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
because there were an inward judgement therefore there should not be an outward a secret judgement therefore not an open Doth not Saint Paul teach the contrary Rom. 2. 5. Thou after thy hardnesse and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thy self wrath against the day of wrath and Revelation of the righteous judgement of God c. Again because wicked men have here inward darknesse therefore you conclude they shall not be cast into outward darknesse Christ himself teacheth otherwise Math. 8. 12. The children of the kingdom shall be cast into outward darknesse there shall be weeping and Gnashing of teeth and so likewise in Mat. 22. 23. and 25 30 or if by judgement you mean regeneration as it seems you do that is not a judgement but a great mercy that God should take men out of the power of darknesse and translate them into the kingdome of his dear Son And this judgement as you call it is not general but an especial grace belonging unto the Church of Christ as appears Ephe. 1 3 4 Cap. 2. 1 2 3 4. Cap. 5. 25 26. 1 Pet. 2. 9 10. Col. 1. 12 13. yea from this we may take a medium to prove the general day of judgement because the tares must be separated from the wheat the sheep from the goats which man cannot do who knows not the heart but God that searcheth the heart and trieth the reines and he shall do it openly at the general day of Judgement as our Saviour Math. 25. 31 32 34 c. but because you denie this article of our faith I shall confirm it out of the Scriptures and first I shall begin with Enoch cited by Iude Verses 14 15. Whole Sermons of our Saviour Mat. 24. 31. to the end of that Chapter and Mat. 25. Acts 17. 31. 1 Thes. 4. 16. Heb. 9. 27. Rev. 1. 7. Rev. 20. 11 12 13 14 15. with many more which I shall desire the unsatisfied Reader if any such there can be to read them in the Bible and save the labour of Repetition and in the reading them he shall not only finde the truth and ground of this general judgement but the very circumstances of as it 1. The Person that shall judge Iesus Christ 2. The time the latter end of the world 3. The place the clouds 4. The manner of his comming to judgement with majestie and great glory and all his holy Angels 5. The persons that shall be judged the quick and the dead 6. The judges action He shall separate 7. His sentence Come ye blessed go ye cursed 8. The execution These shall go into everlasting life those into everlasting torment And now what can be more evident so that you your self that have wickedly contradicted it cannot but confess it unless you are given up to believe your own delusions and on the contrary to denie a truth as apparent as the light of the Sun at Noon-day in the Scriptures and that without any figure You object Heb. 9. 27. it is appointed for all men once to die but after this the judgement and say this death is a dying into sin and trespasses First for the place of Scripture what can be more plain and forcible against you It is decreed where Gen. 2. 17. In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die and so it was for from that time he and all his posteritie were subject unto death and as death is decreed so is also judgement God hath appointed a time in which he will judge the world Acts 17. 31. and this is not before death as you would have it but after death The words are after death comes the judgement but you say this is meant of a spiritual death a silly shift did God appoint that any man should die the death of sin no he appointed him to die a death for sin and transgressions Secondly its manifest the Apostle spake here of a corporal death he answers an objection to wit if Christ be the Messias how comes it to pass that he died His answer is it was appointed for all men to die and therefore for him now I hope you will not be so graceless as to say that Christ ever died the death of sin and therefore it must be understood a death of the body which he voluntarily suffered that he might destroy him that had power of death which was the Divel Heb. 2. 14. Your second objection is taken out of Iohn 5. 22. The father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgement to the Son That is the father judgeth the world in and by the Son and he doth it not with partialitie as do corrupt judges but with righteous judgement for we are sure that the judgement of God is according to truth Rom. 2. 2. and verse the sixth who will render to every man according to his deeds to them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory c. Eternal life but to them that are contentious and do not obey the truth indignation and wrath c. and when at the day of the Revelation of the righteous judgement of God Third objection 1 Pet. 4. 17. For the time is come that judgement shall begin at the house of God to whom I answer if it shall begin with us what shall become of those that abide not in the Gospel The same Apostle doth resolve it 2 Pet. 2. 9. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the righteous out of temptations and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgement to be punished Fourth objection out of Mal. 3. 3. He shall sit as a Refiâ—er and Purifier of silver and he shall purifie the Sons of Levi c. which words are spoken of Christs first comming in the flesh as appears by that spoken before in the first Verse behold I will send my messenger before which is applied unto Iohn the Baptist Mat. 11. 10. Behold I send my messenger before thy face which shall prepaâ—e thy way before thee But what shall become of those that will not be purified that will not abide the day of his comming surely you shall finde another day for them in Mal. 4. 1. Behold the day commeth that shall burn as an Oven and all the proud yea and all that do wickedly shall be stubble c. Fifth objection out of 2 Pet. 3. 8. one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day for answer to which that I may conclude I will only adde the foregoing words of Peter on which these have dependence and in which the objector is concerned Knowing this saith the Apostle Verse the third there shall come in the last dayes Scoffers walking after their own lusts and saying where is the promise of his comming For since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the creation for this they are willingly ignorant of c. Verse 9. but the Lord is not slack I need not adde more to prove the
reason of which the word of truth might be evil spoken of but that they may be mindeful of that excellent admonition of the Apostle 2 Ioh. 7. 8 9 10 11. For many deceivers are entred into the world who confess not that Iesus is come in the flesh This is a deceiver an Anti-Christ Look to your selves that we loose not those things which we have wrought but that we receive a full reward Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the Doctrine of Christ hath not God He that abideth in the Doctrine of Christ hath both the father and the Son If there come any unto you and bring not this Doctrine receive him not into your house neither bid him God-speed for he that biddeth him God-speed is partaker of his evil deeds CHAP. 14. You argue those that do preach the Doctrine of Damnation telling the people that they are eternally damned are no Gosâ—el-Ministers do preach from an evil spirit but Christ did not preach this Doctrine of eternal damnation to any for he did preach salvation to all men and the acceptable year of the Lord and to prove this you quote Luk. 4. 18. Iohn 3. 17. To tell you your Major or Minor is false or to treat you after the manner of Disputants is a thing passeth your understanding therefore I shall answere you thus Those that preach according to the Commission Christ gave unto his Disciples to preach at his departure are Gospel preachers but those that preach damnation to the impenitent and unbelievers as well as Salvation to the penitent and believers preach according to that Commission therefore they are Gospel preachers Mark 16. Go into all the World and preach the Gospel that is he that believes and is baptized shall be saved and he that believeth not shall be damned is not here damnation to the unbelievers as there is Salvation for believers Are they not commissionated to preach this throughout the World and did they not faithfully perform it Read Rom. 2. 4 5 6 7 8 9 10. where the Apostle pronounceth Glory Honour Immortalitie and Eternal life to every man that worketh good but denounceth tribulation and anguish wrath and judgement at the day of wrath and revelation of the just judgement of God to the impenitent that obey not the truth but obey unrighteousness Likewise in the 2. Thes. 1. 6 7 8 9. Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompence Tribulation to them that trouble you and to you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mightie Angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Iesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord c. read also 2 Pet. 2. 2 3 4 5. and the whole Epistle of Iude. I hope you will not say now these men were not Gospel-preachers or that they had not the spirit of God for it was after the day of Pentecost when the cloven tongues descended and sat upon them Acts 2. 1 2 3. But let me ask you one question when Christ gave unto his Disciples the keys of the kingdome of Heaven wherein did the power of the keys consist Was it not in binding as well as in loosing You will finde it was in Iohn 20. 23. You falsely and impudently say that Christ never preached damnation to any but Salvation to all Certainly you have read Christs Sermon upon the Mount and it is most certain you understand it not for it is plain Mat. 5. 21 22 23 24. and in the 29. It is better that one of thy members perish then that thy whole body should be cast into Hell Mark 6. 11. It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in that day of judgement then for that Citie Likewise read Mat. 23 from the 13. verse to the end of the Chapter and you shall finde how many woes are pronounced by Christ there and the greater damnation to Hypocrites for their holy pretences verse 14. and the 30. It seems plainly you know not what you say and care not what you affirm that you are led by the spirit of falshood and errour and not by the spirit of truth who dare thus boldly contradict the truth But that text of Mat. 23. 14 and 33. quoted by Mr. Sanbroke I perceive confounded you that you know not what to say or at least said you knew not what something nothing to the purpose which was That Christ was then a fulfilling the Law which you your self overthrow at the latter end of this disputation Page 64. out of Heb. 13. 8. Iesus Christ the same yesterday to day and for ever Now if he were the same yesterday as certainly he was for he was the lamb slain in Gods decree ab origine Mundi therefore he had fulfilled yesterday Gods account but if it were so yet it doth not lessen your fault who have falsely affirmed that Christ preached not damnation to any but salvation to all Not to pass over your playing Legerdemain with the Scriptures your saying that Christ told the Pharisees that the kingdome of God was to be revealed in them and which should suddenly come unto them and that they hearing this demanded of Christ when the kingdome of Heaven should come also that Christ answered them The kingdome of Heaven comes not with observation Now let any one read that Chapter of Woe and damnation to the Pharisees Mat. 23. and he shall finde there is no such question or answer in that Chapter nor in that Evangelist neither is there any thing like it and therefore you falsifie the Scriptures to make a colourable answer to that which is unanswerable and what you quote out of the 17. of Luke 20. 21. is spoken upon another occasion and the answer concerned not the Pharisees but was directed to the Disciples verse 22. and he said unto his Disciples c. I think there is no man so deluded except your self as to think that Christ should tell the Pharisees that the kingdome of Heaven was within them of whom he had given this Testimony in the words before that their inside was full of extortion and excess that they were like unto painted Sepulchers full of dead mens bones and of all uncleanness But you say the Kingdome of Heaven was within the Scribes and Pharisees though yet they knew it not But Christ that knew all things knew them intus in cute he knew their conditions and concluded they were a generation of Vipers and should not escape the damnation of Hell You tell us our Schools will never teach us this lesson of knowing Christ within us First you are ignorant what Doctrine the Schools teach and I therefore can give no account of it a fools bolt is soon shot praised be God our Schools teach no such doctrine as you teach nor any of the
they were not at the Tabernacle yet they were of those that were written by Moses and presented unto the Lord and therefore the Lord put his spirit upon them Verse 26. Now I pray what Moses hath written your name and presented it unto the Lord Besides we must not gather general Rules from extraordinary examples Because Deborah and Huldah prophesied therefore shall any infer that Women ougth to teach in the Church Doth not the Apostle teach the contrary 1 Cor. 14. 34. 1 Tim. 2. 12 CHAP. 18. The subject of this Chapter is Original sin You speake much in the commendation of young children which were commendable in you were it not done for by-ends you set them forth in their most beautiful Characters but Latet anguis in Herba you would shroud an old Pelagian Heresy under them You magnifie their condition as being free from actual sin but your purpose in it is to denie Originall Sin You say They are not born in sin First therefore I will shew what Original sin is and that it is in all men by Nature and then answer your Cavills For the better understanding of it we must know there were in Adam before his fall three things 1. The substance of his body and soul 2. The faculties and 3. The qualities of them that is to say the image of God consisting in a conformity of all his wiâ—l and affections and powers to Gods will Now when Adam sinned he did not lose the substance or faculties of his soul and body but the conformity of his will and Affections and powers to Gods will and consequently in stead of that comes want of Original righteousnesse and a pronesse to sin and wickednesse Now that this is in all mankinde by nature appears in Psa. 51 5. behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me Eph. 2. 3. We are all by nature the children of wrath Gen. 6. 5. Again the Circumcision of infants under the Law proves something there was in the soul that ought to be cut away which God promised to do Deut. 30. 6. Likewise the Baptisme of Infants doth shew there is something unclean that hath need of cleansing which God hath promised to do Iohn 3. 5. Titus 3. 5. Ephesians 5. 26 27. The death of infants doth confirm it who die not ex necessitate naturae but ex merito peccati not out of the necessity of nature but for the punishment of Original sin for the wages of sin is death or death is the wages of sin Rom. 6. 23. now it cannot be meant of actual sin and therefore it must be for Original sin Which is cleer out of Rom. 5. 12 18. Your argument ab injusto that it is an hard thing to say that thousands are now in hell for Original sinne Who art thou that disputest with God Rom. 9. 20 if they be the children of Christian Parents there is hope of mercy though they die without the Sacrament of Baptisme because they are born within the Covenant If they be the children of Infidels we may remember the book of life which no man knows but God therefore we may suspend our judgement therein So it is we know whosoever is not found written in the Book of life shall be cast into the Lake of fire Rev. 20. 15. But a strange thing it is that this should be a hard saying to you if any man said so who deny the perpetuity of Hell fire You object Mark 10. 13. And they brought young Children to him that he should touch them This place makes against you it shews there was somthing in them that was to be healed or else they would not have brought them to Christ to be touched you confesse it is brought to prove the Baptisme of Infants and so it is not without reason for if they be born of beleeving parents as those were otherwise they would not have brought them to Christ to be touched and blessed then have they as good right to the Sacrament of Baptisme as the Children under the Law had to the Sacrament of Circumcision in regard the promise was made to Abraham and to his seed and to all that are afar of even as many as the Lord our God shall call Acts. 2. 39. You object Matth. 18. 2 with an absurd exposition of it For his Disciples striving for superiority his answer related particularly to their ambition that they should not strive for Superiority but be converted and become humble otherwise they should not enter into the kingdom of Heaven but let me ask you what then should become of them you should have done well to have expounded that also but it was not for your purpose Also the conference of Christ and Nicodemus Iohn 3. 4. This makes not on your side doth not Christ plainly tell him except a man be born again of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God He gives a reason for it in the next Verse That which is born of flesh is flesh c. Lastly you contradict your self fouly in this Chapter you say you denie not the Baptizing of Children with water to them that are free to do it and immediately you call Baptisme Iohns administration of water and say it was onely to last Iohns time and then to be made void CHAP. XIX It is the saying of the Apostle 2 Tim. 3. 13. That evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived Here we have it verified in you for here you are grown to such to such an height of impudence that you dare out-face a truth as apparent as the light at noon-day You say We have no ground from the Lord Iesus Christ by precept nor example to Baptize with water What say you to that of Ioh. 3. 5. before mentioned where our Saviour tells Nicodemus that except a man be born of water and the spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdome of God Likewise that of our Saviour himself Mat. 28. 19. Go therefore and teach all Nations Baptizing them in the name of the Father Son and holy Ghost Have we not examples for it also read Iohn 4. 1 2. Again can you answer to that of the Eunuch Acts 8. 36. And as they went on their way they came to a certain water and the Eunuch said see here is water what doth hinder me to be Baptised and they went both down into the water both Philip and the eunuch and he Batised him v. 38. The very name or signification of the word Baptisme from {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} may confute you moreover water is one of the parts of the Sacrament Is it not called the Laver of Regeneration Titus 3. 5. wherein Christ doth wash and cleanse his Church 1 Cor. 6. 11. and such were some of you but ye are washed c. Eph. 5. 26. that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word