C H A P. 23. the Exceptions of John Goodwine. 3°9 the reward was made fuch only by God's free CondefcenGnn; & God had, in that cafe, given what they had deferved according to the Covenant ma- de , wherein fuch a reward was promifed to obeyers ; and , in juftice , be- flowing it as a reward upon fuch , as did fulfill the condition. Now , when Faith is laid to have the fame place , in the New Covenant that Perfect Obedience had in the old , and fo the fame Efficacy & influence in the re- ward ; & withall , it is fuppofed , that Faith is now no more the gift of God, than Perfect Obedience was under the old Law; is it not as true now, that God giveth no more , than what beleevers have by Faith ( at lead in fo- me fort) deferved, by vertue of the Compaét & New Covenant, wherein this reward is promifed as it would have been under the old Covenant? And is i tnot hence allo mani fe[t, that the New Covenant is made to be of the fame Nature with the.Old, and that the reward is as well now of debt, as is would have been by the Old Covenant? Is it not alto hence undeniable , that hereby there is a proportion acknowledged , in Come fort, betwixt Faith & the Reward ? where is then the difference ? Let us fee if his next reafon wifhelpe here. Secondly ( he faith ) becaufe if they had,made out their happinefs , tbat way they had done it out of themfelves , that it , out of the firengtb of thofe abilities"? which were a ffential to their Natures , if in the ßrickef á,^ moll proper Jenfe that can be fpoken of, or applied to a creature , their owne. .Anf. (t) When he fup- pofeth ( as we law in the Exception ) the aft ofBeleeving to be from a mans felt, muff we not alfo fay , that the beleever making out his happinefs this way, Both it out of himfelf, though not out of' the ftrength of abilities ef- fential to his Nature. WI much doubt , if thole abilities ( if he (peak of moral abilities , as he muff, or (peak nothing to the purpofe) can be (aid to have been effential to mans Nature , for then it wou'd follow , that man, after he loft thefe abilities ( as it muff be granted he did , when he fell ) was no more acompleet man ,. wanting fomething that was effential to his natu- re. Thee abilities may be laid to have been natural or con - natural to him, confidering the [late, the Lord thought good to creare hirn in, and fo nor meerly fupernatural ; but how they can be laid to have been Effenrial ro his Nature, I fee nor, (z) When God gave "Barn there Abilities , and thereby furnished him with a fuficrcient Rock; was he not to acknowledge God for all that he did'- or was he afterward to at without dependanceupon , or in- fluence from God , the aril Caufe ? If not as it is confeffed , when it is fail to be fo only in a fenfe, that can agree to a creature; and when faith is here fup- pofed to be from mans felf aftmg in the fame dependanceon God , and re- ceiving the fame influence from him, as the firft Gaufe, may not Faith alto be laid to be mans own, in as (trick Se proper a fenfe as can be Cpoken of, or applied to a Creature ? And even though we (peak of Faith , in the ortho- dox fenfe, as being the gift of God , yet Icing it floweth nativly from the new Nature given in Regeneration , & is faidto be mans faith, & his ad, all this difference will not exclude all occafion of boafting & glorying before men , more then Abraham's works would have done , if he had been julli- fied by them. And yet the Gofpel -way of ju[lification perfeífly excludeth Ppz "all
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