of the Gospel a meer mock and illusion if many of theseto whom it is preached be by an irrevocable decree excluded from being benefited by it it wholly makes useless the preaching of Faith and Repentance and the whole tenor of the Gospel promises and threatnings as being all relative to a former decree and means before appointed to such which because they cannot fail man needs do nothing but wait for that irresistible snatch which will come though it be but at the last hour of his Life if he be in the decree of Election And be his diligence and waiting what it can he shall never attain it if he belong to the decree of Reprobation Fifthly It makes the coming of Christ and his propitiatory Sacrifice which the Scripture affirms to have been the fruit of Gods love to the world and transacted for the sins and Salvation of all men to have been rather a testimony of Gods wrath to the world and one of the greatest judgments and severest acts of Gods indignation towards mankind it being only ordain'd to save a very few and for the hardening obduring and augmenting the condemnation of the far greater number of men because they believe not truly in it the cause of which unbelief again as the Divines so called above assert is the hidden counsel of God certainly the coming of Christ was never to them a testimony of Gods love but rather of his implacable wrath And if the World may be taken for the far greater number of such as live in it God never loved the world according to this Doctrine but rather hated it greatly in sending his Son to be crucified in it § V. Sixthly This Doctrine is highly injurious to mankind for it renders them in a far
The Second Proposition Concerning Immediate Revelation Seeing no man knoweth the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son revealeth him and seeing the Revelation of the Son is in and by the Spirit therefore the Testimony of the Spirit is that alone by which the true knowledge of God hath been is and can be only revealed who as by the moving of his own Spirit converted the Chaos of this World into that wonderful order wherein it was in the beginning and created Man a living Soul to rule and govern it so by the Revelation of the same Spirit he hath manifested himself all along unto the Sons of Men both Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles which Revelations of God by the Spirit whether by outward voices and appearances Dreams or inward objective manifestations in the heart were of old the formal object of their Faith and remaineth yet so to be since the object of the Saints Faith is the same in all ages though set forth under divers Administrations Moreover these divine inward Revelations which we make absolutely necessary for the building up of true Faith neither do nor can ever contradict the outward Testimony of the Scriptures or right and found Reason Yet from hence it will not follow that these Divine Revelations are to be subjected to the examination either of the outward Testimony of the Scriptures or of the natural reason of Man as to a more noble or certain rule or touchstone for this Divine Revelation and inward Illumination is that which is evident and clear of it self forceing by its own evidence and clearness the well disposed understanding to assent irresistibly moving the same thereunto even as the common Principles of natural Truths move and incline the mind to natural assent Such as are these that the whole is greater than the part that two contradictory sayings cannot be both true or false which is also manifest according to our adversaries Principle who supposing the possibility of inward Divine Revelations will nevertheless confess with us that neither Scripture nor found Reason will contradict it and yet it will not follow according to them that the Scripture or found Reason should be subjected to the examination of the Divine Revelations in the Heart The Third Proposition Concerning the Scriptures From these Revelations of the Spirit of God to the Saints have proceeded the Scriptures of Truth which contain 1. A faithful Historical Account of the Actings of God's People in divers Ages with many singular and remarkable Providences attending them 2. A Prophetical Account of several things whereof some are already past and some yet to come 3. A full and ample account of all the chief Principles of the Doctrine of Christ held forth in divers pretious declarations exhortations and sentences which by the moving of God's Spirit were at several times and upon sundry occasions spoken and written unto some Churches and their Pastors Nevertheless because they are only a Declaration of the Fountain and not the Fountain it self therefore they are not to be esteemed the principal ground of all Truth and Knowledge nor yet the adequate primary Rule of Faith and Manners Nevertheless as that which giveth a true and faithful Testimony of the first Foundation they are and may be esteemed a secondary Rule subordinate to the Spirit from which they have all their excellency and certainty for as by the inward Testimony of the Spirit we do alone truly know them so they testifie that the Spirit is that guide by which the Saints are led into all Truth Therefore according to the Scriptures the Spirit is the first and principle Leader And seeing we do therefore receive and believe the Scriptures because they proceeded from the Spirit therefore also the Spirit is more originally and principally the Rule according to that received maxim in the Schools Propter quod unumquodque est tale illud ipsum est magis tale Englished thus That for which a thing is such that thing it self is more such The Fourth Proposition Concerning the Condition of Man in the fall All Adam's Posterity or Mankind both Jews and Gentiles as to the first Adam or earthly man is fallen degenerated and dead deprived of the sensation or feeling of this inward Testimony or Seed of God and is subject unto the power nature and Seed of the Serpent which he sows in mens hearts while they abide in this natural and corrupted State from whence it comes that not their words and deeds only but all their imaginations are evil perpetually in the sight of God as proceeding from this depraved and wicked Seed Man therefore as he is in this state can know nothing aright yea his thoughts and conceptions concerning God and things Spiritual until he be disjoyned from this evil Seed and united to the Divine Light are unprofitable both to himself and others Hence are rejected the Socinian and Pelagian Errors in exalting a Natural Light as also the Papists and most of Protestants who affirm that Man without the true Grace of God may be a true Minister of the Gospel Nevertheless this Seed is not imputed to Infants until by transgression they actually joyn themselves therewith for they are by Nature the children of Wrath who walk according to the Power of the Prince of the Air The Fifth and Sixth Proposition Concerning the Vniversal Redemption by Christ and also the Saving and Spiritual Light wherewith every Man is enlightened The Fifth Proposition God out of his Infinite love who delighteth not in the death of a sinner but that all should live and be saved hath so loved the world that he hath given his only Son a Light that whosoever believeth in him should be saved who enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world and maketh manifest all things that are reproveable and teacheth all temperance righteousness and godliness and this Light enlighteneth the hearts of all in a day in order to Salvation if not resisted Nor is it less universal than the seed of sin being the purchase of his death who tasted death for every Man For as in Adam all die even so in Christ all shall be made alive The Sixth Proposition According to which principle or Hypothesis all the Objections against the universality of Christ's death are easily solved neither is it needful to recur to the Ministry of Angels and those other miraculous means which they say God makes use of to manifest the Doctrine and History of Christ's passion unto such who living in those places of the world where the outward preaching of the Gospel is unknown have well improved the first and common Grace For hence it well follows that as some of the old Philosophers might have been saved so also may now some who by Providence are cast into those remote parts of the world where the knowledg of the History is wanting be made partakers of the Divine Mystery if they receive and resist not that Grace a manifestation whereof is given
own Eternal Word and Power so no Creature has access again unto him but in and by the Son according to his own express words No man knoweth the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son will reveal him Matth. 11.27 Luk. 10.22 And again he himself saith I am the Way the Truth and the Life no man cometh unto the Father but by me Joh. 14.6 Hence he is fitly called the Mediator betwixt God and Man For having been with God from all Eternity being himself God and also in time partaking of the nature of man through him is the goodness and love of God conveighed to mankind and by him again man receiveth and partaketh of these mercies Hence is easily deduced the probation of this first Assertion thus If no man know the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son will reveal him then there is no knowledge of the Father but by the Son But no man knoweth the Father but the Son Therefore there is no knowledge of the Father but by the Son The first part of the antecedent are the plain words of Scripture The consequence thereof is undeniable except one would say that he hath the knowledge of the Father while yet he knows him not which were an absurd repugnance Again If the Son be the Way the Truth and the Life and that no man cometh unto the Father but by him then there is no knowledg of the Father but by the Son But the first is true Therefore the last The antecedent are the very Scripture words The consequence is very evident For how can any know a thing who useth not the way without which it is not knowable But it is already proved that there is no other way but by the Son so that who so uses not that way cannot know him neither come unto him § VI. Having then laid down this first Principle I come to the second viz. That there is no Knowledg of the Son but by the Spirit or that the Revelation of the Son of God is by the Spirit Where it is to be noted that I alwayes speak of the saving certain and necessary Knowledge of God which that it cannot be acquired otherwayes than by the Spirit doth also appear from many clear Scriptures For Jesus Christ in and by whom the Father is revealed doth also reveal himself to his Disciples and Friends in and by his Spirit as his manifestation was sometimes outwards when he testified and witnessed for the Truth in this World and approved himself faithful throughout So being now withdrawn as to the outward man he doth teach and instruct mankind inwardly by his own Spirit he standeth at the door and knocketh and who so heareth his Voice and openeth he comes in to such Rev. 3.20 Of this Revelation of Christ in him Paul speaketh Gal. 1.6 in which he placeth the excellency of his Ministry and the certainty of his Calling And the Promise of Christ to his Disciples Lo I am with you to the end of the World confirmeth this same thing for this is an inward Presence and Spiritual as all acknowledg But what relates hereto will again occur I shall deduce the proof of this Proposition from two manifest places of Scripture The first is 1 Cor. 2.11 12. What man knoweth the things of a man save the Spirit of a man which is in him Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God Now we have received not the Spirit of the World but the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things which are freely given us of God The Apostle in the verses before speaking of the wonderful things which are prepared for the Saints after he hath declared that the natural man cannot reach them adds that they are revealed by the Spirit of God ver 9 10. giving this reason for the Spirit searcheth all things even the deep things of God And then he bringeth in the comparison in the verses above mentioned very apt and answerable to our purpose and Doctrine that as the things of a man are only known by the Spirit of man so the things of God are only known by the Spirit of God that is that as nothing below the Spirit of man as the Spirit of Brutes or any other Creatures can properly reach unto nor comprehend the things of a man as being of a more noble and higher Nature so neither can the Spirit of man or the natural man as the Apostle in the 14 verse subsumes receive nor discern the things of God or the things that are Spiritual as being also of a higher Nature which the Apostle himself gives for the reason saying neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned So that the Apostles words being reduced to an argument do very well prove the matter under debate thus If that which appertaineth properly to man cannot be discerned by any lower or baser Principle than the Spirit of man then cannot these things that properly relate unto God and Christ be known or discerned by any lower or baser thing than the Spirit of God and Christ. But the First is true Therefore also the Second The whole strength of the argument is contained in the Apostles words before mentioned which therefore being granted I shall proceed to deduce a second argument thus That which is Spiritual can only be known and discerned by the Spirit of God But the Revelation of Jesus Christ and the true and saving knowledg of him is Spiritual Therefore the Revelation of Jesus Christ and the true and saving knowledge of him can only be known and discerned by the Spirit of God The other Scripture is also a saying of the same Apostle 1 Cor. 12.3 No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost The Scripture which is full of Truth and answereth full well to the inlightned understanding of the Spiritual and real Christian may perhaps prove very strange to the carnal and pretended follower of Christ by whom perhaps it hath not been so diligently remarked Here the Apostle doth so much require the Holy Spirit in the things that relate to a Christian that he positively averrs we cannot so much as affirm Jesus to be the Lord without it which insinuates no less than that the Spiritual Truths of the Gospel are as lyes in the Mouths of carnal and unspiritual men for though in themselves they be true yet are they not true as to them because not known nor uttered forth in and by that Principle and Spirit that ought to direct the mind and actuat it in such things they are no better than the counterfeit representations of things in a comedy neither can it be more truly and properly called a real and true knowledg of God and Christ than the actings of Alexander the great and Julius Caesar c. if now transacted upon a Stage might be called truly and really their doings or the persons representing them might be said truly
saith is in his sinning and then as if he purposed expresly to shut out such an opinion he assures us the Son shall not bear the Fathers Iniquity From which I thus argue If the Son bear not the Iniquity of his Father or of his immediate Parents far less shall he bear the iniquity of Adam But the Son shall not bear the Iniquity of his Father Therefore c. § V. Having thus far shewn how absurd this Opinion is I shall briefly examine the reasons its Authors bring for it First They say Adam was a publick Person Obj. and therefore all men sinned in him as being in his loins And for this they alledg that of Rom. 5.12 Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin and so Death passed upon all men for that all have sinned c. These last words say they may be translated in whom all have sinned To this I answer That Adam is a publick person is not denyed and that through him there is a seed of sin propagated to all men Answ. which in its own nature is sinsiul and inclines men to iniquity yet will it not follow from thence that Infants who joyn not with this Seed are guilty As for these words in the Romans the reason of the guilt there alledged is for that all have sinned Now no man is said to sin unless he actually sin in his own person for the Greek words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may very well relate to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the nearest antecedent so that they hold forth how that Adam by his sin gave an entrance to sin in the world and so death entred by sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. upon which viz. occasion or in which viz. death all others have sinned that is actually in their own person to wit all that were capable of sinning of which number that infants could not be the Apostle clearly shews by the following verse Sin is not imputed where there is no Law and since as is above proved there is no Law to Infants they cannot be here included Their second Objection is from Psal. 51.5 Obj. Behold I was shapen in Iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me Hence they say it appears that Infants from their Conception are guilty How they infer this consequence for my part I see not The iniquity and sin here Answ. appears to be far more ascribable to the Parents than to the Child It is said indeed In sin did my mother conceive me not my mother did conceive me a sinner Besides that so interpreted contradicts expresly the Scripture before mentioned in making Children guilty of the sins of their immediate Parents for of Adam there is not here any mention contrary to the plain words the Son shall not bear the Fathers iniquity Obj. Thirdly They object that the wages of sin is death and that seeing Children are subject to Diseases and Death therefore they must be guilty of sin Answ. I answer That these things are a consequence of the fall and of Adams sin is confessed but that infers necessarily a guilt in all others that are subject to them is denyed For though the whole outward Creation suffered a decay by Adam's fall which groans under vanity according to which it is said in Job that the Heavens are not clean in the sight of God yet will it not from thence follow that the Herbs Earth and Trees are sinners Next Death though a consequent of the fall incident to mans earthly Nature is not the wages of sin in the Saints but rather sleep by which they pass from death to life which is so far from being troublesome and painful to them as all real punishments for sin are that the Apostle counts it gain To me saith he to die is gain Psal. 1.21 Obj. Some are so foolish as to make an objection farther saying That if Adam 's sin be not imputed to those who actually have not sinned then it would follow that all Infants are saved But we are willing that this supposed absurdity should be the consequence of our Doctrine rather than that which it seems our adversaries reckon not absurd though the undoubted and unavoidable consequence of theirs viz. that Many Infants eternally perish not for any sin of their own but only for Adams iniquity where we are willing to let the controversie sist commending both to the illuminated understanding of the Christian Reader This error of our adversaries is both denied and refuted by Zwinglius that eminent Founder of the Protestant Churches of Zwitzerland in his Book De Baptismo for which he is anathematized by the Council of Trent in the fifth Session We shall only add this information that we confess then that a seed of sin is transmitted to all men from Adam although imputed to none until by sinning they actually joyn with it in which seed he gave occasion to all to sin and it is the orignal of all evil actions and thoughts in mens hearts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to wit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is in the 5. of the Romans i. e. in which death all have sinned For this seed of sin is frequently called Death in the Scripture and the body of death seeing indeed it is a death to the Life of Righteousness and Holiness Therefore its seed and its product is called the old man the old Adam in which all sin is for which cause we use this name to express this sin and not that of original sin of which phrase the Scripture makes no mention and under which invented and unscriptural Barbarism this notion of imputed sin to Infants took place among Christians The Fifth and Sixth Propositions Concerning the Vniversal Redemption by Christ and also the saving and Spiritual Light wherewith every man is inlightned The Fifth Proposition GOD out of his Infinite love who delighteth not in the Death of a Sinner but that all should live and be saved hath so loved the World that he hath given his only Son a LIGHT that whosoever believeth in him shall be saved John 3.16 Who inlighteneth every man that cometh into the World John 1.9 And maketh manifest all things that are reprovable Eph. 5.12 And teacheth all Temperance Righteousness and Godliness And this light lighteneth the hearts of all in a day in order to Salvation and this is it which reproves the Sin of all Individuals and would work out the Salvation of all if not resisted nor is it less Universal than the Seed of Sin being the purchase of his death who tasted death for every man For as in Adam all dye even so in Christ all shall be made alive 1 Cor. 15.22 The Sixth Proposition According to which Principle or hypothesis all the objections against the Universality of Christs Death are easily solved neither is it needful to recur to the Ministry of Angels and those other miraculous means which they say God useth to manifest the Doctrine and
And seeing he is both a most Righteous and Merciful God it cannot at all stand neither with his justice nor mercy to bid such men repent or believe to whom it is impossible § VII Moreover if we regard the Testimony of the Scripture in this matter where there is not one Scripture which I know of that affirmeth Christ not to dye for all there are divers that positively and expresly assert he did as 1 Tim. 2.1 3 4 6. I exhort therefore that first of all Supplications Prayers Intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men c. for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledg of the Truth who gave himself a ransome for all to be testified in due time Except we will have the Apostle here to assert quite another thing then he intended there can be nothing more plain to confirm what we have asserted And this Scripture doth well answer to that manner of arguing which we have hitherto used For first the Apostle here recommends them to pray for all men And to obviate such an objection as if they had said with our Adversaries Christ prayed not for the World neither willeth he us to pray for all because he willeth not that all should be saved but hath ordained many to be damned that he might shew forth his Justice in them He obviates I say such an Objection telling them that it is good and acceptable in the sight of God who will have all men to be saved I desire to know what can be more expresly affirmed or can any two Propositions be stated in terms more contradictory than these two God willeth not some to be saved and God willeth all men to be saved or God will have no man Perish If we believe the last as the Apostle hath affirmed the first must be destroyed seeing of contradictory Propositions the one being placed the other is destroyed Whence to conclude he gives us a reason of his willingness that all men should be saved in these words who gave himself a ransom for all as if he would have said since Christ died for all since he gave himself a ransom for all therefore he will have all men to be saved This Christ himself gives as the reason of God's love to the World in these words John 3.16 God so loved the World that he gave his Only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting Life Compared with 1 John 4.9 This whosoever is an indefinit term from which no man is excluded From all which then I thus argue Arg. For whomsoever it is Lawful to pray to them Salvation is possible But it 's lawful to pray for every individual man in the whole World Thereforc Salvation is possible unto them I prove the major proposition thus No man is bound to pray for that which is impossible to be attained But every man is bound and commanded to pray for all men Therefore it is not impossible to be obtained I prove also this Proposition further thus No man is bound to pray but in Faith But he that prayeth for that which he judges simply impossible to be obtained cannot pray in Faith Therefore c. Again That which God willeth is not impossible But God willeth all men to be saved Therefore it is not impossible And Lastly These for whom our Saviour gave himself a ransom to such Salvation is possible But our Saviour gave himself a ransom for all Therefore Salvation is possible unto them § VIII This is very positively affirmed Heb. 2.9 in these words But we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the Angels for the suffering of Death crowned with Glory and Honour that he by the Grace of God might taste Death for every man He that will but open his eyes may see this Truth here asserted if he tasted Death for every man than certainly there is no man for whom he did not tast death then there is no man who may be made a sharer of the benifit of it for he came not to condemn the World but that the World through him might be saved John 3.17 He came not to judg the World but to save the World John 12.47 Whereas according to the Doctrine of our Adversaries he behoved to come to condemn the World and judg it and not that it might be saved by him or to save it for if he never came to bring Salvation to a greater part of mankind but that his coming though it could never do them good yet shall augment their condemnation from thence it necessarily follows that he came not of intention to save but to judg and condemn the greater part of the World contrary to his own express Testimony and as the Apostle Paul in the words above cited doth assert affirmatively that God willeth the Salvation of all so doth the Apostle Peter assert negatively that he willeth not the perishing of any 2 Pet. 3.9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some men count slackness but is long suffering to us-ward not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance And this is Correspondent to that of the Prophet Ezekiel 33.11 As I live saith the Lord I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live If it be safe to believe God and trust in him we must not think that he intends to cheat us by all these expressions through his Servants but that he was in good earnest and that this will and desire of his hath not taken effect the blame is on our parts as shall be after spoken of which could not be if so be we never were in any capacity of Salvation or that Christ had never died for us but left us under an impossibility of Salvation what means all those earnest invitations all those serious expostulations all those regreting contemplations wherewith the Holy Scriptures are full as Why will ye dye O House of Israel Why will ye not come unto me that ye might have Life I have waited to be gracious unto you I have sought to gather you I have knocked at the door of your Hearts Is not your destructions of your selves I have called all the day long If men who are so invited be under no capacity of being saved if Salvation be impossible unto them shall we suppose God in this to be no other but like the Author of a Romance or the Master of a Comedy who amuses and raises the various Affections and Passions of his Spectators by divers and strange Accidents sometimes leading them into Hope and sometimes into Despair all those actions in effect being but a pure Illusion while he hath appointed what the conclusion of all shall be Thirdly this Doctrine is abundantly confirmed by that of the Apostle 1 John 2.1 2. And if any man sin we
to every man to profit withal This certain Doctrine then being received to wit that there is an Evangelical and saving Light and Grace in all the universality of the Love and Mercy of God towards mankind both in the death of his beloved Son the Lord Jesus Christ and in the manifestation of the Light in the heart is established and confirmed against all the Objections of such as deny it Therefore Christ hath tasted death for every man not only for all kinds of men as some vainly talk but for every one of all kinds the benefit of whose offering is not only extended to such who have the distinct outward knowledg of his death and suffering as the same is declared in the Scriptures but even unto those who are necessarily excluded from the benefit of this knowledg by some inevitable accident which knowledg we willingly confess to be very profitable and comfortable but not absolutely needful unto such from whom God himself hath withheld it yet they may be made partakers of the mystery of his death tho ignorant of the History if they suffer his Seed and Light inlightning their hearts to take in which Light communion with the Father and the Son is enjoyned so as of wicked men to become holy and lovers of that power by whose inward and secret touches they feel themselves turned from the evil to the good and learn to do to others as they would be done by in which Christ himself affirms all to be included As they have then falsly and erreonously taught who have denyed Christ to have died for all Men so neither have they sufficiently taught the Truth who affirming him to have died for all have added the absolute necessity of the outward knowledg thereof in order to the obtaining its saving effects Among whom the Remonstrants of Holland have been chiefly wanting and many other Assertors of universal Redemption in that they have not Placed the extent of this salvation in that Divine and Evangelical Principle of Light and Life wherewith Christ hath enlightned every man that comes into the world which is excellently and evidently held forth in these Scriptures Gen. 6.3 Deut. 30.14 John 1.7 8 9. Rom. 10.8 Tit. 2.11 The Seventh Proposition Concerning Justification As many as resist not this Light but receive the same in them is produced a holy pure and spiritual birth bringing forth holiness righteousness purity and all these other blessed fruits which are acceptable to God by which holy birth to wit Jesus Christ formed within us and working his works in us as we are sanctified so are we justified in the sight of God according to the Apostles words But ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God Therefore it is not by our works wrought in our will nor yet by good works considered as of themselves but Christ who is both the gift and the giver and the cause producing the effects in us who as he hath reconciled us while we were enemies doth also in his wisdom save us and justifie us after this manner as saith the same Apostle elsewhere according to his mercy he hath saved us by the washing of Regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost The Eighth Proposition Concerning Perfection In whom this holy and pure birth is fully brought forth the body of death and sin comes to be crucified and removed and their hearts united and subjected unto the truth so as not to obey any suggestion or temptation of the evil one but to be free from actual sinning and transgressing of the Law of God and in that respect perfect yet doth this perfection still admit of a growth there remaineth ever in some part a possibility of sinning where the mind doth not most diligently and watchfully attend unto the Lord. The Ninth Proposition Concerning Perseverence and the possibility of falling from Grace Altho this Gift and inward Grace of God be sufficient to work out Salvation yet in those in whom it is resisted it both may and doth become their Condemnation Moreover in whom it hath wrought in part to purifie and sanctifie them in order to their further Perfection by disobedience such may fall from it and turn it to wantoness making Shipwrack of Faith and after having tasted of the Heavenly Gift and been made Partakers of the Holy Ghost again fall away yet such an increase and stability in the Truth may in this Life be attained from which there can not be a total Apostacy The Tenth Proposition Concerning the Ministry As by this Gift or Light of God all true knowledge in things Spiritual is received and revealed so by the same as it is manifested and received in the heart by the strength and power thereof every true Minister of the Gospel is ordained prepared and supplied in the work of the Ministry and by the leading moving and drawing hereof ought every Evangelist and Christian Pastor to be led and ordered in his labour and work of the Gospel both as to the place where as to the Person to whom and as to the times when he is to Minister Moreover who have this Authority may and ought to Preach the Gospel tho without human Commission or Literature as on the other hand who want the Authority of this Divine Gift however Learned or Authorized by the Commissions of Men and Churches are to be esteemed but as deceivers and not true Ministers of the Gospel also who have received this holy and unspotted Gift as they have freely received so are they freely to give without hire or bargaining far less to use it as a Trade to get Money by it yet if God hath called any from their Imployments or Trades by which they acquire their livelihood it may be lawful for such according to the liberty which they feel given them in the Lord to receive such Temporals to wit what may be needful to them for Meat and Cloathing as are freely given them by those to whom they have Communicated spirituals The Eleventh Proposition Concerning Worship All true and acceptable worship to God is offered in the inward and immediate moving and drawing of his own Spirit which is neither limited to places times or Persons for tho we be to worship him always in that we are to fear before him yet as to the outward signification thereof in Prayers Praises or Preachings we ought not to do it where and when we will but where and when we are moved thereunto by the secret Inspirations of his Spirit in our hearts which God heareth and accepteth of and is never wanting to move us thereunto when need is of which he himself is the alone proper Judg all other worship then both Praises Prayers and Preachings which man sets about in his own will and at his own appointment which he can both begin and end at his pleasure do or leave undone as himself
History of Christs Passion unto such who living in the places of the World where the outward preaching of the Gospel is unknown have well improved the first and common Grace For as hence it well follows that some of the old Philosophers might have been saved so also may some who by Providence are cast into those remote parts of the World where the knowledg of the History is wanting be made partakers of the Divine Mystery if they receive and resist not that Grace a manifestation whereof is given to every man to profit withal This most certain Doctrine being then received that there is an Evangelical and Saving Light and Grace in all the vniversality of the Love and Mercy of God towards Mankind both in the Death of his Beloved Son the Lord Jesus Christ and in the manifestation of the Light in the heart is established and confirmed against all the Objections of such as deny it Therefore Christ hath tasted death for every man not only for all kind of men as some vainly talk but for every man of all kinds the benefit of whose Offering is not only extended to such who have the destinct outward knowledg of his death and sufferings as the same is declared in the Scriptures but even unto those who are necessarily excluded from the benefit of this knowledg by some inevitable accident Which knowledg we willingly confess to be very profitable and comfortable but not absolutely needful unto such from whom God himself hath withheld it yet they may be made partakers of the mystery of his death though ignorant of the history if they suffer his Seed and Light inlightening their hearts to take place in which Light communion with the Father and the Son is enjoyed so as of wicked men to become holy and lovers of that Power by whose inward and secret touches they feel themselves turned from the Evil to the Good and learn to do to others as they would be done by in which Christ himself affirms all to be included As They have then falsly and erroneously taught who have denyed Christ to have dyed for all men so neither have They sufficiently taught the Truth who affirming him to have died for all have added the absolute necessity of the outward knowledg thereof in order to obtain its saving effect Among whom the Remonstrants of Holland have been chiefly wanting and many other assertors of Vniversal Redemption in that they have not placed the extent of his Salvation in that Divine and Evangelical Principle of Light and Life wherewith Christ hath inlightened every man that cometh into the World which is excellently and evidently held forth in these Scriptures Gen. 6.3 Deut. 30.14 Joh. 1.7 8 9 16. Rom. 10.8 Tit. 2.11 HItherto we have considered mans fall'n lost corrupted and degenerated condition Now it is fit to inquire how and by what means he may come to be freed out of this miserable and depraved condition which in these two Propositions is declared and demonstrated which I thought meet to place together because of their affinity The one being as it were an explanation of the other As for that Doctrine which these Propositions chiefly strike at to wit absolute reprobation according to which some are not afraid to assert That God by an eternal and immutable decree hath predestinated to Eternal Damnation the far greater part of Mankind not considered as made much less as fall'n without any respect to their Disobedience or Sin but only for the demonstrating of the Glory of his Justice and that for the bringing this about he hath appointed these miserable Souls necessarily to walk in their wicked ways that so his justice may lay hold on them And that God doth therefore not only suffer them to be liable to this misery in many parts of the world by withholding from them the preaching of the Gospel and knowledg of Christ but even in those places where the Gospel is preached and Salvation by Christ is offered whom though he publickly invite them yet he justly condemns for disobedience albeit he hath with held from them all Grace by which they could have laid hold on the Gospel viz. because he hath by a secret will unknown to all men ordained and decreed without any respect had to their disobedience or sin that they shall not obey and that the offer of the Gospel shall never prove effectual for their Salvation but only serve to aggravate and occasion their greater condemnation I say as to this horrible and Blasphemous Doctrine or cause is common with many others who have both wisely and learnedly according to Scripture Reason and Antiquity refuted it Seeing then that so much and so well is said already against this Doctrine that little can be superadded except what hath been said already I shall be short in this respect Yet because it lies so in opposition to my way I cannot let it altogether pass § I. First We may safely call this Doctrine a novelty seeing the first Four Hundred Years after Christ there is no mention made of it for as it is contrary to the Scriptures Testimony and to the Tenor of the Gospel so all the Antient Writers Teachers and Doctors of the Church pass it over with a profound Silence The first Foundations of it were laid in the later writings of Augustin who in his heat against Pelagius let fall some expressions which some have unhappily gleaned up to the establishing of this error thereby contradicting the Truth and sufficiently gain-saying many others and many more and frequent expressions of the same Augustine Afterwards was this Doctrine fomented by Dominicus a Friar and the Monks of his Order and at last unhappily taken up by John Calvin otherwise a man in divers respects to be commended to the great staining of his reputation and defamation both of the Protestant and Christian Religion which though it received the Degrees of the Synod of Dort for its confirmation hath since lost ground and begins to be exploded by most men of Learning and Piety in all Protestant Churches However we should not quarrel for the silence of the Antients paucity of its assertors or for the learnedness of its Opposers if we did observe it to have any real bottom in the writings or sayings of Christ and the Apostles and that it were not highly injurious to God himself to Jesus Christ our Mediator and Redeemer and to the Power Vertue Nobility and Excellency of his Blessed Gospel and lastly unto all mankind § II. First It is highly injurious to God because it makes him the author of Sin which of all things is most contrary to his nature I confess the assertors of this Principle deny this Consequence but that is but a pure illusion seeing it so naturally follows from their Doctrin and is equally ridiculous as if a man should pertinaciously deny that one and two makes three For if God has decreed that the reprobated ones shall perish without all respect to their evil
worse condition than the devils in hell For these were sometimes in a capacity to have stood and do suffer only for their guilt whereas many millions of men are for ever tormented according to them for Adams sin which they neither knew of nor ever were accessary to It renders them worse than the Beasts of the Field of whom the Master requires not more than they are able to perform and if they be killed death to them is the end of sorrow whereas man is for ever tormented for not doing that which he never was able to do It puts him into a far worse condition than Pharoah put the Israelites for though he with-held Straw from them yet by much labour and pains they could have gotten it But from men they make God to with hold all means of Salvation so that they can by no means attain it Yea they place mankind in that condition which the Poets feign of Tantalus who oppressed with thirst stands in water up to the chin yet can by no means reach it with his tongue and being tormented with hunger hath Fruit hanging at his very Lips yet so as he can never lay hold on them with his Teeth and these things are so near him not to nourish him but to torment him So do these men they make the outward Creation of the work of Providence the smitings of the Conscience sufficient to convince the Heathens of sin and to condemn and judg them but not at all to help them to Salvation They make the preaching of the Gospel the offer of Salvation by Christ the use of the Sacraments of Prayer and good works sufficient to condemn those they account reprobates within the Church serving only to inform them to beget a seeming faith and vain hope yet because of a secret impotency which they had from their Infancy all these are wholly ineffectual to bring them the least step towards Salvation and do only contribute to render their condemnation the greater and their torments the more violent and intollerable Having thus briefly removed this false Doctrin which stood in my way because they that are desirous may see it both Learnedly and Piously refuted by many others I come to the matter of our Proposition which is that God out of his infinite love who delighteth not in the death of a sinner but that all should live and be saved hath sent his only begotten Son into the World that whosoever believeth in him might be saved which also is again affirmed in the sixth Proposition in these words Christ then tasted Death for every Man of all kinds Such is the evidence of this Truth delivered almost wholly in the express words of Scripture that it will not need much probation Also because our assertion herein is common with many others who have both earnestly and soundly according to the Scripture pleaded for this Universal Redemption I shall be the more brief in it that I may come to that which may seem more singularly and peculiarly ours § VI. This Doctrin of Universal Redemption or Christs dying for all Men is of it self so evident from the Scripture Testimony that there is scarce found any other Article of the Christian Faith so frequently so plainly and so positively asserted It is that which maketh the preaching of Christ to be truly termed the Gospel or an annunciation of glad tydings to all Thus the Angel declared the birth and coming of Christ to the Shepherds to be Luk. 2.10 Behold I bring you good tydings of great joy which shall be to all People He saith not to a few People Now if this coming of Christ had not brought a possibility of Salvation to all it should rather have been accounted bad tydings of great sorrow to most People neither should the Angel have had reason to have sung Peace on Earth and good will towards men if the greatest part of mankind had been necessarily shut out from receiving any benefit by it How should Christ have sent out his to preach the Gospel to every Creature Mark 16.15 a very comprehensive Commission that is to every Son and Daughter of mankind Without all exception he commands them to Preach Salvation to all repentance and remission of sins to all warning every one and exhorting every one as Paul did Col. 1.28 Now how could they have preached the Gospel to every Man as became the Ministers of Jesus Christ in much assurance if Salvation by that Gospel had not been possible for all what if some of those had asked them or should now ask any of these Doctors who deny the Universallity of Christ's death and yet preached it to all promiscuously hath Christ dyed for me How can they with confidence give a certain answer to this question If they give a conditional answer as their principal obligeth them to do and say If thou repent Christ hath dyed for thee doth not the same question still recur Hath Christ dyed for me so as to make repentance possible for me To this they can answer nothing unless they run in a Circle whereas the feet of those that bring the glad tidings of the Gospel of Peace are said to be beautiful for that they preach the common Salvation repentance unto all offering a door of mercy and hope to all through Jesus Christ who gave himself a ransom for all The Gospel invites all and certainly by the Gospel Christ intended not to deceive and delude the greater part of Mankind when he invites and cryeth saying Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest If all then ought to seek after him and to look for Salvation by him he must needs have made Salvation Possible to all for who is bound to seek after that which is impossible Certainly it were a mock of men to bid them do so And such as deny that by the death of Christ Salvation is made possible to all men do most blasphemously make God mock the World in giving his servants a commission to preach the Gospel of Salvation unto all while he hath before decreed that it shall not be possible for them to receive it Would not this make the Lord to send forth his servants with a lye in their Mouth which were Blasphemous to think commanding them to bid all and every one believe that Christ died for them and had purchased life and Salvation Whereas it is no such thing according to the forementioned Doctrin But seeing Christ after he arose and perfected the work of our Redemption gave a commission to preach Repentance remission of Sins and Salvation to all it is manifest that he dyed for all For he that hath Commissionated his servants thus to Preach is a God of Truth and no Mocker of poor Mankind neither doth he require any of Man that which is simply impossible for him to do for that no Man is bound to do that which is impossible is a principle of Truth ingraven in every mans mind
of the glorious Dispensation of the Gospel of Christ appear all at once the work of the first Witnesses being more to restifie against and discover the abuses of the Apostasie than to establish the Truth in purity He that comes to build a new City must first remove the old Rubbish before he can see to lay a new Foundation and he that comes to a House greatly polluted and full of Dirt will first sweep away and remove the Filth before he put up his own good and new Furniture The dawning of the day dispells the Darkness and makes us see the things that are most conspicuous but the distinct discovering and discerning of things o as to make a certain and perfect observation is reserved for the arising of the Sun and its shining in full brightness And we can from a certain Experience boldly affirm that the not waiting for this but building among yea and with the old popish rubbish and setting up before a full purgation hath been to most Protestants the foundation of many a mistake and an occasion of unspeakable hurt Therefore the Lord God who as he seeth meet doth communicate and make known to man the more full evident and perfect knowledg of his everlasting Truth hath been pleased to reserve the more full discovery of this glorious and Evangelical Dispensation to this our Age albeit divers testimonies have thereunto been born by some noted men in several Ages as shall hereafter appear and for the greater augmentation of the Glory of his Grace that no man might have whereof to boast hath raised up a few despicable and illiterate men and for the most part Mechanicks to be the Dispensators of it by which Gospel all the scruples doubts hesitations and objections above mentioned are easily and evidently answered and the justice as well as mercy of God according to their Divine and Heavenly Harmony are exhibited established and confirmed according to which certain Light and Gospel as the knowledge thereof hath been manifested to us by the Revelation of Jesus Christ in us fortified by our own sensible experience and sealed by the testimony of the Spirit in our Hearts we can confidently affirm and clearly evince according to the testimony of the Holy Scriptures the following points § XI First That God who out of his infinite love sent his Son the Lord Jesus Christ into the World who tasted Death for every man hath given to every man whether Jew or Gentile Turk or Scythian Indian or Barbarian of whatsoever Nation Countrey or Place a certain day or time of visitation during which day or time it is possible for them to be saved and to partake of the Fruit of Christs Death Secondly That for this end God hath communicated and given unto every man a measure of the Light of his own Son a measure of Grace or a measure of the Spirit which the Scripture expresses by several names as sometimes of the Seed of the Kingdom Mat. 13.18.19 The Light that makes all things manifest Eph. 5.13 The Word of God Rom. 10.18 or Manifestation of the Spirit given to profite withal 1 Cor. 12.7 a Talent Mat. 25.15 a little Leaven The Gospel preached in every Creature Col. 1.23 Thirdly That God in and by this Light and Seed invites calls exhorts and strives with every man in order to save them which as it is received and not resisted works the Salvation of all even of those who are ignorant of the Death and Sufferings of Christ and of Adam's Fall both by bringing them to a sense of their own misery and to be sharers in the Sufferings of Christ inwardly and by making them partakers of his Resurrection in becoming Holy Pure and Righteous and recovered of their sins by which also are saved they that have the knowledg of Christ outwardly in that it opens their understanding rightly to use and apply the things delivered in the Scriptures and to receive the saving use of them But that this may be resisted and rejected in both in which then God is said to be resisted and pressed down and Christ to be again crucified and put to open shame in and among men and to to those as thus resist and refuse him he becomes their condemnation First then according to this Doctrine the Mercy of God is excellently well exhibited in that none are necessarily shut out from Salvation and his Justice is demonstrated in that he condemns none but such to whom he really made offer of Salvation affording them the means sufficient thereunto Secondly This Doctrin if well weighed will be found to be the Foundation of Christianity Salvation and Assurance Thirdly It agrees and answers with the whole tenor of the Gospel Promises and Threats and with the Nature of the Ministry of Christ according to which the Gospel Salvation Repentance is commanded to be preached to every Creature without respect of Nations Kindreds Families or Tongues Fourthly It magnifies and commends the merits and death of Christ in that it not only accounts them sufficient to save all but declares them to be brought so nigh unto all as thereby to be put into the nearest capacity of Salvation Fifthly It exalts above all the Grace of God to which it attributeth all good even the least and smallest actions that are so ascribing thereunto not only the first beginnings and motions of good but also the whole conversion and salvation of the Soul Sixthly It contradicts overturns and enervates the false Doctrine of the Pelagians Semi-Pelagians Socinians and others who exalt the Light of Nature the liberty of mans will in that it wholly excludes the natural man from having any place or portion in his own Salvation by any acting moving or working of his own until he be first quickned raised up and acted by God's Spirit Seventhly As it makes the whole Salvation of Man solely and alone to depend upon God so it makes his condemnation wholly and in every respect to be himself in that he refused and resisted somewhat that from God wrestled and strove in his heart and forces him to acknowledg God's just Judgment in rejecting him and forsaking of him Eighthly It takes away all ground of Despair in that it gives every one ground of hope and certain assurance that they may be saved neither doth feed any in security in that none are certain how soon their day may expire and therefore it is a constant incitement and provocation and lively incouragement to every man to forsake evil and close with that which is good Ninthly It wonderfully commends as well the certainty of the Christian Religion among Infidels as it manifests its own verity to all in that it s confirmed and established by the experiences of all men seeing there was never yet a man found in any place of the Earth however barbarous and wild but hath acknowledged that at some time or other less or more he hath found somewhat in his heart reproving him for some things evil which he hath
by some citations out of them hereafter to be mentioned will appear though this Doctrine hath not since the Apostacy so far as ever I could observe been so distinctly and evidently held forth according to the Scriptures Testimony as it hath pleased God to reveal it and preach it forth in this day by the witnesses of his Truth whom he hath raised to that end Which Doctrine though it be briefly held forth and comprehended in the Thesis it self yet I shall a little more fully explain the state of the Controversie as it stands betwixt us and those that now oppose us § III. First then as by the explanation of the former Thesis appears we renounce all natural power and ability in our selves in order to bring us out of our lost and faln condition and first Nature and confess that of our selves we are able to do nothing that is good so neither can we procure remission of sins or justification by any act of our own so as to merit it or draw it as a debt from God due unto us but we acknowledg all to be of and from his Love which is the original and fundamental cause of our acceptance Secondly God manifested this love towards us in the sending of his Beloved Son the Lord Jesus Christ into the world who gave himself for us an Offering and a Sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour and having made peace through the blood of his Cross that he might reconcile us unto himself and by the Eternal Spirit offered himself without spot unto God and suffered for our sins the Just for the unjust that he might bring us unto God Thirdly then forasmuch as all men who have come to man's estate the Man Jesus only excepted have sinned therefore all have need of this Saviour to remove the Wrath of God from them due to their offences in this respect he is truly said to have born the Iniquities of us all in his Body on the Tree and therefore is the Only Mediator having qualified the Wrath of God towards us so that our former sins stand not in our way being by vertue of his most satisfactory Sacrifice removed and pardoned Neither do we think that remission of sins is to be expected sought or obtained any other way or by any works or Sacrifice whatsomever though as has been said formerly they may come to partake of this remission that are ignorant of the History So then Christ by his death and sufferings hath reconciled us to God even while we are Enemies that is he offers reconciliation unto us we are put into a capacity of being reconciled God is willing to forgive us our iniquities and to accept us as is well expressed by the Apostle 2 Cor. 5.19 God was in Christ reconciling the World unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them and hath put in us the Word of Reconciliation And therefore the Apostle in the next verses treats them in Christs stead to be reconciled to God intimating that the Wrath of God being removed by the obedience of Christ Jesus he is willing to be reconciled unto them and ready to remit the sins that are past if they repent We consider then our Redemption in a two fold respect or state both which in their own Nature are perfect though in their application to us the one is not nor cannot be without respect to the other The first is the Redemption performed and accomplished by Christ for us in his Crucified Body without us The other is the Redemption wrought by Christ in us which no less properly is called and accounted a Redemption than the former The first then is that whereby man as he stands in the fall is put into a capacity of Salvation and hath conveighed unto him a measure of that Power Vertue Spirit Life and Grace that was in Christ Jesus which as the free Gift of God is able to counter-ballance overcome and root out the Evil Seed wherewith we are naturally as in the fall leavened The second is that whereby we witness and know this pure and perfect Redemption in our selves purifying cleansing and redeeming us from the power of Corruption and bringing us into unity Favour and Friendship with God By the first of these two we that are lost in Adam plunged in the bitter and corrupt Seed unable of our selves to do any good thing but naturally joyned and united to evil forward and propense to all iniquity servants and slaves to the Power and Spirit of Darkness are notwithstanding all this so far reconciled to God by the death of his Son while Enemies that we are put into a capacity of Salvation having the glad tidings of the Gospel of peace offered unto us and God is reconciled unto us in Christ calls and invites us to himself in which respect we understand these Scriptures He stew the enmity in himself He loved us first seeing us in our blood he said unto us live he who did not sin his own self bare our sins in his own Body on the Tree and he died for our sins the just for the unjust By the second we witness this capacity brought into act whereby receiving and not resisting the purchase of his death to wit the Light Spirit and Grace of Christ revealed to us we witness and possess a real true and inward Redemption from the power and prevalency of sin and so come to be truly and really redeemed justified and made righteous and to a sensible union and friendship with God Thus he died for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and thus we know him and the Power of his Resurrection and the fellowship of his Sufferings being made conformable to us This last follows the first in order and is a consequence of it proceeding from it as an effect from its cause So as none could have enjoyed the last without the first had been such being the will of God so also can none now partake of the first but as he witnesseth the last Wherefore as to us they are both causes of our Justification The first the procuring efficient the other the formal cause Fourthly we understand not by this Justification by Christ barely the good works even as wrought by the Spirit of Christ for they as Protestants truly affirm are rather an effect of Justification than the cause of it But we understand the formation of Christ in us Christ born and brought forth in us from which good works as naturally proceed as Fruit from a Fruitful Tree It is this inward Birth in us bringing forth Righteousness and Holyness in us that doth Justâ—fie us which having removed and done away the contrary Nature and Spirit that did bear rule and bring condemnation now is in dominion over all in our hearts Those then that come to know Christ thus formed in them do enjoy him wholly and undivided who is The LORD our RIGHTEOVSNESS Jer. 23.6 This is to be cloathed with Christ and to have put
become a Proverb that the KIRK is always GREEDY Whereby the Gift and Grace of God being neglected they have for for the most part no other motive or rule in applying themselves to one Church more than another but the greater Benefice For tho they hypocritically pretend at their accepting of and entring unto their Church that they have nothing before them but the Glory of God and the Salvation of Souls yet if a richer Benefice offer it self they presently find it more for God's Glory to remove from the first and go thither And thus they make no difficulty often to change while notwithstanding they accuse us that we allow Ministers to go from place to place and not to be tied to one place but we allow this not for the gaining of money but as moved of God for if a Minister be called to Minister in a particular place he ought not to leave it except God call him from it and then he ought to obey for we make the will of God inwardly revealed and not the love of money and more gain the ground of removing Secondly From this abuse hath proceeded that Luxury and Idleness that most of the Clergy live in even among Protestants as well as Papists to the great scandal of Christianity For not having lawful Trades to work with their hands and being so superfluously and sumptuosly provided for they live in Idleness and Luxury and there doth more Pride Vanity and Worldly Glory appear in their Wives and Children than in most others which is open and evident to all Thirdly They become hereby so glewed to the love of money that there is none like them in malice rage and cruelty if they deny their hire they rage like drunken men fret fume and as it were go mad A man may sooner satisfie the severest Creditor than them the general voice of the poor doth confirm this for indeed they are far more exact in taking up the Tithes of Sheep Geese Swine and Eggs c. and look more narrowly to it than to the members of the Flock they will not miss the least mite and the poorest Widow cannot escape their avaritious hands twenty Lyes they will hear unreproved and as many Oaths a man may swear in their hearing without offending them and greater evils than all this they can overlook But if thou owest them ought and refuse to pay it then nothing but war will they thunder against thee and they will stigmatize thee with the horrible Title of Sacriledg and send thee to Hell without mercy as if thou hadst committed the sin against the Holy Ghost Of all People we can best bear witness to this for God having shewn us this corrupt and Anti-Christian Ministry and called us out from it and gathered us unto his own Power and Life to be a separate People so that we dare not joyn with nor hear these Anti-Christian hirelings neither yet put into their mouths or feed them O! what malice envy and fury hath this raised in their Hearts against us that tho we get none of their wares neither will buy them as knowing them to be nought yet will they force us to give them money and because we cannot for conscience sake do it our sufferings have upon that account been unutterable Yea to give account of their cruelty and several sorts of inhumanity used against us would make no small History These avaritious Hirelings have come to that degree of malice and rage that several poor labouring men have been carried hundreds of miles from their own dwellings and shut up in prison some two some three yea some seven years together for the value of one pound sterling and less I know my self a poor Widow that for the tithes of her Geese which amounted not to five shillings was about four years kept in prison thirty miles from her house Yea they by violence for this cause have plundred of mens goods the hundred fold and prejudiced much more yea hundreds have hereby spilt their innocent blood by dying in the filthy noisom holes and prisons and some of the Priests have been so inraged that Goods thus ravished could not satisfie them but they must also satisfie their fury by beating knocking and wounding with their hands innocent men and women for refusing for Conscience sake to put into their mouths The only way then soundly to reform and remove all these abuses and take away the ground and occasion of them is to take away all stinted and forced maintainance and stipend and seeing those things were anciently given by the people that they return again into the publick treasure and thereby the people may be greatly benefited by them for that they may supply for these publick taxations and impositions that are put upon them and may ease themselves of them And whoever call or appoint teachers to themselves let them accordingly entertain them And for such as are called and moved to the Ministry by the Spirit of God those that receive them and taste of the good of their Ministry will no doubt provide things needful for them and there will be no need of a Law to force a hire for them for he that sends them will take care for them and they also having food and raiment will therewith be content § XXXIII The sum then of what is said Is that The Ministry that we have pleaded for and which also the Lord hath raised up among us is in all its parts like the true Ministry of the Apostles and primitive Church Whereas the Ministry our adversaries seek to uphold and plead for as it doth in all its parts differ from them so on the other hand it is very like the false Prophets and Teachers testified against and condemned in the Scripture as may be thus briefly illustrated 1. The Mintstry and Minister we plead for are such as are immediately called and sent forth by Christ and his Spirit unto the work of the Ministry so were the holy Apostles and Prophets as appears by these places Matth. 10. verse 1.5 Eph. 4.11 Heb. 5.4 1. But the Ministry and Ministers our opposers plead for are such as have no immediate call from Christ to whom the leading and motion of the Spirit is not reckoned necessary but who are called sent forth and ordained by wicked and ungodly men such were of old the false Prophets and Teachers as appears by these places Jer. 14.14 15. item chap. 23.21 and 27.15 2. The Ministers we plead for are such as are acted and led by God's Spirit and by the power and operation of his Grace in their hearts are in some measure converted and regenerate and so are good holy and gracious men such were the Holy Prophets and Apostles as appears from 1 Tim. 3.2 3 4 5 6. Tit. 1.7 8 9. 2. But the Ministers our adversaries plead for are such to whom the Grace of God is no needful qualification and so may be true Ministers according to them though they be ungodly
now it is fit to speak of Praying concerning which the like controversie ariseth Our adversaries whose Religion is all for the most part outside and such whose acts are the meer product of man's natural will and abilities as they can preach so can they pray when they please and therefore have their set particular prayers I meddle not with the controversies among themselves concerning this some of them being for set prayers as a liturgy others for such as are ex tempore conceived it suffices me that all of them agree in this that the motions and influence of the Spirit of God are not necessary to be previous thereunto and therefore they have set times in their publick worship as before and after preaching and in their private devotion as morning and evening and before and after meat and other such occasions at which they precisely set about the performing of their prayers by speaking words to God whether they feel any motion or influence of the Spirit or not so that some of the chiefest have confessed that they have thus prayed without the motions or assistance of the Spirit acknowledging that they sinned in so doing yet they said they look upon it as their duty to do so though to pray without the Spirit be sin We freely confess that Prayer is both very profitable and a necessary duty commanded and fit to be practised frequently by all Christians but as we can do nothing without Christ so neither can we pray without the concurrence and assistance of his Spirit But that the state of the Controversie may be the better understood let it be considered First that Prayer is twofold inward and outward Inward Prayer is that secret turning of the mind towards God whereby being secretly touched and awakened by the Light of Christ in the Conscience and so bowed down under the sense of its iniquities unworthiness and misery it looks up to God and joining issue with the secret shinings of the Seed of God it breaths towards him and is constantly breathing forth some secret desires and aspirations towards him It is in this sense that we are so frequently in Scripture commanded to pray continually Luke 18.1 1 Thes. 5.17 Eph. 6.18 Luke 21.36 Which cannot be understood of outward Prayer because it were impossible that men should be alwaies upon their knees expressing words of prayer and this would hinder them from the exercise of those duties no less positively commanded Outward Prayer is when as the Spirit being thus in the exercise of inward retirement and feeling the breathing of the Spirit of God to arise powerfully in the Soul receives strength and liberty by a superadded motion and influence of the Spirit to bring forth either audable sighs groans or words and that either in publick assemblies or in private or at meat c. As then inward prayer is necessary at all times so so long as the day of every man's visitation lasteth he never wants some influence less or more for the practice of it Because he no sooner retires his mind and considers himself in God's presence but he finds himself in the practice of it The outward exercise of Prayer as needing a greater and superadded influence and motion of the Spirit as it cannot be continually practised so neither can it be so readily so as to be effectually performed until his mind be sometime acquainted with the inward therefore such as are dilligent and watchful in their minds and much retired in the exercise of this inward Prayer are more capable to be frequent in the use of the outward because that this Holy Influence doth more constantly attend them and they being better acquainted with and accustomed to the motions of God's Spirit can easily perceive and discern them and indeed as such who are most diligent have a near access to God and he taketh most delight to draw them by his Spirit to approach and call upon him So when many are gathered together in this watchful mind God doth frequently pour forth the Spirit of Prayer among them and stir them thereunto to the edifying and building up of one another in love But because this outward Prayer depends upon the inward as that which must follow it and cannot be acceptably performed but as attended with a superadded influence and motion of the Spirit therefore cannot we prefix set times to pray outwardly so as to lay a necessity to speak words at such and such times whether we feel this heavenly influence and assistance or no for that we judg were a tempting of God and a coming before him without due preparation We think it fit for us to present our selves before him by this inward retirement of the mind and so to proceed further as his Spirit shall help us and draw us thereunto and we find that the Lord accepts of this yea and seeth meet sometimes to exercise us in this silent place for the tryal of our patience without allowing us to speak further that he may teach us not to rely upon outward performances or satisfie our selves as too many do with the saying of our Prayers and that our dependence upon him may be the more firm and constant to wait for the holding out of his Scepter and for his allowance to draw near unto him and with greater freedom and enlargement of Spirit upon our hearts towards him yet nevertheless we do not deny but sometimes God upon particular occasions very suddenly yea upon the very first turning-in of the mind may give power and liberty to bring forth words or acts of outward Prayer so as the Soul can scarce discern any previous motion but the influence and bringing forth thereof may be as it were simul semel nevertheless that saying of Bernard is true that All Prayer is tepid which hath not an inspiration preveening it Though we affirm that none ought to go about Prayer without this motion yet we do not deny but such sin as neglect Prayer but their sin is in that they come not to that place where they may feel that that would lead them thereunto And therefore we question not but many through neglect of this inward watchfulness and retiredness of mind miss many precious opportunities to Pray and thereby are guilty in the sight of God yet would they sin if they should set about the act until they first felt the influence For as he grosly offends his Master that lyeth in his Bed and sleeps and neglects to do his Masters business yet if such a one should suddenly get up without puting on his Cloaths or taking along with him those necessary tools and instruments without which he could not possibly work should forwardly fall a doing to no purpose he would be so far thereby from repairing his former fault that he would justly incur a new censure and one that is careless and otherwaies busied may miss to hear one speaking unto him or even not hear the Bell of a Clock though striking hard
their Doctrine 158 159. concerning the possibility of not sinning 172 173. the possibility of falling from Grace 176. many of them did not only contradict one another but themselves also 211. concerning Baptism and the sign of the Cross 301. concern-in an Oath 372. Feet concerning the washing of one anothers feet 317 318 319. Franequer 222. Freely the Gospel ought to be preached freely 180 221 222. G Games see Playes Gifted Brethren 198. GOD how he hath alwaies manifested himself 3. unless he speak within the Preacher makes a rustling to no purpose 5 6. None can know him aright unless he receive it of the Holy Ghost 5 6 7. God is to be sought within 7. he is known by sensation and not by meer speculation and syllogistic demonstrations 6 7. he is the Fountain Root and Beginning of all good works and he hath made all things by his eternal Word 10. God speaking is the object of Faith 15. among all he hath his own chosen ones 5. he delights not in the death of the wicked see Redemption He hath manifested his love in sending his Son 132 149 150. see Justification he rewards the good works of his Children 157 158. whether it be possible to keep his Commandments 159 160. he is the Lord and the Only Judge of the Conscience 331 333. he will have a free exercise 339. Gospel see Redemption the truths of it are as lies in the mouths of profane and carnal men 12 23 24. the nature of it is explained 25 26. it is distinguished from the Law and is more excellent than it 26 42. see Covenant Law whether any ought to Preach it in this or that place is not found in Scripture 42 200. its works are distinguished from the works of the Law 152. how it is to be propagated and of its propagation 334. the worship of it is inward 289 290. it is an inward Power 107 108. Grace the Grace of God can be lost through disobedeince 174 c. Saving Grace see Redemption which is required in the calling and qualifying of a Minister see Minister In some it worketh in a special and prevalent manner that they necessarily obtain Salvation 96 97. Your Grace see Titles H Hai Ebn Yokdan 126. Hands laying on of Hands 199 327. Head of uncovering the head in salutations 350 352 361 362 363 364 365 388 389. Heart the heart is deceitful and wicked 45 59 60 61. Heathens albeit they were ignorant of the history yet they were sensible of the loss by the Fall 124. some Heathens would not swear 378. heathenish Ceremonies were brought into the Christian Religion 301. Henry IV. King of France 341. Heresies whence they proceeded 244. Hereticks 336. High see Priest History of Christ see Quakers Redemption Holy of Holys the High-priest entred into it once a year 14 15. but now all of us at all times have access unto God 27. Holiness your Holiness see Titles Honor see Titles Hypocrite 336 340. I Jacob 241. James the Apostle there were of old divers Opinions concerning his Epistle 40. Idolatry 232 245. whence it proceeded 277. Jesting see Plays Games Jesuits see Sect Ignatian Jesus see Christ what it is to be saved and to be assembled in his Name 119 120 132 238. Jews among them there may be Members of the Church 182 183. their error concerning the outward succession of Abraham 190. their worship is outward 290. Illiterate see Mechanicks Indulgences 130. Infants see Sin Iniquities spiritual iniquities or wickedness 244. Inquisition 340. Inspiration where that doth not teach words without do make a noise to no purpose 5 6. John the Apostle concerning his second and third Epistles and the Revelation there were sometime divers Opinions 40. John the Baptist did not Miracles 198. John Hus is said to have Prophecyed 57. John Knox in what respect he was called the Apostle of Scotland 217. Judas fell from his Apostleship 191. who was his Vicar 293. his Ministry was not purely Evangelical 205. he was called immediately of Christ and who are inferior to him and plead for him as Patron of their Ministry 205 206. Justification the doctrin thereof is and hath been greatly vitiate among the Papists and wherein they place it 129 149 131 132. Luther and the Protestants with good reason opposed this doctrin tho many of them ran soon into another extreme and wherein they place it and that they agree in one 131 132 136. it comes from the love of God 133 149 150. to justifie signifies to make really just not to repute just which many Protestants are forc'd also to acknowledg 135 136 141 142 to 147. the revelation of Christ formed in the heart is the formal cause of justification not works to speak properly which are only an effect and so also many Protestants have said 128 130 131 132 134 135 141 146 147 148 149. We are justified in works and how 128 135 136 149 to 160. this is so far from being a Popish doctrin that Bellarmin and others oppos'd it 129 135 156 157. K Kingdom of God 256 327 334. Knowledg the height of man's happiness is plac'd in the true knowledg of God 1. error in the entrance of this knowledg is dangerous 1 2 superstition Idolatry and thence Atheism hath proceeded from the false and feigned Opinions concerning God and the knowledg of him 3. the uncertain knowledg of God is divers waies attained but the true and certain only by the inward and immediate revelation of the Holy Spirit 3 4 5. it hath been brought out of use and by what devices 8 9. there is no knowledg of the Father but by the Son nor of the Son but by the Spirit 3 9 10 11 12. the knowledg of Christ which is not by the revelation of his Spirit in the heart is no more the knowledg of Christ than the pratling of a Parret which hath been taught a few words may be said to be the voice of a man 12 13. L Laicks 214 218 219. Laity 219 321. Lake of Bethsaida 94. Law the Law is distinguished from the Gospel 26 290. the difference thereof 26 167 168. see Gospel under the Law the people were not in any doubt who should be Priests and Ministers 188. see Minister of the Law Worship Learning what true learning is 205 206. Letter the letter killeth quickeneth not 168. Light the innate Light is explained by Cicero 125 126. Light of Nature the errors of the Socinians and Pelagians who exalt this Light are rejected 57 58 Saving Light see Redemption is Universal it is in all 83 84. it is a Spiritual and heavenly Principle 86 87. it is a Substance not an accident 88 89. it is Supernatural and Sufficient 104 107. it is the Gospel Preached in every creature 107 108. it is the Word nigh in the mouth and in the heart 109 110. it is the ingrafted Word able to save the Soul 114. testimonies of Augustin and Buchanan concerning this Light 127. it is not any part of
se est Deus non denegat gratiam Servant whether it be lawful to say I am your humble Servant 358. Servetus 345. Shoe-maker he disputes with the Professor 208 Silence see Worship Simon Magus 222 Sin see Adam Justification it shall not have dominion over the Saints 42. the seed of sin is transmitted from Adam unto all men but it is imputed to none no not to Infants except they actually joyn with it by sinning 57 58 64 65 66. and this seed is often called Death Original sin Of this phrase the Scripture makes no mention 66. by vertue of the Sacrifice of Christ we have remission of sins 90 132. forgiveness of sin among the Papists 129. a freedom from actual sin is obtained both when and how and that many have attained unto it 160 to 174 every sin weakens a man in his Spiritual condition but doth not destroy him altogether 161. it is one thing not to sin another thing not to have sin 170. whatsoever is not done through the Power of God is sin 249. Singing of Psalms 275. Socinians see natural light their rashness is reproved 19. they think Reason is the chief rule and guide of Faith 19 30. albeit many have abused Reason yet they do not say that any ought not to use it and how ill they argue against the inward and Immediate Revelations of the Holy Spirit 29 30 31. yet they are forced ultimately to recur unto them 36. they exalt too much their natural power and what they think of the Saving Light 115. their worship can easily be stopped 92. Son of God see Christ Knowledge Revelation Soul the Soul hath its senses as well as the body 7. by what it is strengthened and fed 248 311. Spirit the Holy Spirit see Knowledg Communion Revelation Scriptures Unless the Spirit sit upon the heart of the hearer in vain is the Discourse of the Doctor 6 16. the Spirit of God knoweth the things of God 11. without the Spirit none can say that Jesus is the Lord 6 11 12. he rested upon the Seventy Elders and others 14. he abideth with us for ever 18 19. he teacheth and bringeth all things to remembrance and leads into all Truth 19 20 23 24 25 38. he differs from the Scriptures 19 20. he is God 19. he dwelleth in the Saints 19 20 21 22 23. without the Spirit Christianity is no Christianity 20 30 40 whatsoever is to be desired in the Christian Faith is ascribed to him 19 20. by this Spirit we are turned unto God and we triumph in the midst of Persecutions 21. he quickens c. 21 22. an observable Testimony of Calvin concerning the Spirit 22 23 39 40. it is the Fountain and Origin of all Truth and right reason 34 35. it gives the belief of the Scriptures which may satisfie our Consciences 39. his Testimony is more excellent than all reason 39. he is the chief and principal Guide 46. he reasoneth with and striveth in men 98. those that are led by the Spirit love the Scriptures 50 183 184. he is as it were the Soul of the Church and what is done without him is vain and impious 208. he is the Spirit of order and not of disorder 213. such as the Spirit sets apart to the Ministry are heard of their Brethren 214. it is the earnest of our inheritance 237. Spiritual iniquities 243 244. spiritual discerning 336. Stephen spake by the Spirit 21. Suffering How Paul filled up that which was behind of the afflictions of Christ. How any is made partaker of the Sufferings of Christ and conformable to his Death 168 169. Superstition 231 232. whence superstitions sprung 244 277 300. Supper see Communion Bread it was of old administred even to little Children and Infants 3.7 T Tables 323. Talent one Talent is not at all unsufficient of it self The Parable of the Talents 101 102 107. those that improved their Talents well are called good and faithful Servants 152. he that improved well his two Talents was nothing less accepted than he that improved his five 161. Talk see Plays Taulerus was instructed by the poor Laik 200. he tasted of the love of God 237. Testimony see Spirit Theseus his Boat 219 Thomas a Kempis 236. Tithes were assigned to the Levites but not to the Ministers of this day 220 221. Titles it is not at all lawful for Christians to use those Titles of Honour Majesty c. 352 354 to 360 388. Tongue the knowledge of tongues is laudable 200 206 207. Tradition how unsufficient it is to decide 30. it is not a sufficient ground for Faith 329. Translations see Bible Truth there is a difference betwixt what one saith of the Truth and that which the Truth it self interpreting it self saith 6. Truth is not hard to be arrived at but is most nigh 6. Turks among them there may be Members of the Church 182 183. V Vespers 236. Voices outward Voices see Faith Miracles W War that it is not lawful for Christians to resist evil nor wage War 352. 380 to 389. Washing of Feet 212 213. William Barclay 342. Woman a Woman can Preach 214 220. Luther also 303. Word the Eternal Word is the Son It was in the beginning with God and was God it is Jesus Christ by whom God created all things 10 87. what Augustin read in the writings of the Platonists concerning this Word 126. Works are either of the Law or of the Gospel 152. see Justification Worship what the true and acceptable worship to God is and how it is offered and what the superstitious and abominable is 231 c. the true worship was soon corrupted and lost 231 232. concerning the worship done in the time of the Apostasie 235 267. of what worship is here handled and of the difference of t he worship of the Old and New Covenant 232 233 252 253 254. the true Worship is neither limitted to times places nor persons and it is explained how this is to be understood 231 233 234 258 259 266 267 289 290. concerning the Lord's-day and the daies upon which Worship is performed 234 235. of the Publique and Silent Worship and its excellency 236 to 261. of Preaching 260 261 262 263 264. of Prayer 264 to 276. of singing of Psalms and Musick 275. what sort of Worship the Quakers are for and what sort their adversaries 276. FINIS John 17.3 Matth. 11.27 Joh. 16.13 Rom. 8.14 Rom. 5.12 15. Eph. 2.1 Ezek. 18.23 Esa. 49.6 John 3.16.1.19 Tit. 2.11 Eph. 5.13 Heb. 2.9 1 Cor. 15.22 1 Cor. 12.7 Heb. 2.9 Tit. 3.5 Rom. 6.14 Rom. 8.13 Rom. 6.2 18 1 John 3.6 1 Tim. 1.6 Heb. 6.4 5 6. Mat. 10. Ezek. 13. Matt. 10.20 Acts 2.4.18.5 John 3.6 4.21 Judges 19. Acts 17.23 Eph. 4.5 1 Pet 3.21 Rom. 6.4 Gal. 3.27 Col. 2.12 Joh. 3.30 1 Cor. 1.17 1 Cor. 10.16 17. Joh. 6.32 33 55. 1 Cor. 5.8 Acts 15 20 Joh. 13 14. Ja. 5.14 Luc. 9.55 56. Matt. 7.12 29. Tit. 3.10 Eph. 5.11 1 Pet 1.14
too late that I have loved thee O thou Beautifulness so antient and so new late have I loved thee and behold thou wast within and I was without and there was seeking thee thou didst call thou didst cry thou didst break my Deafness thou glancedst thou didst shine thou chasedst away my darkness Of this also our Countrey man George Buchanan speaketh thus in his Book de Jure Regni apud Scotos Truly I understand no other thing at present than that Light which is divinely infused into our Souls for when God formed Man he not only gave him Eyes to his Body by which he might shun those things that are hurtful to him and follow those things that are profitable But also hath set before his mind as it were a certain Light by which he may discern things that are vile from things that are honest Some call this Power Nature others the Law of Nature I truly judg it to be Divine and am perswaded that Nature and Wisdom never say different things Moreover God hath given us a compend of the Law which in few words comprehend the whole to wit that we should love him from our hearts and our Neighbours as our selves And of this Law all the Books of the Holy Scriptures which pertain to the forming of manners contain no other but an explication This is that Universal Evangelical Principle in and by which this Salvation of Christ is exhibited to all men both Jew and Gentile Scythian and Barbarian of whatsoever Countrey or Kindred he be And therefore God hath raised up unto himself in this our Age faithful Witnesses and Evangelists to preach again his Everlasting Gospel and to direct all as well the high Professors who boast of the Law and the Scripture and the outward knowledg of Christ as the Infidels and Heathens that know not him that way that they may all come to mind the Light in them and know Christ in them the Just One 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whom they have so long killed and made merry over and he hath not resisted Jam. 5.6 And give up their Sins Iniquities false Faith Professions and out-side Righteousness to be crucified by the Power of his Cross in them so as they may know within to be the Hope of Glory and may come to walk in his Light and be saved who is that True Light that enlighteneth every Man that cometh into the World The Seventh Proposition Concerning Justification As many as resist not this Light but receive the same it becomes in them a Holy Pure and Spiritual Birth bringing forth Holyness Righteousness Purity and all other Blessed Fruits those which are acceptable to God by which Holy Birth to wit Jesus Christ formed within us and working his Works in us as we are Sanctified so are we Justified in the sight of God according to the Apostles Words But ye are Washed but ye are Sanctified but ye are Justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God 1 Cor. 6.11 Therefore it is not by our Works wrought in our will nor yet by good Works considered as of themselves but by Christ who is both the Gift and the Giver and the Cause producing the effects in us who as he hath reconciled us while we were Enemies doth also in his Wisdom Save us and Justifie us after this manner as saith the same Apostle elsewhere According to his Mercy he hath Saved us by the washing of Regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost Tit. 3.5 § I. THE Doctrine of Justification comes well in order after the discussing of the extent of Christ's death and of the Grace thereby communicated some of the sharpest contests concerning this having from thence their rise Many are the disputes among those called Christians concerning this point and indeed if all were truly minding that which justifieth there would be less noise about the Notions of Justification I shall briefly review this controversie as it stands among others and as I have often seriously observed it then in short state the controversie as to us and open our Sense and Judgment of it and lastly prove it if the Lord will by some Scripture Testimonies and the certain experience of all ever were truly Justified § II. That this Doctrine of Justification hath been and is greatly vitiated in the Church of Rome is not by us questioned though our Adversaries who for want of better arguments do often make Lyes their refuge have not spared in this respect to stigmatize us with Popery but how untruly will hereafter appear For to speak little of their meritum ex condigno which was no doubt a very common Doctrine of the Romish Church especially before Luther though most of their modern Writers especially in their controversies with Protestants do partly deny it partly qualifie it and seem to state the matter only as if they were propagaters and pleaders for good works by the others denyed Yet if we look to the effects of this Doctrine among them as they appear in the generality of their Church-members not in things disapproved but highly approved and commended by their Father the Pope and all his Clients as the most beneficial casuality of all his revenue we shall find that Luther did not without great ground oppose himself to them in this matter and if he had not himself run into another extream of which hereafter his work would have stood the better For in this as in most other things he is more to be commended for what he pulled down of Babylon than for what he built of his own Whatever then the Papists may pretend or even some good men among them may have thought experience sheweth and it is more than manifest by the universal and approved practice of their People that they place not their Justification so much in works that are truly and morally good and in the being truly renewed and sanctified in the mind as in such things as are either not good nor evil or may truly be called evil and can no otherwaies be reckoned good than because the Pope pleases to call them so So that if the matter be well sifted it will be found that the greatest part of their Justification depends upon the authority of his Bulls and not upon the Power Vertue and Grace of Christ revealed in the heart and renewing of it as will appear First from their Principle concerning their Sacraments which they say confer Grace ex opere operato So that if a man partake but of them he thereby obtains remission of sin though he remain as he was the vertue of the Sacraments making up the want that is in the man So that this act of Submission and Faith to the Laws of the Church and not any real inward change is that which justifieth him As for example if a man make use of the Sacrament as they call it of Pennance so as to tell over his sins to a Priest though he have not true contrition
which the Lord hath made absolutely necessary for Penitent Sinners but only attrition a figment of their own that is if he be sorry he hath sinned not out of any love to God or his Law which he hath transgressed but for fear of Punishment yet doth the virtue of the Sacrament as they affirm procure to him remission of Sins so that being absolved by the Priest he stands accepted and justified in the sight of God This mans Justification then proceedeth not from his being truly penitent and in any measure inwardly changed and renewed by the working of God's Grace in his heart but meerly from the authority of the Priest and virtue of the Sacrament who hath pronounced him absolved so that his Justification is from somewhat without him and not within him Secondly this will yet more appear in the matter of Indulgences where remission of all Sins not only past but for years to come is annexed to the visiting such and such Churches and Reliques saying such and such Prayers so that the person that so doth is presently cleared from the guilt of his sin and justified and accepted in the sight of God As for example he that in the great Jubilee will go to Rome and present himself before the Gate of Peter and Paul and there receive the Popes blessing or he that will go a Pilgrimage to James's Sepulchre in Spain or to Mary of Loretta is upon the performance of those things promised forgiveness of Sins Now if we ask them the reason how such things are not morally good in themselves come to have vertue they have no other answer but because of the Church and Popes Authority who being the great Treasurer of the magazine of Christ's merits lets them out upon such and such conditions Thus also the invention of saying Mass is made a chief instrument of Justification for in it they pretend to offer Christ daily to the Father a Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Sins of the living and dead So that a man for Money can procure Christ thus to be offered for him when he pleases by which offering he is said to obtain remission of sins and to stand justified in the sight of God From all which and much more of this nature which might be mentioned it doth appear that the Papists place their Justification not so much in any work of Holiness really brought forth in them and real forsaking of iniquity as in the meer performance of some ceremonies and a blind belief which their Teachers have begotten in them that the Church and the Pope having the absolute Dispensation of the Merits of Christ have power to make these merits effectual for the remission of sins and Justification of such as will perform those Ceremonies This is the true and real method of Justification taken by the generality of the Church of Rome and highly commended by their publick Preachers especially the Monks in their Sermons to the People of which I my Self have been an Ear and and Eye-witness However some of their modern Writers have laboured to qualifie it in their controversies This Doctrine Luther and the Protestants then had good reason to deny and oppose though many of them ran into another extream so as to deny good works to be necessary to Justification and to preach up not only remission of Sins but Justification by Faith alone without all works however good So that men do not obtain their Justification according as they are inwardly sanctified and renewed but are justified meerly by believing that Christ died for them and so some may perfectly be Justified though they be lying in gross Wickedness as appears by the example of David whom they say was fully and perfectly Justified while he was lying in the gross sins of Murder and Adultery As then the Protestants have sufficient ground to quarrel and confute the Papists concerning those many abuses in the matter of Justification shewing how the Doctrine of Christ is thereby vitiated and overturned and the Word of God made void by many and useless Traditions the Law of God neglected while foolish and needless ceremonies are prized and followed through a false opinion of being justified by the performance of them and the merits and sufferings of Christ which is the Only Sacrifice appointed of God for remission of sins derogated from by the setting up of a daily Sacrifice never appointed by God and chiefly devised out of Covetousness to get mony by so the Protestants on the other hand by not rightly establishing and holding forth the Doctrine of Justification according as it is delivered in the Holy Scriptures have opened a door for the Papists to accuse them as if they were neglecters of good works Enemiies to Mortification and Holyness such as esteem themselves Justified while lying in great sins by which kind of accusations for which too great ground hath been given out of the writings of some rigid Protestants the Reformation hath been greatly defamed and hindered and the Souls of many insnared Whereas who will narrowly look into the matter may observe these debates to be more in specie than in genere seeing both do upon the matter land in one and like two men in a circle who though they go sundry waies yet meet at last in the same centre For the Papists they say they obtain remission of sins and are Justified by the Merits of Christ as the same are applied unto them in the use of the Sacraments of the Church and are dispenced in the performance of such and such Ceremonies Pilgrimages Prayers and Performances tho there be not an inward renewing of the mind nor knowing of Christ inwardly formed yet they are remitted and righteous ex opere operato because of the Power and Authority accompanying the Sacraments and the dispensators of them The Protestants say that they obtain remission of Sins and stand Justified in the sight of God by vertue of the merits and sufferings of Christ not by infusing Righteousness into them but by pardoning their sins and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous they resting on him and his Righteousness by Faith which Faith the act of believing is not imputed unto them for Righteousness So the Justification of neither here is placed in any inward renewing of the mind or by vertue of any Spiritual Birth or Formation of Christ in them but only by a bare application of the death and sufferings of Christ outwardly performed for them whereof the one lays hold on a Faith resting upon them and hoping to be Justified by them alone the other by the saying of some outward Prayers and Ceremonies which they judg makes the death of Christ effectual unto them I except here being unwilling to wrong any what things have been said as to the necessity of inward Holyness either by some modern Papists or some modern Protestants who in so far as they have laboured after a midst betwixt these two extreams have come near to the Truth as