Souls whose lot it is to be led into the Ditch by such blind guides But good Sir how doth it appear that our answer is wrong and yours only is right Why may not both be right and why must not both be right and both concur to make up one entire answer and full advice to a wicked man who under Conviction comes and asks Ministers what he must do to be saved If you had behaved your self in this matter like a fair adversary or an honest Man you had given in our answer fully without curtailing it for you know in your conscience that in such a case our full Answer and Advice to a Man is that he must do both he must both believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and repent of mourn for and turn from his Sins The Conscience of Truth extorted this Confession from you in your appendix page 41. as we observed before That your hottest opposers would freely tell such a man that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin Why did not you then if you be an honest man give in our full answer and refute it if you thought it was wrong If you say that Paul did not give such a full answer and advice to the Goaler Acts 16.30 31. but bid him believe only in the Lord Jesus Christ and thereupon promised him Salvation without advising him to repent and turn from his sins We answer It is true Paul bid the Goaler believe in the Lord Jesus Christ but it is utterly false that he bid him only believe there is no such exclusive particle in the Text and though the Sacred Historian Luke mention not expresly that Paul bid the Goaler repent yet it doth by no means follow that because Luke doth not say expresly that Paul bid the Goaler repent therefore he did not bid him for it was never Lukes intention to set down in his History every Word or Sentence which Paul at any time spoke to the People Nay in the very next verse Acts 16.32 Luke says that Paul and Silas spake unto the Goaler the Word of the Lord and to all that were in his house but he doth not tell us particularly what that Word was Nor doth our Authour know nor can he with a good Conscience say that it was not an Advice and Exhortation to repent to mourn for his known sins and to leave and loath them assuring him that thereupon God would have mercy on him and pardon his sins and save his Soul for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake If our Authour say that as he cannot be sure of the negative that he did not so we cannot be sure of the affirmative that he did preach the necessity of Repentance to the Goaler We answer that we can prove and do thus prove the affirmative 1. Because it was a part of the Apostles Commission to preach Repentance unto all People as well as Faith in Christ for which see Mark 16.15 16. compared with Luke 24.47 48. But Paul was an Apostle therefore he acted according to the Apostolical Commission 2. Because Paul baptized or caused the Goaler to be baptized and it was necessary that Repentance should be preached to him and professed by him before such an one as he were admitted to Baptisme 3. Because Paul himself tells us as his words are recorded by the Sacred Historian Luke that it was his common Practice to preach Repentance as well as Faith unto all those whom he Converted or intended and endeavoured to convert unto the Christian Religion Thus did he at Lystra Acts 14.15 He exhorted the people to turn from their vanities unto the living God which made Heaven and Earth c. Thus also at Athens Acts 17.30 31. He commanded them all from the Lord to repent and perswaded them so to do by a most powerful Motive and Argument taken from God's being Rector and Judge of the World and from his having appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by Jesus Christ and will then justifie or condemn reward or punish every man according to their works and this he assured them of by an Argument taken from Christ's Resurrection from the dead Again in Acts 20.21 he tells us That Repentance towards God and Faith towards our Lord Jesus were the sum and substance of his Sermons these were the two subjects that he â—ordinarily preached upon both to Jews and Gentiles And lastly in Acts 26.20 22 23. we read that he declared openly to Ring Agrippa that from the first time he was miraculously called to be an Apostle his business had been to preach Repentance and Faith From all which we conclude that we have good reason to believe and assert the affirmative that Paul did not preach Faith only but that he preached Repentance also to the Goaler and withal we challenge and defie our Authour to prove the Negative that Paul preached not the necessity of Repentance but of Faith only in order to his Salvation But saith our Authour page 15. No wit or art of man will ever find a crack or flaw in or devise another or a better answer than Pauls to the Goaler believe in the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved We Reply It is far from the thoughts of any of us or of any good Christian to find fault with or to go about to mend Paul's Answer to the Goalers question all that we say is that his whole answer is not set down expresly by the Historian Luke and we have proved it A truer Answer cannot indeed be given than it was but a fuller may be given and we have proved it was given by Paul though not particularly expressed by Luke This may satisfie any reasonable Man for we are sure it cannot be confuted Yet for the farther satisfaction of all Men if possible we will here transeribe and set down a passage of Mr. Venning a famous Congregational Minister once in this City It is in his Sermon called the way to true happyness preached before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen January 28. 1654 5 on Matth. 7.21 page 10 11 12. I ground it further saith he on this Rule which is an undeniable one and for not attending whereunto we have had so many needless groundless and unprofitable disputes in the World The Rule is this That the Scripture doth often yea very usually put particular Duties for all Religion and therefore annexeth Salvation to distinct Graces Sometimes it is he that believeth shall be saved Elsewhere he that calleth upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved Here it is He that doth the will of God Now all these and the like are complex and comprehensive propositions and contain more in them than they make shew of for God speaks much in a little Acts and Duties of Religion being as Moralists speak of their Vertues inter se connexae linked together in a Golden Chain Religion is not this or that piece but the whole which is usually expressed in a word or
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
not so with us at this day But when we look abroad into the World and into the present state of the Reformed Churches at home and abroad and see or hear what lives Men generally lead how they fight against God and against one another against God by transgressing all his holy just and good Laws and by turning his Grace into Lasciviousness And against one another by injustice and uncharitableness by malice and envy by lying and slandering c. We cannot but fear that God is against us and will fight against us as we are against him Levit. 26.23 24. and fight against him And it greatly encreases our fear to see that those who pretend to greatest seriousness in Religion have lately fallen out and have been quarrelling together about such a practical point of Religion as that is Whether true Repentance is necessary before we can obtain from God the pardon of our sins through the alone satisfaction and Merits of Christ When God is loudly calling us to Repentance for obtaining the pardon of our sins and we should all be found in the practice of Repentance in order to that end we are like Mad-men fallen to disputing Whether our Repentance be necessary before we are pardoned when we are pardoned or after we are pardoned And there are those amongst us who have raised a great clamour against such honest and faithful Ministers of Christ as dare tell and dare not but tell the People that they must truly repent of their sins before they can obtain the pardon of them although at the same time they assure the people from the Lord that God for Christs sake will most certainly pardon them immediately after they have repented This is cried out against as dangerous Doctrine by a sort of Religious People amongst us who will have it that Repentance is only necessary after God hath pardoned us but not before And though to please these People some Ministers have openly granted That Repentance and pardon of Sin are simultaneous in time that is they are not one before another for any space of time but are both together only Repentance is first in order of Nature by the grace thereof to dispose and prepare us for receiving our Pardon by Faith in Christs Blood Yet this will not give them content but they will have their Pardon before Repentance and the Ministers who preach or write otherwise shall be proclaimed to be Antichristian Arminian or any thing that Passion suggests This we say greatly encreaseth our fears for to us it seems evident that the hand of Joab is in this matter that is plainly that Satan has a wicked design by this means to keep the People from Repentance and so from obtaining the pardon of their sins that the desolating Judgments of God may come upon the Nation and that we may be all destroyed together And that Satan may not be discovered he hath artificially disguised himself and appears on the Stage transformed into an Angel of Light pleading for the exaltation of the glorious riches of free grace in the Justification of Sinners by the Blood of Christ without all works of any Law whatsoever and with great appearance of Zeal asserting That the freeness of Gods Grace in the Justification of Sinners by Faith in the Blood Merits and satisfaction of Christ cannot possibly be maintained unless it be denyed that true Repentance is antecedently necessary to our obtaining the pardon of our Sins It seems to us that this is Satans Plot against us and that he hath thus disguised himself the better to carry it on and the more effectually to compass his design upon us And this is the more probable because we find that at the beginning of the Reformation Satan plaid the same game when he perceived that by our first Reformers preaching up Justification by Faith only and not by Works many People were induced to separate from the Church of Rome and embrace the Reformation he endeavoured to make them believe that since Sinners are Justified and Pardoned by Faith only and not by Works then there was no necessity that they should repent of their Sins in order to their obtaining the Pardon of them And thus he thought that though they had got their feet loosed out of one of his Snares yet he should still keep them fast in another and lead them Captive at his will That this is so indeed and no Fiction of ours is manifest from the Testimony of Bishop Hooper that blessed faithful and valiant Martyr of Christ who in the Reign of Queen Mary was burnt alive for the Protestant Religion in a slow Fire about the space of three quarters of an hour and sealed the Truth of the Gospel with his blood This Man of God in a Book of his Intituled A Declaration of Christ and his Office Printed at Zurich in the Year 1547. Chap. VII th handling the point of Justification saith This is certain and too true Let the whole Gospel be preached unto the World as it ought to be Repentance and a vertuous Life with Faith as God preached the Gospel unto Adam in Paradise Noah Abraham Moses Isaiah saying Vae Genti Peccatrici c. Isa 1.4 c John the Baptist repent ye for the kingdom of heaven is at hand As Christ did Repent and believe the Gospel Mark 1. and then of an hundred that come to the Gospel there would not come one When they hear sole or only faith and the mercy of God to justify and that they may eat all ments at all times with thanksgiving they embrace that Gospel with all joy and willing heart And what is he that would not receive this Gospel the flesh it self were there no immortal soul in it would receive this Gospel because it promiseth aid help and consolation without Works But now speak of the other part of the Gospel as Paul teacheth Rom. 8.13 If ye live after the flesh ye shall dye And as he prescribeth the life of a Justified man in the same Epistle Chap. 12 13 14 15 16. And Christ Mat. 10. And Peter in the 2 Epistle and 1 Chap. This part of the Gospel is not so pleasant therefore Men take the first liberty c. Thus that blessed Saint who feared neither Man nor Devil but in the true faith and fear of God set himself with a Divine courage and holy boldness to oppose the Devil and all his Instruments to destroy his Kingdome in the World and on the contrary to exalt the Name and Glory of God and to set up Christs Spiritual Kingdom in the hearts and lives of Men. Would to God! that we had many Hoopers amongst us at this day who saith again in the same Chapter not far from the beginning Nothing maketh the cause wherefore this mercy to wit of Justification should be given saving only the death of Christ which is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the only sufficient Price and Gage for sin And although it be necessary and
pleased him This Proposition is self-evident for it is of the very Essence of Free-will in God the First and Freest Agent that in all external temporal things which fall under his Free-will he might have done them or not have done them he might have done them thus as he doth them or he might have done them otherwise than he hath done if he had pleased But antecedently to his free Purpose and Decree the whole ordering of the Covenant of Grace and of its terms and receptive Condition depended upon God's Free-will and Soveraign Pleasure Hence the Gospel is called the Mystery of God's Will and the Revelation of the Gospel unto us is said to be the making known unto us the Mystery of his Will according to his Good Pleasure which he hath purposed in himself Eph. 1.9 Now if the whole Mystery of the Covenant of Grace depended on God's Free-will then the ordaining of this or that to be the receptive Condition of the Covenant depended on his Will also and so antecedently to the free Purpose of his Will there was no natural necessity that Faith alone and no other thing should be the receptive Condition of the Covenant 2. It is not yet past Dispute amongst Divines Whether antecedently to God's free Purpose and Decree to save us by the Satisfaction and Merits of Christ alone he might not have freely purposed and decreed to have pardoned and saved us some other way Amongst our Reformed Divines Calvin Twiss and Rutherford and others were of this Opinion yea even Dr. Owen himself was once of this Opinion though afterwards he changed his mind in that as he did in other things witness what he wrote in his Book called The Death of Death in the Death of Christ Or A Treatise of Redemption c. Book II. Chap. II. Page 57. The Foundation of this whole Assertion seems to me to be false and erroneous viz that God could not have Mercy on Mankind unless satisfaction were made by his Son It is true indeed supposing the Decree Purpose and Constitution of God that so it should be that so he would manifest his Glory by the way of vindicative Justice it was impossible that it should otherwise be for with the Lord there is neither change nor shadow of turning Lam. 1.18 1 Sam. 15.29 But to assert positively that absolutely and antecedently to his Constitution he could not have done it is to me an unwritten Tradition the Scripture affirming no such thing neither can it be gathered from thence in any good consequence if any one shall deny this we will try what the Lord will enable us to say unto it and in the mean time rest contented in that of Augustin though other ways of saving us were not wanting to his Infinite Wisdome yet certainly the way which he did proceed in was the most convenient because we find he proceeded therein Thus Dr. Owen in that Book and though he unsaid this again and embraced that Opinion which he then called an unwritten Tradition yet there are other Learned Divines of that same Opinion at this Day Mistake us not for we do not say that we are of it but that some are and that the matter is not yet past dispute And the Consequence which we infer is undeniable that if God antecedently to his Constitution and Degree could have pardoned and saved us some other way without the Satisfaction and Merits of Christ then surely he could have offered and promised us Pardon and Salwation without the Condition of Faith in Christ and upon what other Condition he pleafed 3. Though we grant that upon supposition that God would pardon our Sins and save our Souls it did not consist with the Glory of his Justice and Honour of his Law and Government to do it without Satisfaction for the Offence we had given and the Dishonour we had done him by our Sins and therefore it was necessary not onely from the free purpose of God's Will but also from the nature of his vindictive governing Justice that Christ by suffering in our stead should satisfie his Justice for our Sins yet doth it not follow at all by any natural necessity arising immediately from the essential nature of Faith without any appointment and constitution of God's Will that Faith because it is of a receptive nature and nothing else shall be the Condition upon the performance whereof Christ with his Satisfaction and Merits shall be not only offered but given unto us For as Dr. Owen saith very well in his little Book of the Trinity and Satisfaction of Christ pag. 208. The satisfaction made for Sin being not made by the Sinner himself there must of necessity be a Rule Order and Law-constitution how the Sinner may come to be interested in it and made Partaker of it for the consequent of the freedome of one by the suffering of another is not matural or necessary but must proceed and arise from a Law-constitution Compact and Agreement Now the way constituted and appointed is that of Faith or believing as explained in the Scripture Thus Dr. Owen To which we add that the Scripture explains it thus Gal. 5.6 That in Christ Jesus neither Circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth any thing but Faith which worketh by Love From this Passage of Dr. Owen and the Argument contained in it it is most evident that it doth not arise immediately and necessarily from the receptive nature of Faith that it is the Condition of the Offer and Promise but from the Will of God constituting and appointing it to be the Condition Faith's receptive apprehensive nature is but a remote Reason of its Conditionality and doth but make it fit to be the Condition if God please to make it so And it is God's Will and Law-constitution onely which is the nearest and formal Reason of its Conditionality and which doth immediately and formally make it to be the Condition of the Covenant Joh. 6.40 This is no new notion of ours we find it long agoe before many of us were born Walaeus Doctor and Professor of Divinity in Leyden in his Enchiridion Religionis Reformatae pag. 112. said that Fides nos Justificat sed relativè considerata quia haec est Voluntas Dei ut qui credit in Christum ejus meriti fiat Particeps Faith Justifies us but relatively considered because this is the Will of God that he who believes in Christ shall be made Partaker of his Merit And not onely Mr. Baxter but Cartwright also pag. 179. of his Book against Baxter agrees with him in acknowledging this Truth his Words are these The Reason why Christs Righteousness cannot Justifie except it be apprehended by Faith is this That God doth require Faith of us Faith I say apprehending Christ and his Righteousness believe in the Lord Jesus Christ that so we may be Justified Gods Will is properly the cause yet there is a congruity in the thing it self an aptitude you grant in the nature of Faith It is of an
but adhering to sin and the enjoyment of a Holy God are utterly inconsistent And can you be happy without happyness or by retaining that which is inconsistent with it So that you see there is an utter impossibility that Salvation should be had but upon these terms There is an inconsistency a plain contradiction in any other supposition It is an impossibility not only to us but to the Almighty and therefore the terms are as free and gracious as possibly could be Ommpotent Grace it self could not make them more gracious thus Mr. Clarkson Now let any Body of common understanding and honesty read and consider this passage and they will plainly see that he speaks here of Repentance and of Repentance not only as it denotes a Holy fruitful Life and is the condition of consummate Salvation and Glorification but also as it denotes the Souls first turning from sin and returning to God and is the disposing preparing Condition of our first obtaining the Pardon of our Sins and Justification and Reconciliation of our Persons And in both respects he holds Repentance to be a Condition indispensably necessary not only from the free Constitution and Ordination of God but also from the very nature of the thing so that God himself cannot dispense with it Now if this Doctrine of Mr. Clarkson's be true and good then let the World judge whether that Doctrine be not false and pernicious which our Authour delivers in the 30 page of his Letter That a real Change and Repentance is not antecedently necessary to Justification and Pardon of sin This indeed we affirm to be necessary and he finds fault with us for it and makes it to be a part of our New Scheme of Divinity into which he foists sincere Obedience as if that also were a part of our new Scheme That sincere Obedience is antecedently necessary to Justification But this is his calumny that we hold sincere Obedience distinct from Faith and Repentance to be antecedently necessary to Justification all that know us and our Doctrine know this to be false and the contrary to be true that in our Judgment sincere Obedience is not necessary before but after our Justification and before our Glorisication As for a real Change and Repentance we do indeed believe and preach that they are necessary indispensably necessary in order of Nature at least before our Justification and pardon of sin for a real change is wrought in us by effectual calling and that is certainly before Justification Rom. 8.30 And Repentance is the dispositive condition of Justification and the means to be used by us for obtaining the pardon of our sins which is an essential part of Justification But so it is that the condition is in order of Nature before the thing conditionate or the thing promised upon condition as also the means is in execution before the end therefore Repentance which is the Condition and Means is in order of Nature before Justification which is the thing conditionate and the end This we proved before both by Scripture and Reason and so doth Mr. Clarkson prove it in the passage we have now quoted by two pertinent Scriptures Prov. 28.13 He that covereth his sins shall not prosper but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy and Isa 55.7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and unto our God for he will abundantly pardon Surely one would guess by this that Mr. Clarkson in his time was one of the Masters in our Israel with whom our Authour finds fault page 15 of his Letter for saying to a Man who asks them What he must do to be saved that he must repent and mourn for his known sins and leave and loath them and God will have mercy on him And most certainly if ever there were any such Masters in our Israel Mr. Clarkson was one of them for according to his Principles he must in that case have given a Man that answer for he strongly asserts that God Almighty cannot have Mercy upon and pardon a wicked Man unless he repent mourn for his known sins leave and loath them But it would seem our Authour is such a Crafts-Master that he can teach a wicked Man how to obtain the Mercy of God in the pardon of his sins before and without repenting of mourning for leaving and loathing of them for he blames us for telling a wicked Man who comes to us for advice what he must do to be saved that he must repent mourn for and turn from his sins and God will have mercy on him and pardon him now if this be bad Advice then it plainly follows that if the same wicked Man go to our Authour and if he can give him better advice he must shew him a way to obtain God's mercy in pardoning his sins and saving his Soul before and without his repenting of mourning for and turning from his sins But how can our Authour effect this how can he teach a wicked Man to be saved from Sin and Wrath without Repentance Why he pretends this is easily done by giving the Man that same advice which Paul and Silas in Acts 16.30 31. gave unto the Goaler when he asked them what he should do to be saved And they said to him Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house This he says is an old Answer so old that with many it seems to be out of date page 14 and it is the right Answer For says he page 15 Why should not the right Answer be given believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved By this it is evident that he sets these two Answers in opposition the one to the other as inconsistent and makes Repent and God will have mercy on you to be the wrong Answer And Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved to be the right Answer And now is not he a wise Master in our Israel who talks thus If he had only talkt thus to his silly Proselytes in a private corner though we had been credibly informed of it we should not have easily believed it or if the evidence had been such as we could not choose but believe it yet we should not have wondred so much at the matter but that he should appear in print with such stuff that he should appear on the Theatre of the World in the face of the Sun and tell a knowing wise People that a wicked man who asks Ministers what he must do to be saved must not be taught to repent of his sins but to believe in Christ that he may be saved as if these two things were inconsistent the one being right and the other wrong It cannot but move us to admiration of his strange confidence to an indignation at his gross ignorance or vile hypocrisie and to a tender compassion towards those poor
be pardoned and saved for the sake of Christ who shed his most precious Blood for the remission of sins 3. The very same Words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are used in this same sense by Origen in his Third Book against Celsus Cambridge Edition pag. 154. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God grants the Grace of Repentance i. e. the Gracious Blessing and Priviledge which is obtained by Repentance to wit pardon of sin This is and must be the sense of Origen's Words there and they can have no other For Origen affirms there in opposition to the Calumny of Celsus as shall be shewed by and by that Men must first be truly penitent they must be inwardly changed and converted from Evil to Good before God be merciful to them so as to pardon their sins And when they are so wrought upon as to be really changed converted and become truly penitent then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God grants them the Grace of Repentance that is the pardon of their sins which is the gracious Benefit annexed to Repentance and promised to all upon Condition that they truly repent To put another sense on Origen's Words would be to make Non-sense of them and to make him say That if Men be first truly penitent God will afterwards give them Grace whereby they may be or are made truly penitent Origen was not such a filly Man as to write thus foolishly for the Christian Religion against a learned and malitious Heathen 4. Clement and Origen's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Grace of Repentance is the same thing with Tertullian's Fructus Paenitentiae Fruit of Repentance but Tertullian's Fruit of Repentance is pardon of sin for so he writes Lib. de Pudicitiâ Cap. 10. Ita cessatio delicti radiae est veniae ut venia sit paenitentiae fructus Ceasing from sin is so the root of pardon that pardon is the fruit of repentance 5. And Lastly the Words-which immediately follow in Clement shew this to be his meaning for he adds Let us take a diligent view of all Generations and learn that in every Generation the Lord hath given place of Repentance to such as were willing to turn unto him Noah preached Repentance and they that obeyed were saved Jonah preached Destruction to the Ninivites but they repenting them of their sins appeased God by their humble Supplications and were preserved These Words plainly shew that by saying that through the Blood of Christ shed for our Salvation God hath offered the Grace of Repentance to the whole World Clement meant that God hath admitted all Men to Repentance as the way and means to obtain Pardon and hath promised and according to his Promise doth give them Pardon for Christ's sake upon their Repentance But it may be some will Object that yet the same Clement in the same First Epistle to the Corinthians saith pag. 67. They the Holy Men before and under the Law were all Glorified and made Great not by themselves or by their own Works or by the just Actions which they did but by his Will So we Christians then being called in Christ Jesus by his Will are not justified by our selves nor by our own wisdome or knowledge or piety or by the works which we have done in holiness of heart but by Faith whereby the Almighty God hath Justified all Men from the beginning of the World to whom he Glory for ever and ever Amen We Answer that this makes nothing against us for we have believed we do and through Grace will always believe that God Justisies us by Faith and not by any Works distinct from Faith in the sense before explained that is that God of his own Gracious Will and Pleasure hath ordained Faith to be the only receptive applicative Condition Means or federal moral Instrument of Justification upon our performing of which Condition or using of which Means and Instrument God doth freely justifie us for the sake of Christ's satissactory meritorious Righteousness onely We do indeed with Clement and with the Holy Prophets and Apostles believe that sincere Repentance is pre-required as a dispositive Condition to our obtaining of Justification yet we do not say any more than they did that we are Justified by Repentance but together with them we say that we are Justified by Faith only because God hath appointed Faith onely to that Office of being the receptive Condition and inward applicative Means of Justifiaation through Christ's Blood Clemeut's saying that God Justifies us by Faith and not by Works must undoubtedly be understood in this sense as appears by what we have quoted and shall now further quote out of him Pag. 102. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Let us speedily remove this evil from among us and let us fall down before the Lord humbly beseeching him with Tears that being become favourable he would be reconciled unto us By this Passage we see that Clement held as we do that repenting of mourning for and turning from our known sins and humble earnest Prayer to God through Christ is a means indispensably necessary to be used by us before we can have ground to hope that God will have mercy on us in pardoning our sins And as he held Faith and Repentance together to be indispensably necessary to the obtaining of Justification and pardon of sin so he held sincere Obedience in a course of holy living to be indispensably necessary to the obtaining of Glorification and Eternal Salvation For thus he writes pag. 61 62. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Since therefore all things are both seen and heard by him let us fear him and forsake all foul desires of evil Actions that so we may be protected by his Mercy from those Judgments which are to come For whither can any one of us flee from his powerful Hand And what World will entertain any of them who fall off from him or turn Renegado's Let us come unto him therefore in the holiness of our Souls lifting up unto him pure and undefiled hands loving this our gentle and merciful Father who hath made us unto himself the portion of his election And pag. 73. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Let us therefore earnestly strive to be sound in the number of them that wait on him that so we may be made Partakers of those Gifts which are promised But Beloved how shall this be done If our Thoughts be stedfastly fixed upon God by Faith if we enquire after those things which are well-pleasing and acceptable unto him if we do those things which are agreeable to his pure and irreproveable will and follow the way of Truth Casting away from us all injustice and iniquity covetousness contentions malignities and deceits whisperings and backbitings hatred of God pride and boasting vain-glory and ambition for they that do these things are abominable unto God and not onely the Doers thereof but they also which consent thereunto For the Scripture saith c. As in Psalm 50. which Clement quotes from v. 16.
this Father Why even God for none is so much a Father as he none so affectionate as he Thorefore he shall receive thee his Son although thou hast prodigally spent that which thou hadst received from him although thou returnest naked yet he will receive thee because thou art returned And he will rejoyce more in thy return than in another mans sobriety Sed si poeniteat ex animo but it is on condition that thou repent from thy heart that thou compare thy hunger-starved condition with the plenty of thy Fathers hired Servants that thou forsake the swine those unclean beasts that thou come back to thy Father though he be offended with thee saying Father I have sinned nor am I worthy to be now called thine By this we plainly see that Tertullian preached the necessity of sincere Repentance antecedently to the obtaining pardon of sin Next to Tertullian we alledge blessed Cyprian for a Witness of the same Truth Thus then he writes Dominus loquitur c. Operum Cypr. Tom. 1. Epist 18. edit Colon. Agrip. An. 1617. The Lord speaketh and saith to whom shall I look but to him that is humble and still and trembleth at my words Seeing we ought to be all such they then much more ought to be such whose Duty it is to endeavour that after a grievous fall they may obtain God's favour and mercy by true Repentance and great humility In his 52 Epistle to Antonianus page 59. Dominus in Evangelio c. The Lord in the Gospel setting forth the goodness and kind affection of God the Father saith What man is there of you who if his Son ask of him bread will give him a stone Or if he ask a fish will give him a Serpent If ye then who are evil know how to give good gifts unto your Children how much more shall your heavenly Father give good things to them that ask him The Lord here makes a comparison between a Carnal Father or a Father of the Flesh and the Eternal and large goodness and kindness of God the Father Now if it be so that this evil sinful Father upon Earth who hath been grievously offended by his sinful and wicked Son yet if afterwards he see him reformed and having forsaken the sins of his former Life and being by the sorrow of Repentance amended and changed to sober and good manners and to the Discipline of Innocency or to a Holy course of Life he both rejoyceth and is glad and having received him whom he formerly had cast off he embraces him with the desire of a Fatherly Joy How much-more doth that One and True Father who is Good Merciful and Kind yea Goodness Mercy and Kindness it self rejoyce in the Repentance of his Children neither doth he threaten wrath to the penitent nor punishment to them that mourn and lament But he rather promiseth them pardon and favour Whence the Lord in the Gospel saith They are blessed who mourn for he that mourns moves compassion Whereas he that is stubborn and proud heaps up to himself the wrath and punishment of the judgment to come And in the same Epistle page 60. Scimâ—s juxtd Divinarâ—m Scripturdrum fidem ductore hortatore ipso Deo ad agendum poenitentiam peccatores redigi veniam atque indulgentiam poenitentibus non denegari We know according to the Faith of the Holy Scriptures God himself being both the Author and Exhorter that Sinners are brought to Repentance and also that forgiveness and favour is not denyed them when they do repent And in his eighth Epistle to the Clergy and People after he had told them that according as it had been revealed and foretold by prophecy the Enemy had got power over them and had raised a terrible Persecution against them because of their Divisions and Contentions their breaking the Lords Commandments and sleepy way of Prayer and after he had most passionately exhorted them to give themselves much to Watching and prayer to earnest frequent fervent Prayer Night and Day and had pressed them thereunto both by precept and example of Christ and his Apostles who spent Days and Nights in Prayer and had likewise encouraged them thereunto by telling them that Christ prayed not for himself and his own sins but for them and for their sins he added as it is in pag. 16. of that Book Quod si pro nobis c. i. e. which if it be so that he the Lord Jesus labours and watches and prays for us and for the pardon of our sins how much the more should we continue in Prayer and Supplication We have Jesus Christ our Lord and God to be Advocate and Intercessour for our Sins if so be or on condition that we repent of our sins past and confessing and being sensible of our Faults whereby we now at this present time offend the Lord we promise that for time to come we will walk in his ways and fear his Commandments By this that we have cited and by much more that we could cite out of Cyprian it may evidently appear that that blessed Martyr of Jesus was far from being of Opinion that God pardons the sins of his People before they repent Indeed to tell People that God pardons their sins before they repent it is falsa misericordia false or deceitful Mercy it is not curare sed si dicere verum volumus occidere the way to cure but if we will speak the Truth to kill Souls in the Judgment of those Ancient Elders and Deacons who wrote the 31. Epistle to Cyprian page 37. and Cyprians himself was of the same Judgment for thus he writes in the same Book pag. 143. Qui peccantem c. That is De lapsis Tom. 2. He who flatters a sinner with sweet and pleasant words gives him occasionto sin and doth not restrain but nourish his sinful lusts Whereas he who at once both reprovesâ— and instructs his brother by giving him more solid and firm counsel he helps him forward in the way to Salvation Whom I love saith the Lord I rebuke and chasten So the Minister of God ought not to deceive the People by cunning and cousening compliances but to provide sound and saving Remedies for their Souls He an ignorant unskilful Chirurgion who is afraid to feel with his hand the swelling is hollowness of wounds and whilst he keeps the corrupt humour close shut up in the secret recesses of the bowels he increases it and makes the wound more dangerous The wound must be opened and incisions must be made and the Malady must be cured with a stronger and sharper Remedy even by cutting off and taking away the flesh that is corrupted and putrified Let the sick Person cry out and complain as he will by reason of the pain which he hath not patience to endure yet afterwards he will thank the Chirurgion when he finds that he is cured Thus Cyprian and sure this is sufficient to shew that he would never have said that it