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A49183 An apology for the ministers who subscribed only unto the stating of the truths and errours in Mr. William's book shewing, that the Gospel which they preach, is the old everlasting Gospel of Christ, and vindicating them from the calumnies, wherewith they (especially the younger sort of them) have been unjustly aspersed by the letter from a minister in the city, to a minister in the countrey. Lorimer, William, d. 1721. 1694 (1694) Wing L3073; ESTC R22599 321,667 222

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apprehensive nature and its apprehending Christs Righteousness the Will of God still presupposed doth make this Righteousness ours even as a Gift becomes ours by our receiving of it These Worthy Divines we see were of our Opinion That it is not the nature of Faith it self nor its relation unto Christ which is essential to it that doth formally make it to be the Instrumental Means or Condition of our Justification but it is the Will of God ordaining it to that Office It is true they held and we with them hold that there is a congruity and fitness in Faith to be the receptive and applicative Condition of the Promise and of Christ and his Righteousness therein because it is of a receptive applicative nature yet that doth not formally make it the Condition For notwithstanding its fitness to be the Condition yet it would never have actually and formally been the Condition of Justification nor would it ever have availed us to Justification if God by an Act of his Free-will had not made it the Condition of Justification Is not Justification a great Blessing and Benefit which is in the power and at the disposal of God and Christ and may not God do what he will with his own may not he give his Blessing and Benefit upon what Terms and Conditions he and his Son shall think fit to agree upon This surely is so evident that no reasonable Man can have reason to deny it And then the consequence is as evident that it is not any thing intrinsecal to Faith and so not its relation to Christ which is intrinsecal to it that can nextly and formally make it the Instrumental Means or Condition of Justification but it is and must be the Will of God and his Son Christ Jesus agreeing that Faith shall be and ordaining Faith to be the Instrumental Means Terms and Condition of our Justification For these Reasons we dissent and all Men that love the Truth should dissent from our Authour if by saying that an accepting Faith is the native Condition of the Offer of Christ and of all his fulness he mean That Faith of its own nature necessarily is the condition of the promise and could not possibly 〈◊〉 otherwise so that 〈◊〉 being the condition doth necessarily and wholly arise from its own intrinsecal nature and not at all from the Will of God and Christ constituting and ordaining it do that Office of being the Condition of the promise We dare not uscribe so much Vertue and Efficacy to the intrinsecal Nature of Faith in the matter of our Justification But if by saying That an accepting Faith is the Native condition of the offer of Christ and his fulness our Authour means no more but this That Faith being of a receptive Nature it hath a natural aptitude and fitness to be made the condition of the promise of Justification and that that was a reason why it pleased God and Christ to make and constitute Faith to be the receptive condition of Justification we shall not oppose but join with him in this sense of his words But though we grant him for the reason aforesaid that Faith is the one native receptive condition of Justification yet we can never grant that Faith taken in his sense for the one single Grace or it may be for one single Act of the one single Grace of Faith is the only condition of Justification and much less that it is the only condition of Glorification For as Faith is the one yea and only receptive condition so true Repentance it the dispositive condition of Justification or of the Person to be justified in order to his Justification And moreover Repontance is as native a condition in its kind as Faith in its kind it is us native a dispositive condition as Faith is a native receptive condition For sincere Repentance being a Godly sorrow for having displeased and dishonoured God and a firm resolution through Grace to do so no more it doth from the very nature of the thing dispose and prepare the Soul for pardon and then God hath likewise for that reason Willed Ordained and Constituted Repentance to be the dispositive Condition of pardon of Sin and Justification As we proved before by plain testimonies of God's Holy Word And though Faith and Repentance be equally necessary from the Will Ordination and Constitution of God and Christ yet of the two Repentance seems to be the most necessary with that kind of necessity which ariseth precisely from the nature of the thing For it seems to be absolutely impossible because repugnant to the perfection of God's Holy Nature to Justifie Pardon and Love with a Love of Complacency a Rebellious Sinner whilst he is impenitent and continues his full Resolution to go on in his Rebellion and Enmity against Heaven The sense of this Truth seems to have been much upon the very Reverend and Learned Mr. Clarkson's Spirit and therefore it made him say in his Discourse of free Grace page 129 130 131. If the terms or conditions be such as it is not possible in the nature of the thing that the mercy offered should be effected without them then the offers of saving mercies are as free and gracious as can be as there is any possibility they should be and no more can be desired Then he takes Repentance for his instance we do not say that he altogether excludes the other terms but that Repentance is that which he Jingles out to instance in and which he much insists upon as taken in its Latitude And thus he goes on Let me clear this in one of those terms which is comprehensive of all the rest It is required of those who will partake of Saving Mercies that they leave sin forsake their evil ways Prov. 28.13 Isa 55.7 2 Tim. 2.19 This is the summ of all Conditions and whatever is required in other terms is included in this or may be resolved into it Now it is not possible that saving Mercies should otherwise be had that they should be received or enjoyed but upon these terms not only because the Lord would have it so but because the Nature of the thing doth so require it that it is not otherwise feasible for sin is our impotency Now can we possibly have strength in the inner man if we will not part with our weakness Sin is our deformity that which renders our Souls loathsome and ugly in the eye of God Now can our Souls be made lovely if we will not part with that which is our defilement and ugliness Can we be made clean if we will not part with our leprosie Sin is our enmity against God therein it consists now can we possibly be reconciled if we will not lay aside our enmity Sin is the wound the mortal Disease of the Soul and can you be healed if you will not part with your Disease Sin is your Misery and can you be happy if not part with your misery Happyness consists in the enjoyment of God
Goaler Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved He would not only give Peter but the Holy Ghost the lye and might justly expect that the Lord would confound him Therefore we do not think that he will be so impious as to say that Peter did not give the Men a right Answer 2. If he say that it was a right Answer which Peter gave them then in effect he gives himself the lye he condemns himself and justifies us For it is the same Answer upon the matter which we give unto the Sinner that comes to us for advice which Peter gave unto the convinced Jews Peter bid them repent and be baptized c. We bid him repent of mourn for and turn from his Sins and God will have Mercy on him for Christ's sake and if the man be unbaptized as the Jews were we bid him be baptized for the remission of sins as Peter did by those Jews Whatever therefore our Authour hath said against us in this matter he hath said against Peter and which is more against the Holy Spirit himself If our Answer be wrong then Peter's was wrong before us and he it was that deceived us for we have ours from him and from God by him If Peter's Answer was right then ours is right likewise for ours is the same with his exactly if the Person be unbaptized excepting that upon his Repentance and Baptism for the remission of sius we do not promise him the miraculous extraordinary Gift of the Holy Ghost as Peter promised those Jews but onely the ordinary Gift which is common to all true penitent Believers in all Ages If our Authour say that implicitely Peter bid them believe in Christ as well as repent by bidding them to be baptized in his Name Most true and so do we nay which is more whether the Person be baptized or unbaptized when we exhort him to repent we never fail to exhort him also and that explicitely and in formal express terms to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ us Paul did by the Jaisour Where is the Fault then of our Answer taken fully and fairly as we give it Certainly no where unless Peter and Paul's Answers were both faulty for our Answer comprehends both theirs and is exactly the same so far as the different Circumstances of the Persons and Times will admit Let our Authour then look to it that by his writing thus against us he be not found fighting against God and the Holy Apostles of Christ our Saviour By what hath been said we have made it sufficiently evident that the Covenant of Grace is not absolute but conditional with respect to its subsequent Blessing and Benefits for we have proved it both by clear Scripture and Reason We have shewed also that our Authour 's own Conscience could not altogether deny it and therefore he grants that an accepting Faith is the native Condition of it How far and in what sense this is true we have shewed at large and withal we have proved that though Faith be the one native receptive applicative Condition of Justification yet is it not the only Condition absolutely but the only receptive Condition with which it is very well consistent that Repentance be the dispositive Condition which it really is and that as natively and necessarily in its kind and order as Faith can be in its kind and order It remains now that having proved the Covenants Conditionality by Scripture and Reason we shew in the third and last place by Testimonies of Divines Antient and Modern even of those very Divines whom our Authour affirms to be against us that they believed the Covenant to be conditional in the same sense as we do and consequently that our Authour has fouly belyed us in telling the People that we have invented a new Divinity corrupt the old and preach a new Gospel And 1. We shall begin with the Antient Doctors of the Christian Church and give a few Testimonies of theirs relating to the Matter in hand even as many as can well consist with our designed Brevity 2. We shall come to the Testimony of Orthodox Divines since the Reformation 1. We begin with the Fathers and among them Blessed Clement deserves the first place because he was the Antientest of them he was contemporary with the Apostles Testimonies of Fathers St. Paul speaking of him in Phil. 4.3 gave him this honourable Testimony that his Name was in the Book of Life Of this Blessed Pastour of Christ's Church we have the first Epistle to the Church of Corinth which is by all acknowledged to be genuine and which was so much esteemed in the Primitive Church that it was read publickly in their Congregations Now in the Oxford Edition 1677. pag. 17. he writes thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Let us with fixed eyes behold the Blood of Christ and consider how precious his Blood is unto God which being shed for our Salvation hath offered the Grace of Repentance to the whole World Let us earnestly take a 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 This Testimony of Clement with what follows there shews plainly that God hath made Repentance necessary antecedently in order of Nature unto Pardon of sin and that upon Condition of Repentance he hath promised Pardon of sin unto all in consideration of the Blood of Christ shed for the remission of sin This seems plainly to be the meaning of the foresaid Words that the precious Blood of Christ being shed for our Salvation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath offered the Grace of Repentance to the whole World For either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Grace of Repentance signifies here the gracious Principle of Repentance wrought in Men and the gracious Influences of the Spirit whereby Men are effectually enabled to exert and put forth that Principle into act and such Grace is not common to all the World nor is it said to be barely offered unto Men but rather to be effectually given to some and wrought in them and by them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apud Scapulam significat benesicium praemium Or else it must signifie here the Grace and Favour of God in now admitting all Men to Repentance and the gracious benefit which he hath promised them if they do repent And this we take to be the true meaning of Clement's Words For 1. This is a Grace and Favour common unto all Men by the Law of Christ that they are admitted to Repentance as a means of obtaining Pardon through his Blood which the Law of Works and Innocency did not admit but required a most perfect personal never-sinning Obedience as absolutely and indispensably necessary to Life and Salvation 2. This is a Grace and Favour which is really offered unto all the World that hear the joyful sound of the Gospel that if they sincerely repent of their sins they shall
Usurpation over the Bodies and Souls of Men and the ultimate end of them all was to set up Gods Kingdom among Men and to destroy Satans Kingdom Therefore the Devil could not possibly be the Author of Christs Miracles since they were directly contrary to his Nature and destructive of his Kingdom and Interest in the World The consequence is evident because if the Devil be supposed to do such Miracles so circumstantiated he is and must be ipso facto supposed to be a silly weak Prince that for want of a Politick Head and Ambitious Heart acts quite contrary unto his own Nature and doth what he can to destroy his own Kingdom and Interest in the World But the Devil cannot be supposed to be a silly weak Prince who so Acts for want of Policy and Pride Such a Supposition is evidently false and self-contradictious for the Devil is a most Politick proud Spirit that is his very Nature as he is a Devil and his Politick proud Nature always Acts like it self and ever prompts him to defend maintain and propagate his Kingdom and Interest among Men. Therefore it 's impossible that the Devil should be the Author of such Miracles as are so contrary to his Nature and destructive of his Kingdom and Interest among Men since it cannot be that such a Politick Ambitious Spirit as the Devil is should be so filly as to make war upon his own Subjects pull down his own Kingdom and take the Crown from his own and set it on anothers Head This was our Lords Argument whereby he proved his Miracles to be from God and not from Satan And this Reason with others he hath given us why we should believe both his Doctrine and Miracles to be from Heaven and doth no where require us to believe it without any Reason Now if neither Christ nor his Apostles desired Men to believe them upon their bare Word without good proof who are we and who is our Author that either we or he should desire People to believe either the one or the other of us upon our bare Words without good proof Especially when the matter in Controversie is of the highest Nature and greatest Importance to wit whether we preach a new Gospel which he affirms and we deny and without any Reason but with a great many Falshoods and Calumnies he affirms it but with good and solid Reason we deny it and have disproved his Falshoods and wiped off his Calumnies Amongst other things our Author reproaches us as hath been shewed with the Name of Rational Divines by which it plainly appears that he himself would not be accounted a Rational Preacher or Writer of matters of Divinity and then belike he would not have the People to be Rational Hearers and Readers but to believe all that he either Preaches or Writes without knowing any good Reason why or wherefore But that which he casts upon us as a reproach we take it as a Crown being rightly understood as we have shewed it ought to be And if we be indeed Rational Divines we bless God who hath made us such and pray him so to continue us whilest he hath any Service for us here and still to make us more Rational that we may be the better able to open unto his People the true Grounds and Reasons of the Christian Faith And as we desire to be Rational Divines in the sense before explained so we desire that the People may be Rational Hearers Readers and Believers so rational as not to receive every Doctrine they hear from the Pulpit and read from the Press without knowing by Scripture and Scriptural Reason why and wherefore they receive it Therefore we exhort and beseech them to try before they trust Believe not every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they are of God 1 Joh. 4.1 1 Thes 5.21 prove all things and hold fast that which is good Consider what we have said to clear up God's Truth and to vindicate our own Innocency from the Aspersions and Calumnies of the Accuser of the Brethren and according to the Evidence we offer you judge impartially as you will Answer to God and your own Consciences FINIS Some Books Printed for John Lawrence at the Angel in the Poultrey SEveral Discourses 1. Of Purity 2. Of Repentance 3. Of Seeking first the Kingdom of God By Hezekiah Burton D. D. late Rector of Barns near London and Published by the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Dr. Tillotson in 8vo Bishop Wilkins h●s Gift of Prayer and Preaching newly Reprinted with the Addition of near a thousand Authors to the Preaching in 8vo Mr. Slaters Thanksgiving Sermon October 27th 1692. 4to His Sermon at the Funeral of Mr. John Reynolds Minister of the Gospel Jan. 8. 1692. 4to His Sermon at the Funeral of Mr. Richard Fincher Minister of the Gospel Feb. 19. 1692. 4to Mr. Daniel Burgess his Mans whole Duty and Gods wonderful intreaty of him thereunto from 2 Cor. 5.20 in Twelves His Advice to Parents and Children the summ of a few Sermons Contracted in 12o The Death and Rest Resurrection and Blessed Portion of the Saints in a Discourse on Dan. 12.13 Being preached on the Occasion of the Death of Dr. Daniel Rolls Minister of the Gospel Together with the Work of the Redeemer and the Redeemed in 12o A Good Minister of Jesus Christ a Funeral Sermon for the Reverend Mr. Richard Steel a faithful and useful Minister of the Gospel Nov. 27. 1692. By George Hammond M. A. and Minister of the Gospel
sometimes two as in Acts 20.20 21 27. compared the Apostle comprehends the whole counsel of God under Repentance and Faith also in that of Solomon Fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole of Man Eccles 12.13 So that if you could suppose a Man to be a Believer and to be a Believer alone it would not save him as the Apostle James saith chap. 2.14 What doth it profit my Brethren though a man say he hath faith and have not works can faith save him No no more than saying be ye warmed will warm any or be ye filled will fill any for Faith without works is dead And what is said of this may be said of the rest so that when the Scripture speaks of Salvation as annexed to any one thing it supposeth that to contain the rest The reason is evident for the Graces of God as saving are not parted There is no believing to Salvation without Repentance nor no Repentance to Salvation without believing there is no calling upon the Name of the Lord will save without departing from iniquity nor can they savingly depart from iniquity that call not on the Name of the Lord. It is not any one thing but things that pertain to the Kingdom of God Acts 1.3 It is not thing but things that accompany or as it may be better read contain Salvation Heb. 6.9 And he that takes one for all without all as our wise Authour doth will find nothing at all A part is no portion The great fallacy with which Satan deludes many men is that which Logicians call à benè compositis ad malè divisa When he gets them to take Religion into pieces and then take one piece for Religion One cries up God another cries up Christ another Faith another Love another good Works but what is God without Christ or Christ without Faith or Faith without Love or Love without Works But now take God in Christ by Faith which worketh by Love to the keeping of the Commandments of God and this is pure Religion It is the whole that is the whole of Man Yet again though I have spoken thus much to it let me make it clearer than a demonstration That one is put for all and as containing all by comparing these places of Scripture In 1 Cor. 7.19 You read that circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing but keeping the Commandments of God What 's that Why that is all in all In Gal. 5.6 It is neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but Faith which worketh by Love That 's that which availeth or is all in all Yet in Gal. 6.15 he saith neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new Creature That 's all in all And yet for all this as if all this were nothing he tells us in Col. 3.11 That Christ is all and in all cashiering both circumcision and uncircumcision as formerly Now my beloved if you should take any one of these though each be said to be availing I say if you should take any one and lay the stress of your Salvation upon it you were undone Let our Authour and his Proselytes look to themselves It is not keeping the Commandments of God nor Faith working by Love nor the new Creature no nor Christ himself considered alone and apart that availeth any thing but these in conjunction He names one onely because where one is it is not only one there is more than one wherever one is savingly there are all in their respective places as far as they are to be in relation to Salvation Thus you see that Faith as well as Works and Works as well as Faith every one in their own order are to be taken in or we shall not be taken into the Kingdom of Heaven This Rule of interpreting Scripture is one of Vennings things that are well worth the thinking on and therefore we have set it down at large If it be duly attended to it will give light sufficient to discover the darkness of our Authours Ignorance or Hypocrisie But he objects further That no answer but this alone can rightly heal the wound of an awakened Conscience pag. 15. We reply That what he says is false and delusive in his sense taking Faith for one single act of one Grace and Duty exclusive of Repentance and all other Graces and Duties But take it according to God's usual way of speaking much in a little and in a complex comprehensive sense as taking in or not excluding but rather supposing Repentance and it is most true For the Vertue and Efficacy of Christ's Blood applyed by the Spirit and Faith to the Soul prepared by Repentance is indeed the only Remedy that can heal it But if our Authour will say that Faith in Christ alone and without Repentance will heal the wounds of awakened consciences in wicked Men at their first Conversion we cannot choose but rank him amongst those Covetous deceitful Prophets and Priests who heal the hurt of the People slightly saying Peace peace when there is no peace Jerem. 6.13 14. We are infallibly sure from the Scriptures of Truth That the Apostles Commission was to preach Repentance as well as Faith in order to Mens Justification and Salvation and that they were obedient to the Commands of their Great and Glorious Lord and preached according to their Commission For we read in God's Holy Word that when the Consciences of a multitude of unbelieving Jews who had been accessory to the most barbarous murder of Christ the Son of God and Saviour of Men were throughly awakened and their Spirits were deeply wounded by the Arrows of Conviction which Almighty God by his Word and Spirit had shot into their Souls they feeling themselves pricked in their hearts said unto Peter and to the rest of the Apostles Men and Brethren what shall we do Acts 2.37 then as follows vers 38. Peter said unto them Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins c. Here we have a Company of People in great distress of Conscience as the Goaler was and in this their Spiritual distress they do as the Goaler did As the Goaler sought advice of Paul and Silas and asked them what he should do to be saved Just so the awakened convinced Jews sought advice of Peter and the rest of the Apostles and asked them What they should do To whom Peter answered Repent and be baptized c. Whereupon we demand of our Authour was this answer of Peter a right answer or not 1. We hope he will not he dare not say it was not a right answer For Peter was an Apostle as well as Paul and at that very time he was full of the Holy Ghost and spake as he was inspired by the Holy Ghost If then he should be so bold as to say that Peter did not give them a right answer because he did not say to them as Paul said to the
to the end And then he proceeds saying This is the way Beloved wherein we find Jesus Christ our saving health the High Priest of our Offerings the Guardian and Helper of our weakness Lastly In Page 102 105 106. He that hath Love in Christ let him keep the Commandments of Christ c. Blessed are we Beloved if we have done the Commandments of God in the Concord of Love 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that through Love our Sins may be forgiven us For it is written Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered Blessed is the Man unto whom the Lord imputeth not sin neither is there guile in his mouth This Blessedness hath been unto those who were chosen by God through Jesus Christ our Lord to whom be Glory for ever and ever Amen Thus Clement who was Paul's Fellow-Labourer Phil. 4.3 and who may well be presumed to know his Mind as to these Matters and we see evidently by his Words that he held as we do that Faith and Repentance are both antecedently necessary to Justification and pardon of sin and further that sincere Obedience to Christ's Commandments in a course of holy living is indispensably necessary to the obtaining of Eternal Life and Glory in the Everlasting Kingdome of our most Glorious God and Saviour But some may possibly say what did Clement mean by writing as he doth that our sins are forgiven us through Love Is that an Orthodox Expression We Answer What did our Saviour mean by saying Mat. 6.14 15. If ye forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you but if ye forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Father forgive your trespasses And again what did our Saviour mean by saying Mark 11.25 When ye stand praying forgive if ye have ought against any that your Father also which is in Heaven may forgive you your trespasses Were these Orthodox Expressions If they were Orthodox as doubtless they were and it were Blasphemy to think otherwise then so is the expression of Clement Orthodox for the Expressions are alike upon the matter and the meaning is the same Clement by saying that our sins are forgiven through Love meant no more but that our forgiving our Neighbour his Trespasses against us which is an Act of Love is a Means of God's appointment whereby we obtain the forgiveness of our sins from God through Christ We do not doubt but this was Clement's meaning and we are sure it was our Saviours When he said Mark 11.25 If ye have ought against any forgive that your Father also which is in Heaven may forgive you Our blessed Lord who is the faithful Witness makes God's forgiving us to be the End and our forgiving our Neighbour to be a Means indispensably necessary to be used by us for obtaining that End So that we obtain the forgiveness of our sins through Love in a very sound and Orthodox sense even as sound and Orthodox as Christ's Gospel is In the second place we bring the foresaid Testimony of Origen to prove that the real change which is wrought in the Soul by a sincere Repentance is antecedently necessary to dispose and prepare us for obtaining the promised Blessing of Pardon of sin which is an essential part of Justification It is in his Third Book against Celsus of the Cambridge Edition pag. 154. The Passage in Origen begins thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Which we will give the sense of in English for the use of our Authour After these things viz. which had been objected and answered before he Celsus takes upon him to charge us with that which is not granted by the more rational judicious Believers though perhaps it may be thought so by some foolish or ignorant Christians that as some Men are overcome by and under the Dominion of a tender compassionate natural frame and temper of Mind so God being overcome by and under the power of a merciful compassionate nature towards them that are in misery he relieves and pardons miserable Men though they be wicked if withal they be of a pitiful merciful nature● But though they be otherwise good men yet God rejects them if they be not of such a pitiful compassionate Nature Which is most unjust For according to our Faith God doth not relieve so as to pardon and receive into his Favour any wicked Man unless he be first turned unto virtue that is converted like as he doth not reject any that is now become a good Man But neither doth he relieve or shew mercy unto any Man of a merciful Nature meerly because he is of a merciful Nature taking the word Mercy in the sense that the vulgar or common People use it in but those that greatly condemn themselves for their sins so as thereupon to mourn and bewail themselves as lost and undone by reason of the evil they have done and withal give evidence of a signal change such as becomes true Penitents God grants to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Grace of Repentance that is the Gracious Fruit and Benefit promised to Repentance even to them who have changed their most wicked course For unto such is given as by Act of Oblivion a pardon of their past sins through the vertue that comes to dwell in their Souls and casts out the vice and corruption that possessed them before Or if at first they attain not unto a confirmed habit of vertue yet there is a notable change in the Soul which proceeds so far as that it is sufficient according to the proportion of it to purge out and take away the great abundance of wickedness that was in it before so as it can hardly ever get into the Soul again Thus far Origen In which Testimony of his there are several things worthy of our observation 1. Origen did not write this meerly as a private Christian or Teacher of the Church declaring what was his own private Opinion but as the great and famous Apologist in his time for Christ the Christian Church and for the Truth of the Christian Religion against the Heatheus particularly against Celsus a very learned Heathen who had written learnedly and spitefully against Christ and against Christians and the Christian Religion 2. Whereas Celsus had charged Christians with an absurd impious Opinion as that they believed That God pardoneth wicked Mens sins and receives them into his Favour if they be of a good Nature of a soft pitiful compassionate Temper before there pass a real change upon them before they repent before they turn from sin and return unto God in Heart and Affection Origen deuyed the Charge and affirmed that no rational intelligent judicious Christian believed any such thing that if any Christian did at all believe that God justified and pardoned a wicked Man before he had repented of his sins and returned unto the Lord they must be some foolish simple ignorant People and yet he would not absolutely grant to his Adversary that there
against the Papists Institut lib. 3 cap. 15 § 6. They have found out I know not what moral good Works whereby men are made acceptable to God before they are ingrafted into Christ as if the Scripture lyed when it saith they are all in death who have not the Son 1 John 5.12 If they be in death how should they beget matter of Life As if it mere of no force whatsoever is without Faith is sin Rom. 14.23 As if an evil tree could have good Fruit But now what place have those most Pestilent Sophisters left unto Christ where he may put forth and display his Vertue Why they say that be hath merited for us the first Grace that is he hath given us occasion of meriting And that now it is our part not to be wanting in improving the occasion offered By this passage of Calvin quoted here more fully than it is in the letter we see more clearly what it is that Calvin is there disputing against to wit the Popish Doctrine of mans meriting his Justification and Acceptance with God as righteous unto eternal Life by moral good works done by him before he be justified and that is in their sense before he be initially sanctified in Regeneration and Conversion for they perpetually confound these two Justification and Initial Sanctification on the infusion of habitual Grace as signifying the same thing This is that which Calvin there denies and disproves Now this being premised to give light unto the whole matter We answer That this is nothing to our Authors purpose who brings this passage to prove that Calvin denyed all preparations and dispositions before Regeneration and Conversion and consequently before Justification whereas Calvin here denies no such thing the onely thing that he here denies against the Papists Is that a man by moral good works done before Justification can merit Justification which we deny as much as he doth and that for the same reason too because there neither are nor can be any moral works before Regeneration and Conversion that are so good as to merit Justification and render a man acceptable unto God But elsewhere he is so far from denying that he expresly affirms and maintains that there are some preparations and dispositions in man previous to his Justification as we have plainly shewed before And particularly in his answer to Pighius he only denies that a man by his meer natural power without any supernatural Grace can prepare and dispose himself for special saving Grace but at the same time he confesses and proves that by the gracious influences of Gods Spirit upon a man he may be and is prepared and disposed for Justification for though the man be Spiritually dead yet he hath a natural life and the use of his reason and the living and life-giving Spirit of God can use his naturally living and rational Faculties to produce such actions as by the Ordination of God shall prepare and dispose him to receive the first principle of Spiritual Life from the Lord of Life and upon the exercise of that first principle of Spiritual Life in acts of Faith and Evangelical Repentance God for Christs sake alone pardons his sins and gives him a right to eternal Life This is all that we with Ames Twiss and Owen after the Synod of Dort hold and maintain concerning dispositions previous to Regeneration and Justification and Calvin in this passage doth not contradict this opinion but in his other Books maintains it himself If our Author should yet object that at least one of the places of Scripture which Calvin alledges against the Papists to wit Rom. 14.23 Whatsoever is not of Faith is sin will be of force against us and against the previous dispositions which we with the Synod of Dort maintain We answer That he will find himself very much mistaken for it is of no force at all against us and our opinion And to speak our minds freely as it becomes all ingenuous men to do we do not see that in it self it was of any force against that opinion of the Papists which Calvin was there Confuting Yet to excuse Calvins arguing from it against them it may be said that he did not speak his own sense therein but the sense of Augustin who mistook the true sense of that place of Scripture as if the word Faith there did signifie a Justifying Faith and so urged it frequently against the Pelagians Now the Popish Schoolmen pretended to have a great Veneration for the Authority and Judgment of Angustin therefore Calvin knowing this might argue ad hominem against them from that place of Scripture taken in Augustins sence and the argument might be of some use to stop their mouths But otherwise the Argument in it self was of no force at all because it is grounded upon a false Interpretation of the word Faith in that place And this Calvin knew well enough therefore not only in his Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans but several times in his Institutions when he speaks his own fence of Rom. 14.23 Whatsoever is not of Faith is sin he says that by the Word Faith there is not meant a justifying Faith but a firm perswasion of Mind in opposition to doubting that a thing is lawful and that it may be done without sin so that according to Calvin the true and genuine sence of the place is That whatsoever a man doth without Faith that is without a firm perswasion of mind that he may lawfully do it whatsoever a man doth with a doubting Conscience it is sin to him who so doth it though the thing be never so lawful in it self Thus Calvin expounds it in the Third Book of his Institutions Chap. 5. § 10. Quum nihil operis debeant aggredi fideles nisi ceriâ Conscientiâ ut Paulus praecipit Rom. 14.23 in oratione potissimum requiritur haec certitudo Since Believers should undertake no work but with a sure Conscience as Paul Commands in Rom. 14.23 This assurance is chiefly required in Prayer to wit that we pray to no person See also Instit lib. 4. cap. 13. §. 17. but with a sure and well Grounded Perswasion in our Conscience that we may Lawfully pray to him Again in the Fourth Book Chap. 15. § 22. In rebus etiam minutissimis ut in cibo potu quicquid dubiâ conscientiâ aggredimur Paulus aparte clamat esse peccatum Rom. 14.23 Even in the most minute little things as in meat and drink whatsoever we do with a doubting Conscience Paul doth plainly declare it to be sin Rom. 14.23 For whatsoever is not of Faith is sin In these passages Calvin speaks both his own sence and the true sence of the Apostle and therefore in the other passage quoted by our Author he must either speak the sence of Augustin and from it argue ad hominem against the Papists or else he plays the Sophister and wrests the Scripture against his own knowledg and Conscience which we are
plain with you I think this your last answer is much like all the rest that went before there is hardly a good one amongst them and the difference is that this is the worst in the whole pack And to make this good I offer these things following to the consideration of all men of common sense and reason as well as of Christian Believers 1. The Objection saith That Faith is a difficult Act and proves it to be difficult because impossible without a Divine Power which the Unbeliever sinds not To which you answer That Believing is no work but a resting and so by changing the Terms and putting Work for Act you think to impose upon silly Women and such like Persons and to make them think that you have said much when you have said nothing or worse than nothing And that you have answered the Objection when you have rather confirmed it The Objection says and proves that Faith is a difficult Act because impossible without a Divine Power This you do not deny but only deny that it is a work and so that it is a difficult work If then there be an Act that is no Work as you seem to intimate tho Faith should not be a difficult work yet it may be a difficult Act so difficult that a man cannot believe aright without Divine Assistance and this was all the Objection was designed to prove for it makes no mention of the word work it neither affirms nor denies Faith to be a work 2. I demand why you change the Terms and deny Faith to be a work whereas the Objection did not affirm it to be a work but to be an act and a difficult act because impossible to Humane Nature without the Powerful Assistance of God I cannot easily imagine what reason you had to deny Faith to be a work instead of denying it to be an act and a difficult act if you intended to answer the Objection which only affirms Faith to be a difficult act But whatever reason might move you to deny Faith to be a work which I do not well understand yet this I know that your denying Faith to be a work falls out very unluckily for you and turns to your own shame Let. pag. 11. for you your self had said before and proved from Scripture to wit from John 6.28 29. That Faith is a work yea that it is the work of God the great work of God the great work which we do and which we cannot do too soon These are your own words And yet within the compass of six Pages after you absolutely deny that Faith is any work at all This brings to my mind the old saying Oportet mendacem esse memorem A lyar had need to have a good memory And by this sign and token I know that you are a weak deceived man your self or that you are a deceiver of others It will no wise relieve you to say that though Faith be a Work yet it doth not justifie as a work but as an Insirument For 1. here you absolutely deny it to be a work and that in answer to an Objection which did not relate to Justification Therefore 2. I say that here was no occasion to speak of Justification at all and consequently no occasion to affirm that Faith justifies as an Instrument and to deny that it justifies as a work for the Question here is not at all how we are justified by Faith whether by Faith as a work or by Faith as an instrument but all the Question is whether Faith be difficult to an Unbeliever or not The Objection affirms it to be difficult because it is impossible to Humane Nature without the Grace of God you in answer to the Objection deny it to be difficult because it is no work So that it is evident this your denying Faith to be a work relates not to the manner of Faiths justifying a Man but to the difficulty of a Mans getting and using of Faith 3. It is altogether impertinent here to deny Faith to be a work in the Office or Act of Justification for though it were granted that Faith is not considered as a work in the Act of justifying yet if it be a work in its own Act of Existence the Objection remains in its full Strength and unanswered for still it is true which the Objection asserts that its very difficult for an Unbeliever to produce the Act or do the Work of Faith This you saw and therefore to cut the Sinews and to take away the main force of the Argument you absolutely deny Faith to be a Work This was your Intention in saying that Faith is no work otherwise your Answer was wholly impertinent to the Objection And indeed it must be confessed that if your Answer were true if it were true that Faith is no Work at all in any sence the Objection hath lost all its Strength and falls dead to the ground But that your Answer is not true I have had it already from your self under your own hand affirming and proving that Faith is a great Work which we cannot do too soon And least you should endeavour to bring your self off by saying that Faith is no outward bodily Work and that that was your meaning in saying that Faith is no Work I give you a third Answer and therein Thirdly I demand what you mean by the Word Work when you say that Faith is no Work Whether you do mean an outward bodily Work or an inward Heart-work And 1. I appeal to your own Conscience that you did not mean an outward Bodily Work for no Body ever said or thought that Faith is an outward Bodily Work And why should you in Answer to an Argument deny that which no Body ever affirmed yea and lay the main stress too of your Answer upon that denial 2. You could not give that Answer to such an Objection unless you was in a Dream or out of your right Mind for to Answer so as to say that Faith is not an outward Bodily work but an inward Heart-work doth not in the least touch the Objection though that be most true that Faith is no outward bodily work yet if Faith be an inward Heart-work the Objection stands in its full force and strength for inward Heart-work is the most hard and difficult work therefore if Faith be an inward Heart-work it must needs be still hard and difficult to believe which is the very thing that the Objection was brought to prove therefore if you intended to Answer the Objection by denying Faith to be a Work you must also intend to deny that it is an inward Heart-work and so that it is any work at all either inward or outward and if that were true you had indeed effectually answered the Objection But that is not true for Fourthly It is notoriously false that Faith is no inward Heart-work for to be an inward Work of the Heart is nothing but to be an inward Act of the Heart
and it is most certain and evident that Faith is an inward Act of the Heart for Believers as you do confess find by Spiritual Sense and feeling that Faith is an inward Act of the Heart Let. p. 7. and the Scripture saith expresly that with the Heart Man believeth unto Righteousness Rom. 10.9 10. And therefore Faith is an inward Work of the Heart consequently it is manifestly false which you say that Faith is no Work 5. Whereas you say that Faith is no Work but a resting on Jesus Christ I reply 1. That if Faith be no Work either outward or inward because it is a resting then Faith is no inward Act for an inward Act is an inward Work and if Faith be an inward Act it is also an inward Work but you your self Page 7th of your Letter expresly say that Faith is an inward Act and I have proved it by Scripture to be an inward Act therefore it is utterly false which you say that Faith is no Work at all no not an inward Work because it is a resting on Christ. 2. Faith is both an inward Work and a resting on Christ Resting on Christ is a Figurative Expression and Faith is called by that Name it is said to be a resting on Christ because the effect or consequent of the Act of Faith in Christ is the rest of the Soul the satisfaction and quiet of the Mind the ease of the Heart and the Peace of the Conscience 3. If this sense of the form of Speech Resting on Christ by which the Act of Faith is expressed as it is a means of causing and as it connotes the foresaid effects if I say this do not please you but you will have resting on Christ to signifie a total Cessation from any inward Act Then I reply 1. That you seem to be shifting about from one Sect to another and for a time to have taken up your rest among the Quietists the Disciples of Molino's at Rome or of Madamoiselle de Bourignon in France For it is said to be their Principle that a man should cease from all Action outward and inward and when the Soul is in a State of Non-Action and perfect rest from all Labour whatsoever then a Man is most Religious and best disposed for converse with and enjoyment of God 2. If Faith be no inward Act but a resting on Christ in such a sense as that it is a Cessation from and a Negation of all Act and Action then you need no more to endeavour the Conversion of me or of any other Unbeliever for if that be true Faith then a meer nothing is true Faith and I will assure you I have that nothing as much as ever I can have it You your self in your Letter call me an Unbeliever and that signifies one that wants Faith now if I want the Act of Faith I must needs have the Negation of the Act of Faith in such a way as a Negation can be had and this Negation is a perfect Cessation and resting from any Act of Faith and further this Negation Cessation and Resting is Faith it self according to you Therefore it follows by clear and necessary Consequence that by wanting the Act of Faith I have Faith and by being an Unbeliever I am as good a Believer as your self Therefore you need no more labour to convert me than I need to convert you but let us both rest together among the new Quietists if you please 6. And now Sir I would be content to rest if you would let me alone but are not you like to disturb my rest by clamouring against me that I am unreasonable in pretending that it is hard and difficult for an Unbeliever to believe in Christ without the powerful Assistance of Gods Grace And to prove that I am unreasonable in this you boldly affirm it upon your Word as your manner is and with appearance of much Gravity you illustrate it by a similitude taken from a weary Traveller who is so tired with his journey that he can neither stand still nor yet go one step further but must of necessity lye down and rest Now say you if this Man in these circumstances should say Oh I find it difficult to lye down for I am so tired that I am not able to lie down though indeed I can neither stand nor go would it not be accounted very unreasonable And just so it is unreasonable for you an Unbeliever to pretend That it is so difficult for you to believe that you cannot do it without the powerful Grace of God for believing is resting it is ceasing from all Action and consequently it is so far from being difficult that it is one of the easiest things in the World it is of that Nature that you cannot avoid the doing of it no m●re than a weary Traveller can avoid lying down when he is so tired that indeed he can neither stand nor go This is the force of your Reasoning in the 17th Page of your Letter line 7 8 9 10 11. whereby you would prove me to be unreasonable in saying that it is difficult for an Unbeliever to believe on Christ without the Grace of God I have considered this your profound Reasoning for the Easiness of Believing on Christ without the Grace of God and now that I understand it my fear of being disturbed by it is over and gone yea I am beholding to you for it and I thank you Sir For this which I was afraid would have been a disturbance to me is like to be a means of bringing us both to rest I have told you before what I thought now according to my Promise I will tell you what I see Why in short by the Light of this your Illustration I see that I an Unbeliever am as good a Believer as you are and that it must be so and cannot be otherwise for as the weary Traveller that cannot possibly either stand or go must lie down and cannot but lie down unless he be hindred by force or Miracle So you and I cannot but believe unless we be hindered by Miracle But there is no fear of that God hath wrought many Miracles heretofore to perswade men to believe but he never did nor will work a Miracle to hinder us from believing I will never more Object the difficulty of Believing for want of the powerful Grace of God to enable me thereunto for if this Doctrine be true there needs no Grace to enable us to believe for believing is resting and doing nothing and that we can do as well without as with the help of Grace nay we cannot but do it unless we be hindred from resting and doing nothing and be irresistibly stirred up to Work and Act by Miracle But as I said there is no fear of that since Working and Acting would hinder us from Believing And to hinder us from Believing is contrary to the true use and end of Miracles And Sir as I will never complain more
Souls is and through Grace shall be our fervent and frequent Prayer unto him that is able to do for us exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think Ephes 3.20 21. unto whom be Glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all Ages World without end Amen The INDEX THE INTRODUCTION No just cause appears for raising such a clamour against the Subscribers The Test proposed by our Accuser out of the Assemblies Confession of Faith and Catechisme accepted by us who are ready to subscribe to it in the Assemblies own sense page 1. to 8. CHAP. I. Concerning the Occasion and Design of the Letter Some remarks on it page 8. to 18. CHAP. II. Of the Authours Errors in Doctrine against the Purity of our Christian Faith SECT I. Of his first Errour That there is no new Law of Grace The Controversie stated p. 20 21. The Affirmative proved by Scripture and by Testimonies of Ancient Fathers and Modern Divines p. 22 to 33. SECT II. Of his second Errour That the Covenant of Grace is Absolute and not Conditional 1. It is shewed in what sense we hold it not to be and in what sense to be Conditional p. 34 to 49. 2. With respect to Justification and Glorification it is proved to be conditional That Faith and Repentance with respect to Justification and sincere Obedience with respect to Glorification are conditions in the sense there declared proved 1. By Scripture 2. by Reason agreeable to Scripture 3. By Testimonies of Ancient Fathers and many Modern Divines p. 49 to 120. SECT III. Of his Third Errour that there is no real Change no Holy Disposition or Qualification no good or Holy thing wrought in or done by Man in order to and before Justification c. The question stated p. 120. The contrary Truth proved by Scripture and Reason agreeable to Scripture and by the Testimony of Protestant Divines especially of the Synod of Dort and objections an swered p. 120 to 145. An Appendix of the Third Section concerning Dispositions previous to Regeneration and Conversion Shewed what they ordinarily are p. 146. What our Opinion is concerning them p. 146 147. That our Opinion is neither new nor singular proved by Testimonies of Famous Protestant Divines p. 148 to 156. Objections answered p. 156 to 162. Bradwardin for Justification by inherent Righteousness and Humane Satisfaction some further account of his Principles and Practices p. 163 to 165. More Testimonies of Mr. Dickson Claude Charnock Turretin c. for previous Dispositions p. 165 to 168. CHAP. III. Of his Ridiculous way of Converting an Vnbeliever p. 168 to 183. CHAP. IV. Of the Calumnies wherewith he asperses Christ's Ministers and particularly of the middle way Shewed that we are neither Pelagians nor Arminians in whole or in part p. 184 to 190. That called the middle way stated and shewed not to be a new Gospel but the Opinion of Calvin and others of our Reformers p. 191 192. The Calumny relating to Justification refuted p. 193 to 195. As also p. 37 to 40 and 42 to 45. Other Calumnies refuted p. 195 to 204. CHAP. V. People are advised to try before they trust and not suffer themselves to be imposed upon and led into Errour by the bold unproved Assertions and Dictates of any Preachers or Writers whatsoever p. 204 to the end The Errata of the Press thus to be Corrected TItle Page for nostraas read nostras Preface page 3 line 2 read Rule Book p. 1. l. 2. f. flesh r. flesh p. 1. l. 10. after battle add p. 14. l. 1. for the that r. that the. p. 23 l. 36 f. perfect of r. perfect or l. 8. r. virtual p. 25 l. 2 r. pius p. 51 l. 31 r. it is a condition p. 52 l. 47 r. goeth on p. 55 l. 33 f. of them r. on them p. 63 l. 43 f. or r. of p. 67 l. 10. f. atr r. act p. 80. l. 24 f. inward applicative r. inward applicative without a Comma p. 85. lin 40. f. he an r. he is an l. 41. blot out is p. 88 at the end blot out the last word this p. 105. l. 34. r. Receive it p. 110. l. 3. after emendationem for a point put a Comma In the same line after life put a p. 115. l. 48. r. prove that no man without a p. 128. l. 32 f. he r. it and l. 33 r. penitent p. 138 l. 6 f. make r. made p. 147 l. 30. f. discourse r. discourse p. 149. l. 17 f. Ecclesiastical r. Scholastical p. 162 l. 54 f. they who r. those which p. 163 l. 20 r. Reformationem and f. predictis r. praedictis l. 23 r. punishment p. 183. l. 40 f. oar r. our p. 186. l. 30. f. in all Ages might r. in all Ages might without a Comma p. 186 l. 18 19 f. chap. 28 r. chap. 30. and l. 24. f. infer for what r. infer what p. 189 l. 46 f. and efficaciously r. But efficaciously p. 194. l. 40 and 41 r. Justification p. 198 l. 38 f. doath r. death p. 201 l. 42. r. merits of p. 202. l. 50 f. Relation r. Revelation What other Faults the Reader may find he is desired to Correct or Excuse them Advertisement A Brief Review of Mr. Davis's Vindication By Giles Firmin one of the United Brethren Printed by John Lawrence at the Angel in the Poultrey 1693. The Introduction HOly David the man after Gods own heart said of old My flesh trembleth for fear of thee Ps 119.120 and I am afraid of thy judgments We would it were thus with all that pretend to any seriousness in the Profession of the Protestant Religion at this day But alas where are such to be found where are they that are affected with the fear of God as David was and that are duly apprehensive of the Judgments of God which are actually upon and seem to be yet further coming upon the Reformed Churches Is it not visible that all sorts of men turn to their several courses of sin as the Horse rusheth into the battle They run on in the ways of their own hearts blindly and boldly without considering or fearing the issue And who can wonder that those who have hardned their hearts from Gods fear should boldly venture upon sin especially if they have got a strong but false perswasion that they are The Temple of the Lord the true the best and purest Church upon Earth most highly in favour with God and that their sins are the spots of Gods children which do not hurt them and are well consistent with his highest Love and Favour The Scriptures of truth assure us that when once Professors of Religion have brought themselves to this then they can securely lean upon the Lord and say is not the Lord amongst us none evil can come upon us Though at the same time the Lord saith that Sion for your sakes shall be plowed as a field and Jerusalem shall become heaps Mic. 3.11 12. We wish it be
unchristian a thing he hath done in accusing the Brethren as aforesaid We 1. Here declare in general before we come to examine the several particulars in his Letter which relate to this matter That we never were and that we now are not and that we trust in God we never shall be Arminians or Pelagians This we freely and unfeignedly declare as in the presence of the Lord to whom we must give an account of all our Actions 2. And yet further to remove all ground of suspicion if it be possible of our corrupting the Gospel in the point of Justification we accept of the Test proposed to us by the Authour of the Letter Pag. 29. and declare That we will subscribe all those Articles of the Confession of Faith which he hath there transcribed together with the Passage out of the larger Catechism We say We will subscribe them in the Assemblies own sense We add this limitation because the Authour of the Letter hath not taken into his Test that part of the larger Catechism * Question How is the grace of God manifested in the● second Covenant which declares that God in the second Covenant requires Faith as the condition to interest Sinners in Christ Nay he denies Faith to be either condition or qualification and will have it to be only the Instrument of Justification But by Comparing the confession of Faith with the Catechism we find that the Assembly held Faith to be both an Instrument and a Condition And therefore every honest Man that will subscribe in the Assemblies own sense must so hold Faith to be an Instrument as to be a Condition also Now the Question is How Faith can be both an Instrument and a Condition To which we answer That in our Judgement it is thus Distinguish between a meer Physical Instrument and a moral federal Instrument Faith is not a meer physical Instrument but it is a moral federal Instrument Now a moral federal Instrument is the same thing with a federal Condition Instrument and Condition in this sense are but two words to signifie the same thing If this do not satisfie our Brother but he will still say That the notion of an Instrument and the notion of a Condition are two distinct notions and cannot both agree to the same thing to the same faith We answer 1. If he will say so we desire the World to take notice that it is he himself who opposes the Assembly and not we 2. In behalf of the Assembly we answer That the notion of a moral federal Instrument and the notion of a federal Condition are not two distinct but one and the same notion 3. Suppose they were two distinct notions yet the same thing the same faith in different respects is capable of two distinct notions But so it is that Faith may be considered under two different respects 1. Faith is considered with respect to Christ himself and his Righteousness and so it hath the notion of an Instrument whereby we receive Him and His Righteousness and apply them to our own Souls 2. Faith is considered with respect to Justification it self or the Act whereby God Justifies us for the sake of Christ and his Righteousness and so it hath the notion of a Condition upon which God Justifies us for the sake of Christ and his Righteousness In this respect Faith cannot have the notion of a Phisical Instrument for a Physical Instrument as such hath a Physical Causality but our Faith cannot have a Physical Causality upon Gods Act whereby he Justifies Let it be considered that both our Catechisms larger and lesser affirm Justification to be an Act of God Now how an Act of ours such as Justifying Faith is can have a Phisical Causality and Influence upon the producing of an Act of God is above our comprehension Sure we are that if any Man will maintain such an Opinion he ascribes more to Faith in the point of Justification than we dare do We should rather think that the Instrument which God uses in producing his own Justifying Act is his own Gospel-promise of Pardon and Justification to the penitent Believer for the sake of Christ in whom he believes Acts 10.43 Object But doth not the second Article of the II Chap. of the Confession of Faith say expresly that Faith is the alone Instrument of Justification Answ 1. And so say we too It is the alone Instrument the alone moral federal Instrument or the alone receptive applicative Condition 2. Distinguish between an Instrument immediate and mediate Now Faith is not said to be the alone immediate Instrument of Justification nor do we conceive how it can so be in a physical sense because it hath no immediate physical influence upon the producing of Gods Justifying Act. But Faith may be said to be the mediate Instrument of Justification because it is the immediate Instrument whereby we receive Christ and his Righteousness hoc posito this being done this Instrumental Means being used and this Condition being performed Christ and his Righteousness being received by Faith as the Instrumental Means of that reception God himself for Christs sake justifies us by his Law of Faith This seems plainly to be the sense of the Assembly as appears by their saying in the passage of the larger Catechism quoted by the Letter That Faith Justifies a Sinner onely as it is an Instrument by which the Sinner receiveth and applieth Christ and his Righteousness Mark the Expression They do not say that Faith Justifies only as an Instrument whereby God Justifies the Sinner but onely as an Instrument whereby the Sinner receives and applies Christ and his Righteousness If the Authour of the Letter have any other Notions of Faith's being a Physical Instrument much good may they do him but let him not think to impose them upon us or upon the Words of the Assembly We take their Words in the sense they are capable of without self contradiction For we have more respect for that Reverend and learned Synod than to put a sense upon their Words they are not fairly capable of or that shall make them speak Contradictions Therefore as they hold Faith to be both an Instrument and a Condition so do we We hold it so to be an Instrument as that its being an Instrument shall not hinder it from being a Condition And so to be a Condition as that its being a Condition shall not hinder it from being an Instrument This we take to be the plain and native sense of the Assembly and in this sense we heartily assent to their Words But so doth not our Authour for in the 9th and 25th Pages of his Letter he saith that Faith is neither Condition nor Qualification but a meer Instrument Whereas the Assembly saith expresly both that Faith is a Condition and also that it is an Instrument Therefore he contradicts the Assembly and doth not take their Words in their plain and native sense For had he so taken them as
we do and always did what reason had he to make such a clamour and with what Conscience did he tell the World that his Brethren the Non conformists especially the younger sort of them were dangerously erroneous in the Fundamental point of Justification Is it a light matter with him to traduce the faithful Ministers of Christ For our parts we durst not have done so by him or any of his Consorts without as clear evidence as a matter of fact of that nature is capable of and without producing our evidence too which he hath not done in his Letter nor is it possible to be done for the matter of fact is most certainly and evidently false And we would yet hope that he will have a better opinion of his Brethren and be sorry for the wrong he hath done them when he shall understand that they are far from being the Men he affirmed them to be and that they willingly accept of the Test which he himself offers in order to an Agreement not as if they had changed their Judgments upon the reading of his Letter which is more likely to make Proselytes of weak well meaning Women than of Men of understanding but because they were of the same Judgment before and now declare it that the World and he may see how injurious he hath been to his Brethren But though we are willing to agree with him in the foresaid Articles of the Assemblies Confession of Faith yet it is upon Condition that he will assent to the Assemblies Words in their plain and genuine sense aforesaid as we also do And that this shall not be accounted an agreement with him in all the rest of his Letter For we hope by the help of our God and Saviour never to agree unto many things in his Letter because they are neither consistent with the purity of Faith nor with the sincerity of Love We are indeed willing that it should be known to the real and right Antinomians that he is none of them if he will stand to several Passages in his Letter particularly to what he writes in the end of the 4th and in the 5th Pages again in the end of the 23d and beginning of the 24th Pages as also in Page 40. Line 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28. And for our parts if he would be consistent with himself and not contradict what he there owns for Truth we should be willing and ready as we have occasion to vindicate him from being an Antinomian in Principle but we cannot acquit him from being an Antinomian in Practice so long as it is written in our Bibles Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy Neighbour And so long as he approves of those Passages in his Letter whereby he has falsely accused and traduced his Brethren and represented them to the World as Arminians and Pelagians and Preachers of a new Gospel It is none of our business to perswade any Body to believe that he is a real Antinomian in Principle but it is to Vindicate our own innocency by wiping off those most false and soul Aspersions he hath cast upon the Lords Ministers and to correct some of those gross mistakes that occur up and down in his Letter and to let People see that some have been too forward to receive for truth many things which he hath presented them with in his Letter This is that which we design in Animadverting upon his Letter and our Method in doing it shall be First In the first Chapter to consider of the Occasion and Design of his Letter Secondly In the second Chapter divided into several Sections to refute some of his Doctrinal Errors against the purity of Faith Thirdly In the third Chapter to shew that we cannot approve his ridiculous way of Converting Unbelievers and bringing them to Faith in Christ Fourthly In the fourth Chapter to refute his Calumnies and false Accusations of Christs Ministers against the sincerity of Love Lastly In the fifth Chapter to advise Christian People to try before they trust and not to suffer themselves to be imposed upon and lead into errour by the bold unproved Assertions and Dictates of any Preachers or Writers whatsoever CHAP. I. Concerning the Occasion and Design of the Letter FIrst of all We will consider the Occasion and Design of his Letter And for the Occasion of his Writing it he saith It was a Countrey Ministers earnest desire of information about some difference amongst Non-conformists in London which was the cause of it We suppose he means the occasional cause And if this be true we allow it for a lawful occasion of writing a Letter of Information to his Friend and Brother in the Country provided his Information had been true but nothing can ever make it lawful to give false information to any either in City or Countrey Whether he hath done so or not by his Letter will appear by what follows in this Answer Next for his design in writing he saith in Page 35. That All his design in publishing that Letter was plainly and briefly to give some information to ordinary plain people who either want time or judgment to peruse large and learned Tractates about the point of Justification wherein every one is equally concerned We do not believe this to be true yea we think it is not true For surely it was part of his design to give a fuller information to his Brother in the Countrey who being as he saith a Minister we presume he is none of the plain ordinary people who want time and judgment to peruse large and learned Tractates c. We do not think that he first sent the whole Manuscript in a private Letter into the Country to inform a Minister and afterwards printed it to inform the People that want time and judgment But that if he did really write a Letter into the Countrey it was but a small part it may be some of the Heads of it See Lett. p. 27. and then published the whole with a design to inform and to alarum too both Ministers and People in City and Countrey And whether this be so or not yet we cannot believe that All his design in publishing his Letter was plainly and briefly to give some Information to the People about the point of Justification For he plainly manifests throughout his Letter that a part of his design in writing was to vindicate himself and some of his Party from the suspicion of Antinomianism and to load other Ministers who differ from him in some things with the odious charge of Arminianism and Pelagianism and to warn the People upon their peril to have a care of such Ministers as preach the necessity of Repentance in order to pardon of sin that they be not corrupted by them in most Fundamental points of Religion Let any body of common understanding but read Pages 1 2 3 4 5 9 10 13 15 23 24 25 26 27 28 30. of the Letter and he
the said Nethenus in the publishing of that Book of Rutherford And though he hath lately gone off from his Principles and we think from some Principles contained in that Book both as to Doctrine and Discipline yet we do not believe that he will even acknowledge that he hath changed his Godliness with his Principles and that as he hath got new Principles so he hath a new Godliness and that he never had any before If we should be mistaken in this our charitable opinion of him we should be sorry for him and could not but fear that he is in as bad a case as he fancies the middle-way Men to be in who usually have a greater kindness he says for that extream they go half way to Let. pag. 2. than for that they go half way from For if he should be found to have made such a Profession that his Godliness begun with the Faith of his new Principles he is not onely gone the half but we think the whole way to the extreme And that if it should be so will help us to account for his being so unmerciful in his censures and accusations of us who had rather stop in the mid-way than to run with him into such extremes This puts us in mind of a passage in Mr. Patrick Hamilton's little Treatise in the Book of Martyrs Vol. II. pag. 188. Col. 2. to which the Letter refers us Pag. 4. and which we have read upon our Authours recommendation The passage is this Evil Works make not a Man evil We hope our Authour would not have us to understand these words just as they sound without interpretation or distinction We honour the Memory of that blessed Martyr of Christ and are willing to understand his words just as he meant them and as they are consistent with the Truth of God and that is thus Evil works do not make a Man first evil because we are all evil by participation of the sin of our first Parents from our Conception and Birth Psal 51.5 John 3.6 Eph. 2.3 But for all that we know very well that in another sense evil works do really make a Man evil they make him gradually evil that is they make him worse than he was If our Authour do not see the Truth of this at a distance let him bring it home to himself and then we dare say he will see the Truth of what we affirm That evil works will make a Man evil that is worse than he was For if not then 1. it must be either because he is so very bad already that he cannot possibly be worse and this we hope our Authour will confess not to be true of himself or else 2 it must be because he is already so very good that let him do never so many evil works they cannot make him evil that is they cannot make him worse than he was before he did them Now we cannot think that he hath such an Opinion of himself If we knew that he had we should look upon him as a very dangerous Man to have any thing to do with for he might do us all the mischief he could by lying and slandering or otherwise and yet be perswaded in his own mind that he was never a whit the worse for so doing He and we both profess to believe that all Gods Regenerate Justified people are kept by the power of God through Faith unto Salvation so as that they do not fall from Grace either totally or finally But we must profess for our selves that it is none of our faith that the Saints on Earth are already so confirmed in Goodness that they cannot sin at all or if they do sin as alas too sadly they have done and frequently do that their sins do not make them evil in any degree nor in the least worse than they were before they sinned And we hope our Authour is not so far gone but that he will yet join with us in this profession For by this time we think he may see if he did not before the certain and evident truth of what we affirm that evil works will make a Man evil that is if he be evil already they will make him more evil and if he be good already they will make him less good and to be less good than he should be is to be in some degree evil See the XVIth Article of the Church of England which our Authour and we have all subscribed as also the IIth Article of the Ausburg Confession of Faith and by both it will manifestly appear that our first Reformers even the Lutherans by whom Mr. Hamilton through the Grace of God was fully converted from popery and from whom he had that passage that evil works do not make a Man evil never thought that a good Man cannot do any evil works or that if any Man good or evil do evil Works they will not make him evil that is worse than he was before he did them In all this we do not in the least contradict the true sense of the blessed Martyr Mr. Hamilton but explain his Words and give the true sense of them as will appear to any Man of Judgment that will be at the pains to read attentively what he says before and after the Words we are upon We should not have mentioned this but that we are afraid lest ignorant injudicious people unto whom our Authour recommends that little Treatise of Mr. Hamiltons should wrest the Words of a Holy Martyr to countenance and encourage Libertinism 2 Pet. 3.16 as they do wrest the sacred Words of the most Holy God himself unto their own destruction We do not by this reflect in the least upon the said Martyr of Blessed Memory but rather endeavour as we are bound to secure his good Name from any Reproach which the Enemies of our Religion might possibly cast upon it from a wrong and wrested sense of his Words as they are alwayes ready to do This we have here provided against by giving the true sense of his Words which being rightly understood have nothing harsh in them at all but otherwise taken just according to the sound of the Letter they carry a very scandalous meaning which we dare say the Holy Martyr never thought of We do not doubt therefore but our Authour will confess that we have done right to the Martyr and have rightly interpreted his saying which he learned of Luther But if we happen to be mistaken as to our Authour and he will not admit this sense we have given of the foresaid words then he cannot be justly offended if this be given as his Character the Authour of the Letter is one who holds that no Man can make himself evil by doing evil that is he holds that no Man by doing all the evil and mischief that he is able to do can make himself in the least degree worse than he was And then let the World Judge how well he hath cleared himself of the
the Doctor in that Book And that you may see that this Passage did not drop inconsiderately from his Pen we will shew from another Book which he wrote afterwards that this was his settled judgment and that he was firmly and fully perswaded of this great Gospel-truth It is Dr. Twiss his Answer to Mr. Hoard's Book called God's Love to Mankind Pag. 37.38 As touching the conferring of Glory God doth not bestow this on whom he will finding men equal without any moving cause thereunto even in man for though there be no moving cause thereunto in man of its own nature yet there is to be found a moving cause in man by constitution Divine whereby God is as it were moved to bestow Salvation on some and not on others For God hath made a gracious promise that whosoever believeth and repenteth and continueth in Faith and repentance unto death shall be saved and whosoever believeth not and repenteth not shall be damned So then though Men are equal in original sin and in natural corruption and God bestows faith and repentance on whom of them he will curing their corruption in whom he will yet when he comes to the conferring of Glory men are not found equal in moral condition and accordingly God cannot be said in like manner to bestow Glory and Salvation on whom he will For he hath tyed himself by his own constitution to bestow Salvation on none but such as dye in the state of Grace Yet I confess some say that God bestows Salvation on whom he will inasmuch as he is the Authour of their faith and repentance and bestows these graces on whom he will Yet certainly there is a different manner in the use of this Phrase of bestowing this or that on whom he will For when God bestows Faith and Repentance he finds them on whom he will bestow it no better than others but when he comes to the bestowing of Glory he finds them on whom he bestows that far better than others And a little after Albeit saith he God hardneth whom he will by denying unto them the grace of Faith and Repentance yet notwithstanding like as it is just with God to inflict damnasion upon them for that sin whether original or actual wherein he finds them when the ministry of the Word is offered them So likewise it cannot be denyed to be just with God to leave their infidelity and impenitence wherein he finds them uncured But yet because God hath not made any such constitution namely that whosoever is found in infidelity and impenitence shall be so left and abandoned by him Therefore he is properly said as to cure it in whom he will so to leave it unoured in whom he will finding them all equal in original Sin and consequently lying equally in this their natural infidelity and impenitence So we may justly say there is no cause at all in man of this difference to wit why God cures infidelity and impenitency in one and not in another but it is the meer pleasure of God that is the cause of this difference But 2. as touching the denyal of Glory and inflicting of damnation which is the second thing decreed in reprobation there is always found a cause motive yea and meritorious hereof to wit both of the denyal of the one and inflicting of the other And God doth not proceed herein according to the meer pleasure of his will and that by reason of his own constitution having ordained that whosoever continueth finally in infidelity in profane courses and impenitency shall be damned And albeit on the other side it may be said in some sense as I formerly shewed that God saves whom he will in as much as he is the Authour of Faith which he bestows on whom he will yet in no congruous sense can he be said to damn whom he will for as much as he is not the Authour of sin as he is the Authour of Faith For every good thing he works but sin and the evil thereof he only permits not causeth And lastly as God doth not damn whom he will but those onely whom he finds finally to have persevered in sin without repentance So neither did he decree to damn or reprobate to damnation whom he will but onely those who should be found finally to persevere in sin without repentance Again in the same Book pag. 106. But I saith Twiss shall tell you the chief Flourish whereupon this Authour and usually the Arminians doth insist in this his loose Argumentation I conceive it to be this they hope their credulous Readers unexpert in distinguishing between God's eternal decree and the temporal execution thereof will be apt hereupon to conceit that we maintain that God doth not onely of meer pleasure decree whatsoever he decreeth but also that he doth decree of meer pleasure to damn men Which yet is utterly contrary if I be not deceived to the Tenet of all our Divines All concurring in this that God in the execution of the decree of damnation proceeds according to a Law and not in the execution of reprobation onely but also in the execution of election and the Law is this Whosoever believes shall be saved whosoever believes not shall be damned and like as he inflicteth not damnation but by way of punishment so he confers not salvation but by way of Reward Again pag. 184. God hath not wished but ordained and made it a positive Law that whosoever believeth shall be saved and here hence it followeth that if all and every Man from the beginning of the World to the end shall believe in Christ all and every one of them shall be saved And Pag. 229. As for Salvation that is appointed to be bestowed only by way of Reward of foregoing Faith Repentance and good works And a little after in the same Page Indeed our profession is that Gods purpose is to bestow Salvation by way of Reward of Faith Repentance and good works And accordingly there is No other assurance of election than by Faith and Holiness ● Thess 1.3 4 Remembring the work of your Faith the labour of your love and the patience of your hope knowing beloved brethren that ye are elect of God And St. Peter exhorts Christians to make their election and vocation sure by joining vertue with their faith and with vertue knowledge and with knowledge temperance and with temperance patience and with patience Godliness and with Godliness brotherly kindness and with brotherly kindness love 2 P●t 1.5 6 7 10. Thus Dr. Twiss speaks our sence according to our Hearts desire and maintains the Gospel to be a Law as much as we do But now it may be our Authour will object that in all this Dr. Twiss speaks only of a Law according to which God proceeds in bestowing or not bestowing eternal life and glory upon Men but not of a Law according to which he justifies and pardons men We Answer 1. The reason of that was because the Doctor 's Adversaries gave
uncere Obedience to be a Legal but an Evangelical Condition of the Covenant of Grace and consequently that in our Judgment they do not hold the same Place and Office in the New Covenant of Grace which personal perfect sinless Obedience had and were to have had in the first Covenant of Innocency and of Works Object But saith our Authour in his Appendix Pag. 39. It is the Achillaean Argument of the New Divinity that Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience is our Evangelical Righteousness and that Righteousness is our defence against the charge of Vnbelief Impenitence c. And what then Why in the following Pages he so shapes it as might best serve his Design which was to make the People believe that we set up our own Righteousness in the place of Christ's and maintain that Men must be Justified by their own Righteousness and not onely by Christ's And so he trips up Achilles Heels by the Fallacy of many Interrogations But it will be no very difficult Task to scatter this Mist which he hath cast before the Peoples Eyes In order thereunto let it be considered 1. That the Substance of this Argument was not invented by any amongst us dead or alive that we know of but some in this Nation having read it in some very eminently learned forreign Divines particularly Ludovicus de Dieu at large and the Holy Humble Learned and most Acute Placeus they received it and improved it as useful to clear some seeming Difficulties in Scripture obiected to us by our Adversaries the Papists 2. Consider that this way of reconciling James with Paul in the matter of Justification for the Substance of it was taken up also by the Learned Turretin 3. That it doth not appear that all of us ever expressed our selves in those Words for the clearing up of the seeming difference between James and Paul 4. That those who do take that way do not impose it upon others We know there have been many ways taken by Reformed Divines to expound James so as not to contradict Paul And some considerable difference there may seem to be among Divines in the methodizing and expressing of their Notious of those Matters But yet there appears to be very little difference amongst them as to the things themselves Indeed upon the Matter all seems to come almost to the same thing And particularly let it be considered 5. That this way of Interpreting James his Justification by Works and reconciling it with Paul's Justification by Faith seems to differ from the more common modern Opinion mostly in the manner of expression which some of us think most agreeable to the Scripture Phrase But we leave every Man to express his Notions as best pleaseth him provided that if he do not use Scripture Words yet he do not contradict Scripture sense And therefore 6. We desire it may be considered that this way of expounding James which we are now speaking of doth not in the least contradict the Holy Scripture but rather serves to explain it if it be understood as it ought to be in the true genuine sense of its Authours For 1. Though they say that our Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience is an Evangelical Righteousness as indeed it is yet at the same time they declare that this Evangelical Righteousness is no other thing but the Condition of the new Covenant on our part whereby we are interested first and still keep our interest in the satisfactory meritorious Righteousness of Christ by and for which alone we are justified from first to last They do not say that this Evangelical Righteousness which is the Condition of the Covenant doth satisfie God's Justice for the least sin either against Law or Gospel or that it doth properly merit to us the least good so much as a Cup of Cold Water They give unto Christ alone the whole Glory of having by his Righteousness satisfied Justice for all our Sins and merited to us all our Mercies So that our Authour was we think a little impertinent in putting his question page 41. What is that Righteousness which justifies a man from the sin of Vnbelief For he knows well enough that the Worthy Divines as he deservedly calls them with whom he has to do in that Argument have published it to all the World under their hands That assoon as a Man who was before an Unbeliever begins through Grace sincerely to believe in Christ and to repent of his Unbelief and of all his other sins immediately thereupon Christ's satisfactory meritorious Righteousness justifies him from his sin of Unbelief and from all his other former sins both Original and Actual that is God by and for Christ's Righteousness justifies him from them upon his believing and repenting And as our Authour knows this to be true so he hath honestly confessed it in the end of the same Paragraph Will any man says he dare to tell a person who is troubled in Conscience about his sin of Vnbelief that Christ's Righteousness is his legal Righteousness against the charge of sins against the Law but for Gospel-charges he must answer them in his own name I know our hottest opposers would abhor such an answer and would freely tell such a Man that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin and that his Justification from his Vnbelief must be only in that Righteousness which he so sinfully had rejected while in Vnbelief and now lays hold on by Faith Here the Truth comes out at last and in effect he gives the lye to his own false accusations of the Lord's Ministers and acquits the accused For if his hottest Opposers freely tell People that the Blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin and that their Justification from the sin of Unbelief must be only by the Righteousness of Christ then how can those things be true whereof as was observed before he had accused us in page 6 28 33 and page 39. That we bring our own pitiful Holiness into Justification and make it sit on the Throne of Judgment with the precious blood of the Lamb of God Ex ore tuo c. But 2. The Authors of the Argument we are upon never said wrote or so much as thought that can be known That our sincere Faith and Repentance is a Defence or Justification against a charge of Unbelief or Impenitence given in against us by God for they knew full well without being taught it by this Authour That the God of Truth cannot be the Authour of a Lye which he would certainly and evidently be if he should charge us with being Unbelievers and Impenitent at that very time when he knows that by his own Spirit and Grace we sincerely believe and repent But that which the aforesaid Excellent Divines said is yet to be seen in their Writings and it is this That our sincere Faith and Repentance is a Defence and Justification against any false charge of Unbelief and Impenitence that is or possibly may be given in against
us by the Devil and the World or by our own mistaken Consciences And who dare deny the Truth of this May not the Devil and the World falsly accuse do not they too often falsly accuse us and say that we are Hypocrites and have neither true Faith nor Repentance When this Brother accuseth us so falsly as he doth in his Letter we need not think it strange that the Devil and the World do falsly accuse us Yea we have that within our own breasts that may sometimes through the temptations of Satan or the remainders of sinful Darkness and Unbelief falsly accuse us of predominant Hypocrisie Unbelief and Impenitency Now if at the same time we are really true Converts and through Grace sincerely believe and repent what Man that is endued with common Sense and reason can reasonably deny that our sincere Faith and Repentance is a sufficient Defence and Justification of us against all such false accusations Sure we are that our infinitely Gracious God and Saviour allows our plea and we most heartily bless his Name for it hath sometimes by his Spirit and Grace sensibly helped us to make our defence by clearing up to us the sincerity of our Faith and Repentance and by enabling us to take unto our selves the Comfort and to give him all the Glory of our being sincere penitent Believers notwithstanding all that the Devil World or Flesh say falsly to the contrary But as for those who are impenitent Unbelievers indeed all the World knows that the Faith and Repentance which they have not can never justifie them from the Unbelief and Impenitency which they really have deeply rooted in their hearts In short We maintain that Christ's meritorious and satisfactory Righteousness only justifies us at Gods Bar from all our sins against any Law of God whatsoever as soon as we through Grace performe the Gospel-Condition of sincere Faith and Repentance And then that sincere Faith and Repentance is our Defence and Justification before our most Gracious God and before all honest Men against all false accusations of our not having performed the Gospel-Condition of sincere Faith and Repentance But as for those who continue still in Unbelief and Impenitence they have nothing to defend and justifie them but if they live and dye in that stare their Unbelief and Impenitence will bind upon them to Eternity the Curse and Condemnation of the Law and moreover will bring upon them the sorer Vengeance of the despised Gospel John 3.18 19 20. and Heb. 2.2 3. and 12.25 Thus Achilles is on his Legs again without receiving the least hurt from the weak efforts of that assailant who hath nothing to say to him without misrepresenting him but that he doth not like his Language pretending that it is unscriptural let p. 41 42. dangerous and tends to the dishonouring of Christs Righteousness c. but that pretence is utterly false For 1. That our sincere Faith Repentance and Gospel-Obedience is a righteousness is evident from the Nature of the thing For 1. They are Duties which we owe unto the Lord our God and it is self-evident that it is a righteous thing to give unto God the things that are Gods 2. It is confessed by our Divines in their Disputes against the Papists that our Faith Repentance sincere Obedience and Holyness is a Righteousness For they generally grant that we have a two-fold Righteousness 1. The Righteousness of Christ imputed to us 2. A Righteousness inherent in us and adherent to us which we receive from Christ by his Spirit and Grace This is expresly confessed by that same Bishop Downham in his Book of Justification which our Author page 12. of his Letter commends as an Orthodox Book There that Reverend and Learned Divine affirms that we are Righteous both by the Righteousness of Christ imputed to us which is our Principal Righteousness and likewise by another Righteousness wrought in us and performed by us which is our secondary subordinate Righteousness If our Authour should have the Confidence to deny this it will be proved against him by Authority both Divine and Humane 2. This our subordinate Righteousness is rightly termed Evangelical because it is required by the Word of the Gospel wrought by the Spirit of the Gospel and is a complying with the terms and a performing of the Condition of the Gospel 3. That our sincere Faith Repentance and Obedience is a subordinate Righteousness by which we are defended and justified against the false charge of Hypocrisie Unbelief and Impenitence is so far from being unscriptural that it agrees exactly with the very Letter Scope and Sense of the Scripture in the second Chapter of James if that Epistle be Scripture as I hope we all believe that it is for there a Man is expresly in formal terms said to be justified by works James 2.21 24 25. which words can signifie no less than this That the good Works and sincere Obedience of a good Man do justifie him against the false accusation of being an Hypocrite or prophane Libertine As to what our Authour says in page 41. That works of Righteousness are only a Justification of Faith and not of the Person of the Believer it is a notorious falsehood and expresly contradicts the Spirit of God who faith that a man is justified by works and particularly that Abraham and Rahab were justified by works and not that their Faith only was justified by Works We do not deny but that good Works do justifie Faith but we also affirm with James that they do likewise justifie the person of the Believer But how is that Why they justifie his Person in tantum in so far as they are his Defence and Justification against the false charge of his being a Hypocrite or Libertine and not a true penitent obedient Believer In all this neither doth James nor we after him dishonour the Righteousness of Christ in the least for our inherent and adherent Righteousness is intirely subordinate to Christ's imputed Righteousness it hath also quite another Vse and Office than Christ's imputed Righteousness and it proceeds from it as the only meritorious cause thereof We abhor all Opinions and Practices that have the least real tendency to dishonour Christ or his Righteousness We ascribe this to Christ as his peculiar incommunicable Glory that as was said before his righteousness alone comes in the place of that personal perfect sinless Righteousness which was the Condition of the first Covenant of Innocency and Law of Works And as for that personal imperfect yet sincere Righteousness which through the Grace of Christ we attain unto by Believing Repenting and Obeying the Gospel it is nothing but the Condition of the new Covenant by performing whereof we get and keep an Interest in Christs imputed Righteousness by and for which alone we are justified from all our sins of what kind soever and have a right unto and at last get possession of Eternal Life and Glory in God's Heavenly Kingdom We have
insisted long upon this that all may see how sound and orthodox our Principles are in the point of Justification and how we have been abused and misrepresented to the People by the Authour of the Letter Whether he did it ignorantly or maliciously he knows best himself But which way soever he did it it was certainly very ill done 5thly and lastly We believe that as the Faith of God's Elect is a Condition of the Covenant of Grace so that it is not an uncertain but a most certain Condition our meaning is that before the Elect believe it is not uncertain whether ever they will believe or not It is indeed uncertain to the Persons themselves but it is not objectively uncertain the thing is not uncertain in it self nor is it uncertain unto God whether ever his Elect shall believe No it is most certain in it self and unto God that all the Elect shall believe for God hath chosen them through Christ unto Faith Christ hath merited special Grace for them whereby they shall believe God through Christ hath promised that special Grace and God by his Spirit for Christ's sake gives them that special Grace whereby they do all certainly and infallibly believe The contrary Opinion to this is by our Divines generally charged upon the Arminians It is said that the Arminians hold that it is so far left to Mens Wills assisted by Universal sufficient Grace whether they will make that Grace effectual and so whether they will believe or not that it may come to pass that not one Man in the whole World shall ever eventually believe and consequently that Christ's Blood might have been shed in vain and not one Soul have been effectually redeemed and saved by it This Opinion whoever they be that hold it we utterly detest and abhor and declare to the World that as we are infallibly sure that many of the Elect have believed already and do at present believe so all and every one of them in their several times shall by the special and effectual Grace of God believe to the saving of their Souls We also believe that this certainty of the Faith of God's Elect doth not at all hinder their Faith from being a condition but rather that it makes it to be a certain Condition The Arminians pretend they cannot understand how Faith can be a Duty required of us and a condition to be freely performed by us and that yet at the same time we are so excited to it and assisted by the Grace of God in the doing of it that it is done with an infallible certainty And therefore they say that if we did believe by such a special effectual Grace as that we could not but believe at the time we are influenced by that Grace then our believing would neither be a Duty nor Condition of the Gospel Thus the Arminians argue against Special Effectual Grace But what say our Antinomians to this Argument Why truly they say it is a very good argument that the Arminians have reason on their side and that they do effectually prove that Faith cannot be a Condition of the Gospel-Covenant Now we desire the World to take notice that the Antinomians join with the Arminians against us and take up their very Argument to prove that Faith neither is nor can be a Condition of the Gospel-Covenant And since they account this their chief argument we desire they would be so just and honest as to take the whole argument and not only a part of it and consider that the whole argument proves that upon supposition of special effectual Grace Faith can neither be a Duty nor a Condition and it proves as strongly that Faith cannot be a Duty of the Gospel as that it cannot be a Condition of the Gospel Either then our Antinomians must say that Faith is no Duty because of this argument or if it may be still a Duty so may it also be still a Condition notwithstanding the force of this Argument For ought we know the right Antinomians may be willing enough to grant the consequence of the argument to be good as to both parts of it for we are afraid they care as little for Duties as they do for Conditions and some of them have plainly renounced Faiths being their Duty and have put it over upon Christ as his Duty and not theirs But we hope the Authour of thy ●etter is not yet so far gone and that he still retains some respect for Rutherfond's Examen Arminianismi which he had a hand in publishing and where he will find these words following page 270. Quaeritur an fides non potest esse conditio c. The Question is whether Faith cannot be a Condition required of the Elect by way of Duty and free Obedience and at the same time be a thing promised by God and unavoidably wrought by God in us The Remonstrants deny it we affirm it We likewise are for the affirmative against the Remonstrants who hold the negative of the Question But how to reconcile the Efficacy of God's Grace with our Free Will in doing the Duties incumbent upon us is no easie matter S. Augustin lib. de●praedest Sanct. cap. 14. says that it is Difficilis ad solvendum quaestio A Question difficult to be resolved Erkstra blasphemas ignorantium auribus ingeris nos lib. arb condemnare damnetur ille qui damnat Hieron Epist ad ●tisi hontem And Epist 46. Ad Valentinum he says it is difficillima quaestio paucis intelligibilis a most difficult question and such as few can understand And again lib. de gratiâ Christi contra Pelagium Caelestium cap. 47. Ista quaestio ubi de arbitrio voluntatis Dei gratiâ disputatur ita est ad discernendum difficilis ut quando c. That Question where Men dispute about Free Will and God's Grace is so hard to discern or understand that when Men defend Free Will they seem to deny God's Grace and when they assert God's Grace they seem to take away or destroy Free Will What must we do then in this case must we deny Free-will altogether No not altogether for as Augustin saith Epist 47. ad Valentinum Fides Catholica neque liberum arbitrium negat sive in vitam malam sive in bonam neque tantum ei tribuit ut sine gratiâ Dei valeat aliquid c. The Catholick Faith neither denies Free-will whether in order to a bad life or a good neither doth it ascribe so much to Free-will as that without God's Grave it can do any good c. We must not then altogether deny Free-will the Catholick Faith will not allow us so to do nor will the inward sense and experience that we have of our own Soul and its Actings suffer us to do it For as Augustin saith Lib. 83. Quaest 98. Moveri per se Animam sentit qui sentit in se esse Voluntatem He feels his Soul to be moved by it self who feels that
to him and upon the best Reasons and Motives that appeared to him from the consideration of things willingly to choose or refuse them and to act or not to act to act thus or otherwise as he saw cause Whence we may confidently conclude that the formal essential Nature of Man's Free-will consists in this Power of acting willingly according to the Judgment of Right Reason and not in the former undeterminedness or indifferency of the Will to do or not to do to do Good or Evil even when all things pre-requisite to its doing and acting do meet together and concur to cause it to do and act Upon this occasion we cannot but mention with approbation a Passage of a very Reverend and Dignified Divine of the Church of England in a Discourse of Christian Liberty Chap. 11. Sect. 3. pag. 139 140 141. As for those that contend that it is more praise-worthy to do Good and forbear evil having a power to do otherwise than to be under a necessity of so doing supposing they mean by necessity such as is not from without or from an inward blind instinct but from an understanding Principle and Perfection of Nature I must needs tell them there is no Proposition in the World more false or absurd I will not therefore stick to say that to have the Will necessarily determined to all Good and from all evil from an over-powering sense of the becomingness and excellency of the one and the vileness and odiousness of the other is the very perfection of Liberty And this is so far from being impossible to be obtained by Creatures or by our selves that by the help of God's Grace it is in a large measure even in this life attainable I mean such a sense of Good and Evil as shall certainly determine us to Good and against Evil in most of the Instances of each There are some Immoralities and wicked Actions that they who have attained to but very mean and ordinary Degrees of Goodness cannot perswade themselves so much as to endeavour to reconcile their Minds to Nay there are some that no Man can easily be supposed able to consent to but an extraordinarily depraved and wicked Wretch let the Motives that are used to perswade him be what they will Such as blaspheming of God contriving the murder of our Parents of a most obliging Friend Torturing of innocent Babes and the like horrid Villanies Surely then a Man is capable of such a vivid sense of the hatefulness of Sin in gneral as will whilst it lasts render it impossible for him to will deliberately to commit any known Sin whatsoever It is confessed that we cannot hope to get past all danger of sudden surprizals so long as we inhabit these Bodies and remain in our present unhappy Circumstances but I say so powerful a sense of the infinite unrighteousness disingenuity unreasonableness folly and madness of opposing the Holy Will of our Great Creator and Blessed Redeemer may by the Divine Assistance be acquired even on this side Heaven as shall determine us effectually against all deliberate and wilful Violations of the Divine Laws For this we have the Authority of a great Apostle St. John saith in his 1 Epist 3.9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him neither can he sin because he is born of God c. This excellent Passage of Bishop Fowler 's may help to clear up the foresaid difficulty and to shew us how the Act of believing may be a Duty and Condition of the Gospel and yet be produced by the effectual Grace of God assisting our Faculties in that production for the efficacy of Grace doth not hinder but rather further the free exercise of our liberty of Will in producing the Act of Faith So that our believing in Christ being an Act of Free Obedience notwithstanding that the Regenerating Principle of Spiritual Life and Seed of Faith inclines and byasses us to act and the actual Influence of the Spirit causeth us to reduce the Principle into Act we can see no reason at all why the actual believing in Christ may not be both our duty and likewise the condition upon the free performance of which God promiseth to justify us to pardon our sins and give us a Right and Title to Eternal Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Our Authour confesseth that the Covenant of Redemption was strictly conditional Lett. p. 24. Mat. 26.39 Joh. 10.18 and that Christ's offering up the Humane Nature in sacrifice to God was in part at least the strict Condition of it and yet Christ performed that Condition as necessarily and unavoidably as we perform the Condition of actual believing when we are influenced thereunto by the special and effectual Grace of God This we take to be a demonstration that the meer infallible certainty and necessity of the Elect's believing in Christ cannot hinder their Faith from being a proper Evangelical Condition of the new Covenant And having thus at large declared in what sense we hold the Covenant of Grace not to be conditional and in what sense to be conditional We shall next prove against our Authour that it really is conditional and that it is not without Ground that we believe it so to be In order hereunto we premise these two Things 1. That it is with respect to the subsequent Blessings and Benefits of the Covenant that we hold it to be Conditional that is it is with respect to Justification and Glorification For as the Professors of Leyden say in their Synopsis of purer Divinity Disp 22. pag. 259. Promissiones Evangelii sunt potissimum duae 1. De Justificatione coram Deo per fidem 2. De Haereditate vitae eternae Rom. 1.17 1 Johan 2.25 The Promises of the Gospel are principally two The first is the Promise of Justification in the sight of God by Faith And the second is The Promise of inheriting Eternal Life It is these Promises and the Covenant of Grace in respect of these Promises which we hold to be Conditional II. That by a Condition we understand a Duty which God requires of us for obtaining the Promised Benefit so as to suspend his giving us the promised Benefit upon our performing the Duty required Assuring us that if we perform the Duty required we shall have the promised Benefit but if we do not perform the Duty required we shall not have the Benefit promised These two things premised we come to prove that the Covenant of Grace is really Conditional as aforesaid with respect to its subsequent Blessings and Benefits And this we shall do 1. by Scripture 2. by Reason consonant to Scripture 3. by Testimonies of Orthodox Divines even of those very Divines whom our Authour affirms to be against us And 1. We prove by Scripture that the Covenant of Grace is Conditional in the sense before explained And we begin with Rom. 10. v. 9. where though the word Condition be not expressed yet we have the
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.
sorrows and pains than to hear that this is the Command of God this is the voice of Christ the Bridegroom that they be surely perswaded that Remission of sins or Reconciliation is given not for our worthiness but freely through Mercy for Christ's sake that the benefit may be certain As for the word Justification in those passages of Paul it signifies the Remission of sins or Reconciliation or imputation of Righteousness that is the acceptation of the Person And in the same Article the paragraph concerning good works This new life then should be obedience towards God And the Gospel preaches Repentance nor can there be Faith but in those who repent because Faith comforts Mens hearts in contrition and fears of sin c. Moreover we also teach concerning this Obedience that they who commit mortal sins that is wilful presumptuous sins against Knowledge and Conscience are not just because God requires this obedience that we resist our corrupt lusts and affections But those who do not resist but obey them against the Command of God and do actions against their Conscience they are unjust and they neither retain the Holy Spirit nor Faith that is confidence of Mercy For in those who delight in sin and do not repent there cannot indeed be that Trust or Confidence which may seek for remission of sins This passage of the Augustan Confession we thus understand that habitual reigning wilful sin against Conscience and without Repentance is inconsistent with a state of Grace and Reconciliation And we think that all Protestants except Antinomians are agreed in this One passage more and we have done with this Confession of Faith It is in the same 20th Article of Faith a little before the passage last quoted There is no need here of disstations about predestination and the like For the promise is universal and it takes nothing from works yea it stirs up to Faith and to Works that are truely good For remission of sins is transferred or removed from our Works unto God's Mercy not that we may do nothing but much rather that we may know how our Obedience pleaseth God in our so great infirmity This was the first Protestant Confession of Faith written by Melancthon Received by the Protestant Churches subscribed by their Ministers and that not onely by Luther and those of his Party but even by Calvin also It was likewise subscribed by seven Princes and Dukes in Germany and by the Magistrates of Cities and presented unto the Emperour Charles V. in the Year 1530. We hope then it will not be denyed but that this Augustan Confession contains the true Doctrine of the Gospel in the points of Justification by Faith and of the necessity of Repentance unto the obtaining pardon of sin and of sincere Obedience unto the obtaining of Eternal Salvation And if so then our Doctrine in those points is likewise the true Doctrine of the Gospel for it is the same with that of the Augustan Confession as to those Matters of which we treat From the Augustan Confession and the Testimony of many Princes Pastours Cities and Churches who subscribed and received it we come to the Articles of the Church of England which we have all subscribed the 11th Article concerning Justification we most heartily embrace and acknowledge that it is a most wholsome Doctrine and full of comfort that we are justified by Faith onely in that sense which is more largely explained in the Homily of Justification to which the Article expresly refers us and which by consequence we have subscribed by subscribing the Article It is called a Sermon of the Salvation of Mankind by Christ onely and a very good Sermon it is worth a thousand of our Authour's Letter which deserves not to be mentioned the same Day with it For understanding then the true and full meaning of the Article of Justification we must have recourse to the Homily or Sermon of Salvation In which Excellent Sermon pag. 13. We read as followeth London Edit 1673. That though according to the Apostle we are justified by a true and lively Faith onely and that that Faith is the Gist of God Yet that Faith doth not shut out Repentance Hope Love Dread and the Fear of God to be joined with Faith in every Man that is Justified but it shutteth them out from the office of Justifying So that although they be all present together marke that they do not onely necessarily follow and flow from Faith in time but when we are first Justified they are present together with it in him that is Justified yet they Justifie not altogether nor the Faith also doth not shut out the Justice of our good Works as necessary to be done afterwards of Duty towards God for we are most bounden to serve God in doing good Deeds commanded by him in his Holy Scripture all the Days of our life but it excludeth them so that we may not do them to this intent to be made good by doing them For all the good works that we can do be imperfect and therefore not able to deserve our Justification c. Again in the second part of that Sermon pag. 15. Nevertheless this Sentence that we be Justified by Faith onely is not so meant of them that the said Justifying Faith is alone in Man without true Repentance Hope Charity Dread and Fear of God at any time and season Nor when they say that we be Justified freely they mean not that we should or might afterwards be idle and that nothing should be required on our parts afterwards Neither they mean not so to be justified without good Works that we should do no good Works at all But this saying that we be justified by Faith onely freely and without Works is spoken for to take away clearly all Merit of our Works as being unable to deserve our Justification at God's Hand and thereby most plainly to express the weakness of Man and the Goodness of God the great infirmity of our selves and the Might and Power of God the imperfectness of our own works and the most abundant Grace of our Saviour Christ and therefore wholly to ascribe the Merit and Deserving of our Justification unto Christ onely and his most precious Blood-shedding This Faith the Holy Scripture teacheth us this is the strong Rock and Foundation of Christian Religion this Doctrine all Old and Antient Authours of Christ's Church do approve this Doctrine advanceth and setteth forth the true Glory of Christ and beateth down the vain-glory of Man this whosoever denieth is not be accounted for a Christian Man nor for a setter forth of Christ's Glory but for an Adversary to Christ and his Gospel and for a setter forth of Mens vain-glory Again pag. 16. The true meaning and understanding of this Doctrine we be Justified freely by Faith without Works or we be Justified by Faith in Christ onely is not that this our own Act to believe in Christ or this our Faith in Christ which is within us
our Father Ne ergo ipsi adoptionis jure nos abdicemus hàc semper enitendunt quo tendit nostra vocatio Therefore least we should abdicate disinherit or deprive our selves of the right of Adoption we must evermore be endeavouring to attain the end of our Christian and Heavenly calling By this passage we see that Calvin held sincere filial Obedience to be a Condition necessary on our part to our continuing in a state of Sonship and to our obtaining the Heavenly Inheritance of Children It is confessed that he did not think that the performance of such Obedience and perseverance therein to the end depends principally on Man's Will nor do we think any such thing nay we declare that it depends principally on God's special Grace and Favour through Jesus Christ He also did not think the said Obedience to be meritorious nor do we nay we utterly abhor any such Thought So that in this Matter Calvin and we do exactly agree against our Authour Inst l. 3. c. 14. Sect. 18. Calvin sayes Dum operum fiduciam excludimus hoc volumus duntaxat ne mens Christiana ad operum meritum velut ad salutis subsidium reflectatur Sed penitùs resideat in gratuitâ justitiae promissione Whilst we exclude all trust or confidence in works we mean this onely that the mind of a Christian should not look on the merit of good works as unto an help towards the obtaining Salvation but that it should wholly rest in the free Promise of Righteousness Here Calvin himself gives us a Key to open the true meaning of any Expressions of his that may incline any body to think that he slighted good Works of holy Obedience And he would have us to know that all such Persons that think so of him quite mistake his sense for his true meaning is only that good Works are not in the least meritorious that under that false notion they are to be slighted indeed and that true Christians should have no regard unto them as if by their merit they could help us to obtain Salvation now under this false Notion we reject them utterly as much as our Authour or any other Man can do Yet can we never allow that good Works which are really such should be cryed down as unnecessary to Salvation in that way that the Lord hath made them necessary much less can we agree to the horrid Opinion of the Amsdorsian Lutherans that good Works are pernicious to Salvation So much for Calvin Next to him it is fit that Beza should appear to give in his Testimony And he gives it clearly on our side For thus he writes in his 20th Epistle Conjunctas autem esse poenitentiam remissionem peccatorum c. That Repentance and Remission of sins are joyned together and so indeed that Repentance goes before Remission of sins partly the express Word of God teaches it partly also Reason it self and common sense how corrupt soever shews it John says Mark in his 1. Chapter preached the Baptisme of Repentance for Remission of sins And Luke 13. Except says Christ ye repent ye shall all likewise perish And Luke 24.47 Repentance saith Luke and Remission of sins must be preached in his Name Moreover nothing doth occur more frequently in the Scriptures than such Testimonies For neither doth the Lord vouchsafe the Grace and Favour of Remission of sins unto others but them that are penitent From this passage we observe 1. That it is a Truth so bright and clear that Repentance goes before pardon of sin that in Beza's Judgment the common Sense and Reason of Mankind doth or may discern it 2. That this Testimony can not be eluded and put off by saying that it is a legal and not an Evangelical Repentance that goes before pardon of sin For the proofs which Beza brings from Scripture will by no means admit of this Evasion For 1. The Repentance that Beza saith goes before pardon of sin is the Repentance which Christ exhorted the Jews unto Luke 13.3 5. and which he ordered his Apostles to preach unto all Nations in his Name beginning at Jerusalem Luke 24.47 But certainly that was an Evangelical and not a meer legal Repentance 2. The Repentance which in Beza's Judgment goes before pardon of sin is a Repentance to which is made the promise of pardon of sin so that whosoever doth not thus repent shall perish but whosoever doth thus repent shall not perish Therefore it is and must be an Evangelical and cannot be a meer Legal Repentance for pardon of sin is not promised to a meer Legal Repentance And it cannot be truly said that a Man who repents with a meer legal Repentance shall not perish Thousands have perished Everlastingly who yet repented with a meer legal Repentance And Judas was one who so repented Matth. 27.3 4. And when he had done it he went and hanged himself It is most evident then that Beza did not bring those Texts to prove that a meer legal Repentance goes before pardon of sin for those Texts do not speak of a meer legal Repentance but of one that is truely Evangelical to which pardon of sin is so infallibly assured That whosoever doth not so repent shall perish and whosoever doth so repent shall not perish But some may say yet Beza affirms in the same Epistle that contrition of Heart doth not properly proceed from the Gospel We Answer It is true he doth say so but it is plain he was mistaken in that and contradicts Calvin who sayes expresly Inst l. 3. c. 3. Sect. 19. that Cum totam Evangelii summam breviter complecti voluit dixit c. When the Lord Christ would comprehend the whole summ of the Gospel in few words he said that it behoved him to suffer to rise again from the dead and that Repentance and Remission of sins must be preached in his Name and this the Apostles after his Resurrection preached that he was raised up by God to give Repentance unto Israel and Remission of sins It may be Beza had some peculiar conceit that all Repentance of what kind soever is properly from the Law and but improperly from the Gospel It would seem so by his saying that a contrite Heart is not properly from the Gospel and yet a contrite Heart is the Sacrifice which God will not despise which he is certainly well-pleased with through Christ Psal 51.17 But though Beza was mistaken in saying that a contrite Heart is not properly from the Gospel yet he plainly saw the main Truth which we plead for and confessed it and proved it by clear Scripture that sincere Repentance goes before pardon of sin The same Beza in his Confession of Faith Cap. 4. Art 5. sayes Pater Caelestis nobis annunciat c. The Heavenly Father declares to us that he hath so loved the World that he hath given his only begotten Son for it ea conditione on that condition that whosoever believes in him should not perish but
neglect of Faith and Obedience cannot be culpable if they be not required 3. Because otherwise it would follow that in this Covenant God is bound to Man but Man is not bound to God which is most absurd and contrary to the nature of all Covenants wherein there is a mutual Agreement and reciprocal Obligation whereby the Parties Covenanting are bound to one another Afterwards in Page 204. he comes to Answer the Second Branch of the Question to wit Which are the Conditions of the New Covenant And saies that as for Faith there is no question but it is the Condition of the Covenant because the Scripture so clearly affirms it so to be Joh. 3.16 Rom. 1.16 17. and 10.9 And he sayes that Faith is the Condition of the Covenant as it hath respect unto and is the Instrumental Means of our Union with Christ Yea he maintains as we do that in this sense Faith is the onely Condition because there is no other Condition that is of a receptive applicative Nature as Faith is no other that receives Christ and applyes his Righteousness as Faith doth But in another sense there are other Conditions of the Covenant besides Faith that is if the Word Conditions be taken for all those things which a Man by the Covenant of Grace is bound to do then nothing hinders but Repentance and new Obedience may be called a Condition because they are comprehended among the Duties of the Covenant John 13.17 2 Cor. 5.17 Rom. 8.13 Moreover he holds that though new Obedience be not the primary antecedent yet it is the secondary subsequent Condition of the Covenant because being by Faith the primary Condition actually brought into Covenant now Obedience is medium via per quam tendimus ad plenam possessionem bonorum foederis the means and way by which we come to the full possession of the good things of the Covenant He saith we should distinguish between the Condition of Justification and the Condition of the Covenant the Promise of Justification is not the whole of the Covenant and therefore that which is the Condition of the Promise of Justification is not the whole Condition of the Covenant which adequately considered is of larger extent than the Promise of Justification He tells us lastly that we should distinguish between the first accepting of the Covenant and the after-keeping of the Covenant Faith accepts the Covenant by receiving the Promises Obedience keeps the Covenant by fulfilling the Commands Be ye holy for I am holy And yet this Obedience is not Legal but Evangelical because it is not meritorious it is the Fruit and Effect of an antecedent Principle of Spiritual Life wrought in us and of the actual Influence of the Spirit of Grace upon us and it is not rigorously exacted in the highest degree of Perfection as indispensably necessary to Salvation but though it be imperfect yet it is admitted and accepted through Christ if it be sincere We have here given a true and faithful account of the Judgment of the Learned and Judicious Turretin concerning the Conditionality of the Covenant of Grace with whom we agree in this matter which contains the sum of the Gospel as to Man's Duty especially and therefore if Turretin was no Legal Preacher no more are we and if he preached no new Gospel no more do we for we preach the same Gospel and in the same manner as he did There is one thing more wherein this worthy Divine and we do perfectly agree and that is concerning true Believers fallen into wilful sin against Knowledge and Conscience We say they cannot be saved till they have first recovered themselves through Grace by renewing their Faith and Repentance and returning to their Obedience again Now he sayes the same thing witness what he writes in the same Book Pag. 671 672. where he sayes That if a Believer fallen into gross sin against his Conscience be considered in himself and as guilty of such sin not repented of verum est reum esse mortis si in eo statu moreretur certo damnandum it is true that he is guilty of death and if he dyed in that state he would be certainly damned but if he be considered with respect to God's Decree of Election he is rightly said to be one who is to be absolved or pardoned and saved God so ordering the matter by his immense Love and Wisdome that he never dies in that state but by a renewed Act of Faith and Repentance he is first restored and returns into the way before he come to the end Whence it is that according to a twofold respect these two Propositions although they seem to be contrary may be both together true It is impossible that David a Person elected and a Man according to God's own Heart should perish It is impossible that David an Adulterer and Murderer if Death seize on him before he have repented should be saved The first of these Propositions is true in respect of God's Decree of Election The second is true also in respect of the hainousness and demerit of David 's sin But God's Providence and Grace looseth this Knot by taking care that neither David nor any of the Elect dye in that state in which for his impenitence he should be excluded from Salvation This Passage shews that Turretin believed as we do that after Justification sincere Obedience is so indispensably necessary to Salvation that unless a Believer continue in the practice of sincere Obedience or if there happen to be any signal intermistion by gross wilful sin for a time unless he renew his Faith and Repentance and thereby return to his Obedience he cannot be saved And Turretin a little before in Page 669. saies very judiciously That though God hath promised perseverance to Believers yet hath he not promised it to be given absolutely and without means but by means to be used by Man himself so that whilst God keeps Man he is bound also to keep himself by the Grace of the Spirit 1 John 5.18 Whence Believers are sure of their perseverance through the Faith of the Promises not by any external force which retains them in the way of Salvation will they will they yea even whilst they are living in their sins but in the use of Means and practice of Piety whilst working out their own Salvation with fear and trembling they are confident that it is God who works in them both to will and to do and who graciously perfects the good Work which he hath begun So that an occasion of licentiousness and impiety is wrongfully inferred from this Doctrine since to indulge wickedness and to have the Grace which causeth perseverance are utterly inconsistent Yea he that hath this Hope purifieth himself 1 John 3.3 And he ought to be certainly perswaded in himself that without holiness no Man shall see God and that there is no other way to Life but the way of Piety and Godliness A most Excellent Passage this is which
fully expresses our sense and to which we heartily subscribe Agreeable to this is that which we find in Mr. Rutherford's Examination of Arminianism Chap. 13. Pag. 594. That a Promise that we shall persevere in Faith and obtain Eternal Salvation though we walk after the Flesh and lead a wicked life may be called a dissolute Promise but that we do not maintain an absolute Promise of perseverance in that dissolute sense for though the Promise of perseverance in Faith be absolute yet it is always joined with an absolute Promise of perseverance in Holiness and Obedience and as it is necessary to Salvation that Elect Believers continue in Faith so it is necessary that they continue in Holiness and Obedience And if for some time there happen to be an intermission of Faith and Obedience there must be a renewing of them again that we may obtain Salvation and this renovation of our Faith and Obedience is the effect of the absolute Promise but not the obtaining of Salvation without and before the renewing of our Faith and Repentance and returning to our Obedience This is plainly Rutherford's sense And indeed he goes further than we have done in that he ascribes an inferiour kind of Causality to Obedience and good Works in order to the obtaining of Eternal Salvation for which he quotes Calvin Bucer Examen Armin. cap. 12. Zanchy and Voetius yea he quotes the Apostle Paul 2 Cor. 4.17 saying that our light Afflictions which are but for a Moment work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory In the Pages 531 532 533. of that Book Again he says expresly That the hope of Eternal Life ex eo vana esse colligitur si non innitatur sincerae obedientiae tanquam fulcro secundario 1 Johan 3.3 is hence proved to be vain and groundless if it be not upheld by sincere obedience as a secondary slay or prop. Pag. 592. of the same Book And in another Book he saith that it is a new Heresy of Antinomians to deny a Conditional Gospel it is all one Survey of Antin Part II. p. 63. as to belye the Holy Ghost who saith He that believeth shall be saved and he that believeth not is condemned already Spanhemius likewise a very Learned Divine and zealous against the Arminians in his Disputation at Leyden concerning the five controverted Articles saith in the 34th Thesis or Position Omnibus equidem externè vocatis annunciatur promissio Evangelii non tamen absolutè sed conditionatè si resipiscant credant The Promise of the Gospel is indeed preached to all that are outwardly called yet not absolutely but conditionally if they believe and repent And Thes 36. For as it is in vain that a great Good is ready at hand to us unless we either take and receive or fulfil the Condition which is required in the Covenant and Promise of it so that infinite benefit of Redemption is in vain purchased for us by Christ except we embrace it with a sure confidence and performe Faith and Repentance unto God requiring them as the terms of the Covenant John 3.16 Acts 2.38 And to draw towards a close with the Testimonies of some of our own English Divines we find that Dr. Robert Abbot writing against Thompson saith Abbot contra Thomsoni Diatrib de Intercis Justif p. 212. Credi non debet remissio peccatorum ante poenitentiam poenitere aliquem de peccato non potest quod nondum est c. It ought not to be believed that Remission of sins is before Repentance and a Man cannot repent of a sin that is not yet committed c. Again Remission of sins is never decreed for any of ripe years without Repentance nor is it ever granted upon another Condition that is another dispositive Condition the Faith therefore of Remission should not anticipate Repentance c. Neither let us think that without Repentance we ought ever to say Forgive us our trespasses c. And because our Authour saith that God hath blessed England with an Ames and Twiss against the Arminians Let. p. 13. p. 27. and that we neglect and despise them we will alledge some Testimonies out of their Writings by which the World may judge whether those two great Divines be for him or for us in this cause And first for Dr. Ames in his Answer to Grevinchovius page 138. he sayes Quòd fides haec non sit volitionis ipsius divinae conditio sed salutis assequendae tantùm hanc ego sententiam meam esse fateor veramque cum Deo praestiturum me confido That this faith of ours is not the condition of Gods will it self but that it is only the condition of our obtaining Salvation I confess this to be my opinion and I trust with Gods help that I shall prove it to be true We observe here that Ames distinguisheth between Gods will of our Salvation and our Salvation it self which is the object of his will As for the first to wit God's Will Faith is not cannot be the Condition of God's Will because it is Eternal and Absolute and cannot possibly depend upon any Condition whatsoever But the second to wit our Salvation the object of God's Will it may have and hath a Condition and God hath absolutely willed that it should have and depend upon a Condition and that Faith should be the Condition on which our obtaining of it doth depend This is his meaning and we agree with him in it The same Authour in another Book his Marrow of Divinity saith That the Promises of the Gospel are without any discrimination proposed unto all together with a Command to believe Medul Theologiae Lib. 1. cap. 26. pag. 112. but they are not performed unto all because Men themselves fail in performing the Condition But unto the Elect the Condition is given that the Promises may be performed to them Which he proves by three Scriptures Eph. 2.8 Acts 5.31 and chap. 11. ver 18. whereof one proves Faith and the other two prove Repentance to be the Gift of God Whence it is most evident that he thought Repentance as well as Faith to be the condition of the Gospel-Promises Again in the same Book and next Chapter he says This Justification is for Christ considered not absolutely Ibid. cap. 27. pag. 118. in which sense Christ is also the cause of effectual vocation but for Christ apprehended by faith which faith follows effectual calling as its effect and goes before Justification as the Instrumental Cause apprehending that Righteousness of Christ upon which Righteousness so apprehended Justification follows In this Passage we highly approve the order in which he placeth things as putting effectual calling in order of nature before faith and Faith before Justification But where he saith that Faith is the Instrumental Cause apprehending the Righteousness of Christ for which we are Justified some possibly may think that he ascribes too much unto Faith yet we think that the difference
obtained Hence Paul saith Rom. 8.13 If ye live after the flesh ye shall die And Heb. 3.12 Take heed lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God We do not therefore think that the Act it self of believing repenting and mortifying the flesh doth effect or merit the conservation of Justifying Grace because all these things are done by us faintly and imperfectly sometimes also through the Prevalency of some great Tentation they are as it were choaked and oppressed but we say that God himself of his free Mercy preserves the Regenerate in a state of Grace and Salvation whilst they walk in these wayes As therefore for the preservation of Natural Life it is necessarily required that a Man carefully avoid Fire Water Precipices Poysons and other things which destroy the Health of the Body so for the preservation of Spiritual Life it is necessarily required that a Man avoid Vnbelief Impenitency and other things that are destructive and contrary to the Salvation of Souls which cannot be avoided unless the opposite and contrary Actions be exercised But these Actions do not preserve the Life of Grace properly and of themselves by touching or producing the very effect it self of preservation but improperly and by accident by excluding and removing the cause of destruction Thus we have at large refuted the Authour of the Letter his Second Errour against the Purity of Christian Faith and have fully and clearly proved the Covenant of Grace to be Conditional This we have done first by clear Scripture Secondly by certain and evident Reason grounded upon Scripture Thirdly by Testimonies of Orthodox Divines and First by Testimonies of the Antient Doctors of the Primitive Church Secondly by Testimonies of Divines of the Reformed Churches both at Home and Abroad and particularly by the Testimony of the Divines of the Famous Synod of Dort Whence it is as clear as the Sun that we preach no new Arminian Gospel in this great Point of the Covenant of Grace and consequently that the Authour of the Letter is a false Witness in Matter of Fact who hath proclaimed us to the World to be Preachers of a new Arminian Gospel on the account of our Doctrine in the point of Justification If after all this he should say that though we have proved the Covenant to be conditional and Faith to be the receptive applicative condition of it yet we have not proved that Faith justifies as a Condition We Answer That look by what place of Scripture he shall ever be able to prove that Faith justifies as an Instrument and a hand by the same shall we prove that Faith justifies as a receptive applicative condition For as we said before we take a receptive applicative Condition and a moral foederal instrument to be one and the same thing So did the Westminster Assembly of Divines before us And in this sense which alone is justifiable we hold Faith to be both an Instrument and a Condition with respect to Justification And if that will please our Authour we shall grant him that Faith is a hand and not only a hand but an eye and a mouth too an eye to look unto Christ crucified John 3.14 15. John 6.40 Isa 45.22 And a mouth to eat and drink and feed on his Crucified Flesh and Blood John 6.35 50 51 53 54 55 56 57 58. We shall conclude this Answer with the Testimony of Two Learneder and Wiser Men than our Authour seems to be The first is the Reverend Mr. Lukin a Worthy Judicious Congregational Minister in his Life of Faith printed above Thirty years ago Lukin 's Life of Faith p. 24 25. For the question about the Interest of Faith in our Justification whether it justifie as an Instrument or as a Condition I think saith he it deserves not half the words that have been used about it they are both of them School-terms and not found in the Scripture and should not therefore disturb the peace of the Church especially seeing both Parties at variance are agreed in the thing but not in the formal notion under which they do conceive it and I think both lides are so far agreed that Faith may be called an Instrument allowing much impropriety of speech and that it may be called a Condition while we thereby do not suppose any such thing as merit Thus Mr. Lukin Now we heartily accept of this expedient for the calming of the Tempest which the Letter hath raised We will never desire the Authour to call Faith a meritorious condition for we never called it so our selves if he will grant us that it is but improperly an Instrument of Justification The other is the Learned Turretin that famous Calvinist Professor of Divinity lately at Geneva who writes thus Caeterum non anxiè quaerendum putamus an fides instrumenti notionem induat in hoc negotio c. Turretin Instit part 2. loc 16. quaest 7. p. 737. But we do not think that it is curiously to be enquired after whether Faith put on the nation of an Instrument in this matter of Justification or likewise of a condition as it seems to some men For nothing hinders but both notions may be ascribed to it provided Condition be not taken for that in consideration whereof God justifies Man in the Covenant of Grace after the manner that works were the Condition of Justification in the Legal Covenant For in this sense it cannot be called a condition unless we come over to the Socinians and Arminians who will have Faith or the Act of believing to be accepted by God for perfect Righteousness which we have but now resuted But taking the word Condition in a large sense for all that which is required on our part to obtain that benefit whether it have the notion of a cause properly so called or only of an instrumental Cause for as that Condition hath the relation of an Instrument so that Instrument hath the nature of a Condition on our part without which Justification cannot be obtained Thus Turretin to which we fully agree except that we think he gives too much to Faith in conceiving it to be an instrumental cause of Justification yet since he says that it is no cause properly so called it follows necessarily that it is not properly an instrumental cause and so hath no proper causal influence upon the act of Justification and if so then it is but improperly an instrument as Mr. Lukin saith and so the whole Controversie comes to nothing but a strife about the propriety or impropriety of a word which Turretin plainly saw and therefore confessed that Faith is so an Instrument as to be a Condition and so a Condition as to be an Instrument of Justification And taking the word Instrument in a moral Sense for a means of receiving the benefit of Justification for Christ's sake only we do unfeignedly affirm as Turretin doth that a sincere Faith is both the Instrument and Receptive
before Repentance in Calvin's Judgment is not the Faith that our sins are already pardoned but that they shall be pardoned upon our sincere Repentance which Faith puts us upon acting Repentance and having put forth an Act of sincere Repentance we immediately act Faith upon the promise and apply it to our selves and trust in the Lord according to his gracious promise If this be not Calvin's sense let them free him from self-contradiction that can for we cannot otherwise do it However it be we have him expresly affirming that Faith in some sense is before Repentance and that Repentance such Repentance as that in Ezek. 18.23 is before Remission of Sins and Justification From whence it follows necessarily that in his Judgment both sincere Faith and Repentance are in order before Justification and so that there is a real change and some holy principle and disposition wrought in the Soul before Justification The same he affirms again elsewhere for thus he writes on Mark 4.12 lest at any time they should be converted and their sins should be forgiven them Caeterùm ex eo minimè colligi debet poenitentiam esse veniae causam c. But from this it ought by no means to be inferred that Repentance is the cause of pardon as if God received into favour those who are converted because they have merited or deserved it For even Conversion it self is a sign of God's free Grace and Favour but only ordo consequentia notatur the order and consequence of things is marked out because God doth not forgive any sins but those for which Men are displeased with themselves From which Words of Calvin we observe that where there is an order and consequence of things there is a priority and posteriority and one of them is before another but so it is that in Calvin's opinion between Repentance and pardon of sin there is an order and the one is consequent upon the other pardon of sin is consequent upon Repentance therefore Repentance is before pardon of sin but Repentance can never be without some real holy change and disposition in the Penitent Therefore there is such a change and holy disposition before Pardon and Justification Again on Luke 3. v. 4. The voice of one crying in the wilderness prepare ye the way of the Lord. Eadem inquit vox auribus nostris quotidie insonat ut Domino paremus viam hoc est sublatis vitiis quae regno Christi viam praecludunt accessum demus ejus gratiae The same voice saith he dayly sounds in our ears that we should prepare the way for the Lord that is that we should give access unto his grace by putting away our sins which stop up the way against the reign of Christ in us These Words plainly give us to understand that according to Calvin Repentance and turning from sin goes in order before pardon and that it prepares us for the grace of Pardon and Justification There needs no more to shew that Calvin held true Repentance as to the beginning of it to be in order before pardon of sin and Justification Yet when Repentance is taken for a course of holy living in the actual performance of our first purpose to forsake our sins and return unto the Lord then in that sense it is confessed that Calvin and we with him hold Repentance to be after the several acts of Justifying Faith and after Justification it self and that it runs parallel with our Lives and must be continued unto Death This was that which our first Reformers called the best Repentance which so enraged the Papists that in the Council of Trent they Anathematized us for this Opinion Si quis dixerit optimam poenitentiam esse tantùm novam vitam Concil Trid. Sess 14. Can. 13. Anathema sit If any shall say that a new life is onely the best Repentance let him be accursed Thus they But we do not at all fear their Curse for notwithstanding it or any other thing to the contrary we firmly believe and say that a new life is the onely best Repentance And this best Repentance this Repentance in its perfection we grant to be not only after justifying faith but also to be after Justification it self and after the forgiveness of all the sins that we had been guilty of before our Regeneration and Conversion yet for all that we still maintain according to the Scriptures of Truth that the beginning of true Evangelical Repentance is in order before forgiveness of sins and justification and we think we have Calvin on our side if we may believe his own words To Calvin succeeds Beza giving in his Testimony plainly for us and saying in his large Confession of faith Sed necesse est imprimis ut idem spiritus sanctus nos ad Jesum Christum recipiendum aptos idoneos reddat cap. 4. art 3. c. But it is necessary saith he in the first place that the same holy Spirit make us apt or fit and meet to receive Jesus Christ And in his short Confession of faith Art 11th As it was not saith he in our power to invent or find out the Medicine of Salvation so neither is it possible for us to find out the way to use that Medicine rightly Because that falls out in this matter which useth to be in bodily Diseases for as when one desperately sick is ignorant of his Disease it is necessary that the Physician not only find out a Medicine for him but likewise that he so dispose the sick Person that he may be both willing and able to use the Medicine and that he may know the way to use it aright so in the Disease of the Soul which is the most dangerous of all and in which Men are not only ignorant of but also Adversaries to their Salvation It is necessary that we understand from the same Physician First What that Medicine is then which way it is to be used Finally That by the same Physician we be made fit and meet for this that we may be both willing and able to use the Remedies proposed Again Art 19. This Remedy of free Salvation through Christ is applyed by a double efficacy of the Holy Spirit For first The Holy Spirit disposes or fits our understanding to perceive the Doctrine of the Gospel which otherwise seems meer foolishness to the World Then he perswades our minds that that Doctrine of free Salvation through Christ is not only true but also that it pertains to us And that is it which we call Faith so much commended in Scripture to wit when one perswades himself assuredly that the promises of Salvation and Eternal Life particularly and properly belong to him By these passages of Beza we see that he held as we do that before a Man do or can actually believe with a justifying Faith he is disposed fitted and prepared by Christs Holy Spirit for the right performing of that great work of believing aright And in his little Book
But it must be confessed that the Spirit doth otherwise help before he doth inhabit and otherwise when he doth inhabit in the Soul for before be come to inhabit in the Soul he helps men that they may be Believers but when he doth inhabit and dwell in the Soul he helps them who are Believers This one Distinction of Austins attended unto would help People to understand this matter and to answer all that our Authour saith against any real change or Holy Seed Disposition or Qualification wrought in the Soul before it be justified For our Blessed Lord by his Holy Spirit first prepares and qualifies and makes us meet to be an Habitation for himself and then he comes unto us by the same Spirit and dwells in us and abides with us for ever Ephes 2.22 and 3.17 and 1 Cor. 3.16 Now the first of these is in Order before Justification God by his Spirit and Word first makes us such as his Word requires us to be that we may be justified he savingly enlightens our Minds and enlivens our Hearts he gives us a Seed of Faith and a Holy Principle of Light Lise and Love and by an influence of actual Grace causes us freely to reduce the said Seed and Principle into Act and so actually to believe and repent which when we do through Grace then he justifies us on the account of Christs satisfactory meritorious Righteousness imputed to us And after that we are effectually Called and thereupon are become Penitent Believers and are justified and reconciled the Lord gives us his Spirit and by his Spirit he comes and dwells in us he strengthens and encreases the Grace that he had begun in us and makes us more and more Holy in Heart and Life This is that which is commonly called Sanctification and follows after Justification and through Christs dwelling in us by his Spirit is carried on from one decree to another till it have attained its gradual Perfection and be consummated in Glory Let. p. 11. But he objects 2. Shall we tell Men that unles they be Holy they must not believe on Jesus Christ nor venture on him for Salvation till they be qualified and fit to be received by him This were to forbear Preaching the Gospel at all or to forbid all Men to believe on Christ for never was any Sinner qualified for Christ nor is it possible that ever any Sinner should be qualified for Christ We Answer our Author had said a little before in the same Page That every one who Believes on Christ acts that Faith as the chief of Sinners that is believes as an unbeliever as was before proved to be his meaning by his own express Words if his Words be expressive of his Mind And now by the Question which he puts to us here he seems plainly to be of Opinion that every man must believe as an unbeliever or else no man can ever believe at all and Ministers must give over Preaching the Gospel for they can never preach it as it should be preached unless they tell People that they must Act their Faith as the chief of Sinners that is they must believe as unbelievers for either we must tell People that they must believe as Unbelievers or else that they must not believe till they be first Holy and that is that they must never believe at all because it is impossible for them to be Holy till after they have believed in Christ and be united unto him by Faith This is plainly the sense of our Authors Words and the force of his Reasoning which puts us in mind of what Calvin says out of Augustin de bono perseverantiae Cap. 22. Calv. Instit lib. 3. Cap. 23. § 14. that there are insulsi doctores gratiae some foolish Preachers of Grace and surely if any they are to be accounted such Preachers who in effect tell People that they must believe as unbelievers or else they must not believe till they be first Holy and that is they must never believe at all But is there no way to avoid this foolish senseless way of Preaching Our Author thinks there is not we on the contrary are perswaded that there is a way to avoid it and in our Judgment it may thus be easily done we tell People that they must believe in Christ not as Unholy Unbelievers nor yet as Holy with that Holiness which is the effect of Believing and follows after Faith in Christ but by ceasing to be Unholy Unbelievers and by becoming Holy Believers and if they ask us how this can possibly be done we answer Not by Power of Nature but by the Power of Gods special Grace if they ask further How they can obtain that special Grace before they believe and be in Christ by Faith since all Grace is derived from Christ by Faith we answer that all Grace indeed is derived from Christ but it is a most notorious falshood that all Grace is derived from Christ by Faith for the first special Grace which is the Cause of Faith and whereby we believe in Christ is not from Christ by Faith but it is from Christ before Faith and it is given us by the Holy Spirit of Christ to work Faith in us and to bring us into Union with Christ by Faith if they say that even according to this way People must still believe before they are Holy and so must believe as not being yet Holy We answer that is true in one respect and false in another It is true that People must believe before they are Holy with that Progressive Holiness which is the effect of justifying Faith and follows after Justification but it is utterly false that People do believe or can believe savingly before they are Initially Holy before they are Holy with that first beginning and Principle of Holiness which consists in removing the ill Disposition of our Faculties and in giving our Faculties a right spiritual Supernatural Disposition and fitness for the Act of Believing this Holy Principle concurs to the producing of the Act of Faith and so must be in Order before it and then the Act it self of Faith which is an Holy Act must be in order before Justification Therefore it is utterly false that there can be no Holiness at all in any kind or degree before Faith and Justification by Faith since before actual Faith there is the Holy Seed and Principle both of Faith and Repentance and of other Graces too and in order of Nature there is an Holy actual Faith before Justification and this is a Truth so clear that our Author himself sometimes could see it as Pag. 21. Where he says that no man can do any thing that is good till Gospel Grace renew him and make him first a good man this is very true if it be rightly understood thus No man can do any thing that is spiritually supernaturally and savingly good till Gospel Grace that is internal special Grace renew him and make him first a
Scripture We Answer by denying the Consequence of the first Proposition as false for it doth not follow that we should warn People not to believe on Christ too soon And we have nothing Offered to prove that such an absurdity follows from our Doctrine but this mans bare Word which we have found to be so often false in matter of Fact that we can give no credit to it in other things And he is so unhappy here and elsewhere throughout his Letter that he makes his own Tongue or Pen to fall upon himself for he confesses that it is no good Argument that if People cannot be truly Holy before the Tree be changed Matth. 12.33 34 35. and before they have a new Heart Ezek. 36.26 27. as he grants they cannot then Ministers should warn People not to be Holy too soon For to give them any such warning he grants to be absur'd Let him then consider Let. p. 11 12. whether the same or the like Answer he can give to this Argument which would prove that Ministers should warn People not to be Holy too soon may not be given to the other silly Argument whereby he would prove that upon our Principle Ministers should warn People not to believe on Christ too soon for it is as certainly true that People cannot actually believe on Christ with a saving justifying Faith before the Tree be changed and the Heart be in part renewed as it is that they cannot be truely Holy before the Tree be changed and the Heart be renewed When we are to deal with Unbelievers our Lord hath given us other Work to do than to warn them not to believe too soon and let our Author try when he pleases he will find enough to do to convince them that their present Indisposition and disability to believe doth not free them from the Obligation which the Lord by his Word hath laid upon them to believe and to direct them unto the right means in the use whereof they may obtain from the Lord both the necessary Disposition unto Faith and also the Principle and Act of Faith it self Our Author we perceive has been at this Work and before we have done with him we shall see what a rare Specimen of his skill this way he hath given the World Fourthly But he farther Objects We hold forth that God justifieth the Ungodly Pag. 25. Rom. 4.5 Neither by making him Godly before he justifie him nor leaving him Ungodly after be hath justified him but that the same Grace that justifies him doth immediately sanctifie him We Answer this is the Text that our Antinomians much insist upon and think it sufficient to make all Men Antinomians And we are glad to find that it hath not that full effect upon him for tho he be one with them with respect to any Holy change in Order before Justification and denies it as they do yet he separates himself from them with respect to what follows after Justification and saith that we are sanctified immediately after Justification and so he joins himself to us now there may be good worldly Policy in this to hold with both sides as much as he can But if he do not agree with himself what ground can others have to trust him that ever he will heartily agree with them and that he doth not agree with himself we think is apparent from what he writes Pag. 16. A Man saith he is to believe that he may be justified Gal. 2.16 Again Pag. 32. No Words or Warnings repeated nor plainest Instructions can beat into Mens Heads and Hearts that the first coming to Christ by Faith or Believing on him is not a Believing we shall be saved by him but a Believing on him that we may be saved by him And again Pag. 7. The direct Act is properly justifying saving Faith by which the lost Sinner comes to Christ and relies upon him for Salvation Yet when we do press Sinners to come to Christ by a direct Act of Faith consisting in an humble reliance on him for Mercy and Pardon they will understand us whether we will or not of a reflex Act of Faith by which a Man knows and believes that his Sins are pardoned and that Christ is his when they might easily know that we mean no such thing These three Passages show clearly that he holds saving Faith to be both before Justification and before Assurance of Justification We confess that we do very well understand this to be the meaning of these Words now quoted ou● of his Letter for we think they are not capable of any other sense but though we understand the Words of the Letter yet we do not understand the Author of them and we much doubt whether he understands himself and that because he immediately adds Page 7. that Mr. Marshal in his excellent Book lately Published hath largely opened this and the true Controversie of this Day And Pag. 35. Marshals Book saith he is a deep practical well jointed Discourse and if it be singly used I look upon it as one of the most useful Books the World hath seen for many Years I fear not but it will stand firm as a Rock against all Opposition and will prove good Seed and Food and Light and Life to many hereafter Who that reads this can doubt but that our Author has read Marsha●s Book and that he approves it and believes every thing at least that is material in it and yet there is one thing very material in it and it is one of the main joints in it That justifying Faith is a Believing that we are now justified and shall be Eternally saved and that the Assurance of this that we are now justified and shall be saved is essential to the direct Act of Faith This Marshal with all his might strives to prove and it seems he hath done it to the Conviction of our Author who believes that that Opinion can never be disproved again Yea he seems so Confident of the Truth of Marshals Opinion that he spares not to reflect on the Westminster Assembly of Divines for denying it as they do in their Confession of Faith Chap. 18. Art 3. In these Words This infallible Assurance doth not so belong to the Essence of Faith but that a true Believer may mait long and conflict with many difficulties before he be partaker of it Thus the Assombly But doth he reflect on them for this why if he doth not let him tell us what he means by these following Words Was not the Holiness of the first Protestants eminent and shining Let. p. 22. and yet they generally put Assurance in the Definition of their Faith We cannot say that Gospel Holiness has prospered much by the Correction or Mitigation of that harsh-like Definition If these Words of his whatever might be his Intention do not reflect upon the Assembly we do not understand plain English and moreover we cannot but think also that they imply his owning of Marshals
cause of the eternal ruin of the Souls of the Generality of them to whom or amongst whom the Gospel is preached John 3.19 4. That there are certain Internal Spiritual Effects wrought in and upon the Souls of Men whereof the Word preached is the immediate Instrumental cause which ordinarily do precede the work of Regeneration or real Conversion unto God And they are reduceable unto Three Heads 1. Illumination 2. Conviction 3. Reformation The first of these respects the Mind only The second the Mind Conscience and Affections And the third the Life and Conversation These are attained by the inward influence of the Holy Spirit upon mens Souls concurring with the Word to make it effectual unto those ends All these things may be wrought in the minds of men by the dispensation of the Word and yet the work of Regeneration be never perfected in them Yea although they are good in themselves and fruits of the kindness of God towards us they may not only be lost as unto any Spiritual advantage but also be abused to our great disadvantage Then Pag. 196. The Dectrine says he concerning these things hath been variously handled distinguished and applyed by many Learned Divines and Faithful Ministers of the Gospel Unto that Light which they received into them from the infallible Word of God they soined those experiences which they had observed in their own hearts and the Consciences of others with whom they had to do which were suitable thereunto And in the dispensation of this truth according to the measure of the gift of the Grace of Christ which they severally received they had an useful and fruitful Ministery in the World to the Converting of many unto God ☞ But we have lived to see all these things decried and rejected Thus Dr. Owen concerning Dispositions previous to Regeneration whose sense upon the whole we have here briefly and faithfully represented unto all into whose hands this may come And in the first and latter part of this long quotation we have transcribed his own words By all which we see that Dr. Owen received and approved as true good and useful the foresaid Doctrine of the English Divines at the Synod of Dort concerning Dispositions and Preparations before Regeneration and seems to have said it with some grief that he had lived to see all these things decryed and rejected to wit by some Arminian Divines of the Church of England And would it not have grieved him a little more to have seen all these things decryed and rejected also by Nonconformists that pretend to be the only party of Protestants who adhere to the old pure Doctrine of the best Reformed Churches when at the same time and in the same thing they join with the new Divines as Dr. Owen expresly calls them that is with the Arminians against the Synod of Dort and the old Doctrine of the Church of England But you may say doth our Author do so doth he decry and reject those Preparations and Dispositions before Regeneration and Conversion which our Divines maintained in the Synod of Dort and which Dr. Owen maintained after them against modern Arminians We answer if he doth not decry and reject them what means all that which he writes in the 12 page of his Letter against all Preparations and Dispositions before a saving and justifying Faith Surely he took wrong measures if the thought that those dispositions might be admitted before Regeneration and Conversion but not before a saving and justifying Faith For it is simply impossible and implyes a contradiction that they can be before Regeneration and first saving Conversion but they must be also before saving and justifying Faith So that either he must contradict himself after his usual manner if he hold the foresaid dispositions to be before Regeneration and Conversion but not before saving justifying Faith or if he affirm that they are neither before Regeneration and Conversion nor yet before saving Faith which is necessarily implyed in Regeneration and Conversion then indeed he doth not contradict himself but he doth that which is worse he contradicts the Truth and the Synod of Dort with Dr. Ames Dr. Twiss and Dr. Owen who all maintain this Truth that the said preparatory dispositions are before Regeneration and Conversion and so before a saving justifying Faith If he says that he doth not deny them to be before Regeneration and Saving Justifying Faith nor to be dispositive thereunto but that he only denies them to be dispositive unto Justification We Answer 1. That then he yields the Cause and comes over to us for we do not say that any thing before Regeneration and saving justifying Faith is or can be immediately Dispositive unto Justification but that the foresaid Preparations are Dispositive unto Regeneration and Conversion which are in Order before Justification 2. Then he is as much bound to Answer his own Argument against their being Dispositive unto Justification as we are for his Argument is this that nothing a Man doth before saving justifying Faith can dispose him for Justification because it is all Sin and Sin can never dispose a Man for Justification Now if this be true if all that a Man doth before saving justifying Faith be Sin if it be vain labour and an Acting of Sin and therefore cannot dispose him for Justification then for the same Reason it cannot dispose him for Regeneration and saving justifying Faith for it is self-evident that that which is vain labour and nothing but Sin can no more dispose a Man for Regeneration than for Justification Indeed Sin can dispose a Man for nothing but for Sin and Punishment and if that which is vain labour could dispose a Man for Regeneration and Conversion it would at once be both vain labour and not vain labour it would be vain labour for so it is said and supposed to be and it would not be vain labour because it disposes a Man for Regeneration and Conversion and that is not vain labour which is useful to so good an end as the Regenerating and Converting of a Man is But 1. our Author Objects the 13th Article of the Church of England To which we Answer 1. That the English Divines at the Synod of Dort understood the Articles of their own Church much better than our Author doth and yet they found nothing in the 13th Article against Dispositions before Conversion wrought in Sinners by the Word and Spirit of Christ 2. The Article speaks only of Works done by Infidels without any Grace of Christ at all and without any Inspiration of the Spirit Now it is Confessed that such Works are not pleasant to God See the 10th Art nor are they Dispositive unto Regeneration and Conversion But the Works which the Synod of Dort Ames Twiss and Owen affirm to be Preparatory and Dispofitive unto Regeneration and Conversion are not such Works they are not works done by the meer Power of Nature without any supernatural Grace at all but they are Works done
Fruit of the Spirit of Bondage which prepares for the hearing of the Gospel and for the receiving of the Spirit of Adoption by the Gospel then in the Preaching the Gospel the tender Mercies of God displayed unto us and how ready be is to Pardon Sin in general and that of Free Grace may better our Repentance and when we are thus by Degrees brought to the Spirit of Adoption to cry Abba Father then our Repentance shall be most perfect as before I said And when we look upon him whom we have pierced and can in Assurance of Faith say with the Apostle I live by Faith in him who loved me and gave himself for me this is of Power to prick a Master vein and make us bleed out Repentance in the sight of our Gracious God whom we have offended and who yet in despite of our Sins hath loved us more Devoutly and Affectionately than ever before Yet is it true as he the Arminian saith That Repentance is nothing worth without Faith what thinks he of Ahabs Repentance when he put on Sackcloath and wallowed in Ashes upon the Word of Judgment against his House brought unto him by the Prophet Eliah Do we not know what the Lord said hereupon unto Eliah Seest thou how Ahab is humbled before me because he submitteth himself before me I will not bring that evil in his days The uttermost of the Ninivites Faith was but this that we read of who can tell if God will turn and Repent and turn from his fierce Wrath that we perish not Yet their Repentance was such that when God saw their works that they turned from their Evil Ways he repented of the Evil which he said that he would do unto them and he did it not Jon. 3.9 Thus Dr. Twiss whereby it is evident that he was far from thinking that all which a man can do before he have the Spirit of God dwelling in him and that he may get a Holy Heart and a saving Faith and so be fitted to lead a Holy Life is nothing but vain labour and an Acting of Sin Object 2. Secondly Our Author Objects the seventh Article of the 16. Chapter of the Westminster Confession of Faith And our Answer is That that Article of the Confession of Faith is the same in effect with the 13th Article of the Church of England and therefore is to be taken in the same Sence to wit That the Works of unregenerate men done before and without any Grace of Christs Spirit though they may be materially good yet they are formally so sinful that they do not make a Man meet to receive any Grace from God either the Grace of Regeneration or Justification and as for the Works of unregenerate Men which are done by the help of supernatural preventing common Grace though they be better than the former which are done by the alone Strength of Nature yet they are sinful too they are so defiled with Sin as they proceed from an unregenerate Man that they cannot please God so far as to make a Man meet to receive the Grace of Justification from God nor do they make a Man meet to receive the Grace of Regeneration from God by way of Reward due to them as Congruously Meritorious thereof Yet in another sound sence they may make a Man meet to receive the Grace of Regeneration and Conversion from God to wit as they are wrought in Men by the Spirit and according to the Word and are ordained by God to be means of removing such things as hinder Conversion and of the helping men forward in the way unto and of fitting and preparing them for Conversion as a Gracious Gift which ordinarily God freely gives to those who are so prepared by the Word and Spirit of Christ In this sound sence though not in the Popish or Semipelagian sense the foresaid works do indeed make men meet to receive Grace from God and the Article of the Confession of Faith saith nothing to the contrary Yea it is plainly against that absired opinion that all that an Unregenerate man can do by any means in order to the getting of his heart savingly changed and initially sanctified by the special effectual Grace of the Regenerating Spirit of Christ is vain labour and an acting of Sin we say that the foresaid Article of the Confession of Faith is plainly against that absurd opinion for it says expresly That works of Unregerate men are things which God Commands and are of good use both to themselves and others and one of the best uses they can possibly be of unto themselves is to dispose and prepare them for Regeneration and Conversion and to make them if not meet yet at least less unmeet to receive special saving Grace from God through Jesus Christ And thus according to the Confession of Faith and our principle agreeable thereunto we can give encouragement to unregenerate men to attend upon God in the diligent use of means for obtaining the free and effectual Grace of the Regenerating Spirit and so Conversion thereby but our Author seems to tell Unregenerate men that all they can do before they be Regenerated and have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them which is got only by Faith in Christ and therefore is in order of nature after Faith in Christ altho they do it with a desire that they may be Regenerated and may obtain a precious holy Faith in Christ and thereby the Holy Spirit of Christ it is all vain labour and an acting of sin Now is not this great encouragement for men to wait upon God in the use of his appointed means for the obtaining of converting Grace and a new holy heart to tell them that all they can do in order to that end is vain labour and acting of sin We hope such men will not believe our Author but if they do there is nothing can be expected from them but that ●hev should cast off all use of means and give over all reading hearing and praying for why should they trouble themselves with such Religious Exercises since all is an acting of sin and lost labour too Yet if our Author should intend to set up for a Quietist the foresaid Doctrine may be of good use to bring in Disciples to him for he can tell them holdly as his manner is that if they will become Quietists he will shew them an infallible way wherein they shall neither act sin nor yet lose their labour for if they will become right Quietists they shall neither act nor labour but wholly rest from action and labour and shall not act sin nor lose their labour because they shall not act nor labour at all but wholly rest from action and labour and whilest they are in a state of perfect rest without any kind of action or labour at all Then the Spirit of God shall fall upon them and Regenerate and Convert them 3d. Objection Thirdly He Objects the Testimony of Calvin who in his Institutions writes thus
the sincere love the holy intention and kind will of those worshippers of Demons And this seems agreeable to reason that it should be so for it is not likely that the most just and merciful God doth require more of a man than he hath received and more than is in a mans power yea it is rather probable that God accepts of what a man is able do if it be offered with a due Intention Thus the profound Doctor and by this let all Calvinists judge and let the Conscience of our Author judge how well that Doctor hath confuted the Pelagians and how greatly England is blessed with such a Confuter One touch more and we have done with him In the 26th Chapter of his first Book of the Cause of God against Pelagius he maintains with all his might that nothing is evil of it self but by Accident no not the wickedest thing that a Man doth or can do and therefore that the most horrid wickedness a Man can commit in other circumstances may cease to be Evil and be no Sin to him that commits it To prove this he makes several Suppositions As 1. in Pag. 256. He puts this Case which he says is possible That a simple Man without any foregoing fault of his is so deluded by the Devil whom he calls Behemoth the most cunning of all Sophisters that he is made to believe that unless he blaspheme or hate God he shall necessarily and unavoidably commit more Sin than that blasphemy or hatred of Gods amounts unto Now says our profound Doctor in this Case Iste simplex secundum judicium rectissmae rationis tenetur blasphemare Deum vel odire ne alias incidat in majus peccatum quoniam secundum communem animi conceptionem de duchus malis minus malum est eligendum cujus causa est quia in bonis est è contrario scilicet quod majus est magis eligendum That simple Man according to the Judgment of the most right Reason is bound to blaspheme God or to hate him lest otherwise as Satan tells him he fall into a greater Sin for according to the common Notion of Mans Mind of two Evils the least is to be chosen the Reason whereof is this that on the contrary of things that are good the greatest is to be chosen From these Premises he concludes that to blaspheme or hate God is not of it self necessarily and unalterably evil and sinful because there may happen a Case wherein a simple Man deluded by the Devil is bound to blaspheme or hate God and that according to the Judgment of Reason of Right Reason yea of the most Right Reason and that is of the best Reason in the World 2. In the same Page he puts another like Case which he saith Is possible also without any foregoing fault of the Person concerned Suppose a simple Man swears to be entirely obedient to his Prelate or Superior in all things then that Prelate or the Devil transformed into him commands the simple Man to hate or blaspheme God The Poor Man is certainly caught in a snare but how shall he get out why according to Bradwardin It is possible for him to get out safe by blaspheming or hating God in Obedience to his Superiour and out of Conscience of his Oath for that is the least Evil of the two and so comparatively is no Evil at all because to blaspheme or hate God is but one Sin and that against God only multumque excusatum per praeceptum Praelati and it is much excused by the command of his Superiour whereas he believes that in this Case not to obey is a greater Sin because 1. It is against his Superiour 2. It is also against God whose Vicegerent his Superiour is 3. It is a Violation and breach of his Oath and Vow This is another of his Demonstrations that blasphemy and hatred of God is not of it self and unalterably Evil because here is a possible Case wherein it ceases to be Evil and an Honest Man outwitted by a Knave may do it without Sin In the next Page he hath other Arguments of the like Nature to prove the same Position but we are unwilling to have any thing more to do with him for he next supposes Satan to be transformed into Christ himself and in that likeness to act his part so dexterously and effectually as to discharge a Man from his Duty to God and oblige him in Conscience to commit the foresaid Wickedness for a time for fear of being necessitated to do it for ever and to all Eternity Now upon the whole we refer it to all Men of common sense who have any true fear of God and love to Christ and pure Christianity to judge whether this be blest or cursed Doctrine and whether England be beholding to that Man who commends such Books to young Ministers But though we think the Nation and young Ministers in it are little beholding to him on that account yet we hope better things of him than that he will ever become a Prosylite to the Popish Religion or that for the sake of Bradwardin he will ever embrace the foresaid Doctrines which many Papists themselves abhor It may be he will say that this Bradwardin was an English Man that lived long since and he did not ken him well but if he had ken'd him or his Book either he would never have so commended him And if he be ingenuous to say so we readlly admit the excuse for we believe it to be very true and find that in more things than that one he writes of what he doth not understand and that too with an Air of Confidence that deserves a rebuke And withall we advise him for the future to forbear talking of old Authors and commending their Books to Ministers for he seems not to be much acquainted with that kind of Learning As he writes in his Letter Pag. 2. That a great many Young Students have contented themselves with studying English Authors so we think it had not been ill for him if he had contented himself with studying such Scots Authors and English too as never trod in the By-paths of Bradwardin Saltmarsh or Crisp We have mentioned some of that sort already to whom we will now adde a few more and first we commend to our Authors Consideration a Passage or two of a Reverend Learned and Modest Scots Divine whom he should Ken better than the old Englishman Bradwardin It is Mr. Dickson once Professour of Divinity in the Colledge of Edinburgh who in his Therapeutica Sacra writes thus Dicksons Therapeutica Sacra Book 1. Chap. 6. pag. 92. Together with these external Means mentioned before serving for drawing on the Covenant and going on in it the common Operations of God do concur common to all the called both Elect and Reprobate and Gifts common to both are bestowed such as Illumination Moral Perswasion Historical Dogmatical and Temporary Faith Moral Change of Affections and some sort of
Essential to the very first Act of justifying Faith whereby we first receive Christ and rely on him for Justification and Salvation He distinguisheth indeed as our Author doth between the Direct and Reflex Act of Faith and two things he hath there concerning the Reflex Act. 1. He doubts whether it be properly an Act of Faith at all and rather thinks that it is an Act of Spiritual sense and feeling of what is within our selves Page 172. 2. He positively affirms that the assurance we get by the Reflex Act of Faith or of Spiritual sense comes after Justification and is not of the Essence of that Faith whereby we are justified and saved and that many precious Saints are without it and subject to many doubts that are contrary to it so that they may not know at all that it shall go well with them at the day of Judgment 10th Direction Page 172 173. Then for the Direct Act of Faith he saith and so doth our Author after him that it is two-fold The 1st Direct Act of Faith is that whereby we Believe the Truth of the Gospel The 2d Is that whereby we believe on Christ as promised freely to us in the Gospel for our Salvation By the 1st Act Faith receiveth the means wherein Christ is conveyed to us By the 2d It receiveth Christ himself and his Salvation in the means And both these Acts must be performed heartily with an unfeigned Love to the Truth and a desire of Christ and his Salvation above all things This is our Spiritual Appetite which is necessary for our eating and drinking Christ the food of Life as a natural Appetitite is for bodily nourishment We must receive the love of the Truth by relishing the goodness and excellency of it and this love must be to every part of Christs Salvation to Holiness as well as to the Forgivenness of sins The former of these Acts doth not immediately unite to Christ because it is terminated only on the means of conveyance the Gospel yet it is a saving Act if it be rightly performed because it inclineth and disposeth the Soul to the latter Act whereby Christ himself is immediately received into the heart He that believeth the Gospel with hearty love and likeing as the most excellent Truth will certainly with the like heartiness believe on Christ for his Salvation Psal 9.10 Therefore in the Scripture saving Faith is sometimes described by the former of these Acts as if it were a meer believing the Gospel Sometimes by the latter as a believing on Christ or in Christ Rom. 10.9 10 11. 1 John 5.1 13. Then he saith that This Second Principal Act of Faith in Christ includeth believing on God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and that it is the same thing with trusting in God 4th Direction page 61 62 63. And elsewhere he affirms that the Direct Acts of Faith include love Now touching these Direct Acts of Faith we acknowledge that there is an Assurance Essential to the first of them whereby we believe the promises of the Gospel and that assurance is two fold Absolute and Conditional First By our Faith of the Gospel we are Absolutely sure that God according to his promise doth give Christ and Justification and Salvation through him unto all true penitent Believers 2. By our Faith of the Gospel we are Conditionally sure that if we are true penitent Believers God according to his promise doth give Christ and Justification and Salvation through him unto us in particular For the Conditional promises of the Gospel being general to all penitent Believers they comprehend all the Particulars of the same kind and therefore if we believe with an absolute assurance that God justifies and saves through Christ all penitent Believers we must by necessary consequence believe at the same time with a conditional assurance that God justifies and will save us through Christ if we be true penitent Believers This conditional assurance with respect to our selves upon supposition of our being true penitent Believers is necessarily included in the former absolute Assurance that God for Christs sake justifies and saves all true penitent Believers Then for the second Act of justifying Faith whereby we believe on Christ himself with fiducial consent according to the Gospel we freely grant that it also is accompanied with assurance but mark it not with an assurance that is Essential to it self and Essentially included in it self but with the assurance the double assurance of the first assenting Act which though it go before yet it continues and accompanies the second Act of fiducial consent And for this reason we approve of that assertion of Mr. Marshals in the 179 page of his Book That believing on Christ for Salvation as freely promised to us must needs include a dependance on Christ with a perswasion that Salvation shall be freely given as it is freely promised to us Thus he And we subsume But it is freely promised to us only on Condition that we through Grace are true penitent Believers as we before proved at large Therefore the perswasion or assurance of it which accompanies our dependance on Christ by the Second Act of Faith is a Conditional perswasion or assurance as it concerns our selves and our own Salvation in particular Yet afterwards when by Reflex Acts of Faith and self Examination we clearly perceive through the speciall assistance of the Holy Spirit that we are indeed true penitent Believers then our assurance becomes absolute and we are absolutely perswaded and assured that Christ is ours and that God is our God in Christ and that through Christ we are justified and shall be saved This is all the assurance that the Scriptures hold forth to us as attainable in this life by the ordinary assistance of Gods Spirit and Grace and if any good Men have at any time by extraordinary favour and priviledge attained to any other or more assurance they had best keep it to themselves and be very humble under it and thankful to God for it and they should not affirm it to be Absolutely and Essentially necessary to the Fiducially Consenting Act of justifying saving Faith and by that means condemn all who have not that sort of assurance as having yet no justifying saving Faith but as being still in a state of nature and Children of Wrath and of the Devil It were easy to shew if we had time and room for it here that all the reasons Scriptures and Examples which Mr. Marshal brings to prove That an absolute assurance that Christ is now ours that our sins are now pardoned that we are justified and shall be eternally saved is absolutely and essentially necessary to the direct Act of justifying Faith whereby we first receive Christ and trust on him for Justification and Salvation prove no such thing The utmost that they prove is that the foresaid assurances which we willingly admit are partly antecedent to and concomitant with and partly consequent upon the Direct Act of Faith
whereby we receive Christ with siducial consent that through him we may be justified and saved But there is not one of them that proves that an absolute Assurance that Christ for the present is ours and that we are now justified and in the State of Salvation is essentially necessary unto and included in the direct Act of justifying Faith And whereas it is Confidently said that all our Reformed Divines were for this sort of Assurance as essential to the direct Act of that Faith whereby we are first justified we Answer That it is indeed said with Confidence enough but it is a vain groundtess Confidence for though some might be of that false Opinion yet it is notoriously false that all were we shall at present give one considerable instance to the contrary and our Instance shall be in Mr. Fox the Author of the Book of Martyrs De Christe gratis Justificante p. 246 247. who in his Book of Justification written against the Papists says expresly Sic mea feri ratio ut existimem c. Such is my Judgment that I think this Confident Perswasion of Mercy and Assurance of the Promised Salvation is not the thing which properly and absolutely delivers us from Sin and justifies us before God but that there is some other thing proposed in the Gospel which must some way in Order of Nature go before this Assurance and justifie us before God for Faith in the Person of the Son necessarily goes before which Faith in the Person of the Son first reconciles us to God Afterward a confident or sure perswasion of most certain mercy follows this Faith Concerning which Mercy none of those who believe in Christ can justly doubt By this and more that Mr. Fox saith in the same place it is clear as the Light that he did not believe that an absolute Assurance of our being now pardoned justified and reconciled to God is included in and essential to the direct Act of Faith whereby we are justified in the sight of God but on the contrary he held that the direct Act of Faith in the Person of the Son of God whereby we are justified goes before the said Assurance and Assurance follows after it which is what we believe and so doth our Author with us for he tells the Unbeliever That a Man is not called to believe that he is in Christ Mark the Expression he doth not only say A Man is not called to believe that he was in Christ before he believed For that Marshal and all but Antinomians do say but he says that a Man is not called to believe that he is in Christ pro praesenti for this present that his Sins are now pardoned and he now a justified Man but he is called to believe the Gospel Record and to believe in Christ according to the Record that is he is to believe that he may be justified and not that he is justified But now Marshal unto whom our Author appeals for the opening of this matter hath so opened it that he hath shut it up in darkness Confusion and Self-contradiction as it were no difficult task to demonstrate He maintains confidently 1. That Assurance of our being now justified and of the Pardon of our Sins is necessarily and essentially included in the direct Act of justifying Faith Pag. 169 170 171.172 173 177 178 179 180 181 182 c. 2. He maintains That all the Reprobate who live in the visible Church are by God strictly obliged under Pain of Eternal Damnation to believe with the foresaid justifying Faith and absolute Assurance which is essential to it that they are now justified and that their Sins are now pardoned though it be then and always false that they are justified and their Sins pardoned Pag. 202.204 Yet he saith that this is but the Appearance of a great Absurdity Pag. 171. whereby he gives us to understand either 1. That it is no real Absurdity to hold that God obliges Men under pain of Eternal Damnation to believe assuredly that a falshood is truth and that they who are not pardoned are pardoned Or 2. That he denies the Consequence to wit that God obliges the Reprobate to believe a falshood And the meaning of that is that though he hath granted both the Premisses yet he will stifly deny the Conclusion whereby men whose eyes are open may see what a rare Gist of Reasoning Mr. Marshal was endowed with Again though he maintain that an absolute Assurance of our present Justification and future Eternal Salvation is essential to the direct Act of justifying Faith yet he saith many precious Saints who have that Faith and that Assurance of Justification and Salvation which is essential to it may not know at all that it shall go well with them at the day of Judgment Pag. 173. and this for want of the other after-Assurance which comes by the reflex Act and by Self-examination Now is not that a strange Assurance which a Man hath by Faith of his Eternal Salvation whereby he doth not know at all whether he shall be Eternally Saved or Eternally Damned for want of another kind of Assurance by Spiritual Sense and feeling whereby he may know how it shall go with him at the Day of Judgement whether he shall be then Eternally Saved or Damned to what purpose serves the first Assurance when a man can know nothing at all by it without a second Assurance Is not that a plain Indication that the first pretended Assurance is nothing but an ens rationis a Creature of a Man 's own making which hath no real Existence but in his vain Imagination Our Author sometimes seems to be wiser than to believe such vain Fancies and yet at other times he appears to be deeply in love with them as when he most highly commends Mr. Marshals Book in which we deny not but there are good things as the most Soveraign Antidote against the Poyson of the new Divinity and says that he hath largely opened this matter For our parts we are willing to impute this to his not having Attentively read that Book and so to his not knowing that Mr. Marshal did manifestly contradict and dispute against his Opinion as a Limb or Joint of the new Divinity But we are afraid his unbeliever will be really scandalized at his telling him that he is not called at the first to believe that he is now in Christ that his Sins are pardoned and he is now a justified Man though in the same Letter he sends him to Marshals Book for Information and Direction in this very matter and it tells him the quite contrary and confidently maintains that an Unbeliever is called and commanded at first upon Pain of Eternal Damnation to believe with absolute Assurance by the direct Act of Faith in Christ that he is now in Christ his Sins pardoned and he a justified Man This we are afraid will tempt his Unbeliever to say Either Sir you believe this of Marshal or not
of the difficulty of believing so in the Name of the whole Fraternity of Unbelievers I thank you for your great kindness to them and for this sweet and comfortable Doctrine if it be true which you have taught us all in your Letter which I hear is much cryed up by some Women in London who love rest and ease Now we might have all rested quietly together were it not for those you call the New and Young Divines whom you have charged with Pelagianism This was not wisely done of you for you have thereby awakened them from their rest and it is to be feared that by loud Recriminations they will disturb you and us both and proclaim the secret to the World that you your self are Confederate with Pelagians Semipelagians and Unbelievers For it is undeniable matter of Fact that it is a branch of Pelagianism and the very Root and Heart of Semipelagianism That Men can believe in Christ with a justifying Faith by the Power of Nature without the Supernatural Grace of God And if your similitude hold good men not only can believe but which is more they cannot possibly choose but they must of Necessity believe without the help of Grace unless they be hindered by a Miracle exciting them to Act and Work and to cease from rest Sir how you can come to Rest and Peace with those brisk Young Divines whose Age inclines them to Action more than to Rest I do not pretend to know but this I know that upon your foresaid Principle the Unbeliever and you are agreed and if you will be stedfast and stand to your Principle we shall live together in perfect quietness and never more differ about Believing Thus we have given an account of our Authors Way and Method of Converting an Unbeliever to Faith in Christ which is more than a resting on Christ for it is a Grace whereby we assent to Jesus his being the Christ the Son of God and only Saviour of Men and Consent to take him for our Prince and Saviour and as such receive him on his own Terms and then rest relie and trust on him for Justification c. We have shewed also what a weak and ridiculous way and Method it is and how easily an Unbeliever may Answer all that he hath said in the 16. and 17. Pages of his Letter mentioned before except a few at his first setting out he hath hardly made one right step in the whole course of that Advice which he takes upon him to give unto Ministers how they ought to deal with Unbelievers in labouring to Convert them unto Faith in Christ He hath plainly betray'd our Cause to the Unbeliever who hath brought him by his last Objection to take up with a Piece of Pelagianism and with the grossest Semipelagianism that hath been heard of in the Christian Church so weak is he not wicked we hope that he could think of no other way to Answer that Objection but by denying that Faith is any Work at all though therein he shamefully contradicts himself and the express Word of God and by affirming that it is a resting in such a sense as imports that it is neither Work nor Act but a meer Cessation from Working and Acting a doing nothing at all and from thence he labours to shew the Unbeliever that it is not difficult to believe and illustrates it by such a similitude as will make any considering man who reads it and understands the use he makes of it to think that he must be a Semipelagian who holds that a man can believe unto Justification without any Subjective Supernatural Grace of God at all Whereas he ought to have acknowledged the Truth of the Objection that it is indeed difficult and impossible too for a natural man by the power of nature ever to believe but that it is possible and easy too by the Grace of God And then he should have directed the Unbeliever unto the means whereby Grace to believe is ordinarily obtained from God through Christ and should have advised him to wait and continue waiting on God in the use of his appointed means and particularly to be much in praying as well as he can for Grace to help in time of need and desiring the prayers of Christs Ministers and People But not a word of this nay instead of advising the Unbeliever to use Gods means and seek the Grace of Faith from God through Christ he gives him to understand that Faith is nothing but a resting from all work and action and that it is no more difficult to believe than it is for a weary Traveller to lye down and rest when he is so tyred that he can neither stand nor go And after he hath told the Ministers that they ought thus to resolve the doubts and answer the arguments of Unbelievers he hath the confidence to conclude that by such reasonings with an Unbeliever from the Gospel the Lord will as he hath often done convey Faith to him and joy and peace by believing This is like all the rest the Conclusion and the Premises are at irreconcileable variance with one another The Conclusion saith that the Lord will convey Faith to the Unbeliever by the reasonings in the premises and yet one of those reasonings is that Faith is nothing but a resting and such a resting as signifies a Cessation from all actings and that an Unbeliever needs no more help to believe than a weary Travellour needs help to lye down and rest when he is so tyred that he can neither stand nor go We think it is a sort of Blasphemy to say wittingly and willingly that such reasonings as some of those we have noted in the 16 and 17 Pages of the Letter are either in and from the Gospel or that the Lord makes use of such self contradicting confounding fulshood as means of conveying Faith into the Hearts of his people And because in this part of his Letter he speaks to us that are Ministers and either bids us tell the Unbeliever so and so or else he affirms that we do tell him so and so we must declare to the World that we will follow his advice no further than we find it agreeable to Scripture and Reason which sometimes we do find and oftentimes the contrary as we have proved but as for what he affirms that Ministers tell the Unbeliever that Faith is not difficult that it is no more difficult to an Unbeliever than lying down is to a man when he is so tyred and weary that he can neither stand nor go we protest we are none of those Ministers we never did and through Grace never will tell any Unbeliver such an abominable falshood We know no other Ministers but our Author that Preaches such Doctrine and we have endeavoured to make him ashamed of it in hopes to bring him off from it We trust that after we have thus publickly declared against our Authors Way and Method of Converting Unbelievers to Faith in Christ and