him of sinne he is then able to judge himself when the Lord also discovers the love of Christ to the heart by the teachings of the Word without and the Spirit within he is then able to beleeve Further when God giveth a Christ-like disposition he is then able to shew son-like affections towards God and make expression that the Law is written in his heart In a word he hath power so farre to open the doore as he hath ability from Christ he cannot go one step further And therefore when the Spirit stands at the doore and knocks to speak properly there is no natural ability in us all ability is from grace we must look to Christ onely and the more we look to him in the sense of our own weaknesse the more we shall have All that may truely be gathered from this Scripture is that a man is a free agent in the work of his salvation but the ability is onely from Christ and not from us Now we will consider the force of your third Reason Reas 3. If God say you giveth men actions of obedience then were he to be obeyed by men no otherwise then the winds and seas obey him In this case there can be no talent no neglect of duty on mans part no more then there is in the axe or saw in dividing of a piece of timber Answer This argument I confesse is of force against them who give all to the Spirit that they make man himself meerly passive as a stupid block I am against them as well as you But you do not onely strike at these but against them also who are for the Lords free election and the special communication of his own grace infallibly to bring his people to salvation And thereupon say you such an obedience may thus be compared as if God should come and put a purse of gold into the hand of men and force it upon them and call that their obedience and to many other men give them not a penny-worth and demand some of them and because it was not there dispose of their persons to everlasting ruine page 53. Here you endeavour to misrepresent the doctrine of the Lords free election and make it odious to your own ends But we will make it clear that mans obedience may well consist with the doctrine of election and his disobedience also may consist with the doctrine of non-election ☞ For the first let us consider the meaning of that place I will make an everlasting covenant with them I will never turne away from them to do them good I will put my feare into their hearts and they shall never depart from me Jer. 32.40 That which is here spoken must needs be a promise to the elect because it is expressely said I will make an everlasting Covenant with them I will never turne away from them These words do note the communication of an infallible grace but yet not so as any kind of way to diminish and empaire the endeavour of man for this is not wrought immediately by the Spirit alone but mediately by the Spirit upon the heart of man And therefore these words are immediately added I will put my fear into their heart and they shall never depart from me Because the Lord had an intent to keep them from back-sliding de did resolve to infuse a son-like fear into their hearts to avoid all spiritual dangers and to keep themselves from falling And so we may see how the infallible administration of the grace may stand with the free act and endeavour of man But let us go to another Scripture I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and will give you a heart of flesh I will put my Spirit within you and will cause you to walke in my statutes and ye shall keep my judgments and do them Then shall ye remember your own evil wayes and your doings that were not good and shall loath your selves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations Ezek. 36.25 26 27. Here in these words also there is a promise to the Lords peculiar people that he will bestow his special grace upon them in these words a new heart will I give them and they shall keep my commandments I will wash them with cleane water Secondly here is their particular act by the power of grace received they shall freely walk in the Lords statutes when he shall give them a new heart they shall loath their abominations when he shall wash them with cleane water The more subtile sort of Arminians in several Treatises do seeme to ascribe much to grace onely they make the point of the question to stand in the modus rei or the manner of the grace that God doth not so infallibly work upon the heart ut eventus non possit non sequi that the event cannot chuse but follow This is the stumbling stone and the rock of offence that they stumble at Now let us consider what is alledge in their Apology to the forementioned Scripture First say they this promise is peculiar to the last times therefore it cannot be applied to the conversion of the elect which is one and the same in all times Answ Though the promise is specially to be applied to the call to the Jewes yet it doth strongly inforce the point For the question being onely de modo rei concerning the manner of the thing this Scripture plainly sheweth the certainty and infallibility of such a grace by and thorough which the Jewes shall be brought home in the last dayes If we look to the dispersion of that Nation over all Countreyes of the world we may conceive it a thing impossible to natural reason for them to be gathered together yet God hath promised to gather them into one body and that David shall be their King in the latter dayes Even so if we look to the enmity and perversenesse of a people against the Gospel of Christ there is no Nation under the whole heaven for these many hundred years that hath been such desperate adversaries as they have been There are neither English nor Spanish nor French nor Italian no not Turks nor Tartars that are greater haters of the Gospel then this people have been and yet are Yet notwithstanding all this antipathy they shall be called and thorough the call they shall be infallibly brought home in the latter times Though according to natural reason this may seeme very improbable God will certainly performe his promise and no obstacle or hindrance shall be able to obstruct the work From hence then it is clear if we go to the modus rei or the manner of the thing we may easily collect that the way of God in working the conversion of his people may be after a certain and infallible manner Secondly they argue If God will do all by his power why are men commanded to make themselves a new heart and a new spirit This were irrational to do on
mans part seeing God hath already decreed and promised to do the work himself ☞ Answ Though God doth resolve certainly to bring a thing to passe in his decrees and purposes though he doth promise also that it shall be certainly done yet this doth not hinder the endeavour of man seeing it is his manner to bring things about by mans endeavor as the chief mean or instrument As for example when Saint Paul and his company were in danger of shipwrack the Lord did tell him by night in a vision that there should not be the losse of any mans life but of the ship onely Acts 27.22 Here was a certaine promise and thereupon the Apostle did certainly conclude that they should all come safe to land You will say then did not the certainty of the promise especially seeing God would performe it by power hinder their endeavour No For when they came into a place where two seas did meet and the ship did stick fast in the sand every man did shift for his own life some by swimming and some upon broken pieces of the ship God had promised that there should not be the losse of any mans life ☜ and this he did effect by making every one of them careful to preserve his own life So in the case of those men which God doth intend to bring to eternal salvation he will first or last sooner or later and that by his own power make them careful of their own salvation As in the words of the text he first promised to give a new heart that is the spirit of love into the heart and when this is done then they shall keep his commandments So then it is cleare that the infallibility of the decree of election and the certainty of the promise of God do not make void the free obedience of that people which he doth intend to bring to salvation But thirdly they object Though he doth give a new heart it is not absolutely necessary that he should give it cum effectu with the effect He may give it with great efficacie yet neverthelesse the grace may be resisted by the malignity of the will of man Answ It is confessed that God may give grace and men may resist and by resisting may lose the grace that is offered But the question is whether the new heart or the new spirit may finally be resisted ye or no If any man beleeve that it may let him answer the words of that promise Jer. 31.31 32. Behold the dayes come saith the Lord that I will make a new Covenant with the house of Israel not according to the Covenant which I made with their fathers when I tooke them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt which Covenant they brake But this is the Covenant that I will make after those dayes saith the Lord I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people In the present case then the writing of the Law in the heart must be meant only of an effectual inscription if this be not so where will be the difference betwixt the old the new Covenant betwixt the Covenant that God made with the people when he brought them out of the Land of Egypt and the Covenant that he will make in the latter days For the covenant that he made with them at their coming out of Egypt they brake but the new Covenant shall not be broken when the Lord shal write his Law in their hearts then all shall know him from the greatest to the least Therefore if we go to the manner of the thing the work of conversion may be wrought with efficacie and infallibility on Gods part and yet there be no detriment or dammage to mans obedience Master Everard I have stayed the longer upon this point to to shew you the inequality of your similitude as though God did deale with his elect in forcing a purse of gold upon them and then call that their obedience We say the contrary God may infallibly work upon the hearts of his people and by his necessary and infallible workings bring them on to a free and a chearful obedience Their free endeavour must needs stand with a subordination under his decrees and workings Now let us go to the harder case of the Non-elect and here the decree of God and the certainty thereof doth not any way free men from being the children of disobedience Let us take a view of that Scripture What if God willing to shew his wrath and to make his power known endured with much long-suffering vessels of wrath fitted to destruction Rom. 9.22 From hence it is cleare that there are none destroyed but such as are prepared and fitted for destruction and for the preparation the Lord in the ordinary way doth endure men first with much long-suffering For the clearing of this let us consider that passage of the Apostle 1 Pet. 3.19 20. By which spirit also he went and preached to those spirits that are in prison which sometimes were disobedient when once the long-suffering of God waited in the dayes of Noah Therefore let the decree of non-election be what it will be in the purpose of God yet we are sure in the ordinary way it is not put in execution ☞ but the Lord doth endure men first with much long-suffering We may proceed with this gradation None are destroyed but those that are made fit for destruction None are made fit for destruction but such as he hath endured with much patience and there is none that he hath endured with much patience but he hath striven with them from time to time with convictions of his Spirit and they have shewed many acts of disobedience against such inward motions and workings Therefore the decree of non-election as it is to be put in execution may well stand and consist with the disobedience of man so that he himself shall be the cause of his own condemnation If this be so I know no just cause you have to complaine for say you I wonder how they can call it our duty while they affirme that God never intended that we should do that work and so never furnished us to that purpose page 55. If you apply these things to us and our doctrine as it is probable you do then I must tell you that you heap up calumnies we do not maintaine any such position that the Lord doth not surnish the non-elect with abilities there is none of them all but he hath more ability then he useth And for the temporary beleever we hold that he hath very great qualifications and is able to go very sarre Here onely lies the point of the difference that the Lord doth not give him such abilities as will infallibly carry him on unto salvation This is his peculiar dealing with the elect as may be proved from divers Scriptures ☜ But here perhaps will
shall be sufficient for thee my strength shall be seene in thy weaknesse 2 Cor. 12.7.8 9 But the way to come by this ability is not in your method to set up nature but to die to a mans self and to be emptied of all natural abilities Most gladly therefore will I glory in mine infirmities that the power of Christ might rest upon me 2 Cor. 12.9 The Authors of the Confession do seeme to speak more fairly for the grace of God then you do They do not shun to affirme that we have all from Christ and that of our selves we have not ability to think a good thought and much to the same purpose But by this affirmation of theirs how can they possibly agree with their own principles of the purity of nature For where there is no depravation of the natural birth what need or what use is there of the grace of regeneration They conceale themselves and you openly professe your judgment they seeme to speak more fairly but you are more true to the principles and positions of the Separate Churches CHAP. III. Whether righteousnesse and holinesse be Gods Image HEre you endeavour to prove the Negative to wit that righteousnesse and holinesse in man was not the image of God in the first creation Because this is not your own single opinion but also the doctrine of the thirty Congregations who place the image of God onely in dominion over the creature we will debate the point more fully And so much the rather because you did urge me at Earle-Shilton in Leicestershire Anno 1650. Decem. 26. before a multitude of people to answer this question what place of Scripture have you to prove that Adam had the Spirit of God or that he was a spiritual man before his fall I did then cite three several texts the natural sence and import of all which is to shew that God made man after his own Image and that this Image did principally consist in spiritual and inward holinesse For that place Gen. 1.26 Come let us make man after our Image in our own likenesse There is none doth doubt but this is the speech of the three persons in Trinity Onely the question is wherein did this Image principally consist The separate congregations and you also affirme that it did appear onely in Dominion and Lordship over the creature these words do immediately follow in the text let them have dominion over the fish of the sea over the fowle of the aire and over the cattel and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth But herein both they and you are deceived for primarily and properly the Image of God was resplendent in the conformity of the soule to the spiritual Law of God Secondarily the Image of God was resplendent in that external priviledge of rule and dominion over the creature Now that it may appear that the principal part of the Image of God is in inward holinesse and that the soule so inwardly and spiritually endowed doth more lively expresse his similitude for this reade that Scripture Put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the Image of him that created him Col. 3.10 Here note what it is that the Apostle would have the Colossians to put on Put on the new man By this he doth mean the Christ-like and spiritual disposition set in immediate opposition to the old carnal disposition of the flesh which they had already in good measure begun to put off Secondly the word renewed doth note a repaire or renovation of that which formerly was decayed So the Psalmist prayeth Create in me a clean heart and renew within me a right spirit Psal 51.10 He doth pray for the returne of the same spirit which formerly he had but now seemingly had lost So thy youth is renewed like the Eagles Psal 103.5 As much in sense as that he makes thee vigorous like an Eagle who by casting her beak and feathers renews her former agility And so in the present case wherein it is said Put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge this noteth the repaire and renovation of that spiritual disposition which Adam had but lost it by his fall Thirdly for the matter of the renovation venewed in knowledge doth signifie spiritual knowledge in the nature thereof and that which comes from the Spirit of God as the cause Fourthly for the pattern of the renovation it is expressely said after the image of him that created him Therefore the first man must be made in a state of spiritual knowledge and holinesse If this be not so how could the beleeving Colossians be renewed after this example as the Prototype Let us go to the next Scripture that ye put on the new man which after God is created in rigteousnesse and true holinesse Eph. 4.24 This Scripture also doth plainly shew that Adam had the Spirit of God before his fall For first why is it said be renewed in the spirit of your minde This implieth that we were sometimes such Secondly the expression of righteousnes and true holinesse is opposed to feigned and hypocritical sanctity Thirdly the whole tenour of the speech is to this end that the Ephesians should put off the old Adam-like disposition with all the deceitful lusts thereof and that they should put on the Christ-like nature which is renewed after the similitude and pattern of the image of God in man before the fall The argument is thus grounded upon the text What the Saints are by renovation such Adam was by creation But by renovation the Saints are just and holy From all which we do conclude that Adam was a spiritual man and had the Spirit of God before his fall Now to the Scriptures let us adde a few reasons First it is a Maxime generally received that the Law was made for man before his fall Now how the first man could be conformable to so spiritual and divine a Law and he himself be destitute of the Spirit it is not within the compasse of my understanding to discerne If we will argue a posteriori from the event we must necessarily conclude that he must not only be spiritual but also have a great measure of spirit to keep such a divine and spiritual Law Secondly the Apostle saith you hath he quickned that were dead in trespasses and sinnes Ephes 2.1 2. If all be dead in trespasses and sinnes this spiritual death must begin at the fall and so by consequence the first man must have the spirit and spiritual life before his fall For what is spiritual death but a privation of the life of the Spirit of God These and many more reasons might be brought to prove Adam to be a spiritual man as long as he stood in that state in which God had placed him Now let us hear your arguments to the contrary You say that Adams righteousnesse and holinesse was not in beleeving a Saviour because be was not in a lost condition pag.
to us For though we wholly ascribe all to grace ☜ yet we acknowledge man to be a free agent who worketh and acteth by the help of grace administred Though God himself be almighty often doth work so almightily that none can or shall resist him yet his way of working in the soul in the excitings and movings of his grace are not always in that almighty way Sometimes men do resist nay the very elect themselves do oppose the workings of his Spirit though they do not nor cannot finally resist We constantly affirme that the grace is Gods and the act is mans For proof of this let us consider the meaning of that expression By the grace of God I am what I am and his grace in me was not in vaine but I laboured more then they all yet not I but the grace of God which was with me 1 Cor. 15.10 Here he doth ascribe all to grace when he saith by the grace of God I am what I am Though he doth attribute all to grace as to the Architectonical and principal cause for all was done by the vigour and efficacie of that grace which was in him yet for all this he doth not deny himself to be a free agent He did instrumentally work by the power of that grace which was in him Therefore in the work of his Ministery there is a truth that grace did all and Paul did labour more then any of the Apostles Grace did it principally and Paul did it organically and ministerially And thus you see though the action be mans the vigour spirituality and efficacie is wholly from God and nothing from man This is the substance of our doctrine Now let us see how you concord Gods grace with mans endeavour Without further controversie say you let it be confessed that the teachings of God come in to the sons and daughters of men as the tillings and manurings of God to provoke them to produce obedient actions page 50. This passage of yours we might let go for present were it not for a Pelagian sense which it carries with it For from what Scripture or experience have you this similitude that mans nature is to be compared to a fruitful soile in such things as concern salvation A fruitful soile though it do want due culture hath a natural aptnesse to bring forth fruit will you say that there is the same aptnesse in the nature of man to produce actions of obedience doth not this go against the scope of Scripture and do not the Saints for the production of obedient actions finde need of a daily and continual supply of the Spirit of Christ All shall turne to my salvation through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ Phil. 1.19 Though the Saints do bring forth fruit and though it be the act of their own free obedience yet it is not from nature as a fruitful soile but from Christ the Vine John 15.1 2 c. Our Saviour doth plainly shew that every branch abiding in him brings forth fruit But if you will needs argue from hence the goodnesse and fertility of the branch in it self he saith in expresse termes without me ye can do nothing Further you add If this opinion should take place that God giveth our actions it would as well dismisse the office of the Spirit of God and so destroy the internal meanes The Spirit standeth at the doore of the heart and calleth provoking us with a multiplicity of allurements that we would put forth our abilities to a present performance of action p. 51. Here Sir as I have formerly said we have nothing to do with that idle opinion that obedient actions are only the gift of God we have nothing to do with them who demolish the endeavour of man let them bear their own burden whosoever they be But on the other side we must needs blame you for running into a contrary extreame for whereas you say that the Spirit standeth at the doore of the heart provoking us with a multiplicity of allurements to put forth our abilities to present performance here I would entreat you to define what those abilities are which the Spirit doth provoke us to exert and put forth If you mean our natural abilities as you can mean no other seeing they stand contradistinct to the allurements of the Spirit then you will ascribe the chief work of salvation to mans nature and the part of the Spirit shall be onely to allure and perswade By this account not onely the action but also the ability and the power to act will be from man But because the Pelagians of old the Arminians of late and you now have such frequent recourse to this Scripture Rev. 3. 17 18 19 20. let us read the words Because thou sayest I am rich and increased in goods and have need of nothing and knowest not that thou art poor miserable blind and naked I counsel thee that thou buy of me gold tryed in the fire that thou mayest be rich and white rayment that thou mayest be clothed that the shame of thy nakednesse do not appear and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve that thou mayest see As many as I love I rebuke and chasten be zealous therefore and amend Behold I stand at the door and knock if any man heare my voice and open the door I will come in and sup with him From the words these Corollaries may be deduced First not onely the Church of Laodicea but also all men else are spiritually dead and miserable if we look upon them as considered in the state of nature Secondly men by their natural ability do not discern the miserie of that condition Thirdly such as Christ doth intend to bring to salvation he will begin with them in the opening of the eye of their understanding to see that in themselves they are poor miserable blind and naked Fourthly by the conviction of his Spirit he will shew them that he hath a supply for all their wants for their blindnesse he hath eye-salve for their nakednesse he hath white raiment for their poverty he hath gold tried in the fire and for all their wants he hath a proportionable supply Fifthly the Lord Christ at sundry intervals of time doth stand at the door shew these things to the hearts of the sons men if therefore they see them receive them and in the sense of their own emptinesse go to him for all they shall have more large and full communications of himself he will come in and sup with them This is the natural sense of the text and what is here to set up the ability of man The whole scope of the place is rather to pluck down his abilities that the Lord Christ may be all in all But in case you stand upon these words if any man hear my voice and open the doore we grant that in the matter of salvation man is a free agent when God sends the Spirit into his heart to reprove
same spiritual drink for they drank of that rock which followed them and that rock was Christ 1 Cor. 10.4 5. Further after the fourty years pilgrimage were ended the Lord doth promise that their Convoy should not leave them but that he should go before them and drive out the Canaanites because it was not in their own power to bring the land into subjection This is the Lords promise and therefore in sense and substance the Angel must do the whole work Secondly let us consider what is the duty of the people and that is contained in these words Beware of him obey his voice provoke him not c. Because they did wholly depend upon him for all therefore they should be careful to observe him and to follow him in his leadings The force of the reason is the same in the words of the text work out your salvation with fear and trembling because God works in you the will and the deed because his Spirit is all in all the cause of mans salvation to carry on the work because his Spirit doth convince reprove teach comfort seal and guide the Saints therefore they should walk tenderly and carefully toward him The Apostle saith grieve not the Spirit of grace by which ye are sealed unto the day of Redemption Ephes 4.30 In case they do with him as disobedient children do with their parents when they give them good counsel the Spirit will neither comfort nor seal them any more but will leave them to a state of darknesse and discomfort And this is the true meaning of the text We may hereby understand how God doth carry on the whole work of salvation and this doth no way impair or diminish the endeavour of man In the close of all you tell us Let us say with the Apostle in our hearts that we desire to strive with dayly labourings according to the mighty workings whereby he worketh in us Col. 1.29 And do not say any more it is God that worketh our actions but be thankful to him that giveth us sufficient means Page 63. You have heard before that the Lord doth work in us the will and the deed and therefore the spirituality of the action is wholly from God though we are free workers by the help of his grace But let us take your words in the fairest construction If you will stand firmly to this principle that God gives sufficient means by a power working in us you need not fly to the purity of nature to natural free-will and to such like beggerly rudiments to salve the endevour of man In this place you seem to speak for grace when elsewhere through your whole treatise you drive the bargain altogether for the natural abilities of the will But seeing you have offered this text to our consideration we will endeavour to draw from it the concord betwixt the grace of God and the endeavour of man The words are these Whereunto I also labour striving according to his working which worketh in me mightily The Apostle speaketh of the work of the Ministery whom we preach warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdome that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus whereunto I labour according to the mighty workings that he worketh in us Here it is plain that the Apostle did work in teaching and instructing every one and it was not so much his work as the work of the Spirit in him and by him When he was at Athens his Spirit was stirred up in him when he saw the City wholly given to Idolatry Why are not the like excitations of spirit in men in there dayes who travell to Constantinople to Ligorn to Rome seeing hose people are wholly given either to Mahumetan superstition or Popish Idolatry The reason is manifest the same spirit doth not work so mightily in the hearts of men as it did sometime in the heart of Paul because he was filled with the Spirit he did shew abundant sympathy and bowells of affection towards all the lost sonnes of men But to come to instances in these last times when the Gospel was plucked down and the Mass was set up in Queen Maries dayes the Martyr being in a journey declared his intention that he would preach in his charg the next Lords day and when he that journeyed with him told him then he would certainly be cast into prison his answer was I am in prison till I am in prison He was bound in his spirit to preach the Gospel to the soules which he had taken charg of he could have no peace otherwise then in the discharge of his duty He did labour freely yet so as his labour was by the inward moving of the Spirit But of all other places that passage of our Saviour is most used by the Enthusiasts Ye shall be brought before Kings and Princes for my sake but when they shall deliver you up take no thought how or what you shall speak for it shall be given to you in that houre what you shall speak For it is not ye that speak but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you Mat. 10.18 19 20. Though this promise is made to the Martyrs and Confessors in times of persecution yet it is not made to them in that manner as to extinguish and drown all endeavour of their own as though God would do all and they should be discharged of their duty The promise is only made to such as should engage themselves for Christ and should humbly in the use of the means depend upon him for the supply of his Spirit And thus we see that the Spirit does all and yet in the most spiritual actions man himself is a free-worker It shall be given you in that houre what you shall speak This expression what you shall speak sheweth plainly that the Saints are free Agents Let us now consider that place Ephes 2.8 9. For by grace ye are saved through faith not of your selves it is the gift of God ☜ Here you yield that salvation as purchased by Christ is the gift of God but you will not have faith it self to be the gift of God you grant one part of the text to deny another If you consider the words you shall finde that not onely salvation but also faith it self is Gods free gift If this be not so how could the Ephesians come to beleeve The Apostle saith that they were dead in trespasses and sinnes they walked according to the course of the world they fulfilled the lusts of the flesh and of the mind Therefore they could not come to beleeve by any natural ability but meerly by the quickning work of the Spirit Further this expression is added ver 10. We are his work manship created of God unto good works By nature they were dead in trespasses and sinnes and if that now they could perform any spiritual act they were made able to do this by the new creation or workmanship of God Further if faith be not the
at meat nor pray in their families nor hear the Word nor perform any other spiritual duty untill they have a motion of the Spirit Indeed the Waiters in this sense do come to your pitch they think themselves to be discharged from duty till the coming of the Spirit But is there no middle between these desperate extreames Is there no discharge of duty in obedience to the Commands of God There is no man that lives in the Kingdome of grace but in some one thing or other he must be contented to stay the Lords time what then shall we say because he is necessitated to wait he is therefore discharged of all duty Not so he is still to act in a lower spheare and to wait for further communications as it shall please the Lord to impart them These are the words of the Apostle let us therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded and if in any thing you be otherwise minded God shall reveal even this unto you Neverthelesse whereunto we have already attained let us walk by the same rule Phil. 3.15 16. The meaning of the place is this every man should walk according to his present attainments and abilities ☜ and in walking doing and discharging his duty wait upon God for further discoveries A natural man is furthest off from God what then is he absolutely discharged from duty Is he not to come to Church to hear the Gospel and to wait upon the means peradventure God may give him repentance to convince him of the evil of his ways Though it is not in his own power to repent yet thereby he is not acquitted and discharged from all performance of duty And so in sundry cases men are to discharge their duty according to present abilities they are to walk in those paths that he hath appointed and to wait upon him for the supply of spirit It is the voice of the Church in her great tribulation I will look unto the Lord I will wait for the God of my salvation Mic 7.7 Now tell me I pray you seeing the Church was compelled to stay Gods time to wait as it were on a Watch Tower for so the word in the Original doth signifie will you lay that in this whole interval she is discharged from all duty This is not so she did discharge her duty in praying seeking and looking to God onely and in the performance of all these she waited upon him for comfort she had none else in all the world no father no brother no friend no wisedome of the flesh no other refuge but God onely When she had darknesse and no light she had a firme perswasion that at last he would plead her cause execute judgment for her that he would bring her forth to light and she should see his righteousnesse But you go on do not other men say of God that he so pitied the world seeing their hard cold frozen hearts therefore of his own goodnesse did he provide fewel enough to warm and melt them but when that is done with-holds the right hand of his power from putting the fewel into a flaming fire to succour them in their distresse and then comes to them and saith be warmed and comforted likening God to that hard hearted man spoken of Jam. 2.15 16. And more such like passages you have page 72. Who these other men are whom you here intend I cannot certainly tell if you mean the friends and followers of this Church from whom you have departed I must tell you you do charge us with that which we do not maintain It is not the result of our doctrine to resemble God to that hard hearted man Who bids them be warmed and gives them not wherewithall We say there are promises to give faith as well as to faith given to give love as well as to love given to put fear into the heart as well as to fear which is put into the heart There are sundry promises given to that end that men may go chearfully about the performance of action that doing their duties they may feel the power and presence of the Spirit to go along with them Therefore we do not say that God keeps the fewel in his own hand and that men are frozen for want of heat These are your calumnies but not our doctrine But to aggravate the matter you further adde The Physician openeth the mouth of one in a hundred and poureth it in by force as for all the rest they are not alotted any share or part therein and yet shall suffer deeply for not taking it it being proffered but not given them page 73. How hard a thing is it for you to leave your old custome of corrupting our sayings before you do confute them We hold that there is a peculiar number which God hath chosen from the beginning to salvation these in time he effectually calleth justifieth and sanctifieth but we never teach that he poureth his grace into them by force Again for others we hold there is a grace given to them nay temporary believers have very great degrees of grace which they fall from by their own desault It is an Impudent calumny then to affirme of us that we should say there is no share or part alotted to them that grace is proffered and not given For my part I do believe in the ordinary way God gives more abilities to men by the convictions of his Spirit then they do profitably use All the difficulty of the point will come to this issue touching the peculiarity of this grace which carries some infallibly and certainly to salvation when others are left for their resisting of the Spirit If then you list to go further and ask after the reason why God doth deal so unequally with men here the Scriptures doe confine you to the Lords good pleasure This I am sure they would not do if a substantial reason otherwise might be given from any thing in man himself Why else should our Saviour say Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes even so O Father because it pleaseth thee And yet further ☜ they who do with judgment maintain the doctrine of election do not think that this mystery is to be propounded to all men and at all times as some unadvised and inconsiderate men have done To let passe all that may be said if you will go to the Doctrine of the Church of England in the seventeeth Article you shall finde that the main sense and import of the Article is this that such persons onely should have the consideration of their election in Christ propounded to them who feel in themselves the Spirit mortifying the works of the flesh As for curious and carnal persons it is more proper for them to look to the threats of God that they may be humbled and for others also when they come to be humbled it is not for them presently and immediately to meddle with election but
a secret will to them to whom it is revealed page 77. In this passage of yours there are some words of truth though after your manner you make an ill use of them I yield in the general that the revealed will of God was sometimes his secret will before it was revealed But the question in hand is this when Adam knew his duty that he should not eat of the forbidden fruit was not that part of the will of God concerning the permission of the fall and sending of the Son part of the secret will of God and whether by right ought it not to be secret so long as he was upon the triall or his obedience for the clearing of the point we will speak somewhat more largely concerning the secret will of God There is one part of his secret will absolutely secret that never shall be known either in this life or in that which is to come The Apostle speaking of the casting away of the Jewes and their wonderful calling again concludeth O the depth of the riches of the wisdome and the knowledge of God! Rom. 11.33 There is then a part of the secret will of God especially in the reasons of his decrees which none either can or shall know Secondly there is a part of his secret will which though it shall be revealed in the world to come yet it must be concealed in this life Now are we the sonnes of God but it is not yet manifest what we shall be 1 Joh. 3.1 2. Though the Saints know much of the mind of Christ and feel his love in their hearts by the teaching and demonstration of the Spirit yet the excellency of their future glory is hidden from them Thirdly there is a part of the secret will of God which though it be hidden from some yet it is revealed to others even in this life The Apostles did see those things which the Prophets and the righteous men could never see The Lord shewed Peter by what death he should glorifie God but he did not shew this to other men no not to John the beloved Disciple Joh. 21.20 21. Fourthly to one and the same man that part of the will of God which was secret heretofore by the event or revelation may prove to be his revealed will and so in the particular case of Adam the permission of the fall and the promise of the sending of the Son were the concealed will of God for a season and were afterward made known by the event If this be granted we have as much as we do desire But you put the question How God could decree by his secret will that Adam should fall before in his revealed will he commanded him to stand As hard a case as you make it I believe there is no man but will easily understand that that which the Lord had decreed concerning the fall of Adam in his secret will from all eternity must needs go before his temporal commands and injunctions But that which offends you is the seeming contrariety of the two wills You say is it a small thing that the righteousnesse of God should be questioned upon such low termes as to imagine that when in his revealed will he shall say eat not in his secret will he shall say thou shalt eat This opinion that renders God to have two wills renders them divided in their nature when they are but differing in termes For the external will is not another will but the same made manifest page 79. That the will of God is one entire will in substance we do affirm as well as you yet we would have you to observe that one and the same will may be discriminated and distinguished by divers relations As one and the same fire that hardens the clay may soften the wax so one and the same will may be distinguished according to divers operations Let us note the distinction betwixt Gods will of decree and his will of command That such a distinction must be made between these two wills is clear and manifest from many Scriptures Joseph said to his brethren Gen. 45.7 8. Ye sent me not hither but God His sending into Egypt was by Gods will of Decree to save much people alive yet none can say that Josephs brethren did the Lords will of command they went against his cōmand when they sold their brother as a bondslave So it is expressely said of the sons of Eli that they would not hearken unto the voice of their father because the Lord would slay them 1 Sam. 2.25 These disobedient children in not hearkning to the voice of their Father did fulfill the Lords will of Decree who had a purpose to judge the house of Eli for their sinnes But we cannot say that they did obey the Lords will of command unlesse such a command may be produced that children ought not to obey their parents So in the case of crucifying the Lord Christ the Apostle speaketh they did whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done Herod Pilate and the Nation of the Jewes did perform the Lords will of Decree to crucifie Christ yet we cannot say they did perform his will of command These and many other examples may be brought to prove the necessity of such a distinction And though the Arminians Corvinus by name do cavil at words and expressions yet they cannot rationally deny the substance of the thing And therefore to the point in hand we say it is true in a sense that God did not will the fall of Adam that is he did not approve that sinne by his will of command yet in a sense it is as true that by his will of decree he did permit it As in the like case the Apostle saith There must be heresies amongst you that they which are approved may be made manifest 1 Cor. 11.19 if there must be heresies this is spoken in relation to the will of God not in relation to his will of command for then God would have given men a command to raise heresies and damnable doctrines in his Church which none will imagine But there must be heresies this is in relation to his will of Decree to tolerate such things for the clearer tryal of those that are syncere So in the present case God did will the fall of Adam not by his will of command for he gave him no command to eat of the forbidden fruit but by his will of Decree he was pleased to permit the fall that it might be subservient and conducing to his more excellent end of sending the Son for the full declaration of the glory of his grace which otherwise would not have been so conspicuous if the first man had not fallen So then to gather up all into one sum you may easily understand if you will how God in his will of command may say eat not and yet in his secreet will permit him to eat These two are not so put asunder but they may well be joyned together
had been ten thousand times more sinful yet without an Ordinance from God death could never have seized upon the world page 101. 102 103. What is all this but a palpable and grosse mistake of the question or as Logicians call it an ignorance of the elench We do confesse as shrist brought life into the world he brought it in by the institution of his Father so when sinne brought death into the world it was by the just appointment of God to punish sinne with death The question that is in debate betwixt us is whether sinne be the 〈◊〉 cause of death as the obedience of Christ active and passive is the meritorious cause of life If you yield this as yield it you must we have as much as we do desire Next you enquire how sinne may be the cause of condemnation supposing that it cannot be the principal cause you demand whether it may be a cause in subordination And here you tell us that sinne will not be found neither seeing such causes are good in their own nature Well then what is the cause you tell us seeing sinne is an invention of man and the Devil a meere accident that cleaveth to the subject man we may call sinne an accidental cause of condemnation seizing upon man found sinful page 105. If this way of reasoning be good why may not I proceed in the like manner Heat is an accident in the subject fire therefore the heat of the fire is a meere accidental cause of the boyling of the water The force of your reason is no better when you say sinne is a meere accident in the subject man therefore it is onely the accidental cause of condemnation If you well observe the expression you shall find it to be very absurd to call sin a meere accidental cause of condemnation Condemnation is alwayes set in relation to the guilt of some sinne that doth deserve it how then can you call sinne an accidental cause of condemnation The Scriptures say that the Lord will render to every one according to his works that they who commit such things are worthy of death And many passages of the like kind What will you say to all this Here you have a pretty shift to help you out Sinne say you puts a man in a sutable disposition and qualification for death page 106. Indeed our Divines when they speak of eternal life that the Lord will render to every man according to his works they take the word worthy onely for a sutable qualification According to that of the Apostle he hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light Col. 1.12 Though this may be affirmed of the Saints that they are made meet for eternal life it were too short and too diminuent an expression to affirme that wicked men onely are made suitable to receive vengeance for then the wicked are no more worthy of eternal death then the Saints are worthy of eternal life ☞ which is plainly to crosse the Apostle the wages of sinne is death but the gift of God is eternal life I cannot then but mention your words with a kind of horrour with which you close the Chapter speaking of the wicked they are say you a sutable matter to receive vengeance as Gods people are sutable to receive all the joyes of eternal life Now the joyes of eternal life are the free-gift of God All qualifications dispositions frames of spirit though never so evangelical in the abundance thereof do not abate the worth of an hair of eternal life to be the free-gift of God For there was not the least desarts in a holy life to the procuring of eternal salvation but onely it was the will of God to make eternal life as a Crown to put upon the head of those men that lived holy here which were fit or sutable for the Crown of honour So men that have lived never so notoriously wicked rebeling and blaspheming against God day after day to their lives end are no otherwise worthy than persons fitted as the true subjects sutable for wrath and God is as simply and intirely the authour of the one as the other And so farre you Now I leave it to all tender consciences to understand and to give sentence We do willingly confesse that we cannot merit any thing by our own works in the way to salvation there being such a disproportion between them and the glory to come But I do detest and abhorre that speech of yours when you say that the greatest sinner who continues so all his life long is no otherwise worthy of death than a person fitted or a subject made sutable for wrath and that God is as much the cause of the damnation of the one as the salvation of the other If this doctrine of yours be sound and Orthodox why may not the wicked in hell cast all upon God as the sole Authour of their misery as well as the Saints in heaven ascribe all to the glory of his free grace I will use your own words though to farre better purpose If a man should study many years for a destroying Principle to dishonour his Creator he could not parallel this which is the sharpest Sword that was ever drawn against the righteousnesse of God I have staid the longer upon this point because you have used so many arguments to prove sin to be no meritorious cause of condemnation I have more carefully endeavoured to vindicate the truth because this is one of the first fundamentals that is put into the heart of the Gentiles They knowing the judgment of God against them which do such things that they are worthy of death not only do the same but have pleasure in them that do them Rom. 1.32 That sinne is the meritorious cause of death and that a sinner is worthy of death is graven in the heart of every man alive and God at seasons doth stirre up the confideration of the guilt of sinne in the conscience of the Gentiles to look after pardon and to make their peace with God The first convictions of the Spirit do begin with considerations of the Godhead and the guilt of sinne that so men may be brought to see their misery And yet you teach us here in this Chapter that sinne is not the meritorious cause of condemnation Now we proceed to your next Chapter CHAP. XII What Adam retained of his forfeiture till his death HERE also you teach such things as do little lesse then strike at the foundation You tell us that Adam after the fall for his body had all the parts and lineaments thereof He had his senses and retained his knowledge And further you adde I make no question but God had so ordered the imployments that he had for Adam some of them to be more spiritual than ever he had to do before his fall and then that he should utterly disable him from the performance thereof will never be made good by any man under
too much and to these the exhortation is given in special that they should be humbled and become as little children There lyeth then a palpable and grosse fallacy in your whole discourse when you take the words absolutely that all infants are free from sinne when our Saviour speaketh in a particular sense only of the act and execution of this or that particular evil Now you proceed and tell us it was never heard that children had any sinne by way of act and by way of omission you cannot make it good that they ever received a command or were capable of any command from God page 138. Answ What we have learned we are willing to acknowledge and though we never heard that infants had any sinne in them by any act of their own yet we have learned from Scriptures yea from the very first principles of the faith that they have it by contagion and the disobedience of the first man The words of our Saviour are plain Joh. 3.8 That which is born of the flesh is flesh And that of the Apostle Rom. 5.12 By one man sinne entred into the world and death by sinne And many such places there are to prove infants to be guilty of sinne by the disobedience of the first man and to be involved in the pollution of nature by hereditary contagion But because you and the Examiners are so strict upon the point I pray you resolve me in this one case When the promise was made the seed of the woman shall break the Serpents head was not this the promise of Christ to Adam after his fall If infants therefore are absolutely acquitted from the guilt of Adams sinne as being another mans act if they be free from the pollution of nature to what end was the promise of Christ How did he come in the nature of a Physician to cure when there was no disease Where there is no malady there needs no remedy And whereas you go about to free infants from the sinne of omission because they are not capable of a command I pray you shew the reason why the Lord was so strict in his command to the Jewish infant that he should be circumcised upon the eighth day and that the uncircumcised man-child should be cut off from his people Gen. 17.11.12 c. For my part I know no reason of the strictnesse of this Law but that the Lord would signifie to beleevers under this dispensation that there infants were born in original sinne and that it was not safe to omit the remedy for that disease And though in strictnesse of termes we will yeeld so farre to Corvinus and to Julian the Pelagian that there is no particular command that forbids an infant to be born in original sinne yet for all this they must needs allow that the Law was given to reveal to convince and to discover the sinne of the nature and by the discovery thereof to drive a man to Christ to look to him onely for sanctifying and regenerating glrace S. Paul saith the Law is spiritual and I am carnal sold under sinne And in the same text I had not known sinne except the Law had said thou shalt not covet Rom. 7. You go on for this sinne called original if infants had committed it God would have called them to repentance for it when they had come to years at least wise but I can safely say that there is no man living that to this day ever made it appear to be the mind of God for any man to repent of that sinne Truly Sir your confidence is very great and you have more boldnesse than truth on your side For we may beleeve that you never heard of the promises nor the commands mentioned in Scripture when you dare affirme such things as these When the Lord promiseth in the new Covenant I will take out of their bowels a heart of stone and will give them a heart of flesh Ezek. 36. By the heart of stone he means a hard heart and a sinful nature that every infant did bring into the world he doth promise to take away the corruption of nature and that he will sanctifie his people by his Spirit So for the commands of God we read every where that men are exhorted to put off the Old Adam-like disposition That ye put off concerning the former conversation the Old man which is corrupt according to the deceivable lusts Ephes 4.22 By the Old man he doth mean the carnal disposition which we have from Adam by natural generation This corrupted disposition of the flesh he would have the beleeving Ephesians and in them all others to subdue and mortifie And further if you look to the right use of Baptisme now as of circumcision of old you shall finde that the institution of these things doth primarily intend the doing away of the sinne of the nature as I have already shewed in my Treatise of Infant Baptisme Therefore I cannot but admire at your boldnesse when you stand so much upon it that you can safely say that God never called men to repentance for original sinne I am so farre from your judgment that I think the greatest part of repentance lyes in the mortification of the sinne of the nature But you have an evasion this sinne called original sinne if infants had committed it God would have called them to repentance Here you put that upon us which we do not speak and I know no solid Writer in the world that doth use such an expression of committing original sinne It is proper onely to men of ripe years to commit sinne For original sin we say that is onely by propagation thorough the disobedience of the first man and when men come to be sanctified by the Spirit of God they are qualified with inward principles to purge out the sin of the nature Neither doth your argument drawn from the example of Christ any whit promote your cause You say If this principle should finde a being in the world that every infant was born in sinne because lineally derived from Adam then where will you get water to wash your hands of that grand absurdity to wit that Jesus Christ was not free from original sinne for then he must have a share because he came from the loynes of a woman the Daughter of Adam page 139. To this I answer if you will make Christ and all Infants to run parallel in the purity of their natural birth then why did Christ die for them why did he sanctifie their nature There is no need of salvation by the merit of Chri st where there is no guilt of sinne There needs no sanctification of the Spirit where there is no pollution of nature Why do not you exclude all Infants from these as you do from the water of baptisme For your Argument drawn from the example of Christ If you build so much upon that I would entreat you to consider two things First why he did assume our nature Secondly assuming our
natural say you were to have acted such actions as might have testified to the world that they had been lovers of God because those actions were wanting they are said to be unnatural So it may appear that nature was not improved to those ends to which God assigned it page 146. It is true that in these Scriptures the word nature is taken in the better sense yet not in such a sense as will furnish your intention First I do acknowledge that God hath left reliques or remainders of his Law in the hearts of the Gentiles This is commonly called the Law of nature and by this men know that God ought to be worshipped that parents ought to be honoured and that every man is to have his own c. Secondly I yield also that they who go against this Law may rightly be called unnatural because they go against the dictates or principles of of nature Thirdly they who do thus deviate from natural principles do not improve nature to those ends which God hath made it All these things I do allow so far I wil go along with you But how do you prove from hence the purity of nature and that a meer natural man as such is able to understand the things of the Spirit of God You do in the next page distinguish natural men into two kinds these are your words Who requireth no other way to be glorified but by those principles that he had furnished them withal And because they opposed their own nature resusing the counsel of God they are called unnatural because they imployed their nature wholly to satisfie their lusts Such natural men percieve not the things of God The same matter in substance is spoken by the Examiners in the Chapter of free will for the Synod having rightly determined according to the Scriptures that a natural man being altogether averse from that good and dead in sinne he is not able by his own strength to convert himself or prepare himself thereunto Against this passage the men take great offence and as their manner is accuse the Synod for their defects and falshoods For their defects they blame them because they do not distinguish the several kinds of natural men and for their falshoods they accuse them for saying that the fallen man hath lost all ability to spiritual good They distinguish also several kinds of will and tell us in the third place as the will of our first parents so of all men else doth stand in a kind of aequilibrium pag. 128.129 130. Now to take off these several Objections I would entreat both you and them to consider these two points First if you look to the better sort of natural men to those who are no Backbiters no Covenant-breakers c. Whether may not many of these in the most essential vital and spiritual parts of the Law be great enemies against God and be lovers of themselves more than lovers of God If the most refined natural men may be secret enemies why do you and they speak of pure nature and of the improvement of natural abilities when it is certain that men can do no good without the help of the Spirit Natural men may be distinguished into a thousand kinds according to the different circumstances of time and place yet all of them do agree in this that they are natural and without the help of the Spirit they are not able to judge of the things of God Secondly when the Apostle speaketh of the Gentiles who having no Law do by nature the things contained in the Law their thoughts in the mean while accusing or else excusing one another Romans 2.14 When the Gentiles do make use of the Law written in their heart as they do at certain seasons to judge themselves doth not this proceed from the general convictions and workings of the Spirit If the act of self-judging be from the conviction of the Spirit this is no praise to natural abilities but the glory belongs to the grace of God And the words of the Confession are very sound that a natural man cannot convert himself or prepare himself thereunto In which words they do distinguish between conversion it self and the antecedaneous works before conversion In neither of these they say that a natural man is able to do any thing of himself but all his ability is from the help of the Spirit I wonder then what reason the Examiners had given them to cavil at such an innocent expression But if you shall stand upon the letter of the text that the Gentiles do by nature the things contained in the Law Here you may observe that the Apostle doth onely oppose the natural Law to the Law written in tables of stone and communicated to the Church by revelation He never meant that any of the Gentiles meerly by their own strength were able to keep that Law which was made known to them Only at seasons the Spirit did excite and stirre up strong convictions in their consciences to apply those principles and dictates which they had by the light of nature The most common and universal maxime of all men in the world is this that there is a God Why then doth the consideration of the Godhead so forcibly and powerfully awake at some intervals of time more than at others We can give no other reason but this that the truth in the hearts of the Gentiles is like a cinder in the Smiths forge which by the operations and stirrings of the Spirit is enlivened and being once enlivened men have more power to judge themselves and to look after God in those seasons than at others And from hence also we might take occasion to answer that great difficulty in the Epistle to the Romans The Apostle in the first Chapter speaking of the knowledge of the Gentiles and how naturally they hold the truth in unrighteousnesse and that for this cause the Lord doth give them up to a reprobate sense yet in the next Chapter he doth shew that the Gentiles do by nature the things contained in the Law and do shew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the work of the Law written in their hearts when their thoughts do at sundry times accuse or excuse one another To the resolution of the difficulty we say that the Gentiles so farre forth as they are principled by the corruption of nature are prone to no other but to imprison the light but as they are under and do submit unto the convictions of the Spirit they are helped sometimes to go so farre as to judge themselves and to cry out in their misery O being of beings have mercy upon us The main drift of the Apostle is to shew that Jewes and Gentiles are both under sinne and how by the sight of the misery of nature such of them as are saved come to be saved onely by looking after the grace and the free-mercy of God If this be the meaning of the Spirit what shall we think of pure nature or
Mr. Everard hath in substance spoken before we are content to let them pass in this matter From the eleventh place they do conclude absolutely that infants are free from all kind of sinne These are their words doth not the Apostle remove not onely from children malice but also all evil of iniquity when he would have the Corinthians in that behalf conformed to them 1 Cor. 14.20 saying Brethren be not children in understanding howbeit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in malice or iniquity be children page 70. Here as I have formerly touched is a palpable sophisme a dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter as Logicians terme it For though the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the general notion thereof may signifie all evil of iniquity yet in the sense of the text it noteth the particular evil of malice onely and therefore he saith in malice be ye children Neither is it his purpose to acquit children from all kind of malice or envy for they have seminally and vertually the seed of all this in their hearts Do ye think that the Scripture saith in vain the spirit that is in us lusteth unto envy Jam. 4.5 We see by experience that this is no fable that envy is naturally seated in the heart of man one child many times doth envy another for a little coat And though God doth give to the Regenerate more grace to purge out the sinne of the nature as it is afterward expressed in the next verse but he giveth more grace wherefore he saith God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble Notwithstanding all this the nature of man doth lust to envy and it is vertually and eminally in infants You will say then why doth the Apostle exhort in malice be ye children His meaning is this that they should do as children who are apt to forget the wrongs and injuries that are done to them and to look-upon them as though they had never been And therefore the Apostle saith be angry but sinne not let not the Sun go down upon your wrath Ephes 4.26 This is all one with that expression in malice be ye children that is do not retain heart-burnings and hatred one against another but forget the wrongs and injuries that are done to you as children do It is but a comparative speech These are all the places of Scripture which are alledged by these Censors to prove the purity of the natural birth and how well they have done it we leave to any indifferent understanding to judge and yet how do they glory when they utter such words as these page 71 Thus we have proved that neither the guilt of our first parents sinne was imputed nor their spiritual death in sinne and corrupted nature was conveyed to all their posterity or to any one of them by ordinary generation And directing their speech to the Assembly after this manner do thus insult though this your doctrine say they hath gone from hand to hand a long time by tradition yet neither did the Scribes and Pharisees nor yet the disciples of Christ and much lesse Christ himself hold forth any such doctrine nor were any of them leavened with this opinion of yours and your long mistaken Predecessors For the Pharisees with the Jewes being highly displeased with him who was borne blinde and whose eyes Christ had opened for defending his Saviour and blessed Oculist said thus unto him John 9 34. Thou wast altogether born in sinne and doest thou teach us Whence it is evident that they did neither conceive all men in general nor yet themselves to be by propagation conceived and born in sinne page 71. What apprehensions and conceptions soever the Pharisees and other Jews had I will not dispute Sure I am they who do rightly understand the doctrine of the Jewish Church could not well be ignorant of the sinne of the nature For when our Saviour did discourse of the necessity of regeneration and Nicodemus did admire at the strangnesse of that doctrine our Saviour made him this answer Art thou a Master in Israel and knowest not these things John 3.7 In which words it is plain that the pollution of the natural birth and the necessity of regeneration were then points easie to be known and a wonder it was to our Saviour that any could be ignorant of such fundamentals And I cannot but admire that these men Mr. Everard and the thirty separate Congregations should professe themselves to be members of the Christian Church and be ignorant of these things But our Examiners build upon our Saviours words neither hath this man sinned nor his parents but that the works of God should be made manifest in him Where according to your doctrine say they our Saviour should have answered positively that both he and his parents with all his progenetors even as farre as Adam had sinned What need was there at all that our Saviour should speak of the common cause of the misery of all mankind seeing the Disciples question was more immediately touching the particular blindnesse of this man They were not ignorant that original sinne was the common cause of all diseases onely they did put the question what was the proper cause of the blindnesse of this individual man whether it did lie in himself or in his parents that he was born blind In relation to this particular question for any eminency or singularity of sinne above other men the answer is plaine that neither he nor his parents have sin'ned This was the presumption and singular opinion of the Pharisees as it appeareth in the aforementioned words Thou wast altogether born in sinne and dost thou teach us The whole Processe of this argument is a meere fallacy à dicto secundum quid addictum simplicietr They go on and from the Lords appointing the Cities of refuge for the Man slayer to flee unto when he had killed his Neighbour unawares they reason The Lord commanded by Moses that Cities of refuge should be set apart in all the coasts and habitations of Israel for such to flee to and will he pursue the innocent seed of Adam and hold them guilty for their fathers sinne perpetrated ere they were born Yea will he himself be the avenger of the blood against these innocents page 70. In answer to this I say did these men seriously consider the whole truth they would not raise such tragical cryes against this doctrine The Cities of refuge anciently appointed for the Man-slayer were types and figures of Christ to come To him only the soul is to fly when she is pursued by the curse of the Law as by an avenger of blood So then if all the children of Adam were lyable to the guilt of his sinne perpetrated before they were born there is no harshnesse in the saying if we beleeve that the fall of Adam doth open a door to the grace that comes by Christ and that the grace of Christ is a City of refuge for the lost sinner to fly to
come and let him that is athirst come Revel 22 17. c. All these desires are the fruit of the Spirit He that comes to the first doth not come to the second at least not to the third or fourth degree However the whole course of Christianity is unum continuum sitis one continual succession of spiritual desires And in immediate opposition there is unum continuum auxilii an interchangable supply of auxiliary grace this latter answering the former as the one part of the deed doth answer the other So then though the Saints have no ability in themselves to supernatural duties yet they may have it from Christ and the freenesse of the promise These things I have drawn out more at large because I see as formerly it hath done to others So our doctrine doth seem to give great offence to our Authour It seemeth strange to him that we should exhort men to spiritual duties and yet teach that all mankind through the condition of the natural birth lye under a necessity of sinning Whereas if he did well understand the grand designe of the Gospel he should finde that all ability to do these things is to be had from Christ alone and that upon termes of beleeving desiring longing and waiting for them The Prophets Apostles Martyrs and other holy men have in their several times done their duties and served their generation But how not by any ability of their own but by the continual supply of the Spirit of Christ as the Scriptures and all experience do abundantly testifie Now we come to the next Section SECT 2. Consideration of the objections against the former Doctrine THE first Scripture which he insists upon is Gen 6. Every imagination of the thoughts of mans heart are onely evil continually Here he doth end avour to frame sundry answers First it is true saith he they were so but it was their own fault not Adams for so it is said expressely All flesh had corrupted their way upon earth and the earth was filled with violence Repl. It was their own fault and Adams too It was their own as they corrupted their own wayes it was Adams as they were flesh for he brought them into that sinful condition by his fall So then the force of our argument stands thus First the thoughts of man were evil Secondly they were all evil Thirdly they were onely evil Fourthly they were continually evil Fifthly they were evil from his childhood Now such an universal effect cannot be without some universal cause from whence all this evil must necessarily spring And where shall we look for the cause but in the text it self My Spirit shall not alway strive with man because he is but flesh Because he is but flesh and borne in the sinne of the nature therefore the thoughts of his heart are evil from his childhood Secondly saith he if this corruption had been natural and unavoidable why did God punish all the world for it except eight persons Why did he punish those that could not help it and why did others escape that were equally guilty Repl. That which God did punish in the old world in ordinary men was the violence of their hands and in his own people was the breach of covenant Though these two did naturally flow from original corruption as all other evils do yet we cannot say that they are absolutely unavoidable for the act of violence and of marriage with the daughter of a strange god men have a liberty to forbeare the outward execution of these evils And for the lust of the heart though it is unavoidable by nature yet it is not simply unavoidable for God is so full of mercy that he is ready to help all those that flee to him in the sense of their own misery He hath declared himself to be a Physician ready to cure all broken-hearted sinners The men of Nineveh did turne from the violence of their hands and how ready was he to forgive them The people in the dayes of Ezra and Nehemiah did repent of their Idolatrous marriages and how did he passe by their iniquity Of all the Authors that ever I met with Luther in his Tract deservo arbitrio is most severe against the liberty of the will yet in the end of the treatise he bringeth in Erasmus thus speaking Why doth he command us any duty seeing all things are done by necessity His answer is he doth command that he may admonish and instruct us what we ought to do that being humbled in the sense and feeling of our own evil we may repair to his grace for help as we have abundantly spoken And as for the Lords punishing of those that could not help it We say in publick solemn and exemplary judgments he hath alway reserved a liberty for the exemple of others and the declaration of his justice and mercy It is true also that they that were equally guilty did not perish in the waters of the flood What of all this though they did escape that judgment they were lyable to the judgment of God Thirdly saith he God might have as well punished all the world for sleeping once in a day or for being hungry as for sinning if so to do be natural and unavoidable Repl. The cases are not equal mankind cannot live without meat and drink sleep and such other refections of nature when they were made in the beginning they were made in such an estate that they had need of these things I trow they had no need of sinne Againe for sinful acts though they come from the corruption of the flesh as the sparkes do out of the Chimney yet in externals man hath a liberty to commit or not commit such an evil Also for the lust of the heart that which is unavoidable by nature is avoidable by grace The guilt of sinne may be taken away by the blood of Christ the power of it by the Spirit of Christ and the very being of it when the Saints shall be made partakers of the adoption or the redemption of their bodies Fourthly if God in these words complained of their natural and original corruption why did he but then as if it were a new thing complain of it and repent that he made man since he proved so bad Repl. God did then complain of original corruption because in a most eminent degree it did put forth it self in oppression breach of covenant and other evils He did complain in those times because iniquity was then come to a ripenesse and the years of his patience was almost runne out Fifthly saith he this malice and corruption was such that God did send Noah a Preacher of righteousnesse to draw the world from it But no man supposes that it was fit to send a Preacher to dehort them from being guilty of original sinne Repl. So farre as we may gather Noahs message to the old world was the same in effect as that of Jonah's to Nineveh he was to exhort them to turn from
much exercise by and through which men think to come to the habit of virtue So on the contrary part let us see what principles the Apostle doth lay down for the attaining of the divine nature and let us compare them with those which our Author brings out of Horace and Seneca First the Apostle points to the promises there are given to us exceeding great and precious promises that by these ye may be made partakers of the divine nature What these promises are we finde mentioned in the Scripture I will put my law in their heart and write it in their inward part Jer. 31.33 A new heart and a new spirit I will give them I will take out of their bowels the heart of stone and will give them a heart of flesh Ezek. 36.26 These are called exceeding great promises because they containe the greatest things for what greater thing is there than to change the nature of a man It is as great a work as to bring Israel out of Egypt to divide the sea and to make the sun stand still They are called also honourable or precious promises to a spiritual understanding they are of an higher value than the greatest treasures of the earth Secondly the way to come to the divine nature is not by the promises alone but by faith in the promises The Apostle doth direct his speech to such that had obtained like precious faith with us verse the first And againe his divine power hath given us all things pertaining to life and godlinesse But how not absolutely but through the knowledge of him that is through faith in him that hath called us to glory and vertue And as it is in another place we are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation 1 Peter 1.5 We are kept by the power of God to salvation but through faith Thirdly the way to come to the divine nature is by the power of God there can be no coming to the divine nature but by the divine power his divine power doth give us all things that doth pertaine to life and godlinesse So then the inward work doth proceed after this method First the promise is freely made Secondly faith apprehendeth the promise Thirdly the promise being apprehended by saith doth engage the power of God to performe that which is promised and so the Saints come to be partakers of the divine nature Lastly the encrease of the nature is by mortification of lusts having escaped the pollution of the world through lust If we speak properly it is neither profit pleasure honour or any thing else that can corrupt the soul were it that she were free in her selfe These are the particulars that concerne the divine nature or the nature of vertue in general The Apostle after this speaks of particular vertues adde to your faith vertue and to vertue knowledge By all these particulars we may discerne for the cherishing of endeavour what little need we have to fly to the rudiments of heathen Philosophy to the purity of the natural birth and to such like dictates of Seneca and Horace These are the things which the Apostle doth admonish us Beware lest any man spoile you through Phylosophy and vaine deceipt after the rudiments of the world Col. 2.8 They that do this do not hold Christ for a head but do go directly against the principles of baptisme and circumcision as all do that deny original sin and plead the purity of the natural birth having gone so far we will returne to our Author againe as he expounds the words of the text By this saith he we may the better understand the following words I will not againe curse the ground for mans sake for the imagination of mans heart is evil from his child-hood Gen. 8.21 Concerning which note that these words are not two sentences For this is not the reason wherefore God gave over smiting for if it had been the reason it would have come to passe that the same cause that would have moved God to smite would also move him to forbeare which were a strange Oeconomy Reply There is no such strange Oeconomy in the words if the scope of both texts be diligently considered In the sixth of Genesis the Lord saith that he would destroy the world because the thoughts of the imagination of mans heart are evil continually Here we have a plaine reason given why the world is destroyed all flesh had corrupted their wayes and this corruption did arise from the common pravity of nature from the first root But in the eighth of Genesis the matter is otherwise The Lord did not look so much to that which man had deserved as to the merit of the blood of Christ figured in the sacrifice of Noah And therefore the words do best go after this tenour I will not curse the ground any more although the thoughts of mans heart are evil from his childhood And therefore we agree with our Author that these words are an aggravation of the kindnesse and mercy of God as if he had said though men be continually evil yet I will not for all that drown the world for mans being so evil The former text doth shew what God might do respect being had to his justice The latter doth shew what he will do with reference to the merit of his Son and his own mercy These things are no way contrary to our assertion We come to the second Scripture I was borne in iniquity and in sinne did my mother conceive me Psalm 51.5 To this he doth endeavour to frame sundry answers First saith he These words are an Hebraisme and signify nothing but an aggrandation of his sinfulnesse and are intended for an high expression meaning that I am wholly and entirely wicked Rely There are I confesse as in other Authors so in the Scriptures some such formes and wayes of expression which are true in the figure but false in the letter But whether this expression is of that nature we cannot easily admit For he prayeth that God would create in him a cleane heart This plainly sheweth that the evil was in his heart from the very beginning Besides other Scriptures do abundantly confirme the litteral interpretation of the words That which is borne of flesh is flesh Joh. 3.6 Borne not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God Joh. 1.13 were by nature the children of wrath as well as others Eph. 2.3 All these plainly expresse the impurity of the natural birth and that the words of the Psalmist are to be taken according to the letter And that Scripture which he seemeth to build so much upon if it be well considered doth not make for his purpose one jot The like saith he is that saying of the Pharisees Thou wert altogether borne in sin and dost thou teach us Joh. 9.35 Which phrase and manner of speaking being plainly a reproach of the poore blind man and a disparagement of him did meane
only to call him a very wicked person but not that he had derived his sin originally and from his birth for that had been their own case as much as his To all which we reply the Pharisees might think him or his Parents to be some great sinners because he was borne blind for the disciples themselves did put such a kinde of question to our Saviour himselfe did this man or his parents sin that he was borne blinde verse the second Further suppose that the Pharisees had been of the judgement that it had been this mans peculiar infelicity and that it was not the common misery of man to be borne in original sin must their errour be a prejudice to the truth Nicodemus himselfe was darke in the point of regeneration must his ignorance be a rule to us Secondly saith he if David had meant it literally it had not signified that himselfe was borne in original sin but his Father and his Mother sinn'd when they begot him Reply It s very rational to conceive that his Father that went for an old man in the dayes of Saul and his Mother that bare him specially he being the youngest were both dead at the time of the making of the Psalm To what purpose should he confesse the sinne of the dead and pray for the dead But suppose he did confesse the sin of his Parents he must needs look upon them as the conduit-pipes and the conveyances of the corruption of the nature from the first root This doth strengthen the truth of our interpretation and therefore he doth devoutly and pathetically pray Create in me a cleane heart renew within me a right spirit wash me with hysop and I shall be cleane Thirdly saith he if it did relate to his own person he might meane that he was begotten with that sanguine disposition and libidinous temper that was the original of his vile adultery and then though David said this truely of himselfe it is not true of all nor of those whose temper is flegmatick and unactive Reply By this rule we may gather that the phlegmatick and unactive whatsoever the sanguine be are free from original sinne and that it doth not belong so much to Divines as to Physicians to judge of the sin of the nature But in this he is greatly deceived David doth not confesse the sinne of adultery alone but the sin of murther deliver me from blood-guiltinesse thou God of my righteousnesse verse the sixteenth Nay that which did principally affect him was his unbeliefe unthankfulnesse neglect and contempt of the goodnesse and mercy of God and his making the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme And therefore he saith Against thee thee only have I sinned verse the sixth Though he had sinned against Vriah against himselfe and against the Church yet the most aggravating circumstance was that he had sinned against God This we may see in the parable of Nathan who thereupon did argue with him upon the considerations of mercies received so then when the Psalmist saith I was borne in iniquity he hath not respect only to the libidinous temper but also to a sinful temper of a more general nature Fourthly saith he if David had meant this of himselfe and that in regard of original sin this had been so far from being a penitential expression or a confessing of his sinne that it had been a plaine accusation of God and an excusing of himselfe As if he had said O Lord I confesse I have sinned in this horrible murther and adultery but thou O Lord knowest how it comes to passe even by that fatal punishment which thou didst for the sin of Adam inflict on me and all mankind above three thousand years before I was borne Thereby making me to fall into so horrible corruption of nature that unlesse thou didst unresistibly force me from it I cannot abstaine from my sin being most naturally enclined to evil Reply To all which we rejoyne though there was a necessity laid upon David as upon other men to be borne in original sinne and this three thousand years before he was borne yet neverthelesse it will be no plea to excuse his murther and adultery For howsoever he was borne in sinne his murther and adultery were his own voluntary acts Ordinary experience shewetn by the common assistance of God that men have a power to avoid many outward evils to which their natures are enclined Further for the inward lust though it was inflicted as a punishment upon him as upon all mankind this can be no charge upon God seeing he hath provided a remedy to help men out of their misery David had rather cause to accuse himselfe for fulfilling the lusts of his nature and for the neglecting of that grace that was promised to him and to other believers in the Jewish Church to cleanse out the sin of the nature I will circumcise thy heart and the heart of thy seed that thou mightest love the Lord thy God Deut. 30.6 So then though David was born in original sin the fruits of that sinne were his own voluntary acts and the living in that sinne also was his own free choise Bernard in his Homily 81. on the Canticles hath an excellent passage to this purpose Homo interveniente peccato patitur quandam vincet ipse c. Man by the intervening of sin he himselfe doth suffer a kinde of necessity from his will not from nature that so truely he may not be deprived of his inbred liberty For that the soul cannot rise of her selfe the will is the cause who languishing and laying prostrate with the vitiated and vicious love of a corrupted body doth not withal admit the love of righteousnesse It is so I know not by what wounderful meane the will being made worse she her selfe doth make a necessity to her selfe That the necessity while its voluntary may not be able to excuse the will Neither the will while t is drawn may have power to shake off the necessity for truely after a sort this is a voluntary necessity In these words of his he doth elegantly set forth the truth of the thing and therein he doth liken the soul to a man grovelling upon the earth he cannot rise because he will not He will not rise because his nature doth encline him to lye down under the power of his lusts And this was Davids very case he was born in iniquity and he did freely and voluntarily bring forth the fruits that were the very product and result of a sinful nature he did too much neglect the grace by which he might be cured and though his necessity was natural respecting the inclinations that came from his birth yet also it was a voluntary necessity All natural men do account the liberty of lusts to be the greatest freedome and therefore they be not captives so much against as with their wills The first step therefore to salvation is as to understand the guilt of sinne so also the spiritual captivity and
much of both here and else-where is only a notion of his own commenting For when God made man in the beginning he made him in a state very good but when he fell he left all his posterity not only in an imperfect but in a sinful condition As for that middle state of deficiency which he imagins I know not where it is to be found unlesse it be in the Atlantis of Plate Besides if animality be only a state of deficiency why doth the Apostle so plainly tell us that the animal man receives not the things of the Spirit they are foolishnesse unto him This cannot be a state of meer imperfection but a state of direct opposition the principles of animality diametrally opposite to the things of the Spirit Michal scoft at Davids dancing before the Ark. Lot seemed to his sons-in-law to be as one that mockt when he told them of the destruction of the City the preaching of the crosse seemed to be very meane matter to the Philosophers and learned Grecians Now shall we say that all these were only in a state of animality or imperfection and no more I think none will easily believe it But in the close of all he hath these words In the state of animality saith he a man cannot go to heaven but neither will that alone carry them to hell and therefore God doth not let a man alone in that state for either God suggests to him that which is spiritual or if he doth not it is because himselfe hath superinduced something that is carnal Rep. We are told here of a state that carries neither to heaven nor to hell and I beleeve if we go to men of ripe years there is no man lives in this estate in all Asia Africa Europe and America Why then doth he trouble us with that which is not Further we do agree that the Lord doth at seasons suggest something that is spiritual to animal men by this they are enabled to see their own misery and to judge themselves Now this doth rather strengthen the force of the argument for if an animal man could purely of himselfe perceive the things of the Spirit what need had he of the suggestion of the Spirit But for that which he addeth that the animal man doth superinduce something that is carnal I think this cannot reasonably be denyed and therefore I do not see but the state of animality and carnality both are equal estates of enmity against God Thus have I been more large in clearing those Scriptures which concerne the maine of the question in others of lesse moment I will be more briefe SECT 3. How God punisheth the Fathers sin upon the children THe end wherefore he is so willing to dispute this point he himselfe doth expresse pag. 40â— Vpon this account alone saith he it must be impossible to be consented unto that God should still under the Gospel after so many generations of vengance and taking punishment for the sinne after the publication of so many mercies and so infinite a graciousnesse that is revealed to mankind in Jesus Christ after so great provisions against sin even the horrible threatnings of damnation still to persevere to punish Adam in his posterity and the posterity for that he never did Rep. In this passage of his he doth shew how much he doth mistake the scope of Scripture for it is the chiefe designe of the holy Ghost to amplifie the sin of Adam and all the evil that comes thereby to the end that all might be humbled and that they might come to Christ as to a Sovereigne remedy to help them in their misery And in very deed whatsoever he thinks to the contrary the Doctrine of the Gospel cannot be so clearly preached without the knowledge of that misery that came by the fall The knowledge of the one doth as it were open a doore to the knowledge of the other Againe in the whole processe of the discourse he is very faliacious Suppose ordinarily God doth not now punish the fathers sin upon the children is this a good argument to prove that the sin of Adam is not rightly imputed to posterity Other Parents comparatively are but private persons and their sins are but the sins of private men but Adam was the root of the nature and his sin was the sin of the whole kind As on the other side the suffering of Christ upon the crosse was not the suffering of a private person but the suffering of the whole humane nature By this the lost sons of men have a doore of grace opened the tender of grace is made to all and the great condemnation is for unbelief Now we will consider what the rules are which he doth lay down First saith he God may and doth very often blesse children to reward the Fathers piety as it is notorious in the famous descent of Abrahams family But the same is not the reason of favours and punishments Answ Here we would entreat him to observe that it is true that for a long descent God did shew kindnesse to the family of Abraham but if he well observe the matter this kindnesse was extended not so much for Abrahams piety as for the Lords own promise and for his truth in keeping the promise Againe whereas he saith There is not the same reason of favours and punishments let him shew why the Jewes are cast away why they have been little better than out-casts of the Covenant now above one thousand five hundred years Questionlesse as God will magnifie his mercy in their call so for many ages together they have stood and do yet stand under the burthen of that heavy curse which they did wish upon themselves his blood be upon us and our children c. Secondly saith he God never imputes the sin to the son or relative formally making him guilty or being angry with the innocent eternally Answ Though we should say the sin of Adam is imputed to all his relatives and that also to their eternal damnation this in the whole were no hard assertion as long as we teach that a second man is provided for eternal salvation We willingly yeild as the case now standeth the great condemnation is for the neglect and the contempt of that salvation mercy and grace that is to be had by Christ If men run out the years of the patience and long-suffering of God if they continue in unbelife and hardnesse of heart if they resist the convictions and operations of the Spirit as they are administred in their respective seasons I think it is but just that they should fall not only under the guilt of their own actual sins but under the eternal damnation also that was brought upon them by the sin of Adam the root of the nature All the hurt of such a position if it be a hurt is more vigorously to drive men to Christ As for infants though they are fallen into all kinds of miserie temporal and eternal by Adams sin what harme
a new spirit I will give them Ezek. 36.26 The Psalmist prayed create in me a cleane heart O God and renew within me a right Spirit Psal 51.10 All these places of Scripture do abundantly prove that the inward act of the will is under the decree of God as well as under laws and that the certainty of the decree doth not overturne the liberty of the will but both do go together Next he tells us That Augustine in his zeale against a certaine errour of the Pelagians made him take in auxiliaries from an uncertaine and lesse discerned errour and caused him to say many things which all antiquity disavowed and which the following ages took up upon his account Answ The following ages specially since the times of Luther have adhered to the doctrine of Augustine But that the Sager sort have done this meerly upon his account we cannot easily admit They have followed him so far as his interpretations have come nearer to the natural and genuine sence of Scripture What hard speeches he hath concerning original sin the natural servitude of the will the spirituality of the law and the imperfection of man the rigour and austerity of them will be well allayed by comparing them with other sweet sayings of his concerning the fulnesse of Christ and the freenesse of the promises His scope is no way to hinder the endeavour of man but to ground and settle it upon such principles that are more solid and divine And whereas our Author in his Vnum Necessarium and his further explication doth commend the Fathers before the times of Auguistine for their temperate speeches concerning free-will Here many things are to be observed First who will assures us that he may not do the same with their authorities about free-will as he doth with the doctrine of the Church of England and the sence of the Article in the point of Original sin If he will pervert the plaine sence of that which is open in the view of all men what may he not do with the testimonies of the Ancients Besides what he alleadgeth for free-will out of Justin Martyr Cyril Hierome and others those speeches may admit of a benigne interpretation All Divines do agree that a man hath free-will he hath a power to understand to choose to refuse to act by counsell he were not a man if he could not do this The speeches of the Fathers may be taken in such an absolute sence in relation also to a particular state Adam had free-will in innocency and the Saints have free-will to that which is spiritually good in the state of grace Further suppose some things have escaped from them that have been lesse authentick let us consider that many of them came new out of the Schooles of the Philosophers and therefore together with the truth they might mingle some errours of Philosophy Their conflicts also were with the Philosophers and the Maniches and therefore it was necessary that they should speak something more than ordinary for the liberty of the will But enough of this matter which is so largely spoken and so plentifully by others FINIS A Catalogue of some books printed for and sould by Edmund Paxton over against the Castle Taverne near to the Doctors Commons THe holy Arbor containing the body of Divinity or the summe and substance of Christian Religion for the benefit and delight of such as thirst after righteousnesse wherein also are fully resolved the questions of whatsoever point of moment have been or are now controverted in Divinity By John Godolphin J. C. D. fol. The holy Lymbeck or A Semicentury of spiritual extractions wherein the Spirit is extracted from the letter of certaine eminent places in the holy Scriptures By John Godolphin J. C. D. 12. The Temple measured or a brief survey of the Temple mystical which is in the instituted Church of Christ wherein is solidly and modestly discussed most of the material questions touching the constitution and Government of the visible Church-militant here on earth c. By James Noyes of New England 4. Lawes and Ordinances of War in 4. Englands compleat law-Judge and Lawyer by Charles George Cock The method of grace in the justification of sinners being a reply to a book written by Mr. William Eyre of Salisbury by Benjamin Woodbridge Minister of Newberry
And for infants though we hold them guilty of sinne by the disobedience of the first man what detriment or dammage is this to them as long as mercy is extended through the obedience of the second man By all that I can understand these men are afraid of nothing more than that Christ should have too much honour given to him in releeving the miserable lost sonnes of men otherwise they would never stand so much as they do upon the purity of the natural birth SECT 2. NOW let us heare what answers they return to our arguments And here I say they are extreamely fallacious for as they do not produce some of our arguments which have most cogent proof so they do mention others which are of small moment which is scarce honest dealing But for the places which they do alledge there are four in number which do carry some weight with them First from that place Gen. 8.21 for the imagination of mans heart is evil from his youth they gather thus much Even as Esau or Edom though he had a birth-right yet sold it in his youth to satisfie some strong desires kindled in him so men though created innocent do in the time of temptation and tryall too often and too soon yield unto the temptation and sell or forfeit that their innocency and birth-right and so their imaginations become evil from their youth but are not so from their birth unlesse you here understand a spiritual conception or birth in sinne by our personal fall page 71. In this I do agree with them that men in time of their tempration too often and too easily fall from God thorough their own actual disobedience This is a part but it is not the whole truth for if they had compared the text as they should have done with Gen. 6. ver 3.4 5. they would finde that both Scriptures speak of the sinne of the nature First the Lord saith my Spirit shall not alway strive with man for that he also is flesh ver 3. As who would say in plainer times because his nature is defiled I will destroy him from the earth Secondly the whole nature must needs be depraved because the principles and lively fountaines are corrupt every imagination of the thoughts of his heart are evil Thirdly the universality of the depravation it is not spoken of this or that particular imagination but every imagination of his heart is evil and that which is more it is onely evil without the combination connexion and commixture of any good Fourthly the perpetuity of the time in the one text it is said the thoughts of his heart are onely evil continually and in the other the imagination of mans heart is evil from his childhood If we put altogether we may plainly see that there is a depravation of nature that this depravation is generally in all parts and in all times from the very birth and conception And for that example of Esau which they alledge that he sold his birth-right that primogeniture was a special priviledge in the family of the Patriarchs but what is this to every mans natural birth-right can he forfeit that natural innocency which he never had Again Esau did sell his birth-right at a certain time of his age by a deliberate and a free choyce when Jacob and he were come near to mans estate and therefore the Apostle saith Let there be no profane person among you as Esau who for one morsel of meat sold his birth right Heb. 12.16 Now it is otherwise with the the words of the text there it is expressed that the thoughts of the imaginations of his heart are evil from his childhood As much in sense as that the whole nature is depraved and that depravation doth beginne from the very birth Secondly for the texts cited out of Job I do agree with the Examiners in the general that those wise men speaking of the purity of God in relation to the imperfection of the creature do oftentimes use an hyperbolical way of expression As in that passage of Eliphaz behold he putteth no trust in his Saints yea the heavens are not clear in his sight Job 15.15 I do agree also that men do voluntarily corrupt themselves how much more abominable and filthy is man who drinketh iniquity like water ver 16. Though these things be true yet they do not contain the whole truth nor the Emphasis of that Scripture for the words immediately going before are concerning the natural generation of man what is man that he should be clean and he that is born of a woman that he should be righteous ver 14. The same in substance is spoken by Job himself touching the natural birth who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean not one Chap. 14 4. Both Scriptures do plainly shew that the nature is defiled because it doth proceed from so unclean a fountain And this doth agree with the doctrine of our Saviour when he presseth a necessity of regeneration that which is born of flesh is flesh therfore there is a necessity that man should be born again The whole force of the argument is thus much in effect from the greater to the lesse If the heavens and the Saints which are the more perfect creatures are not pure in the sight of God what righteousnesse is in man who is defiled with original sinne even from the very birth This is the natural sense of the words of Eliphas Thirdly to that place Psal 51.5 behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sinne did my mother conceive me they answer We would say they First gladly know of you whether it be not Davids scope in this confession to aggravate his sinne But if he here pleadeth the inevitable corruption of nature which you hold forth his words will be found a meere extenuation of his offences if not a throwing off all or most of the blame upon God who had brought him forth so corrupt and averse to all good and so propense to all evil and that without hope of an absolute cure while he was in this world page 75. Where is the honesty and conscience of these men when they patch that upon others which is none of their doctrine For where can they shew that either the Assembly of Divines or any other serious Authors did ever teach that the nature of man is corrupt and propense to evil without any hope of cure while he is in this world and that in this case man doth lie under an inevitable necessity Do not the Assembly of Divines and all other Authors almost speak of the Covenant of grace after they have shewed the misery of nature For though the nature of man is wholly defiled yet from Christ there is hope to have the nature cleansed Though David was born in original sinne yet he was not destitute of a remedy he beleeved the grace of God made known in the promise and therefore prayeth create in me a clean heart renew in me a right
spirit He did desire that his defilement by natural generation might be done away by the work of the new creation And whereas these confident men would desire to know whether it be not Davids scope in his confession to aggravate his sinne I answer it is and therefore he doth cry out against the sinne of the nature he doth use the same expression in effect as Paul doth Rom. 7. I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing ver 18. And O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death ver 24. Where we may observe these three points First they who are inwardly and truly enlightned do feel the burden of a carnal mind which they have by natural generation whereas other men account the liberty of lust their greatest freedome Secondly they feeling the propension of their nature wholly to sinne do hereupon aggravate the sinfulnesse of their nature Thirdly by this means they do more highly prize the grace of Christ and that freedome which he doth bring to set them at liberty from the bondage of corruption and the reigne of their lusts Joh. 8.31 32 33. Isa 61.1 2 3. Mat. 12.20 The promise of Christ is that a bruised reed he will not break and the smoaking flax he will not quench untill he have brought forth judgment unto victory By judgment is here meant deliverance from under the tyranny and reign of original sin when men serve divers lusts and pleasures The deliverance from the power of corruption is the judgment meant in the text This deliverance is not wrought in an instant but by degrees and our Saviour is ready to help the weakest that flie to him in a sense of their own misery There is nothing more weak than a bruised reed and the least degree of fire will make flax to smoak Even so if there be the least grace to feel the bondage of corruption the Lord Christ is ready to cherish it and never to leave till he have brought forth judgment unto victory to make men conquerors of their lusts But the ground of all this is to feel the burden of a carnal mind which it is most probable these Censors are strangers to or else they would not so extenuate the sin of the nature as they do Now let us heare what interpretation they give of the Psalmists words It was say they the lie or lying promises of Sathan with the folly therein contained by which he was shapen in iniquitie or conceived in sin pag. 74. And they ground themselves upon that passage that the devil is the father of sin These are their words besides our natural parents we have spiritual fathers and mothers whether for our begetting in evil and iniquity or for our regeneration in grace and goodnesse Concerning our procreation in sin our Saviour speaks thus unto the Jewes Joh. 8.44 Ye are of your father the Devil and his lusts will ye do Now this father makes use of a twofold mother to beget men in wickednesse besides their own lust which when it is enticed and drawn away by temptation conceiveth and bringeth forth sin Jam. 1.14 15. And here first they reckon the lying word or promise by which Sathan deceiveth men and secondly the false Synagogue which thorough Sathans helps begets men in a false faith Page 75. 76. But this glosse will not serve their turn neither for though the Devil be the father of sin he is so onely by temptation and suggestion but the Psalmist speaketh of sin by derivation and propagation I was shapen in iniquitie and in sin did my mother conceive me And for that which they alledge out of the Epistle of St. James he doth onely speak of the order of generation of sin in the heart every man is drawn away of his own lust and enticed and lust when it hath conceived bringeth forth sin But what is this to the purpose of the Psalmist he doth not speak of the generation of lust or of sin in his heart but he doth speak of his own generation This is evident from the words themselves I was shapen in iniquitie and in sin did my mother conceive me Secondly it is manifest from the words that follow because he was defiled with the pollution of the natural birth by way of opposition he prayeth unto the Lord to create in him a clean heart because his old was defiled therefore he did beg a new nature Fourthly to that place Eph. 2.3 And were by nature the children of wrath as well as others they answer by a distinction It is one thing say they to be sinners from our first nativity and another thing in time to become the children of wrath by our personal fall and actual disobedience which also coming to passe in our natural man and by his default we may truly be said by nature to be the children of wrath when sin by custome becomes a second nature to us Page 78. Here I yield that the Ephesians before their conversion and all other natural men do thorough their own actual disobedience serve divers lusts and pleasures This is the truth but it is not the whole truth If they were only defiled by custome which in a sense may be called a second nature by good custome then they need onely a remedy of the evil of their nature and we need not the knowledge of Divinity but onely of Moral Philosophie toward the recovery out of our misery For that which is now the judgment of these Censors was sometimes the opinion of Aristotle He did beleeve that man in his birth was like a white sheet of paper and that thereupon the habit of vertue was attainable by many acts But the Apostle doth not deal upon such weak beggerly and Ethical grounds because the Ephesians were not only sinners by conversation but by nature also were the children of wrath hereupon in relation to their natural corruption he saith you hath he quickened which were dead in trespasses and sinnes Their quickening by the spirit a posteriori doth shew the pollution of their natures a priori But if they were the children of wrath only by custome a second nature by breaking off old customes they might reduce themselves to their ancient purity of nature And this is the Moral Philosophie of these Censors and the separate Churches of this way Fifthly for that place of the Romans by one man sin entred into the world and death by sin Chap. 5. v. 12. That we may more orderly proceed let us consider how they plant their own interpretation and then how they oppugne ours This one man say they by whom sinne entred into the world is not our first parent Adam but our own earthly or natural man which is called Adam and Edom from the earth of his foundation pag. 78. Here I do plainly and openly confesse I do not know what they meane by this Adam neither can I see how possibly they can apply such a sense to
piety and godlinesse On the other side others trusting in their own ability liberty of will and the like they bereave the Lord of that honour that is due to him He sheweth that a middle course is to be taken between these two extreames and that the rocks on either side are to be declined For the clearing of this he sheweth how far a natural man may go in all natural civil ecclesiastical actions and how by the general assistance and concurrence of the Spirit he may do great things in all Physical Mathematical Ethical Oeconomical and Political kinds of learning Only when he cometh to that which is spiritual here he plainly tells us that a man hath no power and to use the words of the Author he hath no ability to offer a sacrifice to God What is then to be done here he tells us that we must have recourse to the freenesse of the promise where all fulnesse is to be had To that end he cites the words of the Prophet Isaiah I will poure water upon him that is thirsty and floods of water upon the dry ground Isa chap. 44.3 And againe Ho every one that thinsteth come ye to the waters of life chap. 55.1 Having cited these and such like passages he comes to close in these words Quae testantur ad percipiendas dei benedictiones nullos admit ti nisi suae paupertatis sensu tabescentes Which testifieth to the receiving of the blessings of God no others are to be admitted but such only which languish with a sence of their own poverty And then he addeth Semper sanè mihi vehementer illud Chrysostomi placuit Fundamentum nostrae Philosophiae esse humilitatem That of Chrisostome hath alwayes pleased me exceedingly Humility to be the foundation of our Philosophy Or rather that of Augnstine even as the Retoricion saith when he was demanded what was the chief thing in the precepts of eloquence answered pronunciation what the second pronunciation what the third pronunciation So if thou mayest ask me concerning the precepts of Christian Religion first second and third alway it would please me to give this answer humility and more he hath to the same purpose I have drawn out the words more at length because the Author himselfe is a chiefe leader in the reformed Churches and because indeed they are the patterne of whole some words By this our Author may understand though Original sin be asserted the natural liberty of the will denyed and the necessity of sinning introduced yet neverthelesse according to the tenour of these principles men may have a sacrifice to offer and exhortations may be of good use Dr. Preston in his Treatise of humiliation pag. 224. doth propound the question who is able to practise according to his knowledge His answer is and I will appeale to any mans experience let him look back to the course of his life and examine himselfe was there any particular action in all thy life from which thou wast so hindred that thou caust say that thou couldst not do it was there any particular sin of which thou couldest say this sin I could not abstaine from And howsoever we may make it a matter of dispute in the Schooles yet the worst man in whom we may think corruption of nature to be most strong when he comes to dye doth not excuse himselfe but acknowledges he is guilty In the next page he propounds the maine objection How can a man he condemned for not believing and turning to God when naturally he hath no power to do these things To this he answers Though a man hath no power to believe and repent yet he is condemned for the neglect of such precedent actions which he had a liberty to do c. Our Divines in the Synod of Dort in the Suffrage of the Britans do distinguish betwixt regeneration and those antecedaneous acts that lead towards regeneration These antecedaneous acts a natural man by the help of the Spirit may do as to see sinne mourne over it judge himselfe for it he may go further he may taste the sweetnesse of the promise and have some beginnings of joyes all which he may fall from many other testimonies may be brought to shew that our Authours by the tenour of their principles do not extinguish the endeavour of man but do rather more truely direct and instruct men to follow the right course I shall stay too long upon this point because I perceive that it is the chief rock of offence that our Author doth stumple at he further sheweth All things else are determined and fixed by the divine providence even all the actions of men but the inward act of the will is left under the command of laws only and under the arrest of threatnings and the invitation of promises Answ It s true that laws threatnings promises are made with special respect to the will But that the inward act of the will should be so under laws that it should not be under the decree of God this Tenet doth exclude the chiefest part of the world from being under the care of God Nay if the matter be well considered here is the very height of the Atheisme of the ancient Philosophers To maintaine the absolutenesse independency and sovereignty of the will of man upon the earth they do deny the providence of God in heaven Cicero upon this reason did deny the infallibility of the prescience of God And our Authour seemeth to me to come too near to this coast In the next words he gives his reason And that this is left for man can no way impede any of the divine decrees because the outward act being over-ruled by the divine providence it is strange that the Schooles will leave nothing to man whereby he may glorifie God Answ If it be supposed that the inward act of the will be under the decree of God as well as the outward action this doth not take away that by and through which we may glorifie God For it is not all kinds of necessity that are contrary to liberty but some onely The necessity of nature the necessities of a bruit instinct and outward compulsion cannot stand with liberty but the necessity of the decree of God the necessity of infallibility the necessity of the creatures dependency can be proved to consist with liberty For God usually brings his decrees to passe by the free act of his creature which work under his decrees and are subservient to those ends that he hath appointed And for the inward motions of the will innumerable examples may be brought to prove that they are under the decrees of God The Kings heart is in the hand of the Lord and he turneth it about as the streams of water Prov. 21.1 God hath put it into their hearts to hate the whore and to burne her flesh with fire Apoc. 17.11 And speaking of the Egyptians he turned their heart to hate his people Psal 105.25 Besides the promise A new heart and