that such as are in Christ who are truly incorporated first into his death and then into the similitude of his resurrection that they have no sin in them for they walke not after the flesh but after the spirit that Paul rejoyceth here that sin was not able to condemn him though it was in him as he had confessed in the former chapter that the evil that he would not that he did and that he saw a Law in the members rebelling against the Law of his mind But this sin will condemn any man where it remaineth as the Apostle saith Rom. 6.23 that the wages of sin is death and that of corruption Ephes 4.22 that ye put off the old man which is corrupting or destroying with its deceitful lusts for so the best Translators read the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it being the Apostles argument why he would have the old man put off But he saith that here he expects Cajetan's or Aquinas his false exposition and he shall have it to do him a pleasure out of his own book pag. 23. by the former account Cajetan one of their own fraternity saith damnatum est peccatum non extinctum Yet the worst of these two Epositors here are and will be of better repute even among the Protestants then the Vindicators glosses ever were or will be He saith further that here he expects that of Mr. Parkers that the Apostle spake this when he was a babe in grace But this is another of Mr. Tendring's lies for he saith onely the contrary and proveth it out of Rom. 8.2 1 Cor. 4.4 Phil. 4.13 that Paul was not now in that weak and corrupt estate complained of Rom. 7.14 24. and that therefore he speaks it not of his own condition though figuratively in his own person but in the behalfe of such as were babes in Christ Pag. 26. by the former account he citing Pauls words 1 Tim. 1.15 that Christ came into the world to save sinners of whom I am cheif bids us mark it that Paul speaks it not in the preterperfect tense of whom I have been chief but in the present tense of whom I am cheif as if Paul at that time were the chief of sinners But did ever any man besides himself that was not besides himself think or say so Is there not such a figure in the Scripture as Enallage temporum the putting of one tense for another Doth not Paul 1 Cor. 15.8 9 10. Ephos 2.4 5 6. Titus 3.3 4 5 6 7. and even at the 13 vers before set forth his corrupt estate of unbelief as a condition that was past But he goes on out of Paul his 2 Epist to I know not whom or what Church for none is named chap. 1. from vers 6. to the 13. to prove that Paul was not now a babe or child in Christ but rather an old man as he cals himself Paul the aged in his Epistle to Philemon Truly as old as the Vindicator would make himself he shews himself very young and childish in that his reasoning for we know none that affirms the thing that he goeth about to disprove but he loves to fight with his own shadow In conclusion he saith that these Jesuitical cavils which yet are his own are too well known and never did nor shall prevail against Gods truth Then he goeth on from Rom. 8.1 to the second verse upon which he makes as learned observations as he did formerly upon the first verse for whereas the Apostle saith that the Law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus hath made us free from the Law of sin and death Here saith he we may observe that the Apostle saith not that we are fully freed from sin in this life but from the Law of sin But first it is evident that Paul saith that he was made free from that Law of sin of which he had so much complained chap. 7.21 22 23. Secondly that he cals it a Law of death as he doth chap. 7.24 a body of death because it hath death and condemnation appendant to it and involved in it And thirdly that he was now actually even in this life and for the present freed therefrom And lastly that it was not the death of Christ that had thus freed him to wit from guilt leaving the pollution behind as this Champion of corruption speaks hereafter but it was the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus that had now freed him both from that Law of sin and of death its concomitant so that he cannot possibly speak of his present condition in chap. 7. from ver 14. to the 24. And whereas he adds in the close of that page that Christian experience shews that no sort of men are more troubled with temptations then they whom God hath begun to deliver from the Law of sin Though this be true yet what is this to his purpose or the proposition which he would now maintain for we speak not what befals regenerate men at their first conversion but of that which they do or may attain by grace in the end Nor do all temptations arise from corruption they may proceed immediately from Satan and assault such as have no sin or corruption left in them as they did our first parents in innocency and Christ himself as he was man Heb. 4.15 Pag. 19. by the latter account he rols the old stone with Sysiphus saying that our deliverance from sin is but begun not perfected here but that God is faithful by whom we are called Then they are unfaithful that seek not to have the work finished Phil. 1.6 And there he breaks out into a great rapture saying blessed be the Lord that whereas before we were captives to sin now the case of the battel is altered Why what battel did we fight against sin before grace did convert us unto God That sin is become our captive through Christ Was it so with them in whose behalf Paul complaineth but I see another Law in my members warring against the Law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the Law of sin that is in my members we trow not sin was here too often the superiour That it remaineth in us not as a commander but as a captive of the Lord Jesus But doth it not till it be subdued often circumvent us and prevail against us and if so then that of Peter is true 2 Pet. 21.19 Of whom a man is overcome of the same is he brought into bondage at leastwise for a time He saith further that the bolts of sin are yet upon our hands and are left to admonish us of our former miserable condition What are we under bolts and Irons and yet no prisoners or captives But Christ is sent to preach deliverance to the captives and the opening of the prison to those that are bound and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God to wit against his enemies Esay 61.1 2
good and bad indifferently Christ onely excepted It is well he will except Christ himself here for he did not in his positions But he might have excepted all who were Christs truly unto the end Psal 32.2 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity and in whose spirit there is no guile Zephan 3.13 The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity nor speak lies nor shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth See Rev. 14.5 6. And in their mouth was found no guile for they are without fault before the throne of God Therefore all his affirmations that follow in that page are false at leastwise in his sense and notion as That all mens hearts are alike by nature True they are alike moulded at the first but not corrupt as he would have it That corruption is not from the instrument but from the Author Then God must be the Author of our corruption by his doctrine That men beget children as they are men not as they are regenerate and holy men Yet the Apostle giveth the Saints some priviledge above others saying 1 Cor. 7.14 Else were your children unclean but now they are holy That nature with its corruption is derived but not grace for that is supernatural And is not corruption a preternatural and an adventitious thing also That grace makes no such change in this life but the hearts of the best are in some sort deceitful Which he presently contradicteth saying though he gave Nathaniel that praise that there was no guile in his heart Yea David saith he doth the like to any justified man Psa 32.1 2. howbeit saith he this is onely true of the spirit or regenerate part and not of the flesh of the old man who by reason of his age is often too hard for the young man where he contradicts himself in what he had said before that sin is our captive and doth not reign at any time but onely remaineth in the regenerate That it hath its deaths blow pag. 21. by the former account so that the best Expositors he meaneth for his tooth and palate read this Text thus the whole heart of the wicked is deceitful with a full strong and reigning deceitfulness and but part of the heart of the godly namely the unregenerate part but in a weaker measure as being discerned and stroven against That the heart of the wicked shews it self such in the whole course of their lives And yet by and by he contradicts himselfe saying that nevertheless the heart of the wicked may be upright in some particular actions as Abimelech was in taking of Sarah Gen. 20.6 That the heart of the godly is only deceitfull in some particular actions as David was upright in all things save in the matter of Uriah But I demand whether David might not have avoided even those sirs of bloodshed and murther by watchfulnesse and prayer as well as other Saints should have done if so he might have overcome all sinne and no doubt he did so in the end He saith further that every regenerate man is partly flesh and partly spirit True he is so at the first but not always Rom. 8.2 For the Law of the spirit of life which is in Christ Iesus hath made me free from the Law of sin and death saith Paul where was then the flesh That hereupon ariseth the war in their hearts like the strugling in Rebecca's womb But did that strugling last all her life long That the regenerate here are but like the dawning of the day wherein darknesse and light are mixed But Solomon saith Pro. 4.18 The path of the just is like the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day That the regenerate may be like a cup of wine mingled with water True both at the beginning of their new birth and for a good space after yea all their life long through their own default which vessel or cup saith he is not halfe water and halfe wine but wholly wine and wholly water Doth the man understand what he saith By this saying of his and his similitude the regenerate should be wholly renewed and wholly corrupt which he contradicts with another comparison saying even as a vessel filled with equall proportions of hot and cold water it would make a dog spue to heare him it is not halfe cold and halfe hot it is both but wholly lukewarm that is partly hot and partly cold in all the parts of it If this be not a clear contradiction or an absolute piece of nonsense I know not what is such And whereas he saith that a regenerate man is partly holy and partly unholy in all the parts and powers of the body and soul what is he so in the regenerate part also of which he spake erewhile yet the denomination of a regenerate man is always given him in Scripture à parte praestantiore But he is mistaken where it hath not the upper hand it is otherwise 1 Cor. 11.3 13. And I Brethren could not speak unto you as spiritual men but as unto carnall even as unto babes in Christ I sed you with milk and not with strong meat for ye were not able to beare it nor yet are ye able for ye are yet carnal for whereas there are among you envying strife and divisions are ye not carnal and walk as men He saith that the Lord who made the heart Pag. 22 by the new account pronounceth us all guilty of sin Gen. 6.5 Doth he so to us did we live in that age But yet it is true of every fallen man in the generall but that guilt doth not always lye upon the Saints for new sins and there he heaps many Texts of Scripture which speak of the state of the unregenerate to prove that the regenerate are here always sinful as Iob 5.2 Psalm 14.2 3 4 5. Isai 54.2 and 64.6 Rom. 3.3 19. Gal. 2.16 yea though the godly have many failings in their babeship and some in their growing up in which regard they cannot justifie themselves but must take guilt and shame to themselves as Iob doth chap. 8.29 30. and David Psalm 130.3 and 43.2 and Solomon testifieth of all men till they be throughly purged 1 Kings 8.46 That there is no man that sinneth not or may not sin yet none of those places lays upon us a necessity of continuing in sin all our days nor makes sin impossible to be subdued here by the grace and helpe of Christ which is the point that he should prove But he bids us mark what is written 2 Cor. 5.21 that Christ was made sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him Which we admit but not in his sense saying that the Apostle doth not say actively that we should make or work out our own righteousnesse but positively he should have said passively that we should be made the righteousnesse of God and that not by our selves lest we should glory in our own
but not of the old leaven of corruption which must be purged out 1 Cor. 5.7 And therefore that saying of Augustine though it pleaseth his tooth well for which he commendeth it is false that sin and concupiscence is taken away by baptisme non ut non sit sed ut non obsit not that it should cease to be but that it should not hurt us nor hinder our attainment of everlasting happinesse For as long as sin remaineth in us bringing forth the works of the flesh spoken of Gal. 5.20 21. it will barr us from entring into Gods kingdom See there and 1 Cor. 6.9 10. yea for such doth the wrath of God fall upon the children of disobedience Ephe. 5.6 Col. 3.5 6. Here he brings in the saying of Anselme also to second Augustine Not that our in-bred corruption should of a sudden be consumed in our flesh who said that it could be so consumed that liveth but that it should not be imputed when we are dead To which we say that if we be dead unto it in conformity with Christ it shal not be imputed unto us but if we live and die in it it shal be charged upon us Rom. 8.13 If ye live after the flesh ye shall die In the next place instead of citing the second place of Scripture which he fathers upon our quotation he heaps up three some wherof have small affinity with each other Rom. 6.2 How shall we who are dead to sin live any longer therein Rom. 7.14 Wherefore my brethren ye are become dead to the Law Rom. 8.9 The Law of the spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus hath freed me from the Law of sin and death 2 Cor. 5.17 Unto which last place he rather alludes then expresly refers us saying that a regenerate man is renewed in all things throughout in every part and power both of body and soul and therefore the regenerate are quite freed from all corruption of sin and indued with all perfection of grace But in these allegations he abuseth us for first we have not alledged any of them heretofore to maintain our positions Secondly that of Rom. 7.4 speaks of a freedome or deadnesse to the Law in its compulsive work and not of being dead to sin and though we might and shall conclude from Rom. 6.2 and 8.2 and 2 Cor. 5.15 17. that the regenerate may and ought to be so dead to sin freed from the law of sin and death and so renewed yet we doe not say that they all are so perfected or can be so on the sudden but in due time they may and shall be so even in this life if they quit themselves aright Howbeit page 43. he comes to answer these and the like places which speak of a totall death unto sin and a renewing of Gods image with his old distinction that it may be done inchoatively which is effected in the least infant or babe in Christ I speak of regenerate ones but not pefectively or fully Surely he is wont to cure his patients but inchoativè at the most or else if he do it perfectivè he will in his way put down Christ according to his doctrine But saith he the Spirit of God by these forms or phrases would teach us two special things what be those First that sin is now like a serpent crushed in the head Gen. 3.15 which saith he can never recover his former strength nor any ways hurt the regenerate man but only to bruise his heel that is by the wrigling of her tail to bring some temporary affliction upon him But when was sin so crushed by baptisme was it so crushed in Simon Magus but Paul tels the Romans that Satan the worker in and with them was yet to be bruised for the present Rom. 16.20 and the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly and was afraid that he might through his subtilty deceive and seduce the Corinthians from the simplicity that is in Christ 2 Cor. 11.3 Secondly that it should be the main scope of the Saints to strive continually to mortifie the deeds of the flesh and to doe their best endeavours to be clean rid of them and to perfect holiness in the fear of God and this saith he is plainly intimated unto us in all the exhortations of the Scriptures as where it is said Abstain from fleshly lusts and mortifie the deeds of the body and the like But first those places or some of them as Rom. 8.2 2 Cor. 5.16 17. doe shew us that the work was done already and both those and others incite as to set upon the work vigorously and under hope to effect it with hope which he denies And thirdly we are by those exhortations which are indeed express commands from the Lord whatsoever he or Augustine saith to the contrary enjoyned to labour after such a riddance from sin and perfection in holinesse not by our own endeavours alone but by invocating the help of Christ or else we shall effect little in in the businesse which makes many unfruitful And in conclusion he adds very impertinently though pertinaciously enough If there were no lusts nor deeds of the flesh in us yes there are too many till they be subdued to what end are we bid to mortifie them To which we will superad this that if they cannot be killed and slain why are we commanded to mortifie or kill them as we are often enjoyned to doe Then he comes to a third Scripture of ours as he cals it which he saith he had quoted before to wit that in the second place but we reserve it for this where he takes upon him to answer it after his wonted manner the place is 1 Joh. 3.9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin because his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God Unto which he answers two ways first more largely and then more briefly but neither way to the purpose for he understands not of what sort of regenerate men Saint John speaks not of babes or young men but of such old men in Christ as with himselfe and his fellow-Apostles had the love of God perfected in them 1 Joh. 4.17 18. But let us hear what those his answers are First he saith that they to wit the regenerate do not sin unto death for they doe not wholly forsake God howbeit they may sin against their consciences and such saith Paul condemn themselves Rom. 14.20 21. but they retain some beginnings he should say seeds of true godlinesse by which as by spatks they are stirred again to repentance But here first he seems to contradict what he had said pag. 24. by the first account that the Holy Ghost withdraws as he is grieved driven away and quenched by such sins Ephe. 4.30 1 Thes 5.19 then men are blind and wander as some such regenerate ones may wholly forsake God as we shewed out of 1 Tim. 5.11 12. Heb. 10.28 29 30. 2 Pet. 2.11 Secondly he
therefore all these are vain words and lying promises wherewith he would comfort himselfe and others without any ground of truth Text of Scripture But he saith pa. 51. that the Law should be fulfilled in this life is denyed by some of our own fraternity sin is condemned saith Cajetan but not extinguished But if he abuse him not let him henceforth own him for one of his fraternity as he may Bellarmine about original sin many more Papists both of the Jansenians Anti Jansenians in other points which he holds forth with Romea good creatures as he cals them yet we wil not so impudently say that he hath wages from the Pope unlesse we knew it But here he fals upon the second proposition or member of his second position telling us that the Apostle saith positively that no man shall be justified by the works of the Law Gal. 2.26 and yet the same Apostle saith Rom. 2.13 for not the hearers of the Law are just before God but the doers of the Law shall be justified and St. James backs him saying chap. 1.22 Be ye doers of the Law and not hearers onely deceiving your own souls for none else shall be found righteous before God as we have proved before And therefore he and we had need to have recourse to Christ for grace to fulfill it in us Rom. 8.7 for which purpose that Text which he next alledgeth but in a false sense and to a deceitful purpose must be both a direction and support unto us in this case Rom. 10.4 Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to all that believe nor doth that of Galat. 2.21 dissent therefrom or any way thwart the same we do not frustrate the grace of God for if righteousness be by the Law and our own weak and humane obedience performed thereunto without the assisting and renewing grace of Christ then Christ died in vain both as to meriting the pardon of our guilt as also to example and motive also but we say there is no way for the fallen and corrupt man to enter into life but through conformity to Christs death in the burial of all known iniquity which yet the Vindicator holds to be for attainment impossible Rom. 6.8 2 Tim. 2.11 12. 1 Pet. 4.1 2 3. and yet it remains inviolate which he cites out of Gal. 3.11 That no man is justified by the Law or our own unregenerate works before God but the just shall live by faith to wit first the life of grace and then the life of glory also that 18 verse stands intire If the inheritance by the Law and our own obedience thereunto without the assistance of grace it is no more of promise but God gave it to Abraham by promise But it is false which the Vindicator subjoyns It is faith that answers the promise to wit by closing with it and deriving from Christ by way of regeneration the things promised but obedience saith he holds no proportion with it Yes the obedience of faith must do it or else actum est de animabus in some measure Matth. 7.21 Rev. 22.14 18 19. But here he first cites Rom. 8.3 But that which was impossible to the Law insomuch as it was made weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the similitude of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh and afterwards he gives his connexion and false gloss upon the Text saying the Apostle having in the first verse set down a proposition of comfort to those that are in Christ he confirmed it in the second where also he shews us in his own person who they are to whom there is no condemnation in Christ namely to such whom the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath freed from the Law of sin and death and no other are absolutely and actually freed from that condemnation but they though others that are still in the work have a conditional promise of that freedome Vers 13. but if ye mortifie the deeds of the body by the Spirit ye shall live But the Vindicator saith that the Apostle here shews us how Christ hath freed us from the condemning power of sin How is that not by his death alone as he would have it but by the Law of the Spirit of life in the first place subduing unto those that are dying with him the Law of sin and death But how is that done saith the Vindicator that is saith he Christ taking upon him our nature and therewith the burthen of our sins hath condemned sin in his blessed body and so disanulled it that it hath no power to condemn This is false as he understands it for sin hath a condemning power so long as it remaines unmortified in us as the Apostle witnesses Rom. 6.23 and 7.24 and chap. 8.13 as we proved before Christ hath purchased the pardon of sin by his death and hath it in his own hand to dispose of but bestows it upon none save so farre as sin is bewailed and left There is then another body of Christ which must take away the condemning power of sin and that is the body and flesh of his like sufferance and grace and that in order to that purchased pardon of which the bread broken in the supper of the Lord is a type as well as of the flesh of Christs word Jer. 15.16 And this benefit saith the Vindicator doth the Apostle amplifie shewing that by no other means we could obtain it Yet we have shewed you but even now another means which must go before the pardon of sin for as saith he there is but one way without Christ for men to come to life namely the observance of the Law which way is still retained also in Christ Matth. 19.17 Rev. 22.14 he lets us see saith the Vindicator that it was impossible for the Law to wit now that we are fallen to save us and this impossibility proceeds not from any impotency in the Law but from our selves as the Vindicator truly sets it forth and that in a three-fold respect for first it craves of us that which we cannot perform even an absolute obedience unto all the commandements and that under pain of death But whereas the Vindicator saith page 53. that that obedience may most justly now be required of us because that by creation he means in our first parents we received an holy nature and ability from God to keep this Law This is a false ground as we have proved before yet here in words he expresly contradicts his former doctrine saying that by reason of the depravation of our nature drawn on by our selves which is as much as we affirm in that kind it is impossible that we of our selves can keep or perform the Law Secondly because the Law could not give us that whereof we stood in need to wit a full discharge for our infinite debt of guilt contracted by transgression for saith he it promiseth no pardon but binds us fast to the
ye shall tread down the wicked for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this for you saith the Lord. Matth. 1.21 And thou shall call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins and 3.11 12. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance but he that cometh after me is mightier then I whose shoes I am not worthy to bear he shall baptize you with the holy Ghost and with fire Whose fan is in his hand and he will throughly purge his floor and gather his wheat into his garner but he will burn up the chaffe with unquenchable fire Luk. 1.70 71 74. As he spake by the mouth of his holy Prophets which have been since the world began That we should be saved from all our enemies and from the hand of all that hate us Rom. 6.14 For sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the law but under grace and 11.26 There shall come out of Sion the deliverer and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. 1 John 1.9 If we confess our sins he is faithful to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness and chap. 2.1 2. My little children these things I write unto you that ye sin not but if any man sin we have a comforter with the father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins by way of propitiation and purgation of them and not for ours onely but for the sins of the whole world A third Tropick is this That our subduing overcoming and rooting out of sin is made the condition of manifold spiritual and heavenly promises which would be frustraneous and void if the condition were not feasible by grace And such conditional but performable promises are these Psal 24.3 4 5. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord and who shall stand in his holy place he that hath clean hands and a pure heart who hath not lift his soul unto vanity nor sworn deceitfully he shall receive the blessing from the Lord even righteousness from the God of his salvation Prov. 28.13 He that confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall obtain mercy Isaiah 1.16 17 18. Wash ye make ye clean take away the evill of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil learn to do well c. Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord though your sins be as scarlet they shall be white as snow though they be red as crimson they shall be as wool Jer. 4.14 Wash thine heart O Jerusalem that thou mayest be saved And Matth. 5.8 Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God Matth. 16.24 25. If any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me for whosoever will save his life of sin shall lose it and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it Chap. 24.13 But whosoever shall endure to the end of his race and mortification the same shall be saved Rom. 6.5 For if we be planted in him into the likeness of his death we shall be also into the likeness of his resurrection vers 8. For if we be dead with him unto the sin we believe that we shall also live with him Rom. 8.13 If ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if ye shall mortifie the deeds of the body by the Spirit ye shall live 2 Cor. 6.17 18. Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you and I will be a Father unto you and ye shal be my sons and my daughters saith the Lord Almighty 2 Cor. 7.1 Wherefore dearly beloved having these promises let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and Spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God Hebr. 3.6 But Christ as a Son over his own house whose house are we if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoycing of the hope firm unto the end to wit the end of sin as before vers 14. for we are made pertakers of Christ in the Spirit after the likeness of his resurrection Rom. 6.5 If we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end Rev. 2.7 To him that overcometh all sins temptations and spiritual enemies will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God vers 11. He that overcometh sin which is the first spiritual death Rom. 7.24 he shall not be hurt of the second death which lay lurking and hid therein vers 17. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna and I will give him a white stone and in the stone a new name written which no man knoweth saving he which receiveth it vers 26 27 28. And he that overcometh and keepeth my words unto the end aforesaid to him will I give power over the nations to wit all the powers and faculties of the outward man or the natural being and he shall rule them with a rod of iron as the vessel of a potter they shall be broken in shivers if through any new temptation they shall offer to rebel Rev. 9.27 even as I received of my Father and I will give him the morning-starre and Rev. 3.5 He that overcometh shall be clothed in white raiment and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life but I will confess his name before my Father and before his Angels vers 12. him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the house of my God and he shall go no more out And I will write upon him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God which is new Jerusalem that cometh down out of heaven from my God and I will write upon him my new name vers 21 22. to him that overcometh will I give to set with me upon my throne even as I overcame and am set down with my Father upon his throne Let him that hath an ear hear what the Spirit saith unto the Church which condition we had six times before in the former and this present chapter The fourth Topick shall be the end for which Christ was given by the Father and for which he gave himself for us which on his part cannot be disappointed cannot be frustrate if we be not wanting to our selves Isa 42.6 7. I the Lord have called thee in righteousness and will hold thine hand and will keep thee and will give thee for a covenant to the people for a light of the Gentiles to open the blind eyes to bring the prisoners out of prison and them that sit in darkness out of the prison-house So again Isaiah 49.8 9. Isai 61.1 2 3. as before The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted who are troubled about
come salvation and strength the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ for the accuser of our brethren is cast out who accused them before God day and night In hope of this kingdom and in order thereunto the Saints to whom it was published purified their hearts by faith in Gods sanctifying grace to be had in Jesus Christ 1 Joh. 3.2 3 Beloved now are we the sons of God and it doth not appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him or we shall see him as he is and every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure Act. 15 7 8 9. Men and brethren ye know that a good while ago God made choice among us that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the Gospel and beleive and God which knoweth the hearts bare them witnesse giving the Holy Ghost unto them even as he did unto us and put no difference between them and us purifying their hearts by faith Out of this faith and hope the souls of Gods elect do cry unto God night and day for vengeance against Gods spiritual enemies and theirs who first had crucified Christ in them and by them and afterwards did cruciate and vex them with continual temptations and assaults Luk. 18.1 And he spake a parable unto them to this end that men always ought to pray and not to faint saying There was in a City a Judge that feared not God neither regarded man and there was a widow in that City and she came unto him saying avenge me of mine adversary and he would not for a while but afterwards he said within himself though I fear not God nor regard man yet because this widow troubleth me I will avenge her lest by her continuall coming she weary me And the Lord said hear what the unjust Judg saith and hall not God avenge his own elect which cry day and hight though he bear long with them I tell you that he will avenge them speedily Neverthelesse when the Son of man cometh shall he find faith upon earth Where now is this faith of Gods elect to be found yea where is the faith of the Apostles and their Churches to be heard or read of who looked for no life and glory by Christ unlesse they died with Christ unto all known sin Rom. 6.8 For if we be dead with him then we believe that we shall live with him and the doctrine which held forth that and no other way for the fallen man to enter into life the Apostle commends as a faithful and undeceivable word implying that the contrary doctrine and perswasions deceive mens souls in the end 2 Tim. 11.12 This is a faithful saying if we be dead with Christ we shall live with him if we suffer with him dying to sin we shall also reign with him If we deny him in this way he will also deny us The seventh Topick is the inequality between sin and Gods grace now to be had of Christ Jesus thereagainst Is 5.4.11 No weapon that is formed against the Lord shall prosper and every tongue that raiseth up against thee in judgment thou shalt condemne This is the heritage and so forth Rom. 5.17 For if by one or one mans offence death reigned by one how much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ vers 20 21. Moreover the law entred that the offence might abound but where sin abounded grace did superabound that as sin had reigned unto death even so grace might reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ The eighth Topick is the professed resolution of the Christians in the Apostles time to die unto all sin Rom. 6.1 What shall we say then shall we continue in sin that grace may abound God forbid How shall we that are dead to sin namely by Christian profession and resolution live any longer therein Colos 3.3 For ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God The ninth Topick is from the true end and use of baptism to teach us this death and burial of sin in conformity to Christs death and resurrection Rom. 6.3 4. Know ye not that so many of us as are baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk after we are dead and risen again with him in newness of life for if we have been planted into the likeness of his death we shall also be planted into the likeness of his resurrection knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin 1 Cor. 15.29 Else what shall they do who are baptized for the dead if the dead rise not at all why are they then baptized for the dead Colos 2.12 Buried with him in baptism wherein ye are also risen through the faith of the operation of God who hath raised him from the dead The tenth Topick is from the admission and assertion of this mortified and purged estate every where Rom. 8.2 For the law of the spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus hath freed me from the law of sin and death Rom. 6.7 For he that is dead is justified or freed from sin 2 Cor. 5.17 If any man be in Christ according to the Spirit he is a new creature old things are past away and all things are become new Gal. 2.20 I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me Chap. 5.24 And they that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts The eleventh Topick is from the omnipotency of true faith in Christ Marth 15.18 Then said Jesus unto her O woman great is thy faith be it unto thee even as thou wilt Chap. 21.21 Jesus answered and said unto them Verily I say unto you if ye have faith and doubt not ye shall not onely do this which is done to the fig-tree but also if you shall say unto this mountain of sin be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea it shall be done Mark 9.23 Jesus said unto him if thou canst believe all things are possible unto him that believeth John 14.12 Verily verily I say unto you he that believeth on me the works that I do shall he do also and greater works then these shall he do because I go to the Father Unto which joyn that of our Saviour John 16.33 In the world ye shall have tribulation but be of good cheer I have overcome the world even Satans world which ye through faith shall be by me enabled to overcome 1 John 5.4 5. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world and this is the victory that overcometh the world even
not to be in these after days expected though it be said Wisdom 7.27 Wisdome entreth into holy souls and maketh them friends of God and Prophets and Rev. 18.20 Rejoyce over her thou Heaven and the holy Apostles and Prophets and such also we look for when the new heavens and the new earth cometh wherein dwelleth righteousnesse 2 Pet. 3.13 And when the everlasting Gospel cometh to be better known and preached anew to them that dwell on the earth c. also then will Pastors be given by Christ according to his own heart Jer. 3.15 with such gifts as those had Ephes 4.11 who shall officiate in teaching his Church according to his own order and discipline in the mean time we cannot tel how to perswade our selves that our Presbyterrian publique Ministers or Bishops nor any other divided opinions among us who call themselves Ministers of Jesus Christ are more then Ministers for Jesus Christ in a prudential way which yet we do not despise but honour them if sober and peaceable in their ministration for we believe the said ministration to be very serviceable to righteous and just ends even to have its service until the time of a better reformation then we have yet seen for we see former if not worse deformities acted under other names and imployments of Ministers utinam id verum non esset But we say no more at present save only wish all whom it may concern to mind the words of St. James 2.12 13. So speak and so do as they that are to be judged by the Law of liberty or freedom for there shall be judgement saith the Apostle v. 13. without mercy to him that sheweth no mercy which Christ doth not relate to friends only but to reputed enemies Math. 5.44 c. and mercy rejoyceth over judgment Jam. 2.13 that is from the Father of mercies whose mercy is over all his works Psal 45.9 and if they do so speak and do c. then we doubt not according to that 2 Cor. 10.6 but the messenger of the Lord of Hosts will suddenly return again to his Temple Mal. 3.1 and build up once again the Tabernacle of David which is fallen down c. Act. 15.16 17. but in the mean time their service whose souls are not lifted up Hab. 2.4 in a prudential way of ministrarion will be acceptable to the Lord in their measure according to that Mal. 3.16 c. Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another and the Lord hearkened and heard it and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon his name and they shall be mine saith the Lord of Hosts in the day when I shall make up my jewels or special treasure and I will spare them as a man spareth his own sonne that serveth him then shall ye discern between the righteous and the wicked between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not Mal. 3.16 17 18. FINIS The Contents of the Integral or of this whole Book is distributed into a Tricotomie and offered to the Readers view that he may primo intuitu perceive what he shall if he please find despersed and argued à capite ad calcem throughout the same THE first part of it is a genuine and fit Paraphrase on the Vindicators Hypocritical Saint like Preface And first a Paraphrase upon the salutation in the Preface To all the Lovers in his sense of Gods truth c. Secondly a Paraphrase on the Preface it felf consisting of many Paragraphs in coloured words of Scripture-phrase to deceive the hearts of the simple The Revindication it self comprehends two parts First the Anasceuastick confutative part i. e. to confute by answering the Vindicators pretended Scriptures and Fathers which he doth rashly and ignorantly produce to justifie his pernicious positions placed in the front of his Vindication wherein we trace him from pag. 2. to p. 146. The second part of the aforesaid Tricotomie is Catasceuastick the confirmative part of our contrary assertions by several Topick heads of Scripture testimonies Secondly by humane testimonies first of the Fathers commonly so called Secondly our English reformed Church in our first reformation from page 146. to p. 200. The last part of the foresaid Tricotomie consists of two sorts of Queries occasioned from our overforward contenders and Censurers and offered to them or whomsoever they may concern to pensitate with serious thoughts The first sort of them are to such as fix two magisterially their own sense before they have deliberately considered it upon some particular Scriptures as if their sense were before they are sure of it the very mind of the Lord in the said places some Scripture instances we have set down mistaken we appeal to all impartial Readers by several persons as that of John 3.5 6. by one Mr. Stevens who doth weakly call the said place their strong reason to maintain his old tradition of original sin in his shallow Book called A threefold defence of original sin Other instances of Scriptures in a mistaken sense are those Isaiah 64.6 Phil. 3.8 9. mistaken by two grave Committee men who have been our back friends in the County of Wilts Thus we have delivered the summe of the Tricotomy of our Book intituled A Revindication It s true we have inserted some personal reflections which do not concern every Reader and therefore it may be said they might have been left out as if they savoured of a like Spirit we answer we must commit that to him who knoweth all things we have much more to say a-against some and to vindicate the deceased whose death we wish them to consider of that were so violent against him who was more knowing I am sure and more meek I am affraid then themselves and we thought it not amisse to name some passages and persons having been so publickly wronged by the same that the world may see what unruly spirits there are in these dayes of reformation against the Doctrine of a possibility of a total mortification of sinne in this life because it hath been for the said Doctrine we have been traduced in the Vindicators senselesse Vindication and also through many counties it hath been sounded and ecchoed out that we are Jesuits and Factors for Rome so strangely and unexpectedly is Rome it seems by the foresaid callumny reduced as to hire us to publish and convince a possibility of a total mortification of sinne in this life and to cry up a possibility of a perfect obedience to the law of God in this life If this be to be vile we are content to be more vile 2 Sam. 6.22 If I have spoken evil bear witness of the evil John 18.23 Here are some Errata referring to the book aforesaid which we desire the Reader to take notice of for the better understanding what we mean in the respective places we confess they might by the mutual and diligent care of all parties of us concerned have been prevented therefore we do not excuse our selves that it could not be helped saying in many things we offend all for our endeavour here hath been to prove a possibility to live in this life through the grace and help of Christ without offence and therefore these Errata we acknowledge did happen by our neglect and oversight who were mutually concerned to have looked better about us Sed nihil factum infectum fiers potest it s too late now to mend them otherwise then by their subscription therefore we desire the Reader when he perceiveth in any page of the book a Crupsis either of inversion redundancy or defect of words to make grammatical construction then to reflect upon these nominated Errata to rectifie the sense of the said place and as for the objectum occupans and adjunctum occupat about the same we leave them to the Readers censure as he pleaseth PAraph p. 2. l 34. r. service l. 36. d. fore l. 37. r. 13.11 p. 7. l. 2. r. to reproch them for l. 29. r. Wilton p. 9. l. 39. after preface r. and positions p. 12. l. 2. for said r. side p. 13. l. 29. r. Act. 19. p. 15. l. 1. r. to do wickedly Book p. 2. l. 6. r. catasceuastically p. 25. l. 18. r. Mat. 22. p. 26. l. 28. r. 1 John 2.22 p. 37. l. 6. r. 1 Cor. 3.1 2 3. p. 39. l. 10. r. Sidkenu p. 35. l. 12. d. not p. 82. l. ult adde be p 100. l. 37. adde is p. 106. l. 21. f. servant r. Son p. 112. l. 23. del not p. 117. l. 30. r. as it is p. 127. l. 19. r. because of him p. 136. l. 1 2. d. it p. 139. l. 15. r. Joh. 5.40 p. 144. l. 17. f. note r. vote l. 30. r. commander l. 31. f. whence r. whom p. 188. l. 25. adde be p. 200. l. 4. f. held r. bold p. 210. l. 20. r. the res testata l. 23. f. prudentia r. constantia p. 217. l. 17. f. rules r. rites p. 228. l. 7. del a. p. 229. l. 22. r. Phil. 3.6 7 8. p. 230. l. 29. d. through the faith of Jesus p. 233. l. 10. after nature r. 2 Pet. 1.4 p. 241. l. 2. r. related p. 16. l. ult r. id bruti p. 243. l. 28. r. before all the people l. 29. d. the people p. 245. l. 10. f. who r. what p. 254. l. 10. r. yea not to be believed they can be c. p. 256. l. 8. after earth r. Rev 14.6
Israel of the God of this world spoken of 2 Cor. 4.4 to be prevailers in maintaining that sin and disobedience to the law of the righteous and just God will remain in the best Saints if they be no better then our selves are yet by confession and practise as long as they live That being the end for which we are what we are in all reviling and slandering the said Doctor Drayton and Parker under the horrid names of Jesults and Factors for Rome even for such Saints at Rome who were most eminent above others in Neroe's house when Paul was there Phil. 4.22 I say even for to make them more odious to our sin-maintaining party I am not unwilling to spend my lungs to reproch Jesuits and Factors for Rome as all can witness that heard my scurrulous invective at Wisfoord near Wilton against the said Parker for preaching such poysonful doctrine at Wilton of a possibility of a total mortification of sin in this life of which doctrine I wished the people of Wilton who flocked to heare me to take heed of and not endure to heare the said Parker preach any such doctrine for I told them spreading my paper on the Pulpit-cushion like Rabsicaes letter that the said doctrine will sink himselfe and his hearers to hed if our doctrine for sinne remaining in us as long as we live do at any time advance and lift us up to heaven Your selves my fellow Levites like Simeon and Levi brethren to maintain iniquity are now upon the stage as I tell you in my next paragraph to act your parts Therefore it doth concern you to joyn hand in hand with me in maintaining our positions for they are begun as I told you to be spoken against in publ que by our enemies whom I could not disswade nor terrifie from so doing though I told them openly before a cloud of witnesses that if they did publish such doctrines to the people against the necessity of sin remaining in the best Saints as long as they live they would pull all the Ministers of my mind which are too too many in the countrey about their ears His words spoken in Wilton Church because if it should be so as our enemies affirm the people would soon charge their Ministers with preaching a long time many lies to them for telling them so frequently that sinne will remain in the best Saints as long as they live as an Alderman of Milton told my selfe presently after Doctor Drayton had preached the Sermon now in Print on 2 Cor. 7.1 for cleansing away all fil hinesse of the flesh and spirit that if the said doctrine were true which Doctor Drayton had delivered I my self had taught at Milton many lies which wounded me to the heart though it were so to be told it to my face and the people in short time will say my fellow Levites as much to your faces as I was told if the doctrines of our enemies to sins continuance in best Saints come to be received more generally among all sorts of people Therefore arm up you courage my indeared fellow-brethren for sâ—â—â— cause and muster up the forsee you seem to have and fight as I bid you in the said paragraph being likewise upon the stage while our enemies yet stand below this boon sight of our traditional faith That sin will remain in us as long as we live by reason of the want of faith to beleeve the contrary for it is said Mat. 13.58 where it is said Christ could do no great works there because of their unbelief Now if thus you do my united brethren I assure my self and you as I tell you in my last paragraph that our victory if we can overcome our enemies though it be but by Club-law as they did Rev. 11.17 will be glorious among all lovers of sinful pleasures and profits more then lovers of God and his holinesse for then we may as they did Rev. 11.10 rejoyce and be merry if we can still perswade weak capacities to be confident that sin will remain in the best Saints as long as they live because then we our selves shall still be accounted for such Saints among the people and also every man whose teeth continuall water after the apples of Sodom will then think his own beloved sin how worthy soever it be to be hated is the only innate corruption and infirmity that will and must remain in him as long as he liveth Thus you see friends how glorious our victory is like to be if we can prevaile in the eyes of all Epicures and lovers of sinfull profits and pleasures But indeed we do but dissemble and lye when we say it will be glorious through Jesus Christ for Christ is not saith the Apostle Gal. 2.17 the Minister of sin for he came to redeem all his Saints from all iniquity Tit 2.14 and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works therefore to him belongeth better glory for ever and ever to be given to him from such as those Ephes 5.27 28. who are sanctified and washed in water by the word then can accrue to him by our best Saints who plead to have sin remain in them as long as they live to which all truly enlightened Saints say Amen namely that Christ may have more glory from his eminent Saints by their being purged from all sin then can redound to him from the constant cleaving of sin to them as long as they live which is contrary to God and Christ and the holy Spirit yea so contrary to the Saints pure happiness as nothing can be more opposite thereunto This is the Paraphrase that Mr. John Tendering must have made himself of his preface if required to explain it as consonant and in reference to his positions that sin and disobedience to Gods law will remain in the best of Saints as long as they live therefore we could give no other paraphrase upon his preface consideratis considerandis then what we have for substance delivered to Mr. John's friends whereby they may see his naked mind under the covert of Scripture-phrases by which he would deceive the hearts of simple and well-meaning people and therefore we hope his friends will not say that we have abused him and wrested his words in his preface from his own design Because we are perswaded his friends will not have him speak in his preface heterogeneals to the positions in his Vindication for then he doth abuse them and make them believe that in his book to be one of his beloved truths which he doth contradict in his preface if he mean not according to our paraphrâ—se and so with coloured words deceiveth the hearts of his many allies which relie upon his lying oracles Again if men do not mean their prefaces to be respectively in reference to their subsequent designs then their preface and their book will not be consentanies but disparates and the author of them a dissentany altornis vicibus to them both therefore Mr.
page 48 in his differencing of gratia gratis data and gratia gratum faciens you will find him as excellent a Schoolman or schoolboy rather Page 2. he saith that in Religion the Law is our marke or way from which if we swerve we sin But is not the Gospel our way therein also and that in a speciall manner of our Christian Faith and Religion That defect is the general nature of sin but is not excess which is the other extreme sinfull also That this defect is an inclination or action repugnant to the Law But what thinks he of evill words as false accusation lying cursing and swearing such as he frequently useth are not they sinfull also That there is in sin a double formality repugnancy to the Law and guilt But guilt is the effect and not the form of sin That the former of these two is a comparison with the Law but it is a disparison or dissimilitude therewith that the first fin of man was the disobedience of our first Parents in eating the forbidden fruit But if he understands it of their actuall eating of that fruit he is much mistaken for as the womans actual eating thereof did go before the mans so many gradual evils did precede them both as first diffidence incredulitie to Gods word who had expresly said in the day that thou shalt eat thereof dying thou shalt dye Secondly too much eare and credence given to the devils lying promise who said ye shall not die but be as gods knowing good and evill Thirdly the too much liking and approbation of the forbidden fruit Fourthly the hungring or thirsting after it Fifthly contempt of Gods justice Sixthly ingratitude towards him for all his former goodnesse And lastly their consenting to Satan and resolution to eat of that fruit That in the generall all our corruption and misery is sprung from that first sin of the first Adam Contrary to what the Lord saith Hosea 13.9 O Israel thou hast destroyed thy selfe but in me is thine helpe But here he saith more particularly that eternall death came upon all their posterity by that first sin Contrary to Gods express Law Deut. 24.16 where God will not have the son to suffer a temporall death and much lesse an eternal for the fathers sin and directly contrary to Gods oath Ezek. 18.3 4. As I live saith the Lord God ye shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel Behold all souls are mine as the soul of the father so the soul of the son is mine the soul that sinneth it shall die So ver 20. The son shall not be are the iniquity of the father neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him and the wickednesse of the wicked shall be upon him Num. 16.22 Shall one man sin and wilt thou be wroth with all the Congregation That the corruption aversnesse of our nature came from that fall aforesaid Pag 3. that all our actuall sins doe spring from thence See to the contrary Eccles 7.29 That the first sin of man is the cause of all other sins and punishments which is true of each mans personal fall and disobedience and not of the other That the Spirit by the Law entitles us to Adams sin He means the first Adams as a derivation from the root to the branches as poyson is carried from the fountain to the cistern and as the children of traitors have their blood tainted with the treason of their fathers and as the children of bondslaves are under their parents conditions But all these similitudes are but shaws to catch woodcocks for neither was the first Adam either the root or fountain of our soules which are Gods immediate workmanship Isai 57.16 for the spirit should fail before me and the souls which I have made nor are our bodies unclean by birth being created to be Temples for the Holy Ghost nor are traytors children usually tainted with their fathers treason though by the civil Law of some Countreys in proditionis terrorem they are ignobled in their blood and dignity nor was Adam himselfe a bond-slave to sin but by the grace of regeneration Gods free-man Rom. 6.18 before he begat any children nor doth the sinful corruption of our parents pass to us more then the graces and virtues of those that are or were righteous for both these are spiritual things which nature cannot convey but he seeks to prove what he saith by some Scriptures long since worn thred-bare by allegation to that effect Joh. 3.5 Rom. 5.12 20 21. 1 Cor. 15.47 48 49. Ephes 2.3 Iob 4.4 Psal 51.5 Isai 48.8 Gen. 8.21 To all which we will give answer in the order set down with what brevity we can having answered the same at large in our Examen As for that Ioh. 3.5 Whatsoever is born of the flesh is flesh it is true of the wisedome of the flesh and of the righteousnesse of the flesh as well as of the open sin but Christ speaks not here of the naturall birth of men but of a spiritual be it true or false As for Rom. 5.12 13 20. the Apostle speaks there thus Therefore as by one man sin entred into the world and death by sin so death went over all men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so far as all have sinned for so Chrysostome and Erasmus and others read those words for untill the Law sin was in the world but where there is no Law sin is not imputed or reputed for sin Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression who is the figure of him that is to come But not as the offence so is the free gift for the judgment was of one to condemnation but the free gift is of many offences unto justification for if by one mans offence death reigned by one much more they which receive an abundance of grace and of the gift of Righteousnesse shall reign in life by one Iesus Christ Therefore as by the offence of one judgement came upon all to condemnation even so by the righteousnesse of one the free gift came upon all men to the justification of life for as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous Unto which long Text we give this short answer First that it is a parallel and opposition betwixt Adams mischief and Christs remedy and cure but few in these days of supposed rather then true light understand either the one or the other aright for besides the first Adam or man whom the Vindicator with many more for want of a true Judicator here understands there are foure Adams mentioned both in the Scriptures and other writers The first is our natural or earthly man which is the creature of this world of whom our Apostle saith 1 Cor. 15 41. The first man is of the earth earthly The second is
an inward portraiture of righteousnesse a glimpse of the heavenly man yet earthy naturall and mutable which we all beare at the first and so are said to have born the image of the earthly 1 Cor. 15.49 This is opposed verse the 14 of this 5 chapter of the Rom. to Moses another inward state or work of the Law discovering the deadlinesse of sin unto us with lightnings thunderings and terrors Heb. 12.18 19. The third Adam is the old man of sin The fourth is the last Adam the Lord from Heaven who is not as the first was with his weak image of Righteousnesse a living soul but a quickning Spirit 1 Cor. 15.45 It 's the first then of those soure the Adam of our earthly or naturall man who yet with the help of the second is the image of him that is yet to come to the beleevers to wit the Lord from heaven in whom we first sin and die by our personal fall according to 1 Cor. 15.22 As in Adam all die which doe die so in Christ shall all be made alive who are quickned for we proved before that no man did or could dye by the first Adams sin both by the Law and Gods oath thereagainst As for the first 1 Cor. 15.47 48 49. we have shewn that it makes for us and not against us As for Ephes 2.3 Paul there confesseth that since his fall he and the fallen Jews as well as others were not children of God by love patience and meeknesse as in their first creation but children by the nature of the wrath for so the words run in the Greek and consequently the children of the prince of the power of the air as well as others according to Rom. 3.22 23. Unto the words of Job 14.4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean We say that since the mans personal fall and corruption he can neither by his own strength cleanse himselfe nor bring forth any righteousnesse or holinesse that is in it selfe clean or pure Unto Psal 51.5 Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me or warm me we answer that David speaks here of his own first personal fall and disobedience or his first conception and forming not in his natural mothers belly but in the womb of sin accordingly as it is said of Eve who was at the first created after the similitude of God that when she fell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tim. 2.14 But the woman being deceived was begotten in the transgression Thus the Jews speak to the blind man Joh. 9.3 4. Thou wastaltogether born insin and dost thou teach us And David himselfe complaineth of some noted wicked ones the wicked are strangers from the womb they goe astray as soon as they be born they speak lies Psal 58.3 4 5. If he had spoken of their natural birth he could not truly have said that they had either gone astray or spoken lies as soon as they were born This mother that conceived David in sin was his consent to the first Temptation Jam. 1.15 Lust when it hath conceived c. Unto Esay 48.8 I knew that thou wouldest deal very treacherously and wast called a transgressor from the womb I say that men could not from the natural womb deal treacherously and therefore it is a spiritual womb of which the Lord speaketh here And Hosea 9.11 As for Ephrains their glory shall flee away like a bird from the birth and from the womb and from the conception to wit in the sin or in the false righteousness Finally unto Gen. 8.21 For the imaginations of mans heart are evil from his youth I say that is true for before that time men usually lose their innocency and corrupt themselves But what is that to innate corruption And whereas he brings in Augustine saying in uno vniversi It is granted while we were in Adams loines we were all one and so we are still in the natural Adam at the first birth earthly but innocent and in the old Adam of sin all one when we are fallen and depraved that is are corrupt and sinful but are not all such in the same measure and degree But his following positions are these page 4. That we were all in the first Adam legally No but seminally onely That there was a stipulation and Covenant between God and Adam for all mankind That we were all parties with him to any such Covenant That we were liable to the curse that belongeth to the breach of that Covenant All which are the meer figments of mans brain That we had interest in the mercy promised in that pretended Covenant Of all which there is no footstep to be found in the word That being in him naturally we were unavoidably subject to all the bondage and burthen which he or the humane nature then contracted Not so unless it were some temporal calamity with which God might justly plague his posterity for his fall and sins Yet he goes on in page 4. to prove that we are guilty of the first Adam's sin but by false principles or with true principles misapplied as followeth That every thing which is born carrieth with it the nature of that which did bear it as touching the substance and accidents proper to the special kind This is a truth and therefore the soul which is born and breathed from God must needs be pure and the natural earthly man must needs be good in his kind as all other natural living creatures are that which is born of the Spirit in a way of regeneration is Spirit but what is born of the Flesh is still Flesh as this mans Wisdome and Doctrine is of which birth Christ speaks John 3.6 as before That we being all born of corrupt and guilty parents do in our birth by nature draw their corruption and guilt Which is false for guilt and corruption are not natural but spiritual and adventitious things as is aforesaid That by the death of Christ who is the second Adam howbeit not as he was man but as he is a quickning Spirit and the Lord from heaven 1 Cor. 15.45 47. we receive a double grace of Justification and Regeneration Wherein are two false grounds layed down First that justification and regeneration are two distinct things which St. Paul makes but one and the self same thing Titus 3.4 5 6 7. But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the holy Ghost which he shed abundantly on us through Jesus Christ our Saviour that being justified by his grace we should be made heires according to the hope of eternal life And 1 Cor. 6.11 And such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God The second false ground is that we
Lord Jesus Christ So was also Peters charge to all the Saints 2 Pet. 3.14 Wherefore beloved seing ye looke for such things be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace without spot and blameless That in our best works done by the contribution and concurrence of our own faculties such a perverseness doth adhere and such stubborness of ours is superinduced that God may justly charge us for defiling his grace But this is most absurdly spoken for his grace cannot be defiled and as for the evil which we mixe with them if it may turn away his eyes from his own gifts in us why doth the Lord say then Psal 32.2 that there are some in whose spirit is no guile and Psal 119.1 Blessed are the undefiled in the way and Mat. 5.8 Blessed are the pure in the heart if no such people can be found That our lust is the father of sin and the Adulterer for temptation is the father and our desire delight and consent is the mother That we may see this sin in our children before they have hair or tooth shewing it self to wit vanity pride frowardness self-love and revenge and the like for which he voucheth the words of Augustine saying I have seen a sucking infant that was not able to articulate a word look with a countenance pale with envy upon his fellow-suckling that shared with him in the same milk But what will he say to those children that are born with hair and teeth as some have been in our age or what vanity or pride hath he seen in children where the child of a Prince will consort with the brat of a beggar of his own age or what frowardness which sickness or pain hath not caused or what self-love and anger but what is planted by God in every living animal Wherefore Augustine's reason is truly childish and contrary to the Apostles words but in maliciousness or naughtiness be ye children 1 Cor. 14.20 There and pag. 9. he brings in Augustine crying out Ubi Domine quando Domine wherever was the place O Lord when ever was the time O Lord that I have been an innocent creature To this I answer when he was first created Eccles 7.29 Lo this have I found that God made man righteous before he went to be baptized Quid festinat innocens aetas ad peccatorum remissionem saith Tertullian lib. de bapt and before the Devil even by the Law and word of God abused him and led him into errour and had made him wise in his own eyes and holy or righteous with his own chosen wayes as Paul speaks of himself in the like case Rom. 7.9 For I was alive without the Law once but when the commandement came sin lived and I dyed How came that to pass vers 11. for sin taking occasion by the commandement deceived me that is made me self-wise self-holy self-righteous and by it slew me Doth not Augustine himself as well as others call those infants whom Herod slew about Bethlehem Innocents lib. 3. de lib. arbit Further he saith pag. 19. That this sin breaks forth unexpectedly witness Hazael 2 Kin. 8.13 But what is thy servant a dog that he should do this great thing But was this original sin that thus breaks out surely then he might have discovered in himself some inclinations thereunto long before and then he needed not so much to have wondred at it now May not proud and wicked and obstinate men be given up to heinous and inhumane sins brought upon them by Satans temptations into whose hands they are delivered for their former rebellions and incorrigibleness See Rom. 1.28 29 30. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge so God gave them up to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient being filled with all unrighteousness fornication wickedness covetousness maliciousness full of envy murder debate He saith also Witness Peter Matth. 26.33 35. Why what did Peter but discover a great deal of good will to Christ when he had as yet attained very little power to withstand so great a temptation as did lie in the fear of death or some other great damage yet both he and all his Fellow-Apostles were then alwayes ignorant and weak But he goes on and saith Who would have expected or feared Adultery from such a man as David after so much communion with God or impatience from Jeremiah after such revelations from God or Idolatrie from Solomon after so much wisdome from God or fretfulness or frowardness of spirit from Jonah after such deliverance from God or fearfulness in Abraham after so much protection from God or cursing from Job after so much patience and experience from God yea by the Vindicators doctrine we might have expected all these and all other sins from any of these because he saith that every man by original sin derived from Adam and which is not wholly to be subdued in this life hath the seeds of all sins in him But what if they had been as innocent as Adam before his fall might they not have been tempted as he was and overcome likewise for want of close depending upon God yet behold how this Champion of corruption to maintain his false doctrine doth falsly and reproachfully charge some of the most eminent Saints with sin where the Lord himself doth not for Job and Jeremy might and did curse their nativity in sin and not their first birth as some of the best Expositors speak and that without sin yea with a great deal of piety towards God Nor are the Prophets charged with impatience by the Lord himself but commended as a pattern of patience to us Jam. 5.10 and Abrahams concealing of his wife if he failed therein which may justly be questioned it is not so bad as to leave his wife and child twelve or thirteen years together nor did he use lying or speaking of falshood to help himself as this false son of Abraham doth Howbeit he concludes with a good prayer wishing that we may all learn to know our selves to which we say Amen But whereas each of the eleven Apostles said Master is it I this clearly proves not that they suspected themselves as he would have it but that they were not conscious to themselves of any such wicked intention or inclination Therefore his paraphrase here is rather humanum commentum then a comment upon that Text nor do all these instances prove any thing but that men are liable at leastwise for a time to all manner of temptations and that some in their infancy of grace may through humane infirmity be overcome by that temptation which when they grow strong in Christ they can easily by his grace and help overcome afterwards as Peter did his fear of death for Christs cause when he suffered martyrdome for him but this proves not that we must be alwayes babes and like reeds shaken with every wind of temptation yet should our former weakness and falings teach us
to commiserate others who yet through ignorance or infirmity sometime stumble and fall Therefore it is false which he there by way of conclusion speaketh pag. 10. That strive we what we can our infirmities will incompass us and our corruption will be about us so long as we carry flesh about us as we may see in the forenamed instances for Job and others saw God face to face afterwards Job 42.2 as did Abraham Joh. 8.5 6. and Moses Deut. 34.10 That this thorne of sin will be still in our flesh Did Pauls thorne continue alwayes That our Canaanites will be still in our side Did not David subdue all the Canaanites in his time by his sons confession 1 King 5.3 4. so that there was no adversary left That our twins will still be in our womb What did Rebecah go alwayes big That our counterfightings and our counterwillings will still remain Then Christ hath taught us in vain to pray Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven That though we be like unto Christ per primitias Spiritûs is he himself so yet we are unlike him per reliquias vetustatis but John saith 1 Epist 3.1 3. that every one that hath a true hope to see Christ in his glory purifieth himself as he is pure and Paul Ephes 6.13 and having done all stand fast That not to sin is here our Law Which Law he makes to be impossible and so void but that in heaven it shall be our priviledge which heaven by grace some attain here at length Psal 32.2 and in whose Spirit there is no guile And 119.23 Blessed are they that keep his testimonies and seek him with their whole heart they also do no iniquity they walk in his wayes That all our perfection here is imperfect True in comparison of a greater yet it may be without sin and adequate to the Law Jam. 2.3 8. If ye fulfill the royal Law according to the Scriptures thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self ye do well Chap. 3.2 If any man sin not in a word the same is a perfect man and able to bridle the whole body 1 Joh. 2.5 6. But whoso keepeth his word in him Verily is the love of God perfected hereby know we that we are in him 1 Joh. 4.17 Herein is our love made perfect that we may have boldness in the day of judgment because as he is so are we in this present world Doth this man read the Scriptures yet saith he further that sin hath its deaths blow given it yet like a fierce and implacable beast it never lets its hold go till the last breath animamque in vulnere ponit it never ceaseth to infest us till it cease to be in us but that may fal out long before we die the natural death as Paul confesseth that old things were past away and all things become new with him 2 Cor. 5.16 and that he was crucified with Christ Gal. 2.20 In the six next pages he hath a new digression about the four-fold state of man Pag. 19. by miscount be saith that in the state of innocency the will was free to good or evil And so it is still while we remain in innocency That it might persist in good God preserving it So it may still First that it might fall into ill God forsaking it So it doth but we forsake him first That God did not confirm the first man against the fall yet he did by his commandement warning and threatning And so he doth still but he never did nor ever will confirm any man by force against his will That he permitteth the first man to be seduced and to fall into sin and death that as many as were saved out of the common ruine might be saved by mercy alone But the common ruine is ours by personal fall and not by our first parents as we have shewed That if in the world there had been no misery there had been no mercy Yea Gods mercy is over all his works Psalm 115.9 yea his mercy is from everlasting We answer it is true for the object of mercy is a miserable creature and there had been goodnesse and bounty to man if he had not sinned That if there had been no misery there had been no need of Christ Yea both to create and to preserve that which is created Heb. 10.1 2 3. That if there been no sin there had been no matter to shew his justice Yes there is justice in rewarding the obedient as well as in punishing the disobedient as we see in rewarding of the good and bad Angels Pag 20. by miscount That sin or the fall is necessary in regard of Gods decree Why did that necessitate man to sin then God must be the first author of sin That the Creator was not bound to the creature to preserve him in his goodnesse True not by any outward Law but by his own goodnesse he was bonitatis enim est creare bonum conservare That God willed the fall to be an occasion of bestowing his greater grace and benefits Then that Grace must be at leastwise as universal as the fall was That mercy ought not to fight with justice Nor doth it if it be offered to all that need it That it is most just that more regard should be had of the chief good then of the creatures Then we must not make him unjust in damning those which never offended him in their own persons to uphold new blasphemous doctrines yet the chief good is most far from all selfenesse and injustice That man at his first creation had not power to will what he would do Yes he had that power so to will but was not forced thereunto nor being created a free agent ought he to be forced to choose this or that That God ows no creature any thing Yes that which he was pleased to promise Pag. 21. That man is fallen by being born of corrupt parents No but by his own personal disobedience Eccles 7.29 Psal 14.23 and 53.23 Hosea 13.9 and 14.1 as before That mans will after the fall works freely but is carried to evil only But doth not Paul allow a man both power to will and run after good though not to be saved thereby when he saith So then it is not in him that willeth or that runneth but in God that sheweth mercy Rom. 9.16 That in this fallen state man can doe nothing but sin What will he say of the Gentiles spoken of Rom. 2.14 When the Gentiles which have not the Law doe by nature the things contained in the Law those saith he having not the Law are a Law unto themselves and of Abimelesk Genesis 20.6 who by Gods own testimony did something in the integrity of his heart That after the fall of the first man ensued the privation of the knowledge of God But neither all at once nor upon his posterity by that fall Rom. 1.19 20 21. because that which may be known of God is manifest in
when we have answered we will pay him in his own coine That it was the prerogative of Christ alone among all grown men to know no sin and to be found solus in hominibus qualis quaerebatur in pecoribus not in peccoribus as he hath it alone such among men as was sought among the beasts an unblamable lamb without spot Here he having cited Isaiah 53.6 saying we like sheep have gone astray and Gal. 3.23 that the Scripture hath concluded all under sin he might have spared Augustine contra Pelag. lib. 2. cap. 13. and Gregorie lib. 3. in Reg. cap. 6. saying There is no man that hath not some corruption in him which he may and should lament For take all this as spoken of the unregenerate man or the regenerate that hath not fulfilled his course with Paul 2 Tim. 4.7 and we have often affirmed the same But he brings Hieronymus contra Jovinian lib. 2. saying No man is clean from sin though he live but one day upon the long earth Which is true of the sinful earth spoken of Collos 3.5 mortifie therefore your members upon earth although we know that in that saying Hierom and others suffered the Septuagints ill translation of Job to impose upon them But we had almost lest out Lactantius whom contra Gentes lib. 6. cap. 13. he alledgeth saying No man can be without sin so as he is burthened with the garment of the flesh We say so likewise if he understand it of that flesh which Saint Jude speaks of vers 23. hating even the garment spotted by the flesh if otherwise he himself was Lactantick with Lactantius Further he brings Bernard upon Cant. serm 2. saying Non peccare Dei justitia est not to sin is the justice and property of God but remission of sin is the justice of man To which we say that the former is but true in part for the elect Angels never sinned and the latter scarcely true at all for remission of sins is one thing and righteousness is another And where the remission of sin follows the righteousness of sanctification to purge them away must go before of necessity Acts 26.18 Sed unus Bernardus non vidit omnia And his own conclusions there are as false for saith he As the Ivy will not die untill the Oke be cut down but Experience shews that if you cut the Ivy at the root it will forthwith die so our sins will not die as long as we live which is as false as the other neither will it ever be abolished until death ends the conflict between the flesh and Spirit Then death which is but a privation is stronger then the Spirit And such Quacks as he is have a good warrant and pretence to kill many yea were it many thousands for by this means according to his doctrine they should put an end to this conflict of sin and send men presently to be perfected in glory Here not only souldiers whose trade is to kill but high-way-men poysoners and all murderers especially of the Saints might find a strong plea for their murders But he brings us more of this Ambrosia out of Ambrose de Paenit lib. 6. cap. 1. saying It is not the voice of thy family I am whole and need not a physician but heale me O Lord and I shall be healed But if it be the voice of his family of what family is the Vindicator who saith that the Lord cannot or will not heal us is it death that must do that work for us is it not the voice of his family first to come to him for an absolute cure and then with the woman who was cured of her bloody issue and the cleansed leper and many others to come and give God thanks But he goes on page 23 24. with Ambrose speaking thus to the Novatian hereticks of his time and saith it may fitly be turned to the Jesuits of our time Darest thou O Jesuit call thy self clean and holy albeit thou wert clean in regard of thy workes this one word were enough to make thee unclean To which I say first that the way wherein Paul worshipped the God of his Fathers was called Heresie Acts 24.14 Secondly we know no Jesuit that counts himself perfect unless it be by his profession But we hope that he will not henceforth when it cometh to a trial at Law deny that be called us Jesuits which is no less then to accuse us of a capital crime no better then treason for which by Gods Law he ought to suffer death himself unless he can prove it Deut. 19.17 18 19. or to incurre a great mulct for his slander above that the Jury awarded at Sarum March 15. 1657. But lastly this pretender to no less degree then of a Doctor of Divinity doth not see that there is a gross absurdity if not contradiction in the words which he fathers upon Ambrose saying albeit thou wert clean in regard of thy works this one word I am clean which in that case is but the truth were enough to make thee unclean We hope the Vindicator hereafter will not be too forward to speak the truth any more then he hath done heretofore lest as he saith out of Ambrose it make him unclean But he giveth us presently some Nectar to his Ambrosia saying with him agreeth Augustine Serm. 29. de verbis Apost There are some like vessels that are blown up with wind filled with an haughty spirit of election not sollidly great but swelled with the humour of pride who dare be bold to say that there are men found upon earth without sin Why are there no promises of such persons see Isai 1.24.25 And I will turn mine hand upon thee and purely purge away thy dross and take away all thy tin See chap. 4.4 and 11 19. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain for the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters that cover the sea Eze. 36.25 I will pour clean water upon them and from all their filthinesse and from all their jdols will I cleanse them Zeph. 3.13 The house of Jsrael shall do no iniquity nor speak lyes But we know what sort of Protestants at this day are puffed up with the spirit of election And it seemeth the Vindicator being conscious to himselfe or his party did not English those words of Augustine inflati viri spiritu electionis pleni men puffed up filled with the spirit of election though for him we do it But the Father demands of such How sayst thou that art just and holy this prayer Forgive us our sins Yes such may say with Saint Math. chap. 6.12 forgive us our debts to wit of love and thankfulnesse to God yea and of love to men for his sake which debt is so great that it can never to all eternity be paid Rom. 13.6 Owe nothing to any man but to love one another and with Saint Luk. chap. 11.9 they can say also Forgive us
and sins In pursuit of this said digression he brings two arguments out of Augustine to prove that Zachary of whom he speaks chap. 1.6 did not perfectly walk in all the commandements of God The first is this because he was a Priest and was bound as well to offer for his own sins as for the sins of his people Heb. 3.5 Yet this he might do for his former sins though he were now perfect for the present so that this argument holds nor But the second which he hath page 26. of the new account is more childish then the former That because he is said to walk in the commandements he had not yet attained to the mark for they that are at their journies end sit still But it is not so in the kingdome of God for though they rest from their labours that is from their conflict against sin and Satan yet they walk in the perfection of Gods commandements for ever and if he fancied any other eternal life to himself then the fulness of love and righteousness required by the Law he was mistaken in the mark at which all true Saints aim Psal 133.3 For there he commanded the blessing and life for evermore Ephes 1.4 As he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love See Psal 24.4 5. Gal. 15.5 2 Tim. 4.8 before cited To which he adds a third argument of his own Because he was smitten with dumbness for not believing the Angels promise But as there is no moral precept for that so it infringeth not what Luke hath said of him chap. 1.6 where he tells us as before that the Apostle doth constantly distinguish between peccatum and crimen betwixt sin and crime that is saith he some grievous offence which giveth slander and is worthy of crimination Is not all sin then worthy of crimination But he voucheth Augustine saying That the life of holy men may be said to be without crime yet he thought otherwise who said nemo sine crimtne vivit but not without sin Which is true of a mans whole race or course that it is and hath been sinfull but not of the Saints last and best attainments or possibilities through grace as we shall afterwards shew out of Augustines own confession who is here again brought in saying Men live well if they live without crime But they live better when by grace they live without sin But that is egregiously false which follows that he who thinks he can to wit by the help of Christ live without sin he doth not thereby make himself free from sin Yes if he do not he may do it in time but debars himself of the pardon of his sins But Saint John speaks otherwise 1 John 1.7 But if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin Is not the forsaking of sin for the present the high way to pardon for our sins past See Prov. 28.13 Ezek. 18.21 22. But after that former digression he returneth again to his distinctions about perfection and righteousness wherein there is little of right and less of perfection to be found for first he saith out of his own cerebel that there is a two-fold perfection or righteousness the first imputed which is by way of relation and doth perfectly justifie us before God for which you must take his word for he brings no proofe to make it good the second is infused by way of inhesion subjectively in us and this saith he is but inchoate and imperfect and cannot justifie us before God But we have proved before out of Titus 3.4 5 6 7. 1 Cor. 6.11 that justification and sanctification are all one thing and therefore if the righteousness of sanctification be onely inchoated and not perfected in this life then we cannot be fully justified before God for there is no other righteousness to be attained for our justification then that hence it is Rom. 8.30 nothing interveneth between our calling and glorification but justification by which sanctification as being all one thing is to be understood Moreover those whom he foreknew those he called and whom he called those he justified and those he justified them he also glorified Then secondly he brings a distinction of extrinsecal and intrinsecal righteousness out of Zanchie of which the extrinsecal saith he is the adventitious he might have said the fictitious is the perfection of condonation where our imperfections are truly pardoned for the death and passion of Jesus Christ according to that of Augustine All the commandements are reputed as done when that is remitted which is left undone But where had the Bishop of Hippo this Hippomanes for the holy Ghost saith transmutatis terminis the clean contrary that when the cammandements are kept and fulfilled for the present then all that was amiss before becomes pardoned Ezek. 18.21 22 23. If the wicked will return from all his sins which he hath committed and keep all my statutes and do that which is lawful and right he shall surely live and not die all his transgressions which he hath committed they shall not be mentioned unto him in the righteousness of that he hath done he shall live Doth not Christ require an actual keeping and performance of the commandements of every one that will enter into life Matth. 7.21 Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the kingdome of heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in heaven 1 Cor. 7.19 Circumcision is nothing nor uncircumcision but the keeping of the commandements of God Rev. 22.14 Blessed are they that do his commandements that they may have right to the tree of life as before And this righteousness saith he rather consisteth in the pardon of sins then in the perfection of vertue But where is the pardon of sins called righteousness for though the Apostle Rom. 4.6 7 8. speaks of a blessedness that lieth not in the imputing of sin and the imputing of righteousness without works yet that not imputing of sin is the purging away sin by Gods Spirit as is evident out of Psal 32.2 3. which place should be thus rendred O the blessedness of the man whose transgressions are taken away and whose sins are covered to wit by mortification O the blessedness of the man to whom the Lord will not impute iniquity by letting it remain unpurged away and in whose Spirit there is no guile For the last words of the Text do evince that David speaks here of sanctification as knowing no other justification and the imputing of righteousness without works that is our own works is the free bestowing of the righteousnesse of sanctification and the perfection of vertue which the vertuous Vindicator here sets aside The intrinsecal perfection or righteousness which he speaks of out of Zanchy is saith he the perfection of
and commands and all exhortations spoken and pressed in the name of the Lord and those in speciall which tend to the purging out of all sin and the fulfilling of the Law in Christ yet are not only precepts but possible to the Saints as the said Augustine elswhere confesseth The School also saith and that truly Ultra posse viri non vult Deus ulla requiri God promiseth grace to fulfil all that he requireth Secondly he saith that many of those places of Scripture do shew us not what we are now in via in the way but what we shall be hereafter in patria at the end of our pilgrimage when we shall be freed from the imperfection of our flesh and clothed with the garment of perfect righteousnesse Yea they doe in a speciall manner shew us both what we are and what we should be now in via or here now yet it cannot fully be set forth what we shall be hereafter for as Paul speaks 1 Cor. 2.9 But as it is written eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive the things which God hath prepared for them that love him Thirdly he saith that in many places the Scripture but he cannot produce one such terms them perfect and immaculate which have defiled their garments and polluted their consciences mark saith he not with no sins which is impossible but with no grosse sins or damnable enormities which as is said before is commendable But first we think the Vindicator alloweth no sin to be veniall but all mortal and damnable though not equally such Secondly we say that while any man pollutes his conscience he is neither called or accounted either perfect or immaculate by the Lord who is of purer eyes then to behold iniquity Haba 1.13 And thirdly what though all men have so defiled their garments for a time yet it is not impossible at length through grace to keep our souls and consciences so unspotted for so had Paul done 2 Cor. 1.12 and knowing that the like grace was attainable for others he prayed for it in their behalfe Phil. 1.10 11. that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Jesus Christ being filled with the fruits of righteousnesse 1 Thes 5.23 And the very God of peace sanctifie you wholly that your whole spirit soul and body be preserved blameless until the coming of our Lord Iesus Christ See also Heb. 13.19 20. before cited Fourthly he saith the Scripture pronounceth men perfect blameless and blessed not because they have no sins but because their sins are not imputed unto them Psal 32.1 2. But we have shewed before that this not imputing is a purging them away by sanctification as well as a remission Further he saith and therefore though the Saints are called righteous and perfect not only in regard of the imputative righteousnesse which is wrought in them by the Spirit of Christ but we must understand in what sense the Saints are inherently called righteous for we must not think them to be so perfectly righteous as to be void of sin or to be justified in the sight of God because that together with the sanctification of the Saints there is still in them a remainder of original coruption by the touch and stain of which their best works are corrupted and defiled and therefore we say that though the Saints and holy men of God may and have lived sine scandalo without offence and page 29. sine querela without reproof and complaint on mans part by or in the observance of all outward principles yet it is impossible the best of them should live and die sine peccato without sin So he Unto all which we briefly answer that his distinction of imputative and inherent righteousnesse is vain for they are all one as we have shewed before Secondly the Saints are or ought to be so perfectly righteous by inherent righteousness as to be thereby justified in the sight of God whether the word be taken for a purging from sin as it is Acts 13.39 or for a positive righteousnesse as Titus 3.4 5 6. for there is no other way of justification in Christ unto eternal life spoken of in the Scriptures Thirdly we have proved before that there is not nor ought to be such a remainder of original corruption always found in the best Saints as to stain and corrupt their best works Lastly we have likewise asserted by clear Scriptures that the Saints through Christ not only may but should live here at the length not alone sine scandalo and querela but sine peccato without sin as well as without scandal or just reproof for to that end Christ gave himselfe Ephes 5.24 25 26. But he tels us in that 29 pag. that Rom. 4.1 2. is a remarkable place So it is indeed but not for his purpose to prove that Abraham lived and dyed an imperfect man and with some remainders of corruption in him which words ought to be thus translated as they lye in the Greek Text What shall we say then that Abraham our father hath found according to the flesh or in his unregenerate estate for if Abraham were justified by works to wit before not after grace received he hath whereof to glory but not before God as he proveth in the following verse but of this more in another place Then here he shews by a distinction that the Saints whom he holds to be always imperfect in this life may be in a four-fold sense called perfect First in regard of their intention and aime at and desire of perfection for resting in a good condition saith he is contrary to grace grow in grace But may not the Saints rest when they are at the end of their journey and race which is the final mortification of sin through faith according to Heb. 4.3 For we which have beleeved doe enter into rest Let him here who is tantus temporum observator such an observer of tenses before mark the tenses here for the work of beleeving is past and the entring into rest is present The Saints in heaven are doubtlesse in a good condition is it against grace for them to rest in it Secondly he saith that the Saints are perfect inchoatively and because they goe on more and more but inchoation and consummation are two remote terms or stations and progression may stand at a great distance from perfection and the end of the race at leastwise in the beginning and the middle of it Thirdly he saith they may be term'd so comparatively or in respect of other mens unrighteousnesse And fourthly acceptatively because God accepteth them though not absolutely just by the reason of manifold sins and defects yet in Christ and for Christ his sake through whom all our imperfections are pardoned as just and righteous men But by his leave God accepts no man no not in Christ otherwise then as he is according to his present inward state and growth hence
it is that the Churches to whom the Apostle wrote and those seven especially to whom Christ wrote Rev. 2 3 chap. are either commended or rebuked threatned or encouraged according to their obedience or disobedience faith or unbeliefe growth or decay in godlinesse and no man is taken for perfect but he that was truly so in some kind or degree Yet it is true that the Lord doth for a time and with much long-sufferance tendernesse and compassion beare the failings of his good-willing servants which proceed from ignorance and humane weaknesse and not from neglect and much lesse from presumption yea while men are truly babes in Christ he accepts the will for the deed and expects no more from any men then what they can do by grace attained or which they might have done by grace at hand if they had sought it Howbeit nothing doth more displease him then wilful Apostasie after grace received Heb. 6.4 5 6 7. and 10.26 27 28. and unbelief in his grace and power for the subduing of our enemies after we had experience already of the same in some measure Heb. 3.17 18 19. But with whom was he grieved forty years was it not with them that had sinned whose carkasses fell in the wildernesse and to whom sware he that they should not enter into rest but to them that beleeved not so we see that they could not enter in because of unbeliefe But he brings in Augustines saying that the best perfection of man in this life is to confesse and acknowledge himselfe to be imperfect Which is a very rash and inconsiderate affirmation as many other of his dictates are indeed if he had said it had been the high way to perfection first to know and acknowledge our own imperfections and then for cure to fly to Christ this saying had not been so imperfect or dangerous But they that are under the work of the Law and not yet under the saving work of grace do abundantly know and feel their imperfections how can this then be mens greatest perfection to find and feel their imperfections Such plausible sayings without truth are soft pillows under secure mens arms inviting them to sleep in slothfulnesse and sin But the Vindicator doth now promise to lay down some reasons for the confirmation of his first position of which let us take a view The first is this That there is not any among the Saints of God mentioned in the Scripture that the Spirit of grace doth not charge with some sin the most perfect in their generations were not without their failings and that after their long walking with God as Noah being drunk Lot incestuous Abraham diffident when he consented to unlawful means in going in to Hagar for bringing about Gods purpose Sarah lyed and distrusted when she laughed at the promise of God Moses and Aaron were barred out of Canaan for dishonouring God by diffidence and passion Hezechiah was lifted up with pride Job impatient and humbled for it David had foul and secret sins which he repented of and prayed against Jehosaphat and Asa were reproved Uzziah and Zachariah punished one by untimely death the other by dumbness and yet these are reported in the Scripture to have served God with all their heart To which we say that this argument and reason hath little of reason in it for first it is false that the Spirit of grace hath charged with some particular sin or other the most perfect men in their generation for neither Abel nor any of the Patriarchs before the flood nor after the flood to Abraham are so charged unless Noah for one act of drunkenness wherein also he was surprized by the unknown strength and operation of the new wine The like we may say of Eleazar Ithamar Joshuah Caleb Othniel Ehud Jephthah Samuel Nathan Gad and almost all the prophets of John the Baptist and his mother of the Virgin Mary and Joseph her husband of Nathaniel and almost all the Apostles and thousands of other Saints mentioned in general and particular in the Scriptures Secondly that there neither wants ignorance nor impudence in this his charge For Abraham took Hagar by instinct of the Spirit as is partly hinted in Mala. 2.13 which verse as Castellio hath formerly observed should be thus rendred If so be one did it who had abundance of the Spirit yet wherefore is that one alledged to wit for the justification of Polygamie who sought a godly seed therefore take heed to your spirit and let none of you deal treacherously against the wife of his youth Doth not Saint Paul also tell us that Sarah and Hagar were also an Allegorie or mystery of the two Covenants and Testaments Gall. 4.24 But it was once the practise of the false Apostles to speak evil of those things which they understood not Jude v. 10. yet this champion of corruption contents not himself to accuse the most absolute pattern of faith and obedience that was to be found among meer men who is the father of all the faithful and the friend of God whom he first singled out to make him in a special manner the man of his covenant and to charge him with unbelief and disobedience and that here the second time in this his slanderous pamphlet but he likewise challengeth and impeacheth Job of impatience who is commended unto us Jam. 5.11 for a rare pattern of patience as indeed he was It were well for him if he had the fourth part of Abraham's obedient faith or Jobs patience But let it be granted that not onely David but others also had foul sins and secret sins for a time had they such unto their dying dayes we trow not being he confesseth that he both bewailed them prayed to have them discovered and removed witness the Psalmist Psal 139.23 24. saying Search me O God and know my heart try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any sinful or wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting And therefore to little purpose he cites page 30 that passage of Augustine who bids the Pelagians in a rhetorical flourish ask all the Saints and they will confess is he sure of it that while they lived here they were not without sin But theirs is but one opinion we shall anon shew him the contrary sense of some not inferiour to him as we did of late out of 1 John 4.17 18. The confession of John who was ten times more infallible then Augustine and all his African Bishops assembled together But he goeth on and saith if any Saint on earth had to glory it was with men and not with God So say we also yet had all the faithfull Saints cause to glory in the Lord for their victory in Christ 1 Cor. 15.57 And further he saith for his second argument that we do not read of any Saints that did so stand but that they fell into some sins Which is not true of their final estate and they also that had as he saith
left in them Wherein take notice that the Vindicator that cals us Pelagians is herein a Pelagian himselfe as all his fellows are Secondly that whereas he should deny the Minor that concupiscence doth not make the regenerate obnoxious to Gods wrath he admits it and takes it for granted that neither that nor any other sin doth condemn the regenerate or make them obnoxious to Gods wrath and yet he confesseth them to be sins but saith that by accident it cometh to pass that they are not reputed for such but are pardoned by grace Which is true when they are repented of and left and so cease to be sins but not otherwise The fourth objection which he brings is this In baptisme original sin is taken away therefore concupiscence is no sin in those that are baptized Uunto which he answers by distinction yet without the least instinct of truth that by baptisme the guilt of sin is taken away Which we deny against some of the Fathers and the Schoolmen as having no warrant from the Scriptures But he confesseth that the worst part of sin and that which is most offensive to God remaineth even corruption and an inclination to sin But here we first say that the guilt is not taken away before or without the corruption Secondly that children when they are baptized have neither guilt nor corruption to be taken away for the present yet may lawfully be baptized in innocency as Christ himself was for a future document and sign And thirdly that in the baptisme of men grown and newly converted neither the acts and corruptions nor the guilt are taken away by outward baptisme only there is their duty in following of Christ in his death and resurrection under the hope of his grace and help for the present and of a full remission and eternal life in the end declared unto them therein by which also they observe and fulfill an outward ordinance oblige themselves to the said duty stand under that grace hoped for and are distinguished by an holy ordinance and Christian profession from other men Pag 41. he first concludes that original concupiscence is sin Which we never denyed and then he is so impudent as to say of us that were not these men past shame they would never goe about to revive such heresies as we hoped had been long since buried among us But who revived them he or we But mark his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there But so long as there is a Divell in hell or a Pope at Rome we must never expect to be freed from such disturbers of our peace But what disturbance have we made or what peace have we broken Thus he that hath played the boutefeu himselfe and hath without cause incensed all the neighbouring Ministers and people against us where he could get access and audience chargeth us with his own wicked practise of disturbance who live quietly and cause no commotion amongst men but only seek to awaken them out of security and sloth to watch and war aright against their sins and Ghostly enemies and that out of love to God and their souls and in order to their everlasting peace as well as their present welfare in the unity of the Spirit and the bond of perfection which is love to God and men the conquering of sin and the fulfilling of the Law But we must bear his false charge and challenge in this kind with the more meekness because the holy Prophets and Apostles have undergone the like accusation at the hands of injurious slanderous and outragious men and that upon the self-same account Acts 16.21 and 18.13 and 24.5 and as long as there is a Devil in hell and his hellish kingdom hath room in mens hearts and sets their tongues on fire as Saint James speaks chap. 3.6 we must expect no better usage at their hands till the old accuser of our brethren be cast ou◠of them Rev. 12.10 See Mat. 10.25 If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub much more will they do it to them of his houshold But in the end of pag. the 41 to the end of pag. the 48. he comes with his solutive medicines to answer some Scriptures which he saith we allege and wrest to maintain our errours But this he speaks by way of divination for divers of them we have not yet produced nor have we need to wrest those that we alledge for they speak that clearly which we would prove The first saith he is that Rom. 6.6 where Paul saith of the Christians who are baptized into the faith of Christ knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin may be destroyed from thence saith he they conclude that the corruption of old Adam is quite abolished that they are perfectly quitted from sin and perfectly renewed in grace But this is one of his forged lies for we neither cite that Scripture nor inferr any such thing from it but since he by preoccupation hath quoted it for us we shall without wresting it conclude that those which truly confess the Christian faith and baptisme both may and ought to be crucified with Christ and through his grace and help to destroy the whole body of sin and so we have promised by our sureties to doe when we were baptized unlesse we will be renegadoes with him Unto this Scripture he answers pag. 42 as he had done before without fear or wit truth or modesty that the guilt of sin which the Schools term the formal of sin but indeed is the fruit and effect of sin is taken away in baptisme The falshood of which we have shewed before the baptisme which he meaneth neither takes away the guilt nor corruption of sin for Simon Magus was baptized among the other Samaritans and yet was still in the gall of bitternesse and bond of iniquity Acts 8.20 Secondly as to the corruption he saith that the dominion of it is taken away but not the being of sin from Gods Saints because Paul saith Gal. 5.17 the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the same Apostle speaks of himselfe I see another Law in my members warring against the Law of my mind and carrying me captive unto the Law of sin which is in my members But we shewed before that the infant-state of the Galatians being new-born babes in Christ is not the full strength and stature of young men in Christ and much lesse the dayednesse of old men or elders and experienced souldiers or Saints in Christ Secondly that Paul speaks not there of his own present condition And thirdly that this Text flies in his and their faces who affirm that all dominion of sin is taken away from such babes for this sin is a prince and a Tyrant it is not our slave but makes us its slave But he adds this that the Apostle saith not let not sin be in your mortal bodies but let it not reign Which is true in regard of Satans sinful motions as we said before
answereth that he sinneth not as he is regenerate but in his unregenerate part or as he is unregenerate But so do even the unregenerate sin in that part and manner and yet they sin to death or else they could not perish But he confesseth against himself that sin somtimes reigneth in the regenerate which thing he had denied before And then he brings in John as he hath done often to prove that all have sin in them 1 Joh. 1.8 which is his mistake of the place that he understands not for John doth not only explain his meaning better ver 10. but at the first of the next chapter writes even to the babes not to sin as we have shewed But he will give us his sense 1 Joh. 1.9 whose words are these If we acknowledge our sins he is faithful to forgive us This therefore saith he pag. 44. is the meaning of Saint John that the regenerate do sin but make not much of their sin or they doe not set open the door or yield to evil desires so as to cast off all love to godlinesse and not to repent But we have shewed the contrary even now and might doe further out of Ezek. 18.23 Mat. 12.43 44 45. Heb. 10.27 28. or more briefly because as he tels us yet with more words but to as little purpose that he which is born of God makes not a trade of sinning he lives not in his sin he fancies not his sin he delights not in his sin he sins not with purpose with pleasure with malice with perseverance sin reigneth not but as the Apostle speaks the evill that I doe I would not doe And cannot some of them that are yet unregenerate or but under the work of the Law at the furthest say so likewise we know who said Video meliora proboque Deteriora sequor But here he brings the latter part of that verse 1 Ioh. 3.9 by way of objection His seed remaineth in him neither can he sin because he is born of God To which he gives his former answer that he sins nor unto death But is not this to adde to the word that is written our own words and so to come under that curse Rev. 22.18 Then he brings in a fourth Scripture of our alledging as he pretends to wit 1 Pet. 1.21 being born anew not of mortal but of immortal seed by the word of God who liveth for ever From whence he saith that we conclude that since this immortal seed never dieth in them that are born of it they ever remain regenerate retain grace and never fall into sin But as this objection is here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 impertinent and upon a new head or point of doctrine so his answer is suitable and false also into the bargain to wit that the regenerate may and do lose grace and the holy Spirit of God in regard of some gifts and those sometimes more and fewer but not in respect of all the gifts for still there remaineth in them some print of faith and conversion which yet by yielding to evil inclinations and desires is ofttimes so opprest and darkened that it can neither be known to others nor confirm themselves of the grace of God and their own salvation for the present howbeit saith he it suffers them not wholly to forsake God and the known truth or the embracements of Christs merits by faith so David prayeth Psal 51.10 11. Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me and restore to me the joy of thy salvation But was this by vertue of the old seed of grace when David had been long in his sins of Adultery and murder without any true repentance for them or by Nathan's coming unto him to call him to repentance Therefore his conclusion from thence page 45 is not consequent to wit that David had not wholly left cleanness of heart righteousness of Spirit nor the way of salvation because then he would not have asked them afresh of God as he doth For though some cleanness of heart and rectitude of spirit might remain in him yet he had wholly forfeited and lost the joy of Gods salvation Secondly he further answereth that the seed of God which is his word working true faith and conversion abideth and dieth not Concerning their conversion he means a new and final perseverance however they may fall often grievously and foully before the end because John saith 1 John 2.19 If they had been of us they would have continued with us But we have proved the contrary before out of 1 Tim. 5.11 12. unto which adde 1 Tim. 1.19 holding faith and a good conscience which some having put away concerning the faith have made shipwrack and 2 Tim. 1.15 and 2.17 18. 4.14 15. In the 45 page he brings out other Scriptures as produced against him by us and in the fift place that of our Saviour Matth. 7.18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit To which he answers that it cannot as it is a good tree which shall so come to pass in the life to come but as it is partly good and partly evil it may bring forth evil fruit whereof saith he we have sufficient trial and experience in this life Must we then bring forth no good fruit here But Solomon saith Whether the tree fall to the north or to the south in the place where it falleth there it shall lie Eccles 11.3 and David Psal 91.12 13 14 15. The righteous shall flourish as the palm tree he shall grow as the Caedar in Lebanon those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the Courts of our God they shall bring forth much fruit in old age they shall be fat and flourishing to shew that the Lord is upright he is my rock and there is no unrighteousness in him A sixth Scripture he undertakes to answer which we shall truly own as alledged by Doctor Drayton in his sermon is this Ephes 5.25 26 27. but it seemeth the Vindicator was afraid to recite the words as being too full and evident against his position and purpose which are these Hu bands love your wives as Christ also loved the Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word and might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish Concerning which he saith This Text shews us how Christ in this life by the word and Sacrament and by the operation of grace doth cleanse us that in the state of glory we may be perfectly holy without spot or wrinkle But how proves he that this must be then done and not before This saith he I shall prove by these ensuing reasons First because here we know but in part and consequently can love but in part But we have proved that by and in the new covenant it is promised that such a
following are false and his are his old picklocks for first he saith though the Saints do grow up under the word and Sacraments yet it is not to the attainment of an exact obedience in this life to be without sin in this life and to have grace consummate but they grow and edifie one another in love But we speak not here what the Saints do actually but what they may and ought to do nor of their mutual edification of each other but of the words design and abilitie to build them up to the top or the finishing of the edifice for a skilful and a faithful builder gives not over till the structure is finished Secondly he saith that the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ is attained onely in glory Which in his sense is false for here we may have a perfection of degrees as well as of parts to wit the perfection of sanctification or grace which we call the perfection of the way as we have often proved before whatsoever he saith to the contrary In the ninth place he brings in two or three Scriptures together out of Doctor Draytons sermon upon one and the same head as he might have found more of the same kind there They are these that the Apostle prayes for the perfecting of the Saints Heb. 13.20 2 Cor. 13.9 1 Pet. 5.10 and surely they prayed for things feasible and attainable nor can the prayer of Christ for the same be in vain John 17.25 I in them and they in me that they might be made perfect in one Unto which page 47 he gives in the old lying and sinful distinction for an answer namely That the Apostles prayed for the perfecting of the Saints and so did our blessed Saviour and they obtained what they prayed for that is to say to have them sincere in this life and to have grace consummate in the state of glory But we have proved that the sincerity which Paul prayed for in the behalfe of the Saints was a state devoid of sin and to be had before and in order unto the kingdome of glory Phil. 1.10 11. That ye may approve the things that are excellent and that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ and that ye may be filled with the fruits of righteousness 1 Thes 5.23 Now the very God of peace sanctifie you wholly and I pray God that your whole spirit soul and body be reserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ But he brings in two replies of ours by way of Anticipation likewise the first of which is this is sin pardoned and mortified and doth it yet remain Which he answers with his old crambe centies posita It is so pardoned as not to be imputed it s so mortified that the power and dominion of it is taken away yet it remaineth to be more and more mortified and wholly cast out at the death of the body and death shall be destroyed at the general resurrection and so it is the last enemie that shall be destroyed But though he and others have often and confidently affirmed that sin shall be cast out at the death of the body they could never bring one Text of Scripture for this article of their belief nor should they be able to do it though they live to the age of Methushelah whose name and life is a dart of death against sin and their position Then he brings in our second reply which as he saith is this When must sin be purged out if not in this life must we carry the remainders of sin into the kingdome of heaven whereinto no unclean thing shall enter Rev. 21.27 To which he gives us his old thred-bare and beggarly we had almost said and lowsie answer that men shall not carry the remainder of sin into Gods kingdome with them but they shall lay it down at the death of the body Then there is hope that none shall go to hell for corruption or thereby be debarred from heaven there is hope also that the Vindicator may then lay down his lying and his other lewd prrctises against God and man at that day The thief saith he onely converted shall be that day in paradise Therefore he may safely continue in his sin till the hour of death But what if that thief had repented long before even from his first apprehension or perhaps from the committing of the fact for this is possible and the Scripture hath nothing to the contrary Yea what if he belived on Christ afore having heard of or seen his miracles though he had not the opportunity to confess him till now nor to pray unto him face to face nor doth he understand what paradise this was into which Christ and he entred for the first paradise is a submission unto Gods will even under the punishing hand of God and the last is the third heaven unto which Paul was caught by way of vision 2 Cor. 12.2 3 4. And as for Rev. 21.27 he saith it is confessed by our own fraternity to be the state of the Saints in patria It s true all the reformed Churches and that of England whose first reformation might have been a pattern to all the rest doe almost generally conceive that the new Jerusalem or heavenly City of God spoken of Rev. 21 22. chap. is the state of the Saints in patria and so do the Papists also for the greatest part which of those then must be our fraternity But there are some of both Religions that hold the new Jerusalem to be an estate attainable in this life because John saw it descending down from heaven unto men as a tabernacle of God wherein they were to worship him and he heard a loud voice following and saying behold the tabernacle of God is with men and he shall dwell with them and they shall be his people and God himselfe shall be with them and be their God Rev. 21.1 2 3. But herein all doe agree that men must cease to be of Mr. Tondrings fraternity before they can enter into this state for there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lye Rev. 21.27 Then he concludeth with the like confidence as he begun And thus have I briefly proved unto you the truth of the point which yet hath not one point of truth in it That sin will have a being in the best of men while their souls have a being in these houses of clay And this I hope saith he may be sufficient to satisfie the people Yea and perhaps some of the Priests also who are very easily perswaded to sleep still in sin and loth to be put upon an hard encounter against the Canaanites for such are apt to believe the unbelieving spies and much more the Scout-master-generall who like his Master doth go to and fro compassing the earth and walking up and down in it And if saith he I shall meet with any
promised to the keepers of the Law then the promise had been vain So it had without grace in Christ Secondly if righteousnesse were by the Law then Christ had dyed in vain because it were superfluous for him to dye for us if we could attain it by the works of the Law and therefore it is apparent that by the works of the Law no flesh living can be justified Thirdly for hypocriticall Gospellers such as seem Saints in ostentation that they may play the divell without suspicion as John Tendring did till he went away who say they have faith but shew forth no works which are not vailed with hypocrisie and which are not done or intended to wrong ends for such saith he let Isaiah tell you how acceptable their works be to God and whether they be like to justifie them Isai 1.16 17. For the Lord complaineth that he is weary of them and that his soul hateth them and bids them bring no more such sacrifices to him But we demand of him whether those men were Gospellers or pretended Professors whether the works which the Lord there forbids were Ceremonial or Morals For he forbids not the works of the Moral Law Fourthly he saith that for true Christians that are born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh but of God if any works could justifie it must needs be their works which are wrought in and through them by the spirit of God and yet we say quoth he that the best works of the best regenerate men cannot justifie them before God And thus we prove it how doth he that First because all the graces that we receive in this life are given to us but in part page 55. sure they are wholly and freely given as we shewed in the proof of the other positions and so they are imperfect grace But see how he contradicts himself and lyes against the Holy Ghost in his next words which are these not that the Spirit of Gods works imperfectly but that he means not to inrich us with any grace here while we are conversant with sinful men in this vale of misery but only so far forth as he seeth it fit to bring us unto the kingdome of perfection where that which is in part shall be done away 1 Cor. 13.10 But what if Paul looked for that here saying when that which is perfect is come then that which is in part or but a piece-work shall be abolished and swallowed up verse 11. yea what if Paul all that time enjoyed that which is so perfect for he saith verse the 11. When I was a child I spake as a child I understood as a child I thought as a child but when I became a man I put away childish things And if so then the Vindicators conclusion will stand against us like the walls of Jericho which fell flat to the ground which follows in these words And therefore our inherent justice being but as our knowledg is imperfect and therefore it is impossible that it should perfectly justifie us before God But we have overthrown that supposition of his before Secondly he saith that though our good works are perfect in respect of the Spirit of God which effecteth them yet they are tainted when they pass through us who are so subject to sin as waters running through a dirty channel and therefore cannot justifie us before God in whose presence every polluted thing stands condemned whence the Prophet saith Is 64.6 All our righteousness is as a menstruous cloth But neither are all Saints subject to sin all their life long nor can that which proceeds from Gods Spirit be tainted by us nor is that the righteousness of Saints but of sinners and unregenerate men which is so menstruous as is said before Howbeit he brings in Gregorie's saying Moral lib. 21. cap. 15. and lib. 3. cap. 7. All mans righteousness should be unrighteousness if God should strictly judge it and then Augustine's saying Wo to the most laudable and best life of men Unto which we first oppose these sayings of the Apostle 1 John 2.29 If ye know that he is righteous ye know that every one that doth righteousness is born of him chap. 3.7 Little children let no man deceive you he that doth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous chap. 4.17 Herein is our love made perfect that we may have boldness in the day of judgment and then those of the Psalmist Psal 11.2 3 4 5 6. and 119.1 2. and 128.1 2. unto which we could adde many more Howbeit he goeth on in the same lying strain saying if God laying aside his mercy should discusse our lives or righteousness in the strictness of his justice it would be so for God is a God of purer eyes who charged his angels with folly Indeed Eliphaz one of Jobs back-friends and of John Tendring's gain-saying spirit saith so but falsly Job 4.17 18. for the Lord never charged any but the fallen Angels with folly so But he tels us further if you will believe him that the best of men when he lives on earth is both a Saint and sinner a Saint by reason of grace wrought in him and a sinner by his own natural corruption which in some measure tainteth every grace of God and therefore the best of these who being compared with their fellows might seem just indeed yet looking to the strictness of Gods justice they disclaimed all their own righteousness What that of grace and regeneration also But who are those Saints St. Eliphaz a lying and contentious zelot with whom God is highly displeased Job 42.7 But he brings in Job himself saying chap. 9.2 3. But how should man be just with God if he will contend with him he cannot answer him to one of a thousand and David Psal 130. and 143. 2. of which we said before that all this is true of man in his corrupt estate and for a time afterwards but not of the Saints best estate and growth upon earth For whereas he saith page 56. that Paul affirmeth 1 Cor. 4.4 that he knew nothing by himself it is true But whereas the Apostle addeth that he was not thereby justified he renders a false reason of that saying of the Apostle and contradicts himself also saying though he served God most faithfully in the inner man yet he saw another law in his members warring against the law of his mind and hence he cried out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death What did he feel surely a law of sin and felt such a body of death continually and yet knew nothing by himself Good Hyperbolick bring your ends nearer together as the servant said to his lying mother Thirdly saith he that although it were granted that some works of the Saints were perfectly good yet any one sin blotteth out the remembrance of our former righteousness Ezek. 18.24 But that Text speaks of a final Apostasie from righteousness not of one actual
it was not now for God saith he no nor ever will be to bend the rule of righteousnesse to the crookednesse of our affections that so he might make it answerable to our abilities yes through his promised and premised covenant of grace in Christ but rather to set down a straight rule not in favour of our sinful nature which he hateth but to expresse our whole duty though it be impossible for us after we have lost our ability to perform it What is it so now impossible after that a new supply of grace and assistance is vouchsafed if we seek it For saith he he that hath lent a thousand pounds may without injury demand it of them and when he knoweth that thou hast carelesly spent it and as a Bankrupt art not able to pay a penny which no merciful man will rigorously do unlesse it be to evidence his prodigality and folly so God having given us power to obey his precepts may at any time justly call for the performance of the same though he know that we by our sins have disabled our selves so much as to think a good thought But his thoughts herein are very evil for we have proved before that God cannot in justice and much lesse in mercy require of us that obedience for which we in our persons never received or could receive sufficient power to perform the same Ultra posse viri non vult Deus ulla requiri Pag. 59. he propounds another objection of his adversaries to wit that the regenerate have sufficientia principia operationis that is sufficient means and causes of well doing his soul being enlightned sanctified and assisted by Gods spirit and therefore he may perform what God requires And then he goes about to answer it with mincing the truth and extenuating Gods grace saying a regenerate man is enabled to doe good but not perfectly his undestanding being still obscured his will distempered and his power of doing good hindred by many lustful temptations and therefore these principles of operation being imperfect our actions which proceed from thence must needs be imperfect likewise which he proves with his old mistaken Scriptures Who can tell saith David how often he offendeth cleanse thou me from all my secret sins ye see saith he Saints have their secret sins and he himself wants not his open and manifest enormities I may quoth he have many sins and fail in many things which no man knows of we doubt it not nor yet my selfe which yet are known to God we cannot judge mens hearts Why then doth he judge ours for hypocrisie and carying on new pretended lights in a dark lanthorn for we know not our own it is Gods prerogative to search and try mens reins Jerem. 17.9 1 Joh. 3.20 and it is our duty with Nehemiah to pray chap. 13.12 accept mine obedience but pardon mine iniquity But the man of God doth not pray so there as we have shewed before though he had his former sins also A chosen vessel was compelled to say he knew nothing by himselfe yet was he not thereby justified of which before Thus ye see that his book is stuffed full of tautologies And this saith he may suffice for the clearing of the first branch of the second position Indeed it is pretty well cleared from probability of truth or piety But for further confirmation he dares appeal to any mans conscience that is no more careful then he is to keep it without offence to God and men how upon the consideration of Gods strict judgement and his own manifold infirmities he dare justifie himselfe in any one act not against God but before God But Abimeleck could do it as himself confessed before and Paul could do it for his habitual acts as we shewed before 2 Cor. 1.12 For our rejoycing is this the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not in fleshly wisedome and much lesse fleshly lusts but by the grace of God we have had our conversation in the world And I doubt not saith he pag. 60. but the proudest heart would soon tremble and the boldest face save his own would blush and be ashamed to have his best works yea his prayer scanned by the strictnesse of Gods Law and justice But Job could say chap. 6.17 My face is foul with weeping and on my eye-lids is the shadow of death not for any injustice in mine hands also my prayer is pure Hath not the Lord promised Zephan 3.9 Then will I turn to the people a pure language that they may call upon the Lord to fear him with one shoulder or consent and Malach. 1.11 For from the rising of the Sun unto the going down of the same my name shal be great among the Gentiles and in every place incense shall be offered up unto me with a pure offering But he goes on yet more confidently saying And of the adversaries to this truth I require quâ demum authoritate this one thing that they will either produce a man and prove it that hath ever what doth he mean from his youth up without any corruption performed in his own person such perfect obedience to the Law of God as not to offend against the same Unto which we have answered that if ever we knew any such we should not be very forward to shew them to such unbelieving and envious spirits as he is of and we have produced many such already as Caleb Numb 4.24 Josh 14.6 John and his fellow-Apostles 1 Joh. 17.7 with many thousands more Or else saith he let them acknowledge their error with shame and forbear opposing the truth as Jannes and Jambres did Moses and disturbing the peace of Gods Church He might have said the Devils chappel if all the Ministers of Gods Church were like himself But as he is no living member of a true Church which is a congregation of Saints so neither doth our doctrine disturb but further the peace of the true Church of God Act. 9.32 Then had the Churches rest throughout all Judea and Galatia and were edified and walking in the fear of God and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost were multiplied To such Jorams or high-flown spirits as he is Iehu may answer what peace so long as the whoredomes of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many 2 Kings 9.21 for there is no peace to the wicked saith my God Isai 5.21 But he fears first by our malicious wickednesse in decrying sin and opposing Satans kingdom to set up Christs our sin may become unpardonable yet he saith that he shall pray for us as he doth for himself while he continueth in wickednesse not that God would be pleased to convince us of our errours and humble us in the sense of our sins and be merciful to our poor souls because we oppose his sinful positions But we pray that the Lord would vouchsafe him mercy in reality and truth so far as to turn him from his enterprise and then we are
justification whereby sin is purged out upon which the pardon and removing of the guilt follows through the mercy of God and the merits of Christs death we say that these are diverse and dissentaneous things But otherwise as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in the new Testament frequently to be understood of the dimission and purging out of sin by the Spirit so both in the old and new Testament by prayer remission and forgivenesse of sins both these are connectively and collectively to be understood because where the Lord is pleased to purge out sin and heal men of it he always pardons it or takes away the guilt and never takes away the guilt but where the corruption and fault are first put away Hence it is that not to impute sin as we said before is first to purge it by sanctification and then to pardon i◠as Psal 32.1 2 3. and Rom. 4.6 7. and where sin is so purged and not imputed there the righteousness of grace for the renewing of the same is freely imputed or given to the believing and obedient soul But this premised we return now to consider what he saith who first brings that place Rom. 5.18 As by one offence or of one the sin guilt or judgment came upon all men to condemnation to wit all that offended or sinned in that one personal Adam of theirs as he said before so by one righteousness or the justification of one the free gift came upon all unto the justification of life that is of glory for there is a two-fold justification the one of grace or the foregoing righteousness and the other of glory or the evelasting righteousness But wherein doth this Text speak for him or against us and our doctrine The second Scripture which he brings is 2 Cor. 5.21 For he hath made him to be sin for us to wit a sacrifice for sin and a patern and motive unto us teaching us how we should in him root it out that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him first in grace and then in glory as we said before Where the Apostles words make farre more for us and our sense and doctrine then they do for him for there is not the least mention made in all the Context or any where else in all the Scriptures that Christs personal obedience unto the law without us and for us should become or be made our righteousness The third Text of Scripture produced by him is that Acts 13.38 39. Be it therefore known unto you men and brethren that through this man or Messiah is published unto you dimission or remission of sins and in him he that believeth that he is or may be justified that is purged from all things from which ye could not be justified or purged by the law of Moses Which Text makes so clearly for us that by way of warning we will adde Pauls next words Look to it or take heed lest that come upon you which is spoken in the Prophets Behold ye despisers and wonder and vanish or come to nothing for behold I work a work in the days of perfect sanctification a work to which ye will in no wise give credit though one tell or shew it unto you Acts 13.40 41. The words are cited out of Hab. 1.5 6. and imply also an heavy judgment to come by the Chaldeans or the enemies figured thereby which are the Devils His fourth Scripture by him quoted is 1 Cor. 6.11 And such were some of you but ye are washed but now ye are sanctified but now ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God And as other Scriptures made not at all for him but much more for us so this is clearly also against him shewing that washing from the act and habit of former sins sanctification by Gods Spirit and justification in in the name of Christ are one and the self-same thing as we further proved out of Titus 3.4 5 6 7. Rev. 22.11 and other clear places But here he saith that some may object and say this righteousness is Christs and how can a man be justified by the justice of another Unto the which he answers with some truth and some falshood that as sin is ours by propagation which we have often shewed to be false so righteousness is ours if we attain unto it truly by Christ by imputation But his righteousness which he here intends is onely such by putation and imagination And as Adam saith he derived sin to our condemnation which is one of his old Chimaera's so Christ brought life by his obedience to our justification Thus if many be made sinners by the disobedience of one man which if rightly understood is undoubtedly true then how much more shall many be made righteous by the obedience of man Jesus Christ Rom. 5.19 especially since the nature of Christ as he saith page 66. is far more divine then the nature of Adam and therefore is more powerfull in ability to work this effect to justifie us then Adams sin was to condemn us But as Adams sin without us and our conformity thereunto condemns us not so neither doth Christs obedience which is ab extra justifie us we speak of his active obedience and by his passive we have another benefit the pardon of sins upon our leaving of them and 1 John 5.11 12. saith he this is the record that God hath given us to wit eternall life to whom was it given to John and those in whom Christ was risen in the power of the eternal life and this life is in his Son so that he which hath the Son in that manner hath life and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life as yet that is saith the Vindicator he hath the righteousness whereby he bringeth us to eternal life But this is his gloss upon the Text and a meer dream and delusion and this saith he doth the Apostle most excellently shew unto us when he saith that God made Christ to be sin for us 2 Cor. 5.20 which we even now cited But he speaks no such thing as he aims at or dreams of for saith he as our sins were made the sins of Christ not by altering or transplanting them inhesively into his own person but by assumption of them imputatively to make satisfaction for them as fully and truly as if they had been his own inherent sins even so the righteousness of Christ but not his externall obedience is as truly made ours by imputation his inherent righteousness whereby he and we obey God is so as if we had perfectly fulfilled the law by our own personal and actual operation Prove this by Scripture Vindicator and you shall be made a Doctor in Divinity which you never was nor will be And therefore saith he justification is a gracious and judiciall act whereby he judgeth he should have said a judicious and moral a physical or metaphysical act of God whereby he judgeth first maketh
righteous and then judgeth them so the elect being in themselves liable to the accusation and condemnation of the law to be just and righteous by faith in Jesus Christ through the imputation of his own justice to the praise of his power and the eternal salvation of their souls Which description of justification is utterly false and shews how farre he and those from whom he borrowed it are out of the way and how ignorant they are in fundamentals even one of the main grounds of their salvation which description he notwithstanding goes about to explicate by the causes as follows saying Now for the causes of justification first they are especially the efficient secondly material thirdly the formal fourthly final Why would he have any more then four causes of an effect I fear in this business he must content himself with fewer for the effecting and producing of the justification at which he aims But each of these aforesaid saith he must be considered two wayes first actively in respect of him that justifies us and secondly passively in respect of the man who is justified first the principal cause of our justification actively considered is God freely purposing to send his Son to be made man to work righteousness for men But God justified men in the Old Testament by the Spirit of his Son Isa 50.8 and 5.3 11. where he cites 1 Pet. 1.10 Gal. 4.4 Then to wit in the fulness of time God sending his Son made of a woman made under the law then revealing his Son unto us by the preaching of the Gospel and perswading us to believe the same and lay hold on the Son of God by the operation of the blessed Spirit and then accounting unto us the obedience of his Son for our righteousness In all which he is gone out of Gods road or way of justification and from the truth of the Gospel for though God so sent his Son made of a woman and made under the law yet it was not to justifie us by active obedience unto the law as we have said And this he did saith he to shew that he is the beginning the middle and the end of our justification and to prove this the Lord himself saith Isa 43.25 I even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake and will not remember thy sins and the Apostle plainly saith Rom. 8.33 as he hath it page 77. It is God that justifies and the very Pharisees that rejected Christ most impiously professed this most truly that none can forgive sins but God onely And so saith Gregorie It is meet that he should be the giver of grace that was the author of nature Greg. in Psal paeniten pithily saith It is his office to absolve the guilty by whose justice he is made guilty But who questions any of all this Again the impulsive cause that moved God to do all this for man we find saith he to be two-fold first internal secondly external the first is the meer grace and free mercy of God towards men and this because he would be merciful to man Because we can ascribe no other cause of Gods will which is the cause of all things to wit in their first creation but onely this quia voluit because he would But in acts of providence especially in the punishment of sin there may be an external cause found in the creature And therefore Saint Paul saith he attributeth our redemption to the riches of his grace Ephes 6.7 Rom. 3.24 Titus 3.4 5. where he saith that after the kindness and love of God our Saviour towards men appeared not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour Whereby you see the Apostle maketh the kindness love and mercy of God to be the efficient principal cause or motive that moved God to send Christ to be the means of our salvation Nor is this denied at any hand but if the Vindicator had taken in one verse more of Titus 3. he might have easily seen that regeneration before described and justification is all one work and thing for it follows there that being justified by his grace in the work aforesaid we might be made heirs according so the hope of eternal life But he goes on thus And Augustine Homil. de Nat. Gratia saith that it is the ineffable grace of God that a man guilty of sin yea and say we polluted with sin should be justified from fin And especially against the Pelagian heresie who magnified nature to villifie and almost nullifie grace he saith that the grace of God whereby infants and men of years are saved is not procured by deserts but tendred freely without merits and so Anselm in Rom. 11. that because all men are shut up under sin the salvation of men cometh not in or by the merits of men but in the morcy of God The second impulsive cause is Christ saith he God and man who purchased by his merits that we should be justified in the sight of God Which thing hath been justly questioned for God might out of his free mercy and grace justisie us without any such merits and though the death of Christ wants not its inestimable price and merits yet we are not justified in Pauls sense thereby and much lesse by his active obedience but only by his Spirit But he gives us a reason for what he had said out of Isai 53.5 because the chastisement of our offences was laid upon him and that by his stripes we might be healed But here we would aske the Vindicator and his friends these questions first whether Isaiah speaks of a chastisement that was past or yet to come for certain it is that Christ was a Lamb slain from the beginning of the world Rev. 17.8 Secondly if it was a preterit suffering whether it was not Christs inward and voluntary death for us and in us when vve first became actual sinners according to Rom. 5.6 For when we were yet without strength according to the time Christ died for the ungodly and Gal. 3.1 Oh foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified in you Jam. 5.6 Ye have condemned and killed the just one and he doth not resist you See Rev. 1.7 and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him even so Amen And if so what peace was that which was procured for us by that his suffering and death was it not a time and space of repentance for otherwise we as also our first parents had immediately been sent to hell Fourthly what those stripes of Christ are by which we are healed are they his personal sufferings alone inward or outward upon the cross or are they his like sufferings when we suffer with him or for him dying unto all sin
See Rom. 6.8 For if we be dead with him we believe that we shall live with him and chap. 8.13 and if children then heirs heirs of God and joynt-heirs with Christ if so be that we suffer with him that we may be also glorified with him See 2 Cor. 1.4 5 6. 2 Tim. 2.11 12. 1 Pet. 4.1 2 3. This condition of conformity to Christs sufferings whether inward of which the Vindicator and his party say nothing or outward upon the crosse is not once thought of though there is no other way left us in Christ to obtain salvation Mat. 16.24 25. Pag. 68. he tels us but falsly that the material cause of our justification actually considered is Jesus Christ No it is the person to be justified and the benefits which we have by Christ saith he are two especially First redemption Secondly propitiation But those two say we will prove but one in the end First for redemption saith he it is a word borrowed from the use of war and why not from other civil and judicial acts and it signifies freedom from captivity And thus Christ is our deliverance but how First from the wrath of God see his method he sets that in the first place which should come last because saith he he is our reconciliation And is not that a propitiation through faith in his blood Rom. 3.25 which blood say we is the promised spirit for and signified by blood in the old Testament and not the blood of his crosse as he and others dream see Heb. 9.14 and 10.39 and 13.20 21. 1 Pet. 1.18 19. 1 Joh. 1.7 9. Rev. 7.14 and 12.11 Secondly saith he we are freed from the tyranny and dominion of sin because that obeying from the heart the form of doctrine unto which we are delivered that is the Gospel of Christ we are made free from sin and are become the servants of Christ which is our righteousnesse Rom. 6.18 Is this obedience then our righteousnesse sure he means nothing lesse though he speaks truer herein then he is aware of But he will have Christs external obedience to be our righteousnesse and none other Thirdly we are freed saith he from the punishment of our sins because it s against justice the punishment should be inflicted when the sin is pardoned for sin being the cause of punishment it must needs follow that sublatâ causâ which he elsewhere saith cannot be taken away in this life the cause being defaced or rather removed the effect should be absolved But against this he saith it may be objected That the sins of the elect are pardoned and yet they are afflicted continually and as the Prophet saith Psalm 73.13 they are chastised every morning and therefore how can it be that he should for give the guilt of their sins and yet as the Prophet speaks Psalm 99.8 he should punish their inventions But there are no sins pardoned say we till they be wholly left Unto which said objection he answers That the miseries of men before the pardon of sin are the punishments of sin but the affliction of the Saints after the remission of their sin are not to be reputed penalties of Gods anger but exercises of his servants and arguments of his love for as many as I love I rebuke and chasten saith Christ Rev. 3.19 so also Heb. 12.5 and that for a double end First for our salvation that we should not be condemned with the world 1 Cor. 11.30 Secondly and subordinately for our sanctification that we may be made partakers of his holinesse But what difference is there between Gods holinesse and our positive salvation is not eternal life a participation in full of Gods holinesse Psalm 17 13. I shall be satisfied when I shall awake with thy likenesse But God punisheth those sins with temporal plagues in his servants for their humiliation and amendment and for a warning unto others which he pardoneth as to the world to come 2 Sam. 12.13 14. and before the pardon of sin men are chastised in love to their souls as well as afterwards Psalm 94.12 Pro. 3.11 12. and Heb. 12.6 7. As for Propitiation he tels us page 68 69. that it is a reconciling us to God through the blood to wit the blood of his Spirit and it is saith he the accomplishment of that which was signified by the Mercy-seat Exod. 30. But the Mercy-seat or Propitiatorie did represent Christ in the Spirit and in his second or spiritual coming in the power of his resurrection when the two tables of the Law are written upon our hearts and the face and aspect of God and the soul looks towards each other like the two Cherubims through Christ the everlasting propitiation and Priest And that which the Vindicator speaks there confirms it for first as God gave his oracles unto the Prophets he should have said unto the Priests also out of the Mercy-seat so he did yea doth reveal his will unto us his Priests and Ministers by Jesus Christ not without us only but especially within us 1 Joh. 2.27 Joh. 1.17 Secondly as God was said to dwell between the Cherubims which covered the Mercy-seat so in Christ the fulnesse of the Godhead dwelleth bodily or really Coloss 2.9 And thereby as God was made propitious and favourable unto his people to assist and bless them by the blood which the High-Priest sprinkled before the Mercy-seat so saith he he is pacified and reconciled unto us and procured to inrich us with spiritual blessings through the blood of Jesus Christ Coloss 1.18 Which is true of both bloods that of his Spirit and that of his cross yea of the blood of sin also which we must shed in conformity to the death and bloodshed of Christ But this last parallel is not apt but forced Again he saith the grounds of those benefits or the meritorious cause thereof is the most absolute and perfect obedience which our Saviour Christ performed unto his Father for our sakes and is to be considered first actively then passively first the active obedience of Christ is a most perfect performance of Gods Law even to the utmost tittle thereof touching which we must consider-first that although Christ as man fulfilled the Law for himself that in both natures he might be an holy High Priest to offer sacrifice unto God yet as mediator as God and man he became subject to the Law and did fully and perfectly execute the same for us But how doth he prove that for Christ saith he is not only our redemption by that ransome which he paid for our sins but he is also the perfection of the Law unto salvation most true but not in his sense unto every one that believeth And there he three things saith he that prove the necessity thereof to be performed for us what are they first the justice of God that will not justifie the wicked to wit while they remain such in deed and will Prov. 17.15 but such as are just and righteous either by a proper
or imputed righteousnesse yet he justifieth the ungodly that turn from their ungodlinesse and that both by a proper and an imputed righteousnesse as we have shewed Secondly by the office of a mediator that was to undergo for us or rather to do for us whatsoever was required of us to be done But may not this be done as well within us by Christs grace and cooperation for us yea vvith much more piety and justice every man being created to a personal obedience tovvards God and his Lavv. Thirdly 〈◊〉 a recuperation or recovery of happiness vvhich could not be attained without perfect righteousnesse because the death of Christ as he saith freeth us from erernal death to wit when we are dead with him unto sin and the obedience of Christ that within us only brings us to eternal or everlasting life All which you must take upon his word and credit for he knows not how to prove it And therefore we say quoth he that Christ was born for us not only auferre peccata to take away the sins of the world to wit by sanctification by his voluntary suffering of the most bitter death of the cross but that only takes away the guilt and shews us how in order thereunto we should sacrifice flay and consume all our sins but adferre justitiam to bring righteousnesse unto us but how by his plenary obedience within us not without us to the most holy Law of God Which is yet unproved And therefore those Scriptures saith he that do ascribe our falvation unto Christs death which none do are not to be taken exclusively or as denying the active obedience of Christ to be imputed unto us but Synecdochically for the accomplishment of the whole obedience of Christ that was to be performed for us But none such was to be performed for us or upon our score as we have often affirmed nor can the contrary be proved out of the holy Scriptures And with this affirmation of his saith he agree the main and major part for his tooth and dyet as aforesaid of all orthodox he should have said heterodox Divines and most of the Fathers To wit since Calvins days Secondly saith he the passive obedience of Christ is all the sufferings of Christ both in life and death for our sins Yes and much more also in our inward man for us while we went on in our rebellion against God of which he never thinks because the justice of God required that we should never be freed from death without a just punishment in Christ like death also laid upon our selves or on some other for us both which we grant And therefore saith he the prophet Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah should be wounded yea had been so as we said before for your trausgressions and bruised for our iniquities chap. 53.5 And Daniel saith that he should be cut off but not for himselfe Daniel 9.26 and St. Peter saith should hear our sins in his our body on the cross but for what end that we being dead unto sin should live unto righteousnesse and then it follows by whose stripes or fellow-sufferings ye are healed 1 Pet. 2.14 and St. John saith Rev. 1.15 that he washed us him and his fellow-Apostles and Saints who were throughly clensed from sin in his own blood or Spirit Rev. 1.5 And here we must observe saith he that this obedience of Christ is of sufficient merit to satisfie for all sins and for those that were repented of and left more especially by reason of the dignity of the person that did obey or suffer for the hypostatical union of the Manhood of Christ with the Godhead makes the obedience of Christ to be of inestimable value or price Act. 20.18 True but that Te◠speaks of the blood of Christs Spirit for with that also is the Church of God purchased or redeemed from among men Rev. 14.3 4. Thirdly the formall cause saith he of our justification actively considered is a free imputation of Christs actual righteousnesse we say the inhesive whereby the merit of Christs obedience is applied unto all beleevers that is the accounting of us just and righteous for the merits of that obedience which Christ effected for us saith he pag. 71. But this is more formally then truly spoken for as we saith he apply unto our selves the righteousnesse of Christ and make the same our own by faith and acceptation he should have said by meer imagination so God himselfe saith he applieth it unto us by imputation according to his putation and accepts us for righreous for the righteousnesse of Christ which we have not and this imputation of righteousnesse saith he is a work of grace which God never spake or thought of not of nature a communicating of another righteousnesse and not a conferring of any real therein saith he truly or habitual righteousness upon us But without such a real or habitual one righteousness shall no man that hath polluted himself be justified or saved And this is a sweet exchange saith Justine Martyr if he belie him not or mistake not his sense in Epist ad Diog. that one should be sin for many and that the iniquity of many should be covered yea blotted out say we with the righteousness of one to wit his internal righteousness or that the justice or kindness of one should make many that are and were injust to be reputed yea to be just to omit that most of the Fathers which he had read speak to this purpose Frier Tarrus saith in serm de Dom. Advent Christ hath made all partakers of his justice and merits so say we that they might be able to stand in his sight and sustain the judoment of God see 1 John 4.17 18. often before alledged by us Because saith he there is no mortal man living whose righteousness to wit his own can be sufficient to obtain eternal salvation But if the Frier meant it as the Vindicator doth we hope the Vindicator will turn Frier also But saith the Vindicator Christs righteousness is made ours not because it is infused or translated into us Oh take heed of that for it would drive out sin too soon to abide habitually in us but because it is imputed and reputed unto us rather by him and his party then God as if it were theirs when it is not whom God doth acquit from sin and actually count just for the justice of Jesus Christ And therefore the force of our justification however I easily beleeve it is not any habitual sanctity subjectively remaining in us but the righteousness of Christ of which in his sense there is no mention in the Scriptures freely imputed unto us and so though it be without us and they without it yet it is made ours by right of giving if he knew by whose gift The Apostle saith he remarkably in Rom. 4.6 7. joyneth both the imputation of righteousness and the remission of sins together as the two special means to make us happy And so do we
they wise men or fools that believe every vain word and doctrine of men which hath no ground in the Scripture Prov. 14.15 The simple believeth every word but the prudent take heed to their going for so saith Augustine saith he and Peter Lumbard lib. 3. Senten distnct 23. That there is a great difference between him that doth believe Christ and him that doth believe in Christ for the Devils believe Jesus to be Christ but they believe not in Christ And may not some believe amils in Christ as he doth Because saith he it is one thing to believe God another thing to believe there is a God and another thing to believe in God yea and another thing to believe lies To believe God as he saith is to believe that he speaks the truth in the Scriptures and to believe God is to believe a God is But to believe in God is to believe with love and loving him to go unto him and to cleave unto him to be made one with him to dwel in him and have him dwel in us Whence it will follow that the Vindicator never yet believed rightly in God And this is that faith by which a sinful man is instrumentally justified in Gods way and not his and is both found and accounted righteous in Gods sight And hath not the faith of the Devil the father of lies the contrary effect hereunto For the second saith he we must understand that this applicaof faith or of Christ through faith must be particularly applied what must the application be applied by every man unto himself if he desires to be led hood-winked by the nose and that in a most special manner even he Because a general faith no nor a phanatick faith such as his is is not thought justifying faith for Paul testifieth that Agrippa did believe the Prophets Acts 26.17 18. and yet Agrippa confesseth he was no Christian And herein he was the honester man then in words to confess him and inworks to deny him as some Vindicators do And a natural man saith he by the force of Reason may be reduced to believe and acknowledge a God and that this God is powerful just and true and therefore brought to a general perswasion of the truth of things to be believed and yet all this faith no nor his own to boot is not sufficient to justifie us because true justifying faith is no natural quality nor phanatical notion but a supernatural gift of God as the Apostle teacheth Ephes 2.8 Phil. 1.29 howbeit it were no hard thing to prove that some of the heathen understood Gods work of justification better then the Vindicator witness that of Catullus the poet Omnia fanda nefanda malo permista furore Justificam nobis mentem avertêre Deorum Things good and bad mixt with a fury blind Have turn'd away Gods just just making-mind or justifying mind And therefore the general faith of the Scriptures saith the Vindicator is not sufficient to make us Christians but as we read the Saints of God do apply the promises of salvation unto themselves or rather themselves unto the promises to seek them in a right way as David saith to wit among experimental deliverances God is my rock and my redeemer and Job 19.25 I know that my redeemer liveth and Mary after that Christ was formed in her my soul rejoyceth in God my Saviour Luk. 1.47 and Thomas saith my Lord and my God Joh. 21. and Paul Gal. 2.20 who loved me and gave himself for me But what promises be or are contained in these Texts so must saith he every Christian that looks for salvation apply we say lay hold of in particular the grace and favour of God unto himself and his faith instrumentally justifies or may be a help unto him the sinner what without seeking of justifying and cleansing grace Lastly the final cause of our justification passively considered or the effect of it rather is peace of conscience in this life and the atonement a new expression but let it pass of eternal happiness in the life to come the first whereof saith he is attained by two special things first by an assured perswasion that all our sins are forgiven But may not some have a false perswasion in this kind so being justified by faith that is in a sanctifying and a purgative way from all our sins which we have committed we have peace towards God through Jesus Christ for ootherwise namely in his Son our justification is but a dream Secondly saith he by an unwearied study to strive against the stream which in his sense of impossibility is truly and properly spoken of our own natural corruption and why not against all temptations also and to keep a constant course which he denyed heretofore to be possible in the ways of godlinesse for Christ saith he gave himself for us to die for us and not by his Spirit to redeeme us from all iniquity and did bear our sins on his body upon the tree But for what end that we being dead unto sin should live unto righteousnesse 1 Pet. 2.24 or as Zachary saith Luk. 1.74 75. And so St. Augustine saith that Christ died for the wicked not that they should remain wicked but that they being justified through faith should be converted from their wickednesse and bring forth the fruits of holinesse because as St. Augustine saith also grace justifieth that we should live justly But here the Vindicator is so blind that he brings Augustine against himselfe for he takes the word justification as we do for purging away of sin and making of man just holy and good by way of sanctification which is an usual acception of the word among the Fathers The second end of our justification saith he is the eternal blessednesse which shall be attained hereafter when Christ shall say unto all his justified Saints made just and merciful by his sanctifying spirit Come ye blessed of my Father c. Mat. 25.34 And so much saith he for all the causes of our justification actively and passively considered Wherein he hath given us non causas mutilas pro veris false causes for true especially instead of the formall and material causes not much unsuitable to his deceitful justification but the efficient and final causes are for the most part applicable to the true work of justication And this saith he I hope may suffice but it must be among such as are blind or are willing to be deluded for the proof of the truth of this last branch of the second position that we are only justified by the righteousnesse of Jesus Christ Which point being rightly understood hath been and shall be better confirmed by us I shall end saith he with that of our Saviour Joh. 12.48 The word which I have spoken shall judge you in the last day Yea and judgeth and convinceth the Vindicator already to be a blind guide a stranger to the faith of Gods elect and no other Apostle then a veterator or impostor
as we shall in our catasceuastical or affirmative part of our discourse more fully manifest But he concludes with his form of prayer I pray God to enable us all to hold the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace and that we may renounce all those doctrines that set up any thing of man And much more say we do tend to the setting up of Satan or his kingdom to the abasing of Christ and that we embrace those doctrines which abase man and much more whatsoever is of the devil and which exalt the Lord according to that of the Psalmist Not unto us O Lord not unto us and much lesse unto the Devil but unto thy name and unto that only give the glory Psalm 15. Unto all which we say and that not formally but cordially Amen You see the Vindicator hath closed like a Saint of the Pharisaicall sect with a prayer even as specious in words of Scripture-phrase as his Preface was to his beloved friends placed in the front of his Vindication but when his prayer is explained to you in reference to his position That sinne will remain in the best of Saints as long as they live then it will appear to have the same scope and end to his said position as we have declared his Preface had For whom can he mean and include in the relative word us when he saith I pray God enable us but the Levites his friends and other his allies with himselfe For be it known to all men by these presents that we disown his Tenents and resolve to speak against them dum maneat Lachesi quod torqueat to speak until we lack breath if we have opportunity Secondly if to hold the unity of the Spirit be intended in reference to his position then these words must signifie to hold the onenesse of the wicked spirit for all sin is of the Devil 1 Joh. 3.9 therefore to pray in reference aforesaid to hold the unity of the Spirit is to pray to hold the onenesse of the wicked spirit in upholding and maintaining with one affection that sin will remain in the best Saints as long as they live Thirdly to hold it in the bond of peace is to pray in reference to the foresaid position that in the onenesse of affection to the wicked spirit that he and his friends may in all tyes bonds obligations of a quiet and peaceable agreement be bound together to maintain that sin will remain in the best of Saints as long as they live and not to disturb one another as those foresaid false Prophets do disturb them who deny their position Yea the Vindicator prayeth as ignorantly as he can if he maintain his position that he and his friends may renounce all the doctrine that sets up any thing of man to the abasing of Christ for if he intend that clause of his petitionary note in reference to our doctrine of a possibility of a total mortification of sinne in this life then his prayer is that nothing of man that is of us in contradistinction to himselfe and his friends may be set up to the mortifying of all sin and so to abase Christ by a total mortification of sin if he mean to prefer his own petition before our doctrine tendeth absit blasphemia dicto to the abasing of Christ But if he iutend to maintain to the end as he begun that sin will remain in the best Saints as long as they live then the said clause of his vote and prayer is a contradiction to himself and his position for doth any doctrine set up any thing of man but that Doctrine which maintaineth the necessary continuance of sin in this life for only sinne and allsin is of the Devill and man Joh. 3.9 Rom. 5.12 by one man sinne came into the world and 2 Thess 2.3 the devil or wicked one what ever men dream to the contrary is called the man of sin therefore for the Vindicator to pray that no doctrine be owned but renounced that sets up any thing of man is to pray against his own position that sin will remain in the best Saints as long as they live because only sinne and all sinne is from man as aforesaid And is there any thing which abaseth Christ but sins continuance when as the Lord complaineth thou hast made me to serve with thy sins and wearied me with thine iniquities Isai 43.24 Hence also upon the same account that the doctrine of sins remaining is the setting up of man and abasing of Christ we say here also the clause of his prayer which is expressed in these words And that we embrace those doctrines that abase man and exalt the Lord is a prayer for the embracing our doctrines because a total mortification of sin in this life is it which exalteth Christ in his holinesse will and power to destroy all sin according to that James 4.5 6. for the Lord offereth more grace that is to overcome it See Phil. 4.13 Joh. 1.16 who came to redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himselfe a peculiar people zealous of good works Titus 2.14 that the Lord may be exalted alone in that day Isai 2.17 Not unto us Lord Psal 115.19 in a better sense then the Vindicator doth apply those words in reference to his prayer relating to his position but unto thy name be the glory who hast in some measure made known to us and made us to believe the true doctrine which abases man and exalts Christ which doctrine is a possibility of a total mortification of sin in this world Thus we have traced the Vindicator 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the first to the last of his Vindication wherein the unbiassed Reader may easily comprehend what nonsense tacit contradictions besides open ones this Vindicator is guilty of in this his Vindication so that he hath first and last verified therein another apt Anagram of his name In no end right Our Gusmond hath spit folly with despite But marvel not for He 's in no end right The finis rei by his confession Of his positions is transgression Will you his friends elect this sinful wight To be your Pilot who 's in no end right Can he direct your souls unto heavens blisse Who at both ends doth steer amisse You Levites in his Preface cal'd to fight With us forbear for he 's in no end right His Jus and Saints mentioned in his letters Are mongrels compared with their betters For he cannot on best Saints temper light It to define who is in no end right Disown him then who hath no morning light Detest this vagrant who 's in no end right Having demonstrated the Anasceuastick or confutative part of our revindication and observed the Vindicators ends what they are we proceed to the Catasceuastick or confirmative part thereof in two axioms or assertions contrary to the Vindicators positions First we affirm that there is a possibility through the grace and help of Christ of a total mortification of
the young men shall utterly fail but those that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount with wings as Eagles they shall run and not be weary they shall walk and not faint chap. 42.21 The Lord is well pleased for his righteousnesse sake he will magnifie the Law and make it honourable Which it would not be if it were impossible chap. 48.17 18. Thus faith the Lord thy redeemer the holy one of Israel I am the Lord thy God which teacheth thee to profit which leadeth thee by the way which thou shalt go O that thou hadst harkened to my commandements then had thy peace been as a river and thy righteousnesse as the waves of the sea chap. 51.4 5. Harken unto me my people and give eare O Nation for a Law shall proceed from me and I will make my judgement to rest for a light to the Gentiles my righteousnesse is neer my salvation is gone forth vers 7 8. Harken unto me ye that know righteousnesse the people in whose heart is my Law fear ye not the reproch of men neither be ye afraid of their revisings for the moth shall eat them up like a garment and the worm shall eat them up like wool but my righteousnesse shall be sure and my salvation from generation to generation Jerem. 31.32 33 34. Behold the dayes come saith the Lord that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Iudah saith the Lord not according to the covenant which I made with their Fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the Land of Egypt which my covenant they broke although I was an Husband unto them or therefore I must overule them saith the Lord but this shall be the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel After those days saith the Lord I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and will be their God and they shall be my people And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour and every man his brother saying know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them saith the Lord for I will forgive their iniquities and remember their sins no more Where take notice of these things that the first covenant is a covenant of works and the effect a compulsive obedience out of fear of vengeance Secondly that the second covenant is made to those that now love God and righteousnesse and obey it out of good will after the days of compulsion are ended which must have their foregoing work to break mans strong lusts and inclinations to sin after which comes the revelation of free mercy and salvation out of grace unexpectedly witnessed from Heaven to the lost yet humbled penitent and praying or deprecating soul which melts his heart with godly sorrow and inflames his heart with love to God and righteousnesse and with an hatred of all known sin Thirdly that this second covenant is of sanctification and then of some degree of glory As to the former the Lord promiseth to put his Law into our inward parts and to work the same in our hearts which is done no other way but by regeneration and by the promised Spirit of Christ which is called the blood of the new covenant and the blood of the everlasting covenant for the purging or the dimission away of our sins whereof both the expiative and consecrating blood of the old Testament was a figure Exod. 24.8 and 14.14 10. and chap. 8.23 24. and whereof the wine in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper in the New Testament is a sign and representation as the bread broken is a representation both of his word to be broken received and eaten Jer. 15.16 and of his suffering patience and weakness which is a body of his to be broken unto us by degrees and received by faith and obedience where through we may remember Christs death and follow him therein crucifying sin till he come unto us in the Spirit and power of his resurrection Thus the Apostle saith ' Heb. 9.14 How much more shall the blood of Christ this Spirit and spiritual blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself as man without spot to God purge the consciences or souls from dead works to serve the living God And Heb. 10.29 He that falls from grace counts the blood of this covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing or a thing of smal price and so doth despite to the Spirit of grace and hence it is that the Apostle prayeth Heb. 13.20 that God who brought again from the dead the Lord Jesus that great shepherd of the sheep would through the blood of the everlasting covenant make the believing Hebrews perfect in every good work to do the will of the Lord as Peter also tells the Saints 1 Pet. 1.18 that they were through the same redeemed or delivered from their vain conversation in a Jewish righteousness received by tradition from their Fathers This blood is promised unto them that walk in the light with God and his Saints 1 John 1.7 But if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all our sin With this blood the Saints washed their robes or imperfect righteousness and made them white Rev. 7.14 with this Christ washed the Apostles and made them Kings and priests unto God Rev. 1.5 6. for which they give him praise and glory and with this is the Devil overcome and cast out Rev. 12.11 A third thing observable in this covenant is that there is a clear full and glorious wisdome promised to each Saint in due time so that they shall not need to say to each other know the Lord for they shall know him from the least of them to the greatest for that perfect knowledge and love is then come which makes the imperfect knowledge and prophecying to cease 1 Cor. 13.8 9. Lastly the time of that perfect wisdome power and love is also limited namely vers 34. in those words for I will forgive their iniquities and remember their sins no more it is then when God hath purged and taken away all their sins by the same blood where forgiving of sins as in many other places is to be understood of the purging them away by Gods grace which we call dimission and that is the principal taking away of sin upon which the pardon or taking away of the guilt follows of course and is cast in over and above out of Gods abundant mercy for the death and sufferings of Christ But to proceed Ezek. 36.25 26 27. we have another of these promises of enabling grace Then will I pour clean water upon you and from all your sins and from all your idols will I cleanse you a new heart also will I give you and a new
me so we are justified by faith in Christ Gal. 2.16 knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by the faith of Christ Thirdly as we are sanctified by the Spirit of Christ so we are justified by that Spirit 1 Cor. 6.11 But now ye are washed but now ye are sanctified but now ye are justified in the name of our Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God Fourthly as sanctification is taken for a washing away of sin so is justification also Ibid. 1 Cor. 6.11 And such were some of you but now ye are washed but now ye are sanctified but now ye are justified Acts 13.39 And by him all that believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses Fifthly sanctification is taken for a positive or infused holiness or righteousness whereby the contrary unrighteousness is purged out 1 Thes 4.3 For this is the will of God even your sanctification and chap. 5.23 Now the very God of peace sanctifie you wholly So is justification used for an inherent holiness and righteousness Isaiah 45.24 25. Surely shall one say in the Lord have I righteousness and strength even unto him shall men come and all that be in censed against him shall be ashamed for in the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified in way of inherent righteousness and strength communicated unto them as was said in the former verse and shall glory Sixthly as this sanctification is gradually attained so is justification also Rev. 22.11 He that is unjust let him be unjust still but he that is justified let him be justified still and he that is sanctified let him be sanctified still that is more and more where justification and sanctification are used for an inhesive holiness or righteousness as was said before Seventhly as sanctification is communicated and given to make us obedient unto the law that it may be fulfilled by us so is justification also Rom. 8.4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit 1 Pet. 1.2 Elect according to the foreknowledg of God or through the sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ Eighthly as forgiveness of sins follows sanctification as an individual companion of those sins that are purged away by it Acts 26.18 that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith that is in me so that remission of sins is not justification but an effect or concomitant of the same Rom. 8.33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect it is God that justifieth who shall condemn So did our Church believe and did pray for children and persons to be baptized saying Almighty and immortal God the aid of all that need c. We call upon thee for these infants that they coming to thy holy baptism may receive remission of their sins by spiritual regeneration Ninthly whereas our Saviour makes the new birth absolutely necessary to salvation John 3.3 Verily I say unto you that unless ye be born again ye cannot see the kingdome of God so Saint Paul leaves out sanctification in order of causes unless sanctification and justification be all one Rom. 8.30 Moreover whom he did predestinate them he also called and whom he called those he justified and whom he justified them he also glorified And so doth our Church in the 39. Article speak of sanctification under justification or else leaves it out as needless which were impiety in us to think which is yet more clear out of the thirteenth Article thus intituled ' Of works before justification The words of the article are these Works done before the grace of Christ and the inspiration of his Spirit are not pleasant to God forasmuch as they spring not of faith in Jesus Christ neither do they make us meet to receive grace Tenthly every grace and vertue of God whereby we perform obedience to Gods law is called a justification and all the graces of the Saints are named as so many particular justifications Rev. 19.8 And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linnen clean and white for the white linnen is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or justifications of Saints Hence it is that Basil Psal 118. according to his account 119. upon vers 2. he cals the commandements justification as those which are to justifie or make just those that observe them rightly so before Psal 119.7 the law c. Eleventhly by doing and fulfilling of the law which we do accomplish by the grace and Spirit of Christ Rom. 8.4 we become fully justified before God Rom. 2.13 For not the hearers of the law are just before God but the doers of the law shall be justified Lastly as we are sanctified by the blood that is the Spirit of Christ Heb. 10.29 Of how much forer punishment shall he be thought worthy who hath troden under foot the Son of God and counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified an unholy thing and done despite to the Spirit of grace So we are justified by the same blood Rom. 5.9 How much more being justified by his blood shall we be saved from wrath through him Hence it is also that the Apostle speaking of the love of Christ to him and his fellow-Apostles and Saints saith who hath loved us and washed us in his own blood and made us Kings and Priests unto God Rev. 1.5 6. where Saint John speaks of the work of justification See 1 Pet. 2.9 10. compared with Exod. 19.5 6. Concerning which work of justification by Christs internal righteousness take these few testimonies of the Fathers following instead of many more which might be alledged Justin Martyr in quaest ad Orthodoxos before cited But what is the universal righteousness of the law To love God above himself and his neighbour as himself which is not impossible to those men that apply themselves thereunto Wherefore the Apostle did not therefore say that no flesh should be justified by the works of the law because we cannot perform impossible things but because we will not do possible things Cyprian serm 6. de oratione Domini speaking of the Publican that went away rather justified then the Pharisee saith he by his humiliation deserved to be sanctified c. Where he makes sanctification and justification to be one and the same thing Hieron in lib. 1. dialog advers Pelag. That a man is not condemned for that which he hath not but is justified for what he hath Ambrose lib. 6. exam cap. c. I pray thee answer whether justification seem to conferred upon thee according to the mind But thou canst not doubt seeing justice or righteousness from whence justification hath its derivation but that it belongs unto the mind and not unto the body Epiphanius doth not onely make righteousness and goodness to
been disturbed and disquieted in their former opinions and purity by reason of the audaciousnesse and impudency of the opposers of his tenents we say it that we were are and we hope shall be bold in the cause of God against sin and Satan and the upholders of his kingdom but we were never so audacious and impudent as himself who in Suffolk changed his name and called himself Doctor Kendall of Pembrook-Hall How beit we will use his pretended motives for our reall incentives who saith and that truly therein that because many of the people are not able to buy volumes nor by reason of the weaknesse of their capacities and small growth in grace are able so readily to apprehend the clearnesse and perspicuity of the truth upon the hearing of them nor yet clearly to distinguish betwixt them and falshood vailed under truths svizard we have therefore for their satisfaction and the edification of all men as also for the confirmation of the truth presented unto publick view some few collections which being seriously weighed considered and digested may by the blessing of God enable the weakest if willing to discover truth from falshood Amen Now whereas he adds he is willing both to spend which is true of his own money and other mens also and to be spent for the Israel of God It is a grosse peece of hypocrisie for it is their way that he opposeth Psal 73.1 Surely God is good to Israel even to them that are of a clean heart And yet he saith it being the end for which we are what we are that is if he speaks of himself his way and practise a very Gusmond Finally he tels his Readers that they are upon the Stage Which is true of the Theatre of this world where we hope they will act Israels part better then he hath hitherto done and we will with him wish them to fight the good fight of faith which is not for sin or Satan as his Vindication tels us but for Christ against both and then we may as truly as he doth deceitfully assure them you and all the Israel of God that the victory shall be glorious more glorious then his hath been hitherto or is likely to be hereafter without a sudden and earnest repentance through Jesus Christ our Lord to whom be glory for ever Amen And now we crave leave to speak a word or two to those that have abetted the Vindicator or do any way favour his doctrine and therein to advertise them of these things in the name and bowels of Christ First that this doctrine is not the Protestants doctrine though it may be called a Protestant doctrine for there are many distinct Churches all whose faith and doctrine are called Protestant because in many things they protest against the Church of Rome of which the Calvinistical is the worst and most erroneous the Lutherans is the next and in some things more orthodox then the former And the third is the ancient English reformed Protestant which is far the best of all the three for our Reformers desired to tread in the footsteps of Antiquity according to their best sight and comprehension which the other and especially the Calvinists were carelesse to do and in many things refractory thereagainst and though we in the point of original sin may seem to differ from our English Church which received that by tradition from many of the Fathers yet when occasion shall serve we shall make it manifest that we have not only divine authority for that and other things also wherein we seem to some to be out of the common road but we have the first Fathers of the Church and the first reformers as well as many of the latter on our side and what dishonour will it bring to God or disconsolation to parents whose children die in infancy that we affirm that all children are now born without original taint or guilt or why should an allegoricall speech Rom. 5. of our naturall and personall Adam or an hyperbolical speech of David Psal 51. so far impose upon us though not rightly looked into by some others in many ages as openly to contradict many other Scriptures vindicating Gods mercy and justice Secondly that this doctrine of the Vindicators which we oppose is bottomlesse like the place from whence it came that is it hath no foundation in the Scripture whereas we have brought some hundreds of Texts and might have brought more to clear up the truth and piety of our tenents for we dare challenge all the Calvinists in the world to prove any of these assertions upon which the contrary doctrine is built by clear Texts of Scripture First that we shall not be perfected in grace till the day of Iudgment so as to be presented without spot or wrinkle or any such thing whereas we have remonstrated two things to the contrary first that many places which our adversaries understand of that day speak clearly of Christs second coming to us in the Spirit and inner-man and secondly that we must be made holy and without blemish not in that day but before it and in order unto it Phil. 1.6 10 11. 1 Thess 5.32 1 Tim. 6.12 13 14 15. 2 Pet. 3.14 and secondly that we shall not be perfected in grace or the righteousnesse of sanctification untill we come into Heaven or the full kingdome of God for we have shewed that justification which is all one with sanctification must of necessity go before glorification Rom. 8.30 Tit. 3.4 5 6 7. and so must full obedience and doing of Gods will if the Lord affords time and means be fore the enjoyment of the promises 2 Cor. 5.10 ' then we must receive the things done in our bodies that is a time not of sowing but of reaping reward Gal. 6.9 to wit of life and glory Heb. 10.36 2 Tim. 4.7 8. Thirdly they say that sin shall be mortified and abolished by corporal death and not by the spirit of grace only contrary to Rom. 8.13 but if ye mortifie the deeds of the body by the Spirit ye shall live and Rom. 12.21 be not overcome of the evil but overcome the evil with the good See 1 Joh. 1.7 9. and chap. 14. and 5.3.4 Rev. 7.14 and 12.10 11. Fourthly they say that the Spirit of God will abolish the remainders of sin in the hour of the corporal death and not before contrary to the import of innumerable Scriptures Psal 31.15 My times are in thine hand deliver me from the hands of mine enemies and 39.13 ' O spare me that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more seen and 41.5 Mine enemies speak evil of me when shall he die and his name perish and vers 10 11. But thou O Lord be merciful unto me raise me up that I may requite them by this I know thou favourest me because mine enemies do not triumph over me and 54.4 5. Behold God is my helper the Lord is with them that uphold my soul he
shall reward evill to mine enemies cut them off in thy truth and 59.13 Consume them in thy wrath consume them that they may not be and let them know that God ruleth in Iacob to the ends of the earth and 71.24 My toung shall talkof thy righteousnesse all the day long for they are confounded for they are brought to shame that seek my hurt and 101.8 I wil early destroy all the wicked of the Land that I may cut off all wicked doers from the City of the Lord which is every Saint Jerem. 4.14 Wash thine heart O Jerusalem that thou mayst be saved how long shall thy wicked thoughts lodg in thee Psal 112.8 His heart is established he shall not be afraid untill he see his desire upon his enemies and 139.23 24. Search me O my God and know my heart try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting and 143.9 10. Deliver me O Lord from mine enemies for I fly to thee to hide me with thee teach me to do thy will for thou art my God thy Spirit it is good lead me unto the Land of uprightnesse and of thy mercy cut off all mine enemies and destroy all them that afflict my soul Eccles 9.10 Whatsoever thine hand findeth to do do it with all thy might for there is no work knowledg wisedome or device in the grave whether thou goest and Luk 1.74 75. That we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies might serve him without fear in holinesse and righteousnesse before him all the days of our life Tit. 2.12 Teaching us that denying ungodlinesse and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world 1 Pet. 2.24 Who his own self bare our sins in his body upon the tree that we being dead to sin might live unto righteousnesse and 4.1 2. Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh arm your selves likewise with the same mind that he which is dead hath ceased from sin that he should no longer live the rest of his time in the flesh after the lusts of men but after the will of God Fifthly that when we were first converted sin had his death-wound contrary to Rom. 7.14 24. and 8.13 Gal. 5.17 Heb. 3.13 14. Take heed brethren lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God but exhort one another daily lest any of you be hardned through the deceitfulnesse of sin and 6.4 5 6. and 10.26 27 28 29 30. and 12.15 Looking diligently lest any fall from the grace of God lest any root of bitternesse springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled 2 Pet. 2.1.20 21. Jude 4. c. for no sin hath its deadly wound till it be by the patience and Spirit of Christ wholly overcome and lest Rev. 2.16 and 3.10 Sixthly That all the guilt of sin and punishment is taken away though the pollution and corruption remains contrary to Prov. 28.13 Jer. 33.8 Acts. 26.18 this is to take away the effect and leave the cause in force and being hence it is that Hieronymus saith on 1 Cor. 6. Be not deceived thinking that faith alone sufficeth for every sin that remaineth excludeth men from the kingdome of Heaven as the Apostle speaks Gal. 5. how the works of the flesh are hurtfull which are these adultery fornication uncleannesse c. of which I tell you before as I have told you in times past that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of Heaven But also saith he they pray sinfully who persevere in sin and desire that those sins of theirs should be pardoned or put away by the Lord which they themselves have not put away from them Seventhly they say that there is not any other active obedience or righteousnesse of Christ to be attained by faith then that which Christ works in his Saints for its contrary to Isai 45.24 25. and 48.18 and 53.11 and 59.17 and 61.3 10 11. and 62.1 2. Jerem. 23.5 6. and 31.31 32 33. and Rom. 4.11 and 5.7 18 19. and 8.4 Phil. 3.9 10. Eighthly that we are perfect in this life and complete by justification though not by sanctification where 's they are both one thing as hath been proved at large and while the one is imperfect the other is also Ninthly that justification lies in remission of sins or taking away the guilt of the same yet leaving the sin or pollution behind whereas justification taken in a liberative way is a purging and washing away of the fault and corruption in the first place as hath been proved out of Acts 13.20 and 1 Cor. 6.11 Tit. 3.4 5 6 7. Thirdly consider that the kingdome of God which Christ and his Apostles preached is not onely an inward kingdome Luk. 17.21 as it is a kingdome both of grace Rom. 14.17 and of glory also Rom. 8.19 Ephes 1.18 but consequently that there is an internal heaven of holiness and glory to be had and obtained by the Saints in this life Heb. 10.34 knowing that ye have in your selves a better and more induring substance in the heavens for so the words are in the Greek Text. As Paul also speaks of himself and fellow-Apostles whom God hath raised up and set together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus Ephes 2.5 6. this is that kingdome which Christ taught his Disciple to pray for saying ' thy kingdome come and which he and John Baptist published 'to be at hand Matth. 3.2 and 4.17 and which ' John saw coming down from God out of heaven Rev. 21.23 before whose coming all sin must be purged away for ' no unclean thing can enter into it Rev. 21.27 yea all the spiriteal effects of sin as the second day sorrow crying and tears shall be removed Rev. 21.4 Fourthly that they which know not own not nor witness this kingdome of God with the way and means thereunto were never sent of God to preach the true Gospel of the kingdome but do publish their own imaginations and traditions of men as the Vindicator and many of far greater note then he both living and dead both do and have done Fithly that they who do not believe that he God will avenge his elect who cry unto him night and day for vengeance against their spiritual enemies for the rooting of all out Luk. 18.1 7. have not the faith of Gods elect as hath been said before Sixthly we shall leave it to your serious consideration whether it be not the voice of the unbelievers and not of the Saints of whom it is said concerning the beast of sin which came out of the sea with seven heads and ten horns saying Rev. 13.4 and they worshiped the dragon who gave power unto the beast and they worshipped the beast saying who is like unto the beast who is able to make war with him Which interpretation concerning the beast of sin is not ours but
3.5 the Laver of regeneration c. for no unclean thing can enter Rev. 21.27 and Christ said John 15.3 Now you are clean through the word I have spoken to you and James 1.18 it is said Of his own will begat he us by the word of truth But we presume to adde yet a little further to shew how needful it is to prove from the text or context that the sense we fix upon a Scripture-axiom is the proper sense which the Holy Ghost intendeth in the said place Because one Mr. Stevens of Fenny Drayton in Leicestershire hath set forth a book which he intitles A three fold defence of original sinne in reference to the old common notion thereof in which book he saith p. 94. that the Examiners of the late Synods Confession of faith deal sophistically with him and his party in leaving out their chief argument which lieth hid we confess to us in 3 John 6. But if it do appear that we have sophisticated with them we acknowledge that they may justly according to their large power of admitting or hindring interdicere nobis aquâ igne sed qui non est sponte nocens we desire him to pardon for we do profess to him that we did not dream of such a best in the said place among all their weak arguments for their tradition of original sinne as aforesaid The sense Mr. Stevens sixeth upon those words John 6.3 That which is born of the flesh is flesh is that original sinne and the impurity of the natural birth is meant by the same words and therefore there is a necessity of a new birth spoken of v. 5. from original sinne Which we grant if it be in all men but that is petitio principii it s the thing to be proved though yet there is a necessity of a new birth according to v. 5. and for the reason added v. 6. but we challenge Mr. Stevens who boasteth of this place to contain being as little to the purpose as the rest their chief argument to prove for as yet he hath not done it that Christ meant by flesh from which that which is flesh is born is original sinne and impurity by nature which we openly deny as it were at the market-crosse 1. Because flesh in Scripture is taken in more senses then Mr. Steven's his distinction of flesh in the said place p. 94. doth comprehend Secondly because flesh is more largely taken in Scripture then he can yet fathom within his apprehension and opposite also to the sanctifying work of the Spirit therefore we say Mr. Stevens distinction and his explication of it doth not prove what he with rash confidence affirmeth Now that flesh is taken in Scripture in other respects then Mr. Stevens mentioneth as aforesaid these following Scriptures do evidence 2 Cor. 5.16 Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh yea though we have known Christ after the flesh yet now henceforth we know him so no more Let Mr. Stevens apply the said place to his sense of flesh John 3.6 and make good and Christian-like sense of the said words if he can for there is spoken of a knowing Christ no more after the flesh although they had known him so before now to know them after the flesh must intend not to own them after the flesh any more because Paul could not but know them after the humane flesh by reason all are in that condition to be outwardly conversed with Secondly He did never know that is own Christ at any time after the flesh as it is meant by Mr. Stevens in the second member of his distinction for Christ was not born in original sinne nor yet lived at any time in the corruption of nature Hence flesh in this place doth not come under any member of Mr. Stevens destinction Again flesh in this place is the same in sense as appeareth by Pauls expression in reference to men and the reason of the Apostles disowning any man henceforth after the flesh is grounded upon his disowning Christ after the flesh any more for so the arguing lieth clear by the emphatical expression or revocation yea though we have known Christ after the flesh yet now henceforth we know him so no more therefore the flesh is to be taken in that place in the same sense as it relateth to men and Christ and Paul would henceforth know neither men nor Christ after the flesh hence its plain that the flesh there was a state in contradistinction to the Spirit or his other sanctifying work of the Spirit in which Paul would not henceforth know them in Again in John 6.63 flesh is taken in another sense then Mr. Stevens doth apprehend But to come nearer to the sense of flesh as it may suit with John 3.6 flesh is taken Gal. 3.3 not for corruption of nature in any kind because none can think the Galatians ever did expect to be perfected by sinneful nature after they had begun in the Spirit much lesse did Paul drive at it so as to upbraid them for attempting to be perfected by the flesh in that sense but for the fleshly ordinances they were turning back unto after they had begun in the Spirit as doth plainly appear in chap. 4.21 22 c. chap. 5.1 2 3. So Heb. 7.16 the Ceremonial services in which the Sribes and Pharisees rested in and were captived to are called the carnal comman dement So Heb. 9.11 12. Hence the observances of them were but carnal because the ordinances were but fleshly Hence that which is born of the flesh is still flesh according to Christs words John 3.6 Now with Mr. Stevens his favour in this sense of flesh and not in his of original sinne and impurity of the birth did Christ teach Nicodemus first the necessity of a new birth Secondly the necessity of it by the water and Spirit which are the two copulate causes of it named by Christ and that upon the reason Christ giveth from the nature of the cause to the like nature of the effect in two instances v. 6. that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit for it was in that flesh that is in fleshly ordinances that he and others were captived in therefore not in Mr. Steven's sense of flesh did Christ intend that instruction to Nicodemus because Christ had no occasion given him from Nicodemus to fall upon the doctrine of original sinne this appears from Nicodemus discourse with him owning him upon his working such works to be a teacher come from God our Saviour knowing Nicodemus was a master in Israel v. 10. and likewise well knowing wherein all the present masters of Israel stuck and what they gloried in being puffed up though captived with fleshly ordinances Col. 2.17 18 c. he taught Nicodemus a new lesson of the necessity of his and their new birth from better principles then fleshly rules and services which onely served Heb. 9.13 but to the
receive those two gifts of justification and regeneration by the death of Christ for though remission of sins is purchased thereby for the true beleevers yet that is neither regeneration nor justification in the Apostles sense nor is justification purchased thereby for he that made us had power to regenerate without any such purchase That therefore it follows that out of the first Adam to wit our first parent there issued a double evil unto and upon us to wit guilt and corruption we deny as false and inconsequent That in this derivative the sin which he speaks of is an universal corruption is false likewise in which are two great evils as he saith Sed sublato sub ecto tollitur ad unctum Pag. 5. That in it first there is a general defect of all righteousnesse in which we were at first created to wit in our first patents First it is manifestly false as also that any such defect is derived unto us who are still created righteous and holy and after the image of God as these ensuing Texts doe clearely prove besides many more that might be added Gen. 9.6 Whoso sheddeth mans blood by man shall his blood be shed for in the image of God created he man to wit him that is so killed or else the argument is of no force Jam. 3.9 Therewith to wit with the tongue bless we God and therewith curse we man who is created after the similitude of God Ecclesiast 7.29 Lo this have I found that God made man righteous but they have sought out many inventions Jer. 2.21 Yet I had planted thee a noble vine wholly a right seed how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a wild vine unto me That this pretended derivative sin to be so conveyed from the first Adam to us is an inherent deordination evil disposition disease propension to all mischief and antipathy and aversation to all good which the Scripture calls the flesh the wisdome of the flesh the body of sin earthly members the works of the Devil the Hell that sets the whole course of nature on fire Jam. 3.5 6. Rom. 8.6 7. Jam. 3.15 Eph. 4.22 Col. 3.5 Rom. 7.23 1 John 3.8 Unto which I say that although all those names are justly given to the body of sin especially when it is fully formed in men with all his members yet first there is no such thing found in children of whom our Saviour saith that the Kingdome of Heaven is of such and that unlesse we be born again after our fall and corruption and become like them in humility righteousnesse love and meeknesse we cannot enter into the Kingdome of God Matth. 18.3 Mar. 10.14 15. Doth not Paul also give us this charge 1 Cor. 14.20 Brethren be ye not children in understanding howbeit in malice or naughtiness be children where he implyeth that children have no malice or naughtinesse in them and if sin be the workmanship of the Devil as he out of 1 John 3.8 confesseth I would demand whether the Devil had an hand in the creation of children which he must if this sin be his workmanship But that which follows there that no man can be more sensible of the through-malignity of this derivative corruption then Paul was when he cryed out Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death Is first the old mistake and afterwards backed with this errour and peice of nonsense untill his understanding was opened to conceive the spiritualness penetration and compass of the holy Law which measures the very bottome of every action for Paul could not be so sensible of his sins malignity till his understanding was so opened nor till he had been scourged also for it by the work of the Law as all men are whom God brings to be and maketh his sons Psal 94.12 Heb. 12. That the Law condemns as well the original as the Acts of sin is true of prohibition but not of condemnation for each sinful motion is by the Law discovered and prohibited but we are not condemned for the same till we approve or like of the temptation in some measure Those ensuing positions are also false First that Paul Rom. 5.14 understands by Adam and Moses our first parent and him that was the Lawgiver but two distinct estates in men as was said before which may appear out of the foregoing verse compared with this For untill the Law sin was in the world that is before the inward Moses Lawgiver or reprover cometh unto men but where there is no Law sin is not reputed for sin for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be rendred Secondly because he saith that death reigned from Adum which is the natural man in his first defection till Moses or one that draweth out of the water of sin That the men who sinned between the first Adam's age and the time of Moses did not sin after the similitude of Adams transgression against the clear revelation of Gods holy will as Adam did Yet they did for the same God that did forbid the eating of the forbidden fruit doth ever since prohibit and forbid every sin in every mans soul that is against the moral Law Rom. 2.15 Which shews the work of the Law written in their hearts their consciences bearing them witness and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another Was not Enoch a Prophet in his time see Jude 1.14 and was not Noah the eight preacher of righteousness as the Apostle calls him 2 Pet. 2.5 were not the men of the old World destroyed for their known wickedness and shut into the infernal prison for their apparent disobedience 1 Pet. 3.19 20. so that the Vindicators misapprehension of this place of mens sinning for want of such light as Adam had is full of darkness As for those over whom death reigned from Adam to Moses and who had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression we say that as Adam and Moses are two inward states so may these be inward spiritual messengers of God represented by Abel and others as well as the inward Adam and Moses of which he speaks for such a generation of righteous ones which never sinned we find slain by the wicked and incorrigible generation of men Mat. 23.35 That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth from the blood of the righteous Abel unto the blood of Zachariah the son of Barachiah for though men usually in reading this and other Scriptures look no further then the letter yet I demand of them how in justice could all the righteous blood shed from the beginning come upon that wicked and unbeleeving generation of the Jews if they had not inwardly slain a spiritual Abel and other messengers of God even to a spiritual Zachariah that is the Lord remembrancer the son of Barachiah that is of the Lords benediction as all his inward messengers are yea it is true which Abraham answered to
the remaining and prevalence of their sins and spiritual enemies to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those that are bound to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God against his and our spiritual enemies to comfort all that mourn to appoint unto them that mourn in Sion to give unto them beauty for ashes the oyl of joy for mourning the garments of praise for the spirit of heavinesse that they may be called trees of righteousnesse the plantings of the Lord that he may be glorified See Luk. 4.18 19 20 21. Luk 1.74 That we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies might serve him without fear Tit. 3.14 Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity in a purifying way and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works 1 Joh. 3.8 He that committeth sin is of the Devil for the Devil sinneth from the beginning for this purpose was the Son of God manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil to wit by his spirit and power Rom. 16.20 And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly Ephes 5.24 25 27. Husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and clense it with the washing of water by the word that he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish The fifth Topick shall be the prayer that Christ his servants and his Apostles have made and thereby taught us to pray for this grace of a through purging from sin and victory over it and all temptations in this life who so prayed in faith that the things which they so prayed for might be obtained 1 Chron. 4.10 And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying Oh that thou wouldest blesse me indeed and wouldest enlarge my coast and that thy hand might be with me and that thou wouldst keep me or redeem me from evil that it might not grieve me and God saith the Text ' granted him that which he requested as he will do unto us Psal 55.10 Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right Spirit within me Hos 14.1 2. O Israel return unto the Lord thy God for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity take with you words and turn unto the Lord saying take away all iniquity and give good or receive us graciously so will we render the calves of our lips Mat. 6.13 And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil See Luk. 11.14 Joh. 17.15 I pray not saith Christ that thou shouldst take them out of the world but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil 2 Cor. 13.7 Now I pray to God that ye do none evil Phil. 1.10 That ye may approve things that are excellent that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ 1 Thess 5.23 Now the God of peace sanctifie you wholly And I pray God that your whole Spirit soul and body may be kept or preserved blamelesse unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ The sixth Topick shall be the faith of the Apostles and of the elect in the Primitive Church which now and for many hundred years hath been almost quite lost in two grand benefits and works which they believed and hoped for This faith expected Christs spiritual coming and return with his Father and the Holy Ghost to set up his kingdom not only of grace but of power and glory in them here and for ever and in order thereunto they were to purge themselves by faith through his grace and help from all iniquity in the mean time as these following places do clearly witnesse and prove without all contradiction if duly looked into Joh. 14.18 I will not leave you comfortlesse I will come unto you yet a little while and the world seeth me no more but ye shall see me because I live ye shall live also At that day ye shall know that I am in the Father and ye in me and I in you He that hath my commandements and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and manifest my self unto him Judas saith unto him not Jscariot how is it that thou wilt manifest thy self unto us and not unto the world Jesus answered and said if any man love me he will keep my words and my Father will love him and we will come and make our abode with him and chap. 16.22 And ye now therefore have sorrow but I will see you again and your heart shall rejoyce and your joy shall no man take away from you See Rom. 6.5 as before 1 Cor. 1.7 8. So that yecome behind in no gift waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall also confirm you unto the end that ye may be blamelesse in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ Phil. 1.6 Being confident of this very thing that he which hath begun a good work in you will finish or perform it till the day of Jesus Christ vers 10. that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Jesus Christ 1 Thess 5.23 be preserved unto the coming of our Lord Christ as before 1 Tim. 6.14 That thou keep this commandement without spot unrebukable untill the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ Heb. 9.20 So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation chap. 10.25 Not forsaking the assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another so much the rather as you see the day approching vers 37. For yet a little while and he that shall come will come and he will not tarry Jam. 5.7 Be patient therefore brethren vers 8. be patient and stablish your heart for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh 1 Pet. 1.13 Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ All which places and many more to the like effect have absurdly been understood of Christs external last and dreadful coming to judgement which in so many ages since is not come to passe nor peradventure may arrive in many ages more whereas the former Texts speak of a day and an appearing or coming of Christ which the Saints were to expect and prepare themselves for in their dayes it being the kingdom of heaven which first John the Baptist and then Christ and his Apostles published to be at hand Mat. 3.21 and 4.17 which accordingly came to the Saints which waited for it in a right way Revela 12.10 And I heard a loud voice in heaven the Church of God wherein he dwels saying Now is