"1. God has eternally elected a certain definite number of men whom he will infallibly save by Clnist in tlie wny prescribed by the Gospel. 2. These very elect are not per- sonally jiistilied until they receive Christ and yield them- selves up to him, but they remain condemned while un- converted to Christ. 3. By the ministry of the Gospel there is a serious offer of pardon and glory, upon tlie terms of the Gospel, to all that hear it ; and God thereby requires them to comply with the said terms. 4. Minis- ters ought to use these and other Gospel benefits as mo- tives, assuring men that if they believe they shall be jus- tified ; if they turn to God, they shall live ; if they repent, their sins shall be blotted out; and-while they neglect these duties they cannot have a personal interest in these respective lienefits. 5. It is by tlie power of the Spirit of Christ frcoly rxprtcd, and not by the power of free will, that the (;o^]ll•l liccuues efiVctiuil for the conversion of any soul in tin' nlu'dience of faith. C. When a man be- lieves, yet is not that very faith, and much less any other W(irk, the matter of that riLrhteonsness for which a sinner is justiiied, i. e. entitled to pardon, acceptance, and eternal ginry, as riuhteons before God;' and it is the imputed righteousness of Christ alone for which the Gospel gives the believer a right to these and all saving blessings, who ill this resi)ect is justified by Christ's righteousness alone. By both this and the fifth head it appears that all boast- ing is excluded, and we are saved by free grace. 7. Faith alone receives the L(n-d Jesus and his righteousness, and the snl)ject of this faith is a convinced, penitent soul; hence we are justified by faith alone, and the imjienitent are not foigiven. 8. God has freely promised that all whom he predestinated to salvation shall not only sav- inirly believe, but that he by his power shall preserve them from a total or a final apostasy. 9. Yet the believer, while he lives in tliis world, is to pass the time of his so- jouri]in>_r here with fear, because his warfare is not ac- complished, and it is true that if he draw back God will have no pleasure in him. These, with the like cautions, God blesseth as means to the saints' perseverance, and these by ministers should be so urged. 10. The law of innocence, or moral law, is still so in force that every precept thereof constitutes duty, even to the believer; every breach thereof is a sin deserving of death: this law binds death by its curse on every unbeliever, and the righteousness for or by which we are justified before God is a righteousness (at least) adequate to that law, which is Christ's alone righteousness; and this so imputed to the believer that God deals judiciously with him accord- ing thereto. 11. Yet such is the grace of the Gospel that it promiseth in and by Christ a freedom from the curse, forgiveness of sin, and eternal life to every sincere be- liever; which promise God will certainly perform, not- withstanding the threatening of the law." Dr. Williams maintains the conditionality of the cove- nant of grace; but a<lmits with Dr. Owen, who also uses the term condition, that "Christ undertook that those who were to be taken into this covenant should receive grace enabling them to comply with the terms of it, fulfil its conditions, and yield the obedience which God required therein." On this subject Dr. Williams further says: "The question is not whether the first (viz., regenerating) grace, by which we are enabled to perform the condition, be absolutely given. This I af- firm, though that be dispensed ordinarily in a due use
of means, and in a way discountenancing idleness, and fit encouragement given to the use of means." The following objection, among others, was made by several ministers in 1G92 against Dr. Williams's Gospel Truth Stated, etc.: "To supply the room of the moral law, vacated by him, he turns the Gospel into a new law, in the keeping of which we shall be justified for the sake of Christ's righteousness, making qualifications and acts of ours a disposing subordinate righteousness whereby we become capable of being justified by Christ's right- eousness." To this, among other things, he answers :
"The difference is not (1) whether the Gospel be a new law in the Socinian, popish, or Arminian sense. This I deny. Nor (2) is faith or any other grace or act of ours any atonement for sin, satisfaction to justice, meriting qualification, or any part of that righteousness for which we are justified at God onr Creator's bar. This I deny in places innumerable. Nor (3) whether the Gospel be a "law more new than is implied in the first promise to fallen Adam, proposed to Cain, and obeyed by Abel to the differ- encing of him from his unbelieving brother. This I deuv. (4) Nor whether the Gospel be a law that allows sin when it accepts such graces as true, though short of per- fection, to he the conditions of our personal interest in the benefits purchased by Christ. This I deny. (.5) Nor whether the Gospel be a law the promises whereof enti- tle the performers of its conditions to the benefits, as of debt. This I deny. The difference is— 1. Is the Gospel a law in this sense, uamel}', God in Christ thereby com- mandeth sinners to repent of sin and receive Christ by a true operative faith, promising that thereupon they shall be united to him, justified by his righteousness, piirdoned, and adopted ; and that, persevering in faith and true ho- liness, they shall be finally saved ; also threatening that if any shall die impenitent, unbelieviiiir, uiifrodlv, reject- ers of his grace, they shall perish without relief^ and en- dure sorer punishments than if these oflers had not been made to them? 2. Hath the Gospel a sanction, that is, doth Christ therein enforce his commands of faith, re- pentance, and perseverance by the foresaid promises and threatenings, as motives to our oiiedience? Both these I affirm, and they deny: saying, the Gospel in the hirgest sense is an absolute promise without precepts and condi- tions, and a Gospel threat is a bull. 3. Do the Gospel promises of benefits to certain graces, and its threats that those benefits shall be withheld and the contrary evils inflicted for the neglect of such graces, render thesegraces the condition of our personal title to those benefits? This they deny, and I alfirm," etc.