active and passive is the meritorious cause of salvation and of all the means conducting thereunto So Colos 1.14 We have redemption through his bloud even the forgiveness of sins And 1 John 1.7 The bloud of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin And 1 Pet. 1.18 19. Knowing that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers but with the precious bloud of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot with many such like Texts Thirdly Faith is the instrumental cause that is to say the instrument whereby we receive Christ and apply his merits to us so John 1.12 As many as received him to them he gave power to become the sons of God even to them that believe on his name And Ephes 3.17 The Apostle saith that Christ dwells in our hearts by faith And hence it is our righteousnesse is called both the righteousness of faith Rom. 10.6 And the righteousnesse which is by faith Heb. 11.7 And the righteousnesse which is of God by faith Phil. 3.9 Fourthly and lastly Vocation and Justification and Sanctification and good works and eternal life and salvation are the joynt fruits and effects of the aforenamed causes successively following one another Vocacion Justification and Sanctification and good works are the first fruits and effects of the foresaid causes brought forth here in this life as numerous Texts of Scripture testifie which I need not recite because they are familiarly known and because I have mentioned divers of them formerly And Eternal Life and Salvation is the last fruit the consummation and ultimate end of all as it 's very often taught and testified Rom. 6.22 Being made free from sin and become servants to God ye have your fruit unto heliness and the end everlasting life And 1 Pet. 1.9 Receiving the end of your faith even the salvation of your souls These are the links of the golden chain of salvation and the order of the causes thereof as they are annexed and held forth to us in the word of God And in Rom. 8.30 they are summed up together though in fewer words Whom he did predestinate saith the Apostle them he also called and whom he called them he also justified and whom he justified them he also glorified And hence is Mr. Haggar's grosse error in his concatenation of the causes of salvation detected and confuted In that he makes sanctification and good works causes of salvation which are but fruits and effects of God's election and the merits of Christ apprehended by faith for they go before salvation only as necessary antecedents and as the appointed way to lead us to salvation and as preparatives for Heaven as hath been already declared but not as causes thereof 1. They are Via regnâ— but not causa regnandi So that as the way to any place is not the cause that brings any man to it though he must needs passe through the way to come to that place but the cause of his coming to it is his own will and motion So sanctification and good works though they be necessary antecedents to salvation so that we cannot passe to Heaven but through them yet they are not the causes which brings us thither but the causes thereof are the mercies of God and the merits of Christ apprehended by Faith And so I end this Controversie If now I have not untied the Gordian knots of these long debated Controversies so fully and openly as to give satisfaction to all whose thoughts have been formerly puzzled about them as I believe I shall not yet my labour will not be wholly lost in these regards First Because I have hereby declared my willingnesse to do the Church service to my power by putting my hand to the supportation of the truth of the gospel which these stormy times have so impetuously and vehemently shaken Secondly Because what I have delivered may happily give satisfaction to some and let them loose out of the briers of their hesitation that were doubtful before what opinion to incline to Thirdly Because this Essay may happily be an occasion to invite and induce some more Logical and Learned pen to publish a more Scholastick and plenary solution of them The fifth Controversie About Original sin THat I may the more fully discover and confute this error I will unfold these four points about the sin of our natures the sin wherein we are conceived and born which therefore all Orthodox Divines have fitly and properly called Original Sin First I will render a reason of the epithete why it is called Original Sin Secondly I will give a definition of the Sin what is Thirdly I will alledge some of the evident proofs of Scripture for the justification of it Fourthly I will frame some irrefragable and convincing arguments drawn out of Scripture to prove it by necessary and undeniable consequence The first Point opened THe sinful corruption or corrupt disposition of man's nature from the womb hath many epithetes or names given unto it in Scripture which denote and declare that it hath its original and beginning with man's conception and birth and therefore is fitly and properly termed Original Sin and so ever hath been for above this thousand years by all sound and learned Divines both ancient and modern For though it be not in terminis in these very words so called in Scripture yet hath it divers other epithetes and names there given it which are consignificant and import and imply the same sense and meaning with these words Original Sin amongst which take notice of these Rom. 6.6 It 's called The old man and the body of sin 1 Cor. 5.7 It 's termed The old leaven Rom. 7.17 The sin that dwelleth in us Rom. 7.23 The law in our members Rom. 7.24 The body of death Gal. 5.16 The lusts of the flesh Jam. 1.14 A man 's own lust In which Text in the next words following it is punctually distinguished from all actual sins as being expresly affirmed to be the procreant cause of all actual sin for the cause and the effects cannot be one and the same The second Point opened what original sin is ORiginal sin is a pravity vitiosity or vitious habit or corrupt disposition of man's nature from his first conception as a just punishment of all mens sin in Adam whereby they are born the children of wrath and become subject to death both of body and soul and also become prone to commit all actual sins Or thus Original sin is a pravity of man's nature from his first conception whereby he seems to be prone to all sin as a just punishment of Adam's sin or transgression whereof all men are guilty and for which all men are exposed and subjected to death both corporal and eternal Both these definitions have one and the same sense And from them ye may observe that there be three things in Original Sin or three parts of it The first
We read in the Book of Exodus that when God commanded the Israelites to contribute to the building of the Tabernacle Moses was directed to take their offerings that gave them willingly with their (b) Exod. 25.2 hearts This made David give this charge to his son Solomon And thou Solomon my son know thou the God of thy father and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing (c) 1 Chro. 28.9 mind And himself to promise God to sacrifice freely unto (d) Psal 54.6 him And to professe his delight in his (e) Psal 119.143 commandements This is oft required also elsewhere in the word of God If ye be willing and obedient saith the Lord ye shall eat the good of the (a) Isa 1.19 Land And God loves a cheerful giver saith the (b) 2 Cor. 9.9 Apostle Fourthly and lastly Obedience must be constant continued unto the end without giving over or it 's frustrate and lost so saith our Saviour No man having put his hand to the Plough and looking back is fit for the Kingdom of (c) Luke 9.62 God For the righteous bring forth fruit in old (d) Psal 92.14 age Hence are thâ—se and many such like sentences of Scripture Blessed are they that keep judgement and do righteousnesse at all (e) Psal 106.3 times And He that shall endure to the end the same shall be (f) Mat. 24.13 saved And We are delivered out of the hands of our enemies that we might serve God without fear in holiness and righteousnesse before him all the days of our (g) Luke 1.74 75. life I will close up all with that exhortation of S. Paul to the Corinthians Therefore my beloved brethren be we stedfast unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord and so our labour shall not be in vain in the (h) 1 Cor. 15.58 Lord. So be it FINIS A DISCUSSION AND DECISSION OF SOME GREAT CONTROVERSIES IN RELIGION BEING An Antidote against some Erroneous Pamphlets Published of late to the suppression of God's Truth The Contents whereof followeth in the next Page By THO. GERY B.D. and Rector of Barwell in Leicestershire Beloved believe not every spirit but try the spirits whether they are of God because many false Prophets are gone out into the world 1 John 4.1 LONDON Printed for N. Webb and W. Grantham 1657. The Contents 1. Controversie About God's election of men to eternall life and salvation whether or no it be grounded upon the fore-sight of their faith and obedience 2. Controversie About the universality of Christ's Redemption 3. Controversie About the power of Man's free-will 4. Controversie About the Merit of good works 5. Controversie About Original sin 6. Controversie About Tithes A Preface to the Reader HAving a Pamplet accidentally put into my hands twisted of inconsequences incongruities and misapplications and depravations of holy Scripture entituled The order of causes Of God's foreknowledge election and predestination and of mans salvation or damnation I thought I might do a charitable work to detect the impostures of it Especially considering that it had gotten some entertainment with some persons within mine own charge and cure For albeit there be little hope of prevailing with these false teachers in these times especially which have so long connived at their erroneous and seditious courses to renounce their errors though never so fairly and fully confuted as who have resolved to hold the conclusion whether the premises be true or false which every Novice in Logick knows to be an absurdity to be hissed at yet may this detection of their falcies in some measure prevent the further diffusion and spreading of their pernicious errors which is the fole end wherefore these plain ensuing lines were hastily compiled and penned And in this regard the courteous Reader is intreated to vouchsafe a candid and benevolent construction of them as which upon more mature deliberation might either have been kept private or appearing in publique might happily have been clad in a more sightly dresse which is the humble request of A Friend and Servant to all that follow the truth in love THOMAS GERY IT hath ever been the artifice and deceitfull dealing of Hereticks to pick out some such Texts of Scripture wherewith to cloak their errors as by their false interpretation of them in not comparing them with other Texts of Scripture treating of the same subject might afford some colour and countenance unto them Thus the old Serpent the first deviser of this fallacy dealt with our blessed Saviour when he tempted him in the Wildernesse he alledged a piece of Scripture out of Psalm 91.11 where it 's said He shall give his Angels charge over thee to keep thee and skips over the next words in all thy ways and so goeth to the 12. verse as knowing that the words which he left out would quite alter the Text from that purpose for which he alledged the same And thus deal the Heretical Sectaries and Separatists that are of late started up They alledge some sayings of Scripture which considered by themselves without any reference had to other Texts of Scripture which afford light to the right meaning of them seem at the first superficial view of them to speak something for them about some of their erroneous Tenets whereas compared with other sayings of Scripture where the same point is more fully and plainly expressed they make nothing at all for proof of that for which they are alledged as shall be discovered in some particulars in this ensuing Treatise Amongst a Fardle of their palpable and prodigious Errors some whereof are utterly unworthy the refutation being manifest contradictions of holy Scripture As their denial of Faith to be the gift of God which I have heard to proceed out of the mouth of divers of no small esteem amongst them with incredible impudence I have here undertaken the confutation of these six of which some are Popish which I find in the fornamed book and in another which I shall hereafter mention 1. They affirm That God's election of men to salvation is from his fore-sight of their Faith and Obedience Or as some of them phrase it from his fore-sight of their Sanctification and Good Works 2. That Christ's Redemption is universall extending it self to all men in the World indiscriminatim indifferently 3. That men have Free-will to repent and believe and so may be saved if they will 4. That Good Works or Obedience are meritorious causes of salvation 5. That children are not born in sin 6. That the payment of Tithes to the Ministers of the Gospel is not agreeable to Scripture Now that these are false Tenents not justifiable from Scripture but repugnant unto it I shall I hope make manifest to all that are not byassed with prejudice And because I am not to enter the Lists and contest with pertinacious Adversaries who sometime will neither hear right Reason nor yield to Scripture but as they themselves shall expound
is the guilt of Adam's sin whereof S. Paul speaks Rom. 5.19 where he saith By one man's disobedience many were made sinners Secondly There is the defect and want of original righteousnesse whereof he speaks Rom. 3.23 All have sinned and come short of the glory of God i.e. of God's image which was in man's first creation stamped upon him And for this exposition I have warrant from 1 Cor. 11.7 in that the Apostle there joyned these together as synonimas image and glory when he saith That man is the image and glory of God Thirdly There is the succession of a vitious habit and corrupt disposition in man's nature in place of his primitive righteousnesse whereof we read Gen. 6.5 where God himself witnesseth That the whole imagination of the thoughts of man's heart was only evill continually And Psal 14.2 â— verse David saith That the Lord looked down from Heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek God They are all gone aside they are altogether become filthy And here I desire the Reader to consider how these three parts of this our native sin do produce and bring forth one another the first namely the guilt of Adam's sin being the sole cause of the other two as these Texts beside many other declare Rom. 3.23 All have sinned that is in Adam and come short of the glory of God i.e. come short of that glorious image of God by reason of that sin of Adam's whereof all are guilty And Rom. 5.19 By one man's disobedience many wert made sinners By which one man Adam is understood as all acknowledge And so these two Texts make it clear that childrens want of Original or Primitive righteousnesse and the inquination and depravation of their natures do both flow from their guilt of Adam's sin and are the sad consequents of it The third point opened The evident proofs of Scripture for it BEsides the Texts already named it 's plentifully taught elsewhere Gen. 5. the 1 3. verses compared In the first verse it 's said that Adam was created in the likeness of God And in the 3. verse it 's said that He begat a child in his own likeness after his image which imports that he begat not a child in the likenesse of God which consisted in holinesse but in the likenesse of himself who then was stained with sin Gen. 8.21 The imagination of man's heart is evill from his youth Which Text is rendered by Junius and Tremellius The imagination or frame of man's heart is evill from his childhood Now children are free from actual sins and therefore the evill of their hearts must need be Original because all evill of sin is comprehended under one of these two sorts Job 14.4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean not one Which is spoken in reference to man's birth as it 's there most apparent in the first verse Job 15.14 What is man that he should be clean or he that is born of a woman that he should be righteous And again chap. 25.4 How then can man be justified with God or how can he be clean that is born of a woman The interrogations in both these Texts imply an impossibility that any woman should bring forth a child free from the pollution and tincture of sin in the ordinary way of conception and parturition Psal 51.5 Behold saith David I was shapen in iniquity If David then all others but our Saviour only whose conception was not after the ordinary manner but by the miraculous and incomprehensible operation of the holy Ghost The Anabaptists to avoid the repugnancy between their Tenet and this Text have devised this shift They say that David spake this of his mother's sin in his conception and not of his own fin But this is so weak a subterfuge and evasion and so dissonant from the scope and purpose of the Psalm that I should think that any judicious man that seeks the truth should blush to own it for this is one of David's penitential Psalms wherein he makes humble confession of his own sins to God and not of his mother's and makes earnest request and supplication for the expiation of them as all the precedent verses declare And again though the latter words in the verse might be wrested to be spoken of his mother's sin as well as his own because mention is made of her yet the first words which are these Behold I was shapen in iniquity must of necessity be understood of himself and can have no reference to his mother without violence to the Text and wilful wresting of it Psal 58.3 It 's said That the wicked are estranged from the womb And the like place is in Isa 48.8 where the Lord calls the house of Jacob A transgressor from the womb which is as much to say as a sinner by birth Ezek. 16.4 5 6. verses Jersalem's nativity is affirmed by God to be polluted and he saith That he saw her polluted in her own bloud which Text though it should be granted to be allegoricall as some Interpreters would have it yet inevitably concludes mans birth to be unclean Joh. 3.6 That which is borne of the flesh is flesh saith our Saviour that is is sinfull For when the flesh is opposed to the Spirit as it is here in this Text it usually denoteth and is put to signifie the pravity or sinfullness of nature as Gal. 5.17 The flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh and these are contrary one to another Roman 5.12 By one man sin entred into the world and death by sin and so death pasled upon all men for that all have sinned If all have sinned then have infants sinned as well as others for we do not find them any where excepted Now infants have no actuall sin while they are infants and therefore that sin which they are said to have must needs be originall all sin whatsoever being comprehended under one of these two kinds as was said before The fourth Point opened namely Arguments drawn from Scripture to prove original sin by necessary consequence Argument 1. IF children be not conceived and born in sin then is there no need of their regeneration or second birth to their salvation before they have made themselves sinners by actual transgression for nothing hinders from salvation but sin But children have need of a regeneration or second birth to their salvation before they have committed any actual sin as is clear from our Saviour's words twice affirmed with vehement asseveration John 3.3 5. verses Verily verily I say unto thee except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God And this is spoken without any exception of Infants either there or in any other place of Scripture and is also proved by our Saviour in the verse next following to concern Infants as well as men of years because whatsoever is born of the flesh that is of fleshly
death of the body for as the soule gives naturall life to the body so the image of God namely righteousnesse and holinesse gives spirituall life to the soule and without which the soul is spiritually dead as Ephes 2.1 Colos 2.13 and divers other Texts of Scripture witnesse where mention is made of a death in sin You that were dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh hath he quickened c. whence by undeniable consequence it follows that where there is a deprivation of the spiritual life of righteousnesse and holinesse there must needs follow a spiritual death in sin Now if they deny grace righteousnesse and holinesse to be the life of the soul I refer them to the view of these three Texts of Scripture omitting many other where it 's expreslly asserted Prov. 3.21 22. Keep sound wisedom and discretion so shall they be life unto thy soul And Rom. 8.6 To be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life And Rom. 8.10 The spirit is life because of righteousness that is The soul is alive spiritually because of righteousnesse Argument 3. THey whom Christ came to save are sinners So saith our Saviour himself Matth. 9.13 I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance And S. Paul Rom. 5.6 Christ died for the ungodly And 1 Tim. 1.15 Christ Jesus came into the World to save sinners And this must needs be so in reason for where there is no sin there is no need of a Saviour But Christ came to save Infants as well as men of years Therefore they are sinners Now that Christ came to save Infants as well as men of years appears by Scripture these two ways 1. Because he died for all men as oft the Scripture affirms 1 Tim. 2.6 He gave himself a ransome for all Heb. 2.9 He tasted death for every man For whether all in these and the like Texts of Scripture be taken for all sorts of men only or for all of all sorts Infants must needs be included amongst them for they are one sort of men 2. Because he invited children to come unto him or to be brought unto him as is said Marke 10.14 which intimates that he came into the world to save them as well as men of years I will add one argument more for proof of this point to which the wit of man though prompted by the cunning suggestion of the old serpent cannot devise a satisfactory answer Argument 4. THey which are by nature children of wrath are by nature sinners But all men are by nature children of wrath so saith the Apostle Ephes 2.3 Therefore all men are by nature sinners and so consequently Infants The first proposition is all that I have to prove for the assumption is S. Paul's own affirmation And I find it the constant doctrine of holy Scripture both in the Old and New Testament which evermore teacheth sin to be the only cause of God's anger and wrath And this in reason must needs be so because all things else were his own works which were all good yea very good as we read in Gen. 1.31 And sin only was the Divel's work the enemy of God and all goodnesse and therefore sin only is said to provoke God's anger and wrath The testimonies of Scripture are so numerous for this that I will name but this one of a thomsand Rom. 1.18 The wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousnesse of men And how oft God is said in Scripture to have been provoked to anger by the sins of the people of Israel none can be ignorant I will add but one thing more about this argument and so I will conclude it The forenamed Text in Eph. 2.3 with what is deducible from it where it is affirmed that we are all by nature the children of wrath puzleth the Anabaptists not a little and puts them to their shifts to frame such an exposition thereof as may not impugn their own false Tenet about original sin This may appear from that exposition which the forementioned Mr. Brown hath made of that Text in the 6. page of his book that I named before where he thus expounds it By nature saith he is understood first the matter and form of our bodies which are good and principally the light that God hath placed in man Now that this is a novel false and irrational interpretation of this Text I thus discover If by nature here be understood nothing but what is good namely the matter and form of our bodies and the light that God hath placed in us then how can it make us the children of wrath as here it 's said of it for nothing that 's good can make us children of wrath It 's sin only which was first brought forth by Satan and nothing else that provokes God's wrath as formerly was proved By nature therefore in this place of necessity must be understood something that is sinful for else it could not make us children of wrath as hath been shewed which can be nothing else but that vitiosity pravity and corrupt disposition which from our first birth and being is propagated into our bodies and souls by natural generation For though it were granted that by nature here be meant the substance of our souls and bodies yet of necessity it must be also granted as hath been now proved that it 's meant of them not as pure and free from any sin but as vitiated and depraved therewith from their first union and conjunction together into one individual It remains therefore a sure and sacred truth inviolable and infringible and not to be contradicted but by obstinacy or impudence it self That children are born in sin The sixth Controversie About Tithes THere is an obsteperous clamour raised against Tithes by the Anabaptistical teachers who yet for the most part lay as heavy a burthen upon their disciples and put them to as great cost and charges as is equivalent to Tithes And this in all probability they have broached and ventilated to get the better morsel for themselves For this they find by experience that the way to insinuate with the common people and to winde themselves into their bosomes is to preach pleasing things unto them and especially such as sound for their profit be it right or wrong To stop their mouths if it may be if not yet to justifie the practise of paying and receiving Tithes I will first make it appear that it stands with equity and justice that Ministers of the Gospel have allowance and recompence for performing their work of the Ministery and such an allowance as may afford them a competent and comfortable livelihood and subsistence Secondly I shall make it appear That it stands with equity and justice that they have Tithes for their allowance 1. The former I shall prove both by Scripture and force of reason By Scripture I shall prove it both in the Old Testament and in the New First