Of Fundamentals, Treatise · Chapter 13
CHAP. XIII. Of the Fiduciarie.
§. 1. THE ſecond obſtructive, which I ſhall mention, is that of the Fiduciarie, The Doctrine of Faith being a full perſwaſion.that having reſolved Faith to be the only inſtrument of his juſtification, and excluded good works from contributing any thing toward it, proceeds to define his Faith to be a full perſwaſion, that the promiſes of Chriſt belong to him, or an aſſurance of his particular election; Which he that doth, and ſeriouſly believes himſelf to conclude aright, that he is a true believer, or that the only thing which he is obliged to acquire and arrive to, is this kinde of full aſſurance, as it excludes all fear or doubting of his eſtate, and yet farther aſſerts (as many doe) the prioritie of it (in order of time) before repentance, and ſo obliges himſelf to be ſure of his election and ſalvation, before he repents or amends his life, is fortified and ſecured by this one deceipt from all obligation that Chriſtian religion can lay upon him to ſuperſtruct Chriſtian practiſe, or holy living upon his Faith.
§. 2. For 1. if aſſurance of his good eſtate be the one neceſſary, Oſtructive to good life.then it is evident that good life, which is a thing formally diſtinct from that aſſurance, is not neceſſary: 2. If his eſtate be already ſafe (and if it be not, then his believing it, is the believing a lie, and God's command to believe, is a command to believe a lie, and ſo one man is juſtified and ſaved meerly by giving credit to a falſitie, and all others rejected and damned barely upon their not believing the like falſitie) then it needs no aſſiſtance or ſupply from good life to make it a good eſtate, or give him grounds to believe it ſuch: 3. If he be juſtified before he repents and amends his life, then nothing can hinder the continuance of his juſtified eſtate, in caſe he doe not repent at preſent, nor intercept his ſalvation, in caſe he doe never repent; and this, not onelyonly by force of that maxime generally received by theſe Fiduciaries, that he that is once juſtified can never be unjuſtified, nothing can ſeparate him from the favour of God, or interſcind his juſtified eſtate, but, without that auxiliarie, by all rules of diſcourſe and conſequence, for he that is this day in a good eſtate without repentance, may be ſo to morrow by the ſame reaſon, and ſo on, to the laſt day and hour of his life; Repentance will be no more neceſſary to the continuance, then to the inchoation of his good eſtate.
The pretended uſe of good life to the juſtifying of our Faith,§. 3. Or if amendment and good life be affirmed neceſſary in order to the approving of his faith or juſtification either to himſelf or others, though not to his juſtification it ſelf, 1. this cannot be reconciled with the Fiduciaries doctrine, vain in four reſpects: The Firſt.For his Faith being a full aſſurance, includes that approbation of his juſtification to himſelf, and ſo he that hath that already, needs not good life to help him to it, and for the approving it to others, that is perfectly extrinſecal, and unneceſſary, and impertinent to his juſtification, either in the ſight of God, or in his own eyes; for as God judgeth not as man judgeth, ſo neither can man's diſapproving of any man, be a juſt reaſon to move him, who believeth he ſins and renounces the faith, if he permit himſelf to doubt, to admit any the leaſt beginning of doubt of the goodneſs of his eſtate, or truth of his juſtification: And 2dly, 'tis God's juſtification, God's pardon of ſin, The ſecond.the promiſe, or hope of which hath ſufficient power to perſwade carnal men to forſake ſin, and enter the rules of Chriſtian life, and not the approbation of men.
§. 4. 3dly,The third. In caſe the Fiduciarie were in the right (as he muſt be ſuppoſed to think himſelf to be) the men that did not believe him juſtified, ſhould be unrighteous judges, paſſing a judgment contrary to God's judgment, and why ſhould the Fiduciarie that ſuppoſeth himſelf to be approved of God without Repentance, take ſuch pains to approve himſelf to man's judgment, which the Apoſtle diſclaims being judged by, Rom. 8.33.
§. 5. 4thly,The fourth. How can it reaſonably be ſaid that good life is neceſſary to approve our juſtification or our Faith, when good life is acknowledged to have nothing to doe in the matter of juſtification, and when Faith is ſo defined as it hath no connotation of repentance or good life? If Faith be a full perſwaſion of my being juſtified, the only humane way for me to approve this to others, i. e. to make others believe that I am thus perſwaded, is to teſtifie it by word or oath, which is the one means agreed on betwixt men to make faith of the truth of any thing which no man knows but my ſelf (and if man were ſuppoſed to know it, it would follow that I ſhould not need means to induce that approbation.)
§. 6. The one other imaginable means of approving it to man, were the teſtimonie of God either by voice from heaven, or by ſome other like means of Revelation, or by my doing miracles in God's name, which might impreſſe ſome image of divine authority and veracity upon me; And ſo ſtill good life is not the proper means for that end of approving us to men, eſpecially if others believe what the Fiduciarie doth, that Faith may be without good works, and good works, as farre as to the eye of man, without Faith, for that being granted it follows neceſſarily, that one cannot prove or approve the other.
§. 7.The Jew's premature perſwaſion of his good eſtate. Thus did the Jew by ſaying and thinking that he had Abraham to his Father, perſwading himſelf of his particular irreſpective election, think it ſafe firſt, and conſequently prudent to run into all foul ſins, and no more to think himſelf obliged or concerned by John Baptiſt's, or Chriſt's, or his Apoſtles perſwaſions to bring forth fruits of amendment, immediately before the judgments of God came out againſt that people, then he had been all the time before; Nor could his belief of God, his expectation of another life (allowed by the Phariſees) his obſcure belief in the Meſſiah promiſed, the Law, the Prophets, the deſcent of God from heaven, the raiſing Jeſus from the dead, prevail or gain in upon him, as long as he continued to conceive theſe privileges of Abraham's ſons to belong unto him.
§. 8.The Chriſtians. And in like manner the Chriſtian profeſſor, who hath imbibed this Fiduciarie doctrine, and is confident of his preſent and unperiſhable right in the favour of God, when he commits thoſe ſins againſt which the Goſpel denounces, that they which doe thoſe things ſhall not inherit the kingdome of God, he is, if he acknowledge that part of the Goſpel, and retain the belief of his perſonal election, neceſſitated to believe thoſe acts, when committed by him, to ceaſe to be thoſe ſins which they would be, when another man committed them; And then what neceſſity ſoever lies on him that hath that guilt upon him to reform the ſins that contract that guilt, he which is ſuppoſed not guilty, cannot be ſo obliged, and 'tis hard to imagine what poſſible conſideration, what meſſenger from the dead ſhould be able to perſwade him to repent, till he hath depoſited that premature perſwaſion of his being in Chriſt.
The Fiduciarie's ground, Chriſt's dying for none but the Elect.§. 9. One ſpecial ground of the Fiduciaries miſ-perſwaſion is the Doctrine of God's giving Chriſt for all the Elect, and for none but them, all others being ſuppoſed to be left by God in a ſtate of abſolute deſtitution, and dereliction, upon no other foreſeen demerit, but only the guilt of Adam's ſin imputed to them, and not removed by Chriſt.
§. 10. And upon that Doctrine imbibed, 1. it is not unreaſonable or difficult for him that is thus perſwaded, that ſuppoſes his danger to flow from no real ſin, or guilt of his own, but only that which being committed by another is imputed to him, to believe that there is nothing required of him (neither repentance nor good works) but only a full aſſurance of his own being elected, and reſcued in Chriſt, i. e. a believing his own wiſhes (an aerial, magical faith) to work his deliverance for him.
§. 11. 2dly, What ſhould make it neceſſary for him to repent and amend, who either without reſpect to any degree of amendment, is ſuppoſed to be elected to eternal bliſſe, or without reſpect to ſin, to be irreverſibly reprobated, i. e. to any perſon thus conſidered, either as elect, or left, reprobate, and non-elect in the whole maſſe of lapſt mankinde?
§. 12. Nay I might adde, what obligation can lie on any man ſo much as to believe (whatſoever the notion of faith be, even to believe he ſhall be ſaved) when 'tis ſuppoſed by him to be certainly decreed that he ſhall be ſaved, without foreſight of, or reſpect unto this Faith of his?
Two farther obſtructions to good life.§. 13. Upon theſe premiſes it cannot be unreaſonable to conclude, and uſeful farther to take notice in the next place, that theſe two doctrines, 1. of Chriſt's dying for none but the Elect; 2. of God's abſolute irreſpective decrees of Election and Reprobation, are inconvenient interpoſitions, which are moſt apt to obſtruct and hinder the building of good life, even where the Foundation thereof is received intirely, and not queſtioned in any part thereof, Of which I ſhall therefore farther treat in the two next Chapters.
§. 14. Mean while, as an appendix to this Chapter, it will be juſt to take notice, that ſome men have thought it neceſſary, in the definition of Faith, to change the [Full Aſſurance] into a milder ſtyle of [Relyance] which if it be not joyned with other changes in that doctrine, Of Faiths being defined by Reliance.as in that particular of the Priority of Faith before Repentance, 'tis certainly 1. as erroneous, 2. as liable to the charge of obſtructing good life, as that other doctrine of Aſſurance hath appeared to be.
The Error of it.§. 15. For the firſt, where there is no divine Promiſe, on which to relie, (as to the unreformed ſinner remaining ſuch, the whole Bible affordeth none) there what is reliance, but preſumption, reliance on a broken reed, a building, without a foundation? Whereas on the other ſide if any promiſe were producible, whereon it were ſafe to relie, what ſcruple could the Chriſtian there make againſt entertaining the fulleſt aſſurance? for that without queſtion will be ſupported abundantly by ſuch a promiſe.
§. 16. For the ſecond, 'tis viſible, The danger of obſtructing good life.He that continues unreformed and impenitent in his courſe of ſin, and is by the preacher induced to Relie on Chriſt for his ſalvation, and is farther taught, that this Reliance is that Faith by which he is juſtified, and the one thing, that is required of him to his ſalvation, what neceſſity can be imagined to lie on that man to reform or amend any vice, or to doe any thing, but relie on Chriſt for the pardon of it, for juſtification and ſalvation? 'Tis ſuperfluous to purſue this any farther, which ſo diſcernibly falls under the inconveniences that have been ſhewed to belong to Aſſurance, and are mention'd in the former part of this Chapter, too largely to be here repeated.