faith because as the body from the head receives life and motion so do we from Christ who is our head and we his members You tell us that God the Father did appear as a Son Which is false it was God the Son that took our nature upon him In the fulness of time God sent his Son Gal. 4. 4. The Father never appeared or spake immediately but twise and that was at the Baptisme of Christ and in his Transfiguration Mat. 3. 17. Mat. 17. 5. You say now so long as man is without this manifestation of God which is Christ in him he is a Reprobate This is also false for Christ telleth us that he hath Sheep that are not called aswell as Sheep that are called Iohn 10. 16. other Sheep I have which are not called that is that have not this spiritual manifestation Now until men are called and converted we know they have not the manifestation of the spirit and we know also that there is a spiritual desertion sometimes for trial as in Iob sometimes for correction as in David and yet neither of these were Reprobates You say what is a Reprobate but not to have Christ in you Which is a most absurd definition of a Reprobate and to prove it you produce Rom. 1. 28. because they did not like or retain God in their knowledge God gave them over to a reprobate minde When Reprobation is a part of Gods eternal decree whereby God hath purposed to pass by some that were in the state of corruption as well as to elect others unto eternal salvation Rom. 9. 11 12 13. c. Now how doth your definition suit unto this Nay how doth that of Rom. 1. 28. prove your definition which was a spiritual judgement inflicted upon the Heathen for not walking according to that natural light which God had imprinted in their minds which indeed was a fearful judgement whether it be taken actually or passively if actually as a mind approving things to be reproved and reproving things to be approved a mind judging good to be evil and evil to be good Iob 21. 14. Isa. 5. 20. Wo unto them that call good evil and evil good that put light for darkness and darkness for light Or else passively as a mind reprobated and rejected of God and such a mind was in Abab who sold himself c. in Iudas that sold his Master in Esau that sold his birth-right or blessing Something more is insinuated by you in the end of this Chapter for universal Redemption And to prove it you mention that of 1 Tim. 2. 4 5. Who will have all men to be saved c. which is understood of his revealed will which is if they repent and believe Iohn 3. 14 15 16. Mark 1. 15. Mat. 16. 15 16. Acts 20. 20 21. and many more places so that if they repent and believe they shall be saved if not for ought that God hath revealed unto us they are utterly lost But have all men power to repent and believe By nature they have not For we are dead in trespasses and sins Ephe. 2. 5. and God must quicken and put life into us before there can be any motion in us and this he doth put into his elect by his spirit the Word and Sacraments being instruments Ephes. 4. 20. which because God doth minister by men it is therefore attributed to the Ministers of the Gospel 1 Cor. 4. 15. Let therefore men so account of us as of the Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the Mysteries of God 1 Cor. 4. 1. Trample not therefore Gods Ordinances under your feet lest you neglect your own Salvation CHAP. IX The subject of this Chapter is the sin against the Holy Ghost of the which I could wish you were as clear as you are ignorant but your ignorance must be your best Plea otherwise scarce any ventured farther to be guiltie of it then you have done First we will set down the nature of it so far forth as it is revealed in the Scriptures unto us It is called the sin against the Holy Ghost not because it is done only against the Deitie of the Holy Ghost for he that sins against the Deitie of the Holy Ghost sins also against the Deitie of the Father and the Son because the three Persons are all one God but because it is against the immediate action of the Holy Ghost that is against his immediate Illumination for albeit this be a work common to the three Persons in the Trinity yet because the Father and the Son do effect this by the holy Ghost it is therefore called the sin against the holy Ghost onely 1. The efficient cause of it is obstinate Malice against God and against Christ as in Julian the Apostate who when he was strucken with an arrow received the blood issuing out of his wound into his hands he threw it up despitefully into the Aire and cryed Vicisti Galilee 2 The object of this sin is God himself and the mediator Jesus Christ Heb. 10. 29 30. 3. The subject in which it is found is onely such as have been inlightned by the spirit of God and have tasted of the good gift of God Heb. 6. 5. So that the elect cannot commit this sin and therefore they that feel in themselves a sure testimony of their election need not despaire for they are kept by the power of God unto life everlasting This sin cannot be forgiven not because it is greater then the merit of Christ can satisfie for but because after a man hath once committed this sin it is impossible for him to repent for the gift of Repentance proceedeth from the Holy Ghost and the Holy Ghost remaineth in us through Christ apprehended by faith now no man doth apprehend Christ who doth maliciously despise and contemn him Out of this which hath been spoken we may thus define this sin The sin against the holy Ghost is a voluntary denyall of and blasphemie against the Son of God or of that truth which was before acknowledged concerning him and so consequently a Vniversal defection from God and his Church We have an Example of this in the devil who though he knew well enough that Iesus was the Christ yet he never ceased both wittingly and willingly to oppose the very sacred Majesty of God in him together with the kingdom of Iesus that as far forth as he could he might utterly supplant the same by the Pharisees Mat. 12. 32. Iohn 3. 2. Now Sir consider whether those men that have maintained the articles of that faith into which they have been baptized which articles have been and are professed by all the true Christian Churches in the world and are firmly g rounded upon the word of God which is the pillar of our faith have committed this sin or you that have first profest and afterwards fallen away from the faith and opposed the chief Articles or fundamental points of it as Christs conception in saying he
were there no other Mark That he 's a Chemerim and this his Clerk Then let him cease the Bells and call no more His Rimes the Songs of Sion as before Who sings a libertie that best will move The loose and Sensual Family of Love Nay Lucifer himself with his black Nation Must needs be taken with his great Salvation And were 't noe impious Paradox would cease To compass Earth his Proselytes t' increase No * Seers of Vanity should ever we Or Diabolical * transformings see The Spirit of Errour would advance no more Muncers or Iohn of Leydens on his score Truth would triumph without Antagonists At lest would ignorance not come i' th Lists But hence these filthy Dreams which to rehers Though with rebuke will but defile a Verse The Golden Age is past and all things tend To a rude Chaos to a sinful end Or else a new dark Century what e're New lights pretend the Church may justly fear Do we not sad approaches now behold When Ignorance and Blasphemies so bold When Gods own Oracles and Appellations Prophaned are by such adulterations When us'd to cloth the carnal sence and Pleas Of filthy Dreamers railing Rabshakeys All dignities and Rights divine o're born By Hells dark Conclave and the Chayre of Scorn When as the names of Minister and Priest Are usâ—d but as terms of Obloquy and Test And they despised though as Lights divine And Stars of greatest magnitude they shine When all sound Doctrins clearest Verities Religion and all sacred Mysteries Obnubilated are by grossest Lies When few do lay 't to heart and fewer give Their due assistance that the Truth may live But stay my Muse and break off thy Complaints And leave the rest to Closet-breathing Saints Difficile est Satyram non Scribere HENRY HUGFORD First for the Title of your Book YOu call it a Blow at the Serpent when it may be more fitly termed a Blow of the Serpent for none but the Serpent or the seéd of the Serpent would cast such a flood of black water to destroy the Woman and her seed Next you say your Book is written to appease wrath When it is written to stir up wrath not only the wrath of Men who cannot but be moved and grieved to hear your Blasphemies and Heresies vented first in the Pulpit and now printed but the wrath of God against the land where such Hereticks are suffered Reve. 2. 14 15. But I have a few things against thee because thou hast there them that hold the Doctrine of Balaam who taught Balac to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel c. So hast thou also them that hold the Doctrin of the Nicolaitans which thing I hate And in the 20th verse of the same Chapter Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee because thou sufferest that Woman Jesebel which calleth her self a Prophetess to teach and seduce my servants to commit fornication c. Lastly you would make the world believe by prefixing that verse of the spirit Rev. 2. 10. you suffer for the Testimony of Iesus When it is for dishonouring the name of Jesus as will appeare by the ensuing discourse Wherefore you have just cause to fear the things that you suffer for it is not the Divel that hath delivered you into Prison except it be because he hath set you to work but the Magistrate who is appointed not only for the praise of them that do well but also for the punishment of them that do evil Repent therefore and be converted lest you go from one Prison to a worse even to the Prison of the Damned out of which there is no Redemption THE ANSWER TO HIS EPISTLE Dated from the Prison at Maidstone YOu begin with a Noverint Vniversi be it known unto all that know me But without all peradventure it is a counterfeit Deed and the Conditions are forged God never made them nor doth he allow of them neither hath he set his hand and seal to such accursed Heresies As to maintain that the divine Nature was united to the sinful Nature of Man and so make the second Person in the Trinity a Sinner and thereby as much as in you lies rase the very foundation of Religion for if he had been so he could not have been a Sacrifice to take away sin but would have needed himself to be purged wherefore before the second person in the Trinity was united unto the nature of the Virgin the holy Ghost did separate that substance whereof the humane nature of Christ was framed from the least stain of sin Secondly to say that all the Scriptures are an Allegory and so overthrow the whole History of the Bible the Creation Redemption and Salvation of Man An Allegory is when one thing is spoken and another understood but in the History of the Bible the very same thing which is spoken is to be understood except it be when it is contrary to the Analogy of faith or the Rule of Manners What because St. Paul made an Allegory of Abrahams having Sarah Hagar doth it follow that all the Scriptures are Allegories Or because that was an Allegorie may we believe there was no such Historie Because the Rock was called Christ as in the 1. Cor. 10. 4. doth it therefore follow there was no such Historie as of the Rock in Numb. 20. the like may be said of many more Allegories do not therefore overthrow the History but confirm it 'T is then God never consented to your Conditions though you have presum'd to set to his name You speak much in your own praise that you have been faithful in the acknowledgement of this Mysterie You might have remembred that propria laus sordet and that commonly when a man beareth witness of himself his witness is not true John 8. Therefore you should rather have followed Solomons counsel Prov. 27. 2. Let another man praise thee and not thine own mouth For the mystery you speak of it is not the mysterie of Godliness but the mysterie of iniquitie You do in effect deny the Trinity You say it is but one God manifesting himself under various appearances when the Deity is one in essence and in that essence there are three distinct Persons or subsistences the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost as appears in Christ's Baptism The Father speaks from Heaven the son stands in the water the Holy Ghost descends in the likeness of a Dove You boast you give to God and man their due when you Rob both God and man of their due Man of the Resurrection of his body and Christ of his Session at the right hand of God the greatest dignitie that Humanitie is capable of Ephe. 1. 20. You are only kind unto the Divel and would put him in hope if it were possible of Salvation but though peradventure you may perswade your followers to believe it yet the father of lies will not credit it if he did he would not have cried out
You say the Son proceedeth forth from the father Which is a gross errour for the Son is begotten of the father the three Persons being distinguished by these three properties Paternitie filiation and procession The Father begets The Son is begotten The Holy Ghost proceeds and these must not be confounded Whereas you urge the 16. of John verse the 28. you mistake the words The Text is I came forth from the Father and am come into World You say that all men shall be saved and that there is redemption out of Hell even for the Divels for you except them not which false Assertion is so strongly confuted out of those two places of Scripture Mark 16. 16. And Mat. 25. 31. urged by Mr. Roswel that you are not able to answer it You farther say I do also say that the righteous shall have everlasting life and the wicked shall have everlasting Torment but that doth not prove there is no Salvation or Redemption out of Hell for the word everlasting doth signifie such a dispensation or administration of God to man Which is an absurd expression let me help you to a better though it will not help you in the maintaining of your errour Everlasting doth signifie Perpetuitatem periodicam et Perpetuitatem absolutam and you might say it signifies here Perpetuitatem periodicam but this would be as false as the other is absurd For in the same sense that God promises eternal life to the Sheep in the same sense he threatens eternal punishment to the damned but he promises eternal life absolutely to the Sheep and therefore threatens eternal punishment absolutely to the damned The Text is et abibunt isti ad sispplictum aeternum justi vero ad vitam aeternam so there is the same perpetuitie to both and the Scales go equally I will adde two places of Scripture more the 1. Mark 9. 45 46. and if thy foot offend thee cut it off It is better for thee to enter halt into life then having two feet to be cast into Hell into the fire that never shall be quenched Where their Worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched Mark the words he call's it their Worm and this their Worm never dies and wherefore their Worm Because it torments them And to shew the certainty of it our Saviour repeats it three several times in that Chapter The second is Luke 16. 26. where Abraham tells Dives between us and you there is a great Gulf fixed so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot neither can they pass to us that would come from thence a Casmos a fixed Casmos never to be removed and which shall for ever keep them asunder which some expound to be Gods eternal decree Now where is your boasting where is your triumphing if you have any Scripture that makes for your purpose produce it We have produced Scripture sufficiently and such proofs as neither you nor any of your family can ever answer yet more shall be produced upon the same occasion in the second disputation You urge to prove your wicked errour Christs local descension into Hell what if I should grant it because it is the opinion of many learned Protestant Divines what would this make for your purpose They held he went ad Triumphandum to triumph grounding their opinion principally on Phil. 2. 10. you ad patiendum to suffer which is against Christ's Consummatumest it is finished Because Christ descended and returned as a Conquerour doth it follow that the Divels and the damned shall return who are Malefactors Also Christ laid down his life for his Sheep are the Divels and the damned any of the Sheep of Christ You quote a place out of Amos 9. 2. Though they dig into Hell thence shall mine hand take them though they climb up to Heaven thence will I bring them down though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel I will search and take them out thence c. Which place is nothing to your purpose for the meaning is no place should hide them from the revenging hand of God except they repented But one thing more you speak there of a dispensation What manner of dispensations to go to Hell There needs no such dispensation Facilis descensus averni broad is the way certainly you mean a dispensation to come from Hell and then the Pope or your self must grant it but he grants dispensations only from Purgatory and so it resteth upon your self and if you have such a facultie why do you suffer them to lie in those flames It argues little charitie in you You are charged by Mr. Reswel for saying that a mans good works do him no good and his evil works no hurt and in your answer I finde this of truth That when we have done all we can we must acknowledge our selves to be unprofitable servants and indeed so we are yet he that commanded us to acknowledge that we are unprofitable servants in the same place commands us to do what we can To strive to enter in at the strait Gate To give diligence to make our calling and election sure for the pennie is not given to those that stand idle in the Market-place but unto those that labour in the Vineyard Further though good works be not causa regnandi yet are they via ad Regnum and therefore God hath prepared them to walk in Ephe. 2. 10. In the third Chapter I finde so great Blasphemie Non-sense and confusion that I should hold my self disoblig'd to an answer or confutation but that where I am commanded not to answer a fool in his folly lest I should be like him There am I commanded also to answer a fool in his folly lest he be wise in his own conceit Pro. 26. 4 5. First Blasphemie you say Christ is at the left hand of God Which is horrible Blasphemie For as the right hand doth signifie Summam Gloriam the highest glory So the left hand of God doth signifie summam miseriam the greatest misery which to maintain that Christ is in is most repugnant to the Scriptures Ephes. 1. 20 21. Col. 3. 1. Psal. 16. 11. Rom. 8. 34. Mat. 16. 9. It is a metaphorical expression borrowed from the gesture of Princes who when they mean highly to honour any man set him at their right hand according to that of the Psalmist Psal. 45. 9. Upon thy right hand did stand the Queen in gold of Ophir And we read that Solomon did set his Mother at his right hand 1 Kings 2. 19. Augustin interprets sitting at the right hand after this manner Sedere est judiciariam potestatem habere ad dexteram Dei esse est in summa beatitudine esse sicut ad sinistram in summâ Miseriâ To sit is to have Judiciarie power to be at the right hand of God is to be in the highest degree of happiness as at his left hand in the greatest miserie But who can better expound it then
out of measure above strength in so much that we despaired even of life But we had the sentence of death in our selves that we should not trust in our selves but in God which raiseth the Dead But you say Iob was then in darknesse uttering words without knowledge for which he was reproved first by Elihu Secondly by the Lord and thirdly he confest it 1. Oh horrible that you should have the impudence to say or infer that Elihu reproved Iob for that most excellent Confession when it is plain as the Sun that he reprehended him for saying I am clean and there is no unrighteousnesse in me c. Iob 33. 9. doth not Elihu restrain his words to the same expression Behold in this thou art not just verse 12. 2. You affirm that God reproved him for it By which it seems you know not what you say or care not what you affirm for that which God reproved him for was for standing too much upon his own innocency And though Iob was not thus afflicted for his sin but for a Triall as appears Chap. 1. and Chap 2. yet was there matter enough in him that deserved it if God should have entred into judgement with him 3. You say that Iob confest it Doth he confesse that he had erred in that confession of his concerning the resurrection or that he had maintained a false cause no God himself determines the contrary Chap. 42. 7. My servant Iob hath spoken the thing that is right and you have not and therefore they were appointed to go to Iob that he might pray for them The cause that Iobs friends maintained was that God did handle men in this world according to their deserts and therefore Iob was a wicked and cursed creature because thus afflicted and tormented Iob maintained the contrary that God did not alwayes handle men according to their deserts in this world for many times the wicked have prosperitie and Gods children adversitie Iob 21. 8. Now though the foundation of Iobs cause were good yet in the prosecuting of it he committed many errours through the infirmities of the flesh for which God reproved him but on the contrary the foundation of his adversaries cause was evil 'T is therefore a false and an impudent assertion to say as you do that Iob never spoke the thing that was right of the Lord until he said now do mine eyes see thee c. Job 42. 5 6. The reason that moves you to deny or at least to underminde and overthrow the Resurrection of the bodie is because there is a Resurrection of the soul and you may aswel denie there is no death of the body because there is a death of the soul in sin as Satan slays both so Christ doth raise up both in his members If the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead be in you he that raised up Jesus shall also quicken your mortal bodies c. Rom. 8. 11. but this hath been sufficiently proved already I shall only adde our Saviours argument to the Sadduces Mat. 22. 23 24. unto Verse 32. God is not the God of the dead but of the living for all live unto him that is they are alive in his account because he hath decreed to raise them again I shall turn your proof out of the 11. Iohn Vers the 21 22 23 24 25. upon your self Christ comes to Bethany where Lazarus lived who was now dead Martha goes forth to meet him saying Lord if thou hadst been here my brother had not died Christ answered thy brother shall rise again and this is spoken of the Resurrection of the body for his soul was then in the hands of God Martha replies I know that he shall rise again in the Resurrection at the last day So 't is plain that the Resurrection was no strange and new doctrine then though it be now so to you Martha knew it and believed it as did Iob also Iob 19. Christ taught it saying I am the Resurrection and the life Iohn 10. 25. that is the cause of the Resurrection of the body and the life of the soul not a bare signe to signifie as you falsely and foolishly affirmed but an effectual cause 1 Cor. 15. 20 21 22. also he teaches it Iohn 2. 19 20 21. where he saith unto the Jews destroy this temple and in three dayes I will raise it up again which he spake of the temple of his body mark Christ can any thing be more plain which he performed accordingly Mat. 28. Mark 16. Luke 24. now Christ was a publick person what he did he did not for himself but for us also so that if we believe that Jesus is dead and is risen even so them that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him CHAP. VIII In this Chapter the doctrine of the Trinity is principally treated of I will therefore first set down the truth that we may the better discern the falshood The Doctrine of the Trinity God is a most simple infinite eternal immutable and omnipotent spirit One in essence three in Persons Father Son and the Holy Ghost A spirit Iohn 4. 24. simple Col. 1. 15. 1. Tim. 1. 17. the image of the invisible God whom no man hath seen nor can see Eternal Exo. 3. 14 15. Immutable Mal. 3. 6. Omnipotent Gen. 17. 1. Rev. 19. 6. I name but some of his Attributes because I am to speak principally of the Trinity God is one in essence three in Persons Father Son and Holy Ghost One in essence Deut. 6. 4. 1 Cor. 8. 6. Three in Person Father Son and the spirit 1 Iohn 5. 7. an example we finde of this in the Baptisme of Christ The Father speaks from Heaven the Son stands in the Water and the Holy Ghost descends in the likeness of a Dove As in the Sun there is the body of the Sun the beams issuing from the body and the light and yet there is not 3. Suns but one Sun so is there the Father the Word and the Spirit three distinct Persons in the Deity and yet not three but one God These three you call three Manifestations Which are three Persons three Hypostases three Subsistances in one essence as in a Rivulet there is the fountain or Well-head in the Earth the spring boyling out of it and the stream which is made of them both and dilateth or sheadeth it self far from thence which three are distinct subsistances and yet but one Water You tell us of Christs being within us c. We know it But not corporally for so he is in Heaven but spiritually or by his spirit 1 Cor. 6. 19. know you not that your body is the Temple of the holy Ghost which is in you c. this spirit unites us to Christ by working faith in us whereby we are united to him according to that in Ephes. 3. 17. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith and Christ is said to dwell in us by
work of Regeneration is wrought in them they do not appear to be of God but of the Divel To the first part of this assertion I shall only oppose that of Rom. 9. 6 7 8. for they are not all Israel which are of Israel neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children but in Isaac shall thy seed be called that is they which are the children of the flesh these are not the children of God c. To the latter part wherein you do most falsely affirm that all shall be regenerated I shall only ask when Cain Judas or Julian were regenerated or when those that are in prison 1 Pet. 3. 19 20. which contemned the preaching of Noah were regenerated I did think to end concerning this Chapter but that looking back to the middle of this Chapter I finde such a kinde of judgement that was never heard of before You say I do not denie the comming of Christ to render vengeance to whom it belongs for vengeance is mine faith the Lord and I will repay therefore some hath it now and he is come and doth come and will come to take vengeance on all that know him not and is of the Divel in me you and every man else By which if you mean the conversion of a sinner as it seems you do by your instance of the example of St. Paul Acts 9. that cannot be rightly called a judgement but is indeed a great mercy that the Lord should convert such a sinner that was going to Antioch to persecute the church If you mean the judgement of an evil conscience which accuses men for sin I do confess it is a very great judgement a very Hell upon earth and though it be begun here in this life it doth not follow that it shall not continue hereafter for our Saviour tells us Their Worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched Mark 9. 46. which shall be fulfilled after the great and general day of judgment then they shall be cast into Heâ—l fire If you mean a temporal judgement such as was inflicted on Egypt Sodome or on the old world it makes not for you but against you for from those judgements St. Peter proves the great and general day of judgement as you may read 2 Pet. 2. Verse 4 5 6 7 8. But pray what shall we make of this expression and is of the Divel if we leave out the Parenthesis that Paragraph is abominable non-sense if it be taken in we must desire your own exposition for we can expound it no otherwise then literally as it lies that the Divel is in you and hath set you to work as all that read your Book may safely judge CHAP. XI in this Chapter you maintain that all both Jews and Gentiles shall be saved Contrary to the very words of Christ Luke 13. 23 24. Then said one unto him Lord are there few that shall be saved and he said unto them strive to enter in at the strait Gate for many I say unto you will seek to enter in and shall not be able c. to the 31. Verse wide is the Gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be that go in thereat and strait is the Gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life and few there be that finde it Mat. 7. 13 14. The number of fools is infinite but those that are truly wise are but a few a little flock Luke 12. 32. Christendome is the least part of the World and those that truly profess Christ are the least part of Christendome and of those many are called few chosen You may remember you are told in Scripture of the seed of the Serpent and the seed of the Woman and of the continual enmitie between them from whence proceeds that war that is between the Dragon and his Angels and Michael and his Angels Rev. 12. 7. but for this you have invented a weak and contemptible shift saying or at least insinuating that by the seed of the Serpent is meant sin When it is as apparent as the sight at Noon-day that by the seed of the Serpent is meant Satan and the wicked for in what sense the seed of the Woman is understood in the same sence is understood the seed of the Serpent but the seed of the Woman is understood literally first and principally for Christ the head of the Church and then for all that are his * members and therefore the seed of the Serpent is understood literally First for the * Dragon and also for his Angels and Instruments as Persecutors Hereticks and all profane and ungodly persons that live in sin without Repentance who are therefore called the seed of the Divel Iohn 8. 44. You are of your father the Divel and the works of your father you will do Further to confirm this your errour as you would have your followers believe you alledge several places of Scripture to prove that the benefit of Christs death belongs to all as in your former Chapter the places are Rom. 11 32. 1 Tim. 2. 4. Io. 3. 17. But all this as I said before is under a condition of faith that men do believe and applie it unto themselves by the hand of a true and a lively faith to this purpose is that of Rom. 1. 16. Gal. 3. 22. Iohn 3. 16. Acts 10. 43 and surely there is a generalitie of them that believe as there is of the whole world and if they believe not they have not the benefit of Christs death He that believeth not shall be damned Mark 16. 16. and Iohn 3. 16. as those that were stung with the brazen Serpent and afterwards looked upon it were healed so those that looked not upon it died of their wounds Among those places of Scripture which you name to prove this errour you alledge Rom. 8. 33. but the words are falsified and the sense perverted by you You write the words thus And it is God that justifies sinners the words are Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect it is God that justifies Here you leave out Gods elect whom the words only concern and put in sinners a word that is not in the place and whereas the Apostle speaks of Gods elect you extend it to sinners to all and so pervert the meaning of the spirit of God By what hath been already said it appeareth plainly that all shall not be saved but from generals we will come to particulars and first not all the Jews neither shall all the Gentiles Not all the Jews Though the number of Israel be as the sand of the Sea yet a Remnant shall be saved Rom. 9. 27. which words are taken out of Isa. 10. 20 21. they were spoken of the destruction of Israel by Senacherib when Ierusalem only escaped of all the land or else of the destruction of the people by Nebuchadnezzar when most of the people were destroyed and a remnant carried away
torment me not before the time You say that God hath been with you to make sweet and pleasant your sufferings and Imprisonment to you It is a fearful judgement when God gives up men so far to believe their own lies that their own Poyson becomes pleasant and delectable unto them and that he doth this we find 2. Thes. 2. 10 11 12. Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie That they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness You boast of the sufferings as for the truth when they are for your abominable Blasphemie and bearing witness to lies for denying Christ Assention Session and the general day of judgement in that sense which the Scriptures deliver them unto us we know there are Pseudomartyrs as well as true Martyrs and as God comforts and supports the one so the Divel deludes and deceives the other for it is manifest to all sober Christians that read your Book you suffer not as a Martyr but as a Malefactor for rotten and detestable Heresies You complain some have revil'd you as a Blasphemer you should have said rebuk'd you What they have done I know not but I am sure it is their duty to warn their sheep to beware of the Wolf our Saviour himself hath done it Beware of false Prophets that come unto you in Sheeps cloathing but inwardly they are ravening Wolves Mat. 7. 15. and if they neglect to do it and the Sheep perish they shall answer for their blood Eze. 3. 20. But if they do it and the Sheep be slain the Shepherds shall deliver their own Souls Ez. 33. 9. And certainly a more dangerous Wolf or Heretick was not in the Church from the dayes of the Apostles until this time What do I speak of one if Pythagoras's transmigration of souls could captivate my belief I should not judge unreasonably should I judge that the souls almost of all the former Hereticks were transported into you for not any one of them maintained so many damnable opinions God give you a sight of your sin and grace to repent that if it be possible the sin of your heart may be forgiven you As for your Book it is a Labyrinth of errours and you your self a blind guid that run headlong into the pit of perdition and draw others after you For the Aspersions which you and your deceived followers cast upon us the Ministers we regard them not It is an honour to be evil spoken of by such companions especially for the truth and for righteousness-sake But we shall leave our cause to God and pray with the Psalmist Psal. 35. 1. plead thou our cause O Lord with them that fight against us and Psal. 27. 12. Deliver us not over unto the will of our enemies for false witnesses are risen up against us and such as speak wrong Before I enter upon this disputation it will be requisite to say somewhat of Blasphemie because it is much spoken of in the ensuing discourse To Blaspheme God is to detract from his sacred majestie to offer injurie to his holy name and dishonourable and reproachful speeches the sin of Pharaoh Exod. 5. 2. the sin of Rabshaketh 2. Kin. 18. the sin of the Israelitish womans son Lev. 24. 10. The punishment of this sin was death when it was manifest and notorious Lev. 24. 16. Dan. 3. 29. This sin is committed three wayes First when that is ascribed unto God which is repugnant to his nature as if any say he is corrupt or subject unto evil affections Secondly when that is taken from him which is proper unto him as when any shall say God is not merciful good just c. Thirdly when that is attributed to the creature which is proper to the Creator as when any shall say the Angels made the world or that a meer man can forgive sins Or if any shall assume to himself the name of the Messias as did the false Prophets c. moreover I may adde that Heresie is Blasphemie and that Hereticks are Blasphemers First because they manifestly oppose the truth and so God who is prima veritas upon which account St. Paul condemns Hymineus and Alexander 1. Tim. 1. 20. Secondly because they make God the Author of their lies by wresting his word to confirm their errours which is the property of Satan the patron of lies Thirdly because they set Gods stamp upon their counterfeit mettal telling the people it is Gods gold when it is no other then Satans dross of most of which this Heretick is guiltie as will appear by the ensuing discourse these things premised I proceed Christ who knew no sin you say took part of mans flesh and blood which was sinful Again you say Christ took upon him the sinful nature of all that sinned By Christ it seems you mean the Deity And by sinful nature you mean his Humanitie for what else can be your sense Which Proposition is both false and Blasphemous for the Holy Ghost in the conception sanctifi'd the Masse whereof Christ was made and separated it from sin Luke 1. 35. The Angel said the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the most High shall over-shadow thee therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God The holy thing which shall be born of thee implies he was holy before he was born And this was done upon special cause First that it might be joyned to the Person of the Son which could not have been if it had been defiled with sin Secondly Christ was a Saviour as he was both God and man If he had been sinful himself he could not have saved others but should have stood in need of a Saviour himself therefore the humane nature of Christ was not polluted with Original sin but was sanctified And this sanctification hath two parts First the stoppage to the propagation of Original Corruption and the guilt of Adams Sin which was on this manner God in the beginning set down this order concerning man that what evil or defect he brought upon himself he should derive the same to every one of his Posteritie begotten of him and accordingly when any father begets his Child he is in the place of Adam and conveys into it beside the nature of man the very guilt and corruption of nature now for preventing this evil in Christ God provided in great wisdome that he should be conceived by the Holy Ghost without any generation by man and by this means he took the substance of the Virgin Mary and not the guilt and corruption of the substance Secondly as your proposition is false so it is blasphemous for you charge Christ with Original sin for as the soul and body make but one man So the divine and humane nature make but one Christ not the divine nature alone as you erroneously suppose