righteous and then judgeth them so the elect being in themselves liable to the accusation and condemnation of the law to be just and righteous by faith in Jesus Christ through the imputation of his own justice to the praise of his power and the eternal salvation of their souls Which description of justification is utterly false and shews how farre he and those from whom he borrowed it are out of the way and how ignorant they are in fundamentals even one of the main grounds of their salvation which description he notwithstanding goes about to explicate by the causes as follows saying Now for the causes of justification first they are especially the efficient secondly material thirdly the formal fourthly final Why would he have any more then four causes of an effect I fear in this business he must content himself with fewer for the effecting and producing of the justification at which he aims But each of these aforesaid saith he must be considered two wayes first actively in respect of him that justifies us and secondly passively in respect of the man who is justified first the principal cause of our justification actively considered is God freely purposing to send his Son to be made man to work righteousness for men But God justified men in the Old Testament by the Spirit of his Son Isa 50.8 and 5.3 11. where he cites 1 Pet. 1.10 Gal. 4.4 Then to wit in the fulness of time God sending his Son made of a woman made under the law then revealing his Son unto us by the preaching of the Gospel and perswading us to believe the same and lay hold on the Son of God by the operation of the blessed Spirit and then accounting unto us the obedience of his Son for our righteousness In all which he is gone out of Gods road or way of justification and from the truth of the Gospel for though God so sent his Son made of a woman and made under the law yet it was not to justifie us by active obedience unto the law as we have said And this he did saith he to shew that he is the beginning the middle and the end of our justification and to prove this the Lord himself saith Isa 43.25 I even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake and will not remember thy sins and the Apostle plainly saith Rom. 8.33 as he hath it page 77. It is God that justifies and the very Pharisees that rejected Christ most impiously professed this most truly that none can forgive sins but God onely And so saith Gregorie It is meet that he should be the giver of grace that was the author of nature Greg. in Psal paeniten pithily saith It is his office to absolve the guilty by whose justice he is made guilty But who questions any of all this Again the impulsive cause that moved God to do all this for man we find saith he to be two-fold first internal secondly external the first is the meer grace and free mercy of God towards men and this because he would be merciful to man Because we can ascribe no other cause of Gods will which is the cause of all things to wit in their first creation but onely this quia voluit because he would But in acts of providence especially in the punishment of sin there may be an external cause found in the creature And therefore Saint Paul saith he attributeth our redemption to the riches of his grace Ephes 6.7 Rom. 3.24 Titus 3.4 5. where he saith that after the kindness and love of God our Saviour towards men appeared not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour Whereby you see the Apostle maketh the kindness love and mercy of God to be the efficient principal cause or motive that moved God to send Christ to be the means of our salvation Nor is this denied at any hand but if the Vindicator had taken in one verse more of Titus 3. he might have easily seen that regeneration before described and justification is all one work and thing for it follows there that being justified by his grace in the work aforesaid we might be made heirs according so the hope of eternal life But he goes on thus And Augustine Homil. de Nat. Gratia saith that it is the ineffable grace of God that a man guilty of sin yea and say we polluted with sin should be justified from fin And especially against the Pelagian heresie who magnified nature to villifie and almost nullifie grace he saith that the grace of God whereby infants and men of years are saved is not procured by deserts but tendred freely without merits and so Anselm in Rom. 11. that because all men are shut up under sin the salvation of men cometh not in or by the merits of men but in the morcy of God The second impulsive cause is Christ saith he God and man who purchased by his merits that we should be justified in the sight of God Which thing hath been justly questioned for God might out of his free mercy and grace justisie us without any such merits and though the death of Christ wants not its inestimable price and merits yet we are not justified in Pauls sense thereby and much lesse by his active obedience but only by his Spirit But he gives us a reason for what he had said out of Isai 53.5 because the chastisement of our offences was laid upon him and that by his stripes we might be healed But here we would aske the Vindicator and his friends these questions first whether Isaiah speaks of a chastisement that was past or yet to come for certain it is that Christ was a Lamb slain from the beginning of the world Rev. 17.8 Secondly if it was a preterit suffering whether it was not Christs inward and voluntary death for us and in us when vve first became actual sinners according to Rom. 5.6 For when we were yet without strength according to the time Christ died for the ungodly and Gal. 3.1 Oh foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified in you Jam. 5.6 Ye have condemned and killed the just one and he doth not resist you See Rev. 1.7 and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him even so Amen And if so what peace was that which was procured for us by that his suffering and death was it not a time and space of repentance for otherwise we as also our first parents had immediately been sent to hell Fourthly what those stripes of Christ are by which we are healed are they his personal sufferings alone inward or outward upon the cross or are they his like sufferings when we suffer with him or for him dying unto all sin
See Rom. 6.8 For if we be dead with him we believe that we shall live with him and chap. 8.13 and if children then heirs heirs of God and joynt-heirs with Christ if so be that we suffer with him that we may be also glorified with him See 2 Cor. 1.4 5 6. 2 Tim. 2.11 12. 1 Pet. 4.1 2 3. This condition of conformity to Christs sufferings whether inward of which the Vindicator and his party say nothing or outward upon the crosse is not once thought of though there is no other way left us in Christ to obtain salvation Mat. 16.24 25. Pag. 68. he tels us but falsly that the material cause of our justification actually considered is Jesus Christ No it is the person to be justified and the benefits which we have by Christ saith he are two especially First redemption Secondly propitiation But those two say we will prove but one in the end First for redemption saith he it is a word borrowed from the use of war and why not from other civil and judicial acts and it signifies freedom from captivity And thus Christ is our deliverance but how First from the wrath of God see his method he sets that in the first place which should come last because saith he he is our reconciliation And is not that a propitiation through faith in his blood Rom. 3.25 which blood say we is the promised spirit for and signified by blood in the old Testament and not the blood of his crosse as he and others dream see Heb. 9.14 and 10.39 and 13.20 21. 1 Pet. 1.18 19. 1 Joh. 1.7 9. Rev. 7.14 and 12.11 Secondly saith he we are freed from the tyranny and dominion of sin because that obeying from the heart the form of doctrine unto which we are delivered that is the Gospel of Christ we are made free from sin and are become the servants of Christ which is our righteousnesse Rom. 6.18 Is this obedience then our righteousnesse sure he means nothing lesse though he speaks truer herein then he is aware of But he will have Christs external obedience to be our righteousnesse and none other Thirdly we are freed saith he from the punishment of our sins because it s against justice the punishment should be inflicted when the sin is pardoned for sin being the cause of punishment it must needs follow that sublatâ causâ which he elsewhere saith cannot be taken away in this life the cause being defaced or rather removed the effect should be absolved But against this he saith it may be objected That the sins of the elect are pardoned and yet they are afflicted continually and as the Prophet saith Psalm 73.13 they are chastised every morning and therefore how can it be that he should for give the guilt of their sins and yet as the Prophet speaks Psalm 99.8 he should punish their inventions But there are no sins pardoned say we till they be wholly left Unto which said objection he answers That the miseries of men before the pardon of sin are the punishments of sin but the affliction of the Saints after the remission of their sin are not to be reputed penalties of Gods anger but exercises of his servants and arguments of his love for as many as I love I rebuke and chasten saith Christ Rev. 3.19 so also Heb. 12.5 and that for a double end First for our salvation that we should not be condemned with the world 1 Cor. 11.30 Secondly and subordinately for our sanctification that we may be made partakers of his holinesse But what difference is there between Gods holinesse and our positive salvation is not eternal life a participation in full of Gods holinesse Psalm 17 13. I shall be satisfied when I shall awake with thy likenesse But God punisheth those sins with temporal plagues in his servants for their humiliation and amendment and for a warning unto others which he pardoneth as to the world to come 2 Sam. 12.13 14. and before the pardon of sin men are chastised in love to their souls as well as afterwards Psalm 94.12 Pro. 3.11 12. and Heb. 12.6 7. As for Propitiation he tels us page 68 69. that it is a reconciling us to God through the blood to wit the blood of his Spirit and it is saith he the accomplishment of that which was signified by the Mercy-seat Exod. 30. But the Mercy-seat or Propitiatorie did represent Christ in the Spirit and in his second or spiritual coming in the power of his resurrection when the two tables of the Law are written upon our hearts and the face and aspect of God and the soul looks towards each other like the two Cherubims through Christ the everlasting propitiation and Priest And that which the Vindicator speaks there confirms it for first as God gave his oracles unto the Prophets he should have said unto the Priests also out of the Mercy-seat so he did yea doth reveal his will unto us his Priests and Ministers by Jesus Christ not without us only but especially within us 1 Joh. 2.27 Joh. 1.17 Secondly as God was said to dwell between the Cherubims which covered the Mercy-seat so in Christ the fulnesse of the Godhead dwelleth bodily or really Coloss 2.9 And thereby as God was made propitious and favourable unto his people to assist and bless them by the blood which the High-Priest sprinkled before the Mercy-seat so saith he he is pacified and reconciled unto us and procured to inrich us with spiritual blessings through the blood of Jesus Christ Coloss 1.18 Which is true of both bloods that of his Spirit and that of his cross yea of the blood of sin also which we must shed in conformity to the death and bloodshed of Christ But this last parallel is not apt but forced Again he saith the grounds of those benefits or the meritorious cause thereof is the most absolute and perfect obedience which our Saviour Christ performed unto his Father for our sakes and is to be considered first actively then passively first the active obedience of Christ is a most perfect performance of Gods Law even to the utmost tittle thereof touching which we must consider-first that although Christ as man fulfilled the Law for himself that in both natures he might be an holy High Priest to offer sacrifice unto God yet as mediator as God and man he became subject to the Law and did fully and perfectly execute the same for us But how doth he prove that for Christ saith he is not only our redemption by that ransome which he paid for our sins but he is also the perfection of the Law unto salvation most true but not in his sense unto every one that believeth And there he three things saith he that prove the necessity thereof to be performed for us what are they first the justice of God that will not justifie the wicked to wit while they remain such in deed and will Prov. 17.15 but such as are just and righteous either by a proper
shall reward evill to mine enemies cut them off in thy truth and 59.13 Consume them in thy wrath consume them that they may not be and let them know that God ruleth in Iacob to the ends of the earth and 71.24 My toung shall talkof thy righteousnesse all the day long for they are confounded for they are brought to shame that seek my hurt and 101.8 I wil early destroy all the wicked of the Land that I may cut off all wicked doers from the City of the Lord which is every Saint Jerem. 4.14 Wash thine heart O Jerusalem that thou mayst be saved how long shall thy wicked thoughts lodg in thee Psal 112.8 His heart is established he shall not be afraid untill he see his desire upon his enemies and 139.23 24. Search me O my God and know my heart try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting and 143.9 10. Deliver me O Lord from mine enemies for I fly to thee to hide me with thee teach me to do thy will for thou art my God thy Spirit it is good lead me unto the Land of uprightnesse and of thy mercy cut off all mine enemies and destroy all them that afflict my soul Eccles 9.10 Whatsoever thine hand findeth to do do it with all thy might for there is no work knowledg wisedome or device in the grave whether thou goest and Luk 1.74 75. That we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies might serve him without fear in holinesse and righteousnesse before him all the days of our life Tit. 2.12 Teaching us that denying ungodlinesse and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world 1 Pet. 2.24 Who his own self bare our sins in his body upon the tree that we being dead to sin might live unto righteousnesse and 4.1 2. Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh arm your selves likewise with the same mind that he which is dead hath ceased from sin that he should no longer live the rest of his time in the flesh after the lusts of men but after the will of God Fifthly that when we were first converted sin had his death-wound contrary to Rom. 7.14 24. and 8.13 Gal. 5.17 Heb. 3.13 14. Take heed brethren lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God but exhort one another daily lest any of you be hardned through the deceitfulnesse of sin and 6.4 5 6. and 10.26 27 28 29 30. and 12.15 Looking diligently lest any fall from the grace of God lest any root of bitternesse springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled 2 Pet. 2.1.20 21. Jude 4. c. for no sin hath its deadly wound till it be by the patience and Spirit of Christ wholly overcome and lest Rev. 2.16 and 3.10 Sixthly That all the guilt of sin and punishment is taken away though the pollution and corruption remains contrary to Prov. 28.13 Jer. 33.8 Acts. 26.18 this is to take away the effect and leave the cause in force and being hence it is that Hieronymus saith on 1 Cor. 6. Be not deceived thinking that faith alone sufficeth for every sin that remaineth excludeth men from the kingdome of Heaven as the Apostle speaks Gal. 5. how the works of the flesh are hurtfull which are these adultery fornication uncleannesse c. of which I tell you before as I have told you in times past that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of Heaven But also saith he they pray sinfully who persevere in sin and desire that those sins of theirs should be pardoned or put away by the Lord which they themselves have not put away from them Seventhly they say that there is not any other active obedience or righteousnesse of Christ to be attained by faith then that which Christ works in his Saints for its contrary to Isai 45.24 25. and 48.18 and 53.11 and 59.17 and 61.3 10 11. and 62.1 2. Jerem. 23.5 6. and 31.31 32 33. and Rom. 4.11 and 5.7 18 19. and 8.4 Phil. 3.9 10. Eighthly that we are perfect in this life and complete by justification though not by sanctification where 's they are both one thing as hath been proved at large and while the one is imperfect the other is also Ninthly that justification lies in remission of sins or taking away the guilt of the same yet leaving the sin or pollution behind whereas justification taken in a liberative way is a purging and washing away of the fault and corruption in the first place as hath been proved out of Acts 13.20 and 1 Cor. 6.11 Tit. 3.4 5 6 7. Thirdly consider that the kingdome of God which Christ and his Apostles preached is not onely an inward kingdome Luk. 17.21 as it is a kingdome both of grace Rom. 14.17 and of glory also Rom. 8.19 Ephes 1.18 but consequently that there is an internal heaven of holiness and glory to be had and obtained by the Saints in this life Heb. 10.34 knowing that ye have in your selves a better and more induring substance in the heavens for so the words are in the Greek Text. As Paul also speaks of himself and fellow-Apostles whom God hath raised up and set together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus Ephes 2.5 6. this is that kingdome which Christ taught his Disciple to pray for saying ' thy kingdome come and which he and John Baptist published 'to be at hand Matth. 3.2 and 4.17 and which ' John saw coming down from God out of heaven Rev. 21.23 before whose coming all sin must be purged away for ' no unclean thing can enter into it Rev. 21.27 yea all the spiriteal effects of sin as the second day sorrow crying and tears shall be removed Rev. 21.4 Fourthly that they which know not own not nor witness this kingdome of God with the way and means thereunto were never sent of God to preach the true Gospel of the kingdome but do publish their own imaginations and traditions of men as the Vindicator and many of far greater note then he both living and dead both do and have done Fithly that they who do not believe that he God will avenge his elect who cry unto him night and day for vengeance against their spiritual enemies for the rooting of all out Luk. 18.1 7. have not the faith of Gods elect as hath been said before Sixthly we shall leave it to your serious consideration whether it be not the voice of the unbelievers and not of the Saints of whom it is said concerning the beast of sin which came out of the sea with seven heads and ten horns saying Rev. 13.4 and they worshiped the dragon who gave power unto the beast and they worshipped the beast saying who is like unto the beast who is able to make war with him Which interpretation concerning the beast of sin is not ours but
page 48 in his differencing of gratia gratis data and gratia gratum faciens you will find him as excellent a Schoolman or schoolboy rather Page 2. he saith that in Religion the Law is our marke or way from which if we swerve we sin But is not the Gospel our way therein also and that in a speciall manner of our Christian Faith and Religion That defect is the general nature of sin but is not excess which is the other extreme sinfull also That this defect is an inclination or action repugnant to the Law But what thinks he of evill words as false accusation lying cursing and swearing such as he frequently useth are not they sinfull also That there is in sin a double formality repugnancy to the Law and guilt But guilt is the effect and not the form of sin That the former of these two is a comparison with the Law but it is a disparison or dissimilitude therewith that the first fin of man was the disobedience of our first Parents in eating the forbidden fruit But if he understands it of their actuall eating of that fruit he is much mistaken for as the womans actual eating thereof did go before the mans so many gradual evils did precede them both as first diffidence incredulitie to Gods word who had expresly said in the day that thou shalt eat thereof dying thou shalt dye Secondly too much eare and credence given to the devils lying promise who said ye shall not die but be as gods knowing good and evill Thirdly the too much liking and approbation of the forbidden fruit Fourthly the hungring or thirsting after it Fifthly contempt of Gods justice Sixthly ingratitude towards him for all his former goodnesse And lastly their consenting to Satan and resolution to eat of that fruit That in the generall all our corruption and misery is sprung from that first sin of the first Adam Contrary to what the Lord saith Hosea 13.9 O Israel thou hast destroyed thy selfe but in me is thine helpe But here he saith more particularly that eternall death came upon all their posterity by that first sin Contrary to Gods express Law Deut. 24.16 where God will not have the son to suffer a temporall death and much lesse an eternal for the fathers sin and directly contrary to Gods oath Ezek. 18.3 4. As I live saith the Lord God ye shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel Behold all souls are mine as the soul of the father so the soul of the son is mine the soul that sinneth it shall die So ver 20. The son shall not be are the iniquity of the father neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him and the wickednesse of the wicked shall be upon him Num. 16.22 Shall one man sin and wilt thou be wroth with all the Congregation That the corruption aversnesse of our nature came from that fall aforesaid Pag 3. that all our actuall sins doe spring from thence See to the contrary Eccles 7.29 That the first sin of man is the cause of all other sins and punishments which is true of each mans personal fall and disobedience and not of the other That the Spirit by the Law entitles us to Adams sin He means the first Adams as a derivation from the root to the branches as poyson is carried from the fountain to the cistern and as the children of traitors have their blood tainted with the treason of their fathers and as the children of bondslaves are under their parents conditions But all these similitudes are but shaws to catch woodcocks for neither was the first Adam either the root or fountain of our soules which are Gods immediate workmanship Isai 57.16 for the spirit should fail before me and the souls which I have made nor are our bodies unclean by birth being created to be Temples for the Holy Ghost nor are traytors children usually tainted with their fathers treason though by the civil Law of some Countreys in proditionis terrorem they are ignobled in their blood and dignity nor was Adam himselfe a bond-slave to sin but by the grace of regeneration Gods free-man Rom. 6.18 before he begat any children nor doth the sinful corruption of our parents pass to us more then the graces and virtues of those that are or were righteous for both these are spiritual things which nature cannot convey but he seeks to prove what he saith by some Scriptures long since worn thred-bare by allegation to that effect Joh. 3.5 Rom. 5.12 20 21. 1 Cor. 15.47 48 49. Ephes 2.3 Iob 4.4 Psal 51.5 Isai 48.8 Gen. 8.21 To all which we will give answer in the order set down with what brevity we can having answered the same at large in our Examen As for that Ioh. 3.5 Whatsoever is born of the flesh is flesh it is true of the wisedome of the flesh and of the righteousnesse of the flesh as well as of the open sin but Christ speaks not here of the naturall birth of men but of a spiritual be it true or false As for Rom. 5.12 13 20. the Apostle speaks there thus Therefore as by one man sin entred into the world and death by sin so death went over all men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so far as all have sinned for so Chrysostome and Erasmus and others read those words for untill the Law sin was in the world but where there is no Law sin is not imputed or reputed for sin Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression who is the figure of him that is to come But not as the offence so is the free gift for the judgment was of one to condemnation but the free gift is of many offences unto justification for if by one mans offence death reigned by one much more they which receive an abundance of grace and of the gift of Righteousnesse shall reign in life by one Iesus Christ Therefore as by the offence of one judgement came upon all to condemnation even so by the righteousnesse of one the free gift came upon all men to the justification of life for as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous Unto which long Text we give this short answer First that it is a parallel and opposition betwixt Adams mischief and Christs remedy and cure but few in these days of supposed rather then true light understand either the one or the other aright for besides the first Adam or man whom the Vindicator with many more for want of a true Judicator here understands there are foure Adams mentioned both in the Scriptures and other writers The first is our natural or earthly man which is the creature of this world of whom our Apostle saith 1 Cor. 15 41. The first man is of the earth earthly The second is
A REVINDICATION Set forth by William Parker In the behalfe of Dr. Drayton deceased and himself Of the Possibility of a Total mortification of Sin in this life And Of the Saints perfect obedience to the Law of God To be the Orthodox Protestant Doctrine and no Innovations as they are falsly charged to be of Dr. DRAYTON and W. PARKER In an ILLOGICALL VINDICATION Wherein the necessity of sins remaining in the best Saints as long as they live and the impossibility of perfect obedience to the Law of God is ignorantly and perversly avouched to to be the Orthodox Protestant Doctrine by one who subscribeth his name JOHN TENDRING The Anagram whereof is ' GINNE TO HINDER What! ' Ginne to hinder doctrines so divine Which teach in heavenly purity the Trine Would have the man to live without the sin The blessed state he was created in Under pretence of innovations late Taught by truths Lovers whom your soul doth hate Witness your tongue in flamed with hels fire Calling us Jesuits acting for Romes hire What! must Jehovah nil he will he dwel With sin while Saints retain their earthly cell What! did not Abraham drive the sowles away Gen. 15.11 Which came upon the Sacrifice to prey Was he compell'd to let them there abide No thence he forc'd them ere the evening-tide And must best Saints keep sin that soul disease Without their will till death bring their release Fie John Tendering this Vindication You settle sin Gods abomination I' th soul foretold of desolation Matth. 24.15 Which we remove but you cry out and say We teach to hell The clean contrary way London Printed by W.G. and are to be sold with the Examen to the late Synods Confession of Faith by Nathaniel Brook at the sign of the Angel in Cornhill and John Orme in Pellican-Court in Little Britain M.DC.LVIII The Vindicator before he entreth upon the prosecution of his sinful business in plain terms doth present a Preface to his beloved friends in Scripture-phrase like to a Pharisaical Saint with a specious salutation in the front of it A true Paraphrase of both which as they must intend in reference to his Position we shall offer the impartial and intelligent Reader in manner and form following TO all Lovers of Gods truth which I call Gods truth namely to live in sin and disobedience as long as we precious Saints live in houses of clay grace I wish to you yea so much grace as to be content to live in sin and disobedience to Gods law without hearkening to our enemies contrary doctrines and also peace I wish you even as much peace as you can expect by living all your life long in sinne for there is no peace to the wicked saith my God Isa 57.21 through Jesus Christ Who is no minister nor allower of sin but a faithful redeemer of his eminent Saints from all iniquity Tit. 2.14 The Vindicators first paragraph of his Preface beginneth thus Beloved friends for so I may call you who stick as close to my sinful cause as my skin doth to my sinful flesh These are the times foretold wherein there shall be a falling away from our sinful positions and defection from the faith of our sinful doctrine hereafter to be named as a forerunner of the great and terrible day to the man of sinne 2 Thes 2.8 and of the losse of our credit with all sober and wise people for our maintaining that sin will remain in the best of Saints as long as they live in houses of the clay that Adam our first parent was made out of There are many false prophets that is to us and our sinful cause whose study and labour is to undeceive poor souls though I say to deceive them if it were possible the very elect and choice ones who yet fight and contend for sin to remain in the best Saints as long as they live that so they may not be esteemed for better Saints then our selves are who live as it is well known to our neighbours we do I call them men confident in an arm of flesh Goliah-like to terrifie our weak ones who know not the depths of Satan Rev. 2.24 from hearkning to them because to say so it maketh a great noise in the eares of our friends by reason that Jeremiah saith cap. 17.5 Cursed be he that maketh flesh his arm though the truth is we our selves are the men confident in an arm of flesh because that sin is called flesh Gal. 5.19 20 21. and therefore to be confident for sins remaining in the best of Saints untill death is to be confident in the arm of flesh Goliah-like which signifieth as one saith fleeting away as indeed we are like to be for they defie the whole Israel of God that is all the prevailers of the God of this world who blindeth the mindes of unbelievers 2 Cor. 4.4 to make them the more hardy in a sinful cause as who more bold then blind bayard And Goliah-like we are like to be when little David the lovely servant of God with some pebble-stones 1 Sam. 17.4 out of the stony law Deut. 4.13 doth hit the champion in the fore noddle and throw him down to the earth from whence he came Rev. 3.11 But as long as I can stand to it I shall not as I tell you in my next paragraph be daunted by the foresaid Prophets who oppose our falshood however I am esteemed among them so that you my friends hug me and love me for ingaging in this sinful quarrel to maintain that sin will remain in the best Saints as long as they live I tell them in the said paragraph that applause I mean from them shall not swell us for we are not like to have much from them and their dispraise shall not deject us so that you my beloved friends continue to applaud us but if you do not we shall be dead in the nest I tell them their greatnesse shall not affright us because they are but yet few for we are as yet the greatest in number of what rank soever and my hopes are we shall continue so if I can but cunningly abuse them with swelling word of vanity as you see I do my utmost in this my Preface to keep them unto us which I doubt I shall not long do but untill they lay bare the nakednesse of my Vindication Yet as I tell you in my next paragraph I am resolved when the glory of the God of this world lyeth at the stake as it did when the Goddesse Diana Act. 19.26 27. was preached against and her crafts-men were like to lose all their gain because her magn ficence was neer pulling down And therefore beloved friends being such a people as we are we must not when such Prophets do so openly endeavour to undeceive our choice ones that they may live no longer in a perswasion that they must sinne while they live here we must not I say stand by with a guilty silence as if we were
Israel of the God of this world spoken of 2 Cor. 4.4 to be prevailers in maintaining that sin and disobedience to the law of the righteous and just God will remain in the best Saints if they be no better then our selves are yet by confession and practise as long as they live That being the end for which we are what we are in all reviling and slandering the said Doctor Drayton and Parker under the horrid names of Jesults and Factors for Rome even for such Saints at Rome who were most eminent above others in Neroe's house when Paul was there Phil. 4.22 I say even for to make them more odious to our sin-maintaining party I am not unwilling to spend my lungs to reproch Jesuits and Factors for Rome as all can witness that heard my scurrulous invective at Wisfoord near Wilton against the said Parker for preaching such poysonful doctrine at Wilton of a possibility of a total mortification of sin in this life of which doctrine I wished the people of Wilton who flocked to heare me to take heed of and not endure to heare the said Parker preach any such doctrine for I told them spreading my paper on the Pulpit-cushion like Rabsicaes letter that the said doctrine will sink himselfe and his hearers to hed if our doctrine for sinne remaining in us as long as we live do at any time advance and lift us up to heaven Your selves my fellow Levites like Simeon and Levi brethren to maintain iniquity are now upon the stage as I tell you in my next paragraph to act your parts Therefore it doth concern you to joyn hand in hand with me in maintaining our positions for they are begun as I told you to be spoken against in publ que by our enemies whom I could not disswade nor terrifie from so doing though I told them openly before a cloud of witnesses that if they did publish such doctrines to the people against the necessity of sin remaining in the best Saints as long as they live they would pull all the Ministers of my mind which are too too many in the countrey about their ears His words spoken in Wilton Church because if it should be so as our enemies affirm the people would soon charge their Ministers with preaching a long time many lies to them for telling them so frequently that sinne will remain in the best Saints as long as they live as an Alderman of Milton told my selfe presently after Doctor Drayton had preached the Sermon now in Print on 2 Cor. 7.1 for cleansing away all fil hinesse of the flesh and spirit that if the said doctrine were true which Doctor Drayton had delivered I my self had taught at Milton many lies which wounded me to the heart though it were so to be told it to my face and the people in short time will say my fellow Levites as much to your faces as I was told if the doctrines of our enemies to sins continuance in best Saints come to be received more generally among all sorts of people Therefore arm up you courage my indeared fellow-brethren for sâ—â—â— cause and muster up the forsee you seem to have and fight as I bid you in the said paragraph being likewise upon the stage while our enemies yet stand below this boon sight of our traditional faith That sin will remain in us as long as we live by reason of the want of faith to beleeve the contrary for it is said Mat. 13.58 where it is said Christ could do no great works there because of their unbelief Now if thus you do my united brethren I assure my self and you as I tell you in my last paragraph that our victory if we can overcome our enemies though it be but by Club-law as they did Rev. 11.17 will be glorious among all lovers of sinful pleasures and profits more then lovers of God and his holinesse for then we may as they did Rev. 11.10 rejoyce and be merry if we can still perswade weak capacities to be confident that sin will remain in the best Saints as long as they live because then we our selves shall still be accounted for such Saints among the people and also every man whose teeth continuall water after the apples of Sodom will then think his own beloved sin how worthy soever it be to be hated is the only innate corruption and infirmity that will and must remain in him as long as he liveth Thus you see friends how glorious our victory is like to be if we can prevaile in the eyes of all Epicures and lovers of sinfull profits and pleasures But indeed we do but dissemble and lye when we say it will be glorious through Jesus Christ for Christ is not saith the Apostle Gal. 2.17 the Minister of sin for he came to redeem all his Saints from all iniquity Tit 2.14 and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works therefore to him belongeth better glory for ever and ever to be given to him from such as those Ephes 5.27 28. who are sanctified and washed in water by the word then can accrue to him by our best Saints who plead to have sin remain in them as long as they live to which all truly enlightened Saints say Amen namely that Christ may have more glory from his eminent Saints by their being purged from all sin then can redound to him from the constant cleaving of sin to them as long as they live which is contrary to God and Christ and the holy Spirit yea so contrary to the Saints pure happiness as nothing can be more opposite thereunto This is the Paraphrase that Mr. John Tendering must have made himself of his preface if required to explain it as consonant and in reference to his positions that sin and disobedience to Gods law will remain in the best of Saints as long as they live therefore we could give no other paraphrase upon his preface consideratis considerandis then what we have for substance delivered to Mr. John's friends whereby they may see his naked mind under the covert of Scripture-phrases by which he would deceive the hearts of simple and well-meaning people and therefore we hope his friends will not say that we have abused him and wrested his words in his preface from his own design Because we are perswaded his friends will not have him speak in his preface heterogeneals to the positions in his Vindication for then he doth abuse them and make them believe that in his book to be one of his beloved truths which he doth contradict in his preface if he mean not according to our paraphrâ—se and so with coloured words deceiveth the hearts of his many allies which relie upon his lying oracles Again if men do not mean their prefaces to be respectively in reference to their subsequent designs then their preface and their book will not be consentanies but disparates and the author of them a dissentany altornis vicibus to them both therefore Mr.
the true Church of Christ rending it with divisions and contentions for the sins cause to maintain that sin will remain in the best Saints as long as they live And thus rending the true Church by maintaining such division Joh. Tendring doth verifie another Anagram of his name Hot in rending Some men are fervent that no sin remain Some are more hot its being to maintain Those with tongue John Tendring's hot in rending These for his Saints hotter in defending You see his name suites with his Anagram Hence sins abetter he may say I am Hence sinners Champion you may call his name To plead for sin hence John doth take no shame Answer a fool according to his folly lest he be wise in his own eyes Prov. 26.15 A Confutation of the two subsequent Positions 1. That sinne will remain in the best Saints as long as they live in houses of clay 2. That it is impossible for the best Saints to obey the Law of God perfectly in this life HAving paraphrased the Vindicators preface and demonstrated the same paraphrase to be apt and genuine in a Relative sense to the Vindicators positions we come next to speake of the said positions laid down in the Pamphlet it selfe which is so full of digressions and perverted Texts of Scripture of Tautologies contradictions nonsense and other absurdities besides the error and impiety of his propositions that we doubted not but in a short time quin mole sua rueret but that it would ruinate it selfe Yet lest the Princock by our silence should grow proud of his borrowed feathers and others either be misled or confirmed in their error by what he hath written we thought good to put forth this short answer wherein we follow him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to discover his errors howbeit the Reader must not expect the formall word Answer in our replies to this vindication for this we usually doe either by the adversitive word but or the interposition of a pasenthesis a connter-question or limitation in the close or some such like opposition and qualification to correct what he saith which when we have done in an anasceuastical and confutatory way we will cataâ—scustically establish what we have undertaken to maintain But first let us take a view of the positions themselves the first of which is this as he hath stared it That sin will have a being in the best of men so long as their souls have a being in the houses of clay Whence these absurdities will follow First that sin comes originally from Jehovah in that it is said to have a being for nothing is said to have a being of essence or existence but what first comes from the Being of beings Jehovah himselfe Secondly he here makes sin to be a supreme if not an almighty commander in that he saith sin will have such a being Thirdly herein he makes little difference between grown men and babes in Christ for sin saith he will have a being in the best of them till death Fourthly he doth not here exempt Christ himselfe as he was man Fifthly he makes our bodies or houses of clay to be the proper domicil and seat of sin and then neither Adam in his innocency nor Christ as man were free from sin for both dwelt originally in houses of clay The second position is this That no man can by grace in this life perform such perfect obedience to the Law of God as not to offend against the same or to be thereby justified otherwise then by Christ of Orace given From whence you may observe these things likewise First that this man whose name Iohn imports the grace of God is called so per Antiphrasin for he is an enemy to and with Herod an imprisoner of the grace of God Secondly he questions not what men do de facto but what men can do in this life with the utmost helpe of grace Thirdly he makes the Law simply unlawfull because it is impossible as he saith to observe it both to nature and grace Fourthly he doth not here reserve a place of possibility for Christ himselfe as man to fulfill it Fifthly it appears here that the Vindex is a great lover of forbidden fruit for whereas Doctor Drayton told him at the first that he would not in this controversie have any thing to do with the worke of justification this man will needs bring in that by hook or by crook Sixthly that he is yet caught in the same snare which he laid for another for he tacitly saith that we cannot be justified by such a perfect obedience to the Law of God otherwise then by Christ of grace given and so say we yea if he grants us this he yields the other question also for he that can be justified by such a fulfilling of the Law through the grace of Christ hath no sin unsubdued left in him And if he runs into so many absurdities as he lancheth forth what will he doe when he comes into the maine His first and grand impertinency is this that he spends the first ten pages in a Common-place about sin wherein he is so intangled that he can scarcely find the way out again of which take this short account Pag. 1. He tells us that to the intent his ensuing discourse may be proper profitable for the informing of the weak establishing them in the faith of the truth which next after the glory of God which is not much glorified by our continuance in sin which is that he pleads for and the advancement of the truth which he directly here represseth is the onely thing here by him intended he shal observe this method there following But ere we come to that what difference is there betwixt the establishment of men in the faith of the truth the advancement of the truth which he makes two distinct things But what is his intended method First saith he I shall define what sin is in the generall which he may the better doe because of his long acquaintance with it which by his calculation of his age was twenty foure yeares before his Mother bare him and perhaps some years before her birth also Secondly he will shew what the first sin was Thirdly what were the causes of it Fourthly the effects of it Thus he loves still to ramble about from his right station And lastly what original sin is But what difference is there between the first sin and original sin which here he makes two things He tells us here also that the Hebrew word translated sin signifies properly misdoing or missing of the marke as if the Hebrews had not many words to denote sin though he can name none of them This learned Linguist tels us page 26. that the Apostle doth usually distinguish betwixt peccatum and crimen as if the Apostles writ unto the Churches in Latine Pag. 66. he shews also what a Logician he is making the efficient and formall causes of justification to be passive as well as active And
it is that the Churches to whom the Apostle wrote and those seven especially to whom Christ wrote Rev. 2 3 chap. are either commended or rebuked threatned or encouraged according to their obedience or disobedience faith or unbeliefe growth or decay in godlinesse and no man is taken for perfect but he that was truly so in some kind or degree Yet it is true that the Lord doth for a time and with much long-sufferance tendernesse and compassion beare the failings of his good-willing servants which proceed from ignorance and humane weaknesse and not from neglect and much lesse from presumption yea while men are truly babes in Christ he accepts the will for the deed and expects no more from any men then what they can do by grace attained or which they might have done by grace at hand if they had sought it Howbeit nothing doth more displease him then wilful Apostasie after grace received Heb. 6.4 5 6 7. and 10.26 27 28. and unbelief in his grace and power for the subduing of our enemies after we had experience already of the same in some measure Heb. 3.17 18 19. But with whom was he grieved forty years was it not with them that had sinned whose carkasses fell in the wildernesse and to whom sware he that they should not enter into rest but to them that beleeved not so we see that they could not enter in because of unbeliefe But he brings in Augustines saying that the best perfection of man in this life is to confesse and acknowledge himselfe to be imperfect Which is a very rash and inconsiderate affirmation as many other of his dictates are indeed if he had said it had been the high way to perfection first to know and acknowledge our own imperfections and then for cure to fly to Christ this saying had not been so imperfect or dangerous But they that are under the work of the Law and not yet under the saving work of grace do abundantly know and feel their imperfections how can this then be mens greatest perfection to find and feel their imperfections Such plausible sayings without truth are soft pillows under secure mens arms inviting them to sleep in slothfulnesse and sin But the Vindicator doth now promise to lay down some reasons for the confirmation of his first position of which let us take a view The first is this That there is not any among the Saints of God mentioned in the Scripture that the Spirit of grace doth not charge with some sin the most perfect in their generations were not without their failings and that after their long walking with God as Noah being drunk Lot incestuous Abraham diffident when he consented to unlawful means in going in to Hagar for bringing about Gods purpose Sarah lyed and distrusted when she laughed at the promise of God Moses and Aaron were barred out of Canaan for dishonouring God by diffidence and passion Hezechiah was lifted up with pride Job impatient and humbled for it David had foul and secret sins which he repented of and prayed against Jehosaphat and Asa were reproved Uzziah and Zachariah punished one by untimely death the other by dumbness and yet these are reported in the Scripture to have served God with all their heart To which we say that this argument and reason hath little of reason in it for first it is false that the Spirit of grace hath charged with some particular sin or other the most perfect men in their generation for neither Abel nor any of the Patriarchs before the flood nor after the flood to Abraham are so charged unless Noah for one act of drunkenness wherein also he was surprized by the unknown strength and operation of the new wine The like we may say of Eleazar Ithamar Joshuah Caleb Othniel Ehud Jephthah Samuel Nathan Gad and almost all the prophets of John the Baptist and his mother of the Virgin Mary and Joseph her husband of Nathaniel and almost all the Apostles and thousands of other Saints mentioned in general and particular in the Scriptures Secondly that there neither wants ignorance nor impudence in this his charge For Abraham took Hagar by instinct of the Spirit as is partly hinted in Mala. 2.13 which verse as Castellio hath formerly observed should be thus rendred If so be one did it who had abundance of the Spirit yet wherefore is that one alledged to wit for the justification of Polygamie who sought a godly seed therefore take heed to your spirit and let none of you deal treacherously against the wife of his youth Doth not Saint Paul also tell us that Sarah and Hagar were also an Allegorie or mystery of the two Covenants and Testaments Gall. 4.24 But it was once the practise of the false Apostles to speak evil of those things which they understood not Jude v. 10. yet this champion of corruption contents not himself to accuse the most absolute pattern of faith and obedience that was to be found among meer men who is the father of all the faithful and the friend of God whom he first singled out to make him in a special manner the man of his covenant and to charge him with unbelief and disobedience and that here the second time in this his slanderous pamphlet but he likewise challengeth and impeacheth Job of impatience who is commended unto us Jam. 5.11 for a rare pattern of patience as indeed he was It were well for him if he had the fourth part of Abraham's obedient faith or Jobs patience But let it be granted that not onely David but others also had foul sins and secret sins for a time had they such unto their dying dayes we trow not being he confesseth that he both bewailed them prayed to have them discovered and removed witness the Psalmist Psal 139.23 24. saying Search me O God and know my heart try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any sinful or wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting And therefore to little purpose he cites page 30 that passage of Augustine who bids the Pelagians in a rhetorical flourish ask all the Saints and they will confess is he sure of it that while they lived here they were not without sin But theirs is but one opinion we shall anon shew him the contrary sense of some not inferiour to him as we did of late out of 1 John 4.17 18. The confession of John who was ten times more infallible then Augustine and all his African Bishops assembled together But he goeth on and saith if any Saint on earth had to glory it was with men and not with God So say we also yet had all the faithfull Saints cause to glory in the Lord for their victory in Christ 1 Cor. 15.57 And further he saith for his second argument that we do not read of any Saints that did so stand but that they fell into some sins Which is not true of their final estate and they also that had as he saith
left in them Wherein take notice that the Vindicator that cals us Pelagians is herein a Pelagian himselfe as all his fellows are Secondly that whereas he should deny the Minor that concupiscence doth not make the regenerate obnoxious to Gods wrath he admits it and takes it for granted that neither that nor any other sin doth condemn the regenerate or make them obnoxious to Gods wrath and yet he confesseth them to be sins but saith that by accident it cometh to pass that they are not reputed for such but are pardoned by grace Which is true when they are repented of and left and so cease to be sins but not otherwise The fourth objection which he brings is this In baptisme original sin is taken away therefore concupiscence is no sin in those that are baptized Uunto which he answers by distinction yet without the least instinct of truth that by baptisme the guilt of sin is taken away Which we deny against some of the Fathers and the Schoolmen as having no warrant from the Scriptures But he confesseth that the worst part of sin and that which is most offensive to God remaineth even corruption and an inclination to sin But here we first say that the guilt is not taken away before or without the corruption Secondly that children when they are baptized have neither guilt nor corruption to be taken away for the present yet may lawfully be baptized in innocency as Christ himself was for a future document and sign And thirdly that in the baptisme of men grown and newly converted neither the acts and corruptions nor the guilt are taken away by outward baptisme only there is their duty in following of Christ in his death and resurrection under the hope of his grace and help for the present and of a full remission and eternal life in the end declared unto them therein by which also they observe and fulfill an outward ordinance oblige themselves to the said duty stand under that grace hoped for and are distinguished by an holy ordinance and Christian profession from other men Pag 41. he first concludes that original concupiscence is sin Which we never denyed and then he is so impudent as to say of us that were not these men past shame they would never goe about to revive such heresies as we hoped had been long since buried among us But who revived them he or we But mark his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there But so long as there is a Divell in hell or a Pope at Rome we must never expect to be freed from such disturbers of our peace But what disturbance have we made or what peace have we broken Thus he that hath played the boutefeu himselfe and hath without cause incensed all the neighbouring Ministers and people against us where he could get access and audience chargeth us with his own wicked practise of disturbance who live quietly and cause no commotion amongst men but only seek to awaken them out of security and sloth to watch and war aright against their sins and Ghostly enemies and that out of love to God and their souls and in order to their everlasting peace as well as their present welfare in the unity of the Spirit and the bond of perfection which is love to God and men the conquering of sin and the fulfilling of the Law But we must bear his false charge and challenge in this kind with the more meekness because the holy Prophets and Apostles have undergone the like accusation at the hands of injurious slanderous and outragious men and that upon the self-same account Acts 16.21 and 18.13 and 24.5 and as long as there is a Devil in hell and his hellish kingdom hath room in mens hearts and sets their tongues on fire as Saint James speaks chap. 3.6 we must expect no better usage at their hands till the old accuser of our brethren be cast ou◠of them Rev. 12.10 See Mat. 10.25 If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub much more will they do it to them of his houshold But in the end of pag. the 41 to the end of pag. the 48. he comes with his solutive medicines to answer some Scriptures which he saith we allege and wrest to maintain our errours But this he speaks by way of divination for divers of them we have not yet produced nor have we need to wrest those that we alledge for they speak that clearly which we would prove The first saith he is that Rom. 6.6 where Paul saith of the Christians who are baptized into the faith of Christ knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin may be destroyed from thence saith he they conclude that the corruption of old Adam is quite abolished that they are perfectly quitted from sin and perfectly renewed in grace But this is one of his forged lies for we neither cite that Scripture nor inferr any such thing from it but since he by preoccupation hath quoted it for us we shall without wresting it conclude that those which truly confess the Christian faith and baptisme both may and ought to be crucified with Christ and through his grace and help to destroy the whole body of sin and so we have promised by our sureties to doe when we were baptized unlesse we will be renegadoes with him Unto this Scripture he answers pag. 42 as he had done before without fear or wit truth or modesty that the guilt of sin which the Schools term the formal of sin but indeed is the fruit and effect of sin is taken away in baptisme The falshood of which we have shewed before the baptisme which he meaneth neither takes away the guilt nor corruption of sin for Simon Magus was baptized among the other Samaritans and yet was still in the gall of bitternesse and bond of iniquity Acts 8.20 Secondly as to the corruption he saith that the dominion of it is taken away but not the being of sin from Gods Saints because Paul saith Gal. 5.17 the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the same Apostle speaks of himselfe I see another Law in my members warring against the Law of my mind and carrying me captive unto the Law of sin which is in my members But we shewed before that the infant-state of the Galatians being new-born babes in Christ is not the full strength and stature of young men in Christ and much lesse the dayednesse of old men or elders and experienced souldiers or Saints in Christ Secondly that Paul speaks not there of his own present condition And thirdly that this Text flies in his and their faces who affirm that all dominion of sin is taken away from such babes for this sin is a prince and a Tyrant it is not our slave but makes us its slave But he adds this that the Apostle saith not let not sin be in your mortal bodies but let it not reign Which is true in regard of Satans sinful motions as we said before
sure we shall be no longer accounted innovators by him nor his opposite doctrine be esteemed orthodox But now at length he comes to the second branch of his second position which as he saith hath these two parts to be considered First that no man can be justified by the works of the Law Secondly that we are only justified by the righteousnesse of Christ Both which are true and suit well with what we speak if rightly understood And concerning the first he saith he hath cleared it before but he hath obscured it rather by bringing the works of the Spirit under the works of the law as he will do it again by and by And here he tels us that the Apostle Paul reasons admirably and plainly to this point Rom. 11.5 6. saying If salvation be of grace it is no more of works for else grace were no more grace and if it be of works it is no more of grace for else works were no more works So that it is evident say we that the works that are here recited are not works of grace but works before without and against grace But salvation saith he is by grace for by grace are we saved though faith and that not of our selves it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast Ephes 2. And our Saviour tels us plainly that when we have done our best we are unprofitable servants And such a servant will he be for the Church and his doctrine also unto which he pretends And reason it self saith he drawn from the Scripture doth sufficiently prove that we cannot be justified by our works for if any works justifie us saith he they must be done either before or after justification but no works before our justification can justifie us saith he page 61. because an evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit and these works not being done in faith must needs be sin for whatsoever is not of faith is sin and without faith it is impossible to please God Heb. 11.5 6. Thus he goes about to maintain that which is true in it self with false grounds as we have shewed before whereupon St. Paul saith quoth he that all men before they be engrafted into Christ which as yet he is not are servants of sin farre from righteousness and bring forth no other fruits but such as deserve shame and death Which is all as false as the other for Cornelius was not as yet grafted into Christ when the Angel commanded him to send for Peter and yet he brought forth many good fruits Acts 10.1 2. as we shewed before Secondly saith he Reason it self tels us that our works done after grace cannot be the cause of grace Yes they may be some cause or means to procure a subsequent grace for how can that which cometh after be the cause of that which went before for the cause must precede the effect and so Augustine tels us that good works do not go before him that is to be justified which is not true in every behalf as we have shewed but they do follow him that is already justified and therefore they can be no more the cause of justification then good fruits are the cause of the goodness of a tree and that place of the Apostle saith he which I cited before proves it Rom. 3.20 by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified But there are good works which follow converting and sanctifying grace which yet may precede the great work of justification and nevertheless are no works of the law against which Paul disputes in this controversie For first saith he Paul tels us verse 9. that all both Jews and Gentiles are under sin because all are transgressors of the law true and therefore all the world must be guilty before God and can no way be justified by pretending innocency and righteousness in keeping the law true likewise Secondly he shews the reason why no flesh can be justified by the law because the law convinceth of sin for by the law cometh knowledge of sin But what he addeth in the next place is partly false and wholly impertinent but the law saith he convinceth them that are under grace some of them it doth who therefore had need to seek the justification which yet they want of sin and who have the greatest measure of grace this is ungraciously spoken to be sinners Phil. 3.9 But that Text speaks of Paul's first conversion to Christ not of his last and best estate Therefore saith he but by a non sequitur they that do the works of the law by the help of grace cannot be justified by the Law yes in one sense they may because the law is with them and not against them Gal. 5.23 because the law sheweth them likewise to be sinners by which words he contradicts himself as well though not as great as those are who endeavour to keep the law without the help of grace with which he is better acquainted then with the other way of keeping it and therefore saith he the Apostle concludeth thus that we are justified by the righteousness of God without the law as ye may in his sense see Rom. 3. from verse 20. But whereas he adds his own subinference thereunto saying therefore we are not justified by any righteousness of the law done either by the help of grace or without the help of grace that is neither the Apostles doctrine nor true in it self and the reason which he yields for his said assertion is devoid of reason saying for he that obeyeth the law howsoever he doth it by the help of grace or by his own strength yet he hath the same righteousness Which we say is false because those two differ as much as weakness and strength as flesh and spirit and as that which is natural from that which is spiritual yea as heaven and earth from each other Yet saith he fondly the righteousness of the Law because of the different manner of obtaining it altereth not the thing But the Apostle saith he sheweth a great deal of difference between the righteousness of the law and the righteousness of faith so he might as to matter manner and measure for Moses described saith he the righteousness of the Law that the man which doth those things however he doth them by his own strength or some other help if he doth them shall live by them But this is a false gloss of his upon Moses for so there shall be no difference between the righteousness of the law required by Moses and the deeds of the foregoing Testament and the righteousness of faith in the nevv Testament Rom. 10.5 But the righteousness of faith speaketh in this wise If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shall be saved vers 6 9. And therefore saith he because the Apostle opposeth doing of the law and believing in Christ and not the doing of
but not in his way which will never make any happy Blessed is the man to whom God imputeth righteousness without works to wit his own works before and without grace And blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin but purge it away by his grace and Spirit But this righteousness of Christ thus imputed to us saith he page 72 must be considered in a three-fold respect first in respect of the truth of our imputed righteousness which is wholly a fancy and so we say that we are as truly righteous before God as Christ himself Beware of blasphemy whorson Phanatick because we are righteous with the same righteousness with which he is righteous The clean contrary way Secondly in respect of the quantity But so we deny that it is in the same measure he might truly have said in any measure for in him it is in its fulness and in its largest measure but in us it is onely received so far forth as it serveth to justifie any particular believer he should have said dreamer that is not at all Thirdly in respect of the quality And so we say that this is not in the same manner in us as it is in him which is true enough for he is righteous actually we imputatively or passively rather he subjectively we relatively in him and by him that is not at all but by meer relation or tradition and our fond credulity And so saith he in these two last respects we cannot be said to be equally righteous with Christ no nor with the least real Christian who seeks the true righteousness by Christ though we be righteous with the very righteousness of Christ to wit as Laodicea was Rev. 3.17 18. he perfectly righteous we righteous by reason of our imputation and inchoative righteousness Which last if he have any is the best string for his bow by reason the other is a broken one Again saith he Christ is called holy and sin and yet is said to know no sin and to be made sin so likewise are we said to be just and sinful just in him or rather just out by the imputation and application of his justice without any conversion from sin and sinful in our selves by the inbred corruptions of our own flesh which is brought in by our personal fall as we said before Lastly the final cause of our justification actively considered is the glory of God which he acquired unto himself by the wonderful mixture of his justice and mercy towards men justice and mercy also that he would have his own Son die to make satisfaction for our sins yea suffered to procure us some respite of repentance and returning as said before rather then our sins should esape unpunished or we forthwith perish eternally and mercy that he would have the righteousness of his Son be imputed no derived unto his servants rather then we poor sinners should perish for or in our sins But if he have no better skill in compounding his own medicines then he hath made here in this jumble of justice and mercy he is a Physician of no value And thus much saith he page 73. of the causes of justification actively considered in respect of God now in the second place we must consider the causes of our justification passively in respect of man and first the efficient cause passively considered is wholly instrumental and it is two-fold external which is the preaching of the word and the administration of the Sacraments these are the chief outward instruments which God useth for the application of Chrsts supposed righteousness for the imagined justification of his servants and therefore the Gospel is called the word of life Acts 5.15 16. and the ministry of reconciliation 2 Cor. 5.18 and the Sacraments are called the seal of the righteousness of faith and our Saviour saith of the preachers of the Gospel whose sins ye remit or put away they are remitted But are the word and Sacraments passive or active instruments doth not the Apostle say that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth Rom. 1.16 Is the man infatuated Secondly the internal instrument whereby we apprehend he should say seek the grace of justification is onely faith in Jesus Christ But that is false for by prayer also we both seek and comprehend the same But Christ is set forth saith he to be a reconciliation through faith in his blood Rom. 3.15 John 1.12 which place he wrests from its native sense Gal. 3.24 and therefore the righteousness of Christ but not in his sense is called the righteousness of faith and we are said to receive Christ by faith and to receive the promise of the Spirit which is the purging blood of Christ by faith Secondly saith he faith is the onely instrument he should have said the main yet no passive instrument as he would have it whereby we are justified before God The Scriptures saith he are plain and plentiful in this point Is 45.21 25. Ezek. 20.44 Hab. 2.4 Rom. 3.24 26. Gal. 1.8 Acts 13.39 But the first of these if rightly looked into cuts the throat of justification for righteousness and strength are joyned together which must intimate the inward and powerful righteousness of God and this it justifies the man Is 45.24 25. where the words runne thus Surely shall one say in the Lord have I righteousness and strength even unto him shall men come and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed in the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified or made just and shall glory Yea that place in Hab. 2.4 shews that he whose soul is lifted up with any knowledge or hope of a false righteousness is not upright in him but the just who is such by any measure of inherent righteousness shall live the full life of righteousness by faith As for Acts 13.39 40. we have spoken of that already And so saith he doth the Apostle in many other places inculcate the same truth as Gal. 4.5 24. and our Saviour saith Joh. 3.14 15. What doth he say there for the Vindicator cites no words namely thus much that as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness that Israel reflecting upon their serpentine sins and rebellion might repent and not die even so must the son of man as crucified both in us and for us Gal. 3.1 be lifted up and set forth before us that whosoever believeth on him as a pattern herein as well as a reconciler through faith follows him unto the like death should not perish but have eternal life that is saith he by his false gloss be justified and so be saved onely by believing in him A short and easie way to be saved if it were true as those Israelites that were bitten by the fiery serpents Num. 21.9 were healed and saved alone by looking up to the brazen serpent The Fathers also saith he are plain and pregnant herein of whom more anon Chrysost in Rom. cap.
our faith for who is he that overcometh the world but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God The last Topick shall be the summe of all practical truth in Christ which Paul reduceth to two heads Ephes 4.20 21 22 23 24. as was said before But ye have not so learned Christ if so be ye have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus that ye put off concerning the former conversâ—tion the old man which is corrupting according to the deceitful lust and be ye renewed in the Spirit of your mind and that ye put on the new man which is created after God in righteousness and holiness of truth Then who holds out the truth of Christ we or the Vindicator let all wise men judge impartially between us Thus much for divine authority now for humane we shall first produce divers of the Fathers and some of those which the Vindicator or his friends for him have alledged against us to out-ballance him and then the authority of our own Church the best reformed of all the Protestant Churches in her established doctrine and late Liturgie For the first of these Justin Martyr in quaest respon ad Orthodoxos All men do sin not because we cannot do otherwise which appeareth from hence because all men are not intangled with all sorts of sins but some fall into these offences some into others and some men are involved with many sins some with fewer and some with none at all those of whom I spake before to wit Zacharie and Elizabeth Origen super Gen. homilia 11. But let us see how a man may be made the good savour of Christ sin is a filthy stinking thing In a word sinners are compared to swine wallowing who wallow in the filthy dung If there be any of you in whom there is no savour of sin but the savour of righteousness and the sweetness of mercifulness he is the sweet savour of Christ Cyprian serm de Baptism Christi The Law teach us to avoid sin it reproves transgressors and to the intent we should walk with washed and clean feet it foreshews all things that may offend and makes known unto us all diverticles whereby dangerous out-turnings and passages may be avoided it commands nothing that is impossible nothing that is austere or difficult Chrysos in 2 Cor. 11. homil 3. speaking of Abraham's prayer made to God in the behalf of the inhabitants of Sodom and the neighbouring cities which were to be destroyed Gen. 18. saith he that Abraham speaking there vers 27. by way of self-abasment before the Lord said Behold now I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord which am but dust and ashes and thus he did Because saith Chrysostom Abraham at this time had no sin left therefore he flies unto nature it self and because the name of earth contains in it something that is honest and decorous in its kind he adds the word ashes thereunto Hieron in Epist He which desires to reign with Christ must of necessity be pure or clean from all naughtiness and guile if thou wilt have thy part or portion with Christ thou must live after Christs pattern if thou desirest the society of the Saints keep thy heart clean from the very thought of naughtiness and sin because the celestiall Court receives none but those that are holy chast simple innocent and pure Augustin de vera falsa poenitentia For he is first to be purged with the fire of purgation who deferreth the fruit of his conversion unto another world and albeit saith he this fire be not everlasting yet it is greivous after a wonderful manner for it exceedes all the pain that ever any man suffered in this life Therefore let every one so endeavour to amend his faults here that he may not have cause to endure such pain hereafter Here his exhortation and counsel is good though his ground concerning purgation wants an Index expurgatorius Idem in lib. de baptism par If it be demanded whether a man be without sin in this life I confess he may by grace of Christ and the right use of his free-will Greg. lib. 2. mara cap. 8. If we say that Job offended in his speech or words which were wickedness in us to think we should confess that God had lost the victory in his challenge or offer made to Satan concerning Jobs exposal to his sifting and trial Prosper in his book of senten ex Augustino As some parents do aggravate original sin so some do lighten or abate it but none doth take it away save he onely of whom it is said Behold the lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world to whom no good of man is impossible to work no evil is uncurable Unto which adde that saying of Bernards by the Vindicator quoted yet without his additional That kind of sin which so often troubles us I mean concupiscence and evill desires may and should be repressed by the grace of God so that they reign not in us and that we give not our members as weapons of unrighteousness unto sin and then there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Thus for the Testmony of the Fathers of which sort we shall alledge more in the confirmation of the second position Now for the doctrine of our English reformed Church heretofore established by law First in the Catechism is thus demanded and answered Q. What did your Godfathers and Godmothers then for you A. They did promise and vow three things in my name first that I should forsake the Devil and all his works the pomps and vanity of this wicked world and all the sinful lusts of the flesh Secondly that I should believe all the Articles of the Christian faith And thirdly that I should keep Gods holy will and commandements and walk in the same all the dayes of my life Q. Dost thou not believe that thou art bound to believe and to do all as they have promised for thee A. Yes verily and by Gods help so I will and I heartily thank our heavenly Father that he hath called me unto this state of salvation through Jesus Christ our Saviour and I pray God to give me his grace that I may continue in the same unto my livesend And afterwards reciting the Lords prayer Q. What desirest thou in this prayer A. I desire my Lord God who is the giver of all goodness to send his grace unto me and unto all people that we may worship him serve him and obey him as we ought to do c. And that it would please him to save and defend us in all dangers Ghostly and bodily and that he will keep us from all sin and wickedness and from our Ghostly enemy and from everlasting death And this I trust he will do of his mercy and goodness through our Lord Jesus Christ and therefore I say Amen And afterwards concerning Baptism Q. What is the inward and spiritual grace
himself and many others in this life saying 1 John 4.17 Herein is our love made perfect that we may have boldness in the day of judgment But saw first many thousand servants of God of every tribe sealed And after I beheld a great multitude which no man could number of all nations and kindreds and people tongues standing before the throne and before the lamb clothed with white robes and palms in their hands who came out of great tribulation here and had washed their robes and had made them white in the blood or spirit of the lamb Rev. 3.14 And the like spectacle he saw chap. 14.4 5. of men that follow the lamb wheresoever he goeth being redeemed from among men and made the first fruits unto God and the lamb and in their mouth was found no guile for they are without fault before the throne of God The eleventh Topick shall be the two parts of all practical truth in Christ of which before out of Ephes 4.20 24. But ye have not so learned Christ if so be ye have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupting through the deceitful lusts and be ye renewed in the spirit of your minds and put you on the new man which is created after God in righteousness and holiness of truth The last Topick shall be the new Jerusalem that comes down from heaven which in its coming is called the Lord our righteousness from the presence of the holy Ghost or rather of the whole Trinity Jer. 33.15 16. At that day and at that time will I cause the branch of righteousness to grow up unto David and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land in those dayes Judah shall be saved and Jerusalem shall dwel safely and this is the name wherewith he shall be called The Lord our righteousness Which Jerusalem is promised to every overcomer of sin and Satan Rev. 3.12 as before and it is an estate to be had in this life as Mr. Brightman and most of the best interpreters among the the Protestants and Arrias Montanus among other Papists doth confess out of the clearness and evidence of the Text Rev. 21.23 And I John saw the holy city new Ierusasalem coming down from God out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her husband and I heard a great voice out of heaven saying behold the tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people and he shall be with them and be their God And at vers 9. God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death viz. spiritual death which is either sin or the wages of sin neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more spiritual pain which being effects of sin are with their causes taken away before for the former things are passed away So our obedience to the law must go before as a preparative and a qualification hereunto Lev. 26.3 and 11.12 If you walk in my statutes and keep my commandements and do them then will I give you rain in due season c. and I will set my tabernacle among you and my soul shall not abhorre you and I will walk among you and I will be your God and you shall be my people See Ezek. 37.27 My tabernacle also shall be with them yea I will be their God and they shall be my people and Psal 128.1 5. Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord and walketh in his wayes and vers 5. The Lord shall bless thee out of Sion and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem to wit the spiritual Jerusalem aforesaid all thy dayes Thus much of divine authority now for humane Justine Martyr in Resp ad Orthodoxos saith That which is possible to one man is possible to any as to saile by sea for even as the Scripture saith that certain of them who live under the law were unblamable in righteousness so it was possible unto all those who lived under the law to have been alike unblamable for Saint Luke the Evangelist saith of Zacharie and Elizabeth chap. 1.6 that they were both righteous before God walking in all the commandements justification or righteousness of the law blameless But what is the total righteousness of the law even to love God above thy self and thy neighbour as thy self which is not impossible unto those men which apply their will and desire thereunto Wherefore that saying By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified was not spoken or used by the Apostle because we cannot perform impossibilities but because we will not frame our selves to do things possible Origen in his ninth homil upon Joshuah saith Doth not that man seem unto the Worthies to be reckoned among women who saith I cannot observe or do that which is written And again in the same place he that saith I cannot fulfill them doth he not manifest himself worthy to be ranked among the feminine sort who can do nothing that is virile or like a man or worthy of that sex Cyprian serm de Baptis Christi Neither doth this written law in any thing differ from the natural but the rejection or refusal of evil and the election of good are so infixed into the rational soul from above that no man hath just cause in this behalf to complain because there is neither knowledge nor power wanting unto any man for the prosecution and performance of the same because we know what ought to be done and have power to effect what we know whereas if the precepts were impossible or invironed with so great difficulties or thy will therein so abstruse and hidden that the thing could not be understood which thy Highness or Majesty requireth of us albeit no man sins against his will yet he might many ways excuse his offence or sin unless the equity and moderation of that which is commanded and the clear knowledge of the truth and the distinction of things to be done or not done had been sufficiently provided for us by an intelligible authority and therewith the possibility facility and power had therein embraced each other Basil Magnus homil 3. It is impious to say that the precepts of Gods Spirit are impossible And in Psalm 119.155 he saith I knowing that thou beholdest me have not onely fulfilled thy commandements but I have done it also with a fervent mind Chrysost homil 19. in Heb. Christ commandeth nothing that is impossible in so much that many go beyond the commandements and homil 18. de poeniton And if it be demanded who ever did this he presently answers Saint Paul Saint Peter and even the whole chorus or quire of Saints and homil de poenitent 8. Do not in any wise accuse the Lord for he doth not command things that are impossible Hieron Symbol Apost Epist 17. We detest their blasphemy who affirms that
been disturbed and disquieted in their former opinions and purity by reason of the audaciousnesse and impudency of the opposers of his tenents we say it that we were are and we hope shall be bold in the cause of God against sin and Satan and the upholders of his kingdom but we were never so audacious and impudent as himself who in Suffolk changed his name and called himself Doctor Kendall of Pembrook-Hall How beit we will use his pretended motives for our reall incentives who saith and that truly therein that because many of the people are not able to buy volumes nor by reason of the weaknesse of their capacities and small growth in grace are able so readily to apprehend the clearnesse and perspicuity of the truth upon the hearing of them nor yet clearly to distinguish betwixt them and falshood vailed under truths svizard we have therefore for their satisfaction and the edification of all men as also for the confirmation of the truth presented unto publick view some few collections which being seriously weighed considered and digested may by the blessing of God enable the weakest if willing to discover truth from falshood Amen Now whereas he adds he is willing both to spend which is true of his own money and other mens also and to be spent for the Israel of God It is a grosse peece of hypocrisie for it is their way that he opposeth Psal 73.1 Surely God is good to Israel even to them that are of a clean heart And yet he saith it being the end for which we are what we are that is if he speaks of himself his way and practise a very Gusmond Finally he tels his Readers that they are upon the Stage Which is true of the Theatre of this world where we hope they will act Israels part better then he hath hitherto done and we will with him wish them to fight the good fight of faith which is not for sin or Satan as his Vindication tels us but for Christ against both and then we may as truly as he doth deceitfully assure them you and all the Israel of God that the victory shall be glorious more glorious then his hath been hitherto or is likely to be hereafter without a sudden and earnest repentance through Jesus Christ our Lord to whom be glory for ever Amen And now we crave leave to speak a word or two to those that have abetted the Vindicator or do any way favour his doctrine and therein to advertise them of these things in the name and bowels of Christ First that this doctrine is not the Protestants doctrine though it may be called a Protestant doctrine for there are many distinct Churches all whose faith and doctrine are called Protestant because in many things they protest against the Church of Rome of which the Calvinistical is the worst and most erroneous the Lutherans is the next and in some things more orthodox then the former And the third is the ancient English reformed Protestant which is far the best of all the three for our Reformers desired to tread in the footsteps of Antiquity according to their best sight and comprehension which the other and especially the Calvinists were carelesse to do and in many things refractory thereagainst and though we in the point of original sin may seem to differ from our English Church which received that by tradition from many of the Fathers yet when occasion shall serve we shall make it manifest that we have not only divine authority for that and other things also wherein we seem to some to be out of the common road but we have the first Fathers of the Church and the first reformers as well as many of the latter on our side and what dishonour will it bring to God or disconsolation to parents whose children die in infancy that we affirm that all children are now born without original taint or guilt or why should an allegoricall speech Rom. 5. of our naturall and personall Adam or an hyperbolical speech of David Psal 51. so far impose upon us though not rightly looked into by some others in many ages as openly to contradict many other Scriptures vindicating Gods mercy and justice Secondly that this doctrine of the Vindicators which we oppose is bottomlesse like the place from whence it came that is it hath no foundation in the Scripture whereas we have brought some hundreds of Texts and might have brought more to clear up the truth and piety of our tenents for we dare challenge all the Calvinists in the world to prove any of these assertions upon which the contrary doctrine is built by clear Texts of Scripture First that we shall not be perfected in grace till the day of Iudgment so as to be presented without spot or wrinkle or any such thing whereas we have remonstrated two things to the contrary first that many places which our adversaries understand of that day speak clearly of Christs second coming to us in the Spirit and inner-man and secondly that we must be made holy and without blemish not in that day but before it and in order unto it Phil. 1.6 10 11. 1 Thess 5.32 1 Tim. 6.12 13 14 15. 2 Pet. 3.14 and secondly that we shall not be perfected in grace or the righteousnesse of sanctification untill we come into Heaven or the full kingdome of God for we have shewed that justification which is all one with sanctification must of necessity go before glorification Rom. 8.30 Tit. 3.4 5 6 7. and so must full obedience and doing of Gods will if the Lord affords time and means be fore the enjoyment of the promises 2 Cor. 5.10 ' then we must receive the things done in our bodies that is a time not of sowing but of reaping reward Gal. 6.9 to wit of life and glory Heb. 10.36 2 Tim. 4.7 8. Thirdly they say that sin shall be mortified and abolished by corporal death and not by the spirit of grace only contrary to Rom. 8.13 but if ye mortifie the deeds of the body by the Spirit ye shall live and Rom. 12.21 be not overcome of the evil but overcome the evil with the good See 1 Joh. 1.7 9. and chap. 14. and 5.3.4 Rev. 7.14 and 12.10 11. Fourthly they say that the Spirit of God will abolish the remainders of sin in the hour of the corporal death and not before contrary to the import of innumerable Scriptures Psal 31.15 My times are in thine hand deliver me from the hands of mine enemies and 39.13 ' O spare me that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more seen and 41.5 Mine enemies speak evil of me when shall he die and his name perish and vers 10 11. But thou O Lord be merciful unto me raise me up that I may requite them by this I know thou favourest me because mine enemies do not triumph over me and 54.4 5. Behold God is my helper the Lord is with them that uphold my soul he
said verb in the said place in the Hebrew text is in the future tense but who is there that knows any thing of that language who knows not that the Hebrews have no potential mood of a verb and that when they have occasion to make use of the same mood to declare the sense of Scripture according as it is intended they then render the future tense of the Indicative mood in the Potential mood as aforesaid which the English Translators should have done to have made the hypothetical axiom good sense in reference to the reason given immediately in the Parenthesis to illustrate the hypothetical axiom by Again its requisite to find out the sense and scope of a Scripture-axiom to observe whether the said axiom be laid down absolutely without any dependence on the context or whether it be laid down with some relative particle to be taken notice of evidencing its dependence upon the context antecedent or consequent As for instance it is thus translated Eccles 7.20 for there is no man which sinneth not hence it is more confidently affirmed then truly by most that Solomon doth acknowledge that there is no man upon earth which doth good and sinneth not But the mistake of these men who affirm as aforesaid is from the mistranslating of the Hebrew particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which indeed is a relative particle and doth intimate that this verse doth relate unto the 19 verse which is the antecedent context thereunto where it is said that wisdome doth strengthen the wise more then ten mighty men which are in the city The meaning is that wisdome will fence and secure a wise man more from dangerous assaults and violence then ten mighty men which are in the city For the illustration of which and to shew the excellency of wisdome and the use thereof in a superlative degree Solomon doth subjoyn the 20 verse so as to make it with the 19 verse a discrete axiom by putting a discrete particle if rightly translated to the 20 verse but our Translators expresse that particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a a causal particle for which indeed being so expressed maketh those said 19 20 verses relating together to contain in their relative respect little or no sense at all as will appear to every truth-searching man thus Wisedom doth strengthen the wise man more then ton mighty men which are in the City for or because there is not a just man upon earth which doth good and sinneth not Now is that a good reason or cause why wisedom doth strengthen a wise man more then ten mighty men even because there is not a just man upon earth who doth good and sinneth not surely it s not a better reason then his was who gave out of his shallow judgement that Tenderden steeple was the cause of Goodwin-Sandes because Goodwin Sandes was after Tenderden steeple That story Bishop Latimer made use of upon an occasion in a Sermon before King Edward concerning such who ignorantly put non causam pro causa that which is no cause for the cause So do the Translators by their translation put non causam pro causa for sinne is no cause why wisedome hath any excellent effect but the contrary rather if we believe what Solomon saith Eccles 10.1 Dead flies make the ointment of the Apothecarie to smel so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisedom But if the Translators had translated the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 discretely though although notwithstanding and rendred the verb which is in the future tense of the Indicative mood in the present tense of the Potential mood then had they given a good and profitable sense of the words thus Wisedom strengtheneth a wise man more then ten mighty men which are in a City although there be no man upon earth which doth good and sinneth not as it did strengthen Christ Luk. 20.20 21. and Stephen also Act. 6.10 By translating the said words in the manner aforesaid as they should have done they had not been guilty of seducing the people to believe by their translation that Solomon doth affirm contrary to Scriptures that there is no man upon earth which doth good and sinneth not If those who are Judges and assume power to scan and judge mens words do conclude the axiom or axioms to be positively and absolutely affirmed or denyed which are only intended relatively to the antecedent or consequent axioms we say if they do so quis pene innocens sit who can free himself from treason or blasphemy as often as their tryers and Judges please to declare their words absolutely and abstractly spoken when the author of them intended them as Solomon did in the place aforesaid onely to be relatively spoken By which kind of dividing axioms he did more wickedly then wittily who said Hang all the Law and the Prophets concealing and not mentioning Christs antecedent words Math. 22.40 On these commandements hang all the Law and the Prophets 10. Que. Whether if we doubt of the meaning of an axiom which is a divine testimony we are not to consider to the end we may see the meaning of it the artificial arguments contained in the said axiom for though testimonium be argumentum inartificiale yet the axiom consists of artificial arguments and these testata must be proved by artificial arguments or something equivalent or tantamount unto them which are qualifications requisite to be in every witnesse as scientia virtus prudentia First Knowledge in the testis else he will speak he knoweth not what like them 1 Tim. 1.7 Secondly Vertue or else talke they care not what as they did Math. 28.15 upon a sad account Thirdly Constancy else the testes will seem to contradict themselves as they did that cryed before Christ Hosanna to the highest and the next day cried Crucifie him crucifie him Therefore to find out the true meaning of the res testata the thing affirmed or denied we must see what arguments relating one to another are contained in the axiom which is a Scripture-testimony As for instance Christ saith to Nicodemus Joh. 3.5 Except a man be born again of water and of the Spirit c. Now what water Christ meaneth is the thing to be inquired into We instance in the said place because there was a learned respondent who did of late in a publique disputation affirm and the opponent did not deny it though he might that elementary baptismal water was meant by Christ in the said place His only reason was without any further demonstration because so many Fathers had for so many ages downward attested it without any artificial arguments but onely their bare words to be so which is the reason we professe to all men why we doubt that sense to be the meaning of water in that place unlesse the said respondent can assure us that those Fathers or some of them were by inspirement infallible in giving of the said sense if he can then
we will believe their Ipsi dixerunt without any artificial arguments to prove what they say because we then know what they affirm is true by reason they have then received the unction 1 Joh. 2.26 which is truth and is no lye But in the mean time he must pardon us that we dissent from him and his catalogue of Fathers on which he buildeth his faith for ought we see in that point and desire him to give us leave or rectifie our weaknesse by some stronger reasons then we heard from him at that time to declare to him first negatively that the words of Christ could signifie no such thing Our reason is from the artificial arguments contained in that axiom Joh. 3.5 Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God The axiom is a compound axiom as all exceptive and exclusive axioms are wherein are two axioms one affirmative the other negative Now as affirmation is before negation so in the said exceptive compound axiom the affirmative axiom is first to be considered 1. That a man is to be born again of water and of the Spirit to enter into the kingdom of God 2. Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God In the first axiom is laid down the effect to be born again and its causes water and the Spirit In the second axiom is intimated the necessity of those causes to the said effect that without those two said canses none can be born again to the kingdom of God And so much for the general consideration of the two axioms Our first reason we say why baptismal elementary water is not meant there is because the effect and its causes are of the same nature or quality according to the old and true maxime Qualis effectus talis causa contrà Such as the effect is such are the causes by reason that Causa est cujus vi res est A cause is by whose force and vertue a thing is Hence the birth specified Joh. 3.5 being as none we believe will deny spiritual the causes must be spiritual also which Christ nameth to be water and the Spirit in a copulate respect to the effect also Christ putteth water as the first cause in order to the effect aforesaid hence we affirm both causes water and the Spirit concurr as partial requisite causes to the effect Secondly that both causes therefore must be spiritual because the effect is spiritual but baptismal elementary water is a grosse material and no spiritual water and therefore the said water cannot be the water Christ meaneth as a partial concurrent cause to the new spiritual birth If it be said that baptismal elementary water is figurative and representative of the new birth That will not serve the turn because Christ doth not speak of a new birthin respect of a partial representative cause but he speaks of water as the true and reall partial coworking cause out of which a man must be born again therefore the said elementary water is not meant Neither can what is said be evaded by affirming that instrumental causes may be of another nature to the principal efficient causes as the Apostles were when it is said by St. Paul 1 Cor. 3.9 we are labourers together with God for though that be true in some respect when they are used as preparatory causes or instruments to the preparing of the said effect yet it is not true that heterogeneal causes can communicate immediately their vertue in common to the said effect and yet the effect be wholly of the nature of one of them and not of the other as we say in this place that the effect is wholly spiritual and Christ nameth water the preceding concurring cause in common with the Spirit from which this spiritual effect doth proceed Again though Paul do call himself a fellow-labourer as aforesaid 1 Cor. 3.9 yet the same effect of which he was a preparatory instrument and but a preparatory instrument might have been produced without him and no man we think dare affirm that except Paul or his fellow-Apostles had concurred that the Corinthians and others could not have been begotten again in Christ Again Christ specifieth the water in the said place to be so necessary that except a man be born of it and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdome of God which if it be elementary baptismal water which is there meant then no man nor child can be saved or enter into the kingdome of God without it no not Seth Enoch nor Abraham nor any of the Patriarchs unless they and every one of them were baptized with elementary water but it is not likely though the Jews had ceremonial washings and though their washings were called baptism that any of them used to baptize with water as Christ hath left the institution direction of it to be In the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost as is expressed Matth. 28.19 which yet they must use in like manner or none of them were or could be born again to the kingdome of God without it because Christ saith Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter c. Again if it be such water aforesaid which Christ maketh so necessary as aforesaid then those do very ill who are of that opinion if they do not urge all parents to baptize their children so soon as they peep into the world especially if they maintain the old tradition of original sinne because they are liable to sudden death Quod cuivis potest accidere cuiquam potest and not deferre the baptizing their children unto some more convenient time as many do for a more pompous and magnificent administration thereof In the next place we do affirm with confidence that the water Christ meant in the said place is the divine and spiritual word according to that John 15.3 Now you are clean through the word I have spoken unto you which is Christs living and powerful word which is called spirit and life John 6.63 which also is aptly called water by Christ because it hath the same parallel effect to the defiled and unregen erate soul that water hath to the defiled body for as water cleanseth the defiled body so the said word maketh clean the defiled soul according to that Ephes 5.26 27. where it is said Christ gave himself for his Church that he might sanctifie and cleanse it by the washing of water in or through the word as the Greek expresseth it making the word the exegesis of the water and the vulgar Latine turneth it the word of life hence Christ did say to Nicodemus Except a man be born again of water that is the word called water as aforesaid he cannot enter into the kingdome of God Secondly this word is meant by the water aforesaid because none can enter into the kingdome of God without a washing with that word called also Tit.
did intend to alter and abate those qualifications enumerated Ps 15. and Ps 24. v. 3 4. of them that should inhabit his tabernacle through Christ after he came in the outward flesh because if he did not intend so to do then these are still the qualifications to be shewed forth by every one that is to dwell in Gods holy hill even to walk uprightly to work righteousness speak the truth from his heart not to do evill to his neighbour to perform his oath though it be to his own hinderance c. and not to swear deceitfully 19. Quer. Whether religion standeth in assuming or practising of any outward formes and services so as the practitioners of them are to be accounted the religious men above others who assume them not yet practise more mercy justice in their actions then the aforesaid do also live as unblameable lives The reason of this Querie is because the Lord by the Prophet Micah telleth them that to do justly love mercy and walk humbly with God is the good which he hath shewed them to do that he careth not for their offerings nor for their rivers of oyle nor yet for the fruit of their bodies for the sinne of their souls Micah 6.6 7 8. Secondly because in Is 58.2 3 4. its said They seek me daily and delight to know my wayes as a Nation that did righteously they ask of me the ordinances of justice they take delight in approching to God yet for all this their fasting to 〈◊〉 the Lord declares his dislike of them v. 3 4 5 6 7 〈…〉 3. Because it is said James 1.27 Pure Religion and undefiled before God the Father is to visit the fatherless and widowes and keep himself unspotted of the world We desire to know of any inquisitive man or professor of Religion whether there be any place of holy Writ which speaketh like to this of the pure Religion So that it appeareth that the mercy and unspotted life is the pure Religion and undefiled before God the Father and therefore they are the most religious men who practise most of the mercy and unspotted life though they be of no divided opinion amongst us at this day yet practise all outward services with others for peace sake Hence it is to be considered whether many in America who have not the written Scriptures be not better Christians then many in England for I have heard a woman commonly called a Moore then of Mr. Jesse his Congregation who relâ—aed thus much in reference to St. James his Religion of their Countrey-natives practised that they used when any of them were sick to goe to them and one to do this office about the patient a second to do another a third to do another office of help about them and not to leave them until they saw them dead or recovered This was her testimony unto a person of Honour in my hearing she also saying of themselves we do not as is usually done in England to send to see peradventure how they do but afford them little help of their own but God help them according to that James 2.16 ' Depart in peace be ye warmed but give them nothing 20. Querie Whether to be oft distempered with passions of pride wrath maliciousnesse envy and to be of an unreconcileable spirit be not worse then to be oft distempered with wine and strong drink The reason of this Querie is because the latter sort of distempered ones are looked upon as irreligious men as indeed they are and are shamed and spoken against for such distempers by the former sort of distempered men who are yet more frequently distempered and longer with malice wrath irreconcileablenesse and envy then the others are with wine Now as every effect is to be argued from its causes by reason it is from them so must men judge of the said effects more or lesse evil from their causes and principles from whence they come and hence it will appear that those who are often distempered with wrath anger malice are worse then the other because envy wrath and malice c. are from the devils nature more immediately and properly according unto that Ja. 3.14 15 16. where it s said ' that this wisdome is devillish the other distemper is more indeed of the brutish sensual nature according to that Phil. 3.18 19. Whose God is their belly whose glory is their shame who mind earthly things Hence it will follow that the wrathful and malicious man because he sheweth more of that id Diaboli to be in him though the other more of the id ruti to be in him is the worse of the two though he that is the best of the two will be shut out of Heaven 1 Cor. 6.11 if he repent not here but whether it be not inconsideratenesse or partiality let them judge whom it concerneth to count the distempered with wine for irreligious persons and yet to account the other sort who are distempered with wrath and envy for religious persons and their wrathful envious passions but the infirmities of Saints especially if they walk in some outward form of a religious esteem do not the Apostles words Jam. 2.4 reach these Are you not partial in your selves and Judges of evil thoughts because that which is high in most men is abomination to God and because the malicious distemper is more of the devils nature as aforesaid We shall offer further some Texts of Scripture to be enquired into as how far their scope and aime doth concern us because of what is said 2 Tim. 3.16 17. 1 Querie What is St. Pauls intent when he saith Rom. 2.3 And thinkest thou O man that judgest them which do such things and dost the same that thou shalt escape the judgment of God The reason is because God is no respecter of persons v. 12. v. 6. 2. Querie What did our Saviour mean Math. 7.12 where he saith All things that you would that men should do to you do ye even so to them for this is the Law and the Prophets The reason of this Querie is because of what Job said Job 16.4 and many care not who sink so they swim 3. Querie What did St. Paul mean Phil. 2.21 where he saith All seek their own and not the things which are Jesus Christs 4. Querie What did the Lord mean Jer. 45.5 where it is said Seekest thou great things for thy self seek them not 5. Querie What did Christ mean Math. 16.26 where he saith What is a man profited if he shall gain the world and lose his soul 6. Querie What is the scope of that Psal 50.20 Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother and slanderest thy own Mothers son 7. Querie What is meant Isai 63.8 where it is said My children will not lie 8. Qu. What doth Christ intend Luk 17.1 2. when ' he said Woe be to them by whom offences come it were better for him that a milstone were hanged about his neck and