Christ 4. What other faith is it that you intend when you say that h Treat p. 98. men ought not to stay the exercise of their faith for repentance or humiliation or any other grace Of which more hereafter in your Modell 6. Since you have dealt so ambiguously and covertly by your own confession at the best in this and other your Assertions which you are not able to justifie being delivered in your own words and well sorting as they are delivered with what you affirm else-where you have no cause to ask me why I deal thus but wee may well ask you why you deal so deceitfully and delude silly souls in teaching them to rest on such rotten reeds as these which you are loth to own tho they be your own to the ruine of their souls Your next Assertion is that i Treat p. 97 No man can beleeve too suddenly To which I answer That k Ans p. 20. men may beleeve too suddenly as did Simon the Sorcerer too soon and too suddenly they may presume and he perswaded of Christs love if that be faith as you define it l Reply p. 13. Now to this you reply 1. Was Simon Magus blamed for beleeving too suddenly or for mis-beleeving because hee beleeved that the gifts of the holy Ghost might be bought with money 1. Grant it that hee was blamed for the latter that misbelief of his and the evill act thence proceeding discovering the unsoundnesse of his formerly pretended and externally professed faith yet what I say stands still firm That a man may too suddenly believ as hee did And if his belief were unbelief and a mere groundlesse presumption then that which I say is true For sure it is men may too suddenly mis-believ and presume 2. If to believ be no more then as you say To be perswaded more or lesse of Christs love not Simon Magus alone but many millions nay any other in his estate may too soon and too suddenly believ yea if your former tenents be true Simon Magus tho m Act. 8.23 abiding still in the gall of bitternesse and in the bond of iniquity had as good right unto and interest in the promises of the Gospel running absolutely and simply without any condition of faith and repentance and belonging to sinners as sinners not as humbled or repentant sinners and therefore to him unlesse you will deny him to be a sinner as Philip or Peter that preached Christ to him and might conseqently believ as well as they and be on good ground perswaded that Christ loved him since the promises belong to none but such as Christ loves But you proceed in your chiding and expostulating language 2. n Repl. ibid. Can any believe too soon If some mis-believe or believe falsly what is that to them that truly believe o Rom. 3. Shall the unbelief of some make the faith of God without effect God forbid Can Christ be too soon a Saviour to us Can the fountain be too soon opened for sin Can the riches of Christ be too soon brought home Paul counts it an honour to be p Rom. 16.5 â— first in Christ as to some that were in Christ before him and to others that were the first-fruits of Achaia 1. No man can truly believe too soon no more then hee can truly repent too soon But Sir you compell us to sing over your own song again to you Men may too soon be perswaded more or lesse that Christ loves them because sooner then they have any good ground for any such perswasion that which is the very essence of faith with you and they that so beleeve before they repent beleeve too soon their impenitency shewing such belief of theirs to be no well-grounded faith but a presumptuous fancie 2. If there be mis-belief and false belief as well as true belief How dare you disswade men from trying their faith whether it be sound and sincere Should one disswade or forbid men to weigh or try the gold they receive when they know light and base coin to be rife abroad yea so rife that there is far more store of the faulty commonly tendered in payment then of good and weighty gold what could it be deemed but a meer knavish device of one either desirous to cheat and cozen people himself or willing to have them cheated and cozened by others 3. You mis-apply and abuse Scripture as else-where so here Tho q Rom. 3.3 the unbelief of some cannot make the faith of God of none effect but that his promises shall in their due time all undoubtedly be made good to all his yet what is that at all to our present debate For may not therefore some perswade themselves and that from your grounds encouraged so to do that Gods promises belong to them when indeed they do not 4. Tho Christ cannot too soon be a Saviour if hee please unto any yet may many yea too many do perswade themselves that Christ is their Saviour whom yet he never will save 5. The fountain in some sort and manner may in the ministeriall dispensation of it be too soon set open if it be otherwise set open then it was by Peter in his preaching r Acts 2.38 3.19 to the Jewes and Å¿ Act. 8.22 to Simon Magus afterward and if as it is by many of your strain in these times who tell men that sinners of all sorts may be washed in it from the guilt of their sins although they continue still in the practice of them and your own principles prove and approve the same 6. The riches of Christ cannot too soon be brought home to any soul It is God not you or I or any other that can doe that But the riches of Christ and the waters of the forementioned fountain are I suppose of those t Mat. 7.6 holy things which wee are by our Saviour himself forbidden to throw to dogs or to expose to swine And wee may be over hastie therefore in our dispensation of them 7. For the Scriptures wherewith you seal up this impertinent discourse I should endeavour to shew how miserably and palpably you abuse them in your vain and ridiculous citing of them to no purpose if I deemed any Reader to be so sottish or dim-sighted that hee were not able to discern between an apple and an oyster But in stead thereof I shall onely make bold to present him with a brief Modell of your Divinitie concerning these points 1. u Treat p. 94. Faith you told us to speak truly and simply which indeed you and those of your strain seldome do is no more then to be perswaded more or lesse of Chricts love 2. w Ib. p 97 98. Men cannot too hastily or too suddenly thus believ for unto this your definition your words must have reference unlesse you will acknowledge that your writings hang together like ropes of x Arena sine calce Suet. Caio cap. 53. sand without
with Scripture to fish and fetch out of it some abstruse mysteries and strange crotchets beyond ordinary apprehension dealing nothing so religiously with Gods word as any sober-minded man would doe with any humane Autor of any profession u Interpretis professio est non qo ipse disertus appareat sed qo eum qi lecturus est faciat intelligere qomodo ipse intellexit qi scripsit Hieron ad Marcel de Rhet. Commentatoris officium est non qid ipse velit sed qid sentiat ille quem interpretatur exponere Idem de Jovin Apolog. 1. whom hee were to open and expound As for your abuse Sir of this Scripture testimony concerning Scripture were but your words brought into a Syllogisticall form it would plainly appear how impertinently and ridiculously it is by you here produced And for your censure past on our way of handling Scripture I will say no more but this that if wee should take that course of dealing with Scripture that your self and some of yours do our Divinitie would not onely be lesse divine but much more fantasticall then wee blesse God for it as yet it is From these Assertions you passe to others excepted against which are specially concerning Faith The first whereof is this that w Treat p. 94. Faith is truly and simply this A being perswaded more or lesse of Christs love This being excepted against as containing no more then any man the wickedest and most profane may have and indeed who almost hath not Your Reply is only in a poor chiding way that no whit salves the loosnesse and unsoundnesse of such a libertinish and licentious Assertion thus x Repl. p. 13. Sect. 6. I pray you mistake not Can all beleeve from the Spirit Can all be more or lesse spiritually perswaded Doe I speak of any perswasion of Christs love which is not spirituall Deceive not your self nor your Reader nor wrong your Author Or do I speak of Faith abstracted from all Repentance Obedience c. Why deal you thus 1. Sir all your pitifull complaint of wrong done you is idle and frivolous I wrong you not I misrelate you not but give you your own words entirely as I find them in you If any other mistake you and by mistaking of you be incouraged to sooth up themselves with a vain conceit of being possessed of true faith when indeed there is no such matter your self is to be blamed who by such speeches as these give ground to such a pernicious error by not speaking your mind more fully and plainly if you meant one thing and spake another and stand guilty of the bloud of the souls of such as shall or may perish by such mistake 2. If when you professe to deliver your minde truly and plainly yet you mean otherwise then you speak and speak otherwise then you mean as it was said of a couple y Pontificem nunqam qod diceret facere Valentinum nunqam qod faceret dicere Guicciard l. 1. the father and the son of no very good note either how shall we know when your speeches and your meanings concur 3. Can all believ from the Spirit No Sir none can believ from the Spirit but those alone that believ from Gods word But many that have no ground of belief from Gods word but from such principles as without warrant from it you and yours infuse into them nor ever had ought of Gods spirit in them may yet have such a perswasion as you here mention And wee therefore tax this for an unsound Assertion and a rotten principle the same term that you z Treat p. 85. brand some notes of Assurance with which yet you cannot but confesse to be found in Gods word And to mend the matter you afterward tell us that a Treat p. 92. none ought to qestion whether they believ or not and so disswade those that have swallowed down this your poysonfull principle from examining whether their faith be true and sound or no. And it is an absurd thing for you to ask whether you speak of any perswasion of Christs love that is not spirituall when not onely you say perswasion in generall making no mention of spirituall but forbid any to try it whether it be spirituall or no. 4. But Can all be more or lesse spiritually perswaded 1. Where is that spiritually in your text If it were in your brest as a secret reserv which is your b Repl pag. 2. Sect. 1 4. vain plea concerning some words of mine abused by you where you were as by the finger pointed to my meaning not concealed but expressed like a back-door or a starting hole for you to slip out at when occasion should be and your self closely pursued and hard pressed with it You doe but juggle with us and delude your Reader that you may make our doctrine herein not complying with yours to bee deemed too strict as devised on purpose to pinch men and c Treat p. 37. keep them in pain to make the cure after the more admired 2. You talk still in ambiguous terms to us For what intend you by being spiritually perswaded If from such grounds as Gods Spirit in the word suggests and such operations as the Spirit is wont ever to work in the soul wheresoever it gives ability to believ you crosse your self who are ever and anon girding at us as d Reply p. 5. Sect. 1. your self deny not and traducing us for teaching men with the Apostle thence to draw ground for such perswasion and thereby to examine the truth of it If you mean by an immediate voice of the Spirit speaking directly to the soul as some of your party seem to maintain then I see not how there can be more or lesse in it notwithstanding whatsoever you talk else-where of e Treat p. 99. degrees For what the Spirit speaks in such an immediate manner to the soul cannot but fully satisfie and perswade that soul to whom it so speaks Nor will you ever be able to prove that to every beleever the Spirit so speaks 5. But Do you speak of faith abstracted from all repentance obedience c. 1. If such perswasion as you mention may be without any of these as there is no qestion but it may be then a faith abstracted from these comes within compasse of your definition or description of faith term it whether you please 2. You do speak of approve and justifie such a faith yea more then that you affirm all true faith to be such when you maintain that f Treat p. 186. every one that receivs Christ which is done g Joh. 1.12 by faith receivs him in a sinfull condition and consequently in an impenitent condition And that to be your meaning you acknowledge tho you return no answer to mine Argument against it 3. If you intend no other faith why do you so oft tax us for pressing these things as required of all those that have interest in
be content to take these and teach them such as they be and as the writers of holy writ have ascertained them to be And yet give mee leave to be so bold as to tel you so much of my mind by the way that I shall ever conceive just cause to qestion that faith that shunneth this touchstone that refuseth to be tried by such signs and marks as the Apostles have propounded for that purpose c Repl. Ibid. But is that say you the best spirituall assurance that is from our spirit in part or from God alone from our reasoning or his speaking can a spouse argue better the love of her friend from his tokens and bracelets or from his owne word and letter and seal 1. Sir we contend not for prerogative as was before said that is a qestion of your owne no assertion of ours 2. The assurance gathered from the gratious work of gods spirit on our souls and the effects of the same is not an assurance taken from our own spirit but from Gods spirit d 1 Joh. 4.13 Hereby we know that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his spirit 3. Our assurance rightly and truly raised by our reasoning from Gods gratious work in us is a true and a divine testimony as a e Habent testimonium in verbo Dei suntqe non minus divina mandata qae ex certa Scripturae sententia bona consequentia deducuntur qam qae totidem literis syllabis in Scripturis exprimuntur Chemnit exam trid part 1. p. 19. conclusion necessarily deduced from Scripture is a divine truth as well as that that is expresly found in Scripture yea the Apostle tels us that f Rom. 8.16 the Spirit of God bears witnesse together with our spirit Nor doth the one therefore simply weaken the work of the other 4. A bracelet or a frontlet barely sent or given may argue some good will but makes no engagement there must be some letter or g Pignus est donum verbo vestitum Reg. Jur. word of promise added that must effect that And that these spirituall endowments want not Wee have Gods word h 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Maca. hom 39. his letter his hand writing his seal both testifying to us and giving us assurance that these things are his earnests as your self before confest 5. Yea but i Repl. Ibid. the Spirit is k 1 Joh. 5.8 one of the three that beareth witnesse on earth and in whom after ye beleeved you were sealed with the Spirit of promise That l Rom. 8.16 The Spirit bears witnesse and that together with our spirit is acknowledged and that the faithfull are said to be m Ephes 1.14 4.30 sealed by the Spirit the Apostle is expresse for it but the qestion is what manner of sealing it is that is there meant And it is such I suppose as rather crosses then furthers what you would have Which to make manifest I shall in the first place crave leave that I may without offence or prejudice a little rectifie the Translation and render the text as the Originall yeelds it the words run thus n Ephes 1.13 In whom o 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ita 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credens Marc. 16.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credentes Luc. 8.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere Marc. 9.23 2 Thess 2.11 Sic 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 audiens Mat. 2.3 4.12 8.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 audientes Mat. 15.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 audire Mat. 13.42 13.15 17. beleeving or having beleeved or when you beleeved you were sealed Now the sealing here mentioned I take to consist in the inward endowments of sanctifying grace whereby the Spirit set Gods mark and seal on them at the time of their conversion and receiving of Christ My reasons are briefly 1. The sealing here mentioned is generall common to all beleevers p 2 Cor. 1.21 22. us with you and you with us saith the Apostle of those at Corinth and the self-same hee presumeth here of all the faithfull at Ephesus 2. It is said of them that they are thereby sealed as elsewhere not that thereby redemption is sealed unto them but that q Ephes 1.13 4.30 they are thereby sealed unto it which implies some impression of a seal or signature stamped on them And herein some difference seems to be between the outward seals to wit the r Rom. 4.11 Sacraments and the inward seal of the Spirit that they seal the covenant to the soul this seals the soul to the future benefits contained in the covenant which in due time they shall be possessed of the Sacraments seal to all that receive them indifferently for the truth of the covenant else were not wicked ones Å¿ Jer. 34.18 covenant-breakers with God effectually for their good and benefit unto those alone that believe and repent The Spirit seals in the manner above mentioned not the truth of the covenant alone but the benefit of it unto the party thereby sealed as having interest in and unto all the good things therein contained and being by what hee hath already received marked out for and sealed up unto whatsoever thereof is yet behind 3. That which is here called the seal of the Spirit is else-where called the t Rom. 3.23 first-fruits of the Spirit as a parcell of that which in the ful crop is hereafter expected and of the same nature with it 4. That other place plainly parallell to this wherein by divers severall tropes under severall distinct notions this one and the self same thing is decyphered to me seems to carry it along this way u 2 Cor. 1.21 22. He it is saith the Apostle that assureth or rather w 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ensureth us in Christ or x 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into or unto Christ and hath anointed us who hath also sealed us and given or put the earnest of his spirit on our hearts Whence I thus reason Look how God ensureth us so he anointeth us and how he anoints us so he seals us and how he seals us so he gives us his earnest or puts his earnest into us But it is the gratious indowments of his sanctifying spirit wherewith he anoints us as all Interpreters hold that ever I read And it is the same therefore whereby God sealeth and ensures us as by his y Ephes 1.14 earnest to himself And this being as I take it with other good z â—llyric Calâ— Pisc Baâ—n alii Autors the genuine sense of that scripture the contrary whereunto I suppose you will not be able easily to evince it little helps you in ought that you would conclude from it but it much strengtheneth that which you so mightily oppose 6. * Repl. Ibid. Can any inference or consequence drawn from faith or love or repentance or obedience in us so assure us as the breathing of Christ
able to conceive As for writing to conqer he that writes barely to conqer without respect had to truth is at best but Å¿ Superbae stultitiae perseverantia Senc. de ben l. 4. c. 38. a pertinacious or vain-glorious fool it is t 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philonid A veritate vincires pâ—â—cherrima Qi vincitur à veritate triumphat Moses Amyrald defens doct Calv. c. 3. a conqest fair and honourable enough to be overcome by truth Yet to u Iud. 3. contend and that earnestly for the truth that it may not be overborn by such as oppose it and to further its conquest by beating down errors that are raised up against it is a just and commendable endevour and so to strive to conqer is no evil but x 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Henod â—per a good and laudable strife In which kinde I professe freely that I do in this my writing y Tu pertinaciam esse hanc praedicas Ego pervicaciam aâ—o à me uti volo Nâ—m perâ—icacem dici me esse vincere perfacile patior pertinacem nil moror Haec fortes seqitur illam indocti possident Accius apud Nonium endevour to conqer to wit by holding out and maintaining the truth opposed and thereby to establish and edify others with my self in the same through Gods blessing upon my labours whereunto whither your writings conduce or no in the ensuing discussion of this Reply shall by Gods assistance be more fully made to appear Which having thus dispatch your Epistle I shall in the next place addresse my self unto Your Reply begins with mine Epistle out of which and the forepart of mine Answer you have these ships 1. Whereas I say that I was advertised of a Treatise of yours wherein I was among other late Writers produced traduced I might say as giving testimony to some tenents of the Antinomian party You fasten on the word traduced which as of others there cited so of my selfe I may wel say And whereas z Reply p. 1. you referre the Reader to our books I do therein very willingly joyn issu with you Let my book speak for me how I condescend to them or approve of their tenents But my words you gave my meaning you could not come at nor dive into nor were you to discover to the world mine intents nor to judge of my reserves and secret senses but of words and writings that which a Reply p. 1. 2. more then once or twise you insist on to salv your double and deceitfull dealing But Sir first we leave such reservs to those of your own way whereby to help out their hideous and blasphemous assertions of which more b See Gods eye c. Preface p. 26.30 els-where 2. I deem you not so shallow brained but that you might had you listed have easily conceived my meaning not lying deep in my heart or brest as you pretend but c See Ans p. 4.5 as expressed before in my book so laid there before you in that clause inserted as was before said pointing and directing you as with the finger to that place where my meaning was fully explained which clause in your qotation of it was advisedly left out because you listed not to make use of it But Sir suppose you had not had that help to disclose mine intent to you and that my words should be taken as they stand without reference to ought before intimated Yet the charge of traducing me as by those words taken in the strictest sense that may be acknowledging litle difference between us and the Antinomians stands firm still against you since that you cannot with all your witty and wily Sophistry wherein you are rise enough I confesse tho Logick you disclaim conclude that which you would father and fasten upon me from ought you cite out of me which by divers instances in mine d Answ p. 5. Apology I evidently shew whereunto you return here no Answer at all and remain therefore convict of abuse and wrong herein offred me But what forehead that man hath that hath the face to alledge me out of that book as acknowledging litle difference between them and us I shall leave to any person whatsoever frend or so to determine that hath but cursorily read over the Preface to that book out of which my words are cited But Sir you professe herein to have done me a great kindnesse and to have shewed me much love for herein e Reply p. 2. you accounted me better then I desire to be and took me to be more a frend to the truth then you now see I am and abusing f 2 Cor. 12.13 the Apostles words desire to have that injury forgiven you Sir These are your wonted scofs and jeers wherein yet you might have been pleased to spare the Apostle and not dally with his words But what a frend I am to those g 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil ubi sup Counterfaits of truth that insteed of Gods sacred truth are obtruded upon people and instilled into too many to the preverting of their faith and the poysoning of their souls my book it self whence you snipped of that shred might sufficiently have enformed you Whereby as you needed not to have been thus mistaken in me so may you easily suppose that I esteem it a very sorry courtesie to be deemed warping towards those whose Tenents out of their own books mouths and writings I there shew to be so hideous and blasphemous As for your h Reply p. 2. exception taken to the stiling of some Antinomians as if I had now newly done it and not before in my book and the wrong you therein pretend done them I shall without further ado referre the Reader to i Answ p. 3â— mine Answer Secondly Where I say k Preface to Answer you were a man utterly unknown to me before save by one or two short Pamphlets You pitch l Reply p. 1. upon the tearm Pamphlet and interpret it as a slighting of your works which it seems you have an higher conceit of then that they should be so styled Yet Sir you know that it is a term commonly given to small things of a sheet or two such as those of yours were that had then come to mine hand Nor truly Sir to deal freely and ingenuously with you did I meet with any such solide matter in any of them for many they were not that should necessarily exempt them from being so termed Howbeit to make you some part at least of amends if it stick so much in your stomack I am very well content as * Quod Alpha dixeram te penulatorum si fort bilem mâ—vit hic tibi verâ—us Diâ—as liceb 1 Beta me togatorum Mart. l. 5. ep 27. he sometime in somewhat the like case that you call if you please mine Answer and this Rejoynder being neither of them overlong two short Pamphlets so you may be even
c Ibid. 63. Except ye eat the flesh of the Sonne of man c the words saith he that I speak are Spirit Sure the man is in a strange humour he would have those that deal with him to make themselves no better then meer bruits for they must devest themselves not of Logick only but of Grammer too both of common speech and common sense they must not interpret the Spirit by conseqence as much as to say in plainer terms they must deduce nothing by conseqence from Scripture especially when it shall crosse any Tenent of his nor must they say that such a speech imports a condition tho they find it usherd in with a conditionall particle and therefore tho nisi or except be such an one in our Saviours assertion yet it must by no means there import a condition For as for what he subjoyns that some of the Disciples should stumble at those words of our Saviour because they took them as I do under a condition and that our Saviour therefore told them that the words he spake were Spirit And what then that they were not to be taken rherefore under a condition as if in Spirituall things conditions could not be as well as in carnall these things are so palpably absurd that it is a wonder how they could possibly find entrance I say not into any Schollers skull but into any illiterate fellows head piece unlesse his brain-pan were not lightly crafied only but clean crakt For who is so voyd of common sense as not easily to apprehend that the ground of their startling at that passage was not the taking of the words as conditionally conceived which our Saviour no where waives but the d Carnaliter intellexerunt qod spir tualiter intâ—lligendum erat Aug. in Ioan. 27 de doctr Chist l 3. taking of that carnally which was to be understood spiritually was that wherein they were mistaken and which our Saviour meets with in that after-speech But some things they say are so apparant of themselves that tho it may well be deemed a fond labour to spend many words about proof of them yet e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epict. l. 1. c. 5. it is not so easie by argument to confirm them against an obstinate opponent not because they are not of unqestionable truth but because they are of themselves so clear being in the nature of principles that it is hard finding out a medium to prove them by that is not lesse clear then themselves as that two and two make four and that contradictories ever divide truth and falshood And just such are those assertions that Mr S. here opposeth that Collections may by conseqence be framed from Scripture that Conditions may be in spirituall things as well as in carnall that Conditionall particles imply a condition that a Condition is where the whole nature of a condition is found But that this man herein striveth against the clear light of truth shining into his soul or within him rather by that candle of naturall reason that God hath set up in his soul only to run counter to the Legalists whom his soul so much abhorreth may hereby appear in that when this fit of opposition is a litle over and this heat of passion somewhat alayed with him and the man is come again now to himself he freely of himself confesseth that f Treat p. 163. the Gospel is formed up of exhortations conditionall promises c. unto which els-where objected he returned not a word and what other promises but these and such as these the Gospel should be made up of I suppose Mr S. himself is not able to shew nor do I believe that he meant any other Howbeit it may be that out of some nice subtilty tho he grant conditionall he will deny condition as in an other subject he seems to have some such subtile reserve where tho he use the word divinity yet he scoft the title of a Divine as I am enformed that some other also now do but they perchance meerly for some want of Scholership but Mr S. a professed Scholer I am sure cannot be ignorant that a Divine and Divinity condition and conditionall are vocabula yea and argumenta conjugata But however Sir lay aside if it be so offensive to you the term of condition for to maintain strif about words is but a vain expence of time Do you but acknowledge that upon believing in Christ repenting of sin and leading a new life life and salvation may undoubtedly be attained and that without these it cannot be had and we shall herein be soon agreed or if you dare deny it and so give our Saviour Christ himself and his Apostles the lye whom I have shewed in expresse terms by testimonies unavoidable so to affirm But here you object 1. That g Reply p. 8. § 2. thâ—se that are Christs do not repent and believe and obey that they may be Christs for God hath chosen us in him and predestinated us unto the adoption of Children in Jesus Christ But Sir 1. All this proves not that these things are not conditions of the Gospel or that any can have part in Christ without them i Graâ—is hoc qoque prâ—stitum est gratis qod ad tâ— attâ—â—et nâ—m quâ—ad â—llâ— nâ—n gratis salvus factâ—s es pro nihilo sed non de nihilo tamen Bern. Ser. in Psal 90. 2. The Apostle telleth us in expresse terms that h Gal. 2.16 he believed in Christ that he might be justified by Christ thereby implying that he was not actually justified or had part in the justification procured and purchased by the death of Christ untill he believed And albeit the ransome whereby we are freely in regard of our selves justified be wholly in Christ Iesus yet is he said to be k Rom 3.24.25 set forth for an atonement unto us through faith in his blood nor were those l Rom. 11.23 24. branches of the wâ—ld Olive which were taken to succeed in the roome of those who were broken off actually in Christ but m Epes 2.12 out of Christ untill upon their believing they were engraffed into Christ 3. As n Epes 1.5 God hath predestinated us unto the adoption of sonnes in Christ that is to be adopted through Christ as he is said to have blessed us with all spirituall blessings in him so hath he elected them whom hee was pleased so to single out in his counsel and purpose from eternity o Ibid. v. 3. p Iam. 2.5 to be rich in faith saith one Apostle q Ephes 1.4 to be holy and unblameable before him in love saith an other Apostle and the same again r 2 Thes 2.13 he hath from the begining chosen you unto salvation by the sanctification of the Spirit and the beliâ—f of the truth or by sanctification of the Spirit and true Faith nor can any man therefore have life and salvation without these 2. Å¿
do I omit that which you close with concerning u Answ p. 11. the peculiar office of faith Concerning which this may further be added that that howsoever the sweete and comfortable effects of faith here mentioned may evince the beneficialnesse of that grace unto our selves yet they argue not any excellency or eminency above other graces simply considered which in regard of their proper nature and peculiar employments make us more beneficiall and usefull to others Faith is as the houswife Love as the Almoner Faith brings all in Love layeth all out faith brings God and Christ home to us love carieth us out and x Act. 20.24 21 13. Phil. 1.20 â—1 2.17 2 Cor. 12.15 expends us in all pious offices unto the glory of God and good of man Now this adde I the rather to take off your ensuing complaint of that from which your self here are not wholly free to wit that a Reply ibid. Faith hath so much put upon it as becomes a stumbling stone and a rock of offence to many Just fication Imputation of Righteousnesse is put upon faith Salvation upon Faith as Christs bloud is put upon the wine b 1 Cor. 10 16. the Cup that we blesse is it not the Communion of the blood of Christ and Christs body upon the bread c Ibâ—d the bread that we break is it not the communion of the body of Christ and yet neither the wine nor the bread is his bloud or his body no more then faith is either justification or righteousnesse but such a work as goes out most into him and caryes the soule into him who is righteousnesse and Justification to us The word were no mystery if it were not thus ordered and things so mingled that t e Spirit onely could discern and distinguish the Papists stumble at works because they see not faith for works and others stumble at faith because they s e not Christ for faith What all this ayms at is hard to say It concerns nothing I am sure that Mrs S. and I had in debate But let us rove a litle to beare him company and go along out with him into his impertinent excursions and his intricate discourses 1. Truly Sir I dissent as much if not much more then your self from any that put too much upon faith as some of the Ancients have done making it d Chrys st in Rom. 4. a matter of more worth and excellency then the keeping of all Gods commandements from whom I have also therein e Animadv in â—ud â—ucii Scrip. de Iustif part 1. Sect 9 n. 7. elsewhere testified my dissent But Sir it is your selfe rather then any of us that trip at this stone when you would have faith so much pressed in the doctrine of salvation in regard of the gloriousnesse and eminency of the grace it self which to assert is not sound 2. As for the putting of justification and imputation to righteousnesse and salvation upon faith as Christs bloud is put upon the Cup and Christs body upon the bread I mislike not much the resemblance tho it bee nothing exact nor conceive well what it drives at But Sir who of us ever affirmed faith to bee either justification or imputation to righteousnesse or salvation wee affirm with the Apostle that f Rom. 5.1 wee are justified by Faith and g Eph 2.8 wee are saved by Faith and that h Râ—m 4.9 Faith is imputed to righteousnesse And in all this wee say no more then the Apostle himselfe in expresse tearmes doth Yea even those of us who maintain Faith to bee taken in a proper Sense and not by a Metonymicall Trope as well in any one of those phrases as in another do not say any more then may well bee justified nor do they differ at all in doctrine so farre as I am able to conceive and I love not to make differences where I apprehend none that say the one or the other but contend onely about the Analysis of the Text and the Grammaticall acception of one term in it to make this clear by some instances of the like kinde when it is said This Childe is fed not by the breast but by hand if one shall hold that the hand is in such speech taken in a proper sense without trope or scheme for the hand of the dry Nurse wherewith the child is fed it being the instrument whereby meat is conveyed into the mouth of it and another shall maintain that the hand is there taken not properly but by a trope or a metonymie for the meat wherewith the child is indeed fed because the hand of it selfe hath no power to feed the child but is said to feed it as it hath relation to the meat would any understanding man from hence conclude that they were of divers minds concerning the thing it selfe and not rather that they dissented in a qestion of Schoole-learning concerning the Analysing of an Axiom and the Grammaticall interpretation of a word in it Or when it is said The mouth feeds the body if one should contend that the mouth were taken for the meat that goeth into the mouth another for the mouth it selfe whereat the meat goes in what difference were there in matter of judgement here between the one and the other concerning the thing it selfe Or to make use of an instance given by k â—ubbert collat cum Bert. § 57. an eager stickler in this Argument who l Ibid. § 58. reckons up for his party a larger bead-roll of Writers then I suppose he is able to produce Suppose a Painter holding out a Pencill shall say m Si dicis Pencillum dealbare parietem This Pencill drew that Picture if one shall affirm that the word Pencill in such a sentence must not be taken properly for the Pencill it self but for the Picture-drawer himselfe that made use of that pencill in the drawing of that picture or for his hand that guided it in that work or for the colours wherewith the picture was drawn another that the word pencill is to be taken properly as well as the word picture the one for that very instrument which the artist held in his hand the other for the work he pointed to when he so said I suppose it would not be deemed that there were any difference at all between them concerning the thing intended notwithstanding the controversie between them about the phrase or form of speech In like manner concerning the word Faith in the fore mentioned forms * Phrases sum aeqipollentes Paraeus ad Rom. 4.3 Obs 3. which in effect come all to one when some shall say that the word is taken properly for that grace or that act of grace whereby wee apprehend Christ and his sufferings n Vide Calvin Lubbert insra the meritorious cause or subject matter term it whether you please of our justification or that whatsoever it be in Christ for which wee are justified
in the new Testament and it is extreme impudence for any man to denie it the proofs of it are so pregnant Which being t Ans p. 18 19. in mine Answer some of them represented unto you you dissemble and after your usuall manner both here and else-where having jumpt clean over the premisses give a snap at the Conclusion or fasten your fang on the Proposition in question not regarding or taking notice at all of the proof As for the distinction between Love of benevolence and love of complacence it is sufficient for you to jeer it you do not so much as attempt to refute or remove it But this is the usuall manner of your reply both here and else-where But wee passe on to your new demands tending to the justification of your fourth Assertion and the removall of mine Animadversion on it u Reply p. 12. Did David or Peter say you make up their peace with God by repentance Is there any that makes peace but one Jesus Christ who makes peace through the bloud of his crosse Can repentance make peace Is there any sacrifice for sin but that which was once offered and is called by the Apostle x Hebr. 9.28 10.12 one sacrifice for sin for ever I answer 1. David and Peter did both of them make up again that breach that they had made between God and them by their sins and did make their peace again with God by their repentance If you will not believ mee herein you may believ y Psal 32.5 Davia himself if you so please and you must give us leave to beleeve him whether you will or no. 2. Christ is the onely peace-maker who z Col. 1.20 by the bloud of his crosse hath made our peace by a Eph. 2.14 15. abolishing the enmity that was between God and us And yet in that peace so purchased without faith repentance and new obedience can no man have any part 3. By renewed repentance such b 2 Sam. 24.17 25. 1 Chro. 21.16 17 27. breaches may be made up and peace repaired in regard of Gods fatherly displeasure that beleevers have contracted by their sins 4. There is c Heb. 9.26 28 no sacrifice for sin whereby the condemning guilt of it is or can be removed or satisfaction is or can be made unto the justice of God for it but that of Christ only and yet is d Psal 51.17 a broken heart and a contrite spirit such a sacrifice as finds acceptance with God as well in these times as in Davids dayes And Sir if you goe on to teach men as you doe otherwise you disswade them from that which God himself is said to e 2 Chron. 7.13 14. expect and f Psal 34.18 51.17 accept of and which hee himself doth professe to g Isa 57.15 66.2 respect and h Psa 147.11 delight in But you adde a little further to gratifie us herein that i Reply ibid. Repentance obedience c. may make way for the peace made already for sin that is in such working of spirit the love of God in the face of Jesus Christ may shine upon the soul more freely and fully and the more the spirit abounds in the fruits of it the more joy and peace flows into the soul and the more the soul looks Christ in the face so as peace with God is not made but more revealed by the Spirit in obedience and love c. Sir You heap up after your wonted manner many words little or nothing at all to what is objected to you or against you but much wilde discourse beside the mark or the matter to lead your Reader aside from attending the present dispute The Question is Whether God be not truly displeased with a believer fallen into wilfull grosse sins and whether hee were not so with David upon some of his sins untill hee was humbled for them and repented of them And what is all this that you tell us of here roving to and fro as one that were treading a maze unto the refuting of ought that is objected against you or the making good of ought asserted by you whereunto exception is here taken In the next place you passe from your fourth Assertion excepted against to the seventh skipping over among other things that of which it wil not be amisse to mind if not your self yet the Reader to wit that k Treat p. 44. Nothing can trouble the quiet peace of any soul but the taking in of the law and the accusings and condemnations of it And that l Ibid. All trouble for sin ariseth from the obligement of the Law demanding satisfaction of the soul for the breach of it Which doctrine how wholesome it is let others judge I repeat not again what I have m Ans p. 18. there said to it Out of mine Animadversion on his seventh Assertion hee culs out this a little to dally with that I say n Ans p. 19. God loves us also for his own graces in us and our exercises of the same And having picked out of it a principall particle the word also which made the Proposition adverse to his wherein hee denies that o Treat p. 80. God loves us for ought in our selves which yet by expresse testimony of Scripture I there shew to be agreeable to truth that so hee may find somewhat to cavill with hee thus replies p Rep. p. 12 95. I thought hee had loved us too in himself and from that love given Christ for us and yet loved us in Christ too Can any thing without God be a cause of Gods love Doth God love us as we love one another from complexions and features without Or loves hee not rather thus God is love and therefore wee are made and redeemed and sanctified not because wee are sanctified therefore hee loves us Wee love him because he first loved us hee loved us because he loved us and not because we love him not because of any spirituall complexion or feature in us because of his image upon us that is but an earnest of his love to us that is onely given us because hee loved us He loves us from his will not from without for tho wee are like him yet we are not himself and he loves us as in Christ and himself Sir tho you have left your Logick yet you have not lost your Rhetorick How plentifull can you be in the proving of that that no body denies you and in dilating of your own denied Assertions not once offering to answer the objections made against them For Sir whatsoever you thought heretofore or think still I do not think it but am sure of it that you do nothing here but trifle in setting up an imaginary opposition q 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato leg l. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lucian de Sect. a man of straw of your own making and then exercising your self in shooting some
and otherwise now minded then formerly they were when as yet where you find opportunitie you are in effect still venting again your former opinions sometime indeed more covertly and sometime more openly as you suppose you may do with most safety whereof divers instances might be given But Sir 2. For your self no opinion is here set up with your name engraven on it but what comes out of your own forge what was minted by your self and hath received its impression fron the mould of your own maximes For to omit what besides in mine Animadversions doth inevitably evince it If the promise of life and salvation in the Gospell be as absolute and as free from any condition on mans part as the promise made to Noah for never destroying the world by water again then a man may as well attain life and salvation without faith and repentance by vertue of the one as safety from destruction through such a generall deluge by the other But the former you say and the later necessarily thence followeth unlesse Logik be lost Do not you tell me therefore that k Repl. Ibid. you could so peice up my book if you would be unfaithfull as to make me appear as great an heretick as any whom I thus fancy 1. Talk not too much of your faithfullnesse Sir how unfaithfull you have been in relating my sayings hath more then once been manifestly made to appear 2. But here is no unfaithfull dealing at all with you here is nothing wrung from your assertions but what lay couched in them and flows freely and naturally without force or torture from them If otherwise why make you it not to appear 3. If you can by like due course of Argument draw such rotten stuffe from ought of mine I crave no favour from you do your worst and I shall tell you before-hand l 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mâ—th apud Epiphan Haer. 64. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mar. Imp. l. 6. Sect. 21. that if you charge me justly with ough in them and convince me of it I will thank you for it and recall it For Sir I am not herein so obstinate as you are m Concl. p. 17. hereafter pleased uncharitably to affirm of me If otherwise I shall take leave whether like you to give it or no constantly to defend while God shall be pleased to affordabilitie what I deeme agreeable to truth 4. But Sir give me leave mean while to tell you that it will be hard for you to perswade an intelligent and advised reader that shall peruse your ragged Reply that you would not have been forward enough to have done in this kind what you could had you met with matter fit for your purpose in my book when hee shall observe how you take liberty both in n Epist the van and in o Conclus the reer here to run out impertinently into other by-matters concerning me and some other of my works that have no reference at all to the businesse in hand but you supposed tho vainly might some way asperse me And there is little reason to imagine that you should make such excursions to seek and fetch in matter of that nature abroad when you had so much of it so neer at hand close under your nose but you were loth forsooth to take notice of it or to file your fingers with it Howbeit I doubt not but that by such Logick as you make use of you may draw heresies enough out of Christs Sermons and Pauls Epistles whose expresse doctrine how you have traduced in our teaching hath abundantly been shewed As for your stivolous flourishes concerning p Repl. Ibid. your teaching faith and repentance not as gifts to procure us God or his love or Christ but as gifts from Gods love and fruits of the spirit given to such as Christ hath suffered for and are chosen in him and in that full revelation in which they are leaf tin the New Testament not in that scantling of doctrine as they are meerly and barely revealed in the historie of the Gospel and Acts of the Apostles and that because you preach thus you are all Antinomians heretiks men not worthy to live 1. All this varnish hath been washt of again and again and yet you will be still glasing over your rotten stuffe with it to conceal the badnesse and basenesse of it from common view which yet every qick-sighted soul through all your colours cast over it will easily discern 2. What the opinions are for which you are justly termed Antinomians and which your companions if they continu yet in what then they professed were sometime publikely charged with and stand still convict of it is well known some of them I relate els where q Gods eye on his Israel Preface p. 17 18. and too much of them is found in your book Those Sir either cleer your selves of or make them appear to be consonant to Gods word and do not abuse men by telling them idle tales that you are so termed for preaching this and that concealing your unsound wares for which you are no otherwise deemed then as your hideous and uncouth dotages deserve As vain and frivolous is your next expostulation where you begin with a fawning compellation r Repl. Ibid. Brethren must ye forbid us to preach because wee follow not with you because wee preach not the Law as you doe nor faith as you do nor repentance as you doe therefore do we not preach them at all 1. Sir this your smooth compellation may justly be suspected to be but a Å¿ Luk. 22.48 Judas his kisse You cannot sure have so soon forgotten what mountebanks and qacksalvers you erst while compared them to what cheating and cosening companions you made of them not therein unlike the Compassionate Samaritan a bird it seems of the same feather with you of kin to or kind with such unfaithfull and ill minded Chirurgians t Treat p. 37. as keep mens wounds open for sinister ends to lengthen their cures and such as u Ibid. p. 77. deal out Christs bloud as the Pope doth his pardons Were they but even now such abominable beasts and are they now become your brethren This was sure no brotherly course if you accounted them then your brethren Or if you desire to admit them into brotherhood with you such vile wretches as then you made them either w 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matt. 18.15 convince them of what you then charged them with that being convinced of it they may repent and reform and so be made fit for the societie of such upright and faithfull dealers as ye professe your selves to be for honest and faithfull Chirurgians will refuse to own those that are notoriously known to be such cheaters as you charge them to be or if you cannot convince them by making your charge against them good confesse ingenuously your base calumny and ask forgivenesse in print as in print you have wronged them
which purpose you instance 1. in James 2.24 18 21. where works you say are made a sign rather to others then our selves Which how I ſ Answ p. 29. shew to be not agreeable to the Apostles main scope who directs his speech there to the partie thereby to undeceive him in himself you passe by and return no answer unto 2. In 1 John 3.14 concerning which passage how absurd and senselesse it is so to say how directly contrary both to the Apostles scope in that Epistle and to his expresse words in that very place tho the bare reading of the Text be sufficient to make evident yet I shall refer my Reader to t 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suid. in Pythag. avoid needlesse prolixitie and unnecessary repetitions to what I have said u Ans ubi supr in mine Answer whereunto there is no one word here replied And much lesse to that of Peter which ought to come within compasse of your caetera but you have no mind at all to take notice of and that the rather because with it this your rather wherewith you would evade could have no colour as here also it hath no truth And Sir for what being enforced by evidence of truth shining forth so strongly and brightly in your face that in spite of your teeth it strikes through your eye-lids tho you close them as fast as you can possibly against it you doe in a scanty and malignant manner elsewhere x Treat p. 81. acknowledge which also I conceal not but y Ans p. 27 28. give it expresly in your own words after you have spent all your fleam and spittle upon it to bespatter it and throw so much dirt and filth on the face of it to deface and disgrace it it neither makes amends for your former abuse of it nor doth it take off ought that is herein charged on you And for your pitifull complaint therefore of a Concl. Ibid. my pulling your Treatise in pieces to make my self work and then binding it up again after mine own fashion It is so poor as might b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suid. vel Priamo miseranda Mar. l. 12. move even a professed adversary to pity you and shews indeed how inconsistent your Work is one part of it with another But Sir I want not work at home that I should with c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suid. Zenob Plut. ad Colot the Lydian go to seek some abroad much lesse wanted I any then when my work rather wanted me I being neither fit almost for any work at all and wanting workmen for that work which God had at that time disabled me unto Nor had I any reason to undertake that task that then I did had I not conceived a kind of necessitie in it Yet neither have I pulled your book in peeces nor have I bound it up again after my fashion Your book lies by me still intire bound up in the same manner as it was brought mee at first onely I have made bold to pick out of it and lay open some neither sound nor savoury passages of it and have dressed them indeed as they deserved but representing them no otherwise then as I found them in the book the precise words whereof you have not hitherto shewed that I have any where swarved from nor suppose I that I did amisse in so doing for neither did I undertake to deal with the whole book but to give some tast of what it contained nor if any thing be sound in it will that serve to excuse and justifie ought that is rotten and unsound As for d Concl. p. 16 17. the story of the Ladie what you except against my speech to her it is alredy answered elsewhere where the proper place of it was and where all this might have come in more seasonably then it doth here But in steed of it Sir you might have done well not to say over the same things again but to have asserted and confirmed by Scripture that way of assurance that e Treat p. 84 85. you propound as the only Scripture way and in regard whereof all other assurances those that Peter James and John hold out not excepted are affirmed to be but rotten stuffe to wit That we are to beleive that Christ hath beleived for us and we have beleived in him that he hath repented for us and we have repented in him For this Sir being one of your main shores yea the onely main shore in effect your immediate enthusiasm excepted erected and set up by you for the support of poor afflicted Spirits when you have beaten them off from all other ought not to have been deserted by you where you found it opposed much lesse dissembled and shifted off and shuffled or shoveled away as a thing not worthy of any notice among the rubble and rubbish wherin you say there is nothing of any substance And the truth is I am therein of the same mind with you if you think as you speak as concerning this particular that it is a meer shadow without substance and such therfore as is no more able to afford any true stay or sound satisfaction to a wavering soul or a wearied spirit then f Aesopi fab the shadow of the sheeps shoulder that the dog catched at in the water or some delineation of the like on the wall to releive and refresh an hungry body Take heed Sir how whilst you dally and delight your self with such sublimated notions distilled through the limbeck of your own qaint invention you delude Gods people and cause them as Jonas spake while they g Jon. 2.8 follow lying vanities to forsake their own mercy and so attract a greater guilt then you are aware of or at least consider well of at present But to what end spend I words and wast wind unto one who in plain termes professeth that should he so sin yea sin never to much being a beleiver as I doubt not but he beleives himself to be especially glorying and vaunting so much as he doth of the glorious light and spirit that he is now possessed of he never looks to be called to any acount for it and scoffs at those as silly souls drowned in melancholie that doe ever so imagine In the last place a little to ease your stomack and empty your h Jecur pro felle cujus vesicula jecori adhaeret Job 16.13 Lam. 2.11 liver you take ocasion at parting to spend out of your gall some of your bitter choler upon me by demanding of me i Conclus p. 17. now I am an old man for you are oft playing upon mine age how if I were to account to you I would gather up my assurance whether it would be of such a measure of faith so much obedience so much love to the brethern so much zeal prayer repentance and all of unqestionable evidence then you proceed to qestion me concerning my faillings when I
the merry pin and why should not believers live in like manner especially knowing that he now rules the roast in heaven Yea Sir how you have in your Treatise preached and pressed repentance may appear by the severall passages formerly delt with and further yet to be discussed 2. If you be so frequent in preaching of these things why do you check others for doing as you say your selves do Yea why do your hearers shun our Teachers and are offended with them because they presse these points which their nice palats are nothing pleased with ſ Reply ibid. But then say you because John said repent and Christ said repent and Peter said repent are we to examine the mystery no further know we not that the whole Scripture in its fulnesse and integrity reveils the whole truth and must we not look out and compare Scripture with Scripture spirituall things with spirituall and so finding out truth from the degrees to the glory and fulnesse of it preach it in the same glory and fulnesse of it as we finde it Sir if they preach repentance and presse it as necessary unto salvation I hope we may be so bold as to preach the same after them in like manner and in girding at us for so doing you gird not at us alone but them Nor are we ignorant that the t 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil de fide whole Doctrine of Faith is to be received that is contained in holy Writ and that u Manifestorum lumine illustrantur obscura Aug. Ep st 48. Obscuriores locutiones de manifestoridus illustrand Idem doct Chr. l. 2. c. 9. Collation of Scripture with Scripture may afford much light unto places more obscure But Sir neither are these passages of any obscurity being of the clearest almost of any either in the Old Testament or New Nor can any parcell of Scripture contradict or take away the truth of another nor are any therefore to be taxed for the delivery of any truth that in Scripture they find recorded or for urging pressing any duty that they find there urged and pressed and so frequently by such as you here instance in your self This is all therefore nothing but a pile of meere impertinences as would plainly appear would you but be entreated to rub up and resume your old Logick and trusse up your loose stuffe into some Syllogisticall frame that it might appear what you here oppose Of the like condition is all that to litle purpose that ensueth where you tell us that a Reply ibid. We hear Christ preaching b Ioh. 7.39 before the Spirit was given Repent and we find when the Spirit was given Christ is said c Act. 5.31 to give repentance to Israel and forgivenesse of sins and shall we not now preach Jesus Christ and repentance in Jesus the fountaine of repentance the author of repentance and repentance thus and repentance in the glory of it self more 1. Christ then preached repentance and repentance as of necessity unto salvation and where find we that ever he revoked this precept or the doctrine concerning the necessity of it 2. But this was before the Spirit was given what Spirit Sir is it you mean was not that Spirit which was given to those that beleived and repented upon d Math. 21.32 Johns preaching and e Ioh. 4.41 42.59 Christs before his passion and before that f Compare Ioh. 7 39. with Act. 1.5 2 3 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Schol. Graec. 19. more ample effusion of it and the extraordinary gifts of it spoken of by the Evangelist in the place you seem to point at the very same with that Spirit that was given afterward for the working of faith and repentace in those who in times ensuing g Ioh. 17.20 Act. 2.38.41 4.1 8.12 upon the Apostles preaching repented and beleived Or had they power to repent and so did without that gift of the Spirit which the other afterward had not So that these things in the one should be to give you your own words as springs of their own and waters flowing from their own fountain in the other as graces flowing from Christ and his spirit 3. But after the Spirit was given Christ is said to give repentance and forgivenesse of sins And by whom Sir I beseech you were these things given before The Apostle tells us that h Hebr. 13.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Schol. Graec. Jesus Christ is yesterday to day and the same for ever And whatsoever saving grace is now given from Christ by the Spirit was alwayes and in all times given unto all that ever were saved by Christ nor is there herein any difference between those times and these If you think otherwise you may do well to speak your mind plainly for you talk very perplexedly to make men believe that we preach not repentance as a grace of God by his Spirit wrought in our hearts in and for Christ which is most untrue for we say and teach that it is not only so now but was ever so in all ages whereas you by your ambiguous expressions seem to intimate the contrary 4. But Sir what is here to repeal the former precept of repentance or to give any just much lesse necessary cause to alter our preaching and pressing of repentance and the necessity of it in the same manner I might well say as the Prophets but much more as Christ himself before the Spirit was in that manner and measure given as after it was when as the source and Originall of it was ever the same and the necessity of it as well now as then yea in all ages no lesse alike 5. All therefore that hereafter followeth concerning i Reply Ibid. the preaching faith in the glory of it and faith in the revelation of it and faith from Christ and faith in Christ because the Apostle saith k Act. 16.31 Believe in the Lord Iesus and thou shall be saved and l Hebr. 12.2 Iesus Christ is the Author and finisher of our faith c. All these I say are but flanting flourishes brought in on the by partly m 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. de vit Epic. to put by what you should speak to and partly to make heedlesse people believe that there is some new doctrine of faith by our new-light-men lately discovered other and more excellent then ever was taught either by the Prophets of God in former times or by Christ himself in his preaching here upon earth or by any the ordinary Ministers and Teachers of the Gospel either in those times or in former ages 6. For not to stand upon the version of the word used by the Apostle which signifieth rather o 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 2.10 a Captain or Leader then an p 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 5.9 Author or worker who of us denies faith to be r Eph. 2 8. 6.23 Phil. 1.29 the gift
of God or that God out of his love to us in Christ freely works it in us that thereby we may be enabled to Å¿ Ioh. 1.12 receive Christ and t Eph. 3.17 Christ by it may dwell in us yea we say that it was so and was taught so as well before Christs passion as since the same As litle to the purpose is what you subjoyn of a Reply ibid. one Scripture telling us that b 2 Cor. 7.10 godly sorrow works repentance unto salvation and an other saith c Zach. 12.10 They shall look on him whom they have pierced and they shall mourn for him c. and then ask Shall we not preach sorrow for sinne from Christ piercing and wounding and melting the heart 1. Who forbids you Sir so to preach or who denies that the sight of Christ crucified for our sins by the eye of faith is a singular mean of melting mens hearts into godly sorrow and that even after they are in the state of grace yea and assured to of the pardon of their sins thereby purchased and procured contrary to what you teach that d Treat p. 44. no trouble for sinne can arise in the soul but from the obligement of the Law and the satisfaction it demands against which to what is e Answ p. 18. objected you return nothing 2 We teach therefore herein as much as Gods Word warrants But we teach also with good warrant from the same Word that Gods ordinary way of bringing men over unto Christ is by f Act. 16.18 16.31 32. openi g their eyes unto a sight of their sins and apprehension oâ— their lost and forlorn condition unlesse they be saved by Christ and by working their hearts unto a willingnesse to come out of their sinnes and go out of themselves that they may by a true and lively faith repair unto Christ lay hold on him and receive him that they may be saved by him Thus were those g Act 2.23 â—7 41. that Peter preached to brought in thus was Paul h Rom 7.10 11 wrought on as himself professeth And Sir because Christ calleth to come to him with promise of refreshment such only as are i Math 11.28 weary of and burdened with the weight of their sins nor do we find any invited unto the waters of life which yet are k Eâ—ai 55.1 freely propounded but such as spiritually l Ioh. 7.37 3â— Revel 2â— â—7 thirst after them nor are any by the Prophet presumed so to thirst but those only that are m Esai 55.2 3 6 7. willing to hear and obey and reform their lives and return to Godâ— We therefore dare not presume to tell men as you do and others of your way that they may come to Christ and receive him tho no such work at all be wrought on them but they continue still in their wonted sinfull courses and this indeed is that that you scof us for because we dare not be so presumptuous to say herein as you say 3. Yea Sir we say further from that very place of Zachary which you here cite that as n Zach. 12.10 â— 13.1 there is no fountain opened for sin and uncleannesse unto any untill this work be wrought on them so that all those who now believing on Christ do by the eye of faith behold Christ pierced by their sins cannot but be much grieved and troubled for them and that as well for those sins that after their conversion they commit as for those which before it they commited since that the one was a procuring cause of Christs sufferings as well as the other nor is there lesse cause to be humbled and grieved for the one then for the other 4. Litle to the purpose therefore is it for you to tell us that o Reply p. 6 ibid. Christ was sâ—nt p Act. 5 31. to give repentance and pardon of sins for not q Luk. 24.47 this without that nor pardon of sin without I hope but upon repentance which none of us ever denyed but tell us Sir plainly if you dare speak it out that men tho they repent not yet may believe in Christ and be saved by Christ that which is commonly asserted by those of your way and is also covertly hinted by you as elswhere is and will be shewed otherwise you here r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor 9.27 ut qi aâ—tema jactat Bracâ—ia pâ—oterdâ—ns verberat ictibus aeras Vng. Aen. l. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eustath ad II. â— beat but the ayâ—r about you you smite not us nor touch by way of reproof or rejection ought that is held or taught by us The like doom belongeth to give it his due to what followeth next with you that t Math. 16.24 One Scripture biddeth Å¿ Reply Ibid. He that will follow me let him deny himself and take up his crosse an other saith u Phil. 2.13 It is he that works in us both to will and to do and v Phil. 4.13 I am able to do all things through Christ that strengthneth mee 1. For what is all this also to the present purpose 2. And yet Sir you may do well to add the Apostles inference x Phil. 2.12 13 It is God that works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure and therefore work you out your own salvation with fear and trembling a lesson that those of your way lust not to hear of to learn and take out much lesse yet a better safer and wholsomer inference then that of one of yours from the fore-mentioned place of Zachary There is y Zach. 13.1 a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Ierusalem for sin and for uncleannesse Therefore let believers sin as fast as they can there is a fountaine open to wash them in and what such wholsome exhortations tend to who seeth not z See Gods eye c. Pref. p. 18 C. 2. But how these things make to the matter in hand you will shew us I hope in the close For there you undertake to state a Reply p. 7. the difference between you and us 1. That we preach Christ and the Gospel and the graces of the Spirit in the parts as we find it whereas you dare not speak the mystery so in pieces you see such preaching answers not the fulnesse of the mystery the riches of the Gospel the glory of the New Testament as belike yours doth But Sir 1. Do we preach these things as we find them in parts where doe we thus find them but in the word and if we preach them so as we find them there we are sure that we have warrant for such preaching good enough and need not therefore fear either yours or any mans censure for our so doing 2. Is there any piece we find in the word that we leave unpreached if we wave none at all