Sparkles of glory, or Some beams of the morning-star. Wherein are many discoveries as to truth, and peace. To the establishment, and pure enlargement of a Christian in spirit and truth. / By John Saltmarsh. Preacher of the Gospell.

A further Disco∣very as to Free-Grace.

THey beleeve Iesus Christ ascended in the body accordingly, and glori∣fied in flesh; and through Ie∣sus Christ thus ascended, and sitting on the right hand of God in this figure and bodily form, they accordingly con∣ceive all graces of Spirit to flow forth into the Saints in faith, love, obedience, &c.

But they look not on justi∣fication as flowing from Christ acted upon by the faith of a beleever first, and so a consequent of beleeving or of faith, but an antecedent

or going before faith; they hold Jesus Christ to be righ∣teousness and justification to a sinner, and that all are justi∣fied before they beleeve or re∣pent; and faith, repentance, are fruits of righteousness or justification, Christ being given to open the eyes of the blind, and to bring the priso∣ners out of prison, &c. and that all such righteousness and justification clothes the sinner so compleatly through Gods imputation, that all sin is done away like a thick cloud, and none imputed to belee∣vers; Christ hath taken away all sin by his offering up one sacrifice once for all; and that faith in the beleever doth nothing, no not instru∣mentally as to justification, but as by way of revelation

and manifestation of that ju∣stification: Hence it is that they affirm no beleever ought to pray for pardon of sin, be∣ing a righteous person, at once in Christ, and wholy pardoned; but all this righteousness and justification they take upon the account meerly of Gods imputation, of Christ without us, or in heaven, who calleth things that are not as if they were; and they look upon all works and duties, &c. as works flowing from love, and from justification or righte∣ousness, not directed to justi∣fication or in any order to it, we beleeve, repent, love, and obey (say they) not that we may be saved, but because we are saved; and any other way of beleeving, obeying, &c. they look upon as legal, and

not so purely Evangelical; and they hold forth all the work of justification and righteousness to be of meer grace, and that all Gospel-promises are free; and Christ is freely offered to sin••ers as sinners, in the Ministry of the Word.

So as their highest at∣tainment is this, that God doth all to sinners in meer grace; that no sin is impu∣ted to sinners, but they are pure only by imputation, and so no beleevers are pu¦nished for sin, but from sin: and all works of grace in a beleever is because they are saved, or pardoned; not that they may be saved or par∣doned; and all they are to do is from love, not from bondage, or from a meer out∣ward

Commandment; and the Gospel or grace of God in Christ is free, and in free pro∣mises; and so to be preached to sinners, as sinners.

They, commonly called Presbyterians, Independents, Anabaptists, &c. hold all points of doctrine, as to ju∣stification, sanctification, faith, &c. the ministry of the word and Sacraments, which they call means of sal∣vation; all these hold alike with the common Protestant; this being the summ of the Articles of the Church of England made by the Bishops and confirmed by Queen Elizabeth, King James, and King Charls: and there hath been uo Reformation further, nor any higher attainment in these things, then the Bi∣shops

made, and the Synod in England formerly.

And all the Reformation that hath been endeavoured, hath been only in some out∣ward things, as Discipline or Church-government, and some outward ordinances of Bap∣tism, and the Supper, not a∣ny purer or more glorious discoveries of God, or the Spirit, or Jesus Christ, or our union with the Spirit, or glory, as to spiritual things, or Christ risen, but as to Christ in the flesh, or under the law, of which these ordi∣nances were a sign.

Notes

• Luk 4 18.
• Ezek.
• 1 Pet▪ 2. 24.
• Heb. 9. 24. 26.
• Ezek. 16. 6, 7, 8.
• Eph. 2. 6. 8, 9.
• 1 Cor. 1. 30.
• 1 Pet 2 24
• Isa 53. 6.
• Luke 1. 74, 75.
• 2 Cor. 5. 14.
• Mat. 9. 13: •• Tim. 1. 15
• See Confes∣sion of faith made in this As∣sembly.
• Confession of the se∣ven Chur∣ches:
• Articles of the Church of England.