To the Reader, in John Rogers, The Doctrine of Faith

To the Reader.

THe good of the soule, and the supreme happinesse of a sinner, being a reasonable creature, is to be united to an All-sufficient, even to him Who is goodnesse and happinesse it selfe, God blessed for evermore. The fullnesse of the infinitenesse of all perfections which are in the Lord, being able to fill up all the emptie chinks, void places, the unsatisfied gaspings & yawnings of the spirit of a man. All truth is in God, and thereby the understanding is satisfied, it can know no more, all perfections of excellency in him, and thereby the will is contented, it can have no more: and all this our first Father Adam being made for God, had he beene united to him by the obedience of love, he had beene possessour of him, and of all this good in him. But our first parents playing the Apostates, through the abuse of their owne libertie and Satans delusion, plucked away themselves (as I may so speake) from under that spirituall and especiall guidance and government of the blessed God, and so became to fall off from the possession of so great a good, and to topple [παράπτωμα. Rom. 5. 15.] downe from the height of all that happinesse, into the depth of all misery: for as the good was from which they departed, such was the evill into which they plunged themselves: they departed from the God of all power into weaknesse. from all wisdome to folly, from the God of all holinesse, glory, and consolation, unto all basenesse, desolation, and misery, which cannot be conceived. They being thus departed from the Lord, recovered againe they cannot be into the state of spirituall life and goodnesse, unlesse they be brought againe to him, who is the fountaine of life, & good to all that shall have it, namely, to the living God: and brought they Will never be but by Faith: For man being bound to live the spirituall life of grace, and to please God, he must either live by himselfe or by another, by himselfe he cannot, being dead in sinnes and trespasses, therefore he must live by another, therefore goe to that other (that is) God, rest upon him, and beleeve in him: Faith being nothing els, but the going out of the soule to God through Christ, to fetch a principle of life which in Adam we lost and now need. And hence it is that there is such an extraordinary worth in this precious grace, and such an extraordinary vertue, even the mightie [Ephes. 1. 19] working of the exceeing great power of the out-stretched arme of the Lord, put forth to bring the soule to himselfe by beleeving.

The worke being so extraordinary wonderfull, no marvell though it be more than ordinarily secret. The [Ioh. 3. 3.] spirit as the winde blowes where it lists, thou knowest not whence it came nor whither it goes, and so is every man that is borne of God. And if the framing of the body be fearefully and wonderfully wrought beneath in the earth, as the Psalmist speakes, why should we not imagine that the fashioning of the soule to a dependance of God, through the depth of his counsell, should be much more difficult to dive into.

The way which the Author of this Treatise hath followed in making a saving Contrition to goe before faith in the second maine poynt of the Treatise, discoursing about the Author and meanes of Faith, if it may finde a judicious and fayre construction, it will be found to be beyond exception by such as are not forestalled with preiudice. Let not that deceive thee (good Reader) which is a common conceit, but a common errour, to wit, that every saving worke upon the heart is a sanctifying worke, which in strictnesse of speech (as the termes must here be conceived) cannot stand by the verdict of Scripture. For Rom. 8. 30. the spirit speakes plainly, whom God called, them he justified, whom he justified, them he glorified. Here is the order of Gods owne worke, of purpose described by his owne spirit, and by those last words, and them he glorified, by the best Interpreters is meant not onely the perfection of it in heaven, but the beginning of it here in grace, sanctification and glorification differing but in degrees one from another, whence the cōclusion is thus undeniably collected; Vocation is not a sanctifying worke, because they are there distinguished one from another, set in order of nature one before another: But Vocation is a saving Worke, therfore every saving worke is not a sanctifying worke. Though therefore we must have Faith before we can be in Christ, and the soule must be contrite before it can have Faith, this saving worke may be, and yet this no Worke of sanctification.

If then thou shalt heare or reade of sorrow, hatred, detestatiō against sinne in a contrite person, which cannot be in a reprobate, and observe also the like spoken elsewhere as a fruit of Faith, thou must not bogle or start at the termes, as implying a contradiction one to another, when all will easily be reconciled thus, the one is a sorrow of preparation, the other a sorroW of sanctification, and yet both saving. The one Wrought upon us, wherein we are patients of the worke of the spirit bringing of us unto Christ: the other is wrought by us, through the spirit given to us, and dwelling in us when wee have received Christ.

Much more may be said in this particular, and shall be when occasion shall require, onely for the while, this may serve by way of preface, not purposing to enter the lists of dispute. And let me speake ingenuously without either pride or preiudice, somewhat I have heard by conference of the point from sundry men, a little I have read, and thought much according to my meanenesse, and the measure of light received, and I could never yet apprehend any thing, Which should shake this truth rightly understood.