wicked world or the great destruction come in Matthew 24.12 13 14. That it was necessary that some extraordinary Prophet or Apostle should be raised up in mercy for that end Revelations 14.6.7 And finally That other holy Scriptures and writings as we said before might in time be profitably added to the books of the New Testament to clear and vindicate them from the errors and mistakes of men brought in by Satan in progress of time as those books were written for the like vindication of Moses and the Prophets among other ends To return then to the business in hand besides many other great mistakes of yours in this argument you plainly and fully discover to the whole world that you understand not the mystery either of the Cup or of the Bread and Wine which are the true body and blood of Christ in this Sacrament nor yet the main end of its institution and so upon the matter you are not less but more grosly deceived then the Jews were John 6.52 c. For our Saviour speaking unto them there of his flesh which he would give for the life of the world verse 51. and of the necessity of eating his flesh and drinking his blood if they would have life verse 53. and of the excellency and usefulness of his flesh and blood verse 53 54 55 56 57 58. The Jews understood the same flesh and blood of Christ which you do here even those of his humanity but herein they exceeded you whereas corporal things can be no ways eaten but corporally they conceived and that rightly that if it were his humane flesh and blood that they must feed of they must Canibal like eat and drink the same but you hold that the same must be eaten by Faith that is by conceit and imagination and no otherwise for bodily things must be eaten and drunk in a bodily manner and with bodily organs but spiritual things may be taken in spiritually by Faith We pray you therefore to read this chapter advisedly and the Lord give you a right understanding in all things Where if the Lord remove the scales from your eyes you may observe these things with us That Christ perceiving this their literal and gross understanding of his doctrine concerning his flesh to be eaten and blood to be drunk doth at the 63. verse explain himself and that first negatively and then positively telling them That the flâ—sh which they understood the flesh and blood of his humanity c. profiteth nothing in the way of feeding and quickening the soul dead in sin It is the spi-that quickeneth and it must be spiritual food that must give life strength and nourishment to the soul the words that I speak unto you are spirit and life which come from the spirit and life tend thither and speak of the same yea they are the flesh that I meant ye should eat That is I spake not of a corporall flesh and blood Here you see that it is not his humane flesh and blood that he gives us to feed upon and that by his own testimony Secondly he saith that unless we eat of his flesh and drink of his blood we neither have nor can have life in us vers 53. but Infants and all those that never heard of Christ in the flesh cannot eat of it in your sense that is by faith or imagination whence it will follow according to your Doctrine and conceiving that they cannot possibly have life Thirdly Our Saviour saith verse 56. He that cateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him which you cannot verifie of all those that eat his flesh and drink his blood in your sense and according to your doctrine and conceiving for we finde many rejected by our Saviour and shut out of his Kingdom who had eaten and drunk in his presence Luke 3 25 26 27. but it is most true of the spiritual flesh and blood eaten and drunken rightly Fourthly Our Saviour saith That his flesh is a bread that came down from Heaven verse 58. But his humane flesh and consequently his blood came not from thence Fifthly Our Saviour implies that this food must be both inward and living in those words verse 57. As the living Father hath sent me and I live by the Father so he that eateth me shall live by me Lastly To eat these is to eat Christ If you demand then What is that flesh of Christ that is broken for us and which blood of Christ is it that is here signified We answer to each distinctly First The flesh of Christ is his Word whereby the invisible Word the Deity is made in some sort visible and edible unto us thus Christ the Eternal Word was made flesh to his Disciples and dwelt among them John 1.14 And they afterward saw his glory as of the onely begotten Son of God when he was spiritually incarnate in and with them Thus he told us before by way of explanation of himself John 6.63 what was the flesh that he would have the Jewes and us to feed upon even his Words which are spirit and life Thus Jeremiah speaks of the eating of this word or flesh chap. 15. verse 16. Thy words were found by me and I did eat them And they word was unto me the joy and rejoycing of my heart Thus Origen among the other Ancients saith Christiani omni die carnis agni comedunt c. Christians eat of the flesh of the Lamb every day whilst they feed of the flesh of the Word of God This is that Manna from Heaven which is Angels food Psal 103.20 Bless the Lord ye his Angels that excel in strength that do his Commandements bearkening to the voice of his word of which the Manna in the wilderness was a type Psal 78.24 25. He raigned down Manna upon them and gave them of the Corn of Heaven Thus man did eat Angels food he sent them meat to the full All which is more truly to be understood of the word wherewith God fed both them and the Angels before them then of the outward manna which was but a shadow of it Nor was it unusual in the old or new Testament to express the word of God the food of our souls by bread Deut. 8.3 And he humbled thee and suffered thee to hunger and fed thee with Manna which thou knowest not neither did thy Fathers know That he might make thee know that man liveth not by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live where by the way the spiritual mystery both of Manna and of bread is opened Amos 8.11 Behold the daies come that I will send a famine in the Land not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water but of hearing the word of the Lord where observe this word is no other but that which comes out of the mouth of the Lord or is spoken by his spirit for otherwise how would it be so scarce and hard
to be found as follows in the next verse And they shall wander from Sea to Sea and from the North even to the East they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord and shall not finde it In that day shall the young men and the fair Virgins faint for thirst but the written word with the comments and expositions of men thereupon never was any hard thing to come by it was then true in the former sense onely which is written 1 Sam. 3.1 And the word of the Lord was precious in those daies there was no open vision And as the word of God thus spoken is compared to bread in the Old Testament Jer. 3.15 so is it likewise in the New Matth. 4.4 But he answered it is written that man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God As man then hath a twofold life so he must live by a twofold bread Thus for the mystical flesh of Christ his Blood here is that which came from Heaven as well as his Flesh John 6.58 and which is Spirit and Life for the nourishing and quickning of our Souls and this is no other but the life and power and spirit of Christ whereby our corruptions are put away and removed signified by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and our spiritual enemies overcome Rev. 12.11 of which you heard before out of Heb. 9 14. How much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your Conscience from dead works to serve the living God out of Heb. 10.29 Of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despite to the Spirit of Grace out of Heb. 13.20 21. Now the very God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus through the blood of the everlasting Covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his will For what is it we pray you but this life or spirit of Christ that purgeth our soul or conscience from dead works to serve the living God or that sanctifieth us or makes us perfect in every good work This is the first blood of the New Testament as we have proved before It was by this blood that the beleeving Jews to whom St. Peter wrote were redeemed or delivered from their vain conversation 1 Pet. 1.18 19. It was with this blood that the Saints had washed their robes and made them white Rev. 7.14 to which places we added 1 John 5.8 which makes the water the blood and the spirit to agree in one These are the flesh and blood of Christ held forth in this Sacrament as things spoken of before John 6. This flesh or word of Christ had been often broken by him and given to his Disciples to eat this blood of Christ had been given them to take in and drink John 14.17 Even the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it seeth him not neither knoweth him but ye know him for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you 1 Cor 12.13 And ye have been all made to drink into one Spirit where the Mystery of the wine administred and blood spoken of in that Sacrament is expounded as it is also by our Saviour at the time of institution in these words of his Matth. 26.28 29. But I say unto you I will not henceforth drink of the fruit of the Vine until that day that I drink it new with you in my Fathers Kingdom Where for the better discovery of your own former mistakes you may observe two things in the foregoing words of the institution First That Christ speaks not of a body in the future tense that should be broken for them but one that was then broken for them Secondly That in the present tense likewise he speaks of a blood then poured out as his spirit had been in some measure upon them and not of a blood to be wholy shed or poured out for the future onely This flesh and blood of Christ is a good Mediatour betwixt us and God to pull down the partition wall of sin and slay the enmity betwixt us and him and the special means of our conquest as we shall shew by and by Yet far be it from us as we said before That we should deny the use and benefit of Christs Humane flesh and blood who was made of the seed of David according to the promises and suffered for us according to the Scriptures and therein did not onely set us an example and monument of what he had inwardly suffered for us and in us but also chalked out the true way to eternal life yea paid an invalluable price for our Redemption from the curse of the Law Gal. 3.13 Heb. 9.27 28. Yea we shewed before that if the fallen man were made perfect again in the way of regeneration yet without the sacrifice and satisfaction of Christ he could not be saved from the guilt and punishment of his sins See Heb. 10.14 For by one offering hath he perfected for ever them that are sanctified But this is the thing which we here assert that the flesh of Christ which he commands us to eat and the blood which he enjoyns us to drink in this Sacrament are not those of his humanity as you and your guides have hitherto taught but that very flesh and blood which came from Heaven by our Saviours own doctrin John 6. aforesaid confirmed with many other Scriptures nor is it the custome of the Lord to figure out corporal things but spiritual by outward and corporal Elements and Types And as you with your Teachers have not had any true fight of those blessed Mysteries so have you not understood the Mystery of the Cup or Chalice out of which the Spirit and life of Christ or the blood of the new Testament is to be received and drunk which Cup is first the suffering or Passion of Christ as we see in that his prayer Father if it be possible let this Cup pass from me and then our like suffering for him and with him both in the outward man and in the inward man also and that especially in the resistance of temptation and the enduring of the enemies assault and vexation Matthew 20.22 23. Are ye able to drink of the Cup that I shall drink of and to be baptized with the baptism wherewith I shall be baptized Now to take a short survey of your several Sections In the first of them you mistake the ends for which the Sacrament was instituted which was not to nourish or strengthen our souls with his humane flesh and blood or to make the same the band or pledge of our communion with him and each other nor to seal up the benefits of his Sacrifice upon the Cross but to hold out in a mystery and exhibite
unto us a spiritual verticum wereby we may be inabled to keep a spiritual Passover with him from death to life and become the more strengthened to follow him in his like sufferings and death and so to be better armed and fortified against all encounters of the enemy Thus was the sacrifices of the Old Testament accompanied with a meat offering and drink offering to shew that we must be furnished with the body and blood of Christ to help us in the sacrificing and offering up our spiritual sacrifice of sin Thus Melchizedek met Abraham when he was weary and faint with his late fight and brought him bread and wine to revive and strengthen him Thus furnished we ought to remember and shew forth the Lords death till his comming to us in the spirit 1 Cor. 11.23 26. and by eating of this one bread we also become one bread or flesh or bread with Christ and each other as St. Paul speaks 1 Cor. 10.16 and so this Sacrament without all controversie was ordained as you speak afterwards to oblige us unto duty and to further our communion with Christ and with each other that we may be made one bread and one body with him and in him yet not in your sens or way but as St Paul speaks 1 Cor 10.16 17. by being all made pertakers of one bread to wit his word and 1 Coâ— 12.13 by being all made to drink into one spirit as before it was shewed at large In your second Section you truely say That in this Sacrament Christ is not offered up to his Father as a sacrifice for the quick and the dead but Christ here offereth himself in his Mystical flesh and blood as a true meat offering and drink offering to his true beleevers and followers nor is it advisedly said of you there That at or in this Sacrament there is no real sacrifice at all made beside the commemoration of his own offering of himself with all possible praise to God for the same for in the right celebration of this Supper we ought to offer up both the sacrifices of a broken and contrite heart Psal 51.17 and to sacrifice the remainder of our sins as our daily offering in the holy of Gods Tabernacle in true conformity to Christ and through the help of his spiritual flesh and blood 1 Pet. 4.1 2. yet it is Christ himself and not his sacrifice that is the alone propitiation for all men John 12.1.2 In your third Section you set forth some of the duties of the person who is to administer this Sacrament truly but you have omitted the many parts of his office which are to declare the time and ends of its institution with the holy mysteries which it signifies and to stir up the people to lay hold of these benefits and to follow Christ unto the death with sutable prayers and thanksgivings In your fourth Section you truly affirm That the Priest or Minister should not observe or take this Sacrament alone and that he should communicate in both kindes to the true beleevers and followers of Christ and you do not without cause deny pompous elevations of and processions with the host for adoration sake and other superstitious reservations and abuses of the bread or host In your fifth you mistake much saying That the Elements in their signification have relation to Christ crucified as we have shewed before Yet it is true that the names of the Elements are attributed to the body and blood of Christ which they are designed to represent but the predication is Sacramental as you speak and lies in the verbe substantive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as much as doth signifie est for significat as Gen. 41.25 26 27. and Gen. 50.12 18. It is likewise true which you there affirm That the Elements even after consecration remain for nature and substance bread and wine still In your sixth Section you justly tax and refute the Doctrine of Popish transubstantiation and might have reproved the consubstantiation of the Lutherans also upon good grounds but if that those terms or phrases were used to teach us that we must be spiritually consubstantiated with Christs body and blood aforesaid or transubstantiated into the same it might pass in a good sense of spiritual conformity In your seventh Section you comfort your selves and your worthy receivers with vain words and hopes concerning the presence not real only but spiritual also of that body and blood of Christ which were never signified by this Sacrament so that herein the Papists Lutherans and Calvinists do litigate de lanâ— Caprina and do not once discern which are the spiâ—itual flesh and blood of Christ there intended In your last Section you say That in this Sacrament persons ignorant of the mystery though made pertakers of the outward Elements yet they receive not the things therby signified wherein you speak truly though the speech laies hold on your selves among others but it is a question whether all that come ignorantly to this Sacrament be guilty of the body and blood of Christ we for our parts hope many are not neither doth it seem consonant to reason that all wicked or unworthy receivers that are pertakers of the Elements though they sin in coming uncalled or unprepared to this ordinance should at that time be guilty of the true body and blood of Christ which perhaps they never understood but all they that esteem not aright of the body and blood of Christ when truly offered unto them and rightly understood are guilty of the profaining of the same and much more if they by Apostacy turn therefrom as we heard before Hebr. 10.29 CHAP. XXX Of Church censures THE Lord Jesus as King and Head of his Church hath therein appointed a Government in the hand of Church Officers distinct from the Civil Magistrate a Isa 9.6 7. 1 Tim 5 17. acts 20 27 28. Heb 13.7 17 24 1 cor 12.18 Mat 28 18 19 20. II. To these Officers the keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven are committed by vertue whereof they have power respectively to retain and remit sins to shut that Kingdom against the impenitent both by the word and censures and to open it unto the penitent sinners by the mystery of the Gospel and by absolution from censures as occasion shall require b Mat. 16.19 Mat 18 17 18. Ioh 20 20 21 22 23. 2 cor 1.6 7 8. III. Church censures are necessary for the reclaiming and gaining of offending brethren for deterring of others from the like offences for purging out of that leaven which might infect the whole lump for vindicating the honour of Christ and the holy profession of the Gospel and for preventing the wrath of God which might justly fall upon the Church if they should suffer his Covenant and the seals thereof to be profaned by notorious and obstinate offenders c 1 Cor 5. chapter 1 Tim 5.20 Mat 7.6 1 Tim. 1 20 1 Cor 11.27
whereof take these few John 1.13 Which were born not of bloud nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God John 3.6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit 1 Cor. 2.14 15. For the natural men perceiveth not the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him Neither can he know them for they are spiritually discerned But the spiritual man discerneth all things but is discerned of none 1 Cor. 15.22 For as in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive and verse 45 46 47 48 49. As it is written the first man was made a living soul but the second Adam was made a quickening spirit Hewbeit that was not first which is spiritual but that which is natural and then that which iâ— spiritual The first man is of the â—â—rth earthy the second mâ—n is the Lord from heaven as is the earthy such are they that are earthy and as is the heavenly such are they that are heavenly and as we have born the image of the earthly so must we bear the image of the heavenly c. More particularly we answer That this one by whom sin entred into the world is not meant our first parent Adam but our own earthy or natural man which is called Adam and Edom from the earth of his foundation For the apostle shews that Adam our progenitor was not the original or first sinner 1 Timothy 2.14 For Adam was not deceived but the woman being deceived was in the transgression according then to your Doctrine the apostle should have said By one Woman sin entred into the world But you hear before how Solomon Eccles 7.29 and the Lord himself Hos 14 1. scribe our fall to our selves This is yet clearer out of the 14. verse here where the apostle speaks of some who sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression but makes mention of none that sinned in him where he had fair occasion to speak of it yea if he had been of your belief he had committed a grievous neglect totally to omit it in silence Secondly here by the world into which sin entered we must understand the world of fallen and corrupt men as our Saviour doth Joâ—n 3.16 17. and John 15.17 18. and not all mankinde as you do c. Thirdly by death is not meant the bodily death which doth not presently ensue upon our fall no more then it did upon our first parents but a death unto righteousness or the life of innocencie with the contrary body of sin and so obnoxiousness to eternal death is hear meant Fourthly these words and death passed upon all men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are thus to be rendered in as much or so far forth as all have sinned and as Moses in the 14. verse is not he that was the Lawgiver but the work of the Law drawing us to God so neither is this man the litterall Adam For Paul here saith That death reigned from Adam to Moses which must be understood necessarily thus from the fall of our natural Adam till the work of the Law came For otherwise the extent of the reign of sin should reach from the first man to the last and not to Moses onely Which thing the 13. ver holdeth out more plainly that he meant by Mose the Law For it is there said That until the Law sin was in the world which must be conceived that until the work of the law sin is in the world that is likewise in the faln corrupted men undiscovered which is plain from the latter part of the 13 verse where it is said sin is not reputed nor regarded as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies and so Coverdel translates it and not imputed when there is no Law for that is false that sin was not imputed when there was no Law extant for it was imputed to Cain Gen. 4. and he was punished So to the old world and they punished Gen. 6 so to Babels builders and they punished Gen. 11.7.8 so it was imputed to Sodom and Gomorrab and they punished Gen. 19. when there was none of Moses law extant but it is a very truth that sin is not reputed not regarded when there is no work of the Law discovering sin unto the man so St. Paul saith of himself Rom. 7.9 that he was alive without the Law and verse v. he saith he had not known lust but by the Law and Rom. 3.20 it is said that by the Law cometh the knowledge of sin Thus you see how death raigned from Adam to Moses yet not from the first individual Adam to Moses the Law-giver but in the 2. part of the 14 ver it is not affirmed that any sinned in the first individual Adam for he saith Some finned not after the similitude of Adams transgression over whom notwithstanding death reigned Now that expression hinteth these two things First Some sinned like Adam not in Adam others sinned not after the similitude of his transgression but some other way as after Esau's transgression Hebr. 18.16 17. or the like according to that Eccles 7.29 Surely if the Apostle had beleeved any such thing as the raigning of death over all men by the first mans sin he would not have omitted that and onely mentioned from Adam to Moses for all may perceive his main designe is from verse 12. to the 15. to set forth the inlet and extent of deaths reigning over sinners therefore he would have used the fullest and plainest expression serving to that purpose but the 19. verse is more plain against universal corruption by the first mans disobedience for there the Apostle useth the word many and saith by one mans disobediene many not all were made sinners Therefore all fell not in the first individual Adam If any yet reply That many in that place is tant ' amount and equivalent to the word all We Answer That then by the same reason the word many in the latter part of the verse must have the same latitude allowed for the Apostle setteth down a full comparison of equals in that verse here the verse must be thus interpreted That as by one mans disobedience all were made sinners so by one mans obedience all are made righteous If any yet reply and say By one mans obedience all that repent and beleeve are made righteous then by the same inter retation By ones mans disobedience all are made sinners that imitate him and sin like him after the similitude of Adam 's transgressions Thus all men may see there is nothing gained by interpreting the word many by a Synecdoche for all are made sinners by one mans disobedience for the latter part of the verse must have the word many so explained which to affirm namely that all are righteous by Christ by an absolute and uniuersal Justification is accounted as detestable an Heresy as it hath been hitherto to deny that
cross by him to reconcile all things unto himself by him I say whether they be things in Earth or things in Heaven And you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his fight Where you may take these things into consideration First Whom he reconcileth All the members of the Church who are regenerate Secondly From what from the enmity in their minds whereby they are set upon wicked works Thirdly Where through the spiritual blood of the Covenant or the spirit of grace which is called the blood of his cross because it is then sent unto us and poured down upon us when we are upon the cross with him and suffer with him not yeelding unto temptations Fourthly That Christ is said to be still doing of that work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lastly In what way as a precedent for us he hath done it to wit in the body of his flesh through death as these ensuing Scriptures shew 2 Tim. 2.11 12. 'T is a faithful saying for if we be dead with him we shall also live with him if we suffer wiâ—h him we shall also raign with him see Rom. 6.8 But that it is unpossible to have reconcilement and communion with God unless it be in such a way the Apostle witnesses likewise 1 John 1.5 6 7. This then is the message we have heard of him and declare unto you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darknesâ— we lye and haue not the truth But if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all Sin Thus far of Christ's spiritual and true reconciling us unto God which is then perfected and consummate when besides the slaying of the enmity aforesaid he hath made us in all things of one spirit with the Father For which unity and reconcilement he prayeth John 17.21 That they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us Now for the purchasing of an everlasting inheritance for us eternal life is the free gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 8.23 And as the Father hath it in his hand to bestow so it is in the Sons gift likewise and consequently as it seems to us he needs not to purchase it But if you will call the fulfilling of that way and process whereby the faln man must attain it the way race of obedience aforesaid a purchasing of it it is by the inward and spiritual obedience of Christ especially that we attain Heb. 10.36 For ye have need of patience that after ye have done the will of God ye may receive the promise Howbeit his outward passive obedience was requisite thereunto without which as we could not be delivered from the curse so neither could we come to inherit life By this you see we stand in need of an inward and spiritual mediation from Christ aswel as that outward of which alone you here speak Nor can we partake of the benefit of the outward till qualified and prepared first thereunto by the work of the inward In your Sixth Section you proclaim your great ignorance or small regard of our great and most necessary redemption from the power of sin and Satan saying That the work of redemption was not actually wrought till after Christs incarnation For were not the fathers before and after the flood with the Prophets and other holy Saints in the Old Testament in their respective times spiritually saved and redeemed by Christ And much more doth that great secret of the Father's sparing and forbearing us along time for his Sons sake who in patience and meekness hath been led as a lamb to the slaughter and the end of whose long sufferance in us is salvation as St. Peter speaks Epist 2 3. Chap. 15. seem to be hidden from you Yet here you grant some truths at unawares as that Christ is the promised enmity against sin who must break the Serpents head and consequenly that his power and Kingdom must be within us where Satan is to be trodden down Rom. 16.20 You grant also that he is the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world But whereas you add for a proof thereof out of Hebr. 13.9 That Christ is the same yesterday and to day and for ever That speakes of his immutable Deity and not of his humanity though now made unchangeable Yet this we say brethren ere we leave this Section that you hold forth a very lame and imperfect redeemer which which hath indeed redeemed us by his death from the curse of the Law when our iniquities are put away from us but who must redeem us from all our corruptionsâ— who must save and deliver us out of the hand of all our enemies who must inable us to keep and fulfil the Law of God who must renew the Image of God in us Is not the true Christ made of God unto us wisdom righteousness and sanctification as well as redemption 1 Cor 1.30 In your Seventh Section As we grant it to be true that Christ in the entire office of a Mediator acteth according to both natures joyntly or severally as occasion requires doing by each that which is proper to its self so perhaps it may be granted that sometimes in the Scriptures by reason of the unity of the person that which is proper to one nature is attributed to the person denominated by the other Howbeit the places to which you refer us do not prove so much for that of Acts the 20.28 It s true First of Christ in the Godhead that he hath purchased his Church with his own blood having redeemed it from the power of Satan by his Spirit Secondly To that of John 3.13 it may be said that as Christ is spiritually born in us he is the Son of man which comes from Heaven and is or dwells in the heavenly being Finally To 1 John 3.16 It may be truly answered that Christ the Son of God hath laid down his life for us while he died in us to keep off the deserved wrath of God from us and to preserve us from the death threatned in the Law as also to set us an example how we may in following him overcome sin and recover life again we seeking his grace and help thereunto In your eighth and last Section being like checquer-work you have black as well as white errour as well as truth where your first affirmation That Christ doth certainly and effectually apply and communicate his redemption to all those for whom he hath purchased it will prove false in what sense soever it be taken For first If we here understand Christ's outward redemption as you undoubtedly do that being made for
the holy Ghost Thus speaks our Saviour to Peter when he had through faith confessed him to be the Son of God Matth. 16.19 Blessed art thou Bar-Jonah for flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee but my Father which is in Heaven It is the Father that must draw us unto the Son to seek and expect redemption internal and external from him John 6.44 45 46. Christ indeed is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 12.1 2. That is He is the first Captain and Ring-leader of ouâ— faith for he is gone before us in the same way of trust and confidence to be holpen by the Father in all his distresses and raised up again after he had been obedient to the death And secondly He is the fulfiller of our faith or of that which we by our like faith while we follow him in the same race expect from him according to the promises But whether the first word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be well translated Author That be is the Author of our Faith except it be understood of his joynt working with the Father and the Holy Ghost we will leave the learned to judge for our selves dissent That also which follows in the same Section must be understood of such a ministry as is called and enabled by the Lord for that work and of prayer made with understanding and affection for the increase of that grace where you say That Faith is ordinarily wrought by the ministry of the word by which also and by the administration of the Sacraments and prayer it is increased and strengthened for such Ministers as teach vain Doctrine and administer the Sacraments with ignorance and errour beget an answerable faith and perswasion in their hearers who give ear and credit unto them as your Authors and Teachers have done in some of you but this must here also be remembred that the Lord can and often doth when and where he pleaseth beget faith even faith in Jesus Christ by the sole illumination and teaching of the holy Ghost as he did in Job among the Heathen Job 19.25 26. and in Paul among the Jewes Gal. 1.15 16. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom and to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit to another faith by the same Spirit 1 Cor. 12.8 9. And for this work sake he is called the Spirit of faith 2 Cor. 4.13 In your 2. Section you confirm what we said before of historical faith that it is an ingredient into true saving faith where you say ' By this a Christian beleeveth to be true whatsoever is revealed in the word you mean so far as men are enlightned to the understanding of it otherwise there is more repeated in the word then most men do or can understand while they are in the state of Faith but here you should have added this also to your former words that the servantâ— of God beleeve also whatsoever God is pleased to reveale unto them besides the word which yet is not contrary to the word Thus Paul beleeved that which God had shewed unto him concerning the preservation of himself and those that were with him in the ship Acts 27.25 And St. John gave respect and credit unto all that was shewed unto him in the Revelation where by the way you may observe how God is the Author of Faith to wit by revealing his saving counsel and will unto us which by nature and much more in our corrupt estate we are in a great measure ignorant of And how far faith lies in our own hand and power viz. onely to assent unto that which is so revealed and made known out of grace Thus there is an assenting or dissenting faculty in all men See Acts 9.29 Psalm 106 12. Then beleeved they his word and sang his praise with verse 24. Yea They despised the pleasant Land they beleeved not his Word Acts 17.4 And some of them beleeved and consorted with Paul and Silas verse 5. But the Jewes which beleeved not were moved mith envy c. John 3.32 33. And what be hath seen and heard that he testifieth and no man receiveth his testimony be that receiveth his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true And accordingly as men stand affected to the person reporting or the thing revealed so are they apt to credit or discredit the same Facilè eâ—im credimus quae volumus c. è contrà Hence it was that some persons who were wel inclined to the leaving of sin and the seeking of righteousness and consequently in a good order and posture towards eternal life did easily and joyfully receive the word preached by Paul and Barnabas when others who were more engaged to their sins self-wisdom and false righteousness beleeved not but contradicted and blasphemed Acts 13.44 45 â—6 c. Hence it is also that after Gods grace was made known unto men they were commanded to repent and believe the Gospel Mar. 1.15 And that others are complained of for their unbelief Hebrews 4.2 For unto us was the Gospel preached as well as unto them but the word preached did not profit them being not mixed with faith in them that heard it For the Lord never requires more then either by his preventing or assisting grace men can perform nor yet complaines of them but where they are some wayes deficient in acting their part Secondly What you there speak of faith's different actings in relation to the commands promises and threatnings recorded in the word is true also as to the inhibitions and narrations found there but herein you are defective First in not declaring by what form or vital principle faith becomes so active to wit by love Gallatians 5.6 Without which faith is dead James 2.14 15 16 17. And secondly In passing over the acts and offices of faith in God the Father and of faith in the Holy Ghost both which have an eye to sanctification and eternal life as well as faith in Christ though this last named seeks that which we called justification more especially from Christ But if Gods eternal decree be so absolute as you speak of before what need is there that saith should be moved with threatnings or promises For your third and last Section It may be wholly admitted with this caution That faith at length gets the victory and growes up to a full assurance if men persevere in love and obedience to God and fervently seek that victory and the assurance also from the Lord and his power But both time and the use of all good means are required thereunto and as faith is weak in its first beginning so when it hath gotten some strength yet by neglect of the means aforesaid and by wilful disobedience it may not onely be much weakned but wholy lost as we see in the parable of the Sower Matth. 13. Yea the Aposte tells not onely of women that had forsaken their first faith 1 Tim. 5.12 But of men also who by putting away