is a false Conclusion that Christ is mine before he is so and must the great Terms of Life be a Lie We are to examine our selves whether we are in the Faith or not 2 Cor. 13.5 Where hath God made this Proposition My sins are laid on Christ Vnless you are for general Redemption the Word of Grace promiseth Pardon to none but a Believer and the Spirit speaks to none but a Believer Antinom In all things we receive of Gift there must be a right of Donation first if we take before it 's given it 's Theft and unless I am perswaded that the giving Hand is reached out I can't receive We have our first Earnest for Blessedness in the Perswasion of Faith in the very Act of it and it 's Non sence to talk any way of partaking of Christ but by the Spirit and Faith And he that in an Act of believing at first finds Christ in the true Perswasion of Faith doth not nor cannot say of Christ he is his before he is so The Soul cannot be too nimble for Christ and if he that believeth not makes God a Liar what are those that perswade to Unbelief That Faith in it's very Act is an Evidence is no hinderance to the Trial and Examination of our selves by the Fruit of Faith besides And though the Proposition in the Gospel be an indefinite Proposition yet the Application by Faith in a Sinner ought to be particular and fiducial or else the Faith of Believers will be no more than that of others that believe only that Christ came to save Sinners and if the Promise of Pardon were not to Sinners as such it were not Pardon and if a Man upon Trial must first find by Signs that he doth believe before he lay claim to Pardon Sinners would be in a sad condition But this is the comfort that as the Promise of Pardon is the great Encouragement to believing so believing it self is the receiving and perceiving of it And the Soul saith or should by Faith He loved me and gave himself for me At the sight of Christ it saith My Lord and my God If the Lord speak to a Believer in believing by his Word and Spirit Thy Sins are forgiven it 's not said so to one that is a Believer first Relata are simul naturâ The Promise of Paternity is not a Promise or Gift to one that 's a Father first nor Sonship to one that is a Son first God promiseth himself to be a Father to them that are Loammi And how gross is that Assertion That the Spirit speaks it to none but to a Believer as a Believer Doth not the Spirit speak Peace before we receive it by an Act of Faith Doth not this cause us to believe it 's the Light causeth the Eye to see It 's the Light shining into the dark Unbelieving Heart that perswades the Heart it 's God that saith to the Soul I am thy Salvation before we can believe it Neonom The Second thing that I will prove is that Saving Faith hath the Essentials expressed in the above-mentioned Truth as Assent Trust Consenting Acceptance of Christ Reliance c. Antinom You said before that Inward Perswasion of the Pardon of Sin was no Part of Saving Faith And said in the next that it contained Assent to the Word Fiducial Consent and Acceptance of Christ A Man therefore may understand you that tho it contained it yet it was not of it's Essence Now you seem to say these are Essentials if you do not you hide your self again in the Word Include If you say These be Essentials which you name we say so too but allow not yours c. and all these Essentials are in the Word Perswasion Assent is the Perswasion of the Understanding Consent the Perswasion of the Will to the Truths and good things propounded the Promise whereby the Soul relies upon Christ therein for himself particularizeth Christ and all Blessings to himself as his and now go on and prove all that you said before to be false Neonom You are mistaken I will prove my Position true and then see where your Errour will be 1. Faith can be no less than the Souls Answer to the Call of God c. Antinom We say it is so and he bids us believe but it 's not Faith as such for all Obedience is an answer to the Call of God Neonom The Scripture describes Saving Faith by all these Acts it 's the evidence of things not seen Substance of things hoped for Heb. 11.1 Receiving of Christ John 1.12 Isa 55.4 Acts 13.26 Rom. 15.12 Isa 44.5 Antinom This we say it is Evidence and Substance of things at a distance is a full Perswasion of them according to the Nature of them such a Perswasion as carries the whole Soul forth to God to rest and rely upon him having Union with Christ thereby bringing him in all his Excellencies into our Souls and taking him for our own Doth a Man believe any good thing promised and doth not he catch at it for himself if he have any savour of it If the Promise of Pardon present it self to us doth a Man believe till he appropriate it to himself saying It is mine though an unworthy Sinner If a condemned Prisoner hears a Pardon is come out for some he may believe that but till he believes he is one it 's no Comfort to him tho there may be hopes at least he is in it Neonom Christ can't be received as a Saviour without these Antinom It 's very true he is never received as such till I receive him as my Saviour and believe him to be so in some measure and this I am bound to do to receive him by confident Perswasion and resting upon him Neonom A Faith without these Essentials could never produce those great Effects as are ascribed to Faith to purifie the Heart Acts 15.9 to be a shield against Temptations Eph. 6.16 works by Love Gal. 5.6 sanctifies us Acts 26.18 By Faith we are risen with Christ Col. 2.12 Antinom It 's certain that no Faith can do it but such as makes a particular Application by a perswasion of the Love of God or Interest in Christ Pardon of Sins and Reconciliation to God through him that can produce the Effects spoken of this will purifie the Heart from an evil guilty Conscience to serve the Living God this will be a Shield against the most Mortal Darts of Satan that he shoots at our state by bringing in Law Condemnations Hereby Love to God is produced in the Soul and we Act towards God and our Neighbours in Love hereby we are brought to true Obedience such as the Law required at first for the Principle to Love the Lord our God with all our Hearts Soul and Strength and therefore the Apostle saith Love is the Sum of all Obedience as our Saviour said It 's the fulfilling of the Law through this Grace of the Spirit for by receiving Forgiveness of Sin we
not any just Exception you can have against this Divinity there being so clear Evidence for what is here delivered from the Word of God Neonom He saith Faith is the Eccho of the Heart to the Voice of the Spirit Calvin In the Continuation of Pool 's Annotations one of your Vouchers hath this on 1 John 5.10 He that truly believes hath the effectual Impress of this Testimony upon his Soul What is that but the Eccho of it speaking the same thing Neonom He means that Faith doth not evidence our Pardon as it is a Grace wrought in the Soul by the Spirit or a holy Qualification but only as it doth assent to and rest in this inward Voice D. W. p. 163. Antinom No he doth not place this Evidencing Nature of Faith which he speaks of in it as an Act or Qualification for as such it evidenceth no more than any other Grace but Faith hath a peculiar evidencing Nature in it because it is a receiving Grace he speaks not now of Assent it takes Possession of the Promise And would not you have Faith to be assenting to and resting on the Voice of the Spirit in the Word what would you have it be nothing at all Neonom He seems to own that Sanctification is some Evidence Antinom He doth so as was observed before Calvin I pray what is your Sence concerning the way of attaining Assurance Neonom Truth The ordinary way whereby a Man attaineth a well-grounded assurance is not by immediate objective Revelation or an inward Voice saying Thy Sins are forgiven D. W. p. 160. Antinom I judge by this Negation you set by these things from Assurance as having nothing to do ordinarily in it 1. That no Voice is heard any way by the Soul Thy Sins are forgiven that is not to be believed by a direct Act of Faith 2. That Forgiveness of Sin is not revealed to a Believer by the Word of Promise believed 3. That the Spirit of God hath nothing to do in bringing the Soul to appropriate and apply the general Promise particularly to his own Soul So that here as to our believing Forgiveness of Sin neither the Spirit nor the Objective Revelation of the Gospel nor indeed Faith it self in it's receiving Nature hath any thing to do but only as a Sign and Mark set upon the Soul Neonom But when a Believer is examining his Heaert and Life by the Word the Holy Spirit enlightens the mind there to discern Faith and Love and such other Qualifications which the Gospel declareth to be the infallible Signs of Regeneration And he adds such Power to the Testimony of Conscience for the Truth and In-being of these Graces as begets in a Soul a joyful sense of it's comfortable state and some comfortable Freedom from those Fears which accompany a doubting Christian And according to the Evidence of these Graces Assurance is ordinarily strong or weak Antinom I observe now though you would let the Spirit have no hand in the Evidence of Faith yet you need its help to enlighten about Signs and Qualifications I pray how doth the Spirit enlighten here Is it by any objective Revelation or by any inward Dictate or Intimation And cannot the Spirit as well enlighten the Mind to behold Christ in the Promise by an Act of Faith as to behold Faith and Love in our selves 2. You will not admit the Declaration of the Gospel received and embraced by Faith to evidence but that it seems the Heart and Life must be examined by the Word as a Rule So that Assurance must be wrought by the Word as a Law not as a Gospel so far as you are come up to a Conformity to the Rule not a Testimony of your Interest in the Grace of the Gospel 3. You had need have the Light of the Spirit to find an infallible Sign in you too though they be declared in the Gospel Hypocrites pretend to them and you cannot tell whether you are any better than a Hypocrite without an infallible Voice of the Spirit according to your Doctrine for you must know that you shall persevere in those Qualifications and it 's impossible for a Man to be assured till Death or can be assured of his Perseverance till then all other Signs will signifie nothing without an Infallible Witness 4. You must have a Power added by the Spirit to the Testimony of Conscience that it may witness the Truth and In-being of Graces What 's the Reason it cannot witness the Truth of our In-being in Christ and add a Power to our Faith to believe even unto Assurance 5. All this Examination Illumination of the Spirit Gospel-Declaration c. may at last beget a joyful Sense or a reconciled State you say but according to you it cannot be Assurance because you cannot yet try by Perseverance the Soul is in a little hopes it 's in a probable way to Salvation but cannot be assured he is in a sure state or shall certainly be saved because he must continue his Justified State by his Works and therefore it 's impossible for him to try and find so far as to Assurance because he hath not persevered you 'l say it may be He must believe his Perseverance and be assured of it by Faith then I say there 's as much ground to believe and be assured by Faith of all our Salvation 6. You speak not of an Assurance in all you have said but of some comfortable Freedom from Doubtings i. e. upon some probable Grounds This amounts to more than Opinion at last the only Judgment of a contingent Axiom and you tell us elsewhere our State here is but of Tryal not decided therefore there can be no Assurance at all in this Life 7. You do well to add at last that according to the Evidence of these Graces Assurance is ordinarily strong or weak And may not that Assurance be so which we call the Assurance of Faith May it not be strong or weak according to the Evidence that Faith gives in being strong or weak Faith But now go on to your Whethers and Neithers Neonom I will shew you wherein the difference is not D.W. p. 164. Antinom So you may and enumerate all things in the World by Sea and by Land besides It is not whether the Sun be the Element of Fire nor how many Regions in the Air nor whether Spirits are material nor whether Anima be ex traduce c. Neonom It is not whether the Spirit witnesseth by his Miraculous Operations to Christ and the Gospel which is a Truth and the meaning of many of the Texts which you quote Antinom I do not know that we were like to stumble there for we speak only of the Spirits witnessing in its ordinary way and so are all the Texts to be understood so far as they have been applyed to our purpose Neonom Nor whether the Spirit as a Worker of Grace in the Heart be an Earnest of Glory and Witness to our state
Antinom Very good then sure if the Spirit be an Earnest of Glory it 's an Evidence of Glory for what is a greater Evidence of a state than an Earnest Yea you say it 's also a Witness of our state if it be a Witness it is by a Testimony and if it bear Testimony and such an one as we take to be a Witness to our state it is something to this purpose Christ is thine thy Sins are Forgiven it must witness something that may beget in the Soul a joyful sence of its reconciled state there contrary to you Assurance must come in the immediate objective Revelation of the Spirit by the Spirits speaking in the Promise believed God is thy God Christ is thine thy Sins are taken away or something to this purpose Neither is this absurd to say the Spirit speaks thus ordinarily by a Voice because it is so interpretatively the Lord speaks when he causeth his Word to speak effectually unto the Heart and whatever Truth of God is made efficacious by the Spirit the Spirit speaks by it If any word of Promise become a truely comforting Word the Spirit as Comforter speaks by it you have granted us here in a manner as much as we can desire in this Point excepting an Equivocating Expression viz. as a Worker of Grace and whatever Evasion you have there this I will say that you make the Spirit an Evidence in its Efficiency it self as an Efficient whereas Signs and Marks are but Evidences as Effects And is not the Spirit received in its first sensible Efficiency in and by the Promise a great Evidence Gal. 3.3 2 Pet. 1.3 Neonom Nor whether the Spirit witnesseth by and with the Conscience in the manifestation of our Graces for Assurance Calvin It is a strange thing that you should make such a loud Cry in the World against a Man for Errour when you in a manner say the same thing and the Word of God asserts it so positively that the Spirit is the Comforter and witnesseth with our Spirits that we are his Children and you say as the Worker of Grace i. e. of all Grace and therefore of this Grace and if it works it must be by some Word of Peace that it speaks and is believed and you say it witnesses by and with the Conscience the Conscience speaking in and by the Spirit and how is the Conscience made to speak Peace more than by the sprinkling of the Blood of Christ whereby an Evil Condemning Conscience is taken away what manifestation of Grace works Peace most the manifestation of the Grace of Christ or of our Graces And these must appear to be the Graces of Christ and slow from him or else they are no Graces the Witness of the Spirit and the Intelligible believed Voice of the Spirit particularly applying the Declaration of the Gospel of Peace must be in all and is the most settled ground of all comfortable Assurance Neonom Nor whether the Spirit of God may in some Extraordinary Cases give an immediate Testimony by a Voice or some Equivalent Impressions D. W. p. 164. Antinom 1. You grant that sometimes the Spirit may witness by Voice or Equivalent Impressions 2. The Extraordinary Cases you here speak of must be meant of some not so usual in an ordinary way 3. I would know whether then the Spirit is to be believed and how its Voice may be distinguished from the Voice of a False Spirit 4. Whether when you speak of a Voice you mean an Articulate sound or such a still Voice as the Spirit speaks by which is an Impression of Gospel Truth with a particular application to the Soul this as you say is Equivalent to a Voice and it is the Eccho of the Word of Promise in the Heart and this is not an Extraordinary nor unusual way bringing Souls to settled Peace and Comfort Neonom But then there was the Truth of Grace though it was doubted before and nothing utterly inconsistent with true Grace either in the Heart nor then appeareth to the Conscience Antinom So that there is first a Witness from our selves before there 's Witness from the Spirit but how comes it that this Witness from our selves hath not Credit enough with it to be believed For if it hath whence comes doubting Here 's truth of Grace and nothing appears to the contrary and yet the Person doubts Doth any Man doubt of any thing when he apprehends nothing to the contrary And you say there 's the Truth of Grace before the Spirit witnesseth who wrought this truth of Grace do you not say that it witnesseth to our state as a Worker of Grace Neonom I will tell you where the true difference lyes 1. Whether none attain Assurance but by the Inward Voice of the Spirit pronouncing the Actual Forgiveness of Sins without manifesting their true Grace and Sanctification This you affirm and I deny Antinom You should have made the first Question whether any Assurance is attainable till Death because Perseverance is one of your Infallible Marks and all others signifie nothing unless we can take up upon that and that must run out to the last moment before we can 2. We affirm that there can be no Assurance without knowledge that our Sins are Forgiven assign an Assurance without it if you can and your Assurance from marks must come to this if it be Assurance 3. This must be by the Spirits pronouncing of it or no way when you have found all that you can it 's God must speak peace or else it will never be and Peace of Reconciliation however you Banter God's Reconciling the World and the Spirits bringing home the Word of Reconciliation 4. Who ever spake of the Spirits manifesting Forgiveness without manifestation of the whole Grace of God that brings Salvation in Sanctification as well as Justification both comes under the Witness of the Spirit and therefore you are besides the Question and state it not right Neonom The next Question is Whether the usual way of attaining Assurance is by the Conscience upon Tryal discerning and concluding through the help of the Spirit that a Man hath those Graces or Signs which describe a Man Blessed and Pardoned according to the Gospel This I affirm and you deny Antinom 1. That I deny Sanctification to be a sign of Justification is false for that which is an undoubted Effect is a sign of the Cause and an Argument of it to conclude it by 2. It 's not the Question whether it be not the usual way of attaining Assurance de facto such Gospel Preachers as you are still putting them upon this way and telling them there 's no other safe way 3. The Question is whether this be the only way Whether another way ought not to go first Neonom I will now confirm the Truth by some Arguments 1. This is the way that God appoints to attain Assurance 2 Cor. 13.5 2 Pet. 1.10 Antinom This is one way who denies it and a Duty
look upon this as a Justification of this Child it being a declared Sentence of God concerning it's standing in his Favour and unchangeable Love 2. The Text is particular in the Reason of this Declaration to Rebecka ver 11. that we may see that God accomplish'd his purpose of Election in the applying of the Grace thereof without Works not so much as upon the Account of Faith as a Work because the Children were not capable of doing Good or Evil the Application of his distinguishing Love could not be upon that Account viz. Of any Condition found in them nor could the Foresight of any such thing in them be the Cause of God's Purpose in Election and shews it's one and the same Righteousness that an Infant and Adult Person is Justified by Neonom Because an Eldest Son is an Heir in the Womb therefore an Elect Person who is in time to he Adopted is an Heir in the Womb. Calvin There 's a Difference between an Heir and Adoption If you know there is an Elect Person in the Womb as Rebecka did he is a more sure Heir to Heaven than ever any great Man's Son was to an outward Estate And as to Adoption that may not be till some time after For that is the Grace of Sonship It 's one thing to be a Son and another to have the Grace of Sonship And is the calling them the Sons of God manifestly taking them into the number and endowing them with the Priviledges of the Sons of God The Relation of an Heir and the state of Adoption admit of different Considerations The State of Adoption is the grown state of an Elect Person he is put into Possession of the Estate and all Priviledges sit together with Christ in Heavenly Places as a Coheir And thus we are the Children of God by Faith Gal. 3.26 The Spirit bearing Witness with our Spirit that we are the Children of God and so Heirs ex abundanti Joynt-Heirs with Christ Rom. 8.17 Let us now hear what our approved Calvinists say in this Point that speak most particularly and distinctly to it Speak Dr. Amesius Dr. Ames The Transaction between God and Christ was a certain previous Application of our Redemption and Discharge to our Surety and to us in him which hath the Nature of a certain efficacious Pattern to that Secondary manner of Application which is compleated in us so that this is the representation of that this is produced by vertue of that Now it 's inferred hence That our Freedom from Sin and Death was not only determined in God's Decree but also granted and communicated to us in Christ before it is perceived by us Chap. 24. § 3. Mr. Rutherford pray speak you wrote against Antinomianism Sane priusque electus credit c. Certainly before an Elect Person doth believe the Wrath of God and all the Effects of his Wrath are removed from the Persons by vertue of Christ's Satisfaction Exercit. Apologet. per gratiâ p. 45. Mr. Pemble That God doth actually love the Elect before they are Regenerate or can actually believe may appear further by these Reasons 1. Where God is actually reconciled there he actually loveth for Love and Reconciliation are inseparable but with the Elect before they are converted and believe God is Actually Reconciled Ergo he loves them before Faith and Conversion The Minor is evident because before they are Born a full Atonement and Satisfaction is made for their Sins by Christ and accepted on God's part whereupon all Actual Reconciliation must needs follow 2. God did Actually Love the Elect before Christ's time when Actual Reconciliation was not yet made much more therefore after the Atonement made 3. Justification Effectual Vocation and Faith are Fruits of God's Actual Love c. De gratiâ fide p. 22. Chamier Persuasissimum est c. We are most fully perswaded that our Sins are forgiven before we believe for certainly we deny Infants to act Faith and yet their Sins are forgiven them And although it be true that our Sins be forgiven before we believe i. e. before we know it as Actual Believers we do believe the Remission of our Sins because this is proposed to us yea promised to us in the same words which we relye upon by Faith and it 's Sealed by the same Spirit whereby that word is Truth Panstr Tom. 3. lib. 13. c. 10. Antinom I think I see Mr. Baxter appear in this Cause though I suppose he is seldom in this Society Calvin I pray let us hear Sir what you say to this Point Mr. Baxter The Anabaptists bring Eph. 2.3 against Baptism of Infants and say Because they are by Nature Children of Wrath the Promise belongs not to them Ans What though we are by Nature Children of Wrath doth it follow that we may not be otherwise by Grace the state of Wrath goes first in order of Nature and whether in order of time also is not worth our disputing but may not a state of Grace immediately succeed Jeremy was Sanctified in the Womb and John Baptist and the Infants that Christ Blessed were all by Nature Children of Wrath and yet by Grace were in a better state As they come from old Adam they are Children of VVrath but as they receive of the Grace procured by the Second Adam so they are not Children of wrath If a Prince should Entail some Honours upon all your Children you might well say by Nature or as they were your Children they were not Honourable or Noble and yet by the Favour of the Prince they might be all Honourable from the VVomb The Godly at Age may say that they are still by Nature Children of wrath even when they are sure they are Children of God by Grace and they use in their Confessions to say That we by Nature are Enemies to God Fire-brands of Hell R. Baxter of Inf. Bapt. p. 110 111. Calvin I would willingly hear what the Learned and Judicious Mr. J. Cotton saith Mr. J. Cotton in Answer to that Objection made by the Anabaptist against Infant Baptism Faith comes by Hearing Ergo Infants have not Faith Ans It is no Extraordinary thing which Christ speaks concerning Infants when he saith Except you receive the Kingdom of God as little Children c. and they cannot receive it without Christ nor without Faith in Christ and yet received not Christ nor Faith by their own immediate Hearing of the Word and for the second thing which you make Essential to Union with Christ viz. a Heart fitly disposed to apprehend and receive Christ be not unwilling to understand that which is Truth The Heart is fitly disposed by Faith to apprehend or apply Christ when Faith is begotten in the Heart for by this Gift of Faith begotten in us Christ apprehends us and by the same Gift of Faith the Heart is fitly disposed to apprehend Christ even in Infants for when Faith is wrought in Infants the Heart is quickned with Spiritual Life and made a
it the Money is his own the Debt is the Principal 's transferred to him but the Payment is the Surety's subjectively and properly Therefore to say the Payment is imputed to the Surety is Nonsence The Spirit of God speaks expresly that our Sins were laid on Christ no less than Three times in Isa 53. and expressed by three different Words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ver 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ver 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ver 12. It 's express 1 Pet. 2.24 the Apostle plainly there speaking after the Prophet says He bore it as a Sin-offering Heb. 9.28 Was made Sin 1 Cor. 5.21 Therefore we neeed not fear to say Christ bore our Sins let the Sence be what it will which the Spirit means it was certainly so as to take away the Charge of Sin which is Fault and Blame from before God 1 John 3.3 4. To take it away as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is so to take it away as to set a Man right in the Eye of Justice Your next Branch of Proof to the Minor is That to impute Sin to Christ would argue him a Propagator of Corrupt Qualities What could be done or said more by a Socinian to load the great Truths of the Gospel with reproachful Consequences 1. Sin is no positive Quality as such but only privative 2. All Qualities of a pernicious Nature to the Sinner consisting of Natural Causes are Subjecta peccati not Peccatum it self and they are separable from Sin in it's Moral Consideration There were in Christ himself Effects of our Sins in Infirmity Sorrow Reproach c. They were very uneasie Qualities though not corrupt 3. God himself tells us He laid Iniquity upon him and made him Sin and yet saith Positively He was no Committer of Sin And you charge the Spirit of God with Nonsence and Contradiction For you say it 's impossible to impute Sin to Christ any other way than punishing of him it 's to mistake and make Christ the Committer which Punishment is not sin therefore what the Spirit saith is false Sin was not laid on Christ at all and yet the Spirit speaks it expresly 4. You will inferr these Absurdities 1. That Sin cannot be laid on Christ but by Transfusion wherein you deny Imputation 2. That Christ must be corrupted thereby Whereas the Spirit of God tells us he bears Sin as a Lamb without Spot You will have it that he had the Macula fixed on him by bearing it 3. You will have God by laying Sin on Christ to become a Propagator of Sin The Spirit of God says he appeared to take away our Sins and in him is no Sin 1 John 3.5 How audacious is our Carnal Reason to set upon Divine Mysteries Neonom It was needless to the Ends for which our Sins were laid on Christ Antinom You should have said what 's needless Your Argument should have run thus Laying Sins on Christ is needless to the ends for which they were laid on Christ and therefore those Scriptures that say so are needless Neonom Sins were laid on Christ that he might make Atonement by suffering for them and so release us who had transgressed Antinom Now Sir you say something you speak like a Divine if you can hold there Now you own something laid on Christ besides Punishment for the Atonement was made by being punished and say well now that Sin was laid on him that he might make Atonement for them viz. by being punished For bearing Sin is one thing and making Atonement is another but are inseparable relata and therein contraria affirmantiae Neonom Now Christ by submitting to the Guilt as an Obligation to Punishment according to the Terms of the Covenant of Redemption was sufficient to this End and all that was needful Antinom That Christ bore the Desert or Demerit of our Sin which is done only by a Judicial Charge and Accusation in our stead is sufficient What is Sin after the Fact is committed but reatus culpae Guilt is the Fault declared and applyed somewhere in a way of Judicial Proceeding And this is often the Conscience of Sin and is not removed but by Faith on Christ crucify'd who bore our Sins before God Neonom All that endangered us was the Threatning of the Law and the Punishment included in the Threat Antinom Where there is true Godly Sorrow it 's more upon this Account that he hath sinned against a Holy God and broke his holy just and good Law than for fear of the Threats of Wrath. I thought I had better understood the Nature of Sorrow for Sin that it had been the nature of Sin in Contrariety to God had more grieved than the Fear of Punishment Neonom The Obliquity of the Fact as against the Precept shall not hurt where the Sanction of the Law is answer'd Antinom I think this is that you call Antinomianism with a Witness you shall hear of it again e're long only observe That this is as much a Doctrine of Licentiousness as any you charge on me Secure but your self from Hell and you need not regard the preceptive part of the Law you may live as you list See how you 'l clear your self when you charge it for a great Crime upon me in saying Sin will do no hurt in some Sence c. Neonom And he that suffers as Sponsor for another need not sustain in himself the filthiness of the Crime to make him capable of giving Satisfaction Gen. 44.13 Phil. 18. Antinom No that 's true upon your Hypothesis there 's no need of a Sponsor for the Filthiness of Sin is too foul for Christ to bear the Sinner must be his own Expiator and carry away his Filth himself or if he keep it it will not hurt See 1 John 7.9 Neonom This transacting of the Filthiness of our Sins on Christ is blasphemous Antinom Friend that 's a cruel Bomb to shoot at a good Man to charge him with Blasphemy But where 's the Blasphemy to say Christ bore the Filth of Sin in a Sence Is not Sin filthy under all Considerations Doth not the Spirit of God call it filthy and abominable in all respects 1. Is not the Guilt of Sin Filth and abominable in God's Sight And is it not so when it lies upon the Conscience I think the Spirit of God represents it always as the greatest Foulness and Uncleanness I say a Conscience polluted with Sin to those that are defiled and unbelieving and can't by Faith fetch and derive cleansing Vertue from the Blood of Christ into their Consciences to such nothing is clean 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tit. 1.15 Now this is the very Rooot and Foundation of a Defilement And what is it that takes it off but Faith in the Sin-cleansing Vertue of Jesus Christ The great Contrariety of Sin to the Holy Law is the Filthiness of Sin And the Apostle tells Heb. 9.14 How our Consciences come to be purged from dead Works it 's no other way than
would have it to be such as may lead to discover the Errours of the Antinomians and if it be possible to convince this Gentleman whom I take to be so deeply immers'd in them Calvin I remember you have Charged him with some already how far he is guilty we leave every Man to his own Judgment to think as matters of proof doth evince It 's not a practice to subscribe our Names to commend Truth or condemn Errour Have you any more Errours to Charge him with Neonom Yes Sir very foul ones I will Name you one and it is this he holds That the very Act of God's laying Sin on Christ upon the Cross is the very Actual Discharge of all the Elect from all their Sins Mr. Antinom Are you sure 1. That this is my Opinion And 2. That if it be it is an Errour It may be there may be such an ambiguity in the terms of the Question that you may understand them in one sence and I in another the greatest I judge lyeth in Actual Discharge But I pray make proof of your Charge first and then we will endeavour to find out the true matter in Debate and discuss the things in difference it may be you mistake me Neonom This is your declared Opinion that runs as a Line thorow all your Discourses and is the Foundation you Build most upon I say all the weight and all the Burthen and all that very sin it self is long ago laid upon Christ and that laying of it upon him is a full Discharge and a general Release and Acquittance unto thee that there is not any one sin now to be charged on thee Did not you speak these words in a Sermon you Preached you know where upon Isa 53.6 D. C. p. 298. Antinom Yes I did speak these words but you deal with me as you always have been wont to do you rehearse only part of my words and conceal or take no notice of such Expressions as may make my true meaning manifest I was speaking to that place Rom. 8. It is God that justifies who is he that condemns I said the same God that justifies will not eat his own words and pass Sentence of Condemnation upon a Person that hath received the Sentence of Absolution already No you will say God doth not Condemn but he will let Sin be charged upon the Spirit of a Man doth not he then Sentence him to be unjust Answ There be divers Condemnations Condemnation in Sentence and Condemnation in Execution Condemnation in Sentence is the pronouncing such a Person guilty The other is the Execution of Punishment deserved for this guilt and it 's but an effect of Condemnation rather than Condemnation it self so far as God charges fault upon a Person so far he condemns that Person so that if God should charge a Person as faulty how can you believe still that this Person is manifested and pronounced just by God I beseech you stop your Ears against the Quirks of Satan and of your Hearts deceived by him clamouring still to you that Sin lyes upon your own Spirits It is but the Voice of a Lying Spirit in your own Hearts that saith That you that are Believers have yet Sin wasting your Consciences and lying as a Burden too heavy for you to bear now comes in the words which you rehearsed I say all the weight and all the burden and all the very sin it self c. Dr. Cr. p. 292. Now I pray judge whether this Gentleman hath dealt fairly with me Calvin No indeed I must needs say he hath not for you see he speaks not of the Elect indefinitely but of Believers and is it not of the Devil that any true Believer lyes under Conscience-wasting sins And was not all the sins of the Elect laid long ago upon Christ in full Discharge of every Believer And is not every Believer bound in Duty to believe it so Mr. Neonom You teach that the Elect are Justified before they do believe otherwise till such Believing the Person of the Elect doth bear his own Transgression and is Chargeable for them D. Cr. p. 616 617. Antinom Sir I was preaching from 1 John 2.1 2. and was shewing Faith is the Fruit of our Union with Christ and prov'd it from John 15. I am the Vine and ye are the Branches and I shewed that there must be a Union to Christ before the Branch could bring forth Fruit and that Fruit is Faith and proceeds from our Radical Union with Christ I also alledged Col. 3. Your Life is hid with Christ in God c. And inferred that the Life of every Elect Person hath a Being in Christ before he doth believe believing therefore doth not produce a new Life that was not before i. e. Fundamentally and Efficaciously to the producing of Faith but it makes that Life that was before an Active Life or is an Instrument by which that Life which was hid in Christ doth now after believing become an Active and Appearing Life in this Person So that all that can be made of this is that till believing there is no Life and Activity in the Person that is Elected his Life is in Christ and was in Christ and reserved in Christ for him till the time of Believing and then doth he the Elect Person become Active in Life when Christ doth give him to believe actually D. C. 615. Calvin And do you Mr. Neonom reckon this false Doctrine I wonder what kind of Gospel you Preach I am much deceived if this be not true Gospel Doctrine and so strongly Built that no Sophistry or all the Gates of Hell will never shake I see every thing is not false Doctrine which you are pleased to call so Neonom Truely now it plainly appears that I am not mistaken in Charging Calvinists with Antinomianism if all be of this Gentleman's Opinion Antinom But Sir if you be pleased to give me leave I will proceed in the further account of my Discourse I shew'd the dangerous Consequences that must follow this Principle that there is no Justification i. e. Fundamentally and Union at all belonging unto Elect Persons till they do Actually believe in Christ I say if Persons are not United unto Christ and do not partake of Justification before they do believe but that believing is the Instrument by which they are first United 1. That this in some respect would be bringing to Life a Covenant of Works Do this and Live whereas the Covenant of Grace runs upon contrary terms Live and do this God in the Covenant of Grace gives Life first and doing comes from Life 2. If there must be our Act of Believing before our participating of Christ then those Sins that were laid upon Christ and taken away from the Elect i. e. in foro Dei are returned back again I say if there must be believing before there be Union with or Interest in Christ it must necessarily follow the Person doth bear his own Transgression is
founded on the Obedience of Christs Life and the Sacrifice of his Death and yet so unhappy I have been in my search that I cannot find any proof or any attempt to prove it and therefore till I see evidence to the contrary I shall take for granted that the Covenant of Grace is owing to and founded on and given forth by that Free Grace of God from whence it s justly denominated a Covenant of Grace though the Intervention of a Mediator such a Mediator was absolutely necessary to put us into Actual Possession of those Rich Mercies designed to us by God in that Covenant which Mediator himself is owing to and founded on that Covenant of Grace and therefore the Covenant of Grace is not founded upon him but indeed for that Covenant which Mr. Neonomian is pleased to call a Covenant of Grace it 's no great matter where it is founded and therefore let him dispose of his own Creature as he pleaseth c. See p. 581 586. c. Neonom There are Precepts and Threatnings in the Covenant of Grace and therefore those Duties required are Foederal Conditions For to the performance of them are annexed Promises and to the breach of them Threats Calvin I pray Dr. Witsius do you speak in Answer to this Argument Dr. Witsius The Covenant of Grace or Gospel strictly so called as a Platform of that Covenant seeing it consists in meer Promises properly prescribes nothing as Duty it requires or commands nothing not so much as Believe Trust and Hope in the Lord c. but it reports declares and signifies to us what God in Christ hath promised what he will and is about to do All Prescription of Duty belongs to the Law even as after others venerable Voetius hath pressed again and again Voet. Disput Tom. 4. p. 24. seq And this we must firmly hold if we will constantly defend with all the Reformed the perfection of the Law containing in it's compass all Vertues all Duties of Holiness But the Law fitted to the Covenant of Grace and according there to written in the Heart of the Elect commands all these things which are propounded in the Gospel to embrace it with Faith unfeigned and to live a Life of Grace and Glory agreeable thereto De Fâ—â—der p. 197. As to Comminations it cannot be denyed but in the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles there are many Comminations which have a peculiar respect unto the Covenant of Grace as He that believes not shall be condemned c. which Comminations do seem to be distinguished from those that are plainly Legal Such as this Cursed be he that continues not in all things c. Yet if we exactly consider them the Covenant of Grace hath no peculiar Threats for all the Threats are from the Law which Law as to all its parts doth accommodate and suit it self to the Covenant of Grace and there are none which cannot be referred to or deduced from that meer Legal Commination Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things c. De Foed p. 199. DEBATE IX Of the Nature of Saving Faith Calvin AT our last Meeting we finished our Debate about the Covenant of Grace and the Conditions of it What have you further Mr. Neonomian to discourse Mr. Antinomian about Neonom Divers Points besides that he is erroneous in The next I would challenge him upon is Saving Faith and the Nature of it For his Errour is this That Saving Faith is nothing but a Perswasion or absolute concluding within our selves That our Sins are pardoned and that Christ is ours D. W. p. 73. Calvin But you do not deny Faith to be a Perswasion do you If you do deny that Perswasion is the Genus of Faith every common Porter or Youth in the Sreet will contradict you for they will tell you that they do believe this or that to be true Ask them what they mean by Believing they will tell you They are perswaded of it They take Faith and Perswasion to be equivalent Terms and indeed reciprocal for that which I am perswaded of I do believe and that which I believe I am perswaded of But go on let us hear what Mr. Antinomian saith in this Point Neonom Sir he tells us that the whole Essence of Faith is nothing else but the Eccho of the Heart answering the foregoing Voice of the Spirit and Word of Grace My Sins are forgiven me saith Faith And the Soul that can assume thus from the Spirit and Word of Grace hath the whole Essence of believing D. C. p. 493. Antinom I doubt not Sir but to prove that this is a good Account of Saving Faith I said That which hath the Whole Essence of Faith is not a Dead but Living Faith i. e. which bringeth forth Fruits D. C. p. 493. But the Question was Whether Faith gives Evidence by it self or no by it's own direct Act. Now I said The whole Essence of Faith is nothing else but the Eccho of the Heart answering the Voice of the Spirit and Word of Grace c. Now I thought I could not give a more lively Account of it for the Eccho is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Daughter of the Voice it 's begotten by the Voice So saith the Scripture Rom. 10.16 17. He quotes Isa 53.1 Who hath believed our Report 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Word signifies the Voice heard or that comes to the hearing And so doth the Hebrew Word import 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who hath believed or heard our Voice i. e. Who hath so heard it as to make an Impression thereof upon their Hearts believingly And the Apostle saith When this heard Voice takes in a due Impression upon the Heart through the Spirit it begets Faith and that Impress is Faith Rom. 10.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Faith verily is from hearing and this hearing by the Word of God Hearing or the Voice that is heard is by the Word of God Hence that Expression of the Apostle James 1.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of his own Free-will working effectually by his Spirit in opening and new framing the Heart as Lydia's he begets us by the Word of Truth The Truth of the Word is received into the Heart as it were with an Eccho and Formation of the Heart into it Progenuit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all udit ad nostram adoptionem cujus facti sumus per fidem participes John 1.12 13. Fides autem est ex auditu verbi Rom. 10.17 Ideo etiam dicuntur ministri filios gignere sed quatenus Dei instrumenta â— Cor. 4.15 Phil. 10. Beza by an Assent to it as true and Consent to it as a good Truth And this is indeed the Writing the Law of God in the Heart the Law being taken often for any Truth declared in the Word After this manner the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 4.15 In Christ Jesus I have begotten you by the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So that the Gospel
Iniquity the Lord hath laid on Christ God himself cannot charge one Sin on that Man and he makes a difference between a strong Believer and a weak to consist in the degree of his Perswasion Dr. C. p. 158. Antinom This was a Use that I made upon that Point of laying Sin on Christ If God have laid our Iniquity upon Christ then whosoever thou art to whom the Lord will be pleased to give the believing of this Truth that the Lord hath laid thine Iniquity on Christ that laying thine Iniquity upon him is an absolute and full Discharge to thee that there neither is nor can be any Iniquity for the present nor for hereafter that can be laid to thy Charge and then follows what he hath rehearsed And if this be not true Doctrine that every Believer that by the Grace of God sees his Sins laid on Christ hath a full pardon of all Sins past present and to come so that Sin shall never be charged on him for Condemnation before God I am to seek for the Doctrine of the Gospel I quote that place Rom. 8.33 to me a very full Proof And I do affirm that the Degrees of our Faith doth stand in the Degrees of the sight of Christ's Glory and the Perswasion we have in our Hearts of our part in him And I do not say That he is no Believer that hath not this perfectly far be it from me to say so there are that are Believers that are weak in the Faith and there are Believers that are strong in the Faith the more the Light and Glory of the Gospel shines in the true Intention of God to his People the more shall they return to their rest the more shall they have Joy and Gladness Why may not a Believer then say as David did The Lord hath been very bountiful to me that I may return to my rest God hath done every thing in Christ and taken away all things that can disturb my Peace and Comfort Dr. C. p. 158. Calvin I pray Mr. Neonom let us have your Description of Saving Faith Neonom I shall express it in the Assemblies Words ch 14. A. 2. D. W. p. 72 73. By this Grace a Christian believeth to be true whatsoever is revealed in the Word from the Authority of God himself speaking therein and acteth differently upon that which each particular Passage thereof containeth yielding Obedience to the Commands trembling at the Threatnings and embracing the Promises of God for this Life and that which is to come But the principal Acts of Saving Faith are Accepting Receiving and resting upon Christ alone for Justification Sanctification and Eternal Life by vertue of the Covenant of Grace Gentlemen weigh this Account of Faith well which if it were regarded and no essential part excluded when Faith is considered as a Condition of any Gospel-benefit One would think no man need prove that it is not saving Faith when any Essential part of it is wanting and that it must be saving Faith when we mention Faith as a Condition Antinom That Reverend Assembly do here express the Essential Parts of Faith and something more as the Effects of it I take it not to be intended for a Definition wherein only Essentials are put but a Description that takes in Subjects Adjuncts Effects c. The Definition is first given A. 1. That the Grace of Faith is whereby the Elect are enabled to believe to the Saving of their Souls After they proceed to shew the Causes of it the Word and Spirit and after that its several ways of Acting and it's Effects They do in the shorter Catechism give a briefer Account of it which may be more properly called a Definition Quest 86. What is Faith in Jesus Christ Answ Faith in Jesus Christ is a Saving Grace whereby we receive and rest upon him alone for Salvation as he is offered to us in the Gospel And if you please to turn to Quest 31. you shall see what they mean by receiving and resting There they say Effectual Calling is the work of God's Spirit whereby convincing us of our Sin and Misery enlightning our Minds in the knowledge of Christ and renewing our Wills he doth perswade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ freely offered to us in the Gospel And in the Larger Catechism you have a full Description of Faith as Justifying Quest 72. wherein there is the Genus of it a saving Grace the principal efficient Cause the Spirit the Causa ministrant the subservient efficient Cause the Word Both Causae procreantes The Subject in whom it is wrought a sinful miserable and lost Creature really so and in his own Eyes And then you have the Material Cause the truth of the Promise of the Gospel In the Confession wherein it's more largely express'd it's whatever is revealed in the Word this is the Objective part of it and Material The Form of Saving Faith is an Impression wrought upon the Soul from the proper Efficacy of the Spirit by the Word according to the acceptable Nature and Evidence thereof The Truth must have Goodness in it because we believe many things that we fear and are averse to The Word works objectively upon the Understanding perswading it to assent and set to it's Seal that the Word is Truth and from the Goodness in that Truth it perswades the Will to embrace because Voluntas sequitur ultimum dictamen intellectus and the consenting of the Will is an Effect of the assenting of the Understanding Hence then it 's not barely believing without Ground but upon some Authority In the Confession 't is said For the Authority of God himself speaking in the Word which is believing on Christ believing in God from whence follows an awful Reverence and Regard to his Word as also the resting and depending of the Soul thereon And when it 's determined to the Grace of Justification it 's as in the Larger and Shorter Catechism it receiveth Christ and his Righteousness in the Promise and resteth thereon for Pardon of Sin Justifying Grace through the Righteousness of Christ is the Object and that which it aims at is the accepting and accounting of a Mans Person Righteous in the sight of God for Salvation which is fuller express'd in the Confession shewing what saving Faith in the largest Sence designs viz. accepting receiving and resting upon Christ alone excluding all other Foederal Conditions for Justification Sanctification and Eternal Life by vertue of the Covenant of Grace Now you see how clearly they make Faith a Perswasion and that it doth all objectively by taking in the Truth and receiving it for the Understanding receiveth and embraceth by being perswaded it takes in the Light of Truth and the Will embraceth by being perswaded and the great procatarctick Cause is the Covenant of Grace Now I see you have a clean contrary Notion of making it a Condition and moral Instrument i. e. A moral Condition of the Covenant and so a Work and as such
have an Inheritance among them that are Sanctified Pardon believed is the Root of Sanctification and this cannot be without it for by Faith we are risen with Christ we are planted in the likeness of his Death and Resurrection and Faith in this Point of Christ's Resurrection is that which sets us above the Charge of Sin and Condemnation By the Resurrection of Christ Preached we are begotten to this lively believing hope and we are risen with him through this Faith of the Operation of God hence the Body of Sin is destroyed Death abolished Life and Immortality brought to light Christ by his Resurrection being discharged and justified from the Iniquities of us all which were laid upon him and which he bore in his Body upon the Tree Neonom An Inlightned Regenerate Soul cannot Act towards Christ when he is first presented to its view below these Instances Antinom No it 's the sight of Christ and taste of Christ that carries him forth to all Duties of Sanctification he having Christ in all his fulness he hath done with all his Conditions all his Righteousness is filthy Rags A Soul truely instated by a lively Faith is far above padling with his own little poor sinful Duties as conditions between him and Christ he can serve Christ obey him and his Commandments are not grievous to him neither will he think they have any such Vertue in them as to give him Right to Christ in any way of Foederal Conditionality Neonom His mistakes are because Faith is the Evidence of things unseen i. e. it assents unto unseen realities therefore he thinks that our Faith is nothing but our assent Antinom I think I understand the Import of those words as I have told you but I shewed you it 's such a work of the Spirit and Word whereby the Heart Ecchoes to the Word by such perswasion of the Truth whereby Christ and the Truth is as it were formed in us and your selves can give no account of Faith that reacheth the Essentials thereof but what we have done from the Word of God Neonom Because the Word of Grace promiseth Justification unto all true Believers therefore an assurance of my being Justified is believing whereas I must first be a Believer in order to Pardon before I justly can or ought to believe that I am pardoned Antinom The word Assurance is a word you Impose it was not in the words you alledge against me what is it the Gospel would have us believe if it be not Forgiveness of Sins Acts 13.38 Be it known unto you that through this Man is preached unto you forgiveness of Sins and by him all that believe are justified c. What do they believe It 's Forgiveness of Sins and in this Act of Faith is the Justification by Faith in that they believe forgiveness of Sins and as they are weakly or strongly perswaded through the Spirit of Grace working the Promise upon their Souls In Justification by Faith Faith is not nor cannot be before it but they are Relata quae mutua alterius constant affectione Popish School Divines do dream that Faith is a Quality cleaving in the Heart Luth. on Gal. c. 3. v. 8. without Christ This is a Devilish Errour But Christ should be so set forth that thou shouldest see nothing besides him and shouldest think that nothing can be more near unto thee or more present within thy Heart than he is for he sitteth not Idly in Heaven but is present in us C. 2. I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me And here likewise you have put on Christ Faith therefore is a certain stedfast beholding which looketh upon nothing else but Christ the Conqueror of Sin and Death and the Giver of Righteousness Salvation and Eternal Life this is the cause that Paul nameth Jesus Christ so often in his Epistles almost in every Verse but he setteth him forth by the Word For otherwise he cannot be comprehended but by the Word This was lively and notably set sorth by the Brazen Serpent for Moses commanded them that were stung to do nothing else but stedfastly behold the Brazen Serpent they that did so were healed Read with great vehemency this word me and for me and so inwardly practise with thy self Id. on Gal. 2.20 that thou with a sure Faith maist conceive and print this me in thy Heart and apply it unto thy self not doubting but thou art of the number of those to whom this 〈◊〉 belongeth Also that Christ hath not only loved Peter and Paul and given himselfe for them but that the same Grace also which is comprehended in this me as well appertaineth and cometh unto us as unto them When I feel and confess my self a Sinner through Adam's Transgression why should I not say that I am made Righteous through the Righteousness of Christ especially when I hear that he loved me and gave himself for me This did Paul most stedfastly believe and therefore he speaketh these words with so great vehemency and full assurance which God grant unto us in some part at the least who hath loved us and given himself for us What is Faith The first part of Religion whereby from Knowledge I believe in God Yates Divin The first Act of Faith is passive in receiving what God gives Here may we justly say it is a poorer and meaner Act to believe than to love nay rather Passion than Action for we are first apprehended of God before we apprehend him again Phil. 3.12 This Grace is most freely Graced that it might the more frankly reflect all on God again No doubt Faith receives a full discharge makes it not we rather by Faith receive an Acquittance Sealed in the Blood of Christ than the Blood of Christ to make our own Works Meritorious which we may offer to God in payment for our selves Here lyes the Errour of Papists even in Faith iâ— self and other Graces If God will â—â—t bear half the Charges by his Co-operation Man shall undertake to Merit his own Glory and fulfill the Royal Law so abundantly that he shall have something over and above Works are the Effects of Sanctification Sanctification is the Effect of Justification P. 23. The Object of the Understanding is Truth of the Will Goodness Temble of Grace and Faith P. 111. Faith is an Assent to the Truth and Goodness of Divine Revelation wherefore we affirm that this Faith is an Act of the Understanding and of the Will both together approving and allowing the Truth and Goodness of Divine Things In which Asserâ—ion you are to note that we do not make the habit of Faith to be inherent in two Faculties but we affirm the subject is but one and the same viz the Intellectual Nature for I take it with divers of the Lerrned that these Speculations about the real distinction of Faculties in Spiritual Substances of Angels and Souls of Men are but meer subtilties in the Schools without any true ground in
is the chiefest thing to which Faith is directed which is the Promise of God whereto by believing we assent and this Promise is chiefly that wherein he Promiseth that he will through Christ be favourable and merciful to us and although there be many Promises in Scripture are offered unto us yet this one is the chiefest for whose sake the rest are performed unto us unto which all other Promises are to be referred The common Object of Faith is the Word of God but the chiefest Object is as is rehearsed p. 58. He proves it to be a firm Assent from Acts 10.20 and Rom. 4.10 And yet he saith it Conflicts with many Doubtings DEBATE X. Of the Free Offer of Christ to Sinners and of Preparatory Qualifications Calvin WE have discoursed several Points in our late Meetings I suppose you have had pretty good satisfaction in all material things you have charged Mr. Antinomian with for Errour I hope you cannot charge him with more Errour Neonom But I can I have a whole Cargo yet behind and this is one among the rest that he saith That Christ is offered to Blasphemers Murderers and the worst of Sinners that they remaining ignorant unconvinced unhumbled and resolved in their purpose to continue such they may be assured they have a full Interest in Christ and this by only concluding in their minds upon this Offer that Christ is theirs D. W. p. 81. Calvin I hope he offers Christ to them then in all his Salvation as he is revealed in the Gospel that he gave himself for us to Redeem us from all Iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar People zealous of good Works Tit. 2.14 And if he doth so I know not why he may not offer Christ as such to the worst of Men I know no other way to make them better But what were his words Neonom I need give no Proof of it it is a declared Point which he oft strives to prove that all the Elect are actually united to Christ before they believe But of this in our next Discourse D. W. p. 81. He saith Is not Vnbelief a barr to have a part in Christ A. It is a Barr to hinder the manifestation of Christ in the Spirit but it 's not a Barr to hinder one from having a part in Christ D. C. p. 110. Antinom He leaves out part of the very Sentence I spake I said It is not a Bar to hinder the manifestation of Christ in the Spirit on whom God doth bestow A Sinner being passive in the Work of Grace God breaketh all those Bars of Brass when Christ manifests himself in the Spirit by Converting Grace mark how my words refer plainly to Gods Act and not to ours I proceeded thus It is true that you nor I can say by Experience that Christ is our Christ untill we believe as long as we continue in total unbelief we cannot conclude to our own Spirits that Christ is ours But unbelief mark my very words is not simply a Bar to the bestowing of Christ to such a Person he bestows him without any regard to belief or unbelief i. e. as a reason of bestowing him if unbelief should be a Bar to hinder Christ from being bestowed upon Persons where is the Person upon whom Christ should be bestowed There 's no Person under Heaven considered simply as ungodly under the Notion of ungodlidess but he is considered as an unbeliever Calvin You must needs grant this to be true that a sinful state is not a Bar to the power of God in working Grace upon the Heart he speaks altogether in respect of the Act of God upon the Soul where he works and nothing can lett or hinder Neonom But he seems to insist on Mens coming to Christ and closing with him D. W. p. 82. He saith No consideration in the World can so aggravate a Mans condition would he make his condition as bad as the Devils themselves yet if there be but a coming there can be no consideration in the highest pitch of sinfulness for Christ to reject him D. C. p. 206. D. C. 206. Antinom I said Suppose a Person be dead in Trespasses and Sins Eph. 2.2 c. The Lewdest Person that can be imagined and continuing so to this very instant now before the Lord without any change and alteration until now by this Text John 6.37 It appears so manifest that if the Lord do but grant and if the Lord hath put a willingness and readiness of Spirit into this Mâ—n that Christ he would have if it might appear he might have him If his Heart do but say I would have him all that sinfulness though to this instant continued in is no Bar in the World and after follows the words mentioned by him after which I added For you must know Christ is well acquainted with all the Objections the Heart of Man nay the Devils can make against the freeness of his Grace and Life by him to save a labour therefore in this one passage I will in no wise cast him out Christ at once answers all the Objections that could be made and I dare be bold to maintain in the Name and Stead of Christ let a Person but say and lay down this for granted Come he would Cheist he would have rather than his Life let this be granted for a Truth mark well these words I speak not of a Luâ—â—icrous Hypocritical say so I will be bold with Christ out of this passage to Answer a Thousand Objections I will in no wise cast him out i. e. I will upon no consideration that can be imagined or conceived D. C. p. 207. I know the Objections are very many and strong in respect of such a Person to whom the Lord hath given a willingness and desire of Spirit to close with Christ yet dare not do the thing but let them be what they will let me tell you the Lord hath sent me at this time to proclaim Liberty to the Captives that are in this sad bitter and to your own thinking desperate condition liberty God hath given thee and if thou wilt come freely nothing in the World shall hinder thee Calvin I profess Mr. Neonomian I wonder what kind of Gospel you would have that you call this Errour Neonom He saith Whatever thou art suppose a Drunkard a Whore-master a Swearer a Blasphemer a Mad-man in Iniquity couldst thou but come to Christ I say come only come it is no matter if there be no alteration in thee when thou dost come to Christ D. C. p. 202. Antinom These words were in the same Sermon and before I spake the words above rehearsed I only in all supposed that a Sinner saw no alteration in himself till the time of the Call to come to Christ the drift of this Discourse was principally to take off Objections from such as willingly would come to Christ and dare not D. C. 203. I shew'd there are two sorts of People that are given
Life as a Reward of work for this was the Tenour of the Covenant of Works but from Life received being dead in our selves by Nature and in respect of the Law Condemned Persons we must work not to obtain Eternal Life by working but having received Life from it to work Christ saith He is the Life the Resurrection and the Life Where 's the Man that can work without Life to work from Neonom But he understands this you 'l say only of External Duties but not of the Actings of Grace no I could shew you how he saith the same of all Graces Antinom You need not have troubled your selves with that Objection for I do intend all Graces and Duties for they must all be performed from a Principle of Life received and not for Mercenary Designs and Ends thinking that thereby we deserve any thing of the Lord for when we have done all we are unprofitable Servants Neonom He saith That is the proper Work that God hath given to Belleving D. W. p. 124. D. Cr. p. 326. not to effect any thing to the good of Man but only to be the witness of that good to the Spirit of Man and so give light to that which was hidden before Antinom You know my Opinion and it 's with other Divines That there is Justification in Heaven and Justification in a Man's Conscience and Spirit D. G. â— 3â—â— Justification in Consciences and Spirits of Men is the manifestation of that Act of God to a Man 's own Spirit by which a Man comes to know and consequently to rejoice in the Justification of God and so you may read the words Rom 5.1 Bring Justified by Faith i. e. through Faith having the Justification of God evidenced and manifested to our Spirits we have peace with God I contend not with them that say It Justifies Virtute objecti or Instrumentaliter So that I ascribeâ— all the Efficacy to Christ's Righteousness and not to the Act of Faith as a Quolifying Condition to Justifie sensu proprio as you and the Arminian's do and in that sence I spake against its doing us good that is in your sence of Justification Neonom He saith If you have more Ability than others in doing let it not come into your Thoughts D. W. p. 125. D. C. p. 429. as an Inducement to think better of your self as if you were more accepted of God or pleasing in his sight Antinom I believe it is or should be the Spirit of the best of God's Children that they prefer others above themselves Phil. 3. viz. That fear the Lord and think not that there 's any thing in them that makes them more accepted than others but that all that have true Faith are equally accepted in the Beloved and that Paul's Usefulness and Apostleship rendred him no more Justified than the meanest of the Disciples of Christ Calvin You see Mr. Antinom as he is for the exalting Christ so he speaks highly in the Commendation yea and usefulness of Holiness and good Works those diminutive Terms that he useth is in respect of Purchase obtaining Pardon or being qualifying Conditions for the bestowing of Benefits He holds Christ is the great Condition both of Grace here and glory hereafter tho' I confess I wish Mr. Antinom you had spared many Expressions for which I fear the Truth suffers from the ignorant and more learned of perverse Minds that make it their business to load the Doctrine of Free-Grace with all Scorn and Contempt and take all occasions to wound the Truth because of some rash or over-zealous Expressions used by you and others which it may be had you foreseen you would have prevented by not using them or had you printed your own Sermons you would not have sent to the Press Mr. Neonom I pray let us have this Doctrine delivered in your own Words and Expressions Neonom The Truth is this That though neither Holiness sincere Obedience or good Works do make any Atonement for sin or are in the least meritorious Righteousness whereby Salvation is caused or for which this or any Blessing becomes due to us by Debt yet as the Spirit of God freely worketh all Holiness and enableth to sincere Obedience and good Works so the Lord Jesus hath of his own Grace and for his own Merits promised to bring to Heaven such as are Partakers of true Holiness perform his sincere Obedience and do those good Works perseveringly Antinom You allow Christ the Honour of Atonement for Sin but how far I know not by what follows his Atonement reacheth not the Breach of the new Law Conditions but only so far as refers to Sins against the Old Law of which you will not allow Impenitency and Unbelief be a breach so that there must be some way in the new Law found out to expiate and appease God for them without Christ's Atonement Beside the Conditions of it it being only imperfect Obedience there will need nothing but the Performance of the constituted Condition which whether perfect or imperfect being performed as well as is required tho' sinfully imperfect leaves no place for Sacrifice or Atonement hence you allow Christ's Righteousness to have merited Blessings with the same Reserve which you are not willing to speak out viz. That Christ hath purchased and merited that we shall come under new and milder Terms with God or God rather with us We thank you no more than we do the Papists for saying Christ hath merited all and is a cause even as the Creation was of the Covenant of Works God's the Cause of all for he made all so Christ hath merited all that follows whatever new Laws and Conditions follow and upon which Terms Benefits become due to us you should have said to Mankind by Debt We may challenge the Priviledges of compounding with God upon such Terms as we like better than the former but our Failure in performing those Terms that Christ agreed for will bring us under new Arrearages to God And for your saying the holy Spirit worketh freely the said conditional Holiness it helps not which notwithstanding your setting aside the Word Merit is truly fo virtute compacti tho' not valoris intrinseci as much as Adam's would have been And as to the Spirit you ascribe the free giving and working of it you give no more to it than Adam had in the state of Innocency and not so much for God had given and wrought in Adam that Perfection and Strength of Grace whereby he might have stood if he would You say There is a Promise made by Christ of Glory upon Condition of their good Works and Perseverance Your Suggestion to us is of two Covenants of Grace procured by Christ for us One the Promise of the state of Grace and Justification provided we fulfil the Conditions of Faith and Repentance whereby we have the first Justification The Second Covenant is of a state of Glory upon condition of Perseverance in good Works which condition if we
become most abominable as if God stood in need of something that we have To depart from Iniquity or to labour in Holiness in order to express our Thankfulness unto God for his Mercies in Jesus Christ is most grateful and most forcible Again Love unto God for all his Glorious Excellencies especially for his Mercy in Christ Jesus is the best Principle of Holiness and our departing from Iniquity and this Love is begun and flows from God's Love first He that Acts according to any of God's Commandments out of hope to Merit by them may Act out of Love indeed but it must be then Self-love to obtain as he vainly thinks by his Obedience Eternal Happiness Our Love of God should exceed Self-love as far as God himself exceeds which is Infinitely Our Love of God is a Vertue and the Foundation of the rest Our Love of our selves thus taken is a Sin a Mother Sin the cause of all the rest of our Sins c. I am mistaken if I find not this Doctrine of working for Life according to your sence exactly in the Council of Trent Decree XVI Grace proposeth to the Just the Exercise of Good Works by which Eternal Life is gained as Grace promised by the Mercy of God and a Reward due to Good Works by the Divine Promise And it concludeth This Doctrine doth not establish any Righteousness of our own refusing the Righteousness of God but the same is said to be in us and of God being infused by him for the Merit of Christ Calvin But Mr. Neonomian saith in his Reply It 's vain and false Mr. Antinomian that you say that you are only against setting Graces and Holiness in the place of Christ Antinom He that reads my Sermons must needs see the Truth of that Assertion I have nothing to say to such as only depend upon Mr. Neonomian's report Neonom He reckons they are put in Christ's place though they be affirmed but as Means and Conditions antecedently necessary by Divine Appointment to obtain any Blessing for the sake of Christ's Merits Antinom And well I may if Men must be gracious and holy antecedently to any Blessing for the sake of Christ's Merits and by vertue of that Antecedent Grace and Holiness do obtain Blessings for the sake of Christ's Merits I think you outstrip the Papists here in the Doctrine of Merit Neonom His Principles are That Faith is not so much as an Instrument whereby we are united to Christ or Justified P. 616. Antinom He speaks not there of Faith as an Instrument but he doth speak of it as such P. 597. where he saith Faith is not the Instrument Radically to unite Christ and the Soul together but rather is the Fruit that flows from Christ the Root being united before-hand by the Spirit to the Persons that do believe Neonom 2. That Christ brings us all good things when we are ungodly so it 's in vain to do any thing to obtain these P. 41. Antinom He speaks there of Justification by Faith alone without Works And we are delivered from Wrath before we step a step into Duties and we do not the Duty to be delivered but we do the Duty because we are delivered and seeing all these are settled by Christ for us of Free Gift all we do is for Christ himself I say that we do we do for Christ and not for our selves Neonom He saith Obedience is not the way to Heaven and Sanctification is not the way to a Justified Person Antinom No Sanctification is not the way of Justification he speaks of the way of Justification we are not according to his Divinity Justified by Inherent Holiness or Righteousness though we are according to yours And he tells you Sanctification is our business in Christ the Way for whatever Duty is performed acceptably must be wrought by Faith in Christ Jesus we are Sanctified in Christ Christ is the true way of Sanctification Neonom He saith He should not have the least Thought in his Heart of promoting or advancing himself or any end of his own by doing what he doth Antinom You know this thing is no new Doctrine It use to be one of the signs and marks of Truth of Grace when we Act in Duty singly for the Glory of God and not for selfish and sinister ends and designs but this is spoken to sufficiently before DEBATE XV. Of the Way to attain Assurance Neonom THE next Errour that I have to charge Mr. Antinomian with is his Doctrine of Assurance Errour Assurance is not attained by the Evidence of Scripture marks or signs of Grace or by the Spirits discovering to us that he hath wrought in our Hearts any Holy Qualifications But Assurance comes only by an Inward Voice of the Spirit saying Thy Sins are Forgiven thee and our Believing thereupon that our Sins are forgiven D. W. p. 161. Antinom What evidence do you bring of your Charge Neonom You say if you would know that the Lord hath laid your Iniquities on Christ you must know it thus 1. Is there a Voice behind thee in thy self Thy Sins are forgiven thee Dost thou see this Voice agree with the Word of Grace i. e. Dost thou see it held out to most vile and wretched Creatures as thou canst be And upon this Revelation of the Mind of the Lord by his Spirit according to that Word doth the Lord give to thee to receive that Testimony of the Spirit to sit down with it as satisfied that upon this thou makest full reckoning thou hast propriety in this particularly to thy self If thou dost receive that Testimony according to that Word here is thy Evidence thou hast thy Propriety and Portion in this Dr. Cr. p. 491. Calvin And do you Banter this Doctrine as Erroneous Stuff I would wish you to have a care it 's a tender Point Antinom I will acquaint you with a little of my foregoing Discourse Let us see what kind of evidencing believing gives it is not a Revealing Evidence Dr. Cr. p. 491. nor an Effecting Evidence these the Word and Spirit are but it is a Receiving Evidence or it is an Evidence as it doth receive that Testimony which the Spirit holds out applying it to the Heart as the Eyes receive the light and the Ears the sound and if we ask a Man how do you know such a thing he will say I saw it with my Eyes and heard it with mine Ears It is an evidence as an Officer in Court that speaks nothing of his own knowledge but produceth Records and testifieth the Authentickness of the Records The Life of Evidence is materially in the Records themselves but the Officer is an Evidence as he doth assert the Truth of such Records It is even so with Faith The Spirit of the Lord makes the Records and speaks the Records to the Heart Now Faith comes in and receives what the Spirit of the Lord hath written In brief Faith is an Evidence as it doth take Possession of
that which the Spirit of the Lord reveals and manifests and gives to a Person or as it doth enter upon the Deed of Gift that the Spirit of the Lord doth bring to the Heart Possession is a good Evidence in Law they say it 's an eleven Points let a Man prove he hath Lawful Possession and he proves his Title good The Spirit indeed makes the Title good but Faith makes good the Entry and Possession so clears the Title to us though good in it self before Faith is nothing else but the receiving of Christ and that enters upon the Possession of him and thus I proceeded to apply this to our purpose as he hath mentioned Calvin I suppose you refer to what is spoken by the Apostle John Ep. 1. c. 5. where he tells of God's Records ver 11. This is the Record that God hath given us Eternal Life and this Life is in his Son Now our Assurance that this Life is mine or thine in particular is the Spirits working by Faith whereby the Soul of a particular Sinner doth appropriate this Record or Deed of Gift to himself Faith doth two things whereby it arrives at Assurance 1. It is a Witness of the Truth of God ver 10. It Attests the Truth of this Record and Deed of Gift 1 John 5.9 10. 2. It receives and takes Possession of it and saith I have received the Son and I have Life Faith being a Receiving Act of the Soul as you your self acknowledge Mr. Neonomian Ver. 12. He that hath the Son hath Life c. This is so clear and plain from the Word that he who will deny it must deny the Scriptures John 1.12 Neonom Your Sermon p. 15. is to prove that Love to the Brethren Vniversal Obedience Sincerity c. are not signs by which we should judge our State Antinom I say they are signs that are not sufficiently satisfactory in themselves to full Assurance without this that proceeds from Faith for if you have never so many Signs 1. They may be true or they may not without a Witness of the Spirit to it though you declaim so much against it you cannot come to an Assurance but only to a probability and you have not a certitude of Judgment only an Opinion 2. If they be true you must believe them to be true or else you have no Assurance A Man hath no Assurance of the Truth if he believe it not and then how should you believe the Truth of your Signs but by the Truth of the Word revealed and believed The Word tells you your Obedience Love Sincerity must be so and so you believe the Word but in comparing your Qualifications with the Word and the descriptions given of them there you will find them fall so short that unless the Spirit assure you there is the Truth of Grace in your Hearts you will be as much at a loss as to Assurance as ever I propounded this Question How a Person may know in particular his own Interest in Christ Dr. Cr. p. 478 479. First I discovered the litigiousness and dubiousness of the way that many Persons go for the satisfying and resolving of this case I Instanced in three marks Universal Obedience Sincerity of Heart and Love of the Brethren and some have conceived that in the Discourse I have directly struck at the Heart of these particulars as if I did attempt the overthrow of them But mistake not I spake only of their Insufficiency that they are weak through the Flesh to give a Satisfactory Resolution of the great case depending they are of excellent use in their own kind Sphere and Orb but when they are set on work to do those things that are beyond their power Men do but entangle themselves instead of getting themselves loose I shewed as to Universal Obedience Dr. Cr. p. 480 481. according to propriety of Speech there is none of it in the World and as it is practised to this end it leaves the case very doubtful in respect of many Imperfections that attend and in respect of the purposes of the Heart which are many times extreamly corrupt and that there is so much in our Obedience common to Unbelievers and Hypocrites As for Sincerity which as the Apostle describes is Simplicity and Singleness of Heart towards God that we find the Jews that were Enemies to Christ's Righteousness had a Zeal for God and you know what Paul saith of himself what designs he had undoubtedly in singleness of Heart to do God Service And besides I shew how false and deceitful we find our Hearts upon Self-examination I spoke also as to Love of the Brethren which the Apostle John speaks so much of if we understand how the Apostle describes it 1 Cor. 13. And if a Man examine his Heart by these particulars I know his Heart cannot but tell him he is exceeding faulty in all these But I do not determine peremptorily that a man cannot by way of Evidence receive any comfort from his Sanctification and I will give you somewhat further for clearing my Judgment to you which I know is according to Truth viz. That the Spirit of the Lord must first reveal the gracious Mind of God to our Spirits and give us Faith to receive that Testimony of the Spirit and to sit down as satisfied with his Testimony before ever any Work of Sanctification can possibly give any Evidence But when the Testimony of the Spirit of the Lord is received by Faith and the Soul sits down satisfied with that Testimony of the Lord then also all the Gifts of God's Spirit do bear witness together with the Spirit of the Lord and the Faith of a Believer So that I do not deny the use of signs and marks in Sanctification you see as you suggest Neonom Sermon 16. He calls it the revealing Evidence of the Spirit and endeavours to prove this immediate Revelation Antinom That the Spirit is a Revealing Evidence and works immediately as it is the Spirit or Grace in all God's Children is not to be denied and yet works immediately by the Word and Means of Grace too and it works immediately so ordinarily I do not mean that it works immediately by way of extraordinary Revelation and Inspiration when it works in this kind But its way of ordinary working is mediately by the Word and immediately in the Word I put this Question Is there any Evidences in the World by which Persons may comfortably claim their Interest in the Priviledges of Christ Dr. Cr. p. 465. A. Yes there are two 1. The Revealing Evidence 2. The Receiving Evidence The Revealing Evidence is the Voice of the Spirit to a Man 's own Spirit saying Son be of good chear thy sins are forgiven thee And this will overcome all Objections and till the Spirit of the Lord come immediately himself and speak this to the Soul all the World shall never be able to satisfie and resolve that Soul and till then all signs and marks
are meer Darkness and Riddles To clear up this I say the Spirit of the Lord is mainly sent into the World by Christ for this very purpose to speak personally and particularly to the Hearts of Men to satisfie them of their Interest in Christ That this was the main business of the Spirit the Scripture shews and holds out nothing more 1. It maybe cleared from the very Attribute or Title which our Saviour gives to the Spirit of the Lord John 14.16 c. 16.7 8 9 14. The Comforter this is he by way of Eminency and the Title imports That the Satisfaction and Resolution concerning Interest in Christ is the Work of the Spirit What is the occasion of all the Trouble of Spirit in tender Hearts P. 467. God hath forsaken me saith one My Sins are gone over my Head saith another c. What will now chear up the Heart of such a Person It is that God will not lay thy Sins to thy Charge c. If the Comfort of a Person consists in the Assurance of Pardon then the Spirit cannot be a Comforter except it satisfie as to clearing up this Truth Thy Sins are forgiven 2. Besides this bare Title you shall see the Spirit hath this particular Office as that wherefore Christ doth testifie the Spirit doth come John 14 26. The Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my Name and he shall teach you these things Chap. 16.13 When the Spirit of truth is come he shall guide you into all Truth Ver. 14. He shall glorifie me he shall receive of mine and shew it unto you Mark those words you see then wherein the comforting Faculty of the Holy Ghost lyeth in receiving of Christ's and shewing those things to Persons which things are the Glorious Excellency of Christ in Justification and Forgiveness Acts 13.38 39. And more fully of his Office to convince the World of Sin and Righteousness John 16.8 9. And a Person is convinced of Righteousness when Christ's Righteousness in Justification is cleared up unto a Person And whereas the Spirit may be conceived to Comfort only in general Dr. Cr. p. 469. There is a difference between the Administration of Christ and that of the Spirit of Christ Christ came into the World to Merit Salvation and Comfort Men in general for though he merited Comfort in particular to be applyed by the Spirit yet still in his Ministration he did run upon general terms for the most part But the Spirit is sent in Christ's room to come to every Man's Spirit particularly by himself and speak that within a Man's self that Christ by the Ministry of the Gospel speaks but in general to Men therefore he saith If I go not away the Comforter cannot come And now I shall shew that the evidencing particularly unto a Man's Spirit concerning his Interest in Christ is the proper Work of the Spirit of God Rom. 8.14 15. and 1 Cor. 2.9 10 11 12 13. Ephes 1.13 14. These places I opened and applyed to the matter in hand clearly proving the Evidencing Office of the Spirit Obj. But suppose I hear such a Voice here is the Doubt How shall I know it 's the Voice of the Spirit Dr. Cr. p. 473. If the Word did bear witness to this particular Voice of the Spirit then I should be satisfied c. Sol. Let me not be mistaken That it is true the Spirit of the Lord never speaks to the Heart of any Believer but he always applies according to the Word of Grace Revealed and the Voice of the Spirit and if the Word of Grace be in the Soul as they go always together in the Faithful they will agree as Face answers Face in a Glass but yet beware that you make not the Credit of the Voice of the Spirit depend upon the Word barely considered In brief therefore as it is the Testimony of God's Spirit speaking indeed according to the Word Dr. Cr. p. 475. that must satisfie us that we are the Children of God so it must be the same Spirit must assure us that he is the true Spirit of God and not of Delusion But still I say this Spirit of the Lord speaks always to Persons concerning their Interest in Christ according to the Word of Grace and it is most certainly true that every Voice in Man speaking peace being contrary to the Word of Grace that Voice is not the Voice of the Spirit of the Lord yet it is only the Spirit of the Lord can satisfie the Spirit of a Man in this thing that it is his own Testimony and not a Spirit of Delusion You may understand the Word in a double sence either for the Word of the Law or else for the Word of Grace in the Gospel Now mark when we say it is the Spirit of God bearing witness with our Spirits according to the Word that we are the Sons of God it 's not the Word of the Law that agrees in this with the Voice of the Spirit the Word of the Law speaks nothing but Curses The Word in which the Spirit of the Lord speaks to his People is the Word of Grace and the Word of Grace is no more but this as to the Sum and Substance of it in this or such like Expression thereof God was in Christ Reconciling the World unto himself not Imputing their Trespasses Neonom You see the Spirits Voice according to the Word is no more than according to the general account that Christ came to save Sinners And also if any Sinner have this inward Voice that Voice is according to the Word whether he be a Regenerate Person or no. D. W. p. 162. Antinom The Gospel Declaration is indefinite we say it 's the peculiar Work and Office of the Spirit to bring home the Promise in particular it 's not any thing but the Spirit can appropriate the general Promise particularly to any one I said also that the Spirit of the Lord doth both speak and likewise give to Men to Credit and Receive what he speaks Dr. Cr. p. 477. All the Righteousness that ever man did meer man since the Fall Dr. Cr. p. 482. was never able to say upon good grounds such a Person is a Child of God Nay to go higher the very Word of Grace is not able to speak peace to a Soul till the Spirit of the Lord will speak When the Spirit of God will be silent the Word of Grace shall not speak any thing if the Spirit blow the Trumpet makes a found but if it blow not the Trumpet makes no sound at all As the Spirit of the Lord will speak in the Word of Grace so the Melody of the Word will Ravish the Ears and Hearts of Believers but if the Spirit himself will be silent there is no Musick in the Word of Grace it self No man under Heaven can say God is my Father with Propriety but by the Spirit of Adoption Calvin Mr. Neonom I know
required to examine our selves but where lyes the Critical Point It 's in Christ being in us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 try or see by tryal whether Christ be in you how look after the true Evidence of it by finding out the thing it self i. e. Christ received by Faith and witnessed by his Spirit for Christ is in us these ways 1. By his Spirit 2. By Faith 3. By our Mystical Union I in them John 17. Now this Tryal is by Faith for it is thus Do we see the things that are Invisible But suppose you say the Tryal is by the Fruits of Faith we deny it not but we say they are not only here but to be understood therefore the place concludes not against us nor that place 2 Pet. 1.10 The Apostle there tells us We have all things that pertain to Life and Godliness through the Knowledge of him that hath called us to Glory and Vertue and if all things then Assurance too for it 's through great and precious Promises that we are partakers of the Divine Nature and through them as the Spirit is bestowed so it Comforts and Ensures Life and Salvation to us And as it works many gracious Vertues and Fruits in us so it excites and stirs us up to Encrease and Growth in Grace ver 5 6 7. And where these things are not it is a sign that a Man hath no true savour of Pardoning Grace lying under senlesness of the great Reason of Christ's Death and Satisfaction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Christ purging away of Sin i. e. by Sacrifice of his bearing of Sin of old so long ago and it 's no doubt but the real total absence of the Fruits of Faith is a sign there is no Faith if these things be wanting such an one is Purblind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or false-sighted thinks he is something when there 's nothing but the difficulty is this a Man saith he hath upon tryal these Vertues but is short-sighted he looks close to himself and passeth a wrong Judgment how shall he be convinced that he hath them not or he saith he hath them not how shall he come to be satisfied that he hath them Who must resolve these difficulties Is it not the Word and Spirit that must resolve it in believing Therefore the rather give all diligence to make your Calling and Election sure and how is that done Why not in believing Doth not Faith make our Calling sure Is Election to be known any way but by believing And how is our Calling i. e. Invitation to believe How is that made good but by answering the Call For he saith doing these things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. making Calling and Election sure by getting a sure footing and standing in Christ by Faith you shall not fall or stumble so as to fall and an entrance shall be abundantly ministred the words are so an entrance into his Eternal Kingdom shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ministred to you Now Christ he is the Door and a Rich Entrance into his Kingdom ministred to every one that believeth so that the Crisis of our State that the Spirit of God puts us upon in both places is especially about our Faith in Christ which Faith is a Witness in our selves and the Spirit witnessing with it and all ways and means causing our Faith to witness and giving us Light and Evidence from the Word believed to see the Graces of God and Fruits of the Spirit in our Hearts Neonom This is the way whereby the Scripture Saints were assured They concluding their Justication by their Sanctification and a state of Peace by the Truth of Grace 1 John 3.14 ver 9. ver 18. Thus David Paul and other Saints concluded the safety of their state D. W. p. 165. Antinom This is one way but not the only or principal way The Apostle John tells often that Love if it be true and from a true Principle and Root is an Argument of our Regenerate state but that it may be known to be such it must be traced to the Head it being but a stream to see how it flows from the Love of Christ apprehended by Faith whereby we have our Radical hold and standing And as he saith ver 14. Hereby we know we are passed from Death to Life because we love the Brethren Yet lest he should leave us in the dark and we should take false Love for true he tells us there is another Judgment to pass upon our Love before we can argue from it we must find that it flows from our perception of the Love of God in laying down his Life for us and from thence should proceed our readiness to lay down our Life for the Brethren ver 16. In this we know or are assured of God's Love in that he laid down his Life for us The Love of God believed gives the Original Ground of Assurance and is the greatest and the Touchstone to an other A Witness from Men from what is found in us is something but the Witness of God is greater 1 John 5.9 And the witness that he hath given to us in the Gospel concerning his Son testified by the Spirit and applyed by Faith is that Evidence upon which all firm Assurance is Radically Built And you shall plainly see that John doth not found our Assurance Radically upon Love but in Justifying Faith he saith ver 18. Let us be sincere in Love and I will tell you whereby you shall attain to good Assurance ver 19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this i. e. in what follows in this refers not to the foregoing Verse but to what follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is often used as the Causal Particle for For in this we shall know or be assured that we are of the Truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we shall perswade our Hearts it 's rendred well assure our Hearts bring our Hearts to Assurance by believing that whereby Condemnation is removed for saith he if this be not whatever Judgment we have of what is in our selves it may deceive us and God knows enough in us to condemn us for if our Hearts labour under unbelief and condemn us whatever we find in our selves will not give us peace and God is greater than our Hearts therefore we must assure our Hearts that way which will hold good in the Eye of God's Justice i. e. by Faith in Jesus Christ ver 21. and saith he if our Heart condemn us not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we have chearfulness and boldness towards God and how is it possible that the Condemnation of our Hearts should be taken off but by believing and thereby perswading our Hearts But you will say it may be that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not used for to express our believing But I will shew you it is See Heb. 11.13 They all died in Faith having not received the Promises but saw them afar off 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were perswaded of them
a particular application thereof to our selves and so we become by the Witness of the Spirit to be the Children of God by Faith in the same sence we are Heirs according to the Promise Gal. 3.29 Now therefore the Spirit must witness first as the Worker of this Assurance by the Promise that Faith may witness and you your self said but now that the Spirit witnesseth as a Worker of Grace therefore as the Worker of the Grace of Assurance You say it is not a separate Testimony from our Spirits I suppose you mean from our Spirits Testimony your meaning I take to be that they both witness one and the same thing but that they are two distinct Witnesses is evident from the Text that which witnesseth with another is distinct from that other and you say it concurrs with our Spirit i. e. Conveniunt in uno tertio Testimonio ergo inter se And you say our Spirits witness in the Light of the Spirit i. e. in the Light of its Manifestation and Evidence and therefore the Spirit must witness first or else our Spirits must witness without Evidence which is impossible So that all you have been saying in this Argument is against your self and for us Neonom A Testimony of the Spirit giving an Evidence of Pardon without any evidence of Grace is not according to the Word of Grace for the Word of Grace never declareth any Sinners are pardoned but believing penitent Sinners it is not as meer Sinners the Word pardoneth but it flatly condemneth and leaves guilt on all Impenitent Vnbelievers as I have proved Antinom I marvel a Divine should speak at such a rate as if an Evidence of Pardon were not an Evidence of Grace Is not Pardon the highest degree of Grace is not the Word of Grace therefore so because it is a Word of Pardon to Sinners And if you mean Inherent Grace why may not the Spirit give evidence of Pardon to a Sinners evidence of it in an act of Believing before there can be any Fruits of Faith Was it not so with the Thief upon the Cross and many that God pardons just upon the last moment of their Lives And is it not so with many of Gods Children that can see no Evidences in themselves the Spirit strips them of all grounds in themselves and that gives a full satisfaction in objective Grace with the full Assurance of Faith that the Creature may be laid low and Christ may be glorified I must tell you that a meer Sinner is the Object of Pardon and not a Sinner considered under any holy Qualifications The whole need not the Physician Christ finds and pardons lost Sinners and there 's no Sinner applies pardon aright but as a meer Sinner tho he hath Faith But of this I have spoken before in our Eighth Conference and Twelfth Neonom Therefore if there be a Voice a true Voice of God carrying its own evidence saying Thy sins are forgiven it doth at the same time and by the same voice witness to the truth of our Grace because he forgives no other according to the Word of the Gospel Antinom A true Voice witnessing the Forgiveness of sins doth consequently witness to the truth of Grace in our Hearrs for the closing with the Evidence in a way of Comfort witnessed by the Spirit doth de facto witness to the truth of our Faith there 's Lord I believe Likewise it witnesseth that Christ is ours and we Christs and if so we are New Creatures and this we may be and must be before we can bring forth any Fruits besides Faith it self But it 's not for the reason you alledge which is as much as to say Christ saves none but them that are saved already Neonom If the Spirit should say to an Impenitent Soul Thou art pardoned while such it is no Promise in the Gospel c. Antinom Is there no promise in the Gospel to take away the heart of stone to give repentance and neither of these is found till pardoning mercy make the way and are never savingly found till Forgiveness is given and in some measure of Believing closed with but you rove from the Point of Assurance that we are upon go on to your next Argument Neonom To have the Ordinary way of Assurance as it 's stated by the opposite Errour is of dangerous Consequence D. W. p. 167. Antinom i. e. By the Witness of the Spirit and by the Evidence of Faith I pray let us hear those dangerous Consequences what they be Neonom 1. Most Saints must quit their Hopes and Assurances for they never had this Voice tho they have greater stamps of the Spirit than any I ever knew pretend to this Antinom If any Saints have Hopes and Assurance that is good in some degree they need not quit them in betaking themselves to better firmer and more lasting grounds of Hope and Assurance the Assurance may be the same tho better grounded and built But they never had this Voice what mean you by this Is there any true Believer that never heard what the Spirit saith to Sinners is there any that hears not what God saith in his Word Do they not hear that are in their spiritual Graves the Voice of Christ and live Do you so impose as to stretch our meaning to an extraordinary Audible Voice Then you do but like your self But yet you say they have stamps of the Spirit I pray how doth the Spirit make a Stamp and Impression upon a Sinners Heart but by the Application of the Grace of the Gospel in Believing Is it not as many as received Christ to them is the Priviledge of being the Sons of God And you say greater Stamps than any you know pretend to this you speak you know not what in a scornfull manner as if you knew little your self what belongs to a rrue Gospel Spirit I am sure if you did you would not run out in this loose manner as you do in a way of Contempt of others See Phil. 2.3 4. Neonom It makes all Examination useless and vain Antinom It makes Examination most usefull and necessary yea hereby becomes more profitable advantageous and comfortable when by sounding we find good bottom we find we have not only Life but have it more abundantly Neonom It overturneth one of the great 〈◊〉 God hath assigned to the work of all Grace on the Heart Antinom What shall I call this Assertion Mr. Calvin Calvin For shame Mr. Neonom leave off what will you say Gods own Spirit witnessing in our Hearts to the full Assurance of Faith overturns his work of Grace in our Hearts I am sorry to hear this evil Communication come out of your Mouth Neonom It makes Assurance impossible without this Miraculous Voice Antinom Are you again upon the High Ropes and Tenter-hooks Is this intended to be any way a miraculous Voice only the Voice of the Spirit as Comforter in the Heart according to the Word Is it a miraculous Voice
5. Therefore they set up the Name of Christ against his Government Is his Name Jehovah our Righteousness against his Government See whether Paul is one of those Ignorant Advancers of Christ Gal. 2.8 9. Neonom I believe many Abettors of these Mistakes are honestly zealous for the Honour of Free Grace but have not sufficient Light to see how God hath provided for this in his Rectoral Distribution of Benefits by a Gospel Rule Antinom We are beholding to you Sir for a Drop of Charity mingled with your supercilious Contempt of Holy Protestant Reformers who in my poor Judgment were knowing and learned Men that asserted both the Grace and Government of Christ against your new Law you esteem them but ignorant honest Men that meant well but ignorantly zealous for the Grace of God carried on only by a blind Devotion and did not understand the Mystery of God's Rectoral Distribution The Apostle tells us who are ignorant Rom. 10.3 They that are ignorant of God's Righteousness and go about to establish their own What do you think of the Mythologists of the Late Athenian Society I hope you esteem them Learned and Knowing as well as Honest Neonom Indeed I am bound to give them a high Character because they have given so ample a Testimony to my Scheme After their Learned Defence that somebody took Care of that it should be well done they give me and my Book this Character The Book is worth Perusal of all sorts of Persons for the Antidote which is annexed to each Argument and we must deliver our Opinions that Mr. Williams hath without Passion plainly learnedly and solidly established the Truth with incomparable Brevity and Criticism upon many Texts Antinom But I suppose they have wronged you in one thing viz. Branding you for a Critick upon Texts of Scripture I would do you right I believe you were never guilty of that As to what they say besides of you and your Book I leave others to judge when the matters are impartially tryed Neonom You may say what you please you see it passed the Judgement of those Wise Learned and Judicious Men Divines and others that were Eyes to the Nation in all Points of Difficulty both in Policy Law Divinity Matrimony and something else Antinom As to the Politicks or the Oeconomicks or what else you will call it their Skill failed tho to their Fatal Ruine But I meddle not with those Points I am most concerned at the Inscription upon their Altar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the unknown God which they ignorantly worship Neonom What do you mean by that Antinom I mean they are ignorant of God according to the Articles of the Church of England Neonom It 's Impossible I am sure they give no such ground of suspition by the Credit they have given my Scheme Antinom That may be Bona Ingenia jumpunt I doubt not but they are of your Opinion in Doctrinals Neonom But you say they know not God according to the Church of England Prove that Charge we will both fall together sure if you make not that good I can't but take you for a wicked Slanderer and Backbiter of a worthy solid learned Society of men Antinom If I do not prove my Charge let me be accounted so Sc. As to the Doctrine of Election in answer to this Q. Does the Scripture any where affirm an Election of a determinate Number of men to Eternal Life and Happiness Vol. 7. Athen. Merc. Num. 26. July 26. 1692. They make this Answer I must confess as Men to be pitied for their Ignorance It 's an easie thing to be mistaken in matters of this nature howsoever if we are so we 'll profess our selves ready to change our Opinion this is modest and Ingenuous on the producing better Reason and in the mean time not to have angry and uncharitable thoughts of those who are of a different Judgment Now thus far they set you a Pattern for you forsooth must Dogmatize and Anathematize all men that are not of your Opinion But to the Question We cannot be satisfied by any of those Scriptures which are brought for that purpose that there is any such an Election of a determinate number as either puts a Force to their Natures and Irresistibly saves them or absolutely excludes all the rest of Mankind from Salvation Not to stand upon the fotching in some words improperly brought as forcing Mens Natures which is so much like your way of Canons and Articles that I have a great suspicion that they drew up this Answer by your Direction I shall for all your shifting and shuffling that I see you are prepared for and I am as ready to answer for brevity sake say thus much That these Gentlemen do in this Opinion of theirs deny Absolute Election which you will also be found to do at the long run and that this assertion in denyal of Absolute Election is contrary to the Doctrine of the Church of England Art 17. Predestination to Life is the Everlasting Purpose of God whereby before the Foundations of the World were laid he hath constantly decreed by his Counsel secret to us to deliver from Curse and Damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of Mankind and to bring them to Everlasting Salvation as Vessels made to Honour Now your Servant Sir I think I have proved what I promised I am sure this Article intends an absolute and unconditional Election of some and such an Election as excludes all others Eventually which I am ready to make good But this is not all yet there is another Question concerning the Salvation of the Heathens you advance in order to that Text There is a Qu. Vol. 7. No. 29. There 's no other Name under Heaven given That if we believe in God we believe vertually in Christ I desire to know what 's meant by a Vertual Belief A. The Jews were under the Dispensation of believing Our Father having Faith in the Messiah and whereas the Heathens were under the Dispensation of the Law of Nature the Divine Light written in Man which is the ordinary Voice of the Spirit in every man to restrain him from Murder Idolatry c. if they kept to that Law they should receive the Vertue of the Lamb of God slain before the Foundation of the World by the Fathers Decree for the sins of all men contrary to the Article 18. of the C. of E. They also are to be had accursed that presume to say that every man shall be saved by the Law or Sect which he professeth so that he be diligent to frame his Life according to that Law and the Light of Nature For Holy Scripture hath set out to us only the Name of Jesus Christ whereby men may be saved Neonom You are under many mistakes you neither understand those learned Mythologists nor the Articles for the Articles speak Old English and the Mythologist the New Divinity but they both mean the same thing
Calvin So must you too if you understand Wrath in the same Sence that he doth For Christ cannot bear their Sins and the Wrath of God for their Sins and yet they bear it themselves too Shall not the Judge of all the World deal Righteously And you say They continue Objects of his gracious good Will and full Atonement made God cannot be wroth with a Person with whom full Attonement is made Neonom But what if they should die before they should believe Calvin He doth not say They shall be saved if they die before they believe or under the Dominion of Sin c. You fasten that Charge without Ground and never fear that for you say their Justification and Adoption is certain there 's no doubt then but they shall certainly believe Neonom But they are actually Vnpardoned and not Adopted to Life which the Dr. saith they are Calvin The Doctor speaks not here of the Elect's Actual Pardon or Adoption He saith indeed their Sins are laid on Christ and therefore God hath nothing to lay to their Charge And you say Christ hath made full Atonement for them I pray what difference is here He saith They have a secret hidden Right to Life You say by vertue of Election and Christ's Merits they shall certainly have Justification Adoption Glorification So that you own your Jus ad rem He doth not say an unregenerate Man is Adopted or hath received the Spirit of Adoption any where as I know Neonom But the Elect while dead in Sin and Vnbelief are Children of Wrath condemned by the Law not justified by the Promise This I affirm and the Doctor denies Calvin The Doctor in this point for ought I know affirms and denies but as you do He saith a Sinner in respect of his Visible Estate is under the Law-Sentence and dead in Sin and Unbelief He will not deny this but that an Elect Person as such hath a hidden Relation Standing and Right not only in respect of Election Satisfaction and Procurement but a secret passing over of Grace So that to be a Child of Wrath in regard of the Law-Sentence and a Child of Mercy are not contradicentia they may be predicated of the same Subject in divers respects A Man may be a Child of Wrath in one respect and of Mercy in another A Man may be poor in one respect and rich in another as the Church of Smyrna condemned in one respect and secured from it in another Wrath is understood two ways in Scripture 1. For the Sentence of the Law that all the World is under as having sinned and come short of the Righteousness of God 2. For the real Execution of the Sentence of the Law by Essential Vindicative Justice This the Elect are abundantly freed from and the Wrath of God shall never fall upon them as such Neonom But he saith the Elect have right to the Inheritance Calvin Yes a secret and hidden Right but true and certain though not Possession or Claim till Grace embraceth them and this Grace manifested to them A Child that hath a good Right to an Inheritance may be taken Captive in Infancy and remain in Algiers a Slave many Years and never know of any Estate belonging to him But upon his return to his Native Country finds by Writings and Court-Rolls that he hath had Right all this while though kept out of Possession and knew no Ground of a Claim A Man may be Heir to a Crown and yet during the King's Life be no King yea it may be out in Rebellion against his Father many Years and yet come to possess the Crown upon his previous Right A Man may have a good Right to an Estate in one Court where it is enrolled whenas another Court knows nothing of it Every Elect Person is enrolled by Name in God's Book of Election and the Lamb's Book of Redemption while there 's nothing of this to be sound in Foro Conscientiae nor in Foro Mundi And your own Assertion at first cuts you off from all Pleas to the contrary For you say ch 1. p. 1. It 's certain from God's Decree of Election that the Elect shall in time be Justified Adopted and Saved in the way God hath appointed then they are Heirs of Justification Adoption and Salvation upon some ground of right or other and the whole meritorious Cause and Price of Justification Adoption and Eternal Life were perfect when Christ finished the Work of Satisfaction So now it appears here is a compleat Right adjusted for them the Estate is bought and the Money all paid and the Title is enrolled in their Name what hinders them from being Heirs in Law and having a Right of Inheritance belonging to them Neonom I will prove the Elect before they are effectually called to be Children of Wrath Eph. 2.2 3. Col. 1.21 Calvin As Elect Persons the Scripture no where faith but as Sinners and as dead in Trespasses we acknowledge they are under the Law Sentence imprisoned in their naturall Estate in a State of Bondage and Darkness But this hinders not the Foundation of God in Election and Redemption they have a hidden Safety and Security from Wrath by your own Confession Neonom The Gospel barrs all Vnbelievers and dead Sinners from Pardon and Adoption and denounceth a continuance of Condemnation against them limiting it's Benefits to such as believe John 3.18 ver 36. 1 Cor. 16.22 1 Cor. 6.11 D. W. p. 4. Calvin If the Gospel barrs all Unbelievers and those that are dead in Sin from Gospel Benefits who shall be saved it must barr them from Life for Life is the first and greatest Benefit a Dead Man can receive nay you say it declares continuance of Condemnation against them It 's certainly therefore impossible they should ever be saved And are not Regeneration and Faith Gospel-Benefits And are Unbelievers for ever barred from them This puts a Barr upon their possibility of Salvation and keeps them from ever being Believers The places you quote are nothing to prove your Assertion for the most they say is That whilst a Person is in a state of Unbelief he is in a state of Condemnation under the Law but the Gospel doth not put a Barr to his Salvation but rather take off the Barrs opens the Prison-doors gives him Life gives him a Door of Hope brings him to Christ who is the Resurrection and Life Neonom If it were not so neither the Spirit nor the Word of God would have any Influence in the Saving of Sinners Calvin Non sequitur Can't the state of the Elect be secured by Election and yet Redemption have it's place Why notwithstanding both may not the Spirit have it's place and Influence Neonom Gospel-Benefits imply that there is a time when we are actually guilty and miserable Rom. 7.4 Col. 2.12 Calvin Grant it there is such a time when we are so in our selves but yet quoad Deum Election and Redemption is not in vain they have their Force
The Changes that pass upon us doth not make a Change as to Electing Love nor as to the Satisfaction and Merits of Christ Neonom The Dr. may well infer that we are sanctified and possessed of Heaven in the Womb for God hath elected us to those as well as to Pardon and Christ merited these also Calvin No but he might not One imports a Relation the other a real Subjective Change A Child may be a Son and yet a very wicked one There is also a great difference between a Right and a Possession Neonom Do you not find that God justifies none but what are called Rom. 8.30 Calvin 1. He Justifies Infants dying in Infancy that were never called by the Word 2. What you would prove by that place that effectual Calling is before Justification is not manifest for it's whom be called them he also justified It might be before Calling as well as after for any thing appears in that Text. 3. But you go from the Terms of the Question all along for that which the Doctor saith is That the Sins of the Elect being all laid upon Christ who shall lay any thing to the Charge of God's Elect It 's Christ hath dyed and rose again for them Now God hath no Charge against the Elect considered as such if Justice remain unsatisfied Christ dyed in vain Neonom There is Joy in Heaven for one Sinner that repents Luke 15.7 10. And would there be such if they were pardoned and safe before Calvin Yes Why not For I question whether the Angels be acquainted with the Secrets of Election and Redemption as to the Persons concerned till it be made manifest by their Actual Faith and Repentance And as for the safe Estate of the Elect before believing you have said enough i. e. As to their Security from Wrath and Certainty of Eternal Life Therefore it 's strange you should deny it now say and unsay the same thing Neonom How much is our Ministry and Concern for Souls debased if all we can prevail with are actually pardoned Calvin You should have said If all you prevail with have had their Sins laid on Christ whereby God was in Christ reconciling the World to himself Paul might have said How then is our Ministry debased to be only Embassadors for Christ to beseech Sinners to be reconciled to God when their Sins are already laid on Christ and to Preach That all things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ who hath slain the Enmity and made Peace on the Cross c. There 's great difference between God's being reconciled to us and our being reconciled to God Neonom Who can reconcile this Notion to the Pleadings of God with Sinners Ezek. 33.11 Calvin Every one The Pleadings of God in his Word with Sinners is in Order to change their Hearts by his Word and Spirit in the Embassie of Reconciliation which God hath sent unto Sinners Therefore the Apostle saith We beseech you for Christ's sake to be reconciled unto God and all Arguments used in the Word are to that end and purpose viz. To work Faith and Repentance and to bring them unto God One great End why Christ bore their Sins Neonom I have the Assembly and Dr. Owen on my side Antinom We deny not what the Assembly and Dr. Owen saith according to their true Meaning and Intention For they all say no otherwise than what I have shewed the Doctor sincerely means and your own Assertions will bear out as well as his as to his particular Opinion That the Grace of laying Sins on Christ is secretly applyed as soon as we have a Being as to some Effects wherein we are meerly passive and it 's unknown to us till effectual Calling you see he grounds it upon matter of Fact in the Instance of Jacob which undoubtedly deserves Consideration Though I say not that it 's so with every one but apprehend the Spirit of God hath these things to instruct us thereby that Justification of a Sinner before God is not for the Act of Faith or Gospel-Obedience because Jacob was justified before either 2. That the Children of Believing Parents dying in Infancy may be justified and saved 3. That a believing Parent hath Promise Ground to baptize his Child and exercise Faith that his Child is embraced in the Arms of Free Grace to work upon it how and when and in what manner he pleaseth and though he can't be active therein yet he may be passive This we pray for and in praying believe God saying I will be thy God and the God of thy Seed I am not for Baptismal Regeneration nor Baptismal Justification Though there is something Analogous to it and therefore a kind of Justification in Foro Ecclesiae it being a significant Seal of it as Circumcision was called the Covenant And therefore if there be any secret Application of the Grace of Election and Redemption accompanying that Institution of Christ or coming before or after neither we nor our Children shall be ever the worse for it And therefore let us not banter and condemn such as have higher Apprehensions of the Secret Workings of Grace before we are aware of of it I am sure many Divines that you would not call Antinomians have defended Infant Baptism upon this Notion That Infants are capable of the Habit of Saving Faith And if so I am sure according to your Notion they must be Justified because they have the qualifying Condition For a Habit is a Quality and a Conformity to the Rule of the Promise as you phrase it and therefore must Justifie as such Neonom The Dr. mistakes the Nature of God's Decree because a Decree ascertains a thing shall be in time therefore he thinks a Decree gives a thing a present subjective Being Antinom The Decree of God gives an Objective Being to the thing Decreed for the Will willing and the thing willed are relata all things in time are present with God looking upon them in one Eternal Act there 's neither Time past or to come or Succession that his Decrees are measured by his Decree is himself But if we consider the Objects of the Decree in Execution they are in time and measured by Succession but yet things thus standing are the Objects of the Decree they have their first Cause in his Divine Idea and have their unchangeable Fixation as to their Nature and Order in the present or future Being and Working either as necessary or contingent Agents Neonom Because Jacob was an Elect Person or the Object of Electing Love in the Womb therefore he was then actually a Pardoned and Adopted Person Antinom Nay there was more in it than that For mark the Text ver 11 12. r. It doth not only tell us Jacob was Elected but that it was published and declared unto Rebecka Jacob have I loved If God should tell my Wife when with Child I have Elected and do love this Child that is in thy Womb I should
that I speak of here I was shewing from Isa 53.6 that Christ is our great Pay-master and how sad a thing it is to have Sin lying upon our Spirits Separate Sin from the Soul and the Spirit hath Rest in the worst conditions You will never have quietness of Spirit in respect of Sin till you have received this Principle viz. By Faith that it is Iniquity it self that the Lord hath laid on Christ Now when I say thus I mean with the Prophet that it is the Fault of the Transgression c. Reckon up what Sins thou canst against thy self if thou hast part in the Lord i. e. by Faith all these Transgressions of thine became Christ's i. e. Thou seest them laid on Christ Not that they were just then laid on Christ when thou believest I would think your Divinity is not so gross as to assert that but that a Believer by Faith sees that he is one of those Elect ones whose Sins were laid on Christ What the Lord beheld Christ to be that he beholds his Members to be So that if you would speak of a Sinner supposing that Person of whom you speak to be a Member of Christ is this speaking of the Elect meerly as the Elect and no more you must not speak of what he manifests but what Christ was pag. 271. What Unsoundness I beseech you is in this Doctrine I pray speak Gentlemen The Company generally smiled but being afraid to displease Mr. Neonomian and affrighted at the Name of Antinomian which Mr. Neonomian called every one that contradicted him were silent But at last a brisk Gentleman Learned and Solid stood up and said I think you have greatly abused Mr. Antinomian and charged him unrighteously both in your misrepresenting him and in your charging him with Error and False Doctrine in the things alledged against him For saith he I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ though I see some of my Brethren here seem to be so that will not speak for the Truth when they hear a Man of Confidence run it down I say and affirm that he that hath a part in Christ is confidently to believe that Christ bore his Sin in his Body o◠the Tree Tit. 2.14 Calvin I pray Mr. Neonomian give us your Thoughts clearly what you hold and what you deny in this Point Neonom I shall tell first what is not in Dispute between us Calvin There 's 100 things are not now in Question before us I pray you to cut short that we may not lose so much time come to the very Point in Difference first Neonom You are not capable of understanding it till I have told you what is not in Dispute I 'm sure you 'll mistake the Question if I tell you not what the Question is first The Difference is not 1. Whether the pardoned Sinner shall be delivered from Condemnation D. W. p. 24. Antinom But it is whether the pardoned Sinner is not delivered from Condemnation and that Delivery the Ground and Reason of his Pardon Neonom 2. Nor whether God for Christ's sake will deal with a pardoned Sinner as if he had not been a Sinner Antinom The Question is Whether God can deal with any one Salvâ Justitiâ as if he were not a Sinner and yet be esteemed by him formaliter and in the just Sentence of the Law a Sinner and whether a pardoned Sinner be in the righteous Judgment of God a Sinner and can be a Sinner and not a Sinner at the same time and in the same respect Neonom 3. Nor whether Forgiveness doth take away Sin as to it's Obligation to Punishment Antinom If Fault in the Judgment of the Law be made the Obligation to Punishment and the Demerit of Sin lies in the Fault it is a great Question how the Obligation to Punishment can be taken away without taking away the meritorious Cause and whether if the Obligation to Punishment could be taken away without taking away the Sin in the Eye of the Law whether it were Forgiveness for Forgiveness lies formally in taking off the Fault and but consequentially in remitting the Punishment Neonom Nor whether the Atonement of Christ when it 's applyed in it's full effects will perfectly remove all Punishment and purge away all Filth and Defilement from the Elect Each of these I affirm Antinom But it is a Question whether upon the Atonement of Christ made and accepted any of the Elect were punishable for Sin in a way of Vindicative Justice even before Faith much more after So that the things which are without Dispute to you are questionable to us especially according to your ambiguous way of expressing them Neonom I shall now acquaint you with the Questions that are in debate betwixt us 1. Whether because Christ obliged himself to bear the Satisfactory Puunishment of our Sins they did therefore become the Sins of Christ Antinom You state this Question fallaciously The Question all this while between us is this Whether if God laid our Sins upon Christ in the way that he laid them they did in that way become the Sins of Christ If you will have it in the Notion of Christ's bearing Punishment only it must run thus If Christ was obliged to bear or did bear Satisfactory Punishment whether or no our Punishment or the Punishment due to us did thereby become his Both these we affirm Neonom Whether our Sins were pardoned when Christ suffered on the Cross This you affirm and I deny Antinom I affirm it in my own Sence but deny it in your false and imposed Sences Neonom Whether even they that are Members of Christ yet if they do sin are they Transgressors and Sinners and are the Sins they commit their Sins This you deny and I affirm Antinom This Question as you you state it I both affirm and deny because in one Sence a Man must be a Transgressor in another none But the Question Whether the Members of Christ while Sin remains are Sinners and in the sight of God do stand fully justified from all Sin This I affirm Neonom One would think this needed no Proof whether he that doth a sinful Fact be a Doer of it Antinom It needs no Proof I always own it to be so I tell you the Saints commit Sin and are therefore the Doers of it and I have told you 't is all that they can do of themselves and that it is my Sin my sinful Fact and yet my Debt that I contracted may become another Man's if he engageth for it Neonom Christ teacheth Believers to pray for the Pardon of Sins Luke 11.4 Antinom So they had need for Sins are pardoned when they have it not and it 's to them as if they were not pardoned at all if they have not the Comfort Neonom It would be vain to object they pray for manifestation of Pardon Antinom Why in vain Is it any more that a true Believer can pray for For he sees and knows all his Sins
respect to his Son p. 180. Now as there was an Abhorrence of Sin charged on Christ yet and accordingly a Separation or forsaking upon that Account so far as he bore Sin in his Humane Nature yet God did retain that Love and Respect to him as his Son Neither do I say that Christ in his Humane Nature was separated from the Divine by a Dissolution of his Hypostatical Union And therefore it 's a false Charge to say I said God abhorrtd the Person of his Son or that there was a Separation between the Divine and Humane Natures of Christ D.W. p. 33. Neonom You say Christ was separated from God which you affirm and I deny Answ If you understand me according to the Language of the Scripture and Analogy of Faith I say so i. e. As Sin brings inevitably the Punishment of Loss as the Curse and the greatest part of it which is a Judicial Separation of God from the Creature this I affirm Christ suffered this Punishment in his Soul But if you will wrest my meaning to be this that he was separated by a Dissolution of the Hypostatical Union I deny it I say Should Iniquity be laid on the Humane Nature and the Divine Nature not support it it would have sunk under Sin as a meer Humane Creature D. Cr. p. 378. Therefore it 's apparent I intended no such Separation as also by my whole Discourse it appears that you would impose upon me Neonom The Question is Whether Christ was at any time under God's Abhorrency or odious to him because under the Loathsomness of Sin This you affirm and I deny Antinom That I affirm it in your Sence is false for you know I said in express Terms that God retained his Love and Respect to his Son For it 's not inconsistent that God should retain his Love to his Son in respect of his Divine Nature and yet lay him in respect of his Humane Nature under his manifest Displeasure being now under the Charge of all the Sins of his Elect and so Sin on Christ was the Object of God's Abhorrency Neonom Whether Christ was thus on the Account of the Filthiness of Sin c. This you affirm and I deny Antinom When you can clear Sin from being Filthiness in the sight of God upon any account and that Guilt of Sin reatus culpae I mean not liableness to Punishment that 's not Sin but the Effect of it is not the greatest Filth of Sin I shall tell you I do not think Sin as to it's Filthiness was not laid on Christ But this hath been argued before You think you have a great Claw at me here but I am sorry you understand the Nature of Sin no better as to think it in the Law relation to be so clean as not to be Filth in the sight of God Calvin I pray Mr. Neonomian lead us into the Truth of this Point that we may not be mistaken We are willing to receive Light in these Truths but we think it of dangerous Consequence to part with them or darken them Neonom Truth Though God testified his threatned Indignation against Sin in the awful Sufferings of Christ Soul and Body in his Agony and suspended those delightful Communications of the Divine Nature to the Humane Nature of Christ as to their wonted Degrees yet God was never separated from Christ much less during his Body's lying in the Grave neither was the Father ever displeased with Christ and far less did he abhorr him because of the Filthiness of Sin upon him D. W. p. 31. Antinom This is a marvellous Aphorism indeed 1. Did God testifie his threatned Indignation against Sin in the awful Sufferings of Christ Soul and Body What is this less than what you would condemn for Error in me 2. Did God suspend his Delightful Communications to the Humane Nature What was this but the Separation I always shewed that I intended 3. That God was never separated from Christ in the Hypostatick Union I always affirm No not during his lying in the Grave 4. But 4ly I never said the Father was displeased with Christ as his Son or in relation to him as Son by Eternal Generation but in relation to him as our Surety and as a Sacrifice to bear Sin he was displeased with him or else you give your self the Lie in the same Paragraph where you say he testified his threatned Indignation against sin in the Sufferings of his Body and Soul and how could this be without Displeasure 5. What have we been doing all this while Have you not been arguing against Christ's bearing sin And now you say God testified his Wrath against sin in the Sufferings of Christ If sin was not imputed to him could he bear Indignation for it 6. And was not the Father as Judge displeased with Christ as Debtor and bearing our sins How could he deal with him else in a way of testifying his Indignation as you say 7. You say He did not abhorr him so say we not his Person nor in such a way of Abhorrence that is in Man's Affections God is not as Man in natural Appetite or Aversion but he exerted such an Abhorrence or Aversion as was proper to his Nature we desire to term it but as you do a manifestation of threatned Indignation to Sin condemning Sin in the Flesh of Christ Rom. 8.8 As Christ was made sin doth not the Spirit of God say he was made a Curse Is not Sin a cursed thing that which is odious and abhorred Suppose then we use not those Words Odious Abhorred and we say God testified his threatned Indignation against sin in Christ even to the making him a Curse for us What greater and higher Expression can be used And how could God's Indignation be shewed against sin on a person upon all Accounts innocent no way chargeable Sin can't suffer Indignation but the Sinner may Sin in the Abstract is not capable of Suffering it must be sin bringing some Person under a Law-Condemnation so that he have the Denomination of a Sinner 9. And whereas you will not have sin filthy where is it the Spirit of God represents it any otherwise and the efficacy of Christ's Sacrifice as to the Purgation of Filth therefore it 's said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 1.3 But of this elsewhere Neonom This Separation was impossible because of the Vnion between the Divine and Humane Nature of Christ c. D. W. p. 33. Antinom This Argument affects us not for we never thought of of any such Separation as I have told you and it 's your Impudence to charge it Neonom 2. The Father hath promised constant Supports to Christ in the whole of his Vndertakings and Sufferings Isa 42.1 4 6. Isa 50 7 8 9. Antinom Shot beside me still I said Should Iniquity been laid on the Humane Nature and the Divine Nature not support it it would have sunk under sin and you own that I say so Dr. Cr. p. 378. Neonom
united unto Christ 2. By the word Spirit we understand the Spirit of God the Original from whence it flows the Activity and Intention of it This Life for Spirit is a Word of Emphasis 3. The Law is the Prevalency and Force of this Spirit of Life All Holiness wherewith the living and quickning Spirit of God hath filled the Humane Nature of Christ and it hath freed thee and me and all others that are in Christ from the Power of the sinful and deadly Corruption of our Nature and there is a Fulness and Sufficiency of all Grace and Holiness in Christ considered as Man Col. 1.19.2.3 9. John 1.14 Psal 45.7 John 3.34 DEBATE VIII Concerning the Conditionality of the Covenant of Grace Calvin BEcause the Question about the Conditionality of the Covenant of Grace hath been greatly Controverted and is one of the most considerable Points on which matters in difference doth depend I am desirous some one or other of us first may truely describe and impartially unfold the Nature and Difference of Covenants Mr. Philalethes I take you to be an unbyassed Man and I think I have heard you offer some things of this kind which may tend much to the clearing up of many Points before us of this nature Philal. Sir I shall readily contribute my Mite and submit it to the consideration of your better Judgments 1. The word Covenant comes a Conveniendo because when two Parties agree in some one thing or more on mutual terms it 's usually called a Covenant and it comprehends and takes in the Nature of a Contract or Bargain The Latin have divers words to express a Covenant by Pactum compactum conventum foedus Cicero gives a very plausible account of the Etymology of foedus that is quasi fidus quod in foedere interponatur fides that in a Covenant there is a plighting of troth but it seems the word is most probably derived from an old Heathenish Custom of ratifying a Covenant by the Sacrificing of a Sow great with Pigs quod in foedere foeta porca feriretur I take pactum therefore or compactum to be the better word and expressing enough of the thing meant coming from paciscor quasi pacis Actum and if it carry the significancy of any Ceremony in Covenanting it 's that of striking of Hands percussio manuum thence Covenanting is called striking a Covenant The Greek words some of them vary not from the Import of the Latin such as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but these are hardly used by the N. Te. or the LXXII Interpreters for a Covenant and therefore we need not stay upon them The word in most use is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Testament such a Covenant as is like a Last Will and Testament for this seems to be the true original meaning of this word Isocrates using it thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fortunas populo ex Testamento reliquit and yet many instances may be given wherein it appears that all sorts of Covenants are exprest by it but it 's observable the Spirit of God pitcheth upon this word as most expressive of Sacred Covenants because the promulgation of the Covenant of Grace was always managed in a way of Testament Typically with the Patriarchs and under the Mosaical Dispensation and really by the Offering up of Christ and the Apostle gives us this account of it Heb. 9.15 16. Hence the Promise of Life confirmed by the Death of Christ declared and promulgated in the Gospel of the Old and New Testament is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Hebrew word for it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 elegit because the Persons Covenanting do it on free choice and so the Conditions or Terms are mutually agreed on or from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 precidit succidit quia Victimae cedi in foederibus pangendis solebant in making the Covenant the Sacrifice was cut in pieces and laid so that the Covenanters passed between them Gen. 15 10. And by a Metonimy the Sacrifice or Ceremony used in Ratification was called by the Name of the Covenant it self and after this manner is Circumcision called a Covenant Acts 7. 2. A Covenant then is a mutual Obligation upon certain terms between two Parties Poedus non est pactum tantum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unius lateris quale illud cum creaturis irrationalibus Hos 11.18 Clopenb de Foed Vet. A Covenant differs from a Vow because in a Vow there need be but one part a Man may promise to and resolve with himself to do this or that thing there need not be two parties in making a Vow though most times it is making a promise to God and then it carries the Nature of a Covenant and to this may belong a Sanction by way of Imprecation upon non-performance 3. As there are two parties in a Covenant so in a Covenant properly so there are two parts a Condition and a Promise The Condition is the Terms offered by the Covenanter to the Covenantee Foedus ē pactum mutuae fidei upon the performance of which the Promise becomes due unto him and this supposeth these two things necessarily 1. The Covenantees ability to perform the said tendred Condition 2. His Consent and Acceptance of the Terms and here there is no other Sanction usually than the Promise and Forfeiture expressed in the Obligation upon non-performance confederatorum mutuòse obligantium 4. A Covenant is either express and compleat in parts There 's a Covenant express and a Covenant in Law a Covenant express when all Terms are expressed a Covenant in Law is that which the Law intendeth to be made in such a case though it s not expressed the first is called also a Covenant in fact there is also a Covenant Personal and Real Olden Dorpius Cook i. e. a Covenant perfectè or modo quodam A perfect Covenant is when two Parties of equal Liberty and Rank do freely voluntarily and upon deliberation enter into mutual Obligations with express Conditions and Promises and here it 's always requisite that there be as it were an equality i. e. at least a due proportion between the Persons Covenanting that each may be capable of standing upon his own Terms as well as the other and not one bound to Terms at the meer good will and pleasure of another as a Child cannot in Nonage stand upon Terms with a Parent but must be concluded in his or her will and pleasure or a single Subject with a Soveraign Prince c. and therefore the condition to be performed ought to be such which is not precedently due by any former Relation or Duty here must be a power in each party as sui juris to take or refuse without breach of any former Obligation In this Covenant the Sanction is agreed upon by way of stipulation and restipulation exchange of conditions with forfeiture mutually 5. There are Covenants which are not Express Explicite or Compleat in the
the said Foederal Conditions But we affirm neither Faith it self no not the Gift of the Spirit that works Faith not our Union to Christ no Gifts that accompany Salvation are Foederal Conditions Christ in the Exercise of his Mediator's Office in his Humiliation and Exaltation is the only Foederal Condition wherein all entitling Conditions particularly mentioned in the Gospel are lodged and treasured up and are freely by Christ bestowed on us 12. There are also Conditions of Connexion by way of Order and Dependance of things one upon another Whereas the Scripture often inculcates such Expressions as these Without Faith none can please God Without Holiness none can see God as if they had called Faith and a new Life Conditions of the Covenant when in accurate speaking and according to the nature of this Covenant on God's part they are Executions of former Promises and an Earnest of future good But if we will call these Conditions they are not so much Conditions of the Covenant as of the certainty that we are in the Covenant Wits de Foed 196. which are rationes rerum inter se and belong to Logick and they arise from all Arguments Artificial or Inartificial Prime and Ort Simple or Comparate Consentany or Dissentany and they run in a Connex Axiom when the said Conditionality is express'd As thus Si Animal est homo est rationale si figura est trigularis est trilateralis If a Creature be a Man he is a Rational Creature If a Figure have 3 Corners it hath three sides all things in the World are capable of coming under this kind of Conditionality yea the most absolute Beings As if God be the first Cause he is the Creator of all things In this Sence Creation is a condition of Salvation If a Man be saved he must be created So Election a condition if a Man be saved he must be elected but Election is not a Foederal Condition So if a Man believe he shall be saved Believing is a condition of connexion to Salvation If a Man have the Spirit of Christ he shall believe unto Salvation but neither Faith nor Union are Foederal Conditions A state in Grace is a condition to a state in Glory by way of connexion in the Promise But one is not a Foederal Condition of another but both come in in the Gift of Grace In this Sence the Covenant of Promise contains all the Conditions of Order and Dependance in the Exhibition and Performance The Hearing the Word is the Condition of Faith but hearing the Word is not a Foederal Condition So the giving the Spirit is the condition of Union to Christ and Faith Faith the condition of receiving Pardon and living in Holiness And the giving of Pardon the condition of receiving it Holiness the condition of seeing God and eternal Happiness But these kind of Conditions are not Foeâ—eral entitling to the Promise but are contained in the Promise and denote only the connexion and dependance of one promised Benefit upon another 13. Hence the Ministry of Reconciliation runs conditionally because in it the absolute Covenant is preached 1. Indefinitely to Elect and Non-elect 2. The Covenant is declared in all the Promissary and Duty-Dependances contained in it and Duty required because promised 3. We must distinguish of the Ministry of Reconciliation in respect of the Letter of it Insertae sunt novisaederis conditiones novae obedientiae legali quidam Schaemate ad normam probationis nostrae ipsius gratitudinis debitae Sic tamen alio quoque Schemate ipsa resipiscentia in peccati mortificatione bonorum operum studio promittitur tanque Dei donum quod ipse operaturus sit in nobis ut isthoc signo argumento fas sit ex quo verè resipuimus credimus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sperate in eam quae ad nos defertur gratiam in patefactione Jesu Christi 1 Pet. 1.13 Promissionis formulae expressissimae novum foedus sancientes donatione rescipiscentiae novae obedientiae extant Jer. 32.40 Isa 52.2 1 Pet. 1.4 2 Pet. 1.3 1 Joh. 3.9 and ver 18. Clopeub dâ— foâ—d p. 516. Quicquid conditionis locum obtinere concipitur id omne vniversalitare promissionum includitur si vitam aeternam solum polliceretur Deus non deâ—sset specie aliqua dicendi rescipiscentiam fidem c. Conditiones hujus foederis esse Verum cum initium progression non intercisam continuationem consummationem denique novae vitae odem quasi â—â—lur addicat Deus in universalitte hâc promissorum nihil remanet quod totius foederis conditio censeri queat Nos hic de conditione foederis sic agimus non de aliquâ re in homine quae actuaalem fruitionem consummatae felicitatis precedere debet Witf p. 195 196. de Foeâ—ere and the Spirit of it 1 Cor. 3.6 In the Letter of it the meer external Dispensation that kills because a Sinner looks upon all these conditions of Dependance to be Foederal Conditions but the ministration of the Covenant by the Spirit in that Ministry is absolute according to the Original Contract and the fullest Discovery in its highest Freedom And therefore the Apostie tells us this Spirit giveth Life And the believing Corinthians are said to be the Epistle of Christ written and transcribed from the Original Covenant-Contract not with Ink but with the Spirit of the Living God not in Tables of Stone but in the fleshly Tables of the Heart according to that Promise of a new Heart Hence therefore we must distinguish between the Covenant of Grace it 's absolute Tenure and the Ministry of the Grace of the Coventnt which Ministry is conditionally dispensed according to the connexion and dependance of good things contained in the Promise to a mixed People Elect and Non-elect The effect of this Ministry is either to work effectually by the Spirit according to the nature of an absolute Promise and then becomes a Savour of Life or else it works only in the Letter in the conditional Nature as a Covenant of Works and then it killeth eventually and is a Savour of Death and Condemnation 14. The Covenant of Grace is to be distinguished according to its different Revelation and Dispensation under the Names of the Old and New Testament which is no Specifick Difference but only secundum adjunctae Revelationis The Absoluteness of this Covenant was abundantly revealed under the Old Testament Dispensation unto the Patriarchs and Prophets but not so clearly by the Ministry of the Worldly Sanctuary but vailed on which vailedness the faultiness of that Dispensation was charged and did consist in comparison of what was to ensue 1. It stood vailed under a Figurative Carnal Ministry and Ordinances 2. Such as were weak and insufficient as to reaching those Ends that were designed by the Grace of the Covenant Heb. 10.1 and that in respect of the main Gospel Grace in pardon of Sin and purifying the Conscience 3. In that it
insisted so much upon the Conditionality of Works and wherein it 's said they continued not viz. In the Mount Sinai Covenant which God gave them when he brought them out of Egypt Heb. 8.9 4. In regard of that sort of Promises which they stood encouraged by to the performance of this External Obedience they were usually Temporal Blessings only and the Threats and Curses denounced against Disobedience was usually in rsepect of outward things though under all this Cloudiness and Conditionality the Covenant of Promise was applied in its Absolute Nature as at first revealed to Adam and Abraham which was to all the Elect living before Christ the Ministry of the quickning Spirit and a Savour of Life 15. The Original Contract of this Covenant before the World was is by some called the Covenant of Redemption and distinguisht from the Covenant of Grace but such do greatly mistake for both the Original Contract and the Manifestation thereof are one and the same Covenant there 's no Specifick Difference that which is is but secundum adjuncta Ordinis Manifestationis Neonom Next to the Doctrine of Imputation which I think I have sufficiently cleared up according to my Scheme and fully and rightly stated Truths and Errours in those Points Let us now Debate the Conditionality of the Covenant of Grace This being a Point of Great Concern I shall premise an Enquiry nto some particulars for the explaining this Subject Q. 1. What is the Covenant of Grace D. W. C. 8. p. 53. A. 1. It is not the Covenant of Redemption between the Father and Spirit as one Party and the Eternal Word the Lord Jesus as the other Party Antinom Who ever put the Father and Spirit on one Party in the Covenant of Grace it's New Divinity and secondly you are very Magisterial in this Negative Position Quadam confidentia non est Virtus ut audacia Methinks the Judgment of the Reverend Divines should have weighed so much with you as not to have blowed it off at one Puff In the Larger Catechism Q. 30. Doth God leave Mankind to perish in a state of Sin and Misery A. God doth not leave all Mankind to perish in the Estate of Sin and Misery into which they fell by the Breach of the first Covenant commonly called the Covenant of Works but of his meer Love and Mercy delivereth his Elect out of it and bringeth them into a state of Salvation by the second Covenant commonly called a Covenant of Grace Q. 31. VVith whom was the Covenant of Grace made A. The Covenant of Grace was made with Christ as the second Adam and in him with all the Elect as his Seed You say That the Covenant Agreement made with Christ was not the Covenant of Grace You call it a Covenant of Redemption as another thing from the Covenant of Grace I acknowledge the Covenant of Grace is a Covenant of Redemption and the Covenant you call the Covenant of Redemption is the Covenant of Grace and therefore shall not incumber our Discourse with a Debate about Names but shall affirm that there is no such thing as an Essential Difference between the Covenant of Grace and Redemption the distinction made between them is but Novel at least that it was but lately so generally received for it appears by what is here spoken in this Answer of the Assembly so plainly and positively that they owned but two Covenants that of Works and that of Grace They are only distinguished between the making and manifesting this Covenant of Grace A Covenant hidden or secret and manifest is but distributio ex adjunctis therefore after they had told us that this Covenant of Grace was made with Christ the second Adam and with all the Elect as his Seed They enquire next Q. 32. How is the Grace of God manifest in the second Covenant A. The Grace of God is manifested in the second Covenant in that he freely provideth and offereth to Sinners a Mediator and Life and Salvation by him c. So that the Covenant of Grace contains all Grace and Mercy Redemption and the offer and application thereof Neonom Were this Covenant understood I think many well meaning People would be undeceived In that Covenant i. e. of Redemption all the Causes of Man's Salvation are adjusted and secured all Satisfaction and Merit are on Christ as his undertaking c. Antinom It seems then this well-meaning Assembly was deceived and many Able Divines besides who have not admitted of this Novel Distinction between the Covenant of Redemption and that of Grace 2. You talk at least very improperly that the causes of Man's Salvation are adjusted and secured in the Covenant of Redemption which placeth it before Election for I take the Grace of Election to be the first adjusting and securing cause of Mens Salvation and not so only but of the Covenant it self made with Christ I thought all the causes were sufficiently adjusted in the Councel of God's Will and that by the purpose of Grace they were secured to us and Redemption too Christ's Undertaking the charge of Satisfaction and Merit is a cause of our Salvation not adjusting and securing it they were adjusted and secured before Neonom Yea it 's provided there that the Elect shall obey the terms of Life and certainly possess Salvation Antinom 1. It 's manifest that you esteem not Redemption one of the Terms of Life but some other Terms distinct from it I had thought that Christ's Righteousness had been the great condition of our Life and Salvation but it seems it 's but provision for the performing the Terms of Life 2. I thought it had been provided in Election that all the Elect should certainly believe and obey the Gospel but it seems by what you say here they were only conditionally Elected and provision made in the Covenant of Redemption that they should perform the Condition and obey the Term very improper it's to perform the Terms Now what is in such a Covenant of Grace more than Adam's would have had if he had stood for God must have provided that he should obey or perform the Terms of Life which were to him very small and easie no more than giving a Pepper-corn or not so much only to forbear plucking and eating an Apple when he had enough besides There 's no Essential Difference in your Opinion for where-ever the Creature performs a Condition of a Covenant of God's making God must provide for that performance by Grace given and confirmed Neonom Yea as that Covenant was not made with the Elect though for the Elect so they have nothing to do as a Condition of this Covenant Antinom Rare Divinity Mens tua sublimis supra genus eminet ipsum 1. You say that Covenant was not made with the Elect. The Assembly say it was made with the second Adam and his Seed but you I suppose deny Christ to be a second Adam a publick Person and a Spiritual or Mystical Root 2. I would fain
absolutely in relation to God I know not Doth not God offer absolutely Is he provoked to offer Grace from any thing out of himself Sure he offers absolutely and from himself though he offer upon condition or makes Conditions in his Offer And how that comes in as his People is I know not I take the whole put together not to be Sence But I will extract your Argument as well as I can If each Benefit of the Covenant is offered to Men upon condition and not absolutely in relation to God then there are Conditions in the Covenant of Grace to be performed by us before we can have the Benefits But each Benefit of the Covenant is offered so c. Ergo. Here I deny the consequence of the Major first for there are conditions of Offer and conditions propounded in Offer mean them if you please God's propounding the Grace of the Covenant-condition is no ground of Proof that therefore there are conditions to be performed by us before we receive the Benefit For the Duty required and Good thing promised are but both of them Benefits and the leading Duty it may be the greatest and the greatest Exemplification of the Grace of the Promise Here is connexion then of Benefits as to Relation and Order and therefore I deny your consequence That Promises conditionally made do inferr necessarily foederal conditions distinct from the Benefits Minor also deny'd for each Benefit of the Covenant is not offered conditionally as the making a new Heart the Gift of Faith the uniting Power and Efficacy of the Spirit whereby we are inserted into Christ as our Root before we can bring forth the Fruit of Faith As to the places mentioned I say First That the Covenant of Grace as dispensed under the Old Testament was vailed and covered two ways 1. By Types and Ceremonies 2. By a Legal Ministration in Denunciations Conditions Promises of Temporal Blessings whereby they were carried on to Duty but yet in the Sacrifices they had some sight by Faith of the Absoluteness and Freeness of the Grace of God in the Promise and it 's evident the unconditionality of the Promise tho' it was manifested sometimes to the Patriarchs and Prophets yet was mostly under a Cloud as in a cloudy day the Sun may now and then break out with marvellous Brightness and Splendor when for the generality a Legal Darkness clouded and obscured the Grace of God In other Ages the Mystery of the Covenant was not made known and revealed so as now Eph. 3.5 But as to Lev. 26.3 12 it makes nothing against us for God doth but by his Commands and Promises bring them into participation of the Covenant of Grace For what is Faith and Obedience but the Gifts of his Grace And it 's he who through the Blood of the everlasting Covenant works in us the things that are well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ Heb. 13.21 And this was the way of his working with them being under this Tutorage differing little from Servants till the time appointed of his Father Gal. 4.1 2 4. And accordingly you see Lev. 26.3 the Promise of Encouragement is Then will I give you rain in due season And likewise as he promiseth outward Blessings so Spiritual Priviledges His Ordinances and Presence among them in them ver 12. Not that their walking in his Statutes was the condition of his being a God in Covenant for he chose them before they chose him And God saith ver 13. notwithstanding these conditional Promises I am the Lord your God that brought you out c. Likewise as the Promises were mostly of outward good things Temporal and the continuance of his Ordinances so performance of these were connected to their external Conformity to his instituted Worship they were to be a separate and peculiar People sequestred from other People unto his pure Worship and Ordinances and to that Sence doth the Apostle apply this place 2 Cor. 6.17 For he presseth Purity in Church-fellowship in the foregoing Verses by divers Arguments and among others this of Leviticus That God expected such Purity of the Church of the Old Testament much more of them and hence presseth Separation in external Church-fellowship and Ordinances and then as they have the Blessings of Ordinances they will have the Blessing of God's Visible Presence Whereas I said before Benefits are connected A Duty Benefit to a Priviledge to be as motives to Performance the Spirit working with the Word There may be Commands Directions Motives to Duty in the Word and none of these make Duty antecedently necessary and conditional to our being in Covenant but all consequently necessary being a Series of connected Benefits flowing in after we are taken in to Covenant As to Matth. 22.2 3 9 10 11. you say Coming to the Wedding Supper was a Condition of having share in it You say in your Preface to that place that the Garment is Vniting Faith You should have said Putting on the Garment is the Garment Is the coming to Christ or putting him on the Wedding-Garment or Christ himself and his Righteousness so is it of pardon of Sin and acceptance to Life Coming to the Wedding-Supper was not the Condition that gave Right but the Invitation Coming is a priviledge which the People that are invited to receive the Gospel have whom Christ by the Power and Efficacy of his Grace working with the Word compels and constrains overcoming their Rebellious Hearts As to that place of Rom. 10.9 you have as much Reason to inferr thence that Confession is a Condition as well as Faith the great Antecedent Condition there mentioned is Hearing by which Faith comes As for Rom. 4.25 Gal. 3.7 they all shew but connexion of Covenant-benefits all absolutely given in the Promise of Eternal Life Pardon and Faith Faith and Holiness Grace and Glory all sounded upon one Condition of the Covenant the Lord Jesus Christ Neonom I pray By what Justice then do you say the first Grace is absolute It 's Injustice to add new Terms to any of those Benefits if they be ours by the Covenant as absolute before Antinom I see you will stand upon Terms with God and will have him stand upon Terms with you But God never made any such Terms as you dream of Blessed be his Name Neonom If the Covenant be not Conditional as to the disposing of Benefits it would follow 1. That all to whom the Offers are made have an Interest in them or it is not a serious Offer no nor a true Offer as not containing a real and natural Connexion between the Benefit and the Duty D. W. p. 63. Antinom I must take notice of your shifting in your Antecedent what do you put in as to the Disposal of Benefits the Disposal of Benefits is the Performance of the Promise your Condition ought to lie before the Disposal of Benefits If you mean an adjusted Order in the disposal of Benefits you multiply Conditions to the end of the
begets Faith Phil. 10. The Apostle James ch 1.15 useth the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning Sin when it is finished or compleated brings forth Death i. e. Sin when it appears as it is it 's Death and Condemnation in the Conscience So the Word brought thus by the Spirit into the Heart the Soul is freed from Condemnation it thereby hath Life he believes to the saving of the Soul And can this be denied to be good Faith and true Faith and all the Essence of our Divine Faith it being the believing of the Word so as to close with it and receive it according to the Nature and End of it The Apostle Heb. 11.1 describes Faith by two Words Marvellous Significent in our Sence by * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 illud quo subsistunt Beza 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Persuasio Syr. It notes Confidence or Presence of Mind without fear So Polyb. It 's rendred Confident or confident Perswasion 2 Cor. 9.4 ch 11.17 and Heb. 3 14. where it signifies and is rendred Confident Perswasion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is a Subsistance The Word is besides used concerning the Person of the Father Heb. 1.3 where Christ is said to be the Character of the Father's Hypostacy we read it Personality So here Faith is said to Personate the Truth or to be the Image of it as it were in the Heart or rather things hoped for it makes them as it were present ecchoing them in the Heart the Eccho speaking the same things the Voice doth and he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Evidence or rather Demonstration of things not seen it takes up a Demonstration from God's Authority not from Sence or Reason Here Argumentum Inartific Divine Testimony is of greater Force than any Artificial Arguments can be There is also another Word whereby Faith is express'd and it's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 4.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Persuasio plena certioratio Stev It 's said of Abraham He was strong in Faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Persuasae Intelligentiae Stev And what was his strength of Faith It was his Fulness of Perswasion or Confidence ver 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was fully perswaded of what God had promised The Word is used for Faith Col. 2.2 To all riches of the full assurance of understanding Denoting that Faith is primarily an Act of the Understanding this Word is often used for it 1 Thess 1.5 Heb. 6.11 10.22 And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for plenam fidem vel persuasionem habeo Luke 1.1 Rom. 14.5 The very Greek Word for Perswasion is used 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Tim. 1.5 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am perswaded i. e. Do believe that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him Rom. 8.38 I am perswaded that neither Death nor Life c. i. e. This was his strong Faith Rom. 14.14 I am perswaded in the Lord Jesus that there 's nothing unclean of it self This was his Faith I will but name one place more Heb. 11.13 it 's said of those eminent Believers mentioned in that Chapter That they received not the Promises in the fulfilling of them by performance but saw them afar off and being perswaded of them saluted them in their own Hearts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Calvin You must own Saving Faith to be a Saving Perswasion you see or else you must deny the Scriptures and according to the Weakness and Strength of Perswasion we account our Faith is weaker or stronger yet hath it's Forma Differentia from its proper Adjuncts and Object Neonom When he puts a Man to examine his Faith he hath these Words D. W. p. 73. How do I know I believe in Christ He answers Do I rest my Heart upon his Truth Do I receive it as a Truth that I do believe Or do I reject it and will not receive it Then I do not believe it But if thou sit down and rest upon this Truth and receive it and do in reality believe it then you may absolutely conclude Christ is yours D. C. p. 107. Antinom I am sorry to see that you should have such an Aversion to these things I was preaching from Isa 42.6 7. and shewing how Christ receiveth Sinners as Sinners he never shuts out one of those Thousands that come upon the Tender of the Gospel Dr. C. p. 107. and if there be no Example of any shut out in the whole Scripture from whence fetch you that bitterness of your own Spirit that you may not that you dare not close with Christ But you will say If this taking Christ be the best Security how shall I know whether I believe or no Or how shall I know that this my taking is not counterfeit but solid and real Answ I answer by the reality of the thing Do you it indeed If you do it indeed it 's a real taking Do you not bid Men believe sincerely and indeed If a Man should ask you How do you know the Sun shines The light of the Sun doth shew it self and by it's light we know it shines How shall I know I believe There is a light in Faith that doth discover it self unto Men. The Soul that doth really close with Christ may conclude he doth so If you give 6 d. to a poor man and you say to him How do you know I have given you 6 d He will answer I have it in my Hand and feel I have it So ask your Hearts this Question How do I know I believe in Christ Do I rest my Heart upon this Truth Do I receive it as a Truth c Calvin What can you Mr. Neonomian with any face except against this Doctrine Doth not the Apostle say 1 John 5.10 He that believeth on the Son hath a witness in himself Is there any clearer Evidence of an Action than the doing it Ask a Man how he knows he can eat saith he I do eat I do taste and swallow what I eat So that Instance of the Sun shining which he gives there 's no doubt but the first Evidence the Soul hath is in Believing it self tho he tries his Faith by it's Fruits also and receives Evidence therefrom Is not Faith illustrated in Scripture by all our Senses Hearing Tasting Smelling Feeling or Touching Seeing And is there not Perception in the Exercise of all the Senses And how shall I know better that I do exercise them than by perceiving their Objects which is a Witness an Evidence a Demonstration to my self above all others that it is so The Natural Man indeed receiveth not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the things of the Spirit by Faith 1 Cor. 2.14 and therefore they are foolishness to him But the Spiritual Man doth i. e. by Faith Neonom He says If the Lord give to any to believe this Truth D. W. p. 74. Dr. C. p. 296. that it is his
to reach the End of the Covenant which I utterly deny for that would destroy it's own Nature and Use and also the Covenant of Grace it self Neonom The Question is not whether Assurance be attainable in this Life as an effect of Faith D. W. p. 74. Antinom A Perswasion of Truth and certainty thereof is Assurance and so far as I do believe there is this in the Act of Faith though a weak Faith hath Doubtings attending but not therefore commendable And there can be no Faith without some degree of Perswasion concerning the Truth of the Object You speak here of an Assurance which must be reckoned of the highest Degree of Perswasion and therefore you deal not fairly to change your Terms from Perswasion to Assurance There is a two-fold Assurance the Plerophory of Faith and an Assurance that I have true Faith which is Spiritual Sence and Argumentation from it's Nature and Effects one is by the proper direct Act of believing the other by reflex Acts of the Soul upon it self Neonom Nor whether a Sinner ought to apply yea doth personally apply the general Offers of Christ and Life by his own Compliance with the Terms of the Gospel for upon a true acceptance of a whole Christ he is mine in vertue of the Gospel-promise which God will perform in giving Christ and Life to all that accept him as he is proposed for our acceptance Antinom You are very dark and obscure in what you here speak 1. By Personal Application I understand particular Application and so it 's your Sense that a Sinner ought to make a particular Application of the general Offers of Christ and Life in the very Act of believing and so far I joyn with you and that his thus believing is his Compliance the Gospel's Work being perswading my Compliance is to be perswaded and there 's nothing else expected which you call Terms the Terms is that we put in no Terms but accepting Christ freely offered And you say he is yours in vertue of the Gospel-Promise you must intend in the vertue of the Gospel-Promise believed or else you have no right but as you had before believing an Intentional Right only if it be a claimable Right it 's in a Promise believed for whatever Right is real in the Promise none will plead any but what he believes And it is in vertue of the Promise to give Christ and Life to many that do not yet accept of him For it 's the vertue of the Promise to give Life to dead Sinners that they may actively and comfortably receive and accept him Neonom Nor whether a convinced Sinner hath a more special Regard at first of the Priestly Offices and Sufferings as what are more sensibly fitted to his guilty state Antinom I understand not what you mean by Priestly Offices as if Christ had more Priestly Offices than one Christ doth exercise his Priestly Office in the state of Humiliation and Exaltation but I have not seen any before that ascribes to Christ two Priestly Offices And if you mean Justifying Faith it 's Office is to lay hold on and apply the Person of Christ in his Priestly Office Neonom Nor whether every thing recorded in Scripture must be dwelt on with the same regard concern and assurance as the Essentials of the Covenant of Life Antinom You mean here Faith as to the general Nature of it you do not distinguish it from Faith in the Justifying Nature all along Neonom Nor whether Faith contain in it a reliance on Christ as our only Saviour and on his Satisfaction and Merits as what alone purchased our Pardon and Acceptance as well as it includes the realizing Assent to the Truth and unfeigned fiducial Consent to acceptance of a whole Christ in all his Offices All these I affirm Antinom You acknowledge then that Faith contains in it 1. A Reliance on Christ as an only Saviour How can this be without some perswasion A rational Man never rests and leans upon a thing that he hath not some ground of Perswasion that it 's strong enough to bear him 2. You own it includes a realizing Assent to the Truth and this is a very high Perswasion of a Truth with a particular Application of it to a Man's self as belonging to him 3. You say there 's an unfeigned Fiducial Consent to and Acceptance of Christ and all his Offices This is strong Confidence when the Soul is so far perswaded of the reality of the Tender of Christ made in the Promise that he doth not only take him but with boldness questions not but he hath the Son and hath Life in this very Act of Believing You say we rely on Christ's Satisfaction and Merits as what alone purchased our Pardon and Acceptance This is true in a true Sence but we easily see what you mean by what you speak before Neonom The real difference is whether the whole Essence of Saving Faith consists in an inward Perswasion or Assurance that our Sins are pardoned and Christ is ours This you affirm and I deny Yea I deny that it is at all of the Essence of Saving Faith D. W. p. 75. Antinom What I said and you charge for my Errour I stand to it and have made it appear to be Truth I said the whole Essence of Faith is the Eccho of the Heart answering the Voice of the Spirit and Word of Grace and thereby it 's the Obedience of Faith The Soul believes and closeth with Truth according to the nature of it and in such a manner as is required You wrong me to say I used the Words Perswasion or Assurance I said If you receive Truth and in reality believe it and rely upon it you may conclude that Christ is yours and this is now a Conclusion made upon my believing too I pray would you not say so to a poor Sinner If thou dost believe on the Lord Jesus with all thy Heart thou shalt be saved and you ought to conclude you shall be saved And this is a perswasion of my state upon believing Calvin Mr. Neonom It 's indeed a marvellous thing that you should say and unsay a thing in the same Breath to own Faith a reliance on Christ that it carries a realizing Assent to the Truth and an unseigned Fiducial Consent and now to say Perswasion is not at all of the Essence of Faith Neonom I said it contained and it included it I said not they were of the Essence Antinom This is just like your wonted way of Dodging How doth Faith contain and include these things As in a Box which contains and includes things of a Specifick Nature different from it self Well we will attend your Proof Neonom The second thing in difference is Whether Saving Faith includes not in it's Nature that powerful efficacious Assent to the Word and fiducial consenting to acceptance of Christ as Prophet Priest and King with a Reliance on his Merits and obediential Regards to God as the
hath a Knife in his Hand and Thoughts in his Heart to murder Christ and yet without so much as laying down his Arms D. W. p. 87. Antinom I wish you have not Thoughts in your Heart and a Knife in your Hand not only to wound my Ministry but the Doctrine of Free-Grace you shew such an inveterate Spirit against both Gentlemen Speaking from that Text John 6.37 and endeavouring to remove Objections from poor distressed Souls that dare not come to Christ because of a high deep Sense of their Filthiness and Loathsomness and that are always aggravating their Condition under the saddest and most dreadful Consideration You will say For all this high Aggravation of Loathsomness and Sinfulness my Case is worse than all this you speak of Dr. C. p. 220. therefore there is something in my Condition that if I come to Christ he must cast me off Mark Gentlemen these are the bitter Complaints of a poor distressed Soul against himself set on by Temptation to keep him from Jesus Christ Besides positive Filthiness I am a Rebel a sturdy Enemy I fight against God I quarrel with God and take up Arms against him I endeavour to remove this Objection thus Imagine your Condition is a Condition of as great Madness and Enmity against God as you can devise as always it is look'd upon to be by one labouring under a wounded Conseience in whom Sin is revived by the Law The Remedy that I advise is to bring this poor broken-hearted Creature to Christ to be bound up I go on and say Sure you will say If I be such an Enemy I must lay down my Arms before Christ will have to do with me or admit me to come to him Will a King let a Cut-throat Traitor while he hath Thoughts in his Heart to murder him will he let him come with a naked Knife into his Presence and graciously embrace him in his Arms For Answer still see the close of the Text Observe that if this be true that in respect of this Rebelliousness in thy Spirit against God thou say If I come to Christ he will cast me off This word in no wise cannot be true Do you think it was out of the Thoughts of Christ viz. our Enmity and Rebellion And if he thought of it do you not think he would not have put it in to clear up this Truth Look into Psal 68.18 and Rom. 5.6 7 8. Now observe what I say I do not speak this to the intent that any should conceive that God leaves Persons rebellious Dr. C. p. 211. vile and loathsom as he doth find them when he closeth with them but I say that time when the Lord closeth with them it 's a state of Rebellion and if thou come to Christ in this Condition it manifestly shall appear to thee that he will open his Bosom for thy Head to rest upon as well as for the Righteousest Saint in the World so Christ invites every one that thirsts to come and drink of the Water of Life freely Calvin I would fain know Mr. Neonomian what you would say to a distressed Soul in such a condition that would not only liken himself to a Murderer or a Cut-throat Traytor but will give you an Instance that he is so even at this very time he hath continually horrid blasphemous Thoughts of God yea Atheistical and such as is a Horror to mention He will tell you what a sink of Vileness and Hypocrisie he is in upon all respects what would you tell him indeed here 's the Skill of a Divine Neonom Tell him I would tell him he must be humbled for those Sins and he must cast out these filthy Thoughts and that he must pray and hear the Word and watch over his Heart and resist Satan and indeed must get rid of this Enmity that is in his Heart and this Rebellion and then he may come to Christ for Pardon Calvin Ay but I can do none of these my proud Heart will not be humbled my filthy Thoughts will remain I cannot love God nay I cannot pray and the Word of God is a Terror unto me I fly from the Law and as for the Gospel I dare not come at it God is a Terror to me Neonom I would tell him such a vile Heart corrupt Affections Blasphemous Thoughts are inconsistent with Vocation Regeneration Conversion I would tell him he can't have true Faith or Acceptance with Christ which consists with such vile dispositions and is void of a purpose to be otherwise Calvin And would you not think meet to invite this poor Soul to come to Jesus Christ in this sad Condition Neonom No indeed that I would not in that miserable pickle Calvin What would you do with him Neonom I would tell him he hath a proud Heart which God is humbling his Lusts must be mortify'd he must bear the Indignation of the Lord God will shine in upon you in his due time when you are fit for it and your Sins be purged in the mean time you must wait Calvin But may not a Man speak to such an one of Help laid upon one that 's mighty to save Neonom Take heed of being too bold there If Christ be mentioned it must but be as King and Law-giver if you be too busie in talking of Christ as Priest and Sacrifice and of laying his Sins on Christ it may prove such a Narcotick to him as may cast him into the contrary Extream of carnal Security and Presumption that his condition is better than it is Calvin Do you deal thus always with distressed afflicted Souls when they come to you for advice Neonom No not always in private Conference but in the Pulpit this way must be taken or else you 'll have a company of vile loathsom Sinners grow too sawcy upon the Doctrine of Grace and the Promise Calvin And yet here your Ministry is very successful you receive many Members I suppose you have to deal with great Variety of Cases Neonom I do not trouble my self with that way of Experiences I know no Rule for that I ask them whether they have been humbled and whether they are sincere in taking Christ as their Lord and I tell them now God accepts Sincerity and Imperfect Duties as the Condition of the Covenant of Grace and I find this way succeeds very well and I hope to make it take throughout the City and extirpate those Antinomian Principles and Congregational too Calvin Indeed Mr. Neonomian I must take my liberty to dissent altogether from you in your Method with and Cure of distressed Consciences it was not the way formerly I am for bringing such a poor loathsom polluted Creature to the Fountain set open for Sin and Uncleanness c. and not say he must be washed first Neonom Can we thus Marry Christ what a carnal selfish thing is Believing A meer using Christ for our own safety in our Abominations which we resolve shall rule over us
without one desire to be rid of them D. W. p. 88. Calvin Do you think there will be any Fellowship between Christ and Belial One must be gone When Christ comes in unto the Heart he binds the strong man armed and spoils him of his Goods I am sorry to hear you banter a poor Sinner's believing in Christ under the sense of the Vileness and Sinfulness of his Disposition and the Enmity of his Heart or that you should suppose or suggest to the World that there is any way under Heaven to change the Heart and Disposition savingly or heal the Conscience but by bringing a poor Creature to Jesus Christ and him Crucify'd and saying to him Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved There is Pardon Forgiveness Cleansing in the Blood of Christ therefore the Course that I take always is to endeavour to set the Lord Jesus Christ in all his fulness before an awakened Sinner and if he be yet secure and going on in his evil ways I bring him as near to Christ as I can I endeavour to convince him that he sins against Christ as well as the Law the precicious Blood of Christ that was shed for Sinners I do what I can to bring him to Christ to be taught to be invited overcome by the Sweetness and Amiableness of Jesus Christ and let him know the danger if he persist obstinate Neonom But some degrees of Convictions and Humiliations of Soul are necessary prerequisites to the Souls Acceptation of Christ for Pardon weary and heavy laden that Christ invites Mat. 11.28 I came not to call the Righteous i. e. conceited and secure but Sinners to Repentance Luke 5.31 32. They in Acts 2.37 were pricked to the Heart the Gaoler felt some Humbling concern Acts 16.30 Paul knew what this trembling was so Zacheus and the Prodigal Luke 15.14 15. D. W. p. 87. Calvin All his humblings prickings weariness awakenings were by the Power of Gospel Grace and by the preaching of Jesus Christ Christ's Ministry is enough with his Power to save Souls he needs no prerequisites The Gospel is the power of God unto Salvation therewith he wounds and therewith he makes whole Christ makes weary and gives rest he convinceth Sinners and gives Repentance the preaching Christ Crucified pricked those Converts to the Heart and healed those Wounds It was the same Hand of Grace that awakened the Gaoler and when he had a Knife in his Hand even to Murder Christ in his Members and when he saw that was wrinched out of his Hand took a Knife to Murder himself in the height of that desperate Villany he was commanded to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and he should be saved The case plainly is this That Jesus Christ himself the Minister of the true Sanctuary and the preaching of him is the only and sufficient Remedy to change and save the worst of Sinners through the effectual working of the Spirit the order and method is various it 's as the Spirit listeth we are not to prescribe any methods or measures of Humblings much less to say such and such Moral Vertues or Duties are necessary Prerequisites and Qualifications before a Sinner comes to Christ The Apostle Paul said That he determined to know nothing i. e. so as to Preach among them but Jesus Christ and him Crucified 1 Cor. 2.2 I am for working Humiliations by setting Christ before the most refractory Sinners ' for all Salvation true Mourning and Humiliation proceeds from looking on him whom a poor Sinner hath pierced I am for the bringing of the most Leprous Sinner I cannot engage he will come to wash in this Spirtiual Jordan though I find you are rather for washing off his Leprosie first in the Rivers of Abana and Pharfar Rivers of Damascus Neonom I am not for bringing such foul filthy Sinners to Jesus Christ it sounds very ill in the Ear to say Christ saves Murderers Adulterers Persecutors c. and to invite them to come to Christ reaking in their Sins and under the Reigning Enmity of their Hearts it 's fit that they should be civilized first and this wicked profligate disposition removed and that they have new Hearts before they come to Christ for I tell you Christ will not pardon them else Antinom You mistake the whole sence of the Gospel or will not understand it that you may seem to have a plausible pretence to oppose it When Sinners are invited to come to Christ it 's not meerly under the Notion of Pardon but of all Salvation he is offered and the Sinner is invited to come unto him as having given himself for us to redeem us from all Iniquity and to purifie to himself a peculiar People Zealous of good Works A Sinner is by the Gospel called to Christ in all states of his Unregeneracy whether openly Prophane or Morally Vertuous one is as easily saved by Christ as the other the former ordinarily sooner easier converted seemingly than the latter neither is the latter better qualified and fitted for the Grace of God than the other That place quoted by you 1 Cor. 14.24 25. is a clear proof how the Word of God's Grace works these true Convictions in the Saving Work and that your Humblings in the state of Unregeneracy are no necessary Prerequisites to the Grace of God Neonom I will discover your Mistakes in these things Because they that truely come to Christ shall have an Interest in Christ therefore he thinks whosoever can perswade himself that he hath an Interest in Christ doth come to him Antinom It would have been well if it had been my Happiness to have attain'd to your degree of Learning and had so great a Capacity for it as you that I might not have fallen under so gross mistakes I confess it's pity a Doctor should be so silly a John-an-Oaks as you represent me But what shall I say to it It 's not every Man's Portion to be Learned or Wise only there 's one Proverb I remember that is some satisfaction to an empty Skull Non est datum cuivis Corinthum appellere But methinks you mistake about my Thoughts if I have Wit enough to tell my own Thoughts It is strange I should be so stupid as Credere quod habeo habeo as to believe that I have when I have not and to call that Perswasion my having I spake of having Christ by coming to Christ and then of our knowing that we have Christ If you will examine what I think I will tell you I think coming to Christ is by believing and appropriating Christ and what is generally delivered of him and by him unto my self if it be by way of Promise offer or command and that this believing is such perswasion of the Goodness and Truth of Christ and his Gospel Salvation that it carries me forth to rest and stay my self confidently thereon and that I can perswade my self of the Truth of my Faith from its Act on its proper Object and
by the several Fruits that it doth produce Neonom Because sometimes the worst of Sinners are made Subjects of Preparatory Work and of Effectual Calling as God's Act on them therefore he thinks that these Sinners are invited to conclude they have an Interest in Christ before they do at all answer that Call D. W. p. 90. Antinom You intimate as if you thought some Sinners were more capable Subjects of Effectual Calling as to God's Act than others and that there 's a Preparatory Work distinct from God's Act in Effectual Calling which I do not think Besides I think God's Act in Effectual Calling upon a Sinner is more than a bare Invitation And I do not think or say That any Man concludes their Personal Interest in Christ because they are invited but because being invited they did come therefore not before they answer the Call by coming Neonom But his greatest cause of mistake is that he thinks the worst of Sinners if Elect have as much Interest in Christ as the greatest Saint Antinom Est Argiva Calumnia when you make it appear that I think so by what I have spoken I will answer to it and your Sarcastick Inference therefrom Neonom You may see the large Catechise Q. What is Justifying Faith They tell us That a Sinner is convinced of Sin and Misery who receiveth Christ Antinom But they tell us that that Conviction which is Saving comes by Saving Faith their words are Justifying Faith is a Saving Grace wrought in the Heart of a Sinner by the Spirit and Word of God whereby he being convinced of his Sin and Misery and of disability in himself and other Creatures to recover him out of his lost Condition not only assenteth to the Truth of the Promise of the Gospel but receiveth and resteth upon Christ and his Righteousness c. And in the Shorter Catechism you may see a more particular account of Saving Convictions that they are wrought in Effectual Calling though they be not so properly of the Nature of Justifying Faith for they say Effectual Calling is the Work of God's Spirit whereby convincing us of our Sin and Misery enlightning our Minds c. He doth perswade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ freely offered to us in the Gospel You see Conviction and Illumination are both the Saving Works of the Spirit And in the Confession they 'll tell you That Saving Faith is of a larger extent as to the Object it Acts upon than meerly Justifying Saving Faith it convinceth it enlightens it justifies it sanctifies and in this sence they tell you the Nature of Saving Faith Chap. 14. whereby they are enabled to believe to the saving of their Souls and by this Faith a Christian is enabled to believe to be true what-ever is revealed in the Word and from thence comes trembling at the Word and embracing the Promises of Life c. So that this contradicts not but confirms the Doctrine of the 39 Articles That all Works before Faith even Legal Convictions are no more than Sin it 's but the filthy Conscience-polluting Guilt of Sin which Thousands have and which do not dispose the Sinner to love God but to hate him nor to seek Pardon but to seek out a Righteousness of his own Neonom Dr. O. tells us p. 133. Of Justif There is nothing in the whole Doctrine that I will more firmly adhere to than the necessity of Convictions previous to true Believing D. W. p. 89. Antinom If he mean saving believing he must mean previous sine qua non not as a Preparatory Vertue but as Sin is previous to Pardon and thereby Guilt also whereby Sin pollutes the Conscience and is both sin and misery and this may arise from a meer natural stirring of the Law or by the preaching of it which is the Death of Sin the Wrath and Curse that attends it and this may and must arise from a common Faith for a Man is not convinced of any thing that he believes not But if he mean Saving Convictions they are good Fruits and wrought in Saving Faith This he intends here For he said just before Let no Man think to understand the Gospel who knows nothing of the Law God's Constitution and the Nature of things themselves have given the Law the precedency with respect unto Sinners for by the Law is the Knowledge of Sin and Gospel Faith is the Souls acting according to the Mind of God for deliverance from that State and Condition which it is cast under by the Law and he supposeth the State of a Man under meer Legal Conviction to be a State of Death and Condemnation Neonom He saith Displicency Sorrow Fear a desire of Deliverance with other necessary Effects of true Conviction P. 102. Antinom True Convictions i. e. Saving have such Effects but observe he is there distinguishing between common Convictions which before Faith are the common Condition of Sinners more or less which is the Death they lye under He saith Temporary Faith and Legal Conviction are the Principles of all Works or Duties in Religion Antecedent unto Justification observe now what he saith which therefore we must deny to have in them any Causality thereof and so he proceeds to shew what Affections and Duties in Religion may follow thence not that they are Gospel Vertues but rather solendida peccata and they I say are so far from disposing the Natural Man to Justification by Grace that they dispose him rather to seek Justification in himself by the Works of the Law till the Law comes to be Preached in true Spirituality in the Gospel and received by Faith And he saith P. 103. That Reformation of Life and these things are where real Convictions are but yet it must be said that they are neither severally nor jointly though in the highest degree either necessary Dispositions Preparations previous Congruities in a way of Merit or Conditions of our Justification Now is not this a Marvellous measure of Presumption and palpable Design upon your Reader to take the Imperfect Sence of a Man's Discourse to justifie your Errours when you must needs see the said Discourse is point blank against you I 'll hear no more therefore of your Allegations in this point out of Dr. O. Neonom Mr. Norton speaks of Preparatory Works between the Carnal Rest of the Soul in a State of Sin and Effectual Vocation Antinom I know of no such middle State for there is but two States that of Death and that of Life that of Light and that of Darkness but the Works done before Conversion he tells you are called Preparatory by way of meer Order which he saith all the Orthodox assert for that which is plainly first in Order and Nature must be said to be so all the Sin and Wickedness as well as the common Graces and Religion performed by an Unregenerate Man are all Antecedent to his Regenerate State But saith Mr. Norton It 's contrary to the Scriptures to say they are
Preparatory by way of Causation Merit and Congruity i. e. by disposing fitting and making Men the sitter for Effectual Grace as you say as asserted by the Papists and Arminians DEBATE XI Of Union with Christ before Faith Neonom ANother Errour of his is All the Elect are Actually Vnited to Christ before they have the Spirit of Christ or at all believe in him even before they are Born yea and against their will D. W. p. 90. Antinom Your Terms are all Ambiguous you seldom use a word of two or three Syllables but you 'l have him Bifrons like Janus I pray produce your proof and I shall see which way you look most Neonom The Title of a Sermon of yours is Christ ours before gracious Qualifications D. W. p. 91. Antinom I own such a Sermon from Isa 33.6 and the design of it was to answer this Query Dr. C. p. 432. How I may be assured my part lyes here That my Sins were laid on Christ The Apostle speaks of full Assurance of Faith and of coming to the Throne of Grace with boldness I shew'd that it may be found out as the Lord hath chalked it out in his Grace and Grant not only when the Lord is pleased to hold out his Grace and Grant to a Man but also upon those Terms that he holds it out on such as the Terms of God are or Conditions if you will call them so Sure I am as the Conditions are by which they may claim Interest in Christ those conditions being granted and found the Soul may close with the Grace of God now all the difficulty lyes in this whether the Lord propounds to Men that there shall be no part in Christ nor Grace by him till they find their Spirits Souls and Bodies sanctified throughout or whether the Lord holds out the Grant of Pardon of Sin without those previous Qualifications And I say D. C. p. 433. That the Grace of saying Iniquity upon Christ is applicable by Forgiveness of Sins to Persons before there be ever the least measure of Sanctification in Works and being applyed by the Lords own Grant there may be Safety and Security in applying the same by Faith without regard to Sanctification in any measure That is in respect of making Trial thereby I seeing yet no Sanctification in Works to try by it 's certain such Pardon is to be had and that the Grace of Forgiveness is applicable before Works or a Person capable of doing them as to Elect Infants and to the Dying Thief and hath the same place in every Elect Person that doth believe forgiveness is applied to him before he can exert any of the working Fruits of Faith and being applied to him by God's Grant it may be applied to himself by Believing but because you insist on nothing in this Sermon that you particularly express I say no more of it now Neonom Sure you intend only to exclude Works and not Faith D. W. p. 91. Antinom I do not exclude Works from a ground of Assurance for I own when the Conditions are granted and found i. e. the Fruits of the Spirit in the Heart the Soul may close with the Grace of God by way of Assurance but I say also there may be an Assurance of Faith without particular respect to the said Works I say not that Works evidence not but that there is an evidence besides Neonom No you tell us of dangerous Consequences that must follow on it if Persons are not united to Christ and partake not of Justification before they believe and addeth There is not I say such a thing as an uniting or knitting Power in Faith as that Faith doth or should become an Instrument to unite a Soul to Christ Dr. C. p. 616. Antinom My Discourse was from 1 John 2. 1 2. The main design of my Discourse there is to prove That Faith is the Fruit of our Vnion to Christ I shew'd that Christ himself frames and creates that very Faith in Persons that come to him D. C. p. 614. uniting them as Members first to him their Head 2. I shew'd that a Branch must have Union with the Root before it can bring forth Fruit. Christ is the Vine we the Branches Faith part of the Fruit. Communion is a Fruit of Union Faith is a Grace of Communion Suppose that the Life spoken of is not in Persons till they believe it is Dr. C. p. 615. but this That there is no Activeness of the life of Christ in the Person that is Elected his Life is in Christ and was in Christ and reserved in Christ till the time of believing for him and then doth the Elect Person become Active in Life when Christ doth give him to believe Actually But to say that this believing should give the first Being of that Life that should be in Persons is to say There is not that Life of the Elect Persons in Christ before they do believe if this be maintained that there is no Justification at all belonging to Elect Persons till they do Actually believe in Christ or Faith be the Instrument by which they are first united dangerous Consequences must needs follow 1. That in some respect there will be a bringing to Life again the Covenant of Works Do this and live viz. for Persons to do that they may live but the Covenant of Grace gives Life first and from Life comes Doing c. But the words you refer to p. 616. For they are not there nor do I find them elsewhere Neonom He denies the presence of Faith to this end he spends much time to prove that Christ is ours before we come to him and that our not coming unto him doth not import a state of disunion with Christ. D. W. p. 614. Antinom I said Let us suppose the coming in this place is spoken of believing Ye will not come to me that you might have Life it cannot follow that although there be no Life till believing therefore there can be no Union till believing I say If it possibly might be imagined that there may not be Life from Christ till believing yet it follows not that there must be believing before this Union Suppose I say that there cannot be Life before there be believing yet there must be Union before there can be Life fetched from Christ Faith being the Fruit born as aforesaid Neonom He saith You may as soon conceive that a Man is able to see whilst he hath no Head as think a Man can have Spiritual Eyes whether the Eye of Faith to behold Christ or the Eye of Mourning to lament ones Wickedness before there be Actually the Presence and Conjunction of Christ the Head to such a Body Dr. C. p. 104. Antinom I say so and will stand to it Calvin I wonder you should find fault with that Divinity or note down that Expression for an Errour you cannot suppose that there can be any living Act performed without Life as the cause of it
not seen thence it comes to pass that the present Afflictions are light and shall be succeeded with an Eternal weight of Glory it 's an instance of the abundant Grace redounding towards him for the inward and outward Man for things Temporal and Eternal Neonom Were doing for Life and an Eye to gain by service such a legal and wicked thing as some represent it sure the Blessed Jesus would have admonished his Disciples and not answered them as he doth Mat. 19.28 29. Antinom This Arguing would well enough become a Papist but it is strange at this time a day from the Mouth of a Protestant but it 's easie to see the Devil is at work to betray us again into our Spiritual Egypt our Mouths hang too generally after the Leeks and Onions of their Corrupt Doctrine Now we must go to work upon the Terms of the Old Law for Life not Finalitèr as aimed at and travelled to as terminus ad quem taken for Glory but for Life as a Premium of our Works That this is intended by you clearly appears by the Application that you make of this place of Scripture as if it Justified the Doctrine of Merit The Disciples hearing our Saviours discourse concerning a Rich Man and how hard it is for him to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven they were amazed and said Who then shall be saved Peter hence concludes then surely poor Men may better be saved we are poor enough and have lest all for thee what shall we have And there is no doubt but something as yet remained in them of that legal Spirit as prevailed in and among the Jews expecting or enquiring after some proportionable Reward to their Sufferings which Spirit was not fully removed from them till after the Resurrection of Christ and sending down of the Spirit when they came clearly to see the Grace of Christ in the Gospel but it was not Christ's time yet to remove all Clouds and Obscurities from the Doctrine of the Gospel he did it not in his own Ministry it was to be the Work of the Comforter the Spirit as peculiarly belonging to his Office after Christ's Ascension As yet they had not askt any thing in his Name neither did Christ in the platform of Prayer teach them so to do as yet they were strangers to the Mystery of the Death and Resurrection of Christ as yet they looked that the Kingdom of Christ would immediately be a Temporal and External Now the answer of our Saviour imports these things 1. That none shall lose any thing by following him though in parting with worldly advantages 2. That those Blessings that he bestows upon his true Followers are of another Nature than they expected they were of an Eternal Nature ver 29. and of a Spiritual Nature Mark 10.30 For their outward Enjoyments should be with Persecutions shewing how much the Cross and Reproach of Christ as in the Opinion of Moses is to be preferred before the greatest worldly Emoluments 3. He shews them though he abundantly Rewards his Followers yet they ought not to serve him as such that were led by that Principle to serve for Life and Glory as for Wages but they must do all for his own Name sake they must not act from a principle of intending advantage but for Christ's sake for the Love of his Person and for the sake of the Love that he hath shewed us 1 Cor. 3.20 21 22. The Lord knows how vain the Thoughts of his best People is apt to be as if they must by their Duties Earn something of God but there must be no glorying in Men and there 's no need of it for all things are yours already the Means of Grace the World Life Death things present and to come ye are Christ's and Christ God's Neonom Your Argument from the Vanity of proposing our own Gain by Labour and Duties because all is fixed and given already is to make the Decree an effectual means to overthrow the Government of Christ and brand all his Offers to Sinners with Weakness and Falsehood should not poor Sinners pray as they can apply the Word with an Eye to Conversion Should they not Believe and Repent with an Eye to Forgiveness and Escaping of Wrath Why else should God encourage them with an Offer of these upon such Terms D. W. p. 157. Antinom You go upon many Mistakes 1. You talk absurdly of God's Decree overthrowing his Government as if the Decree succeeded God's Government of the Creature that which overthrows a thing comes after the thing overthrown so God's Decree in its proper Nature as a Constituting Immanent Act must succeed his Government 2. Why should not God's Acting in a way of Free Grace be consistent with his most right and just way of proceeding in Government seeing the whole Gospel Revelation asserts that it is so and that therein lyes a great part of the Gospel Mystery which Natural Men and Carnal Reason will not receive 3. Is it any way absurd to say it's vain to propose our own gain by Labour and Duties when the Spirit of God hath expunged the Efficacy of Works as to procurement out of the Covenant of Grace Works are our Price and Money God saith We are to buy without Price and Money Isa 55.1 2. And saith Why do you spend Money for that which is not Bread i. e. Spend your Duties and Labours and get nothing by them Because you make Money of them and reckon you make advantage of them and pay a valuable consideration for the good expected and will not receive it as of Free Gift you will have all for the Money of your Duties and hence you labour and have not that which satisfieth you ask and labour for things to spend upon your own Lusts as the proud Pharisee did 4. You mistake in judging the Offers of the Gospel is in a way of Government it 's in order to Christ's gracious Rule and Government under which Unregenerate Sinners are not till through Grace they are translated into the Kingdom of Christ 5. You wickedly suggest that unless God intend that poor Sinners in their Unregenerate Estate should do some Duties whereby they might gain Life and Salvation God is chargeable with Weakness and Falshood this I take to be an ill Inference all the Offers of Grace must be upon Condition of Works or else God is chargable with Weakness and Falshood 6. You grosly mistake my Discourse or willingly pervert my Sence and Meaning I do not say but poor Sinners at their first believing are very apt to lay too great a stress upon their Duties as if thereby they obtained a Title to Life and Salvation or mâ—de a considerable addition to what Christ hath done and procured for them this legal Spirit I endeavour to take them off from that they should serve God more under the Conduct of the Grace of Adoption Rom. 8.14 15. And therefore say Except you fall to the performance of Duty without such Conceits
to the Hallow I will tell you yea the Spirit tells you the rest the Non-elect Jews were blinded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Those that were saved the Grace of Election obtained for them But as for the rest they who were not elected they were hardned And when you have done and said all about your Serious Offers unless you hold conditional Election you must still continue to lay these foul Charges and Consequences upon God For whatever Offers are made the Non-elect will neither believe or be saved and in respect of Non-election are in the same Condition with the Devils Now say you then their Case is worse than Devils these Offers are made to them for no other design but to increase their Condemnation But I will tell you it becomes so to them per accidens the design of offering Salvation to the World is that Sinners may believe and be saved not that Elect Sinners should be secure or Non-elect Despair But what is in God's Mind as his Reason in making so indefinite an offer and tender of Grace whose is Election It is for the calling and gathering in of the Elect though an indefinite Invitation or Command of God makes the answer of it equally the Duty of all that hear it by the Law and I will tell you Ex Hebreae veritatis collatione appareat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 respondere vocabulo Hâ—braeo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nemo mirabitur quod maluerim soporem aut etiam stuporem convertere Ita n. Hebraei vocant altissimum veternum quod omnem sensum adimat idque optimè convenit ei quod precessit de Callo sive Obduratione quod subjicitur oculis de oculis ad videndam auribus ad audiâ—ndum ineptis Beza Chrâ—sost Theophyl Oecum Inteâ—â—râ—t Spiritum staporis pertiâ—â—â—iâ—â— i. e. animum in malo obstinatum ut neque aut moveri quasi clavo affixum Lee's Crit. the Truth of God's Word will stand against your Carnal Weapons and Banter Rom. 11.8 9. The rest besides the Remnant that were saved were not only blinded but hardned Judicially according to the Word of the Lord by Isaiah chap. 29.10 God hath given them the Spirit of Slumber 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eyes that they should not see The Hebrew word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deep Sleep but the Apostle takes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the LXII which primarily signifies compunction derived of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 compungo and used Acts 2.37 It signifies a Mind fixed and pertinacious in evil God hath sent or given them saith Paul the Hebrew hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath given them to drink down a Spirit of Stupidity and see what follows ver 9.10 Notwithstanding the offer made the Non-elect fall under this Judicial proceeding of God viz. a Spirit of Slumber given them Eyes given them that they should not see Ears that they should not hear their Table becomes a Snare the offer of Grace a stumbling to them Nay you say then every Sin of theirs is against the Holy Ghost i. e. every Sin alike the unpardonable Sin There is no Sin unpardonable in respect of God i. e. such that God cannot pardon but there are Sins of the same Nature and Kind with them that are pardoned in some that will not be pardoned in others God 's not pardoning a Sin or Person makes not it or him unpardonable ab actu ad potentiam non valet consequentiam The Sin against the Holy Ghost is not therefore unpardonable because it cannot be pardoned but from the positive and declared will of Christ concerning it that it shall not be forgiven in this World nor in the World to come he hath made an exception upon this Species of Sin or Individual Sin Matth. 12.31 32. but for this reason no other sort or kind of Sin is unpardonable Christ that spake the one spake the other All manner of Sin and Blasphemy shall be forgiven unto Men ver 32. Is it not a marvellous piece of Impudence in you to draw this Inference upon Christ because Sins in the Non-elect are not forgiven eventually therefore now all manner of Sins in them are as unpardonable as Sins against the Holy Ghost Neonom To say no more it will follow Christ hath no Rule of distributive Justice but his own eternal purpose and Men's Regards to his promised Benefits are all forbidden even when our respect to them is that which subserves his Government and is supposed in all the Methods of it Antinom You need say no more unless it be to express your Repentance for what you have spoken What mean you by Christ's Rule of Distributive Justice Doth Christ offer Salvation unto Sinners or dispence Grace to Believers in a way of Distributive Justice Is not this to make the Covenant of Grace a Law of Works with a witness It 's true Christ governs the World as King of Kings and Lord of Lords and this Rule of distributive Justice on the Providential Throne and at his Second coming is and shall be the Moral Law But is this his Rule of saving Sinners Doth he administer the Covenant of Grace in a way of Distributive Justice according to Men's Obedience to Commands and regard to Promises made upon such Conditions If it were so Sinners uncalled and called were all in a miserable Condition Neonom And why should we intend the Glory of God the Service of Christ or the good of others Are not these as determined as our own good Hath not God fixed and secured his own Glory Antinom He hath so he hath fixed it and all our Duties and Blessings therein and because Christ provided for his own Glory and the Glory of God's Free-Grace in all that he hath done or is doing for us Therefore we are in a special manner to beware lest we rob him of his Glory by giving that which belongs to him to our own Works even the best we can do Neonom I could shew that we cant't sincerely aim at our own good but we therein aim at the Glory of God nor doth God ever require us to intend his Glory but in a Concurrence with an Eye to our own Salvation Antinom You should have said we cannot truly aim at God's Glory but therein we aim at our own Good Men must first aim at God's Glory But 1. Men may sincerely aim at God's Glory and yet come short of God's Glory and their own good For so Paul did in his unregenerate Estate and so will every unregenerate Man Rom. 3.22 2. How many Men sincerely aim at their own Good in many things and yet have not a true Aim at the Glory of God Do not all Men say Who will shew us any good Psal 4. and seek it in Corn Wine and Oyl And did not the Jews aim at their own Good in following after the Law of Righteousness Rom. 9.31 Neonom I will tell you your mistakes Antinom I pray mend and recant your own gross Errors
i. e. believed them so as to be assured of them As for the rest of the Saints you shall find all along that their Triumphant Assurances was by Faith Abraham Rom. 4.20 21. See the various phrases to express his full Assurance of Faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he made no dispute or doubt about the Promise the English well express He staggered not at the Promise or through unbelief ver 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ver 19. He was not weak in Faith but was strong in Faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and consulted not with himself secondary Causes or Carnal Reason but was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 carried forth with a full gale of Assurance Job 19.25 Job's Assurance was the Assurance of Faith I know my Redeemer liveth c. David under his greatest Tryal of Banishment by his own Son from the House of God Psal 42.10 when Challenged by his Enemies at the highest rate at which he was so disquieted he calls up his Soul to take up Comfort in believing ver 11. and 45.5 Paul Rom. 7. where he tells how low he was brought upon Self-examination as to what he could find in himself ver 18. I know that in me that is in my Flesh there dwells no good thing See how he complains ver 24. O wretched Man that I am c. as much as to say I am wretched in regard of the Evil Sin and Corruption that I find abounding in me but ver 25. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord there is the Root of his Comfort in the Faith that he had in Jesus Christ tho there was this little small spark of Holiness in him a mind at least to serve the Law of God yet he trusted not to that And you see 2 Cor. 12.7 8 9. when he fell into Temptation and Buffeting was it his Duties and Services to Christ and his Churches that supported him No it was an objective manifestation to him received by Faith My Grace is sufficient for thee but you will say his rejoicing was in the Testimony of his Conscience 2 Cor. 1.12 It 's true it was and the Testimony of a good Conscience as to our Hearts and Ways is matter of Rejoicing but this was in Paul without confidence in the Flesh or ascribing any thing to it but by seeing all in Christ and that all flowed down from the Free Grace and Love of God all his Simplicity and Sincerity of Heart was seen by Faith to be Gifts of Grace therefore you see whensoever the Children of God took any Comforts and Rejoicings from the Fruits of the Spirit they made not these as the Fundamental ground of their Assurance but a confirming and additional ground and such as was very uncertain insomuch that at some times they were at a perfect loss for them yet was not without their rooted and grounded Assurances in the darkest Times and under the obscurest Providences Neonom The Conscience is bound to condemn every Man in whom the contrary to these Graces do appear yea where it 's evident they are wholly wanting It 's otherwise a seared Conscience 1 Tim. 4.2 It 's the Candle of the Lord now there can be no Assurance where the Conscience condemns 1 John 3.19 20 21. D. W. p. 166. Antinom There is nothing but the sprinkling of the Blood of Christ applyed by Faith that can take off the Conscience from Condemning and without this all the Works and Duties in the World cannot do it it 's the Law that obligeth the Conscience to condemn and the sence of our Imperfections and Weaknesses and remainder of Corruption may be where there is no condemning Conscience but wherefore is it Not because of what they find in themselves but from what they find in Christ and it 's a harsh Doctrine that you teach from 1 Tim. 4.2 that all that cannot find Works enough in themselves to conclude their state in Christ from and hold it meerly by Faith in Christ and thereby freed from Condemning Consciences have Seared Cauterized Consciences such as the Apostle Prophesies of that should abound in the Antichristian Apostacy and Seduction and you subvert the Doctrine of the Gospel thereby helping to fulfill that Prophecy by what Doctrine the Text will tell you Neonom The Spirit witnesseth with our Spirits 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 8.16 It doth not witness before our Spirits doth witness It is not a separate Testimony from our Spirits but it concurrs with our Spirit as its Instrument our Spirit witnesseth in the Light of the Spirit 1 Cor. 9.1 my Conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost Antinom What is this Argument brought for is this to prove that there 's no Assurance by the Voice of the Spirit And that the only way of Assurance is by Signs and Marks But you have brought in this place of Scripture as many Men retain Councel in their Case they Fee some Councel only that they may not be against them but the Word of God will not be Bribed this place is directly against you The Apostle here tells us the very Comforting Office of the Holy Ghost that it becomes a Spirit of Adoption this is the Spirit of Christ Gal. 4.6 And what is it that it doth it teacheth us to call God Father and how doth it do this A. It 's by witnessing to us our Relation viz. that we are the Sons of God this is that which doth assure us of our Inheritance if Children then Heirs Now I argue that which witnesseth in the Children of God that they are the Children of God insomuch that from thence they can conclude themselves Heirs doth pronounce the Actual Forgiveness of their Siâ—s and is the usual way of Assurance but the Spirit witnesseth in the Children of God that they are the Children of God Ergo there is a pronunciation of Actual Forgiveness by the Voice of the Spirit c. For the Major it 's proved from Gal. 3.26 The Spirit bestows Adoption by Faith in Christ Jesus Ye are all the Children of Gâ—d by Faith in Christ Jesus and ver 29. If ye be Christ's then are you of Abraham's Seed and Heirs according to the Promise you 'll allow the Spirit to witness but not before our Spirit so that you 'll have our Spirits to be before the Spirit the Senior Evidence I deny it for that which causeth our Spirits to give Evidence is not the younger Evidence but the Spirit causeth our Hearts to give Evidence Ergo Now for the Minor that the Spirit causeth our Hearts to give Evidence I prove from your self you say the Spirit concurrs with our Spirit as its Instrument now the Efficient is before the Instrument by which it works and Instrumentum is but Causa Ministrans at most and is res motu facta in that respect is effectum efficientis Now the way of the Spirits witnessing is by bringing to our Spirit an objective Manifestation of Grace in the Promise and causing us by Faith to make
for God to say unto the Soul I am thy Salvaiion Is it not the ordinary Gospel Voice under the Old Testament and New Neonom It hardly carries its Evidence to a Soul that hath no Grace at all Antinom You say a miraculous Voice can hardly carry its Evidence to a Soul that hath no Grace at all It is well you put in hardly for you know it was carryed to Paul in a miraculous Voice and it 's a marvellous audacious Expression to say God can hardly carry Grace and Evidence of Grace to a graceless Soul no not so much as miraculously and cannot God give Grace and evidence in the same moment of time as to the Thief on the Cross and thousands more in the Word Neonom It 's a way too far Enthusiastick to be allowed in so stated a Case Antinom You had best say the Apostle Paul in the whole 8th Chapter to the Romans and 1 Cor. 2. and Eph. 1. and in divers other places was too Enthusiastick and therefore those portions of Scripture that speak of the Revelation and Witness of the Spirit and the Assurances of Faith not to be allowed I 'll assure you you are mighty Magisterial to take upon you the decrying the Witness of the Spirit at this presumptuous rate openly and before the World What account can you give of this another day Neonom It gives the Devil a great advantage against Sinners to live in Sin and against honest People if once they find cause to question this Voice Yea it sets up the Spirit against it self if any can boast of Assurance by this Voice when their state is justly challengeable by the Gospel as wanting all Sight of Gospel Marks Antinom If the Grace of God that brings Salvation unto Sinners is the casting out of the Devil out of the Heart and the witnessing Spirit a mortifying Spirit Teacher of Holiness and the greatest Enlarger of the Heart therein as Rom. 8.15 by how much the more it works as a Comsorter as the Spirit of Adoption bringing us into the Liberty of Sons of God and shewing to us that Christ is ours and we are his yea by how much the more he makes us to see by Faith in Christ and how much the less he makes us to see in our selves but still shews us our own Vileness and Ugliness Corruptions poorness of Duties even to the loathing and abhorring of our selves if then I say God is most glorified and his Free Grace Christ is most advanced and his precious Blood and his glorious Spirit to be loved and admired and we in the best and most Gospel-frame Then all that you have here spoken is Burlesque mingled with the Enmity of your Heart vented against the Grace of the Gospel and the Spirit of God Calvin I must confess I can't tell what to say of that saying The Witness of the Spirit by the Voice of the Gospel is giving advantage to the Devil I am sure it hath a dangerous Aspect But I pray Mr. Antinomian do you condemn Signs and Marks as altogether useless towards the gaining of Assurance that he inveighs at so heavy a rate Antinom No by no means I allow the Fruits of the Spirit to be of a marvellous use as to Confirming and Comforting of our selves and very satisfactory to others that our Saviour saith hereby shall all men know that we are his Disciples and as James saith we must be convinced of mens Faith by their Work or else we can't take them to be Believers Yea we expect of every one that we admit Church-members that they should give a Reason of the Hope that is in them according to the Rule of the Gospel This Mr. Neonomian is against he will Burlesque upon it as much as he doth now at the Witness of the Spirit Calvin Why it is not possible Mr. Neonomian Sure when you admit Members into your Congregation you are very strict in Examining of them upon the Fruits of Faith that you and all your Congregation may know so far as the Judgment of a rational Charity will go that they are Disciples of Christ tho' as those Signs may deceive a mans own self so others may be deceived in those that make Profession of them Neonom I know no ground to stand so strictly upon my Admission I think if men be not grossly Ignorant or openly Scandalous they may be admitted to all Ordinances I can't try them for their Perseverance which is the greatest Mark. Calvin But I read that the Churches in the Primitive Times were made up of those that were at least to Visible appearance sanctified in Christ Jesus Neonom But the times are altered now they were Converted out of Heathenism we are all Christians Calvin Aye such as they be such as your honest People which the Devil gets a great advantage against to perswade to live in sin because of the pardoning Grace of the Gospel for whose sake you would have the Doctrine renounced and another Gospel preached I see you do not set so much by Signs and Marks but only to set them up in opposition to the Witness of the Spirit Antinom I will give you my full sence of the Doctrine of Assurance The certainty of a Thing or Proposition can be founded but upon one of these two Bottoms either upon an Artificial or Inartificial Argument so called in Logick An Argument artificial gives me sensible or rational ground for what I am assured of and it argues Things from Causes Effects Subjects Adjuncts Dissentaneities wherein are diversa opposita c. But an inartificial Argument is founded on Testimony and according to the faithfulness of him that brings it it gives more or less ground of belief This is reckoned in Logick the weakest ground of Knowledge especially being Testimonium humanum that is brought it may be a probable ground of believing but is not an Infallible one and therefore the Judgment upon it usually goes no further than Opinion that which is of a Contingency But in Theology Testimonium Divinum Divine Testimony is the greatest ground of Certainty and Assurance in the World because he that speaks is unchangeably true faithful just and holy he cannot ly Now hence it is that what Testimony comes from God himself it is to be believed because it is so without reasoning any further and is the greatest ground of Assurance in the World therefore I affirm that the Witness of God in his Word and the Spirit in the Heart firmly believed is and produceth the greatest Assurance for firmness and durability in the World This is that which ought to ly in the bottom of all our Assurance this will hold above all in the hour of Temptation when all Signs and Marks sail tho our Faith may be sometimes shaken and our Comforts and Assurances eclips'd so that our Faith may hold but as far as a Hoping or Perswasion of a Probability of our State and Condition yet as Mr. Neonomian saith as the Evidence is
strong or weak so our Assurance is strong or weak Now that Faith still carries with it a Hypostasis or Demonstration of the thing believed grounded upon the Certainty Truth and Infallibility of God I am fully satisfied from that Portion of Scripture that evinces it undeniably Heb. 11.1 And as now for other grounds of Comfort and Assurance which arise from the Visibility of the Grace of God and the Fruits of the Spirit in the Heart and Life I highly value them as subordinate grounds of Comfort and Confirmation in Assurance these are seen by the reflection of the Soul upon it self being able in regenerate man to reason in a spiritual manner from Causes Effects Subjects and Adjuncts c. which he finds in himself according to the Rule of the Word of God This I call Experimental Assurance and this is that which is so long attaining to and when it is had may be lost again in a great measure as Comfort therefore And because many Believers take this to be all the Assurance they must look for and their Teachers tell them so therefore they go mourning all their dayes and are only supported by what degrees of Assurance is in their Faith which they take not to be any and their Teachers tell them that Faith hath nothing of Assurance in it but do suggest as if it were but the roving of the Mind in uncertainties and Probability and that it is Presumption for them to believe to Confidence and Assurance though the Spirit of God doth command and encourage it again and again and that doubting is rather their Vertue than Sin whereas so much as there is of Doubting mingled with their Faith so much there is of Sin and Unbelief In true Faith there is the Promise more or less believed i. e. the Truth and Goodness because a Promise reached forth a Truth which carries Goodness in it to us-ward is received the â—eason of which reception is the certain Truth and Faithfulneâ—â— of him that promiseth Hence there is believing a Word and believing a Person Hence believing hath three things in it according to the Apostle Heb. 11. 1. The Object falls not under the measure of Sense and Reason therefore called Things not seen and Things hoped for 2. There is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. an express Image Heb. 1. of the things not seen and hoped for brought to us in the Promise 3. There is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Demonstration or Argument of the Reality and Certainty of those things and intention of bestowing them taken from the Truth and Faithfulness of him that promiseth Faithful is he that hath promised Now that God hath promised in general and indefinitely to save Sinners and that he is able and willing to perform it in his time and to whom he pleaseth may be a common Faith only and such as the Devils have But for a Sinner to take up with the Promise for himself is the work of the Spirit peculiarly Because there is no man spoken to by Name in the Promise which advantage Abraham had and the want thereof must be supplyed by the Spirit 's â—aying to the Soul more or less plainly This Promise belongeth â—nto thee whereby the Soul is enabled to exert fiducially a believing the Promise and staying on the Promiser for himself And here lyes the difficulty of Believing and the usual workings of Unbelief It 's a marvellous thing to me Mr. Neonomian that you can have the Impudency to quote the Assembly for your Assertion Confess Ch. 18. viz. That there is no other grounds of Assurance but Signs and Marks Whereas they say so expressly That a Believer may be assured in this Life that he is in a State of Grace and this Certainty is not a bare conjectural and probable perswasion grounded on a fallible Hope but an Infallible Assurance of Faith founded on the Divine Truth of the Promises of Salvation the inward evidence of those Graces unto which those Promises are made the Testimony of the Spirit of Adoption witnessing with our Spirits So that they make three grounds of Assurance 1. The infallible Assurance of Faith 2. The inward Evidences of Graces 3. The Witness of the Spirit of Adoption When you quoted this place you had either forgot what you had wrote or you quote it retaining the Assembly first least it should be brought against you There are three great Graces spoken of by the Apostle 1 Cor. 13.13 Faith Hope Love Mr. Caryl on Job 13.13 And the Scripture holds forth an Assurance in reference to every one of these First The Assurance of Faith Heb. 10.22 Let us draw near with a true Heart in full assurance of Faith This Assurance of Faith hath a double respect 1. To our Persons 2. To our Services that in both we are pleasing to God Secondly There 's an Assurance of Hope Heb. 6.11 Faith hath an Eye to the Truth of the Promise Hope to the Good of the Promise and the Assurance of Hope is that we shall certainly receive that Good Thirdly There 's an Assurance of Love 1 Joh. 4.48 Perfect Love casts out Fear How is Love made Perfect and how doth it cast out Fear v. 17. Herein saith he is love made perfect that we may have boldness in the day of Judgment because as he is so are we in the World i. e. As his Love is sincere to us so is ours to him according to our measure even in this life and this gives us boldness our Assurance that all shall go well with us in the day of Judgment so this Love casteth out all fear of Condemnation in that day which Fear where it remains hath Torment than which nothing is more contrary to Assurance In perfect Love there is no Torment because there is no Fear and there is no Fear because there is an Assurance of the Love of God in this love the Soul doth repose rest and delight it self There is a Fourth thing spoken of which is a full assurance of Vnderstanding This is Clearness of our apprehension about the things which we do believe and upon which we fasten by Faith and Love The Light of the Understanding shining upon the Mysteries of the Gospel and mixing with our other Graces bottoms the Soul upon the strongest Foundation and raiseth it up to the highest Pinnacle of Assurance We may say of Assurance in reference to these four Graces as Philosophers do of the Heavens in reference to the four Elements That they are neither of the four Elements but a Quintessence of a fisth Essence So we may say of Assurance it is neither Faith nor Hope nor Love nor Knowledge but it is a fifth thing sublimated and raised either out of or above all those i. e. when Assurance is raised to the highest pitch that it is a full Assurance from whence our Joy is full all a Christians Sails are filled being under a full gale and having fair weather Rom. 8.16 The Spirit
it self beareth witness with our Spirits that we are the Sons of God Dr. Owen of the Spirit p. 168. Sect. 9. The witness which our own Spirits do give unto our Adoption is the work and Effect of the Holy Spirit in us if it were not it would be false and not confirmed by the Testimony of the Spirit himself who is the Spirit of Truth and none knoweth the things of God but the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 2.11 If he declare not our Sonship in us and to us we cannot know it How doth he then bear witness to our Spirits What is the distinct Testimony It must be some such Act of his as evidenceth it self to be from him Immediately unto them that are concerned in it i. e. those unto whom it is given He that Expounds Rom. 8.16 In Pool's Annotations see the Expos on Rom. 8.16 I think one of your Vouchers speaks admirably well to this matter The Spirit of Adoption saith he doth not only excite us to call upon God as our Father but it doth ascertain and assure us as before that we are his Children And this it doth not by an outward Voice as God the Father to Jesus Christ nor by an Angel as to Daniel and the Virgin Mary but by an inward and secret suggestion whereby he raiseth our Hearts to this perswasion That God is our Father and we are his Children This is not the Testimony of the Graces and Operations of the Spirit but of the Spirit it self A mans own Spirit doth witness to his Adoption he finds in himself upon diligent search and Examination some of the manifest Signs and Tokens thereof But this Testimony of it self is weak and Satan hath many wayes and wiles to invalidate it wherefore for more assurance it 's confirmed by a greater Testimony i. e. the Spirit it self which first works Grace and then witnesseth it he witnesseth with our spirits and seals it up to us This Testimony is not in all Believers alike nor in any one at all times it 's better felt than expressed He witnesseth to our Spirits so some read it by a distinct and immediate Testimony and he witnesseth with our Spirits so the word properly signifies by a conjunctive and concurrent Testimony Intelligit Paulus c. Paul means that the Spirit of God bears such a Testimony to us Mr. Calvin on Rom. 8.16 that he being our Guide and Master our spirit doth conclude Gods adoption of us is sure For our Spirits would not dictate this Faith to us of our own accord unless the Testimony of the Spirit go before and he shews us how for whilest the Spirit doth witness to us that we are the Children of God he doth also put this believing Confidence into our Souls that we have the boldness to call God Father And this is to be held alwayes as a Principle That we never pray to God in a right manner unless as we call him Father with our Lips so we are certainly perswaded in our Minds that he is such Paraeus also speaks the same and quotes the words of Chrysostom Si Homo Angelus Archangelus c. If a Man an Angel an Archangel promise any thing happily a man may doubt but if the Spirit of God the Supream Being which causeth us to pray and makes a Promise to them that pray and gives us a Promise bearing Testimony to us within our selves what room is there for doubting Faith is called an Evidence hence we learn that the nature of Faith stands not in doubting Mr. Perkins on Heb. 11.1 but in a Certainty and Assurance The Romish Doubting of the Essence of Faith is as contrary to true Faith as Darkness to Light Obj. But it seems Doubting is a part or Companion of Faith and who doubteth not Ans We do say so but what then we should not God commands us to Believe and not Doubt Again If Faith be the Substance of things hoped for much more is it a Substance to a Believer if it give those things a Being which are out of him much more doth it give a permanent Being to the Believer himself strengthning him to stand and continue in all Assaults Heb. 3.14 ERRATA's of the Second Part continued from pag. 83. PAg. 90. l. 6. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 93. l. 1. r. nakedly p. 94. l. 18. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 95. l. 10. r. Imputata ibid. l. 31. r. it is of Infinite p. 98. l. 3. r. our Confession ibid. 29. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 100. l. 24. r. we can never p. 104. l. 4. r. Person p. 107. l. penult r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 109. l. 12. r. one as well as the other p. 110. l. 28. del only p. 111. l. 23. r. It s the Law p. 112. l. 14. dele that for Ibid. l. 38. r. became p. 113. l. 15. r. tenure of it ibid. l. 17. r. is relating ibid. Marg. r. Pacti p. 117. l. 33. del in ib. l. 38. r. to Christ by Faith p. 118. l. 6. r. dependences p. 124. l. 22. r. parts p. 125. l. 9. r. Restipulating p. 130. l. 6. r. given it to me p. 135. l. 8. r. prusquà m p. 162. l. 11. for second r. the first Covenant p. 168. l. 2. r. promised mercy p. 169. l. 26. r. on the Serpent p. 173. l. 16. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ib. l. 26. r. get up your selves to such p. 190. l. 1. r. sincerity p. 222. l. ult r. were some of p. 223. l. 41. r. the same one p. 231. l. 6. r. Denyed p. 232. l. 27. r. it s not in being p. 234. Marg. l. 5. r. formâ p. 235. l. 7. r. that 's not so p. 237. l. 19. r. Vrsin Catech. p. 239 l. 1. r. ex fide per fidem p. 249. l. 5. r. Causa efficiens materialis p. 257. l. 8. r. tell you p. 259. l. 37. r. considering p. 275. l. 37. r. tendring p. 281. l. 16. r. Integrality ib. l. 32. r. but we must not p. 268. l. 22. r. as he is p. 293. l. 9. dele was by p. 296. l. 2. r. Retain p. 303. l. 38. del as ib. l. ult then to the. p. 218. l. 9. r. persevered You 'l say it may be he must believe his perseverance ibid. l. 14. r. to no more p. 329. l. 23. r. World p. 330. l. 21. r. inveighs against you at NEONOMIANISM VNMASK'D PART III. CHAP. XVI Of God's seeing Sin in Believers Neonom THere is a Grand Error Mr. Calvin which we would now deal with Mr. Antinomian about every one talks of it as very Gross and Notorious and that is this That God seeth no sin in believers tho' he see the fact neither doth he charge them with sin nor ought they to charge themselves with any sin nor be at all sad for it nor confess repent nor do any thing as a means of pardon no nor in order to assuring themselves of pardon even when they commit Murder
find it otherwise c. Answ There is not one Fit of Sadness in any Believer whatsoever but he is out of the way of Christ to which I add as follows which he mentions not I mean in his Fits of Sadness in respect of his jealousness of his present and future State he is out of the way of Christ he enjoys not him as he ought while he is in such fits therefore the Apostle puts Believers upon rejoycing always Phil. 4.4 There is matter of nothing but joy in him while theâ—e is mournings in Believers there is meltings in those mournings and more joy in mourning of a Believer than in all the mirth of a wicked Man Believers weep for joy according to the Proverb and never mourn more kindly than when they see the joy of the Holy Ghost in the freeness and fulness of the Lord Christ poured out upon them there is never any more kindly mourning for sin than that mourning when the Soul is satisfied of forgiveness of sins I say the Soul is first satiâ—fied with forgiveness of sins i. e. it ought to mourn in the faith of forgiveness if the mourning be kindly and of a Gospel-nature before there is that real kindly mouring in those that are Believers Gentlemen I crave your Pardon that I give you the trouble of hearing me repeat so much of my former Discourses but I am fain to do it for my vindication he having so rent and tore my Sermons in sunder on purpose to expose them and my Name yea I wish that were all that it be not the very Gospel-grace itself that he bears such a spleen to else sure he would never make such a scorn of solemn and serious Truths of Christ Neonom I shall not spare you for your Whining you say God doth no longer stand offended nor displeased though a Believer after he is a Believer sin often Dr. C. p. 15. Antinom I was shewing from John 14.6 that Christ is the way the only and effectual and infallible way from all the wrath of God to all that do receive him 1. From the affection of Wrath Let me tell you would to God you could receive it according to the manifest evidence of Scripture God doth no longer stand offended with a Believer tho' a Believer after he be a Believer doth sin often And where is the Believer that doth not sin often when he hath once received Christ and unto them God saith Anger is not in me Isa 47.4 and Isa 53. He shall see of the travel of his soul and he shall be satisfied i. e. pacified The travel of the Soul of Christ makes God such amends for the sinfulness of all Believers that he can no longer stand offended and displeased with them if God remain offended with them there is yet some of their sinfulness to be taken away Except God will be offended where there is no cause to be offended which is Blasphemy to speâ—k he will not be offended with Believers for I say he hath no cause to be offended with a Believer You must understand always quoad Deum as to God he being satisfied because he doth not find the sin of a Believer to be the Believer's own sin but he finds it the sin of Christ i. e. by way of Imputation so I always mean He was made Sin for us he laid the Iniquities of us all upon him the Blood of Christ cleanseth us from all Sin he bear our Sins in his own Body on the Tree but if he bear our Sins he must bear the displeasure for them nay he did bear the Displeasure the Indignation of the Lord and if he did bear the Indignation of the Lord either he did bear all or but a part if he did not bear all the Indignation of the Lord then he doth not save to the uttermost those that come to God by him Heb. 4. I say not to the uttermost because here is some offence some indignation left behind and for lack of taking of this indignation upon himself it lights and falls upon Believers so that you must say Christ is an imperfect Saviour and hath left some scattering Wrath behind that will light on the head of a Believer c. Calvin I pray Mr. Neonomian what is the Truth in this Point It is you must set us right and shew us all our Mistakes Neonom Truth The Sins of Believers have the loathsomness of Sin adhering to them which God sees and accounts the committers guilty thereby D. W. p. 170. Antinom What do you mean by the loathsomness of Sin Is not Sin in all its respects loathsom and is it not loathsom as it is contrary to the preceptive part of the Holy Law Is there any fine sweet precious part of Sin Did not Christ bear Sin of the deepest die most loathsom Sins Is it any otherwise loathsom than as a Transgression of the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And this was that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Christ took away 1 Joh. 3. But how not that they were subjectively removed from us but that the inherency of them in great measure remains in us and God knows it but before the eye of Justice all sin of a Believer as he stands under the Sanction of the Law is taken away i. e. as to the Condemnation and Wrath that belongs unto him he is freed from it by the Blood and Satisfaction of Christ Neonom And they ought to charge themselves with it so as to stir up themselves to repentance and renew their actings of Faith on Christ for forgiveness Antinom They ought to be always sensible of and humbled for the constant indwelling and frequent breaking forth of their Sins and Corruptions but always beginning in the Faith of the Blood and Satisfaction of Christ and therefrom exercise Repentance and Humiliation or else their Humiliation and Repentance will not be of a right nature nor attain a right end and we own such Actings of Faith and Repentance ought often to be renewed by the best of God's Children Neonom Nevertheless they ought not thereby to fear their being out of a justified state Antinom Therefore to believe they are in a justified estate and not to cast off the spirit of adoption and betake themselves to a spirit of bondage and if they ought to believe their justified state then they ought to believe their freedom from condemnation for a justified state and a state of condemnation are the highest in opposition indeed privantia the one totally expels the other Neonom They must not fear their justification further than their faults give them just cause of suspecting that sin hath dominion over them and that their first believing on Christ was not sincere Antinom As to suspicion of the truth of believing our way is not to charge sin upon ourselves as lying under the Wrath of God for it this will work in us the highest despair or such degrees of unbelief as tend thereto but in case of such
Spirits and becomes our own our Flesh being like the Viper's Stomach that turns the wholsomest Food into Poison See what Excellent Mr. Beza saith in his Confess Chap. 4. Art 19. It is not to be allowed that Works are a cause of Salvation in the whole or any part for if it were so certainly there would be but a Crazy Foundation of our Salvation We must of necessity acknowledg that the Water and Foundation from which it flows are akin because the most thick Darkness yet remains in our Understandings it would come to pass if God should in his strict Justice enquire into the best Works of a Man there could be no other thing determined of them but that they be the mere pollutions of God's gifts as it often falls out that a River otherwise clear and limpid is infected with the Filth of a Jaques thro' which it runs Rom. 7.15 23. Psal 142.2 Now what think you of this For my part I verily believe that Doctor C. took his very way of Expressing and Illustrating these things from this very place of Mr. Beza Now unless you will condemn this Learned and Approved Divine for Errour in this point I see not that you can accuse this Antinomian as you call him I will shew you the Opinions of a Divine who I hope you dare not call unstudied and unlearned it 's of the famous Doctor Tuckney in his Sermons upon this Text of Phil. 3.8 He saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all things which includes more than all that was before mentioned If you ask what I Answer according to our Divines whom I am not ashamed of or of their Judgment All his own Inherent Righteousness and best Works after Conversion his labouring more abundantly than they all his Conversion of many Souls his holy and unblameable Conversation Omnia quae hunc Christianus Apostolus ago habeo as Zanchy upon the Text which he sufficiently makes out to be here included both from the Universal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as being intended to Express more than was before Expresses of his Morals and Zeal before Conversion and from the Present Tense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now that he is Converted he Judges so of all that he was and is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Chrysostom and by what he saith Vers 9. c. And to throw you quite on your Back I will shew you a passage in the Assembly's Confession which you would not see Chap. XVI of Good Works Sect. V. When we have done all we can we have done but our Duty and are unprofitable Servants and because as they are good they proceed from the Spirit and as they are wrought by us they are defiled and mixed with so much Weakness and Imperfection that they cannot endure the Severity of God's Judgment Yet notwithstanding the Persons of Believers are accepted thro' Christ and their Good Works also are accepted in him c. Now Sir Seeing the Doctrin which you so Peremptorily call Errour is so clearly proved to be Truth let us hear what you have to say in stating and defending your Judgment and I pray Mr. Antinom do you Whip the Top with him Neonom Truth Tho' the present sincere Holiness of Believers be not perfect according to the Precepts of the Word nor valuable by the Sanction of the Law of Innocency nor any Attonement for our defects and â—e still need Forgiveness and the Merits of Christ for acceptance thereof yet as far as it prevails it 's Lovely in it self and pleasing to God and is not Dung or Filth Antinom We shall divide your Canon into Two parts the Negative and Positive you tell us what it is not and first Note That you change the Terms for the Doctor speaks of Works performed by us when a Duty is performed and becomes a Compositum of the pure Graces of the Spirit mixed with the Corrupt indwelling Motions of our own Hearts and hence he distinguisheth between Grace flowing from the Spirit which is purely Holy and Grace acted and performed by us through the assistance of the Spirit therefore we must keep you to the Doctor 's Terms viz. to our sincere Works or sincere Holiness taken in that sense This being premised 1. You tell us these Works are imperfect and not according to the Word therefore so far sinful for whosoever keeps the whole Law and offendeth in one point is guilty of all James 2.10 And so I say of any Duty if it fail in one point it 's chargeable with breach of the whole Law so the Duty is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Dung and Filth 2. You say it 's not valuable by the Law of Innocency that 's said before for what is not according to God's Precept is Condemned by God's Law by every Law of God it 's so far from Valuableness it stands under a Sentence of Condemnation God never accepted or owned Imperfect Obedience as suâ—h and in it self neither is it consistent with his pure Nature so to do 3. You say it cannot make Attonement If it stand for Acceptable Righteouseness and Holiness it must make Attonement for its Defects and sinful Pollutions the High Priest was to make Attonement for his own Sins before he could be accepted so in this Case that Righteousness that cannot Attone for its own Sins if there be any cannot be Acceptable to God but you say this Righteousness cannot make Attonement for its Sins therefore in it self can never be Acceptable to God Posit 1. You say we still need Forgiveness and the Merits of Christ for Acceptance of these Works 1. Then I say they are Sinful or else would not need Forgiveness 2. They need the Merits of Christ and therefore not Acceptable Righteousness in themselves they are as Dung and Stink in the Nostrils of God the best Works in themselves are such whatever is not capable in it self to make it self Acceptable in the sight of God if it have no relation to another Righteousness it Stinks and is Abominable in the Nostrils of God 3. You say so far as it prevails its lovely i. e. not at all of it self Observe still what we say No good Work of a Believer prevails to Acceptation of us and if not it prevails not at all and that which prevails not to Acceptation is not lovely in it self for nothing is lovely to God but what he Accepts and hence you conclude it is not Dung or Filth but from what you your self have said it can be no other than Dung whatever cannot be Accepted of God without Forgiveness and the Righteousness of Christ to make it Acceptable is in it self and out of Christ Dung But I perceive what you aim at that it is a Righteousness that comes in for a share with Christ and in part it prevails to Acceptation tho' not altogether and here you fall in with the Council of Trent as in all your Doctrin That the Grace of Justification and Acceptance
this Society the Overseers of my Will with this Proviso That if Mr. Neonomian do refuse or do not well and truly execute this my last Will and Testament in the agreed Judgment of this Society that then the whole Trust shall devolve upon the said Society which I doubt not but they will endeavour faithfully to perform Calv. Mr. Neonom Will you accept of this Executorship Neonom I do not know what Power he hath to dispose of the Goods of other Men I take it to be great presumption in him if not dishonesty to dispose of other Mens Proprieties seeing he renounceth them all Antinom Sir I crave your Pardon I must confess Mr. Calvin he hath given me a just Rebuke for when we met in the Eutopian Fields finding me Anonymus he was so courteous as to lend me or rather impose upon me the Name of Mr. Antinomian during my short Converse here he having two Names himself he could lend me one for a little while which as you see for Conversation sake I have made use of with an Intention to return it yea in the mean time did declare and did plead it against all Men that it was Mr. Neonomian's Propriety and therefore I now return it to him accordingly Neonom No no Sir I gave you that Name as your Propriety it best expressing your Opinions Antinom Then Sir you 'l grant I have Power to bequeath it in my last Will and I bequeath it to you Calv. But by your favour Sir it 's a judged Case and therefore you have not Power to bequeath it if you borrowed it it 's Honesty to return it before you depart Neonom What do you mean by a judged Case Calv. I mean that Mr. Neonomian hath before this Society sufficiently given us to understand that his Opinion is that the moral Law is vacated and a new Law brought into the room of it Antinom And more than that there are certain Divines in this City great Friends to this Society that have excepted against his Principles as highly Antinomian Therefore take it as your own by Law Vale. Antinomus Exit Anonymus Calv. Now Sir your great Antagonist is withdrawn I shall deal plainly with you and briefly sum up the Heads of these things wherein it hath manifestly appeared by the foregoing Debates that you have given abundant cause of just offence by your late Writings 1. That you have unjustly charged and misrepresented Dr. Crisp by your self owned to have been a holy Man 2. That you have falsly stated those things which you call Truths and Errors 3. That you have vented your own erroneous Tenents and endeavoured to prove them agreeable to the Articles Confessions and our Orthodox Protestant Writers by perverting their Sense or misapplying what they say when as they are most repugnant to you 1. As to the said Doctor you charge him unjustly with those things which are directly false I shall give an Instance or two of it You say this is one of his Errors chap. 1. that he saith That if the Elect should die before they believe yea when they are under the Dominion of Sin and in the Practice of the grossest Villanies they are as much the Sons of God and justified as the Saints in Glory Whereas he expresly denies the truth of this Charge in his Vindication he makes of himself against some who in his Life-time had reproached his Doctrin and Ministry as you do now p. 637. They say that I should affirm that if an elect Person should die a Whoremonger and Adulterer c. in all kind of Prophaneness he shall be saved He appeals to his Hearers whether ever they heard him Preach any such Doctrin and declares it a gross notorious and groundless Slander And his following words are I said before and say again That there is no elect Person suppose him to be capable and come to years shall die before he is called i. e. before the Lord give Faith to this Person to believe and in some measure frame him to walk by the Spirit according to the Rule of the Gospel The second false Charge is Chap. 2. Err. 2. That he should make Christ the real Blasphemer Murderer c. and that he was so accounted of the Father Whereas he asserts and vindicates the Innocency of Christ's Person he saith only that Christ was accounted a Transgressor from a real Transaction or Imputation of our Sins to him in which Doctrin the Scriptures are most full and express 3. You charge this Error upon him Chap. 10. That Christ is offered to Blasphemers Murderers and the worst of Sinners that they remaining ignorant unconvinced and resolved in their purpose to continue such they may be assured they have a full Interest in Christ and this only by concluding in their own minds upon this offer that Christ is theirs That Christ ought to be offered to the vilest of Sinners and they invited to come unto him is sound Gospel-truth tho' you condemn it for an Error And is it possible a Man of Conscience can slander a Man whom he owneth to be holy with such a notorious Falshood That he should assert that Christ is offered to Men that they remaining ignorant unconvinced and resolved in their purpose to continue such might be assured of their Interest in Christ concluding only in their minds that Christ is theirs this we have proved to be a notorious Slander Many other Falshoods have been proved 2. As for Misrepresentations they run thorow the whole Book 1. Of Dr. C. that you may abuse and expose him 2. Of other noted Writers and Confessions you have horridly misrepresented them to serve your turn in asserting Error and condemning of Truth In misrepresenting Dr. Crisp you have either perverted his meaning and partially rehearsed his Expressions or else condemned what Truth he asserts and defends as great Errors As to the first we have sufficiently made it manifest in some Instances in the first part and it hath abundantly been proved in the whole progress of our Debates And here it is not amiss to add a word or two to what is said to your Error in the sixth Debate that you make a great Cry and Noise about viz. That Dr. C. should say That Christ while he bore Sin and was under the Punishment thereof was the Object of God's abhorrence The Doctor 's words are p. 180. All that hatefulness and loathsomness of Sin is put upon Christ that he stands as it were the abhorred of the Father for a time 1. You leave out as it were 2. You improve this to a hatred of the Person of Christ and a separation of his Natures upon his using the word Separation as Exegetick of forsaking both Scripture Expressions concerning Sin and Christ 3. You hereby manage your design of beating down the Doctrin of Christ's bearing God's Wrath and Curse for us as you do the Doctrin of his bearing Sin 4. As to the word abhorred upon a diligent Enquiry we find it to
be a Scripture Expression concerning Christ yea and of Christ under his Sufferings of Wrath and Curse for Sin for tho' God never hated his Person in the highest of his Suffering neither is it necessary any Judge passing Sentence on the worst Criminal should hate his Person yet his Father dealing with him in a judicial way by the eye and hand of Justice in this present state and standing under the Charge of Sin and thereby cloathed as it were with filthy Garments is said to be as it were abhorred of God and it s not only included in the word forsaken the Syriack word Sabactani and taken from Psal 22. where the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used signifying dereliquit deseruit and so rendred by the LXXII and the Evangelist Abhorrere being used by Classick Authors in the sense of being averse to a state or condition Cic. Abborret ab auribus vulgi it s not agreeable to the Peoples Ear abhorrere a nuptiis to be averse to Marriage and from that aversion to turn away from it or a Person in it so God having purer Eyes than in his Justice to behold or endure Iniquity forsook and turned away as it were abhorring his Son standing under the charge of Sin in that state and condition And accordingly as Christ considered in this respect and state of Guilt and Condemnation is brought in prophetically by the Prophet speaking those words Psal 22. and are actually applied to himself by himself on the Cross Mat. 27.46 So we see in another famous Prophecy of this same state of his Suffering this word Abhor is used by our Interpreters most properly Psal 89.38 Thou hast cast off thou hast abhorred thou hast been wrath with thine Anointed The Hebrew hath it with thy Messias and the 72. hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rendred abhorred Sign sprevit reprobavit aspernatus est and by the 72. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou hast contemned or despised 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dereliquit absecit deseruit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sprevit Resâ—â—nt reprobavit aspernatus aversatus est abhoruit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exconduit Furere percitus And it 's observable that three such highly significant words should he here used in one Verse as expressive of the unspeakable weight of God's Wrath and Curse that lay upon him Thou hast deserted thou hast abhorred thou hast dealt in fury of wrath with thy Messiah In Dr. Abbot's Defence of the Reformed Catholick p. 428. we have the following Passages The Prophet saith The Lord did lay upon him our Iniquities the Lord would break him and make him Subject to Infirmities that we may understand that God did not only leave him to the hands of Men but himself counted him with sinners by the bearing of our sins and therefore dealt with him himself accordingly So that he had cause to cry out Thine Indignation lieth borâ— upon me and thou hast vexed me with all thy storms Lord why abhorrest thou my Soul and hidest thy Face from me thy wrathful Displeasure goeth over me and the Fear of thee hath undone me Yet as touching the Person of Christ we acknowledge that he was excepted from Sin In the Margin he qoutes Psal 89.38 applied to Christ by Athenas Interp. Psal by Arnob and Hierom. on Psal 87. As to the rest of the Mis-representations of the said Doctor which wâ—â—â— take up too much Time and Paper to rehearse I refer you to the particular Debates And as to your charging the Truths that he affirms and insists on for Error I shall mention briefly some principal ones under the next Head As to the second thing in which just Exceptions lie against your Book we have this to charge That you have not in all that is material fully and rightly stated Truths and Errors For 1. You have not rightly divided Truth from Error but confounded them one with another 2. You have condemned Truth for Error and asserted Error to be Truth 3. You have stuffed your Positions with ambiguous Words and Terms that instead of stating you have perplexed them and so that when you seem to speak one thing it 's most apparent you mean another Let me but give a few Instances of many that are more largely and particularly demonstrated in the Debates 1. According to this threefold falseness you state Truth and Error in your 1 2 3 4 5 6 Chapters in the Doctrins of Christ's bearing our Sins and Punishment for them 2. In the Doctrin of Imputation of Christ's Righteousness you plainly deny it to be any other than as to Effects which is no Imputation at all That there was no change of Person betwixt Christ and us That he suffered not in our stead That Spots remain in justified ones as they stand justified before God and therefore not perfectly justified and then imputed Righteousness must be imperfect C. 7. 3. You condemn it for an Error to say The Covenant of Grace as to us is not conditional and that Faith is not a Federal Condition of it And to say The Covenant of Grace was made between the Father and Son as the second Adam and with the Elect in him Or that this Covenant-Transaction is pleadable by us If all this be Error what Truth is there in the Scripture and the Assembly C. 8. p. 53 58. 4. You condemn this for an Error to say Christ is to be offered to the worst of sinners before they are willing to deny themselves and renounce all their Sins and Idols C. 10. p. 81. 5. You insinuate a Condemnation of all Union to Christ before an Act of Faith C. 11. p. 91. 6. You insinuate Perswasion not to belong to the Nature of Faith C. 9. p. 73. and make Faith and Repentance to justifie as qualifying Conditions C. 12. p. 102 114. 7. You insinuate a Condemnation of this great Truth asserted by our Lord Jesus Christ himself That he is the Way Truth and Life in Justification Sanctification and Glory Joh. 14.6 C. 13. p. 121. 8. The Sum of what you design in C. 14. is to condemn this great Gospel-Truth for Error that a Believer is not to work from Life but for Life p. 153. 9. You condemn all Ways of Assurance besides By-Signs and Marks found in us among which Perseverance is the greatest Here you condemn Assurance arising from the direct Act of Faith and immediate Witness of the Spirit by it self or in and by the Word C. 15 160 161. 10. You charge that great Truth to be an Error That God sees no Sin in justified ones C. 16. p. 170. And to say that Sin cannot hurt them in a way of condemnation C. 17. p. 181. And that the Afflictions of God's People are Effects of God's Vindicative-Justice and his Displeasure against their Persons C. 18. p. 150. 11. You condemn the Protestant true Acceptation and Interpretation of Phil. 3.8 9. C. 19. p. 196. 3. To these I shall name
Sin You say the guilty Person is no Sinner formally What then a punishable Creature Do you mean a Creature capable of Suffering so is a Dog or a Cat or a Horse Or do you mean a Man under a Law If under a Law he is not punishable but as a Sinner Sin is Subjectivè formalis ratio poenae Sin is subjectively the formal Reason of Punishment So that a Man must be denominated a Sinner formally or else he is not punishable in any way of Justice Neonom In the whole Scheme of your Principles it 's Elect as Elect who cease to be Sinners When you speak of Believers you do not mean that he was a Sinner before he believed for you state the time when Christ had his Sins laid upon him D. W. p. 23. Antinom Believers of great Antiquity older than Methuselah But methinks a Man that would be taken for a great Divine and one that in tenderâ—ess to Holiness will rather with-hold the Truths of the Gospel and abscond them lest Men should take too much liberty thereby to sin I say one would think such a Man should for his Reputation sâ—ke make Conscience of speaking Truth and much more tremble at the Temptation to Bantering and exposing the great Truths of the Gospel to Scorn and Reproach How can you dare to toss tumble reproach and load this great Truth of the Gospel in the very Words of the Holy Ghost with all the odious Consequences imaginable You may value your self as you please or other Men may judge of you and your Words as they please I shall only desire you to read Job 19.27 28 29. Neonom Now I will tell you what is the Truth Antinom No no I hope we know the Truth Tell us the Eror you charge me with and if there be time we will hear the Truth afterward Neonom If you are in such haste for it you shall have it then Errour The Elect upon the Death of Christ ceased to be Sinners and ever since their Sins are none of their Sins but are the Sins of Christ and this I prove to be your Error from your own Words You put this Objection Must he not be reckoned a Sinner while he doth sin A. I answer No Tho he doth Sin yet he is not to be reckoned a Sinner but his Sins are reckoned to be taken away from him c. A Man doth sin against God God reckons not his Sin to be his he reckons it Christ's therefore he cannot reckon it his Dr. Cr. p. 8. Antinom Gentlemen I would have you observe the things that are Asserted by Mr. Neonom for I beseech you do me Justice that it appears that I speak always of the Elect as Elect and not Believers and when I mention Believers that I do not mean he was a Sinner before he believed I will read my Discourse to you taken from me as I delivered it Preaching from John 14.6 I was shewing Christ was the Way from a State of Sinfulness There is a two-fold consideration of Sinfulness from which Christ is our Way in a special manner 1. That which is called the Guilt of Sin which is indeed the Fault or a Persons being Faulty as he is a Transgressor Is 2ly The Power and over-masterfulness of Sin in Persons Christ is the way from both these 1. From the Guilt of Sin Christ is the way from the Guilt of Sin It is briefly no more but this to be â—â—d of the Guilt of Sin viz. Upon Tryal to be quitted and discharged from the Charge of Sin that is laid or may be laid to him and to be freed from it This is for a Person in Judgement to be pronounced actually innocent and a just Person as having no Sin to be charged on him This is to be free from the Guilt of Sin A Man is not free from a Fault as long as the Fault is laid to his Charge and he is then free when he is not charged with it He is only the way by which a poor Sinner may be pronounced innocent and having proved that Christ is the way to take away the Guilt of Sin which I say is the Charge of Fault by many plain places of Scripture and by the Type of the Scape Goat I came to answer this Objection But do not those that receive Christ actually commit Sin I answer Yea they do commit Sin and the Truth is themselves can do nothing but commit Sin If a Person that is a Believer hath any thing in the World he hath received that if he doth any thing that is good it is the Spirit of God that doth it not he Therefore he himself doth nothing but Sin his Soul is a Mint of Sin Dr. Cr. p. 3. 8. Now therefore judge Gentlemen whether here I say the Elect ceased to be Sinners ever since the Death of Christ If Sinners after believing much more before in respect of the Indwelling of Sin and Corruption and do not in this Sence cease to be Sinners after believing I went on Then you will say If he doth sin must not God charge it where it is all this while speaking of a Believer Must he not be reckoned to be a Sinner while he doth sin A. I answer No though he doth sin yet he is not to be reckoned a Sinner i. e. Being a pardoned Believer God doth not reckon him so and he ought by Faith to behold all his Sins taken away in Christ but his Sins are to be reckoned to be taken away from him A Man borrows 100 l. some Man will pay it for him Doth he not owe this 100 l. seeing he borrowed it I say no in case another hath paid it for him A Man doth sin against God God reckons not his Sin to be his he reckons it Christ's therefore he cannot reckon it his God hath laid it upon Christ ' Thou hast sinned Christ takes it off supposing I say thou hast received Christ Is this any other Doctrine than what John teaches 1 John 1.7 8. Chap. 2.1 2. I say in one respect they are not Sinners in another they are Sinners And is this any other Doctrine than what the Scripture and all our best Divines teach Therefore judge ye how justly now I am charged with this Error Neonom But you said If thou hast part in the Lord Christ which he thinks all unbelieving Elect have All those Transgressions of thine become actually the Transgressions of Christ and so cease to be thine Dr. C. p. 270. Antinom Is it not very unfair dealing for you to impose a wrong meaning upon my Words when I express my self so plainly If thou hast received Christ if thou hast a part in the Lord Christ who will understand these Expressions but of our active receiving and partaking of Christ though I do speak elsewhere of our having Benefit by Christ and a hidden Right in him and it hath an Influence on us and we are passive therein before we believe yet it 's not