Works he hath whereof to glory but not before God as if it were any thing whereof he could glory in himself for all Glorying and Boasting is excluded but Abraham's glorying is in God who freely justified him and he rejoiced from that Act of Faith concerning his Son evidencing the Soundness of the saving Faith and the Manifestation of his Justification thereby both to himself and other Men whereby he glorieth before Men and not before God And whereas it is said That Faith worketh by Love it cannot be understood that Acts of Love are Acts of Faith for they are Graces essentially distinct but that Faith is Man's Part of the Covenant whereby Love is given upon God's Part nor doth it follow that because Faith is perfected by Love therefore its Essence is not distinct from Love Man is perfected by Love yet it is no part of his Being That Historical Faith believing the Truth of the Gospel is specifically different from saving Faith and yet it is said That whosoever believeth Christ is come in the Flesh is born of God for no Man can call Jesus Lord but by the Spirit of God which imports no more than a Sign of saving Faith at that time when there was so general an Opposition against Christ when no Man did avow or own Christ hypocritically 7. The Church of Rome hath more exceeded in bringing Works as Man's Part of the Covenant of Grace than any other Society of Christians for they have made Works the whole and only Part of Man in the Covenant of Grace and have given no Preheminence to Faith but to Charity or Love consequently enough to that Principle As it is said of the three eminent Christian Vertues that of these the greatest is Charity so that if Faith did save as a good Work Love would much more save They acknowledg no Justification distinct from Sanctification they do not require good Works as the Condition of Salvation but as the meritorious Cause of Salvation that God in Justice could not deny Celestial Glory to those that live holily and which is yet more extravagant Supererrogation is the common Opinion publickly preached in that Church and when the Council of Trent was call'd on purpose to amend Errors in Doctrine and Manners that had crept into that Church not one Word in any of their Canons disapproving Works of Supererrogation and the Treasure thereof out of which the Pope by Assignment of the superfluous Merits of the Saints may supply the Merits of others and bring them to Heaven either immediately upon Death or shortning their purging by the purgatorial Fire as soon as he thinks fit and yet they dispute vehemently against the Imputation of the Holiness of Christ. They do acknowledg that Christ's Sufferings have satisfied the Justice of God that without encroaching thereupon he may give Pardon of Sin and they do not ascribe the Pardon of Sin to the Merit of their Holiness but only to the Expiation by Christ's Sufferings and inconsistently enough they require purging by the purgatorial Fire which cannot be thought Correction to amend them and therefore could only be to cleanse and expiate in which they derogate even from the Sufferings of Christ. But to give them the most benign Interpretation they think the Forgiveness of Sin could not exalt Men to heavenly Blessedness but that as in the Covenant of Works every one behoved to merit that Exaltation by their Works which could not be after the Fall because of Original Sin whereby the eating of forbidden Fruit did condemn all Mankind descending from Adam by Ordinary Generation until Christ's Suffering had satisfied that Debt and even the actual Transgressions of those in the Covenant of Grace yet tho Men be still sinful their Sins being pardoned as satisfied by Christ's Sufferings Mens good Works lose not their Effect to merit Heaven as well as Adam's which is the only Difference they make between the Covenant of Grace and the Covenant of Works Nothing can be more contrary to the Covenant of Grace and to the Way of Salvation inculcated in the Gospel wherein 1. All Glorying or Boasting of the Creature attributing any Part of its Salvation to it self is excluded Where is boasting then It is excluded by what Law of Works Nay but by the Law of Faith Therefore we conclude saith the Apostle That a Man is justified by Faith without the Deeds of the Law But God who is rich in Mercy for his great Love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in Sin hath quickned us together with Christ where it is twice repeated by Grace you are saved through Faith not of Works lest any Man should boast Yea Boasting is so far excluded that Man cannot boast of Faith as it is his Part of the Covenant of Grace for it is said By Grace you are saved through Faith and that not of your selves it is the Gift of God What could be more said to exclude Works from Man's Part of the Covenant of Grace not only that there cannot be an equivalent Cause deserving Glory but not so much as the Terms upon which Glory was to be freely given For it is expressy said that we are God's Workmanship created in Christ to good Works which God hath before ordained or prepared that we should walk in them and God hath not predestinated Men to Salvation for their Works foreseen or performed For whom he did foresee them he did predestinate to be conformed to the Image of his Son which Image is Holiness which is not the Cause but the End and Effect of Predestination Good Works indeed are Via Regni but not Gausa Regnandi and they are the Evidences of true and saving Faith to be diligently followed not only by reason of the indispensible Law and Duty anterior in order to any Covenant but as the Means to evidence true Grace and give solid Peace and therefore it is said Strait is the Gate and narrow is the Way that leadeth unto Life and that the Kingdom of God is taken by Violence and the Violent enter it by Force which doth import no more than the Way to the Kingdom And where it is said Blessed are they that do his Commandments that they may have Right to the Tree of Life it doth not import Right by Merit the Word being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that Works can no more properly be called Right than the Evidence of Lands or Inheritance are called the Rights thereof as sighifying the same and therefore the explicatory Words are subjoined and may enter in through the Gates to the City All others but the Romanists that bring in Works to the Covenant of Grace bring them in as the Conditions of it but not as a deserving meritorious Cause much less as a superfluous supererrogatory Merit seeing Christ hath declared so clearly that the first and great Command of God is Thau shait love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart with all thy Soul and with all thy Mind
without a meritorious Cause deserving Damnation it doth no way follow that he doth save and glorify the Elect upon foresight of a meritorious Cause in them God's Independence cannot exclude the consideration of the Object of his Decree as it must be considered in his Decree He cannot decree to give Mercy but to a Creature that is in some measure miserable He cannot decree to relieve a Creature unless he consider it as distress'd He hath clearly declared and consequently decreed that he would never pardon the Sin against the Holy Ghost Therefore he behoved to foresee who would commit that Sin for he doth nothing in vain and would never decree any thing relating to a Case that were never to exist he could not decree to elect any Creature but upon Foresight and Consideration that he was to create that Creature and that he was never to suffer it to have Hatred and Despight against him In that Golden Chain Whom he did foreknow them he did predestinate to be conform to the Image of his Son and whom he did predestinate them he also called and whom he called them he also justified and whom he justified them he also glorified The first Link is Foreknowledg of the Object to be predestinated which with congruity to the Divine Natural Perfections were predestinable prior in order of Nature to Predestination Yet in none of these is the Independence of God incroached on Could a miserable or distressed Creature be so impudent as to pretend that its Misery or Distress were the cause of God's Mercy or Relief but only the Object or Occasion thereof the true Cause being God's Mercy and Goodness and so God's Decree to inflict eternal Punishment upon his rational Creature that he foresaw would hate him or be obstinate in Sin is his own Justice and Purity 2dly It is said In God we live we move and have our being And therefore all the Motions of our Minds and Bodies must be his Motions acted by him which Inference is no better than this in him we have our Being therefore our Being is his Being but the true meaning is cleared by those Things which are frequently said of Christ That they are in him and yet are the Creatures importing no more but that they are by Virtue and Power derived from Christ and so we move in God that is by Virtue and Power derived from him 3dly It is objected That if in the worst of Actions God were not Actor he could not be the first and universal Cause but thence it will not follow that the first and universal Cause must still be the immediate and total Cause which is necessary to an universal Predetermination 4thly The main Reason against universal Predetermination is to vindicate the Purity of God which it doth not for whosoever permitteth Evil that he could hinder is accessary thereto and guilty thereof And so God judgeth his Creatures which will not conclude against God because Creatures are not only subject to the moral and unchangeable Laws of God but to his positive Laws neither are Creatures universally obliged to hinder all evil Acts that they were able to hinder For God having set up Civil Authority thereby obligeth Subjects to suffer the Legal Executions thereof though unjust albeit they have sufficient Strength to hinder the same This Reason hath been the chief Inducement of the Error of those who to maintain the Purity of God incroach upon his Power and Wisdom holding that the Will of a free Creature is essentially undeterminable by any other than by it self and therefore God can do no more but perswade and bring Motives into the Mind and so is blameless having done all he could do to hinder Sin For certainly God could have been so powerful a Perswader as to make Prophets and Preachers go to all Nations which he hath not done and this Ground encroacheth on God's Omnipotence that he cannot effectually over-rule his Free Creatures and encroacheth on his Wisdom who having no need of any Creature created such which he could not govern but behoved only to supplicate and perswade The 5th Reason assign'd for universal Predetermination is brought from the accurate arguing of that Case by the Apostle Paul in the 9th of the Romans where it is said of Esau and Jacob That the Children being not yet born neither having done any good or evil that the Purpose or Decree of God according to Election might stand not of Works but of him that calleth Jacob have I loved but Esau have I hated Against which he brings this Objection Is there Vnrighteousness with God To which he answers with a strong Denial God forbid For be saith to Moses I will have Mercy on whom I will have Mercy And thence concludeth That it is not of him that runneth or of him that willeth but of God that sheweth Mercy Whence he doth conclude Therefore hath he Mercy on whom he will have Mercy and whom he will he hardeneth Against which Conclusion he brings a new Objection thus Thou wilt say then unto me Why doth he yet find fault For who hath resisted his Will To which he answereth thus Nay but O Man Who art thou that replies against God Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it Why hast thou made me thus Hath not the Potter Power over the Clay of the same Lump to make one Vessel unto Honour and another unto Dishonour Thence the Authors of universal Predetermination or Excitation of God to the worst Acts think they have unanswerable Grounds to infer That God is not only the Permitter but the Actor of Hardening as well as of Mercy Yea that he hath no more Consideration of what the Creatures were to act in Reprobation and Damnation than in Election and Glorification but that of the same Lump or Mass of Mankind he doth as indifferently make the Vessels of Dishonour that is the Reprobate as the Vessels of Honour that is the Elect. But the Context sufficiently cleareth the Mistakes of these Inferences for it inferreth nothing as to Reprobation that the Children being not yet born had done nothing of Good or Evil the Inference is only that Election might not be of foreseen Works But where it is said that God loved Jacob and hated Esau tho they had yet done nothing it doth not infer That as there is no foreseen Merit or cause of Love of the Elect fo that God hates the Damned without a meritorious Cause deserving his Hatred there is no Consequence from the Freedom of God's Election and Love which are Acts of Bounty to infer the Freedom of his Hatred and Reprobation which are Acts of Justice for Bounty and Mercy are absolutely free but so is not Justice But the main Mistake is that the Vessels of Dishonour are supposed to be the Reprobate and the Vessels of Honour the Elect As if God as indifferently reprobates and elects as the Potter doth of the same Lump make one Vessel to Honour and another to Dishonour
many not the meanest and ignoblest of Men have wilfully made their Bodies uncapable to serve their Souls that they might escape it and how many more would if without that Pain they could flee out of their Bodies few would suffer Misery in them but those who knew and did acknowledg the Trust and Command to preserve them given by God under an higher Pain than they could suffer by abiding in them A farther degree of the Goodness of God is manifested in the other inbred Inclinations which God hath freely given to the Soul beside that of cleaving to the Body which is not by fatal Necessity seeing the Soul is a separable Substance and might easily escape from the Body if it could please so to do Such Principles are the Love to God above all as being the Soveraign Good and incomparably most amiable Object the Love to Mankind preferring the Interest of Manking to the Interest of any part of Men and in most things to Self-interest self-Self-love also is a Gift of God and good in it self when kept within its Bounds tho by the Corruption of Sin it is become the Cause of most Evils Men do either wholly exclude the Love of God and of Mankind or do exceedingly abate them and subordinate them to Self-love For these Affections cannot arise before or without the Perception of their proper Objects Therefore it is that because it is long before the Perception of the Deity or of the common Interest arise in the Soul during which time Self-love doth wholly and solely possess the Soul and all its Affections are exercised without Restraint except what ariseth by the Fear of Chastisement or the natural or industrious Perception of the Uncomeliness of some extravagant Acts that Self-love becomes habitual and so strong that when the Perception of God or the common Interest of Mankind by the natural Conscience or Instruction is excited Self-love makes the Soul have a powerful Aversion from these Objects which would low or restrain it so that it can never be kept within Bounds especially in Subordination to God without supernatural Grace given by him It will sooner yield to the Love of a Family of a Society of a Country than to the Love of the common Interest of Mankind yet even Heathens have come a great length as to that but came never to any sutable Proportion of the Love to God as all their Writings and Actings do manifestly show There is another general inbred Principle and Inclination in Man to do that which is congruous to and becoming his Nature not only to what is essential to him but to what is superadded by the Divine Benignity which is more sensibly felt in the Aversion of things which are unbecoming Man and which all judg to be vicious and vile except in so far as they have eradicated their inbred Principles and debauched their Natural Inclinations so even natural Men love Temperance Sobriety Modesty Meekness Sincerity Constancy Courage and Comeliness and those whose Depravation make them love and practise the contrary in themselves do frequently hate them in others and never cherish them but when it is to lessen or abolish their own Shame by making their Vice more common or that they require the Concourse of others to practise them Beside these general Principles which require Attention and Ratiocination God by his Bounty hath imprinted on the Soul of Man special Principles for eminent Cases which operate like Instincts without necessity of reasoning as the desire of Happiness the care to preserve Life the abhorrence of Cruelty the desire to relieve the Innocent opprest Gratitude to Benefactors Faithfulness to those that do rationally rely and trust Love to those in Society and Friendship that especially which is most entire and absolute by Marriage and the mutual natural Affection of Parents and Children and of those which are of one Kindred and Blood The Institution of Marriage was a farther degree of the Bounty of God appointed in Innocency that betwixt one Man and one Woman by the free Choice of both there should be so intimate a Society and Friendship as could be no greater having all their Interests common perpetual and most part incommunicable that each of them had more Right to and Enjoyment of all than when they had them alone excluding the other tho the unsutable Choice of some hath marred this Blessing it diminisheth not the Bounty of God being by the fault of the Parties at least is a Judgment for their other Faults and it was their Interest that this Society was indissolvable even by the Consent of both but only by Adultery or Desertion which gave a strong Inducement to compose their Humours tho naturally discrepant rather than to be in a continual Disquiet It was a great Addition to the Happiness of this Conjugal Estate that there was given them so strong an Inclination of these Imbraces necessary for Posterity which otherwise have nothing of Comeliness in them and Women would never have endured the Trouble and Pain of Child-bearing if this Affection and the natural desire of having Children did not over-master them How great Addition to Adam's Pleasure behoved it to be when awakening from his Sleep God presented him Eve the only Creature like to himself which was the first Glass in which he did behold the Beauty of his own Body as well as hers who was fitted for him in all things that he could desire not only passionately loved but even more passionately loving both being endued with the same Principles and Inclinations and requiring no need of farther Acquaintance than the first View both being innocent and void of all Vice and able to communicate their Thoughts by that Language with which God did endue them without their own Industry by which they might communicate their Knowledg of God their Admiration Confidence and Delight in him their Love and Reverence to him and Obsequiousness to his Pleasure in all things which they knew by the Moral Law written in their Hearts and which it is like he did explain and declare unto them as he did his positive Command of the forbidden Fruit to be a Test of their Obedience by restraining their Appetite from so pleasant a Fruit for which Restraint they had no inbred Inclination as they had to the Moral Duties but rather contrary except his Pleasure and Prohibition for if he had willed that they should not eat of it it would certainly have been effectual but he did only declare what they might eat and what they might not eat and denounced the Punishment if they did eat what was forbidden which sufficiently shews that their forbearing would have been acceptable to him which was sufficient to lay the strongest Obligation upon them and yet he expressed the heaviest Penalty if they trangressed which was implied by their knowledg of his Justice tho it had not been expressed which could not consist with his moving exciting or necessitating them to it Adam whose Knowledg was so great
called intrinsically evil God may excite these Acts where the Intention or Direction only is evil God's Intention being quite different so he may excite the giving of Alms intending thereby the relief of the Poor but the directing of the Alms to be seen of Men is a distinct separate Act. There is no ground inferring that God excites to that end much less that he excites to Acts intrinsically evil which no Intention can make good and where there are not different Parts or different Acts Therefore God doth not foreknow Acts intrinsically evil or the evil Intention of Acts that otherwise might be good or indifferent in his Decree to excite them but only in his permissive Decree not to hinder the free Creatures in acting them wherein I am convinced by many pregnant Reasons First God's foreseeing such Acts in his purpose to excite the Creature to them and his being an immediate and total Actor of them appears to me inconsistent with his immaculate Purity but thereby he behoved to be the Author of Sin I know many good Men perceive not this Consequence and are far from acknowledging it and are forced to harsh Concessions to shun it as that God is the immediate Cause of the Act but not of the Vitiosity of the Act which is only Privative and requires no Cause nor any Efficiency but Deficiency which importeth nothing as to evil Intention or Acts intrinsically Evil but only as to Acts that would be Good if right directed and is well illustrated by riding of a Lame Horse where the Rider is the cause of the Riding but the Lameness of the Horse is the cause of the Halting but this cannot be applicable to an indivisible Act whence Sin necessarily results and so the whole Act or the Act of Intention is totally Evil And thereby there cannot be one part attributed to God and another to the Creature if God be not the immediate and total Actor but that the Creature hath a different Act the forefight of that Act could not be by the Decree of God to act it and so all free Acts could not be foreseen that way The more Ingenuous are forced to recur to this Evasion that God is under no Law and so the same Act may be Sin in the Creature and no Sin in God but this overturns the Being of Acts morally Good or Evil in congruity to the Nature of God which are not so because God willeth them to be or not to be but he so willeth them because they are absolutely and immutably Good and not alone by the Will or Decree of God God is above his positive Law but he is neither above nor under his moral Law but is a Law to himself else God could make Vertue Vice and Vice Vertue for whatever depends upon Acts of the Will can be altered by another Act of the same Will So God hath altered many of his positive Laws and Precepts because they are only Good in that they are willed and commanded Secondly God hath expresly declared that he hath hindered many Acts of his Creatures which must necessarily import that they would have been acted if they had not been hindered for it is inconsistent to say that God decreed to be an Actor with the Creature and yet decreed to hinder that same Act Thus God declareth that he had hindered Abimelech to touch Sarah whom he had taken on design to make her his Concubine but God disabled him that he could neither meddle with her nor any other Thirdly There are many Sins of Omission wherein the Sinner doth not resolve to omit but by Carelesness and Inconsideration omits here there is no Act of the Creature And if God hinder the Creature to consider he must be sole Actor in these Sins and if not there is no positive Act or Excitation in them and so no Decree for such Acts and therefore they cannot be foreseen in that Decree and yet they are certainly foreseen Fourthly If it were sufficient to clear the Divine Purity that Sin is only a Privation requiring no Efficiency but Deficiency that could not but also vindicate the Creature albeit a total Actor of the same Act. Fifthly If God decree without foresight of what the Creature using its proper Power would act then he behoved to decree the torment of his Creatures without consideration of their future Sins voluntarily to be acted by them which is very inconsistent with his Justice and forces the Authors of this Opinion to acknowledg That God might eternally torment his innocent Creatures and that it is greater Goodness to give them a miserable Being than no Being at all which is neither consistent with his Justice nor his Goodness and gives a most unlovely Representation of him Sixthly There is nothing more inculcated in Scripture than the Efficacy of Prayer for it is said That the fervent Prayer of the Righteous availeth much But if God did determine all future things without Foresight and Consideration of the Prayers of his People Prayer were of no value but a meer Formality without any Efficacy For to what purpose should any pray to an unchangeable God who had already determined all things without consideration of Prayer I know no Evasion can be made but that God hath determined not only the Matter but the Manner of what was to come to pass and so determined many things to be after antecedent Prayer but then Prayer were a meer antecedent Formality and no efficacious Mean availing much But if God did determine many things upon the foresight and consideration of the earnest Prayer of his People they might with as much Confidence pray as if he were undetermined when they prayed I know there are many specious Reasons accustomed to be brought for God's being the immediate total Actor in all the Acts of his Creatures which I consider as Objections 1st It is objected If God decreed any thing upon Foresight and Consideration of any thing in his Creatures he were not altogether independent but behoved to depend upon such Considerations and be pedissequous to his Creatures This Reason can conclude nothing against God's Foresight and Consideration of what he foresaw in the Creature as given by himself above their natural Strength for thereby he depended on nothing but on his own Supernatural Grace It is true that if God's Election were upon the foresight of the Creatures Faith or good Works by that common Power all Men had by their Birth they might glory in themselves and the Election could not be said to be of Free Grace and God might be thought pedissequous to the Creatures and therefore that Opinion of Papists and Arminians is justly rejected But God cannot be said to be pedissequous to the Creatures he foresees would maliciously or obstinately and finally reject the offer of Grace because he decrees to let them follow their own Ways and in Justice to punish them whom he doth not follow but crosseth And though God doth not decree to damn the Reprobate
but even before it he waits upon their Repentance and gives time to repent to those that do never make use of it He gives them his Vicegerents to rule them in Civil States he provides Necessaries for their convenient living in that State he does not punish these Societies but for gross common and national Sins which by the ordinary Power of Nature they might forbear and which are atrociously odious by the very Light of Nature to all but these the Gratification of whose evil Affections perverts them to think them pleasant So that none of his Creatures ever had or ever shall have reason to complain of his Dispensations but he hath just reason to complain against every lost Sinner that they have hardned their own Hearts from his Fear Could there be a greater Evidence of the Goodness of God to Mankind than that after so just and reasonable a Covenant he entered into with them at first and which they so soon so unnecessarily and so ungratefully violated that he did immediately publish to them the new Covenant of Grace to make all capable of Happiness through the Incarnation Suffering and Satisfaction of his Son and even pulling some as Firebrands out of the Fire when they were raging in their Sin and rejecting the Offers of Grace and resolutely cleaving to their Abominations and saying in their Hearts that they would have none of him In this way the Errors and Mistakes of Men about the Divine Dispensations may be prevented or cured As 1. It was the first and is yet the most general Error Why did God suffer Sin to enter into the World Might he not have made all his Rational Creatures to be infallible that had been more Goodness than what appears in either Covenant This was the Devil's Temptation murmuring that God had made them fallible and under the necessity of a diligent Attention and Guard giving them Trouble Satan did deceive Man representing God as envious hindering the Happiness he might attain by eating the forbidden Fruit. But let it be remembred that God was free to give what measure of Goodness he pleased it is impossible that he should communicate so much Perfection to Creatures that they were not capable of more for then his Goodness should be exhausted Christ said to the Labourers of the Vineyard who murmured That he had given as much to him that served but one Hour as to them that had endured the Heat of the Day Is it not free for me to dispose of my own as I please If God had created his Rational Creatures that they could not shun Sin and Misery by irresistable Temptations or by an operative Decree they might have complained but when they might be happy and would not what Impudence is it to complain But likewise as God is bountiful so he is wise and will not divest himself of the Government of the World or manage Men by Instincts as he doth the Brutes therefore his Wisdom did require that his Rational Creatures should be capable of Rewards and Punishments and be governed by them and not by fatal Necessity 2. The Voluptuous think Why did God give us Pleasure in such Objects which results from them so powerfully that we are not Masters of them Eve insinuated this that the forbidden Fruit was pleasant good to eat and fit to make the Eater wise Thence also wicked Men do deceive themselves that these Pleasures to which they have so strong a Propension cannot be evil at least the cause of eternal Misery But they consider not the Goodness of God to Man in giving these Pleasures of Sense Life and Health may be continued when Smell is lost and even when Taste is lost as Barzillai said to David If God provided no Remedy there might be pretence of Complaint but tho Pleasure or Grief be not directly in Man's Power yet God hath endued him with Reason that he can manage them by applying other Objects to his Sense or Thought which will keep them from Excess If Eve upon the Sight or Smell of the forbidden Fruit and the Pleasure arising from it and the Desire to it had remembred God and the Pleasure arising from the clear Thoughts of him she had never proceeded to eat Beside that it was rational and congruous to the Divine Perfections that the Obedience of his Creatures should require Attention and Diligence and should not consist in such Trifles as were wholly indifferent without Pleasure or Pain Appetite or Aversion I conceive they stretch too far that make the first Motions of Pleasure or Appetite thereof to be Sin Covetousness is the voluntary continuing of these against the Command Our Saviour had an Aversion from the Cup of his Suffering and wished it could have been delayed which was but the Effort of innocent Nature which he did not voluntarily continue for immediately he says to the Father Not mine but thy Will be done The Heathens and many Christians in their Ignorance reckon nothing to be Sin but where the evil Inclination takes effect and the Apostle says That without the knowledg of the Law he knew not that Covetousness was Sin which will not infer that the first Motions of the Affections are Sin until the Will concur to continue or proceed in these Affections contrary to the Law for it is said When Lust is conceived it bringeth forth Sin Where Lust must signify the natural Affection of Pleasure which is not Sin but the rise of it The Aversion from Persecution or Martyrdom not yielded to is not Sin but it is the greater Duty of Holiness willingly to undergo it notwithstanding that natural Aversion So the first Motion or Desire of the Pleasure of the forbidden Fruit if it had been immediately avoided by diverting the Mind to God and Gratitude to him it had not produced the doleful Effects that followed These first Motions make many Men doubt of their Regeneration tho they did not continue in the same in their most secret Thoughts yet Sin is more in the Will when it doth continue these than in the outward Act which is rather an Evidence of the strength of the Concupiscence than a part of the Sin The distinct knowledg of the Terms of the Covenant of Grace has been much perplexed by apprehending Sin as if it were a Debt obliging the Sinner to Punishment especially from that that Sin is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Lord's Prayer and elsewhere which is translated Forgive us our Debts as we forgive our Debtors But the Greek Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not only signify debeo but also obnoxius sum I am liable and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies not only debitum but noxa that is Injury or Wrong and cannot otherways be properly understood in that place for God hath not required us to discharge the Debts owing to us by our Debtors but the Resentment of Wrong done to us by them The Punishment or penal part belongs to God and so cannot be forgiven by