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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sense_n	church_n	faith_n	true_a	7,319	5	5.4231	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49801	Theo-politica, or, A body of divinity containing the rules of the special government of God, according to which, he orders the immortal and intellectual creatures, angels, and men, to their final and eternal estate : being a method of those saving truths, which are contained in the Canon of the Holy Scripture, and abridged in those words of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which were the ground and foundation of those apostolical creeds and forms of confessions, related by the ancients, and, in particular, by Irenæus, and Tertullian / by George Lawson ...	Lawson, George, d. 1678.	1659 (1659)	Wing L712; ESTC R17886	441,775	362

of these are of any great force to such as are ignorant of them and know them onely upon the Tradition of others Neither is Universall Tradition the ordinary way whereby men are Converted For most who do believe to salvation hear onely one or a few teachers and the same not immediatly infallible and inspired and by their Doctrine contained in these Scriptures and the power of the Spirit attain to a Divine and saving faith For faith is by hearing and hearing by the word of God preached immediatly unto them For so the place is to be understood Rom. 10. 17. And no man can prove that the immediate Proposer of saving truth should be infallible but that the Doctrine taught be infallibly true No rationall man can rationally reject any Doctrine much lesse this except he have some reason for it but there can be no reason of any moment ever alleaged against this Doctrine or any particular thereof rightly understood It seemes strange to me that any Christians especially such as do confesse the holy Scriptures in themselves to be Divine should make a question whether they can be believed to be the word of God any other wayes but by the Tradition of the Church It is indeed some advantage to the Bishop of Rome and his Associates and Vassals to make men believe that their faith and belief of the Divinity of the Scriptures depends upon the Tradition of the Church in their Sense For when all is well examined they understand by Church themselves and their own present Church Yet they cannot well agree amongst themselves what this present Church should be Whether the Pope in his Chair alone as the Visible head or he with a general Council Yet this Church is no wayes universall except so far as she professeth the universall faith as some of their Cardinalls have observed Neither is she any more infallible then other Churches be Yet men will believe that she is the Universall Church infallible and the onely infallible expounder and proposer of the Scriptures and can detain them and Seal them up in an unknown Language so as that the Vulgar shall neither read them nor hear them in a Language understood by them she will have some advantage For by this meanes the people are kept in ignorance and unity and so their unwritten Traditions Doctrines and Practises so directly contrary to expresse Scripture shall not be question'd but received by an implicit Faith This argument of Tradition well examined cannot advantage them of Rome nay it 's a Plain Disadvantage For their Tradition doth prove a Chimera and Some Protestant writers ascribe too much unto it and also speak too loosly and at random of it in this point especially But to return unto those ordinary teachers § XIII and especially the Ministers of the New-Testament Let us examine 1. How they acquire their knowledge 2. How they Communicate it to others 3. How the People must receive it Communicated 4. What God hath promised to do if both Minister and People perform their duty 1. They acquire their knowledge by such meanes which God hath given and ordained for that end They do not receive it by immediate inspiration as the holy Prophets and Apostles did God gives them naturall parts and endowments in the giving of them being and some of them from their Mothers womb are designed for this work But let their naturall parts and endowments be never so excellent yet they must at first be taught and instructed both in the Arts and Languages especially the originalls and after some foundation is layd they may much improve themselves by the Learned works of others their own industry Prayer and Gods blessing Lexicons Concordances Translations are great helps for the attayning the knowledge of the Originall tongues Expositions Commentaries Systems Treatises do conduce much for the understanding the matter of the Scriptures God hath done much for us in this kind but our neglect is great and many have not the benefit of good education and direction at the first And there is a great disparity between Ministers of the higher and lower forms yet no man is fit for this calling who is not furnished with so much knowledge and such a measure of utterance as to be able to declare to others the whole Counsell of God and ●each them all things necessary to Salvation Yet many will take upon them to teach before they have well Learned and will be Masters before they have bin Scollers And the most insufficient will pretend the Spirit to cloak their ignorance After these ordinary teachers have once stored up a treasure they consecrate themselves to Christ and engage to make it their work to do him service in this kind Being rightly qualified § XIV sent and called they begin to teach others and take the charge upon them yet so as that they may be probationers and assistants at the first They instruct others either by Learned Books or treatises of piety or by word of mouth and that severall wayes as by Catechisms Expositions Sermons and other ways The first work is to Catechize the Ignorant and teach them the first principles of the Gospel To this purpose they have our Saviours Creed of faith in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost the Commandements of the Moral Law contracted into the Love of God and our Neighbour The Lord's Prayer as we use to call it and the Doctrine of the Sacraments And these few understand yet the ignorant and unlearned and Children should know and that not onely the words but the true and Genuine sense according to their Capacity This though the foundation is too much neglected By Expositions they acquaint the people with the occasion Scope Method and Meaning of severall parts and portions of the Scripture By Sermons they explain and apply some Text of Scripture proposing out of the same some Divine axiom which once un●olded and made plain they apply by way of Instruction in the truth Confutation of errour Reproof of the guilty Consolation of the dejected stirring up to duty by exhortation restrayning from sin by Dehortation Their Doctrine should be the Pure word of God made plain dispensed wisely delivered out of an heart sincerely desiring and intending the Salvation of the People and ought to be confirmed by the Teacher's example and the Principall matter must be the Mysteries of Gods Kingdom § XV This is the duty of Teachers which performed by them God ex●pects also certain Performances from the Persons taught which neglected the word of God cannot enter into the immortal-soul so as to work effectually and be manifested to be the Word of God indeed For 1. The heart of man must be prepared and that 1. With an high conceit of the Doctrine of the Scriptures taught that it is the word of God revealed from Heaven out of great love and mercy to man that it highly and very much concerns him upon the knowledge and observance whereof depends his eternal estate in the

be cleansed and purified before he could enter and be admitted into God's Kingdome Yet all the Water in the World had no power nor all the washing with Water could have any such effect as to cleanse from the guilt or stain of sin This power was merited by the Blood of Christ to be exercised by the Spirit Regeneration therefore i● signified by washing One end of washing is cleansing and washing may be by dipping diving powring on water The principall thing is washing whatsoever way it be done Therefore Baptism is said to be a washing of water Ephe. 5. 26. The putting away of the fi●th of the flesh 1 Pet. 3. 21. The washing of Regeneration Tit. 3. 5. The washing of our bodyes with pure water Heb. 10. 22. It cannot be denyed but that the whole body descending into the water and plunged wholly and after that ascending out of the water again might resemble Christs Death and Resurrection more perfectly Yet neither was this the principal signification nor the immediate end of Baptism But how will it be proved that in Baptism the whole body with the head and all parts were plunged under the waters And suppose some were Baptized so it doth not follow that all ought to be so by vertue of any command All the washings lustrations purifications mysticall and sacred in the Law were contracted in this washing of Baptism The words added to washing with water do complete the Rite § X and make it very solemn The words are these I Baptize thee in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy-Ghost In which words we have 1. The name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy-Ghost 2. The Baptizing into this name These words containe the Doctrin of One most Glorious God the Father the Son and Holy-Ghost with the great and stupendious works of creation redemption sanctification For that Great Almighty and ever Blessed God created the world by the Word made flesh dying and rising again redeemed mankind and by the Holy-Ghost sanctifies his people And by the Redemption of Christ and sanctification of the Spirit he is the Fountaine and cause of mans eternall happinesse and glorification This Doctrin must be preached heard received believed professed by the party to be baptized if at age by himself if not at age by some other representing him And he must further promise to renounce the Devill and all other Lords to subject himself unto this God the Father Son and Holy-Ghost to obey his Commandements By virtue of this profession and promise when nothing to the contrary is manifest the party is baptizable according to Christs commission But besides these words there must be baptizing in this Name which is understood severall wayes 1. With some in the Name is in and by the authority and power of the Father Son and Holy-Ghost With other it s in this name invocated and called upon And the truth is that Baptism ought to be administred by commission and command from God and with solemn invocation of and prayer unto God With others it is to be by baptizing devoted subjected to God the Father Son and Holy-Ghost as their onely Lord and King in whom the party baptized must believe whom he must worship and obey as his onely supreme Lord and Saviour expecting eternall life from him and him alone With this sense agrees that of such as understand it of baptizing in or unto the Faith which was professed and unto the worship and service of the true God which was promised These words do contain both the duty of man and the promise of God The duty of man is to believe and obey God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and the promise of God is to accept him as such and admit him as a subject of his Kingdome to receive the benefits of protection regeneration and eternall life After the Rite consummate § XI follows the effect and the end or according to some the act and that is the confirmation of Regeneration Where we may consider 1. What is confirmed 2. How it is confirmed 1. The thing confirmed is Regeneration By regeneration is meant our first ins●ti● into Christ dying and rising again for us and our first receiving of the remission and the Spirit for sanctification that we may dye unto sin and live unto God and of adoption whereby we are made Sons of God and heires of glory For we are saved by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour that being justified by his grace we should be made heires according to the hope of eternall life Titus 3. 5 6 7. Where we have 1. Washing which is the baptismall rite 2. Regeneration the thing signified sealed or confirmed 3. This regeneration is by the renewing of the Holy-Ghost 4. We have justification by grace 5. Adoption whereby we are made heires of Glory It 's our first ingrafting into Christ for mortification of sin and newnesse of life Rom. 6. 4 5 6. Col. 2. 12. You must take notice that Regeneration Adoption and the state of Justification are onely begun upon our first faith and admission and not finished till the Resurrection And Johns Baptism was for remission upon Repentance and confession of sin Marke 1. 4. with Mat. 3. 6. The manner how this is confirmed is this 1. The party to be baptized by receiving Baptism doth solemnly testifie and as it were Seal and confirme that Faith which he had professed and that promise of submission and obedience he made 2. God by the party baptizing him doth solemnly testifie his admission of the party Baptized into his Kingdome as a Subject thereof to enjoy the priviledges thereof So that the administring on the one side and receiving of Baptism on the other is a deep and mutual engagement and makes the obligation strong on mans side to do his duty on Gods side to perform his promise This is an immediate confirmation of the covenant and promises as a covenant and promises and doth engage to mutual performance for time to come For if there be a performance on both sides there must needs be an actual possession which needs no confirmation If it be said that the performance on mans side is onely begun and so is the performance on Gods side but in part for it is onely full when we fully enjoy eternal glory It 's true that it is so and therefore it 's a confirmation of mans promise of faith and obedience to the end and of Gods promise that when mans performance is perfect His performance shall follow and in due time be full and perfect For the more full and clear understanding of the point we must observe 1. That the Covenant between God and man differs from other ordinary covenants In other covenants the partyes covenanting are equally free from any antecedent obligation in respect of the thing covenanted and the obligation of both partyes

Propitiation of Christ makes no man absolutely but upon certain terms pardonable and savable so it was never made either to prevent all sin or all punishments For it presupposeth man both sinful and miserable And we know that the guilt and punishment of Adams sin lyes heavy upon all his posterity to this day And not onely that but the guilt of actual and personal sins lyes wholly upon us whilst impenitent and unbelieving and so out of Christ and the regenerate themselves are not fully freed from all punishments till the finall resurrection and judgement So that his propitiation doth not altogether prevent but remove sin and punishment by degees Many sins may be said to be remissible by vertue of this sacrifice which never shall be remitted In this sense it may be understood that some deny that Lord that bought them 2 Pet. ● 1. For Christ by his death acquired a right unto and so a power over all flesh but so that he must give eternall life onely to such as his Father gave him For one immediate effect of Christs death was to make God placable and sin pardoned yet he never merited that any sin should be actually pardoned but upon such terms as his heavenly Father should prescribe It may also in a sense be said that Christ dyed onely for the elect That is that onely they shall obtayn actual pardon Yet they who thus affirm must give us out of the Scriptures the true notion of Election and of the Elect and not seek to obtrude upon us their own false Conceits For the Elect as the elect in decree are no subject capable of actual Remission as such for they are no subject at all because they have no actual existence though they may be and are an object or Logicall subject of Gods decree And after that they have actual being yet they are not immediately capable of actual pardon before they are called and actually believe And whereas some affirm that Christ dyed onely for the Elect in their sense it cannot be proved Because they presupposing an order in the decrees of God take it for granted that the decrees of Election and Reprobation are antecedent to the dec●ee of Redemption and ●o by these very decrees formally exclude the greatest part of mankind and include the rest which cannot stand with the plain texts of Scripture which signifie that we are predessinated to be conformed to the image of Christ That we are elected in Christ and predestinated to the Adoption of Children by Jesus C●rist unto himself The 4th and last thing in this discourse of Christs death § IX is to consider the attribu●es and perfections which were principally manifested in this work of Redemption For b●sides his absolute power by which he acted in this work above the l●w of Creation many of his perfections did most gloriously appeare And first his Wi●dom For this was one of the highest designes of God and this work of redemption was contrived and ordered in the highest degree of Wisdome that God did ever exercise out of Himself The Apostle determined to know nothing amongst the Corinthians but Christ Jesus and him crucified And though this Doctrin of the Crosse seem'd foolishnesse to men devoyd of the Spirit yet when he preached it he spake Wisdome to them who were perfect the Wisdome of God in a mystery ev●n the hid●en Wisdome which God ordayned before the world was to our glory 1 Cor. 2. 2. 6 7. And by the preaching of the Gospel was made known to Principalityes and powers in heavenly places the manifold Wisdome of God Ephes. 3. 10. And the Doctrin of the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow thereupon was such and so excellent for Wisdome that the very Angels desired to pry or look in it 1 Peter 1. 12. That Wisdome must needs be wonderfull which contrived such glorious things For the seed of ●rayl Woman deceived by the Devil and now guilty before the tribunall of God must bruise and break the head and power of the Devil and shake his Kingdome over mankind in pieces The Word and eternal Son of God must be made flesh as though mortality and eternity had been united together Weaknesse must vanquish strength Mortality must be away to immortality Death to eternal life the most cruel paines to full and everlasting plea●ures the mo● bitter sorrowes to the sweetest joyes the lowest humility to the highest honour and the greatest shame to the most excellent glory And which is strange that the Devil himself must use his utmost strength and policy to overthrow himself And his deepest Counsels must be the cause of his own ruine These are the wonderfull wayes of Gods unsearchable Wisdome discovered in the humiliation of the Son of God The Holinesse § X and Justice of God appeares in this work many wayes For though he be slow to anger inclined to forgive abundant in mercy and delighting in kindnesse and doing good unto his unworthy creatures and resolved to give his Son to remit sin and to save sinners yet he will not free any man from the guilt of sin nor yield that any sin should be pardonable without expiation be made his divine justice satisfied and the honour of his law violated be vindicated He will admit of no reconciliation except propitiation be made by blood to declare his righteou●nesse that he might be just and the justifier of him that beleeveth on Jesus Christ Rom. 3. 25. And this propitiation must be made by the Word made flesh Therefore he sends his son his dearly beloved his onely begotten son whom he esteemed above all men and Angells He smites him wounds him and layes on him the iniquityes of us all He must not only suffer but suffer death the death of the Crosse and he must for a time be a servant and lay aside 〈◊〉 his shining Robes of Glory be content to want the joyes and pleasures of Heaven and be deprived of God's sweetest comforts be exposed to the malice of the Devill and his malicious enemies ly under the pressure of most bitter pains sorrows and anguish and suffer and that from basest wretches the bas●● indignityes that ever any suffered And thus though he were a son must he learn obedience by suffering and before all these things were endured his Soul seperated from his Body and his Body layd in the Grave he must not rise again to Glory And he makes an unchangeable decree that whosoever will not be willing to deny himself take up his Crosse be obedient not onely in doing good but also in suffering evill even death the most cruell and tormenting death and that with patience for his sake shall derive no benefit from his Saviour who did not only expiate sin seal the Truth with his blood but also give us an example of most eminent humility patience meeknes charity obedience all other heavenly virtues that we might follow him if we will be saved And sinful man must know

Hatred The Subject and Persons who shall suffer are not onely Superstitious and Idolatrous Parents but their Children The extent is to the third and fourth Generation This punishment threatned is expressed in the word Visit I will visit God doth visit sometimes in mercy sometimes in justice and displeasure Here it 's Visitation in justice rendred by the Septuagint in this place by a word signifying to render and in many other places by a word signifying to Revenge Both these together teach us that here to visit is to render vengeance and justly to punish And when God saith He will do it it informs us of His determination that it is such that upon the Commission of the Sin the Punishment shall certainly be due and the Delinquent liable unto it and shall unavoidably suffer it if it be not prevented by timely repentance and God's Pardon This punishment is either Temporal or Eternal private or publique Sword or Famine or Pestilence and sometimes the Captivity sometimes the ruine of Families Cities States Nations besides the Eternal Poenalty This Commination was effectual and Israel found this Judgment certain and felt it often lye heavy upon them This as other sins against other Commandements bring the like Judgments upon Christians under the Gospel Yet so that as it was pardonable unto them upon repentance by vertue of the Promise So upon the like tearms it is to us by vertue of Repentance and Faith in Christ already come The Sin which makes liable to this Punishment is hatred of God Of those that hate me The Sin of such as hate Him in this place is the making and worshipping of Images To hate in Hebrew is many times not to love or not to love so much as 〈◊〉 due we should And as a Woman who affects another man besides her Husband though she may love her husband yet doth not love him so much as she should do Her love is not the love of a Wife as a Wife to her Husband as her Husband for that should be singular and exclude all Corrivality and So 〈◊〉 So whosoever is inclined and aff●cted to Image-worship cannot love God as God who is jealous and can endure no Competitour To serve God and Baal is impossible according to His Rules The subject of this Punishment and Visitation is the Fathers that is the Idolatrous Fathers And these are principally in the sin and so principal in the punishment These are the Authors and first beginners of this sin and by their example instruction and direction cause their Posterity to sin and that long after they are dead So Jeroboam made Israel to sin and his institution and example began that sin I which once begun continued till the time of that Kingdoms ruine many years after The extent of this Penalty is such that it do●h not stay in the Parents but proceeds and reacheth the Children and not onely the immediate Children but Posterity to the third and fourth Generation This is not so to be understood as though the period wherein the penalty expires were the fourth Generation But in Scripture three and four Generations are many Generations and God doth not precisely limit Himself to this or that determinate number It 's true that in the time of four Generations the Posterity of some Idolaters may be either cut off or reformed Yet it seems unreasonable that Children should bear and suffer the Punishments of their Fathers sins And therefore some restrain the Visitation to Temporal Punishments and determine the Children to be onely such as continue in their Fathers sins And it 's true that the Children by repentance many times escape the Punishments deserved both by their own and their Fathers Crimes and no person truly p●nitent shall suffer Eternal Penalties for the sins of their Fathers no not of their Father Adam Yet this is certain that not onely penitent Children but such as were never guilty of their Parents Idolatry may suffer for the sins of their Fathers at least Temporally So Daniel with his three Associates and Fellow-Captives Ezra Nehemiah Zorobabel Joshuah the High-Priest lay un●er the guilt of their Fathers Idolatry as one person in God's own account with them Yea God doth inflict not only temporal but spiritual Judgments for the sins of Ancestours So the cursed Posterity of Ham must be Servants many years for his sin The Posterity of the first Apostate Gentiles lay under God's displeasure destitute of the means of Conversion for 2000 years at least And the Children of the unbelieving Jews who crucified the Lord Jesus and refused to believe the Gospel abide in B●indness and under the Curse for these 1600 years and upward The Countries and the Eastern Empire where Image-Worship was establisht in * a General Councel is over-run and lyes now under the power of the Turk that great Oppressour of Christians and Enemy to Christ and the greatest part of them are deprived of the Gospel And all the Western-Nations and other Countries and People who received at the hands of the great Whore the Cup of Fornication are delivered up to strange Doctrines and God hath sent them strong Delusions that they should believe a Lye and many false Miracles and other things contrary not onely to Scripture but Reason and Sense and this for many years The pretence of the Worship of the true and living God and Jesus Christ His Blessed Son and the subtile Distinction devised to m●intain their Image Worship will not justifie them but prove that the great City built upon seven Hills which in the time of the Divine Apocalyptist reigned over the Nations even whilest She professeth her Self Christian is Babylon in a Mystery Histories tell us that the Old Babylon which once was an Imperial Seat and now a ruinous Heap was the first and most Idolatrous Ci●y in the World and that Image Worship and Idolatry was there first established by a Law But her Whoredoms were open and manifest and she profest her self to be what she was Yet Babylon in a Mystery professeth to believe in one onely true God and to renounce all false gods yet in practice is fearfully Idolatrous The last Reason is § VIII from the Promise of mercy to a thousand Generations of them that love God and keep His Commandements By Mercy understand such Blessings as God promised in the Law to Israel which are often mentioned in the Books of Moses especially Levit. 26. Deut. 28. The Subject of these Mercies are the Israelites 1. As loving God 2. Keeping His Commandements 1. The love of God in this place is opposed to the former Hatred and is that pure and chaste affection of the Soul towards God whereby it abhors all Image-Worship and even the appearance of it in toying with Images or the use of any thing in Religious Service invented by Man Therefore as Superstition Idolatry and all Worship of Images is called Fornication and Adultery contrary to the Contract and Covenant made with God as our God

doth not hence follow that we shall be justified by our works In the matter of Judgment and the Cause to be tried there are two things the Merit and the Evidence And who dare say that good works are the merit of the cause which are only the Evidence Gregory the Great distinguisheth in this case saith we shall be judged and so rewarded Secundum sed non propter Opera Where Promises of Life Blessing Reward and of Glory and of Remission of Sin are made to such as do works of Mercy or suffer for Christ's sake or love God or serve and fear him we must observe that where any one of these is named all the rest are meant and that the Person qualified with one is qualified with all and the reason is because there is such a connexion between them that where one is predominant and in sincerity all the rest are inseparably joyned Yet none of these can be where faith in Christ is not neither can a living faith continue without all these or any of these and where such a faith is not none of these can be in such a Subject or if they could be without it yet without it they could not be acceptable nor rewardable Neither could this qualifie the Person aright nor faith qualify aright if it were not fixed on Christ. The Apostle James indeed saith that Abraham was justified by works and that by works a man is justified and not by faith onely Chap. 2. 23. Yet we must consider 1. That he speaks of the same justification of Abraham wherein Paul instanceth who affirmeth that Abraham was justified by faith and not by works and proves it out of Psal. 32. 12. 2. That James speaks against such as professe ●aith without practise and his principall Scope is to shew that a vain faith a dead faith a faith without works the faith of Devills which may be in Devills cannot justify nor can any man be justified by such a faith and implies that when Paul or any Apostle speaks of justifying faith they do not mean such a faith and that no Solifidian can be justified at all before God He speaks of such works as follow faith and Justification by saith which did evidently prove the sincerity of their faith and the certainty of their Justification One cause of this mistake both in them of Rome and others is 1. Because they do not consider that the Righteousnesse required before the Judgment Seat of God especially at last triall must be perfect and such as the party to be justified cannot by law that Law which should be the Rule of Judgment be chargeable with any the least Sin 2. They do not consider that the party to be justified is in himself a guilty Sinner and as such can in no wise be justifiable before the most just and sin-detesting Judge 3. That the Justification so much spoken of in Scripture especially in the Apostles writings is Remission and onely Remission of Sin in which respect no man guilty can be justified by Works For all the good works a man can do in a thousand years cannot expiate one Sin antecedent intervenient or consequent nor free him from the guilt of eternall death Austin saith truly that our righteousnesse is true because referred to the right end yet in this life it consists potius remissione Peccatorum quàm perfectione Virtutum rather in Remission of Sin then perfection of Virtue For as he manifestly shews our righteousnesse of good works is imperfect many wayes imperfect therefore he exhorts us to give thanks to God for our good works whereby he implies that they are God's gifts and more God's then ours And certainly they are so and God never gave them to us that we should stand upon Terms with God and plead that the Righteousnesse of them was such as that for them he in Justice was bound to justify them No penitent Sinner dare plead so No wise man will plead so and the best of men in that last day of Triall will wave the Plea of Works and will onely plead God'● Mercy and Christ's Merit and his own faith in the one and the other onely What shall we plead Merit or righteou●ness of works or any title to reward by them because God hath freed us from the Dominion of Sin and the Power of Satan and by his Spirit enabled us to do a few good Works and the same through our own default imperfect whereas he might have bound us to a thousand years o● Penance and as many of service in good Works without promising any Reward the least Men may dispute acutely and subtilly for justification by Works now and here but then and there summond to be tried before the great glorious and most just King they will recant be ashamed of their arguments and abhor themselvs as in themselvs most sinfull and guilty wretches God did never ordain good works which are the fruits of a sincere faith in Christ to acquire a right unto Remission of Sin and eternall life but to be a means whereby we may obtain the Possession of these Rewards he hath promised And whosoever will take the words of St. James in proper Sense neglecting the true Scope of the Apostle can hardly avoid it but must contradict the Doctrine of St. Paul agree with the Papists in their Doctrine of justification by Works for the main use the same arguments to maintain it and give the same Answers to Objections against it which they do though in some Terms and Circumstances they may differ CHAP. XXIII Of the several Branches Parts and Degrees of Justification and the continuance of them unto us until the Final Judgment HItherto of Justification by Faith in Christ § I in general After which follow the several Branches or Parts and degrees thereof if we may so call them and the continuance of them to us till the final and universal Judgment of our great and glorious Lord and King-Redeemer These are Regeneration Reconciliation Adoption Ministery of Angels and the rest And they may be considered 1 As they free us from the guilt and punishment of sin Whether the punishment be privative or positive 2 As they make the estate of the justified person of miserable to be happy and blessed The first is Regeneration which in the Execution of this great and special Judgment frees us from that great Penalty of Original Unrighteousness the Dominion of sin and slavery under Sathan of this you have heard before and shall hear more distinctly and particularly of it in the continuance hereafter For the first thing in order though not in time seeing all go together is the restoring of the regenerating and sanctifying Spirit to abide in us after it hath prepared us and it is so necessary a part of Justification that if we distinguish between the Sentence removing the guilt and the Execution removing the punishment the Sentence without the Execution could be little advantage unto us nor could it minister any