their Trespasses neither will your Heavenly Father forgive you Mat. 6. 14 15. And therefore when we pray for forgiveness our Lord allows us to do it only upon these terms Forgive us our Trespasses as we forgive them that Trespass against us Quest. What if we have wronged any Persons is it not enough towards forgiveness to do so no more Answ. No it is not but withal we must make Restitution and amends for the wrong we have done already If thou bring thy Gift to the Altar and there remembrest thy Brother hath ought against thee leave there thy Gift before the Altar and go thy way first be reconciled to thy Brother and then come and offer thy Gift Mat. 5. 23 24. Quest. I see we must hope to have forgiveness of our Sins of willfulness and also of our Sins of Passion which you shew'd to be of like guilt with them only upon our true Repentance and amendment of them But upon what terms shall our slips of ignorance and inadvertence be pardon'd since they are never perfectly amended but hang about us more or less as long as we are in this World Answ. Upon our great Charity to other men especially to their Souls in endeavouring their Conversion and Salvation And therefore that St. Peter recommends above all other Virtues and for this Reason Above all things have fervent Charity among your selves for Charity shall cover the multitude of Sins 1 Pet. 4. 8. And if any of you err and one convert him let him know that he who converts a Sinner from the Error of his way shall save a Soul from Death and shall hide a Multitude of sins Jam. 5. 19 20. Quest. For whose sake doth Almighty God allow us all this Benefit of Forgiveness Answ. For Jesus Christ's who as you have seen dyed for our Sins and gave his blood a Ransom to purchase for us all this Pardon of them He is set forth a propitiation for the remission of Sins that are pass'd thro' Faith in his Blood Rom. 3. 25. And then for his sake we shall receive all this mercy when with the dispositions before express'd in his Name we devoutly pray to God for it Quest. By the promises of the Gospel I see this forgiveness is assured to all Christians upon the terms you have described But is it in any Signs and Tokens outwardly dispensed to them Answ. Yes both in the Holy Sacraments and in Sacerdotal Absolution Which ways of ministring this forgiveness as well as the forgiveness it self are noted in some Ancient Creeds This Article being thus profess'd in St. Cyprian's Form at Baptism I believe the Remission of Sins by the Church Quest. Is this forgiveness dispensed to us in the Sacrament of Baptism Answ. Yes and that most amply the water of Baptism washing off the stain of all former Sins Be Baptized and wash away thy Sins said Ananias to Saul Acts 22. 16. Repent and be Baptized for the Remission of Sins said St. Peter to the Jews Acts 2. 38. And he hath saved us by the Laver of Regeneration i. e. the water of Baptism and the renewing of the Holy Ghost Tit. 3 5. So that whateve pollutions men had before upon them if they come to Baptism with true Faith and Repentance they are thereby made clean again Quest. Is it also dispensed in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Answ. Yes if after the Baptismal cleansing they relapse and contract new guilt in that they are admitted to renew the same Covenant of Grace again and seal the Pardon of it For therein Christ gives us his own Blood which as he says particularly was shed for the Remission of Sins Mat. 26. 28. He entertains us there at his own Table which is an open profession to all worthy comers that he is reconciled to them and receives them again as Friends And therefore when any Baptized Christians are startled and terrified with the Conscience of their Sins let them repair to that Holy Sacrament to seal and assure the forgiveness of them But let them come with Faith and Repentance and Reconciliation to their Brethren which as I said are the Terms of our being Forgiven For the Holy Sacraments dispense this forgiveness to none but such as worthily receive them and those they do cleanse from all former Pollutions Quest. Is there also a dispensation of this Pardon in Priestly Absolution Answ. Yes for therein Christ has authoriz'd his Ministers that act in his place and stead to pronounce the Sentence of Pardon upon all true Penitents and bid them expect that what they regularly thus declare on Earth in his Soveraign Court in Heaven he will make good He breathed on them and said receive ye the Holy Ghost Whose soever Sins ye remit they are remitted and whose soever Sins ye retain they are retained Joh. 20. 22 23. And therefore when a true Penitent hears his Pardon solemnly pronounced by an Officer whom God has deputed and Commission'd for it he may quiet his heart as one whose case is judged and firmly hope God will pronounce the same at the last Judgment But this I say he must do only after true Repentance For 't is only the Ministry of Reconciliation saith St. Paul which God hath committed unto us 2 Cor. 5. 18. but the direction and ratification of it he has reserved to himself and then only ratifies what his Ministers do when they pronounce according to his own Rules and Orders So that if the Priest pronounce by mistake and absolve the impenitent God will judge right tho' he judge wrong and Condemn at last whom he had before erroneously absolved in his Judgment Quest. Christ says what they retain shall be retained as well as what they remit shall be remitted Ought not that to beget in all Christians a great dread of Excommunication and Reverence for Church-Censures Answ. Yes questionless when they proceed upon just Cause for then Christ will maintain the Honour of his Deputies and make good their sentence He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me Luke 10. 16. If any Offender will not hear the Church let him be unto thee as an Heathen man and a Publican Mat. 18. 17. In these Acts what his Ministers do Regularly and according to his Direction they do it as representing him by vertue of his Commission and Authority which having given to be sure he will stand by And accordingly St. Paul and the Church-Governours at Corinth under him exercising their Power by virtue of Christ's Commission Declares that both in binding and relaxing or forgiving he acted with the Power and in the Person or place of Christ 1 Cor. 5. 4 5. and 2 Cor. 2. 10. Quest. Do all Censures of the Church then where the Truth is on its side cut men off as from the Church which is his Body so from Jesus Christ who is the Head of it Answ. All those do which are passed for such sins or errors as are Damnable by
Jewish Doctors note the Power of a destroying Angel on such as have not received the initiatory Rite of Circumcision answerable whereto is that old tradition among them that God exempted their Nation from the Power of the Angel of death to which he subjected the rest of the World when he chose them for his own People and gave them the Law. Or when being once enter'd they either burst out of it themselves or by just excommunication which as our Lord says brings Men back into the state of the Heathen are cast out into the World again For then the Devils obtain more Power over them as S. Paul notes saying of those that grow turbulent in the Church and oppose themselves that they are taken captive by him 2 Tim. 2. 25 26. and calling excommunication a delivering over unto Satan as it throws them out into his Territory and within the verge of his Dominion 1 Cor. 5. 5. 1 Tim. 1. 20. Yea probably their attempts are more greedy and violent upon those who for a while were rescued out of their hands than on others who were held always under them And accordingly in the Parable of the unclean Spirit we are told that if being once driven out of a man he find him empty and naked of Guards and so fit to be made a prey again he takes with him seven Spirits worse than himself when he seeks to enter into him the second time Matth. 12. 43 44 45. 2 Pet. 2. 20. Quest. Would you note any thing else that is like to provoke God to abandon and give us up to these deluding Spirits Ans. Yes to omit others buying and selling of the Truth or acting for Gain against God and a good Conscience When Men forsake God or a good way or thing not out of sincere convictions but secular interests and for worldly gain then doth the Devil enter and take possession of them For his great way is to open the Door by a golden Key and by the offers of gain to get admission And thus he enter'd into Judas taking possession of him by thirty pieces of silver which he preferred before his Master Luk. 22. 3 4 5. And into Ananias getting him into his Power and filling his heart by a desire of keeping the price of his land to himself Act. 5. 3. When Men once put themselves into Satan's hands by putting away a good conscience and professing or acting against convictions they are in the ready way as S. Paul says to make shipwrack of the right Faith and fall under a delusion of their understandings 2 Tim. 1. 19. Quest. But doth not God himself do more than suffer and give way to sin by leaving them to their own Lusts or to Satan as you say to push them on when he talks of giving men a spirit of slumber Rom. 11. 8 10. Isaiah 6. 10. Is not that something positive of his inflicting Ans. 'T is like it is a sending a sluggishness of thought or a dulness and drowsiness of apprehension on them Not such as makes them quite unable to apprehend but only like a drowsie Man more listless heavy and slow in it 'T is eyes wherewith they should not see and ears wherewith they should not hear that is such wherewith they would not because they could not do it easily Rom. 11. 8. Such abatement of intellectual perspicacity and power God sometimes threatens to obdurate sinners saying he will smite them with madness or blindness or astonishment and stupidity of heart Deut. 28. 28. And this is very just thus to impair the perfection of our minds as well as the health and strength of our Bodies in punishment of our sins For both these being his gratuitous and undeserved gifts are reversible in what measure he pleases And he never withdraws them in his wrath from contumacious sinners but on forfeiture and high provocations when they have winked long against the Light and would not see with quick and clear senses It is all in way of Justice and Judicial Process so that there is nothing but what shows a Holy a Just and Good God too in all this Quest. But if God so irreconcileably hates sin why doth he not employ his Power to keep it out Were it not easie for an Almighty God to prevent sin in the World if he would Ans. It is not fit he should make it impossible by putting it out of our power to chuse it And as for such ways as infer no force upon our wills but consist with our free and rewardable avoidance of sin he has not been wanting in them which is all that is to be expected on his part Quest. Why to ease both himself and us of the evil of sin might not God make it impossible and put it out of our power to chuse it Ans. Because that is inconsistent with our Natures who having Flesh as well as Spirit must needs be free to Evil as well as Good. It would leave nothing in us to be commended or rewarded when we do abstain from it there being no thanks due to any Man for omitting what he was utterly incapable to act To make sin impossible is to offer violence to our free and reasonable Natures and to set aside all Laws all Censure and reward of Actions Which no reason will expect a Holy God should do who looks not only at his own Power and Holiness but at the displaying of his Governing-Justice too and the Freedom and Liberty of his Creatures and will take such ways to keep out sin as best comport with all these So that an utter incapacity for it is no way of hindring us free and rewardable Creatures who are not to be irresistably forced and compelled but drawn and persuaded Quest. And has God done all that can reasonably be expected that way to prevent sin Ans. Yes he has given his own Son to die a cruel Death thereby to purchase Mercy for all that truly repent of their sins he has plainly showed and forbid all sin that no Person need be ignorant of it he has threatned it with the most insupportable punishments that all may be afraid to come near it he offers the most incomparable rewards to all that will overcome it and promises the aid of an unconquerable Spirit and Grace to enable all who will strive as they ought to prevail against it In summ having stupendiously brought about by the meritorious Death of his own Son that Mercy should be offered to all Men to pardon and Grace to extirpate and abolish sin he has left nothing wanting but their own wills to perfect the conquest of it And he has done all that for them and set all those things before them which should not force their wills indeed but bend and persuade them to resolve upon such conquest And that is all which ought to be done with free Creatures whose wills are not to be forced but won and persuaded towards its exclusion So that if after
Foundation What mean you by the Foundation of Faith Answ. Such points of it as are the very Bottom and Ground-work of the Christian Covenant whereinto we are all Baptized and whereon the Church is Erected They are such Articles as are the Root of all that Worship and Obedience we are to pay to God of all that Submission Trust and Adoration we are to shew towards Jesus Christ and of all that Labour and Success we are call'd to here in the Prosecution of an Holy Life All the Points of our Christian Faith are a-like True but all Truths are not a-like useful nor all useful Truths a-like necessary 'T is necessary for us to believe all when we are sufficiently shew'd that Christ has taught them But 't is moreover necessary for us all to see he has taught some which are not only to be Believed because they were Revealed but were therefore Revealed because necessary to be Learned and Believed of all that retain to him And these Points which are not only Profitable but necessary to the Worship and Service of God by Jesus Christ and to the maintenance of the Christian Covenant and of the Church which is Built upon it are called Fundamentals Quest. Can you shew me what points are such Answ. One is the common foundation of all true Religion Mosaical and Natural as well as Christian and that is the Belief of the one True God not only of his Being but also of his Providence and Care to Reward those that seek him Thus St. Paul sets down Faith towards God as one Article to be first laid Heb. 6 1. For he that comes to God in any way saith he must believe that he is and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him Heb. 11. 6. This Faith in the one true God is overthrown not only when Men overlook or deny him but also when they joyn any Gentile Gods who were Apostate Spirits in Copartnership with him For every true Church must have Repentance from Idols towards God as well as Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ Act 20. 20 21. And this is Life eternal says our Saviour to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent Joh. 17. 3. And he is Antichrist saith St. John that denies the Father and the Son 1 Joh. 2. 22. If she cast off the Belief of the one true God the common Principle of all true Religion she is the Congregation of some Faln Spirits which set up for false Gods and not the Church of the Great God of Heaven As well as if she have not Faith in Christ she is no longer Christian. Quest. But when a Church professes Faith in the one true God the common Ground-work of all true Religion What is the Particular Foundation of the Christian Religion Answ. Belief of Jesus being the Son of God and the Christ and of Salvation by his Merits and Mediation When Peter confessed Jesus to be the Christ the Son of the living God our Saviour said upon this Rock will I build my Church Mat. 16. 16 18. And St. Paul says the Foundation which he had laid and other than which no Man can lay is Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 3. 11. And the compass of saving Knowledge marked out by our Lord himself as I noted is together with the Knowledge of the one true God to know Jesus Christ whom he has sent Whilst any Church retains this Faith in Christ it is Christian and has Right to Baptism as St. Philip declar'd to the Eunuch who was Baptized upon his making this Confession Act. 8. 37 38. But if it denys this Authority of Christ and its dependance upon him for salvation it is thereby unchurched and becomes unchristian like Jewish Mahometane or Heathen Churches and is put out of the ordinary way of Salvation there being no Name under Heaven given among Men whereby we may be saved but his alone Act. 4. 12. Quest. But doth not this Grand Article of Jesus being the Christ and Saviour imply in it sundry other Articles Answ. Yes if we Believe Jesus to be the Christ we must believe all the Holy Scriptures as his Word and they contain all Articles But it more especially implies his Incarnation Passion Resurrection and other great Articles of the Creed which must be expresly owned by every one that rightly understands it And accordingly in the various Repetitions of this Grand Article and Representations of the saving Faith one or other of these is oft-times added and given as the instance of it Believing Jesus to be the Christ the Son of God you may have Life through his Name saith St. John shewing the necessity of this main Foundation Joh. 20. 31. But St. Paul speaking of this Grand Doctrine says I determined to know nothing among you but Jesus Christ and him Crucified setting out the knowledge of Christ in the knowledge of his Passion 1 Cor. 2. 2. And if thou confess the Lord Jesus and believe God raised him from the Dead thou shalt be saved exemplifying the saving knowledge of Jesus in the Belief of his Resurrection Rom. 10. 9. And when he commanded us to preach him saith St. Peter he commanded us to preach and testifie that it is he who is ordained of God to be the Judge both of quick and dead illustrating the Preaching Christ by preaching the Judgment to come Act. 10. 42. Every Spirit that confesseth Jesus Christ is come in the Flesh is of God And every Spirit that confesses it not is Antichrist and not of God saith St. John explaining the Confession of Jesus Christ by the Confession of his Incarnation 1 Joh. 4. 2 3. And speaking of the Record or Witness God had given to the Christian Doctrine he thus declares the matter attested by him This is the Record God hath given us Eternal Life and this Life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath Life and he that hath not the Son of God hath not Life Setting off the Christian Religion and the Saving Faith by the Belief of the Life everlasting 1 Joh. 5. 10 11 12. And as for the Belief of the Holy Ghost the necessity of that and of our Dependance on him to make any man a Christian our Saviour has sufficiently expressed by ordering our very Baptism which initiates us into Christianity to be into his Name Mat. 28. 19. All these Points are the very Ground and Foundation of our Subjection to the Father Son and Holy Ghost the Parties we contract withal in the Christian Covenant of all our Adoration Trust and Submission to the Blessed Jesus of our worshipping and serving God by him and of all that Holiness of Life which must gain us the Divine Acceptance on all which Accounts they are necessary and Ground-work Articles of Christian Faith and properly call'd Fundamentals Quest. By this it may seem as if the Believing Jesus to be the Christ were in more explicit words to believe the Apostles Creed since that sets