the whole World which we do most abhor Jerome who was contemporary with Pelagius writing against the Pelagians saith Hierom. Epist ad Ctesiphontèm propè medium Asserunt se per arbitrii libertatem nequaquà m ultrà necessarium habere Deum c. Quid rursum te ingeris ut nihil pòssim facere nisi tu in me tua dona compleveris That they assert by reason of the free Will which God hath once given them they stand no more in need of God For saith the Pelagian unto God Thou hast once given me free Will that I may do what I will Wherefore dost thou intrude thy self again so that I can do nothing unless thou perfect thy gifts in me Which Jerome thus confutes They are ignorant of what is written 1 Cor. 4.7 What hast thou that thou hast not received and if thou hast received it why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it And It is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth Mercy Rom. 9.16 It is my part to will and to run Velle currere meum est sed ipjum meum sine dei semper auxilio non crit meum but without the continual help of God that very thing which is mine will not be mine That is it will never be done by me but will come to nothing For the same Apostle saith It is God who worketh in us both to will and to do Phil. 2.13 God is always bestowing always giving That which God hath once given me Non sufficit nihi quod semel donavit nisi semper donaverit c. is not sufficient for me unless he shall still continually give me I ask that I may receive and when I have received I ask again I am covetous to receive the gifts of God neither is he wanting in giving nor am I satiated in receiving By how much the more I drink in the Grace of God by so much the more do I thirst after it This which Jerome wrote Twelve hundred years ago against the Pelagians with his Pen we subscribe to it with heart and hand In like manner we subscribe to that of Coelestin in his Epistle to the Gauls in behalf of Prosper and Hilary Coelestini de gratiâ dei Epist cap. 9. Ita deus in cordibus hominum c. God so works in the hearts of Men and on Free Will it self that a Holy Thought Pious Counsel and every good motion of the Will is from God for it is by him that we can do any good without whom we can do no good And to the Seventh Canon of the second Council of Orange If any shall affirm that Man by the strength of Nature Si quis dixerit per naturae vigorem c. without the illumination and inspiration of the Holy Spirit can think or choose aright any good that pertains to the happiness of Eternal Life or that he can savingly consent to the Evangelical preaching He is deceived by an Heretical Spirit not understanding the voice of God saying in the Gospel John 15.5 Without me ye can do nothing And that of the Apostle 2 Cor. 3.5 Not that we are sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves but our sufficiency is of God All this we firmly believe and heartily embrace And therefore whosoever saith that we are Pelagians or Semipelagians either he knows us not and ignorantly defames us or if he know us and our Principles he knowingly belyes us which we hope our Accuser would not do And as we our selves are not Pelagians no nor Semipelagians so we do not plead for any that are such but are ready to plead for the Truth against them as the Lord shall call us and enable us thereunto As for the Brethren that are accused a number of them hath approved our Apology and we plead only for them who do or shall approve it But if there should be any of the Subscribers whom we have not consulted with who unknown to us are of a Judgment different from us in these matters we leave them to plead for themselves Yet though we thus write we doubt not but they will all agree to the Sum and Substance of what we have said and proved in this our Apology As 1. That the Gospel is a new Law of Grace in the Sense we have affirmed and proved it so to be by the Word of God and by the Testimonies of Antient Fathers and Modern Divines 2. That this Law of Grace or Gospel-Covenant is conditional as we have stated the conditionality of it that is It is conditional with respect to the subsequent Blessings and Benefits of it such as Justification and Glorification 3. That Evangelical Repentance is a Condition Dispositive of the Subject Man necessary in order to his being justified as we have proved by Scripture and Reason and by many Testimonies of Ancient Fathers and Modern Divines And that a lively effectual Faith is the Condition receptive and applicative of the Object Christ and his Righteousness by and for which only Man is justified Finally That sincere Evangelical Obedience proceeding from a Principle of true Faith is a condition necessary on Mans part unto his obtaining possession of Eternal Salvation in Heaven for the alone merits of Christ 4. That in effectual calling by the Word and Spirit of Christ there is a real change and holy qualifications wrought in the Soul of Man in order of Nature before he be justified and pardoned 5. That the Common distinction is true as we have explained it and Calvin and the Synod of Dort approved it That Christ dyed for all men sufficiently but for the Elect only efficaciously This is the summ of what we believe and here contend for and we doubt not but all the Subscribers even those of them whom we never saw do and will agree to these things which are the commonly received Doctrines of the Reformed Churches And it is for such Persons that we make an Apology and for no others In pleading for these things aforesaid we are perswaded in our own Conscience and we think upon good and solid grounds that we plead for the Truth and Purity of the Gospel the defence whereof to the Glory of God is the principal thing that we propose to our selves in this present Apology And next to God's Glory in the defence of his Truth we design the Edification and Common Good of Christ's Church and the defence of our selves only in subserviency to those higher ends That the Father of Lights the God of Truth and Love and Peace would pour out upon us all of all perswasions a Spirit of Light and Love Purity and Peace that we may all see the Truth with our minds believe and love it with our hearts and profess and practice it purely and peaceably in our lives to the Glory of God in Christ to the Honour of Religion and to the Spiritual and Eternal good of our own and others
we too but not in their way we will hope that he is not for the Antinomians but for the Truth and for us notwithstanding his Ambiguous Expressions Now we have seen how well he hath cleared himself of the suspicion of Antinomianism which he brought upon himself by his own Act and Deed. Let us next see how he hath cleared his Party We have declared already that we did not suspect them much less accuse them of real Antinomianism and so they needed no clearing with respect to us Yet since the Authour of the Letter hath told the World that they were both suspected and accused and since he hath undertaken to vindicate them and to clear up their innocency let us see how well he hath behaved himself in this matter And for this let us look into the Third Page of the Letter where he thus writes As to the Party suspected of Antinomianism and Libertinism in this City it is plain that the Churches wherein they are concerned are more strict and exact in trying of them that offer themselves to their Communion as to their Faith and Holiness before their admitting them in the engagements laid on them to a Gospel-walking at their admission and in their inspection over them afterwards As to their Conversations they are generally of the more regular and exact frame Is it not unaccountable to charge a People with Licentionsness when the Chargers cannot deny and some cannot well bear the strictness of their walk Then to confirm the Argument from the more than ordinary Holiness of their Lives he says that they sincerely profess that their godliness begun with and is promoted by the Faith of their Principles Here we have him pleading for his Party that he hath lately associated himself unto by an Argument that reflects on his old Friends and casts Dirt on all the Presbyterians throughout the World For the plain English of it is this we and our Party are more Godly than you our Churches are better constituted than yours we are also more holy in our Lives than you and this our Godliness and Holiness begun with the Faith of our Principles therefore it is an unaccountable thing to charge any of us with Antinomianism Now though we do not charge them yet since they are by some body charged with it or else this Authour tells a great untruth we should be glad to see them better cleared than they are by this Argument For that upon which the strength of this Argument depends is begged and not proved 1. It is taken for granted yea it is plainly enough asserted that their Churches are better constituted than ours or than all the Presbyterian Churches throughout the World And yet he knows that this is a thing in question and that the controversie about it is not yet decided yea that most we think of both Perswasions in England have agreed to leave it undecided as it was and have agreed unto an Union without the decision of it We wish therefore that this had not been mentioned but since he hath mentioned it and laid stress upon it we must refer him unto one of whom he hath heard and for whom we hope he hath yet some honourable esteem and that is the Reverend Mr. Wood against Mr. Lockyer Let him weigh well his Arguments from Page 127. to Page 168. and look forward into the Appendix if he please Let him consider also what the â—ise and peaceable Mr. Durham saith of Mr. Wood with respect to those very Arguments in his Treatise of Scandal London Edition 1659. Page 92. The Reverend and most Convincing Writer Mr. Wood c. If those Arguments do not convince our Authour we leave him to please himself a while with his new chosen Opinion but we cannot allow it to be a good Medium whereby to vindicate him and his Party from the supposed charge of Antinomianism 2. He takes it for granted nay he positively affirms that his Party are generally more holy in their Lives This is a very friendly Testimony our Authour may possibly think that he hath deserved well of them by this But we should think them to be wiser Men than to esteem him ever the better Man for such a flattering like commendation of them If an Enemy had done it or if one less concerned had said so it would have carryed in it a better grace and would have looked upon them with a better aspect For our parts we know who it was that said God I thank thee that I am not as other men are c. and we desire not to imitate such but choose rather to say with the despised Publican God be merciful to us Sinners Luke 18.13 3. He takes it for granted that Mens appearing for a time more holy than others is sufficient to secure them from falling under the just suspicion or real guilt of gross and dangerous Errours We cannot be of his mind in this 1. Because we read in History and Antient Writers That Tertullian and Origen in the Primitive Church were Men of extraordinary Parts See Vincentius Lyrinensis against Heresies from Chap. 23 10.25 Edit Oxon. 1631. and exemplary Piety as appeared both by their Labours and their Lives in Times of great Persecution yet they both fell into some gross and dangerous Errours 2. Because in the Preface to Mr. Weldes Book of the Rise c. of Antinomians in New England Pag. 3 4 5. we read That at first They would appear very humble holy and spiritual Christians and full of Christ they would deny themselves far speak â—xcellently pray with such soul-ravishing Expressions and Affections that a Stranger who loved goodness could not but love and admire them and so be the more easily drawn after them looking upon them as Men and Women as likely to know the Seerets of Christ and Bosom Counsels of his Spirit as any other And this opinion of them was the more lifted up through the simplicity and weakness of their Followers who would in admiration of them tell others that since the Apostles times they were perswaded none ever received so much light from God as such and such had done naming their Leaders 4. As they would lift up themselves so also their Opinions by gilding them over with specious terms of Free Grace Glorious Light Gospel-Truths as holding forth naked Christ And this took much with simple honest Hearts that loved Christ especially with new Converts who were lately in bondage under Sin and Weath and had new tasted the sweetness of Free Grace being now in their first love to Christ they were exceeding glad to embrace any thing that might further advance Christ and Free Grace and so drank them in that is their Errours readily 5. See there their 5th Sleight to spread their Opinions And 6. Mr. Welde says They commonly laboured to work first upon Women if once they could winde them in they hoped by them as by an Eve to catch their Husbands also Whether our Authour designed to
Salvation is promised It is certain that the Death of Christ did not obtain for all but for the faithful alone a restoration absolute into the state of Grace and Salvation This they prove from Rom. 5.1 Rom. 3. and 4. chap. and Gal. 2.16 2. Reason Without faith in Christ Man remains in the state of Condemnation John 3.18 John 3.36 But they who are restored into the Bosom of Grace every one of them have remission of sins which makes men happy Psal 32.1 Neither do they remain in Condemnation neither doth the wrath of God remain upon them They therefore who want Faith are not restored by the Death of Christ into the state of Grace and Salvation Since through the Name of Christ no Man obtaineth remission of sins except he who believes in him Acts 10.43 Reason 3. If the Death of Christ hath obtained restitution for all then are they restored either 1. When Christ from all Eternity was destinated unto Death which is false for so no man should be born a child of wrath neither should Original sin any whit dammage mankind being according to this Opinion forgiven them from all Eternity Or 2. They were restored in the Person of our first Parents when the promise concerning the Seed of the woman was proclaimed which is false For our first Parents themselves were not restored into the state of Grace but by Faith in Christ and consequently neither were their Posterity restored but in like manner that is by Faith Therefore not all whether Believers or Vnbelievers are restored Or 3. They were restored when Christ himselfe suffered Death upon the Cross but that is false also and cannot be for so no man before that moment should have been restored which none will grant Neither are all restored from that time because without doubt even at that moment and afterward the Wrath of God burned hot against some of Christ's Accusers Condemners Crucifiers and Mockers Thus our Divines argued in the Synod and their Arguments were approved by the Synod Now let any man of judgment consider the force of these Arguments and he will plainly see that they do prove that no Man no not the Elect can be admitted into favour with God and be justified before he believe and performe the Condition of the Covenant as well as that all men are not and cannot be so dealt with The Elect themselves before their Conversion are not absolutely and actually in Grace and favour with God they are not in a state of Justification and Salvation because they yet want Faith the Condition of the Covenant upon which Condition those subsequent Blessings of the Covenant are only promised so that by this we may see the Synod hath in effect before-hand judged between us and the Antinomians and hath given Sentence according to Scripture on our side Lastly We find that our Divines in the Synod declared and proved that Perseverance in Holy Faith and Obedience which is the Condition of our obtaining Eternal Salvation is it self promised absolutely without any proper Condition yet not so as always and in all Elect Justified Persons to exclude and prevent a partial temporary Apostacy and Back-sliding Here then are two things held by them 1. That the Perseverance of the Elect after they are once converted and justified though it be a Condition of obtaining Eternal Salvation yet it is promised and given without any other proper Condition Therefore writing on the Fifth Article they reject the erroneous Opinion of the Arminians Ibid. Art V. pag. 157 153. That Perseverance is a Benefit offered equally to all the truly Faithful upon this Condition namely If they shall not be wanting unto sufficient Grace and give their Reasons why they rejected it 1. Say they It is not true that Perseverance is a Gift onely offered but not given For the Scriptures witness that God doth not onely offer unto his the Grace of Perseverance but also that he gives it them and puts it into their Hearts Jer. 32.40 I will put my fear into their hearts that they shall not depart from me and John 4.14 1 Cor. 10.13 Again It is false say they that Perseverance is a Grace offered upon Condition for it is a Gift promised absolutely by God without any respect to a Condition The Reason is this Some Promises of God are touching the End others touching the Means which conduce to the End The Promises concerning the End that is to say Salvation are conditional Believe and thou shalt be saved Be faithful unto death that is persevere and I will give thee the Crown of Life But forasmuch as no Man is able to perform the Conditions God also hath made most free and absolute Promises to give the very Conditions which he works in us that so by them as by Means we may attain the End Deut. 30.6 And the Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul that thou maiest live The End here promised is Life which the Israelites could never attain without the performance of the Condition namely their Love of God But here God promiseth absolutely that he will give unto them this very Condition Since therefore the Promises of Faith and Perseverance in Faith are Promises concerning the Means they are wholly to be reckoned among those absolute Gifts by which God considering Mans disability hoth to attain the End without the Means and also to perform or effect the Means or Conditions of himself doth promise that he will make them able to performe the Conditions God promiseth Life to those that constantly fear him The Promise of Life is conditional but of constant Fear is absolute I will put my fear in their hearts that they may not depart from me And lastly Be it so that this Gift were conditional yet it is not offered upon this Condition if Men will not be wanting to themselves in the entertainment and use of sufficient Grace Fâ—â— 1. It will from this Condition follow that we do in vain pray to God in the behalf of any Man that he would give unto them the Gift of Perseverance because of Course he offers them unâ—â—ersal and sufficient Grace to which if they themselves will not be wanting they shall pâ—â—â—â—vere 2. Tâ—is is an idle Condition for it makes Perseverance to be the Condition of â—erseverance For to persevere is nothing else but not to be wanting unto this sufficient Grace If therefore God offers Perseverance upon this Condition he offers the same upon Condition of it self Thus they shewed that Perseverance is absolutely promised and given without any other proper Condition Yet for all this 2. they do not say that Perseverance is so promised and given as to exclude and prevent always a partial temporary Aposâ—acy and Back-sliding For we find that discoursing of Perseverance as it concerns the Elect their Third Position is These very same Persons thus Regenerated Ibid. Art V. pag. 121 122 123 124
may be observed and remembred that when we say sincere Obedience is indispensably necessary to Salvation we do not mean that it is required as absolutely and indispensably necessary to our Salvation that our sincere Obedience be never at all interrupted by any Acts of disobedience but that if it happen that our Obedience be at any time notably interrupted by Acts of wilful presumptuous Sin it is indispensably necessary to our Salvation that we renew our Faith and Repentance and return to our Obedience again and that we dye in Faith and Obedience to the revealed Will of God As for them who are called at the last Hour who are first converted and justified a little before their Death Actual Faith and Repentance is required of them in their own Persons and as much more sincere Obedience as they have time and strength to performe As we see in the penitent Thief he performed a great deal of Obedience in a little time he not onely believed in Christ with his Heart but confessed him with his Mouth pleaded for him and vindicated him from the blasphemous Aspersions that were cast upon him He likewise took shame to himself and gave Glory to God by confessing his own Sins and withal he expressed his Love to his Fellow-Thief by rebuking and admonishing him Lastly He trusted in and prayed unto Christ as a Lord and King who had a Kingdome in another World and who could help and save him after this Life Luke 22.40 41 42. This that penitent Malefactor did at his Death and truly this was a great deal for him to do at such a time and when Christ his Lord and Saviour was before his Face in so low and miserable a Condition to the Eye of Sense and Reason The Obedience which that poor penitent Believer yeilded to the Lord in such Circumstances may well be esteemed equivalent to all that sincere Obedience which in the space of many Years others in better Circumstances perform unto the Lord. Thus we have at large prosecuted and cleared this Argument for the indispensable necessity of sincere Obedience to the obtaining of Eternal Life and Salvation and consequently for the Conditionality of the Covenant-promise of Eternal Life and Salvation And the Argument seems to us so clear and cogent that we do not see any thing of weight that can be objected against it If any should say that sincere Evangelical Obedience is not only necessary to Salvation as the condition to be performed on our parts but upon other accounts also We heartily acknowledge that it is so It is necessary to express our Love and Thankfulness to God and Christ for their wonderful Goodness and Grace Mercy and Love to us As also it is necessary in order to the pleasing and Glorifying our God Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier and that thereby we may profit and edifie our Neighbours But this doth by no means hinder its being likewise indispensably necessary to our own Salvation nay all this is a part of that Obedience which is so necessary to our Salvation If yet any should further object and say that besides Faith sincere Obedience may be indispensably necessary to Salvation and yet not be a Condition of obtaining Salvation We answer that we do not love to contend with any about the use of the word condition if they will grant us the thing signified by the Word Now by the Word condition in this matter of Obedience we mean no more but that sincere Obedience is so necessary to Salvation that God by his Promise hath suspended our obtaining of Salvation consummate Salvation in Heavenly Glory till we have performed sincere Obedience unto him assuring us that if through Grace we perform sincere Obedience unto him we shall certainly be saved but if not we shall not be saved This is all we mean by sincere Obedience its being the Condition of the Covenant-promise of Salvation If our Brethren agree to this they yeild us the thing that we contend for and there remains no more difference as to this matter but about the use of the word condition and if they do not think fit to use that Word we leave them to their Liberty not to use it as we desire they would leave us to our Liberty to use it as we have occasion For though the Word be not in Scripture yet the thing signified by the Word is manifestly there as we have proved It is also a Word of Antient usage in the Christian Church even in the best Reformed Churches before ever we were born why then should we forbear the use of the Word condition or why should any be offended at our using of it Indeed we cannot forbear the using of it for the Reason given us by some well-meaning Men because it is not a Scriptural-word For if that Reason prove any thing it will prove too much to wit that we should not use the Words Trinity Incarnation Satisfaction Merit of Christ Sacrament Infant-baptism c. and which is more that we should wholly give over Preaching the Gospel and hereafter only Read the Holy Scripture without Expounding it for we are sure that no Man doth or can Preach one Sermon without using some Word or Words that are not expresly in the Scripture And as our sincere Obedience may be and really is a Condition of obtaining Eternal Salvation though it be not expresly called by that Name in Scripture so may it be and really it is a Condition though it be performed by the help of God's Grace We know this is the main Reason why our Brethren think that neither our Faith nor Obedience can be a Condition of the Covenant because they are wrought in us by the special and effectual Grace of God but we know also that this is a very weak Reason For 1. We do not say that that is the Condition of the Covenant which is the Work and Effect of Gods Grace alone Such is effectual Calling on God's part and the infusion of the Seminal abiding principle of supernatural Spiritual Life It is God only who calls us effectually and who infuses the said Principle of Grace and Life into our Souls and we are merely passive in the reception of it We never said nor thought that it is required of us by way of Duty or Condition that we should effectually call our selves and infuse a supernatural Principle of Grace and Life into our selves This indeed would be very absurd Therefore we hold that our being effectually called and our having an abiding principle of Grace and Life given in unto us is quid prae-requisitum something pre-required to our right performing the condition but not the condition it self That which is required of us by way of Duty and Condition on which God promiseth us the subsequent blessings of the Covenant It is that we do not resist his Spirit and that by the grace of his Spirit we do actually believe and obey and persevere to the end Now the Grace of God whereby
we believe and obey is so far from hindring our actual Faith and Obedience from being the Condition that on the contrary it conduceth very much to make them the Condition the Gracious Evangelical Condition of the Covenant and without it they could not be such a Condition As to what they say that special Grace necessarily causeth our Faith and Obedience we answered before that special Grace doth not cause our actual Faith and Obedience with any such kind of necessity as is inconsistent with or destructive of the true liberty of our Souls in believing and obeying Augustin the great asserter of the necessity and efficacy of Supernatural Grace against the Pelagians and Semipelagians says in his 46 Epist. to Valentinus Obedientiam nostram Deus requirit quae nulla potest esse sine libero arbitrio God requires our Obedience which without the liberty of our minds can be no obedience And our own Westminster Confession of Faith in chap 19. atr 7. says that the Spirit of Christ subdues and enables the will of man to do that freely and chearfully which the will of God revealed in the Law requireth to be done Dr. Twisse also saith frequently that the effectual will and grace of God doth not destroy but establisheth the freedom of our actions particularly in his Answer to Hoard his God's Love to Mankind Book 2. page 103. He writes thus against Mr. Mason when once God hath planted in us a principle of new Life of the Life of Grace by the Spirit of Regeneration See 127 page of his Desence of the Synod of Dort c. though all the powers thereof do incline only to that which is good like as the powers of natural corruption incline only unto evil yet the particular use and exercise of those is always free Like as the particular use and exercise of the powers of our Corruption is always free to the committing of this or that sin according unto the emergent occasions standing in congruity to every mans particular disposition And pag. 104. Should he Mr. Mason have laid to our charge that we maintain that God necessitates the will to any good act and to over-rule the will therein we should utterly deny it without distinction It is true he over-rules the will of the flesh but not the will of the spirit the Regenerate part but moves it agreeably to its nature and to work not only voluntarily but freely whatsoever it worketh For albeit the Regenerate part is like a moral vertue though as much transcendent to it as a thing supernatural transcends a thing natural inclining only to that which is good yet is it always moved to this particular good rather than to another most freely Like as a mans natural Corruption inclines a man only to evil yet to this kind of evil or to this particular evil rather than to that Man is moved most freely So that if we maintain not that God works a Man to every good act otherwise than freely let the very conscience of our Enemies judge whether we can maintain that God necessitates the will either of Men or Devils unto sin And in the next page 105 he brings for confirmation of what he had said the 11th Article of the Church in Ireland where this position is first laid down that God from all Eternity did by his Unchangeable Counsel ordain whatsoever in time should come to pass and then it is forthwith added That hereby no violence is offered to the Wills of the reasonable Creatures and neither the liberty nor the contingency of second Causes is taken away but established rather Then again in page 108. This is clearly our Doctrine to wit that when God never so effectually works any Creature to the producing of an act connatural to it yet he works the Creature thereunto agreeably to its Nature that is if it be a necessary agent moves it to work necessarily if it be a contingent agent moves it to work contingently and if it be a free agent moves it to work freely and in effect it is the Doctrine of all them who say that God determines the Will as the Dominicans or that God necessitates the Will as Bradwardin For they acknowledge hereby that God moves the Creatures to work freely in such sort That in the very act of working they might do otherwise if they would They confess this providence of God is a great mystery and not sufficiently comprehensible by humane reason Cajetan professeth thus much as before alledged and Alvarez maintaineth it in a set disputation Thus far Twiss whereby we see that he held all the good we do to be acts of free Obedience notwithstanding that we produce them by the assistance of Gods effectual Grace yea that they are so free that though secundum quid in some respect it is necessary for them to be produced yet simpliciter absolutè See page 116 117 118 119 120. simply and absolutely it is possible for them not to be produced And if our Actual Faith and Obedience be free acts of ours notwithstanding that they are also effects of God's Grace then they may be our Duties also And indeed they are Duties so necessarily required of us as that the obtaining of Justification and Glorification is suspended by the promises till the performance of them as was proved before And then it follows by necessary consequence that they are Evangelical Conditions of the promises because they have the Essential Nature of an Evangelical Condition Here we take notice by the way that there are some who distinguish between the Covenant of Grace and the administration of it and they say themselves and would make all others say with them that the Covenant it self is absolute to the Elect but that the administration of it is conditional in the preaching of the Gospel * A brief Account of the State of the differences now depending and agitated about Justification page 4. Now we must declare that we cannot say without distinction as some would have us to do that the Covenant of Grace is absolute to the Elect. We have already said and proved that the Covenant of Grace made with the Church through Christ is a complex of many promises whereof some are indeed absolute yet not so absolute neither as to exclude all use of means such are the promises of the first Grace of saving Faith and Repentance c. but others of them are conditional even to the Elect such are the promises of the subsequent blessings of the Covenant as of Justification pardon of sin and Eternal Life We do not find that those subsequent blessings of the Covenant are ever promised to any of Adams Posterity but upon some Condition expressed or implyed and most frequently the Conditions are expressed with a plain Declaration that as many as perform the conditions shall have the promised Blessings but they who never perform the conditions shall never have the promised blessings This shows plainly that the Covenant
breaking of God's Commandements without Repentance pertaineth not everlasting Life but everlasting Death as Christ himself saith they that do evil shall go into everlasting fire Mat. 25. These Passages do manifestly show that in the Judgment of the Church of England as sincere Repentance is indispensably necessary to obtain forgiveness of sin so sincere Obedience from a principle of Faith and Love and bringing forth Fruits meet for Repentance is indispensably necessary to the escaping of eternal damnation and obtaining of eternal Salvation Let any Man read and consider the Sermon of Repentance in the same Book Tom. 2. pag. 324. and he will see this to be as clear as the Light at Noon-day We will quote one short Passage out of it in Page 339. they say The filihiness of sin is such that as long as we do abide in it God cannot but detest and abhorre us neither can there be any hope that we shall enter into the Heavenly Jerusalem except we be first made clean and purged from it But this will never be unless forsaking our former Life we do with our whole Heart return unto the Lord our God and with a full purpose of Amendment of Life flee unto his Mercy taking sure hold thereupon through Faith in the Blood of his Son Jesus Christ This excellent Passage shews clearly that as Faith is the receptive applicative Condition so true Repentance is the dispositive Condition of the Covenant of Pardon and Life and that the one is as necessary in its kind as the other is and that unless through Grace we do both we are undone for ever Thus we have shewed at large what was the old Gospel Doctrine of the Church of England at the Reformation and that our Doctrine is exactly the same Therefore it must needs be a most horrid we will not say lye but falsehood that we preach a new Gospel and that we are to be blamed for telling People that they must repent and mourn for their known sins leave and loath them and God will have Mercy upon them for Christ's sake From whole Societies of Protestants we pass to the Testimonies of Individual Pastours of the Reformed Churches And we begin with Calvin who in his Commentary on Ezek. 18.23 sayes Deus ergo non ita vult omnes salvos fieri ut discrimen omne tollat boni mali sed praecedit veniam poenitentia quemadmodum hîc dicitur Therefore God doth not so will all Men to be saved as to take away all difference between good and evil but Repentance goes before Pardon as it is here said And again on the same Text We hold therefore that God doth not will now the death of a Sinner because he calls all to Repentance without making a difference and promises that he shall be ready to receive them modo seriò resipiscant if they or on condition that they earnestly repent And in his Institutions he writes thus Lib. 3. cap. 3. Sect. 20. Quare ubi remissionem peccatorum offert Deus c. For which reason where God offers remission of sins he likewise useth to require on our part Repentance signifying thereby that his Mercy offered ought to cause Men to repent Doe saith he Judgment and Justice because Salvation is come near at band Isa 56.1 Likewise The Redeemer shall come to Sion and to them who turn from transgression in Jacob Isa 59.20 Again Seek the Lord while he may be found call upon him while he is near let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteousness of his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him Isa 55.6 7. Again Be converted and repent that your sins may be blotted out Acts 3.19 Where yet it is to be noted that this Condition to wit of Repentance is not so annexed to those Promises as if our Repentance were the ground of meriting our pardon but rather because the Lord hath determined to show mercy unto Men for this end that they might repent he shews them whither they are to go to wit unto God by Repentance if they will obtain Favour In these passages we observe 1. That Calvin says expresly That Repentance is a Condition annexed to the promise of pardon 2. That the performance of that Condition goes before pardon And 3. That therefore we are to repent and so perform the Condition that we may obtain the Grace of pardon 4. That in Calvin's Judgment Repentance is a Condition of Justification and that because Calvin believed Justification and pardon of sin to be the same thing as is most evident from what he writes against Osiander Instit 3d. Book cap. 11. Sect. 4.11 21 22. 5. That in Calvins Judgment Repentance is the dispositive Condition of Justification For it must be either the receptive or dispositive Condition but it cannot be the receptive Condition for in Calvin's judgment Faith is the only receptive Condition therefore it must be the dispositive Condition And indeed Calvin so held it to be for in his third Book of Institutions chap. 3. Sect. 18. He says Privatim Deo confiteri pars est verae poenitentiae quae omitti non potest Nihil enim minus consentaneum quam ut peccata ignoscat Deus in quibus nobis ipsi blandimur c. To confess our sins in secret to God is a part of true Repentance which cannot be omitted For nothing is less becoming or suitable than that God should forgive us those sins in which we flatter or please our selves On the contrary Calvin writing against Pighius says Contra Pigh de lib. arb lib. 5. Sect. Adducit tamen Sanè humiles Deus respicit sicut illi acceptum cordis contriti afflicti sacrificium David canit Indeed God hath regard unto the humble as David sings in his Psalm that the Sacrifice of a contrite and afflicted heart is acceptable and pleasing unto him These passages show That in Calvin's judgment an impenitent sinner is by reason of his impenitence unfit for pardon but that the true Penitent by his Humiliation and brokenness of Heart is disposed and fitted for pardon so that it is agreeable to the perfections of God's Nature to accept such a Person in Christ and to pardon his sins for Christ's sake And as Calvin held Faith and Repentance to be the Conditions of our Justification so did he hold sincere Obedience from a Principle of Faith and Love to be the Condition of our not falling from a justified state and of our obtaining the possession of Eternal Life and Glory For thus he writes in his Institutions Quoties ergo audimus c. Therefore as often as we hear lib. 3. cap. 17. Sect. 6. that God bestows his benefits on them who keep his Law we are to remember that God's Children are there designed or described by the Duty which they ought to be continually exercised in that we are for this reason adopted that we should reverence and honour him for
But it must be confessed that the Spirit doth otherwise help before he doth inhabit and otherwise when he doth inhabit in the Soul for before be come to inhabit in the Soul he helps men that they may be Believers but when he doth inhabit and dwell in the Soul he helps them who are Believers This one Distinction of Austins attended unto would help People to understand this matter and to answer all that our Authour saith against any real change or Holy Seed Disposition or Qualification wrought in the Soul before it be justified For our Blessed Lord by his Holy Spirit first prepares and qualifies and makes us meet to be an Habitation for himself and then he comes unto us by the same Spirit and dwells in us and abides with us for ever Ephes 2.22 and 3.17 and 1 Cor. 3.16 Now the first of these is in Order before Justification God by his Spirit and Word first makes us such as his Word requires us to be that we may be justified he savingly enlightens our Minds and enlivens our Hearts he gives us a Seed of Faith and a Holy Principle of Light Lise and Love and by an influence of actual Grace causes us freely to reduce the said Seed and Principle into Act and so actually to believe and repent which when we do through Grace then he justifies us on the account of Christs satisfactory meritorious Righteousness imputed to us And after that we are effectually Called and thereupon are become Penitent Believers and are justified and reconciled the Lord gives us his Spirit and by his Spirit he comes and dwells in us he strengthens and encreases the Grace that he had begun in us and makes us more and more Holy in Heart and Life This is that which is commonly called Sanctification and follows after Justification and through Christs dwelling in us by his Spirit is carried on from one decree to another till it have attained its gradual Perfection and be consummated in Glory Let. p. 11. But he objects 2. Shall we tell Men that unles they be Holy they must not believe on Jesus Christ nor venture on him for Salvation till they be qualified and fit to be received by him This were to forbear Preaching the Gospel at all or to forbid all Men to believe on Christ for never was any Sinner qualified for Christ nor is it possible that ever any Sinner should be qualified for Christ We Answer our Author had said a little before in the same Page That every one who Believes on Christ acts that Faith as the chief of Sinners that is believes as an unbeliever as was before proved to be his meaning by his own express Words if his Words be expressive of his Mind And now by the Question which he puts to us here he seems plainly to be of Opinion that every man must believe as an unbeliever or else no man can ever believe at all and Ministers must give over Preaching the Gospel for they can never preach it as it should be preached unless they tell People that they must Act their Faith as the chief of Sinners that is they must believe as unbelievers for either we must tell People that they must believe as Unbelievers or else that they must not believe till they be first Holy and that is that they must never believe at all because it is impossible for them to be Holy till after they have believed in Christ and be united unto him by Faith This is plainly the sense of our Authors Words and the force of his Reasoning which puts us in mind of what Calvin says out of Augustin de bono perseverantiae Cap. 22. Calv. Instit lib. 3. Cap. 23. § 14. that there are insulsi doctores gratiae some foolish Preachers of Grace and surely if any they are to be accounted such Preachers who in effect tell People that they must believe as unbelievers or else they must not believe till they be first Holy and that is they must never believe at all But is there no way to avoid this foolish senseless way of Preaching Our Author thinks there is not we on the contrary are perswaded that there is a way to avoid it and in our Judgment it may thus be easily done we tell People that they must believe in Christ not as Unholy Unbelievers nor yet as Holy with that Holiness which is the effect of Believing and follows after Faith in Christ but by ceasing to be Unholy Unbelievers and by becoming Holy Believers and if they ask us how this can possibly be done we answer Not by Power of Nature but by the Power of Gods special Grace if they ask further How they can obtain that special Grace before they believe and be in Christ by Faith since all Grace is derived from Christ by Faith we answer that all Grace indeed is derived from Christ but it is a most notorious falshood that all Grace is derived from Christ by Faith for the first special Grace which is the Cause of Faith and whereby we believe in Christ is not from Christ by Faith but it is from Christ before Faith and it is given us by the Holy Spirit of Christ to work Faith in us and to bring us into Union with Christ by Faith if they say that even according to this way People must still believe before they are Holy and so must believe as not being yet Holy We answer that is true in one respect and false in another It is true that People must believe before they are Holy with that Progressive Holiness which is the effect of justifying Faith and follows after Justification but it is utterly false that People do believe or can believe savingly before they are Initially Holy before they are Holy with that first beginning and Principle of Holiness which consists in removing the ill Disposition of our Faculties and in giving our Faculties a right spiritual Supernatural Disposition and fitness for the Act of Believing this Holy Principle concurs to the producing of the Act of Faith and so must be in Order before it and then the Act it self of Faith which is an Holy Act must be in order before Justification Therefore it is utterly false that there can be no Holiness at all in any kind or degree before Faith and Justification by Faith since before actual Faith there is the Holy Seed and Principle both of Faith and Repentance and of other Graces too and in order of Nature there is an Holy actual Faith before Justification and this is a Truth so clear that our Author himself sometimes could see it as Pag. 21. Where he says that no man can do any thing that is good till Gospel Grace renew him and make him first a good man this is very true if it be rightly understood thus No man can do any thing that is spiritually supernaturally and savingly good till Gospel Grace that is internal special Grace renew him and make him first a
Essential to the very first Act of justifying Faith whereby we first receive Christ and rely on him for Justification and Salvation He distinguisheth indeed as our Author doth between the Direct and Reflex Act of Faith and two things he hath there concerning the Reflex Act. 1. He doubts whether it be properly an Act of Faith at all and rather thinks that it is an Act of Spiritual sense and feeling of what is within our selves Page 172. 2. He positively affirms that the assurance we get by the Reflex Act of Faith or of Spiritual sense comes after Justification and is not of the Essence of that Faith whereby we are justified and saved and that many precious Saints are without it and subject to many doubts that are contrary to it so that they may not know at all that it shall go well with them at the day of Judgment 10th Direction Page 172 173. Then for the Direct Act of Faith he saith and so doth our Author after him that it is two-fold The 1st Direct Act of Faith is that whereby we Believe the Truth of the Gospel The 2d Is that whereby we believe on Christ as promised freely to us in the Gospel for our Salvation By the 1st Act Faith receiveth the means wherein Christ is conveyed to us By the 2d It receiveth Christ himself and his Salvation in the means And both these Acts must be performed heartily with an unfeigned Love to the Truth and a desire of Christ and his Salvation above all things This is our Spiritual Appetite which is necessary for our eating and drinking Christ the food of Life as a natural Appetitite is for bodily nourishment We must receive the love of the Truth by relishing the goodness and excellency of it and this love must be to every part of Christs Salvation to Holiness as well as to the Forgivenness of sins The former of these Acts doth not immediately unite to Christ because it is terminated only on the means of conveyance the Gospel yet it is a saving Act if it be rightly performed because it inclineth and disposeth the Soul to the latter Act whereby Christ himself is immediately received into the heart He that believeth the Gospel with hearty love and likeing as the most excellent Truth will certainly with the like heartiness believe on Christ for his Salvation Psal 9.10 Therefore in the Scripture saving Faith is sometimes described by the former of these Acts as if it were a meer believing the Gospel Sometimes by the latter as a believing on Christ or in Christ Rom. 10.9 10 11. 1 John 5.1 13. Then he saith that This Second Principal Act of Faith in Christ includeth believing on God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and that it is the same thing with trusting in God 4th Direction page 61 62 63. And elsewhere he affirms that the Direct Acts of Faith include love Now touching these Direct Acts of Faith we acknowledge that there is an Assurance Essential to the first of them whereby we believe the promises of the Gospel and that assurance is two fold Absolute and Conditional First By our Faith of the Gospel we are Absolutely sure that God according to his promise doth give Christ and Justification and Salvation through him unto all true penitent Believers 2. By our Faith of the Gospel we are Conditionally sure that if we are true penitent Believers God according to his promise doth give Christ and Justification and Salvation through him unto us in particular For the Conditional promises of the Gospel being general to all penitent Believers they comprehend all the Particulars of the same kind and therefore if we believe with an absolute assurance that God justifies and saves through Christ all penitent Believers we must by necessary consequence believe at the same time with a conditional assurance that God justifies and will save us through Christ if we be true penitent Believers This conditional assurance with respect to our selves upon supposition of our being true penitent Believers is necessarily included in the former absolute Assurance that God for Christs sake justifies and saves all true penitent Believers Then for the second Act of justifying Faith whereby we believe on Christ himself with fiducial consent according to the Gospel we freely grant that it also is accompanied with assurance but mark it not with an assurance that is Essential to it self and Essentially included in it self but with the assurance the double assurance of the first assenting Act which though it go before yet it continues and accompanies the second Act of fiducial consent And for this reason we approve of that assertion of Mr. Marshals in the 179 page of his Book That believing on Christ for Salvation as freely promised to us must needs include a dependance on Christ with a perswasion that Salvation shall be freely given as it is freely promised to us Thus he And we subsume But it is freely promised to us only on Condition that we through Grace are true penitent Believers as we before proved at large Therefore the perswasion or assurance of it which accompanies our dependance on Christ by the Second Act of Faith is a Conditional perswasion or assurance as it concerns our selves and our own Salvation in particular Yet afterwards when by Reflex Acts of Faith and self Examination we clearly perceive through the speciall assistance of the Holy Spirit that we are indeed true penitent Believers then our assurance becomes absolute and we are absolutely perswaded and assured that Christ is ours and that God is our God in Christ and that through Christ we are justified and shall be saved This is all the assurance that the Scriptures hold forth to us as attainable in this life by the ordinary assistance of Gods Spirit and Grace and if any good Men have at any time by extraordinary favour and priviledge attained to any other or more assurance they had best keep it to themselves and be very humble under it and thankful to God for it and they should not affirm it to be Absolutely and Essentially necessary to the Fiducially Consenting Act of justifying saving Faith and by that means condemn all who have not that sort of assurance as having yet no justifying saving Faith but as being still in a state of nature and Children of Wrath and of the Devil It were easy to shew if we had time and room for it here that all the reasons Scriptures and Examples which Mr. Marshal brings to prove That an absolute assurance that Christ is now ours that our sins are now pardoned that we are justified and shall be eternally saved is absolutely and essentially necessary to the direct Act of justifying Faith whereby we first receive Christ and trust on him for Justification and Salvation prove no such thing The utmost that they prove is that the foresaid assurances which we willingly admit are partly antecedent to and concomitant with and partly consequent upon the Direct Act of Faith
his trust shall be as a Spiders Web. He shall lean upon it but it shall not stand he shall hold it fast but it shall not endure Job 8.13 14 15. Our Author instanceth in that Bloody Persecutor Stephen Gardiner and in another Papist whom he commends as an Ingenious Balaamite who confessed that it is best for men at their Doath to renounce their own Merits and to trust then to be saved only by the Merits of Christ But what is that to the purpose Doth that make any thing against us or our Doctrine for doth not our Author know well enough that our Doctrine is that always both in Life and at Death men should abhor all Thoughts of Meriting any good at the Hands of God by their own Works and that they should trust throughout their whole Life to be saved by the alone Merits of Christ as much as at their Death was it not then wisâ—ly done of our Author to Object against us and our Doctrine the Example of Gardiner and such Papists who after they have publickly professed as a main Point of their Religion to trust to their own Merits and after they have led a wicked Life all their Days at last when they come to die think it best to renounce all Confidence in their own Merits and flatter themselves with the Hopes of being pardoned without a particular practical Repentance and of being saved without Reformation by trusting only to the Merits of Christ can 〈◊〉 Author shew from the Terms of the New Covenant that such self-condemned hypocrites have any sure ground of obtaining the Pardon of their Sins and Salvation of their Souls meerly because they do presumptuo 〈…〉 that God will pardon and save them for the Merits of Christ Is there any place in Scripture that gives us the least Intimation that ever God ordained that Christs Merits should be a Sanctuary for Rogues and Hypocrites whilest they remain such and that if they flee into it by a Presumptuous Confidence they shall be pardoned before they repent and be saved from Gods Sin-revenging Justice before there be any real Holy Change wrought in them It seems by some Passages in our Authors Letter that this is the thing which he drives at and that this is his way of Preaching the Gospel But alas most People need not Ministers to teach them this Doctrine for the Devil and their own deceitful wicked Hearts will teach them this lesson and they are but too apt of themselves to learn it For as Mr. Book of Martyrs Vol. 2. p. 192. Col. 1. Fox saith Commonly it is seen that worldly Epicures and secure Mammonists to whom the Doctrine of the Law doth properly appertain do receive and apply to themselves most principally the sweet Promises of the Gospel whereby it comes to pass that many do rejoice where they should mourn Let our Author look to it that he be not found guilty of hardning such People in their presumptuous way of living and dying by telling the World that Men are justified by the Merits of Christ without any previous Condition required of them and that they are pardoned before they sincerely repent and are accepted as Righteous through the Righteousness of Christ imputed to them before any real change or Holy Qualification be wrought in them And if he be wise let him no more say that we teach People to expect to be justified from their Sins by and for their own Righteousness which is a thing that as we will not stand to at Death so we do not stand for it but against it in our Life and now declare to the World that it is a notorious falshood and an abominable Calumny Fifth Calumny HIS Fifth Calumny is that there are many Ministers who in compliance with natural Men patch up and frame a Gospel that is more suited to and taking with and more easily understood by them than the true Gospel of Christ is And again that Divines plead that same Cause that we daily find the Devil pleading in the Hearts of all natural Men. This is to be seen in the 20th and 32. Pages of the Letter Whom our Author means by those many Ministers and Divines who do this abominable thing we do not certainly know but this we know that if he means us as he seems to do almost throughout the whole Letter what he saith is most false and injurious and deserves no other Answer than such as Michael the Archangel gave the Devil when Contending and Disputing with him about the Body of Moses he said The Lord rebuke thee Yet we do not desire that the Lord should rebuke this false Accuser as he rebukes the Devil in purely vindictive Wrath but as he rebukes his disobedient Children in Corrective Justice tempered with Fatherly Love Sixth Calumny HIS Sixth Calumny is to be seen in Page the 23d of the Letter where it is implied that we say 1. That the Sanction of the Holy Law of God is repealed so that no Man is now under it either to be condemned for breaking it or to be saved by keeping it 2. Thâ—t it doth not now require perfect Holiness 3. That we have much kindness for true Antinomians in Practice Some late Writers of our Authors way have expresly charged us with some of these things but our Author is here somewhat more modest and wary and only implies and insinuates that we say and do these things But however wary he be in the manner of expressing his Thoughts yet that will not excuse him from the Sin of Calumny if he means us as he plainly seems to do and if the things he charges upon us be manifestly false as they certainly are And our Author might have known it for a leading Man amongst those who are said to be for the Middle-way did many Years ago expresly refute the two foresaid Opinions which are now falsely charged upon us as is to be seen in Mr. Trumans Endeavour to rectifie some prevailing Opinions contrary to the Doctrine of the Church of England Pag. 5 6 7 8 9 11 12 13. Be it known then unto all men That 1. we do not say nor ever did say that the Sanction of the Moral Law is repealed so that no man is now under it either to be condemned for breaking it or to be saved by keeping it 2. We do not say nor ever did say that the Moral Law doth not now require perfect holiness On the contrary we confess with our mouths and declare to the World what we have ever believed and do still believe with our hearts 1. That the Moral Law doth now require of all men most perfect holiness and sinless obedience 2. That all Unconverted Impenitent Unbelievers whilst they continue such are under the penal Sanction of the Moral Law they are under its Curse and Condemnation John 3.18 He that believeth not is condemned already He is already condemned in Law though the Laws condemnatory Sentence is not yet executed upon him But as many