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A43581 A review of Mr. Horn's catechisme, and some few of his questions and answers noted by J.H. of Massingham p. Norf. Hacon, Joseph, 1603-1662. 1660 (1660) Wing H177; ESTC R16207 79,887 160

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English Articles to the Church of Rome But for Mr Horn who promised to cleave perfectly to the word he might very well have looked onward to the next verse vers. 5. where it is per Christum by him which might very well interpret in ipso in him and he might very well have looked on to the seventh verse where it is in quo in whom we have forgiveness What had Christ forgiveness first and then we in him had he Redemption through his bloud and then we in him No but God did forgive us and redeem us and bless us and choose us through him or by means of him or with respect to him as our Mediatour or he might have interpreted this place by 1 Thess. 5.9 God hath appointed us to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ which is as much as this he hath chosen us to salvation in Christ And as his similitude is not true so neither is it fitted to the Mystery now spoken of For God Almighty did chiefly and in the first place so far as we may be able to make difference choose his people to salvation and in the next place chose Jesus Christ to the office of Mediatour no other Election of him I know spoken of Jesus Christ was the gift of God for having chosen his Church he gave his son to be their Head to bring them together and to hold them together that they might not fall and be lost as they were under the first Adam But to prove Election to be personal and not of the generalitie of beleevers and yet withall to be in Christ I alledge that place in Revel. 13.8 where it is described by Names written in the book of the Lamb slain A book here is a Catalogue of Names as Gen. 5. and Matth. 1. and names are of persons And the book of life is the book of the Lamb slain because God doth not save or bring to Glory his Elect but by intervention of Christs satisfaction that Justice and Mercy may stand together This place of Scripture hath our Authour in his Essays a late piece of his in a long and laborious discourse vindicated from this sense and this purpose The sum is this Names saith he written in Gods book are not those by which we call men as John James c. but their qualities in the general by which men may be called The wise in heart shall be called prudent Prov. 16. So the Elect are called Righteous Meek Mercifull Godly Fearers of God these names were always in the book of life but are newly put upon beleevers when they receive Christ and be qualified with new frames and dispositions and this he saith appears clearly beyond all contradiction to be the genuine import of those so often abused Scriptures touching names written in the book of life I answer not beyond all for it is in some contradiction to himself it is his common Doctrine and in particular beneath at the Qu. and Answ 202. That we may not gather Gods love or Election from our duties of obedience or inherent graces Are these qualities and dispositions names always written in heaven and put upon beleving persons when they do receive Christ and are endued with those qualities and shall they not signifie that God hath then elected and doth then love such persons Shall they be names in the book of life and shall they not notifie the persons upon whom they are put as heirs of life This therefore is in clear contradiction to himself He should not be so forward as he is to accuse his brethren for making a mingle-mangle of some matters they take in hand for he hath here most confusedly mingled together Qualities with Names Names proper with names appellative and if his Atchievements take place and be answerable to his essays he will go near to bring us all to Babel that none shall understand other If the Messenger that bringeth to a Corporation the precept for Election should deliver it to the chief Magistrate there with these words Sir I have brought you here a writing for choice of Burgesses together with the names of those whom you are to choose for to serve in Parliament hearing this he would perhaps think there were sent him a Cónge d'eslire and fear some infringement of libertie but opening it and finding nothing but some general and usual qualifications well consisting with freedome of choice he might very well chide him for such abuse and ask him where he learned to talk so frivolously and so fondly Qualities are not Names neither are Names Qualities Qualities are inherent in us Names are imposed on us neither is that a mans Name always by which he is called Noah was righteous and he was called so yet that was not his name Moses was meek and was called so yet that was not his name In the language of holy Scripture Names do signifie Persons and individual Substances he calleth the stars by their names I know thee by name Exod. 33 I have called thee by Name Isai. 43 He calleth his own sheep by name Joh. 10 Can any take these places to be meant otherwise than of individual and personal notice Nothing will serve Mr Horn but such names as John and James and so long as we cannot finde these spoken of in Gods word he will not yeeld there are any such written in heaven nor any personal Election but what if he can finde such names as Clement Will that satisfie him when the Apostle saith Phili 4.3 with Clement also and other my fellow-labourers whose Names are written in the book of life I take his meaning to be this as if he had said with Clement and those others whom though I name not now in this Epistle as I do Clement yet are their names written far more happily elsewhere even in the book of life with God in heaven Such names therefore as John James Clement we say but understand still what we say {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} are written in the book of the Lamb slain Q. 142. Doth not the Scripture tell us that God elected Jacob personally to salvation and rejected Esau personally from it before they were born or had done good or evil A. God did elect Jacob but the Apostle neither says personally nor to or from salvation Qu. 143. How are we to understand him then A. That he chose Jacob nationally that is him and his posteritie to be priviledged with the choice means of salvation above all nations and therein gave him the Dominion and rejected Esau and his posteritie from the same yet so as his family and all the families of the earth had blessing in Jacob's and might have enjoyed it in submitting to him This appears to be the Apostles meaning 1. The Oracle to Rebecca speaks of them as of two nations 2. The Prophet Malachi applies it to their posterities 3. The Apostle speaks of casting off the nation of the Jews 4. Nor doth he speak of
them Secondly to bring to an end issue or event So Predictions and Prophesies Types and Figures are said to be fulfilled when the things are come to pass which those did foresignifie So the Scripture was fulfilled which saith He was numbred with the transgressours and thus the Ceremonial Law of Moses was fulfilled when Christ came and died for us and put an end to it Now of these two significations of the word fulfill in this sentence Love fulfilleth the Law he seemeth to take it in the latter sense as if it were said The Spirit of God and Grace of Charity hath made the Law out of Date and put a final period to it so that now it is not to be regarded any otherwise than the prophesies and shadows which have accomplishment in Christ whereas the word fulfill is not to be taken in this sense but in the former And yet if he doth take the word fulfill in the former sense namely perfectly to perform as the word is taken there understanding the while perfection of parts not of degrees then he is mistaken in thinking that love fulfills the Law per actus elicitos doing it self all that is required whereas it doth not fulfill the Law otherwise than per actus imperatos by setting others other faculties and graces on work The Sun giveth light to the world per actum elicitum it bringeth forth flowers and fruits per actum imperatum Love causeth us to be well and kindly affected this is the own and proper work of it but over and above it layes a command upon us to be serviceable in several Duties Love is not the fulfilling of the Law by elicit actions for fear and trust are required moreover in the first Table upright dealing and mercifulness in the second if it were it should indeed bring some discharge to the Law because it should contain in it self all the several parcels of the Law But because it doth fulfill the Law onely by exciting us or setting us on work to do the several duties enjoyned therefore it is needfull nevertheless that the Law should still abide in place and force that we may know what the particulars are that God requireth of us and that we may do them out of obedience to his will who commandeth these particulars to be done And certainly Love is not more a fulfilling of the Law after that Christ is come then it was before his coming for to love God above all was ever the sum of the first Table and to love our Neighbour as our self was always the sum of the second Table and howsoever meant the meaning was ever the same and as much did charity put an end to the Decalogue in the Old Testament as it doth in the New One chief place of Scripture by occasion of which and by following the sound of it more than seeking after the sense of it he is mis-led and mis-leadeth others is that which he quoteth to the Qu. 167. of the Law being a schoolmaster to Christ which text as some others also do he mis-understands thorowout For first by the Law they mean the Moral or ten Commandments whereas indeed it meaneth the Law Ceremonial chiefly if not onely which hath as much of the Gospel in it as of the Law the several rites and Ceremonies being but appendices Evangelii annexed to the Doctrine of the Gospel then though somewhat darkly revealed That the Apostle means this and not the Law Moral considered as a Covenant of works holding nothing for the present of a Saviour appears by the scope of the Apostle to the Galatians which is against them that would have circumcision and all the Ceremonies of Moses retained in the time of the Gospel as necessary to our Justification in Christ the very same opinion that beginning at Antioch the Apostles condemned at Jerusalem Acts 15. The errour of the beleeving Pharisees was not that it was needfull to be circumcised and to keep the ten Commandments but to be circumcised and keep the Law of Moses namely that Law of Moses which was of the same kinde with circumcision which properly is the Law of Moses the law Moral being the Law of Nature written in mans heart before and by Moses ministery written out fair in Tables of stone Yet is it true that the Apostle speaketh in that Epistle against the Moral Law so far as it was supposed to justifie us but this he doth by way of argument against his adversaries and not as if he made the cause of the Moral Law and Ceremonial all alike in respect of retaining or not retaining them his way of arguing being à genere ad speciem negativé We are not justified by the Law any Law whatsoever therefore not by the Law Ceremonial And as our Authour mistakes the term Law here so doth he also in the fourth lawfull use of the Law which is to witness to Christ quoting Rom. 3. 21. where it is said that the Righteousness of Christ is witnessed by the Law and the Prophets Where the Law signifies the Books of the Law not the ten Commandments In the promise made to Adam Gen 3. to Abraham Gen. 12. is testimony given to Christ and his grace and in all those places where Moses wrote of him The Law and the Prophets being the same in that place that Moses and the Prophets Acts 26. 22. Moses in his five books wrote of Christ so did the Prophets So for the Law The word Schoolmaster mistaken helpeth to deceive them further for upon hearing of that they presently imagine great rigour and hard usage to be intended they think of nothing but stripes and scourges and ruling with a wooden sceptre as if he must needs be an Orbilius plagosus such a one as Fr. Junius met withall that he complains of so much in his life Corpus suum exercitavit in corpore meo whereas the best authours that treat of teaching young scholars as Plutarch and Quintilian will not allow of striking of them But be it as it may for that Paedagogus howsoever through penury of words we be forced to turn it is Formator morum such a one as was allowed and appointed to wait on great mens sons and heirs apparent and to teach them how to behave themselves and to frame their pliable and waxen age to love of goodness and practise of vertue and detestation of vice to fashion them betimes so far as might be for what they were to be another day {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} so calls it Constantine Manasses speaking of him that was Pedagogue to the Emperour Augustus he did set him in right tune for his carriage and made his behaviour congruous to himself so great a Personage Thus Cyrus had one who taught him before-hand not to respect persons in matters of Justice by reproving him for that he would have adjudged a coat that was in question not to the true owner but to another whom it best fitted And Iulian in his
how much soever it be cried up that must assure our interest in Christ without good actions or good affections And whereas also he excludeth Revelation we oppose like wise the Apostles testimony Rom. 8. 16. the Spirit beareth witness that we are the children of God and 1 Cor. 2. 12. We have received the Spirit which is of God that we may know the things that are freely given to us of God I know no other Revelation the pretended orthodox do pretend to and he sets himself against none else and his words are general not any other pretended revelation I think that under those words in the Qu. or the like may be meant also changes and alterations in mens hearts and lives from bad to good In a funeral sermon of his pag. 18 19. he plyeth this matter much disheartening those that think they beleeve and are of Gods Elect because they finde themselves changed and reformed he telleth them they ground their faith of Christs Mediation upon their works Answ Those who are taught that good works are the product and fruit of faith cannot ground their faith upon their works Neither can good Christians value such talk as this while they remember what S. James saith Shew me thy faith by thy works and I will shew thee my faith by my works He that is suspected to be dead may by a stander by be certainly known to be alive if he perceive him to draw his breath and if another of of the by-standers shall argue that it is a great weakness to ground any mans life upon his breath and that it can be no true life that is so grounded he would by others be thought in this not to be reasonable but ridiculous Mans Conversion is a work of that nature that it is not always easie to be discerned neither ought men to be too scrupulous or curious in finding the time means and manner of it But where these are obscure or uncertain and when doubts and difficulties arise touching these the help hath always been from consideration of the change that is wrought in us If a man may assuredly know that he hath attained his journeys end and arrived at the desired haven he ought not too much to trouble himself about the way how he came there Let not therefore Christians be beguiled of this supply and relief but pass by if need be the circumstances of time and place and way and insist upon the substance which is the alteration that is made which they may do as well and upon as certain ground as to this work upon the soul as the blinde man did concerning the work that our Saviour wrought upon his body saying Joh. 9. One thing I know that whereas I was blinde now I see So may a true convert say I was sometimes darkness but now am I light in the Lord Eph. 5. 8. And the prodigal son had as much cause of comfort and joy as the father had upon the new return and change appearing that He who was dead is alive and he that was lost is found And whereas he told his Auditory then pag. 19. that it is Pharisaical to conceit that God loveth us because of reformations and frames begotten in us by his grace and a certain secret insensible working of power in the heart it may be answered If the work of the Spirit be secret and insensible what better way can there be to take notice of it than by the change and alteration that is made in us He that would know whether the Sun moveth or not must not look upon the Sun nor can he see the shadow move upon the Dial but if he comes an hour or two hence he may easily discern that the Sun and the shadow are removed and that therefore they did move before But the truth is our Authour holds no such internal work or power needfull to conversion for of the six helps to Quakerisme afforded by such as are counted orthodox this is by him counted the second Their speaking of faith as wrought by some immediate power as besides the word preached but so much for this I think by the like in the Question last rehearsed he may mean also Consolations and sense of heavenly joy for in a discourse of his called A Caveat to true Christians pag. 84 85. he much mislikes that men should gather comfort or assurance from sensible feeling and visits and saith that such are thence called sensual as not living by Faith but upon matters of sense thus he there But where are they called sensual who ever called them so A little before pag. 82. upon those words of the Apostle Peter They that are unlearned wrest the Scriptures he noteth thus He means not unlearned in Aits and languages But I suppose there be few among us though so far illiterate as they be not able to read his book but even by custome of our English language have learned the difference betwixt Sensual and Sensible The word sensual is twice found Jam. 3. and Jude vers. 19. in both places it stands opposed to spiritual and signifies as much as Carnal such as intend onely and are led by their part sensitive or carnal appetite or nature common to us with the bruits sensual having not the Spirit and in our common speech a sensual man is one that is given to brutish pleasures Now shall such a Christian as is visited with the consolations of God and is made sensible of heavenly light and joy that can in some sort take up the Prophets words in the multitude of the sorrows that I had in my heart thy comforts have refreshed my soul be called Sensual It is true that the sense of divine comfort and the light of Gods countenance may denominate persons sensible namely thereof yet not absolutely sensible for such we call them that are apt to perceive and understand readily what is done or said But to say they are absolutely Sensual is so gross a mistake that I cannot but wonder it should fall from him who is skilfull in Arts and languages how soever undervaluing them in others Not living by Faith saith he but upon matters of sense Faith and Sense may be opposed and are sometimes very distant and contrary but not as sense is taken here For they who have as holy Scripture speaketh joy in beleeving or that as the Apostle Peter saith beleeving rejoyce with joy unspeakable and glorious do live by faith and upon sense too that is upon sensible consolations or perception of divine favour as a man may comfort and chear himself in a winters night by the heat of the fire and the light of it too But what is the reason why we may not beleeve that Christ hath dealt graciously with us in that he hath bestowed upon us the gifts of Faith and Obedience or that we may not conclude spiritual life from spiritual affections and desires It is this because a mans heart is deceitfull The Scripture saith indeed Mans heart