10 Suppose all this be granted that Adam was not to beleeve a Saviour because he was not in a lapsed or fallen condition how doth this prove that he was absolutely carnal and destitute of the Spirit He was to beleeve the Father as Lord Creator he was bound to love him to delight in him and how could he possibly do all this but he must have some measure of Spirit Therefore Adam had the Spirit and was a spiritual man before his fall You go on and say whatsoever qualifications the children of God have attained unto in and through Jesus Christ their Lord by remission of sinne or the hope of a resurrection and the attainment of a better life Adam was not capable of To this I answer though the difference may be in circumstances the substance is the same For if you reckon all that Adam had in present possession and all that he might have had if he had stood if you compare his whole state with the state of the Saints with that which they have and that which they shall have you shall finde an excellent correspondence betwixt both For what if Adam was not capable of remission of sinne by Christs blood it is all one if he be made in a state free from sinne What if he was not capable of regeneration because he had no pollution of nature yet he was created with a pure and spiritual nature in original righteousnesse What if he was not capable of the resurrection from the dead because he died not a natural death yet he was capable to eate of the tree of life to keep himself from death and so to live for ever Your whole way of reasoning is meerly fallacious because Adam had not spiritual life every way the same in circumstance therefore he had not the spirit in the substance and being thereof You go on and tell us If men will hold this opinion that righteousnesse and true holinesse is the Image of God which the Lord created man in and is not to be found there residing then it is very requisite that this holinesse and righteousnesse be released But how do you prove that this holinesse and righteousnesse did not reside in Adam If you shall say that he was not capable of such Evangelical holinesse as is set forth in the second Covenant what of all this notwithstanding the difference in circumstance he may have the same in substance Saint Paul saith I delight in the Law of the Lord after the inward man Rom. 7.22 He had the same spiritual delight in the Law by Renovation which Adam had before his fall by Creation where then is the difference Adam had no rebellion no law of the flesh warring against the law of his minde as Saint Paul had There was the same spirit of love in both but in the one it was with the love of the flesh and with conflict with the love of the flesh but the other was absolutely free He did not know by experience what it was to have the flesh rebel against the spirit Because the Law requires entire obedience of bodie and soule inward and outward throughout all the parts of our life because it is spiritual it self and requires that the thoughts words and deeds be spiritual we must necessarily conclude that the first man must be spiritual in a large degree seeing the Law was tempered and proportioned in the beginning to that ability he had But you have another evasion you say that at the Creation Adam was not made conformable to the Image of the Sonne seeing he had no such lawes to be conformable to Here you still harp upon the same string Because Adam was not conformable in the same manner therefore he had not the conformity to the Image of Christ in substance I pray you tell me the meaning of this Scripture Come let us make man after our own Image Is not this the speech of Father Sonne and Holy Ghost You cannot deny it No more can you deny that Adam was made after the Image of Christ as Lord Creator In this point we must necessarily say that Adam had the same Image of God and the same spirit in the general nature of it as the Saints have in the state of Regeneration only the difference lies in some circumstances He might also have the same faith in the general nature of faith though it was impossible for him in that state he stood to have justifying faith Seeing he was absolutely without the guilt of all sin he needed no pardon by Christs blood Suppose all this be granted that Adam was not to beleeve in a Saviour because he was not in a lapsed or fallen condition yet all this doth not prove him to be a carnal man or absolutely destitute of the Spirit before his fall He might beleeve in God the Father as Lord Creator to prevent that misery which should ensue by the fall And to such a kind of faith it is necessary that he should have some measure of spirit Upon this ground also we may conclude him to be spiritual and to have the Spirit before his fall But whereas the Scripture saith That God made man righteous you put off all with this shift That God made Adam without any stain or blemish in the beginning page 13. This we willingly confesse to be true but it is not the whole nor the principal part of truth For uprightnesse in the Scripture-language doth not only signifie a freedome from evil but also a positive habit of righteousnesse and holinesse and in this state did God make man in the beginning But admit that be granted What do you gather from hence you say If those that would have holinesse and righteousnesse to be entituled the Image of God and shall mean by it a condition without sin simply so considered then the whole Creation of God might be said to bear the Image of God page 13. Answ Your consequence will not hold That Adam was without sin at the time of his Creation it was from hence that God made him a holy creature after his own Image That other creatures are without sin is meerly from incapacity seeing they have neither an understanding to know the Law of God nor a will to embrace good or evil therefore they cannot sinne For that speech of yours page 14. It will appear that the Image which Adam did bear wherein he represented God lieth in some other place where none of the creatures are in acapacity to come it being beyond them all Though in the general I do acknowledge this to be a solid truth yet you do not rightly apply it What think you of that saying of our Saviour There are some Eunuches that are so borne from their mothers wombe and there are some made Eunuches of men and there are some that have made themselves Eunuches for the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 19.12 Here are three sorts of Eunuches but one sort only is so made by grace and the mortifying work of
same spiritual drink for they drank of that rock which followed them and that rock was Christ 1 Cor. 10.4 5. Further after the fourty years pilgrimage were ended the Lord doth promise that their Convoy should not leave them but that he should go before them and drive out the Canaanites because it was not in their own power to bring the land into subjection This is the Lords promise and therefore in sense and substance the Angel must do the whole work Secondly let us consider what is the duty of the people and that is contained in these words Beware of him obey his voice provoke him not c. Because they did wholly depend upon him for all therefore they should be careful to observe him and to follow him in his leadings The force of the reason is the same in the words of the text work out your salvation with fear and trembling because God works in you the will and the deed because his Spirit is all in all the cause of mans salvation to carry on the work because his Spirit doth convince reprove teach comfort seal and guide the Saints therefore they should walk tenderly and carefully toward him The Apostle saith grieve not the Spirit of grace by which ye are sealed unto the day of Redemption Ephes 4.30 In case they do with him as disobedient children do with their parents when they give them good counsel the Spirit will neither comfort nor seal them any more but will leave them to a state of darknesse and discomfort And this is the true meaning of the text We may hereby understand how God doth carry on the whole work of salvation and this doth no way impair or diminish the endeavour of man In the close of all you tell us Let us say with the Apostle in our hearts that we desire to strive with dayly labourings according to the mighty workings whereby he worketh in us Col. 1.29 And do not say any more it is God that worketh our actions but be thankful to him that giveth us sufficient means Page 63. You have heard before that the Lord doth work in us the will and the deed and therefore the spirituality of the action is wholly from God though we are free workers by the help of his grace But let us take your words in the fairest construction If you will stand firmly to this principle that God gives sufficient means by a power working in us you need not fly to the purity of nature to natural free-will and to such like beggerly rudiments to salve the endevour of man In this place you seem to speak for grace when elsewhere through your whole treatise you drive the bargain altogether for the natural abilities of the will But seeing you have offered this text to our consideration we will endeavour to draw from it the concord betwixt the grace of God and the endeavour of man The words are these Whereunto I also labour striving according to his working which worketh in me mightily The Apostle speaketh of the work of the Ministery whom we preach warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdome that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus whereunto I labour according to the mighty workings that he worketh in us Here it is plain that the Apostle did work in teaching and instructing every one and it was not so much his work as the work of the Spirit in him and by him When he was at Athens his Spirit was stirred up in him when he saw the City wholly given to Idolatry Why are not the like excitations of spirit in men in there dayes who travell to Constantinople to Ligorn to Rome seeing hose people are wholly given either to Mahumetan superstition or Popish Idolatry The reason is manifest the same spirit doth not work so mightily in the hearts of men as it did sometime in the heart of Paul because he was filled with the Spirit he did shew abundant sympathy and bowells of affection towards all the lost sonnes of men But to come to instances in these last times when the Gospel was plucked down and the Mass was set up in Queen Maries dayes the Martyr being in a journey declared his intention that he would preach in his charg the next Lords day and when he that journeyed with him told him then he would certainly be cast into prison his answer was I am in prison till I am in prison He was bound in his spirit to preach the Gospel to the soules which he had taken charg of he could have no peace otherwise then in the discharge of his duty He did labour freely yet so as his labour was by the inward moving of the Spirit But of all other places that passage of our Saviour is most used by the Enthusiasts Ye shall be brought before Kings and Princes for my sake but when they shall deliver you up take no thought how or what you shall speak for it shall be given to you in that houre what you shall speak For it is not ye that speak but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you Mat. 10.18 19 20. Though this promise is made to the Martyrs and Confessors in times of persecution yet it is not made to them in that manner as to extinguish and drown all endeavour of their own as though God would do all and they should be discharged of their duty The promise is only made to such as should engage themselves for Christ and should humbly in the use of the means depend upon him for the supply of his Spirit And thus we see that the Spirit does all and yet in the most spiritual actions man himself is a free-worker It shall be given you in that houre what you shall speak This expression what you shall speak sheweth plainly that the Saints are free Agents Let us now consider that place Ephes 2.8 9. For by grace ye are saved through faith not of your selves it is the gift of God ☜ Here you yield that salvation as purchased by Christ is the gift of God but you will not have faith it self to be the gift of God you grant one part of the text to deny another If you consider the words you shall finde that not onely salvation but also faith it self is Gods free gift If this be not so how could the Ephesians come to beleeve The Apostle saith that they were dead in trespasses and sinnes they walked according to the course of the world they fulfilled the lusts of the flesh and of the mind Therefore they could not come to beleeve by any natural ability but meerly by the quickning work of the Spirit Further this expression is added ver 10. We are his work manship created of God unto good works By nature they were dead in trespasses and sinnes and if that now they could perform any spiritual act they were made able to do this by the new creation or workmanship of God Further if faith be not the
a secret will to them to whom it is revealed page 77. In this passage of yours there are some words of truth though after your manner you make an ill use of them I yield in the general that the revealed will of God was sometimes his secret will before it was revealed But the question in hand is this when Adam knew his duty that he should not eat of the forbidden fruit was not that part of the will of God concerning the permission of the fall and sending of the Son part of the secret will of God and whether by right ought it not to be secret so long as he was upon the triall or his obedience for the clearing of the point we will speak somewhat more largely concerning the secret will of God There is one part of his secret will absolutely secret that never shall be known either in this life or in that which is to come The Apostle speaking of the casting away of the Jewes and their wonderful calling again concludeth O the depth of the riches of the wisdome and the knowledge of God! Rom. 11.33 There is then a part of the secret will of God especially in the reasons of his decrees which none either can or shall know Secondly there is a part of his secret will which though it shall be revealed in the world to come yet it must be concealed in this life Now are we the sonnes of God but it is not yet manifest what we shall be 1 Joh. 3.1 2. Though the Saints know much of the mind of Christ and feel his love in their hearts by the teaching and demonstration of the Spirit yet the excellency of their future glory is hidden from them Thirdly there is a part of the secret will of God which though it be hidden from some yet it is revealed to others even in this life The Apostles did see those things which the Prophets and the righteous men could never see The Lord shewed Peter by what death he should glorifie God but he did not shew this to other men no not to John the beloved Disciple Joh. 21.20 21. Fourthly to one and the same man that part of the will of God which was secret heretofore by the event or revelation may prove to be his revealed will and so in the particular case of Adam the permission of the fall and the promise of the sending of the Son were the concealed will of God for a season and were afterward made known by the event If this be granted we have as much as we do desire But you put the question How God could decree by his secret will that Adam should fall before in his revealed will he commanded him to stand As hard a case as you make it I believe there is no man but will easily understand that that which the Lord had decreed concerning the fall of Adam in his secret will from all eternity must needs go before his temporal commands and injunctions But that which offends you is the seeming contrariety of the two wills You say is it a small thing that the righteousnesse of God should be questioned upon such low termes as to imagine that when in his revealed will he shall say eat not in his secret will he shall say thou shalt eat This opinion that renders God to have two wills renders them divided in their nature when they are but differing in termes For the external will is not another will but the same made manifest page 79. That the will of God is one entire will in substance we do affirm as well as you yet we would have you to observe that one and the same will may be discriminated and distinguished by divers relations As one and the same fire that hardens the clay may soften the wax so one and the same will may be distinguished according to divers operations Let us note the distinction betwixt Gods will of decree and his will of command That such a distinction must be made between these two wills is clear and manifest from many Scriptures Joseph said to his brethren Gen. 45.7 8. Ye sent me not hither but God His sending into Egypt was by Gods will of Decree to save much people alive yet none can say that Josephs brethren did the Lords will of command they went against his cōmand when they sold their brother as a bondslave So it is expressely said of the sons of Eli that they would not hearken unto the voice of their father because the Lord would slay them 1 Sam. 2.25 These disobedient children in not hearkning to the voice of their Father did fulfill the Lords will of Decree who had a purpose to judge the house of Eli for their sinnes But we cannot say that they did obey the Lords will of command unlesse such a command may be produced that children ought not to obey their parents So in the case of crucifying the Lord Christ the Apostle speaketh they did whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done Herod Pilate and the Nation of the Jewes did perform the Lords will of Decree to crucifie Christ yet we cannot say they did perform his will of command These and many other examples may be brought to prove the necessity of such a distinction And though the Arminians Corvinus by name do cavil at words and expressions yet they cannot rationally deny the substance of the thing And therefore to the point in hand we say it is true in a sense that God did not will the fall of Adam that is he did not approve that sinne by his will of command yet in a sense it is as true that by his will of decree he did permit it As in the like case the Apostle saith There must be heresies amongst you that they which are approved may be made manifest 1 Cor. 11.19 if there must be heresies this is spoken in relation to the will of God not in relation to his will of command for then God would have given men a command to raise heresies and damnable doctrines in his Church which none will imagine But there must be heresies this is in relation to his will of Decree to tolerate such things for the clearer tryal of those that are syncere So in the present case God did will the fall of Adam not by his will of command for he gave him no command to eat of the forbidden fruit but by his will of Decree he was pleased to permit the fall that it might be subservient and conducing to his more excellent end of sending the Son for the full declaration of the glory of his grace which otherwise would not have been so conspicuous if the first man had not fallen So then to gather up all into one sum you may easily understand if you will how God in his will of command may say eat not and yet in his secreet will permit him to eat These two are not so put asunder but they may well be joyned together
heaven page 110. I do fully agree with you in this that the employment which God had to do for Adam after the fall was as spiritual as before But then consider the ability does not lie in man but onely in the Lord Christ and in the Word of promise The true Church doth hold and ever hath held that the imployment which God hath now for every true believer is a spiritual imployment Yet they hold it also as a truth of the foundation that Adam lost all ability to spiritual good But here you think you have an unanswerable argument for say you in that service which Adam bad to do if he was compleatly furnished by God why should I judge that he would employ him in a more hard service and not afford him sutable accommodation Had God no other way to give Adam and his posterity sutable accommodation to obey his commands but there must be a necessity in it for him to retain the same abilities after which he had before the fall when you thus endeavour to proportion abilities to commands in a natural way you overthrow the scope of the Gospel and the main sense of the Scriptures which shew that all ability is to be had from Christ God hath tempered salvation and hath so put it into the hands of Christ that all that want abilities should go to him in the sense of their own misery And to this end he hath suffered the first man to fall and to lose all natural abilities that supply and help may be had from Christ onely in the Covenant of grace This is the main scope of the Scriptures And judge you now whether you do not go against the main foundation of the doctrine of Christ when you teach such things as these The Examiners of the late Synods confession of faith in the Chapter of free-will Sect. 2. are in a manner as foule as you For the Synod having laid down this truth concerning Adam in the state of innocency that then he had a power and freedome to will that which was good and pleasing to God but yet mutably the Censors are not contented with this but they seem to plead for the same liberty still in man after the fall These are their words That man in the state of innocency had freedome and power to will and do that which was good seems to us in some sort to hold true still of all men as they are now borne till they have personally and actually sinned If this be so what need is there of a Christ to sanctifie and to regenerate and to take away the sinne of the nature But now we will go along with you You say I judge the work that God set Adam about before the fall he had an ability to do after the fall if God had but given him a command to return into the garden again page 110. By this account then he had an ability to keep the Covenant of works after his fall The Covenant of works was that wherein life was promised to Adam and in him to his posterity upon condition of perfect and personal obedience Will you say then that he had ability to keep this Covenant if God had given him liberty to return into the garden Let us hear what ground you have for this God say you knew well enough that Adam had not lost his understanding nor his memory for he could tell the use of the tree and where it stood that should have cured him of his deadly wound otherwise the Lord would not have made so strong provision to prevent him page 111. True indeed we read that the Lord placed at the East of the garden of Eden Cherubims and a flaming Sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life This Provision in the general sheweth that Adam knew the particular place where the tree of life stood and in general what was the use of the tree yet for all this he might be bereaved of his spititual knowledge Natural men may altogether be destitute of the knowledge of the Spirit yet judge of external objects represented to the senses A Temporary believer who hath lost his feeling may tell the time when the place where and the instrument by whom he was first wrought upon Therefore if we take it as granted that Adam knew the way to the tree of life and the general use of the tree this doth not prove him to retaine the same spirituall and internall knowledge which he had before his fall Let us heare the Inventory of Adams losses as you make the account You tell us that Adam forfeited his body and his limbes and that God would bereave him of all after that nine hundred thirty years were expired And you further adde that God cast him out of that pleasant place of accommodation that neither he nor his posterity had power to do the will of God in the garden any longer page 111 112. This is the total which you bring in of his losses and this is a very short reckoning As for Adams being cast out of the Garden it was a part of his misery to be deprived of that earthly mansion but it is the least part of his losse The principal damage which he met withall was internal in his soul which was more than the losse of a thousand gardens But we go to your next question CHAP. XIII Whether Adam did dye in the same day that he did eat the forbidden fruit TO the clearing of this point you begin with the divers acceptions of the word day And then you come to eavil against the Lords day in these words ☜ This day some affirme that it was the first day of the week but there is little to be shewn for that It is a very private Interpretation because there is no publick manifestation by the Word but that men are willing to strengthen the opinion and practise of a first dayes Sabbath with a reference to the changing of Gods Commands and setting up of their own thoughts page 114 115. By this it is clear what your judgment is concerning the Christian Sabbath but we will briefly clear the point First it is of the Law of nature that a due proportion of time be set apart for the worship of God Also the Lord in his Word by a positive and perpetual Command binding all men in all times hath appointed one day in seven to be kept wholly unto him Exod. 20 8 10 11. Now this from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ was the last day of the week and from the resurrection and so downward it is changed into the first day Upon these grounds therefore if the question be put to us wherefore do you keep one in seven we plead the morality of the Command And if it shall be surther alledged why keep ye the particular first day in memory of the resurrection of the Lord Our ground is the perpetual use of the Church
second man is the Lord from heaven So though Adam was the first man a living man yet it was not a living soul that proveth that Adam had a quickned Spirit page 12◠But in this you do miserably soobisticate For though the Apostle doth draw a parallel between both the Adams If you do well ponder the Scripture you shall finde that the parallel doth not stand so much between Adam before his fall as between the first Adam the second after the fall 2ly upon good consideration you shall finde that the Apostle in this Scripture doth not speak so much concerning the Spirit of God in the soules of the Saints as concerning the spirituality of their bodies that shall be at the resurrection It is sown in corruption it is raised in incorruption it is sown in dishonour it is raised in glory it is sown a natural body it is raised a spiritual body There is a natural body and there is aspiritual body 1 Cor. 15.43 44. If then you will needs conclude Adam to be a carnal man before his fall because his body was not made a spiritual body by the same reason you must conclude all the Saints that have ever been since the creation of the world to be carnal men and absolutely destitute of the work of the Spirit For the bodies of the Saints are yet carnal and must abide in their incarnality till the resurrection of the dead But whereas you build so strongly upon that expression the first man Adam was made a living soul the last man Adam was made a quickning Spirit verse 45. This doth not prove the first man to have been meerely carnal or absolutely void of the Spirit before his fall For it is not the scope of the Apostle in this Scripture to speak of the excellency of man made after the image of God but onely of the corruptible state of the body as it standeth in immediate relation to that immortal condition which it shall have at the resurrection of the dead And whereas it is said the second man was a quickning Spirit this is meant principally of the divinity of Christ by and thorough which he will raise the dead So then if you will build upon this ground and argue from hence that the first man was a meere carnal man because he was not a quickning Spirit by the same principle you must conclude that all the Saints living are carnal men For of what one of them may it be affirmed that he is a quickning Spirit who by his power and divinity is able to raise the dead But if you will make a right analogy let us compare the things that ought to be compared First let us consider what the first man was before his fall and what the Saints are as renewed by grace Secondly let us compare what the first man might have been if he had eaten of the tree of life and what the Saints shall be at the resurrection of the dead For the first of these if you speak of the Saints as renewed by grace though their bodies be natural they are spiritual in respect of the inward man The same may be said of Adam before his fall though his body was made of the dust yet by grace and special favour he did carry the image of God For the second if you shall affirme that all the bodies of the Saints shall be made immortal and spiritual at the resurrection consider what the body of Adam might have been if he had continued in his obedience and eaten of the tree of life If you would make a right collation between state and stat ethe parallel should runne in these termes But because you stand so strongly upon this expression that the first man is of the earth earthy the second man is the Lord from heaven seeing you will have all this to be applied to Adam before his fall I pray you resolve me this question seeing the Apostle saith as we have born the image of the earthy so shall we bear the image of the heavenly Who are they that bear the image of Adam before his fall I think if you were put to it you could not produce any one instance in all Europe Asia Africa or America that ever stood up after this similitude The scope of the text is onely concerning man after the fall and how the resurrection of the dead doth take away that death which is brought in by the fall In the close of the Chapter you propound this question whether was not Adam to have dyed an eternal death for eating of the forbidden fruit For the clearing of the question let us distinctly set down how the three kinds of death did seize upon Adam and how they come upon all his branches First for spiritual death it is evident that he died this death as soon as he did eat of the forbidden fruit For the temporal death he fell under the reign of it the same day he sinned And for eternal death though according to the truth of the commination Adam and his posterity should have dyed the Lord Christ stepping in did set a stop to the sentence And therefore for the cause of the condemnation of man it is now principally and immediately for the neglect of the grace of God that should lead him to repentance But you adde further I can safely say that if Adam was to have dyed an eternal death and that by the appointment of God then Christ neither would nor could have stept in nay he could not have lifted up his little finger to have helped Adam or his posterity page 125. I answer If God had decreed in his secret purpose that Adam and all his posterity should have dyed the death in such a case Christ neither would nor could have stept in to cross the Decree of God but Sir who is the man that doth maintain that position For my part I take the Decree of God to be one thing and the outward denunciation of judgment to be another For the Decree that cannot be changed but the sentence may recieve alteration according to divers outward circumstances and conditions that may occurre Besides if you should build never so strongly upon the letter of the text we can easily reconcile the truth of the commination in saying that Adam might dy the death the same day he sinned ☞ though the Lord was not pleased presently to inflict death in all its kinds From all which we do conclude if the Lord Christ came to free men from the reign of death Heb. 2.14 15. We may easily gather that Adam brought himself and all his posterity under the dominion of that syrant and so he and all his should have dyed that kind of death if the Lord Christ had not stepped in But you go about to deface this speech in the end of the Chapter for if in case that Christ had not stepped in there had been no recovery this were to exclude all other means and to limit
natural say you were to have acted such actions as might have testified to the world that they had been lovers of God because those actions were wanting they are said to be unnatural So it may appear that nature was not improved to those ends to which God assigned it page 146. It is true that in these Scriptures the word nature is taken in the better sense yet not in such a sense as will furnish your intention First I do acknowledge that God hath left reliques or remainders of his Law in the hearts of the Gentiles This is commonly called the Law of nature and by this men know that God ought to be worshipped that parents ought to be honoured and that every man is to have his own c. Secondly I yield also that they who go against this Law may rightly be called unnatural because they go against the dictates or principles of of nature Thirdly they who do thus deviate from natural principles do not improve nature to those ends which God hath made it All these things I do allow so far I wil go along with you But how do you prove from hence the purity of nature and that a meer natural man as such is able to understand the things of the Spirit of God You do in the next page distinguish natural men into two kinds these are your words Who requireth no other way to be glorified but by those principles that he had furnished them withal And because they opposed their own nature resusing the counsel of God they are called unnatural because they imployed their nature wholly to satisfie their lusts Such natural men percieve not the things of God The same matter in substance is spoken by the Examiners in the Chapter of free will for the Synod having rightly determined according to the Scriptures that a natural man being altogether averse from that good and dead in sinne he is not able by his own strength to convert himself or prepare himself thereunto Against this passage the men take great offence and as their manner is accuse the Synod for their defects and falshoods For their defects they blame them because they do not distinguish the several kinds of natural men and for their falshoods they accuse them for saying that the fallen man hath lost all ability to spiritual good They distinguish also several kinds of will and tell us in the third place as the will of our first parents so of all men else doth stand in a kind of aequilibrium pag. 128.129 130. Now to take off these several Objections I would entreat both you and them to consider these two points First if you look to the better sort of natural men to those who are no Backbiters no Covenant-breakers c. Whether may not many of these in the most essential vital and spiritual parts of the Law be great enemies against God and be lovers of themselves more than lovers of God If the most refined natural men may be secret enemies why do you and they speak of pure nature and of the improvement of natural abilities when it is certain that men can do no good without the help of the Spirit Natural men may be distinguished into a thousand kinds according to the different circumstances of time and place yet all of them do agree in this that they are natural and without the help of the Spirit they are not able to judge of the things of God Secondly when the Apostle speaketh of the Gentiles who having no Law do by nature the things contained in the Law their thoughts in the mean while accusing or else excusing one another Romans 2.14 When the Gentiles do make use of the Law written in their heart as they do at certain seasons to judge themselves doth not this proceed from the general convictions and workings of the Spirit If the act of self-judging be from the conviction of the Spirit this is no praise to natural abilities but the glory belongs to the grace of God And the words of the Confession are very sound that a natural man cannot convert himself or prepare himself thereunto In which words they do distinguish between conversion it self and the antecedaneous works before conversion In neither of these they say that a natural man is able to do any thing of himself but all his ability is from the help of the Spirit I wonder then what reason the Examiners had given them to cavil at such an innocent expression But if you shall stand upon the letter of the text that the Gentiles do by nature the things contained in the Law Here you may observe that the Apostle doth onely oppose the natural Law to the Law written in tables of stone and communicated to the Church by revelation He never meant that any of the Gentiles meerly by their own strength were able to keep that Law which was made known to them Only at seasons the Spirit did excite and stirre up strong convictions in their consciences to apply those principles and dictates which they had by the light of nature The most common and universal maxime of all men in the world is this that there is a God Why then doth the consideration of the Godhead so forcibly and powerfully awake at some intervals of time more than at others We can give no other reason but this that the truth in the hearts of the Gentiles is like a cinder in the Smiths forge which by the operations and stirrings of the Spirit is enlivened and being once enlivened men have more power to judge themselves and to look after God in those seasons than at others And from hence also we might take occasion to answer that great difficulty in the Epistle to the Romans The Apostle in the first Chapter speaking of the knowledge of the Gentiles and how naturally they hold the truth in unrighteousnesse and that for this cause the Lord doth give them up to a reprobate sense yet in the next Chapter he doth shew that the Gentiles do by nature the things contained in the Law and do shew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the work of the Law written in their hearts when their thoughts do at sundry times accuse or excuse one another To the resolution of the difficulty we say that the Gentiles so farre forth as they are principled by the corruption of nature are prone to no other but to imprison the light but as they are under and do submit unto the convictions of the Spirit they are helped sometimes to go so farre as to judge themselves and to cry out in their misery O being of beings have mercy upon us The main drift of the Apostle is to shew that Jewes and Gentiles are both under sinne and how by the sight of the misery of nature such of them as are saved come to be saved onely by looking after the grace and the free-mercy of God If this be the meaning of the Spirit what shall we think of pure nature or
and the depravation of his nature as afterwards shall be shewed Next he seemeth to speak more fairely Man being left in the state of pure naturals could not by his own strength arrive to a supernatural end for eternal life being an end above our natural proportion cannot be acquired by any natural means Answ In this and such like passages of his he doth seem to me to crosse his whole undertaking One chief end of entitling his book as may appear by the preface The Doctrine and Practice of repentance rescued from popular errours is the scandal offence that he seemes to take at our Doctrine of original sinne For thinks he if the nature be depraved a necessity of sinning will be introduced and the natural liberty of the Will will be taken away and therefore in much compassion and tendernesse he seemeth to himself at least to vindicate the truth to make Religion more reasonable and intelligible and to rescue the Schooles and Pulpits from the rigour and austerity of the doctrines of such a nature But when all is done he speaks the same in effect that we do For if man being in his natural condition by his own strength cannot arrive to a supernatural end but needs the help of the Spirit This being suppos'd I will put it upon him seriously to consider whether the same Spirit that helps a man out of this imaginary deficiency privation and imperfection is not as able also to rescue him from that inherent defilement pravity and corruption of the natural birth The Spirit can do as much in the one as in the other And exhortations will be as useful in the one case as in the other What need then hath our Authour to raise up all this dust But he further addeth What gifts and graces or supernatural endowments God gave to Adam in his state of innocency we know not God hath no where told us Answ Though he hath no where told us in so many letters yet by collation of circumstances we may gather that Adam had the Spirit and was a spiritual man before his fall In the creation it is expressely said come let us make man after our own image Gen. 1. The Apostle doth declare wherein this image doth consist That concerning the former conversation ye put off the Old man which is corrupt according to deceitful lusts and that ye be renewed in the Spirit of the mind and that ye put on the New man which after God is created in righteousnesse and true holinesse Ephes 4.22 23 24. In these words there are four particulars that seem to speak faire for Adam that he had the Spirit and was a spiritual man before his fall First it is said that they should put off the Old man corrupt according to deceitful lusts Corruption is of a different nature according to the condition of the subject-matter there is a corruption of seeds of graines of metals of the members of a mans body but here the Apostle must needs speak of the corruption of that which is spiritual From whence we collect that the Old man or the disposition of the flesh is but the corruption of that holy and spiritual state n which Adam was made Secondly it is said be ye renewed in the spirit of your minds The word renewed doth import the restoring of a thing to that perfection which sometime it had in its first institution An house is renewed not when it is built new from the ground but when it is amended When an infant is born into the world it is not proper to say that he is renewed but a man doth renew his strength when he doth recover it by degrees after a long sicknesse So in the present case when the Apostle saith be renewed in the spirit of your mind he speaketh of the renovation of that knowledge holinesse and righteousnesse that Adam sometimes had but lost it by his fall Thirdly it is said after the image of him that created him Though this is specially meant of the new creature yet it is with respect also to that passage in the old creation let us make man after our own image For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 secundum Deum according to God is as much in effect as after the likeness similitude and image of God who upon this account must needs be the pattern in both creatio'ns Fourthly to put all out of question it is expressely said which after God is created in righteousnesse and true holinesse What difference soever there may be between Adam in innocency and the Saints in the state of regeneration certain it is that holinesse and righteousnesse must needs be the morality of the Law and none can rationally deny but that Adam was endued and invested with these two before his fall By his righteousnesse he was enabled to deale justly with man and by his holinesse he was carried out to know God to love him to delight in him to fear him and to take him as his chiefest good All these particulars expressing the spirituality and purity of the Law do signifie to us that Adam had the Spirit and was a spiritual man before his fall Now let us go on Receiving more by the second Adam than we lost by the first the sons of God are now spiritual which he never was that we can finde Answ That which he writes here doth manifestly contradict what he speaks elswhere for page 383. He plainly sheweth that original righteousnesse in Adam and habitual righteousnesse in the Saints are all one These are his own words if one sinne saith he could naturally and by a physical causalty destroy original righteousnesse then every ones sinne in the regenerate can as well destroy habitual righteousnesse because that and this differ not but in their principle not in their nature and constitution And why should not a righteous man as easily and as quickly fall from grace and loose his habits as Adam did naturally it is all one so farre he To which we answer Adam fell from original righteousnesse because he stood onely by the covenant of workes the Saints do not fall from habitual righteousnesse because they have their standing by the covenant of grace But as to the point in hand original righteousness in Adam and habitual righteousnesse in the Saints he tells us that both are one and the same in essence and constitution and then again he tells us the sons of God are spiritual which Adam never was that he could finde So great a faculty he hath to blow hot and cold in the same breath Now he comes to explicate that Scripture by one man sin entred into the world Rom. 5. c. That sinne saith he entred into the world by Adam is therefore certaine because he was the first man It must needs enter in him because it first comes in by the first Answ It is true that sinne entred into the world by Adam as the first man but it is not the whole truth for in such
much of both here and else-where is only a notion of his own commenting For when God made man in the beginning he made him in a state very good but when he fell he left all his posterity not only in an imperfect but in a sinful condition As for that middle state of deficiency which he imagins I know not where it is to be found unlesse it be in the Atlantis of Plate Besides if animality be only a state of deficiency why doth the Apostle so plainly tell us that the animal man receives not the things of the Spirit they are foolishnesse unto him This cannot be a state of meer imperfection but a state of direct opposition the principles of animality diametrally opposite to the things of the Spirit Michal scoft at Davids dancing before the Ark. Lot seemed to his sons-in-law to be as one that mockt when he told them of the destruction of the City the preaching of the crosse seemed to be very meane matter to the Philosophers and learned Grecians Now shall we say that all these were only in a state of animality or imperfection and no more I think none will easily believe it But in the close of all he hath these words In the state of animality saith he a man cannot go to heaven but neither will that alone carry them to hell and therefore God doth not let a man alone in that state for either God suggests to him that which is spiritual or if he doth not it is because himselfe hath superinduced something that is carnal Rep. We are told here of a state that carries neither to heaven nor to hell and I beleeve if we go to men of ripe years there is no man lives in this estate in all Asia Africa Europe and America Why then doth he trouble us with that which is not Further we do agree that the Lord doth at seasons suggest something that is spiritual to animal men by this they are enabled to see their own misery and to judge themselves Now this doth rather strengthen the force of the argument for if an animal man could purely of himselfe perceive the things of the Spirit what need had he of the suggestion of the Spirit But for that which he addeth that the animal man doth superinduce something that is carnal I think this cannot reasonably be denyed and therefore I do not see but the state of animality and carnality both are equal estates of enmity against God Thus have I been more large in clearing those Scriptures which concerne the maine of the question in others of lesse moment I will be more briefe SECT 3. How God punisheth the Fathers sin upon the children THe end wherefore he is so willing to dispute this point he himselfe doth expresse pag. 40â— Vpon this account alone saith he it must be impossible to be consented unto that God should still under the Gospel after so many generations of vengance and taking punishment for the sinne after the publication of so many mercies and so infinite a graciousnesse that is revealed to mankind in Jesus Christ after so great provisions against sin even the horrible threatnings of damnation still to persevere to punish Adam in his posterity and the posterity for that he never did Rep. In this passage of his he doth shew how much he doth mistake the scope of Scripture for it is the chiefe designe of the holy Ghost to amplifie the sin of Adam and all the evil that comes thereby to the end that all might be humbled and that they might come to Christ as to a Sovereigne remedy to help them in their misery And in very deed whatsoever he thinks to the contrary the Doctrine of the Gospel cannot be so clearly preached without the knowledge of that misery that came by the fall The knowledge of the one doth as it were open a doore to the knowledge of the other Againe in the whole processe of the discourse he is very faliacious Suppose ordinarily God doth not now punish the fathers sin upon the children is this a good argument to prove that the sin of Adam is not rightly imputed to posterity Other Parents comparatively are but private persons and their sins are but the sins of private men but Adam was the root of the nature and his sin was the sin of the whole kind As on the other side the suffering of Christ upon the crosse was not the suffering of a private person but the suffering of the whole humane nature By this the lost sons of men have a doore of grace opened the tender of grace is made to all and the great condemnation is for unbelief Now we will consider what the rules are which he doth lay down First saith he God may and doth very often blesse children to reward the Fathers piety as it is notorious in the famous descent of Abrahams family But the same is not the reason of favours and punishments Answ Here we would entreat him to observe that it is true that for a long descent God did shew kindnesse to the family of Abraham but if he well observe the matter this kindnesse was extended not so much for Abrahams piety as for the Lords own promise and for his truth in keeping the promise Againe whereas he saith There is not the same reason of favours and punishments let him shew why the Jewes are cast away why they have been little better than out-casts of the Covenant now above one thousand five hundred years Questionlesse as God will magnifie his mercy in their call so for many ages together they have stood and do yet stand under the burthen of that heavy curse which they did wish upon themselves his blood be upon us and our children c. Secondly saith he God never imputes the sin to the son or relative formally making him guilty or being angry with the innocent eternally Answ Though we should say the sin of Adam is imputed to all his relatives and that also to their eternal damnation this in the whole were no hard assertion as long as we teach that a second man is provided for eternal salvation We willingly yeild as the case now standeth the great condemnation is for the neglect and the contempt of that salvation mercy and grace that is to be had by Christ If men run out the years of the patience and long-suffering of God if they continue in unbelife and hardnesse of heart if they resist the convictions and operations of the Spirit as they are administred in their respective seasons I think it is but just that they should fall not only under the guilt of their own actual sins but under the eternal damnation also that was brought upon them by the sin of Adam the root of the nature All the hurt of such a position if it be a hurt is more vigorously to drive men to Christ As for infants though they are fallen into all kinds of miserie temporal and eternal by Adams sin what harme
And for infants though we hold them guilty of sinne by the disobedience of the first man what detriment or dammage is this to them as long as mercy is extended through the obedience of the second man By all that I can understand these men are afraid of nothing more than that Christ should have too much honour given to him in releeving the miserable lost sonnes of men otherwise they would never stand so much as they do upon the purity of the natural birth SECT 2. NOW let us heare what answers they return to our arguments And here I say they are extreamely fallacious for as they do not produce some of our arguments which have most cogent proof so they do mention others which are of small moment which is scarce honest dealing But for the places which they do alledge there are four in number which do carry some weight with them First from that place Gen. 8.21 for the imagination of mans heart is evil from his youth they gather thus much Even as Esau or Edom though he had a birth-right yet sold it in his youth to satisfie some strong desires kindled in him so men though created innocent do in the time of temptation and tryall too often and too soon yield unto the temptation and sell or forfeit that their innocency and birth-right and so their imaginations become evil from their youth but are not so from their birth unlesse you here understand a spiritual conception or birth in sinne by our personal fall page 71. In this I do agree with them that men in time of their tempration too often and too easily fall from God thorough their own actual disobedience This is a part but it is not the whole truth for if they had compared the text as they should have done with Gen. 6. ver 3.4 5. they would finde that both Scriptures speak of the sinne of the nature First the Lord saith my Spirit shall not alway strive with man for that he also is flesh ver 3. As who would say in plainer times because his nature is defiled I will destroy him from the earth Secondly the whole nature must needs be depraved because the principles and lively fountaines are corrupt every imagination of the thoughts of his heart are evil Thirdly the universality of the depravation it is not spoken of this or that particular imagination but every imagination of his heart is evil and that which is more it is onely evil without the combination connexion and commixture of any good Fourthly the perpetuity of the time in the one text it is said the thoughts of his heart are onely evil continually and in the other the imagination of mans heart is evil from his childhood If we put altogether we may plainly see that there is a depravation of nature that this depravation is generally in all parts and in all times from the very birth and conception And for that example of Esau which they alledge that he sold his birth-right that primogeniture was a special priviledge in the family of the Patriarchs but what is this to every mans natural birth-right can he forfeit that natural innocency which he never had Again Esau did sell his birth-right at a certain time of his age by a deliberate and a free choyce when Jacob and he were come near to mans estate and therefore the Apostle saith Let there be no profane person among you as Esau who for one morsel of meat sold his birth right Heb. 12.16 Now it is otherwise with the the words of the text there it is expressed that the thoughts of the imaginations of his heart are evil from his childhood As much in sense as that the whole nature is depraved and that depravation doth beginne from the very birth Secondly for the texts cited out of Job I do agree with the Examiners in the general that those wise men speaking of the purity of God in relation to the imperfection of the creature do oftentimes use an hyperbolical way of expression As in that passage of Eliphaz behold he putteth no trust in his Saints yea the heavens are not clear in his sight Job 15.15 I do agree also that men do voluntarily corrupt themselves how much more abominable and filthy is man who drinketh iniquity like water ver 16. Though these things be true yet they do not contain the whole truth nor the Emphasis of that Scripture for the words immediately going before are concerning the natural generation of man what is man that he should be clean and he that is born of a woman that he should be righteous ver 14. The same in substance is spoken by Job himself touching the natural birth who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean not one Chap. 14 4. Both Scriptures do plainly shew that the nature is defiled because it doth proceed from so unclean a fountain And this doth agree with the doctrine of our Saviour when he presseth a necessity of regeneration that which is born of flesh is flesh therfore there is a necessity that man should be born again The whole force of the argument is thus much in effect from the greater to the lesse If the heavens and the Saints which are the more perfect creatures are not pure in the sight of God what righteousnesse is in man who is defiled with original sinne even from the very birth This is the natural sense of the words of Eliphas Thirdly to that place Psal 51.5 behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sinne did my mother conceive me they answer We would say they First gladly know of you whether it be not Davids scope in this confession to aggravate his sinne But if he here pleadeth the inevitable corruption of nature which you hold forth his words will be found a meere extenuation of his offences if not a throwing off all or most of the blame upon God who had brought him forth so corrupt and averse to all good and so propense to all evil and that without hope of an absolute cure while he was in this world page 75. Where is the honesty and conscience of these men when they patch that upon others which is none of their doctrine For where can they shew that either the Assembly of Divines or any other serious Authors did ever teach that the nature of man is corrupt and propense to evil without any hope of cure while he is in this world and that in this case man doth lie under an inevitable necessity Do not the Assembly of Divines and all other Authors almost speak of the Covenant of grace after they have shewed the misery of nature For though the nature of man is wholly defiled yet from Christ there is hope to have the nature cleansed Though David was born in original sinne yet he was not destitute of a remedy he beleeved the grace of God made known in the promise and therefore prayeth create in me a clean heart renew in me a right
spirit He did desire that his defilement by natural generation might be done away by the work of the new creation And whereas these confident men would desire to know whether it be not Davids scope in his confession to aggravate his sinne I answer it is and therefore he doth cry out against the sinne of the nature he doth use the same expression in effect as Paul doth Rom. 7. I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing ver 18. And O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death ver 24. Where we may observe these three points First they who are inwardly and truly enlightned do feel the burden of a carnal mind which they have by natural generation whereas other men account the liberty of lust their greatest freedome Secondly they feeling the propension of their nature wholly to sinne do hereupon aggravate the sinfulnesse of their nature Thirdly by this means they do more highly prize the grace of Christ and that freedome which he doth bring to set them at liberty from the bondage of corruption and the reigne of their lusts Joh. 8.31 32 33. Isa 61.1 2 3. Mat. 12.20 The promise of Christ is that a bruised reed he will not break and the smoaking flax he will not quench untill he have brought forth judgment unto victory By judgment is here meant deliverance from under the tyranny and reign of original sin when men serve divers lusts and pleasures The deliverance from the power of corruption is the judgment meant in the text This deliverance is not wrought in an instant but by degrees and our Saviour is ready to help the weakest that flie to him in a sense of their own misery There is nothing more weak than a bruised reed and the least degree of fire will make flax to smoak Even so if there be the least grace to feel the bondage of corruption the Lord Christ is ready to cherish it and never to leave till he have brought forth judgment unto victory to make men conquerors of their lusts But the ground of all this is to feel the burden of a carnal mind which it is most probable these Censors are strangers to or else they would not so extenuate the sin of the nature as they do Now let us heare what interpretation they give of the Psalmists words It was say they the lie or lying promises of Sathan with the folly therein contained by which he was shapen in iniquitie or conceived in sin pag. 74. And they ground themselves upon that passage that the devil is the father of sin These are their words besides our natural parents we have spiritual fathers and mothers whether for our begetting in evil and iniquity or for our regeneration in grace and goodnesse Concerning our procreation in sin our Saviour speaks thus unto the Jewes Joh. 8.44 Ye are of your father the Devil and his lusts will ye do Now this father makes use of a twofold mother to beget men in wickednesse besides their own lust which when it is enticed and drawn away by temptation conceiveth and bringeth forth sin Jam. 1.14 15. And here first they reckon the lying word or promise by which Sathan deceiveth men and secondly the false Synagogue which thorough Sathans helps begets men in a false faith Page 75. 76. But this glosse will not serve their turn neither for though the Devil be the father of sin he is so onely by temptation and suggestion but the Psalmist speaketh of sin by derivation and propagation I was shapen in iniquitie and in sin did my mother conceive me And for that which they alledge out of the Epistle of St. James he doth onely speak of the order of generation of sin in the heart every man is drawn away of his own lust and enticed and lust when it hath conceived bringeth forth sin But what is this to the purpose of the Psalmist he doth not speak of the generation of lust or of sin in his heart but he doth speak of his own generation This is evident from the words themselves I was shapen in iniquitie and in sin did my mother conceive me Secondly it is manifest from the words that follow because he was defiled with the pollution of the natural birth by way of opposition he prayeth unto the Lord to create in him a clean heart because his old was defiled therefore he did beg a new nature Fourthly to that place Eph. 2.3 And were by nature the children of wrath as well as others they answer by a distinction It is one thing say they to be sinners from our first nativity and another thing in time to become the children of wrath by our personal fall and actual disobedience which also coming to passe in our natural man and by his default we may truly be said by nature to be the children of wrath when sin by custome becomes a second nature to us Page 78. Here I yield that the Ephesians before their conversion and all other natural men do thorough their own actual disobedience serve divers lusts and pleasures This is the truth but it is not the whole truth If they were only defiled by custome which in a sense may be called a second nature by good custome then they need onely a remedy of the evil of their nature and we need not the knowledge of Divinity but onely of Moral Philosophie toward the recovery out of our misery For that which is now the judgment of these Censors was sometimes the opinion of Aristotle He did beleeve that man in his birth was like a white sheet of paper and that thereupon the habit of vertue was attainable by many acts But the Apostle doth not deal upon such weak beggerly and Ethical grounds because the Ephesians were not only sinners by conversation but by nature also were the children of wrath hereupon in relation to their natural corruption he saith you hath he quickened which were dead in trespasses and sinnes Their quickening by the spirit a posteriori doth shew the pollution of their natures a priori But if they were the children of wrath only by custome a second nature by breaking off old customes they might reduce themselves to their ancient purity of nature And this is the Moral Philosophie of these Censors and the separate Churches of this way Fifthly for that place of the Romans by one man sin entred into the world and death by sin Chap. 5. v. 12. That we may more orderly proceed let us consider how they plant their own interpretation and then how they oppugne ours This one man say they by whom sinne entred into the world is not our first parent Adam but our own earthly or natural man which is called Adam and Edom from the earth of his foundation pag. 78. Here I do plainly and openly confesse I do not know what they meane by this Adam neither can I see how possibly they can apply such a sense to