"I will touch on two of his reasons that we must fetch assurance from
our own duties.
1. “He that believes shall be saved, and believing is our act,
therefore, etc.” I must answer, though God says, “Believe, and thou
shalt be saved;” he does not say, believe, and thence raise your
assurance from your graces and duties: he excludes boasting, and
saith, “it is by faith, not of works, lest any boast;” but if we fetch
assurances from our duties, we boast.
2. His second reason is in folio 77, “We are without the law of works
or of Moses, but Jesus Christ hath made us a law of grace; this hath
precepts, promises, and threats; he that performs the condition is
righteous in the sense of this law.” (Here is virtually a clear
negation of Christ's righteousness imputed to us to make us
righteous;) it is our performance of the condition, that is, our
repentance and sincere obedience (as folio 54,) makes us righteous in
the sense of this law; or he that performs it, is righteous in the
sense of this law; therefore we must raise our assurance on this. Here
is much fallacy in the argument; he does not say plainly, “our
performance makes us righteous,” folio 75, but he saith it in effect,
folio 54, “Repentance and sincere obedience are parts of the condition
of the new covenant.” So that we are delivered by grace from one
covenant of works, from the duty of being legally righteous, to
another covenant of works of repentance and sincere obedience, which
acts are our evangelical righteousness, (as folio 78.) So that we are
clearly brought from Moses's yoke of bondage, to Antichrist's yoke of
a new-fangled evangelical righteousness of sincere obedience to
justify us. I always thought our Lord Jesus Christ was made of God to
us righteousness, and that was our evangelical righteousness, however
termed Antinomian doctrine; but now we have a new law of threats, and
precepts, and promises, and he that performs the condition, is
righteous in the sense of this law."
