this Grace he gave in Paul From all which it is evident that the principal Grace of the Covenant or God's putting his Laws in our Hearts which is influential to all the rest can depend on no condition on our Part. These things then being thus premised the Answer which I shall return unto the forementioned Argument is this First That it is evident that unto a full and compleat enjoyment of all the Promises of the Covenant Faith on our part from which Evangelical Repentance is inseparable is required But then it must withal be considered that these also are wrought in us given to us and bestowed upon us by vertue of that Promise and Grace of the Covenant that depends on no Condition in us which renders it wholly free and absolute from the Foundation to the Topstone thereof Whereas therefore you are pleased to tell me That there is something as an Act required of us in point of Duty which is Antecedent to the Benefit of the Promise If you intend hereby that Faith from which Evangelical Repentance and Good Works are inseparable is such a Condition of the Covenant as to be by us performed Antecedently unto the participation of any Grace Mercy or Benefit of it as your words imply for you admit of no Benefit from the Covenant till this be performed It is most untrue and as I have already told you 't is not onely contrary to the express Testimonies of Scripture but destructive of the Nature of the Covenant it self For if so Men must do all those things before they receive the Remission of Sins Yea while they are as yet dead in Trespasses and Sins Yea then must they do them whilst they are under the Law and the Curse of it For so are all Men whose Sins are not pardoned But this is to make Obedience unto the Law and that to be performed by Men whilst under the Curse of it to be a Condition of Gospel Mercy which is to overthrow both the Law and the Gospel How notoriously false and absurd is that Doctrin which asserteth the possibility of Believing without the efficacy of Supernatural Grace saith Mr. Flavell himself p. 395. of his forementioned Book entituled The method of Grace the desire of Self-sufficiency saith he was the ruin of Aadam and the conceit of Self-sufficiency is the ruin of multitudes of his Posterity This Doctrin saith he is not only contradictory to the current stream of Scripture Phil. 2. 13. 1 Jo. 1. 13. with many other Scriptures but it is also contradictory to the common Sense and Experience of Believers yet saith he the Pride of Nature will strive to maintain what Scripture and Experience plainly contradict and overthrow I shall need to make no other Descant upon these words of his but this If that Doctrin is notoriously false and absurd which asserteth the possibility of Believing without the efficacy of Supernatural Grace Then so is that Doctrin which asserteth that Faith is required of us in point of Duty antecedent to the benefit of the Promise Secondly If Jesus Christ fulfilled the Law and purchased Heaven and Happiness for Men as all true Protestants hitherto have taught then nothing can remain but to declare this to them to incline them to believe and accept it and to prescribe in what way and by what means they shall finally come to inherit Eternal Life To affirm therefore that Faith and Repentance are the Conditions of the New Covenant required of us in point of Duty antecedent to any Benefit of the Promise doth necessarily suppose that Christ hath not done all for us nor purchased a right to Life for any but onely made way that they may have it upon certain terms or as some say He hath merited that we might merit But the Conditions of the Covenant are not to be performed by the Head and Members both The Scriptures do assure us That when the fulness of time was come God sent forth his Son made of a Woman made under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law that we might receive the Adoption of Sons Gal. 4. 4. Christ therefore having in our stead performed the Conditions of Life there remains nothing but a Promise and the Obedience of Children as the Fruit and Effect thereof to them that believe in him together with means of obtaining the full possession which here we want Well but as under the Old Covenant Man was bid to do this and live So under this New Covenant he is commanded to Believe and live And as Death was threatened to the failure of Obedience to the Law So it is now threatened to the want of Faith under the Gospel Faith being the Condition on which the consequent Benefits of Life and Salvation are suspended Mar. 16. 15 16. Go preach the Gospel He that believeth and is Baptized shall be saved He that believeth not shall be damned Jo. 3. 36. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting Life and he that believeth not shall not see Life Where Faith seemeth to be put into the room of perfect Obedience and therfore to be as proper a Condition of Life as that was So Rom. 10. 9. That if thou shalt consess with thy Mouth and believe in thine Heart thou shalt be saved Mat. 18. 3. Except ye be converted and become as little Children ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Mar. 11. 26. But if ye forgive not neither will your Heavenly Father forgive you With multitudes more saith Mr. Flavell of such kind of Expressions which are all Conditional Particles inserted into the Grants of Benefits it being not possible to put words into a frame more lively expressive of a Condition than these are Reply First whereas it is supposed that Faith under the Gospel seemeth to be put into the room of Perfect Obedience unto the Law and therefore to be as proper a Condition of Life as that was This cannot be for as much as it is Christ's Perfect Obedience onely which is put into the room of ours to justify and save us as our own should have done had we been able to perform it And so his Sufferings take away the Curse which our Disobedience brought upon us Secondly It must also be observed that God having promised Salvation upon the account of his Sons satisfaction to all that come to him or believe in him Faith is therefore no other than a Coming Believing or Trusting in this Promise of God and so in the Righteousness of Christ exhibited in the Promise whereby it is applied unto us Wherefore Faith is not properly put into the room of Perfect Obedience nor doth it what Perfect Obedience was to do which was to be the Condition of Life For though that was to be our Righteousness under the Law yet it is evident that Faith on the other hand is appointed onely as an Instrument to receive and apply the Righteousness of Christ which is the alone matter of our Justification before God
Purchased But none will say they are therefore Antecedent Conditions of his Title or Interest therein it being plain that Life and Discretion are not Conditions of the Purchase but Qualifications of the Subject necessary to enjoy it Sir you cannot be ignorant of Bernard's famous speech concerning good Works Sunt via Regni non Causa Regnandi They are the way to the Kingdom not the Cause of Reigning I know it is usual with many besides your self to call them Conditions of Life But Dr. Ames gives a Distinction which might fairly end all this Controversy To require Conditions saith he as the Causes of our Right to Life is proper to the Law But to require them as Concomitants or Effects of what God hath Promised and the Actual Bestowing it is agreable to the most mild Kingdom of Grace If it be said God cannot forgive Sin till Man resolves to leave it and so Repentance must be before forgiveness I Answer this is untrue as is evident in Infants And as for the Adult It is true God cannot Pardon Sin and suffer Men to go on in Sin but it is sufficient that he Pardoneth and together with Forgiveness he giveth a Heart to Repent and obey And Faith it self which apprehendeth Pardon doth implicitely contain Repentance and all other Graces Forasmuch as unfeigned flying to and Trusting in the Mercy of God for Pardon and Eternal Life is a turning of the Heart to God and Spiritual things and doth naturally dispose the Heart to use all the Means which God hath Prescribed for the Obtaining of his Kingdom The same Answer is to be given to those Scriptures that require Men to Forgive their Enemies and if they do not Forgive neither shall they be Forgiven For First This doth at the most but shew that Christians must be Merciful and disposed to Forgive as they expect Mercy and Forgiveness from God But it proveth not that a Man is not Forgiven or Justified till he doth actually Forgive all Enemies at least in Purpose much-less that it is a Condition of his being Reconciled to God For Secondly The Scripture supposeth a Man to be first Forgiven and maketh that an Argument to incline him to Forgive others Eph. 4. 32. Forgive one another even as God for Christ's sake forgave you And this is the Scope of that Parable Mat. 18. 23 24 c. The Servant is himself first Forgiven and therefore it was Judged meet that he should Forgive his Fellow Servant vers 32 33. Thus much by way of Answer to your first Argument whereby you pretend to have proved the Conditionality of the New Covenant your second follows Argum. 2. If God's Covenant with Abraham Gen. 12. 2 3. and that Gen. 17. 2 3. were as you say pure Gospel Covenants of Grace and yet in both some things are required as Duties on Abraham's part to make him Partaker of the Benefits of the Promises then the Covenant of Grace is not Absolute but Conditional But so it was in both these Covenants Ergo Reply This Argument I have already dispatcht in my Answer to your third Argument upon the former Head in reference to the Covenant of Circumcision And therefore I need say nothing to it here I shall accordingly proceed to your third Argument whereby you labour to prove the Conditionality of the new Covenant which runs thus Printed Reply pag. 69. Argum. 3. If all the Promises of the Gospel be Absolute and Unconditional requiring no Restipulation from Man then they cannot properly and truly belong to the New Covenant But they do properly and truly belong to the New Covenant Therefore they are not all Absolute and Unconditional Reply That the New Covenant is wholly Free and Absolute I have already Proved by way of Answer to your foregoing Argument there being noCondition at all Annexed thereunto neither in Jeremy nor in the Apostles Recital thereof Heb. 8. In respect whereof your present Argument might more justly and truly have been thus formed If all the Promises of the Gospel do properly and truly belong to the New Covenant then they must needs be absolute and unconditional as that was But they properly and truly belong to the New Covenant therefore they are all absolute and unconditional as that was The sequel of the Major say you is only liable to doubt or denial namely That the absoluteness of all the Promises of the New Testament cuts off their relation to a Covenant You should have said That the Absoluteness of all the Promises of the Gospel cuts off their relation to the New Covenant according to the scope of your forementioned Argument if you had kept close to that And then you must have examined the New Covenant and have compared the Promises of the Gospel therewith But you knew well enough that there are no Conditions annexed to the New Covenant whether in Jer. 31. or in Heb. 8. the consideration whereof it may be startled you off when you came to prove the Sequel of your Major from that expression of the New Covenant to their relation to a Covenant in general That the absoluteness of all the Promises in the New Testament cuts off their relation to a Covenant This by the way looks with no good Countenance and â—…s indeed no other than a plain Shuffle But to proceed And that it doth so say you no Man can deny that understands the difference betwixt a Covenant and an Absolute Promise A Covenant is a mutual Compact or Agreement betwixt Parties in which they bind each other to the performance of what they Respectively promise So that there can be no proper Covenant where there is not a Restipulation or Re-obligation on one part as well as a Promise on the other But an absolute Promise binds onely one Party and leaves the other wholly free and un-obliged to any thing in order to the enjoyment of the Good promised So then if all the New Testament Promises be Unconditional and Absolute they are not part of a Covenant nor must that word be applied to them they are Absolvte Promises binding no Man to whom they are made to any Duty in order to the enjoyment of the Mercies promised But those Persons that are under these Absolute Promises must and shall enjoy the Mercies of Pardon and Salvation whether they Repent or Repent not Believe or Believe not Obey or Obey not Reply You might have added Although God hath therein promised to put his Laws in our Hearts and his Fear in our inward parts and that as he will not depart from us So neither shall we depart from him But that this would have marred and overthrown all your foregoing Discourse For these are the Promises of the New Covenant as well as the Mercies of Pardon and Salvation Nay therefore God hath promised to put his Laws in our Hearts and to write them in our Minds because he will freely pardon our Sins Now if our Sins are freely pardoned and if in the self same Covenant God
with the House of Israel and Judah after those Days Not saith he according to the Covenant which I made with their Fathers at Sinai which was a Conditional Covenant For I will put my Laws into their Minds and Write them in their Hearts that is I will make such a Covenant with them as shall be wholly Free and Absolute Wherein as I do faithfully Engage that I will not Depart from them so neither shall they Depart from me For let Men talk what they will of an Universal Conditional Covenant of Grace If there be any such thing I am sure it is not that here intended For as there are no Conditions expressed whether in Jeremy or in Ezekiel or in the Apostle's Repetition thereof Hebrews the Eighth so they are all Actually Pardoned with whom this Covenant is made For this is all the Reason which God himself alledges why he would become their God and make them his People give them the knowledg of himself a New Heart and a New Spirit For saith he I will be Merciful to their Unrighteousness and their Sins and Iniquities will I remember no more Thus the New Covenant is a Promise of Pardon and Grace and of all those things which are contended to be the Conditions of it Nor is there any Condition implied which may alter the the nature of an Absolute Promise For in Jer. 31. whence the Form of this Covenant is taken all Objections are prevented Verse 36. For whereas it might have been said They for their Sins should be destroyed and so this Promise should not profit them it is added That they should be Restored and so the Promise is made good as sure as the Ordinances of Heaven the Course of Day and Night or the Tides of the Sea which I am sure depend upon no Conditions to be Performed by Men. When God tells them in Leviticus therefore If they Accept the Punishment of their Iniquities and their Uncircumcised Hearts be humbled c. It must of necessity be thus understood For if God should require this to be performed by us as an Antecedent Condition on our Parts without which we may expect no Mercy or Favour at his Hands we are like Eternally to fall short thereof It being as impossible for us to Humble our selves or to change the Temper of our own Hearts as for the Ethiopian to change his Skin or the Leopard his Spots Yea as for a Dead Man to Raise himself to Life And if none of these things can be done of our selves but they must be wrought in us by the Grace of the Covenant then how doth it appear that the New Covenant is a Conditional Covenant or that Faith and Repentance are required of us in point of Duty Antecedently to the Benefit of the Promise I know O Lord saith Jeremy that the Way of Man is not in himself It is not in Man that walketh to direct his steps So Ephraim Turn thou me and I shall be turned And then saith God shalt thou remember and be Ashamed and Confounded and never open thy Mouth any more because of thy Shame when thou shalt know that I am Pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done Ezek. 16. 60 61. c. So that God always prevents the Sinner with the Blessings of his Goodness and instead of expecting any Antecedent Conditions or Qualifications that should render us meet for his Grace 't is the Sovereign Fruit and Effect of his Free Grace alone which he hath expressed in his Holy Covenant that can make us Meet for himself or any Mercy he hath to bestow upon us I must tell you therefore Sir that you do exceedingly injure and wrong the Free Grace of God to Sinners in Jesus Christ when you tell me as you do in your following Discourse That there is something as an Act required of us in point of Duty which is Antecedent to the Benefit of the Promise If you mean that those things whether it be Faith Repentance or Gospel Humiliation though Absolutely Promised in the Covenant and wrought in us by the Grace of God are yet Duties indispensibly required of us in order unto the Participation or Enjoyment of the full end of the Covenant in Glory it is unquestionably true But if you intend that they are such a Condition of the Covenant as to be by us Performed Antecedently unto the Participation of any Grace Mercy or Benefit of it as your Words imply it is most untrue and not only contrary to Express Testimony of Scripture but Destructive of the Nature of the Covenant it self For if so Men must do all these things before they receive the Remission of Sins Yes then must Men Repent and Believe and Turn to God and yield Obedience to the Gospel whilst they are as yet Dead in Trespasses and in Sins Yes then must they do them whilst they are under the Law and the Curse of it For so are All Men whose Sins are not Pardoned But this is to make Obedience unto the Law and that to be performed by Men whilst under the Curse of it to be a Condition of Gospel Mercy which is to overthrow both the Law and the Gospel You will tell me it may be that on the other hand it will follow that Men are Pardoned before they do Believe But then you ought to consider First That the Communication and Donation of Faith unto us is an Effect of the same Grace whereby our Sins are Pardoned and they are both bestowed on us by vertue of the same Covenant Secondly That though the Application of Pardoning Mercy unto our Souls is in order of Nature consequent unto Believing yet in time they go together Thirdly That Faith is not required as a Condition in order to the Procuring of the Pardon of our Sins but only as a Necessary Means in order to the Receiving of it A Condition as a procuring cause plainly implies something of Merit by way of Condignity or Congruity whether it be more or less perfect or imperfect call it what you will But Faith comes under neither of these Notions being only a Necessary Means or as an Instrument which also must be wrought in us by the Grace of the Covenant whereby we Receive and Apply but cannot Procure the Mercy Promised In the next place then avoiding any further Discourses concerning the Pretended Absurdities and Self-contradictions which upon a diligent search Mr. Flavell supposes he hath found out in my forementioned Discourse which upon a due trial may be easily perceived to have been the bare Fiction of his own Imagination only I shall immediately Apply my self to what is more Substantial and will certainly tend far more to the Edification of the Intelligent Reader if any Light may be hereby struck out for his illumination and Instruction concerning the Three Grand Points we are now contending about And that is First Whether the Sinai Covenant was a Covenant of Works or a Covenant of Faith Secondly Whether the Covenant
made to Abraham I say they were made to Abraham and to his Seed in the direct Design and Intendment of them So it is as Evident as to what concerns his Seed that those Gospel Promises can be understood as the Apostle speaks in no other sense but as of one For it is plain that it is Christ alone that is the Inheritting Seed there spoken of in whom God there Promiseth that all the Nations of the Earth should be Blessed To him therefore all the Promises of the Gospel were first made Psal. 89 27 28 29. In him they are all yea and Amen 2 Cor. 1. 20 And from him alone are they to be communicated to all his Members Isa. 49. 6 8 9. John 1. 16. 6. 27. Gal. 3. 29. And in this respect it is yet further Observable that as God Promiseth Abraham Gen. 22. 18. that in his Seed should all the Nations of the Earth be Blessed plainly speaking of Christ the Promised Seed So in the Words just before he was expressly told And thy Seed shall possess the gate of his Enemies Not their Enemies but his Enemies expressly in the Singular Whereas the Promises Gen. 17. 7 8. are all expressly in the Plural Number So that as the Apostle might justly say in reference to this Gospel Covenant that to Abraham and his Seed were the Promises made not a Single Promise only but the Promises So it is as Evident that the Seed there spoken of can be understood of none other than of Christ himself alone to whom the Promises were made And accordingly the Apostle having spoken as he doth Gal. 3 16. to give a convincing Evidence that by the Seed he there speaks of he intended Christ Personal and not Mystical as some have dreamed he doth sufficiently explain his meaning in this respect Vers. 19. where he tells us That the Law was added because of Transgressions till the Seed should come to whom the Promise was made where it is Observable that the Law that is the Mosaical Administration is said to have been before the Seed was come and was to have its Period then Now if by the Seed Christ be not to be understood Personally but Mystically for the Visible or Invisible Church take which you will then the Law could not have been before the Seed For God had his Church in the World from the beginning and more especially in Abraham's Family 400 Years at least before the Law was given by Moses of which Christ was the Head and they his Mystical Body And so by this Interpretation the Seed should have been before the Law contrary to the Apostle who makes the Law to have been before the Seed and to have its Period when the Seed to whom the Promise was made was come From all which it evidently appears that the Apostle Gal. 3. 16. could not possibly design or intend the Promises of the Covenant of Circumcision Recorded Gen. 17. 7. but must of necessity refer to the Promises of the forementioned and fore Established Gospel Covenant Secondly As it is manifest that the Promises mentioned Gen. 12. 2 3. 22. 16 17 18. were made to Abraham and to his Seed in the direct design and intendment of them So it is as Evident that there are several other Promises made to Abraham and his Seed besides those mentioned Gen. 17. 7. which are exprest in those Terms and run in that very Tenour To thee and to thy Seed So it is to this purpose plainly exprest Gen. 12. 7. 13 15. And thus having cleared these Two Points First That the Apostle Gal. 3. 16. could not possibly refer to Gen. 17. 7. but to that Evangelical Covenant before insisted on Secondly That there are several other Promises made to Abraham and his Seed besides those mentioned Gen. 17. 7. which are Exprest in those Terms and run in that Tenour To thee and to thy Seed where by Seed Christ himself is to be understood from whom alone all the Blessings in Promise are to be derived unto all his Spiritual Off spring Whereas the Promises Gen. 17. 7. are plainly made unto Abraham and his Natural Posterity only Upon the whole therefore it clearly appears that Mr. Whiston is extreamly mistaken to tell us as he doth That the Apostle Gal. 3. 16. hath Reference unto and directly intends the Promise Gen. 17. 7. And as greatly is he mistaken when he tells us That there being no other Promise Recorded in Scripture exprest in the same Words or running in the same Tenour To thee and to thy Shed that he can possibly have Reference to but only this it will hardly be questioned by any Man that is not resolved to turn away his Ears from Him that speaketh from Heaven whether that be the Promise referred unto and intended by the Apostle or no This saith he I shall be bold to say that this one Testimony of the Apostle concerning this Covenant will bear the Weight laid upon it and will Evince to the Judgment of all Men whose Minds are not blinded with Excess of Prejudice the Infallible Certainty that the Covenant Gen. 17. 7. is the Covenant of Grace let Men or Devils do their utmost to Weaken it God grant his Eyes may at last be opened to see his great Mistakes in these Respects To Conclude Having gained your Three Main Posts that is having I hope substantially Answered and shewn you the Weakness of your Three forementioned Propositions I shall not at all concern my self with the following Part of your Discourse For Debile Fundamentum fallit opus your Foundation being destroyed all the Superstructure you have built thereon must of necessity totter And so much your self acknowledg in your Epistle where you tell the World That the Main Hinge of the Paedobaptismal Controversie turns upon the Covenant of Circumcision and say you could it be proved that that Covenant was the Old Covenant it must be granted that the ground we lay to Infant 's Covenant-Interest and Baptism therein must needs fall and consequently the Claim we Bottom thereupon must be acknowledged to be Vain Which whether it be not now substantially performed I shall submit unto the Judgment and Determination of the Church of God POSTSCRIPT Though I intended here to have put a Period to this Discourse yet upon second thoughts I shall add a Word or Two in Reference to your following Argument P. 128. which you have thought fit to add unto those foregoing that you might as you say give your Opponents full measure heaped up and running over whereby you labour further to Prove that the Covenant of Circumcision is the Covenant of Grace which you draw from the Nature of that Covenant as being the Rule of Admitting Members into the Jewish Church From whence you Infer that it must needs be the Covenant of Grace forasmuch as by vertue thereof you suppose Jesus Christ and they came to have Communion and Fellowship with each other Upon the whole therefore of what you offer upon this Head I shall only need to tell you That though it is evident and undeniable that the Saints or Elect of God under the former Administration had Communion with Christ in the way of New Covenant Mercy For else how were they Saved Yet that their Communion With Christ was not derived unto them through the Channel of the Covenant of Circumcision made with Abraham or that made with Israel at Mount Sinai I thus Prove Argum. 1. If the Covenant of Circumcision and that at Sinai were of that Nature that though many were Justified that were under them yet none were ever Justified by them or by vertue of them then neither could they be the Medium of Communion with Christ in the way of New Covenant of Mercy But it is Evident from the Scriptures that though many were Justified who were under these Covenants yet none were ever Justified by them or by vertue of them Rom. 3. 20 Gal. 2. 16 5. 2 3. Ergo Argum. 2. If Abraham's Inheritance was not derived unto him or to his Seed through the Law or through the Covenant of Circumcision which in effect is the same as hath been before proved then neither could his Communion with Christ in the way of New Covenant Mercy be derived unto him or his Seed through that Channel But the Scripture is Express that the Promise that he should be the Heir of the World was not to Abraham or to his Seed through the Law but through the Righteousness of Faith Rom. 4. 13. Ergo Argum. 3. That Covenant through which had the Inheritance been conveyed would have made Faith void and the Promise to be of none effect could not possibly be the Medium of Intercourse with Christ in the way of New Covenant Mercy But the Scripture is Express that if they which are of the Law be Heirs Faith is made void and the Promise of none effect Rom. 4. 14. Ergo The END p. 7. M. S. p. 7. M. S. p. 8. Printed Reply p. 25. M. S. P. 6. Printed Reply P. 21. M. S. P. 7. Printed Reply P. 22. Printed Reply P. 61. Printed Reply p. 134 135. Together with your Letter to me on the same Subject Sol. Call pag. 164 165. Printed Reply P. 43. Printed Reply P. 44. Printed Reply P. 46. Printed Reply p. 48. Printed Reply p. 50. Printed Reply P. 51. Printed Reply P. 61. Printed Reply P. 69 70. Right Method P. 22. Pag. 24. Pag. 25. Pag. 25. Pag. 5. Pag. 6. P. 7 8 9. P. 9. P. 96. P. 96. Pag. 102. Pag. 103. Pag. 104. Pag. 104. Pag. 105. Pag. 105. P. 103. Pag. 105. Pag. 106. P. 117 118. P. 121. P. 126.