alledged more pregnantly proving the power of that fiducial Faith as I may so call it in order to the Justification of a man before God and yet it must here be granted That this trust is much different from the Faith contended for And that from hence or the like Texts not a different vertue in nature or kind though peradventure more effectual and prevalent is ascribed to it above other Graces in order to our Justification All which is no less true of our Sanctification than our Justification For we are altogether as much sanctified by Faith alone as we are justified by Faith alone or only as appeareth from the Scripture which saith That our hearts are John 15. 3. Acts 15. 9. purified by Faith So that in this much disputed Question I know no readier way of satisfying the fearful and dubious mind than by taking a due estimate of the power of a General or Particular Faith in reference to Fides nos à peccatis omnibus purgat mentes nostras illuminat Deo concliat Prosper ubi supr our Sanctification and judging alike of our Justification thereby For we are sanctified as freely by Grace as we are justified and as much by Faith too as Prosper before cited saith And therefore lastly in answer to divers places of the Ancients which are produced to confirm the modern sense of Justification by Faith alone I answer in a word That it is true their words seem to attest so much but their meaning was plainly no more than this That Faith many times doth justifie without Works that is any outward manifestation of their Faith by such fruits but never without inward acts of Repentance and Charity distinct from this special Faith nor without such a devotion to good Works which wants nothing but opportunity to exert them which is by an extraordinary Clemencie and Grace of God accepted for the thing it self This appears by the example by them given to manifest their meaning of the Thief on the Cross who was so justified and saved by Faith alone without good Works answerable thereunto because his sudden faith was prevented by sudden death Nevertheless That his Faith was so much alone as to exclude Repentance and such Graces as were competible to one in his condition from a proportionable concurrence to that effect is no where said nor intended by any of the Fathers whose judgment is of account in the Church of God CHAP. XXI A third Effect of Justifying Faith Assurance of our Salvation How far a man is bound to be sure of his Salvation and how far this assurance may be obtained The Reasons commonly drawn from Scripture proving the necessity of this assurance not sufficient c. ANother effect of Faith or at least consequence upon it hath the certainty or assurance of our Justification and Salvation been commonly reputed The better to understand which we must take as supposed and granted the difference between the Truth of a thing and Evidence of it or the Certainty that such a thing is and the knowledge that so it is So that the doubting of our Justification or Salvation doth not make the thing infallibly so but leaves us under fears and sometimes disconsolations But a competent remedy seems to me to be ready at hand if we consider that our opinion of our selves is no good conclusion against our selves but rather being founded in humility and disowning of our worth and righteousness an introduction to a comfortable hope in Gods mercy who hath begun at least the work of Grace in us by rendring us studious and anxious about his service and our salvation unless it could be proved which we shall see presently whether so or not out of the word of God that it is his will and direct command that we should have this assurance in us For as saint John saith Hereby we know that we are of the truth and shall assurt 1 John 3. 19 20. our hearts before him For if our heart condem us God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things i. e. the hearts and consciences of the children of God do frequently condemn them but their comfort is that God is greater than their hearts and doth not judge according to what opinion good or evil we have of our selves but according to his own Wiâ—dom and Grace So that it is no just inference at all I do not believe I shall be saved therefore I shall not be saved Nor this I do believe I shall not be saved therefore I shall not be saved Only they have great cause thus to argue and conclude against themselves who are wont on the contraâ—y to reason I believe I shall be saved therefore I shall be saved abusing and corrupting the Doctrine of Faith two wayes most dangerously First In making it the simple and direct cause or means unto Justification and then a reason of a Reflex act whereby they stand assured that they are so acquitted and justified before God But St. John in the former words cited reasons much otherwise For having in the 18. verse exhorted to and urged the duty of mutual Christian Charity he inferreth from thence in the 19. verse Hereby we know that we are of the truth c. i. e. from the Indication of Love and Charity to the Brethren â—ere is then an assurance and that before God and yet as we have seen there resteth and consisteth withall a diffidence and doubting as we have shewed The reconciliation of this seeming opposition doth lead us to a necessary distinction tending to the resolving of the principal Querie and it is between the State of Justification and the Act of Justification And again as to Assurance here spoken of It is one thing to be assured of our Justification and another of our Salvation as shall hereafter appear First then I hold it sufficiently demonstrable out of Scripture That a man may and every good Christian ought to be assured that he is in a state of being justified and saved likewise This we teach well in our Church Catechise in answer to this Question Doest not thou think that thou art bound to believe as they have promised for thee thus Yes verily and by Gods help so I will and I heartily thank our heavenly Father that he hath called me to this State of Salvation through Jesus Christ our Saviour Every Christian that in Baptism hath put on Christ and is entred into a Covenant of Grace with God is bound to believe assuredly that thereby he is in a state of Salvation and Justification For thereby God hath especially elected him to salvation of which Election the Scriptures chiefly if not only speak which are drawn to signife the Eternal Decree of God choosing not only men estranged from God to the Covenant of Grace but such as are first within the Covenant to an infallible Justification and Salvation This I say is rarely if at all intended by any of those many Texts of Scripture alledged to
That grace is the cause of such special acts of God Neither doth any prevision in God of acceptation of grace of complyance with and obedience to Gods will move to Elect or Call any man and that upon that sure ground of Thomas because Thom. 3. Q. 2. 11. c. there can be no possible way of meriting without Grace for Grace is the first Principle or beginning of all merit and nothing can be a cause or so much as conduce to its own being But the inclining of God to such a thing must come under the notion of meriting or to speak more agreeably to our ears doing well before God And therefore they much more truly may be said to be the direct cause of Grace And this not as some Pelagian Hereticks supposed at last by constraint of argument for the more ready and easie operation of mans will but simply to will that which is good Nay St. Austine saith and that truly the same of mans Understanding De Spir. Litera ca. 7. as Will. For he holds forth his mercy not because they do know but to the end they may know Neither because they are of a right heart but that they may be right of heart doth he hold forth his Righteousness whereby he justifieth the ungodly So that provision of good Works or Faith as the reason inclining God to confer Grace simply is altogether inconsistent with the Holy Scriptures and the freeness of Gods grace asserted plentifully therein But there is another and farther tearm of Gods Predestination Election and Vocation which is to his Kingdome of Glory and the Reward not of the merit but work of Faith and Holiness And to these no doubt but we are ordained and elected and called as the end by those means This is that St. Paul intended in that place to the Romans above quoted and in the second chapter telling us God will render to every man according Rom. 2. v. 6. 10. to his deeds and glory honour and peace to every man that worketh good to the Jew first and also to the Gentiles Christ tells us in the twentieth chapter of St. Matthew that to set on his right hand and on his left in Matth. 20. 23. Matth. 25. 34 35 36 37 38. his Kingdom shall be given to them for whom it is prepared and in the 25th who they are for whom it is so prepared from the foundation of the world viz. the Righteous and moreover who are the Righteous namely such who abounded in good works there particularly mentioned And to this may be referred most of those speeches at large falling from the most eminent Fathers of the Church before the time of Austine wherein they affirm that God elected some and not others upon the fore-sight of good works in them and obedience others rejecting for their disobedience Thus spake Origen thus Chrysostome Nazianzene Ambrose and Hierome too who wrote as expresly as Austine against such a freedom of the will which should give any occasion to God to confer his first Grace on man all meaning no more than the election of man to glory upon the intuition of Grace Now if this opinion should be strained to the highest it would not rise to this that God did choose any man simply and primarily for his works sake or his faith fore-seen for as is shewed God elected simply to that and not for that but the most may be wrung out of it is too great a propinquity to Merit But neither doth this follow seeing they who say God in such an order i. e. after grace upon such an occasion as those good works of which God is no less a principle cause than Man doth choose to confer glory on a man or ordain him to life do not say that such fore-seen works bear a proportion to such glory or reward The Scriptures which plainly affirms the former exclude the latter making it a matter of free promise in the original and the gift of God together with mans work as especially to the Romans St. Paul doth Now being made free from sin and become Rom. 6. 22 23. servants to God ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ There is nothing therefore more consonant to reason nothing better reconciles the seeming jarrs of the ancient Fathers before and about the time of Austin with that more wary and exact state and defence of the Question concerning Gods election of man upon pre-vision of Faith and Obedience alwayes including Christs obedience and merits and the freeness of his Grace in electing And nothing reconciles the Scriptures more clearly than the opinion which allows God to be the sole reason of his own will and the author of his Grace of Sanctification and Salvation also and yet holdeth such an order between these that God doth not choose any man to his free and immerited Grace of Salvation but through and upon consideration I do not say valuable and proportionable in weight and worth but in nature of the state of Sanctification going before Does not St. Paul render it as a reason why God was to be glorified in his Saints when he came to take vengeance of his adversaries Because our testimony among you was believed And did not the Master of 2 Thes 1. 10. Mat. 20. 2. the Vineyard who is Christ fore-ordain a penny to the Labourers in consideration of their labour foregoing Doth not St. James say the very Jam. 1. 12. same in these words Blessed is the man that endureth temptations for when he is tried he shall receive the Crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him Surely that which man promiseth upon a condition he doth not ordinarily bestow before that condition be performed but ordains it to follow upon it And to the same purpose speaks St. John too in the Apocalypse Be thou faithful unto death and I will Rev. 2. 10. give thee a Crown of life But perhaps they think there remains some force in Calvins argument still against this and that God must be obnoxious to that imprudence that ordinary men are not if he did not first propound the end and then make all means to conform and conduce to it so that man should first be ordian'd to his end of glory or misery before he is All this I grant and yet grant them nothing and this is all they are like to get from confounding the inward and secret acts of God with his outward or the Decrees of God with the execution of them as Twiss notoriously doth in Twissius Animadvers in Collat. Arm. cum Jun. p. 1 2. his entrance to the Animadversions on the Conference between Arminius and Junius It is certain that God doth decree a man to his end before he is but doth he ordain him to such an end before he ordains him to
Passive preparedness we speak of doth not so much as either open the eye to discover the use or benefit of Grace nor in the least incline the Will to desire it Now because the holy Fathers and especially St. Augustine and moderner Divines do speak of the Works of the Unregenerate as not only insufficient and imperfect but sinful yea sin it is very requisite to take their true meaning which cannot possibly be as if they were simply evil for then were they simply to be forborn and omitted but Synecdochically they intend alwayes to intimate a sinfulness in defect of what was due to such Actions compared with the divine Rule Or they called them Sin not so much from the nature of the Actions themselves as the inseparable evil of Commission alwayes accompanying them as was Pride and presumption upon their such laudable works as sufficing of themselves without a Saviour or Sanctifier Extraordinarie which they were either wholly ignorant of or contemptuously rejected to intitle them to exact Philosâ—phers and observers of the law of Nature wheâ—ein the blessedness of a man in this life consisted according to them and afterward to open the door of a Paradise framed to themselves Of these Good works thus mischievously attended as constantly they were in Natural men truly might be said by St. Austine on the Psalms Good works without Faith do but help Aug. in Psal 31. men to go faster out of the way And by Chrysostom sometimes speaking more than enough of the use of works preparatory Nothing without Faith is Good and that I may use such a Similitude as this they seem to me who flourish with good works and are ignorant of Gods worship to be like the Reliques of dead persons finely adorned And the voice of Scripture is so clear that there is no need to alleadg the same against the inefficacie of the best natural Acts to spiritual ends and purposes The more principal and useful enquiry then is concerning the works of the Regenerate done upon the grounds by the vertue and to the proper ends of Faith what they may avail a true Believer For that they are beneficial and that most of all to the benefactor himself Man is in a manner consented to unanimously or if it be not we shall make no great scruple plainly and stoutly to affirm so much after the holy Scriptures have so clearly and positively delivered the same as amongst many in these places Finally brethren whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest Phil. 4. 8. whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue if there be any praise think on these things Those things which ye have both received 9. and learned and heard and seen in me do and the God of peace shall be with you And Heb. 6. 8. For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh Heb. 6. 7. oft upon it and bringeth forth Herbs meet for them for whom it is dressed receiveth blessing from God But that which beareth Thorns and Briars is rejected 8. and is nigh unto cursing whose end is to be burned Who sees not here that a good Christian fruitful in good works is compared to good ground which is blessed of God and evil Christians barren and unfruitful compared to ill ground next to cursing And elsewhere This 2 Cor. 9. 6. I say he that soweth the seed of good works sparingly shall reap sparingly but he that soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully And the Psalmist Psalm 62. 12. agreeable hereunto saith Unto thee O Lord belongeth mercy for thou renderest to every man according to his works And Jeremie rendereth it as a Jerem. 32. 19. reason of Gods greatness which is an inseparable and essential attribute of God that he is so equal in this case saying Great in Counsel mighty in work For thine eyes are open upon all the wayes of the Sons of men to give every man according to his wayes and according to the fruit of his doings And yet more plainly St. Paul to the Romans speaking of God Who will Rom. 2. 6 7 8 9. render every man according to his deeds to them who by patient continuing in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life But unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish to every soul of man that doth evil of the Jew first and also of the Gentile But glory honour and peace to every man that worketh good to the Jew first and also to the Gentile I shall add but one more Text and that found in the Epistle to Titus which not only in sense but almost in terms proves what I laid down concerning the beneficialness of good works This is a faithful saying and these things Tit. 3. 8. I will that thou affirm constantly That they which have believed in God might be careful to maintein good Works these things are good and profitable unto men And so far as we now urge good Works the answer is very sufficient to that place alledged against the Effect of good Works in general Luk. 17. 10. where our Saviour saith in St. Luke And when ye shall have done all things which are commanded you say We are unprofitable servants We have done that which was duty to do To this I say it is fully answered though more might be said We are unprofitable to God our Master who commanded us to work for so saith David likewise My Goodness extendeth Psal 16. 3. not to thee but it is not said We are unprofitable unto our selves or that no good accreweth unto our selves thereby And I would to God that though no good Christian can deny the usefulness of Good works in general that do not denie the Scriptures or common sense yet they would be more firmly setled in the belief hereof than too many are and suffer this Faith to have its proper influence upon their lives which might be safely admitted and that without any offense or prejudice to the freeness of Gods grace as will yet further appear For the Effect of Good works doth not only confine it self to certain temporal blessings of this world and outward prosperties which in truth was the proper portion and promise made by God to the Jew under the Old Law so far as it was Ritual and Mosaical upon their obedience but it extendeth it self plainly to the spiritual blessings upon earth and immortal in heaven as our blessed Lord expresly teaches us in his Sermon on the mount saying Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter Mat. 7. 21. into the Kingdom of heaven but he doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven that he shall is to make no criminal addition to Scripture the sense being so plain And so St. Paul to Timothy teaches It is a
Prophet in the name of a Prophet shall receive a Prophets reward And he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a Righteous mans reward And so to those that suffer for Christ which is reputed amongst the chief of Good deeds Rejoyce and be exceeding glad Mat. 5. 12. for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they the Prophets And Whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water Mat. 10. 42. only in the name of a Disciple verily I say unto you he shall in no wise loose his reward And in St. Luke Christ saith But love your enemies and do good Luk. 6. 35. and lend hoping for nothing again and your reward shall be great and ye shall be the Children of the Highest For he is kind unto the unthankful and evil Here besides the positive promises is added a reason to assure all that shall do good works that great shall be their reward viz. because Gods goodness and mercy is such that he imparteth of the same unto the wicked he doth good unto the ill-deserving and shall he not much more do good to those that are good and abound in Good works To ascribe therefore so much to a modern notion of Faith as many do though the Learneder favourers of it closely dealt with are constrained to depart from this new rigour as I could show by divers instances as to divide it from it self that is the works of Faith from Faith the fountain in order to Justification and Sanctification and Salvation is in effect to denie the Christian Faith and introduce one of their own invention to the great dishonour of God and reproach of Christian Faith which consisteth in these two things principally Evangelical Obedience and a Glorious reward And now least some prejudiced mind may suppose that I have stated this point too favourably to the Roman sense and injuriously to the Franckness of Gods grace and mercy in relation both to our Sanctification and Justification and also to the vertue and efficacie of Faith in order to them I shall end this discourse with the Stating of this cause as I find it by Vortius a most severe and rigid Calvinist as they call such men in this negative Vort. disput Select Part. 2. p. 728. 726. way The Controversie therefore said he between us and the Papacie First is not Whether good works are to be done For we affirm it 2. Neither whether they be necessary and profitable to salvation we affirm both 3. Neither whether they are pleasing to God which we affirm 4. Nor whether God grants a Remuneration and Reward to them For we affirm it 5. Nor whether it be lawful to do good works with an eye to the reward We say so 6. Nor yet whether good works are sins we stoutly deny 7. Nor lastly Whether the just be worthy of a Crown For this we yield with this limitation Not out of their own worth but the worthiness of God c. And if all this be honestly and fairly agreed to I see no reason to fear the empty cavils and vain exceptions of some men who have run themselves they can scare well tell whether themselves from Popery but I may venture to tell Why viz. Partly out of a blind implicite Faith in the Teachers they raise to themselves and partly to save their Credit and purses by a strange and monstrous notion of Faith rather then their souls But the main block of Offense taken not given by this doctrine seems to be an opinion of Merit favoured hereby Of this therefore we shall speak next CHAP. XVI Of merit as an effect of Good Works The several acceptations of the word Merit What is Merit properly In what sense Christians may be said to merit How far Good Works are Efficacious unto the Reward promised by God TO merit is of a very various and ambiguous sense among the the Ancients humane and divine It were superfluous to note all and to omit all injurious to our present design These three are the most needful to be observed For sometimes it is used in prophane Histories for Service military as the souldier under such a Commander is said to merit Mereri under him Meruit sub Servitio Isaurico in Cilicia sed brevi tempore c. Suet. de Julio Caesare in Vita Aere mereâ—t parvo Lucan lib. 9. Vocabulum merendi apud veteres Ecclesiasticos Scriptores fere idem valet quod consequi seu aptum idoneumque fieri ad consequendum Id. Cassand Schol. in Hymnos Ecclesiast p. 179 It is likewise frequently used by humane and Ecclesiastical Authors for to obtain or acquire only by just and due endeavours without any just deserts of the Partie said to merit but rather of Grace and favour of him who hath appointed and promised freely to reward such actions as are enjoyned and assigned with such ends and remunerations which far exceed the proportion or value of the work For surely in publick and antient Games from which practice St. Paul hath borrowed many a Metaphor describing the service and contention of Christians in the service of God to outrun and prevent by footmanship him that was matcht with one did not properly deserve such a vast reward as was usually conferred on him who excelled his Fellow For what title of justice can the hasting to take a crown give to him that receives it yet was he said to deserve it and that either comparatively because he in reason ought to be preferred before any other that came behind him and therefore merit it rather than he Or because the Authors of such rewards having solemnly and fairly quitted all their Rights and by publick promise setled the same upon other upon certain conditions they shall judge fit there is a conditional Right thereby devolved upon others yet not out of the worthiness of the acts leading to the accquiring the same But a third notion of merit implies such a proportion between the Act and the end or recompence that it were no less than unjust and unreasonable for him who is concerned in the reward to denie it to him or detain it from him the work being accomplished It being a Principle of common justice what Christ pronounces as Christian reason too The Labourer is worthy of his hire i. e. he merits it And therefore Luk. 10. 7. Jam. 15. 4. James saith well in the like case Behold the hire of the labourers which have reaped down your fields which is of you kept back by fraud crieth and the cries of them which have reaped are entred into the ears of the Lord of Sabbath i. e. they crie for justice against them who are indebted to them for such service which deserve much reward Upon these general grounds thus premised we shall have easier access to the difficultie of meriting in relation to God and the reward he holdeth forth to his
be convicted of moral evil and so unconcernedly to omit the weightier matters of the Law as Judgment Mercy or Charity in Vnity and Faith what can Charity call this but meer Pharisaism and where must such Pharisaism end at length but in Sadducism even denying of the Blessings and Curses of a Future Life For as Drusius hath Si Patres nostri selvissent mâ—râ—â—â—s resurrecturâ— praemia manere â—ustos â—â—st hanc vitam nâ—n tantoperè râ—bellassent Drusius in Mat. c 3. v. 7. Item in c. 22 23. observed it was one Reason alledged by the Sadduces against the Resurrection If our Fathers had known the dead should rise again and rewards were prepared for the Righteous they would not have rebelled so often not conforming themselves to Gods Rule as is pretended by all but conforming the Rule of Sin and of Faith it self to the good Opinion they had of their own Persons and Actions which Pestilential Contagion now so Epidemical God of his great Mercy remove from us and cause health and soundness of Judgment Affection and Actions to return to us and continue with us to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. THE CONTENTS OF THE CHAPTERS Chap. I. OF the Nature and Grounds of Religion in General Which are not so much Power as the Goodness of God and Justice in the Creature And that Nature it self teaches to be Religious Chap. II. Of the constant and faithful assurance requisite to be had of a Deity The reasons of the necessity of a Divine Supream Power Socinus refuted holding the knowledge of a God not natural Chap. III. Of the Unity of the Divine Nature and the Infiniteness of God Chap. IV. Of the diversity of Religions in the World A brief censure of the Gentile and Mahumetan Religion Chap. V. Of the Jewish Religion The pretence of the Antiquity of it nulled The several erroneous grounds of the Jewish Religion discovered Chap. VI. The vanity of the Jewish Religion shewed from the proofs of the true Messias long since come which are many Chap. VII The Christian Religion described The general Ground thereof the revealed Will of God The necessity of Gods revealing himself Chap. VIII More special Proofs of the truth of Christian Religion and more particularly from the Scriptures being the Word of God which is proved by several reasons Chap. IX Of the several Senses and Meanings according to which the Scriptures may be understood Chap. X. Of the true Interpretation of Holy Scriptures The true meaning not the letter properly Scripture Of the difficulty of attaining the proper sense and the Reasons thereof Chap. XI Of the Means of interpreting the Scripture That they who understand Scripture are not for that authorized to interpret it decisively The Spirit not a proper Judge of the Scriptures sense Reason no Judge of Scripture There is no Infallible Judge of Scripture nor no necessity of it absolute The grounds of an Infallible Judge examined Chap. XII Of Tradition as a Means of understanding the Scriptures Of the certainty of unwritten Traditions that it is inferiour to Scripture or written Tradition No Tradition equal to Sense or Scripture in Evidence Of the proper use of Tradition Chap. XIII Of the nature of Faith What is Faith Of the two general grounds of Faith Faith divine in a twofold sense Revelation the formal reason of Faith Divine Of the several senses and acceptations of Faith That Historical Temporarie and Miraculous Faith are not in nature distinct from Divine and Justifying Faith Of Faith explicite and implicite Chap. XIV Of the effects of true Faith in General Good Works Good Works to be distinguish'd from Perfect Works Actions good four wayes Chap. XV. Of the effect of Good Works which is the effect of Faith How Works may be denominated Good How they dispose to Grace Of the Works of the Regenerate Of the proper conditions required to Good Works or Evangelical Chap. XVI Of Merit as an effect of Good Works The several acceptatations of the word Merit What is Merit properly In what sense Christians may be said to merit How far Good Works are efficacious unto the Reward promised by God Chap. XVII Of the two special effects of Faith and Good Works wrought in Faith Sanctification and Justification what they are Their agreements and differences In what manner Sanctification goes before Justification and how it follows Chap. XVIII Of Justification as an effect of Faith and Good Works Justification and Justice to be distinguished and how The several Causes of our Justification Being in Christ the principal cause What it is to be in Christ The means and manner of being in Christ Chap. XIX Of the efficient cause of Justification Chap. XX. Of the special Notion of Faith and the influence it hath on our Justification Of Faith solitary and only Of a particular and general Faith Particular Faith no more an Instrument of our justification by Christ than other co-ordinate Graces How some ancient Fathers affirm that Faith without Works justifie Chap. XXI A third effect of justifying Faith Assurance of our Salvation How far a man is bound to be sure of his Salvation and how far this assurance may be obtained The Reasons commonly drawn from Scripture proving the necessity of this assurance not sufficient c. Chap. XXII Of the contrary to true Faith Apostasie Heresie and Atheism Their Differences The difficulty of judging aright of Heresie Two things constituting Heresie the evil disposition of the mind and the falsness of the matter How far and when Heresie destroys Faith How far it destroys the Nature of a Church Chap. XXIII Of the proper subject of Faith the Church The distinction and description of the Church In what sense the Church is a Collection of Saints Communion visible as well as invisible necessary to the constituting a Church Chap. XXIV A preparation to the knowledge of Ecclesiastical Society or of the Church from the consideration of humane Societies What is Society What Order What Government Of the Original of Government Reasons against the peoples being the Original of Power and their Right to frame Governments Power not revocable by the people Chap. XXV Of the Form of Civil Government The several sorts of Government That Government in general is not so of Divine Right as that all Governments should be indifferently of Divine Institution but that One especially was instituted of God and that Monarchical The Reasons proving this Chap. XXVI Of the mutual Relations and Obligations of Soveraigns and Subjects No Right in Subjects to resist their Soveraigns tyrannizing over them What Tyranny is Of Tyrants with a Title and Tyrants without Title Of Magistrates Inferiour and Supream the vanity and mischief of that distinction The confusion of co-ordinate Governments in one State Possession or Invasion giveth no Right to Rulers The Reasons why Chap. XXVII An application of the former Discourse of Civil Government to Ecclesiastical How Christs Church is alwayes visible and how invisible Of the communion
agreement and ornament of the Whole So that as in Musick some light passing Notes of discord do add grace and sweetness to the Parts the petty particular disagreement of Creatures illustrate and commend the excellency of the Order of Creatures in the World And as it Athanas ib. p. 42. is yet further impossible but if two several Musicians should compose a Lesson or Song consisting of several Voices not consulting with one another but from their several phansies and humours these put together must needs make horrible jarring and discord so were there more then One God who should have an hand in framing this Universe it could not possibly have been avoided but the infinite and destructive inconveniencies in the parts thereof would betray the absurdness of such different Agents Again if there were more Gods then one there may as well be believed Si sint duo quare non plures Terrul cont Marcionem l. 1. c. 5. to be more then a hundred then a thousand then ten thousand and so on For who shall limit or determine them And so the World would be like a Common-wealth which should have more Soveraigns then Subjects Neither can it be imagined with any reason that such a multitude of gods should hold a Common Counsel and lay their heads together as Poets have devised for the wiser management of their Kingdom of this world because all such deliberations and consultations do imply a particular defect Quid intersint Numeri quum duo paria non differant uno Una enim res est quae cadem in duobui Id. ibid. of power and knowledge which are made up in some manner by the concurrence of many supplying such single defects But this supposition quite overthrows the Divine Nature And farther either these supposed Gods must be equal or inferiour to one another in their Attributes If the latter then must such inferiour ones be turned out of the List as insufficient and incapable of such an Equidem unum esse Deum sine initio sine prole naturae sew Patrem magnum atque magnificum quis tam demens tam mente captus neget esse certissimum high dignity If equal to what purpose are many invented when two or more differ not from One Sixthly Infiniteness and Unity are convertible in the inquiry after the nature of God For if God be Infinite he must necessarily be but One if he be One he must necessarily be Infinite Nothing less then Infinite answering the onely less then Infinite necessities of Creatures in the World which all stand in need as well of support and governance as of a First Cause to produce them 7. Lastly The same consent of Nations and People as hath been intimated Hujus nos virtutes per mundum esse diffusas multis vocabulis vocamus c. Maximus Mad. August Epist 43. agreeing in but one GOD as well as in this That there is a God sufficiently evinceth this For not to speak of the more stupid who are no competent Judges in such cases who notwithstanding readily assent to this noble truth once propounded but the more Learned and Wise who upon disquisition and search duly and thorowly made have ever unanimously received this for a most certain truth CHAP. IV. Of the diversity of Religions in the World A Brief censure of the Gentile and Mabomitan Religion HItherto have we treated of Natural Religion as it were that which all men by the light and force of principles put into Man by the hand of God who made him so that scarce doth the Infant turn more naturally to the breast of the Mother than doth Man arrived to the years of reason and common understanding seek to God by way of recognition and dependance on him But this one end to which all tend so unanimously admitteth of many roads leading thereunto which particularly to enumerate were both superfluous and tedious and therefore may well be reduced to these four Heathenish Jewish Mahometan and Christian which are so many Religions according to which One God is worshipped The Heathen or Gentile as the Scripture calls him worship a God and surely desiring as all men naturally do not to err or be deceived especially in such matters as are of greatest importance as the choice of a Deity is do likewise rudely intend to adore none but the true God For as St. Paul well noteth and teaches us in his Epistle to the Romans Rom. 8. 20. the Creature was made subject unto vanity not willingly but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope By which creature he doth certainly mean the Gentile who according to the phrase of Holy Writ speaking according to the received sense and opinion of the highly opinion'd Jews was reputed no more of then a simple creature and nature in opposition to which St. Paul often makes mention of another and New creature as He that is in Christ Jesus is a New creature and elsewhere And by Vanity 2 Corin. 5. 17. Gal. 5. 10. Jonah 2. 8. is commonly understood False Gods and Idols as in Jonah They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercies meaning False Gods as the Prophet Jeremie likewise affirmeth of the Heathens Gods They are but Jerem. 10. 15. vanity the works of mens hands Now the Creature or Gentiles were unwillingly made subject to these Vanities and false worships in respect of that general Principle inserted in Man whereby he chooses truth before error and consequently the true God before the false however through some particular Blindness of their understanding and darknes their Ephes 4. 18. hearts be alienated from the Life of God or from the living God which is the same Which Darkness of the heart may well be imputed to that Original defect or sin traduced from Adam to all his Posterity Yet notwithstanding even after that general waste made in the Soul of Man God as St. Paul well tells them left not himself without a witness in that he Acts. 14. 17. did good and gave us Rain from Heaven and fruitful seasons filling our hearts with food and gladness So that the Invisible things of him as saith the Rom. 1. 20. same St. Paul from the beginning of the VVorld are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and godhead so that they are without excuse And the reason hereof goeth before Viz. V. 19. Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them for God hath shewed it unto them The invisible things of God are said to be seen clearly because they are sufficiently exposed to be seen and therefore if they do not see them it must be the affectation of some sensual error which so darkens their mind that they cannot or will not And being thus first corrupted no marvel if their Religion be like unto it not only false but unreasonable and abominable as may appear from these few amongst
is the direct Authour of sin to prepare men to damnation as he is of good acts leading to life and glory These contain two great errours to be liked of no good Christian for any mans great name in Religion or Reformation For it is first certain that though sometimes in Scripture the same name may be ascribed to Gods Providence in both yet it is in a far different sense as the Relation that Gods hand and power Quia universa ista Massa meritò damnata est conâ—umeliam debitam reddit justitia honorem indebitum reddit gratia Aug. in sixto Epist 105. hath towards things of a Positive and real Nature differs much from that it hath towards things of nature Negative and Privative Supposing then at present the Fall of Man into sin and his liableness to the due wages or reward of sin which necessarily follows thereupon and the Mass as they call it of mankind to be corrupted throughout whatever is excepted to the contrary there appears no reason why God out of his absolute Right and Liberty might not have neglected the whole and suffer'd it to perish rather than design'd it to ruin Here then cometh in the discriminating will and hand of God Some part of this he leaves and some he chooses Some part he ordaineth especially and directly to Life and Grace and others suffering to fall into deserved ruin he is said to destine or predestinate to perish and sometimes not only upon the stock of original pravity odious sufficiently unto God to provoke to that but by actual and personal impieties and errours naturally tending to such ends So that as it is necessary there should be an hand to lift a man up who is fallen down and maimed but no necessity that any hand should keep him down or cast him lower in like manner to the raising of any part of that depraved Lump it was absolutely necessary Gods Divine assistance should put to its saving hand and these are said to be ordained especially to Grace and Life but suspending only and denying the like grace and favour to others he is said sometimes to ordain to death and sin such though speaking strictly it be no more than not ordaining to the contrary For it is much the like case as to form of speech which we use in Humane and Divine matters He saith Christ that is not with me is against me Matth. 12. 30. and he that gathereth not with me scattereth And our Saviour Christ rebuking the superstitious and morose Jews preferring their Sabbath before the life of a man saith I will ask you one thing Is it lawful Luke 6. 9. on the Sabbath dayes to do good or to do Evill to save life or to destroy it implying hereby that it had been to destroy this impotent Creature not to deliver him from the evil he was in So likewise speaking after the phrase and opinion of men which the Scriptures do no less than humane Authours God is said to be against a man when he is not for him and to destroy him when he saveth not his life as Lactantius in a certain Qui succurrere perituro potest si non succurrerit occidit Lactan. place writeth thus He that may help one that is ready to perish and doth not help him he slayes him And if God may be said actually to destroy such by withdrawing or with-holding his saving Grace denying his favour may he not be said reasonably and soberly to ordain such to destruction when only he doth not ordain him to Salvation There are two things which may seem to cross this One that an imputation may seem to fall on God that he doth not that himself being much more pitiful and good by nature to his Creatures than they are to one another which he requireth under pain of his displeasure that men should do to one another viz. relieve in necessity This is no hard matter to answer seeing the case is quite different and we know no such law that is or can be upon God to do all the good he can unto the Creature as there is upon man to do so to his brother But Man himself is not tyed by God to do a favour to other whereby dammage should ensue unto himself And much less God obliged to shew mercy in such manner that he might suffer in his Justice or dominion over his creature which are more conspicuous yea and his Mercy too as to the Degree though not extent of it in adjudging some to their demerits while he rescues others from the like misery The other objection which is principally Calvines above touched is That by this God should act unreasonably not propounding a certain end to himself if he did not directly design the punishment of his Creature but as we have said indirectly and obliquely as if God had in some Actions no direct and peremptory intention but this doth not follow For no doubt but God had a direct and positive end in creating every particular thing and especially man And that intention was agreeable altogether to his own Nature and his own Works which were all good good to both one and other And to glorifie man and be glorified by him in giving him immortality and life and that without exception but yet not without condition which condition being on mans part violated What hinders but Gods secondary end and intention should be to return the fruits of mans doings upon himself and that without exception For as St. Paul saith Rom. 3. 23. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God And all were in a state of Desertion and Reprobation But what if God pleases seeing his Creature fallen to decay to make it over again in Christ Jesus and propound 2 Cor. 5. 17. to himself a new and another end A man hath a fair handsome and well-going horse he chooseth him to himself to ride on but he falls lame and is turn'd off He recovers him and puts him to his former use and ends Is here any lightness or inconstancie in the owner Are not all these things very reasonable Could there be any such unreasonableness as to make one general and positive decree that come what will his horse shall serve him to ride on So undoubtedly the general Decree and first in nature and order next to Gods glory was in the creation of man that he should serve him to his glory and to the benefit of himself But Man mutilating himself and becoming unserviceable to God his Owner and Master was not the Decree of God very wise and just ordaining him to be a cast-a-way so long as he continued in that state And then recovering him by the Mediation of Christ to ordain as many as took their cure to life everlasting and glory and those who were incurable or not cured to everlasting death this latter is plainly attributed to God by St. Jude telling us of some who were before ordained to condemnation
point with that sentence of St. Augustine against Neque enim ea nobis volumus quae dimissa non dubitamus in baptismo sed illa utique quae humanâ— fragilitate quamvis paâ—va tamen crebra subrepunt Aug. Ep. 108. them who by their own confession doth expresly affirm That that clause in the Lords Prayer Forgive us our trespasses or doubts used by the Regenerate in Baptism doth not concern the inhabiting Concupiscence but the sins committed after Baptism Which agrees with what we delivered before that though we may give and lament for the misery of damnified nature in us by our fall in Adam yet we are not bound to pray for the remission of it after our regeneration It may be inserted into our confession as a part of our misery thereby to move God to a more full restitution of the loss sustained but not as to the obtaining of forgiveness of the guilt It may serve for our humiliation and aspiration to a fuller delivery from the infelicity we are under by the remains of it not from the guilt of it which is the sinfulness wholly extinguished by those waters For as it is with a son to whom his father hath committed a greater measure of wealth of money and rich cloathing than he could well expect during his minority which money and rayment he hath in riotous living wretched company lost and imbezelled though he returns so far into the favour of his father as to have his offence pardoned and is taken into his family and hath the promise of being heir of his Estate notwithstanding his former miscarriages yet hath not at present the like affluence and ornaments restored to him as he was once possessed of So God dealeth ordinarily with his children made such by Baptism the crime is remitted to them which they were guilty of they are accepted into his favour and become part of his holy family the Church they are assured of the future inheritance in Heaven Yet doth not God thereby presently restore all that in Adam was prodigally lost by them and mis-spent but ordains that they should by their future good and dutiful behaviour and his ordinary allowance of Grace given them Occupie until he comes and by daily improvement in Grace arrive at last by little and little to the perfect consummation in Glory After Baptism therefore there is that Lucrum cessans as they call it that want of benefit which was once enjoyed fully and freely and continues of the nature of punishment after pardon sealed to us But the Damnum emergens or positive damage or evil doth cease God forbearing further to vindicate himself than what naturally springs from the foresaid defects remaining in the Regenerate and this too not so much with an evil eye as a good intention to his children to reduce them nearer and nearer to him by such exercises And hereby I suppose is competently answered also that Scholastical doubt moved chiefly in reference to Actual sins viz. Whether God doth properly punish his children for those sins which he hath pardoned unto them before The Scripture which is not wont to speak Logically precisely or Scholastically but popularly familiarly doth many times call that punishment from God because nothing can happen without his order and dispensation which is rather to be imputed to the imperfect state of Regeneration in this life and the unrestored integrity in man than the unpardonedness of offences And again it declareth so full satisfaction made by Christ for the sins of the Penitent and freeness of Gods Grace that without calling in question the justification of a sinner and the justice of God no more can be exacted of the pardoned than what is paid But as is said a son reconciled to his father may be fully forgiven and assured of the inheritance expected yet through want of that plenty denyed him not good affection may fall into many wants and troubles which should not have touched him had he at first persevered in his duty and felicity CHAP. XV. Of the Restitution of Man after sin The Means and Motives thereunto In what manner Christs Mediation was necessary to the reconciling of Man to God Socinus his Opinion of Christs Mediation refuted That Christ truly and properly satisfied by his Death and Passion for us AND thus have we passed one great Period of Gods Divine Providence in relation to the fall of Man For as hath been said the Providence of God consisting of his Power Justice Wisdome and Goodness is seen no less conspicuously in the due disposing of Evil to the general good of the Universe as likewise to his Glory than in dispensing of Good to his Creatures though this latter affects us most Now therefore we are to proceed to that Second most eminent Act of Gods more than Paternal Providence to Mankind in his Restauration And here we are to consider first the Motives inducing God to such a benign acceptation of him to favour Then the Means whereby this was accomplished And the former we may soon dispatch from what we before noted out of Chrysostome that the first Original of Gods great design and fountain of favour towards lost Man did and must needs spring from his own good will and inclination to Mercie immediately without any consideration whatever For neither Mans misery nor any of those many attempts of Schoolmen Fathers or Postillers to render a reason why God should be more inclined to favour Man than the lapsed Angels can be of any tolerable account to incite or invite God to Mercy in this case no nor the consideration of Christ For Christ was not the first reason which prevailed with God to have mercie but his own natural Grace as I may so speak disposed him first in general to the end And the end Mans restitution being thus propounded and determined by himself Christ was in order of causes elected as a Mediatour and Means designed to bring to pass that end And this the holy Scriptures affirm St. Peter in his Sermon recorded in the Acts thus speaks of him And he commanded us Acts 10. 42 43 to preach unto the People and to testifie that it is he which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead To him give all the Prophets witness that through his Name whosoever believeth in him should receive remission of sins Christ then is not the first Motive of Gods favourable Decree to Man but Christ is the first Means whereby that Decree was executed and brought to effect And this being granted and premised the doubt concerning the absolute or hypothetical necessity of Christs becoming incarnate and negotiating Mans salvation that is more plainly Whether so necessary it was that Christ should appear a Mediatour between God and Man as there were no possible salvation without it or that only upon or because God had so decreed it that none should be saved but by Christ may seem half ended For it is out of question
that little For they may say that in prayer we offer not so much to God as we receive from him For prayer is a begging of favour and benefits of God To which our Answer is that taking prayer strictly and precisely for that one part of prayer which consisteth in craving a supply of our wants or deprecation only then indeed this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Cremens Alexand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Asterius apud Phoetum not so properly a Sacrifice But we are to take prayer in its usual latitude for all the parts of it such as Confession Deprecation of Evil Petition of Good Agnition and Profession of Mercies received Thanksgiving Praise for all Gods hand of Grace towards us and thus prayer is the offering up of a spiritual Sacrifice to God An offering of our heart and an assent of the soul to God as some devout men and learned have defined it And not so only but in effect and intention it by acknowledging of the free mercie of God in outward or inward blessings received from him is the rendring of them all to him again and a Sacrifice of that back again which once he conferred on us Thirdly prayer and worship so properly called bear the name of Sacrifices from the ground of all prayers though some parts of prayer be not so expresly such For he that acknowledges the Omnipotence of God the Omniscience Omnipresence the Alsufficiencie doth thereby render unto God his due but he that prayeth unto God supposeth and confesseth and implicitly offers all these as his duty to God But whoever heard of Offering up the Sacrifice of a Sermon unto God For Lastly If there be any thing of worship or the nature of a Sacrifice in Sermons certainly great Idolatry is committed by them it being most manifest that preaching is offered to Man and not to God and if it be a Divine worship what can it be less For what is more true and common then this That in prayer men speak to God but in preaching they speak to man So that from hence we may safely conclude that that Religion which hath nothing to commend it but preaching or nothing so much as preaching is quite contrary to the Apostle Whose praise is not of God but of Men and in truth deserves not so much the Name of Religion as of Superstition unheard of unthought of until of late years and coming nearest to that grossest part of truly Popish Superstition or as some call it Sacriledge communicating in one kind But here it will be warmly interposed and replyed God forbid they should oppose praying it is a manifest slander For these good people have prayers in private and prayers in publick too It is no proper place now by and by it will be to examine what manner of prayers worship these they mean are insufficient God knows to the constituting of a Church in true Christian communion But here we tell them that we have not disputed against them as having no worship of God at all But first that at all they make preaching and hearing Sermons a proper part of Gods service Secondly that they make it the most eminent and chief against both which our reasons stand good still And that they so do is demonstrated from their practise no less than Doctrines in that they never amongst us pray in publick never enjoy Christian communion but by vertue of a Sermon And though being pressed hard they confess with much ado as Cartwright against Bishop Whitgift that it is possible and valid to celebrate the Sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist without a Sermon yet it seems so notoriously inconvenient and incongruous as it ought never to be done where the Sermon is possible to be had A foul and ungodly mistake So that we have done them no wrong as yet CHAP. VIII A second Corruption of the worship of God not espicially in Prayer by opposing Set-forms of Publick Worship Reasons against Extemporary Prayers in Publick The Places of Scripture and Reasons and Antiquity for Extemporary Prayers answered A Second thing whereby they have abused both the holy duty of prayer and well-meaning Christians is in their traducing and prophanation of all prescribed forms of prayer wherein they forget not to shew themselves in their arts and colours For when the power is in their hands and their Faction can domineer then do they condemn directly in word by preaching printing and covenanting solemnly against Set-forms in publick and there hath been nothing under heaven acted by them more industriously than the utter abolition of all such Divine Offices And when they can go no farther their Chariots wheels are taken off and they begin to find themselves to sink that they bethink themselves how possibly they may stand in need of that moderation that they contemned and that indulgence they condemned their study is not how to repent and retract absolutely their former ungodly counsels and practises as all good Christians that meant seriously to be saved ought to do but with what artifices they may at the same time hold to their old principles of mischief to others and save themselves from harm from others For we must not say now they did any thing so disorderly good people that they are and innocent against Set-forms Province of London but the Parliament as they are obstimately bent to grace their cause without any ground for such a title say they call'd them to it when of the two they if we may distinguish them from their pretended Parliament for which there is no ground rather called their Parliament to such counsels and pranks as they after play'd as appeareth by their early Smectymnuus and their incessant instances with them to pursue those Schismatical Dogms to the subverting of all received Discipline and forms of Worship And that they have disowned their principles upon which they then proceeded we find not though we have more than enough of tricks and turnings and windings and straining them to the fairest sense they can possibly bear and sometimes farther too For instance they say now their Covenant was not against Episcopal Government but an Hierarchy They say They are not against Set forms for they suffer them in private Nay they say they are no enemies to publick Forms nor many other Rites but they would not have them imposed upon any But we shall presume to tell them we neither believe the one nor other until they as publickly retract what they have done in deposing all Set forms and taught and writ and imposing Unset forms upon all that would live by them And in that they would not have them now imposed they imply more strongly they are against them wholly than they express they any wayes favour them when God be thanked as ill as at present it is it is not in their power to oppose and damn them as formerly Can there be any thing more ridiculous than for men to do as much mischief as