door to all such prophane and wicked licentiousness and security as the hearts of men can admit Farthermore this makes all men equal puts them in the same condition whether Elect or Reprobate Heathen or Christians Godly or Ungodly since all of them may be saved or damned if they will for thereby their Salvation is laid in their hand Now what can be more derogatory to God's special grace and love more uncomfortable to all good Christians more acceptable to all licentious persons more advantageous to Satan and pernicious to mankind than to remove the bounds of God's all limiting and immutable decrees and throw down the walls hedges and partitions he hath made himself of his special love and to lay them common unto all without distinction and as much as in them lays to ruin the order which God hath settled and thereby bring in a general confusion Again this takes away repentance and salvation it self also the hopes and possibility of repentance for if our conversion grace and Salvation depend upon our unsettled corrupt wills who can be saved If Adam in a state of Innocency could not preserve himself from falling when he had power not to sin how can we who since his fall lay under a necessity of sinning even in a regenerate state by any sufficient universal grace or any power of our own raise convert or save our selves St. Paul in whom the grace of God did abound thought he could not do 't (a) Rom. 7.14 15 17 c. To will is present with me but how to perform that which is good I find not for the good that I would I do not but the evil which I would not that I do If our Salvation was in our own hands it should soon be lost and forfeited but thanks be to God 't is in sure hands (b) John 10.28 29. My sheep shall never perish neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand Our saving graces cannot be lost for they are (c) Acts 13.34 the sure mercies of David This also doth exclude Infants from Salvation for they want knowledge to discern and will for to desire it because they know not what it meaneth Moreover this revives the old Pelagian Error that a man may live and keep himself without sin for if men have such an ability of will of universal grace to convert themselves when they are in the state of nature much more shall they in the state of grace when they enjoy the help of God's spirit keep themselves free from sin if once through their strength men have mastered sin much more may they totally suppress it being wounded but Scripture teacheth there is no perfection to be attained to in this life no perfect man in the world (d) Jam. 3.2 chap. 2.10 for in many things we offend all and though we should offend only in one he who offendeth in one is guilty of all The beloved disciple of Christ and in whom his grace aboundeth saith (e) 1 John 1.8 If we say that we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us Their opinions do cross one another for to put in man's will to keep himself from sin if he willeth doth not agree with their doctrine against perseverance for 't is to be supposed no man is willingly damned the desire of well being is in the Creature and to be against perseverance doth continually bring a servile fear upon men and always keeps them under uncertainty as to their future state contrary to that of St. Paul (f) Rom. 8.15 Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear Now saith another Apostle (g) 1 John 4.18 Fear hath torment he that feareth is not made perfect in love for perfect love casteth out fear This also maketh grace of a larger extent than the decree of God's Election and the inward or outward means of grace That is the effect is more general than its cause which is a very great absurdity God hath not actually decreed to save nor by a call to offer soul-saving means of grace to all men for if it were so as they would have it I see no reason but that all men should be converted and saved because God's decrees and his words are always true and never fall to ground for want of execution but Scripture and Experience teach the contrary Wherefore either we must admit an universal Election of all men to life which necessarily implyeth an universal Salvation of all Men or else we must disclaim a Chimaera of universal grace which may well be called a Monster in Divinity Another ill consequence of this universal grace is that it makes this pretended grace which is not sufficient to Salvation seeing it doth not produce it Mother to true saving grace which is of a quite different nature but such is the cause such the effect (a) Matth. 7.16 Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles Either this universal grace is saving grace which cannot be for all men would be saved by it or else it cannot be the Mother or Author of true saving grace which so far differeth from it in kind or nature We own there are God's common temporal favours whereof Reprobates are made partakers because living in the visible Society of the Elect they thereby receive some outward benefits which in that respect may be called universal graces but the question is about effectual and saving grace such as inward calling Conversion Justification Sanctification Faith Repentance c. which are peculiar to God's Elect and not extended to Heathen and other Infidels who are no part nor members of the visible Church much less of the universal Church which promises and saving graces do only belong to so that without the Pales of it no true saving grace to be had to the end that universal grace be sufficient it must contain other particular graces as Faith if it be Faith it ceases to be universal for it doth not belong to all or else what our Saviour saith (b) Luke 18.8 when the Son of Man cometh shall he find faith in the Earth Were but a tale if it be not faith it signifieth nothing and will do no good 't is not sufficient for (c) Heb. 11.6 without faith it is unpossible to please God If this be a true universal grace it must be a grace for every thing or else 't is not universal it must unfold to us all the mysteries of God's proceeding's specially those which relate to Salvation as for us who do not believe it when we inquire into things the last reason that can be given us is the will of God no higher can be assigned therewith we are satisfied and do acquiesce we go no further for thereby a stop is put to all our queries But for them that universal grace giveth an apparent cause even in men themselves besides the absolute disposing will of God namely the prevision of their
persevere unto the end though they sometimes fall through infirmity into grievous sins yet they never fall totally or finally from the habits seeds and state of Grace They say that true justifying Faith is neither a true special fruit of Election Arm. IV. nor yet proper to the Elect alone that 't is often found in Reprobates And that the very Elect by falling into sin may and often do fall totally and finally from the very habit seeds and state of Grace We say that Christ's death is of sufficient intrinsecal merit in it self Orth. V. though not in God's intention or his holy Spirit 's application to redeem and save all mankind wherefore he died really and effectually for none but the Elect for whom alone he actually and effectually hath obtained remission of sins and everlasting life They say Jesus Christ died effectually alike for all men whatsoever Arm. V. whether Elect or Reprobates without any special intent to save the Elect alone or any particular persons more than others With a general purpose to save all men alike upon condition of their believing and applying of his death which dependeth principally upon every man's own actual will and powers not of Christ's actual application of it to them by his Spirit To this one thing more I shall add against one of their Opinions Orth. VI. We say there is not any such Free-will any such universal and sufficient Grace communicated unto all men whereby they may Repent believe and be Saved if they will themselves They say there is an universal sufficient Grace derived upon all men since the fall of Adam Arm. VI. by vertue of which they may all Repent Believe and be Saved if they will themselves These and several other things of that kind as namely the important point of Justification which they so highly have corrupted of Providence and others which by the grace of God in due time we shall have occasion to speak of are the matters we do differ about yet to what we already said of their adhering to Pelagians Massilienses and Semipelagians we may add how some of them own Socinus's and Worstius his Blasphemies against the Trinity of the Divine Persons the simplicity of divine Nature it self c. as King James charges them with it and well so he might for after Arminius's Death they were so desirous to be headed by Worstins that they used all their endeavours to have had him to succeed the other in his place of Professor of Divinity at Leyden Hence it is that they openly declared they had nothing against Worstius nor had found any thing in his Writings contrary to Truth and Piety and that it would be most profitable for Church and Commonwealth if his calling should go on This account we have in the Preface of the Acts of the Synod of Dort And it is well known how King James opposed effectually that man's promotion to that place and whose Book De Deo Attributis was here burnt by the hand of the Hangman according to King James's special Order and by advice of the Archbishop of Canterbury But because it is not enough to affirm things without proofs therefore now before I proceed I must bring in evidence for the Articles I set down Scripture which in this is Judge and Rule affordeth us a great cloud of Witnesses And to begin with our first Article clearly proved out of that excellent place of (a) Ephes 1.4 c. St. Paul which hereafter I shall have occasion to make use of but for the present omit to prove first the Eternity of God's Decree out of another Text of the same Apostle God who (b) 2 Tim. 1.9 hath saved us and called us with an holy calling not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began This Text is very comprehensive here is the Decree under the name of his own purpose out of which are excluded any thing of our own not according to our works but attributed only to his Free-grace according to his own purpose and grace The eternity of this Decree is thus expressed before the world began this Decree of Election is the ground of our Salvation God who hath saved us the next effect is our Vocation and called us with an holy that is an effectual calling We want not other places of God's word to prove the Eternity of his Decree but afterwards we shall have occasion to make use of them for often one and the same Text doth prove several things As for the Immutability of God's Decree of Predestination we have clear and undeniable proofs (c) Psal 33.11 David saith The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever the thoughts of his heart to all generations As positive as this is what he saith in another place (d) Psal 89.28 33.34 My mercy will I keep for him for evermore and my covenant shall stand fast with him And a little below nevertheless my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him nor suffer my faithfulness to fail My covenant will I not break nor alter the thing that is gone out of my mouth Here we see how the Counsel of the Lord and the thoughts of his heart which are his Decree shall stand that is are unchangeable so are his mercies his loving-kindness his faithfulness which the Decree of Election is grounded upon as to his Covenant called the thing that is gone out of his mouth it shall not be broken nor alter'd but it shall stand All this is for its immutability And the prophet saith (e) Isai 14.24 The Lord of hosts hath sworn saying surely as I have thought so shall it come to pass and as I have purposed so shall it stand Vers. 7 We have not only God's Word but his Oath for his Truth which must needs convince us of what a high concernment it is yet as if 't was not enough three verses lower 't is added For the Lord of hosts hath purposed and who shall disanul and his hand is stretched and who shall turn it back This makes good the immutability of a Decree both of Election and Reprobation so it doth the final unrefistibility of Grace and of the works of his Providence St. Paul that great Preacher of Free-grace out of a sense of the great mercy God had shewed him doth almost every where batter down Works Free-will and all pretences of man's strength to set up the Grace and Power of God specially in his Epistle to the Romans but above all in the 9th chap. which before we have done we shall often have occasion to make use of for it seems to have been written to condemn Arminianism In a place there the Apostle saith (a) Rom. 9.11 For the Children being not yet born neither having done any good or any evil that the purpose of God according to Election might stand not of works but of him
far from a Free will to receive good as evil This I shall conclude with an observation upon the remedy which God proposeth to prevent their death and ruin namely to repent v. 30. and to make them a new heart and a new spirit Here God speaks as one who insists upon performance of Articles thus Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul Deut. 6.5 and with all thy might But saith God that ye have not done wherefore make you a new heart and a new spirit to enable you to perform what hitherto hath been wanting for why will ye die O house of Israel He commands them to do 't themselves which they are able to do no more than to repent because all is a gift of God Psal 51.19 which David knew well when he prays thus Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me Let us take notice of two different methods of God upon this account here God commandeth things to be done as they ought as performance of conditions but he promiseth nothing Do your duty which for them 't is impossible to perform wherefore he hath another way of speaking for those whom he is graciously pleased to favour he doth not command to do but promiseth himself to do for them (a) Ezek. 11.19 And I will give them one heart and I will put a new spirit within you and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh and I will give them an heart of flesh Which is repeated with this addition (b) Chap. 36.27 And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep my judgments and do them To the same effect speaks another Prophet (c) Jer. 32.39 And I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me for ever Here are the most gracious promises of a Gospel-Covenant what we cannot do our selves he will do for us he will give us that heart and that spirit whereby we shall be enabled to keep and do his judgments and fear him for ever hereby we are secured from the danger of a final Apostasie The same Prophet just the Chapter before saith (d) Vers 33. I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and will be their God and they shall be my people and they shall not teach c. and that this is the true Evangelical sence of the place it appears out of the application of it made by the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews who doth quote the very same words and concludes all in these (c) Heb. 8. from 6. to 13. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more This is God's way with those whom he is pleased to save from dying and perishing as all must do whom he leaves to make themselves a new heart and a new spirit for Man's Will far from being free and able to contribute to Conversion the new Creation and Salvation is a perfect Slave to Sin till God be pleased to work upon and turn it which once being effected there is no danger of a final Apostacy for thereby we are secured against a total falling from grace and that is the Subject of the following Chapter CHAP. VIII About Amissibility of GRACE AS one depth calleth to another so doth one Error to another our Adversaries are not satisified to make Man if he be willful and obstinate stronger than God when he hath a mind to take possession of a Soul but they go farther and assert That after God is actually in possession of that Soul he may be turned out of possession which is their true sence of the point we are now going upon The Question is Whether a Man truly converted and regenerated can to the end persevere in the state of Salvation he is actually in And whether it be possible for such a one who is Elected in Christ called with an effectual Calling totally and finally to fall from God and be Damned This is the true state of the case and not whether the Elect and true Believers can fall into great sins which they do too often as it appeareth out of Scripture and Experience We say That God makes to persevere and go on to the end all the Elect and true Believers whether their Faith be strong or weak provided it be true that when once they are in the right way of Grace they shall infallibly come to Glory it being not possible for the Elect to become Reprobates to Apostatize and finally fall to Damnation Our Adversaries affirm the contrary though Arminius himself finding the stream of Scriptures and Fathers run so strong against the total and final Apostasie of Saints durst not openly declare for it yet his Followers have strongly set themselves against this Article which is the chief ground of all the comfort the Soul hath in this World to know 't is not in the power of the Devil or any other creature whatsoever to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now to prove this Doctrine we can begin no better than with that place of St. Paul's who in (a) Rom. 8.30 ver 31. that Chapter from verse 28. to the last giveth us the greatest grounds of assurance that can possibly be expected grounded upon our Election Calling Justification c. whence he proceedeth to a defiance to all (b) Vers 33 34. which is taken out of Isai 50.7 8 9. If God be for us who can be against us And (c) Ver. 32. who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect It is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth Now if Christ hath loved us which is clear in that he hath given himself for us and (d) Ver. 35. God delivered him up for us all After this the Apostle argueth from a thing impossible Who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword (e) Vers 37 38 39. Nay in all these things we are more than conquerors Take notice with what assurance he speaketh in the two next verses for I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord I would be loth to lose one word of these wherein the Apostle speaks so fully so clearly and so much to the purpose that if to confirm this Doctrine we had had the penning of the words we could not have done it with so good effect to prove that God's Elect and Believers cannot finally fall and totally be separated from Christ and we know (f) Joh. 13. whom Christ loveth them
not the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness to him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned Our most blessed Saviour speaks home and positively upon the matter (f) Matt. 12.34.33 O generation of Vipers how can ye being evil speak good things after he had said in the foregoing verse either make the tree good and his fruit good or else make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt for the tree is known by his fruit The words of Austin upon the matter are excellent (g) Mea bona nec mea sunt nec perfecte bona mea mala mea sunt perfeste mala The good I do is neither mine nor perfectly good but the evil I do is both mine and perfectly evil But this is not all for not only there is an impotency to all Spiritual good but also a propensity and inclination to all Spiritual evil through a perverseness that is in our nature (g) Gen. 6.5 God saw that every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil continually The Text is very full and comprehensive in every word thereof if any thing can be added to it elsewhere we find it thus (h) Jer. 17.9 The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it We sometimes find by experience how a Man desperately in love with a Daughter of Belial I mean a Woman without any Fortune Honour or Virtue will confess he is in an error and over-ruled by a Passion yet though to the ruin of himself and Fortune he must have her or else he cannot live and is not a Natural man's Will desperately wicked So that though he hath checks and convictions of Conscience about his evil courses with his being so fond of the World and so much in love with Sin and though he knows better yet he neither can nor will leave it where is here Free-will where sufficient Grace If it is not to be found in those Natural and Temporal things much less in Spiritual and Eternal O let every one lay his hand upon his Conscience and seriously examine himself Another thing we assert is That whatsoever good or spiritual working is found in any Man it comes from God who worketh it in Man nothing of Nature but all of Grace Our being Enlightned Conversion Repentance Holiness Faith c. come all from God alone (a) Isa 26.12 for he works all our works in and for us and (b) Eph. 2.10 we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works Also (c) Phil. 2.13 It is God that worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure It doth not lye in our free-will nor is it in our power to receive or reject Grace neither do we thereby destroy the natural liberty of the Will which doth not consist in indifferency that is to choose or to reject this or that but in a freedom from compulsion neither doth the immutability of the Decree take it away that which God hath Decreed shall indeed necessarily be but a thing may be done voluntarily and necessarily too for necessity and liberty in one subject do very well agree Thus God is necessarily good yet most freely good the Devil is freely evil yet necessarily evil Saints in Heaven do necessarily praise God for they can do no otherwise yet they do it most freely and voluntarily nothing but a necessity of coaction a forcible necessity takes away liberty and this the Will of Man is free from Wicked Men do necessarily yet freely sin with pleasure and delight (d) 2 Pet. 2.14 they cannot cease from sin These are Scripture words yet our Adversaries as before clamour thus then after this all Precepts Promises Threatnings and Exhortations to make Men abstain from Sin will be in vain if they cannot forbear sinning But I say though some be not the better rather the worse for these things yet such things are not in vain for thereby they are taught their Duty and commanded and exhorted to perform it and thereby unpenitent and unbelievers become unexcusable for they cannot pretend ignorance Neither is it in vain in relation to the Elect who enjoy these outward means together with Reprobates because thorough the inward working of the Spirit the Preaching of these things becomes effectual in them and puts them upon avoiding of Sin In few words the better to understand this matter of Free-will two things ought chiefly to be considered First What a state Man is in when we speak of his Free-will Secondly The nature of the things which he doth exercise his Free-will about There are four states of Man which Schoolmen call Institutus Destitutus Restitutus Praestitutus that is to be more plain of Innocency Nature Grace and Glory The things are either necessary or natural indifferent mix'd or spiritual The state of Innocency needs not to be spoken of 't is lost and gone in Adam of whom Divines say Habebat posse quod veltet He had Free-will and Power to do what he would though at last he wanted the Will to do what he could for he would not continue in his Integrity In the other three states the Will is free from compulsion and coaction else instead of being voluntas it would be noluntas not Will but Vnwill God himself never offers such a violence whereby its nature would be destroyed So then in the state of Nature the Will is free only to Evil in that of Grace part to Good and part to Evil yet so that the Evil is wholly from our selves and the Good only from God in that of Glory only to Good 'T is to be observed how in the passing out of the state of Nature into that of Grace that is at the time of our Conversion God by his holy Spirit works in us against us I mean our natural corrupt inclinations But afterwards he works in us and by us that is he guides inclines and turns our faculties to that which is good and acceptable in his sight But to come nearer We say in the state of Nature in Natural and Necessary things as to eat and to drink which are natural and necessary to preserve Life yea this or that kind of Meat and Drink man's Will is most free so 't is in indifferent things as to Walk Stand or Sit to Game Sing or the like The Will is very free even in those things that are of a mix'd nature and which seem to imply a violence as when a Man gives his Purse to a High-way-Man to save his Life when in a Storm Merchants and Seamen cast the Wares into the Sea to save the Ship and themselves Though in such cases there be an unwillingness and a repugnancy to the thing yet the Will determines it self of two Evils to choose the least but our Question concerning Free-will is not about such Objects but about Spiritual things in this state of Nature and before Conversion Hereupon
we say the Will is free only to do Evil most willing with greediness In this case with Scripture we call it a Slave a Drudge and a Servant to Sin for it cannot cease from Sin wise and willing enough to Sin but without knowledge and willingness to do good (a) Rom. 6.16 Whom man doth obey his servant he is to whom he doth obey That Will that obeys Sin in the lusts thereof as every Will in its state of Nature doth Sin saith the Apostle reigneth in it as in the Mortal body such Will is in the snare of the Devil and (b) 2 Tim. 2.26 taken Captive by him at his Will saith the same Apostle In this unregenerate state the Soul and consequently the Will is dead in trespasses and sins the natural man receives not the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them for they are spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2.14 And the carnal Mind and Will too is enmity against God before our reconciliation to God we are his enemies Rom. 5.10 both in Soul and Body in every faculty of the one and in every member of the other In short the whole stream of Scripture runs strong that way to shew how in the state of Nature there is no more possibility for our Will of it self to be carried to good Spiritual objects Jerem. 13.23 than there is in the Aethiopian to change his skin or in the Leopard to change his spots Now in the state of Grace as to Free-will in relation to spiritual things for those of another nature come not within the question though the Will remaineth free from compulsion yet we ought to consider it in a twofold respect according to the two different Principles that are in us the Flesh and the Spirit the Old and the New Man of a quite different and contrary nature one to another the Flesh hath her Lusts which must be Crucified the Old Man hath his Deeds which ought to be Mortified all by degrees and after a fight wherein the Spirit of God thorough Christ's Blood giveth a regenerate Man the Victory not the Israel after the flesh 1 Cor. 10.18 but to that after the spirit and the promise What this New Man is St. Paul mentions to the Galatians 4.19 My little Children of whom I travail in birth until Christ be formed in you that is the Image and likeness of Christ in Righteousness Holiness and every Christian Virtue of this formation the Apostle by the means of the Ministery of the Word was the Instrument but the Holy Ghost not the Will of Man the Efficient Cause it is that Wind that bloweth where it listeth and though one heareth the sound thereof one cannot tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth Joh. 3.8 In some kind we may say of it what David speaks of his Body made in secret at first imperfect but in continuance fashioned Psal 139.15 16. This puts a new or spiritual Life in us so that every one in that blessed condition may with St. Paul say I live yet not I but Christ lives in me Gal. 2.20 I know I will I love and I do yet not I but Christ by his holy Spirit knoweth willeth loveth and doth in me and even as after the birth of our Body to preserve and strengthen it food must be given it and Milk is the first so must the New Man be fed with Milk till it be able to bear Meat 1 Cor. 3.2 but this forming feeding and digesting is the Work of God and not an effect of the choice of our Will Thus much I could not forbear taking notice of as to that Spiritual Principle within us Well both these Principles retain the Nature whence they come The first of the earth earthy the second is the Lord from heaven heavenly 1 Cor. 15.47 Now that first and Old Man answereth The Jerusalem that now is and is in bondage with her Children but Jerusalem which is above is free Gal. 4.25 26. We then must say that where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty 2 Cor. 3.17 where that Spirit is not there is nothing but bondage so then in the twain Man are both liberty and bondage upon different accounts What Paul doth he alloweth not for what I would that I do not but what I hate that do I. He delighteth in the Law of God after the inward Man but the Law of the Members bringeth him into Captivity to the Law of Sin which he desired to be delivered from and obtained it through Jesus Christ Rom. 7. Wherefore in that state though the corrupt principle would pull back and mislead our Will yet by the guidance and direction of the Holy Ghost our Will is made tractable inclined and without any violence turned willingly to Spiritual things Thus we are made a free willing People in the day of God's Power to the pulling down of strong holds casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against the knowledge of God and bringing every thought and every desire too into Captivity to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10.4 5. As to our Free-will in the State of Glory I pass it by there being no question made about it The Controversie about Free-will is a large Subject yet I think we said enough to our present purpose what remains to be spoken about it shall be under another head which that we now leave doth directly lead us to Arminians are stiff sticklers for a Free-will in Man to receive or reject Grace when offered by the Preaching of the Gospel as the outward means appointed for that end Now we proceed CHAP. VII About Resistibility of GRACE TO understand this well it must be well stated the Question is not whether Man can and doth resist Grace when offered in the Preaching of the Word or even some good motions of the spirit of God we are all agreed it can and doth But the true state of the Question between Papists with Arminians and us is this Whether when God doth offer men Grace with a design to have them thereby converted Whether or not I say those Men shall actually be converted Or Whether the Free-will and Corruption of Man shall overcome the motions of the spirit of God when he purposeth actually to convert We say at that time God works irresistibly and invincibly that is they shall be converted they say no. To prove this we have many Texts of Scripture There is in God (e) Philip. 3.21 a power whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself so that when he is willing he cannot miss of his aim If the difficulty lies in the Understanding he can bring light out of darkness and enlighten the eyes of our Vnderstanding if in the Will (g) 2 Cor. 4.6 Ephes 1.18 he can make us willing in the day of his power if we be unwilling he maketh us willing and able to do too (h)
and without disturbance taught the truth of all those Doctrines The truth was then in possession of the Pulpits of Divinity Schools and of Presses but what when this Man appeared the most Famous and Learned Protestant Divines at home and abroad opposed him and did write against him If any one hath a mind to know the shifts and tricks of that Party to strengthen themselves and undermine their opposers and to prevent the calling of a General Synod which was sued for as the best way effectually to maintain truth and oppose falsehood let him read the Acts of the Synod of Dort with the Preface to it where they had all the fair play that might reasonably be wished for But because about these matters in the eighth Century disputes did break out again as it appeared in the case of Gottescalk wherein Hinemarus of Rheims and Remigius Archbishop of Lyons with the Churches of his Diocese were highly engaged these last for and the other against Gottescalk which if any one desireth to be well informed of let him read the Honest and Excellent account of it given by that worthy and Eminent Prinate of Ireland James Vsher which I quoted before A thing much to be taken notice of in all these disputes and which is the chief Subject of this Chapter is this that Arminius and his Followers do hold the opinions of Pelagians and Semipelagians and that Calvin whom they make the head against their opinions and we hold the same with Austin Hilarius Prosper Fulgentius and other Orthodox Doctors of the Primitive Church we hitherto have sufficiently declared ours what remaineth is for me to shew what those Fathers of the Church did hold about these points but that shall be briefly because the trouble of proving it hath been saved me by others who make good out of the writings of those ancient Fathers the things now in question First As to Predestination (a) Justin Martyr dialog cum Triph. Sect. 2. God elected us and was made manifest to them that sought him not And do you think O man that we could ever have understood these things in the Scripture except we had received grace by the will of God of which grace ye Jews being destitute have understood none of them Another saith (b) Cyprian de Mort. num 2. there is no need of Money Industry and Man's Hand but it is the free and ready gift of God as freely as the Sun shineth the Fountain watereth the shower moisteneth so doth the heavenly spirit power it self into us The great asserter of Christ's Divinity speaks thus (a) Athanas cont Aâ—â—â—â—n 4. Pag. 175. The Apostle James hath taught of his own will begat he us with the word of truth Therefore of all the regenerate yea and of all that by creation were generated it is the will of God by the word of God that doth create and regenerate whatsoever pleaseth him Let us hear what saith another (b) Ambros in Psal 118. Serm. 10. Perseverance is not in him that willeth nor in him that runneth for it is not in the power of man but in God that sheweth mercy that thou shouldest be able to accomplish that which thou hast began Another saith (c) Hieron ad Ruff. lib. 1. Paul and those that are like him are not elected because they were holy and unspotted but they are elected and predestinated that afterwards in their lives in good works and vertues they may be unspotted and holy These Doctors attribute it to grace to the free gift of God to his own will and pleasure perseverance is not in the will or power of man but in Gods mercy neither were we elected for our Faith or Holiness but to be unspotted and holy all this is the sense of the fore-quoted Doctors which agreeth with what we said But because in Austin's days chiefly that Heresie sprung up and that he was the man who most laid it to heart and made it his main business to oppose it he hath written against it more clearly and most to the full of any Out of so many Treatises he hath written about it which are so well known we shall quote only one or two places (d) August de praedest grat cap. 13. Out of those to whom the severity of Justice adjudgeth punishment according to the unexpressible mercy of his secret dispensation he chose out vessels which he might fit unto honour both delivering some from wrath to come and leaving others to the sentence of Justice Enchirid. ad Laurent cap. 99. And in another place he hath mercy with goodness he hardeneth without injustice so that he that is freed may not boast of his merits neither he that is damned may complain of any thing but his merits for grace alone maketh a difference between the redeemed and the lost whom one common cause derived from the root had united together in one lump of destruction With this concurred another when he saith (e) Prosper ad except genu resp ad dub 9. Austin by a godly and constant doctrine hath abundantly proved that predestination was to be preached to the Church in which it is the preparation of grace and grace is to be preached in which is the effect of predestination and the fore-knowledge of God wherein he fore-knoweth before all ages on whom he would bestow his gifts Which preaching whosoever is against he is a most open defender of Pelagian Pride And in another place he saith from himself No Catholick doth deny the predestination of God The faith of predestination is established by many authorities of holy Scriptures yet unto it Ad capit Gall. cap. 1. it is not lawful to attribute any of the sins of men who came to their inclination to sin not by God's Creation but by their first Fathers transgression from the punishment whereof no man is free but only by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ prepared and predestinated in the eternal counsel of God before the foundation of the world An excellent testimony about all these Doctrines by Austin asserted is given by Hormisda a Bishop of Rome to a Bishop of Africa who desired his advise about the Books of Faustus the Semipelagian in these words (a) Epist ad Possessor They know how not only the Roman and African Church and all the Sons of promise through all parts of the world do agree with this man's Austin Doctrine as in the whole Faith so in the confession of Grace But let us come to another (b) Fulgent de incar grat in fine God who made man by his predestination fore-appointed to whom he would give the gift of illumination to believe and the gift of perseverance to profit and persevere and the gift of glorification to reign who no otherwise performed indeed then he hath ordained in his unchangeable will The truth of which predestination by which the Apostle witnesseth that we are predestinated in Christ before the foundation
arising out of their Doctrines AFter they have done their worst against us they must now give us leave to retort upon them but on much better and truer grounds First Their Doctrine of Predestination doth quite overturn the Eternal and Unchangeable decree of God about Election and Reprobation for if every man may believe repent and be saved if he will himself then it unavoidably followeth that every man is left unto himself without the bounds of any decree set unto him then there can be no eternal immutable positive decree binding either way Election or Reprobation Secondly It makes the unconstant will of man the ground of all God's Eternal and Unchangeable Decrees concerning man Whereas God only (a) Ephes 1.11 works all things after the counsel of his own will not according to the natural inclination of our will whereby God is subordinated to man and his will made to depend upon the will of man Thirdly This makes the Creature Absolute Independent from the Soveraign disposing and over-ruling Providence of the Maker and makes God a bare Spectator not an orderer of humane Actions Hereupon God must wait upon Men and not Men upon God so God is deprived of all disposing Power and over-ruling the wills and works of men His absolute Supremacy over them to save or not will be abolished thus men may save themselves when God will damn and damn themselves when God would save This is to constitute an absolute independent eternal Being in the wills of men pre-existent to the eternal will of God both in Nature and Time for if the fore-knowledge and Decrees do result from the will and inclinations of men then man's inclination and will doth necessitate and predetermine the most absolute and most free Decrees of God and raiseth a self dependence which is to make a god of the will of man Fourthly It takes away from God the Praise and freedom of his grace for if every man may thus convert and save himself because according to them those only are saved who take care to improve the general common grace derived equally upon all men what thanks to God then for any special favour man may thank himself not God who doth no farther save him than he saveth himself This indeed destroyeth the nature of the grace of God in that it doth indifferently communicate it to all Hence Election Vocation Adoption Justification Sanctification Faith Conversion Repentance Charity are called graces because bestowed upon few and that without any merit of the person Thus when a Prince bestoweth freely a Place an Office a Pension upon a man it is grace and favour because not bestowed upon all or upon some other man farther this maketh Grace and Heaven a purchase of our own and not a free gift of God and makes it subordinate unto our will confining the receiving or rejecting of it to times and seasons of our own When alas (a) John 3.8 the spirit doth breath when and where it listeth and subjecting it to several alterations at our pleasure whereas it is perpetual and unchangeable in it self Fifthly It suspendeth the fruit and application of Christ's death the effectual working of the spirit the saving power of God's Ordinances with the beginning and progress of Grace so by these means our whole Salvation is in our hands It gives man liberty to make all inward and outward means of grace either void or effectual at his pleasure which overthroweth the whole foundation of Scriptures which attribute our whole Salvation to God alone and giveth the lye to God's word which saith (a) Ephes 2.1 5. we are dead in trespasses and sins and so cannot exercise any functions of life (b) Joh. 15.5 That God hath quickned us and not we our selves That without Christ we can do nothing that is without his special grace And (c) Philip. 2 1â— God worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure and not according to our will and inclination That it is (d) 1 Cor. 4.7 God that makes us to differ one from another And that we have nothing but what we did receive That (e) 1 Cor. 15.10 by the grace of God only we are what we are and so many more places to the same purpose which wholly overthrow universal sufficient grace Sixthly This puts mankind in as good if no better condition after fall than before Adam had only a possibility not to fall but not to rise after the fall but we though naturally born in sin may after this rate rise if and when we please he had a free will not to sin yet he did sin and was not born in sin but we who are sinners from the Womb can save our selves if we have a mind to it if so no hurt is happened to us by his fall On the contrary we are put in a better condition than before for thereby Election Vocation Conversion Faith Repentance and every other saving grace are put in our power that all these divine soul-saving graces do depend upon our corrupt wills and contrary to Scripture are not the (f) Matth. 13.11 Rom. 5.15 16 17. chap. 11.29 gifts of God and doth not this give men just occasion to boast and glory in themselves whereby the chief end of grace is destroyed which is to (g) Rom. 3.27 take away boasting from men and have (h) Ephes 1.12 14. Philip. 1.11 all things to the praise of the glory of God Another evil effect of these errors of theirs is that they frustrate our Prayers and Thanks-givings and make trifles of them for in vain we beg of another that which comes from us and is in our own power in vain we give thanks to another for that which we have without him so we need not thank God for any of his graces seeing it is in our power to receive or reject them In the next place this unavoidably draws many inconveniencies with it First of all it brings in all manner of prophaneness and licentiousness for what needs a man to care how wickedly he liveth for the present if it be in his power to believe and repent when he will is not this an encouragement for prophane men to continue longer in sin Secondly These opinions are able to engage a man that hath no truth of grace in him in any villany and desperate attempt he that wants true grace within to restrain him will quickly run upon any evil act or course upon this false presumption that he may presently of himself repent and be saved after all his sins Thirdly This encourageth men to delay and put off repentance and for the present to neglect the means of grace and all Christian duties for what is the chief ground of the common neglect both of means and works of grace But this unhappy delusion that they may undoubtedly be converted repent and be saved when they have amind to it thus this doctrine of free-will universal sufficient grace openeth the
Mercy they attain to everlasting Felicity Here are also the Particulars by which that general bringing to Salvation is perfected so that to joyn both together it is but one and the same and from first to last there is such an indissoluble Connexion that he who is elected to eternal Life shall infallibly have it Upon this certitude and assurance it is that St. Paul concludes nothing can deprive us of eternal Life because nothing can separate us from the love of God which is the Ground of our Happiness Wherefore he defieth any thing or person to do it though Arminians undertake to accept of the Apostle's Challenge not caring how they come within his Defiance For they seem to answer that there are many or some things that can separate us from the love of God in Christ tho' after and before a long Enumeration St. Paul concludes In all things these we are more than conquerours And Job will trust in God John 13.15 though he kill him Now that which maketh us to Conquer is not our own free-Will but it is God that loved us In conformity to this in the same Article it is said The consideration of Election doth greatly establish in the Saints and confirm their Faith of eternal Salvation to be enjoyed through Christ And the same Interpreter upon the 17th Article in his 3d. Proposition out of the Words constantly decreed doth infer this Wander then do they from the truth which think that the very Elect totally and finally may fall from Grace and be damned c. I think this is very clear for us And in the latter end of his 8th Proposition he condemneth those who call the Doctrine of Predestination a licentious Doctrine As to the point of Justification which is a Fundamental Article of our Religion and much corrupted by Arminians the xi Article of the 39. saith We are accounted Righteous before God only for the Merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by Faith and not for our own Works and Deservings These last Words do reach Arminians as well as Papists for free Will Faith Perseverance right use and improvement of Means do come under the Word Deservings There is then nothing of Man and Rogers in the Proofs of his 1st Proposition explains it thus By his only Righteousness we are justified It expresses only Christ's Righteousness and excludeth any thing else But I must not be too long upon this Out of what hath been said I hope it doth appear how of the 39 Articles those which speak about these Matters are clearly for us against Arminians Now we must come to the Liturgy or Common-Prayer-Book which now and then and in several places doth strike against those Errors and for the Truth And as the Church teaches us those Doctrines by Articles of Faith so in the Liturgy she doth confirm it by Practice But before I come to it I must take notice of some Passages in the Catechism which is also a publick Record and Evidence of the Doctrine of the Church Know this that thou art not able to do these things of thy self nor to walk in the Commandments of God and to serve him without his special Grace See also the Answer to the first Question about the Lord's Prayer I desire c. Read the Answer to the 4th Question and by God's help so I will c. Now to come to Particulars out of the Prayer-Book In one place we have thus (a) Collect on Christ's Nativity Grant that we being regenerate and made thy Children by Adoption and Grace may daily be renewed by thy holy Spirit Those Benefits we receive as effects of Grace not of our free-Will and our being renewed is by God's Holy Spirit not by our Will If it be by one it is not by the other because in Matters of Salvation Grace and natural Strength are opposed In another place (b) Collect upon Ash-wednesday we beseech God to create and make in us new and contrite Hearts Then we cannot have it of our selves and the Word to create sheweth it to be beyond the power of any Creature it is the Work only of the Creator Elsewhere we own (c) Collect on 2d Sunday in Lent to have no power of our selves to help our selves If we have a free-Will we have a Power Again (d) Collect on Monday and Tuesday in Easter week As by thy special Grace preventing us thou dost put into our Minds good Desires so by thy continual help we may bring the same to good effect This is plain and full against Arminians If there be good Thoughts in our Mind good Desires in our Heart it is God alone that puts it therein By what Motive and upon what Account Not for any thing in us but by his Grace nay his special not a common universal Grace not for our Faith Repentance good Works right use of Means but by his special Grace preventing Grace before we can think and desire But this is not all for as the beginning is from God as are Desires so is the Progress for we pray for his continual help so also is the end that we may bring the same good Thoughts and Desires to good effect Without that help nothing doth or can come to any good We have more than this to shew (e) Collect on 4th Sunday after Easter Almighty God who alone canst order the unruly Wills and Affections of sinful Men grant unto thy people that they may love the thing which thou command-est and desire that which thou dost promise We are all sinful Men even God's People Our Wills and Affections are unruly where then lays their Freedom They are obstinate Slaves to their Passions therefore called unruly None but God can order them nothing under a Divine Power can influence them to what is good nay in things that are natural to them as to love and to desire Nothing seems more natural than Love and Desire nothing more free yet here we see our Wills cannot love that which God commands or desire what he promises except God makes them do it Surely these are mortal Wounds to free-Will Furthermore we cannot so much as to think any good thing but by the Spirit of God For St. Paul saith of our selves we cannot have a good Thought so the Church which believeth his Doctrine saith to God (f) Collect on 5th Sunday after Easter Grant to us that by thy holy Inspiration we may think those things that be good This is of Grace and not by Nature therefore (g) Collect on 1st Sunday after Trinity we can do no good thing without thee grant us the help of thy Grace that we may please thee both in will and deed God puts into our Hearts to do Duties and to perform them well (h) Collect on 3d. Sunday after Trinity Thou hast given us a hearty desire to pray We pray God to grant (i) Collect on Ascension day and Collect on Annunciation day
in the Prayer in time of War and Tumult amongst the Thanksgivings that we may in Heart and Mind ascend into the Heavens Surely 't is to deny those Prayers if one denieth the effectual Power of God on the Will of Man In another place Almighty God c. whose power no Creature is able to resist in Spirituals as in Temporals But I must not much longer stand upon this for the Stream runs strong that way only few places more I shall quote as that wherein we own (k) Collect on 4th Sunday after Trinity God to be our Ruler and Guide and beseech him to be so In another we say (l) Collect on 6th Sunday after Trinity and Collect on 7th Sunday after Trinity Pour into our Hearts such Love towards thee And we pray (m) Collect on 14th Sunday after Trinity for increase of Faith Hope and Charity And almost in every Collect we pray to God to rule our Hearts and in one place to work upon and move our Wills in these Words (n) Collect on 25th Sunday Stir up we beseech thee O Lord the Wills of thy People They are not free nay they are asleep and dead to every good thing except thou be pleased to stir them up The Question is about the Will and here the Will is named God may well rule the Heart for (o) 2d Collect on Good Friday by his Spirit the whole Body of the Church is governed In the Church-Prayers we own he ruleth the Hearts of Kings (p) 1st and 2d Collect on the Communnion Rule the Heart of thy Servant the King The Hearts of Kings are in thy Rule and Governance and thou dost dispose and turn them as it seemeth best to thy godly Wisdom We humbly beseech thee to dispose and govern the Heart of thy Servant our King that in all his Thoughts Words and Works he may ever seek thy Honour and Glory If Men have free-Will and Power to do those things as to purifie themselves why do we pray for them 'T is in vain for us to pray to God to do for us that which we can do our selves But if therein we want his Assistance then we must need want that Power I shall conclude with two or three places out of the Litany where 't is prayed for the King That his Heart may be ruled in the Faith Fear and Love of God In another place That the Church may be called and universally governed in the right way and That God would bring into the way of truth all such as have erred and are deceived Here the Church doth plainly acknowledge the Efficacy of God's Grace on the Wills and Hearts of Men for when we pray that God's Grace may work such Effects 't is owned such Effects to be the proper Works of God's Grace One thing more I shall take notice of and it is this In a Prayer are these Words We beseech thee for all sorts and conditions of Men that thou wouldest be pleased to make thy ways known unto them Hence we see how Men cannot of themselves know God's Ways but it is God that makes them known unto them therefore we therein beseech God to do it Which if it were not proper for God alone the Prayer would be in vain Hence we also learn the Sense of the Church as to the signification of the word all used in Scripture as it ought to be the Object of our Prayers and then by a consequence apply it to those for whom Christ died against an universal Redemption in their way for in the Collect it is not said for every single and individual Man but for all sorts and conditions of Men. Now to proceed We should bring something out of the Book of Homilies and of the authorised Catechism of Edward the 6th As to the first take notice of the following places out of the Edition quoted in the Margin London 1623. Part. 1. pag. 8. Ephes 2. St. Paul in many places painteth us out in our own Colours calling us the Children of the Wrath of God when we were born Saying also that we cannot think a good Thought of our selves much less can we we say or do well of our selves c. And we be of our selves of such Earth Pag. 10. as can bring forth nothing but Weeds Nettles Brambles Bryars Cockle and Darnel we have neither Faith Charity Hope Patience Chastity nor any thing else that good is but of God and therefore these Vertues are called there the Fruits of the Holy Ghost and not the Fruits of Man In another place Of our selves and by our selves we have no Goodness part 1. p. 11. and Part 2. p. 181 182 183. Help nor Salvation but contrariwise Sin Damnation and Death everlasting Our Salvation comes only by Christ We are all become unclean but are not able to cleanse our selves nor to make one another of us clean We are by nature Children of God's Wrath but we are not able to make our selves the Children and Inheritors of God's Glory c. He is the God who of his own Mercy saveth us and setteth out his Charity and exceeding Love towards us in that of his own voluntary Goodness when we perished he saved us and provided an everlasting Kingdom for us And all these Heavenly Treasures are given us not for our Desert Merit or good Deeds which of our selves we have none but of his meer Mercy freely Doth not this wholly and only attribute our Salvation to the free Grace of God in Christ and consequently excludeth any thing in or from us to move God to be so gracious to us As to the great point of our Justification before God in the Sermon of the Salvation of Mankind by only Christ our Saviour from Sin and Death everlasting are these Words But our Justification doth come freely by the Mercy of God of so great and free Mercy that whereas all the World was not able of themselves to pay any part towards their Ransom it pleased our heavenly Father of his infinite Mercy without any our Deserts to prepare for us the most precious Jewels of Christ's Body and Blood c. And further to shew there is nothing of ours Part 2. p. 172. it is said elsewhere It is of the free Grace and Mercy of God by the Mediation of the Blood of his Son Jesus Christ without Merit or Deserving on our part Part 2. p. 81 82. that our Sins are forgiven us that we are reconciled and brought again into his Favour and made Heirs of his Heavenly Kingdom And as to the Certainty and Immutability of our Election it is said in another place Let us by such Virtues as ought to spring out of Faith shew our Election to be sure and stable Part 1. p. 28.29 c. And elsewhere we read this The holy Man Simon saith Part 2. p. 152. that Christ is set forth for the fall and rising again of many in Israel As Christ
Province which Articles are a sentence past against Arminianism as the fit and proper remedy for the Disease the Antidote was specifical and composed against the Poyson which because they are few short and altogether to our purpose I shall here set down in English as they were in Latin I. God from Eternity hath predestinated certain men unto life certain men he hath reprobated to death II. The moving or sufficient cause of predestination unto life is not the fore-sight of Faith or of Perseverance or of Good works or of any thing that is in the persons predestinated but only the good will and pleasure of God III. There is a predetermined and certain number of the predestinate which can never be augmented nor diminished IV. Those who are not predestinated to Salvation shall necessarily be damned for their sins V. A true living and justifying Faith and the spirit of God justifying is not extinguished it falleth not away or vanisheth not away in the Elect either finally or totally VI. A Man truly faithful that is such a one who is endued with a justifying Faith is certain of the full assurance of Faith of the remission of his sins and of his everlasting Salvation by Christ VII Saving grace is not given is not communicated is not granted to all men by which they may be saved if they will VIII No Man can come unto Christ unless it shall be given him and unless the Father shall draw him And all Men are not drawn by the Father that they may come to the Son IX It is not in the will or power of any Man to be saved These Articles upon serious debate and mature deliberation having been agreed on by the persons before named very Eminent and Considerable Men were afterwards sent to the University of Cambridge by their Deputies where they were received with the unanimous approbation of the whole University with such success that of the two Arminians Baroe not long after left the University and went away and Barret was forced solemnly to recant which recantation was Registred Thus a full stop was put to those Innovations and since that time till Laud's Faction got the upper-hand this and no other contrary Doctrine was taught there as being the true Orthodox according to Scriptures and the Church of England's but since that time the Party have done what they could to suppress and discredit it Yet though sometimes truth be driven into corners we doubt not but at last it will prevail notwithstanding the opposition of Men and Devils as it happened in the case of Arrianism An Heresie against the person of Christ as Arminianism is against his grace though to our great grief we see Arrianism revived in Socinianism as Pelagianism is in Arminianism But we must go on in our design In these 9 Articles we see the true Sence and Doctrine of the Church explained by those that by their office and learning are the fittest Interpreters thereof so we may conclude that to be at that time the Doctrine of the Church which we have asserted But we have farther proofs which to bring in I must skip over some passages but with an intent to make use of them in due place the reason I have to do so is because what I am going upon carries along with it the stamp of Publick Authority and Influence I mean the confession of Faith and Articles of the general Convocation of Ireland held in Dublin 1605 That is 20 years after the Articles of Lambeth By the grace of God I shall here set down those Articles of that Convocation which are to our present purpose and so shall begin with the Eleventh XI God from all eternity did by his unchangaeble Counsel ordain whatsoever in time should come to pass yet so as no violence is offered to the wills of the reasonable Creatures and neither the liberty nor the contingency of the second causes is taken away but rather established XII By the same eternal Counsel God hath predestinated some unto life and reprobated some unto death of both which there is a certain number known only to God which can neither be increased nor diminished XIII Predestination unto life is the everlasting purpose of God whereby before the Foundations of the World were laid he hath constantly decreed in his secret Council to deliver from Curse and Condemnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of mankind and to bring them by Christ unto everlasting Salvation as vessels made to honour XIV The cause moving God to predestinate unto life is not the fore-seeing of Faith or Perseverance or of good works or of any thing which is in the person predestinated but only the good pleasure of God himself for all things being ordained for the manifestation of his glory and his glory being to appear both in the works of his Mercy and his Justice It seemed good to his heavenly wisdom to chuse out a certain number towards whom he would extend his undeserved mercy leaving the rest to be spectacles of his Justice XV. Such as are predestinated unto life he called according unto God's purpose his spirit working in due season and through grace they obey the calling they be justified freely they be made Sons of God by adoption they be made like the image of his only begotten Son Jesus Christ they walk religiously in good works and at length by God's mercy they attain to everlasting felicity But such as are not predestinated to Salvation shall finally be condemned for their sins XXV The condition of Man after the fall of Adam is such that he cannot turn and prepare himself by his own natural strength and good works to faith and calling upon God wherefore we have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable unto God without the grace of God preventing us that we may have a good will and working with us when we have that good will XXXII None can come unto Christ unless it be given unto him and unless the Father draw him and all men are not so drawn by the Father that they may come to the Son Neither is there such a sufficient measure of grace vouchsafed unto every Man whereby he is enabled to come to everlasting life XXXIII All God's Elect are in their time inseparably united unto Christ by the effectual and vital influence of the holy Ghost derived from him as from the head unto every true member of his mystical Body and being thus made one with Christ they are regenerated and made partakers of him and of all his benefits XXXVII By justfying Faith we understand not only the common belief of the Articles of Christian Religion and a persuasion of the truth of God's word in general But also a particular application of the promises of the Gospel to the comfort of our own souls whereby we lay hold on Christ with all his benefits having an earnest trust and confidence in God that he will be merciful to us for his Sons