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Neo. Truly, sir, for mine own part, I do much marvel that this my friend Antinomista should be so confident of his faith in Christ, and yet so little regard holiness of life, and keeping of Christ's commandments, as it seems he does. For I give the Lord thanks, I do now, in some small measure, believe that I am, by Christ, freely and fully justified and acquitted from all my sins, and therefore have no need either to eschew evil or do good, for fear of punishment or hope of reward; and yet, methinks, I find my heart more willing and desirous to do what the Lord commands, and to avoid what he forbids, than ever it was before I did thus believe. ¹ Surely, sir, I do perceive that faith in Christ is no hindrance to holiness of life, as I once thought it was.

Evan. Neighbour Neophytus, if our friend Antinomista do content himself with a mere gospel knowledge, in a notionary way, and have run out to fetch in notions from Christ, and yet is not fetched in by the power of Christ, let us pity him, and pray for him. And in the mean time, I pray you, know that true faith in Christ ² is so far from being a hindrance from holiness of life and good works, that it is the only furtherance; for only by faith in Christ, a man is enabled to exercise all Christian graces aright, and to perform all Christian duties aright, which before he could not. As, for example, before a man believe God's love to him in Christ, though he may have a kind of love to God, as he is his Creator and Preserver, and gives him many good things for this present life, yet if God do but open his eyes, to see what condition his soul is in, that is, if he do but let him see that relation that is betwixt God and him, according to the tenor of the covenant of works, then he conceives of him as an angry Judge, armed with justice against him, and must be pacified by the works of the law, whereunto he finds his nature opposite and contrary; and therefore he hates both God and his law, and doth secretly wish and desire there were neither God nor law. And though God should now give unto him ever so many temporal blessings, yet could he not love him; for what malefactor could love that judge or his law, from whom he expected the sentence of condemnation, though he should feast him at his table with ever so many dainties? "But after that the kindness and love of God his Saviour hath appeared, not by works of righteousness that he hath done, but according to his mercy he saved him," (Titus 3:4,5); that is, when as by the eye of faith, he sees himself to stand in relation to God, according to the tenor of the covenant of grace, ³ then he conceives of God as a most merciful and loving Father to him in Christ, that hath freely pardoned and forgiven him all his sins, and quite released him from the covenant of works; ⁴ and by this means "the love of God is shed abroad in his heart, through the Holy Ghost which is given to him," and then "he loves God because he first loved him," (Rom 5:5, 1 John 4:19). For as a man seeth and feeleth by faith the love and favour of God towards him in Christ his Son, so doth he love again both God and his law; and indeed it is impossible for any man to love God, till by faith he know himself beloved of God.

Secondly, Though a man, before he believe God's love to him in Christ, may have a great measure of legal humiliation, compunction, sorrow, and grief, and be brought down, as it were, to the very gate of hell, and feel the very flashing of hell-fire in his conscience for his sins, yet it is not because he hath thereby offended God, but rather because he hath thereby offended himself, that is, because he hath thereby brought himself into the danger of eternal death and condemnation. ⁵ But when once he believes the love of God to him in Christ in pardoning his iniquity, and passing by his transgressions, ⁶ then he sorrows and grieves for the offence of God by sin; reasoning thus with himself: And is it so indeed? Hath the Lord given his own Son to death for me who have been such a vile sinful wretch? And hath Christ borne all thy sins? and was he wounded for thy transgressions? Oh then, the working of his bowels, the stirring of his affections, the melting and relenting of his repenting heart! "Then he remembers his own evil ways, and his doings that were not good, and loathes himself in his own eyes for all his abominations"; and looking upon Christ, "whom he hath pierced, he mourns bitterly for him, as one mourneth for his only son," (Eze 36:31, Zech 12:10). Thus, when faith has bathed a man's heart in the blood of Christ, it is so mollified that it quickly dissolves into tears of godly sorrow; so that if Christ do but turn and look upon him, Oh then, with Peter, he goes out and weeps bitterly! And this is true gospel-mourning; and this is right evangelical repenting. ⁷

Thirdly, Though, before a man do truly believe in Christ, he may so reform his life and amend his ways, that as "touching the righteousness which is of the law," he may be, with the apostle, blameless, (Phil 3:6); yet, being under the covenant of works, all the obedience that he yields to the law, all his leaving off of sin, and performance of duties, all his avoiding what the law forbids, and all his doing what the law commands, is begotten by the law of works, of Hagar the bond-woman, by the force of self-love; and so, indeed, they are the fruit and works of a bond-servant, that is moved and constrained to do all that he doth, for fear of punishment and hope of reward. ⁸ "For," says Luther, on the Galatians, p. 218, "the law given on Mount Sinai, which the Arabians call Agar, begetteth none but servants." And so indeed all that such a man doth is but hypocrisy; for he pretends the serving of God, whereas, indeed, he intends the serving of himself. And how can he do otherwise? for whilst he wants faith, he wants all things: he is an empty vine, and therefore must needs bring forth fruit unto himself: (Hosea 10:1). Till a man be served himself, he will not serve the Lord Christ. ⁹ Nay, while he wants faith, he wants the love of Christ, and therefore he lives not to Christ, but to himself, because he loves himself. And hence, surely, we may conceive it is that Dr. Preston says, "All that a man doeth, not out of love, is out of hypocrisy. Wheresoever love is not, there is nothing but hypocrisy in such a man's heart."

But when a man, through the "hearing of faith, receives the Spirit of Christ," (Gal 3:2), that Spirit, according to the measure of faith, writes the lively law of love in his heart, [as Tindal sweetly says,] whereby he is enabled to work freely and of his own accord, without the co-action or compulsion of the law. ¹⁰ For that love wherewith Christ, or God in Christ, hath loved him, and which by faith is apprehended of him, will constrain him to do so; according to that of the apostle, (2 Cor 5:14), "The love of Christ constraineth us." That is, it will make him do so, whether he will or no; he cannot choose, but do it. ¹¹ I tell you truly, answerably as the love of Christ is shed abroad in the heart of any man, it is such a strong impulsion, that it carries him on to serve and please the Lord in all things, according to the saying of an evangelical man: ¹² "The will and affection of a believer, according to the measure of faith and the spirit received, sweetly quickens and bends, to choose, affect, and delight in whatever is good and acceptable to God, or a good man; the Spirit freely and cheerfully moving and inclining him to keep the law, without fear of hell or hope of heaven." For a Christian man, says sweet Tindal, worketh only because it is the will of his Father; for after that he is overcome with love and kindness, he seeks to do the will of God, which is indeed a Christian man's nature; and what he doth, he doth it freely after the example of Christ. As a natural son, ask him why he does such a thing. Why, says he, it is the will of my Father, and I do it that I may please him; for, indeed, love desireth no wages, it is wages enough to itself, it hath sweetness enough in itself, it desires no addition, it pays its own wages. And therefore it is the true child-like obedience, being begotten by faith, of Sarah the free-woman, by the force of God's love. And so it is indeed the only true and sincere obedience: for, says Dr. Preston, "To do a thing in love, is to do it in sincerity; and, indeed, there is no other definition of sincerity; that is the best way to know it by."

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[Back] [1] It is not the scope or design of Neophytus here, to show wherein the essence of faith consists, or to give a definition to it. But suppose it was so, his definition falls considerably short of some given by famous orthodox Protestant divines, yea, and churches too. See the note on the definition of faith. I repeat here Mr. John Davidson's definition only, viz: "Faith is an hearty assurance that our sins are freely forgiven us in Christ." From whence one may clearly see, that some time a-day, it was reckoned no absurdity that one's justification was made the object of one's belief. For the understanding of which ancient Protestant doctrine, grown almost quite out of ken with unlearned readers, I shall adduce a passage out of Wendeline's Christ. Theol. lib. 1. cap. 24, p. 542, 543. He proposes the Popish objection thus, "Justifying faith must go before justification; but the faith of special mercy doth not go before justification; if it did, it were false; for at that rate, a man should believe that his sins are forgiven, which as yet are not forgiven, since they are not forgiven but by justification; therefore the faith of special mercy is not justifying faith." In answer to which, he denies the second of these propositions, with the proofs thereof, and concludes in these words: "Justifying faith, therefore, hath for the special object of it, forgiveness of sins, future, present, and past." He explains it thus, "By the faith of special mercy, as it goeth before justification, a man doth not believe that his sins are forgiven him already, before the act of believing"; this, by the by, is the Antinomian faith, justifying only declaratively. Follows the true doctrine of faith: "But that he shall have forgiveness of sins; in the very act of justification, he believes his sins are forgiven him, and so receives forgiveness; after justification, he believes the past application," viz: forgiveness, that is, that his sins are now already forgiven him.

But the design of Neophytus is, to make a profession of his faith, and, by an argument drawn from Christian experience, to refute the Antinomian pretended faith, whereby a sinner, at first brush, believes his sins to be already forgiven him, before the act of believing, and thereafter hath no regard to holiness of life; a plain evidence that that persuasion is not of God. And in opposition to it, is this profession made, which consists of three parts:

(1.) He professes that he believes himself to be justified and acquitted from all his sins; and this is the belief of the past application, after justification, which we heard before from Wendeline. For we have already found Neophytus brought unto faith in Christ, and the match betwixt Christ and him declared to be made, though his faith was accompanied with fears. And now he finds his faith grown up in some small measure unto the height which Antinomista pretended his faith to be at, namely, unto believing himself to be already justified; but withal he intimates, that his faith had not come to this pitch all of a sudden, as Antinomista's had done; but that it was some time after he believed, ere he did thus believe. And now, indeed, his believing thus, only in some small measure, was his sin, and argued the weakness of his faith: but such a man's believing, in any measure, great or small, that he was justified and acquitted from all his sins, must be commended and approved, unless we will bring back the Popish doctrine of doubting.

(2.) He professes, That therefore, namely, since he was justified, and believed himself to be so, he had no need to eschew evil, or do good for fear of punishment or hope of reward; the which Antinomista pretending to likewise, had cast off all care of keeping the law, or doing good works, having no other principle of obedience within him. This does not at all look to punishments and rewards, improperly so called, that is, fatherly chastisements and favours, of which the author afterwards treats expressly; but it is plainly meant of rewards and punishments taken in a proper sense, as flowing from the justice of God, remunerative and vindictive, and proceeding upon our works, good and evil; and particularly it is meant of heaven and hell. This is the sense in which that phrase is commonly used by divines; and that it is so to be taken here, is evident from its being inferred from his justification, which indeed leaves no place for fear of punishment and hope of reward in the latter sense: but not so in the former sense. And thus, it appears, Nomista understood it, as shall appear afterwards.

(3.) He professes, That he was so far from being the less inclined to duty, that he believed himself to be fully justified, and that the fear of punishment and hope of reward were ceased in his case; that, on the contrary, he found, as his faith grew, his love to and readiness for holiness of life, grew: he was more willing, and more desirous to do the Lord's commandments than he had been before his faith was advanced to that pitch. And herein, I conceive, the experience of the saints will not contradict him. Thus he gives a plain testimony against the Antinomian faith.

[Back] [2] Namely, the faith of special mercy, or a faith of particular application, without which, in greater or lesser measure, it is not saving faith.

[Back] [3] His soul resting on Christ, whom he hath received for salvation.

[Back] [4] Thus he conceives of God according to the measure of his faith, or of his soul's resting on Christ, which admits of various degrees.

[Back] [5] A man's believing God's love to him, is woven into the very nature of saving faith, as hath been already shown. Wherefore, whatsoever humiliation, compunction, sorrow, and grief for sin, go before it, they must needs be but legal, being before faith, "without which it is impossible to please God," (Heb 11:6).

[Back] [6] The belief of which, in some measure, is included in the nature of faith.—See note on the definition of faith.

[Back] [7] This is the springing up of the "seeds of repentance put into the heart in sanctification," Larg. Cat. q. 75; a work of sanctifying grace, acceptable to God; the curse being taken off the sinner, and his person accepted in the Beloved, and like to the mourning and repenting of that woman, (Luke 7:47), "Who, having much forgiven her, loved much." Betwixt which repentance and pardon of sin, there is an inseparable connection, so that it is of such necessity to all sinners, that none may expect pardon without it. Westm. Confess. chap. 15. art. 3.

[Back] [8] This can have no reference at all to the motives of a believer's obedience, unless believers, as well as unbelievers, are to be reckoned to be under the covenant of works; for it is manifest, that the author speaks here of such only as are under that covenant. But, on the contrary, if a man is under the covenant of works called the law, in the style of the Holy Ghost, he is not a believer, but an unbeliever, (Rom 6:14), "Sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not under the law, but under grace." This reasoning proceeds upon this principle, viz: Those who are under the covenant of works, and they only, are under the dominion or reigning power of sin. And if men, being under the covenant of works, are under the dominion of sin, it is evident that they are not believers, but bond-servants, that the love of God dwelleth not in them, but corrupt self-love reigns in them; and, therefore, unto the good they do, they are constrained, by fear of punishment and hope of reward, agreeable to the threatening and promise of the broken covenant of works they are under; that their obedience, conform to their state and condition, is but servile; no better than it is here described to be, having only the letter, but not the spirit of true obedience, the which, before any man can attain unto, he must be set free from the covenant of works, as the apostle teaches; (Rom 7:6), "But now, we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter": and finally, that as is the condition and the obedience of those under the covenant of works, so shall their end be, (Gal 4:30), "Cast out the bond-woman and her son: for the son of the bond-woman shall not be heir with the son of the free-woman."

[Back] [9] That is, till the empty vine be filled with the Spirit from Jesus Christ, it will never bring forth fruit unto him. Till a man do once eat by faith he will never work aright. The conscience must be purged from dead works, else one is not in case "to serve the living God," (Heb 9:14). The covenant of works says to the sinner, who is yet without strength, "Work, and then ye shall be filled"; but the covenant of grace says to him, "Be filled, and then thou must work." And until the yoke of the covenant of works be taken off a man's jaws, and meat be laid unto him, he will never take on and bear the yoke of Christ's acceptably.

[Back] [10] The words co-action and compulsion signify one and the same thing, viz: forcing; so that to work without the co-action or compulsion of the law, is to work without being force thereto by the law.

One would think it so very plain and obvious, that the way how the law forceth men to work, is by the terror of the dreadful punishment which it threatens in case of not working, that it does but darken the matter to say, The co-action or compulsion of the law consists in its commanding and binding power or force; the which must needs be meant of the commanding and binding power of the covenant of works, or of the law, as it is the covenant of works. For it cannot be meant [as these words seem to bear] of that power which the law of the ten commandments, as a rule of life, hath over men, to bind them to obedience, under which, I think, the impartial reader is by this time convinced that the author denies not believers still to be; for to call that co-action or compulsion, is contrary to the common understanding and usage of these words in society. At this rate, one must say, That the glorified saints and angels [to ascend no higher] being, as creatures of God, under the commanding and binding power of the eternal rule of righteousness, are compelled and forced to their obedience too; and that when we pray, "Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven," we pray to be enabled to obey the will of God, as the angels do in heaven, by co-action and compulsion in the height thereof; for surely the angels have the sense of the commanding and binding power of the eternal rule of righteousness upon them in a degree far beyond what any believer on earth has. Wherefore that exposition of the co-action or compulsion of the law, and so putting believers under the law's co-action or compulsion, amount just to what we met with before, namely, That believers are under the commanding power [at least] of the covenant of works, having obedience bound upon them with the cords of hell, or under the pain of the curse. Accordingly, the compulsion of the law is more plainly described to be its binding power and moral force, which it derives from the awful authority of the sovereign Lawgiver, commanding obedience to his law, and threatening disobedience with wrath, or with death, or hell. And so our author is blamed for not subjecting believers to this compulsion of the law.

In the preceding paragraph he had shown, that the obedience of unbelievers to the law of the ten commandments is produced by the influence of the law [or covenant] of works upon them, forcing or constraining them thereto by the fear of the punishment which it threatens. Thus, they work by the co-action or compulsion of the law, or covenant of works, being destitute of the love of God. Here he affirms, that when once a man is brought unto Christ, he having the sanctifying Spirit of Christ dwelling in him, and being endowed with faith that purifies the heart, and with love that is strong as death, is enabled to work freely, and of his own accord, without that co- action or compulsion.

This is the doctrine of the holy Scripture. (Psa 51:12), "Uphold me with thy free spirit." Compare (Gal 5:18), "But if ye be led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law." So (Psa 110:3), "Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power." Compare (1 Peter 5:2), "Not by constraint but willingly." And believers are declared to be "not under the law," (Rom 6:14).—"To be made free from the law of death. Not to have received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but the spirit of adoption," (8:2,15). How then can they still be under the co-active and compulsive power of the law, frightening and forcing them to obedience by its threatenings of the second death, or eternal wrath?

And it is evident that this is the received doctrine of orthodox divines, which might be attested by a cloud of witnesses, if the nature of this work did permit. "Not to be under the law," says Luther, "is to do good things, and abstain from wicked things, not through compulsion of the law, but by free love, and with pleasure." Chos. Ser. 20, p. 232.

"The second part [viz: of Christian liberty] is," says Calvin, "that consciences obey the law, not as compelled by the necessity of the law, but being free from the yoke of the law itself, of their own accord they obey the will of God." Instit. book 3, chap. 19, sec. 4.

"We would distinguish betwixt the law, considered as a law and as a covenant. A law doth necessarily imply no more than, (1.) To direct. (2.) To command, enforcing that obedience by authority. A covenant doth further necessarily imply promises made upon some condition, or threatenings added, if such a condition be not performed. The first two are essential to the law, the last two to believers, are made void through Christ; in which sense it is said, that by him we are freed from the law as a covenant; so that believers' lives depend not on the promises annexed to the law, nor are they in danger by the threatenings adjoined to it." Durham on the Commands, p. 4.

"What a new creature doth, in observance of the law, is from natural freedom, choice, and judgment, and not by the force of any threatenings annexed to it." Charnock, vol. 2, p. 59.

See Westminster Confession, chap. 20, art. 1, of which afterwards.

And thus is that text, (1 Tim 1:9), "The law is not made for a righteous man, generally understood by divines, critics, and commentators, the law, threatening, compelling, condemning, is not made for a righteous man, because he is pushed forward to duty of his own accord, and is no more led by the spirit of bondage, and fear of punishment." Turret. loc. 2, q. 24, th. 8.—"By the law is to be understood the moral law, as it is armed in stings and terrors, to restrain rebellious sinners. By the righteous man is meant one in whom a principle of divine grace is planted, and who, from the knowledge and love of God, chooses the things that are pleasing to him. As the law has annexed so many severe threatenings to the transgressors of it, it is evident that it is directed to the wicked, who will only be compelled by fear from an outrageous breaking of it." Continuation of Poole's Annotations on the Text. "The law is not for him, as a master to command him, to constrain him as a bondman." Lodovic de Dieu. "The law doth not compel, press on, fright, lie heavy upon, and punish a righteous man." Strigelius.—"It lies not on him as a heavy burden, compelling a man against his will, violently pressing him on, and pushing him forwards; it doth not draw him to obedience; but leads him, being willing." Scultetus.—"For of his own accord he doth right." Castalio, apud Pol. Synop. in Loc.

[Back] [11] "It is a metonymy from the effect, that is, love makes me to do it in that manner, as a man that is compelled; that is the meaning of it. So it has the same effect that compulsion hath, though there be nothing more different from compulsion than love." Dr. Preston, ibid. p. 29.

[Back] [12] If one considers that the drift and scope of this whole discourse, is to discover the naughtiness of Antinomista's faith, observed by Neophytus, one may perceive, that by the author's quoting Towne, the Antinomian, upon that head, he gives no more ground to suspect himself of Antinomianism, though he calls him an evangelical man than a Protestant gives in point of Popery, by quoting Cardinal Bellarmine against a Papist, though withal he call him a Catholic. And the epithet given to Towne, is so far from being a high commendation, that, really, it is none at all; for, though both these epithets, the latter as well as the former, are in themselves honourable, yet in these cases, a man speaking in the language of his adversary, they are nothing so. Evangelista could not but remember that Antinomista had told him roundly, "That he had not been so evangelical as some others in the city, which caused him to leave hearing of him, to hear them," viz: those evangelical men; and why might not he give him a sound note from one of those evangelical men, even under that character, so acceptable to him, without ranking himself with them?